Awesome effort Paul!
On 22/12/2010, at 9:56 AM, Paul Burba wrote:
<snip>
> Problem solved, finally!
>
> Using a second work-issued Win7 box to build Subversion, I experienced
> the same svnsync and svnrdump test failures I saw on my primary dev
> box. So I was able to replicate the problem, but was not closer to
> solving it. I took a third box and did a clean install of the 8/6/09
> release of Win 7 Pro x64 (because I was pretty sure a Windows Update
> in the past 4 months was to blame, so I wanted to start with an OB
> build prior to that).
>
> I turned off auto updates during the install process and once up and
> running, I tested the binaries I built on one of my "broken" Win7
> boxes. The svnsync and svnrdump tests passed. Then I spent a long
> boring slog building up this third box to be as similar as possible to
> my two "broken" Win 7 boxes.
>
> The most painful part was installing every Windows Update since 8/6/09
> one at a time* (usually requiring a reboot) in an effort to find the
> offending update. The slog paid off though, eventually I found the
> problem update: The optional Windows Live Essentials** published
> 10/26/2010 (which is very roughly around the time I started noticing
> test failures):
>
> [[[
> Windows Live Essentials 2011 (KB2434419)
> Download size: 1.2 MB
> You may need to restart your computer for this update to take effect.
> Update type: Optional
> Do more with Windows on your PC with free programs from Microsoft for
> photos, movies, instant messaging, email, social networking, and more.
> Get it all in one simple download.
> Windows Live Essentials includes Messenger, Photo Gallery,
> Mail, Movie Maker, Writer, Family Safety, and Windows Live Mesh, plus
> Bing Bar, Messenger Companion, Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector,
> Microsoft Outlook Social Connector Provider for Windows Live
> Messenger, and Microsoft Silverlight.
> Installing this update will replace your Windows Live
> Toolbar with Bing Bar.
> More information:
> http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials
> http://explore.live.com/microsoft-service-agreement
> http://privacy.microsoft.com/
> http://explore.live.com/windows-live-2011-system-requirements
> Help and Support:
> http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-help-center
> ]]]
>
> This hardly seems an obvious culprit, but after uninstalling it on
> both my problematic boxes, all the svnsync and svnrdump tests passed.
>
> Being somewhat incredulous that this was the problem, I reinstalled
> WLE2011 and sure enough the tests failed again. After uninstalling,
> the tests again worked.
>
> So WLE2011 is the problem. Why is it a problem? I don't know, and
> since I don't really require these apps, I'm not going to spend any
> more time at the moment trying to figure it out...I'm retiring from
> the "mysterious Windows failure game" for the rest of 2010 ;-)
>
> Paul
>
> * I did group some together that I thought couldn't possibly be the
> culprit (a potentially bad plan seeing what was ultimately to blame!)
>
> ** WLE2001 is actually 7 different products: Messenger, Photo Gallery
> and Movie Maker, Windows Live Mesh, Messenger Companion, Mail, Writer,
> and Family Safety.
Received on 2010-12-22 00:22:53 CET