Travel Technology - Zune software: Adventures in Microsoft Land

I don't know how many people this affects, but it is so bizarre and obscure that I thought I would share it.

I've been running Vista SP1 on my laptop and it has performed flawlessly . . . until last week.

I had picked up a Zune cheap for Mrs. PTravel and, to set it up, I installed the Microsoft Zune software on my laptop some months ago. In checking for updates, the Windows Update manager reported there was a Zune update available, so I told it to go ahead and install it.

The installation failed.

Microsoft's trouble-shooting information didn't help (and was also contradictory).

After some Google searching, I discovered that the Windows Firewall must be turned on for the Zune update to install. Why? Who knows? Okay, I'll just disable my AVG firewall, enable the Windows Firewall and do the update.

Except that the Windows Firewall service wouldn't start. After, conservatively, an hour of searching the Microsoft technical databases, I discovered the problem was an obscure permissions error that required some extremely sophisticated Registry edits -- the Microsoft documentation was very sketchy and, if it wasn't for the fact that I understood the basics of User Accounts, NT Services, Locations (for account identification) and a few other arcane subjects, I wouldn't have been able to correct the permissions errors.

Finally, after several hours, I was able to enable Windows Firewall, the Zune update ran successfully, and I then disabled Windows Firewall, re-enabled the AVG firewall and everything is now fine.

Really, Microsoft, how would you expect someone like Mrs. PTravel whose computer knowledge goes no further than turning on her laptop and opening a web browser, to resolve this kind of problem?

"Damnit, Jim, I'm a lawyer, not a computer engineer."
-- Scotty, Esq., Star Trek

Really, Microsoft, how would you expect someone like Mrs. PTravel whose computer knowledge goes no further than turning on her laptop and opening a web browser, to resolve this kind of problem?


Because they expect that someone who is otherwise unknowledgable about the ways of computers would have their system in the default configuration, including the Windows firewall enabled, not a 3rd party option. Not a good excuse, but the most likely one.

That they require the Windows Firewall to be running to install updates is a joke. It is about as relevant as the TSA asking for IDs. :rolleyes:

A Zune? Trade it in for an iPod.

A Zune? Trade it in for an iPod.You can't get a 30 gig iPod for $69. And I have an iPod.

A Zune? Trade it in for an iPod.

80Gb Zune > 80Gb ipod

A Zune? Trade it in for an iPod.

Go one better and get a Sansa...

Microsoft doesn't support "cheap Zunes." You should know better.

Microsoft doesn't support "cheap Zunes." You should know better.It's not the cheap Zune that Microsoft isn't supporting, but it's own software. From what I can discern from the internet, the Zune software is not the only Microsoft code that requires that the Windows Firewall (and none other) be enabled in order to update without error. What's even more galling is that the update routine could simply report, "Windows Firewall must be enabled -- installation aborted," instead of several cryptic error messages buried in the system logs that have nothing to do with the firewall but, rather, reflect a permissions error.