I have an XP Home Edition and several times each week I get a message
telling me that I need to click on for an automatic update. The wording is
always the same so I assume that its the same update each time. For several
months I've been doing what they ask but I'm beginning to wonder if it's
neccessary to keep having to update the same thing or not. Can anybody
help.
Patrick.

"Patrick Cordier" <funmagic@iinet.net.au> wrote in message
news:3fb109c3$0$1729$5a62ac22@freenews.iinet.net.a u...
I should check next time whether it IS the same update or not. I expect you
will find it is not.

If it's Windows Updates you're referring to , you can control this
behavior in Start>Settings>Control Panel>System>Automatic Updates
tab. If you turn it off, be sure to run Windows Update manually on a
regular basis.

Max

"Patrick Cordier" <funmagic@iinet.net.au> wrote in message
news:3fb109c3$0$1729$5a62ac22@freenews.iinet.net.a u...

It sounds more like you're falling for the spam that is going around. It
comes as email and looks official as if it actually came from microsucks.
If you're referring to an email message - its spam! Microsucks will never
send you an email about updates. If, on the other hand, you are referring
to the update "bubble" that appears in your tray, you can shut it off as
shown by a previous poster.
..
"Max Smart" <msmart86@mindspring.com.INVALID> wrote in message
news:U9bsb.23728$9M3.8947@newsread2.news.atl.earth link.net...

Patrick Cordier wrote:
I hope you don't mean emails from Micro$oft.
If you do your machine will be brimming with viruses by now.
Microsoft never email their updates out.
If you mean the windows update feature of your computer........better carry
on updating, as you need them...
--
Put "usenet" in the subject-line if you want to mail me, otherwise it will
be spam-filtered.
Do you use filesharing networks? If so, please visit my online poll:
http://vote.sparklit.com/web_poll.spark/780772
anthonyberet

If it is coming in the form of an email then delete it. Chances are it's a
virus. If it comes up via a dialogue box saying that there are security
updates then you can either continue to update your computer or manually go
to Microsoft's xp update site and do it. Also you can disable the auto
update feature (which I would not recommend). That is the reason so many
home computer were effected with the last big virus. They didn't bother to
go out and update the security feature Microsoft release about a month
before.


"Patrick Cordier" <funmagic@iinet.net.au> wrote in message
news:3fb109c3$0$1729$5a62ac22@freenews.iinet.net.a u...

"Greg" <gh@vcaw.net> wrote in message
news:8_SdnQxqgasi7yyi4p2dnA@arkansas.net...
No "chance" about it - it IS a virus.

I think you guys are slightly mistaken. The thing going around that looks
like an email from microsucks is not a virus. It is a spyware pos that
reports your surfing habits to some marketing firm. It doesn't harm your
machine as a virus would and its doesn't forward itself as a worm might. It
is just like the shit that is pedaled with kazaa. People that use kazaa
blindly install spyware and don't know its there. This "microsoft update"
is just some more shit that is aimed at people to blindly install spyware
and they still won't know its there.
..
"rifleman" <me9@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:bors0g$1h4ieh$1@ID-108938.news.uni-berlin.de...

On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 19:17:15 -0600, George wrote:

They are probably not mistaken.

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/articles/gruel.html
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32gibef.html
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32gibed.html
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/analyses/w32gibea.html
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/anal...32redesib.html

--
Speech isn't free when it comes postage due. --Jim Nitchals

"George" <no.spam@no.spam.either.net> wrote in message
news:EVfsb.3278$7o3.1856@okepread04...

its the swen virus.

It doesn't harm your

Holly shit! I was soooooooooo wrong. My theory was a simple little spyware
thing. Its real bad! (Sorry!)
..
"Mara" <go@awaynow.becauseIsaidso.com> wrote in message
news:3753rvol8gjmha7b6e1plu2qq95mr8ugr6@4ax.com...

On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 03:40:46 -0600, George wrote:

NP. Just remember - if it says it's from Microsoft, and it has an attachment....

It isn't. Microsoft doesn't send security patches or updates via e-mail.

On a slightly different note, for those who may think spammers and malware
writers aren't criminals as such:

http://tinyurl.com/uabu
http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/anal...32mimailh.html

"I hope they're caught soon, and punished to the full extent of the law."

<snip>

--
Speech isn't free when it comes postage due. --Jim Nitchals

Howdy!

"Mara" <go@awaynow.becauseIsaidso.com> wrote in message
news:6me4rvkgesj7b89q843q4jnh3hs3op6mdn@4ax.com...
*cough* Unless you've just kicked in 150USD for a "fix" that they
email to you. Which they will do.

But, seems to me you'd remember paying for it <B-)

RwP

On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 18:49:37 -0600, Ralph Wade Phillips wrote:

This was what I was thinking about:

http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/articles/palyh.html

"Many users who are wary of EXE and VBS files which arrive in their email may
not realise that PIF files are equally capable of being malicious," said Graham
Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos Anti-Virus. "Microsoft technical
support does not send out files in this way, and users should think twice before
they click."

I'm continually surprised (though I shouldn't be) by the number of people who
just automatically click on attachments if the e-mail says it's from M$. I
wonder if they ever wonder why it was sent to them in the first place, if they
didn't ask for it.

Of course, spammers and malware writers bank on that. And that says something.

Paying for a M$ "fix?" I would have thought that, one way or another, that's
what users do from the time they install the OS.

"I know that's what happened when I installed Q329170 on this box."

--
Speech isn't free when it comes postage due. --Jim Nitchals

Patrick Cordier wrote:
E-mail telling you to update ? Microsoft NEVER use e-mails to contact users
, it's more than likely you have been duped into installing a virus .

--
Yours S.
addy not usable (not that you would try it)
Utinam logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant!
www.killies.co.uk/forums/index.php

"Soup" <1@2.com> wrote in message
news:12Rsb.3181$qs.27020425@news-text.cableinet.net...
I think he's talking about the Windows Update Notification (I hope......)

Howdy!

"Mara" <go@awaynow.becauseIsaidso.com> wrote in message
news:0rt5rv4e51m534sa2op2n3ce938eqqm387@4ax.com...
The last time that happened to me, I was working on setting up a
pair of NT 4.0 Server boxes to serve as a router set between two sites for a
customer, with the 'All New RRAS addition for NT 4.0 Server SP 4 and above!'
(yah, it's been a while.)

Paid 150USD for the fix, but got my money back.

RwP

On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 18:09:02 -0600, Ralph Wade Phillips wrote:

LOL

Well, I'm glad of that, at least.

Seems to me that a company that charges for fixes for their own broken software
needs to develop a sense of ethics that's greater than their greed. From what
I've read about Longhorn so far, as just one example, I don't think that's going
to happen any time soon.

But then again, I also happen to be of the opinion that when M$ issues a patch
or a hot fix, it should actually _work_, and not be ineffective or even bork
things. Before I installed the aforementioned "hotfix," my 2k boxes were tweaked
to shut down quickly, and they did. There's something wrong somewhere when you
install an alleged "fix" and your boxes refuse to shut down in less than 4
minutes. Removal of the hotfix cured the problem.

"I'm finding penguins more attractive by the hour."

--
Speech isn't free when it comes postage due. --Jim Nitchals

I have been getting the W32.Swen.A@mm virus with the Microsoft email scam so
it's a virus alright.


"rifleman" <me9@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:bp0msa$1jfsor$1@ID-108938.news.uni-berlin.de...