Most people look forward to software upgrades. It usually means new features are added and old bugs are removed. But I hold my breath every time I perform a Windows Update because I never know what’s going to happen. Windows Vista is so complex from a design POV that each update carries the risk of toppling the Windows house of cards.
Case in point, after a Windows Update the other day, my home networking stopped. It was working fine before Windows Update, and dead in the water after. No explanation, no reason, just a message that the network shares were inaccessible and I should contact my system administrator. Damn, I guess that’s me.
I spent five hours rebooting, checking the hardware, routers and lines, checking permissions and sharing settings, investigating NetBIOS and TCP/IP settings, pinging and prodding, Googling for explanations and chasing white rabbits. Finally I discovered the solution. I just needed to set an obscure registry value:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\
LanmanServer\Parameters\IRPStackSize
Geez, now why didn’t I think of that?
I have 25 years PC experience and am comfortable tinkering with networking settings and the Registry, and still this glitch stumped me for hours.
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September 25th, 2009 at 11:29 am
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September 25th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Buy a Mac if you must or just wipe your hard drive and install Ubuntu. Works great and lasts a long time.
September 25th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
I like Win7 and OSX. Ubuntu looks so unpolished so it cannot really compare the first two. It is good for running servers, but if you want Unix with good UI, OSX is the best.
September 26th, 2009 at 2:49 am
I did it, bought a mac and it works
September 26th, 2009 at 3:57 am
[...] Go here to read the rest: I Really Hate Windows Sometimes [...]
September 26th, 2009 at 4:13 am
a friend of mine just upgraded his mac to osx 10.5.8 and it broke his wifi connection. as much as i agree with you, that’s not the solution.
September 26th, 2009 at 4:47 am
[...] the whole story here: timm aggregated by [...]
September 26th, 2009 at 7:01 am
How come you couldn’t figure that out? It’s the usual IRPStacksize parameter of course! HAHA
September 26th, 2009 at 8:30 am
it’s very very unlikely that any critical/security update would have caused a situation that required irpstacksize to be modified. are you sure you didn’t install an AV update or something?(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/329717)
also, assuming you haven’t turned it off, System Restore automatically saves a restore point before installing updates, so in the rare case that something goes wrong, you simply revert to that restore point.
Also, you can contact MS for help with this sort of thing.
September 26th, 2009 at 9:28 am
Trying Ubuntu was the best thing I ever did. Never crashes, easy to manage my data across my netbook/laptop/PCs, VERY easy to upgrade, and lightning fast.
It’s really flashy too with the multiple desktops and such. Runs very smooth on my Intel Atom netbook with integrated graphics.
September 26th, 2009 at 9:32 am
I kind of know what you mean, but I’m not sure I agree with the conclusion you are (not saying but definitely are) hinting at…
A few months ago after an update my network stopped working. It took me a better part of the day before I could get online again. I was mad, but I also knew this could have been a problem with my router and/or cable modem. I still have problems after my system comes out of hibernation mode where I have to manually go into Network and Sharing Center, Manage Network Connections, and disable/re-enable the Network.
Either way, this is the FIRST TIME something like this has happened since I started using Windows when 3.1 came out. Think about that for a second. That’s quite a track record and IS very acceptable.
With so many things on my system, and all the hardware between it and the wall, sometimes things just might break/conflict/have a quirk.
Linux only works if you have no problems. I know because I’ve been there. With Apple, I have no idea.
September 26th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Ubuntu good for running a server ?
Oh my god…
September 29th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Re: it’s very very unlikely that any critical/security update would have caused a situation that required irpstacksize to be modified. are you sure you didn’t install an AV update or something?
Honestly I don’t know what items were included in the Windows Update. But I could access the network immediately before the Windows Update, and then not immediately after, so the culprit seems clear.
Re: you simply revert to that restore point
Good idea, but the problem with using restore points to undo Windows Update problems is that eventually you will have to perform the problem update. So I decided to face the music and fix the problem now when I had the time.
Don’t get me wrong, everyone. I’m a big Windows fan, and IMO there’s no better development environment than Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft .NET Framework. But occasional problems that waste my time and require complex technical fixes such as this one (and my initial unsuccessful attempt to upgrade to Windows Vista when it was first released) indicate that Windows still has some major underlying flaws that need to be addressed.
But the good news is that Windows 7 looks like a real winner and is most everything that Vista should have been. I’ll be doing a review after it’s commercially released.
October 1st, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Solution: Read the patch notes prior to install… seriously.
October 1st, 2009 at 12:23 pm
Re: Read the patch notes prior to install
It’s highly unlikely the patch notes would warn me that I may have to adjust HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\
LanmanServer\Parameters\IRPStackSize after the update. And even if it did, it’s a ridiculous burden to place on the average user.
It’s that type of dismissive attitude that some Windows developers have toward users that makes the Mac so much more appealing to the general public.
A general-purpose system that requires highly-trained users to spend hours searching for a solution and performing an obscure fix to patch a routine update is seriously flawed.