A real story

[Singachea]

A few Linux people here will probably comment on the lines of "You should be running Linux". But the reality is I feel comfortable with Microsoft Windows Server 2003. Or used to.

You see, in one of the last Automatic Updates one specific patch, classified as "High Priority Security Update" failed to install. I tried to manually download the patch and apply and it again failed to install.

Looking at the logs, what do I see?

2.547: 2006/05/10 11:56:51.859 (local)
2.547: \43f998869285ff556064\update\update.exe (version 6.2.29.0)
2.547: Hotfix started with following command line:
2.594: Microsoft Windows is Not Present
2.594: Condition Check for Line 1 of PreRequisite returned FALSE
2.594: ReadStringFromInf: UpdSpGetLineText failed: 0xe0000102
2.594: KB...... Setup encountered an error: Setup cannot continue because one or more prerequisites required to install KB...... failed. For More details check the Log File
2.609: ReadStringFromInf: UpdSpGetLineText failed: 0xe0000102

Oh, yes. A pre-requisite to install this patch is to have Windows Server running. It looks like the patch doesn't think I have a Windows Server running, right?

Next I tried to apply for e-mail support. Easy, go to Microsoft Support, and start entering the details for e-mail support. When it asked if this is the server where the problem is happening, I click yes and it can not identify the Product ID. No problem, I can manually enter it, but wait there's more:

The Microsoft PSS site tells me that my Product ID, which I copied from the System Properties is not that of a Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, but of a Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition.

So I am stuck and can't use the on-line support.

Next I try calling Microsoft PSS, and after answering a few questions I am set back with the following:

- We have to charge you $350 for this call.
- But this is a high priority security update that failed to install!
- Yes, but Windows Server is a business software and there's no free support for it.

No wonder there are insecure servers connected to the Internet and being used around the world. Microsoft fails to deliver the patches and then try charging for a fix!