MikTeX misses the mark

MikTeX 2.9, a major windows based TeX typesetting suite, missed the mark. Free software is never free; you have to find and fix the problems.

In this case, MikTeX failed to update from A4 paper (European standard) to Letter size paper (US standard). The administration program did not work.

Here's the fix.
1) Find "dvips/config/config.ps" in your MikTeX install directory.
2) Move the Letter lines 

@ letterSize 8.5in 11in

@+ ! %%DocumentPaperSizes: Letter

@ letter 8.5in 11in

@+ ! %%DocumentPaperSizes: Letter

@+ %%BeginPaperSize: Letter

@+ letter

@+ %%EndPaperSize

above the A4 lines

@ A4size 594.99bp 841.99bp

@+ ! %%DocumentPaperSizes: a4

@+ %%PaperSize: A4

3) Statup the MikTex Maintenance utility and "Refresh FNDB"