What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

Aaarrrrrgggg! WTH Microsoft! What the HELL?

My computer runs fine, no problems to speak of until Windows updates. Following the restart I discover I can no long access the internet. After hours and hours of trouble shooting I finally decided that the best course of action would be to do a system restore. Well that worked. I must have restarted by computer half a dozen times before the restore trying to get my network card working again. Hell I couldn't even access the DSL Modem/Router, until after I performed the restore.

What the hell is wrong with Microsoft that when updating the update kills your network card? When I called them they wanted me to pay to fix the problem, a problem that THEY caused. HP was a bit more helpful, they recommended the restore and that worked. I had to lie to them to get the help though, but alls fair in the land of Software and hardware.

I do wish that there was a way to get microsofts attention and FORCE those SOB's to be responsible for what their UPDATES do to peoples computers.

Hell my system clock is still messing up and they haven't even addressed that issue yet. WTH?

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

Because like everything else in America, there is NO ACCOUNTABLITY.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

I had the same problem two weeks ago, ironically it was a malformed install and I fixed it with a restore. When I accidentally reinstalled the update it a few days after, it was fine.

Same thing with a video driver fix that screwed it up. It's in large part because microsoft uses a large number of 3rd party drivers and the drivers those 3rd parties supply are often out of date.

As for getting around technical support warrenty issues. I have 2 tricks.

1st I try the Agent route. I call them up and if it's a voice system I keep saying "AGENT" at each menu until it takes me to the right menu or person. I insist to the person I'm a field technician from the local OEM distribution site sent to fix a computer by the company -but I need verification on what is going on. This sometimes works.

2nd one requires me to be totally irrational and upset. I call them up and insist I purchased the extended warranty and I am asking for support under the terms. If they don't find any I tell them I purchased it at the store I purchased the computer and I already went to the store about it and they told me to call the company (microsoft/hp/compaq/dell/etc.). If they still refuse help, I get their full name (making them spell it) and demand to take to a supervisor. I get the supervisors' full name and repeat the situation to him informing him that on no uncertain terms will I tolerate his company or underlings pretending I don't have a warranty.


So far I've successfully replaced by defective Xbox 360 without having to pay the replacement shipping, 2 bad hard drives and got my directv bill cut in half.

It doesn't always work, but these companies are making money from my purchase and then deliver substandard equipment and service from new dehli, I'll be damned if I'm paying for that too.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

Now the update wants to reinstall. I am seriously debating whether or not I should go ahead with the re-install.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

Updates seem like grocery store purchases to me. If I had some pre-existing item that I want fixed, and a patch comes along that addresses that issue, then I'll get it.

Otherwise, they all read "Warning: You may be at risk! Download our stuff!". Because terrorism sells.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

Terrorism no, fear yes. Fear fed by the all knowing fact that MS products are at risk to terrorism of hackers, spy monkeys, and evil doers the world over. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif So when MS says you should fear what will happen to your computer if you don't update, I kinda take it seriously because I know that if MS says I need to be afraid, well then, they know their product best now don't they, therefore I fear and update.

Now we must fear the update too. What hidden things have Microsoft installed onto my once secure and private PC? Authentication software, anti-P2P software, key loggers, ISP trackers, and other hidden nastiness.

Fear the Update.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

My computer has never been the same since I tried to upgrade to Service Pack 2. SP2 decided I didn't have a printer....

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

Yeah, my bad; terror does not equal fear...Much greater quantity. Terror is caused by the bad guys. Fear is merely caused by good guys pointing at the bad guys over there. To quote Douglas Adams, more like just nibbling on the hand that feeds you. Not at all like actually biting. Maybe a gentle chew once in a while, but definitely not a bite.

For instance, Big Lou in the alley behind the tavern: "Hey this alley is a dangerous place; all kind of ruffians about. Wouldn't want to see a fella like you get hurt. What you need is protection. Just look and me! I'm big, and I got this here club--So you ought to hire me for the job. Whatever you got there will be fine."

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

My personal theory is that Bill Gates is a time traveller sent back to retard our technological development. Imagine where we'd be if all the time and money spent coping with Windows' flaws were spent productively instead. ;-)

Seriously, what's really wrong with Windows is that Microsoft has grown into a sprawling corporate bureaucracy where the 500 left hands don't know or care what the 500 right hands are doing.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

Well, you could stop buying their products. It might not change their attitudes (not until tens of millions of other people do the same, anyway) but it will sure as hell save you some stress.

When I get the cash to buy a new PC, I'll be ordering one without an operating system pre-installed so I can install linux. Then I'll dig up an old win98SE CD I have somewhere, and have a minimal win98 partition for playing SE.

I've never actually tried to install Linux before, but from what I've read (mainly on \. admittedly) there are some distros that are really really easy to install. I really ought to dig out my old Toshiba and try to put Linux on there, just to get that nice warm, geeky feeling inside.

Or, if I suddenly get *loads* of cash, I might just buy a mac. Bit of a cop-out I know, but it'll work straight out of the box and it *has* to be better than MS.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

Win98se is great.That's what I am using for internet cruising.
Don't have virus problems.Who is making virus' for 98 os? Also
noticed that the turns go quicker with 98 then xp in se4.A lot
quicker.Linux is easy.Try a livecd in SimplyMepis or pclinuxos
distro's.They have the best hardware detection going.The livecd allows you to boot from the cd and run linux without installing it.Good way to try it out.Ubuntu wants you to config your hardware which is a pita if you don't know how.So
its easy to try dl an iso and burn to cd(700mb).Go to distrowatch.com for links.Now if se4 can get to work in linux.That's beyond my skill at the moment.regards.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

Well I re-installed the latest update and was off line again until I did a system restore. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif Does any one know how you can send MS a complaint letter? I mean this update is pissing me off to no end. I finally just decided to turn off Auto-Updates and now I have this little red x shield icon in my system tray.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

Now if se4 can get to work in linux

Yep! Wine works great I hear.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

But not for SE5.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

Hi Atrocities,
To get rid of the "red x shield icon in my system tray" go into Services, and disable the "Security Center". This is the windows service that monitors if you Windows Updates, and Virus Scanner is up-to-date.
Baron Grazic

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

How would you get it to stop telling you when you unplug the internet?

(*Grumble* Stupid nightmares. Was supposed to be asleep. *Grumble*)

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

You can keep auto-update running without installing that particular update. When it wants to install the new update go to custom install instead of the express install. Uncheck the box for that update and I believe when you close the window it will bring up another window asking you what to do with that update. Check the box saying not to remind you again of this particular update. I've done that in the past several times.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

Microsoft should have been broken up into a bunch of smaller companies. It would have allowed for more competition and productivity and a higher quality of product.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

'THIS STOOPID GAME WONT WERK ON MY OSS!!!!!'

There are benefits to Microsoft, much as it pains me to admit it. Apologies for capitals.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

Thanks! I didn't know you could do that. The auto-update has been popping up with the install message every day and I kept closing it. I thought I had to install all the updates to make it go away.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

AT, All I did way back when is update to SP2, get all the 'critical updates' and then turned off 'auto-update'. I have not updated my Win XP in close to 10 months. (My system is working fine, why on earth would I install updates when my system is running fine?) I think too many people get 'lured' into thinking that 'all updates are critical' they often run into problems like you are having.

The only exception I have to 'updates' does not involve MS.. I will update my graphics driver if I find a new game does not work/run. (Since I cannot afford new software/games this is no longer an issue) My last graphics update was driver v84.21 march 2006, they are up to v93.71 november 2006. I suppose that since no new driver has been made since november 2006 I should update it to this version but.. "Why would I update if everything is working fine?"

Seriously, if everything is working why the need for an update? 'Security updates' are imho close to 'bogus' they seem to fix a specific problem on a specific configuration. 99% of the time it does not affect your own system security needs.

here are some words of advice.. "If it aint broke don't fix it."

anyways, sorry for the rant, too many people get 'hooked' into thinking they 'have' to update their systems. It's like spending time/money to get the latest HDTV big screen technology to watch your VHS collection. Duh!

Cheers! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

The newest nvidia driver do have several optimizations to make games run better. They have some bugfixes for the newest games, but they also add a few FPS to your games, which is always good.

And you really should install at least the security updates, if nothing else. Several worms exploit security vulnerabilities that were patched several weeks earlier. The Blaster worm, for example, exploited a vulnerability that was patched by Microsoft an entire month earlier.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

'Why would I go to the every year doctor when I feel fine?'

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

You go to your doctor regularily for checkups (delete these two viruses and call me when you boot), not surgery.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

What about vaccinations and flu shots, then?

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

That is literally an anti-virus update.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

Windows updates, what updates? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Seriously, this all is just a giant FUD operation towards the computer challenged people.

For the same reason I don't use an anti-virus, because the only thing they do is to slow down your computer (the same thing that some viruses do).
I sometimes check a suspicious file with a web-based anti-virus, and every six months or so check the whole computer, but so far I've NEVER been infected (since I'm the only one using this computer, that means in three years).
But that's also maybe because I don't use IE, and have a NAT router that blocks everything I tell it not to...

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

If you're doing everything that you should be, you shouldn't need anti-virus protection, correct. But shouldn't you still patch your computer, just in case you do in fact get a virus?

And anti-virus programs don't slow down my computer all that much.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

As long as you don't have the boat anchor that is norton running...

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

AVG has worked fairly solidly for me. No annoying popups, it's not crippleware.... along with the (free) version of Kerio, it keeps my computer safe.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

Norton and McAfee have apparently become bloatware in the last few years. Kaspersky is supposed to be the 'best' for detection of threats. AVG is ok, but not as good as many of the larger operations products. MS's own anti-spyware program Windows Defender is actually pretty good for detecting many threats. (Bought of course, not developed in house, but that's normal for MS...)

And you do need to keep your OS up to date on security patches. It's not just odd corners of the net that now host malware. Cybercrime has become organized and directed in a big way over the last few years. It's not just pranksters and lone scammers anymore. Major organized crime is finding ways to get keyloggers and form watchers and other financial spy software into many legit websites by way of third-party sources.

Google is now estimating that one in ten websites is already infested with some sort of malware. (Oddly enough Google's own ad service is one of the vectors for that infestation... crime organizations buy advertising from Google using front corporations and then build the trojan into their ads!) So you can be infected now just by surfing major sites like Yahoo.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05...e_malware_map/

http://www.techspot.com/news/25262-g...are-laced.html

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

Norton has been bloatware since at least '99. Its not a recent phenomenon.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

In my experience, not having AV is a good way to pick up viruses.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

My AV monitor (ClamWin) doesn't noticeably slow down the system, but my anti-spyware monitor (Spyware Doctor) was such a resource hog that now I just do manual scans after I've visited sites I don't trust.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

If I remember right, didn't Norton beat out microsoft on bloat ware of the year recently? I've solved a lot of computer problems by just uninstalling norton (namely people complaining about slow computers, blocked internet access, and such).

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

Well, now it's my turn to fight with the MS Update from Hell. I tried uninstalling the Cumulative Security Patch for Internet Explorer but even that didn't work. I had to resort to System Restore also.
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/mad.gif
At least this is a new install and I am in the process of setting things up the way I like. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif Not much was lost and it's easily re-installed. I'll be much more wary of MS 'fixes' in the future. Unfortunately, you often do need them. I'll just let others download them first and wait for the field testing report... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif Since I plan to install IE 7 I wonder if that will also have a 'Cumulative Security Update'? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

Uh oh... now there is a June "Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer"...

Has anyone installed it yet? Did it cut you off?

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

If they charged for these updates I would venture a bet that they would be worth something then.

Re: What The Hell Is Wrong With MS?
 

It seems that reports of the same problem are stating to appear for this patch...

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/200....aspx#comments