NaughtySpawn

Posts Tagged ‘Microsoft’

This is just one example of the many problems I’ve been facing with Windows 7 and why it infuriates me. Things that used to work under XP without incident, don’t work under the "new and improved" OS.

I recently bought a Dell Inspiron 630 to replace an older Dell Dimension 5150. The Inspiron is an AMD Athlon II X4 chipset since I didn’t want to go with Intel this time around. Instead of using the onboard video I installed an Nvidia 8500GT PCIe video card and an Nvidia 6200 PCI card. I have two monitors plugged into the 8500GT card and one into the 6200 card for a total of three monitors across two video cards.

The funny thing, the system and Windows both recognize the cards. The drivers are installed and updated. And, when Windows initially starts it can see both cards and puts a display across all three. On the surface everything looks fine.

Until I start arranging windows. Within a minute or two of trying to use this configuration all three screen will lockup and it looks like the entire machine is hung. However, most of the time I can press Ctrl-Alt-Delete, lock the machine, log back in, and the video will respond again (at least on the main monitor, the video on the other two is completely locked and unusable). This usually gives me enough time to get to Control Panel and disable the 6200 video card. Once that card is disabled, everything works fine. I can drag and drop across monitors without issue and it doesn’t lock up. As soon as I enable the card, the problem comes right back.

As I mentioned, the drivers are updated and they use the same driver download. Windows doesn’t show any conflicts or errors in Device Manager. And since it can power that card and monitor it appears everything is fine. But alas, it simply can’t use it correctly.

Under Windows XP these same cards in this same configuration worked correctly. It just baffles me that Windows has a handle on the card to begin with then fumbles all over itself.

Is this a problem with Windows and dual video cards or is this some hate between an AMD mother/chipset combination and Nvidia? I’ve noticed hundreds of articles about problems with Windows 7 and multiple video cards and no one seems to have a solution. Since multiple monitors is extremely common, and multiple video cards is just as common I can’t see why Windows 7 can’t make this work. I’ve seen all sorts of comments about buying two identical cards, but Win7 isn’t worth $100 bucks to me, it’s certainly not worth me spending a few hundred more on video cards just to get it to do something an older version could handle.

Anyone else running into something like that? For the time being, I guess I’m just SOL and this is another problem with the latest and greatest Microsoft has to offer.

Something tells me the actual conversation wasn’t all that different.

JoyOfTech

Don’t forget to fill out the survey!

Ring, … are you feeling Bingy on your Ringy Dingy?

Over the next couple of years the importance of Windows will decline rapidly as more users and more products switch over to become browser based. The browser will play the dominant role and the OS will go behind the scenes. We’re clearly seeing this change now with more people wanting to use Netbooks and handheld devices. They simply need to connect to the "cloud"; it makes little difference in how they get there.

Right now we’re already seeing a huge increase in browser functionality. You upload pictures to sites like Webshots, Flickr and Facebook through the browser, create blog entries with plugins like Scribefire, transfer files with FireFTP, check email at Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo and others, watch movies at Hulu and Netflix and if Flash and HTML 5 continue their development even games like Quake and dozens of titles from Popcap can be played inside a browser.

An extensible browser will have more value than an OS that takes 13GB of space just to get running. Currently, Firefox supports the best model with the proliferation of extensions that can be loaded. And, those same plugins will work regardless of whether you’re on Windows or Linux. The number of plugins available for Firefox dwarfs what’s available for IE. Even Chrome has more plugins available. As we move to a more web centric mentality there will be little need for a preposterously large base operating system. Do you really want to wait for a minute or two while you machine boots up or comes out of sleep mode and reloads everything into memory?

I fully expect that within the next year or so we’ll see full applications running inside of the browser using Flash, Silverlight, HTML 5 and plugins. Developers are making utilities right now that extend the power of Firefox and that will continue as the browser exposes more features. And as Flash and Silverlight develop we won’t be limited to simple games, but more full fledged applications.

Windows will also continue to lose dominance and importance and more games switch over to console platforms. Case in point, even Microsoft is no longer a game publisher for PC games and has even shuttered some of the biggest titles they had – Flight Simulator, Age of Empires and Rise of Nations just to name a few.

DirectX 10 didn’t do much to keep games on the PC either. There’s only a handful of games that are written specifically for it and most game developers have stated they plan to keep writing for DirectX 9.

Microsoft itself is pulling users away from Windows with Xbox 360. They are betting the ranch on Project Natal, which if successful will move even more users off Windows. Further, with the addition of streaming media, Twitter updates and other social media integration the need for a PC and thus Windows will continue to erode.

The other cash cow for Microsoft has been Office which I believe peaked in feature set in 2003 and now offers little reason for continual upgrades. Blog tools, social network apps, and online editors have all chipped away at the need for Office, certainly for Word which is the major reason people buy Office. Even those online comment forms highlight your spelling mistakes.

Word contains thousands of features no one will ever see, let alone use. Excel probably still has features to offer to niche groups, but overall it has exceeded the capacity of most users. In the grand scheme of things, why upgrade? What do these new versions of Office offer? And if they don’t offer new features, the need and want to upgrade to a new OS to support them diminishes quickly. Remember the launch of Windows 95 with Office 95 and again with Windows 2000 and Office 2000? WinXP and Office XP? Funny, it didn’t happen with the ill-fated Vista or the follow up cousin, Win 7.

Sure there is a surge in lemmings upgrading to Windows 7, but considering just how bad Vista was and the low expectations people have it’s really not that surprising. Plus, how many people actually went out and bought it off the shelves versus buying a new machine? Yes, they had a lot of pre-orders and the sales have been steady, but will most users be so quick to upgrade to Windows 8? I don’t believe they will. The hype and excitement over the Apple tablet more than proves people are looking for smaller, faster devices that get them on the web. It also says the functionality is the most important factor, not the OS.

The timing of Windows 7 was probably right, but with so many alternatives coming out and the push to do more on the web, the next version of Windows will probably have a hard time gaining acceptance. I’ve been using Windows 7 for a couple of months now and dislike it immensely. It’s not the upgrade I was hoping for and I have no intention of spending money for the same old crap next time around.

It’s a sad tale, if you hear Dick Brass tell it. In a new op-ed for the New York Times, the former Microsoft VP explains how he thinks the Microsoft corporate culture has "never developed a true system for innovation," and that while the company is obviously strong at the moment, he doesn’t see the company retaining its dominance if or when the Office and Windows revenues die down.

Former Microsoft VP Dick Brass weighs in on why Microsoft ‘no longer brings us the future’

And here’s Microsoft snappy retort to the chidings of Dick Brass. Quite honestly, it’s a pretty weak rebuttal. I don’t think OneNote proves they understand Tablets (lest we forget Microsoft tried the Tablet market in 2001 and failed miserably). And yes ClearType is installed on millions of machines, but that wasn’t the point. It could have been out the door several years earlier.

Measuring Our Work by Its Broad Impact

Ignoring the fact that this guy is an idiot, a zealot and has obviously never worked in a true IT shop and done a deployment, I agree with his statement that IE6 needs to be eradicated.

Five cures for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 6 ills

Not only is IE6 a horrible browser with more bugs than a Thai bath house, it has problems rendering all but the most simplistic of web pages, hasn’t been updated in years and is perhaps one of the slowest pieces of software out there. But yet, it’s still hanging on. For some reason, people are reluctant to put this creature to bed. Considering the upgrade is free, this level of stupidity boggles the mind.

You will never convince me there is a business reason to keep IE6 around.

However, I have a much simpler and much faster way to get rid of IE6; put a script on Google, Yahoo and Bing that detects IE6, informs the idiot they can no longer run searches in that browser and sends them over to the Microsoft Update site. I guarantee within 2-3 days IE6 will be gone from even the most ardent cave dwellers machine.

For those that might escape that net, put it on YouTube and the American Idol site to snag the rest.

Problem solved.

Looks like Ballmer’s keynote address didn’t pack that much punch. Actually, I’ve read several articles that found Ballmer and what he offered to be completely lackluster. From what I gather MS is beating the same drum for the past year if not longer. Ballmer offered nothing new and didn’t even come close to "wowing" the crowd.

Personally I’m underwhelmed by their technology offerings and don’t think it will make much of splash in the months to come. They’re being outpaced at just about every turn by other companies who are more focused, more agile and who understand the game better.

This article is definitely worth a read:

Why Steve Ballmer’s CES keynote was boring: Microsoft is looking back, not forward

Seriously, what is the big deal with this new "feature"? I’m sure you’ve seen all the articles touting this new and astounding feature that you unveil by creating a folder with a super secret name. And then, once you go into this mystical folder you get wondrous and amazing powers. Or you might just get a listing of everything in Control Panel as a list rather than the stupid category breakdown you normally see.

I created the folder and yes, having the Control Panel as a list is very handy and useful. But GodMode? Please. This is such a basic idea I can’t understand why Microsoft just didn’t make it one of the standard views.

Useful? Yes.

GodMode worthy? No.

Wow, check out this press on the Zune getting it’s ass kicked this holiday season. The Microsoft device didn’t even come close to the sales figures of the iPod Touch. I’m not an Apple fanboy by any means, I just think it’s  pretty amusing that Microsoft fell flat on their face with the Zune (again). All their nonsensical hype about it’s HD features failed to even compete with the well rounded features of the iPod Touch. The Touch is the new gaming platform for 2010 and Microsoft doesn’t even know where to start.

So, it comes as no surprise to see the Zune HD languishing at the bottom of the charts, with the iPod Touch a far more desired and desirable device.

Unless Microsoft can really deliver with Windows Mobile 7 and blow us all out of the water, the tablet market Microsoft has tried so hard for years to ignite will explode into a massive bonfire for Google and Apple, leaving Microsoft with a few smoldering embers.

Zune HD languishes near bottom of Amazon’s bestseller list

The Zune HD has been completely owned by the Apple iPod over the holiday season, being outsold at every turn. The question now is what Microsoft should do – settle for second best and carry on regardless, or call it a day? If it decides to persevere then what can it do to begin to compete with Apple’s behemoth?

Zune HD cannot compete with iPod Touch

Windows 7, why do you disappoint me so?

I upgraded my machine to Windows 7 and I have to say I am completely underwhelmed by it. Based on all the hype I was expecting bells and whistles, clowns and balloons. From where I sit, Windows 7 is the same as Vista with all those same annoying dialogs and poor design issues. Since it’s nearly 2010 the fact you can’t stretch the taskbar across multiple monitors is, well, stupid. Why is it Windows can’t actually open an ISO file? I believe I have more cause to open it to see the files than I do to burn it to a disc. And in what year will MS actually make a Windows Explorer that’s actually worth using? Yet again, the built-in file manager is pitiful!

Just for the record, breadcrumbs really aren’t that cool.

Maybe Win 7 is better with resources and memory management. Right now I can’t say its better at rendering the desktop. Maybe my videocard is weak, but it’s just a desktop I shouldn’t have to have a gaming card just to render some icons on it.

So you may ask if I don’t like it why did I upgrade? Well, after being stuck on other bastard child of the operating system world, Window XP 64-bit, I just couldn’t stand it anymore and even the problematic Win 7 seemed like Nirvana comparatively. Nothing runs on XP64 and it was abandoned right after launch, just like that troubled teen Windows Me. Apps complain relentlessly that they aren’t compatible and finding 64-bit drivers for XP is like finding an honest politician, they just don’t exist.

The only bright spot so far has been the setup, which I will admit is very impressive. It was very quick and all the components were recognized. Of course installing 300+MB of patches right after install was less than thrilling, especially since Win 7 has only been out two months, but I would rather have the patches than my ass hanging out on the web for all to see.

It took less than half the business day to install the OS and reinstall all the apps. That alone is pretty striking. It’s still Vista, but that’s a step up from where I’ve been. However, there is no way this OS is worth the $150 upgrade price.