Beyond Binary

Adobe Systems said on Friday that it has fixed a bug that delayed a planned update of its Photoshop Express program this week. The software maker said in a statement that the updated version of the free, Web-based photo editing program is now available.

"We're happy to report we have successfully fixed the bug that slightly delayed our newest feature update for the Photoshop Express beta," Adobe said in a statement. "New updates are now publicly available. We appreciate your patience as we focus on delivering a quality experience for our users."

Adobe had planned to go live with the update, which adds connectivity to Yahoo's Flickr service, on Wednesday, but delayed the update after the last-minute bug emerged.

Microsoft on Tuesday said it is resuming two major Windows updates that had been halted because of a conflict with one of its own software products.

A week ago, Microsoft delayed the release of Windows XP Service Pack 3 because of a problem that could lead to data loss when running the XP update in conjunction with its Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System program. It also halted automatic updates to Windows Vista Service Pack 1 because of a similar issue.

The software maker on Tuesday said it is releasing XP Service Pack 3 for Web downloads, and resuming automatic updates to Vista Service Pack 1, after developing a filter that will prevent machines running Dynamics RMS from getting either update.

The filter is not a fix for the incompatibility, though Microsoft said it is working on that as well.

"A fix for this issue is currently in testing at Microsoft and with customers, and we hope to make it publicly available this month," the company said in a statement. "Until then, Microsoft is advising Microsoft Dynamics RMS customers to not install either service pack."

Those already running Dynamics RMS with one of the Windows updates should contact customer support, it said.

A compatibility glitch with the latest versions of Windows has thrust the spotlight onto a little-known product from Microsoft's Dynamics line for midsize businesses.

Microsoft said on Tuesday that it was delaying the availability of Windows XP Service Pack 3 and halting automatic updates to Vista Service Pack 1 because of problems with Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System.

Just what is Dynamics RMS?

It's software that enables specialty retailers to handle cash register functions, process payments, and automate purchasing, inventory and other back-end processes, said Michael Griffiths, the group product manager for the retail part of the Dynamics business.

Dynamics RMS is used to manage about 38,000 different store locations, he said.

Perhaps its most notable customer is the NFL's Dallas Cowboys, who use it to handle all of their merchandising activities, in conjunction with Microsoft's Dynamics AX product.

Microsoft acquired Dynamics RMS as part of its 2002 acquisition of Southern California-based Sales Management Systems, and it last updated the product in January 2007.

Griffiths said the Dynamics team discovered the issue as part of its testing and realized that the problem could lead to data loss.

"The key issue is, there is a potential for data loss within the RMS solution itself, which is obviously something we wanted to make sure we address immediately," Griffiths said.

He didn't offer a specific reason why the company didn't catch the issue sooner. "It just happened this was the time and place when we did find the issue," he said.

Microsoft confirmed Tuesday that it has stopped automatic updates of Vista to Service Pack 1 in the wake of a newly discovered glitch.

The problem, which has also halted the availability of Windows XP Service Pack 3, prevents Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System from working with either operating system update.

"We are temporarily holding any additional automatic distribution of Windows Vista SP1," Microsoft said in response to an inquiry from CNET News.com. The company said it will continue to make Vista SP1 available for manual download. Microsoft had just started pushing out the Vista service pack last week via automatic updates.

"While we are recommending that customers running Microsoft Dynamics RMS should not install SP1, there are many other customers who can benefit from installing Windows Vista SP1 immediately, so we are maintaining availability via (Windows Update)," Microsoft said. "We are delaying the release of Windows XP SP3 and holding any additional automatic distribution of Windows Vista SP1 as a precaution and to help ensure that our customers have a great experience with Windows."

The company has not yet described the problem, beyond saying it is a "compatibility issue." I have also asked for data on how the problem was discovered, why it took until XP SP3 to find it, and how many users run Dynamics RMS.

Microsoft on Tuesday said it is delaying the release of Windows XP Service Pack 3 because of a newly uncovered glitch.

The software maker said there is a "compatibility issue" between the XP service pack and Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System, a retail chain management program for small and midsize businesses.

Microsoft finalized the code for Windows XP SP3 last week and had planned to make it broadly available starting Tuesday.

"In order to make sure customers have the best possible experience, we have decided to delay releasing Windows XP SP3 to Windows Update and Microsoft Download Center," the company said in a statement.

The glitch also exists between Microsoft Dynamics RMS and Windows Vista Service Pack 1, though that product has already been broadly released. Microsoft started pushing out Vista SP1 last week via Automatic Updates.

"To help protect our customers, we plan to put filtering in place shortly to prevent Windows Update from offering both service packs to systems running Microsoft Dynamics RMS," Microsoft said. "Once filtering is in place, we expect to release Windows XP SP3 to Windows Update and Download Center."

Microsoft advised those running Microsoft Dynamics RMS to not install either service pack. The company said a "fix is currently in testing and will be available as soon as that process is complete."

Adobe has pulled from its Web site an update to Photoshop Lightroom after discovering the new version can cause at least three errors.

In a posting on its Web site, Adobe says that users should not move to version 1.4 and those who have are advised to go back to the older version.

"Those Lightroom users who have installed Lightroom 1.4 should uninstall the update and install Lightroom 1.3.1 until a further update can be provided," Adobe said. Among the errors are a time stamp bug as well as an error in the way files are converted to the DNG (Digital Negative) format. A third issue affects converting Olympus JPEG files to other formats.

Two of the three bugs affect both Windows and Mac versions of Lightroom, while one error occurs only in the Windows version. Both Windows and Mac copies of version 1.4 have been taken down from Adobe's site.

Updated: 2:40 p.m. with some clarifications from Microsoft.

Brett Zehr was surprised on Thursday when he saw that his Windows Vista PC had a new update ready: Service Pack 1.

The software wasn't supposed to be available until mid-March, however a glitch on Thursday meant that Zehr and some other general users were able to download the Vista update.

The update was not pushed out via Windows' Automatic Update feature, but was listed for owners running the 64-bit version of Vista who chose to "check for new updates" via Windows Update.

"A build of SP1 was posted to Windows Update and it was inadvertently made available to a broad group," Microsoft said in a statement. "The build was intended only for our more technically advanced testers, and was meant to only be offered to those with a specific registry key set on their PC. For general availability, we are still planning to make SP1 broadly available in the mid-March timeframe."

A screenshot of one of the computers that was upgraded to Vista Service Pack 1, thanks to a glitch that made the update available a month ahead of schedule.

(Credit: Brett Zehr)

Zehr, who works for a technology leasing company in Illinois, said the upgrade took less than an hour and there were no immediately apparent hiccups.

"Unfortunately, I haven't had enough time on the machine to tell if anything is really better or broken, but I've always had an image backup just in case," Zehr said in an e-mail interview. "So far so good."

Zehr has two other Vista machines, including one other 64-bit system, but was unable to see the available upgrade for those PCs. He said that if the glitch had to happen to someone, he was glad it was him.

"I'm also a computer hobbyist, so Microsoft couldn't have picked a better guinea pig, glitch or no glitch," he said. Although he was not a beta tester for Vista, he did help test Windows XP just prior to its debut in 2001.

Microsoft finalized the code for SP1 earlier this month. Initially, the company planned to make all users wait until March for the update because of some driver-related issues that had yet to be resolved. However, the company eased its policy some, making it available earlier this month to businesses that have volume licensing pacts as well as to MSDN and TechNet developers.

The glitch is the second SP1-related issue for Microsoft in recent days. The company had to pull another update, this one a set of files necessary to move to SP1, because some users were sent into a repeated reboot cycle by the files.

Update: Microsoft revised earlier comments, confirming that those with automatic update settings configured in certain ways may have had the update pushed to them automatically.

A company representative also stated that the version pushed out is the final RTM version even though it may carry a beta designation.

Since November, Microsoft has been slowly rolling out an update to its Windows Live OneCare security software. Although the update was designed to bring in new features, such as the ability to monitor the health of multiple PCs, some say the new version has brought only headaches.

Robert Webb of North Carolina said he started having problems from the moment his software was upgraded in early December.

"My main problem has been that OneCare does not always start when the computer is booted," Webb said in an e-mail interview. "It has to be manually started."

Microsoft's online forums are buzzing with a host of complaints about the new version, with many people unable to get the software to work.

Microsoft confirmed that it is working on that problem.

"We are aware that some users are experiencing an issue with Windows Live OneCare when they start up the service after installing (version) 2.0," Microsoft said in a statement to CNET News.com. "The issue is being worked on and currently affects a very limited number of customers (about 1 percent of the install base), each of whom we thank for their patience."

In an interview Thursday, Microsoft lead product manager Larry Brennan said that, in total, the problems aren't causing a significant disparity compared with users' experience with the older version.

"We do monitor the overall status of the service," he said. "We can see that the servicing statistics for 2.0 are comparable to the servicing statistics for (version) 1.6."

Brennan touted the new features, such as automated printer sharing and centralized backup, as key improvements and said that with any upgrade, there are bound too be some people who have problems. Brennan said Microsoft is about halfway through migrating OneCare users to version 2.0 and that the company is continuing to automatically upgrade customers, despite the complaints.

OneCare, which was introduced in May 2006, is Microsoft's first entry in the consumer antivirus software business and competes with consumer software from Symantec, McAfee, and others.

Stephen Boots, the Microsoft Most Valued Professional who moderates the OneCare forum, has been trying to address many of the issues online, but has been suggesting those with other issues contact Microsoft's customer care.

"There were too many problems with the v2 upgrade and too many remain now," Boots wrote in a post on Friday.

For Webb, the problems have shifted his OneCare experience from positive to negative.

"I liked OneCare before these problems appeared because it was hassle free and not a resource hog," said Webb, who has been using the program for a year and a half and renewed his paid subscription last July.

Update: A Microsoft representative said on Friday that the company is planning to push out an update to version 2.0 on January 31 that it hopes will fix many of the problems that users have been encountering.