Understanding .NET patches

[DrRon]

Well, six patches later, done one at a time, they all seemed to go in successfully.
They sure took a lot of time to do their thing during installation.
But all checks are green, all patches show up in Add / Remove and no sirens went off.

So, I am now committed to .NET, it seems, and expect traffic every Patch Tuesday until I move on to W7.
Maybe I should get busy on that update!

Thanks again for the help and hand-holding here.

[ruirib]

Glad that it all went well. I believe that's what happens in most cases .

[gwilki]

DrRon: Not to burst your bubble, but W7 does not get you out of patch tuesday, and it does not get you out of frequent .net updates, either. I'm running W7 on 3 pc's and have programs needing .net on them all. It still seems like a constant stream of updates to .net.

[genej313]

I can only speak by my own experience, which was never anything like that. I think the number of cases was not that meaningful (although people who have problems are always more vocal about it).

Until you have problems, which you may never actually have, I would do nothing, that is, other than what I would do anyway - keep a regular image backup of my working system, image before installing any updates and then use that in case of problems.

Windows XP is installed in hundreds of millions of computers with difference specs and different software configurations. IMHO, the .net update issue is grossly overrated. Of course, when an issue occurs with your machine, it's always a "serious" issue, so the solution is not, IMO, to run a skeleton machine, software wise, in order to minimize problems, the solution is to be ready to face them and recover fast, if they happen. An image backup can be the solution, for this problem, if it ever occurs, and for many other problems.

Good points all. I am running Win7 Home Premium and have just installed all .net patches as they have come along and have never had a problem of any kind. And I do have a rigorous backup procedure automated and a system image just in case, but I've never had a problem, nor has anyone I know. My company is still running XP Pro and we install patches two weeks after release across our network, after they've been vetted, and all of the .net patches have worked just fine there too. I think the problem must be smaller than we've been led to believe. :^)

[Steve823]

There is at least one web site, the Grant County Map Server that requires Silverlight to access it. I found out one day when I tried to access that same site while running Ubuntu. I have found that the web site error message will inform you that you need Silverlight to access it. I can't believe the taxpayers got stuck with a proprietary system, but hey, it's government. What else can you expect?