Windows OS

Are you getting the dreaded "A device attached to the system is not functioning" message from a shared network resource that is hosted on a NetApp appliance?

Request the fix here.

I haven't seen it firsthand, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

I always had a bad feeling about the whole concept of the Protected Mode Process in Vista. It is designed to help DRM authors but in the long run it might be used for 'bad things'. Thankfully, 64-bit is "locked down" better because it doesn't have the 'legacy crutch' to keep alive.

You can read about it here. Very smart guy. MS really should have him on their kernel team and not Apple.

Received an update notification from the Windows Update beta - looks like this one is coming to a close.

[snip]

Today we are pushing out the new Windows Update/Microsoft Update Version 7.
This will include upgrading to the new control version 366 and moving from
test.update.microsoft.com to www.update.microsoft.com.

We will keep the beta open until the end of April in order to acquire
feedback and we should be taking a new control in a couple of weeks.
Starting next week we will have another round of Enhanced Regulation testing
to see if one of the fixes we took that introducted retry logic if you fail
to connect to the Enhanced Regulation service works properly.

[/snip]

A good KB article describing how to extract .MSU files, the files they contain, and how to use the contents with WUSA.EXE.

A quick rundown of the process:
When you use Wusa.exe to install an update package, Wusa.exe expands the contents of the .msu file to a temporary folder. Then, Wusa.exe performs the following steps:

1. Wusa.exe uses the Windows Update metadata in the .msu file to search for applicable updates.
2. Wusa.exe copies the contents of the applicable updates to the Windows Update sandbox. The Windows Update sandbox is a protected folder.
3. Wusa.exe calls the appropriate function in the Windows Update Agent API according to the mode in which you start Wusa.exe.
4. When the Windows Update wizard completes the installation, the Windows Update Agent API returns a status. Then, Wusa.exe works synchronously with Windows Update Agent API.

Read more about it here.

Realtek HD control panel not working after applying MS07-017 (KB 925902) or MS07-008 (KB 928843)?

Grab the fix for the fix here.

Seems to be a Windows XP SP2 only problem.