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April 12, 2008

Yes, No, or Somewhat

I received this error on my Vista machine at work the other day:

(Of course I have Windows Update on; I don't think I could get away with having it off on the corporate network.) I found the message amusing, and I can understand the reason why it would be presented to me; but I can predict that other people would feel other emotions when they saw it.

There is actually a space below where you can enter a comment and send it in...since the message has nothing actionable in it (in fact I have no idea what it was about, the machine seems to be working fine) I'm curious what kind of feedback people send in.

Posted by AdamBa at April 12, 2008 05:35 PM

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Comments

Probably something in the lower level that does not have immediately visible effect when goes wrong. You may find something in the event log that describes what the problem is.

However, most user would just click "yes" or "no" in order to dismiss it.

Posted by: Cheong at April 13, 2008 07:15 PM

This message is puzzling on many levels:
a. Why did the author think it was important to communicate that Windows was created by Microsoft Corporation? Was there a concern that users might be misinformed on that point?
b. Why is a recommendation being made "Use Automatic Updates" on machines that already have this enabled?
c. If there were really "no solution for the problem", then why would application of updates be relevant? Or is the truth really that it couldn't be determined whether a solution existed?

Posted by: Bernard Aboba at April 14, 2008 04:31 PM