Windows 7 bug

[BAM]

It appears that Microsoft€™s glowing track record with Windows 7 is about to come to an abrupt and unceremonious end. According to various Web sources [1], the RTM build 7600.16385 includes a potentially fatal bug that, once triggered, could bring down the entire OS in a matter of seconds.

The bug in question -- a massive memory leak involving the chkdsk.exe utility -- appears when you attempt to run the program against a secondary (that is, not the boot partition) hard disk using the "/r" (read and verify all file data) parameter. The problem affects both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and is classified as a "showstopper" in that it can cause the OS to crash (Blue Screen of Death) as it runs out of physical memory.


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08...w_stopper_bug/

http://www.infoworld.com/print/86330

[Stogie]

Yeah... The 'showstopper!' We'll see!

[jadeite]

By the time people get it, wouldn't surprise me if there are a few gigs of Windows updates waiting to be installed. This is the modern software model: ship stuff that isn't fully tested and deal with it using updates. Long way from the Dos days where things just worked.

[SamplerDoc]

OS sytems lately just plain ole suck

[alan1chef]

Not a showstopper after all...according to CNET.com...

Windows 7 bug likely not a 'showstopper'
by Ina Fried

Microsoft said on Wednesday that it is looking into reports of a potential bug in the final version of Windows 7. However, Microsoft's top Windows executive said in a blog posting that the issue appears to be neither widespread, nor the "showstopper" that some are claiming it to be.
(Credit: Microsoft)

The issue, noted on several enthusiast sites this week, involves a fairly arcane process used to check for problems in a particular disk. Under certain scenarios, the site suggested Windows 7 would siphon off all the available memory to perform the scan, potentially crashing the system.

One report went so far as to characterize the issue as a potential "showstopper" that might derail the product's launch, while others such as ZDNet's Ed Bott have downplayed the threat.

However, in the discussion on one of the blogs, top Windows executive Steven Sinofsky said that the company is looking into the issue. But, he said that the company hasn't reproduced the crashing issue, nor has it gotten widespread reports of crashes.

"While we appreciate the drama of 'critical bug' and then the pickup of 'showstopper' that I've seen, we might take a step back and realize that this might not have that defcon level," Sinofsky wrote on the site. "Bugs that are so severe as to require immediate patches and attention would have to have no workarounds and would generally be such that a large set of people would run across them in the normal course of using their PC...So far this is not one of those issues."

Microsoft finalized the code for Windows 7 two weeks ago and is preparing to release it to developers in Microsoft's MSDN and Technet programs on Thursday, as well as make it available to some large businesses on Friday. Those plans are continuing, a Microsoft representative said on Wednesday.

The Microsoft representative also confirmed that Sinofsky's comments were authentic and that Microsoft was looking into the issue, but declined to comment further.