Is to remove anything from Microshaft from your computer. OSX or Linux aren't perfect but they are a damn sight better than anything Windozzzzzeee.

What I cannot find out is whether it is now safe to install the latest Windows Updates. I refer to, for example, the 11 November headlines at Computerworld:

Flawed AVG antivirus update cripples Windows XP PCs - Deletes critical 'user32.dll' system file, blocks booting.

Reportedly this Update causes HUGE PROBLEMS for particular users. So have they eliminated the particular Update that causes this problem, or what? I am reluctant to use Windows Update until I know that they have definitely removed this particular glitch. I hope that someone can provide reassurance - thanks.

PH - because she knows what to do when you have a 'gl-itch' which needs attending to.

How does one Effectively Ever Patch a Sieve which is used for Finding and Filtering Novel Source? Is that the Kernel of Windows Catalogue of Problems?

AC - that wasn't a Windows Update, it was an update from AVG Antivirus.

Windows Update is safe to use. If you have AVG Antivirus installed then you could get the problem when that updates.

Why are you delaying Windows Updates because of a problem with an update to AVG anti-virus?

The 'crippling update' was to the Grisoft AVG AntiVirus program - nothing to do with Microsoft's Windows Update mechanism...

"It's unclear why it took so long for Microsoft to fix the flaw"

Their programmers were trapped in a wet paper bag, and have only just been able to fight free?

(Just to make my feelings clear, I do think that MS software tends to be abysmal. Unfortunately, it also tends to be better than the alternatives. I see no conflict between these statements.)

Apologies for misleading you in my previous post. What I really wanted to know was if AVG had cured the problem of "deleting a critical file in Windows XP after incorrectly detecting it as a virus".

AVG now says "We have immediately released a new virus update (270.9.0/1778) that removes the false positive detection on this file. Please update your AVG and check your files again".

Maybe a fellow XP user could verify that we can now update our AVG software safely?

We recently updated our Stellent document management software to the new oracle branded version. Today, after applying the Windows updates, the document management software says that it has to replace MSXML3.DLL and reboot before it will start.

It turns out that the Windows update replaced version 80.90.1011.0 of MSXML3.DLL with version 80.100.1048.0 and the Oracle check code thinks that 80.100 is a lower version number than 80.90. And of course, when Oracle puts the old version back, Windows System File Protection blocks it and puts the new version back, so we had to uninstall the Windows update until Oracle fixes their update check to compare version numbers, rather than version strings!

And after reviewing the error on numerous forums and unistalling the updates i had before windows now faills to update at all.

I had this before when i used BitDefender and the updates were failing because the script/reg protection system was casuing issues with the web based Windows Update via the website, and im on Kaspersky now so im thinknig that AV script/reg protection is stil causiing issues in Vista internal update screen.

After turning it off temporarily i still get install errors, even when i manually dl and run the update.

An error with a reg key is displayed and the msoft installl rolls back.

I get errors trying to install msoft live services as well as they run on a similar patchung system.

I am unsure if its AV sctirpt/reg key blocking thats casuing the issues or if its windows. I had similar errors in XP 64

A reformat seeems to most logical thing to do, unless anyone is familiar with my issues and can help?