I’m killing time. Right now I’m waiting for updates and downloads to complete on my office work computer, a machine that I went to great trouble to make bulletproof. For example, I run a top-end Intel SSD and have a disk image backup.
Today, my machine gave me a BSOD after uninstalling a troublesome program. Acronis Enterprise Server. So, just to help people who might have issues or are considering using this program, I though I’d write about it while I wait for the updates to complete, since Acronis forced me to install a fresh copy of Windows 7 Professional.
This is one of this cases where a program started out great, then as corporate weaslism takes hold due to the success, the program becomes more bloated, fragmented, dependent on more libraries, license tiered, and overall more difficult to manage and less rewarding in actual use.
At my office we used to love this program, because it had a great feature that allowed you to image your disk to a state where windows didn’t have anything except the generic/basic boot drivers installed, allowing you to image to another mobo/processor combination. This days are long gone and we’ve relegated Acronis to the scrap heap because it has become an enterprise level mess in more ways than one.
I still had Acronis on my main work machine, but this morning the background program for it started doing weird stuff, utilizing a lot of CPU space. My usual checks for malware/virus came up zero, and I had no explanation for why the Acronis background server program was using a lot of CPU cycles. So, I decided to uninstall it.
Big mistake, HUGE mistake.
After uninstalling Acronis, I found I was in a boot loop, and right after the Win7 animated logo, I’d get a BSOD. Safe mode – same thing, and attempts at OS repair (using Windows tools and third-party tools) came up with no success at all. I also thought it might be related to a recent bungled Microsoft patch which causes a BSOD boot loop after Windows update installs it and the user reboots for the first time, and downloaded the removal tool as a bootable ISO to burn to CD. No joy there either.
I’ve never had the de-installation of a program hose the operating system. Never.
It makes me wonder what sort of “tentacles” Acronis attached to the OS without telling me. So, needless to say, Acronis is now permanently off my list, especially since I had used it as a backup program to keep a disk image. My backup image included the Acronis program, so since trying to remove it caused the problem in the first place I was in a no choice situation – a fresh install of Windows 7 Pro was the only way forward.
I spent the entire morning on the mess Acronis created, and I’ve not got a single thing done today other than deal with that mess.
After a fresh install of Windows 7, which gets me back to the desktop, but of course I have a lot of work ahead putting programs and files back into place, along with 147 Windows updates, and likely more after that.
I know many of you will throw out the standard gloating snippets like:
- Get a Mac
- Run (pick your distro) Linux
- Run FreeBSD or CentOS or some other OS
etc…
…with tales of fantastic other-worldly levels of reliability, so let me just say in advance that until this incident, I have had wonderful reliability with Windows 7 and I have far too much invested in programs and systems to move. So, those aren’t options for me.
Thanks for killing time with me while I wait for the updates to download and install.
I have to reboot now to finish. See you in a few hours.
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Gee Poptech, if you’re going to do long circuitous ranting, can you at least TRY to format so the quoted and the ranted are more distinct?
As to the very tail end of it, OEM versions are cheaper because M$ doesn’t do the tech support. The system builder does. If you put a system together for someone, install OEM M$ and sell the complete system to them, YOU are tech support when M$ screws up.
If you put OEM on your own system, and I have, you don’t get to call M$ support when their product goes tits-up. Hopefully you have a working machine somewhere that you can get online with to look for help to get the hosed system working.
BTW, historical Pro Tip: Re-installing Windoze did not fix everything. But it did make you wish you had remembered all the tweaks, kludges, and Registry corrections you needed to get the old installation working. Although later (around the ME reign), once the base system was marginally running again, I could just run a System Optimizer a few times until the M$ cruft and errors stopped being detected and fixed.
What ordinary user, or someone putting together a system for a friend, would want to put up with that? They’ll go retail box so M$ gets the call.
Looking slightly up your screed:
Actually there is. This Dell Optiplex I’m currently using had no OS. It was used, presumably formerly corporate leased, with a wiped HD. Well, there was enough of some free DOS for a bare command prompt, that’s it. It’s always been Debian Linux. There must be quite a market for such used computers without OS, as I personally know that company was selling such for well over a decade.
Also, if you’re doing “build your own” on the Dell or other sites, you can skip the OS.
So the market is there, it’s just a very small and quiet one.
Technically not, in a roundabout way, after many lawsuits. If you want the nice new PC or laptop you’ve seen at Walmart or Best Buy, you’ll be buying it with Windows, can’t be avoided. But by an arcane process who’s existence is now mandated in the US, if you can ever uncover the details, you can apply to “return” Windows for a refund, which will be for far less than the amount asked for the OEM version, provided you can show you’ve NEVER used it on the machine, and can somehow completely remove it the machine, and send all copies, documentation, and related back to M$.
I’ve read about some people who got back about $30 for Vista.
So you are technically right, since you can return it, in the final summing technically you would not have had to buy Windoze!
Now if only that was true on site, at the store…
From Poptech on May 10, 2013 at 10:08 pm:
WRONG. M$ was reasonably clear about the requirements: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc507845.aspx
For Aero you needed “Windows Vista Premium Ready” min specs. That was, per the M$ doc:
1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor.
1 GB RAM.
Windows Aero Capable DirectX 9-class GPU that supports:
* A WDDM Driver
* Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware
* 32 bits per pixel
* Adequate graphics memory(3).
128 MB Graphics Memory.
40 GB HDD, >15 GB Free Space.
DVD-ROM drive.
3. Adequate graphics memory is defined as:
– 64 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at 1,310,720 or less
– 128 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions 2,304,000 pixels or less
– 256 MB of graphics memory to support a single monitor at resolutions higher than 2,304,000 pixels
– Graphics memory bandwidth, as assessed by Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor, of at least 1,600 MB per second.
The 1280×1024 (= 1,310,720 pixels) might let you get by with only 64MB graphics memory, *however* they slipped in Note #6 when mentioning GPU’s supporting WDDM:
If the GPU uses shared memory, then no additional graphics memory is required beyond the 1 GB system memory requirement; If the GPU uses dedicated memory then 128MB is required.
Which tends to indicate 128 MB graphics memory may be the real minimum spec with dedicated graphics memory, as given in the first table on that page, not the 64 MB of Note 3.
Wow – first hand knowledge about the same thing from two different perspectives. Interesting!
Let me throw this in. Windows has evolved into a useful, solid, stable system. Hardware vendors were often guilty of the proprietary hardware syndrome… as an example, when I worked at Tandy in the late 80s they were still selling PCs that used the proprietary Tandy printer cable. Why? Because only they sold the cables. Hardware vendors did NOT want to be selling appliances, they wanted you to buy their products exclusively. That way they could buy more airliners and yachts and… Just look at the ridiculous Microchannel fiasco from IBM… for a while there, IBM was not building “IBM compatible” computers. That miscalculation was a crushing defeat for them, but a GOOD thing for the rest of us. Imagine if the trend in PCs was being set by a giant multinational calculating machine company from the 1800s. Whether you hate MS or not, it was their work that freed us from what could have been. Bill Gates recognized early on that the hardware was eventually going to be secondary, but MOST of us remember a time when the hardware was primary.
Microsoft has a lot of “sweat equity” in Windows. They have put immense R&D into it, and to be honest I think they deserve their position. Remember that Intel was also in on it, in fact the 386 was partly spec’d by MS since Intel didn’t seem to understand what was needed. Those who say Windows is crap, without qualifying which part or in which way, seem to have stopped looking some time ago. I agree with PopTech that the biggest issues I ever had to deal with were drivers. The OS itself has been quite stable since 3.1
How about this: if someone would create a version of Linux (which they could if they had the capital) that could replace Windows on desktops, it would quickly drop Windows off the planet. But nobody has. Just because I could get a decent GUI and system set up on Linux doesn’t mean everyone can, and since computers have become “appliances” any current implementation of Linux is perceived as more of the hobbyist toy than a serious OS. Yes, I know the difference, but that is the perception. In fact, Android is a fairly thin veneer on Linux, but someone put a lot of R&D into making it a genuine OS. And even though Open Office is pretty good, if it was a for-sale retail product it would be considered total crap. Without a single guiding hand it is riddled with inconsistencies, horrid documentation, vastly different design concepts inside each module, and a general feel of amateurishness.
And that’s where most Open-Source and Linux based apps stand today. There is some awesome stuff. Linux is excellent in underlying mechanicals, it’s the underpinning of the entire Internet after all, but I’ve seen more user interface faux pas and downright obtuse software in the Linux world than Windows could ever hope to generate.
By the way, kadaka, when Vista first came out a lot of computers were sold as “Vista Capable” that weren’t. I knew several people that got suckered into them. That was a horrible miscalculation by MS, it killed the brand, and turned a lot of people away from Windows that otherwise could have just skipped that generation. Sure, they ran Vista. But nothing else. Like, you know, any useful applications. But they looked pretty.
My point is that the perception was more important than the reality. Vista worked great on capable computers, but the hardware requirements were too steep for it to be a simple upgrade. Up until that point all Windows iterations were incremental. A Win95 machine could run Win98, often better because most of the drivers were included in 98 that they had to install for 95. ME was a travesty (I was one of those kicked out of ME beta because we refused to sign off on what we knew was a buggy, unstable OS). The leap to NT-based Windows changed it all. The 2000->XP->Vista->7 chain has a gaping chasm after XP that probably should have had something in between.
I think both kadaka and PopTech have valid points, instead of seeing this as an argument or disagreement might it not be better to find that middle ground?
Windows is not that bad, but it’s also not as good as it could be. Win8 has taken too many years of development time for an interface that could possibly kill the brand. As many people know, the man responsible for Win8 resigned the week it was released.
http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2224304/windows-8-creator-steven-sinofsky-resigns-from-microsoft
Here is how I see it as an average home pc user.
When I used to run windows I trembled in my boots whenever there was a
glitch with windows, and I bowed down to whatever the windows Gods
told me I had to do to keep my OS running.
The reason was that, like most windows users I suspect, I thought
I had nowhere else to go; I thought linux was a command-line
geeks-only OS and that if I wanted to have a home computer and do
my email and newsgroup and web-surfing stuff, I had to use windows.
When I finally got adventurous enough to try Mandriva, I was
astounded that the thing had a gui install and that you could run
firefox and opera and email and news clients!
I got rid of windows and never looked back, except for installing
Wine so that I can run one utility I like that was written for
windows.
These days I run Mint 14 and though I prefer it, I don’t deeply
care if it becomes unusable for some reason, because I can install
Ubuntu or Debian and have the same programs running from my daily
/home file backups in an hour or two.
I make a full backup of the OS every few days by running re-do:
The backup takes about 4 minutes, and the re-install, which I
tested, takes about the same length.
And it is free. I forgot to mention that that is another great
motivator to move from Windows to Linux: Anything you want to do
with a computer can be done with Linux, and the programs are
available with a few clicks – no going to download.com and hunting
for the free trial version of something. Man, what a farce that is
– I mean paying for software. All part of the Windows treadmill.
If you want to do just the ‘average’ things: email, news, surfing, playing music, downloading torrents, editing videos from your video camera, doing fancy graphic work, spreadsheets, word processing, presentations, etc., then the gui programs are available, probably already installed.
If you want to do more, you may or may not have a gui, and may or
may not have to edit a config file.
I am not too technical, but have managed to run a web server and
an email relay, and two surveillance cameras with motion detection
and backup of the .avi files 24 hours /day, and did it without much
trouble. And the help available at forums.linuxmint.com and
forums.ubuntu.com is excellent.
I can not tell you how good it is not to be under the thumb of
windows; and all it takes, at least for a home user, is to realize
that linux is easy to install and run.
Um, no I am note wrong. What I stated was Aero’s minimum requirements NOT the recommended ones. I am well aware of the details of what is needed to run Aero and at what resolutions. Your inability to understand what you are reading is amazing. “Windows Vista Premium Ready” requirements are NOT Aero’s minimum system requirements.
Maybe you missed these footnotes;
* 1 GB of system memory (RAM) is required with Integrated UMA Graphics to use the new Aero interface.
** Supported resolution up to but not including 1280×1024 on a Single Monitor System.
These are the full Aero requirements;
Aero Minimum System Requirements:
800 MHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) CPU
512 MB of system memory – RAM (Integrated UMA Graphics not supported) *
64 MB Windows Aero-capable DirectX 9-class graphics card **
* 1 GB of system memory (RAM) is required with Integrated UMA Graphics to use the new Aero interface.
** Supported resolution up to but not including 1280×1024 on a Single Monitor System.
Aero Recommended System Requirements:
1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) CPU
1 GB of system memory – RAM (Only 256 MB can be used for Integrated UMA Graphics Memory)
128 MB Windows Aero-capable DirectX 9-class graphics card
Aero-capable Graphics Requirements:
DirectX 9-class GPU that supports Pixel Shader 2.0
Supports a WDDM driver
Supports 32-bits per pixel
Passes the Windows Aero acceptance test in the WDK
(Single Monitor and Mobile Systems)
– 64 MB up to but not including 1280×1024
– 128 MB up to and including 1920×1200
– 256 MB over 1920×1200
(Desktop dual monitors)
– 128 MB up to but not including 1280x1024x2
– 256 MB for larger dual monitor configurations
Let me know when the garbage WordPress comment system comes out of the stone age and adds a preview feature.
“kadaka (KD Knoebel) says: As to the very tail end of it, OEM versions are cheaper because M$ doesn’t do the tech support. The system builder does. If you put a system together for someone, install OEM M$ and sell the complete system to them, YOU are tech support when M$ screws up.
Name the documented issue an average end user would experience, caused by Microsoft “screwing up” that required calling Microsoft tech support.
“If you put OEM on your own system, and I have, you don’t get to call M$ support when their product goes tits-up. Hopefully you have a working machine somewhere that you can get online with to look for help to get the hosed system working.”
WTF are you talking about? I have never had to call Microsoft support in my life to fix mine or anyone else’s system. All the information you need is freely available online. I personally have multiple systems and multiple smart phones not to mention all the older systems and parts laying around. So if someone only has one system, no smart phone and no friends or family to help they can buy a version with tech support if they wish.
“BTW, historical Pro Tip: Re-installing Windoze did not fix everything. But it did make you wish you had remembered all the tweaks, kludges, and Registry corrections you needed to get the old installation working. Although later (around the ME reign), once the base system was marginally running again, I could just run a System Optimizer a few times until the M$ cruft and errors stopped being detected and fixed.”
You don’t need any tweaks or registry fixes to get ANY version of Windows working out of the box. One of the most idiotic things you can do is run a “system optimizer” which is more likely to break various components in Windows and can actually REDUCE performance by irresponsibly applying worthless “tweaks” that disable performance enhancing features.
Windows ME worked even more reliable than Windows 98 since all it was, was an updated version of Windows 98SE, with more reliability features built in like system restore. I built hundreds of ME systems without incident and had less tech support calls than 98. You will not find complaints about ME from PC manufacturers but clueless end users who tried to do things like use Windows 95/98 drivers and then whined when their system did not work right. When pressed you can never get anyone who complained about ME to demonstrate a legitimate issue with it that Microsoft did not fix.
“What ordinary user, or someone putting together a system for a friend, would want to put up with that? They’ll go retail box so M$ gets the call.”
What exactly do you need to call Microsoft for that you cannot find online?
“Actually there is. This Dell Optiplex I’m currently using had no OS”
Yes and you can find others as well. My point was the market is effectively non-existent for a very specific reason – customers want an operating system installed when they buy a PC.
“Technically not, in a roundabout way, after many lawsuits. If you want the nice new PC or laptop you’ve seen at Walmart or Best Buy, you’ll be buying it with Windows, can’t be avoided.”
You are not following the conversation and I am not interested in your emotional meaningless rants.
Who is making you buy a certain PC or Windows? Does someone hold a gun to your head when you make the purchase?
“CodeTech says: I think both kadaka and PopTech have valid points, instead of seeing this as an argument or disagreement might it not be better to find that middle ground?”
These are not compromise issues but how the Windows operating systems actually work. kadaka obviously has no OEM system builder experience and is spouting off a litany of Internet urban legends, economic fallacies and emotional arguments. Each time I ask him to support one of his ridiculous assertions about Windows he ignores or dodges the question.
“By the way, kadaka, when Vista first came out a lot of computers were sold as “Vista Capable” that weren’t. I knew several people that got suckered into them. That was a horrible miscalculation by MS, it killed the brand, and turned a lot of people away from Windows that otherwise could have just skipped that generation. Sure, they ran Vista. But nothing else. Like, you know, any useful applications. But they looked pretty.”
In most cases all these machines needed was to add more RAM as having Aero running or not really was not that big a deal to Joe user. Here is the difference,
Not Aero-capable:
http://home.comcast.net/~supportcd/Images/Windows_Vista_Basic_Visual_Style_HiRes.gif
Aero-capable:
http://home.comcast.net/~supportcd/Images/Windows_Vista_Aero_Visual_Style_HiRes.gif
“Win8 has taken too many years of development time for an interface that could possibly kill the brand.”
Windows 8 was not even needed since Windows 7 works perfectly fine. The fix to Windows 8 is incredibly simple;
1. Make the “metro” interface an optional component during install and something that can be turned off in the control panel. This way it can be used on tablets and media PCs but leave the desktop for people who want to get work done.
2. Restore the start menu (officially – not with third party hacks).
With Windows 7 supported until 2020 there is plenty of time to wait for Microsoft to get it right.
clipe says:
May 9, 2013 at 3:40 pm
I have an older free version of Acronis on an old XP machine suffering BSODs.
In my case, I’m blaming bad drivers or a bad memory stick or a malware infection.
Some of the error messages encountered… blah, blah, blah…
Bad memory stick after all.
From Poptech on May 11, 2013 at 9:44 am:
First “PC” was a 386 box, an assembled system bought off the tenants, who used it for some games mainly. Booted with some menu program, Win 3.1 started from DOS, had Office. I put a Wang 9600 baud modem in it, got on Compuserve. Later I eBayed the Cyrix math coprocessor but never opened the pack. Sadly the knob of the 5.25 drive broke, so I left the tower case open so I could reach in and manipulate the mechanism by hand.
Next was an AST Pentium all-in-one from Walmart, like AST had made a rendition of an early Mac. Slid out the system tray many times, tried faster CPU, more memory, Asus 50x CDROM drive, etc.
Next box I built myself, eBayed an Asus P2L97 mobo, which didn’t work, got another. Plain beige tower case. Took the PII Slot-1 cartridge. Over the years I tried from 233 to 300MHz, PII cartridge to Celeron bare-board with clipped on fan. Assorted video and modem cards.
Between that and the current P4 Dell Optiplex, I’ve played with an earlier white “Optiplex”, and an IBM with P3 cartridge CPU. But despite the faster CPU’s, the P2L97 was faster. Fun things under the hood like the IBM could never shut off the on-board integrated graphics so it always used resources even with a video board installed, etc.
This also lead to the Upgrade chain. The AST came with 95. I learned how to put that on another system. Later came ME, done as an update. So I had to install 95 to install ME. The IBM was a messed-up inventory tracker for a defunct store, took awhile to clear out assorted corporate controls, get it to a base working 98 SE system, which still didn’t work, so became ME.
And with ME, I needed Norton. Utilities, for deletion, for keeping the Registry working and removing the errors and left-behinds, plus Norton AV of course.
That P2L97 was my workhorse until the current Optiplex. Which had no OS, got Debian Linux. Since then, I put in more memory and a DVD-RW drive, open up the case to dust off the insides. That’s about it.
I’ve also more recently eBayed some IBM Thinkpads, working but without HDD’s and chargers and one had no battery, plus no HDD trays and their case covers, etc. Got the stuff, fixed them up, added more memory, etc. Even added a WiFi card to one, under the keyboard.
One Thinkpad went to poor friends, their first computer in over a decade. I gave it XP Pro, got a Dell restore disk but used the COA on the laptop. They loved it, got WiFi DSL and a printer.
And I got to play tech support when it got a nasty virus, the type that blocks finding online support and kills the DVD/CD and USB access to prevent removal. They got snippy about the time it took and I had to access their DSL with a different laptop for the removal tool, had to pull the HDD and access it like an external, etc. Later they convinced themselves a call to Verizon would have fixed it all quickly.
I’ve got the other two Thinkpads, made them dual-boot, Debian and XP (according to their COA’s). The one with the SSD boots Debian in under a minute. For XP, over five minutes later the Avira AV and HP printer/scanner softwares are still trying to search for and download updates, even though there is no local WiFi, DSL connection, and I haven’t yet dialed up the ISP. I took it with me to a place with free WiFi for updating. It was over four minutes until XP let me connect.
Latest work, Acer Aspire 7736z-4088. Brother tripped and somehow smashed the screen of his girlfriend’s one with his foot. I eBayed one with a bricked mobo, there’s a bad power chip problem with those, laptop will charge but won’t power up. I swapped the entire top lid/screen section. Now I’m trying to recycle the remains. Thanks to a cheap housing, I now have a nice USB DVD-RW drive. And a SATA HDD with Win7 plus a COA to play with.
It’s obvious you’re too blinded by arrogance and pride to recognize system builder experience.
“kadaka (KD Knoebel) said: It’s obvious you’re too blinded by arrogance and pride to recognize system builder experience.”
None of that is OEM system builder experience as in you built, sold and supported PCs to end users in volume (hundreds to thousands of systems). I started doing all three in volume with DOS 6.x and/or Windows 3.x systems then continued with Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista, 7 and 8.
Your experience is typical of someone who owned various PCs and not what I was referring to. All of you “experience”, is the equivalent to what I might typically have dealt with in a single day.
It is no surprise you used an upgrade version of Windows ME and experienced problems. Windows Upgrades in general are more problem prone then clean installs if proper preparation is not done or the system is infected with malware (common) or has defective hardware. I simply refused to ever do upgrades and would only do clean installs as no one was going to pay the time possibly need to track an issue down if necessary.
It is still total nonsense you need Norton Utilities to keep Windows ME’s registry working.
Again, when I am talking about OEM system builder experience – I am referring to building, selling and supporting PCs to end users in volume (hundreds to thousands of systems). Otherwise your personal experience is anecdotal and should not be used to give advice to anyone let alone how Windows operating systems work.
Got it, Poptech.
After a long and prosperous career slinging Windows-running iron, assembled from carefully selected components, with pristine new Windows installs,
the experiences of someone who was down in the trenches, being their own tech support, building and maintaining their own systems plus fixing some others,
who learned of Windows quirks and how to fix them, visited the Annoyances.org site for numerous tweaks and fixes used by many others (found in print form in the book series, like Windows Me Annoyances), learned of and installed Tweak UI, improved performance by running IEradicator to excise IE from the deepest depths of ME,
who improved system stability with Norton, clearing the registry of orphans and mistakes, and even found leftover not-deleted orphan files, etc,
who spent enough time conversing online to know how common the problems were, as solutions and kludges were shared, and helped many people get their own Windows installations working better,
that person’s experiences don’t matter, because he wasn’t making money slinging lots of Windows-running iron, assembled from carefully selected new matched components, with pristine new Windows installs, that somehow miraculously ran Windows damn near perfectly flawlessly. That person does not have the experience you approve of, thus to you he has no experience.
Gee, where have I seen such an attitude before? When someone like Mann or Hansen refuses to listen to an Eschenbach or Watts, because they don’t have the skills, knowledge, or experience that they will recognize.
Have fun with your blinkered revisionism and/or rose-colored memories, Poptech. I was there, I lived it, I knew many people who also did.
From Poptech on May 11, 2013 at 8:17 am:
Gee, perhaps you could have noticed the many times before when CA Assistant was mentioned, which would easily give you a Preview function.
Oh wait, you’re a M$ man, and CA-Assistant asks for Firefox, although it works with Mozilla-based browsers in general. As a loyal M$ man, seems likely you run IE, and would never dare touch a filthy “open source” browser, which would likely be of “questionable legality”.
Your loss.
Too bad you did not learn anything from your experiences nor how Windows properly works.
For instance, orphan registry entries do nothing, they do not reduce system performance and they do not cause problems. Name the “mistake” that was cleared from the registry by Norton that actually fixed a problem. Make sure it is documented online and not some Joe user on a forum somewhere.
How come Microsoft does not have a registry cleaner utility if such “cleaning” actually fixed problems or improved performance?
My company serviced PCs as well and I have serviced PCs from every major OEM with every version of Windows since Windows 3.x.
Everything you have been spouting off about Windows is utterly wrong and misleading to anyone reading this. You are not certified in Windows, have no IT experience and obviously have not read any books or took any courses on how Microsoft Windows operating systems actually work.
Yes your experiences where you did not understand what the problems were or how to properly fix them does not matter. Like I said I have built and worked on more PCs in one day then you have your entire life. Being ignorant is one thing spreading that ignorance to others is irresponsible.
“kadaka (KD Knoebel) says: Let me know when the garbage WordPress comment system comes out of the stone age and adds a preview feature.
Gee, perhaps you could have noticed the many times before when CA Assistant was mentioned, which would easily give you a Preview function.”
Um…. like I said,
Let me know when the garbage WordPress comment system comes out of the stone age and adds a preview feature.
Lets see Google’s Blogger has a preview feature and forum software has had it over ten years. No special scripts required.
From Poptech on May 11, 2013 at 11:54 pm:
I thought we already went over this. I have no experience in your eyes. The problems I fixed, did not exist. The solutions I employed, solved nothing. Windows would have run perfectly fine if I hadn’t been trying to fix it after it broke. My memories are lies, my reality was not real. You made much money pushing Wonderful Windows, I did not, therefore you are the expert, and I am completely ignorant.
Yada yada yada, etc etc.
Oh well, it’s been five years since I’ve used M$ as a main OS, I only keep it for the odd site that insists on it for some reason… And since that equipment came with the COA’s, I own those licenses anyway, it’s already paid for.
Now I just run Debian Linux daily, and forget the daily angst of closing a program with crossed fingers, hoping that Norton will catch it when it would otherwise crash the system, especially if it’s an unresponsive program running in the deep background that’s not shutting down, that Windows apparently doesn’t even know is running, that I needed Norton to find the resource-hogger grinding the machine to a standstill, that with Norton’s help I’d try to close and pray…
Re Poptech on May 12, 2013 at 12:01 am:
Got it. With minimal effort you could have the Preview function. But WordPress is remiss and disrespectful by not automatically handing it to you on a silver platter, as other sites do, as you deserve to be treated, therefore you will wait until WordPress shows you proper respect and complain about the lack and how your posts were mangled due to WordPress’ thoughtlessness. Perfectly understandable.
“kadaka (KD Knoebel) says: I thought we already went over this. I have no experience in your eyes. The problems I fixed, did not exist. The solutions I employed, solved nothing. Windows would have run perfectly fine if I hadn’t been trying to fix it after it broke. My memories are lies, my reality was not real. You made much money pushing Wonderful Windows, I did not, therefore you are the expert, and I am completely ignorant.”
Prove me wrong, name a single “fix” for a legitimate documented problem with a Windows operating system that a solution was not available from Microsoft’s website.
So far you have spouted off piles of BS and failed to back up a single one of your nonsensical claims. Yes, you are very ignorant of Windows operating systems.
“kadaka (KD Knoebel) says: Got it. With minimal effort you could have the Preview function. But WordPress is remiss and disrespectful by not automatically handing it to you on a silver platter, as other sites do, as you deserve to be treated, therefore you will wait until WordPress shows you proper respect and complain about the lack and how your posts were mangled due to WordPress’ thoughtlessness. Perfectly understandable.”
Yes, the WordPress comment system is pure garbage. It is missing very basic and ancient features such as Comment Preview. Just because you don’t understand this is not my problem.
I am not going to install special extensions/scripts because WordPress sucks, least of all just to make one comment system work properly. Not to mention I use Google Chrome not Firefox and do not bog my browsers down with worthless extensions. I have exactly one extension installed for a reason.
kadaka, Forget even my extensive experience, name the major PC Manufacturer that required third party utilities or tweaks to keep Windows 9x/ME “stable”.
Surely you can name one. It can’t possibly be you had no idea what was really wrong with your system and what the cause of the problems were, which unfortunately was likely you. Anyone who would foolishly use a program like “IEradicator” not understanding the consequences of ripping out system components that have operating system dependencies has no business giving anyone advice. The more you go on about your “experiences” the clearer it is the problem was you.
I am still waiting for you to answer any one of my dozens of questions.
Windows system instability problems are most commonly cause by one of three things,
1. Malware infection
2. Defective, Overclocked or Misconfigured Hardware
3. Faulty Drivers
…this is especially true on Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7 and 8 systems.
clipe here is a perfect example and he knew exactly the most common things to look for. That is the difference between someone who knows that they are doing and people like you.
From Poptech on May 10, 2013 at 5:46 pm:
So Slashdot is free of internet message board whining? How surprising! But then you’re the computer expert, I just called it like I saw it.
If you had bothered to read the backstory linked to in that piece, you’d have known that was when Canonical was opening their “Ubuntu One” music store, making them a different species of commercial beast. So buying a H.264 license was a CYA maneuver.
But that was back in 2010. Nowadays, Debian 7 (Wheezy) just released.
And from May 9, Google’s cloud dumps custom Linux, switches to Debian.
So H.264 licensing is revealed as a non-issue. And Google, which would be a juicy lawsuit target, ain’t worried about using Debian for their commercial cloud server service.
Which makes that guy back on Slashdot who said Linux users have to get their own “av decoders” licenses or they could get sued in the US, look like just another bulletin board whiner.
I had a very similar problem after uninstalling Java on Windows7. An infinite boot loop just after the logo. Tried everything i could think of and find on the web. No luck. Only recourse was to reinstall the original image and start over from scratch. Java was throwing error after error after an update and even going back to the very first restore point would not fix it. If it wasn’t for my substantial investment in software I would be tempted to go to Linux.
No, the fact that you did not know of Slashdot demonstrates to everyone technically proficient here you have no idea what you are talking about. I don’t need to prove anything else.
Are you incapable of understanding anything you read? Why would canonical license a video codex (H.264) for a music store?
The real back story is here,
http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/Canonical-clarifies-its-H-264-licence-993182.html
From Poptech on May 13, 2013 at 3:00 pm:
The fact that you found what I said to be proof that I did not know of Slashdot, and thus would be ignorant of the ancient element of internet lore of being slashdotted, demonstrates enough about you.
Besides, I don’t see how knowing about Slashdot can be some requirement for “technological proficiency”. I’ve always liked El Reg for comp tech news, I can search for info.
Perhaps you’re like those D-day “experts” who’d interrogate to search for German infiltrators in the ranks by asking if the person knew who’d won the World Series in what year, as “of course” all Americans would know that.
Music, music videos, video compression. iTunes started with music, now does video content. Is it that hard for you to see the natural progression? While researching I noted concerns about Google, due to owning YouTube, needing a license IF they charged for watching videos, but they don’t so they don’t.
So if Canonical would sell H.264-compressed content…
But with some searching, a succinct summary was found:
That’s it. If OEMs want it, there it is. Corporate CYA, at a pricing structure of nothing to next to nothing. Dirt cheap insurance for the asking.
Which mean that guy back on Slashdot who said Linux users have to get their own “av decoders” licenses or they could get sued in the US, still looks like just another bulletin board whiner.
From Poptech on May 12, 2013 at 2:20 am:
clipe started with:
Note the order. First off, XP likes drivers to be vetted, and can search for such online, including better ones. Granted, I have yet to have XP actually find a better driver online, or any online, when it searches itself. But still, if it’s a MS signed driver then it should be trustworthy and trouble-free, yes?
So blaming drivers with XP and above should be held for later, at which point you’d back down to using only signed drivers, and work back in the “manufacturer says it is safe” only as absolutely needed.
Malware checking should be the first thing done, because those are system scans you should be running regardless.
However, you need to be prepared to do it outside your normal system experience. Boot from CD/DVD-ROM, un-writable media, to prevent contamination. Already have all fresh definition files downloaded and burned, because you’ll be checking without outside connections.
I’ve also pulled a boot drive, and scanned it as storage on another machine. Windows also likes to hide files, for certain infections you may have to delete and replace some files with something running a different OS.
Memory is about the last thing to check, I rarely have a problem. The power-on check isn’t worth much, but stress-testing programs are readily available. Although there are certain telltales, namely “flaky” faults, intermittent, seemingly random.
But if I suspect a memory fault, first I pop the lid. Remove the sticks, blow the slots clean, replace the sticks. Merely re-seating the memory has fixed memory problems. Likewise some malfunctions of devices have been cured by re-seating connectors, re-seating cards. Also switch positions. As I’ve seen on older equipment, merely swapping a card position can fix problems. One type of card might not work consistently next to another, etc. These days much more is already integrated on the mobo, less cards thus less problems.
clipe eventually found it to be a bad stick of memory. I hope he did the re-seating check, plus single use if applicable, as when you have multiple sticks installed but can run on one so you try running on only the suspect stick.