Windows Update

Can anyone help me with this question?
Does updating windows cause problems with PLC programming software?

Thanks...

We need specific operating systems specific software, and specific updates to give an opinion.

I can offer a general opinion. But if, as TWControls suggests, you can provide specifics, we can offer better opinions.
It is a pretty rare occasion where a Windows Update would cause a problem with programming software.

However, a Service Pack can be delivered via Windows Update, as can an upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1. Eventually Windows 10 will probably also be delivered this way. Those are not just simple "patches" or updates, but full-on upgrades. That could potentially be an issue although I think those types of problems will probably be rare.

OG

With the exception of Rockwell and Siemens, who together have maybe 70% of the PLC market, most PLC programming software has a tiny user base when compared to software for the general public. It would be hard to get actual numbers, but there might be at most 10,000 users of Omron's programming software world wide world, while there are well over 1 billion users of AVG anti-virus, to put things in perspective.

Software with such small user bases will always have disproportionately more bugs and respond slower to changes in how Windows works. For instance, Vista, 7 and 8 all have special protections on the 'Program Files' folders that are very different from XP, so any PLC software that was originally made for XP should not be installed into Program Files folder to avoid many mystery problems.

Generally, Windows Updates will have no effect on most software, but some PLC programming software tries to do weird stuff to verify you've paid for it or communicate over a proprietary protocol to the PLC. These things can be effected by some security updates and if the software is older, there will not be an update to fix the issue (current software will be updated and will have information on temporary work arounds). You should keep an old XP laptop with a real serial port if you rely on outdated software.

Thanks everyone for the info! As far as specific operating system...I am using Windows 7, and the specific software is Rslogix 5000 ver. 20.1. The specific update I don't have an answer for...I was just told by a peer to be careful updating, but didn't give a specific update.

People did have some issues with Windows XP when MS updated to Service Pack 3. But I think with Windows 7 and moving forward, the updates are probably pretty safe.

OG

Last week McAfee was uninstalled on our PCs, but for some reason it wasn't followed up with the re-install of the new version for two days. In the process of uninstalling itself, McAfee didn't restore vbscript.dll (it sequesters it, and provides a replacement), while it did uninstall its version of vbscript.dll.

WinCC 2008 requires vbscript.dll to perform its conversion of its 2007 files to 2008 (among other things as well, I suppose). All of my conversions that I attempted during that time failed, usually with some crazy script errors.

Re-installing the original vbscript.dll fixed it.

The curious thing is why didn't WinCC abort with a "vbscript.dll not found" error if it is critical to its operation?