Microsoft KB Archive/929233

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When you have more than one Visual Studio 2005 product installed, and you uninstall an update for only one of the products, the shared files are rolled back to their earlier versions

Article ID: 929233

Article Last Modified on 10/11/2007



APPLIES TO

  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Architects
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Testers
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition, when used with:
    • Windows Vista Home Basic
    • Windows Vista Home Premium
    • Windows Vista Enterprise
    • Windows Vista Business
    • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition (32-bit x86)
    • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard x64 Edition
    • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise Edition (32-Bit x86)
    • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition
    • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter Edition (32-Bit x86)
    • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacenter x64 Edition
    • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP1
    • Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
    • Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004
    • Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2002
    • Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
    • Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
    • Microsoft Windows XP Professional
    • Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
    • Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition
    • Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
    • Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server



SYMPTOMS

When you have more than one Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 product installed on the computer, and you install an update that updates shared files, the update is applied to all the installed Visual Studio 2005 products. If you later use the "Add or Remove Programs" item in Control Panel to uninstall the update for only one of the products, only the update for that product is uninstalled. However, the shared files are rolled back to their earlier versions. Because the shared files are used by all the installed Visual Studio 2005 products, the computer may be vulnerable.

CAUSE

This issue occurs because of a combination of problems with Microsoft Windows Installer and with the update uninstall wrapper. Windows Installer is the underlying technology for the update process.

Updates for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 have an intelligent update install wrapper. When you install an update that may apply to more than one Visual Studio 2005 product, the update install wrapper checks to determine whether you have multiple Visual Studio 2005 products installed on the computer. For example, you may have both Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional and Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Architect installed.

If you have more than one product installed, the update install wrapper installs the update only one time. However, the update install wrapper installs metadata to indicate that the update has been separately installed for each applicable Visual Studio 2005 product. To verify the installation, you can look in the "Add or Remove Programs" item in Control Panel. You will see that the update has been separately installed for each applicable product.

Later, when you try to uninstall the update for only one product, the update uninstall wrapper removes the update metadata for only that product. However, the update uninstall wrapper also rolls back the shared files to their earlier versions. This issue occurs because of a bug in Windows Installer. Windows Installer does not maintain a reference count of the updates that have been applied to each shared file for each product that shares the file. Therefore, the update uninstall wrapper rolls back the shared files. If the update that you are uninstalling is a security update, this issue may leave the computer in a vulnerable state.

This issue occurs for all updates that apply to more than one Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 product.

WORKAROUND

To make sure that you do not leave the computer in a vulnerable state, use the "Add or Remove Programs" item to verify that the update is installed on all applicable Visual Studio 2005 products. Also, when you uninstall an update, use the "Add or Remove Programs" item to verify that you have uninstalled the update from all applicable Visual Studio 2005 products.

MORE INFORMATION

To visit the Microsoft Update Web site, click the following link:


Additional query words: security update patch hotfix fix bulletin Visual Studio VS 2005 VS2005 uninstall SKU multiple SKUs

Keywords: kbtshoot kbbug kbsecvulnerability kbsecurity kbsecbulletin kbpubtypekc kbexpertiseinter KB929233