just ranting about amazon

[renegade600]

what is it with amazon prime tv shows.  I am getting tired of them picking one or two episodes in a season and charge for them.  I like to binge watch some of the series then just when it gets good, they want you to purchase the next episode.   It is especially bad with anime. 

anyone here noticed

[mike27oct]

Simple. It's all about the $$$, what else! 

Now. allow me a moment to rant about Microsoft . . .

They ruined my evening last night and day today  -- again.  Why?  For the uncalled for installation of Windows 10 Creator, I had been pushing it  aside for a few months because I had read it could do bad things to my My Cloud NAS and computer home network.  But, Last night I had to rush down for dinner and neglected to completely brush the update aside.  When I returned to the PC, the wheels were set in motion by Windows to take over and do it's evil thing.  It took a long time, and when it was finished the audio of my PC sounded like crap; tinny, weak and no bass. Plus, I got an error message about another program that was hosed and not loading.

I know better than to take hours late at night fixing these sort of problems anymore, and just watched a movie and then went to bed. Today, after googling to find remedies, I had to download/install new audio drivers from HP, and the HP hard drive program that was giving the error message. 

Took me quite a while, so thanks again Microsoft for screwing up another PC with yourhalf-assed updates of Windows.  Leave the darn thing alone. 

Anyone want to sign my petition for a federal law forcing Microsoft to return to Windows 7 and renaming it Windows Forever?   

[renegade600]

Simple. It's all about the $$$, what else! 

Now. allow me a moment to rant about Microsoft . . .

They ruined my evening last night and day today  -- again.  Why?  For the uncalled for installation of Windows 10 Creator, I had been pushing it  aside for a few months because I had read it could do bad things to my My Cloud NAS and computer home network.  But, Last night I had to rush down for dinner and neglected to completely brush the update aside.  When I returned to the PC, the wheels were set in motion by Windows to take over and do it's evil thing.  It took a long time, and when it was finished the audio of my PC sounded like crap; tinny, weak and no bass. Plus, I got an error message about another program that was hosed and not loading.

I know better than to take hours late at night fixing these sort of problems anymore, and just watched a movie and then went to bed. Today, after googling to find remedies, I had to download/install new audio drivers from HP, and the HP hard drive program that was giving the error message. 

Took me quite a while, so thanks again Microsoft for screwing up another PC with yourhalf-assed updates of Windows.  Leave the darn thing alone. 

Anyone want to sign my petition for a federal law forcing Microsoft to return to Windows 7 and renaming it Windows Forever?   

you ever consider linux  :-) 

[mike27oct]

Nope, nor would I have a Mac computer.  I do not need to know how a different OS works.  One OS stuffed in my brain is enough.

[malliekm]

I had to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the XP operating system.  I skipped Vista like everyone else that knew better.  I bought a Win 7 machine and went to all the trouble finding and installing drivers etc to make it a XP machine.  My current computer is Win 7 and I LOVE it!  Not upgrading till I have no choice.

[mike27oct]

When a Windows 7 is over 5 years old, you effectively have no choice; it could die at any day, and I got a Win 8, that MS MADE me update to Win 10, and this time with,Creator OS they did not make me upgrade; it just did it on it's own because I had downloaded the program earlier for free.

BTW, the Win 7 hangs in there and is my everyday laptop, unless I need the speed and power of the Win 10 for certain tasks (e.g. working with video files).

[renegade600]

Nope, nor would I have a Mac computer.  I do not need to know how a different OS works.  One OS stuffed in my brain is enough.

I think you would be surprised as to how much like windows it is.   I have linux mint on three computers and win10 on one.  there are a few things windows does better than linux but don't have to worry about needing to have any type of anti-malware software  :-)  I refuse to do any type of online banking on a windows computer.  one thing I really like about linux (depends on the distro) updates will install in the background and 99 percent of the time, you don't have to reboot. 

[malliekm]

When a Windows 7 is over 5 years old, you effectively have no choice; it could die at any day, and I got a Win 8, that MS MADE me update to Win 10, and this time with,Creator OS they did not make me upgrade; it just did it on it's own because I had downloaded the program earlier for free.

BTW, the Win 7 hangs in there and is my everyday laptop, unless I need the speed and power of the Win 10 for certain tasks (e.g. working with video files).

Windows 7 came out in 2009.  It's over 5 years old.  I was under the impression that MS was going to support Win 7 until 2020.

[mike27oct]

OK, so what exactly do you recommend?  I have a Win 10, a Win 7 (untouchables)  and a Win XP that still works but don't use it at all; too slow, etc.  I got all I needed from its HD when I got the Win 7 in 2010.

[renegade600]

When a Windows 7 is over 5 years old, you effectively have no choice; it could die at any day, and I got a Win 8, that MS MADE me update to Win 10, and this time with,Creator OS they did not make me upgrade; it just did it on it's own because I had downloaded the program earlier for free.

BTW, the Win 7 hangs in there and is my everyday laptop, unless I need the speed and power of the Win 10 for certain tasks (e.g. working with video files).

Windows 7 came out in 2009.  It's over 5 years old.  I was under the impression that MS was going to support Win 7 until 2020.

it depends on the hardware, support has already ended for some newer motherboards and cpu.  in other words, no guarantee that win7 will work on newer computers.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13853/windows-lifecycle-fact-sheet

[renegade600]

OK, so what exactly do you recommend?  I have a Win 10, a Win 7 (untouchables)  and a Win XP that still works but don't use it at all; too slow, etc.  I got all I needed from its HD when I got the Win 7 in 2010.

not sure who you are replying to but if it was me, you can run linux from cd, dvd or usb drive without installing on your harddrive.  i would suggest running linux mint kde

https://linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=244

if you were not replying to me, then ignore my post like you do my other posts  :-)

[mike27oct]

Yes, I was talkin' to you.  Actually, I have run baby linux on my XP from a CD, and to make a long story shorter, one evening the XP just died w/BSOD and would not boot again.  Gave the XP to a friend who admin'd the company PCs for a large company to look at. The problem was damage to the HD of a vital Windows boot file that could not be just copied over, because it had to be in an exact location on disk. HD was toast;

BUT, booting laptop with the linux CD showed the drive and it's other folders/files to be OK, so gave a portable drive to friend who copied all my Data folder to new drive.  Friend gave me the linux CD she made so I could look through again and save any other folders I needed.  So, I combed through and found all the data. Found an exact new HD (with more capacity), installed it in laptop and used all the install CDs that came with XP machine, got it running better than new and dumped all that recovered data in and that XP still runs today.  I was VERY lucky to have that friend and have all my data recovered.

So, I will look into mint linux and make a CD and boot my Win 7 and 10 with it and see how it goes.  Thanks.

[malliekm]

Mike, I had the EXACT same thing happen to me several years ago.  But I didn't have a friend in the business.  I used my laptop to research and the end result was to make a bootable Linux CD.  It wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done but I was able to get EVERYthing off that drive and onto my internal backup drive.  Bought a new HD, reinstalled XP and all was right with the world.  Just had to install all my programs and add back the data.  Linux saved the day!

[mike27oct]

Aw, you're making this up.  Just kidding.  Amazing that you had same issue and also fixed it all by yourself.  Kudos to you.  I have a feeling the read/write heads of the HD just took a little nick out of the magnetic coating on the spinning disks.  It had to be some mechanical issue that trashed the boot file after PC was idle for a while.

[malliekm]

Srsly!  It was Aug 2011.  I know what I did wrong.  I knew when I did it I was taking a gamble and the odds were NOT in my favor.  Hasty decision.  Not going to tell you what I did.  Too embarrassing for the tech wizard I once was