Archive for the 'Win7' Category

Windows 7 File Explorer “Jump Bug”

Published October 31, 2011 Microsoft , Win7 Leave a Comment

I love Windows 7. By far, the best Windows O/S ever made.

Except for this problem:

http://cnanney.com/video/win7-jump-bug/

THIS DRIVES ME BONKERS. When it first started happening, I chalked it up to a minor thing that I could ignore, but it’s now put me over the edge, and apparently it’s STILL a problem in the Windows 8 developer preview.

For all the ‘usability’ marketing and PR we see for Windows 7, who invented this ‘feature’? There’s even a comment in the following thread from a Microsoftie that says it is ‘by design’:

Windows Explorer expands folders inappropriately, jumping the folder you expand to the bottom of the navigation pane

Saying it’s ‘by design’ is developer-speak for “we don’t want to fix it.”

This is so annoying, I purchased Xplorer2 – a File Explorer replacement, which is great, except it doesn’t replace everything, and I still want to use the old Explorer for some things (search, for example).

Would someone at Microsoft PLEASE escalate this issue and get it fixed? It is a problem, and makes Windows 7 just a little less usable than it should be.

Bad Apples in the Computer Industry

Published November 7, 2009 Microsoft , Office2007 , Win7 1 Comment
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I was a little perturbed today having witnessed some really poor salesmanship at a local Orlando computer shop I stopped into to try and find a special type of USB cable (another story).

While I was in the shop, the owner (I assume) began helping a walk-in client who came in with a laptop asking about Windows 7 and if he could upgrade it.

The salesman/owner turned over the laptop and saw an OEM Vista Home Premium sticker, and said ‘yes you can upgrade it, but we don’t recommend it’ and went on to give the guy some techno-babble about the hard drive not working correctly when you ‘try’ to do an upgrade’

THEN he went on to say he could sell him an OEM copy of Windows 7, complete with a CD he could take home for $200, and they could do the install for $50.

The obviously non-technical customer asked if Windows 7 came with Word, and to my utter disbelief, the sales-owner said ‘yes’! About 5 seconds later, he somewhat correctly himself saying it comes with Word-pad – making a distinctive pause between ‘word’ and ‘pad’. “But we also can install OpenOffice for you.” More blank looks.

As I was browsing around the store waiting to see if his tech could find the cable I was looking for, I also saw 4 copies of the Office 2007 OEM disk kit in the counter display case, for anyone to come in a buy.

So this company misrepresents Microsoft products, blatantly selling OEM product completely against Microsoft’s licensing requirements, AND he’s completely misleading this customer.

Turns out they didn’t have the cable, and I didn’t have the opportunity to talk to the customer as the owner-sale guy was glued to his side. I did sit in the car for a few minute in the parking lot hoping the customer might clue-in and leave and I would have talked to him outside (and tell him to go buy the Windows 7 upgrade from a reputable store and just do it himself).

Microsoft needs to put the hammer down on this type of reseller. It hurts all of us.

The really scary part I saw on their window as I drove away is their ‘business’ service offering. They ‘take care’ of you. Right.

XP to Windows 7 Upgrade Works

Published October 28, 2009 Win7 , XP Leave a Comment

The picture in my blog banner is the family farm in Saskatchewan where I spent many summers running around keeping everyone else occupied. It’s where I learned to drive when I was 9 or so (just about took out a building – thanks Grandpa), and learned many a life lesson from my uncles, aunts, cousins and Grandma (“that fence could use some painting”).

Just to the right of where the blog picture ends is where my Uncle Lynn lives – he built his own house there, and I actually helped shingle his garage that summer some 30-odd years ago (coincidentally, he just had the shingles re-done).

Anyway, Uncle Lynn’s a bit of a computer geek – meaning to say he loves computers – even though he lives off of dial-up (the options are pretty limited in SE Saskatchewan, though I’ll bet he’ll break at some point and get a satellite system installed).

So of course the Windows 7 questions started coming, and last week I spent some time figuring out how and where to get the Family Pack (see my earlier post). Turns out he made a trip to the States, and picked up a copy in Minot, ND for something under $150 US.

Then he took it home, upgraded his Vista laptop, and then spent a few hours copying all his data off his XP workstation in anticipation of it’s ‘upgrade’.

It turns out his workstation has a data drive that the upgrade process walked him through copying all his files and settings to, performed the ‘7’ install, and copied the files and data back to the new install.

Without a hitch.

My Uncle was so pleased with himself, he picked up the phone to tell me all about it last night, and I was only too happy to listen. It’s really nice to get those relative-wants-to-talk-about-computers calls when it’s all about how they got it done without any outside assistance.

IMO, the XP to 7 upgrade process is probably the biggest hurdle Microsoft faces in getting people to ‘upgrade’, and this experience is proof-positive that they’ve done a good job of it.

Certainly better than I expected. Congrats Microsoft. Now Uncle Lynn needs to keep the phone line occupied for a few hours to download the updates :)

Windows 7 & Office 2007 for Students – The Ultimate Steal

Published October 23, 2009 Office2007 , Win7 Leave a Comment

Are you a college/university student in Canada?

Check this deal out – $40 for Windows 7 Pro (upgrade) and $64 for Office 2007 Ultimate!

(click the ‘additional products’ link to see the Win7 price).

So eat KD for an extra week – this offer is too good to pass up (even if OpenOffice is ‘free’).

http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-ca/default.aspx

Windows 7 Family Pack in Canada

Published October 23, 2009 Win7 6 Comments

Wow – tough time finding this thing to recommend to family…until I had the SKU to Google with.

www.microsoft.ca has a ‘buy now’ link, that throws you over to their U.S. online store, except they don’t ship to Canada. So why is there a ‘buy now’ link?

Googling/Binging brought no more joy.

Called Microsoft Canada – disconnected after hearing one of their Indian call centre folks answer and hang up without realizing I was on the other end.

Called Microsoft Canada Parts – who told me there is no Canadian online store, and couldn’t tell me anything more.

Called the main MS Canada line back and got to speak with Tom – great guy, and helped me find it, and gave me the Cdn SKU (GFC-00235).

So Bestbuy.ca has it – for $40 more than the MSRP (huh?). Sorry Best Buy – I’m not linking to you!

Searched for GFC-00235 and found NCIX.com also has it (no stock yet), but actually for the $199 price.

It’s a great deal, Canada – 3 Home Premium licenses for the price of 1.

Go get it – you won’t be disappointed (though it looks like you’ll have to wait for a back-order).

BEST DEAL: Costco.ca (select the drop down box)

NCIX.com

Agile Electronics

Shark Systems

Cendirect.com

tigerdirect.ca

Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade Issue from Vista x64 & Norton UAC Tool

Published August 26, 2009 Win7 Leave a Comment

I did the upgrade this past Sunday, and all seemed to work without a hitch, until I started getting errors trying to launch things like Device Manager, or ‘run as admin’ on command prompt.

After a couple days of hair pulling, and posting to the Partner newsgroups for help (basically telling me to do a clean install), I finally ran across a clue:

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/15261-explorer-exe-cannot-verify-digital-signature.html

Which reminded me I had installed Norton’s “UAC Tool” a while ago (a Godsend in Vista), but had Windows 7 completely befuddled for any app I had ‘UAC white-listed’ with the Norton tool.

Solution is to boot into safe-mode, uninstall the tool, and reboot.

Buh-bye Vista, it’s been swell. I think I might miss Tinker.

Hello Seven.

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