CharlotteTheHarlot

A few recent articles to mention before everything gets swamped by the news of the resignation of Sinofsky. The possibly weak sales figures ( and the quality problems mentioned earlier ) may or may not be related to it. Ballmer Claims Microsoft Surface RT Sales are off to a “Modest” Start ( Maximum PC 2012-11-11 ) Surface sales 'modest' so far, Ballmer modestly admits ( UK Register 2012-11-12 ) Microsoft: Ballmer's "Modest" Surface quote meant approach, not sales ( NeoWin 2012-11-12 ) Mixed signals on inital Windows 8 PC sales ( NeoWin 2012-11-12 ) Microsoft CEO: Windows Phone 8 Sales to 'Ramp Quickly' ( Tom's Hardware 2012-11-12 ) Another possible point of contention that so far has received very little publicity ... Built-in advertising: The Windows 8 feature you haven't heard about ( TechSpot 2012-11-12 ) While unrelated to Windows 8 currently, there may future ramifications for Microsoft if the OEMs are indeed growing spines. So I am happy that Samsung took my suggestion ... Samsung Bites Back at Apple by Jacking Up Chip Prices ( Maximum PC 2012-11-12 ) Samsung Increases Price For Apple's Processors ( Tom's Hardware 2012-11-13 ) EDIT: added link

Absolutely true. Thing is, the owner NeoBond isn't a child like so many ( maybe most ) of the commenters, he just happens to benefit from the controversy and has allowed the site to degenerate. For me it is difficult now to comment over there because beating sense into their little heads is probably considered child abuse in some country somewhere. Anyway, it's good that there are many sources of news and commentary. Here are just a few of many that I try to hit often to keep a fair balance ... NeoWin ... MicroZombies extraordinaire. Register (UK) ... more open source feel, Linux, Android etc. PC and Mac fanboys get slammed. PC World and CNet ... more Mac, Android, Linux than PC nowadays, but with frequent exceptions TechSpot and Tom's Hardware ... PC and Windows for sure, but absolutely anti-sycophantic PC Magazine ... more neutral these days between PC and Mac, used to be much more pro-PC The Verge ... pretty hard to pigeon-hole. Eccentric? Maximum PC and PC Gamer ... definitely PC, both with emphasis on performance. Ars Technica ... PC, Android, Apple, probably in that order. AnandTech ... PC Hardware mostly, some Apple of course Everything I just said is debatable though, depending upon your PoV and bias, and also on when you visit. For example, there are way more Windows features now than a few months ago for obvious reasons so many of the sites are slacking off on Android and even Apple at the moment. One thing is for sure, the controversy with Windows 8 is present everywhere, even at NeoWin. I am pretty sure that I have never seen anything like this ever. The over-used word, unprecedented, just might be appropriate. If Microsoft defies all logic and barrels ahead without listening to all this criticism, it will be very bad for them, possibly only their reputation, but also possibly the corporation itself. The mighty have fallen before, no-one is immune.

Reminds me of long, long ago when some folks insisted 8088 systems had to be better than the 8086.

Yep. Although that number is probably low for the year 2016. And just imagine in 2020. I had someone call me after they reset their laptop to factory default, Win7 RTM naturally, and complain it was taking forever with absurdly high number of updates. This was the updates=automatic feature enabled by default after the reset. I asked them to stop the updates and launch Windows Update from the Start Menu, walked them through the Scan and get to the criticals. Sure enough, Service Pack 1 was but one of many updates selected for install. Which number in the sequence it would have been I don't know. I had them only select that and proceed. This whole thing is a real bad mess. How is it possible that Sp1 is not the very first ( and singular ) update applied by either the Automatic Updates or manual Windows Update function? What a massive recipe for disaster.

Truer words were never spoken. You've said it all.

The Next Twenty Years: Why the closed distribution model of Windows 8 must be changed for the sake of developers, consumers, and Microsoft itself. ( Casey Muratori 2012-10-08 ) Review: Windows 8 tries to unite two worlds and ends up botching them both ( Digital Trends 2012-10-25 ) Analyzing the Windows 8 Metro/Desktop interface train wreck ( ExtremeTech 2012-10-31 ) Three Windows 8 commentaries and reviews that I forgot to mention earlier. These are just three of many that are out there but are still swamped by the tsunami of fluff pieces. The first one has a point of view from a developer and in Appendix B he picks apart and analyzes the new situation regarding Apps designed for Metro. Windows 8-based RetroUI gets update to RetroUI Pro (NeoWin 2012-11-10 ) Another Start Menu replacer with a twist. This one also has the ability to add the taskbar to Metro. Jorge, you may want to add this to the collection if you haven't already. As usual though, the interesting thing to me is found in the reactions. Fence-sitters please take note. The leadoff comment is IMHO representative of most complaints about Windows 8 and Metro ... And that of course is immediately followed by MicroZombie arrogance which nicely encapsulates their attitude and contempt towards us ... Yep, take away freedom of choice. Force them to switch. Not to be out-done, another Zombie with a real penchant for Micro-Kookiness shows how their thought-process works ... I wouldn't be happy if Windows 8 was like that, and I reckon that some other people wouldn't be, too. Microsoft have displeased you and others by doing what they've done, but they would displease me and probably others by implementing it this way. I'm not sure of any way they could have implemented it to make everyone happy. If Windows was still like Windows 7 (i.e. allowing windows to overlap and being able to have many windows on screen at once, I probably wouldn't still be using Windows. I was ready to switch to a Mac, until I heard about the new Windows 8 experience. That is marvelous cognitive dissonance really, especially that last sentence saying that if they had been given choice ( overlapping Windows, et al, ) they would turn to Macintosh! I'm starting to think that the Windows 8 and Metro issue is moving from being a Rorschach test to an IQ test instead. It seems clear to me that on one-hand we have the long-time professionals that have used everything since the beginning from DOS, to text-mode launchers, to graphics-mode menu systems, to official Windows 3.x and of course finally the Win95 era, including those users that got onboard this paradigm at various points along the way. On the other hand we have the non-discerning mega-consumers who are Facebook and Angry Birds junkies spouting selfish anti-choice dictatorial opinions whom would all be right at home using Apple Mac systems and who are only interested in flashy, trendy, consumption based gadgets that became popular around the iPod era when people first started segregating themselves into these two camps - quality vs. consumption. This was pretty well illustrated by the "it's good-enough" attitude displayed by ignorant acceptance of MP3 and similar inferior audio formats ( though admittedly could be acceptable if created carefully ). To sum up, these people will bend over and accept anything and are a very desirable demographic to crap companies selling crap. The question is this ... How can two such diametrically opposite camps be satisfied by one product? Well they can't obviously!. Leaving aside the forced solution of ant-choice arrogance that these dictators would love to see, the only good solution was for choice all along. Microsoft should have developed a product for them and then watched to see if it could stand on its own feet. Of course we all know what the outcome would have been, we have discussed it in this very thread on multiple occasions. It would have failed. So we have the dictatorial solution in progress. Slow cooking frogs wake up! This thing must fail for the good of everyone.

No DirectX 11.1 for Windows 7 planned? ( NeoWin 2012-11-09 ) Microsoft has "no plan" to release DirectX 11.1 for Windows 7 ( TechSpot 2012-11-12 ) Hmmmm, discontinuing Service Packs, freezing Direct-X, at some point the accumulated weight of these "sky isn't falling" decisions will wakeup the sleepy people to realize the paradigm shift is not confined only to the Windows 8 GUI. I think it is safe to say that Microsoft has as much contempt for Windows 7 now that they previously had for Vista and XP. IMHO, this contempt for their loyal customers began with the nastiness found in the Vista development blog when that release began receiving horrible reviews and comments. Microsoft then hunkered down, adopted an "us versus them" attitude, launched the phony Mojave Experiment, setting the stage for their Apple-esque style arrogance best described as "the customer is always wrong". This is not a healthy situation. What is interesting and has been often noted right in this thread is that they are attacking in different ways all three legs of their own success: OEM manufacturers, software developers, and the customers. There is a word for this: suicide. Microsoft restricts DirectX 11.1 to Windows 8 ( PC Gamer 2012-11-12 ) For Now, DirectX 11.1 Will Only Be for Windows 8 ( Tom's Hardware 2012-11-15 ) Microsoft gives in; adds some DirectX 11.1 features to Windows 7 ( NeoWin 2012-11-5 ) Some DirectX 11.1 Features Confirmed for Windows 7 ( Tom's Hardware 2012-11-15 ) Backtracking already? Surface users report Touch Cover splits and audio issues ( The Verge 2012-11-09 ) Surface early adopters reporting issues with audio, Touch Cover ( TechSpot 2012-11-09 ) Some splitting Surface Touch Covers reported [update] ( NeoWin 2012-11-09 ) Microsoft Surface Touch keyboards self-destruct – and more ( UK Register 2012-11-09 ) ( I realize this has already been mentioned in another thread here but I figured it should be mentioned here since this thread has kind of a time-capsule feel to it ). Well that didn't take long now did it? Less than two weeks after launch and the tide may already be turning. It appears there are at least two problems now with the Surface, the separation of the Touch Cover and an audio problem also. The thing about the Touch Cover ( the one that they forgot to add the function key labels to ) is not surprising to me since we recently learned of the Apple-esque high profit margin: "... IHS also estimates that it costs Microsoft no more than $18 to manufacture the touch cover, an accessory that tacks on $100 to the price of the 32GB Surface RT tablet.". Did anyone really think that these problems would not ( pardon the pun ) surface? I mean we all saw the commercials with smiling yuppies tossing, clicking, flipping and whipping the device around held by the cover itself? Similarly, does anyone still doubt that the commercials showing lots of swiping on desktop computer screens without an associated disclaimer ( "swiping requires a touch screen" ) will also lead to customer complaints? Count on it. At least for their part Microsoft is reportedly handling this problem very well, allowing simple swaps for new replacements. Of course that is plain common sense at this point because doing anything less will lead to destruction of what remains of their reputation. It must be said that this could have been avoided if they had not pursued a political strategy all along, by keeping the Surface completely out of the hands of reviewers until two weeks ago, just like a candidate ducking debates and public appearances because of fear they will make a faux paux. Had there been units in reviewers and developers hands for a couple of months these quality issues would certainly have come to light. Now we must wonder what surprises will the Surface Pro bring since they are using precisely the same strategy there once again. Man charged with selling lots of counterfeit Microsoft software ( NeoWin 2012-11-09 ) Please don't mis-interpret, I do not support piracy, but the bolded quotes there certainly beg the question: how could they really say with a straight face that "Microsoft would have taken in from the legitimate sales of the software would have been over $1.2 million" when they themselves killed the products in almost all channels ( there might be some obscure method to still purchase them ). Wouldn't it just be terrific if the judge were to press Microsoft on this and challenge them. This kind of thing needs to be tested IMHO. No, not the fact that the perp was collecting money for something he did not write, that is not in question to anyone, but the crazy claims of lost revenue from not just Microsoft, but most of Hollywood and the RIAA mafia as well. You would think that this issue would handle itself anyway since both of these products are activation-based. Theoretically the perp was just selling duplicates of install media that should have been made available for ISO download by Microsoft for the sake of convenience all along. None of this is explained by the news stories. I would expect that there are 2,500 angry customers out there wondering why the copies they bought cannot be activated. EDIT: oops, corrected link to wrong story. Also typo, Added Links

Following the previous story about HP and downgrade upgrade rights to Windows 7, the story has grown a bit. It appears that HP is not only stating they will discontinue making drivers for Windows 7, but they have now completely affirmed what I has only wondered about in passing two posts back: "God forbid if OEMs completely switch over. The long-running trend of more power and performance at a lower cost year after year will have ended thanks to Microsoft and their toy operating system.". Yes, they have taken the plunge headfirst into the Windows 8 whirlpool. HP urges consumer customers not to downgrade new PCs to Windows 7 ( Gregg Keizer ComputerWorld 2012-11-08 ) HP warns consumers: Downgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 7 at your own risk, we won't support you ( Preston Gralla ComputerWorld 2012-11-08 ) HP Warns Customers Not To Downgrade Win 8 PCs to Win 7 ( Tom's Hardware 2012-11-09 ) So the issue here, as I suspected, clearly transcends mere "downgrade rights". Either Microsoft got their hooks into them or we are seeing another classic corporate blunder - going all in on a new product, one that has the highest degree of controversy associated with it possible. That is not the mark of a careful corporate decision. Also note the word: "HP consumer desktop and notebook products will ship only with Windows 8". This is key. They know full well that the corporate world that buys thousands of PCs will not be unanimously choosing Windows 8, and many will avoid it altogether. So what does this tell us about HP ( and/or Microsoft ) and their feelings for consumers by mandating Windows 8 for them but leaving the door open for Windows 7 on volume purchases? I really want to hear the rationalizations from the sycophants now. It couldn't be clearer to me that both HP and Microsoft have utter contempt for the non-corporate consumer. And I believe we should reciprocate in kind by showing them utter contempt ( okay, I already do ). Boycott HP. I cannot wait to watch them collapse. Someone at HP is clearly deserving of a Darwin Ballmer Award.

Jeez, I was just saying: "God forbid if OEMs completely switch over. The long-running trend of more power and performance at a lower cost year after year will have ended thanks to Microsoft and their toy operating system.". Then this story arrives ... HP won't support Windows 8 to 7 downgrade on consumer PCs ( NeoWin 2012-11-08 ) Yep, this is how it happens, in small steps, just small enough so that the slow cooking frogs aren't disturbed from their comfortable warm baths. To be sure, OEM support for the operating system has always been a joke, and is the only thing actually sillier than Microsoft support of the OS since Windows is actually maintained by and only survives because of legions of unpaid non-softie tech people all over the world ( if you are reading this, you are most likely one of them ). But there is also the very real issue of backroom deals that Microsoft engages in with OEMs which is exactly how they got their monopoly position in the first place. So what role did they play in this one? Are they instigating this or are they merely giving a wink and a nod? The most dangerous thing to the end-user that likely occurs in these backroom arrangements is Microsoft getting hardware builders to drop the previous DDK and only produce drivers for the next version of Windows. By hook or by crook they will get their planned obsolescence. And if you are an OEM what is the upside for producing drivers for previous versions of Windows ( e.g., motherboard drivers for XP or 7 )? None at all. By forgoing the previous OS they stay off of Microsoft's bad-side and get to push more hardware out the door. At the risk of another auto analogy imagine if the car makers were able to completely shut down the new and used parts industry ( batteries, engine parts, everything ). You new car would be instantly obsolete, dead in the water when the first thing needed to be replaced. Not a perfect comparison ( they never are ) but the effect is identical, you would only be able to buy another car. This is what we have been dealing with when there is one operating system and the company that produces it has direct power over every one of the the component makers through driver development. Planned obsolescence is a fait accompli. No-one can tell OEMs to make drivers for different versions of Windows except for the customers themselves. This might be accomplished through the media and blogs criticizing them and by direct communication with email, letters and phone calls, in short by applying pressure and reminding them not to engage in collusion with a dangerous monopoly lest they become legal targets themselves. It should be noted that HP is pretty much the perfect equivalent of Nokia in that it is a company in a very precarious position financially, practically on life support and is recklessly betting its entire future on Windows 8. Ironically in both cases, it won't actually be Windows 8 that takes them down should they collapse, but it will have been the straw that broke the camel's back. If and when these companies fail, there will be blowback on Microsoft, and even though it wouldn't be solely due to this, it will however be 100% deserved. That's Karma baby. What is Decor8™? ( Stardock ) And another small piece of the Windows 8 mess gets mopped up by a 3rd party. This is a $4.99 program with a clever name. It only handles the Metro wallpaper, once again restoring what should have been a no-brainer all along. How could Microsoft and the OEMs like Dell and Acer and HP already forget the irate phone calls and Netbook returns from the many purchasers that could not change the wallpaper on Windows 7 Starter Edition? Interview: Stardock's CEO talks about Decor8 for Windows 8 ( NeoWin 2012-11-08 ) Here is a larger screenshot ( PNG 3 MB ).

You got it! It is indeed a Vista/7 feature and of course it is enabled by duhfault. After asking the owner about this I have come to the conclusion that it specifically happened when they used the "photo gallery", likely from digging through the My Documents or Libraries minefield and then clicking on something that most would consider harmless like 'View Slideshow' or similar. What is interesting is this: there was no way that this user could have commented or rated this many photos ( in the thousands ). They may have commented a handful at most. With no hard evidence I can guess that the mechanism went right through the entire folder structure and splatted metadata (probably generic placeholder information) into every single file. Then on a different day it did the exact same thing, rinse and repeat. Now there are many versions of the same photos with slightly differing data rendering binary file comparisons completely useless. Now you would need to use a specialized utility that diffs files by carefully working around the metadata section. Good luck with that. The worst part is that the files not only have this metadata injected, but that area is not a fixed sized field. So, the different files are also different sized, meaning those specialized utilities to compare the photos will have to include a very carefully designed layer of logic to be considered reliable. I would not automatically trust such a utility especially when dealing with photos. When it pronounces: "identical", I need assurance. At least Windiff and some others come with a long track record of success and I do not mind deleting data based on their results. But if it is something called "Acme Photo Compare and De-duplication Utility", well, I don't think so. Anyway, from the link that Jaclaz located, here is part of their rather lame explanation ... They go on to rail about how great this duhfault data mangling is, because this metadata is now available to all applications! This is because if they had used a separate index file instead, the metadata would only be useful to Microsoft ( huh? ). Yes, but the data would not have been mangled right? Rationalizations. ~sigh~ I guess we should be thanking them. Actually this blog entry is spectacularly unimpressive in my opinion ( and this is an official Microsoft source too, blogs.msdn.com ), it reads a bit rushed and amateurish to me. It also begs the question, what the heck do we even have ADS for? I could have sworn they promised resource forks that ensured metadata would be kept separate, guaranteeing the important thing: user data is kept safe. So the final question remains, how to disable this crazy thing? To be continued.

[ this is a work in progress that will eventually grow into a new specific thread ] New Plan: I had to change strategy and search for a photo comparator, one that can safely skirt the EXIF and other metadata and compare only the image data. This is because of vast amounts of data tampering by various viewers and slideshow viewers. Requirements and Wishlist: GUI source folder select, not just an entire drive! Allow pasted source folder path, not just GUI select Allow drag-drop source folder path, not just GUI select Accept command line source folder path, or dropped on EXE or LNK Ability to traverse entire directory tree, not just a single folder Ignore EXIF or other metadata, and compare actual image Output window in "Details View", not just thumbnail previews Display EXIF data (or lack of) in Output Window, to aid in decision making Ability to generate a list of results Guillaume FOUET aka Ozone VisiPics v1.2.5.239 (freeware) ... Tested OK Michael Thummerer AllDup v3.4.0.13 (freeware) ... Tested OK Renegade Minds Duplicate Photo Finder v1.3.0.0 (freeware) ... .Net 4.0 FirmTools Duplicate Photo Finder v1.1.0.148 (trialware) ... Tested OK MindGems Visual Similarity Duplicate Image Finder v4.2.0.1 (trialware) ... Tested OK AshiSoft Duplicate Finder v4.2.1.0 (free???) ... .Net 4.0 Nils Maier SimilarImages v2006.3.0.081 (freeware) ... Tested OK Nils Maier SimilarImages v2010.9.0.232 (freeware) ... Tested OK CodePlex (Open Source) DupliFinder v1.0.0.0 (freeware) ... Tested OK Prismatic Software DupDetector v3.0.0.0 (freeware) ... *** Prismatic Software DupDetector v3.3.0.2 (freeware) ... Tested OK NOTES!: .Net 4.0 ... I have tried yet again to get the Microsoft installer to work on Windows XP SP3 to no avail. All the previous versions are in place though. Has anyone figured out a way to just manually insert the files into the Windows folders and what registry entries are needed? *** ... I originally had a download called KeronSoft Dup Detector listed separately. It uses an obscure installer ( see below ) so I could not extract it. I executed it and grabbed the setup files from the TEMP folder. Now I have determined that contrary to the indications on their website, the application is in fact an older version ( v3.0 ) of Prismatic Software DupDetector ( v3.302 ). As to whether KeronSoft is some kind of affiliate or just another scam artist I cannot determine, but I will be contacting Prismatic to let them know that this outfit is distributing their freeware without any mention of them as an author ( the files inside appear okay and not tampered with ). The red flag for me is that Prismatic distributes them in a normal Inno setup package, but this other website has them in a non-extractable installer. About that *INSTALLER* ... it is from KeronSoft called DupDetector dated 2002. It is identified as "Pivonics installer" which so far cannot be manually extracted by any tricks I know. ~sigh~ I will probably just run it sandboxed to grab the files but I always try to get them out of the install wrapper before virus scanning them. Update: done. The executed file simply dumps the setup files into TEMP where they can be grabbed before actually letting them proceed. It would still be nice to locate and extractor for this odd setup packager. Here are some of the signature strings and related info I tracked down ...

Okay, might have found one. Be right back ... Bingo! ... Nirsoft BulkFileChanger. I see that Jaclaz also nailed it below while I was away. It is a GUI solution, not command-line and works perfectly. The first thing I did was attach it to the context menu for Folders so that a right click would quickly get me into the utility with the desired folder already set. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Folder\Shell\Nirsoft_BulkFileChanger] @="{Nirsoft} BulkFileChanger ..." [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Classes\Folder\Shell\Nirsoft_BulkFileChanger\Command] @="(Your File Path)\\Bulkfilechanger.exe %1" Note that the @default name I used is arbitrary, use anything you want. I just prefer to have it stand out in the context menu which has so many entries already. What I see is {Nirsoft} BulkFileChanger ... when I right-click on a folder. Minor Problem: that registry pointer is defeated by the last folder path being saved by the program, somewhere. That location is a mystery! It is not in the local configuration file: Bulkfilechanger.cfg, nor can I find it in the registry anywhere. Regardless, the way it works is to check for existance of the last saved path and if it exists, it uses it, otherwise it accepts the %1 pointer passed by the registry entry. I tried three different parsings of that registry entry just to be sure ... @="(Your File Path)\\Bulkfilechanger.exe %1" @="(Your File Path)\\Bulkfilechanger.exe \"%1\"" @="\"(Your File Path)\\Bulkfilechanger.exe\" \"%1\"" Okay, so after you right-click a folder and launch BulkFileChanger, the GUI opens with a blank window, but it is actually using either the most recently used folder or the right-clicked folder as its current directory ... ... As soon as you click the "Add Files" icon it will look into that folder where you can now grab some files to process ... Note that the files are then placed into the window but are unselected. You will have to highlight some or all of them to proceed. Now you can click the "Change Time / Attributes" icon ... ... and the important dialog appears. This is where I had originally missed the option. You want to click the box for "Copy Time From" and then the drop-down box where the option: "EXIF - Generated Time" can be selected. After that, tick off the Target fields that you want changed. I selected all three: Modified, Created and Accessed. Then you simply click the "Do It" button and it is done ... Back in the main window you will see them now updated. Excellent job as always by Nir Sofer. One wishlist suggestion would be that he adds a possible column for the EXIF DateTime field so that when you are looking at a list of files you can decide to only select those that in fact have EXIF data for processing. I test a few files that had no EXIF data just to see what would happen, and after clicking through the dialogs, the program leaves the original date/time stamps untouched ( as you would expect ). So it's all good. EDIT: added more details

First Question ... ( Solved! ) Trying to change the file date and time of lots of photos to match the EXIF original. I thought for sure one of the utilities I had could do this. Apparently not. So far I have tried a bunch of tools which do many useful things ... Friedemann Schmidt Exifer ... linkCodeLake WindowsTouch ... link Funduc FsTouch ... link JoeJoe RenameMaster ... link Mihov EXIF-Renamer ... link NirSoft BulkFileChanger ... link <--- Bingo!! NirSoft ExifDataView ... link NirSoft FileDate-Changer ... link Scarabée Siren ... link TawbaWare EXIFRead ... link ... but not TOUCH. UPDATE: Nir Sofer to the rescue with BulkFileChanger! I have a 2nd question ... Is anyone aware of some strange slideshow or thumbnail built-in feature to Windows Vista or 7 that for some spectacularly stupid reason actually modifies the file date/time and adds a bunch of metadata to the files? I am recovering photos for someone from an NTFS HDD and am finding this a lot with identical photos with differing timestamps and with some extra data inserted. Note, these are not ADS ( alternate data streams ), the stuff is preserved when copied to FAT disks. The modifications are to the metadata, adding some HTML code. I'll try to include a before-after example. Hopefully all the crazy binary characters will allow it to show up ... --- BEFORE --- --- AFTER --- EDIT: added more utilities, added links

Windows 8 Users Receiving How-to Emails From Microsoft ( Tom's Hardware 2012-11-07 ) Well this is so, so much better than having built-in help available by pressing F1 ( or is that ALT+FN+F1 ), or perhaps built-in tutorials ( the kind that are always available, not just on first login ), or simple plain intuitive GUI elements and yes, discoverability. What is very strange that they begin suddenly sending these helpful Emails a week later after launch. I mean this experiment has been ongoing for over one year now, I would think that it would have been scheduled immediately with launch. One week later indicates to me that something has happened between then and now. File this under "things that make you go hmmmmm". Editorial: Will 2013 be Microsoft's biggest year ever? ( NeoWin 2012-11-07 ) It will be their biggest something. However I do not think it will be something they, or the sycophants hope for. AT&T off contract Lumia 920 only $450 ( NeoWin 2012-11-07 ) Now at first glance this does sound almost reasonable, definitely a marked improvement over the $700 to $800 price tag alleged in stories seen in a few earlier posts. However, this is definitely partially subsidized by AT&T. More importantly, it is the bare phone which does not include high priced charger gadgets. It looks like the thing + charger will be a minimum of $550 to $600 range off-contract. That is still a lot of dough. I was going to say that you might instead buy a very good 17" laptop or killer desktop instead for the same amount of money, but even that may not be possible since the net result of the fabulous Windows 8 era is dragging prices UPWARD not downward. The bulk of the offerings at the moment are Windows 8 based. God forbid if OEMs completely switch over. The long-running trend of more power and performance at a lower cost year after year will have ended thanks to Microsoft and their toy operating system. Thanks guys! Sad News: Microsoft Currently Has No Plans for Halo 4 PC ( Tom's Hardware 2012-11-07 ) Inching towards that walled-garden. Slow cooking frogs will shrug their shoulders again. Don't believe it? Well there are allegedly 1.3 Billion computers using Windows and there are a total of 24 Million Xbox sales total. If you have some software that is RTM and ready for sale, why on Earth would you choose to limit the maximum pool of purchasers to 24 Million and leave the 1.3 Billion alone? Obviously the plan is to get them to access the game through Windows 8 Metro via the store eventually. I have no doubt that at least a few sane business people at Microsoft pushed for a Windows PC release in addition to Xbox. Imagine the contortions those that shot it down had to go through to justify the limitation. May this fail spectacularly. Preliminary teardown suggests Surface RT is more profitable than iPad ( TechSpot 2012-11-07 ) Succumbing to Apple-envy, the transition to MicroApple is well underway now. The business model Apple pioneered and that Microsoft longs for is selling mediocre quality hardware at premium prices portrayed as trendy and fashionable boutique technology. It is quite simple to do. Just farm out construction to the lowest bidder by nailing down contracts with 3rd-world near-slave labor, take the money you save there and spend it on Madison Avenue advertising firms to whitewash the disparity, and create an image of a purely American made device just yearning to be clicked and swiped by eager throngs of hipsters twittering and facebooking their way to their next Starbucks nonfat Vanilla-Blueberry Latte Grande. The plan might work, for a short while. They picked the wrong time economically though, and I imagine there are some rather large fiscal crises upcoming in shot order. The other problem is that the world is more connected than ever before. Apple has not been able to yet get out from under the FoxConn worker suicide situation, and the news will only get worse over time. The opportunity for fail here for Microsoft is very high, especially since they are tone-deaf and prone to making huge errors under Ballmer. I see a very narrow path to success here with many possible detours into trouble for Microsoft. Microsoft Patent Lets Hollywood Watch You with Camera ( Tom's Hardware 2012-11-06 ) In Microsoft patent, Kinect watches you ( NeoWin 2012-11-07 ) And the slow-cooking frogs will still be silent, relaxing on their lilly-pads watching their facebook page and email live tiles. The two things I have noticed that most impacted Google's reputation over the past few years was the China episode ( collaborating with regime censorship ) and their many questionable data-mining and privacy violations. Never underestimate the power of ill-will. It has damaged Google's reputation for many people. So now we see something here far, far more Orwellian, at least in design. We all know it is a complete sell-out to the Hollywood mafia, almost all these companies will sell-out their users in a heartbeat when push comes to shove. Unfortunately for Microsoft, with their unique monopoly they are situated in a more precarious position and might pay a higher cost. At the very least, this Patent demonstrates extraordinary tone-deafness ( again! ) and tells me that the company has a serious problem in the boardroom. I don't know when, but there will be a Wall Street rocking shakeup in management eventually. The only possible good reason to Patent this would be if they announced they are: "freezing the concept so that it may never be used on their customers, ever". An act of significant benevolence for the computer user community. I have yet to see such an announcement. Welcome to MicroGoogle

My guess is that they wanted to streamline all their products across the line, and there is already some confusion about RT and Desktop (such as people saying they will be buying a Surface and put an i5 into it).... So I am going to guess they got rid of Aero to save on GPU power usage... which is a consideration for battery life in the portable devices. [ This rant is obviously not aimed at you Tripredacus! ] Yes, that pretty much sums it up. We have often called this catering to the lowest common denominator. Here in the States we have usually had at least two separate lines of automobiles produced in Detroit ( well, when they made lots of cars ). The normal car, and the California car with its ultra-stringent emissions and other heavy-handed regulations. If you were a performance motorhead lookiing for a used car, you did not go near a California model. Microsoft has essentially shutdown the 'normal' production line and only produces California cars. I have a few laptops and netbooks using Win7 and Vista. For some strange reason power savings is of no concern to me because they are usually plugged in to power supplies. This is a concept that is suddenly unknown to the Microsoft geniuses as they have chosen to ignore such a scenario and conceptualized their new fangled Windows 8 as always running on neutered, low-powered, unplugged devices. It's as if their collective knowledge base has shutdown, and all the research they have completed on power management ( sensing when plugged in, boosting display, CPU, etc ) was suddenly flushed down the toilet. I have more than a few "desktops" in various states of assembly using Win7 among other OS's. Interestingly, none of them use a battery for mains power. Nevertheless, if I were to install Windows 8, the OS would not be smart enough to detect this circumstance and utilize the full visual bells and whistles of Aero glass because those bells and whistles of Aero glass were amputated by bureaucrats in Redmond. This perfectly describes "catering to the lowest common denominator". It can also be classified as a "death spiral" because they will end up chasing the most inferior devices into the abyss. It also happens to be what drives many of us crazy when we hear MicroZombies say: "but the desktop is still there, it is exactly the same". That is downright insulting, and of course a complete lie. Microsoft has chosen the path of inferiority over excellence now. They have shifted from a moderately exciting interface ( which still needed work ) to pandering to handheld toys of moderate battery life. They went from being an above-average restaurant to McDonalds or Dominos fast food overnight. Willingly. Gleefully. Completely of their own choosing. I'll leave it to the actual softies to rationalize how it is impossible to accommodate both scenarios ( unplugged on battery versus plugged-in with no power limitations ), how they have decided to unlearn what they have already learned and perfected. After all, in Vista and Win7 no-one was forced to leave Aero and glass effects enabled, and they could not even use it under certain minimum specifications. So they must have decided that since some devices out there cannot use it, therefore, none of the devices out there shall use it. Microsoft now obviously believes that "interface unification" is equal to "catering to the lowest common denominator". Congratulations Microsoft on your fall from excellence into mediocrity. You must be so proud. If Apple had set out to destroy you, they could not have done a better job than Sinofsky and his team of Windows destroyers.

Yep, pro-Windows 8 or pro-Metro is normal, contrarian views are trolling. God, if you disliked that, you're really gonna hate these ... Microsoft Surface trounced in browser benchmarks, iPad 3x faster ( TechSpot 2012-11-05 ) Web Performance: SunSpider, V8, And BrowsingBench ( Tom's Hardware 2012-11-05 ) Surface RT gets crushed in Peacekeeper browser benchmark ( NeoWin 2012-11-07 ) Now we know why Microsoft didn't let a single hands-on review or benchmarking occur prior to launch. And they are doing precisely the same thing with Surface Pro. They are more like a carefully sheltered political candidate these days. Ummm, I shouldn't have to, but I'll say it anyway, I have no love for Apple ( and I truly despise the possibility of MicroApple ). I have but a few things Apple around here that were given me, and an iPhone we got on our plan which I rarely use anyway. That's it. However, I do have probably 3 dozen computers here with as many as 4 different Windows versions on each on various drives. My bonafides with Microsoft and their software and operating systems are ancient and deep. They lost my respect, and they will have to earn it back. If that's a troll, then I think you need a new dictionary. Now who could possibly resist this story ( not me! ) ... Microsoft, Dell Releases Free Windows 8 for Dummies, More ( Tom's Hardware 2012-11-05 ) It's actually right here (PDF). The article also mentions a very useful official Microsoft link for people ... UPDATE 2012-11-11: Link is now dead. Don't complain to me or to this great forum. Complain to the 1st party geniuses: Microsoft and Dell. E-Book Gallery for Microsoft Technologies ( social.technet.microsoft.com ) ... and there are at least 60 books there right now ranging covering Office, VS, cloud, SQL and much more. Most are very recent. Have at it. <-- That part is all completely serious and on the level. Promise. This however, might upset some people ... Microsoft Windows 8 : We Rule, everyone else sucks! ( Apple, Google, Linux, and even Windows XP and 7 ) EDIT: added another link

Enable Flash websites in IE Metro Browser on Windows 8 and RT ( NeoWin 2012-11-05 ) If you read the thread you will see both an XML file edit of a whitelist and a separate method using the registry. Let the hacking begin. I love this. No, I don't love Flash or Adobe, but I hate restrictions. Go to it people! Since the good guys have all but conquered the Start Menu, I hope now that someone can tame the Metro GUI and do what Microsoft should have all along: and that is cram it into a portable, windowed application like Media Center was on WinXP and later. One that can be launched from a shortcut, and terminated at will. Since it is "nothing more than a full-screen launcher" ( according to the MicroZombies ) then it should be able to operate as such, just like all the thousands of other alternative program launchers available for many years. Of course we all know that Microsoft didn't simply create an alternative full-screen launcher at all, instead it is the prototype gateway to their Walled Garden Apple-ripoff. Microsoft Expands Rebootless Display Driver Upgrade Patent ( Tom's Hardware 2012-11-05 ) Yes, the Patent system is a disaster. We know that. We would probably be better off if it was simply completely terminated and all Patents rescinded immediately. But what is curious to me is the question: Exactly who is Microsoft trying to prevent from using this "process" anyway? They are the owner of Windows, so is it an attack on Linux or Apple or Google from live changing a video display driver using what is a ( pardon the pun ) patently obvious procedure? I have another question. Does Microsoft get a Patent for their boneheaded procedure that creates a restore point if you download an updated display driver INF that is a few KB in size? Can a competitor ( as if ) Patent a process that does not create a silly restore point when updating a display driver INF? Inquiring minds want to know.

Neither of these stories is directly about Windows 8, but they are interesting in general ... The Facebook phone is coming, but delayed, claims report ( NeoWin 2012-11-03 ) Hmmm. Intriguing. It would appear that Opera is collaborating with them after all. Hopefully the buyout thing was just a smokescreen and instead it has to do with creating their browser or maybe even the operating system itself. HTC Opera UL May be First Facebook Smartphone ( Tom's Hardware 2012-11-05 ) More stories appearing like this now. No explanation at all for the codeword "Opera UL" though. It can't be coincidence, can it? A world without Windows ( NeoWin 2012-11-03 ) Not a lot of meat to this story, just inane speculation about where we would be without Windows. These people inexplicably believe that Apple would be the majority player instead, proving their pro-Microsoft knee-jerk hatred of Apple which clouds their judgment. Apple and Microsoft have almost never competed head-to-head, unless you count Microsoft mice or keyboards. If Apple wanted to stir things up, they could indeed release the Mac OS to the general public ( perhaps with limited or no support ) since they have been developing for Intel x86 for quite a few years now since scrapping the Motorola and Power-PC architectures. Not that I would be interested in it ( I would probably install it on one computer only ) but if that ever happened, then they could truly compare Apple and Microsoft as competitors. In reality, Apple has been a huge beneficiary of Microsoft products and probably woudn't even exist without them. Porting Excel and Word ( among others ) to Mac helped to bring Apple credibility it was severely lacking. Until that time people and businesses would rather use DOS and it's huge base of applications than Mac and it's limited selection, GUI or not. But the most interesting thing about that article is the link to a video of a commercial for Win95. I've been scratchiing my head trying to remember if I ever saw this. It is a 30 minute comedy infommerical starring the Friends Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry. Very strange. P.S. Can anyone confirm that HTTPS does not embed? EDIT: added link

The story behind the Windows Phone 8 Start screen ( Windows Phone Blog 2012-11-02 ) story via NeoWin Before and after: The redesigned Start screen in Windows Phone 8 (right) features resizable Live Tiles and other improvements designed to make it even more personal, fun, and informative. ( image saved from Windows Phone Blog ) So here we have the "clean" and "uncluttered" glorious interface that "lets us focus on the content". Yep. Sure. The blog post goes on about their tweaking of the number of columns and sizes of the tiles and some other stuff, and how the user can finally change a few of these things themselves. This is user customization. Be grateful. The only smart improvement I see is eliminating the dead-space margin on the right-side. Everything else should have been present all along. Users should always have access to customize not some of the GUI element parameters, but all of them Color, font, background, gradients, effects, padding, margins, text color, icons, shape, spacing, everything. That would be customization. Since the thing is really HTML-CSS rooted, themes should be style sheets with no locked-out parameters at all. Of course their thinking is simply self-serving, trying to maintain a Microsoft Tiles look, discouraging users from changing it completely, and that is frankly the problem here. I suppose they'll say that they want to prevent things from getting too out of control, protect us from ourselves, maintain a clean and uniform appearance. Well let's see how that worked out, shall we? Yes, we shall. Here is another picture from the same blog entry ... New hues: The new Windows Phone 8 Start screen comes in lots of new colors—and makes possible all kinds of new arrangements for Live Tiles. ( image saved from Windows Phone Blog ) I call that a FusterCluck plain and simple. I think what they are really afraid of is that with access to all the GUI elements someone could easily whip up a beautiful theme in 5 minutes flat that would put the duhfault appearance to shame. Windows 8 and Metro is a visual abomination, on every device and form factor. Moving to HTML-CSS ( GPU and Direct-X accelerated or not ) is bad enough since the layout control is relatively constrained and limited compared to pure graphics programming, even if customization included 100% access to all screen parameters. Further crippling this with an insane 8-bit or 16-bit color depth and the horrific one-color, handicap sign icons is unforgivable. What we actually see here is a rough approximation of the GUI firmware present on countless devices from DVD, DVR, TVs to Cameras. And some of those that I've seen are much more visually appealing. Here's what would have happened if I were in charge. After Vista/7 with Aero there would have been a move towards a sophisticated GUI engine similar to 3-D game engines like Unreal and Quake which could already render Direct-X or OpenGL transparency and effects by the time Windows 98 and it's barebones GUI was popular! I first remember thinking of this when noticing how smooth and reliable Quake 3 and UT had become by 1999. Transparent menus, interchangeable graphics and text, even a functional "~" command-lne console with primitive DOS-style file functions. How did they miss this? Instead of pursuing this they seemed to spend all their resources on snail's pace incremental improvements to the Windows GUI while advancing even slower on rudimentary Internet visuals like HTML 3 and CSS ( 1996 ) and HTML 4 ( 1998 ). Maybe John Carmack or Epic should have been developing an Operating System instead of just games. Had things moved in this direction all along, instead of the Microsoft's neutered inside-the-box thinking, we would have a Windows Interface with limitless options such as 3-D with true x,y,z placement and effects only limited by human imagination. As it went, the closest we ever got was with the tease of Flip-3d and glassy transparency. The successor to that brief foray into high-performance graphics is the Windows 8 playskool edition, designed for children by Seattle hipsters that wouldn't recognize beauty if it smacked them on their thick heads. The blog author closes with this: "By the way, here’s a look at my real-life Start screen. Trust me: No one else has a one like it. I can’t wait to see yours." ... ( image saved from Windows Phone Blog ) Microsoft and Metro is to graphics, as Seattle grunge was to music.

Background Information ... Why We Murdered Aero: Rationalizing our Arrogance and Stupidity ( Sinofsky Official Destroying Windows Blog 2012-05-18 ) Windows 8 Release Preview: RIP, Aero (2003-2012) ( Thurrott 2012-05-19 ) Aero-Glass in Windows 8 RTM, by re-instating the Aero Source Codes ( MDL 2012-08-31 ) True Transpareny On Windows 8 RTM ( MSFN 2012-09-06 )

Why kill Aero? Good question. It was probably because that hipster Steven Sinofsky, who considers the 6-year old Aero to be Dated and Cheesy, felt like resurrecting the 90-year old Art Deco style. Your wishlist is perfect and mirrors what just about everyone else is asking for. All those things you list ( plus a functional Start Menu ) should never have been allowed to be destroyed by those Windows Destroyers. It is a disgusting display of arrogance from those charlatans pretending to be Windows designers. Can they be restored? Not as of now. There were some rumored 3rd party efforts to re-enable Aero ( glass ), but to my knowledge there is no hint of success yet. I believe it possible that Stardock might create a Windows Blinds type engine that should work okay. Even more likely will be a solution from Rainmeter who have some wicked theme possibilities. Finally, I agree that making a Windows 8 theme for use on Windows XP-Vista-7 is ridiculous IMHO. But to each his own. At least it would only be optional, unlike what Microsoft has planned for all of us.

Wow. Is that a screengrab while it was still painting the window, or did the artifacts stick and not get painted over? It reminds me of what used to happen when using integrated Intel graphics on Win9x after a long session and all resources were depleted, but even then I think the window eventually finished painting. No I haven't seen it ( that I can recall ) on anything since WinXP. Maybe this is because you are not using the Official, "New and Improved"© ™ ® Task Manager.

Believe it or not, Win2k should work okay. After all, it came out during the Pentium II and III era so the CPU ( you didn't specify it though ) is likely fine. Windows XP would be a mistake I think because it is bigger than Win2k in every way and IMHO needs much more RAM to be usable. If you are going with Win9x, then use Win98se instead of Win98 because that version will get you a lot more free and helpful advice on Win9x forums like this. You are correct about the HDD. It is small and it will be tight but both Win98se and Win2k will fit ( but with very little room left for big programs ). But you can avoid this problem by finding a replacement laptop drive in the 4, 8, 10 or 20 GB range which should cost almost nothing. Question #3 ( lack of CD booting ) will be a problem. See if there is a BIOS update ( or just reflash with the latest even if it already has it ) and try to do it again. If that doesn't work find a spare laptop CDROM drive and replace it and try again. If you cannot get it to work and you also obviously have no USB, well the usefullness of the laptop becomes much lower IMHO without any practical way to transfer files larger than 1.4 MB. Additionally, fixing the CDROM is important because it could indicate a disk controller or motherboard problem and if that is true, why bother with this computer at all? Having said that, there is definitely a workaround for installing Win98se ( and possibly Win2k but I'm not sure ). But you would need to be able to at least temporarily add a 2nd HDD to the laptop ( see if there is a 2nd connector and room for two ). I would just copy the Windows install disc to a directory on the other HDD ( using another computer naturally ) and install the 2nd HDD and then boot to this DOS formatted HDD ( or maybe a DOS startup floppy ) and run Windows setup.exe from the commandline from the other HDD. This other HDD is acting like a giant CDROM in this case. A little complicated, but it actually will install quicker than the CDROM.

Recall from only a few days ago ... Microsoft Design Language is the new "Metro" ( NeoWin 2012-10-29 ) Then there was this a day later ... The curious case of Microsoft's Metro, a design language that cannot be spoken ( The Verge 2012-10-30 ) And there was this yesterday ... Metro apps renamed Windows Store apps ( CNet 2012-10-31) Are you confused? Yep. Here is a great summary of this mess ... Nobody knows what to call Microsoft's ex-Metro UI. Not even Microsoft, it seems ( UK Register 2012-11-31 ) The article has lots more quotes from him, and you can't help but get the feeling that this could be a transcript from a hostile witness taking the Fifth Amendment. But over what? What is the big secret requiring such masterful obfuscation? Beats me. But don't they realize that developers and stockholders are listening and reading about this wondering just what kind of crazy chemical has been released into the water supply in Redmond. You would think by now that someone would realize how this looks because Perception is Reality. There is also this gem ... Now there was money well-spent. At the end of the Verge article is a little update ... You can't make this stuff up. EDIT: added another quote

He can submit a desktop app to the store also. It's been a while since I read the agreement but I believe in that case they would offer a link to his site instead of a direct download/install. Of course what we are really thinking is seeing what happens when all the anti-Metro StartMenu restoration utilities are presented to Microsoft. Will they continue their Jihad against common sense and user choice? I can forsee an ongoing effort by 3rd parties in the blogosphere keeping track of Microsoft's responses to these utilities and a list of which ones made it or were denied, and then contacting Microsoft for official comment. In short, keeping their feet to the fire.