KB943729 now available through Windows Update?

[PreviousPoster]

This morning, I checked for updates on my 32 bit Vista box, and noticed that KB943729 was made available as an optional update as of yesterday. I have already deployed this update throughout my domain thanks to Jakob Heidelberg’s excellent script. I assume there won’t be any harm in letting Windows Update install it again, but just wanted to check here first.

Thanks for any info,

Al Puzzuoli
Michigan State University
Information Technologist http://www.rcpd.msu.edu
Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities
120 Bessey Hall East Lansing, MI 48824-1033
517-884-1915

[PreviousPoster]

Hi there,

It's pretty strange to me that WU doesn't recognize the fact that you have that particular update installed already... I haven't seen that elsewhere (yet) - but I'm also confident that re-applying the package doesn't do any harm.

[PreviousPoster]

I'm also confident that re-applying the package doesn't do any harm.

DISASTER

I should have checked here first ...

I deployed KB943729 via WSUS and it has removed PolicyMaker from my 100 clients and 6 servers ...

Any advice or assistance anyone can give would be *really* appreciated!

I'm on the phone to MS but their response so far hasn't inspired confidence.

Can I script uninstallation?

Will it have done anything to my actual policies?

Aaargh!

[PreviousPoster]

Your actual policies (preferences in SYSVOL) haven't been touched by the update - so don't worry.

Your clients however will need to get KB943729 uninstalled - should be possible using WSUS! - or else it can be uninstalled using a script. Then you must re-install the PolicyMaker CSE - but you gotta test this 100% on a client or two before going large scale.

Microsoft should deliver a script of some kind which should be able to update existing PolicyMaker GPOs (preferences) to the new GP Preferences format - but currently there's no news on this subject from MS, sorry.

[PreviousPoster]

don't worry.

Well that's a relief. Thanks! And thanks for responding so quickly.

should be possible using WSUS! - or else it can be uninstalled using a script.

WSUS says this KB doesn't support removal, and MS have said they hope to come back to me later today with a script. If they don't, I'll just have to experiment myself. Another evening/night blown

Microsoft should deliver a script of some kind which should be able to update existing PolicyMaker GPOs

We've been using ProfileMaker, then PolicyMaker, for many years, so even on our relatively small network have quite a few PM GPO settings.

What I had expected - until this morning - was that I'd be able to keep PolicyMaker running, moving GPOs gradually to the new way of doing things, maybe for a small subset of (tolerant) users, as we did when migrating from ProfileMaker to PolicyMaker. Am I right in thinking that this won't be possible - it's a big bang replacement? Shudder!

[PreviousPoster]

Yuo, it's a "Big Bang" replacement - it's Microsoft Group Policy Preference or PolicyMaker, not both.

Unfortunately I haven't tried to uninstall the hotfix automatically (and I have to go catch a plane right now) - maybe somebody else tried that?

Good luck!

[PreviousPoster]

No help from MS:
a) KB cannot be removed by WSUS
b) no help offered on a script for removal

I'm not happy with that lack of response. Basically their position is "PolicyMaker is no longer supported" ! :x

MS also said:
c) the KB article will be updated with a warning that this update will remove PolicyMaker CSE
d) they are working on a tool to migrate PolicyMaker settings but it might be a month or two or more

Oh well.

[PreviousPoster]

Follow-up:

a) removal was as simple as spuninst /quiet, executed by psExec

b) I had already unapproved the KB from WSUS

c) I then ran wuauclt /detectnow using psExec

d) then redployed polmkrcl.msi using a software policy

e) then restarted using ProfShutDown

f) voila, c.100 PCs sorted

In parallel, in case the above might not have worked, I installed RSAT onto a VistaSP1 Virtual PC. Looks promising! At last, homepage tabs in IE7; but sadly, apparently still no way to deploy Trusted Sites in an IE7 configuration? But that's all for another day, and I'll be sure to browse this site in more detail before ploughing ahead.

Thanks for your help, Jakob.

Regards
William K Rankine
Holmes

[PreviousPoster]

Further follow-up, in case anyone's interested:

A Microsoft tech Support Team Leader named Ravi called me to apologise profusely. Which was nice.

a) he and others knew this was going to happen, four months ago, but they couldn't get the message through to get the KB updated - everyone too focussed on Win2k8 release

b) c.2000 PCs affected worldwide he knew about

("so far", I'd add!)

c) he offered support in migrating from PolicyMaker to its replacement, when the replacement is properly released. Which is also nice.

Regards
William K Rankine

[drukyulgoods]

Greetings to all,

We just wanted to chime in here as we also utilize PolicyMaker CSE's in our AD. We also found out the hard way about the incompatibility with KB943729 CSEs & the PolicyMaker CSEs and needed to repair our clients in the same manner as described in this thread.

All was right with the world until the 26th when our WSUS servers automatically pushed out KB943729 to our Vista clients essentially breaking them (again). The KB943729 update for the Vista clients were flagged as Updates which are by default pushed out automatically (for obvious reasons) and the XP & Win2k3 were flagged as Feature Packs which is an optional install. After repeating the un-install procedures for our Vista clients we set all instances of KB943729 on the WSUS servers to Do not install.

Just thought we'd pass this along
Regards,
drukyulgoods

Here's the sync report from the primary WSUS server.

Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions for Windows Server 2003 (KB943729) Feature Packs 3/26/2008 4:17 AM

Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions for Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition (KB943729) Feature Packs 3/26/2008 4:17 AM

Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions for Windows Vista (KB943729) Updates 3/26/2008 4:17 AM

Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions for Windows Vista x64 Edition (KB943729) Updates 3/26/2008 4:17 AM

Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions for Windows XP (KB943729) Feature Packs 3/26/2008 4:17 AM

Group Policy Preference Client Side Extensions for Windows XP x64 Edition (KB943729) Feature Packs 3/26/2008 4:17 AM