A month or so ago I applied Service Pack 3 to Windowns XP home from a download and started getting a message that Automatic Updates was turned off. I tried to change the Automatic Updates setting but it was locked (all of the choice button were greyed out). I think I got the message that I didn't have the authority which was peculiar since I was logged on to the account with administrator privileges. This was annoying but since I normally apply the updates and don't use automatic update, I ignored the problem hoping a subsequent update would cure it. On Wednesday, I downloaded and tried to apply the latest upgrade to Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite which normally is a very simple exercise. The upgrade didn't work because I did not have the administrator privilege for installing the True Vector component. After making various attempts and checking the Zone Alarm site, I went to the Microsoft site. There I found that for at least some people Service Pack 3 fouls up some entries in the registry and there is a fix. I have an e-mail into Microsoft right now verifying that the fix only restores full administrator privileges to the administrator logons and not the user logons and that the download program mentioned also works on XP home as well as PRO.
I suspect the simplest way to tell whether you have the problem is to logon on to an account with administrator privileges and try to change the Automatic Updates setting. If you can't change it, DON'T try to install any systems software (Microsoft updates seem to work) like Zone Alarm. Go to www.microsoft.com and from support go to the page for Service Pack 3. You will find that there is free e-mail, chat AND toll-free free support in North America for Service Pack 3 issues. Apparently there have been a number of them. Before we in the mainframe environment feel completely smug, there are PTF's and hiper alerts for a reason. While I haven't read about anything like the DF/EF catalog problems that I heard about or DFP PE chain problems that I experienced, no vendor is free of major glitches. Given that Microsoft fixes and updates for home users are to be installed by people who are not system programmers or systems administrators, it is in a sense amazing to me that the process works as well as it does. I might add that I read the KB letters for all of the fixes I apply and have found them useful in understanding why I am putting on the fix. I'm sending this because for many of us, Windows XP is the operating system of choice or affliction. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
