File Corruption Update for Microsoft HOTFIX 823980

Autodesk® has confirmed that the installation of Microsoft® Hotfix 823980 or Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Service Pack 4, can lead to the corruption of MAX and DRF files. Consequently you are not able to open MAX or DRF files that were saved after you installed either of these Microsoft® Windows® Updates.
The following Autodesk products are affected by this issue:
Autodesk® Architectural Desktop 2004
Autodesk® Building Systems 2004
Autodesk® VIZ 4
3D Studio VIZ® R3i
3D Studio VIZ® R3

The following operating system configurations will experience MAX and DRF file corruption:
Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Service Pack 4
Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Service Pack 3 or lower, with Microsoft Hotfix 823980
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Microsoft Hotfix 823980
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition with Microsoft Hotfix 823980

SOLUTION
If you have installed either of these Microsoft® Windows® Updates and are experiencing MAX and DRF file corruption, Microsoft is now providing temporary direct access to the beta Hotfix, which affected users can download from the links provided below. Please note that these links will expire when Microsoft posts the fully tested public version of Q824136 Hotfix.links will expire when Microsoft posts the fully tested public version of Q824136 Hotfix.

To apply the Hotfix:
1. Download the appropriate version of the Hotfix for your operating system and language.
2. Double-click the downloaded file. The action will uncompress the contents of the Hotfix and the installation will automatically begin.
3. Once the installation process is complete, you may be prompted to restart your system.

Warnings:
Microsoft® Windows® 2000 users must install Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 or 4 prior to the installation of this beta Hotfix. Autodesk recommends updating all Microsoft® Windows® 2000 systems to Service Pack 4.

This Hotfix is not publicly available through the Microsoft website as it has not gone through full Microsoft regression testing. If you would like confirmation that this fix is designed to address your specific problem, or if you would like to confirm whether there are any special compatibility or installation issues associated with this fix, you are encouraged to contact a Microsoft Support Professional in Product Support Services (in the U.S. call 800-936-4900).

Once installed, the user's computer may still appear to be vulnerable to the Blaster worm to some virus checking software, even though it isn't. This situation will be resolved when the official patch is release in the next month.

Links to Q824136 Hotfix for Microsoft® Windows® XP Users:
English

Links to Q824136 Hotfix for Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Users:
English

The following languages are also supported:
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Finnish
French
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Japanese (NEC)
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese (Brazil)
Portuguese (Portugal)
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish

This will help many users, including me.

Happy Rendering...