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I hate Dell and Microsoft
Oct. 27th, 2004 08:16 amSo my work laptop dies last Friday with errors in the atapi driver on the controller and drive. Of course, code freeze is this Friday. This was something like the fifth computer failure this week, those suckers must be psychic or in league with Murphy.
So I get a temporary laptop from IT, fresh from Dell, not even touched by IT, and I start tying it down and installing what I need.
ARRRGGGHHH. Way too much pain.
Why is SQL Server running (hell, why is it *installed* never mind running)?
Why is a default driver used that completely destabilzes the system, crashes explorer on shutdown and randomly GPF's explorer? And this was something installed by Dell, not one that normally comes with XP. Does anybody there do quality testing?
And #@$^&*@^*&^ Microsoft, far from my favorite company in the best of situations. I turned off all the services I don't use or need, which is SOP for doing anything with a system, regardless of OS. Among the services I shut off was "Automatic Updates" since I don't need anything new screwing up my system unless I do it myself. Go to the Windows Update page (and after an unnecessary reboot. grrr), it wants the Automatic Update service on. So I go start it, and no dice. The ActiveX update control wants the service *AUTOMATIC* not just running. Needless to say, much cursing ensued.
During this I learned something potentially useful (and annoying) to those of you that are security paranoid. The Windows Crypto subsystem updates itself automatically *EVEN IF AUTOMATIC UPDATES ARE TURNED OFF*
If you shut down terminal services, task manager can't view process owners. ARGGGHH. And it's only a few lines of code to get it directly in the first place. What the heck were they smoking?
So I get a temporary laptop from IT, fresh from Dell, not even touched by IT, and I start tying it down and installing what I need.
ARRRGGGHHH. Way too much pain.
Why is SQL Server running (hell, why is it *installed* never mind running)?
Why is a default driver used that completely destabilzes the system, crashes explorer on shutdown and randomly GPF's explorer? And this was something installed by Dell, not one that normally comes with XP. Does anybody there do quality testing?
And #@$^&*@^*&^ Microsoft, far from my favorite company in the best of situations. I turned off all the services I don't use or need, which is SOP for doing anything with a system, regardless of OS. Among the services I shut off was "Automatic Updates" since I don't need anything new screwing up my system unless I do it myself. Go to the Windows Update page (and after an unnecessary reboot. grrr), it wants the Automatic Update service on. So I go start it, and no dice. The ActiveX update control wants the service *AUTOMATIC* not just running. Needless to say, much cursing ensued.
During this I learned something potentially useful (and annoying) to those of you that are security paranoid. The Windows Crypto subsystem updates itself automatically *EVEN IF AUTOMATIC UPDATES ARE TURNED OFF*
If you shut down terminal services, task manager can't view process owners. ARGGGHH. And it's only a few lines of code to get it directly in the first place. What the heck were they smoking?
