Replies

The link should be contextual. The options offered will depend on the app in use when you choose the option.

Paul Thurrott offered a bit more info on it: http://winsupersite.com/article/windows8/windows-8-feature-focus-charms-142999

Thanks for the link Rurib.. I rarely use any of the apps so the option never changed for me.

Cheers…

This Week in Tech referred to it as botching the botch! Leo also postulated that it’s the Steve Jobs effect of dictating to the consumer what they want and then forgetting that the very reason so many eschew Apple is because of that lack of flexibility and choice (I added the last part).

Not sure if you’re joking there or not but to be fair, in my opinion, Apple Mac’s are only as stable and reliable as they are for precisely that reason. They don’t allow much screwing around with the core operating system. It’s their way or the highway. Fortunately, the MAC OS X operating system is very intuitive to use.

Many a time I’ve been called out to jobs where the problems being caused were a direct result of people allowing their kids into the workplace and allowing them on a workstation to keep them busy. Heh.. happily that practice often keeps me busy as well.

Quite a few Apple Mac’s in offices around Melbourne as a direct result of me telling people that in order to keep their external IT costs down, they should have a MAC in the office for their kids to use after school on a restricted account, to which only they know the administrator account password. I should ask Apple for a cut on sales

Cheers…

Its nothing more than an icon over the current lower left hot spot. Clicking it jut takes you to the Start Screen as it does now.

Seems the countless refund requests from Amazon alone has forced them to take notice.. The fact that their response basically amounts to little more than a [snub] at everyone that has complained just goes to show how little they’re listening and how little they care. On ya Microsoft.. Screw the consumers.. you know better! LOL

Absolutely hilarious. I can’t wait for the news articles once it becomes an official release.

Once you agree, it does not make any difference if you’ve chosen not read the EULA. I know of almost no one who reads the EULA for any software but you are still bound by the terms if you agree to them.

Joe

That statement reminds me of an interesting discussion in another forum some time back so I don’t totally agree with it.

Anyone can release software with pages and pages of legal mumbo jumbo hidden in a EULA that includes (should you choose to use their wonderful software) you agree to give the software vendor the right to contest ownership of your entire estate upon your death – This of course would be ludicrous (precisely why it’s a great example) and if legally challenged in a court of law, would have absolutely no chance whatsoever of holding up.

That said, until a EULA has been tested in a court of law to ensure it does not violate any civil rights of an individual, (depending on the individual circumstances of the case) then it’s not worth the space it occupies apart, from maybe being a “guideline” in so far as what the software developer considers fair. Are you bound by it and is it legal – The only accurate answer to that can be a “probably” or even a “maybe”

My point to commenting on this is that I I think your statement “you are still bound by the terms if you agree to them.” isn’t entirely accurate. Microsoft have lost their fair share of fights in the courts over things in the past, as have other software developers.

I’m not suggesting everyone should just ignore End User License Agreements, but whilst most people “believe” that clicking a button agreeing to an EULA is an automatic “binding” and “acceptance” of anything might be written in there, I think it’s important to note that may not necessarily be the case – the only way to find out is if the EULA is tested in the courts. You only need to upset someone with deep enough pockets to challenge an aspect of software usage (or transfer to another machine as is the case in this thread) before you can really say you’re bound by them.

I know from my own experiences that (given enough time – say at least 6 months from initial activation) OEM operating system software like XP, Windows 7 or even OEM versions of Microsoft Office, can most certainly can be activated on totally different machines, automatically, over the Internet without any problems whatsoever.

Does doing that that break the OEM EULA? Absolutely.

More importantly however, does it break the law? Now that’s getting into a grey area – only a court of law could determine that..

Should you do it? Probably not.. Lots of maybe’s there to consider though.

Just my 2c

Cheers…

I need to find out why it won’t connect to the internet. It is seeing the wireless no problem but when I ping a website it fails.

Have you tried manually assigning IP and DNS to the notebook? I would try this..

1. Go to a working computer also connected to the router you’re using, open a DOS command prompt on the working computer and type “ipconfig /all” (without the quotes)

2. Make a note of the following values returned by the working computer:

– IP Address
– Subnet Mask
– Default Gateway
– DNS Servers (there should be two)

3. Back on the problem notebook, bring up the Properties window of the LAN connection you’re using to connect the laptop to the router

4. From the General Tab, edit the “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)” properties

5. Select “Use the following IP address:” and “Use the following DNS server addresses:”

Type values identical to the ones you made a note of in step 2, EXCEPT the last three digits of the IP Address – this needs to be unique to your particular LAN, something different to any other computer or device connected to the same LAN. I usually just try a random high number like .189 or .243 as the last three digits of the IP address on a LAN I’m not familiar with. You’ll soon know if you duplicate another machines IP address.

Click OK to save what you’ve just entered and OK again.

Now open a DOS prompt window on the problem laptop that you’ve just manually assigned IP / Gateway / DNS information to the network adapter.

Type the following; ipconfig /flushdns

Now type “ping google.com” – if no result, reboot and try to ping google again. Also try “ping 74.125.237.69” (That’s just one of google.com’s IP addresses..

If you get a reply then you have connectivity and the problem is with Auto DNS.. If you don’t get a reply with “known good” manual settings for the LAN you’re connected to, then I’ve just wasted about 5 minutes of my time

I’ve assumed you have a fairly good working knowledge with my instructions above.. hope it all makes sense and would be interested to know if it helped. Has worked for me many times over the years and given me an idea as to where to start looking to trouble shoot why connectivity won’t work using Auto IP and DNS settings. Just rebooting the modem / router (believe it or not!) has also resolved the issue in the past, despite other machines on the LAN having zero connectivity problems.

Good luck & have fun

Cheers…

[Edit – After Thought]

After re-reading your original post I just wanted to comment on this..

[Quote]I looked in Device Manager and found a big yellow question mark next to the Ethernet Controller so I downloaded one for the Acer 1 Netbook (his laptop) and installed it which fixed the yellow question mark but didn’t fix the connectivity issue.[/Quote]

If you were able to locate an Ethernet driver for the laptop that easily, then in my humble opinion, a Tech did not even look at the laptop at PC World – No computer technician worth his salt would return a laptop with a missing Ethernet driver if they truly attempted to correct the problem. I sure hope they didn’t charge anything for the attempted repair?

I missed this follow up when I wrote my original reply.. Heh.. Perhaps it is possible that your original post wasn’t made in jest

WIN7 64 is the BIG pain! {…snip…} and I keep all the drivers up to date. All Windows Updates are current. I use Avast! Free, MBAM Pro, CCleaner, WinOptimizer7, jv16 Power Tools, and Windows Defender. I use their Real-Time modes (where available) and scan with them every day.

If I may suggest one possibility.. you may in fact be “over maintaining” your operating system and causing yourself grief as a result.

You’re frequently using tools (Ccleaner, WinOptimizer, jv16 Powertools) that all mess around with the Windows Registry. Doing that on such a regular basis (unless you are certain you know what you’re doing) can cause absolute havoc with an operating system. Even more so when you frequently use multiple tools designed to “fix” the registry. Such tools should really only be used when specific problems need to be addressed in my opinion.

Using more than one tool (3 in your case) to address the same thing can compound the possible problems no end. Ever wondered why you can run CCleaner in it’s default configuration to clean your registry and when you finally get a totally healthy result out of it, you run jv16 Powertools and it finds a whole host of problems CCleaner missed? Which one is right and which one is wrong?

Anyway, that’s definitely one reason I think you may be having so many problems with Windows 7.

Another is keeping “all the drivers up to date” – the latest is not necessarily the greatest. The old adage of if it’s not broken, don’t fix it applies here in spades. Unless there is some pressing security issue with the drivers you’re already using, or features you desperately need to take advantage of that only newer drivers will provide, I’d strongly suggest just leaving your drivers alone. I wouldn’t be updating them just because a newer version was available. Look into what the newer version of the driver you want to update addresses before you make a decision to install it..

On the other hand, if you use software to automatically keep your drivers up to date, I’d be getting rid of it. More on why below.

Over the years, I’ve struck many occasions where problematic systems [BSOD’s in particular] were easily fixed by simply reverting back to prior driver versions. Now that’s just from my own experiences, but as a result, in MY opinion, the vast majority of those automatic driver up-daters could easily be classed as a form of Malware because they can often cause more problems than they solve or supposedly prevent!

[ Apologies in advance to Fred Langa, a person I’ve read and hold in the highest respect since holding a paid subscription to his Langalist newsletter several years ago before he merged with Windows Secrets. Unless my memory fails me, Fred advocated and even encouraged using driver version update checking software in a recent article – Sorry Fred, on that topic I couldn’t disagree with you more, but I guess we can’t agree on everything :p ]

it states that the problem “will” be fixed when found. When found, it then states that it is “attempting” repairs. After failing to repair, it states that the problem cannot be repaired automatically. The exact problem is never specified.

With all of the “maintenance” you say you do so frequently, I’d start keeping a running journal (in the form of a spreadsheet perhaps) of all the changes I made to the system (or changes made by tools like jv16 and WinOptimizer etc) if I were you and reverse those changes as a starting point to fix any problems that suddenly popped up for no apparent reason.

You would think that MS would use its billions and vast manpower to investigate all possible problems and find their solutions. But NO, all they care about is enriching themselves!!!

Here you must be kidding surely? lol.. Yes, I’ve no doubt that Microsoft’s biggest priority is how to increase its profit margin – the user will always come second. Welcome to the business corporate sector. :o:

So, what can we do??? We are caught between a rock and a hard place!!!

Well.. In a word, unless you code your own flawless operating system, then yes.

Cheers..

Windows OSs crash and have too many other problems. Apple is too proprietary and non-upgradeable. Linux is too much like DOS (the last time I used DOS was 1994) and, without a Windows-like GUI, is too unwieldy for my tastes.

I would gladly dump all my Windows-based software for a new OS without all the problems of the above three mentioned OSs.

Short answer – no, not that I’m aware of. To expand on that though..

You’re going to be struggling if you’re going to insist on a “Windows-like GUI” along with the mountains of software support it enjoys, yet in the same breath claim that you don’t like Linux or DOS.

It all depends on what your needs are. There’s a couple of alternate early multitasking solutions I still occasionally have a play with (namely OS/2 and DesQview) that I keep running on a couple of old 386 machines at home, but that’s purely for some occasional nostalgic fun and neither (to my knowledge anyway) are still supported in any meaningful way and I can assure you that neither are without their own unique problems. I’m not even sure you could still buy them (?)

Both Windows XP and Windows 7 are about as rock solid an operating system as you’re going to get and are still serving the majority of the home and business computing communities around the world. (Forget about Windows 8 – it’s just been released so still in its infancy and riddled with all types of problems) Putting Apple Macintosh as a solution aside (also solid in so far as OS stability goes) as you’ve also dismissed that option, then I’d say you’re in between a rock and a hard place.

I’d have to agree with CLiNT’s comments.. If I were you, I’d be looking as to “why” your Windows OS’s crash so often and what the cause of all those “many other problems” you speak of is, rather than hoping for an operating system you’ll have zero problems with. Due to the many variables and different requirements folks have, the fact is that what you’re looking for simply doesn’t exist and nor will it ever in my opinion.

Actually as I write this, I wonder if you’re not just having a bit of fun in starting a thread like this just to see what sort of reaction you would get ? If I’m close to the mark on that one, then congrats on getting me in for a few minutes too! :rolleyes:

Cheers..

MS have a consistent OS track record for ‘domestic’ OS’s :-

DOS – good (basic, but pretty solid. DR-DOS was possibly better, but had no marketing)
W98 – bad (the first MS attempt at a WYSIWYG interface, not a solid OS)
W98se – good (they sorted out the problems and it worked well)
W-ME – bad (a frankenstein of W98 interface and solid W2000 tech)
W-XP – good (very good, still used by millions (billions?) 15 years later)
Vista – bad (a rushed OS, put out just to boost sales. Pointless and forgettable)
W7 – good (a proper solid OS, not a dumb ‘rush release’)
W8 – bad (Rushed out to capitalise on its Touch Interface and sell a new OS, just as W7 was getting to be solid. They seem to have empirically decided “This is what people need!” without actually assessing users or the market at all. The pricing incentives tell you all you need to know about how MS feel it will sell.

Do you see the pattern there? I hope so.

An excellent summary which pretty much mirrors my own views, but I’m curious..

How come you left out 3.11 and W95?

Cheers..

Also if your having trouble finding stuff on the new ribbon version (2010) microsoft made this site , works really well too.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/learn-where-menu-and-toolbar-commands-are-in-office-2010-and-related-products-HA101794130.aspx#

Jennif

Finally got around to catching up on my Windows Secrets newsletter and stumbled across this thread. Had no idea this site existed and will prove very useful for quite a few people I know. Kudos for sharing that Jennif.. I think the site is brilliant and agree with you in spades.. works very well indeed.

I couldn’t help but smile and feeling somewhat vindicated after all the flak I copped from some fellow IT Pro’s after I revealed that;

I’ve gone out of my way to bag the Release Candidates of this operating system to all my clients and told them to avoid it like the plague in all shapes and forms

..when I read the following concluding paragraph in Woody Leonhard’s Top Story of this week’s edition of Windows Secrets, where he also confirms Microsoft’s announcement that Windows 8 development is now final.

Frankly, unless Microsoft has some spectacular Metro apps up its sleeve — the current preview versions of Mail, Calendar, People, SkyDrive, and Photos are all horribly stunted; the Music and Video are laughable — I don’t see Windows 8 or Windows RT making it to the top of many holiday shopping lists. A year from now, things will be different. But you have to wonder how much more consumer-market share Microsoft will lose in the interim. [Final Paragraph – “What to expect from the Windows 8 rollout” by Woody Leonhard]

The statement mirrors what I’ve been predicting all along.

To most people imo, all Windows 8 will do is as I originally stated – provide a ton of frustration, with a huge learning curve for little to nil valuable gain. It offers nothing terribly exciting to the average user (per the title of this thread) and is still miles away from even being considered for deployment into a business environment.

Might be worth another look in a year or so, but I guess only time will tell. For now, Windows 7 remains a stable and rock solid operating system. Microsoft would have done far better for themselves and their image in just improving on that success.

Cheers.

Some tweak needs to be done with the uni’s system.

Thanks for the honest update Martin. To me, the “top guy’s” suggestion above translates to the Uni having to ease off on their security to accommodate a haphazard implementation of the Authentication protocols your University is using. They would be fools to do that in my opinion. The whole problem smells of a buggy Wi-Fi implementation in Windows 8, especially given that you seem to indicate Windows 7 machines have no issues and being told to try a Windows 7 driver for your Wi-Fi adapter..

Laughable when I recall reading (in several places) all the praise being sung about how much better Windows 8 drivers are.

So case closed. I hope they get it working quickly when Win 8 is officially released.

If you mean the Uni, then good luck with that. If you meant Microsoft getting it working in Win 8, you might be in for a bit of a wait. According to Woody Leonhard in the latest edition of Windows Secrets I just glanced at, the final version of Windows 8 is already finished. The thing hasn’t even hit store shelves and already it clearly needs work to just be able to successfully authenticate to a Wireless Hot Spot at a University.

To be fair, as I’ve mentioned in other posts, any radically changed software package (especially an operating system) is bound to be riddled with bugs in it’s initial release. Sadly, history has shown this to be particular true when it comes to Microsoft products.

Best of luck with it mate.. Hope you can get it sorted soon.

Andy

Have you looked at PrintScreen by Gadwin Systems? I used the freeware version for a few months, liked it so purchased the Pro version. Can be downloaded from here;

http://www.gadwin.com/download/

..if you haven’t tried it yet.. Both the Freeware and 30 day trial of the Professional version can be downloaded using the above link.

Provides a stack of useful options when you need more power than Windows 7’s built in clipping tool and (for me at least) is a very intuative and easy tool to learn to use. Has worked great for me in both XP and Windows 7.

Cheers..

Anyway, now I’ve got to get the correct security details and put them in. Then I think W8 should work on the Uni network.

Good to hear the workaround worked for you. Providing you can now establish a correctly authenticated connection to your Uni’s WiFi network, then the only thing that should stop you from connecing to the facilities of your Uni’s LAN may be restrictions on which operating systems are being allowed to connect and talk to their server(s) .. if they have no such restrictions in place, then you shouldn’t have any issues accessing the resources.

Do let us know how you get on with the final step.. As I think Ted rightly pointed out, Universities can be quite strict with security as a rule and I’m curious to know if they’ve just decided to white list Windows 8 to talk to their servers when it hasn’t even officially been released yet.

Cheers..

I think the problem is that Drewski needs to clearly distinguish between Corporate Desktop and Personal Desktop. Applied to Corporate Desktop, I think his arguments are obviously true, and never moving an inch in the debate would be appropriate. However, for the Personal Desktop, it will depend on the individual.

That’s a fair criticism which I take on board. You’re perfectly correct – my focus in all things to do with Windows is mainly to do with Corporate and working environments, because that’s where my bread has been buttered for a good part of my life now.

That said, I still believe there will be a lot of resentment to the operating system from a personal desktop standpoint as well.

I take myself as an example.. I’m usually the first to try new things out, yet even for home I’ve already decided that without some major modifications, Windows 8 will never have a place other than perhaps in a VM to play with from time to time as I learn more about the product. Not even for a measly price of $40 bucks – I’ll simply refuse to pay for what I consider to be garbage.

I also have a couple of kids (18 and 25 – still living at home and enjoying not having to pay any rent! ) who also embrace new technology, yet who also dismissed the product as too “clunky”. I’m fairly sure I already mentioned that my son described the Metro interface to be like a “poorly designed and dysfunctional IPad”. – That’s a comment coming from a kid who has always had access to the latest developments in personal computing technology. I know, because I have an aching wallet as proof! lol.. He loves Windows and has exploited it as a gaming platform in ways that even I didn’t think were possible.

Yes, I’m sure there will be some that will like it – Ted’s mostly positive comments about Windows 8 are testament to that, but I still believe that they will be amongst the minority. Only time will tell I guess, but in its current form, I’m still backing my own predictions on this one

Cheers..

The problem was caused by the “Start this connection automatically” check box being ticked by default – leaving it ticked results in forcibly bypassing the option to manually set up the security options, and there is no option in Control Panel to delete a network once it is setup, and right-clicking on a network in the Notification Area network list has no effect until there is a successful connection.

MS needs to add options in Control Panel to “Delete” or “Forget” the network and an option for “Properties” or “Security Settings”, and make the wording of “Start this connection automatically” less ambiguous.

So now there seems to be no way for me to delete or forget this network, and no way to get to Properties to adjust Security Settings. I’ll keep scouring the net for solutions.

Thanks for the update Martin.

I only have Windows 8 in a Virtual Machine with no WiFi card installed at the moment, so I can’t test this out myself, but I think I may have found a solution that “should” work for you..

From a post found on this page.. http://haiteq.com/2011/09/14/connect-to-wireless-network-in-windows-8/

This was driving me crazy today, there is no “manage wireless networks” in Windows 8, not sure why. So once you set up a network you are not able to alter it unless it is broadcasting near you and you set it up with the right security. Well I found a fix, if you go to device manager and uninstall your wireless network card and then reinstall it (should only take about 20 seconds) it will reset your network profiles, allowing you to recreate one that may be setup incorrectly. Hope this helps.

Not an ideal solution, but the logic behind the idea appears sound.. note you will likely need to re-connect your Windows 8 setup to all the other hot spots around the city that you have already configured, as the above step will likely clear the lot.

If all else fails, and you don’t mind having to re-connect to all of your existing WiFi connections, maybe give the above a try and see how you go.

Good luck.

Andy