Topic: Dear Sir Bill Gates: invoice enclosed

[Nemesis]

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Please find enclosed my invoice for £1,200 sterling for administrative and consulting work, caused by the need to repair Microsoft sabotage. I dare say you'd like details:

Last night, your organisation destroyed about three hours worth of work I'd done.

During the night, Microsoft took it upon itself to update my computer. I arrived at work to find a message stating: "Windows recently downloaded and installed an important security update to help protect your computer. This update required an automatic restart of your computer."

I have gone to some trouble to ensure that this doesn't happen. I have set Windows Update to "custom" - meaning that I will decide which updates I need to install, and how the update will be handled. And when an update says "this requires a restart" I have always specified that I will restart the machine at a time of my own choosing.

When you chose, on your own initiative, to disregard all my precautions and reboot this PC last night, I not only had several notes in progress; I also had about a half-dozen web browser windows open. It has taken me the best part of three hours to try to recall what I had discovered, and where - and I honestly doubt I will be able to recover the majority of those URLs. They took considerable research to find.

With the invoice for my consulting time, please find a message from me, and from many of my readers, who assure me they feel the same way. The message says: "You are not making any friends like this."

I well written example why I dislike auto update.

[KBF MalaK]

There's another interesting quirk I noticed, but as MS isn't going to pay me for my research, they can get billed by 'professionals' who also figure it out...

Of course, the file may be corrupted even if it does get downloaded. I can tell Internet Explorer to download it again. "File exists - replace?" it asks. "Yes." Does it replace it? No! - it checks to see if the file appears to be on the disk, and it then pretends to download it. But in fact, the "download" takes place in a fraction of a second, and the same, corrupt file is left on the disk. The only way of getting the correct file is to go to the disk directly, delete the corrupt file, and then go back and download. Again, Redmond knows what is best, and my opinions, as the operator of the machine, can be safely disregarded.

Not only do you have to delete the corrupt file, but as explorer saved a temp copy of the file even before it saved the 'real' copy of the file, you need to find the temp copy and delete it also. It usually is named some gibberish like 'dhdsrsfxvxdvksdfkZCZASf.tmp' and unless you know the filesize or what your looking for the only way to delete it is to go into IE's properties and delete all offline content and restart IE. Otherwise IE will fake the download and copy the temp file back into the 'real' copy of the download- thus preserving the corruption.

Thank you Microsoft, may I have another ?

[Just plain old Punisher]

Just turn off auto-updates. How much time was wasted writing up a stupid invoice that tried to be clever, but after reading it I just wanted the 20 seconds of my life back. Should I send him an invoice for that?

People, sometimes you take this anti-microsoft crap much too far.

[Commander Maxillius]

Since when has Windows ever honored that setting?  I had or controlled 4 Windows machines on which none of them ever updated properly.

The copy of Windows on my iBook constantly interrupts my work to say it's going to reboot in 5 mintues.

[Elvis]

When you chose, on your own initiative, to disregard all my precautions and reboot this PC last night, I not only had several notes in progress; I also had about a half-dozen web browser windows open. It has taken me the best part of three hours to try to recall what I had discovered, and where - and I honestly doubt I will be able to recover the majority of those URLs. They took considerable research to find.

Wouldn't they be in history? Unless of course you've customised that also.

[Commander Maxillius]

The funny thing about IE's history folder is that it only properly records your history if you close the program properly, as in using the X or the close command.  The system rebooting unexpectedly (from the program's point of view) or a power outage would cause recent history to disappear.

[Nemesis]

Just turn off auto-updates. How much time was wasted writing up a stupid invoice that tried to be clever, but after reading it I just wanted the 20 seconds of my life back. Should I send him an invoice for that?

People, sometimes you take this anti-microsoft crap much too far.

He did turn auto update off.   It likes to turn itself back on.  It always does so after you do a manual update for example - without tellng you.  Over riding the choices you make to do as Microsoft wants rather than what you want as the OWNER of the computer and software involved is what he is complaining about and rightfully too.

[Just plain old Punisher]

Just turn off auto-updates. How much time was wasted writing up a stupid invoice that tried to be clever, but after reading it I just wanted the 20 seconds of my life back. Should I send him an invoice for that?

People, sometimes you take this anti-microsoft crap much too far.

He did turn auto update off.   It likes to turn itself back on.  It always does so after you do a manual update for example - without tellng you.  Over riding the choices you make to do as Microsoft wants rather than what you want as the OWNER of the computer and software involved is what he is complaining about and rightfully too.

It's never done it with me, and I keep auto updates off because I don't like unnecessary services running in the background.

You want to know how to really turn it off? You go to control panel, administrative tools, services. Then find automatic updates service.

Switch it to disabled.

There.

Done.

Fixed.

[Commander Maxillius]

Just turn off auto-updates. How much time was wasted writing up a stupid invoice that tried to be clever, but after reading it I just wanted the 20 seconds of my life back. Should I send him an invoice for that?

People, sometimes you take this anti-microsoft crap much too far.

He did turn auto update off.   It likes to turn itself back on.  It always does so after you do a manual update for example - without tellng you.  Over riding the choices you make to do as Microsoft wants rather than what you want as the OWNER of the computer and software involved is what he is complaining about and rightfully too.

It's never done it with me, and I keep auto updates off because I don't like unnecessary services running in the background.

You want to know how to really turn it off? You go to control panel, administrative tools, services. Then find automatic updates service.

Switch it to disabled.

There.

Done.

Fixed.

What Pun forgot to mention is that in order to get this to work you must install Windows onto your machine while said machine is dead-center in a 666-ft-diameter pentagram with flaming black cats at the points.

[Just plain old Punisher]

You fool! You forgot the virgin sacrifice and the yaks blood!

[Nemesis]

It's never done it with me, and I keep auto updates off because I don't like unnecessary services running in the background.

You want to know how to really turn it off? You go to control panel, administrative tools, services. Then find automatic updates service.

Switch it to disabled.

There.

Done.

Fixed.

Been there.  Turned it off through services and had it come back on weeks later.   Microsoft has so many "wizards" and automatic tools that interlink with one another it makes it inevitable that some people will be bitten like this. 

There are many defects that kick some people in the ass.  I for one had a IE update that disabled my internet connection - which is when I moved to Mozilla.  Few were affected by that one, I was.  I had to roll my install of Windows back to pre IE update to get back online.

[Brush Wolf]

It's never done it with me, and I keep auto updates off because I don't like unnecessary services running in the background.

You want to know how to really turn it off? You go to control panel, administrative tools, services. Then find automatic updates service.

Switch it to disabled.

There.

Done.

Fixed.

Been there.  Turned it off through services and had it come back on weeks later.   Microsoft has so many "wizards" and automatic tools that interlink with one another it makes it inevitable that some people will be bitten like this. 

There are many defects that kick some people in the ass.  I for one had a IE update that disabled my internet connection - which is when I moved to Mozilla.  Few were affected by that one, I was.  I had to roll my install of Windows back to pre IE update to get back online.

Just went into services and the damn thing was started. I had disabled that quite some time ago. I am guessing that MS is turning it back on when you use Windows Update.

[Commander Maxillius]

You fool! You forgot the virgin sacrifice and the yaks blood!

What, you want everyone's copy to work?

[Nemesis]

What, you want everyone's copy to work?

Actually yes.  I would prefer it without the black magic and heathen rituals though.

[Commander Maxillius]

What, you want everyone's copy to work?

Actually yes.  I would prefer it without the black magic and heathen rituals though.

That's why I switched to Mac, where they make the cases a heavenly white