We all tend to bash Bill Gates and his minions a lot, but sometimes they do something right. Like this:

I have an old Windows computer, which I keep up to date, that gets used mainly by guests, my father in particular. He has this habit of installing all sorts of weird software that he likes to use for image editing and so on (he's a photographer).

Well, on my last trip through its update process, I decided to clean it up a bit, so I un-installed all sorts of programs that were cluttering the thing up. The un-install programs all worked great, without complaint, and everything was fine.

Except the optical drive (a DVD/CD reader) didn't work. Windows "saw" it and told me the device drivers were happy, but couldn't use it. All of the on-computer help files talked about new device drivers, cable connections, and the usual easy-to-check stuff, and none of that fixed the problem. I went so far as to buy a replacement drive (a reader/writer this time) and new, shielded cables. No help.

So I finally waded through the Microsoft on-line problem solving web site. Putting in the error code I was getting yielded a long explanation of things that can happen when third-party software dealing with optical drives is un-installed, including my symptoms.

And there was a button that said: Fix This Problem By Clicking Here.

So I did. And it did. (It turns out that the suspect software had left some bogus registry entries hanging around.) Thank you Microsoft!

Now, of course, the computer has two optical drives, a reader and a reader/writer. But that's OK -- in the process I bought another, bigger, hard disk and more memory. So it's not really an "old" computer anymore, it's a hot-rod server-level computer.

But now I have to decide whether to let my dad use it again...

HPH

 

Congratulations!

What's that saying about the blind pig?

 

DAYYUUMMMM!!! Blind Hog Motorsports website is GONE!!!

http://blindhogmotorsports.com/default.aspx

 

Its good to hear a good story about microsoft. I have no complaints, but I never know what I'm doing with computers anyway. I do know Microsoft's updates are easy to do and I've never really had any trouble with that. I still think they're some kind of special gestapo police who know everything we do, everywhere we go on the 'net, how much money we have in the bank, what we buy, etc., etc. and I feel a little troubled by that.

 

Some of their stuff really works as unadvertisted. I converted a fairly functional XP
box into a fully functional router earlier this week.

 

Why should you praise Microsoft for offering a fix for a problem that they created themselves? The "software uninstall" process was implemented by Microsoft. And if it didn't do a good job, it will leave some stuff in the registry. Then the "support" department comes along and offer to clean up the registry for you and now you are grateful for Microsoft? I don't get it.

 

The software that I un-installed wasn't Microsoft certified (note my use of the word "weird" in the OP), so the standard installer program was, no doubt, confused. When I used a Mac at my previous employer, similar third-party software issues arose all the time, so it's not a Microsoft problem as far as I can tell.

I have no real love for Bill Gates & Co, but I think it's only fair to give credit when it's due. And this time, their stuff worked wonders. HPH

 

Any day when a computer does what you want it to do is, a good day.

 

Anybody that gives away $42B is okay with me.

Sorry for the aside