Well, if theres going to be spyware and adware, AdAware and SpyBot kick ass (Especially SpyBot)
You know what really kicks butt? Not having to run any of that crap because I'm on a Mac running a system that isn't prone to spyware and viruses. XP really is that bad.
Agreed. At the CompSci dept at UNC, we get bulletins on a near-weekly basis about some new virus, worm, security hole or another, and, of course, a patch to either the OS or anti-virus systems.
And I get to ignore each and every one of them. They've got jack-all to do with me, except when they take down the network, mail system, or campus web services.
No anti-virus, no IE holes, no service patch hell, no *defrag*... nada.
Face it, all of that is just to shore up problems that were from poor design in the first place. It's a house of cards and duct tape. Sad thing is, most people just assume that's the way it just is or needs to be. You wouldn't believe how many people I've had tell me that Apple needs to ship a defrag tool with the OS. Sorry, but the filesystem (as of 10.3) defrags itself, and *never* had the defrag problems that NTFS has had even before then. But they see it as a failure on the Mac that it doesn't ship with one, not that it's a plus because it doesn't *need* one.
There are just plain less problems... and it's not through lack of popularity... it's because it really is just that much more thought out when it comes to security issues. And UI. And workflow. And, and, and.
XP is the best Windows to date, no doubt about it... but it's kind of a backhanded compliment at best.
For me it has been the best Windows in reliability. I've used 98, 2000, XP, and now gone back to 2000. XP crashed, not very often, but still twice a month or so. I've only had 2000 crash two times in the three years I've used it.
How is XP supposed to be better for the home / single workstation user?
edit: I think XP has a better sleep for portables, but how about desktop?
XP has extra 'consumer' oriented items, like support for joysticks, popup offers for MSN, game libraries, popup offers for MSN, media libraries, wizards, and popup offers for MSN.
You know, things that consumers really care about.
Former xp'er here. The first couple of months i had my new dell everything was great. Sure there were popups, but the guys who make pop ups are very michiefous in their techniques. Then i got the spybot spyware removers to get rid of things. And slowly but steadily things went bad, blue screen of death, excessive pop ups, things installing themselves and such. If things could have stayed the way they were the first couple of months, it wouldn't be so bad. But what made xp worse in my opinion? Getting my ibook, it all feels so natural and runs as smooth as the day i got it in August.
I found another thing I can do to make XP not only freeze, but crash. I'm running iTunes, and I try to switch apps using the "Alt+Tab Powertoy" (Shows a preview of the window, not only the icon of the app). Whenever I do it, iTunes plays about 1/2 a second of music over and over again, and I get a blue screen o' death.
I found another thing I can do to make XP not only freeze, but crash. I'm running iTunes, and I try to switch apps using the "Alt+Tab Powertoy" (Shows a preview of the window, not only the icon of the app). Whenever I do it, iTunes plays about 1/2 a second of music over and over again, and I get a blue screen o' death. Oh f***
When I got XP, I put in the Alt+Tab Powertoy as well. In hindsight that was a huge mistake, since it is not possible to uninstall it, and it only worked to slow things down.
Over time I've learned a lot about how to keep Windows running. The most important things are:
- don't mess with the UI using external programs, on Windows that always means trading reliability for looks, and Windows doesn't have any reliability "to spare"
- never use Internet Explorer
- never put your Windows machine on the Net before you install the latest Service Pack. In other words you have to fetch that in advance
- defrag and scandisk once a month or so.. or every time the computer crashes. There is no other way to distinguish a failing hard drive from Windows' normal failures
- use a firewall and an active antivirus program most of the time.. you don't need spy/adware removal since those come through IE and small "fun" programs, which you should avoid anyway
I've run into some problems with Microsoft products.
Specific things that have been bugging me lately. These aren't all problems with Microsoft products, but rather the platform in general.
Internet Explorer is just incredibly prone to letting spyware install itself. On Windows 98 this problem was extremely prevalent; on Windows 2000, it seems to be a good practice not to let users install programs.
Some installers need to be run from the Administrator account. When run from a less-privileged account, rather than asking for a username and password, they simply bail out.
Some games require Administrator access to be played. Why?
Windows 2000's Network control panel, whatever it's called, is ridiculously confusing.
When I got XP, I put in the Alt+Tab Powertoy as well. In hindsight that was a huge mistake, since it is not possible to uninstall it, and it only worked to slow things down.
Over time I've learned a lot about how to keep Windows running. The most important things are:
- don't mess with the UI using external programs, on Windows that always means trading reliability for looks, and Windows doesn't have any reliability "to spare"
- never use Internet Explorer
- never put your Windows machine on the Net before you install the latest Service Pack. In other words you have to fetch that in advance
- defrag and scandisk once a month or so.. or every time the computer crashes. There is no other way to distinguish a failing hard drive from Windows' normal failures
- use a firewall and an active antivirus program most of the time.. you don't need spy/adware removal since those come through IE and small "fun" programs, which you should avoid anyway
I found out that you CAN remove the Alt+Tab Powertoy...
I don't have a PC in front of me right now, but I think this should do it:
Click on the Start menu and choose Run. Type "cmd" and press return to bring up the Command Prompt window. In the Command Prompt window type "ipconfig" and press return.
Intuitive, isn't it?
Well... you don't have to do that.
JFYI, just open your network connections, right-click your internet connection, click "status" and click the "support" tab. All your information is right there.
Anyone encounter this problem in XP? When IE opens a popup window the system stops responding for about 30-90 seconds. (I assume, its launching a new IE process for the new window.)
I only use macs so this isn't my problem, but I've seen it on a number of XP boxes. My question is is this typical? And, if so, why are users tolerant of such atrocious behavior!
Anyone encounter this problem in XP? When IE opens a popup window the system stops responding for about 30-90 seconds. (I assume, its launching a new IE process for the new window.)
No, but my first thought is that the computer in question has probably got a whole wack of spyware on it. I've recently grown to love the Google bar (which has a pop-up blocker) and, unfortunately, Ad Aware is virtually a must on a PC. \
Comments
Originally posted by psgamer0921
Uhh, no, it doesn't hake up half the screen...
1 OK, it takes up *a third* of the screen (better?)
Things that made me
2 Ad-aware 6.0
3 Spybot
4 Try AOL for Broadband
5 IE and Launch RealPlayer repeated in adjacent menus
6 Word, New Office Doc and Open Office Doc as separate menu choices
Originally posted by psgamer0921
Well, if theres going to be spyware and adware, AdAware and SpyBot kick ass (Especially SpyBot)
You know what really kicks butt? Not having to run any of that crap because I'm on a Mac running a system that isn't prone to spyware and viruses. XP really is that bad.
And I get to ignore each and every one of them. They've got jack-all to do with me, except when they take down the network, mail system, or campus web services.
No anti-virus, no IE holes, no service patch hell, no *defrag*... nada.
Face it, all of that is just to shore up problems that were from poor design in the first place. It's a house of cards and duct tape. Sad thing is, most people just assume that's the way it just is or needs to be. You wouldn't believe how many people I've had tell me that Apple needs to ship a defrag tool with the OS. Sorry, but the filesystem (as of 10.3) defrags itself, and *never* had the defrag problems that NTFS has had even before then. But they see it as a failure on the Mac that it doesn't ship with one, not that it's a plus because it doesn't *need* one.
There are just plain less problems... and it's not through lack of popularity... it's because it really is just that much more thought out when it comes to security issues. And UI. And workflow. And, and, and.
XP is the best Windows to date, no doubt about it... but it's kind of a backhanded compliment at best.
For me it has been the best Windows in reliability. I've used 98, 2000, XP, and now gone back to 2000. XP crashed, not very often, but still twice a month or so. I've only had 2000 crash two times in the three years I've used it.
How is XP supposed to be better for the home / single workstation user?
edit: I think XP has a better sleep for portables, but how about desktop?
You know, things that consumers really care about.
I found another thing I can do to make XP not only freeze, but crash. I'm running iTunes, and I try to switch apps using the "Alt+Tab Powertoy" (Shows a preview of the window, not only the icon of the app). Whenever I do it, iTunes plays about 1/2 a second of music over and over again, and I get a blue screen o' death.
Picture of powertoy:
http://www.imageshack.us/files2/alttab.gif
Originally posted by psgamer0921
I found another thing I can do to make XP not only freeze, but crash. I'm running iTunes, and I try to switch apps using the "Alt+Tab Powertoy" (Shows a preview of the window, not only the icon of the app). Whenever I do it, iTunes plays about 1/2 a second of music over and over again, and I get a blue screen o' death. Oh f***
When I got XP, I put in the Alt+Tab Powertoy as well. In hindsight that was a huge mistake, since it is not possible to uninstall it, and it only worked to slow things down.
Over time I've learned a lot about how to keep Windows running. The most important things are:
- don't mess with the UI using external programs, on Windows that always means trading reliability for looks, and Windows doesn't have any reliability "to spare"
- never use Internet Explorer
- never put your Windows machine on the Net before you install the latest Service Pack. In other words you have to fetch that in advance
- defrag and scandisk once a month or so.. or every time the computer crashes. There is no other way to distinguish a failing hard drive from Windows' normal failures
- use a firewall and an active antivirus program most of the time.. you don't need spy/adware removal since those come through IE and small "fun" programs, which you should avoid anyway
Specific things that have been bugging me lately. These aren't all problems with Microsoft products, but rather the platform in general.
Internet Explorer is just incredibly prone to letting spyware install itself. On Windows 98 this problem was extremely prevalent; on Windows 2000, it seems to be a good practice not to let users install programs.
Some installers need to be run from the Administrator account. When run from a less-privileged account, rather than asking for a username and password, they simply bail out.
Some games require Administrator access to be played. Why?
Windows 2000's Network control panel, whatever it's called, is ridiculously confusing.
Anyway...
Originally posted by Gon
When I got XP, I put in the Alt+Tab Powertoy as well. In hindsight that was a huge mistake, since it is not possible to uninstall it, and it only worked to slow things down.
Over time I've learned a lot about how to keep Windows running. The most important things are:
- don't mess with the UI using external programs, on Windows that always means trading reliability for looks, and Windows doesn't have any reliability "to spare"
- never use Internet Explorer
- never put your Windows machine on the Net before you install the latest Service Pack. In other words you have to fetch that in advance
- defrag and scandisk once a month or so.. or every time the computer crashes. There is no other way to distinguish a failing hard drive from Windows' normal failures
- use a firewall and an active antivirus program most of the time.. you don't need spy/adware removal since those come through IE and small "fun" programs, which you should avoid anyway
I found out that you CAN remove the Alt+Tab Powertoy...
It's about halfway down
I don't have a PC in front of me right now, but I think this should do it:
Click on the Start menu and choose Run. Type "cmd" and press return to bring up the Command Prompt window. In the Command Prompt window type "ipconfig" and press return.
Intuitive, isn't it?
Well... you don't have to do that.
JFYI, just open your network connections, right-click your internet connection, click "status" and click the "support" tab. All your information is right there.
Cheers,
C.
I only use macs so this isn't my problem, but I've seen it on a number of XP boxes. My question is is this typical? And, if so, why are users tolerant of such atrocious behavior!
Anyone encounter this problem in XP? When IE opens a popup window the system stops responding for about 30-90 seconds. (I assume, its launching a new IE process for the new window.)
No, but my first thought is that the computer in question has probably got a whole wack of spyware on it. I've recently grown to love the Google bar (which has a pop-up blocker) and, unfortunately, Ad Aware is virtually a must on a PC.
C.