CharlotteTheHarlot

Ah, well thanks so much for those kind words! But let me tell you that there are incredibly sharp commenters over there already ( look through this thread we were just discussing above ). In fact there are people addressing this Windows 8 fiasco pretty much everywhere. In fact, I would love to find a place that this controversy does not exist, because it really does far surpass the Vista wars just 6 years back. Also, please stick around and don't sell this MSFN forum short, because IMHO it has to be one of the best ( probably the actual best ) moderated forum still going, with zero spam and a very sensible moral code on language and such. There are so many great commenters ( too many to even name ) here at MSFN with such a wide range of expertise that I couldn't really leave if I wanted to. P.S. I do in fact post in other sites on occasion ( different handles of course ). Have been for all too many years now. And thanks again for the nice compliments. ( ~Blushing~ ) Finally, even if important discussions are taking place on different forums, we're only a quick URL link away from each other. EDIT: I should have added that here on MSFN there are developers and regular tinkerers who have done the impossible ( well, according to Microsoft ) like allowing Win9x to address Gigabytes of RAM and Terabytes of HDD space ( or is it now Petabytes? ). There is a lot of real action here.\ EDIT2: if you are still here Formfiller, I have had a chance to read some of the threads at MSDN, TechBroil and [H]ardforum ( like this one ) and you are doing a bang-up job all by yourself and you clearly have more patience with them than I can maintain! )

Haven't had time to check this out yet, but let me ask you where in your opinion that this editor falls in the scheme of things when compared to PFE32 ( very lightweight ASCII text editor), EDXOR ( a little more featured ) and UltraEdit ( full blown programmer package )? Just wondering though, I will get to it eventually. I see they mention "portable" ( no registry I assume ? ) Always in the market for ASCII word processors with special functions, because I find it easier to have two or three different editors open rather than several instances of the same product. YMMV.

Interesting developments tying together two of the recent mini-discussions from above, LCARS and the Windows 8 ruined desktop visuals ... First we need to time travel back to early June ( Post #443 ) where I noted a Register Article in which the comments showed a post from someone claiming significant importance in the design of the Longhorn ( Vista ) GUI. Later I found out he created his own ( seldom updated ) Wordpress blog with three posts about the subject including a re-iteration of the Reg comment. Last week he popped up in a comment at the recently mentioned LCARS thread at NeoWin ( where the OP was wishing for the Windows 9 GUI to become like Star Trek ). Unfortunate comment though because it can only serve to gather criticism, especially from Start Trek fans, but also those that can see through it as a whopper ... LCARS was of course a prop and not a GUI, but a well-made and consistent prop throughout 7 years of TNG, the movies and later spin-offs also. Calling it chromeless misses the point as well as it exists only in our imaginations and if someone wants to play this game you have to assume other events have occurred during the interceding centuries that mitigate feature discoverability, i.e., they are voice-activated leaving the LCARS as mostly an output decoration. This lack of feature discoverability is one of the main criticisms of Metro ( "what do I click?" etc ). Using LCARS as a foil to excuse Windows 8 chromeless guess-what-you-should-do interface is sad really. It is also a fabrication since we are talking about 2007-2010, not 1997 when the series was over or 1987 when it began.. I would love to see this alleged important designer back up that claim, but of course he cannot. Furthermore, if you see some of the LCARS screenshots from the series ( again, they are props, made of illuminated plexiglass, they are art ), but they would still serve a better purpose than the current Windows abomination due to much higher information density ... Shortly after that post on Dec 30, a NeoWin global mod stepped in and took him to the woodshed questioning his credentials. No reply back as yet. I do not want to be seen as piling on the guy, he probably means well but I suspect he is one of many wannabe softies out there who did something for them in the past and is proud of it but mistakes that for importance in the big picture. And besides, why would anyone want to claim a significant part of the current fiasco is beyond me. But back to the main point I want to make. When he offered that comment in the Register ( and on his blog ) last June he said many things, for example that Microsoft was worried about Apple letting the Mac OS be sold for any computer. Well they should worry. That would be the simplest way to take out their Windows cash cow. He also mentioned that WP7 was a pilot program for designs suggested for Blackcomb. The gist of the comment is rationalization which mirrors that of Jensen Harris. Here are the keys points he tried to pass off but are easily seen through as the real problem at Microsoft with the arrogance of believeing it is their right to decide how people work on their computers ... Yep. We're doing it wrong. We are distracted by the chrome. We cannot do our work. I think those of us on the outside should now have a pretty clear view of what kind of thinking is going on in the inside of Microsoft ( employee or not, this is the thinking they attract and nurture ). Nothing is really safe anymore. Anything is subject to change at a moment's notice. They would redesign the proverbial steering wheel if for no other reason than they can. Their rationalizations are lunacy. Telemetry is always popping up in their thinking even though they know full well it is tainted because very few savvy users will leave it enabled. Most importantly they break the cardinal rule of design which is do not fix what is not broken in the first place. No-one I know is demanding that Microsoft turn Windows into version 1.0 again because they are lost in the chrome and cannot see their content. There are far far more complaints that there is a lack of content to bother seeing. Finally, every single complaint is easily bypassed by having settings that enable or disable items in question. Leaving them out is not a sensible option, it is controversial and arrogant and dictatorial. Worrying about battery life and power savings on computers without a battery is simply ridiculous. The mechanism for handling power and performance issues was already in place. This wheel did not need to be re-invented now, did it? ... So Microsoft screwed the pooch once again and are left wondering how much better the reception for Windows 8 would have been if they had not declared war on the Windows desktop and attacked their loyal veterans and proponents in the process. Those that write these rationalizations should ponder this and pat themselves on the back for helping to accelerate the death of what was probably the most important software ever written in the history of computers. Good work guys. EDIT: typo, updated image URLs, and again

They're from Google Images. Funny you bring this up because it reminds me of something else about that Destroying Windows blog post. Recall that the whole point was to drop the bomb on the public about killing the visuals. What Jensen Harris did in that post was show desktop screenshots of Windows 1, and then 3.x and then XP. He did not do the same with Vista and 7, the two immediate predecessors and most directly related to the dropping of Aero Glass and the softer geometry of rounding and shadows and stuff ( there were only a couple of small captures of Aero ). So it was a sleight of hand even in the presentation by avoiding the views of the Vista and 7 desktops. He shows the early yuk versions and of course the Luna Bliss theme with the green and blue which he knows will elicit a "playskool" response from the mSheep peanut gallery ( a theme can be quickly changed, Jensen Harris! Your abomination cannot. ) Normally I would pull the comparison images right from the Microsoft blog post, but their was nothing. Consequently Google Images.

I was just talking about that on another thread. The big announcement came on the official Destroying Windows blog on May 18, 2012. The day that Aero Glass died. Normally these were Sinofsky posts but he left the dirty deed to Jensen Harris that day. Whether that means anything ( perhaps Sinofsky was against it? ) who knows. Until we get some serious journalism that badgers them until they get answers we'll never know. Anyway, that is a very long blog post chock full of crap rationalizations, really it is a marvel of insanity. But the comments are a must read since you get to see the reactions of people around the world as they found out about the sudden amputation of Aero Glass and the forcing of even more flat, blinding, bland, Windows 1.0 level theme elements. This is when they sealed the deal, declaring war on the desktop and their entire history of customization and differentiation, and the anger in the comments is palpable. There are also a bunch of pathetic un-embarrassable fanboys cheering them on for even more ( ' please replace those fancy icons with flat crap! ' ). There are two distinct groups of people in this fight. Those that have taste, class and want customization options and do not want to become mSheep treated like iSheep, and they do not have any desire to dictate other peoples' themes and options either. Then on the other hand, we have the brainless class of user with no-taste that needs and desires to be led around by the nose even having Microsoft selecting their themes and are demanding that they force their tasteless selection on everyone else. I cannot adequately express my anger at these petty little dictators. I would rather have Microsoft crash and burn and go belly-up than allow this nonsense to continue. We cannot allow them to dumb down the entire world in order to please these spoiled children from generation Xbox. P.S. I just noticed that the Microsoft Destroying Windows blog comment section is no longer working in Opera 11.64 ( the page does not completely load ). It just says "Loading...". It works fine in Firefox though. It used to work fine. Can anybody else confirm? Back when that blog post was active many people noticed problems ( mostly on MSIE! hehe ) but now Opera has bit the bullet apparently. Don't try scrubbing the page Microsoft. We have copies. EDIT: typo

Clearly, you and I are simply ill-equipped to recognize the classic beauty of blinding-white sharp-pointed drop-shadowless flattened two-dimensional 8-bit-color windows with typesetting and two-color icon designs ripped off from the bowels of the public subway system. I feel your pain brother, and I watched it in near real-time on that infamous Destroying Windows blog post ( where you tried to knock some sense into their empty skulls ). What an unbelievable mess of rationalizations in that embarrassing post to justify their abrupt shift from a nicely improved GUI back to Windows 1.0 quality amateurish crap. On this New Year's Eve let us all resolve to help shove Windows 8 Metro and all its evil spawn into an early and deep grave.

( missed this one earlier ... ) Thurrott: Dell Urged Microsoft to Reconsider Windows RT Branding ( Windows IT Pro 2012-12-17 ) Paul Thurrott's take on the branding fiasco where Microsoft has willfully chosen to deceive consumers by using the "Windows" brand to describe their Windows ReTard version running on mobile devices under an ARM chipset, which because of the different instruction set cannot run the millions of traditional x86 "Windows" software. The term "Windows" has always meant a platform, it is how it began and with the exception of various Microsoft driven planned obsolescence fiascos has always meant that Windows software runs on a computer that itself runs "Windows". It is simple as that. But not anymore. What do you mean Paul, he lied to your face? Yep. The problem I have with Thurrott is that after all these years he never takes the next step that a real journalist would take. He has enough clout to phone up Sinofsky who has some spare time on his hands and follow up that quote by asking, 'Did you lie to me back then? If not, where is the consumer education?'. But better yet, ask a pointed no-ducking question like: 'Was this intentional false advertising just to get consumers to mistakenly buy this thing?'. Send the questions to Ballmer and Julie too. A real journalist would do this and then post it in the story open-ended or conclusively with: 'Microsoft refuses to respond' or 'Sinofsky has not returned my message asking for clarification'. This is what is maddening about some of these "journalists" like Thurrott. They never really do their job and nothing ever gets settled. That's not how the FTC looks at these things, now is it Paul? And the word you chose is "pragmatic"? Really? How about "deceptive"? With this intentional obfuscation they are skirting the lines of honesty just like late-night TV commercials for male enhancement and magic magnet health bracelets. What does that remind me of? Oh yeah, Snake Oil Salesman, or Used-Car Salesman. The true reason for tying this "RT" to "Windows" is that Windows is 'too-big-to-fail' in their eyes so it should guarantee success. They know that Windows ReTard Edition and Windows 8 itself would die well-deserved epic deaths as separate products, perhaps more sensibly called "Windows Tiles". To avoid that they tied this abomination around "Windows" neck like an albatross and are willfully betting the company on their little toy project. If the Wall Street analysts and their shareholders had any real clue at the madness and recklessness that the current management and board of MSFT were up to, drastic change would be demanded. If that semi-informative blog-post quality article ( published on Windows IT Pro no less ) isn't bad enough, well check out some comments by those that guzzle more kool-aid than even Thurrott can drink ... "I really think this whole confusion issues is blown out of proportion. Sure, MS could have come up with a completely unique name to point out what such devices are meant for, but then they lose the market recognition, which in my opinion, is more important." "Not everyone pays attention but Microsoft has not kept any secrets here. They have been completely clear about the differences between Windows 8 and Windows RT." "I say if people are not smart enough or too lazy to try to understand the differences, then you shouldn't be using a computer. We didn't have confused users back in the 80's because the non-savvy users used paper and penile. ;-)" Nothing about honesty. Nothing about respect for the customer. In fact they show the same contempt for the customer that Redmond does. Softie astroturfing no doubt. Would you buy a used-car from one of these MicroZombies? Of course not. Keep enabling that sake oil. That will really help Microsoft recover from their lost decade. This of course is one of the primary reasons that they changed their EULA which now tries to block any class-action lawsuits.

From The Forums: Windows 9 UI as Star Trek's LCARS ( NeoWin 2012-12-29 ) Funny comment, but his picture is an insult to LCARS, especially with those "e" icons. So no. Just no. Let's not associate Metro with Star Trek please! Even ST:TNG cannot save this Metro nightmare. Microsoft missed its chance to learn from them. It was 1987 and Star Trek TNG was very creative, and Windows was at version 2. Ironically, Microsoft now is in many ways simply recreating Windows from back then. The designers of LCARS set the very definition of originality, many years before anyone used a flat-panel color LCD screen. Let's see a stark comparison ( from earlier ( Post #894 ) comment ) ... Windows 2.0 ( 1987 ) vs. ST:TNG LCARS ( 1987 ) ( originals: 1, 2 ) BTW, people have been adapting LCARS to Windows since the Win9x Plus! era. The many home-made LCARS Windows Themes are really good too ( and there are a surprising amount of LCARS GUI applications around too ). Frankly there is no comparison, the user created themes blow away this Metro joke. Not everybody likes it to be sure but one thing is for certain, they were way more consistent throughout the show than Microsoft has been with Windows 8. More TNG screen screenshots ... EDIT: updated image URLS, and again

Yeah I saw that myself. Quite the fanboy isn't he? I updated that last post with the "news". Personally, I think he was assaulted by the MicroZombies and caved in.

( this is more a WinXP article than MSIE ) Exploit found in Internet Explorer 8; IE9 and 10 not affected [update] ( NeoWin 2012-12-29 ) In summary, MSIE has another zero-day hole. MSIE8 on WinXP. So just don't use it for day-to-day browsing obviously. But wait! They cannot let this opportunity pass to push the agenda to kill WinXP ... No thank you. Isn't that convenient though, an exploit that promotes downgrading from Windows XP to Windows 8. Change operating system to fix MSIE flaws? Ha! How about stop using MSIE. The comments naturally degenerate into a WinXP hate-fest because Generation ReTard cannot tolerate an Operating System designed for use by administrators rather than children. Update 2013-01-03: in case anyone is not aware, the solution is out for that MSIE exploit: KB 2794220

Bill Gates still won't let his children use Apple products ( NeoWin 2012-12-28 ) All kinds of "Yay Bill" and other rationalizations. No-one evens considers the possibility of someone in the position of billg, with the limitless means of billg, simply getting one of each and every make and model of device and comparing them objectively. I mean, he might notice something and phone up the team and say "How come we can't do this or that like so and so?". Actually, if you know anything about the early years with billg you would already know that he has done exactly that in the past and it is part of his legend as being plugged-in to all levels. This alleged no-Apple rule of his might be simply to avert criticism of stealing ideas and whatnot, but it certainly shows a shift to insular and walled-in thinking at the highest levels. Windows 8 Complaints app removed from Windows Store ( NeoWin 2012-12-28 ) And even more insular thinking on display, practically a daily occurrence. In fact they are pretty much batting a thousand at ignoring everyone, racing down a dark road like a drunk driver intent on crashing Microsoft of a steep cliff. UPDATE: turns out Microsoft didn't pull this app, it was the author who as it tuns out is a certifiable MicroLackey ( actually I think he just got scared at hatemail from the fanboy brigade that were apoplectic at the concept of a complaints app. Here is his groveling to the fanboys: "I made the app to generate ad impressions, which it did, with a handful of sarcasm and a pinch of bad judgement. But later decided it was more harm than good in its current form. Microsoft is not an evil company like Apple and Google." Apple and Google activated 17 million devices on Christmas Day ( TechSpot 2012-12-28 ) Now this is a real problem. They have intentionally tied "Microsoft Windows" ( the company, the brand, the franchise ) to their move into the mobile market against all smart advice, in effect betting the farm on mobile market penetration. The absolute best they could possibly hope for was in the low double-digits of percent share against Android, Apple and a few others even though there are crazy projections showing even higher The problem is that the total number of mobile devices is skyrocketing. As that number increases ( and doubles! ), there is a much larger number of Windows devices they need to sell just to keep pace. In other words, a headline like that one just set them way back because they cannot sell enough Surface or Nokia devices to offset this. They are really screwed. The main WP8 phones are now out, the Surface RT is out and treading water, and all they got left is the Surface Pro which will not set the world on fire like some other products have. Microsoft has destroyed what was left of their reputation just to bank a few percentage marketshare in mobile while turning natural allies and longtime veterans of the platform into mortal enemies. It is a dazzling display of colossal ignorance caused by a massive ego with a side order of tone-deaf arrogance. Originally I thought it would take one year to be able to measure the size of this fail. But I am thinking it will be far less, perhaps just one half. This is probably why there is so much talk about Windows "Blue" next summer, they must be working feverishly to salvage something then because by that time this thing will be seen as the epic fail it is. Added: I forgot to mention the obvious. That total percentage of mobile market share is important because it will act as a positive or negative feedback, high percentage means they go to developers and say "Write apps for Windows!", but a low percentage will cripple that effort completely. Some of the commenters in those NeoWin threads keep saying there are hundreds of fart apps for Android but only a few dozen for Windows, implying that means Android sucks and Windows is better. No! It means they are writing these ( admittedly stupid ) apps for other platforms! Doh! Also, where are Microsoft's activation numbers for Christmas day and in total? We know you got them Steve. EDIT: updated 2nd story.

Excellent observation Jorge! I wonder how many people at those Thurrott threads can grasp it. And fanboy-in-chief Thurrott is again barely addressing the problems as usual. I know, the barebones tutorial is unbelievable as it is, but we learned it was INTENTIONAL! They dropped the mSheep into this thing like guinea pigs ... BTW, pOS is one of my favorite names offered by the community to help Microsoft replace Metro. EDIT: added something else

Sorry, Windows Blue won't bring back the Start button ( NeoWin 2012-12-27 ) How about that for a crystal clear glimpse into the mSheep mindset. Listening to the customer means egg on the face! EDIT: updated image URL, and again

FYI, you can just copy the SP1 "file" to the hard drive and execute it directly. This will eliminate any optical read errors that could FUBAR the whole thing, and it is much faster anyway. And yes, the Win SP1 prerequisite thing is a mess. I can confirm that SP1 is not the first file that Automatic Windows Updates will go an download. I did this a few weeks ago. Summary ... Install Win7, copy SP1 file to HDD, execute. Leave the computer offline by yanking the ethernet to see if it insists on downloading stuff outside the local SP1 file. Not sure if it does this but I would NOT be surprised. In fact, yank the ethernet cable right after activation because Automatic Updates ( for me ) started immediately after the final restart while my back was turned!

Windows 8 sales are still [insert your own negative word here] ( NeoWin 2012-12-24 ) See, here's the thing. This is Microsoft''s fault. Here's why ... Knowing that the PC desktop ( and laptop perhaps ) market is saturated ( it took 30 years to get here ), and knowing that sales are flat at least for a while, what you DO NOT do is to give the customer a reason not to buy a computer. It is simple. When the market is shaky because of the fad or trend of smaller devices *and* you are in an extremely bad economy ( that's two clear strikes that even Stevie Wonder Ballmer should be able to see ) you do not take a third strike by voluntarily attacking Windows itself with the most controversial and regressive step back we have yet seen. It was suicide from the beginning, we have said as much a thousand comments ago. I cannot bring myself to feel any pity for them now. They deserve the breadth of this epic fail. In fact, it is necessary to guarantee the future of the x86 universe and also to prevent the devolution of Microsoft into MicroApple. BTW, that is the article title as it appears. It of course upsets the mSheep ... Ooooh, someone is butt-hurt. Children, you gotta love 'em.

I like methodical. If I stuck four new or used optical drives in a row into a computer and they do not get recognized I will then give my full attention to everything other than the drives. Cables can be defective. Ports ( interfaces in this case ) can be blown. A myriad of BIOS settings can be FUBAR. But most common, and the first place to go at this juncture is making sure the jumper matches the cable position ( but also remember what Jaclaz mentioned about Cable Select ). One drive bad can easily happen. Two, I can also accept. Three is Clark. W. Griswold bad luck. Four is getting close to lightning strike chances. Again, this is regardless of new or used since it happens either way in my own experience. Radical human error might be jamming the IDE cable in upside down and having a pin smashed by a keyed filled hole or something else. Of course we both know that the solution is to take these so-called bad drives and drop them in a machine that is working. Also, I didn't mean to imply that there is zero probability of four bad ones in a row, it is definitely non-zero, but I'll stand by Microscopic probability on this one. @coolman, sorry if I missed it, but did you mention the motherboard model and BIOS? Is there any chance of a screenshot of the first BIOS page, the one that shows the hard drive and other IDE positions. P.S. the setting "Silent Boot" mentioned by LoneCrusader can also by worded differently. "Fast Boot". "Intel Logo" ( or Compaq, eMachines etc ) or other phrasing. He is talking about the setting that bypasses the DOS information messages and instead shows nothing or an Intel logo or OEM branding. That DOS screen should show you if it is being detected or if there is some delay as it tries to enumerate it. Anyway, I am not clear on what you tried. I would first try master on secondary channel ( end of 2nd cable ), then slave on secondary channel ( middle connector on 2nd cable ), then slave on primary meaning the same cable as the boot drive ( middle connector again ) if it is physically possible to do this ( tight spaces, etc ). Trying these three possible positions means moving the jumper to match. There is a less probable case that the motherboard is a real fast booter and tries to enumerate the drives before they have a chance to spin up. This can be fixed by setting the memory test to NOT "quick" and while it rolls through all your RAM the hard drives have a chance to complete power-on. If you get my meaning, then you will also understand that you can optionally just warm boot immediately after a bad startup ( optical not recognized ) by immediately doing ALT-F4 and RESTART in Windows. EDIT: wording, typos

Since the Original Poster stated that he went through four drives it pretty much rules out bad drives, period. The odds of this happening four times in a row ( barring radical human error damaging each drive ) are microscopic. The suggestions of drive jumpering makes good sense. And in addition to setting the jumper correctly, don't forget to use the correct cable position. The end is MASTER. The middle is SLAVE. That needs to match the jumpering he decides to use. Have you described the motherboard, CD drive model or Operating System yet? Does the BIOS show the drive as detected? You need to offer more info!

I like that. Nicely done. Although heads on pikes would be the more traditional punishment rather than ID badges ( more effective too ). If I am reading this right, it was posted on YouTube just 3 days ago and it already has 67,746 views and get this, 1,059 Comments. Wow. Looks obvious that the astroturf brigade is out in force. Anyone know what he used for the animation? A newer version of Powerpoint 2010 or 2013 maybe?

I remember that article. Leaving aside the oxymoron in that article title: Photo EXIF evidence points to Windows on ARM before iPad release ( oh yeah, I would bet the farm on those EXIF bytes in an image file surviving the endless assault of harmless photo viewers ), but I still think the same now as I did then and that is: so what's the point? ( not directed at you Rick but at MicroZombies like those in the article that think Metro and Windows 8 is in some way new and thus the feel they must herald this news far and wide ). Anyhow, "Windows" has been on other platforms for ages ( ARM, Alpha, MIPs, PowerPC, Itanium etc ) in its various flavors and families ( NT, CE, Pocket, Mobile ). I mean WP itself is obviously ARM and has been around for a few years. All that hype of WoA was ridiculous. "Hey, we've started something, Windows on ARM!" Really? From what I remember it was on ARM during the Windows 95 era. I guess I just don't get the point of this meme with these Microsoft people like Julie making this iPad comparison ( I also don't get them calling it "Windows" in these ports either, but that's for another discussion). They're like little children: "Look what I did mommy!". It's as if the world has gone crazy.

Thanks for those Thurrott links. It seems that there is a bit of pent-up frustration and backlogged suggestions that was just waiting to get released and Thurrott's suggestions opened the floodgates. Most comments I've seen there in a while ( when he allows comments ). The first link ( Fixing Windows 8, Part 1: App Bar ) is mostly constructive, if half-hearted. By the 2nd link, ( Fixing Windows 8, Part 2: Boot to the Desktop ) the fanboys are no longer amused. And considering that Thurrott is pretty much the definition of that word, when his fanboys get angry and out-do him it becomes a wonder to behold. For example, we have this marvelous exchange ... My, my. What a cute little dictator. I'll use whatever I want. Get it? It is also ironic that baby dictator is arguing with Paul "The Desktop Must Die" Thurrott ( see Post #866 ) The 3rd link, Windows 8: Death by a Thousand Cuts? is also worth reading, but still understated. One problem I see is that Thurrott, like so many of the ignoramuses do not even have a basic understanding of the marketplace and the customers ... Wrong! Apple was not a competitor to Vista, Nor was it a competitor to any version of Windows. We cannot choose the Mac OS unless we are talking hackintosh, and that is no option at all. Get it through your heads, Vista's competition was Windows XP, and it lost that battle. The problem here is that these MicroZombies in their obsessive-compulsive Apple-envy have succumbed to a mental illness. It is a very convenient mental illness because it allows them to completely ignore all previous version of Windows ( the only true alternative available to the customer, thus the only true competition ) thereby escaping any significant and meaningful actual comparison of the new Windows they are promoting. In short, by using Apple as a foil they get to avoid constructive and genuine criticism of their baby. I found this one little bit interesting though as it expands upon our discussion above ( Post #1373 ) ... ... Almost sounds like an admonishment, telling them to shut their yaps before their habitual need to lie gets them into trouble. That crazy meme they are pushing ( Metro precedes the iPad ) will not fly in this day and age of instant and permanent communication. That 3rd link also gives us a taste of the mindset of those that are threatened by the slightest criticism of their little playskool OS ... Actually it is you MicroZombie who is unhinged. And you are unhinged at the most minor of criticisms by a life-long Microsoft shill. You are a perfect representative of the hordes of enablers that have ruined Windows, Microsoft itself, and other companies with their own ruined products. The ability to listen to criticism ( not a chance ) and learn from it ( impossible ) is your problem. Enjoy this fail, you have earned it. Lots of us are going to have fun rubbing your noses into it. EDIT: next installment is now up: Fixing Windows 8, Part 3: Start Screen

Seriously, replace the optical drive. Probably less than $20 new but people are throwing them out like crazy. Should easily get one for free if you look around. ADDED:, as tomasz86 says, you can copy the CDROM to a directory on a HDD and run setup from there in DOS after booting from a newly formatted HDD or a startup floppy.

Speaking of MSIE, There are moments when Microsoft comes dangerously close to telling the truth ... Microsoft prepares for the Mayan apocalypse with IE10 campaign ( NeoWin 2012-12-20 ) Well, the truth in the sense that they are at least half right by referencing the sordid past of MSIE. Whether they have learned anything, it is way too soon to tell. Example Images from this page ... Blackberry 10 defeats Windows Phone 8 in browser face off! ( NeoWin 2012-12-20 ) Oh nevermind. I have just learned in the NeoWin comments that benchmarks don't really mean anything after all. Google contemplating a $99 Nexus 7 ( NeoWin 2012-12-20 ) This would begin quite a flood of low-priced, high-volume consumer appliances. Let the bloodletting begin. So much for Microsoft getting a meaningful percentage of that mobile space. Couple this with the many other rumors of numerous new really cheap phones from a variety of vendors and re-sellers and there is a good chance that Microsoft will gain nothing numerically in total percentage after all is said and done. The sacrifice of the Windows brand reputation will have been all for naught. Great thinking guys. My disgraceful Microsoft Surface experience at Best Buy ( Microsoft-News.com 2012-12-19 ) ( from a new site I never heard of before yesterday that was mentioned at The Verge ). The author, a Microsoft Fanboy, describes in detail with photos a visit to Best Buy to scope out the Surface in person. He was not happy with the half-hearted presentation compared to Apple and other products. It appears that simply releasing them to the big box stores is not enough, they will need to go the extra mile in creativity and slickness if they want to penetrate other products' turf. In this case they just phoned it in. His disappointment makes for a fun read. Get used to it. Pokki has had 500,000 downloads of its Windows 8 Start menu program ( NeoWin 2012-12-20 ) Not the kind of news that will make the NeoWin commenters very happy. Let me share with you the wisdom from one of the geniuses: "This kinds of software are really bad for innovation, I hope Microsoft will do something about it.". What is interesting ( and you might want to mention this in the Start Menu Replacements thread Jorge ) is that they ( Pokki ) are clearly gathering their own telemetry. That would be a dealbreaker for me if I was using it ( it is not a free app ). Regardless, as one of the sane commenters points out, when you consider the other alternatives like Classic Shell ( someone says 2.5 million, perhaps XpClient can verify ) there are a lot of installs of Start Menu replacers into the turd called Windows 8. Microsoft: FBR Slices Estimates On Soft Windows 8 Debut ( Forbes 2012-12-20 ) Don't shoot the messenger. BTW, I'm not sure it will pass Vista after one year, or ever. EDIT: add another link

Windows 8: So easy, a child will show you how to use it ( NeoWin 2012-12-19 ) ~sigh~ Another Mojave moment complete with a video of a child demonstrating Windows 8. That patented arrogance and knee-jerk need to insult their customers shows up again. Pathetic. Dear Microsoft, no-one says Windows 8 is difficult. They in fact say it is for children. Clearly It was designed for children, written by children, managed by children if some of these petty Apple-esqe fiascos of the past couple of weeks are any indicator. Unlike the Windows XP default theme which you now criticize and deride as Fisher-Price, this whole thing is Playskool. Of course a child would be a perfect demonstrator at a Microsoft booth. You are completely hopeless.

Every time I write about using Opera there is a part of me that says back to me: "Shhhh, stop mentioning it, it's a secret!" for fear that they might get as popular as Firefox or Chrome. At which point they would change to pleasing the masses and the security will suffer as the attacks increase. I can't prove it but I would bet that successful malware attacks are proportional to overall usage statistics. So I am hoping that Opera stays in the niche zone of a few percent ( normal computers, they have made real gains in the mobile space ) total usage. And let's keep praying that Facebook does not gobble them up.

Well this story about Dell asking that Microsoft not use "Windows" in the naming of Windows RT has been around for over a week now but here is a little bit more ... Dell Warned Microsoft Over Windows RT Branding, Claims Dell Executive ( Maximum PC 2012-12-18 ) Ballmer's quote is bad enough, and shows that he has no respect for the "Windows" brand by tying ARM and RT around its neck like an albatross ... "That was that." What a ridiculous thought process which occurs in that buffon's head. No-one said to drop it. They said be accurate. Be honest. Have these concepts ever crossed your mind? Then, one of the Dell dummies chimes in ... Actually it would solve the problem liar. More importantly it would be the right thing to do, and the honest thing to do. What you are rationalizing is obfuscation, the blurring of the definitions. Not only is it not even "Windows" in the proper plural sense, but it is as crazy as using "Windows CE" for MIPS or ARM. Except that this time the product is generally available to people that do not know the difference. Snake Oil or Used Car salesman are more honest. None of these fools should be allowed to go near the product called "Windows". They will only destroy it.