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1. Driver bugs. The worst of the bunch for me, so far, is this wonderful nVidia driver bug that rears its ugly head only when using Firefox or Internet Explorer (even with "hardware acceleration" turned off). The only workaround known at this time is to use any driver package earlier than 270.55. The latest beta driver (290.53) does not fix it. And to those considering responding to this point with "technical tips" -- read the thread, don't skim it, actually read it. Note that it's 35 pages.

2. Activation bullshit. Specifically: lack of a Volume Licensed Edition. Let me clarify what I'm talking about: Windows Vista and beyond did away with the concept of a VLK (Volume License Key), which is nothing more than a serial number that's associated with Windows XP Professional Volume Licensed Edition. (Meaning, you can't use a Retail key on a VLE install, an OEM key on a Retail install, etc. -- following so far?) VLE/VLKs mean no activation (no WPA), and they Just Work(tm). No activation. Instead, with Vista and Windows 7, each PC is required to have its own serial number, or you're forced to use a MAK or KMS. MAKs authenticate directly with Microsoft (so they have control over your license); a KMS is some piece of software running probably on a Windows 2008 Server box on your LAN which you have to purchase from Microsoft (and I have no idea what the licensing/stipulations are for getting one -- I'm sure you pay for licenses "in bulk" and the KMS probably talks to Microsoft somewhere along the lines too).

Why do I care about this? Simple: it's purely an anti-piracy effort that does nothing other than fuck tech-savvy users like myself (UNIX system administrator here, hi!) who often purchase hardware upgrades. I own legitimate copies of Windows XP Professional Retail (one for each system in my home), but I choose to use VLE simply to make my life easier and not have to deal with activation. The last time I used Retail, I happened to upgrade my RAM in my system from 2GB to 4GB, and was forced to call a telephone number + speak to someone in India and "justify" what I had done. Three months later I upgraded my video card; again, a phone call was needed. I am NOT going to do this every time I change something in my system; what if I don't like the hardware I just upgraded to, thus remove it? Oh, now I get to call Microsoft twice in one day! No thanks. Remember: Microsoft said this kind of behaviour would only happen if you changed more than 2 pieces of hardware at the same time, but that's obviously a lie. The proof is in the pudding.

Bottom line is: I paid for your OS, I therefore paid for a serial, and I should be able to run it on whatever hardware I wish. Otherwise, if you want to impose "one copy per PC" limitations to try and curb piracy, then please, PLEASE do it like how the folks at Alcohol Software do with their Alcohol 120% product (customers have a web page they can log in to and change which PC the license is associated with). If I had control over the situation (vs. making stupid phone calls and "justifying" what I'm doing with my own hardware/systems) then I'd be content with that.

3. Removal of "Windows Classic" themes such as Rainy Day. Sure, there's "Windows Basic" which does its best to "emulate" the look of 2K/XP, but they stripped out all of the themes which made it worthwhile. And yes, I have tried two Internet users' "Rainy Day" themes, both of which were horrendous.

4. Stupid UI design choices. For example, even in the most "basic" or "slim" of themes (Aero turned off, etc.), there is still an excessive amount of space wasted around application windows/borders. You can set the border size to 0 in Appearance, but you'll find 3-4 pixels of space still being used by who-the-fuck-knows-what. This combined with #3 effectively has removed a users' abi

AUMHA Discussion: Should I Use a Registry Cleaner?
[excerpt]
Mark Russinovich wrote:
No, even if the registry was massively bloated there would be little
impact on the performance of anything other than exhaustive
searches (ed. of the registry itself).

On Win2K Terminal Server systems, however, there is a limit on the
total amount of Registry data that can be loaded and so large
profile hives can limit the number of users that can be logged on
simultaneously.

I haven't and never will implement a Registry cleaner since
it's of little practical use on anything other than Win2K
terminal servers and developing one that's both safe and
effective requires a huge amount of application-specific
knowledge.
[/excerpt]

It's a very interesting read, that's just one of the many security
and computer experts that chimed in on the issue.Overall, the
consensus is No, you should not use a registry cleaner. Period.
A few end-users howl contrary.

I'll go with the expert's advice that aren't trying to sell or promote crapware.

Hello,

Here is a list of data recovery programs I have put together. Some of them may be a little old, for floppies or optical media only, but should still be useful. Unless otherwise noted, they are all for Microsoft Windows.

A-FF Labs - NTFS Undelete and Partition Find and Mount
Access Data - FTK Imager
Acronis - RecoveryExpert
Advanced NTFS Recovery - NTFS Recovery (may handle FAT32 as well)
bitMART - Restorer Ultimate
Brant, Dmitry - DiskDigger
BriggSoft - Directory Snoop
CGSecurity - TeskDisk and PhotoRec
Convar - PC Inspector File Recovery
Digital Assembly - Adroit Photo Recovery (pictures only)
DiskInternals - NTFS Recovery
DIY Data Recovery - iRecover
DTI Data - Recover It All
DataRescue.Com - PhotoRescue (intended for flash RAM cards, which are typically formatted with FAT, may work with other devices as well)
EASEUS - Data Recovery & Security Suite
Fsys Software - DFSee
Gibson Research Corp. - Spinrite
Gillware - GillWare File Viewer
Higher Ground Software - Hard Drive Mechanic Gold
Kato, Brian - Restoration (also here)
LC Technology -
[Continued in next message, as for some reason, Slashdot would not let me post in its entirety (too many URLs?). AG]

Hello,

Here is a list of data recovery programs I have put together. Some of them may be a little old, for floppies or optical media only, but should still be useful. Unless otherwise noted, they are all for Microsoft Windows.

A-FF Labs - NTFS Undelete and Partition Find and Mount
Access Data - FTK Imager
Acronis - RecoveryExpert
Advanced NTFS Recovery - NTFS Recovery (may handle FAT32 as well)
bitMART - Restorer Ultimate
Brant, Dmitry - DiskDigger
BriggSoft - Directory Snoop
CGSecurity - TeskDisk and PhotoRec
Convar - PC Inspector File Recovery
Digital Assembly - Adroit Photo Recovery (pictures only)
DiskInternals - NTFS Recovery
DIY Data Recovery - iRecover
DTI Data - Recover It All
DataRescue.Com - PhotoRescue (intended for flash RAM cards, which are typically formatted with FAT, may work with other devices as well)
EASEUS - Data Recovery & Security Suite
Fsys Software - DFSee
Gibson Research Corp. - Spinrite
Gillware - GillWare File Viewer
Higher Ground Software - Hard Drive Mechanic Gold
Kato, Brian - Restoration (also here)
LC Technology -
[Continued in next message, as for some reason, Slashdot would not let me post in its entirety (too many URLs?). AG]

Doubtfully, anyone interested in this will have gone on by now, but I hope someone gets some use out of this information. First off, this is only for Windows 2000 and XP, so I don't know if it will work for Vista. I can't imagine that something similar doesn't exist for Linux, Mac OS X and/or one of the BSD variants (I haven't read all of the threads). You might want to read through this page, 'How can I optimize the Windows 2000/XP/2003 virtual memory (Pagefile)?' http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm -- Bill James (Microsoft MVP) has a convenient tool, 'WinXP-2K_Pagefile', for monitoring the actual usage of the Page file, which can be downloaded {here}. A compiled Visual Basic version is available from {Doug Knox's site} which may be more convenient for some users. The value seen for 'Peak Usage' over several days makes a good guide for setting the initial size economically. Available here: http://billsway.com/notes_public/WinXP_Tweaks/ http://billsway.com/notes_public/WinXP_Tweaks/WinXP-2K_Pagefile.zip or here -- http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_pagefilemon.htm http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/XP_PageFileMon.zip Currently, I'm running Windows XP Home with 1 GB of RAM. I have my swap file set to 500MB and currently, the 'WinXP-2K_Pagefile' script says I'm only using 86MB of it. One of the scripts logs the maximum swap you've used in a session, though you have to check it. The most I've used is 486MB and it warned me that swap was getting low. Needless to say, you milage will vary. -- You also might want to read through this page. 'Virtual Memory in Windows XP' http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm I hope this helps.

not true: check this site out to find out exactly why your box is crashing. saved me a few times.
http://www.aumha.org/win5/kbestop.php

Sorry, I don't think the courts have said what you think they have said. Microsoft continues to sell copies of Windows to OEMs that may be installed only by OEMs and may not be transferred to another machine. Here's an article about Microsoft licensing and activation for XP that describes this.

That you're allowed to use the same license over and over, so long as you use the same install set, which it sounds like you did. The trick is the phone home. The activation process can be done three times without an explanation call to MS to verify that you're the owner and that you want to reinstall for reason XYZ. Also, if you change massive amounts of hardware in your system, you have to reverify, but not for simple upgrades (ie, one component at a time in most cases).

check the following links
http://www.licenturion.com/xp/fully-licensed-wpa.t xt
http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php
and this was interesting
http://www.aviransplace.com/index.php/archives/200 5/02/22/changes-in-windows-xp-product-activation/

"The WPA system checks ten categories of hardware:
* Display Adapter
* SCSI Adapter
* IDE Adapter (effectively the motherboard)
* Network Adapter (NIC) and its MAC Address
* RAM Amount Range (i.e., 0-64mb, 64-128mb, etc.)
* Processor Type
* Processor Serial Number
* Hard Drive Device
* Hard Drive Volume Serial Number (VSN)
* CD-ROM / CD-RW / DVD-ROM

It then calculates and records a number based on the first device of each type that was found during setup, and stores this number on your hard drive. Initially, this is sent to Microsoft in an automatic dial-up, together with the Product ID number derived from the 25-character unique Product Key used in setting up Windows.

If Service Pack 1 has been installed, the entire Product Key is also transmitted: This can then be checked against a list of known pirated keys

The hardware is checked each time Windows boots, to ensure that it is still on the same machine. Also, if you subsequently perform a complete format and reinstall of Windows, Microsoft's activation center will have to be contacted again because the information held on the machine itself (the number previously written to your hard drive) will have been wiped out by reformatting the hard drive. If your hardware is substantially the same, this will be done by an automated call without your needing to talk to anyone.

What does 'substantially the same' mean? WPA asks for 'votes' from each of these ten categories: 'Is the same device still around, or has there never been one?' Seven Yes votes means all is well -- and a NIC, present originally and not changed, counts for three yes votes! Minor cards, like sound cards, don't come into the mix at all. If you keep the motherboard, with the same amount of RAM and processor, and an always present cheap NIC (available for $10 or less), you can change everything else as much as you like.

If you change the device in any category, you have lost that Yes vote -- but will not lose it any more thereafter if you make changes in that category again. So, for example, you can install a new video display card every month for as long as you like.

Note that it appears that if you boot with a device disabled (disabled -- not removed), the device is not found in the enumeration -- so if, say, you disable a network connection which uses the NIC and then reboot, you may be missing its three votes and find that a new activation is needed."

http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php

Update:

• This page indicates that Windows does *not* have UDF write support without the use of a third party program, like DirectCD or Nero's offering, InCD.
• Linux does have write support for UDF filesystems, but it's not turned on in the default kernel config.
• It's difficult to find anything definitive about OSX, but the consensus from the interweb is that OS X can't currently handle writing to UDF without third party software.

So this probably won't work as a universal filesystem unless some pressure is put on MS and Apple to get native support for writing to UDF, unfortunately :\

What does WinFS stand for? Windows File System or Windows Future Storage.

I've seen both in the media recently:
Future Storage - (example, example , example )
File System - (example, example).

But then when I looked a little more, I found this. Will this end up being something that is constantly being corrected on Slashdot? :)

The operating system never fails to start due to product activiation. At most it will ask you to re-activate windows within 3 days. If it has been more than 3 months since you last activated, the automated activation process can be used. Otherwise you have to activate over the phone; phone activation, at worst, requires a 5 minute phone call.

You will only need to re-activate windows if you significantly change your hardware (ie: several components). Just swapping out the MOBO won't typically do it unless it is one of those "every component on the mobo" boards.

Read http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php for more information about how product activation works and when it kicks in.

If you can't get on the phone within 3 days of bringing the machine back online, and you regularly replace half the components in your servers every 4 months, you've got other problems you need to deal with before worrying about product activation.

Once you've activated five times you're up shit creek.

Wrong. You can activate as many times as you want on the same hardware without a problem. Modify the hardware enough, and you'll have to phone in to get an activation code, which takes all of 5 minutes (on a bad day) if you're on the up & up.

http://aumha.org/win5/a/wpa.php

Puzzling, though not unheard of - I've seen a few machines here and there where XP just doesn't recognize the drive as a writer.

You could look at this site under "8. problems".

official MS article describing the capability ... though really, I can't think of anyone who doesn't use this functionality.

I've always read it's inadvisable even if one has a lot of RAM. Here's some quotes from this page:

Can the Virtual Memory be turned off on a really large machine?

Strictly speaking Virtual Memory is always in operation and cannot be "turned off." What is meant by such wording is "set the system to use no page file space at all."

Doing this would waste a lot of the RAM. The reason is that when programs ask for an allocation of Virtual memory space, they may ask for a great deal more than they ever actually bring into use -- the total may easily run to hundreds of megabytes. These addresses have to be assigned to somewhere by the system. If there is a page file available, the system can assign them to it -- if there is not, they have to be assigned to RAM, locking it out from any actual use.

--

Why is there so little Free RAM?

Windows will always try to find some use for all of RAM -- even a trivial one. If nothing else it will retain code of programs in RAM after they exit, in case they are needed again. Anything left over will be used to cache further files -- just in case they are needed. But these uses will be dropped instantly should some other use come along. Thus there should rarely be any significant amount of RAM 'free'. That term is a misnomer -- it ought to be 'RAM for which Windows can currently find no possible use'. The adage is: 'Free RAM is wasted RAM'. Programs that purport to 'manage' or 'free up' RAM are pandering to a delusion that only such 'Free' RAM is available for fresh uses. That is not true, and these programs often result in reduced performance and may result in run-away growth of the page file.

Cant get to the listed site since its totally /.ed but another interesting one re: XP, 98, me and page files

Virtual Memory in Windows XP http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

Windows 98 & WinME Memory Management http://aumha.org/win4/a/memmgmt.htm

and there is
How can I optimize the Windows 2000/XP/2003 virtual memory (Pagefile)? http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm

Cant get to the listed site since its totally /.ed but another interesting one re: XP, 98, me and page files

Virtual Memory in Windows XP http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

Windows 98 & WinME Memory Management http://aumha.org/win4/a/memmgmt.htm

and there is
How can I optimize the Windows 2000/XP/2003 virtual memory (Pagefile)? http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm

Cant get to the listed site since its totally /.ed but another interesting one re: XP, 98, me and page files

Virtual Memory in Windows XP http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

Windows 98 & WinME Memory Management http://aumha.org/win4/a/memmgmt.htm

and there is
How can I optimize the Windows 2000/XP/2003 virtual memory (Pagefile)? http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm

Cant get to the listed site since its totally /.ed but another interesting one re: XP, 98, me and page files

Virtual Memory in Windows XP http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.htm

Windows 98 & WinME Memory Management http://aumha.org/win4/a/memmgmt.htm

and there is
How can I optimize the Windows 2000/XP/2003 virtual memory (Pagefile)? http://www.petri.co.il/pagefile_optimization.htm

As the AC said, swap cannot be turned off on Windows. (article) If you set the value to zero, Windows will allocate swap space in RAM and use that just as it uses the disk swap. Also, my understanding is that there are several DLLs that Office installs "as part of the OS" which would not appear when running Office programs. Instead, you take the memory hit at system startup or on the first time you start Office.

Do they say anthing about my soon being able to turn off my computer without yanking the plug out of the wall (or changing the OS)? No, I'm not kidding. Used to be you couldn't get MS software to work. Now you can't get it to stop.

If you actually do the search there are a few links, but I don't know if they apply. CD-ROM Drive or DVD-ROM Drive Missing After You Install Windows XP

Actually, I've seen the drives disappear a number of times due to a bug when removing Easy CD Creator. CD-ROM Access Is Missing and Messages (in device mgr) Cite Error Code 31, Code 32, Code 19, or Code 39 After You Remove Easy CD Creator in Windows XP or look for the registry patch near the bottom of this page.

There is a solution for NO MORE BSODs in Windows. GSODs rule!

Actually, you can customize the color.