DC and dotNet

[oblivion]

Since installing the recent dotNet security patches, my poor netbook's been beside itself.

First, Windows lost its activation, and I had to redo it.

Next, ALL my DC software stopped working. CHS, FARR and LaunchBar Commander, and even DCUpdate won't run.

I hate Microsoft sometimes.

Anyone have any helpful ideas? (Win7 Starter, patched up to date -- unfortunately!)

[mouser]

I dont know why any of the DC software should stop running -- none of them use dotNet.

[oblivion]

I dont know why any of the DC software should stop running -- none of them use dotNet.

No, I know. But the dotNet security patches are almost always a complete   to install without impacting lots of other stuff. Last time I did them without thinking, lots of stuff -- including DC software -- broke so I just ran a system restore and hid the updates. After the event I discovered Susan Bradley's PatchWatch recommending not doing them for pretty much those reasons... and then I find that she's now saying the October 13 .net4 patches can't really be skipped.

Here's the link.

So I bit the bullet. And my teeth now hurt quite a bit, if you see what I mean.

I'd sort of hoped that someone here might have had a similar experience and have some idea of which bit of Windows I can chuck rocks at to make everything work properly again.

I'll let you know if I work out how to fix it. I haven't yet braved the system logs, so that's my next stop.  

...and a quick first look suggests a common problem: ntdll.dll is what Windows says is falling in a heap.

[Renegade]

Have a read here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/archive/2006/05/30/611355.aspx

It might help... YMMV.

[oblivion]

It might help... YMMV.

It might -- thanks! 

I've been struggling with the thing all evening and am getting nowhere fast; the link you posted suggests (from the last page) that if I rip out everything that's not intrinsic to the OS then try installing .Net framework 4 on its own, it might do the trick. I'll give it a go -- but for the time being, as tomorrow's already booked for Christmas shopping  I'll boot it into ubuntu and go back to Microsoft-bashing on Friday.