CharlotteTheHarlot

Unless something recently changed, I am sure Icacls does not run on Windows XP. Yep, just checked. Not sure how you got any error message other than "NOT A VALID WIN32 APPLICATION". Someone currently in enterprise IT please correct me but isn't Admistrative Tools just a namespace item that exists only as a shell CLSID from the registry? Back in the early days of WinXP this was locked down through group policy. By the way, when you get an error using command line permission utilities ( or any other ), the first thing is to make sure is that you run it in an elevated command prompt. Also, when a specific registry key or file/folder object rejects these command line permission tools, it helps to simply go to that object and have a look at the ACL's ( permissions ) from the "Security" tab ( use right-click context menu > "Sharing and Security" or "Properties" ) which will send you into the official ( but kinda lame ) GUI view of the ACLs currently defined for that object. This is adequate to get an overview of the permission tree, and many times you can successfully edit them. But not always. A different but better GUI utility for viewing ACL's is AccessEnum from System Internals ( Microsoft ). It is a viewer only but you can quickly right-click jump into the "Security" tab GUI from the program. Using these can help you visualize and untangle permissions that may have been messed up by any number of problems caused by setup programs, ACL tools, programs like Flash that change them, or even your students who might be experimenting. EDIT: typos

A computer doesn't gain any "speed up" by deleting stuff except in those extreme scenarios where the system hard drive might be nearly full and consequently the operating system is struggling to use a pagefile resulting in huge reads and writes of a GB sized file. Or if you burn large images like DVD copying where large temp files are written and it bumps you up close to disk full status and it trips the pagefile resizing dance. ADDED: another extreme case is that the HDD might be badly fragmented and the system is so low on free space that DEFRAG cannot run. Extreme and far-fetched but possible. Anyway, let's say you have 4GB RAM and let the system manage the swapfile, in this case there is an approx 3.5 GB pagefile sitting in the root folder. Now you do a hibernate and another file of same size is created. Now you copy a DVD and temp files totalling 5 GB or 9 GB are created ( and in cases of burn failures, some of these might persist, especially if the DVD copy program crashes and fails to clean up these temp files ). You can add up these numbers for yourself and see how quickly a system can slip into "low disk space" status and to compensate it starts to resize the pagefile and you get long and huge reads and writes that tie up the system with no explanation. So in general, if you have less than 10GB free you are in the danger zone and should get more space. if you have more than 10 GB free you probably do not have disk space problems except in extreme scenarios. If you have 20 GB or more free you are in the clear, for now at least. Again, these are real round numbers that are subject to your installed RAM, swap settings, and computing habits. IMHO, the best way to get free space is NOT to spend ages deleting files here and there, it is an inefficient use of time. But by all means, do empty the TEMP folders, particularly these ... C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Local Settings\Temp C:\Windows\Temp ... where there may be quite a chunk of wasted space. Look around for any stale disk images ( perhaps orphaned CD/DVD copies ). Also flush all browser disk caches ( like Temporary Internet Files ) and any "Download" folders and the like. If you have a decent file searching program then you can set it to look for all files that exist on the HDD physically larger than about 100 MB. Once you hit all these major stores of waste, you will then know your approximate maximum free space level, but there is very little value-add in spending further time scouring for MB and smaller sized files because it takes a whole lot of them to total into the gigabytes. Okay, now knowing your absolute max free-space level, if you definitely need more space get a new HDD to replace the current system disk ( e.g., upgrade an 80 GB to 240 GB or 320 GB etc ) and use the tools that come with a new retail HDD which allows you to clone the current one in place duplicating it to the new one; after which you will finally pull the old one out and leaving the new one in its place and you instantly have huge new disk space available ( BTW, the old one sitting on a shelf makes a nice fallback if the new one fails or gets infected ). As an extra bonus, a new larger drive will often be much faster because of higher density, plus it naturally adds more lifespan to the system. If your system has SATA, you might get luckier still if the system is SATA II but the original HDD was SATA I for some reason, doubling the disk I/O. Lucky things like this are known to happen especially on OEM systems that were constructed using the most inexpensive parts available when shipped. Now back to the original question ... Stripping down Windows XP features on disk is really not a great use of time IMHO. Too little to gain and you might remove something you want later. Stripping down Windows XP ( and 3rd party ) features that are running is something else entirely. The real gain in performance is found by killing time-wasting "startup" applications and services. The two biggest time wasters out of the box are Disk Indexing and System Restore. I always kill them but others leave them running. Many other suggested tweaks are all over the internet. Look at Black Viper :: Windows XP Services for a nice comprehensive list of official Microsoft Windows services ( but not 3rd party items ). Additionally there are things in Startup folders and registry keys that can be toggled from running at bootup by using programs like System Internals :: AutoRuns. This kind of "tweaking" is necessary because so many 3rd party hardware and software insert themselves into "startup" locations. Such a list is just too numerous to create. Your best bet is to list the ones that you see and let others help you decide if they are necessary, or if you would prefer not to list them do it yourself privately by searching in Google. EDIT: typos

I couldn't get past his pathetic Start Menu diatribe. Certifiable MetroTard, and reminds me of one particular NeoKook actually. Complete garbage. What's funny is that this 'Tard is so completely repulsed by organization and structure that he continually misspells "hierarchy". It's sad though, he is so wrapped up in rationalizing his new Metro toy that he mindlessly attacks everything that is different than what he prefers. That is a mental illness, like a form of racism or something. Hey. maybe they have an app for that. The Start Menu was never an end in itself, it is a convenient, collapsible, unobtrusive toolbox or drawer that is there when you need it. You don't throw away toolboxes or drawers that you seldom use, especially when they manufacture false information stating they are obsolete because of phony telemetry. That is some Grade-A Incredible dopiness right there. I'm not even sure where he gets "7" items from, or "random selection" or any of his childish assertions. It is a virtual folder pooling links and namespace items and pretty much 99% of everything that exists can be obtained from there if you choose to. But most importantly it is a constant. If you change Desktop Icons, QuickLaunch or Pin-UnPin stuff elsewhere, you always have a constant to fall back on. It comes in exceedingly handy walking someone over the phone to specific items. Remove the constants and all that is left is user customized chaos. I guess that explains why the mind of the MetroTard is so disorganized since they fail to grasp order. No wonder they gravitate to Playskool Metro. It represents taking the Start "drawer" out of the desk and dumping the contents all over the desktop and then spreading them all out one deep and declaring it an organized program launcher. ~barf~. I guess there are really only two kinds of people in the world now, Normal and MetroTards. In the past we could co-exist because the nature of Windows allowed us to remain normal and organized and allowed them to mess things up at will. But now Microsoft has purposefully built Windows 8 and Metro down to the lowest common denominator, MetroTards, and it is becoming clear we cannot exist in the same space. The old saying is don't argue with an idi0t because they'll drag us down to their level and win from experience. But I have always thought to try anyway because something might rub off on them. I may have been wrong. They really appear to be irredeemable narcissistic children. Here are some more appropriate pix for MetroTards like him addressing one of their main tactics ... EDIT: typos, updated image URLs, and again

You got some kind of patience on that thread my friend. If evildictait​or isn't a Moonie Softie, then he should definitely change his avatar to something like this ... EDIT: updated image URLs

If I were the maker of an alternative commercial office applications suite, I'd be budgeting extra advertising $$$ right now. This is the time to pounce, the moment when the shock is biggest. One can hope. I tried LibreOffice recently ( and had a few versions of OpenOffice previously ). I just cannot shake the feeling that it is not ready yet, but that may just be me. Still, I have all the MS Office versions and frankly doubt Microsoft will ever develop something further in Office requiring a purchase of a later version. They'll have to do much more than a fancy ZIP file disguised as an Office .XLSx to get me interested again. Can you believe what has elapsed just in the past year and a half? They have taken their two most important cash cows which just happen to be the two most formidable juggernauts in all personal computer history, Windows and Office and not only destroyed them but simultaneously declared war on their most loyal users! I know I can't believe it. The only thing I remember of this magnitude before was when IBM turned the industry upside down with MCA in the PS/2 and open hostility erupted eventually killing their leadership finally resulting in them selling off the PC division and exiting completely. If you lived in the Apple universe then perhaps Jobs being squeezed out was a large event also. But this one with Microsoft is absolutely stunning to me. It wouldn't be such a big deal if they hadn't first elbowed their way into the OS monopoly and assumed leadership. This is what makes this so distasteful. It is a violation of their position of responsibility and now borders on criminal. I hope some day the tale is written and we learn who were the architects of this disaster. I want names.

Office 2013 EULA prevents users from moving software to another PC ( NeoWin 2013-02-15 ) Office 13 Retail May Be Bound to One PC Forever ( Tom's Hardware 2013-02-14 ) Office 2013 retail licensing change ties suite to specific PC forever ( ComputerWorld 2013-02-15 ) Retail Copies of Office 2013 Are Tied To a Single Computer Forever ( SlashDot 2013-02-13 ) Big changes in Office 2013 and Office 365 test Microsoft customers' loyalty ( Ed Bott 2013-02-15 ) And the fallout is just beginning for Microsoft over their latest blunder which is a clearly cynical stunt aimed at forcing people into Office 364. They really are out of control. This is the all-in strategy, going for the end-zone even as they are only recently out from under the government oversight from around 2000. They are un-handcuffed and unrestrained now and are going whole hog and no-one will tell them otherwise. No wonder they scoffed at over a year's worth of intense criticism about the Start Menu and Metro, they have a huge corporate strategy in place and that was but a small piece of the plan. This should really get interesting, but also very sad because I don't think there is any trace of sanity left up there and we will likely see the end of Microsoft as we knew her in the next couple of years. Windows would have been saved if Microsoft had been broken up many years ago, set aside as a firewalled spin-off company. Can anyone still believe that the OS division isn't completely intertwined with all other aspects of the company now? Do independent developers who do not pay duty and tribute to the Redmond overlords really have a fair shot at the computers that use Windows? If yes, for how much longer? Once the OS is treated the same as an application then it is no longer an operating system, but is a Microsoft software facilitator. Windows 8 and Metro are nothing if not enablers for Microsoft, the company. They are for their benefit alone. In the last link above, Ed Bott is once again battling Paul Thurrott in a steel cage deathmatch for title of World's Foremost MicroZealot ... Well there it is in plain English. Interesting how Microsoft has to get surrogates to clearly spell it out rather than doing it themselves. Maybe they are afraid of Ballmer yelling out: "Subscription! Subscription! Subscription!" Yep, got it. Software pirates will feel the pain, sure. So when all is said and done, will the new evil plan cause more or less piracy? D'oh. Pretty crazy thing to say really, it is self-evident that legitimate owners are going to be negatively impacted, not a chance a pirate will be affected nor would they even care. If anything they will soon multiply in number many times over and probably earn profit selling the same stupid thing that Microsoft used to sell. At the end of the day, just as with Windows 8 they will net gain more ill will than ever before, turning lifelong customers against them. It is so much better to bleed them like stuck pigs, yay, subscription models!. IMHO, this is a very bad trend and is apparently Business 101 at schools now ( Ethics 101 is an elective ), where the concept of a quality one-time product is considered old-fashioned and un-sustainable ( e.g., the vendor that sells crafts he carved by hand, who is directly accountable to the customer ) being replaced with the subscription service idea of money sucked directly out of an account subject to changes later that are non-beneficial to the customer. I believe this used to be called spreadsheet economics where bean-counters sit around stuck in spreadsheets all day juggling numbers by tweaking formulas in cells to "maximize" revenues, the results coming from doing only the easy things: reduced service, quality, warranty, R&D, etc, and all naturally coming at the expense of the customer. The problem is that this business model makes them impervious to customer feedback since the customers are little more than a name heading a row of cells. A "Product" literally becomes the classical "Widget" and what it is happens to be truly irrelevant. The other problem is that the company that goes this route also becomes indistinguishable from all others since it is all a big blur of competing corporate headquarters more interested in Wall Street than Main Street, none having any character or soul, and literally existing only on paper where with a few strokes of a pen the whole structure is re-arranged again, making believe they have changed something and the cycle repeats all over. There is no longer any accountability from company to customer, and this is exactly how they like it. Watch later for employee headcount reduction as a sure sign that the company is suffering from Plan A failure after having run out of "easy things" in their spreadsheet to do. Layoffs, reduction of employee benefits and other frills will get them some temporary headroom in the stock price. After that Ballmer leaves no doubt with all his billions intact while Gates remains and they bring in an external CEO to fix things up who will know nothing at all about the intrinsic problems rooted in Redmond, and the cycle repeats until people figure out the fish rots from the head down. These kind of actions can keep them on life-support for quite a while, in the meantime the computerized world captive to their monopoly continues to suffer at their hands. Welcome to Big Blue, The Next Generation. P.S. A few sites notably absent thus far, PC Mag, The Register and The Verge. But I suspect articles are in the works. Pretty much all the commenters are aghast over this, including commenters even at NeoWin! ... EDIT: updated image URL, and again

Archos Intros Platinum Tablet Line; Two Now, One in April ( Tom's Hardware 2013-02-15 ) Archos was one of the solid alternatives in MP3 players against iPods and Zune and made some cool devices. They appear to be very competent at these form factors and will become yet another hurdle for Microsoft to try to pass up the ladder to marketshare. So this is more bad news for Microsoft and their ridiculous Plan A to Destroy Windows and force everyone into Metro where they will fall hopelessly head-over-heels in love with Windows 8 and abandon all others flocking to everything Ballmer and company have to offer. Nokia to focus on Lumia phones in Barcelona. Windows 8 Pro tablet to follow later? ( Windows Phone Central 2013-02-15 ) This is actually a followup to the upthread Nokia discussion ( Nokia Mistakenly Reveals Lumia Windows RT Tablet ) which Thurrott first noted was a fake. I guess Nokia is trying to avoid making the potential mistake I pointed out ... EDIT: typos

It just so happens that Paul Thurrott has a few articles up where he comments on some of the exact same stories I have recently posted above ( the HP double-cross, Yahoo CEO on Bing, Office 2013 modified EULA ). WinInfo Short Takes: February 15, 2013 ( Thurrott 2013-02-14 ) Okay, I think we have found the absolute pinnacle of MicroZealot statements, no more entries please! Now seriously, who talks like that, unless they are actually on the payroll? What person not on the payroll would be so wrapped up in Microsoft like that? Only the penultimate Fanboy. Really. How dare a competitor of Dell ( especially in light of the Microsoft-Dell deal ) dare to even offer a competing product. Seriously! ... Certified Fanboy-of-the-Decade Award Winner Office 2013 Gotcha: Standalone Products are for One PC Only ( Thurrott 2013-02-14 ) Subtitle ...The standalone versions of Office 2013 aren't necessarily a good value Even most of his commenters are having a tough time with this. Several of them called Microsoft support and got different responses, they're worth a read. Clearly this policy is designed to force people into Office 364, but what does that say about their cynical tactics? I ask any non-Zealot MicroDefenders still left out there: is there anything left that Microsoft can do to get you to wake up and realize they have turned the corner from a software company to simply a huge corporate conglomerate with no concern for any customer and are capable of anything and everything now?

Penguin party: Steam Linux launches with week-long celebration sale ( PC Gamer 2013-02-14 ) Steam for Linux Client Now Available to Download ( Maximum PC 2013-02-14 ) What once seemed impossible has happened, as Gabe promised Steam has gone to Linux with 54 games at launch and with over half of them on sale. If Valve stays on this, over time they will pick off PC Gamers and Xbox customers, those who use Linux whenever possible but grudgingly get an Xbox or PC just for games. It won't be a large net loss of people at first but it will be a net loss ( obviously it does not add any customers into the Microsoft column ). Only Microsoft could have accomplished such a possibility, good work Steve! And yes, in the comments some MicroZealots show up to embarrass themselves. Microsoft CFO Says Company Has No Mobile 'Plan B' ( Tom's Hardware 2013-02-14 ) That's for sure. Let's review the foolproof Plan A: Destroy Windows. Specifically, have some children using the rectangle tool on Microsoft Paint create the Playskool level Microsoft Tiles from gluing together ideas from Xbox, MCE, WP, Windows Gadgets, Active Desktop, Channels, the System Tray and elements of consumer electronic firmware. Then insert it into Windows 7 and rip out all the familiarity like the Start Menu and visual cues, take a sledgehammer to the evolved GUI screen elements like Aero returning it to Windows 1.x amateurism with sharp corners on 256-color shadowless 2D windows and 2-color icons, and for good measure once again randomly re-arrange access to all Windows configuration settings, slap on the name Windows 8 and call it a day. Now take this abomination and announce it as the past future and force it into all possible Windows platforms from phones to tablets, to powerful Servers and Workstations. Now feed it into the monopolized captive OEM channel where they can slip it into the world through attrition instead of by choice. Now stand back as all the hapless victims customers naturally fall hopelessly in love with the old new paradigm, and beat down the doors of Best Buy clamoring for more tiles on even more phones and tablets and computers and soon we will rule the world again! Bwahahahaha in evil voice. Oh wait, what?. ... BTW, isn't it hilarious that "Plan B" is also a name for Emergency Contraception Pills. So they must be telling us they are having this baby mutant whether we want it or not. It's Alive ... Morgan Stanley analyst: Microsoft losing out on billions by not bringing Office to iPad ( NeoWin 2013-02-13 ) This is an interesting thought experiment and quite a pickle for Microsoft ( actual MicroZealot: "...it would be foolish for Microsoft to assist Apple by releasing Office for the iPad." ). Will they do better selling the software direct to the vast Apple ( and other ) Tablet market or keep it in house to try to sell "Windows" tablet hardware. There are way more iPads than there were Macs in the mid-1980's so it should be a no-brainer ( recall that Microsoft sent top-shelf versions of Word and Excel to Apple Macs with WYSIWYG GUI years before the PC had them, or even a functional Windows version ). This is further proof that Microsoft has plain lost its mind and instead of sound business decisions they are making crazy moves that follow no logic. Microsoft, the software company, should be selling all kinds of software for the iPad and other platforms. They have a huge archive of stuff that just needs to be ported and they would be flying out of the stores ( take Flight Simulator for example, a well-known signature game that instead of being further developed was suddenly effectively exterminated, and is but one of numerous titles that should be sold ). Instead of selling software for Apple ( and others ) the would rather try to become Apple. It's that jealousy thing again. ADDED: Thurrott comments ... Nvidia CEO: Windows RT will result in a wonderful PC ( NeoWin 2013-02-13 ) Says the guy manufacturing ARM chips for the Surface RT You gotta wonder why he feels it necessary to say this. Perhaps because orders were reduced? ADDED: Thurrott comments ... "NVIDIA CEO is Delusional" IDC: Windows Phone Q4 2012 sales up 150 percent ( NeoWin 2013-02-13 ) You mean sales are up comparing Q4 2012 ( with WP8 launch ) against Q4 2011 ( WP7x floundering ), hmmm, they couldn't possibly go lower could they? Anyway, at least NeoWin cites some numbers and it must have been painful ... Sorry Charlie, it sure looks they lost on every single front, and without Blackberry even being released until 2013 ( yes, it wasn't even available in Q4 ). So it really is all uphill from here. This was a fool's errand hoping to make gains penetrating the mobile space, and destroying Windows for no good reason at all. Microsoft's Surface Pro Shortage Sham ( Dvorak 2013-02-12 ) Almost forgot this one, now a few days old. Dvorak comments on the obvious marketing stunt with the Surface Pro. EDIT: added stories, added Thurrott comment, updated image URLs, and again

Update of previous update in Post #1788 ... Microsoft wants you to know that Google reads your love letters ( NeoWin 2013-02-14 ) Hmmm. That is at least the 4th 5th 6th story of this nature in short order ... Microsoft slams Google again, warns shoppers not to get "Scroogled” [update] ( NeoWin 2012-11-28 ) Microsoft slams Android on Twitter; response is mixed ( NeoWin 2012-12-05 ) Microsoft's corporate PR head calls out Google PR exec on Twitter ( NeoWin 2012-12-17 ) Microsoft exec slams low Google+ interaction rate ( NeoWin 2013-02-01 ) Microsoft warns: "Don't get Scroogled by Gmail" ( NeoWin 2013-02-07 ) I'm no prude but I see this as very ugly and unprofessional. They hired a DC political hack as hatchet-man ( Microsoft's DC insider could throw the kitchen sink at Google ) charged with doing nothing but attacking Google. Ironically it changes Microsoft into Apple, and Google into Microsoft resulting in a repeat of the past few decades where Apple did this type of nonsense routinely. Furthermore, Microsoft is really asking for it because there are so many things that Google could easily run an ad campaign on, most notably: Microsoft’s Bing uses Google search results—and denies it. Not to mention Microsoft embedding ads in their Windows 8 non-free paid-for operating system, and the vast amount of telemetry it collects such as how many minutes elapse before you modify Metro tiles, install from the app store or use the desktop. This is but the tip of the iceberg of items that Google could publicize, and if they chose to could produce fabulous advertising using Microsoft as the Titanic about to crash into it. Tacky, unprofessional and definitely NOT smart. Added: please don't mistake this for blind support of Google, they lost any chance of that when they collaborated with the Chinese regime on censorship. The fact that Microsoft does not use this as a talking point should tell you something about their likely collaboration with regimes. Also, I would like to encourage Microsoft continue these ugly attacks because it will result in a wonderful public war and I have money invested in popcorn futures. Update of previous update in Post #1854 ... Nokia Mistakenly Reveals Lumia Windows RT Tablet ( Tom's Hardware 2013-02-14 ) Nokia may drop Samsung as parts supplier ( NeoWin 2013-02-14 ) 1st Story ... Nokia makes a harmless mistake? At first glance this does not qualify as a "problem" story about Nokia. But the people reporting believe this new tablet is NOT a Windows 8 model, but a Windows ReTard edition instead. Perhaps they want a piece of all those 700,000 Surface RT sales Seriously, they probably began this project before the RT fail became clear. But now they know, and will have no excuse if the thing ships and dies, especially considering the fact other OEMs scrapped their RT products, and with the x86 Surface Pro finally released which will attract most potential buyers, except for the handful that only care about battery life or for some reason want ARM in particular. The point being, by merely glancing at the list below, one can easily see that Nokia cannot afford many more mistakes. ADDED: Thurrott comments ... "A widely republished photo purporting to show Nokia’s long-expected entry into the Windows 8/RT tablet market is, alas, a fake." 2nd Story ... Nokia makes a not-so-harmless mistake? Samsung is a reportedly a major supplier ( NeoWin: "The maker of the Lumia and Asha phones have relied on Samsung to supply memory chips, displays and other components essential for making smartphones" ) so there must be something going on here since you normally don't burn bridges without reason ( well unless you are Microsoft ). This quote here is what makes me want to hurl ... If it is accurate then the ex-Softie CEO at Nokia is an Academy Award winning hypocrite. The "Firewall" issue is first and foremost applied to Microsoft whose Operating System division supposedly makes a product for the use of all software developers ( that is the definition of an OS and also of a development platform ) but many have long-distrusted and criticized their lack of "separation". I think we can stop making believe now that the OS division serves anyone except Microsoft ( and yes, this is perfectly okay according to fanboys from Generation Xbox ). Nokia stock down 15% following Windows Phone announcements ( NeoWin 2012-09-05 ) Nokia apologizes for misleading Lumia PureView video ( NeoWin 2012-09-06 ) Nokia CEO: "No indications" Microsoft is making its own phone ( NeoWin 2012-10-02 ) Nokia confirms sell off Finland HQ buildings [update] ( NeoWin 2012-10-03 ) Major bank downgrades Nokia again, recommends break-up and sell-off ( NeoWin 2012-10-04 ) Nokia's VP of Product Marketing departs, investors dissapointed with 920 announcement ( NeoWin 2012-10-07 ) AT&T Lumias get reduced battery life estimates ( NeoWin 2012-10-07 ) Nokia reveals Euro pricing for Lumia 920 / 820 and accessories ( NeoWin 2012-10-12 ) Nokia to raise cash by selling its headquarters ( NeoWin 2012-12-04 ) Lawsuit that claimed Nokia lied about Lumia sales resolved ( NeoWin 2012-12-13 ) Nokia may pull out of CES to focus on MWC ( NeoWin 2012-12-18 ) Nokia will be at CES but has "scaled back" for the 2013 show ( NeoWin 2012-12-18 ) Nokia is committed to Windows Phone, full stop ( NeoWin 2013-01-07 ) Nokia accused of $545m tax evasion in India; offices raided in investigation ( NeoWin 2013-01-08 ) Nokia's Asha range outselling Lumias 2:1 ( NeoWin 2013-01-13 ) Nokia slashes another 1000 jobs in Finland ( NeoWin 2013-01-17 ) Nokia sells Oulu campus for $40.8 million ( NeoWin 2013-02-12 ) EDIT: added Thurrott comment

Too time consuming. Out of the question. Take this HDD out, place it into another computer (e.g., as drive D:). From that computer scan it first using MBAM and then with AV (like MSE). Both software should be configured to scan ALL FILES, not just programs and documents. Be prepared to this several times with each software because it cannot be pronounced "safe" until they each come up clean. This can be very time-consuming, on the orders of hours for each scan depending on the size of the HDD and the PATA/SATA, CPU and bus speed of the host computer. Supplemental tasks can be accomplished while you are there, for example emptying out all the temp folders, deleting the pagefile and hibernate file (they will be re-created as needed, but cleanly) and you can also manually target internet cache folders and all other locations where malware might be hiding. This also allows you to remotely edit BOOT.INI and/or replace the boot sector if necessary without interference from the original system. FYI: It helps if you have an alternate computer already setup for these purposes. Certain things need to be tamed to make the mounting of other HDD's painless. For example, telling system restore and disk indexing to not monitor other mounted HDDs ( or just kill the silly things). AutoRun should be disabled for other HDD's so the system doesn't try to run something the root folder of this infected HDD. ADDED: actually AutoRun should only execute if you attach the drive via a IDE/SATA to USB adapter, so naturally ignore this if you connect the HDD internally. EDIT: typos EDIT2: to cjohn ... you might want to encapsulate that virusscan result in Post #3 ( use "Full Editor" ) in SPOILER tags to collapse it which will shorten the vertical height of the page. Some people stop scrolling through those kinds of results once they get too long!

HP working on Android tablet, considering smartphone, too ( TechSpot 2013-02-13 ) I wonder if the pending MicroDell deal is already causing unintended consequences? HP was famously in the Windows 8 camp, playing hardball for their Redmond overlords ( HP won't support Windows 8 to 7 downgrade on consumer PCs ). I'd say maybe they are having a hard time making any real money shipping units with Microsoft Tiles so they are ready to start hedging their bet. Nokia Announces Dual-SIM Asha 310 Smartphone ( Tom's Hardware 2013-02-13 ) Speaking of hedging bets. Nokia knows what sells ( Nokia's Asha range outselling Lumias 2:1 ( NeoWin 2013-01-13 ) ). They are now supposedly shutting down their remaining Symbian units, so what happens at Nokia over the next year with WP vs the Asha "other" phones should tell quite a tale. Office 2013 EULA says the software is bound to one PC forever ( TechSpot 2013-02-13 ) Oh this is gonna go over like a ton of bricks. Hey if you don't like it, tough. Get Office 364. Go to the cloud! This is from TechSpot, it is not yet over at NeoWin. Looking forward to see the creative rationalizations from the MicroZealots. Yahoo CEO: Bing deal isn't working well ( NeoWin 2013-02-13 ) You mean you got snookered? Guess ya should'a took the $45 billion that Ballmer wanted to flush down the toilet buying your company ( okay, I don't think she was CEO yet ). Speaking of MicroZealots, I see a few posts over there snipped for "sexist" language Wanna know why? The Yahoo CEO is female and she made the mistake of criticizing Microsoft. You don't do that and get away with it! So how is your board looking these days Steven? Told ya you have to keep an eye on the children. Microsoft Surface Pro gets worst possible reparability rating from iFixit ( TechSpot 2013-02-13 ) Surface Pro gets autopsied, don't even think about trying to repair it ( NeoWin 2013-02-13 ) The dissection has been done, and no surprise, these laplets are even worse than laptops for accessing components. They are pretty much completely unserviceable throwaway units once the warranty is expired. Can't blame Microsoft here because no-one is going to create one that is accessible. But I am not agreeing with the high-quality arguments after seeing the photos of all the crap on the inside. This is just typical slapped together adequate parts manufactured by the lowest bidder and you are buying the name on the front, Microsoft or Apple. Big whoop. Xbox co-founder says the last five years have been painful to watch ( TechSpot 2013-02-13 ) Former Microsoft Xbox team member slams current state of Xbox 360 ( NeoWin 2013-02-13 ) More Xbox criticisms, this time from an ex-Softie who was present in the early Xbox development ( but left before the product shipped ). He is credited with naming the device. Interesting line about Apple. It mirrors what another ex-Softie Gabe Newell ( from Valve ) has been saying. I'm gonna watch this closely now, because Apple's next move as the iPhone craze dies down should be strategic and I suspect it will come at Microsoft's expense. Also note, as with the previous stories, the MicroZealots are not happy with this latest "attack" on their Saviour. How dare another ex-Softie criticize their prophet! Why does this suddenly remind me of the Jim Jones attacks on the de-programmed escaped cult members when they began talking prior to the mass suicide? EA exec: It's unlikely 'next Xbox' will play Xbox 360 games ( NeoWin 2013-02-13 ) And yet another bit of Xbox news or rumor if you will. This from an Electronic Arts executive that says all new consoles including the next Xbox and Sony's PS will eliminate backwards compatibility ( they are supposedly changing microprocessor families ) and will not provide any form of emulation, meaning that games for the older consoles are dead on the new one. Uggh. Stupid. And transparently self-serving, but also self-defeating because it might just restrain sales of the next release which will impact developer incentive. I am thinking that Gabe and the ex-Softie from the previous stories are onto something by worrying about Apple instead of Microsoft. ( off-topic, and not a story I really wanted to see ... ) Opera switching to Webkit engine in 2013, browser will be based on Chromium ( TechSpot 2013-02-13 ) Opera now has 300 million users; moving to WebKit engine ( NeoWin 2013-02-13 ) Ugggh. I really hope they aren't selling out now. I have all but given up testing Chrome, it is as dumbed down as Windows 8 with respect to configuration and options and is too cloudy for my tastes. Yeah, this change so far only involves the rendering engine, and Chrome's engine gets high marks so a best-case scenario could be constructed that this will help Opera by offloading the added task of constantly working on the guts and will be now free to concentrate on the bells and whistles, but I just am going on instinct and it tells me to worry. ~sigh~ Fingers crossed!

Could Microsoft be working on a full Surface laptop? ( NeoWin 2013-02-12 ) Maybe it occurred to Microsoft that a 10" laplet for $1000 is crazy, therefore they will create a $2000 desklet. Great thinking. Seriously though, cannot wait to see the price point and specs. It will be interesting to compare back to this ... Nokia sells Oulu campus for $40.8 million ( NeoWin 2013-02-12 ) One of the commenters dutifully says: 'But Nokia has returned to profitability!'. Another commenter mentions something that I wasn't aware of: 'While it's true that Nokia returned to profitability in the final quarter, in order to do so it didn't pay a dividend to shareholders - that's the first time in 20yrs' So despite all the countless fluff pieces at NeoWin about Nokia with their Lumias running Microsoft Tiles, these guys are in quite a pickle. They are the foremost example of a company betting everything on Microsoft and its Windows 8 abomination. Just for the record, here are the not-so-positive stories that have also ran just since September just at NeoWin, and the picture ain't pretty ... Nokia stock down 15% following Windows Phone announcements ( NeoWin 2012-09-05 ) Nokia apologizes for misleading Lumia PureView video ( NeoWin 2012-09-06 ) Nokia CEO: "No indications" Microsoft is making its own phone ( NeoWin 2012-10-02 ) Nokia confirms sell off Finland HQ buildings [update] ( NeoWin 2012-10-03 ) Major bank downgrades Nokia again, recommends break-up and sell-off ( NeoWin 2012-10-04 ) Nokia's VP of Product Marketing departs, investors dissapointed with 920 announcement ( NeoWin 2012-10-07 ) AT&T Lumias get reduced battery life estimates ( NeoWin 2012-10-07 ) Nokia reveals Euro pricing for Lumia 920 / 820 and accessories ( NeoWin 2012-10-12 ) Nokia to raise cash by selling its headquarters ( NeoWin 2012-12-04 ) Lawsuit that claimed Nokia lied about Lumia sales resolved ( NeoWin 2012-12-13 ) Nokia may pull out of CES to focus on MWC ( NeoWin 2013-12-18 ) Nokia will be at CES but has "scaled back" for the 2013 show ( NeoWin 2013-12-18 ) Nokia is committed to Windows Phone, full stop ( NeoWin 2013-01-07 ) Nokia accused of $545m tax evasion in India; offices raided in investigation ( NeoWin 2013-01-08 ) Nokia's Asha range outselling Lumias 2:1 ( NeoWin 2013-01-13 ) Nokia slashes another 1000 jobs in Finland ( NeoWin 2013-01-17 ) I would hate to see them go but by allowing a Softie to infiltrate the company like Carl Icahn or someone out of "Wall Street" or "Barbarians at the Gate" I wonder what exactly they were thinking would happen. Ah well. Bet he still gets paid if Nokia assets get sold off at fire sale. Or Microsoft buys it and we see MicroNokia.

Didn't get it. Send another PM please. What, no! Just busy. I got the Sherlock reference naturally. I should point also out that it wasn't just me, some of the Register commenters have picked up on this not-so-veiled Blue=Cloud mystery.

You probably are not aware because you are new here but you are posting on the very forum where nearly all the Win9x "limits" have been demolished already. Browse through the Win9x Forum pages and Windows 9x Member Projects and read the sticky threads also. P.S. Even with no modifications Win9x runs fine well into the 3+GHz range on Pentium 4 single core socket 478 Prescotts and some even have it working on multi-cores although only one is usable. It's more about finding motherboards that have chipset drivers supporting Win9x than CPU model or frequency.

Someone's excited. Can you guess who ... Surface Pro 128 GB Immediately Sells Out. Microsoft confirms that 128 GB Surface Pros are already out of stock (Thurrott 2013-02-09 ) 128 GB Surface Pro already sold out on US Microsoft Store site (NeoWin 2013-02-09 ) Microsoft working to 'replenish supplies' of 128 GB Surface Pro (NeoWin 2013-02-09 ) Microsoft's US Store website now sold out of the 64 GB Surface Pro [update: They're back] (NeoWin 2013-02-09 ) Lines form around the US for the Surface Pro launch (NeoWin 2013-02-09 ) Actually some of the commenters at NeoWin say they called around and found out some stores like Best Buy only had a single unit in stock of each size ( ADDED: read the comments at Thurrott, I almost feel sorry for him ). That is exactly how you can manufacture a success story - limit initial shipments to ensure an immediate sellout. Then replenish the stock and say they are trying to meet demand! It's a no lose scenario. Similar tricks occur in politics. So in reality, release statistics or it didn't happen. If we ever find out the actual numbers then they probably sold some units finally. If not ( remember that Surface RT still hasn't been released, so assume major fail ) then it's dead. This post can be linked backed to later if the truth ever emerges.

Blue, Blue Everywhere ... Is Microsoft making yet another careless mistake reminiscent of the Metro naming fiasco and the missing EU Windows 7 browser ballot? I think so. First, notice the numerous "Blue" stories, here are just a few ... Windows Blue may reach beyond Windows, could be a noteworthy upgrade for Microsoft ( NeoWin 2013-02-07 ) Microsoft needs to keep visible under waves of Blue ... Analysis: New codename, new everything, and not just Windows.... ( UK Register 2013-02-09 ) Big Windows updates may ship this summer – and every summer ... Microsoft's 'Blue' could do away with major releases ( UK Register 2013-02-09 ) Microsoft 'Blue' to encompass Windows 8, Phone, Services and RT ( TechSpot 2013-02-07 ) ... A couple of Register commenters have noticed something I did as well. Lets step through this in order ... <A> We've known all about their cloud services "Azure" since about 3 years now, Wikipedia: Windows Azure ( 2010-02-01 ). <B> Then, almost exactly one year ago we had the new Windows Logo Microsoft Unveils a Brand New Windows Logo ( 2012-02-18 ) where they sacked the 4-color flag in favor of an IBM-like light blue last seen in Windows 1.0. <C> Then we heard of Windows "Blue" a month after Windows 8 launch: Windows Blue is Microsoft's future low-cost OS with yearly updates ( 2012-11-28 ). Now let's review what the color "Azure" actually is. Wikipedia: Azure (color) Obviously: Azure == Blue ( color ) == Cloud Services == Windows "Blue" and other application Updates So it should be pretty simple now to disregard as propaganda the Windows Update called "Blue" and instead associate it with Cloud instead. Perhaps finally the long suspected pushing of subscription models into all their products, in fact I'd say it is patently obvious this is the direction. First they offer both Office Desktop and Office 364, then phase out the workstation software as the company suicide proceeds. Then, take next product, rinse repeat, continue until all products are subscription and all normal users hate their guts. ( Ironically with the crazy pace of Windows releases at almost every 3 years since Win3x, you might say we already have a subscription model, just divide the price by 3 to see what your annual bill already is. The same exact thing can be said for Office obviously in the identical time frame. ) However, this isn't the mistake I was thinking about, though indeed the subscription thing is a mistake. No, the mistake ( also noticed by at least one Register commenter ) is the 3 year ongoing evolution to all things "Blue". IBM owns everything blue, at least in spirit but more likely in copyright as well. Big Blue is IBM, so perhaps Little Blue is Microsoft? The mistake is actually two-fold ... (1) another possible Metro-like trademark infringement, and (2) the obvious bad idea of opening up themselves to all manner of parody - BSOD ( blue screen of death ), Singing the Blues, and even the Titanic sinking in a Blue Ocean, "Code Blue". Okay, I'll start ... EDIT: typos, someone suggested "Code Blue" ( but I lost the reference to credit ), updated image URLs, and again

Dumb question: if I no longer have access to my files, how can I prove that I own them? There is no safer alternative than to keep your own stuff on your own storage media, located in a place controlled by you. Which is why 64GB Surface tablets just don't cut it. Fabulous post People better take note of this stuff, I don't know how you can make it any clearer really. Mis-identified pictures disappearing from Skydrive, suspended accounts, the whole Mega fiasco with countless unrelated sites suddenly locking down access just to be sure. There soon will be no private property, and peer-to-peer communication if allowed will be monitored like a visit to a convict in prison. The cloud is a proxy for traditional server overlords. Your position in that age-old client-server relationship has always been obedience and submission, with a side-order of begging the admin or sysop for favorable treatment. I for one do not welcome our new ( or old ) overlords.

As I type this, it has been snowing for 13 hours and I just measured 12" of snow. According to the latest we are in for another 8 hours and should hit close to 20". The wind is now just kicking up and that is what usually causes falling trees and blackouts. I am hoping we get lucky but I am realistic and will assume power loss at any moment. But thanks for the concern! How much snow did you get? I'm just above NYC and one snow band away from the worst of it ( to the East in Conn and Boston ). Our forecasts (Philly suburbs) were ranging from 3" to 10" depending on who you listened to and when. We ended up getting just over 4" of a dry, powdery snow. But now the wind is blowing hard, so we're putting off shoveling 'til that dies down. Without meaning to jinx it, it sounds like your power has held up so far. Well we got lucky too, but not as lucky as you! It stopped snowing a couple hours after I wrote that, total between 14" ( here ) and 16" ( airport ). The wind blew the stuff around a lot so some people think it was much more than it was. Never thought I would be thankful for only ~15" of snow! Still caused us about 6 hours of shoveling but no power loss

As I type this, it has been snowing for 13 hours and I just measured 12" of snow. According to the latest we are in for another 8 hours and should hit close to 20". The wind is now just kicking up and that is what usually causes falling trees and blackouts. I am hoping we get lucky but I am realistic and will assume power loss at any moment. But thanks for the concern! How much snow did you get? I'm just above NYC and one snow band away from the worst of it ( to the East in Conn and Boston ).

Well said my friend. I believe there are multiple overlapping types of personality disorders we see in these debates whom make up what we call the MicroZealots and MetroTards. One of the most numerous and vocal are the childish Narcissists, forever locked in selfish thought processes that allow them to blurt out things about killing XP, the Start Menu, Aero and all manner of features that "they can do without". This type of person grows up to semi-adulthood and will be the kind that insists on sobriety for everyone else when they stop drinking. The narcissist loves to dictate to others, so naturally something like Windows 8 and Metro sets off their congenital arrogance resulting in chronic MetroTardia. Another personality disorder is that of the terminally Jealous. Many of them are so overcome with Apple-envy and Google-envy it pours out of them at the slightest provocation resulting in Tourette's Syndrome outbursts attacking commenters as being Apple or Google trolls ( ironic because the people that most want to save Windows are neither of those things, but I digress ). Yet another personality disorder is that of the Natural Born Slave. These mental patients have the malleability of silly putty and will often self-identify themselves through comments about us 'being unable to accept the future' or 'unable to adapt' ... ad nauseum. They're especially funny because they would have a nervous breakdown if their kid came home with an Ubuntu disc and changed their Windows machine to Linux thereby exposing their hypocrisy as being resistant to change ( I call this the Mojave'nix Experiment, using the theme of the coffee commercial: 'Shhhh, we've changed his coffee computer to Ubuntu ..." ) In a recent NeoWin article ( GameStop: Gamers won't buy next Xbox if it blocks used games ) they show up and rather than criticize Microsoft for the rumored lock-down of the next Xbox that might thwart the user from re-selling the games they purchase, the MicroSlaves dutifully march in lock-step chanting "Heil Microsoft". There are even more identifiable malcontents making up this unholy alliance of MetroTards and MicroZealots, some are just Softies or wannabe Softies with no common sense or moral compass for when Microsoft oversteps their bounds. And there are even more still. One thing they all have in common is that they didn't learn a thing from Vista, instead hunkering down into a bunker mentality considering everyone but themselves as wrong. There will be much entertainment value to be had from a major Microsoft fail with Windows 8 and Metro and other possible scenarios. Watch their heads explode if Microsoft restores the start menu and desktop to Windows 7 appearance and functionality! Or when Ballmer gets his pink slip. Or if Blackberry beats WP8. Lots of pain in the future for these folks. Now back to this incredible farce. Broadly speaking, at least since the 1970's we have always had three main categories of computers: Servers, Terminals and Workstations, the latter being a hybrid of the former two, rare in the early days but established and quickly advancing to prominence in the 1980's and beyond with IBM, Microsoft and the x86 universe of the "personal computer". Fast forward to today, the only real difference now is that "Terminals" have expanded to becoming "Portable" devices with some added "Workstation" ability ( cue Paul Thurrott trying to replace his workstation with a portable ). The other two categories remain very similar in concept except for being far more powerful. Then --- Now Servers ... Servers Terminals ... Portables Workstations ... Workstations No-one really would have complained if Microsoft specifically targeted "Terminals / Portables" with some creative operating system, even Windows 8 and Metro would have been a fine idea sans the "Windows" label ( "Microsoft Tiles" as the operating system name for portables would have been perfect ). This new product in addition to "Windows Server" and also "Windows Workstation" would be a perfectly logical set of SKUs. However, trying to merge the three different obvious operating systems into one, while falsely describing it as a convenience for the user when it is really only a convenience for Microsoft, is beyond laughable, it is evil. This is the most cynical thing they could have done and it must fail for the good of everybody. Out of reckless desperation they are really pushing all the monopolistic buttons now, it is IMHO a far greater crime than done by the past robber barons as I have repeatedly opined in earlier comments. That's the moral and ethical criticism. But there is also the obvious knuckleheaded implementation of such a crazy idea. I repeat, whatever they wanted to sell as a standalone MetroTard operating system for mobile devices ( Terminals ) would have been just peachy for most of us. But look at some examples of what their ReTard operating system results in when shoehorned into the completely separate issues of Servers and Workstations ... Server 2012 ( original image ) WinZip ( original image ) This is the inevitable result of hammering square pegs into round holes. It is beyond ridiculous now. It is simply ludicrous. Wake up people! You know they are nuts when they make Mac OS look attractive. EDIT: typo, updated image URLs, and again

Here is an article that merits bumping this thread ... AOL dial-up users account for 70% of profit, posts first gains in 8 years ( TechSpot 2013-02-08 ) It describes AOL as still bringing in big bucks from billing customers for ISP access. In it, they reference a two-year old story called 60% of AOL's profits come from misinformed customers. The point mirrors what I mentioned above, AOL used to be an ISP, supplying ad hoc internet access to users using dial-up. Many of these users eventually got broadband from Cable or Fiber or DSL or even Satellite. But AOL still sends their monthly bill ( or charges their credit card ) for ISP services that they no longer perform. Unless the AOL member purposely goes into the "billing information" and changes their plan to "Free" the billing continues even if they never use dial-up again. It is hard to believe but they are still raking in dough from many suckers and apparently governmental institutions are too busy to put a stop to it. If you do not use AOL as your ISP via dial-up, then you should change your "plan" to free. At which point you are only using AOL as an email host. That expense is paid for from the ads they push into the email client ( or web browser ).

Few more articles just popped up at NeoWin so I'd figure I'd mention them before we get wiped out by the snowstorm up here in the Northeast ( looks like we are in for a real bad week and we can expect to lose power for some time ). Wish us luck because we're gonna need it. Update: most recent report has us in for 20" in the next 24 hours, and then 5 degree F temps following that. Ugggh. See you on the other side of this thing, hopefully! Bing falls to #5 search engine, Yandex takes #4 ( NeoWin 2013-02-08 ) Ouch, now that's gonna leave a mark. And after spending a gazillion dollars in Bing advertising and negative attacks on Google. Windows 8 users still want a Start menu and a Facebook app ( NeoWin 2013-02-08 ) Yet another honeypot for MetroTards ( and it's working ). Don't mess with our toys! Want the aero look back in the Windows 8 desktop? Try this program out ( NeoWin 2013-02-08 ) Article about the Aero Glass for Win8 project by bigmuscle right here at MSFN. Someone might want to mention this to him. MetroTards haven't invaded this one yet, but they will. EDIT: typos, latest weather

Paul "The Desktop Must Die" Thurrott is back with yet another milking of the Surface Pro release, this time a real Journey to titled ...Going Pro: Replacing the Desktop: Using the Surface Pro as a desktop replacement proves problematic ( Thurrott 2013-02-07 ) ... where we are treated to the ultimate demonstration of pounding square pegs into round holes - using Microsoft's penultimate super-tablet, the Surface Pro as a replacement workstation. No, really. However, I will give him some real credit for documenting this lost cause, and for being willing to spell out the obvious ways it fails. This is a good summary of the experiment ... He has it right, well, until this very next statement ... Clearly the CPU alone will easily contradict that last sentence, not to mention limitless storage and using a real GPU on a workstation. Surface Pro has so many hardware compromises that it is practically its defining characteristic. In an earlier comment I pointed out the customer-unfriendly decision of using a magnetically connected pen on the side of the chassis rather than a nice internal slot. Little things like this drive me crazy. Another thing is that this Surface Pro shares the same keyboard options as the Surface RT which as noted way back in Post #1204, have their own little crazy problem. And that is even before considering the ReTarded x86 version of the childish Windows 8 operating system. Curiously Thurrott and all others fail to mention the strange selection of 4GB of RAM for the device coupled with 64-bit Windows, of which large RAM amounts was one of the critically important selling points for stopping the presses and leaping into 64-bit in the first place ( in reality it was all about squeezing another Windows sale out of the customer ) which thanks to needless planned obsolescence kills all native 16-bit support and naturally nearly doubles the footprint of the operating system on disk. So why use 64-bit Windows when the hardware ships with just 4GB of RAM? It is the worst combination of choices: Windows 8 and its Metro nightmare, only 4GB of RAM, no 16-bit apps and the largest possible Windows footprint on disk. Some of the other flaws that he does cover are the lack of extra USB ports, small display, lack of docking and many other things that I would NOT expect in the top-of-the-line showcase device meant to shake up the world. The deal-breaker IMHO is that when all is said and done, this is still only a 10.6 inch baby-laptop ( or laplet? ). 10 inches!. I won't even touch a 14-15" inch screen except under gunpoint, so going to 10" and then calling it a laptop replacer, let alone a desktop replacer, is borderline crazy in the literal sense. So he uses his desktop display instead ( and keyboard and everything else ) which already makes the whole purpose of this exercise also crazy, in the literal sense. Square pegs and round holes. Also noteworthy is that he slips into MetroTard mode again ... ~sigh~ This is the result of Microsoft brainwashing - completely reversing all common sense about using the right tool for the job. That is all out the window in the new Microsoft paradigm where any crazy idea is acceptable as long as it results in rationalizing a crazy product. If you need to carve a slot on the head of a standard screw in order to use a phillips head screwdriver by all means do it! Why have cars and trucks on the road if we can just rip out the seats in the car and make believe it's really a truck. ( Insert your own ridiculous example here! ). EDIT: typos

ComScore: Microsoft lost US smartphone market share in December 2012 ( NeoWin 2013-02-07 ) That is a quick spreadsheet I whipped up from the data in their chart ( NeoWin images have a bad habit of disappearing when embedded here ). This represents USA smartphone subscribers for 2012 in Q3 vs Q4. Most notable is that WP8 was for sale for 2/3 of that last quarter during the peak shopping season. The Blackberry of course was not yet available, and still isn't in the USA, so the comparative drops between WP and BB make sense. I would expect 2013 Q1 to be similar and by Q2 BB to start rising versus WP. There really is no way for Windows Phone to ever rise past 3rd place, but most likely the positions of 3rd to 5th or 6th place will be constantly in flux. The math department in Microsoft's front office needs serious work because it just does not add up. Destroying Windows was not called for by any possible reasonable projection for gaining marketshare. Also consider a few previous stories where it was noted that if you merely consider Nokia alone, Microsoft is even losing marketshare there within their very own handpicked surrogate ( "4.4 million Lumia smartphones were sold, along with 9.3 million Asha full-touch handsets and 2.2 million Symbian devices" ). Finally, what if Microsoft somehow took over all the slave labor factories in China and manufactured 150 million phones every quarter going forwards? ( remember: "Samsung sold about 62 million handsets in the quarter, compared with Apple’s 45 million" ). Well, the market would definitely hit saturation and race to the bottom where Microsoft cannot possibly compete for long without bleeding cash. So once again, who can possibly see a scenario where WP becomes anything other than a bit player, never gaining a position of strength enough to be profitable to justify the absolute reckless destruction of their lifeblood "Windows" brand? Microsoft warns: "Don't get Scroogled by Gmail" ( NeoWin 2013-02-07 ) Hmmm. That is at least the 4th 5th story of this nature in short order ... Microsoft exec slams low Google+ interaction rate ( NeoWin 2013-02-01 ) Microsoft's corporate PR head calls out Google PR exec on Twitter ( NeoWin 2012-12-17 ) Microsoft slams Android on Twitter; response is mixed ( NeoWin 2012-12-05 ) Microsoft slams Google again, warns shoppers not to get "Scroogled” [update] ( NeoWin 2012-11-28 ) I'm no prude but I see this as very ugly and unprofessional. They hired a DC political hack as hatchet-man ( Microsoft's DC insider could throw the kitchen sink at Google ) charged with doing nothing but attacking Google. Ironically it changes Microsoft into Apple, and Google into Microsoft resulting in a repeat of the past few decades where Apple did this type of nonsense routinely. Furthermore, Microsoft is really asking for it because there are so many things that Google could easily run an ad campaign on, most notably: Microsoft’s Bing uses Google search results—and denies it. Not to mention Microsoft embedding ads in their Windows 8 non-free paid-for operating system, and the vast amount of telemetry it collects such as how many minutes elapse before you modify Metro tiles, install from the app store or use the desktop. This is but the tip of the iceberg of items that Google could publicize, and if they chose to could produce fabulous advertising using Microsoft as the Titanic about to crash into it. Tacky, unprofessional and definitely NOT smart. Rumor: Microsoft looking into a 2014 Office for Linux release ( NeoWin 2013-02-07 ) Yes, another rumor. Completely believable to me, but NOT to the NeoWhiners in the comments. The reason that this is perfectly logical for Microsoft is because it buys them inexpensive cover from FTC and other governmental scrutiny. If they are ever brought to court or Congress, they conveniently pull out these stories about developing for Linux the same way they did with Apple Mac OS. It is plausible deniability for suckers. Let's see them develop Office for Chrome Then we could say that Microsoft is actually not afraid of competition. I don't mean Office in the cloud, but a native version of Office on Chrome OS, non-cloud living on the HDD ( didn't say it would be easy, but it is possible ) , it would be a killer app and would probably torpedo both Google Docs and Office 364. Ironically, Office Chrome might end up being the most safe and secure version ever released: Google offers $3.14159 million in cash rewards to any hacker who can crack its Chrome operating system. Microsoft Surface Pro launch event in NYC cancelled ( NeoWin 2013-02-07 ) Just saw this story. somehow appropriate speaking of Icebergs and Titanics above. Karma EDIT: typos, added snowstorm article! updated image URL, and again