Patch Windows XP - but get a Passport first
Microsoft warns of critical flaws is the latest set of things to download.
Microsoft was - still is - offering a free CD with the updates and patches to XP. Which are current to last October, as I recall.
In the spirit of journalism, around March I rang up the number that used to be on the page to ask if I could get a copy. Not without a Passport account, I was told.
Why do you need a Passport account? I asked. That’s Hotmail and all that sort of thing. I don’t need that. The fella at the other end pondered this some and said he’d find a way around it. I gave him my home address details and he said he’d figure it out.
It’s been a long time, and the CD hasn’t arrived to update the loaner laptop I use to try out Windows stuff. And it’s impossible to download these patches on a standard dialup account.
So exactly why does one need a Passport account to get a free CD update to Windows? It seems tantamount to illegal tying - you only get this service if you buy this unrelated service.
- These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
- "The state of Windows" (27 October 2004; score: 32.86%)
- How the House of Commons made it harder to work out how much MPs have cost: by using PDFs (21 October 2004; score: 29.03%)
- Another hour, another flaw (7 July 2004; score: 26.37%)
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July 15th, 2004 at 3:33 pm
Even though I have a hotmail account, I think that your last para hits the nail on the head. Read in conjunction with today’s piece about the domination of the education market, it all gets a bit sinister.
I should confess to be sitting in front of an MS infested laptop - although I am using Mozilla instead if IE!
July 15th, 2004 at 4:40 pm
I could imagine the requirement for a passport having something to do with making a DoS attack more difficult. Maybe they had this or other problems with the WinXP SP1 CD, all those months ago.
Incidentally, I tried signing in from Mozilla Firefox and got a completely blank screen after hitting Finish. Worked OK from IE, of course, which I prefer not to use.
July 15th, 2004 at 5:21 pm
It is simply to get you to believe that Msoft is even more important than they really are. There simply cannot be a consumer oriented reason to require you to join some kind of organization that wants that much info just to get updates. Or in layman’s terms, Horsecrap!