20FEB08 – DELL and Dinarius have made it policy to hold off on Vista until the first Service Pack. You can still get a DELL machine with XP Home and Professional and for good cause. Microsoft encountered a new problem when trying to roll out the Service Pack we all said we were waiting for. KB937287 is causing problems in several (but enough) instances to force microsoft to withdraw the Service Pack update temporarily.

Endless reboot problems in Windows Vista following the installation of the Service Pack prerequisites prompted the following:

“Immediately after receiving reports of this error, we made the decision to temporarily suspend automatic distribution of the update to avoid further customer impact while we investigate possible causes.
“So far, we’ve been able to determine that this problem only affects a small number of customers in unique circumstances. We are working to identify possible solutions and will make the update available again shortly after we address the issue.
“Customers who may be experiencing this issue can use system restore to correct it or contact 1-866-PC-Safety for help troubleshooting. Additional guidance will be available via Microsoft’s free Update Support Center soon.”

Endless reboot problems usually occur anyway when the directory or list-of-things-to-do within Windows is corrupted. Stopping it from turning on and off and on again is a royal pain in the ass. Microsoft had been leaking the prerequisites out since mid-January but just responded to the issue only yesterday. So, who do you sue when the maker of your operating system breaks your operating system?

Endless reboots don’t permit the System Rescue function of returning to an earlier date before the Vista Service Pack prerequisite installation. Sick Catch22 loop. For now, all you have is the 1-866-PC-Safety number to call: 1-866-737-2338 and leave off the last “Y;” that’s the Y indeed for, “Why, Microsoft? Why?”

DINARIUS Bryan's old Digital Interest blog