Microsoft Windows 7 Patches Wreak Havoc With VMware View
After installing one of the two patches -- Microsoft's 2482017 (a cumulative update for Internet Explorer) and 2467023 (a fix for an issue with system binaries in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2) -- VMware customers found themselves unable to connect from the View Client on Windows 7 to the View Connection Server, VMware said in a bulletin issued last week. The issue affected customers that had configured Windows Update to automatically install critical patches.
VMware promptly issued a patched version of the VMware View Client -- build 353760 -- that doesn't require customers that have already applied the Microsoft patches to uninstall them. For customers that haven't yet installed the patches, VMware recommends first installing build 353760 of the VMware View Client.
Pat Lee, VMware's director of end user computing clients, said the 2482017 and 2467023 security updates "included the early release of updates" anticipated in Windows 7 service pack 1, which Microsoft released Wednesday. Microsoft and VMware have been "working closely for the past several months" in preparation for Windows 7 service pack 1, and VMware released its patched version of the View Client within 24 hours of Microsoft's patch release, Lee said Monday in an email.
While this sort of incident could potentially erode public confidence in virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and stall the march of consumer devices into the enterprise -- a phenomenon known in some circles as "Bring Your Own Device" -- one industry pundit said desktop virtualization platforms can be set up to avoid this sort of occurrence.
"Organizations looking to BYOD should not assume that an increase in 'Patch Tuesday' induced outages is an inevitable consequence of adoption," Simon Bramfitt, an independent virtualization industry analyst, said in a Friday blog post. "Instead, they should seek out the means to identify and achieve total control of the business critical aspects of the endpoint regardless of who owns it."