Problems with Vista and Windows Update
Vista and windows update needs alot of improvement. I got the shits with all the other reports about problems with Vista/Windows Update when it effected me as well so I decided to call MS tech support about this problem cos I figured if they are wasting my time with this crap I will call them and get them to fix it. Afterall, I paid for the retail licence and I'm going to make use of the support that comes with it.
Two and half hours on the phone!! All to remove a bodgy keyboard driver install called Key Maestro!
Heres the rundown:
1. Key Meastro was an optional install published through windows update to upgrade my keyboard driver so I figured it was correct for my hardware as windows update does the scan and recommends things to upgrade. And lets face it, its a freaking keyboard driver what can go wrong and worst case I can rollback it anyway.
2. When I saw how dodgy this Key Meastro crud was I went to uninstall it. However its not listed in installed updates or installed programs so there is no normal method for uninstalling it. And it does appear in windows update history as being successfully installed, as well as infesting my system with its dodgy code in Program Files, drivers, startup executable on the kernel etcetc
3. I saw a remove program in Files\KMaestro and when I executed that even with admin priveldge the thing appeared to hang, reported to not be responding and then after sometime I closed it leading to vista going through its problem process with submitting to MS.
4. Then I manually deleted the Program Files\KMaestro but upon rebooting the bloody thing came back from somewhere else on storage and reinstalled itself!!!
5. I got rid of the Files\KMaestro files again but then had an access denied error trying to delete the driverstore repository where this bloody thing was also stored.
6. All throughout this process the support monkey doesnt know what to do and I keep being put on hold while he talks to someone else about what to do. It was during one of these on hold sessions that the not responding driver remove process actually came alive again from apparently no cpu or disk activity and reported that the uninstall had finished and all I had to do was to reboot.
7. Upon reboot Vista has now picked up the same stupid driver from the driver store repository that I have no proveledge to delete!
8. Then the support monkey has the idea to do a system restore so I boot from DVD and find that I dont have any system restores before the date of the keymaestro install.
9. At this point my growing frustration was tipped over the edge when the support monkey started claiming this was a third party product blah blah blah. I said, look pal, Windows Update does a scan of my hardware and after making a determination of the current state of my hardware and the software revisions installed it then provides recommendations on what to upgrade. Hasnt MS done any testing on this bogus bit of software? Why release a driver that cant be uninstalled? And more to the point, as I have a MS Internet keyboard why the hell doesnt windows update point me to the MS intellitype driver instead of some two bit bodgy crud that doesnt work? And how did this crap bit of software ever get digitally signed as ok? He tried to argue windows update was for things like upgrading internet explorer 6 to 7 and third party things are optional and its up to the user to decide. So I reinforced my fair belief that windows update should indicate the correct driver to install, especially on Microsoft's own hardware for christs sake or if thats all too hard dont include any uncertain third party stuff on windows update because it creates the impression its been through the MS certification process. The stupid tool just gave me this spiel about feedback and talking to his supervisor.
10. So then I was in the emergency command console, but for some reason I couldnt access the driver store from the system32 directory. The support monkey had obviously enough by this point but I refused to get off the phone unless it was fixed. Eventually it occured to me as I had partitioned by storage up and had kept XP Pro I was actually hitting the XP install and the emergency command console drive letter mapping was all wrong. When I finally got into the vista partition I was able to delete the driver store repository from the HDD free of the access restrictions in other modes.
11. Then I installed the MS intellitype driver and all was good.
One problem remains however - the windows update history reports that I have successfully installed the Key Maestro driver update.