I received a call from a customer around lunchtime today.
For some reason, they couldn’t open any websites, yet for some reason their PC was still opening his default homepage without any problems.
The quick indicator to the problem was several instances of verclsid.exe in Task Manager.
A google search quickly identified that this file was connected with a recent Microsoft Windows Update, KB908531 which is supposed to help verify ActiveX controls and close a security loophole.
However, it seems that the patch was very poorly written and also succeeds in preventing Windows users from accessing websites and network resources correctly.
Some comments suggest that it may be connected with HP equipment or software. This may have been the case with our client earlier today, who has an HP scanner.
The advice provided by others online certainly helped to identify the problem, a bad Windows update – and the consequent solution, remove said update, however there doesn’t seem to be any word yet on a permanent solution.
The post on the IE6 newsgroup (see quote below) is of little use for those who want to see this issue resolved.
Our advice to our customers for the moment is to surf the web sensibly and to miss out update KB908531.
We’ve determined that the majority of the issues people are having with
MS06-015 / KB908531 are due to a bad interaction between the security update
and a software component included with various HP hardware devices,
including but not limited to printers, scanners, and cameras.
Here are two fixes which should fix problems caused by the interaction with
the HP software:
Option 1 – Modify the registry
——————————
- (If you have multiple user accounts set up) Log onto the computer using an
account with Administrator privileges
- Click the Start button, then click Run and type “regedit” at the prompt,
without the quotes; this will start Registry Editor
- Locate the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows
CurrentVersionShellExtensionsCached key in Registry Editor
- Right click on the key and select New / DWORD Value
- Rename the resulting value “{A4DF5659-0801-4A60-9607-1C48695EFDA9}
{000214E6-0000-0000-C000-000000000046} 0×401″, without the quotes
- Right click the value, select Modify, and type “1″ into the Value Data
field
- Close Registry Editor
Option 2 – Kill the HP process
——————————
- Wait until Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, or whichever component is
encountering problems is in an unresponsive state
- Click the Start button, then select Run and type “taskmgr” at the prompt,
without the quotes; this will start Task Manager
- Locate any instances of hpgs2wnd.exe or hpgs2wnf.exe in Task Manager, then
right click on them and select End Process
Notes:
- Option 2 this may disable some HP device-specific functionality until you
restart your computer.
- Option 2 will correct the problem for the logged-in user, but not for all
users on a computer with multiple user accounts. For that reason, Option 1
is the preferred option.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If your computer is not currently unresponsive, you should only have to do
Option 1 or Option 2, not both. If your computer is currently unresponsive,
you should be fixed by doing Option 2.
I’m very sorry about the inconvenience this has caused you all; hopefully
this will get things back on track. Please note that MS06-015 fixes a
critical security vulnerability, so it’s very important that you reinstall
it as soon as possible if you’ve uninstalled it. Please also keep in mind
that disabling Auto Update will leave your computer unprotected even after
we release security updates. I understand that this experience has been
very frustrating for many of you, but I really must still strongly recommend
that you leave [Automatic Updates] enabled for your own safety.
http://groups.google.com/group/
microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6.browser/msg/094143b42d0c3ca2
Update: 28/4/06
Microsoft is to release a new version of its patch, in order to patch the previous one.
If you had downloaded the problematic patch, the new one will be automatically downloaded and applied.
More information at ZDNet.
What’s happened to Carphone Warehouse, Charles?
September 3rd, 2006Customers of Carphone Warehouse (CW) may not realise that the company started life as a couple of concessions within large office supply superstores in London. As the company grew, and opened its own standalone branches it stressed its excellence in employee knowledge and customer service. However the standard of service provided by Carphone Warehouse today is indistinguishable from many other lousy organisations that epitomise the crappy British service sector.
This is no surprise to many of Carphone Warehouse’s customers, including Shirley Greening-Jackson. As reported by today’s Mail on Sunday, Mrs Greening-Jackson discovered that CW has adopted a policy of “no over-70s” for their TalkTalk broadband product, at least if they are unaccompanied by a younger member of their family.
A CW spokeswoman said that the discretionary policy was instituted in response to accusations that the company had mis-sold its products last year, presumably to more mature members of society. Sadly it didn’t instead choose to better train its staff so that they could explain the terms and conditions of their products to its customers in a clear and simple fashion.
As Mrs Greening-Jackson put it,
TalkTalk has come under fire for its poor service levels since it began offering its free broadband product earlier this year. Customers have waited months for their activation and welcome packs, only to be fobbed off by customer service staff when they eventually get through a TalkTalk call centre. Requests for a refund for service not provided are laughed off, according to one Support Lounge customer who realises that he made a mistake choosing the free broadband offer instead of paying for his service from a reliable provider.
Responding to complaints about the service from TalkTalk, CW founder and boss Charles Dunstone promised earlier this year that customer service staffing numbers would be increased to around 2,200 by this month, September, but had not made any pledges to improve the underlying processes which have caused such abysmal service in the first place.
Unlike other company bosses like Philip Green of BHS and the former chairmen of Marks and Spencer (M&S), for whom regular visits to their various branches were and are vitally important to their continued success, Charles Dunstone appears to be a Chief Executive in absentia. Aside from his latest of blog entries declaring that all is well, there has been little to indicate that Mr Dunstone actually understands how infuriating it is deal with his company, or that he ever visits his own stores.
Go shopping at Carphone Warehouse, Charles. Knowing the standard of staff at your branches, it’s doubtful they’d recognise you, so you’d experience what everyone else does – crappy service.
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