Some days I HATE Microsoft

Off-Topic
1

A few days ago I loaded a machine with Win7 Pro. All ran rather well. I downloaded service pack 1 and installed it. All went well.

Today at about 2 pm the machine announces it has 150 IMPORTANT updates to install ( silly me, leaving updates to download ). OK I says, install them!

At about 5 pm, after it did a self-reboot, it hits Stage 3 of 3 and announces that the updates failed and it must set me back to where I was.

Now, you would not know this probably, but this country is having a major bout of rolling mass blackouts due to incompetent government. Blackout scheduled for 8 pm. 5 minutes to 8 and the blasted machine is still saying “Do Not Switch off Your Computer”. I know that if you do switch off you often have to reload the OS from scratch. Should I just switch off? Or should I just risk it? Stress.

The gods looked kindly on me and the power was not cut, and the blasted thing finished at about 10h40. 8 hours to do all that, for nothing.

Machine finally restarts and proceeds to announce in that annoying notification thingy that it has 150 IMPORTANT updates to install - click thingy to install.

No! Bug off! Switch updates off and rather press Shut Down.

2

“Some days”?

:wink:

3

[quote=187496:@Kem Tekinay]“Some days”?

;)[/quote]
Only those which end in a ‘Y’

4

Those that include an “a” :stuck_out_tongue:

5

Yeah, I recently ran into an issue with windows update I was unaware of. Apparently it will offer updates that have already been installed and then fail to install with a very obtuse error code. It seems the common solution to this is to hide the offending update.

I like the Apple method where they roll out combined updates at each point release so if you are behind from a reload or something it loads most of the current stuff in one shot.

The Windows thing where you have to load 180 some odd updates for Win7 with several reboots in between is indeed a real pain. That 150 is just the first round. After you get done with those you will have about 30 more to go. :frowning:

6

This one has been bugging me for months :

• Microsoft driver update for HP LaserJet 2420 PCL 5 - Error 0x80070103

I was able to hide it under Windows 8.1, but now under Windows 10, no way to hide an update, so I get a notification every time I reboot.

Fact is since 95, Windows has always been like that, installing tons of updates all the time, requiring gigantic amounts of drivers, DLL right and left. Patch over patch over patch. The miracle is that this assembly works on an amazing number of configurations, with an amazing number of idiosyncratic peripherals and strange processors. Windows is like someone who sleeps on countless coaches, never knowing where it will be tomorrow. And it is not going to improve. The new policy for Windows 10 will be that it executes on everything that has a processor. Including the Pi.

Apple, on the other hand, has a controlled configuration and limited number of models, and a finite list of approved peripherals. It is good to be provider of your own software for your own hardware.

7

Take two identical high end servers with identical hardware.

Install Windows server products on the first one. You’ll have countless issues that will take you some time to work through.

Now, Install the exact same products on the second machine (which is identical to the first). Now, you’ll have a completely different set of issues.

It never fails…

8

MITTWOCH has neither Y nor A :wink:

9

[quote=187515:@Jon Ogden]Take two identical high end servers with identical hardware.

Install Windows server products on the first one. You’ll have countless issues that will take you some time to work through.

Now, Install the exact same products on the second machine (which is identical to the first). Now, you’ll have a completely different set of issues.

It never fails…[/quote]

Oh yes it will. Both of them. At the same time.

:stuck_out_tongue:

10

In German the joke would be “Only days that have a t in them”

11

[quote=187496:@Kem Tekinay]“Some days”?

;)[/quote]

Well that was the story for this week Friday. I have a couple more rants which I will bore you with, then I’ll have a little Apple one speshul for you. :wink:

This week Monday’s hate story.

I get a mail at work - It is time to renew your MS Action Pack - click here to be taken to the Partner Zone to renew. My heart sinks at the prospect of running MSIE and getting on to the terribly slow and bizarre MS Partner site, but it has to be done so I search around, find my login, and off I go.

The page it eventually takes me to is just the main page. Oh well, much searching and trying, finally find a page with “Press to Renew”. Yay! I press button, fill out form, all looks good, I press “Submit”. The page starts changing slowly ( horribly slow site ) then “An Unknown Error has occurred - log in again and try again”. Okey dokey - I log in again, and we start over. Find page, fill out form, press button, “An Unknown Error has occurred - log in again and try again”. Grrrr! I try a third time same story. I look again at my email and there is a nice link for if you are having problems. Yay! Click link - 404 not found.

This has all taken 30 minutes wading through treacle. Angry now I call local distributor who gives me a support number. I call, choose appropriate option verbalised by a machine with a female voice with yanqui accent. I wait. Repeated voice “You will be transferred to the next available operator”. I wait. I wait.

After 20 minutes I need to go for a pee and hang up. Return from loo and try again. after 30 minutes I have to take another call and hang up. Very angry now. Start again, choose another option, quickly get a man who says I just have to hang on. I tell him these idiots are not answering. You just have to wait he says. I swear, he cuts me off. Pr1ck.

Try a third time. After 40 minutes a very helpful chap in Germany answers. I explain the problem and tell him his Partner site is slow. He responds that everyone finds it slow, and that the original renewal page will never work, key in this URL. All gets quickly sorted out - thank you Roland somewhere in Germany.

Yet the arranged payment has still not gone off my card. I tremble at the prospect of sorting the payment out.

Next exciting episode is a Sunday saga - how not to download SQL Server Express from MS.

:wink:

12

quote=187494:@Peter Job Today at about 2 pm the machine announces it has 150 IMPORTANT updates to install (…)
At about 5 pm, after it did a self-reboot, it hits Stage 3 of 3 and announces that the updates failed and it must set me back to where I was.
(…) and the blasted thing finished at about 10h40. 8 hours to do all that, for nothing.

Machine finally restarts and proceeds to announce in that annoying notification thingy that it has 150 IMPORTANT updates to install - (…).[/quote]

We were a Microsoft partner and solution provider since the eighties. After 20 years I finally switched to Apple mainly because of being tired of exactly the above described experience. Hours and hours of waiting for installations and updates.

It was kind of an epiphany when I unboxed and switched on my first Mac. Wait a minute!? It just works? Not a zillion of stupid questions and decisions, hours of installation and updates? I just can start working?

I don’t think I have become a blue-eyed follower and believer of Apple’ology. But I don’t regret the switch.

13

Same here.

My colleague comes to me recently saying that his Win 7 PC is running slow, so I take a look at it for him. It’s a Win 7 x64 PC laptop with 2GB of RAM…there’s the problem…not enough RAM…not on a 64 bit operating system anyway.

I tell him go go and buy 2 x 4GB SODIMMs of the correct specs and install them…all good. The BIOS recognises 8GB of RAM…now we’re talking!!

Boot up…still running slow. Check the System control panel and find out that Win 7 Home Premium only ever recognises a maximum of 2GB of RAM…arrrrggggghhhhh!!

What stupid operating system provider limits the available RAM on a PC?

No such nonsense with Apple. I have a 2013 Mac Pro with 32GB of RAM…although it did forget about a module a few weeks ago…but that’s another story…and another mystery.

Obtain a copy of Win 7 x64 Ultimate which does recognise the full amount of RAM installed. Get to the part where I install the correct x64 video driver and reboot…but the system crashes and has to revert to the last know good configuration.

I don’t like admitting defeat, but on this one I give up!!

Cheers
Grant

14

There is something funny going on there. Win7 HP 32 bit recognises about 3GB and will use some of the extra over that ( if you have 4GB installed ) for video RAM if needed. Win7 HP 64 will go up to 16GB. Only Win7 Starter ( cr@p thing for us third-worlders ) is limited to 2GB, and limited otherwise to being useless.

15

Microsoft is funny. Windows is hilarious.

16

In the day job I work for a large enterprise company that rolls out Windows patches every few days.

Suddenly, whenever colleague “the bird” opened and saved the most important file of the department (the holiday planner, of course done in Excel) it didn’t work for anyone else. The macros failed. He asked the help desk and got nothing. A bit of Googling gave him the answer: there is a Windows patch that kills all macros. It was installed only on his computer.

17

[quote=187583:@Grant Singleton]Boot up…still running slow. Check the System control panel and find out that Win 7 Home Premium only ever recognises a maximum of 2GB of RAM…arrrrggggghhhhh!!

What stupid operating system provider limits the available RAM on a PC?[/quote]
Please tell me you’re kidding?!

I knew some Windows versions had limitations (for example for networking) but this is insane!

P.S. After a little googling it seems that “Max memory for Home Premium is 16 GB. For Professional and Ultimate it’s 192 GB (64-bit Windows)”

Maybe the Ram was of the wrong specification?

18

He’s not. MS have a range of products that are artificially limited in a number of areas. Memory, CPU Sockets, Network connections are all in the mix. MS have their business model - one that allows OEM’s to install their product for very little while Apple refuse to allow their OS to be installed on other’s hardware. It’s just a business model/product choice - not insane.

19

Windows 10 will have several version as well.
http://www.phonenews.com/microsoft-details-multiple-versions-of-windows-10-30462/

You are right Windows has always been extremely flexible in terms of pricing and configurations. To insure Windows was bundled with every PC rumor had it back in the eighties that Microsoft routinely asked for no more than $1.00 per bundled copy.

I think the comparison between Apple and Windows, while pertinent in terms of pure user experience, is not relevant when it comes to marketing. A Mac is an integrated solution where the OS is part of the hardware. Yosemite does not have to fear being shoved in some strange box as Windows does. It is cosily welcome in the Mac family hardware. Windows is an add on, closer to application software. We should all know what it means sending a baby in the wild world hoping it will not encounter the boogie man.

20

Episode for Sunday two weeks back.

I decide I’d like to look at SQL Server Express LocalDB. Off to Microsoft, hopes running high. I find the download page, select the right one, press the download text… Sign in to your Microsoft account. Huh! This is free stuff?? Search, find password, log in. No! You must update your profile. Profile looks OK, press continue, back to the download page. Press text - No! You must update your profile. Go through profile carefully, see language not selected, select English, continue. Back to the download page.

OK, this will work, press download text. No! You must update your profile. #@$$#. Profile is PERFECT. Press continue, back to download page, click on download text. No! You must update your profile. Double #@$$#. Press continue, back to download page, somewhere in the cycle a “Was this page helpful?”. Click on No, tell story and ask How the hell do I download? Give up. Find it elsewhere on the net, download it.

Monday at work I see a mail header from MS about SQL Server Express. Oh boy! I think - they responded! Open mail which says:

Thank you for downloading SQL Server Express.

#@$$# and #@$$# and #@$$# again.