Opuscula Microsoft and Win 10: Arrogance on a field Of Bovine excrement

I HAVE MICROSOFT’S WINDOWS 10 (WIN 10) running on two laptops.

My spouse has one; I have the other. I also have a Win 7 machine that the grand-daughter can use during her visits.

The grad-daughter plays with Word – she holds down a character key and watches it fill the screen. She also plays Solitaire. All this between occasional blue screens. (The Chinese computer is about 5 years old; well past it’s prime. It came with Win 7 installed.)

The Spouse, with a newer Chinese computer has so far managed to avoid blue screens.

So what is the Problem Du Jour with Win 10?

There are many, but the most aggravating is Microsoft’s shutting down Win 10 WITHOUT WARNING to install upgrades.

Yesterday she was reading her emails when, sans warning, the WeSaySo Corporation¹ – a/k/a Microsoft – interrupted her reading and took over the computer for an hour.

No “we’re going to take over your computer in 10 minutes.” No “we’re about to install an update because …: nothing. Just boom and the screen went dark for a few seconds before Microsoft announced it was installing a update.

I foolishly thought that when a customer buys a product the customer should have some say in use and maintenance.

Imagine if Ford, Chevy, or Chrysler shut down your flivver as you travel over the speed limit on an interstate highway? There you go, whizzing along when, without warning, the vehicle comes to a screeching stop because the car needs an oil change. Explain THAT to the cops that come to investigate the 20-car pileup that started when the vehicle behind yours slammed into the rear of your transportation. (Just hope that vehicle slamming into yours isn’t an 18-wheeler or a cement mixer.)

This morning I was working on a project – Win 10, LibreOffice Writer (in preparation to move to the Linux Operating System (wonder why??) when, in the middle of a search and replace function, good ol’ WeSaySo Corporation takes over the system.

Imagine if this happened in a business with multiple computers – not at night, but in the middle of the business day.

Warning? Don’t be silly. This is Microsoft. It’s worse than the government (pick any government level). It’s worse that a financial institution.

FORTUNATELY, LibreOffice Writer (equivalent to Microsoft Office Word) managed to save almost all the work I had spent a couple of hours creating.

Knowing that WeSaySo Corporation would take it’s own sweet time to update MY system, I went for toast and coffee and some time in front of the tube watching horse opera reruns. When I returned the unasked for update(s) – who knows WHAT was installed; Microsoft isn’t telling – was almost finished.

HP – the company whose logo is on the newest Chinese laptop – at least

(a) tells me it wants to install something
(b) what the something will do for the machine, and
(c) allows me to decide if I want the upgrade installed or not.

After all, I paid for the computers and that cost included a Microsoft Operating System.

(I understand computer maker Dell will install a non-Microsoft Operating System (Linux, Ubuntu, etc.) if a customer requests. Bravo for Dell. Maybe I’ll find a way to meet Dell’s prices for a new laptop when I need to replace the HP.)

At this point, I am ready to copy all my critical files to an external drive and install either Linux or Ubuntu, letting it wipe out the Microsoft Operating System and the Microsoft Office I purchased.

I confess I’ve been unhappy with WeSaySo Corporation for some time – primarily because it insists on changing the User Interface with each iteration of each product.

Now, with its unmitigated arrogance to take over the machine for which I paid, I’ve reached the end of the road with the Redmond giant. I’ve used Microsoft products for years, but there comes a time when there is no option but to cut the cord.

We already did that with Ma Bell, switching to Consumer Cellular for both mobile and landline (via a ZTE Wireless Home Phone Base²) talk, text, and data. (The only function I lack with Consumer Cellular is fax; I can get that on the rare occasion I need it at a FedEx or UPS store.)

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Sources

1. WeSaySo Corp: http://tinyurl.com/yako7axw
2. ZTE: http://tinyurl.com/y8d723hl

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Comments on Microsoft chutzpah

Opuscula The wisdom of Microsoft(Did I write "wisdom"?)

 

The Spouse needs her Skype "fix" 6 days-a-week.

In the past, her employer allowed her to use a company computer to Skype with her daughter and grand-daughter on her break.

But things change and the microphone on computer to which she has access now for some reason doesn't work. The tech support people are over-burdened with other, critical problem so she won't ask anyone to troubleshoot the faulty system.

We have to MS OS machines in the house - a Vista budget OS (my Toshiba Satellite) and a Win 7 OS on the Spouse's Toshiba Satellite. Both are "big" screen machines.

I suggested she take her machine to work with her, connect to the workplace Wife and use that machine to Skype.

"No, it's too big. Let me use the 'little' computer."

Ahh, you mean the Compaq/HP machine that's gathering dust in the closet. "That's the one."

It's a little smaller than the Toshibas, but I think heavier. It came with XP Pro.

Still, whatever Lola - sorry, The Spouse - wants . . .

So, I pull out the Compaq/HP machine and fire it up.

XP loaded OK, but I couldn't get into the desktop; apparently The Spouse had password protected it (or maybe I did it for her) and no one remembered the password.

NOT A PROBLEM. Back in XP days, the OS was provided on several CDs. I had the CDs - all except for Service Pack 3 which was still available on the WWW.

I reinstalled XP Pro, thereby eliminating the password problem; downloaded SP 3 and installed that, then installed Chrome and made it the default browser, and then installed Skype. Skype insisted XP have SP3 installed which is why I looked, found, and downloaded it.

Because I didn't know better - or maybe I did and just wasn't thinking - when I used the Compaq/HP device with the battery installed when it was new, the battery's charge time was "short."

Somehow, in setting up the machine I discovered a utility to "calibrate" the battery. The utility discharges the battery to 0, then charges it to (what the battery thinks is) 100%. It then calibrates the battery. I'm not sure what that means, but in the end, the machine's battery is 30-some percent. assume that means it is at 30-some percent of its original capacity.

I figure that gives the machine maybe 15 minutes useful battery life, which may be just fine for my Spouse's Skyping. 'Course the machine seems terribly slow to load and that will cut down her chat time. (Alternatively she can take along the power unit; she's already having to carry the external camera and microphone.)

So - old XP had a utility to discharge the battery to 0; used often enough, the battery's could be recharged to almost 100% rather than losing more and more capacity with each use. (Having learned the lesson, I now remove the batteries from notebook computers that normally operate on household AC.)

MODEM, TOO

The Compaq/HP device included a fax program. That was back in the day when TuCows listed a number of free fax software applications. Those seem to have disappeared. MS does have a utility it calls Fax and Scan for many of its operating systems. (Vista Basic is NOT one of them, although Win 7 is - but our Toshiba with Win 7 lacks an internal modem or, as far as I can tell, a connection for an external modem. The Vista machines is supposed to have a modem, but the OS lacks the Fax and Scan utility. (Can it be downloaded? Next challenge.)

In this age of email, WHO CARES if you can receive and send faxes from a computer? Well, anyone who deals with HIPAA-cowed medics, many financial institutions, and some government agencies.

Many - perhaps most doctors' offices forbid email, fearing that some patient information might be jeopardized. A good concern, but it as easy to misdirect a fax as it is an email. Faxes are the preferred "nearly instant" communications method for the medically inclined.

Sometimes progress is painful.