» Hasta la Vista, USB

Lots of people like to give The Register all kinds of grief for it’s … umm … informal style of reporting?

Of course, it has nothing to do with their ability to ferret out such gems tech companies would prefer not to become common knowledge, such as Phorm’s proposed deep-packet inspection or BT’s still inexplicable secret testing of the same against a large number of users without their knowledge.

Honest.

It almost certainly isn’t because of stories such as this one, which tells of a potential problem with Windows Defender (a Microsoft security application). It seems that a recent update to Windows Defender is causing USB devices to die.

Microsoft (who of course you’d expect have already tested the upgrade against a wide number of standard system configurations, such as one having something plugged into it via USB) notes:

“We are aware of concerns that a recent Microsoft update may be causing problems with USB devices. We are investigating the matter, and at this time, do not have any information to share.”

Whether or not that means they don’t have any information, or do have information but are just unwilling to share it, is left as an exercise for the reader.

At the same time, The Register also points out that the SP1 upgrade for Vista is now available in more languages, but only for manual updates (as opposed to automatic).

According to Microsoft, the delay in adding the final 31 languages to the automatic Windows Update is:

“Microsoft wants to ensure customers have the best possible experience with Windows Vista …”

Unfortunately, this isn’t an admission that they’re about to start shipping sledgehammers to those poor unfortunates saddled with Vista, or XP to install in its place, which might go some way to providing much more fulfilling experiences of its users.

I wonder if they’ll bundle them with Vista SP2 - before or after the torch-wielding mob shows up?