Unwashed Village
General Discussion => Unwashed Village => Topic started by: BlueCross on November 30, 2014, 07:45:28 PM
-
migraines.
Appalling. That may be the kindest word I can use to describe Microsoft Windows. It doesn't even matter what version I'm talking about. I just saw a blurb from some guy that said "Windows 8.1 is the worst operating system Microsoft ever made." Well, he's only partially correct. Somehow Microsoft has managed to overcome all laws of logic and created a plethora of Windows operating systems where each individual Windows system is worse than all of the others.
It's not like I really don't know what I'm talking about. I took my first software course in 1967, and have been intimately involved with computers, software, and yes, Microsoft as well, my entire life. Never have so few annoyed so many with so little. It's really difficult to say whether the cause is gross technical incompetence, short-sighted management, or self-serving marketing plans. Perhaps a bit (or perhaps a lot) of all three.
If anyone is curious about what brought about this current rant (not that it really matters, does it?) was that I wanted to remove the Avast Anti-software from my laptop (that issue is the subject of another perhaps never to be told rant). Well, to do that, I either have to reboot in Safe Mode or use a third party removal tool. How hard could it be to boot in Safe Mode.
Well... very, as it turns out.
I'm about 17 steps deep and 3 hours into booting my laptop into safe mode. Along the way, I've had to reboot my laptop no less than a dozen times (minimum of 6-7 minutes to fully reboot with no disk thrashing at the end), accidentally moused over a 'disk info' button that launched some disk utility that refused to be cancelled or killed, and suffered through no less than 10,000 (perhaps a bit of hyperbole there) useless comments from people who have no clue what they are talking about.
And where am I now in this process? I'm estimating I'm about 3% done.
More updates when my blood pressure normalizes.
-
I find knitting or crocheting helps the process, at least you'd have a stabbing implement when needed.
Barring acess to proper tools: vodka.
-
AV is generally evil. I run my pc's av free backed by an os image, re-imaging after a spyware infection is so much less painful than messing with removing AV, I did have panda installed at one point though *shudder*
I'm in software hell just now sorting 100+ new 64 bit machines out.
-
Heh. Just yesterday I had the pleasure of booting my Macbook into Safe Mode on Windows 8.1. Not very easy, it seems. Apparently, if you can boot into normal mode, you can just hold down shift while restarting, but in my case, I was not able to boot into the desktop.
Anyway, I share your pain. The good news: Windows 10 is shaping up to be quite nice. Just installed it on a machine for a friend, and it boots from dead cold to desktop in less than 5 seconds.
-
Update: Finally got Avast unloaded. Turns out there is a switch/checkbox in 'msconfig.exe' that forces a Safe Mode reboot. Easy once you know how but finding it was a bitch.
I've got Avira Anti-Virus loaded now. It was recommended as having low resource usage and so far that seems to be true. It also found a couple of malware issues that my other stuff hadn't found.
-
I find knitting or crocheting helps the process, at least you'd have a stabbing implement when needed.
Barring acess to proper tools: vodka.
I'm pretty sure I have rum and tequila in my Proper Toolbox.
-
I'm pretty sure I have rum and tequila in my Proper Toolbox.
Substitutions are acceptable