Only Microsoft can do stupid things like this.
First I was silly enough to buy Office 2013 through my work. It hadn't dawned on me that Office 2013 came out after Windows 8 with it's weird Metro interface that nobody wants to use on a desktop. Since Metro was intended for touch phones and tablets and not full-up computers with graphics cards, it has limited graphics and colors. So Office 2013 follows those limited capabilities for some unknown reason.
I installed 2013 some time last year. The first thing I noticed was that Office 2007 was still installed. Later I found out they shared the configuration and mail files. Of course I also noticed how limited the color choices were in Office 2013. At work we use Office 2010 and I'm comfortable with it. Office 2010 is what I wanted to buy rather than 2013. But, it was no longer available.
I leave my computer turned off for most of the week. I turn it off on Sunday evening and usually don't turn it on until Thursday or Friday evening. This past Thursday I turned the computer on and tried to download and read my email. Microsoft Outlook said there was a problem and I should go into Programs and Features in the Windows 7 Control Panel and repair it. I did this, after which every time I TRIED to start Outlook I got a message saying that Outlook 2013 was busy. Eventually I tried other applications in Office 2013, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, et al., and none of them worked. I Googled the problem and ended up following a link that led to a 'Fix It' link. The 'Fix It' was to uninstall Office 2013.
I clicked the link and hoped it would only remove Office 2013 and leave Office 2007 alone. The fix took many minutes to complete. It sort of did leave 2007 alone. However all the menu selections in Outlook 2007 said they were "not supported". I decided to try and repair Office 2007 in the Control Panel and rebooted for the third or fourth time.
Sure enough Office 2007 is back and working like a champ. Apparently this was all due to one of two Windows updates that were installed when I shut my computer down last Sunday night. I now have a more appropriate Office suite for a desktop computer. I did waste money on the 2013, but at least I managed to recover from Microsoft's fiasco.
Showing posts with label Win 7. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Win 7. Show all posts
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Sunday, June 12, 2011
Microsoft Not To Be Outdone - Win7 SP1
My October 2010 comments on "Firefox & Software Update Madness" didn't address Microsoft and the need to continuously update their software.
Microsoft created Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7 (Win7), the latest version of their operating system back in April or so. I happen to own three computers running Win7. My wife has a new laptop running Win7 64-bit Home Premium. I have an old home built computer running 32-bit Win7 Home Premium. I also have a computer running Win7 64-bit Ultimate, which I consider my primary computer.
When SP1 came out I was hesitant to install it based on past experience. I had learned the hard way that you should always let others do the initial late-beta testing that seems to be necessary after Microsoft initially releases a service pack. I chose to try installing SP1 on my 32-bit Win7 computer along with the other monthly updates. I started getting Blue Screens of Death (BSOD) randomly Eventually, I managed to track down the problems with help from Microsoft's update support and the computer started running normally after resorting to a cloned disk backup. To play on Dirty Harry, I felt lucky and installed it without problems on my wife's new laptop. Then I decided it should be safe and tried installing on my 64-bit Ultimate computer. I regretted the decision for the next four weeks.
The install went poorly and hung at 16% after rebooting. Tom's Hardware web site gave a suggestion to go ahead and turn the computer off and then turn it back on to go ahead and finish the install. The suggestion worked and the install completed. I began to suffer BSOD's both while running and even more scary during the boot sequence. I would be presented with a recovery screen after the boot failure which invariably said it failed. That's when I first contacted Microsoft for the new problems. The problems continued and I contacted MS support again the next weekend. The problems continued after this second contact with MS support so I called them yet again. After this I noticed things were still not right. The AMD Vision Control Center crashed immediately. Media Center crashed immediately, yet Media Player worked fine. I got a notice about IE8 shutting down unexpectedly, even though I'm running IE9. It mentioned an event number and I thought I would look at the event.
When I tried bringing up the Event Viewer it said that the Event Viewer snap-in could not be displayed and that it may not have been installed correctly. OMG, this is part of the operating system and I decided to call MS support once again. After explaining the new problems, the MS support idiot asked me whether I could boot without crashing. I said yes, and this idiot sent me back to another MS drone to get a new ticket number for this latest problem caused by MS SP1. That's when they told me they were going to charge me to fix this "new problem". I went ballistic and the MS drone eventually hung up on me. My only indication they were not there was a dial tone.
I decided to hell with Microsoft and their incompetence. I called a local computer repair guy to come to the house and figure out what's wrong. The repair guy came by the house and looked at the 64-bit system and decided to uninstall Win7 SP1 manually since according to Windows Update it had not installed completely. Once he did that he installed it again. All the symptoms are now gone. Best $100 I've spent in a while.
LESSON LEARNED: Most MS Support people are nice (not that last set of idiots) but they blindly follow a script which might only hide the true problem. The first three calls were to foreign support people. The first was in the Philippines and the second as well as the third were from India. The foreign support people were respectful, patient and easy to work with, even if they couldn't solve the problem. Only the American MS support people, if I remember right in Oregon, appeared more interested in ending the call than helping a customer with a problem caused by a update to their software. Nasty, nasty people.
Microsoft created Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7 (Win7), the latest version of their operating system back in April or so. I happen to own three computers running Win7. My wife has a new laptop running Win7 64-bit Home Premium. I have an old home built computer running 32-bit Win7 Home Premium. I also have a computer running Win7 64-bit Ultimate, which I consider my primary computer.
When SP1 came out I was hesitant to install it based on past experience. I had learned the hard way that you should always let others do the initial late-beta testing that seems to be necessary after Microsoft initially releases a service pack. I chose to try installing SP1 on my 32-bit Win7 computer along with the other monthly updates. I started getting Blue Screens of Death (BSOD) randomly Eventually, I managed to track down the problems with help from Microsoft's update support and the computer started running normally after resorting to a cloned disk backup. To play on Dirty Harry, I felt lucky and installed it without problems on my wife's new laptop. Then I decided it should be safe and tried installing on my 64-bit Ultimate computer. I regretted the decision for the next four weeks.
The install went poorly and hung at 16% after rebooting. Tom's Hardware web site gave a suggestion to go ahead and turn the computer off and then turn it back on to go ahead and finish the install. The suggestion worked and the install completed. I began to suffer BSOD's both while running and even more scary during the boot sequence. I would be presented with a recovery screen after the boot failure which invariably said it failed. That's when I first contacted Microsoft for the new problems. The problems continued and I contacted MS support again the next weekend. The problems continued after this second contact with MS support so I called them yet again. After this I noticed things were still not right. The AMD Vision Control Center crashed immediately. Media Center crashed immediately, yet Media Player worked fine. I got a notice about IE8 shutting down unexpectedly, even though I'm running IE9. It mentioned an event number and I thought I would look at the event.
When I tried bringing up the Event Viewer it said that the Event Viewer snap-in could not be displayed and that it may not have been installed correctly. OMG, this is part of the operating system and I decided to call MS support once again. After explaining the new problems, the MS support idiot asked me whether I could boot without crashing. I said yes, and this idiot sent me back to another MS drone to get a new ticket number for this latest problem caused by MS SP1. That's when they told me they were going to charge me to fix this "new problem". I went ballistic and the MS drone eventually hung up on me. My only indication they were not there was a dial tone.
I decided to hell with Microsoft and their incompetence. I called a local computer repair guy to come to the house and figure out what's wrong. The repair guy came by the house and looked at the 64-bit system and decided to uninstall Win7 SP1 manually since according to Windows Update it had not installed completely. Once he did that he installed it again. All the symptoms are now gone. Best $100 I've spent in a while.
LESSON LEARNED: Most MS Support people are nice (not that last set of idiots) but they blindly follow a script which might only hide the true problem. The first three calls were to foreign support people. The first was in the Philippines and the second as well as the third were from India. The foreign support people were respectful, patient and easy to work with, even if they couldn't solve the problem. Only the American MS support people, if I remember right in Oregon, appeared more interested in ending the call than helping a customer with a problem caused by a update to their software. Nasty, nasty people.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
BlackBerry & RIM Comments
My first smart phone was a Palm Treo 755p. Oh how I miss that phone with it's stylus and touch screen. I replaced it with a RIM BlackBerry 8330 eventually. Even initially I had trouble with the BlackBerry. The first phone I had, I returned to the store and went home with a Samsung Insight instead. I ended up returning the insight after accidentally texting my wife's aunt in California at 4:30AM her time. Thankfully, it was a landline and the message didn't get delivered. Didn't get along well with the Insight's touch screen. I finally decided my first impression of BlackBerry must be wrong and it couldn't really be that bad.
I took another BlackBerry home and tried installing the desktop software on my 64-bit Vista Home Premium computer. No luck, the software didn't support 64-bit Vista. Eventually, I ended up just using the BlackBerry as a USB drive to transfer data. This all happened nearly two years ago, and my BlackBerry contract with Sprint is going to expire this coming spring.
I continued being disappointed with the BlackBerry. Installing apps was always a pain. My Treo 755p had long had the Slingbox app to watch my cable TV from anywhere, which never became available for my model 8330. Installing updates on the BlackBerry often caused a regression to an application or made the experience less fulfilling.
The Vista 64-bit computer has since been upgraded to 64-bit Win 7 Ultimate.
This morning I decided to try an app called Flixter that I learned about on InfoWorld.com. Sounded like it might be an interesting application. The link took me to appworld on blackberry.com. It wanted to install something called "Blackberry AppWorld Installer". I tried installing using Firefox with no luck. Tried using an IE window in Firefox with no luck. Finally started up IE 8 and tried installing from there. It seemed to install, but the connection to the phone didn't seem to work enough to satisfy the installation web page. Decided enough was enough and looked for help on the BlackBerry web site. What I quickly found was their recommended work around was to use a compatible operating system on my computer to install and use their application. In disgust I uninstalled Blackberry AppWorld Installer using the Control Panel.
Imagine the arrogance involved with a phone application (or web site or phone vendor) requiring that I use a compatible operating system on my computer to load their application. Although I have another 32-bit Win 7 Home Premium and three 32-bit XP @Home computers which might be compatible, they are not my primary computer. I will not defile them with this software. So I hereby decree, I will no longer install anything related to Blackberry on either my computer or the phone itself and will begin investigating Android phones to replace the BlackBerry. If I can't find a phone compatible with my needs then I'll do without a so-called smartphone and save lots of money each month. Oh how I miss my Palm Treo. Palm sort of reminds me of the Commodore story of a better product failing because they couldn't sell it to save themselves.
I took another BlackBerry home and tried installing the desktop software on my 64-bit Vista Home Premium computer. No luck, the software didn't support 64-bit Vista. Eventually, I ended up just using the BlackBerry as a USB drive to transfer data. This all happened nearly two years ago, and my BlackBerry contract with Sprint is going to expire this coming spring.
I continued being disappointed with the BlackBerry. Installing apps was always a pain. My Treo 755p had long had the Slingbox app to watch my cable TV from anywhere, which never became available for my model 8330. Installing updates on the BlackBerry often caused a regression to an application or made the experience less fulfilling.
The Vista 64-bit computer has since been upgraded to 64-bit Win 7 Ultimate.
This morning I decided to try an app called Flixter that I learned about on InfoWorld.com. Sounded like it might be an interesting application. The link took me to appworld on blackberry.com. It wanted to install something called "Blackberry AppWorld Installer". I tried installing using Firefox with no luck. Tried using an IE window in Firefox with no luck. Finally started up IE 8 and tried installing from there. It seemed to install, but the connection to the phone didn't seem to work enough to satisfy the installation web page. Decided enough was enough and looked for help on the BlackBerry web site. What I quickly found was their recommended work around was to use a compatible operating system on my computer to install and use their application. In disgust I uninstalled Blackberry AppWorld Installer using the Control Panel.
Imagine the arrogance involved with a phone application (or web site or phone vendor) requiring that I use a compatible operating system on my computer to load their application. Although I have another 32-bit Win 7 Home Premium and three 32-bit XP @Home computers which might be compatible, they are not my primary computer. I will not defile them with this software. So I hereby decree, I will no longer install anything related to Blackberry on either my computer or the phone itself and will begin investigating Android phones to replace the BlackBerry. If I can't find a phone compatible with my needs then I'll do without a so-called smartphone and save lots of money each month. Oh how I miss my Palm Treo. Palm sort of reminds me of the Commodore story of a better product failing because they couldn't sell it to save themselves.
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