i hate microsoft

[piranha]

security upgrades, a whole heap of them. i am good about these; i don't let them install themselves automatically because i like to know what's happening to my system, but i usually download them as soon as they become available. that's what i did this time. i am apprehensive about it these days because of the paramour's horrid experience with a security upgrade totally hosing the networking while zie was in hamilton, but there is really no choice.

system needs to reboot, of course. i mean, one can hardly install a font on windows without it needing to reboot. i reboot. comes back up, everything looks normal, until i use my trackball. that isn't working. at all. hm. usually it warns me long before it runs out of batteries. i put a new one in anyway (i have a cordless logitech trackman). that doesn't do anything. i unplug the transmitter and replug it. woops. unknown USB device. i switch ports. nope, doesn't like the device on any of my 3 port. hrm, maybe something wrong with the USB? i try my wacom tablet. that works on all 3 ports. fine. i turn the machine off. back on, no change.

*sigh*.

i ask the paramour to try the trackman on zir laptop. it doesn't work either. hmmmm. maybe it really is broken? but hey, security upgrades are installed there too, who knows. i connect it to my mac. it works perfectly.

ok. i let windows look for a new driver and install that. now the device is recognised. the transmitter does its thing, the dialog for connecting the trackman comes up, but it still doesn't move. i go through the help center's troubleshooting dialog even though i suspect it'll be useless. it is. i look for a new driver from logitech and download it. while waiting for the download to complete, i move the transmitter to another USB port and try again, just because. there it works. i move it back to the original port. now it works there too.

i hate microsoft.

Comments

[kightp.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain. On the same day as the last batch of security updates, the IT powers-that-be decided to remotely install Office 2003 on everyone's computers (they did warn us, at least). I spent the entire day helping bewildered coworkers - including our program director - figure out how to configure (*spit*) the new version of Outlook so it works like the old version, helping someone else troubleshoot why several non-MS programs had stopped working and otherwise doing things that aren't actually part of my job description, just because I'm the closest thing we have to a bona fide geek.

The only consolation: I was able to contact my sweetie, currently working as a temporary contractor for Microsoft, and request that he make a rude gesture at the entire MS campus as he left work that day. Petty, but strangely satisfying.

[brooksmoses]

I'm reminded of the time a few months ago when I decided to let Windows Update install its "updated" driver for my video card.

Now, as I'd somewhat forgotten, the old driver for this card requires one to set a couple of options at install time. First, one has to set the language; one also has to specify if one wants to use the "treat the dual head hardware as two separate displays" setup. Apparently the updated driver was designed that way, but Microsoft somehow removed that option when including it in Windows Update; when I installed it, it came up without the dual-display part, and in French.

Furthermore, it also came up at the default 800x600 resolution, which meant that all my icons got rearranged.

The only way to fix it that I could find was to completely uninstall the new driver, and then reinstall the old driver off the CD that came with the display card in the first place. Bah, indeed.