Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Microsoft Woes

This is a rant entry. Read at your own risk. I'm also writing it as a historical data for me, so I won't forget a couple of years later and go to Microsoft again.

During the last few days of February, Windows 7 system on my Dell laptop showed some irregularities and Microsoft was notified with a click.

A Microsoft partner company, whose name I now forgot --they are in Toronto, Canada, and they employ people whose accents are next to impossible for me to decipher -- called and said they were sent by Microsoft, and they fixed some stuff on it, but then, they wanted me to buy more Windows software insurance, because the Windows guarantee on the system had elapsed. They asked $399 for the lifetime insurance of windows 7 in the computer.
An online search showed me I could buy the same computer for a little over $400. So I declined.

In the meantime, the computer seemed to be working. I used it for another week or so, but it was a busy week and I omitted to backup the work during that week. When the computer started doing weird stuff like jumping about from place to place in the same program or even shutting down the program I was working on, I wanted to reboot it, since I have been leaving it in sleep mode earlier.

Windows 7 wouldn't come back, not really. And when it did, it wanted to repair the start. Yet, it wouldn't accept the recovery backup disk. (In all fairness, I might have goofed making it originally.)

The other option was to open the windows without the repair. I opted on that if only for saving those files I had omitted backing up, but the system kept asking for a password. I had never put in a password to it since I was the only one using it.

Then, using the F buttons, I ran an hours-long hardware check. It showed that the computer itself was in tiptop condition. It was the Windows that gave up.
I considered taking the laptop to a local place which is reputable and has done work for us in the past, but my husband said to stop flogging a dead horse and get a new computer. Since my b'day was a few days later, I agreed. I mean, who doesn't want a new toy!

The new laptop came on Feb. 27, with Windows 8. Oh, Boy!
I think the systems engineers in Microsoft have totally forgotten about the concept of user-friendliness. I am moving around it and learning it, but so many things are so unnecessary and useless. One-click functions have turned into ten clicks and moving screens. I believe the engineers with graphics backgrounds wanted to toy around without regard to normal people trying to work using the machines.

Ever since we had our TI 99 and IBM-XT, I have worked, written, e-mailed etc., in Windows systems like 95, 98, XP, Vista, and 7, but I have never come across an operating system like Windows 8 that gave me such a runaround.

Oh, and another thing! Older systems, up to XP, used to give recovery CDs to people. Nowadays, you have to make your own. I tried to make one for the new laptop, but the Windows is asking for extra few bucks to update the DVD drive so it is able to perform the task of making a recovery disk. I did copy the recovery files onto a DVD, but that may not work. I guess I'll pay the extra soon; although, hubby says not to bother with it. If this one goes down, I am definitely getting a Mac or some other computer with a different operating system that is writer-friendly.

I so miss my Brother Word Processor from days gone by! But then, if we had only that, I would miss on the internet and WdC, and that is not something I'm going to give up. Catch 22, isn't it!