You did read through to the end of the article, didn’t you? Microsoft are supposed to test its systems against Norton ones which aren’t created until months later? Surely the onus is on Norton, or anyone else, to test new updates against current Windows installs?
(Stop making me defend Microsoft. I don’t like it.)
In that case, then, yes, it’s Norton’s job, but you know what? With all their money and five year waits between major releases, I do expect Microsoft to keep abreast of current developments in applications and utility software, and warn their users when patches to other, very-widely-used software is likely to cause problems for them. We pay enough for Windows, we deserve that level of service, IMHO.
Huh???
Quite apart from it probably being there already in the T&C of any Windows installation, are you really saying that any time any software is updated, you’d like XP to jump up and say ‘hey, but that might cause problems, I don’t know, but it might’?
If third-party software which has access to system files decides to delete them, it is not Windows’ fault. It might be the fault of Windows to create a situation where such access is either permitted or desirable, but that’s a different matter.
Your condescending (and inaccurate) response provides no help whatsoever. You know nothing about my knowledge, my background, or my experience with “competitor’s products.” This is not “Microsoft bashing.” This is an attempt to find out how widespread the problem is. The existence of the problem is not up for debate. It’s there, it happened, and it took down several systems around town.
Again, you have no idea what’s going on. In my previous profession in the computer industry, I managed networks with dozens of systems (usually a mix of Windows, Mac, and Solaris) and I had time and budget to create test systems and carefully check out each new operating system patch. Currently, I own a small bookstore. It has one (count 'em, one) point of sale system. I expect it to be an appliance that “just works.” It needs to run POS software, Excel, Word, and a couple of programs I wrote to autogenerate portions of my Web site. That’s it.
Somehow, my non-Windows systems manage to run for months at a time without crashing or having to reboot. That’s all I ask of this machine.
Take your attitude and go away.
And this is why one should NEVER have auto-update turned on. Do it manually and look at what is being updated, and do it at a time when minimum inconvenience will occur.
Then why do you even have AU turned on to begin with?
A full copy of Norton Internet Security at MSRP costs almost as much as Vista Basic, considering the breadth of features and support already in any windows release Symantec is little more than a whale in an ocean of vendors working in windows…
As far as millions of “their machines” microsoft does not install norton on new machines, the manufacturers do, want someone to gripe at, call dell/gateway/hp/toshiba/whever and tell then to stop bundling the value added crap.
Because I let other people on my wireless network and wanted to make sure I had all of the security patches loaded. sigh
Why is AU the default? Damn thing always reboots when I’m not looking and had some page open that I hadn’t bookmarked.
Why is there a 10 min screensaver timeout by default? i dunno
Why is fast user switching on by default? i dunno
Why is “Bliss” the default background? i dunno
Why isn’t Classic Contorl Panel on by default? i dunno
Why do i like boobs by default? i dunno, but then again who doesn’t ya know 
I use WSUS at the hospital i work and we remove lots of defaults that come with the XP SP2 installation and make our own default profiles for the computers before they go out and apply a domain-wide GPO to turn off AU until WSUS gets its discoveries approved by someone.