Could Microsoft Be Any More Obtuse?

is definitely more obtuse than this triangle!

WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe  That is the file name that the Microsoft Web site says it is sending to you when you try to download the single computer update to Windows XP Service Pack 3.

What you get is a much longer file name, with the change coming between the ENU and .exe. Nowhere does it say what this might be, and perhaps there is an explanation elsewhere, but it is not readily found. At first I thought it might be some sort of tracking mechanism, but that idea went away when I downloaded the file again, on another computer, to check the theory.

I don’t know why but I then got that ‘light bulb moment’ and thought it was a hash value, so that someone could check to make sure that the file was correctly received.  Well, it wasn’t a CRC-32 or MD5 value, as are commonly used on the internet, but in fact it is a hash. It is an SHA1 value, which is much less commonly used. (BTW, there is a great little applet, called Summer Properties, that will do the CRC-32, MD5, SHA1, and CRC-16 calculations for you when you right click a file and bring up the properties page. It is small, has no crippling or nagging features, and works great. Just put Summer Properties into your friend Google to get it.)

How tough would it be to have a small note giving this information? I thought I might be missing something, so I went back to check, and also looked at the instructions given - not there.

So I wonder, why the secrecy? Do only TechNet members get to know this little tidbit? (I may be making the mistake of assuming that these members are allowed this inner-circle knowledge.) Why the cloak and dagger, Steve?

Tags: cloak and dagger, downloads, Microsoft, name change, SHA1 hash