Modest Patch Tuesday batch tackles Windows and Office issues

Microsoft released two patches on Tuesday, one of them critical, as part of its regular Patch Tuesday update cycle. The critical update (MS11-035) affects the WINS component of Windows 2003 and 2008 Server operating systems. WINS resolves names in the NetBIOS namespace in much the same way as DNS resolves names to IP addresses …

[K. Adams]

WINS really oughta be put to bed...

... and legacy software that relies on it for name resolution should be dragged out into the street and shot.

The problem is with WINS resolution cache update latency across WANs.

I've run into situations where the following command connects to one machine:

-- C:\>mstsc /v:MYMACHINE

and this command connects to a different machine:

-- C:\>mstsc /v:MYMACHINE.domain.tld

If WINS is enabled in the environment, the first version will use WINS/NetBIOS name resolution, while the second will use DNS. If WINS table updates don't track with DNS, it can cause a lot of "phantom" issues that pop-up, only to "fix themselves" a couple minutes/hours later when WINS resolution table updates finally make it across the WAN to your local site.

Right pain in the arse, it is...

[xenny]

The powerpoint patch

Also fixes a problem with ppt 2003 not being able to open files successfully without an incorrect corruption warning bug that was introduced in last months patch.