Software bugs hits Microsoft Windows

THOUSANDS of corporate computer networks across the world have been hit by a major software bug.

An update sent by anti-virus firm McAfee to its users caused computers running an older version of Microsoft's Windows to restart continuously.

However, the update only affects users running Windows XP. McAfee did not provide specific information on how many people were affected, and it is believed that US firms were worst hit.

The University of Michigan's medical school reported that 8,000 of its 25,000 computers crashed.

Intel Corp. appeared to be one of the victims, according to employee posts on Twitter.

Peter Juvinall, systems administrator at Illinois State University in Normal, said the first computer started rebooting before 9am. It quickly became evident that it was a major problem, affecting dozens of computers at the College of Business alone.

"I originally thought it was a virus," he said.

When the tech support people concluded McAfee's update was to blame, they stopped further downloads of the faulty software update and started shuttling from computer to computer to get them working again.