There has been a torrent of problems with Adobe products over the last several months. My XP machine informed me of yet another Update from Adobe which I applied successfully, about 15 minutes later I get a notice from my Secunia software that Adobe reader needs an update. Having just installed a new security patch from Adobe I was a little surprised. So I fired up Adobe Reader and had it check for updates, there weren’t any, so I took a closer look at the version of Adobe Reader that I had, it was version 9.4.0.195.

Secunia offered a download solution for the problem which I grabbed and installed, a file called AdbeRdrUpd9.msp running this file told me that it was a patch for Adobe Reader 9.4.1 Great! I ran the program and re-scanned with Secunia which was now happy so I went back and looked at Adobe Reader again and found that it had been upgraded to version 9.4.1.222

Why didn’t the old version find that there was an update available when it was told to check for one? I have cut Adobe tons of slack over these recurring problems, as they are a large company with a lot of products to maintain, but I just can’t keep checking and re-checking different ways to see if there are new updates available, if I had to do that with all the software that I use then I would be spending about 12 hours a day just looking for software updates. I am sorry Adobe, but my only conclusion can now be that your Software is SO seriously flawed that it has become TOTALLY useless to me and you have proved that you are TOTALLY incompetent when it comes to repairing and maintaining it, therefore I choose to abandon Adobe products wherever I can. Goodbye Adobe Reader, you are first in front of my firing squad.

I am moving to Foxit Reader.

Thank goodness for Secunia Personal Software Inspector http://secunia.com/products/consumer/PSI/you are a life saver!

Adobe have issued an out of cycle release for Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Reader and Acrobat. This addresses a critical vulnerabilty in

• Adobe Flash Player 10.1.85.3 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris operating system
• Adobe Flash Player 10.1.95.2 and earlier for Android
• Adobe Reader 9.4 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX
• Adobe Acrobat 9.4 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows and Macintosh

This vulnerability could cause a crash allowing an attacker to take control of the affected system. This has been found in the wild as an active exploit.

Is your operating system up to date?

Well, the way the Internet is being used by hackers, crackers, crooks and thieves it had better be!

Nowadays Internet Explorer has a pretty rough reputation and many so called “experts” are recommending that you use a different browser for surfing the Internet.

That is all well and good, feel free to use whatever you want but just remember one little thing…

To upgrade Microsoft Windows you need to use Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Have you heard of “PATCH TUESDAY”?

Every second Tuesday of the month, Microsoft releases any security patches that they have been working on, sometimes, if a dangerous enough exploit has been found, they release patches on other days of the month as well.

Everything happens at light speed nowadays and that includes the bad stuff, so it is really, really important to keep your computer up to date with the latest security updates, this means that you should check at least on a monthly basis.

But you should make it a habit to not just check for but also to download and install ALL the updates from Microsoft for your system.

If you are running Windows XP, fire up Internet Explorer and click on “TOOLS -> WINDOWS UPDATE” this will bring you to the Microsoft Update site.

For Vista users, go to “START -> CONTROL PANEL -> WINDOWS UPDATE” this will bring you to the Microsoft Update site.

Click on the “Custom” button, yes, I know, Microsoft recommend you click on the “Express” button, but you do want to fix your problems don’t you? Then you are going to need the latest and greatest drivers and software versions available so click the “Custom” button.

Remember, if you just click on the “Express” button or worse yet if you rely on the automatic function of Windows Update you may NOT get all the security updates you need only the ones that Microsoft in their infinite wisdom decide are “critical” and lets face it, with all the security patches they are releasing on their own products do you really want to let THEM decide what is critical for YOUR system?

Select and install everything they offer. You may need to reboot your computer a number of times but just keep going until there are no more updates available.

Good luck,

John

I would love to hear your opinion. Please add your comments below.