Microsoft security patch troubles XP users

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Microsoft's support forums are being inundated with complaints that its latest security updates are crippling Windows XP machines.

"I updated 11 Windows XP updates today and restarted my PC like it asked me to," tansenroy posted on Microsoft's support forums.

"From then on, Windows cannot restart again! It is stopping at the blue screen with the following message: 'A problem has been detected and Windows has been shutdown to prevent damage to your computer.'"

The post opened the floodgates to a host of similar complaints from other XP users complaining of endless reboots and Blue Screens of Death.

While Microsoft said it is investigating the cause of the complaints, users have narrowed the problem to update KB977165, described by Microsoft as "MS10-015: Vulnerabilities in Windows kernel could allow elevation of privilege".

The patch was intended to address a 17-year-old kernel bug present in all 32-bit versions of Windows, which was first noticed by a Google engineer last month.

Among the solutions mooted by posters, those afflicted by the problem have been told to boot from their XP installation disc, open the recovery console and type the following commands.

1. Type this command: CHDIR $NtUninstallKB977165 $spuninst

2. Type this command: BATCH spuninst.txt

3. Type this command: systemroot

4. When complete, type this command: exit

The fix has been tagged by a Microsoft Support Engineer called Cody as being the answer to the problem, though some users have reported that it's not working for them. It also means netbook users, and those without optical drives, are out of luck.

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