Server 2003 Critical Patch KB929969=Critical Problems

[bpacman]

I know this is my first post, but I just spent a day trying to recover two servers today and I am pissed.

Many Server 2003 System Admins are in for a surprise when they reboot their servers after 1/12/2007, if they have automated updates enabled.

On that date Microsoft pushed a critical patch KB929969. The patch did not require a reboot, so your system will work fine for days, weeks or even months, but once you reboot...well lets just get into the symptoms:

Your first clue is that your Manage My Server screen will not work and you will get a Script Error complaining about the mys.dll/mys.hta.

Any attempt to open Computer Management, Enterprise Management, Device Management...etc... will result in an error saying that mmc cannot find the *.msc file.

IIS and SQL server will fail. Any time you hit Cntl F or Search, it will fail.

So what did this patch do to your server? It removed a file. C:\Windows\System32\msxml3.dll was replaced by msxml4.dll, but this file doesn't replace the msxml3.dll file effectively.

Resolution:

Break out your Install CD and extract the following two files:

\i386\msxml3.dl_
\i386\msxml3r.dl_

from a DOS prompt you will need to expand these files and install them in the system32 directory

c:> expand -r msxml3.dl_ c:\Windows\system32
c:> expand -r msxml3r.dl_ c:\Windows\system32

Then you need to register the msxml3.dll file

c:> regsvr32 c:\Windows\system32\msxml3.dll

Reboot the system and you should be fine.

I hope this helps some people who found themselves in my shoes and Google finds its way to this thread because this patch will probably go down as one of Microsoft's Biggest Blunders in a while.

Bp

Usually a REPAIR install will fix such "update bugs" fairly easy.

Weird thing is you can USUALLY then install all the updates (well
the latest SP and all the updates after that) at once and this will
generally work fine.

[That particular behavior is likely due to failure to test incrementally
updated machines in all permutatins.]

Funny, I have just checked both Win2003 Sp1 and R2 (several each)
which all "clean & up to date" on fixes but none of them had the "4"
file.

Only the 3, 2, 3r, r, 2r versions of the file name appear ANYWHERE in
the %systemroot% tree.

I have IE7 too. (Installed)

Will do.

[bpacman]

Funny, I have just checked both Win2003 Sp1 and R2 (several each)
which all "clean & up to date" on fixes but none of them had the "4"
file.

Only the 3, 2, 3r, r, 2r versions of the file name appear ANYWHERE in
the %systemroot% tree.

Your right, it is funny. If you automatically download IE7 but choose not to install, this patch will get installed automatically despite your decision.

Just keep an eye on this one. There will be many more victims to come.

Bp

[bpacman]

I registered on this blog just to thank you. I really appreciate this sharing.

I am about to implement your fix.

This kinda crap is intolerable.....if Gates' operating systems were a toy.....you know we wouldn't think twice of returning it. They should just rename to BetaSoft.

Thanks for registering and posting that Mojo. Knowing it helped you gives me a warm and fuzzy.

[hohosky]

In my case, after I install VMplayer I found "Manage My Server screen" don't work.
Besides that no other problems.
Moreover, I can have "Manage My Server screen" back when I reboot server.
But if I minimize this screen , it can just show up by rebooting server once again.
Is it the same issue?
I hope you will give me a hand.
Thanks a lot.

[HiSpeed]

Mostly by re-installing the server fixes the issue. Other thing you can try is checking out the bridge mode settings. For that you have team the nic with Vmware Bridge Protocol. Just right click on the nic device and choose properties. Then remove the vmware bridge protocol from there. After that click on Windows NT host and then choose binding tab. Now in the binding list you can expand the tree and choose the nic to set it to disable.