What has Microsoft done right?

Topic

New Reply

ISSUE 21.27 • 2024-07-01 EDITORIAL By Will Fastie We spend a lot of time here griping about Windows and, for that matter, all things Microsoft. It’s n
[See the full post at: What has Microsoft done right?]

2 users thanked author for this post.

rc primak, fisher75

Reply | Quote

Replies

Can’t find anything done right by Microsoft.

Reply | Quote

You aren’t looking hard enough.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

1 user thanked author for this post.

Andy M

Reply | Quote

“After all, if we decided not to embrace change, we’d be calling ourselves the AskWoody XP Newsletter.”

We didn’t “decide to embrace” change, we had change forced upon us by MS. I would be quite happy to still be on XP.

Windows 10 Home 22H2, Acer Aspire TC-1660 desktop + LibreOffice, non-techie

5 users thanked author for this post.

SueW, laksi, Alex5723, Sky, Cybertooth

Reply | Quote

There is a lot about Microsoft products that I love.

Quick Assist is a godsend for me as the IT guy in the family, I have been able to help my mother and sister with various issues thanks to it, and without needing to guide them through configuring Teamviewer or the like (installing ANY kid of software when the user is already confused about UAC is not a good thing).

Office365 has literally saved my career. I had a bad PC crash some time ago where my ancient platter drive got destroyed, and unfortunately I had a lot of important documents including contract-related data on it. My in-house backup to the Synology NAS (through Previous Versions) had silently failed so the copy there was too old, but OneDrive held a copy that I was able to redownload on the new PC.
While I have minor gripes with OneDrive in how it uses the same Documents folder that has been abused by software since the 90s as a dumping spot, so space can easily run out for the free plan, that can be worked around and it’s essentially being given to all users for free. Of course I now pay for myself and my family for extra storage with the family plan so even that space issue is gone.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Will Fastie

Reply | Quote

Microsoft got the user interface for Windows 95 right. It was a quantum leap forward over their previous attempts with Windows. I had thought Windows 3.x was a neat toy that had some benefit (hardware abstraction through its drive model for one… in MS-DOS, each program had to directly support the hardware that you would be using, whether that be your video card, your sound card, or your printer), but I didn’t find it a convincing, fully-featured command shell. To me, it was a GUI in search of an actual solution.

Windows 95 changed that. It was the first Windows version I thought that had an actual reason to exist. This was a coherent UI that had a reason to exist. This Windows actually did the job that the prior Windows versions had aspired to.

Of course, Windows 95 was not problem free by any stretch, but I have to mostly give MS a pass for that. It was the very early days of Plug N Play, and it had been superimposed onto a bus architecture that was never designed to be dynamically configured (the ISA bus). Many PnP hardware items (and their drivers, released by the hardware makers) were of poor quality and did not play well with PnP, and the same could be said of the BIOS releases of many motherboards.

It was the wild and wooly frontier of PnP and hardware abstraction, and I think MS did about as well as could be expected with the design parameters they had to work within. MS was tasked with creating a new Windows version that included PnP, long filenames, and real 32-bit support, but it also had to run the installed library of Windows 3.x applications. Windows NT 4.0, which shared the new Windows 95 UI, could not do that (if it could, it would surely have been the basis for Win 95. In reality, it would be six more years before the NT base would be used for all Windows releases).

Engineering WoW (Windows on Windows), the runtime compatibility layer that allowed the NT base to finally and robustly run 16 bit applications on NT, was another thing MS got right. It allowed MS to drop the transitional Windows 9x architecture and move to NT, then NT 5.1, also known as Windows XP.

While the UI of XP was “Fisher-Price” out of the box, it could easily be turned into a fairly good imitation of the excellent Win 2000 Pro. Simply disable the themes service and it’s the same UI as Win 2k, except that 2k did have much better, clearer icons.

UI wise, Win2k remains the high water mark for Windows, IMO. XP is my all time favorite Windows despite the fuzzy, “too pretty to be useful” icon set. I would not use XP today, for obvious reasons, but relative to the era and the hardware of the time, it was fantastic.

Microsoft also did a great job with the DWM compositor that was released as part of Vista. While there were bits of it where they missed the mark (like taking away the ability of the user to fully customize the colors of composited themes), the performance and utility of DWM was, and is, fantastic.

There are many things MS got right over the years.

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

8 users thanked author for this post.

Charlie, Simon_Weel, SueW, Cleotus Bartholomew, Mothy, Steve S., Will Fastie, Cybertooth

Reply | Quote

Oh, sorry,  I was unaware (as of issue 21.27) that Microsoft had purchased Ask Woody.This issue is surely the debut of the new “Ain’t Microsoft Great And Good In All Things”, fka Ask Woody.  As a user of everything MS since MS Dos, I say that it makes sense.

Microsoft is a predatory marketing company.  The company started out by buying or purloining most of what they foisted on the burgeoning PC world.  Did you enjoy paying  the MS Vig even when buying machines intended for other OS use?  Sure they have offered some innovative products and features, but give me a break.  On balance they have been a bane and detriment to the computer world and its users.

As for a “Ask Woody XP newsletter”, that’s a red herring.  The interlaced complicity of the software developers in forcing the “new and greater MS products” is another spectacle of the whole environment.  I could go on for quite a while.

If you didn’t want rants such as this, then you should not ask incendiary questions.

Mario

1 user thanked author for this post.

Mothy

Reply | Quote

They didn’t buy us out. Nor would I sell to them. But I’m a Pollyanna personality and look for the good even in tech Companies.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

6 users thanked author for this post.

SueW, Cleotus Bartholomew, Andy M, bowled845, rizzquery, laksi

Reply | Quote

It was a legitimate question. The things MS does wrong are widely discussed and debated. It’s not a bad thing to look at the other side for once.

I listed a bunch of things I think MS did right, and there are many more that I left out because the post was already too big (as most of mine are). Microsoft has been around for some time,  and they have done a lot of things in that time. It would be hard to imagine them getting every single thing wrong, especially when they were not the corporate giant they are today. Back when Windows was in competition with OS/2, people had serious questions about whether a (relatively) small, inexperienced company like Microsoft was at the time could really build an OS for the business world the way that IBM could. They had to do some things right to out-compete IBM at its own game, even with their sneaky behavior considered.

For those who do not remember, Microsoft initially developed Windows in secret while they were supposed to be helping IBM develop OS/2 in a joint venture. When they announced Windows, initially IBM was pleased; they thought it was a stopgap thing to extend the service life of DOS until OS/2 was ready, and they expected MS to sell it to IBM only. When MS let IBM know they would be selling it to everyone, including the general public, it dawned on them what was happening, and the joint venture was dissolved.

From that point on, it was Microsoft against the corporate giant that had invented the entire “PC” platform (meaning the IBM PC and its compatibles), and Microsoft won.

I am anything but a Microsoft fanboy, as some of the more MS-friendly voices on here would be sure to tell you. I’ve been one of their most persistent critics here on AskWoody, and elsewhere across the web too. I am not one who enjoys change for the sake of change, but I left the MS Windows platform after having used it (mostly happily) for 25 years. I still have no plans to ever return.

That doesn’t mean I have to see it in black and white and decide that MS must have done everything wrong. Life is not like that.

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

3 users thanked author for this post.

IBM1130, Cybertooth, Will Fastie

Reply | Quote

When Windows 8.0 introduced the dual-interface, I got seriously into Ubuntu Linux. Now that Canonical is pulling the same tricks with Ubuntu which Microsoft has been pulling with Windows 11 I am switching again, to Linux Mint Debian Edition.

That said, Microsoft has done many things right in its recent Windows upgrades.

The move to offering Cloud versions of Office and Outlook was a good move, though retaining support for local versions would have been worth the costs, I think. Being able to sync across devices is a real step forward. Also, potentially you aren’t stuck with Windows as your local OS. You can still connect to the Cloud to use Office or Outlook, though this is not fully implemented.

Changing from Windows 8.0 to 8.1, Microsoft actually listened to customers and began to respect the advantages of a single-screen local desktop, while also continuing to offer Web Apps and Cloud Services to all Windows users. That was a good move, though not well implemented until Windows 10.

I actually think the User Interface of Windows 11 is easier to use than that of Windows 10. I allow that many folks strongly disagree. I have changed only a few things, mostly to suppress ads and widgets (personal preference) and to keep Copilot AI out of my life (also a personal choice).

I think removing Windows built-in Troubleshooters is not a good idea, and I hope third parties will step in with ways to accomplish nearly the same diagnoses and repairs without forcing us to learn to love the new Windows Terminal. Consolidating the Command prompt and Powershell into a single Terminal looks like a good move to me.

I also like the local Search in Windows 10 and 11. This makes all the cosmetic changes in the Settings Panes more bearable.  I am not a fan of feature churn, and Local Search helps to tame this trend.

Lots not to love in Windows lately. But Microsoft has done a surprising number of things right.

And don’t panic. The current AI everywhere for everything craze will calm down eventually. I won’t rush out to buy a Copilot+ PC just yet.  We will no doubt have AI assisted options from now on, even in Linux (with kernel 6.9) but in the end, I expect non-AI solutions will remain with us for some time.  And we are free to use both AI and non-AI solutions — this will not change either any time soon.

Note: Qualcomm says the Copilot+ laptops have no restrictions which will make USB Boot or Linux booting impossible. Microsoft also has continued to pay at least lip service to liking Linux. We just have to get a good Linux on ARM kernel — version 6.9. (And some GRUB changes.) This is more than Apple has offered to Linux users to date.

 

-- rc primak

2 users thanked author for this post.

Andy M, Will Fastie

Reply | Quote

rc primak wrote:

When Windows 8.0 introduced the dual-interface, I got seriously into Ubuntu Linux. Now that Canonical is pulling the same tricks with Ubuntu which Microsoft has been pulling with Windows 11 I am switching again, to Linux Mint Debian Edition.

I am not sure what you mean by that. What is Canonical doing that reminds you of MS with Windows 11? I’m using one of their flavors, Kubuntu (Ubuntu with KDE Plasma), and while I did have to do some configuration up front (de-snapifying), it only takes a few minutes, and it’s nothing like any of the many (many) reasons I left Windows behind almost a decade ago. (Wow, it really has been that long. Amazing.)

If you refer to the UI of vanilla Ubuntu, that’s GNOME, which IMO is the worst desktop environment out there. But that’s not the work of Canonical. I do wish they would make KDE Plasma the default desktop for their signature product, since it makes more sense to use the best desktop environment rather than the worst one, but that’s my opinion, and they never asked for it.

If Windows had followed a developmental trajectory closer to Kubuntu, I likely would still be using it.

 

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

1 user thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth

Reply | Quote

Dear Willie,
if u thinks Microstuffed has done anything to merit any goodness u obviously haven’t seen the docu-drama based on a true story entitled “THE PRIATES OF SILICONE VALLEY”. the enormous egos and corrupt machinations of bill gates and steve jobs are in plain site. fast forward to today and see how bill with all his money and all his power, cheated on his wonderful wife. and you wonder why the sequel to that movie is the next disaster for society “A SOCIAL NETWORK”. same thing, corruption, lying, and stealing all over again. i’ve been with Microstuffed since DOS2.1. i found, documented, and brought to their attention a mjor defect in Windows 3.1.

anything good to say about the company? u’ve got to be kidding. you don’t think that with all t he money and power bill gates has he couldn’t fix every problem in Windows? of course he could …but that would not be profitable. [deleted]

Moderator Edit: Profanity not allowed, even with obvious implications “***”

Reply | Quote

What a great way to help your reader(s)! Having these “done right” things in one place is a super bonus. I think we miss the “done right” things when they are embedded in an article. They are hard to find when needed. The “I know I read that in AskWoody” is hampered by not having the right word combination in the search. Not to make more work, but maybe someone could maintain a “avoid this at all costs” and a “using this is a benefit” lists to direct readers to more detail in an article. Thank you.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Will Fastie

Reply | Quote

Hi Will:

Just an FYI that the “Comment in the Forum” links to Peter Deegan’s Excel Power Query and your Quick Assist articles in the emailed newsletter both re-direct me to topics by other users in the forum that have similar titles.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Will Fastie

Reply | Quote

lmacri wrote:

Just an FYI

We’re working on it.

1 user thanked author for this post.

lmacri

Reply | Quote

No mention of the deep, overt _data collection_ in Windows.  It is now endemic and totally encompassing.  The recent dust-up over the auto screen capture might give a glimpse.  The forced upgrading is ham-handed.  If you try to stay on an older version you soon get cutoff at the knees via the “browser no longer supported” scam.

I use Linux every day.  Originally on Mandrake, morphed to Mandriva, now Mageia.  Unfortunately many of the Linux distros seem to think that mimicking Windows is a good idea, so Mageia  will go it seems. I started on Slackware 1.0.  If you want total control, albeit at the expense of tortuous setup, configuration, and maintenance Slackware is one of the “pure” distros.  For my money the BEST OS ever to be released was IBM O/S 2 Warp 4.  It was so superior to Windows you would need a novel to cover the differences.  Win 95 and 98 were just puffed up Win 3 — a script on top of Dos. Jokes.   For years Windows Server had old 16-bit libraries, even though MS called it a 32-bit system.  MS employed a “thunk” layer to translate.  Performance was awful and crashes were common.  I still have a published article documenting Win Server vs OS/2 Server technically.

Does everyone remember that IBM and MS were partners, sort of?  Their internal intrigues were the reason OS/2 was dumped.  And, does anyone know that when Y2K was looming, MS was lost and incapable of the ability to “fix” things?  IBM did it.  Look at a Win2000 or OS/2 directory tree and see a “Merlin” directory and an “OS2” directory, later both removed.  Windows is a sordid episode in personal computing.

Mario

1 user thanked author for this post.

Mothy

Reply | Quote

I too miss OS/2 Warp and felt it was ahead of many other OSs.
Still haven’t seen where another OS will let you take a print job in the queue an drag it to another printer object.

Would be great of the could/would open source the object desktop.

 

Reply | Quote

Object Desktop was not IBM’s IP.  They had the Amiga team do that and it was far and away superior to anything at the time and for several years afterwards. So, it couldn’t be released.

Besides SOM, OS/2 supplied most system functions so developers didn’t have to re-invent the wheel with their own libraries and os service api calls (which many did poorly).

 

Mario

Reply | Quote

samak wrote:

… we had change forced upon us by MS.

How?

I’m locked into Windows, but not because of Windows. I’m locked in because of apps. It’s only recently that I can see the possibility of switching to an alternate platform, as long as I’m willing to change my preferred video editor.

I won’t, but that’s beside the point.

Reply | Quote

That’s the thing, though, it’s not just you: most people are locked in to Windows, because there’s not a reasonable alternative. Linux is too technical for most people, and MacOS is restricted to expensive hardware. And that’s even if the programs that you require for work or hobbies work on these alternative platforms, which is often not the case due to Microsoft’s effective monopoly meaning Linux and MacOS aren’t targeted.

And due to this effective monopoly, Microsoft can therefore force change upon its users by stopping security updates for old versions, which it does to force its user base to move to progressively more anti-consumer versions to drive its cloud business.

Basically, users didn’t “embrace” newer versions of Windows, they were forced off the old versions. Maybe I’m wrong about this, but I strongly suspect that if you polled the AskWoody membership about whether they’d rather use Windows XP or Windows 11 if they were both supported with security and program updates, Windows XP would win comfortably.

4 users thanked author for this post.

SueW, windbg, Mothy, samak

Reply | Quote

The “365” package of utility “apps” is outstanding. Excel is utterly incredible as is Word. I depend on Outlook for email and contacts where it works exceptionally well. My wife uses Power Point extensively (as does my 14-year old Granddaughter!) I don’t use the other apps.

Anyone who uses spreadsheets or writes extensively will probably be using Excel or Word. In the early days those packages provided fierce competition to anything Microsoft could make. I won’t go into how Microsoft ended up dominating the field since this post is a positive one only.

Further, I have issues with Word and Outlook but since this is a positive post I won’t state them.

Reply | Quote

Sky wrote:

That’s the thing, though, it’s not just you: most people are locked in to Windows, because there’s not a reasonable alternative. Linux is too technical for most people, and MacOS is restricted to expensive hardware. And that’s even if the programs that you require for work or hobbies work on these alternative platforms, which is often not the case due to Microsoft’s effective monopoly meaning Linux and MacOS aren’t targeted.

And due to this effective monopoly, Microsoft can therefore force change upon its users by stopping security updates for old versions, which it does to force its user base to move to progressively more anti-consumer versions to drive its cloud business.

Basically, users didn’t “embrace” newer versions of Windows, they were forced off the old versions. Maybe I’m wrong about this, but I strongly suspect that if you polled the AskWoody membership about whether they’d rather use Windows XP or Windows 11 if they were both supported with security and program updates, Windows XP would win comfortably.

Sky wrote:

… Windows XP would win comfortably.

That’s a common statement, and I’m sure many say it out of frustration brought on by change. I also think they don’t really mean it.

I’ve generally been happy with every version of Windows except 8. I felt that the improvements version over version were beneficial. Except for 8, I migrated smoothly from one version to the next, and I mean since Windows 3.11. I also disagree with most about Vista, with which I had absolutely no problems when deploying it to my clients.

We should always look for both the good and the bad, trying our best to eliminate the bad and improve the good.

 

1 user thanked author for this post.

Andy M

Reply | Quote

I agree that it’s a common statement born of frustration, but I think that that frustration is a legitimate reaction to how people feel when they’re using Windows.

From Windows 95 all the way to 7, I never felt that I was fighting the Operating System, rather I felt that it was there to act as a platform for me to work and play on. Ever since then it’s been a constant battle to get Windows to do what I want it to do and to prevent Microsoft from forcing me to do what it wants me to do. Windows has gone from being a platform built to aid the user to a platform built to aid Microsoft, and as a result the feeling of pleasure I had from using Windows for most of my life has been replaced by one of frustration when I use it.

You mention that we should try our best to eliminate the bad, and that certainly felt like a philosophy of Microsoft for most of its history, but that is clearly not its goal now, rather its goal now is to maximise revenue streams regardless of whether it makes the Windows user experience worse or not, which it certainly does. Using a product that is trying to exploit rather than aid its user is simply not a pleasurable experience, rather it’s frustrating, which is why I understand where people are coming from when they say they prefer Windows XP.

8 users thanked author for this post.

SueW, WSbobby-p, NaNoNyMouse, windbg, Mothy, rizzquery, samak, Cybertooth

Reply | Quote

Exact same sentiment here. I started with Windows 95 and always enjoyed using and learning everything about the Windows platform. It’s what started my IT career.

But then it all changed with Windows 10 moving to a Windows as a Service (WaaS) model with numerous built-in services (ex. SIH Client, WaaS Medic, Update Orchestrator, etc.) along with numerous scheduled tasks, all designed to ensure Microsoft has control over the system. You could no longer simply turn off updates via built-in settings and manually check/install them when you chose to do so. And to make matters worse, even if you disabled those services and tasks, took ownership of them and their system files and denied them permissions to run, at some point the system would eventually take back control and re-enable everything. I never expected the OS to act like malware and do that. So that was the last straw for me and I wiped Windows 10 from my personal systems and instead installed Windows 8.1 Pro (with Classic/Open Shell to look like Windows 7).

Since then I have moved to Linux Mint where I can continue to enjoy and learn a system/platform that still respects me as a user and administrator of the system, where I have easy built-in control over everything and updates happen ONLY when I initiate them. And best of all, it does not attempt to monetize me in any way.

So for me, Microsoft has not done anything right since Windows 10.

7 users thanked author for this post.

Microfix, Ascaris, windbg, Alex5723, SueW, NaNoNyMouse, Cybertooth

Reply | Quote

Warts and all – Microsoft is still the one. I (and others) love to hate it – but it meets my needs. and it has near universal file interchangeability. Since it’s the most widely used os. afaik. Doubt that anyone can resist the urge here to comment on Microsoft’s relentless pursuit of knowing everything about you , your actions, who you bank with, etc. – insidiously locking you into being a fully instrumented drone… while pushing out useless featuritis – like the ultra thin slider bars that disappear – try using those if you’re over 70.. as you age out – you’ll find MS is NOT  AGE FRIENDLY. Even with some of the tweaks that are avail inherently.

It’s truly disgusting..

Reply | Quote

Settings App\Accessibility Look under visual “Always show scrollbars”

1 user thanked author for this post.

Andy M

Reply | Quote

Not a MS fan, will use it when required for work.
(OpenSuse for me or iPad at home).

What comes to my mind, one thing that MS has done right is in Windows “Display Settings”.
Where you can change the layout of multiple monitors by simply clicking and dragging.

Otherwise, they used to make good mice, but Logitech has them beat on that.

Reply | Quote

Susan Bradley wrote:

You aren’t looking hard enough.

I was/am looking since Windows NT 3.1 in 1993 (using PCs since the 80s) and still haven’t find any.

Reply | Quote

The ONLY reason I use Windows is because of the programs written for Windows that I must use for business.  Many can run in a VM, but many cannot.  Does anyone remember the WIN32 wars between MS and IBM?  OS/2 was advertised as “a better DOS than DOS; a better Windows than Windows”.  And boy was it ever better.  The latter day example would be the incredible kludge-joke that is .NET.  I mean, really?  Is this the best you MS people can do?  Just another WIN32 scheme to keep competition at bay.

BTW, Susan, that opening paragraph was sarcasm.  Sorry for not noting that.

MS sees the insane $$ made by the likes of spy/privacy invasion companies such as Google.  MS’ income stream is now mainly server and cloud services but the billions available for spying and selling data is just too tempting to ignore.  As if that isn’t bad enough, they foist shabby and buggy OS code on their captive market customers.

Mario

 

1 user thanked author for this post.

Mothy

Reply | Quote

I can only think of two things Microsoft has ever done right.  First is the update from Windows 1 to Windows 1.03.  Best version of Windows ever!  The other was doing away with Microsoft Bob, but I still have a copy of it.

Reply | Quote

Not much! Windows 11 is a step backward. What took one click on win10 now takes 2 or sometimes 3 clicks. Progress?

Reply | Quote

Lots of things to fault MS for over the years but I’ll set that aside for now.

I bought my first IBM/PC in 1982 with DOS and have used all their OS versions except WinME, Win2000 and Win8. I remember the heady days of Personal Computing when for 2+ years, I was the software librarian for the PNW IBM PC Users Group in Seattle. I thank MS (and IBM) for bringing personal computing to the masses. I have to say that’s something MS did right.

When I replaced Win 95 with Win XP (my favorite), I remember I was so relieved that MS had pretty much minimized the “.dll hell” that made me tear my hair out with Win 95. That is something else MS got mostly right, imho.

My current Win 10 has been very stable – once I debloated, tamed it, locked it down and found ways to bypass its more user-unfriendly aspects. On balance, I’m open to considering the ‘bones’ of Win 10 as falling into the ‘done well’ column. Win 11 ain’t looking too good in my eyes at the moment…

Win10 Pro x64 22H2, Win10 Home 22H2, Linux Mint + a cat with 'tortitude'.

Reply | Quote

I can’t find the free edition this week. I even tried guessing the URL based on the pattern of the last two, without success. What gives?

Reply | Quote

“The next free edition of our newsletter will be published on July 8, 2024.”

We did a special plus only edition this week.

Remember for only $6 a year you can support this site and be a plus member.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

1 user thanked author for this post.

SueW

Reply | Quote

“We did a special plus only edition this week.”

Why?

“Remember for only $6”

Six dollars, six cents … doesn’t matter. It might as well be a billion, for anyone who doesn’t have a credit card.

There is supposed to be one free newsletter article in each newsletter, every week.

Oh, and the “quote” links on this page don’t work. It just scrolls to the top of the page. “reply” works but doesn’t quote…

Reply | Quote

To quote:
Hit the “Reply” link.
When the reply box opens, position your cursor where you want the quote to be placed. Then scroll up to the post you want to reply to.
Highlight the text you want to quote.
Click on the “Quote” link.
The highlighted text will be quoted in the reply box wherever you cursor was located.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Andy M

Reply | Quote

@PKCano: So, it works *totally differently* from *every other site on the net*, where “quote” does the same thing as “reply” except also prepopulating the input form with a quotation.

Oh, and on top of that, it doesn’t work the way you described, either (“quote” didn’t add anything to the form after a “reply” to get the form).

@Susan Bradley: I fail to see how you’re giving them anything extra. Rather it looks like you’re gratuitously taking away from everybody else, by moving one extra article behind your paywall than normal.

Something extra would be a whole *additional* newsletter, midweek say, perhaps plus-only, *in addition to* the regular Monday ones.

I’d also suggest that everything should emerge from behind the paywall after some interval, perhaps three months, in the interests of everything eventually being searchable and archived for posterity at e.g. the Wayback Machine. Otherwise, whatever is behind the paywall goes *poof* whenever the site someday does, except for a scattering of individual articles that got saved by random plus members over the years.

Reply | Quote

PKCano wrote:

When the reply box opens, position your cursor where you want the quote to be placed. Then scroll up to the post you want to reply to. Highlight the text you want to quote. Click on the “Quote” link. The highlighted text will be quoted in the reply box wherever you cursor was located.

Yes it does. I just followed PKCano instruction to quote him.

 

 

 

Reply | Quote

I also accept cash, paypal, checks, money orders and because I’m a fan of cheese you could send a gift box of cheese to my address.

We take a few breaks during the year, we do not send a newsletter every week and sometimes we want to be extra nice to the folks that keep the lights on and pay the utility bills. This is the second of the plus only newsletters we’ve done this year.

 

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

5 users thanked author for this post.

IBM1130, SueW, WSbobby-p, Andy M, Cybertooth

Reply | Quote

Will Fastie wrote:

That’s a common statement, and I’m sure many say it out of frustration brought on by change.

I get change is frustrating for some people.  But without it where would technology be today?

Desktop Asus TUF X299 Mark 1, CPU: Intel Core i7-7820X Skylake-X 8-Core 3.6 GHz, RAM: 32GB, GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti 4GB. Display: Four 27" 1080p screens 2 over 2 quad.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Andy M, Will Fastie

Reply | Quote

Harrison Bridger wrote:

There is supposed to be one free newsletter article in each newsletter, every week.

The site is very clear about this. We publish 48 times per year. For Plus members only, we publish an additional 4 “bonus” issues. We have been consistent about this from the first day of Susan’s ownership.

6 users thanked author for this post.

opti1, Alex5723, SueW, WSbobby-p, TechTango, Cybertooth

Reply | Quote

I haven’t paid for a Windows OS license since Windows 7 Ultimate.

Other than laptops, I build my PC’s.  I bought my last laptop in 2011, which came with Windows 7 Pro preinstalled.  It is now blissfully running Windows 11 Pro Version 23H2 (OS Build 22631.3737).  The last time it crashed was June 25, 2014, due to a failing Toshiba 2.5″ HDD.  I have indeed crashed it with my own finagling on occasion, but I’ve always been prepared for those.

My daily driver is dual boot, and has been since Windows XP.  Other than my own finagling, neither side has crashed.  Period.  Yes, Windows has always had a few things that I didn’t like, but I’ve always found ways (either myself or searching the internet) to get those things out of my way.

In my experience, Microsoft keeps producing and upgrading a very stable platform upon which I can install and run without incident the software that I use.  The telemetry can be defeated.  The ads can be defeated.  The intrusive reminders/hints/etc. can be defeated.  And since I am one of those folks who never does a clean install, those things, for the most part, stay defeated, leaving, as I said, a stable platform.

I’m currently playing cat and mouse with Edge with Microsoft trying to reinstall it, but I’m keeping it at bay with Revo Uninstaller and a few clicks.  I’ve tried several flavors of Linux, but I’m unimpressed, and I don’t really have problems with Windows.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

2 users thanked author for this post.

Andy M, bowled845

Reply | Quote

Will Fastie wrote:

samak wrote: … we had change forced upon us by MS. How?

By deliberately making perfectly functioning OSs obsolete.

Windows 10 Home 22H2, Acer Aspire TC-1660 desktop + LibreOffice, non-techie

Reply | Quote

What has malwaresoft done right? in a word, NOTHING!

Reply | Quote

Who ever designed the Windows 7 START.   I moved on but still use the simple  Windows  7 START.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth

Reply | Quote

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/class

Microsoft and class counsel have reached proposed settlements of lawsuits pending in a number of states (listed below) in which plaintiffs have alleged that Microsoft unlawfully used anticompetitive means to maintain a monopoly in markets for certain software, and that, as a result, it overcharged consumers who, during specific time periods, licensed in the United States for use in the specific states below Microsoft’s operating system software and/or certain of Microsoft’s applications software. Microsoft denies these allegations and maintains that it developed and sold high-quality and innovative software products at fair and reasonable prices…

1 user thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth

Reply | Quote

“But it can’t be all bad. After all, if we decided not to embrace change, we’d be calling ourselves the AskWoody XP Newsletter.”

Hah hah!  If XP 64 was still maintained and constantly updated to support new hardware (including new motherboards, CPUs, GPUs, storage, busses, etc), I’d surely be using it.  Heck, I’d gladly PAY a (reasonable) annual fee to use it.  Seriously.

But: that’s assuming it would not be the ugly bloated legalized malware/spyware platform Windows is today.  Pity.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth, Mothy

Reply | Quote

They are still “allowing us oldies” to still use Windows 10!

Reply | Quote

Something Microsoft got right with Windows:

Windows 10 LTSC (Long Term Service Channel)

My currently installed version of Win10 LTSC gets security updates through January 2027 and there is a version that gets updates through 2032 (I’m sure I’ll be using some other Windows LTSC by then, of course)

and Win2k as well. I would not be using Windows today if I was forced to use the Home or Pro versions. I remember in the “old days” of Windows 7, if you used Windows Professional, you got a relatively clean OS.

The current versions of Home and Pro are so cluttered with nonsense subpar features, games, trying to sell me Candy Crush, tons of screen clutter, etc. I honestly don’t know why serious users even deal with those versions.

When I do a clean install of Win10 LTSC, there is nothing installed but the clean OS. When I click on the Windows radio button, I see .. nothing, nada, zippo, only the necessary “Windows System” “Windows Administration Tools” etc.

Why would anyone use (and struggle with) the other versions? and no, not for the extra Windows “features” as there is almost always a better open-source software application to do what you need. I understand that reasonable people will disagree on this one, some may like the Windows built-in features.

For instance:

7-Zip, Sumatra PDF, VLC, Faststone Image Viewer,  Firefox/Brave Browsers <– all of which come in PORTABLE versions for even less clutter of the OS.

I read Askwoody every week and enjoy it. I continue to be amused at what I am seeing as optional grief in dealing with Microsoft’s poor management of the consumer versions. Life is too short fellow AskWoody readers! –> stop struggling with Home/Pro and go with LTSC (or Linux / MacOS)

I do understand that some businesses need to use the Enterprise or Pro versions, thank goodness for Susan’s careful observations and sage advice regarding updates for businesses!

Windows 10 LTSC + Excel 2024 + Synology Docs + Firefox w/ Ublock Origin

2 users thanked author for this post.

Alex5723, Cybertooth

Reply | Quote

Cleotus Bartholomew wrote:

Life is too short fellow AskWoody readers! –> stop struggling with Home/Pro and go with LTSC

OK, you’ve got me curious. How would I go about getting an LTSC license, and how much would it cost?

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

Reply | Quote

I am a fortunate one in that I do get my Win10 LTSC from work, along with 5TB of OneDrive.

Regardless, I’d use Win10 LTSC anyway, even if I didn’t have access to it at work. You can download an evaluation version directly from Microsoft and try it out on a VM to see the beauty of a clean, clutter free, Copilot/Cortana free Windows experience.

You can also download the full version ISO online, from legit sources and choose not to activate it. There are a few inconveniences like not being able to personalize the desktop, but overall the better OS experience is worth it, imo.

Another option is to buy a license key off of Ebay or some other such website. These are likely “grey market” keys, so not my thing, but in general, like the Office 2021 keys sold grey market from legit websites like StackSocial, they do work. Personally, I’d just install the full version ISO and leave it unactivated.

Btw, that series of OneDrive articles from Fred Langa are worth their weight in bytes, I still reference those articles. Thanks Fred!

 

Windows 10 LTSC + Excel 2024 + Synology Docs + Firefox w/ Ublock Origin

2 users thanked author for this post.

Will Fastie, Cybertooth

Reply | Quote

Mario wrote:

Does everyone remember that IBM and MS were partners, sort of?  Their internal intrigues were the reason OS/2 was dumped.

I’ve watched a Youtube video about OS/2. My thought was MS cheating on IBM by secretly coding Windows 3 and pulling the brake on OS/2. According to the video, the failure of OS/2 was mostly to blame on IBM. There were several problems, like the corporate culture. At Microsoft, programmer’s could pretty much do what they wanted to. IBM on the other had, was a very hierarchical company; programmer’s had to submit every piece of code to the managers to get approval. The biggest problem was IBM management still didn’t believe in the PC market, even though it was booming. As a result, you could not buy an IBM pc with OS/2 pre-installed. Heck, they didn’t even sell the media with a new pc – you had to buy a retail copy. Microsoft got so frustrated with the whole thing they decided to take matters in their own hand. Only after a change in management at IBM, OS/2 development got serious attention (Warp as a result), but at that time, it was too late.

Reply | Quote

Ascaris wrote:

… while they were supposed to be helping IBM develop OS/2 in a joint venture.

Microsoft did help IBM develop OS/2. I’d argue that this is another thing Microsoft did right. It’s not clear to me that IBM, at the time, could have done it on its own.

The rift between IBM and Microsoft is widely called a “feud.” I didn’t see it that way. A forgotten fact is that Bill Gates was a shrewd businessman. He didn’t box in Microsoft with respect to IBM DOS vs. MS-DOS, and he didn’t box Microsoft in with respect to OS/2. It was just business. There was no contractual way that IBM could stop Microsoft in either case, regardless of bruised feelings.

Also forgotten is that IBM was trying to restore its proprietary hold on the PC market. Recall that IBM released OS/2 and the PS/2 family at the same time. IBM’s clear target was the business market.

Microsoft, on the other hand, realized the potential of the consumer market. And recall that Microsoft faced early competition from multiple competing graphical user interfaces, including Digital Research’s very competent Gem. Microsoft could not afford to sit on its hands, and Windows was born.

OS/2 had an edge at first. But Windows 3.11 dramatically changed the landscape, bringing inexpensive networking to very small businesses. I remember buying Win 3.11 kits that included network cards for VSBs, who thought Nirvana had arrived in the form of shared files and the elimination of sneakernet.

So, IBM was focusing on the Fortune 500, while Microsoft focused on everybody else. Eventually, Microsoft would deploy Windows NT, which gave the company entre into the upper corporate world. I was consulting for a Fortune 500 company at the turn of the millennium, when my client was transitioning from OS/2 to NT. It wasn’t the only big company to do so, and OS/2 from IBM was last updated in 2001.

From my perspective, this is a litany of things done right by Microsoft.

Today, over 20 years later, we are extremely concerned about Microsoft’s direction with respect to client computing. We are concerned about privacy and security. We are concerned about intrusive and coerced marketing. We are concerned about AI. We have become skeptical about Microsoft.

But that doesn’t mean Microsoft hasn’t done many things right.

4 users thanked author for this post.

Simon_Weel, Andy M, Cleotus Bartholomew, Cybertooth

Reply | Quote

Will Fastie wrote:

Microsoft did help IBM develop OS/2. I’d argue that this is another thing Microsoft did right. It’s not clear to me that IBM, at the time, could have done it on its own. The rift between IBM and Microsoft is widely called a “feud.” I didn’t see it that way. A forgotten fact is that Bill Gates was a shrewd businessman. He didn’t box in Microsoft with respect to IBM DOS vs. MS-DOS, and he didn’t box Microsoft in with respect to OS/2. It was just business. There was no contractual way that IBM could stop Microsoft in either case, regardless of bruised feelings.

I make no excuses for IBM.  All businesses of that size are capable of bungling on a massive scale.  That’s why they always buy the smaller competition and absorb them.

IBM was against the PC from the start, seeing it as a threat to their monopoly in data and mainframes.  We had 8 x 3, 640K etc as a punishment.  Like all titans, they hire out for a lot of what they need.  However, if you used OS/2 Warp 4, which went head-to-head with Win95, you seriously can’t claim that MS was even in the same ballpark.  Sure MS did some things that were good BUT that was in addition to their predatory chicanery orchestrated by Gates.  If Gates was so amazing, why was MS Dos outclassed by IBM DOS and DR Dos(which was multi-user)?

One of the first upgrades here to Win10 had Windows Defender decide, on its own, with no notice nor quarantine, that some of the company files in .xls format were dangerous and they were deleted–gone.  Not only on disc, but if a usb drive was attached at the time, from there also.  Are you kidding me?  So, all vestiges of Defender have been expunged here.  But you still have the “phantom” lurking to force you to do it MS’ way for other things.

So, no matter what MS did right, their transgressions, IMO, vastly outweigh the good.

 

Reply | Quote

Will Fastie wrote:

And recall that Microsoft faced early competition from multiple competing graphical user interfaces, including Digital Research’s very competent Gem.

The second computer I ever had was an Amstrad PC-1640. It came with MS-DOS and GEM. The latter was my first exposure to the GUI concept, but all of my work got done in WordStar on the MS-DOS side.

Thanks for bringing up these memories.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

1 user thanked author for this post.

Will Fastie

Reply | Quote

microsoft has made people aware of the pitfalls via UUP, features, previews and upgrades with gotchya’s.
‘Project Chess’ via skype ring any bells?
Without them, there would be no askwoody, isn’t computing fun

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

Reply | Quote

WSMario M wrote:

IBM was against the PC from the start

That is the popular opinion, but it’s a myth. IBM invested a lot of money in the PC, and IBM doesn’t do that for jollies. Don Estridge made a compelling business case, and the top brass bought it. It was a good call, because at the time IBM had a mixed bag of small business computers, all of which ended up supplanted by the PC family.

WSMario M wrote:

However, if you used OS/2 Warp 4, which went head-to-head with Win95, you seriously can’t claim that MS was even in the same ballpark.

Agreed. But it only went head-to-head because NT wasn’t ready yet. Once NT was out, the playing field changed. As I noted, by 2001 IBM had given up.

WSMario M wrote:

If Gates was so amazing, why was MS Dos outclassed by IBM DOS and DR Dos(which was multi-user)?

Yes, I agree that some alternatives outclassed MS-DOS. But I was talking about business. MS-DOS outsold all the others. I don’t think Gates was a great technologist, but he was a great businessman.

WSMario M wrote:

So, no matter what MS did right, their transgressions, IMO, vastly outweigh the good.

Hindsight is 20/20.

3 users thanked author for this post.

WSraysig, Cleotus Bartholomew, Andy M

Reply | Quote

What has Microsoft done right? – Incorporating internet access into Windows after Bill Gates saw the light. Of course the downside to that was that then EVERYONE had access and all the things that usually happen when everyone has access to something happened and are still happening on the internet.

Reply | Quote

Microsoft didn’t let the programmers write their documentation (as far as I can tell). They use qualified technical writers. Most of the in-program help (<F1>) I’ve seen is well written, nicely illustrated, complete, and fairly simple to follow. So, good job on that MS.

Reply | Quote

The best thing Microsoft has EVER done is create Windows XP.  There has never been a version more customizable & user friendly…EVER!

Reply | Quote

I read in computer magazines that Win XP had its share of problems at first.  Most of the problems were fixed when Service Pack 2 came out.  XP SP2 is what I was fortunate enough to start out using both at work and at home.  It was a pleasure to use and still is.  Only Win 7 can compare.

Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's

2 users thanked author for this post.

SueW, Microfix

Reply | Quote

I’m still using both Windows XP Pro and Windows 7 Pro offline, both hardware installs. Keeping it going beyond EoS for reliability, non-cloud crud, solid programs and nostalgic purposes. It sure is nice to time travel

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

1 user thanked author for this post.

Charlie

Reply | Quote