The woes of a Windows user

At the university where I work we try to be good citizens.

We fight software piracy by offering all campus members "free" site licenses for Windows XP, Office, and Adobe Acrobat Pro. These licenses are not really "free" of course, since the University pays for them out of grant overhead and maybe tuition, but since the end users don't see any additional charges they go ahead and use them. Many computers have other software with conventional licenses which we have purchased. Products like Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator. We also have OEM licenses for XP Home which came with the machines.

Of course the first thing we do with a new machine is wipe XP Home, and with it all the offer-ware, and then install a clean version of the site licensed XP Pro. When our computers get long in the tooth we sell them to students or give them away. If the recipient isn't a member of the campus community (for instance a public school or a charity) we are legally required to remove the site licensed software. We don't have to, or generally want to, remove the other licensed software. The recipients are generally quite happy to get a 5 year old version of Corel Draw along with their "new" PC.

And there's the rub, Microsoft and Adobe have made this process artificially difficult. Ideally we'd like to remove all the site licensed software, demote XP Pro to XP home, and leave everything else. In a perfect world this would take about 5 minutes per machine:

start -> control panel -> add/remove programs
select office: uninstall
select acrobat pro: uninstall (or configure: demote to free reader)
select (any other site licensed software): uninstall
select Windows: demote Pro to Home
enter new product activation key:
xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx
reboot ( of course - this IS Windows)
done

Thanks to Microsoft and Adobe it doesn't work like that.

Ever try to uninstall Office? The installation CD is required.

We don't have a physical CD for installing the site licensed version, and we don't keep the installation folder around after the installation, it's 400Mb (or more) of files that won't ever be used again. Except, apparently, to uninstall. So to uninstall Office one must re-download the entire installation folder, all 400Mb (or more), uninstall, and then delete this same 400Mb folder. And this isn't even a complete uninstall, there are bits and pieces left all over the registry, but at least the recipient won't be able to run this software.

Acrobat Pro has a similar failing. When it asks if you want to keep the installation files when it's first installed you'd damn well better answer yes. Otherwise, not only can you not remove Acrobat but you can't install the patches either. And the computer can go into a very nasty loop if it tries to update and can't find these files. Ditto if one tries to uninstall. Again, there's another 200Mb (or more) sitting around doing nothing but stroking the ego of a software company.

Finally, there is no way, or at least no supported way, to demote XP Pro to XP Home even if one has valid media and product keys for both. Effectively the only way to legally convert from XP Pro to XP Home is to wipe the partition and re-install the OS. Which requires that any other software we want to "leave" on the machine actually be reinstalled. There are lots of other operating systems around for which one can buy different licenses to allow different functionality, but Windows is the only one which I have encountered that requires a complete OS reinstall to reduce a licensed functionality. Microsoft had no problem providing a "promote" method though, from Home to Pro, so the problem clearly isn't technical.

Thanks to all of this Microsoft and Adobe mandated busywork one can only wonder how many old but still usable PCs companies and universities toss in the trash rather than donate to local schools and charities.

Regards,

Name/email supplied

Subject: "Current Bun"

Hi;

As an Australian I'm a bit surprised to see an English news source misspelling "currant bun".

I visit the inquirer every day (in fact usually twice; lunchtime and dinner time) but I must admit I have noticed an awful lot of spelling mistakes. I regard your news highly, but your spelling in general could do with a brush up!

Regards

Jamie

PS Hope you don't see it as nitpicking. Future generations learn their spelling from their media. The internet is an important source of spelling information for a lot of young people now ... sadly, this is probably why no-one under the age of 25 seems to know the difference between "lose" and "loose" ... :-(

Subject: VooDoo Man on CRACK

Aren't the Feds investigating price fixing between AMD/ATI and Nvidia, and putting memory price fixers/ corporate slugs in JAIL?!?!.

What the hell is Rahul taking about?

He'd better lay off the CRACK. He's got too much money and too much time walking HP headqarters with nothing to do!

Sparks

Subject: Same ol'

I'm an avid reader of your news and love the informal writing enough that I pull up your site more than my own e-mail.

With that said, lately I've been finding it pretty irritating that more than 1/3 of the posts that are made, are nothing but Microsoft or Intel bashing.

The rest praise linux and how sun is now shining on the asshole of it's very existance.. a group has been created to make sense of it's open sauciness and take over M$ that will never, ever happen (see my latest posts.) I actually see Apple selling their OS and taking over before linux will get a piece of that. Money has to be made for quality and takeover, that will not happen with a free OS.

It's alright to post your occasional "vista sucks" post, but every other post being thrown up with Gospel words from random blogs dug up across the internet. I have yet to see a post that doesn't include the run-down word "vole" or "boffin"..or something that's not anti-american for that matter.

It's just old. Get some substance and give some more insight than what Steve down the road said about Microsoft's latest project the other day when you were playing an away game of pocket pool. The diarrhea posting of these subjects is like turning on television to see nothing but re-runs of bad anchormen. Please, do something about it... it's really, really fucking old.

mataroo

Subject: Vista and Rip-off Britain?

As that over-indulgent submission by your reader shows, he doesn't mind supporting rip-off motherboard, grahics card and more, and don't even mind junking that lot for more vanity and glory as more indulgence inducing goodies come along in the very near future [because like william clinton said, “Because I can”], but he bitches about a mere few hundred bucks of Vista which should last him quite a few years. Apparently.

People like him doesn't realise that the kleptomaniac that is let loose by commerce is a mere reflection of the indulgence and greed [the real kleptomaniac] within the buyer. You can buy a dildo “anywhere”, but hey, I don't see myself buying one [or so I declare] other than those who like to be shafted and then bitch later [that, “eet is not beeg enough”]. You just can't win, can you. You want to stop crooked and greedy behaviour, just start with yourself first and thereafter, no idiot/lunatic/malice can touch you. And it doesn't matter if 99.99% of people are greedy, stupid, or malicious.

If you are truthful to yourself first, you won't be untruthful to others and neither can they be untruthful to you. If you want to join Ali Baba's club, be prepared to steal all your through your life, including wanting “better” [ more “fashionable”] goodies like drugs, “shaftings”, higher salaries that never commensurate with what a human expends on effort and more. Life is a zero-sum game. Nobody gets something without somebody somewhere else losing something. Can global warming please advance 30 years ahead tomorrow? Matters of Truth can only be learnt [through experience]. And not taught, debated, rationalised, abandoning sensibility [called having blind faith] or through, “because I can”. If all humans are going to die one fine day, the answer then is, “because you can't”. All “because I can”s are transient [or else the breeding capacity of humans will be prolific]. Got it?

IPCS

Subject: Vista in the UK...

I just read your article about vista pricing in the UK. I've just purchased the Australian Vista 64bit Home Premium OEM version for $155 to be delivered next week.

I make that about 70 Quid.

How does the UK version compare ?

Thanks,

Richard.

Subject: Asshole

Hey AMD asslicker...you got a problem with Intel going into discrete graphics...I guess they can do a better job than AMD/ATI combine together...oops maybe AMD might not even live to see that day as they will be so poor to even finance the whole deal of taking over ATI & that they will burn their ass & Sir Henri will be crying wolf...I will be laughing at you AMD fanboy/asslicker...ha...ha....ha.

Ikiss

Subject: More Vista ripoffs

With respect to your column on the pricing of Vista, I'd have to say that I've managed to find another way in which the perfidious purveyor of software seems determined to make life difficult for those of us who believe that forking up money for the software we use is the decent thing to do.

I purchased an XP Professional OEM licence just before Christmas. With the free Vista upgrade this seemed like an economical way to do things. (Oh, the reason I bought Pro rather than Home ... the crippled networking in Home makes it useless through virtue of insecurity on my home network. Way to go, MS. Anyway....)

Now you'd expect that to get my Vista license, I could just post a form off and they'd send it to me. Not so. One must fill in forms on a website to get an authorisation number, which is then mailed with your receipt to MS (or rather their duly appointed representatives, the cryptically named ModusLink). Well fine, I'm getting something for ... a large chunk of money actually, but I suppose I can jump through a few hoops. Sadly the delightful website tells me that it is unable to issue me with a number, but gives no reason. Two emails to Moduslink have resulted in a quite deafening silence.

One wonders how many people will, like me, end up unable to take up their 'free upgrade'. There seems to be no great incentive for MS to fix this.

Christi Scarborough

Subject: Tiny Tomy Robot

I laughed out loud when I saw you convert the robot's height to nautical miles, but the effect would have been given even better counterpoint if you had converted its price in Yen to Colombian Pesos rather than Dollars - if you do that, it comes out to a hefty-sounding 578,406.86 pesos.

David W.

Subject: Sun/WSJ article

Is the bigger issue not why you weren't running Adblock Plus in the first place, and so saw an ad? Advertising is so 2003.

Synergy6

Subject: Rip-off Britain?

Further to todays comment about rip-off Britain with regard to Vista pricing, just wanted to let you know that our friends at Dell are also 'at it'.

The E228WFP seems like a nice low budget flat panel 22" widescreen monitor. It was announced a couple of weeks ago on Dell's One2One blog. A quick price comparison at the time highlighted that in the US, the monitor (including tax and delivery) was available to the US consumer for $319. The very same monitor in the uk came in at a tad under $600. Rip-off? I think so.

Lee Richards

Subject: wsj ads?

I see no such ads on the wsj site when I visit it, not even when I use IE like some fool and so bypass adblocker and scriptblocker like you apparently do. Mind you I did block ad.doubleclick.net completely from my system, again something I'd expect any tech-savvy person to have done..

So the question is: why the hell didn't you.

W

p.s. I wonder if their ads aren't targeted by IP like more and more are, and that other visitors from other countries and the US would not see different ads.

Subject: Getting chopped to bits

So first we had Microsoft itself chopping off Vista functionality left and right, now we have vendors themselves cutting out more Vista "features" because it suits them.

It really looks like Vista is loaded with stuff that nobody wants, not the customers, not the vendors, maybe not even Microsoft.

Is Vista going to be the most expensive lemon of all times, or what ?

Pascal.

Subject: Voodoo bloke advocates chip price fix

I think his reasoning may be skewed by his perspective. When the cheapest computer you sell is $2000 it doesn't make a huge difference if the processor in your PC's costs you $400, or $350.

If you sell PCs that cost $400 if a processor costs $150, or $100 it makes a BIG difference.

So for Voodoo of course he'd rather loose the 2.5% to AMD/Intel and see them pour more money into making the PC a better gaming platform. His PC's compete with the PS3, and Xbox360, right? The majority of the PC industry, that doesn't run on his ridiculous margins, however wants a cheaper chip to run Word with.

matt

Subject: WOW! Dell strikes again

Unbelievable - for nearly two months now I've been trying to get my defective 30” monitor replaced by dell.

I purchased it brand new in the box from a 3rd party, and went through the proper dell channels to transfer the warranty. When I initially created a support case, they said the new monitor was on its way and to expect it within a couple of days. A week later I had no monitor and was on my way to London for the holidays. Over the following few weeks I went back and forth with dell via email as their left hand tried in vain to figure out what the right was doing. Finally they realized that the “original purchaser” that I had purchased the monitor from had a hold on their account with Dell for outstanding funds due.

Upon my return I actually got someone to finally send out a new monitor, which was MORE DEFECTIVE than the original! As I sit here and type this my eyes are beginning to bleed from the strain.

After another week of trudging my way through their support queues I have ended up at an impasse, with Dell leaving it at this:

Hi West,

My manager and I have tried to find out if there is anything that we can do concerning the monitor exchange and have been told because you purchased the monitor from another party and not directly from Dell we would not be able to set up another exchange until the hold is removed from Magic Firm's account. I was advised to have you contact that company. Because you didn't pay Dell directly for the product and paid this company they will have to help you. I was told tec support can only set up exchanges, if there is no hold on the account. If we have not been paid for a product, we can not send further replacements. I wish there was something more I could do to help you.

Thank You,
Lucinda Yost
ABU Relationship Customer Care
Dell, Inc.

"You may receive a one time survey to rate your satisfaction with the service that I have provided you. Please take a moment to fill this out, as your feedback is always appreciated."

How am I doing? Please contact my manager They can't even get my name right! Why do they even bother with an official warranty transfer form if I am to be forever married to the other party?

Sorry to rant, but not sure where else to send this right now.

Hope all is well Mike…
Stay warm,
Wes

Subject: Vista

Surely a better name for Vista would be Edsel?

Priv