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Hey, guys. I don't get much time to post here, but when I do, I like to make an impact. So today we're going to discuss a very passionate topic with me: Microsoft and all its failures. Microsoft has always been so-so, but now they're way below average. I've been right about these guys as soon as Vista was announced, and now I'm so confident in my beliefs, I'm sharing them with you. I never even bothered researching or installing Vista because as soon as I heard Microsoft rewrote most of the code, I knew it was a disaster waiting to happen. And then it came. People learned what I knew. Microsoft felt the hurt. Why do you think they ditched Vista so quickly and moved on to Windows 7? Simple: because they knew Vista was a loser and they'd lose a huge chunk of their customers if they kept with it. I knew ever since 2004 that Windows XP was the best OS in the world and absolutely knew it was going to last this long. And as much as Microsoft doesn't want to hear it, Windows XP will live forever, at least in this house. Can't reveal secrets, but I've gone to great pains to guarantee that. As soon as the Xbox 360 was released in 2005, I knew Microsoft would lose billions trying to mitigate - they never actually fixed - all the problems. See, the console was rushed to stores, uses cheaper parts, and just wasn't tested or designed well at all. That's why it freezes and red rings all the time. I even wrote one of my Microsoft contacts a highly technical letter explaining exactly what's wrong with the Xbox 360. His response was thank you for this info. And of course, he never put it into practice. One fact is Microsoft tried to save a few pennies and designed their own CPU for the 360, but of course it overheated and then they ran back to AMD and Intel. I could've told them that. LOL Windows 7 is nothing more than XP on eye-candy (Aero Glass UI) with a few super lame new features. Yeah, as if I'm paying a penny for that when my custom XP looks just as good. So if you aren't seeing the Microsoft pattern, let me make it clear. Ever since Bill Gates left and Vista came, Microsoft has been going downhill. Vista SUCKS. The Xbox 360 SUCKS. The new Windows logo looks like a 5 year old made it, and, you guessed it, SUCKS. Windows 8 will be even worse than Vista. It'll be the death of Microsoft. Old school computer guys like me HATE it. It's so ugly looking and weird to use. Seriously, who with half a brain uses a computer on a tablet or wants to touch the screen and get fingerprints on it, and then have to clean it all the time? Stupid! Keyboard and mouse for life. Just read the laundry list of options and features Windows 8 removed right here in the Windows 8 forum. If you thought Vista or 7 was light, 8 is a bulimic. Just confirmed everything I knew as soon as I heard Windows 8 is coming not even three years after Windows 7. Basically, 8 is a bad scientific experiment aimed at mobile computer users. Oh, and just so you know, Microsoft is a computer Nazi now. I also knew this was coming when so many people were staying with XP. Basically, XP users, Microsoft is deleting many non-security downloads. You'll get your precious but pretty useless security updates until April 2014, but after that no more XP anything from Microsoft. Expect a new Windows OS every 1 to 2 years moving forward and expect pressured, forced upgrades. Why do you think the last version of Office won't work in Windows 8? So you're forced to purchase a newer version. I'm so sick and tired of this mediocre money machine. And it's about to die. The truth is WE DON'T NEED MICROSOFT LIKE WE USED TO. There's always Linux. Third parties ALWAYS do anything Microsoft does 1000% better. When you think Microsoft, you think okay quality, terrible support, incompetent ownership, and extremely lazy employees. Let's take a look at classic Microsoft in detail... Every Windows OS is way behind the times in features, innovation, compatibility, and user friendliness. You always need a third party to get stuff done. Ninety-eight percent of the value of the Windows OS comes from third parties. The Service Packs are a complete joke. A service pack is supposed to be an exciting time for an OS owner and be jam-packed with improved, new, and useful features, all updates to date, and extend format compatibility to date. But oh no, not Microsoft. A Windows Service Pack is a trinket with 3-4 super lame new features and maybe some updates. I would gladly pay $30 a year for unlimited new XP Service Packs that actually innovated the best OS. Microsoft can't keep up with technology. All they have are outrageous ideas that are unstable and sound cool on paper. Here's just a few reasons why Microsoft is awful: Windows XP comes with NT Backup to back up system state and files, but guess what - even in 2001 when DVDs were popular, the native program doesn't support backing up to DVD, only tape and some other useless storage options. LOL Are you kidding me? This should've been added to Service Pack 1. Or even better, it should've been designed right from the start. Or best, it should've never been designed and Microsoft should've known it needed to include a great drive-image program with the OS, especially for somebody who preaches the importance of backing up your data every chance they get. LOL Windows Media Player 11 doesn't natively support MPEG-4. You can hack it, but you shouldn't have to. Again, something that should've been added to Service Pack 3. Service Pack 2 was so-so, but hardly anything got done there, too. Just another wasted opportunity in Redmond, Washington. Windows comes with a stripped down movie maker called Windows Movie Maker. The good news is you can make your own transitions, effects, titles, and credits (if you know XML), and add to the very little Microsoft gives you, making this thing awesome. I have, like, 3,000 total transitions, titles, effects, and credits. I just wish such an awesome thing didn't crash so much. The stock version with no add-ons. Microsoft didn't even test it right. And how are newer versions for Vista and 7 of Movie Maker even more bare-bones than my 2.1 version? So stupid. MS Paint is TOO simple. It can't even rotate an image in arbitrary values. I'm not asking for Photoshop features, but this is ridiculously bad. I could go on forever about what Microsoft does wrong, so I'll leave it there. Microsoft is so unprofessional and disorganized, it's pathetic. They don't even know their own product. Microsoft could've gave XP users IE9, but they want to force upgrades, so they didn't. Same goes for SATA support in XP. Microsoft is almost dead. They're just not smart enough to stay alive in the tech world much longer. And this new iron-fist ruling is going to crumble their castle. Just watch as my bold predictions become reality, again. All we want is XP for life. It's all we'll ever need. It does it all. And again, I would happily pay $10 once a year for an awesome Service Pack that actually felt new and modern. As it stands, I feel Microsoft is extremely lazy and unqualified to be in the computer industry, and I will not purchase another Microsoft product as long as I live. Oh, and M$, you might want to fix your completely broken download-validation process. I see a lot of unhappy users all over the Web. When will they learn? How about never. People do NOT want to spend 10 years learning a new worse OS. People do NOT want to scavenger hunt the whole Web for answers on how to do this or that with their OS - that you're supposed to teach them in the manual. Stop changing the names and locations of features and files. Get it right the first time and leave it alone. Make the names easy to understand. Just use some common-sense, already!

Hey, X. I already knew about that dirty little secret. I want to know if I can fix it, and if so, how? I don't like the thought of knowing something on my PC is broken. Or, is it one of those things that every Windows user is suffering and we just have to play the Microsoft waiting game for a fix?

Hey, guys. So hundreds of M$ users are having this problem and still no solution. The problem is if you want to download any file from the Microsoft Download Center that requires validation, you are asked to verify your Windows is genuine, which it is. There's two methods to validate a download. Too bad both are broken! 1. Download a small executable called GenuineCheck.exe. Only problem is when you click it, you receive this message: This version of the Windows Genuine Advantage validation tool is no longer supported. Please download the newest version and ensure your system clock is accurate. So you're thinking, okay, no biggie. I'll just update it. But there's no newer version. Okay, so I'll try installing the super lame Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications. It should work, right? Wrong. You still get the same error message: This version of the Windows Genuine Advantage validation tool is no longer supported. Please download the newest version and ensure your system clock is accurate. And my system clock is accurate. What's funny is after installing the Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications tool and deleting the older ActiveX control yesterday, I was able to magically download three files that required validation. But then today I ran into the same broken validation process. 2. Use a 32-bit version of Internet Explorer and ensure it's the default browser. Well, that didn't work, because I never get prompted as usual to install the IE-only ActiveX control that doesn't require the broken validation process. And ActiveX controls aren't being blocked. Will definitely be passing this on to one of my Microsoft contacts...

I asked an IT clown what the Windows Registry was, and he said a place to register Windows. He was CompTIA A+ certified. LOL

Yes, I meant "ns-mswmp.dll." The problem was QT 7.7. QT 7.6 the standalone executable and plug-in have audio. All the settings are the same. Must be a bug.

1. The minimum system requirement for Firefox 14 is a Pentium 4 or newer CPU that supports the SSE2 instruction set; then why can my CPU that only supports the SSE instruction set run Firefox 14 just fine? And what if any limitations will I face? 2. Why does QuickTime Player plug-in 7.7.2 play videos without audio in Firefox 14 or Internet Explorer 8? QT 7.7 claims to natively support many audio and video codecs. Does that mean QT 7.7 supports many audio and video codecs and they are included with QT 7.7; or QT 7.7 natively supports many audio and video codecs, but you need to install the third-party codecs you need, or QT 7.7 can't play audio or video in those file formats? 3. Why does the Windows Media Player plug-in "mswmp.dll" not work in Firefox 14? Note: both the QT and WMP plug-in are enabled and I followed the Firefox troubleshooting steps. Also, the QT plug-in crashes in Firefox 14 about ninety-five percent of the time!

Congress wants to censor the Web with two ineffective bills that aim to stop copyright infringement and piracy. The requirements of both bills are impossible to satisfy, unjust to website owners, and fatally damaging to the Internet and our world. Don't let them do it. Sign the petition at Google.com, or visit Wikipedia.com for information on contacting your local Congressman or Congresswoman.

Just giving something back.

The Owner folder is created by OEM Windows. You can either delete your account and create a new one with your name, or copy the data from your old profile and paste it to your new profile. The Owner folder is persistent and will be recreated in time, even with a registry tweak. So when you see it again, just leave it alone. Here's how to copy your old profile data to a new profile: Create a new user account: Go to Control Panel. Click User Accounts tool. Select the Create A New Account link. Give the account a name and click Next. NOTE: Ensure that the account type is Computer Administrator. (You can see the option button displayed in the process.) Click Create Account button. Log off the current account and log in to the new account. This will create a user profile for the new account. When the user profile creation procedure is complete, log off the account. Log in to the old account again and perform the following: Right-click My Computer and select Properties. Select the Advanced tab. Click the Settings button in the User Profiles section. Select the user account that was corrupted. Click the Copy To button. Click the Browse button and then browse For Folder dialog box to locate the Documents and Settings folder and select the new account. A confirmation dialog box should appear that informs you the original files will be deleted and prompts you to confirm the copy operation; click Yes. Once the profile is copied, log off the system and log in again with the new username. All the settings of the old account will be copied.

This isn't really dumb, but last year I ran a very unstable program called PC Wizard 2009 to get some system and hardware info. I knew that certain options, like password fetching, would cause my system to abend, because this program did it twice or thrice before. But I couldn't remember which options caused the abends. So I was clicking on each icon and then when I got to one, another abend. I had to do a hard shutdown and turn the PC back on. I removed the program after Windows restarted.

I'm not a BartPE expert and never claimed to be. I know the basics--how to build one and add drivers. That's what I just said. That's all you needed to say. Thanks for that.

Well, whatever it is, could it damage my motherboard, even though the UPS never switches to battery and detects a power problem? I just want to know that.

Jaclaz and Ponch, I must not have been clear. I know what BartPE and an .ISO is. And yes, BartPE doesn't have an El Torito setting, but El Torito is what makes optical media bootable. Bart's F5 option won't work because I deleted BartPE years ago, since I used it just once. My objective is to load my existing BartPE disc, use Windows Explorer to delete three files from the desired plug-in's folder which is a subfolder in Bart's "plugin" folder. Then I want to copy and paste the three newer files in their place. And finally, I want to reburn the disc. Is this possible, or must I build another BartPE disc from scratch? Somebody told me I must start from scratch because the disc was finalized, but I use RW media and that can be rewritten to about 1,000 times, so how could finalizing RW media prevent future rewrites?

Since when? The result of running BartPE is a bootable .iso, you simply "burn" the .iso to CD/DVD. And BTW it uses (just like Windows install) No-Emulation mode, possible settings for a bootable iso are normally called: El-torito Floppy Emulation mode No emulation mode El-Torito hard disk emulation mode but this is already managed by the mkisofs when you build the .iso which is nothing but a sector-by sector image of the CD/DVD. And for a simple plugin there is also the F5 option in Bart's PEBuilder, which will recreate the .iso from the original BartPE folder (modified with the new plugin). jaclaz I know BartPE either creates an .ISO or uses its built-in burner to write the disc, but my question is do you need to set the disc as El Torito every time you update the disc, or once is enough?

Not today 2012. Today as in start of the GUI. Windows 95 is when Microsoft started to shy away from MS-DOS.

Sure they do! I'd hope that these fine products have fans in them, also there would be a "motor" in the hard drive and optical drives too. You can do some extra testing to see where the problem is. Try having just the monitor connected to that outlet (sans UPS) and try connecting one of these appliances and see if the problem still occurs. Then (with the use of a 3 prong adapter) I would plug the monitor into one of the other outlets, and try an appliance in both the other 2 prong AND in the 3 prong plug to see if the same thing still happens. Then you'd want to know if all three outlets are on the same circuit, or if the outlet you mentioned that didn't cause the problem is on the same or different circuit. FWIW, having 1 3 prong outlet and 2 in the same room (aka lack of grounding on the 2 prongs) shouldn't cause this type of problem... even while it is entirely possible that the 3 prong outlet isn't grounded either. People who build/work on houses do strange things. But why isn't the UPS detecting the undervoltage? And is my hardware being slowly damaged every time I forget not to plug in a high-watt device into one of the two outlets, which is rarely and the device is on for no longer than an hour when I do forget. The UPS came with a good connected-equipment warranty and I was assured by the company my equipment is being protected, but if it's an undervoltage, I'm not so sure.

No. In 1970 we actually didn't even have microprocessors: the 4004 is from 1971. So DOS, in 1970 would be a real wonderful blessing! DOS is from 1981, there was CP/M before it. And no, by the 80s, DOS was far from being all we had: does UNIX ring any bells? I was just making a funny, not trying to give an exact year of DOS release. My point was it's ancient and people really need to let it go. It's not meant for today's OSes (Windows 95 and later). Everything is supposed to have a GUI. The syntax is goofy and confusing, especially when you add switches. It's just not well designed.

But, as the OP just said, not helping at all. You're free to love 7, 8 or even Windows 9 and full cloud computing. However, this is the XP forum and comments like the above have no place here. The OP is free to do whatever he pleases, but since he's out of the loop, I got him caught up to speed and gave him something to consider. I'd say that is helping and the advice was on XP, but I'll let him get back to his thread.

I can confirm this, as I just read it from a trusted source.

Yes, but to make a disc bootable, you need to set your burning software as El Torito.

Pardon, but I don't wish to get into a big explanation here as I fear it will bury my questions under a pile of posts which are unrelated to them. However to briefly summarize: Even with all of the official and unofficial updates, patches, enhancements and custom hacks I've had the luxury of adding to 98SE, I find XP to be more stable and reliable, especially where software is concerned. While I need regular access to custom DOS applications, I also need the same access to newer software that 98 can't execute (even with KernelEx installed). While I used to boot into XP only once or twice a month, I now find it necessary to do so much more frequently. I do not wish to dual boot anymore because it is not time effective. And, I no longer find it "OK" to remain stuck in my ways simply because I find it more comfortable. I am losing productivity time in doing so, and this is not acceptable. The only way I will ever push myself to learn and adapt to XP is if I force myself to do so. That is what I aim to do now; there's no looking back. Now with that said, if we could please stick to the original point of this thread it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Last thing. If you're going to get hip with the times, do it with 7, not XP. You'll just waste a lot of time learning a "new to you but 11-year-old" OS that Microsoft is supporting for just another two years and itching to retire. They even have a End of Windows XP Support 8xx days counter on every KB article. Just trying to save you a whole lot of time and stress.

Thanks for your input, but this isn't the kind of answer I'm looking for. I may be a very stubborn man, but I have (finally) come to the point where I wish to move forward and adapt. It will be difficult, painful and time-consuming, but it's the road I've chosen. What are your needs? Basic 2D word processing and DOS games? Then there's no need to use XP or go through growing pains.

XP is not the right Windows OS for you; return to 98SE or install ME. Windows XP runs NT architecture, which is not MS-DOS motivated. Yes, XP has a slightly-improved command processor and minimal DOS support, but DOS is a part of XP for only backward compatibility. You can play select MS-DOS and legacy Windows games in XP, but not all, because MS-DOS games require direct hardware and port access that XP drivers don't support. MS-DOS harks back to the days of the monochrome screen and floppy. Way before my time, and the only reason I know it is because it's a part of XP, and to fully understand it, like I must, you need to know your roots for Windows to make the most sense. Try converting your 98SE-created documents from the .DOC file extension to .rtf and then opeing them in XP's WordPad. I disagree. I'm one of the most productive people and I do 99.8% of my work in GUI. You really should start forgetting DOS and use the GUI every task you can. It's simpler, better looking, and the future. DOS was all they had in the 1970s, so they had to suffer it. But today, DOS is just a way of saying I'm old and need to learn what a DIMM is.

That's what I feared, and so I asked to prevent burning a coaster. I'm just glad there's no more updates to my one and only plug-in. And why am I the guy with most questions that have no answers on Google? All the more reason to join MSFN, you lurkers.

That's a great suggestion. And correction, the monitor image shakes only when a motorized device that uses a lot of watts is plugged into either of the two outlets. The TV, Xbox and Xbox 360 do not cause the monitor image to shake, because they do not have motors. Can dirty power or EMI cause hardware damage to a computer that is connected to a UPS that never detects a power problem?