Screaming Penguin

Thought No. 4: Microsoft needs patch helper My vote for the unintentional funniest story of the week showed up courtesy of NewsBytes. Microsoft announced it was helping out its users. Because so many hacks had so totally compromised Windows NT and 2000 that administrators were getting confused by all the patches they had to install, Microsoft announced something called Microsoft Personal Security Advisor (MPSA). Network administrators can also run a command line tool called HotFix Checker (HFNetChk) to help them figure out which patches their systems need. Mischief makers will be delighted to know that HotFix Checker polls client systems remotely with an XML routine that enables a third party to check the patch status of Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000 systems -- especially IIS servers from a remote location. The program also lets that same third party check the status of Internet Explorer and any installed Microsoft SQL server, and then download a hotfix list for use on the system. The fix will cost administrators roughly a dollar a seat, from Shavlik Technologies. By the way, this tool, and Microsoft's new tool for stand-alone systems, MPSA, aren't available for Win95 or 98 machines. Guess you should have upgraded. One Microsoft vendor was quoted saying "where are the Solaris patch check tools or the Linux tools? No other vendor does this." Of course, on the other hand, no other vendor has to.