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Dude its Ed fucking Bott, a known MSFT shill that has done nothing but Gobble MSFT cock since the days of Windows ME. Want to find a glowing review of WinME, or Vista, or Windows 8 singing the praises of Metro? Go to Ed, he'll give MSFT the BJ anytime they ask. Even Mary Jo Foley doesn't blow MSFT that hard and she's an employee! This is a guy that MSFT "gifts" $2000 laptops and get in return "articles" like why I love MSFT and you expect anybody to take that shit seriously? Why don't you join a discussion about equal rights and provide a link to an SJW' landwhales blog screaming about "muh privilege", get da fuq out of here LOL!

And I notice you conveniently ignored the link from MSFT showing 19 pages of shit running you cannot turn off because you are a filthy peasant pissant and don't have enterprise, care to comment? Of course you won't, because you are guzzling that koolaid like there is no tomorrow. At least the Lunix guys had the excuse that they were pushing a free product, you are pushing a product that costs $100 minimum (the cost of the Windows 7/8.1 key you give up when you take the spyware) and what do you get in return? 19 pages of spying you cannot turn off which I have to say is about as "good a deal" as paying somebody for a big fresh bag of their dog's shit!

Ed Bott
I write stuff. Mostly about Windows. Sometimes I get paid for it,

http://www.edbott.com/

The article is about Mircrosoft's Surface tablet which is marketed at 64GB but is delivered with 60GiB and confusing (and angering) customers. Not sure if maybe the link was added after you read the summary? The article is datelined this past Saturday. http://www.edbott.com/weblog/2013/02/microsoft-needs-to-move-into-the-decimal-world/

What I find surprising is that surface *has* customers.

The article is about Mircrosoft's Surface tablet which is marketed at 64GB but is delivered with 60GiB and confusing (and angering) customers. Not sure if maybe the link was added after you read the summary? The article is datelined this past Saturday. http://www.edbott.com/weblog/2013/02/microsoft-needs-to-move-into-the-decimal-world/

Oh wait, I have another one on this:

The money does not come from ads, it comes through ads. Advertising is like a loan.

So is Google in the loan business, or what?

The advertiser pays for the product the user is buying, then the user pays the advertiser back (non-monetarily).

That doesn't make any sense. The advertiser (say, Ford) pays an ad agency (say, Google) for ad space in the hope that it'll bring more consumers (you) that are buying its products. The consumer (you) pays the advertiser (Ford) back very monetarily, otherwise there'd be no point in it for the advertiser. The non-monetary exchange is between the ad space provider (also Google, and others) and the consumer (you).

Maybe, just maybe, by "advertiser" you meant the ad agency. Let's try to substitute that:

Google pays for the car that you are buying, then you pay Google back (non-monetarily).

Wow. I mean. Wow! That'd be awesome! I'm in!

OK, let's forget this obviously confused statement.

If Google doesn't make money from the advertisers, but in some roundabout way from its users through ads, then...
I am producing and selling websites for a living. The people that pay me for it are getting their money from selling their products. As a regular consumer I may be buying their products. So... am I paying for my own work? Yes! And No! If you follow the chain of money further than one immediate step then guess what, everybody is in everybody's business, because money goes round and round.

Oh wait, here's another one:

The main business of a home construction company is not home mortgages.

No, because they don't make any money from the fact that the house is paid for by a mortgage. The construction company makes the same money whether they're paid in cash or through a mortgage. The bank makes money on the mortgage. So it's clearly the bank that's in the mortgage business, because they're selling mortgages. The construction company is selling houses.
And, guess what, Google is selling ad space. That's what they're selling. Ad space. Give ad space, take money for it. How much simpler can it get?

BTW, did you see this story? http://www.edbott.com/weblog/2012/03/at-google-advertising-is-crowding-out-search-results/

See my post here:

http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2412564&cid=37307402

Or enjoy reading through things like this, of which Google searches will turn up many:

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/2005/07/andrew-orlowski-is-a-hack/

http://paulfwalsh.com/why-andrew-orlowski-from-the-register-is-a-twat/

http://www.texttechnologies.com/2007/03/26/andrew-orlowski-berners-lee-spam-semantic-web/

http://blogs.computerworld.com/16711/why_andrew_orlowski_is_wrong_about_net_neutrality

http://ktetch.blogspot.com/2011/05/andrew-orlowski-drunk-unethical-or-just.html

But ignoring Andrew Orlowski there's countless issues with their other authors too. Lewis Page is more reasonable in allowing dissenting comment in response to his articles, but his articles are time and time again completely ignorant. He for example often criticises British defence projects citing American options as being much cheaper by pure monetary, but despite having it pointed out to him time and time again he fails to realise that a $10bn UK defence project for say, some new helicopters is still cheaper than buying the helicopters for $8bn from the US, when the UK project brings back $5bn in eventual tax, whereas the $8bn US project it's just money straight out the British economy.

Another example is the Eurofighter typhoons ground attack capabilities- he constantly derides the project because it wont have proper air to ground capabilities until 2020, but he's wrong because it wont have proper bombing capabilities until then- it's had Brimstone missiles added to it throughout this year. He ignores AGMs and focusses on bombing capability and then extrapolates that to say it can't do air to ground at all until 2020. This is complete and utter outright FUD.

He's similarly criticised the armament of Type 45 destroyers, claiming they only have two weapons or similarly, but a quick look on the Royal Navy's own website and the specs of the ships confirmed that yet again, he's completely wrong.

You can see this pattern with most of their staff- their articles are just often outright false. Where they're not false, they completely miss fundamental points. Where they don't miss fundamental points, they just outright lie.

So that's really why they have the reputation- they're just too agenda based. Their writers all vehemently pursue their own political agendas without care for facts, without care for reason, and worst of all- without care for the truth. That's not journalism, that's propaganda.

(secondary note; if you only want to move the libraries, that is very straightforward: http://www.edbott.com/weblog/2006/06/windows-vista-tip-4-move-your-data-folders-to-a-separate-drive/ ; but it isn't as nice/clean as having it separated (or almost entirely so)

Firstly, it's just a trick involving the GUID that points to a shell folder - all of which is documented on MSDN. Ed Bott also concurs in his blog post.

Secondly, Vista had this too although it was then called "Master Control". Same thing so it's not exactly new.

Thirdly, it's doesn't offer you anything more than you would normally find in the Control Panel. Yes, it is all in one place but I can't be the only one that just types a couple of letters into the Start Menu to find the option I want.

Fourthly, the list of them are as follows:

• Administrative Tools.{D20EA4E1-3957-11d2-A40B-0C5020524153}
• All Tasks.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
• Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002b30309d}
• Connections.{241D7C96-F8BF-4F85-B01F-E2B043341A4B}
• Fonts.{D20EA4E1-3957-11d2-A40B-0C5020524152}
• Computer.{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}
• Documents.{450D8FBA-AD25-11D0-98A8-0800361B1103}
• History.{ff393560-c2a7-11cf-bff4-444553540000}
• Network Places.{208d2c60-3aea-1069-a2d7-08002b30309d}
• Printers and Faxes.{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}
• Programs Folder.{7be9d83c-a729-4d97-b5a7-1b7313c39e0a}
• Recycle Bin.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}
• Start Menu.{48e7caab-b918-4e58-a94d-505519c795dc}
• Scheduled Tasks.{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}
• WEI.{78F3955E-3B90-4184-BD14-5397C15F1EFC}

Enjoy.

I wondered about the legality of using a mouse as a component to buy an OEM operating system, so I did some research.

Turns out prior to August 2005, you could buy a copy of an OEM operating system with an "essential, non-peripheral component" - so a mouse would not qualify, but an IEC power cable would.

The changed rules renamed the licenses "system builder" and made them available to anyone building their own PC - including end users.

I wondered about the legality of using a mouse as a component to buy an OEM operating system, so I did some research.

Turns out prior to August 2005, you could buy a copy of an OEM operating system with an "essential, non-peripheral component" - so a mouse would not qualify, but an IEC power cable would.

The changed rules renamed the licenses "system builder" and made them available to anyone building their own PC - including end users.

If a program crashes, it asks you if you want to send an error report to Microsoft. Press 'send' to send one. If it's a known problem, it'll tell you.

If you're beta-testing Windows, a quick Google gives http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/sentiments/d efault.mspx as a feedback form. I imagine other beta products have their own feedback ways (e.g. Office 2007 had Send a Smile / Send a Frown).

Otherwise... it seems to vary from product to product. Windows Home Server has a dedicated suggestion forum; and pretty much every product has a developer blog.

If that's not direct enough, I can personally recommend another OS with more direct feedback methods...

The problem with getting your information about Vista from Apple's propoganda is that when you're trying to evangelise to Windows users, they realise that what you're saying is crap, and ignore you -- even if whatever you're evangelising is genuinely more secure than what they're using (which it obviously definitely is with Linux as compared to Windows).

("What triggers a UAC prompt"

And if he was talking about vista, it's even easier. This took me 4 minutes to find with the google.

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=1371

It is and it is a BAD idea to clear the prefetch folder.

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000743.html

• Installing and uninstalling applications
• Installing device drivers
• Installing ActiveX controls
• Installing Windows Updates
• Changing settings for Windows Firewall
• Changing UAC settings
• Configuring Windows Update
• Adding or removing user accounts
• Changing a users account type
• Configuring Parental Controls
• Running Task Scheduler
• Restoring backed-up system files
• Viewing or changing another users folders and files

http://netrn.net/spywareblog/archives/2005/01/03/m ore-on-adware-installed-though-windows-media-files /
http://www.edbott.com/weblog/archives/000340.html

"In an earlier post, I pointed to the fast-spreading but suspicious story alleging that a flaw in WMA files can plant spyware on your computer. This is a follow-up."

It looks like another reason to avoid WMA files entirely.

Another update -- Brandon LeBlanc has now done a much fuller post on the laptop, and diclosed it's source.

In other news, Ed Bott's stated he's going to auction his off in aid of disaster relief charities after he's done reviewing it.

there's not much to add. In the privacy section of the options dialog, there's an option to acquire licenses automatically. Well, if you're going to run the license, you need some means of verifying it, and often not just the default means. It'll install an active X control. To be fair, after a little research I've found that MS has added the usual security checks (a dialog box) to the install. So I take back what I said initially.

Not if you ask these people.. Or this blogger.

Obviously, I could go on. Oh, and don't place much weight in their advertised prices until you learn about their rebates.. Here's a postcard I keep on my desk:

DELL MAIL-IN REBATE

Dear Consumer:
Thank you for participating in this promotion. Unfortunately, we could not honor your request because of the following reason:
Your request was postmarked beyond the eligibility period for this promotion.
For status, visit www.rebatestatus.com.

That's a $150 rebate I expected based on their advertised price, which I never got.

Just thought that you guys might wanna know that Microsoft has came up with an article on removing WGA.

He is the author of more than 25 books on Microsoft Windows and Office, including the best-selling Microsoft Windows XP Inside Out, Second Edition.

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?page_id=993

In other words, you can legally buy a copy of Windows XP Media Center Edition (or any OEM edition of Windows XP for that matter) from any authorized reseller as long as you buy it with a power cord. Or a mouse. Or a keyboard. OK? That's the legal, official answer. (Note that this is not true of OEM copies of application software, like Office, or server software, like Microsoft Exchange. Those can only be sold with a fully assembled computer system.)

A few nitpicks:

I don't think a new version called "Media Center Edition 2006" was ever planned or announced. The article's introduction referred to the "massive Rollup 2 patch," which is a free update to MCE 2005. This update was supposed to include Cable Card support, but this feature was cut (according to Microsoft's Matt Davis). Here's the blog entry where I read about this: "More details on Rollup 2."

Also, the next "new" version of MCE (Longhorn version) will not be called "Media Center Edition" anymore. It will be called "Vista Home Premium Edition" (details here). This will probably be the first Windows version with Cable Card support. Ugh.

It's a hoax, guys. I know that there's about a million of you who would like to trumpet this ss one of the ultimate stupidities from Microsoft, but it just ain't so.

According to Ed Bott, this story is a hoax/misunderstanding: http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=1061

does that really work? I'm no expert on the fiddly bits of windows but there's sites like this that say it doesnt.

There's some really excellent analysis on this by Ed Bott.

Compare and contrast to the lies and misdirection spread (as is normal), by Microsoft's resident spin doctor Robert Scoble. See his Ballmer interview, aka, The Idiots Guide to Brownnosing, to see his true colors.

Lots of Gator-bashing is rightly occurring all over the MSDNosphere, see here for a funny example. Remember, even Microsoft employees (commenting anonymously, of course) hate this idea.

I'm guessing that Microsoft will somehow integrate Claria's obnoxious 'personal marketing' tactics into Internet Explorer 7 or the new RSS functions to get a chunk of the targeted intarweb ad market which Adsense has completely sewn up for normal web pages. We should go and tell them what we think about Claria and Gator, not to mention their general business ethics. Don't let Scoble's lies deceive you, and don't hold back.

There's some really excellent analysis on this by Ed Bott.

Compare and contrast to the lies and misdirection spread (as is normal), by Microsoft's resident spin doctor Robert Scoble. See his Ballmer interview, aka, The Idiots Guide to Brownnosing, to see his true colors.

Lots of Gator-bashing is rightly occurring all over the MSDNosphere, see here for a funny example. Remember, even Microsoft employees (commenting anonymously, of course) hate this idea.

I'm guessing that Microsoft will somehow integrate Claria's obnoxious 'personal marketing' tactics into Internet Explorer 7 or the new RSS functions to get a chunk of the targeted intarweb ad market which Adsense has completely sewn up for normal web pages. We should go and tell them what we think about Claria and Gator, not to mention their general business ethics. Don't let Scoble's lies deceive you, and don't hold back.

I forgot to also point to Ed Bott's latest entry on Windows Product Activation, with more detail than ever..

Let's break down the real facts, because it seems like SlashDot likes spreading da FUD..

If you purchase a computer pre-installed with Windows XP from a major vendor (re: Dell, Gateway, HP, etc. etc.), Windows XP will come already activated. Your Windows XP key is in the BIOS (as it already is in most Dell PCs), letting you reinstall Windows XP without activation over and over again as many times as you want.

When I bought a new Dell a few months back, I had to go online to activate the copy; with this new rule, I won't have to anymore. It'll already be activated.

Check out Ed Bott's blog entry regarding this. You can also read an article at Dell's site detailing the difference in "OEM" and "SLP" editions of Windows XP/2003.

Get the facts, people, before you start yelling that the sky is falling.

iDownload has used the ICSA Labs name without authorization to sell their ripoff antivirus software, called Virus Hunter. They're about to get a cease and desist letter from ICSA Labs, which is a division of CyberTrust, which is a very big company with lots of lawyers. Details here. Heh.

Robert Scoble--one of the people mentioned in the article--has already written about it. "Personally there's no way that 80% of our employees own an MP3 player. I don't know what world that source is living in, but it's not the one I live in... the story is a non-starter. I know a lot of Apple employees who play Halo 2 too. Is that a story?"

Ed Bott has some good comments too: "Now read the story. Read it carefully.... Note that the entire thingis based on an interview with one "high-level [Microsoft] manager who asked to remain anonymous." From this one source, we are able to calculate with confidence that 16,000 employees at Microsoft's Redmond campus own iPods... taking an offhand remark from an unknown source (who may or may not have a hidden agenda and who may or may not know what he's talking about) and extrapolating it to the entire campus is just silly...
One thing they teach you in Journalism 101 is that when you have a single anonymous source, you don't have a story. That's still true."