No fix for 'critical' hole in Windows 98, ME

megamaced

megamaced

Geek Geek Geek!
Microsoft is dropping support for Windows 98 and ME from next month. They will not be patching the latest security threat as it could break the Operating System!

From the artical:

The security bug relates to Windows Explorer and could let an intruder commandeer a vulnerable PC, Microsoft warned in April. The software maker has made fixes available for Windows Server 2003, Windows XP and Windows 2000, but it has found that eliminating the vulnerability in Windows 98 and ME is "not feasible", it said.

"To do so would require re-engineering a significant amount of a critical core component of the operating system," Microsoft said in a Thursday update to its MS06-015 security bulletin. "After such a re-engineering effort, there would be no assurance that applications designed to run on these platforms would continue to operate."

Story continued at ZDNET UK
 
Read this before, and I think that its understandable that software can't be supported for this many years. While it would have been better if it wasn't so insecure in the first place, its been around 8 years(?).
 
To me it sounds like MS is using this vulnerability as an excuse to drop the 9x platform. After all, Windows Vista needs to be completely re-engineered in order to be a secure OS, but that won't happen. What's the difference here? Why don't they throw a crappy band-aid fix on it like they always have?
 
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