MESSAGE
| DATE | 2004-11-21 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Local Press
|
I hate Newsday, but here is another article from this fellow who has
written a few of these. Someone should contact this guy and get him our
classes schedule
Ruben
Big mess, or no-muss? Windows XP upgrade polarizes our readers
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Apropos of home computers, I'm often reminded of that ancient curse,
"May you live in interesting times." In the case of Windows XP Service
Pack 2, my upgrade was wonderfully boring. That's why we're turning the
floor over to our readers this week for a traditional session about
Microsoft's upgrade.
They've had, how you say, interesting upgrades, along the lines of "the
worst experience of my computing life," as one reader put it. Although a
few had no problems, I am sitting here with about 4,000 words detailing
extreme pain and suffering. We'll specify here that this probably isn't
a representative sample - how many people flame the computer columnist
to express joy at the wonderfulness of Bill Gates?
Ed Shendell of Bayside killed a day trying, unsuccessfully, to install
the upgrade twice on his daughter's computer. "Both times it has put the
computer into a cycle of booting to a warning dialogue. I've gotten the
computer to run by booting into safe mode and using the restore process,
I will not attempt to install SP2 again. The computer works fine without
it."
Apparently, even if you followed Mr. Smartypants' recommendations, you
could have problems. Marilyn Ippolito took another shot at SP2 after
reading our two previous columns that "gave me the confidence to try
again."
"I made sure, first, that I was up-to-date on every single update for my
computer ... things quickly went from good to horrendous. Everything
that went wrong the first time went wrong again. ... I lost the
Internet. ... My modem and router wouldn't function properly. ... The
next day I uninstalled the SP2, and miraculously my computer was my
friend again."
Bob DiLorenzo "lost everything."
"My question is: do you find that Windows and Microsoft are getting any
better with their monopoly and working on correcting the quirks that
make using their products frustrating?" DiLorenzo wrote. "Or should I
consider returning to Apple? Appreciate candor."
Candor, huh? Even though I'd be hard-pressed to prove Macs are
theoretically more secure, at about 3 percent of the computer market,
hardly anyone writes malware (malicious software) for them. Hence Macs
don't need SP2-grade security upgrades. If Macs are a little rich for
your taste, try a free/cheap release of Linux. My daughter has been
running Xandros Linux on her PC since May. No crashes, adware, viruses,
etc.
"Bob" (he didn't leave a last name) came up with an interesting solution
to SP2 woes, that, I'm ashamed to admit, I've resorted to myself a
couple of times. He was faced with a completely dysfunctional computer
that he couldn't even repair with his original system image disk. "I got
so frustrated that I went and bought another hard drive and started all
over ..."
He says other owners of the locally assembled brand he bought had a run
of bad luck with Windows as well. We're not going to knock the company,
other than to note that when a firm builds 50 million or so PCs alike,
it can afford compatibility testing, while The Rest of Us, including Do
It Yourself guys like me, have to rely on Microsoft.
I've often said that the people who least need SP2 are probably going to
be the most meticulous about installing it. Louis J. Farbstein of
Merrick said he he had absolutely no problems with SP2 on his own
system, which he sanitizes regularly for spyware, adware, viruses, etc.
"The new security measures have given me a little more peace of mind,"
Farbstein said. However, "the second installation - on my kids' computer
- would not work. My son had inadvertently installed a lot of malicious
spyware from video game Web sites. The most insidious one was called
EliteBar. This program installed a search bar on [Internet Explorer]
with icons for adult and gambling Web sites - just what my 13-year-old
son did not need to see! EliteBar also hijacked their start page causing
it to load a 'Smart Search' Web site that displayed links to additional
adult and gambling Web sites."
To be fair to Microsoft, some folks did just fine and can't understand
the fuss. Gayle Haas said, "I haven't noticed anything different at all
on my computer with it installed. Rather anticlimatic, sorry!"
Adds Steve Isaacson: "I had not cleaned the registry or checked for
spyware. I just did it. The process took under 30 minutes (cable modem).
The installation was smooth and I can report that my computer has never
worked better."
We'll let Marilyn Ippolito have the last word. "You mentioned in your
article that "about 4 percent of the people who have installed SP2
experienced 'severe' problems." ... Knowing that there are others out
there who have had problems with the SP2 makes me feel like I'm not a
total idiot after all."
Email: dolinar-at-verizon.net
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