Symantec update killed biz PCs in three-way software prang Symantec has apologised after an update to its security software sparked repeated crashes on enterprise Windows XP machines. The antivirus giant withdrew the misfiring definition update, issued on 11 July, hours after problems first appeared, releasing a revised update the next day. No new issues have been reported since this …
While many antivirus updates can result in false positives, which is annoying, the idea that a pattern-recognition update can result in Blue Screen of Death is unacceptable. Symantec's enterprise product has become increasingly bloated. We finally abandoned server-based management because it never worked properly with our relatively small (less than 20 computers) network, did not transfer properly to a new server and does not treat Macs with the same flexibility as PCs. We went back to unmanaged clients. Even though the unmanaged Mac product has even less control over options, this is a minor annoyance compared to the seemingly unnecessary complexities of the server-based product. It is extremely telling that the product can rarely be reinstalled successfully without removing all Symantec/Norton products. That said, it's a dangerous world out there and buggy antivirus is better than no antivirus in this never-ending "arms race".
A company that generally seems to move all its development off to third would countries, while having management still done by older shool middle and upper management. The result? Diabolically poor software releases. Get into the higher problem solvers, and you'll find the American guy has to talk to the Indian guy tommorow, as he is already finished for the day. The UK op is riddled with high paid sales idiots.
The engineering at symantec long ago perished in the ever deepeing race to the bottom. All the useless middle and upper management still rack in the dosh, which is where the money goes.
The last time I spent with them was when their backup products started eating our servers.
True comment from Backup Exec defect ********
This is Symantec’s confirmation and verification the issue you’re experiencing is a flaw within the CPS code. Specifically,
If CleanUpPushDeploy is called with an empty string, it will attempt to delete
everything on the root drive. The value in PushSource string value is what is
passed to CleanUpPushDeploy.
PushSource string value should be c:\<guid>
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Classes\SOFTWARE\Symantec\Install Status\PushSource
So, in the event the above registry guid is non-existent, we’re defaulting to the root of the volume to do our clean-up; this is “unwise”.
End of defect info
The poorly written installer was not worth much, and the uninstaller was seriously bad for our health.
Yes, Deleting my whole C drive in your uninstall of a poorly working product was not well recieved at my end either. Unwise. Yes. I suspect that reserved, cautious use of english has a comic tone of indulgence unworthy in a senario where your un-installer just did a *.* delete on a client server.
I will say the team dealing with the issue were very good about it, but the rest of symantec were_absolutely not. We were promised a public advisory because we worked hard with them on the bug on the premise that we might at least warn others. In the end senior Symantec people made sure that never went out.
Ended up with some smoothies in suits talking down to use with their brycreemed hair and pin stripes, trying to diminish the scope of the issue and pretend it was not worthy of complaint. To be honest, bugs I can work with. Problems exist in this world. What I can't and won't is vendors who are patently bad, evil, indifferent. And the none publishing of a very embarrasing, but lethal problem for customers showed us they were not to be trusted. Ever. Other people deserved to know about it and get a chance not to suffer what hit us.
To be blunt, the issue I worked on should have had Symantec offering compensation to us, if nothing else for our diligent and friendly and full complete co-operation despite extremely stressful circumstances.
And at that point we ceased using Symantec products anywhere. Ever. And no, I'm never going back.
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