CharlotteTheHarlot

Back to Windows Updates for a second because it is at the root of more than a few problems these days. Sometimes they fail to complete, or need a reboot, or spend an hour completing after a reboot. Sometimes they break things. Obviously updates may or may not cause problems, but I just cannot wrap my mind around how an ever-changing code base ( including system files ) is a sign of stability. And I consider it a coin toss as to whether it is a sign of security. I do in fact download the Windows XP updates through the various sites that list the post-SP3 files, and archive them on another computer for safekeeping ( we all should be doing this since they may become unavailable later ). This computer though really has none of them applied for several years. I do update certain files when I need them, stuff like Msvc*.dll. I have only noticed one thing that has become broken, .NET 4.0 which I installed years ago and perhaps some required update since then is now needed because some apps stopped working. It is just not important enough for me to dig into at the moment on an expendable computer. But the "critical" security updates are definitely not applied, ever. Not since 2009 or 2010. Many of them are associated with MSIE and Active-X and the Windows MSHTML DLL so they are inconsequential to Opera in the first place. BTW, to followup details on my last post, this one is Opera v11.64. Java is enabled ( v6 u30 ) and so is Javascript and all the plugins. Those weird Opera Turbo and Link ( or Sync or whatever ) I disabled when they first were released. Flash is working but is a little out of date since I have been dismissing the update nag for a few months since I heard of some problem in one of Adobe's updates. I'll probably get to it next year. I am using one of the common *ad* blocking lists in the Blocked Content thingie. Actually I have needed to remove a few of the entries since they blocked pages with "ad" in the URL, so my blacklist filter is actually less effective than what most people on Opera actually use ( this is because of that PITA blocked content dialog which still does not have an "Allow This Page" button for when a URL has "ad" in the page name, so you need to either cancel viewing the page or immediately edit the filter. There are actually many little quirks like that in Opera that bug me, but I have used it since version 2 so I am familiar with them. Finally, I made Opera the default browser on this computer so all saved webpages open in Opera. Note, since this occurs, any program that invokes a webpage for F1 help ( far too many IMHO ) get intercepted by Opera ( though a few hardcode MSIE and still open that instead ). This is probably a level of increased security in total. I definitely don't, and won't use real-time AV again under any circumstances, even if they were proven 100% effective. The trade-off of performance for security I would never accept even at 100% guaranteed. Andt since they are nowhere near 100%, and every single one in existence still comes to me and other techs thoroughly infected, there is no way I can justify ever using them myself at all. Don't get me wrong though. I set up computers for average users and always enable it so I don't get blamed when they click on something stupid. They will do this, they always will no matter what you explain to them or teach them, so it is my insurance policy. Is Opera the most secure? I really cannot say. Opera has some killer native popup blocking for many years so they really do know what they are doing there. They did it first, and it is practically perfect. When I open the odd page in Firefox I do see a popup now and then ( I have added nothing to FF that I can recall ). This popup blocker in Opera is probably one of the first lines of defense in its arsenal I believe. Popups are where the n00bs always get nailed ( "Important Security Notification, click here!" ). Opera uses discrete files for its settings and all stored data, not the registry like MSIE. This likely has enhanced their protection as well. I have never even heard of a home page hijack on Opera, but it is always the first thing to go in MSIE since these things are plopped right in the registry. Most of those Opera files are INI style configs, some are XML. Since I have been using it for so long, I have edited many of its files along the way and always try to forward port them every time I use a newer version, even the main Opera*.ini files. Consequently, I may have inadvertently added to the security by keeping entries from way back in the day when we all edited these files by hand and there was no ABOUT:CONFIG or even an Opera forum. I would have to experiment with a fresh new default install to see if there really is a difference, but I have no time for that at the moment. There is more to it than this of course, more than I know. Look at their forums and dev pages for hard details. But overall I would describe it as a form of security through obscurity because they do most things different than the MSIE method, so it almost qualifies as a quasi-sandbox or VM since the standard modes of attack are aiming at the wrong places. Obviously I cannot speak to whether Firefox is interchangeable with Opera ( i.e., using it 99% of the time ) and whether the same protection would result. For this I would need to reverse the two and spend ten more years experimenting. This is a job for someone else. Should someone want to do this, I would suggest the first step is to get behind a NAT router and spend an hour going through all the settings and lock it down tight ( and Google a forum dedicated to the exact model and learn from the experiences of others ). Once it is secure, getting behind a browser other than MSIE should be sufficient for most expert level users to survive forever, even without a CPU-slaughtering realtime antivirus. We are lucky to be in an era where disk prices are so low that no-one has any excuse not to have a set of spare HDDs stashed on the shelf. Grab one, clone your existing OS and use that spare HDD to experiment and you will have nothing to lose. You can always pop the original one right back in and pick up right from there later without missing a beat. To test whether this leaner solution can work for you, disable the AV, or better yet, remove it by the roots. Disable the Windows Updates and stop using MSIE ( and change the default browser to your choice ) and check that the router is configured properly. Now continue browsing and surfing as normal and see if things remain okay. P.S. I usually suggest using a separate HDD ( while removing the original ) rather than a separate cloned partition on the same HDD because the meaning of a controlled experiment is lost on so many people these days. They are tempted to cross-pollinate across the "drives" anyway for whatever reason ( "well I got room there for this file..." ). Not to mention the fact that should the primary partition somehow get infected, you want 100% assurance that is cannot infect other partitions, this is impossible unless they are well-hidden. The only way to really be sure is to not power-up the other HDD in the first place. It cannot be infected when it is sitting on the shelf.

Well I'm pretty much gonna need some insulin after overloading on all that sugar coating. I cannot comment on the accuracy, I'll leave that for those in Enterprise IT. Let me just say that it sounds like a lotta marketdroid nonsense. Here is a real loaded sentence in the Forrester research ... That is my emphasis ( and IMHO ) on their pre-positioning of MSIE as modern browser and the competition ( Chrome? ) as nonstandard browsers, and juxtaposing them on opposite sides of the word "or" . That is plain laughable considering that the most mainstream ( MSIE ) has been the least "standard" over the past decade while the most obscure ( Opera ) has usually been the most "standard". I tried reading it, but I really can't stomach it. I suspect everything that follows such an Executive Summary will be nothing but confirmation bias. Over on the Microsoft page "Ten Reasons Why Internet Explorer 10 is Best for Business" we see their Pavlovian need to immediately and obediently succumb to the meme and market drivel with the first two being #1 Fast and #2 Fluid ( NB: Diarrhea is also fast and fluid, and like Ballmer is circling the drain ). What do those words even mean anyway? Nothing. Market drivel. Then they have three whoppers full of chutzpah ... Reason #6, Safer ( we are supposedly talking about MSIE right? ), I'd say this is dangerously close to Seinfeld material. I'm not even sure if this is a gag now, perhaps it is April 1 on some calendar somewhere? Reason #8, Compatibility and migration support cites "preserves development investments with emulation for IE9, IE8, IE7, and “quirks” modes" while leaving out the high-profile MSIE6 lurch that these same corporates are trying to now correct. Yeah, they should trust Microsoft to never use planned obsolescence against them again ( or to release a buggy browser in the first place ). Reason #9, Support for modern standards ( what is it with the word modern anyway? How about standards, period ). Microsoft speaking about web browser adherrance to standards is like a partially reformed alcoholic lecturing us on drinking. Those five reasons right there expose this whole Forrester-Microsoft thing as a staged setup for Windows 8 and MSIE, an exercise in publicity that only P.T. Barnum could appreciate.

Purely out of chance, the machine I am on has evolved into the front-facing sacrificial lamb to the evil gods of internet malfeasance. Windows Update is disabled. I haven't even manually ran the update scan in over two years. It is of course behind a router. The Windows Firewall is running ( the XP inbound-only firewall ) but I'd bet I could even kill that without consequence. I am using Opera 99% of the time (version 11.something ), and Firefox for the odd pages and things that cause hiccups. MSIE is very rarely used. And here is the kicker ... It is an Administrator account. ~shudder~ There is no anti-virus ( except for on-demand scan of folders and drives now and then, not because I am infected, but for the odd client devices I am working with ). This computer visits the darkest, deepest and most dangerous corners of the web too. No bull. No drive-by scripts have ever compromised it. No local files have caused problems and believe me I test a whole lot of crap. Try as I may, I cannot think of something that a critical Windows Update would need to fix as far as security that would affect anything positively. I would expect things might get broken by allowing Microsoft to just keep patching system files over and over again though. I always wondered how an ever-changing codebase can be considered "stable" but that's just me I guess. Anyway. I have always maintained that a properly configured Router + Opera is the first line of protection. It definitely works for me. However, I have a never-ending stream of infected computers being brought in for repair and it is always one or both of those ( Router + Opera ) that are missing. They always have Windows Updates on automatic so they are up-to-date, and they have a variety of realtime antivirus programs ( murdering the performance naturally ). Yet still they show up in various states of disarray. Go figure. If you have a spare computer ( or even a HDD with space for a clone of your OS ) just try it. EDIT: wanted to mention: 'We are screwed!' Fonts eat a bullet in Microsoft security patch ( UK Register 2012-12-17 )

Interest for Surface RT Dropped After Launch, Study Reveals ( Tom's Hardware 2012-12-17 ) Now we know why the sudden jump to retail stores, huh? Yet another ridiculous idea ( to sell only in Microsoft Stores and online ) that needed reversal. Try as I may, I just cannot think of a wise decision out of Redmond in a very long while, but we can whip up a giant list of turds starting with the Start Menu removal. It is evidence of supreme arrogance allowing that one to remain in place to this very day. Microsoft's corporate PR head calls out Google PR exec on Twitter ( NeoWin 2012-12-17 ) Add this to the growing list of inexplicable and irrational Apple-esque actions by Microsoft. If you read through this one ( which exceeds the chutzpah in the Scroogle and Android malware controversies ) you may question whether this company is actually self-destructing. Ballmer Could Be Out if Windows 8 Tanks, Analysts Say ( Tom's Hardware 2012-12-17 ) Pretty obvious if you ask me. As mentioned above there is quite a list of unprofessional tactical actions under Ballmer, and a longer list of technical and strategic decisions that would have already claimed the head of anyone except for a near-founding member of Microsoft. I think back a few years ( okay, actually had to check Wikipedia ) to the thing that almost occurred that would have sunk Microsoft for sure: "In February 2008, Microsoft Corporation made an unsolicited bid to acquire Yahoo for USD $44.6 billion.", but for the unbelievable negative response from Yahoo!, Microsoft would now be over, taking on more water than HP, Nokia, and RIM combined and most likely be out of money. Ballmer would have never survived that of course but isn't it interesting that he is still there even though such an outrageous offer was green-lit by him? It showed the extraordinary un-professionalism of letting their Google-envy cloud their judgment, and their duty as operators of this publicly traded company. The fact that he is still there, as well as whatever Board members who also went along with that speaks volumes about the efficacy of this company.

Flashback upthread to Sinofsky's Black Tuesday ( Post #1292 ) ... Hehe. They're now below that. P.S. I'm not laughing at anyone that may be in MSFT ( I think you said you had some yourself Jorge ), I'm just laughing at the company itself because I can only imagine the heat that the Board is getting behind the scenes because of the huge amount of funds and trusts holding MSFT in their portfolios. Certainly it has a lot of growth potential at this very low price. However, that is offset by the potential problem that there are probably a lot of people planning to jump out of MSFT only waiting their sell price which itself creates an impedance so it truly may never rise. When you look at other mis-managed companies like HP, it moved from $30 to $15 in just the last year so this is a real tough nut to crack. On the bright side, it has been this way ever since Ballmer was promoted and even though the big hit ( Post #731 ) was the fault of the DoJ and not his, perception is reality, so when he gets removed it might just skyrocket, rightly or wrongly.

You completely had me until that! Well played!

Some faint praise highlighted at NeoWin ... Business app developer: "We are doing great on Windows 8" ( NeoWin 2012-12-14 ) Hmmmm. Okay. I like this next line from the NeoWin author ... Stop the presses! They have cracked the dual-tasking barrier! And what a cracked barrier that is. Angry Birds can stay on screen while I glance at my business app. ( "The Human Race is Doomed" --Jaclaz ) Favorite comment so far: "The beatings will continue until moral improves..."

The story that everyone mentioned above is this ... The Woman Charged With Making Windows 8 Succeed ( MIT Technology Review 2012-12-13 ) ... also discussed here ... New Windows chief explains why Microsoft redesigned Windows ( TechSpot 2012-12-14 ) New Windows Division head discusses why Windows interface was overhauled, more ( NeoWin 2012-12-14 ) and there is a related referenced article here ... Microsoft Has Been Watching, and It Says You’re Getting Used to Windows 8 ( MIT Technology Review 2012-12-14 ) Considering we are talking about Windows which has a legendary association with a rock intimately tied to the Start Menu, well it is perfectly logical that another Stones song is associated with Windows 8. A pile of Lies! Leaving aside the astoundingly pathetic garbage about telemetry, itself a massive whopper of a lie ( there are countless other parts of Windows that receive less clicks than the Start Menu, no-one can argue this ), the worst part is that they simply cannot tell the truth, and that is that this was intentional manipulation of the customer, like a sheepdog corraling the herd along a path to the shearing factory. Or did she slip and really mention the truth after all? Here is an admission of intentional manipulation ( from the last link above ) ... Whoa honey. You admit Windows users are now guinea pigs? Beta testers? I've often said they have nothing but contempt for the average Windows user, and this pretty much proves it. Nice. Back to the original article for some of her patented absurdity ... WTF! Did she just describe the traditional Windows user as running some program, then closing it, running the next, closing it, etc? That's what she thinks we have quad-cores and a gazillion programs for? Holy crap! She is saying that we are the single-taskers! She believes we are the ones that operate serially like an Instruction Pointer, not the Metro tablet Angry Bird fanboys who bounce from Facebook to Twitter! That is so **** insulting I'm mad enough to chew Neutronium ( that's for real old-timers ). Uh huh. What about ergonomics again? Nevermind, that is beyond her pay grade. But how about her assumption that the slight abstraction of pushing a mouse is "in-direct" and that we are so stupid we need to remove that abstraction and "directly" push pixels directly on the screen ( which is also an abstraction, DOH! ). An admission that she herself is no more than a simple content consumer. Angry Birds or Flying Pigs is her actual skill set. And her plan is to convert the Windows user base into a vast world of numbskulls like herself. The future of MicroApple exposed. Who believes that? What a load of crap. See above. There were only Windows 8 mockups in "early 2010" and the iPad came out in March 2010. There is no way that she and Sinofsky did not see an iPad before "we had this design ready to go." Those were mockups. No code. Mockups. Disclaimer: I couldn't care less about the iPad. Don't have one, never will. I care about lies. She actually meant to say: "We didn’t want you to have to make a choice. ". There s that patented Microsoft arrogance once again. That is an accidental slip of the truth. What they don't use is the data that contradicts their arrogant contemptuous opinion of their herds of mSheep. Anything that shows the usage of the traditional NON-Apple power-user goes to the bit-bucket. The mSheep that stick to the program gets cited as confirmation bias in their quest to morph themselves into MicroApple. There's more to this interview but that is about as much as I can personally stomach without gouging my eyes out with a spork. I can see exactly why the softies and ex-softies cannot stand this "executive". I pity those folks stuck with her. Keeping with the Stones theme, I think there is another Stones for this lady which from I read could be her theme song up in Redmond.EDIT: typos, fixed links

No question that Nemulator has Metro beat by a mile. We have Jensen Harris admitting that it was early 2010 that they created mockups. IMHO the author of Nemulator could own Microsoft if he wants. That is, unless the Xbox dashboard is considered which makes things considerably more complicated. But I guess that would be for a jury to decide. If there is a God, that trial would be televised and Steve Ballmer would be the first witness to be sworn in, followed by Sinofsky. With just the right amount of pushing, old fathead would melt-down and the nightmare would be conclusively over.

You are probably having difficulty copying vector graphics ( scalable images ). Raster images ( bitmaps ) should be able to be copied ( I think ) unless they have some security. Anyway, rather than installing some PDF specific utility and learning the quirks it might be better for your own sanity to just hit Print Screen ( copies the current display to the clipboard ), open up a photo-editor and crop the image you want. This way, you don't care if the source is raster or vector. Just be sure to first enlarge or maximize the PDF window and set the zoom so that the graphic appears on the screen in the size that you ultimately need. Then when you hit Print-Screen you have a bitmap that just needs cropping without any re-sizing. Copy that and then paste it where you need it. Remember to credit the author though!

Clever image! Maybe the thing was designed in the Southern Hemisphere where as we know, everything is done backwards and upside-down ( or is it counter-clockwise, I can never remember ). So if down-under they use the built-in camera to take a picture of the moon, they can flip the Surface upside-down like a laptop and the moon will look like ours? /sarc

That IEEE piece is a good article that expands upon the earlier Nielson comments on the GUI, but I think they are approaching it from the wrong angle IMHO. The key problem is not really being addressed in these articles at all because most of these experts approach Windows 8 as a new product. These critiques start from the proposition of how to design an OS that handles both scenarios - power-unlimited desktop with big screen space and power-limited mobile with tiny screen space. And does this product successfully accomplish this. That is a false start because the former scenario ( unlimited-power large-screen desktop ) was already handled and only required minor tweaking ( or nothing at all ) to keep the 700 million or 1.3 billion users happy. It was already done! It already exists on those 700 million or 1.3 billion installations. So they said "hmmm, there's this popular thing called mobile, let's redesign everything to accomodate it". The problem with this short-sighted ( and in this case, late ) thinking is that there are many opportunities to make this mistake yet they mostly avoided it. For example, before the web and in the early days of the web, FTP was all the rage. Many people lived in this environment exclusively. Before that, and overlapping it was USENET and company intranets loosely linked through Compuserve and other access points. One could easily see this current brainless management saying "redesign Windows to be like an FTP program, or as Newsgroup reader". Really they kinda took a similar step a little later towards the new WWW when Windows 98 came out and they showed their desire to blur the differences between online and offline, but not fully. Other similar trends are Twitter or Facebook and one wonders if they have this up their sleeve to morph into Facebook later. The point is that chasing trends or worse, fads, is ridiculous. And I am talking about redesigning everything around a trend or fad ( Microsoft Store ) rather than just addressing it sensibly. Ironically, what they decided to finally do on the mobile side could in fact have been a fresh start if they chose too, but actually it is just a slight variation of earlier WP anyway. So they iterated the WP GUI and then inexplicably and mercilessly attacked the traditional already-working desktop GUI. Then glued them together and called it a day. Yay. Truly, we had it nailed way upthread long ago by pointing out that the Metro interface just needed to be dropped in as an application like Media Center. But instead of that excellent solution, more nefarious motives ( pardon the pun ) surfaced, the arrogant need to force their "vision" and their Store onto their monopoly victims worldwide. So, they have managed to antagonize and alienate all segments of their customer base: Developers, Users, and Corporations. All this to simply gain a few percentage points ( eventually, but not yet ) in the mobile space. That is more than a gamble, that is pathologically reckless.

Rainmeter is hardcore FTW ( as the kids might say ). Seriously amazing creations are possible. They fully exploited the Vista+ concept of gadgets ( really one of the prototypes for Live Tiles ) and the even older concept of themes, resulting in a fusion of these ideas into super-themes. And it works on WinXP also.

When you Windiff the filelists you should get the file locations, dates/times in addition to the sizes, but they are not showing there. Can you confirm that the DIR filelists are complete? Without seeing the filepaths I will assume that this is activity under _Restore directory. Was this a "Save" or "Restore" operation? I am going to guess it is a "Save" because the user registry hive is larger "after" the operation. So I guess these files you list were saved to the _Restore directory? But it did not save the System hive which is very important IMHO. Actually I don't see any system file changes at all. At the minimum, a System Restore should save both ( on Win98 ) or all three ( WinME ) registry hives, as well as key files like SYSTEM.INI, WIN.INI, and it should be able to do quite a few more like VMM32.VXD just for an example. We could crowd source a nice complete list, but I thought that the WinME System Restore already had it built-in.

Tihiy, this project has been written about in the following article ... Disable the new Windows 8 interface for good with Ex7ForW8 ( BetaNews 2012-12-11 ) All in all a favorable article. The comments of course turn a bit feisty when fanboys show up to cause trouble because you are ruining their Apple-esque dreams.

Apropos of alleged sales numbers vs website usage statistics ... Surface makes a small blip on the web traffic radar ( NeoWin 2012-12-11 ) That is a decimal point there in that 0.13 % or less than one seventh of one percent. Yeah, it doesn't mean much now. And there is no doubt that Windows 8 ( of which Surface represents only a subset ) itself will chart eventually. I mean how can it not? The user market is much larger now than six years ago, and they are literally forcing it into the world through the OEM channels ( again ). Plus, now we have billions of phones also. The real question is whether it will get as high as Vista did ( I believe it was 20% at it's peak ) before the bottom drops out once and for all. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_market_share ... 2012-12-12 ... Windows 7 = 41.35% ... Windows XP = 21.29% ... Windows 8 = 0.32% I wonder if it will ever even pass Windows XP. We should check back periodically and compare the current numbers to this snapshot December 12, 2012. ... Hey! 12-12-12 using two-digit years! This annual number anomaly must be important to somebody out there. ...

Funny you should mention that. I actually did the same thing with Picasso ( and another for Dali ). They are static though, no flash, just bitmaps. And they are big. Never had the urge to touch Shakespeare though. Yeah, CHM is a nice container format ( lossless too ), it's only real shortcoming is that the contents are scrambled so there is no useful information to latch onto via a brute-force find or search utility. Even a ZIP file will cough up filenames and other hints ( unless it is encrypted I think ). PRE-EMPTIVE DISCLAIMER: no, I would never distribute things like this! These were more of a learning experience in localizing files, editing HTML+CSS, embedding multimedia, etc.

The answer that 5eraph gave above is exactly correct. Though in fact there can be any number of sections [xxx], as long as they are not "called" from the [DefaultInstall] key. Even if they are called they can be empty or commented out to do nothing. This is what my temp Win9x INF file that I used to punch in things looked like. When it is set up like this it does nothing ... ;;; -=[TEMP]=- [Version] Signature="$CHICAGO$" Provider="-=[TEMP]=-" [DefaultInstall] AddReg=Registry_Add DelReg=Registry_Del ; [DestinationDirs] ; 10=Windows, 11=System, 12=IoSubSys, 13=Command, 14=Control Panel, 15=Printers, 16=Workgroup ; 17=INF, 18=Help, 19=Administration, 20=Fonts, 21=Viewers, 22=Vmm32, 23=Color, 25=Shared ; 26=Winboot, 27=Machine, 28=Host Winboot, 30=Boot Drv root, 31=Root of Boot Drv Host ; 00=Null (new) LDID, 01=Source Drv:\Path, 02=Temp Setup, 03=Uninstall, 04=Backup [Registry_Add] ;;; add stuff here to punch in [Registry_Del] ;;; add stuff here to pull out [strings] ;;; place string definitions here The [Registry_Add] and [Registry_Del] are actually processed because of the entries under [DefaultInstall] but it can't do anything because of the comments. It could simply have been set up like this ... [DefaultInstall] ;AddReg=Registry_Add ;DelReg=Registry_Del ... or empty like 5eraph said ... [DefaultInstall]

True story about How Stuff Works ... Years ago when we were still in the dial-up modem era I downloaded a lot of their excellent pages and compiled them into a nice CHM with all the flash videos embedded and working. Came out nice and it was essentially a working app in itself. Those pages were a real pain to load in a browser when clicking on links, but locally it was instantaneous. All the HTML and CSS needed to be tweaked of course, but it was simple work. Now we have promoted this ( I won't call it programming ) webslinging HTML+CSS into glorified Windows 8 apps. So I must be the world's first Windows 8 app developer!

NeoWin article that actually points out two examples of Microsoft playing fast and loose with the facts. It concerns a new video that Redmond has launched and is aimed at developers to convince them to write apps for Windows 8 ... "Generation App" video makes a case for making Windows 8 apps ( NeoWin 2012-12-10 ) This is the NeoWin author John Callaham writing and the quoted Microsoft claims are in bold ... This is exactly why everything they say, particularly the recently discussed bogus "sales" figures, must be taken with a grain pound of salt. Truth is no longer an option.

Have to quote myself from Post #130 above for this update to make sense ... Well that was quick ... Microsoft's #droidrage campaign results in #windowsrage on Twitter ( The Verge 2012-12-06 ) That's Karma baby ( again )

When I see someone ready to jump into the Cloud, usually friends and family but sometimes lazy clients, I asked them this about the company hosting their apps and data: "What's in it for them? How did you get so lucky to find someone willing purchase, setup and run a HDD 24/7/365, and maintains it, secures it, and makes sure it is always available to you at any ungodly hour? Now if you can imagine doing it yourself you realize there is real cost to such an arrangement: hardware purchase, electricity, and much time spent on configuration and housekeeping, not to mention failure replacement and backing up. Knowing these costs exist, I ask you again, What is in it for your cloud host?" Typically the people fall into either of two categories, fairly logical, or terminally clueless. Unfortunately, the bulk of them are the latter and are the kinds of people that need to stick their hand into a toaster to see if it is hot. I can't help these people until it is too late. That's job security I guess.

Related article up on NeoWin ... A guide to Microsoft Licensing types A guide to Microsoft Licensing Agreements ( Part-2 ) Plain explanations of the major license type, OEM, Retail and Volume. A chart showing downgrade rights availability. He says this, which surprises me a bit ... Not sure of the accuracy there, but if true it does seem they will be still activating XP for a while yet. EDIT: added 2nd link

Where have we heard that kind of argument before? --JorgeA I'm still stunned by this. Does Microsoft really want a ... "Do you have a Windows malware horror story? Reply with #WindowsRage with your best/worst story and we may have a get-well present for you." Have they learned nothing in all these years? Do they not anticipate #BsodRage or #MetroRage? Insert other obvious hashtags here as desired. Man, if I was on that Board of Directors I would push out Ballmer, get myself appointed CEO temporarily and let the #Bloodletting begin. Not the hard-working devs, but those big fat layers of blubber in middle to upper management. Extreme treatment would be reserved for the advertising and publicity personnel. The Metro evangelists that inflicted this abomination on the entire Windows brand rather than targeting mobile specifically would suffer Medieval punishment.

Here is a welcome update to Post #84 from above. These were the rumors barely 10 days ago ... To their credit, both Intel and AMD heard the growing criticism and have made crystal clear statements to stem the controversy. AMD came first and then Intel finally spoke up ... AMD Reaffirms Commitment to Socketed CPUs Through At Least 2014 ( Maximum PC 2012-12-05 ) AMD Says It Is Not Abandoning Socketed CPUs ( Tom's Hardware 2012-12-05 ) AMD will remain committed to user-upgradeable CPUs ( TechSpot 2012-12-05 ) AMD not abandoning socketed CPUs ( NeoWin 2012-12-06 ) Intel Says Company Committed to Sockets ( Maximum PC 2012-12-05 ) Intel: We're Still Committed To Sockets ( Tom's Hardware 2012-12-06 ) Intel committed to socketed CPUs "for the foreseeable future" ( TechSpot 2012-12-06 ) Intel: We will offer removable CPUs "for the foreseeable future" ( NeoWin 2012-12-06 ) There is a lesson here for MicroApple, one they will no doubt completely ignore. It is NOT a good idea to p*** off your loyal customers, especially when most of them are veterans that know full well what these sea-changes really mean. Would Intel have made that statement without AMD first grabbing the spotlight? Probably not, but "better late than never" applies here IMHO. AMD always seems to bring the better side out of Intel in their little competition. I just cannot say the same about Apple and Microsoft ( and Google ). Microsoft has had well over one year and a half since the early leaks and BUILD demos which signaled their wayward trajectory of attacking the traditional Windows interface. All they had to do was find space in one of those 80 million word Sinofsky blog posts or other assorted propaganda outlet to simply state that they "remain committed to the Windows Desktop as well as the ...". This attack on a user base that is 700 million or 1.3 billion ( or whatever ) strong, will go down as the craziest idea in all of business history.