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Was waiting for someone to call BS, who am I to change public opinion. I'm on record posting when Microsoft stole data from everybody who installed GWX (Early 4/2015) nothing happened about it, hell I was kicked off https://www.sevenforums.com/ over it.

Just after Facebook hit the fan, fingers were pointed at Google and their privacy practice for a short while then blow over and it happen again, time after time. Google should be proud of their practice, and people who don't see that deserve facebook.

Those what we collect on each website now expressing their privacy policy, yep have facebook to thank for that.
Facebook's sin is showing what one could get away with.

Rubbish, I get it quite often (Windows 7).

There's entire web pages dedicated to this, eg.:

https://www.sevenforums.com/tu...

"Their file explorer GUI is absolutely incredible, for instance."

You're taking the piss right?

The file explorer is as simple and bare-bones as it can get, and yet it still has massive problems. These may not affect all users, but the forums are "full enough" to justify a fix.

File explorer refresh bug.

File explorer "finding items" bug.

File explorer slow to create or delete a folder.

These are really basic operations. The most frustrating is the refresh bug, and second to this is the slow response to move or delete a folder: it should be instant to write the inode and tell the filesystem that the folder is in a new location.

On top of these major issues, here is a list of features that would be really nice in a file explorer, and while we may disagree, I don't think these are power-user items:

1) Allow a copy/move operation to be paused.
2) Allow a move operation to be undone with visual feedback (hitting CTRL+Z will undo a move, but it's a silent operation)
3) Stack concurrent move/copy operations based on disk IO: in other words, if I am already moving data from a USB drive and then start a second operation, queue it rather than start it immediately.
4) When a copy/move operation encounters an error DO NOT FAIL SILENTLY. Anyone who has left a large network transfer to finish, and returned to no dialog and assumed that it finished, when really it failed and only some of the data was moved/copied, knows the pain of which I speak.
5) When making a selection, show some useful information about the selection, such as how many items are selected and how large the selection is. This used to be shown in the status strip in XP, but was removed in Vista/Win7.
6) Any kind of tool for mass manipulation of names.

OK, fine, some of these are better in Win 10 than they ever were before, but I think my point stands, the Windows File Explorer is just the simplest bare-bones GUI for manipulating files. And even then, it's not as bug free as one would expect. My understanding is that they fucked it in Vista with a new asynchronous model, which probably made heaps of sense from a code structure point of view, and probably improved network browsing no end...yet they fucked it, as per the infamous "refresh bug" linked to above.

"Applications can steal focus, so you can be full-screen gaming, and find yourself back on the desktop for no apparent reason."

Or **worse** you are composing and email/document at full touch-typing speed and a modal dialog suddenly appears (spawned by some other running program) and you will click "ENTER" before you can read it and have no idea what you just did, or where it came from.

Sure, if you type slow and only ever use one program at a time this won't happen to you.

The other major problem, which you allude to but don't quite address, is that the file Explorer is royally rogered and has major async/refresh issues. Here, here, and here.

Problem: Windows runs a 'webserver' service by default in end user models of Windows in the Windows Media Network Sharing Service which is set automatic started by default http://www.sevenforums.com/tut... . Correct me if I am wrong.

It's causing nothing but problems, it's due to IcarosDebug, heck I wasn't even using a media file when I was blocked from a partition.
You've been warned.

One of many post on it
http://www.sevenforums.com/gen...

The only trouble I had was with Debian Sid, because of the rolling-release updates. The updates were broken some of the time. But the system was still running fine, it just meant that I had to wait a few weeks so that the updates were fixed.
Compare that with Windows updates, and the news that update X broke the system.

http://www.howtogeek.com/17962...
http://threatpost.com/microsof...
http://www.sevenforums.com/win...

Do you have any proof of this? I actually run Windows 8.1 Update 2 (x64) with Windows Update set to only notify me of updates. No updates from Microsoft have been installed without me explicitly installing them.

Well, only that I had updates turned completely off, and on several occasions my wife told me the computer was sluggish and acting weird. I shut it down, and lo, an update. The only update I ever purposely allowed was to 8.1.

I'm not the only one, and this link was regarding Windows 7:

http://superuser.com/questions...

It certainly isn't a new phenomenon, here's one from 2007

http://blog.seattlepi.com/micr...

Hey - maybe we're all just kooks? http://answers.microsoft.com/e...

Install an update when you have them turned off? No Problem Microsoft turns them back on.I've had this happen several times. Apparently Microsoft doesn't do this - it's always the customers fault:

http://social.technet.microsof...

Windows 7 users have noted:

http://www.sevenforums.com/win...

Windows 7 users have been having a big problem with some sotfware I regularly ue. They have an update that breaks the software, and they roll it back, and turn the auto update feature off, but next black tuesday, it reinstalls the offending update.

If you're using TrueCrypt but without full disk encryption, encrypt your pagefile: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/143662-page-file-encryption-enable-disable.html

You can easily encrypt your pagefile on Windows by at least three methods: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/143662-page-file-encryption-enable-disable.html

You do know that's confgurable right? I mean, yeah it comes that way out of the box and that's kind of annoying, but you can set the shutdown behavior of your laptop any which way you want. Don't want to install updates? Disable the install updates on shutdown feature. Here first Google result for "disable update on shutdown windows 7" (minus quotes).

To respond to the "log a default user on with a password without intervention" Do you mean this? http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/377-log-automatically-startup.html

I will counter your googling for office crashes, not with facts, but with my own googling of libre office crashes! That's a sure fire way to get people on-side!

Libre Office crashing all over the place:
http://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question/952/writer-35-keeps-crashing/
http://askubuntu.com/questions/41329/how-can-i-stop-libreoffice-from-randomly-crashing
http://www.sevenforums.com/software/163405-open-office-3-libre-crashes.html
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/data-crash-and-recovery-with-libre-office-937038/
http://en.libreofficeforum.org/node/1259
http://en.libreofficeforum.org/node/2908
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=12071436

Libre Office crashing on startup:
http://ask.libreoffice.org/en/question/3511/libreoffice-crashes-on-opening/
http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread.php/151139-Open-Office-and-Libre-Office-crash-on-start-up

DPI scaling doesn't work on everything. I was running Faronics Insight on a computer and couldn't figure out why all the icons in the program were fuzzy. I noticed the same fuzziness in Libreoffice. When I checked the resolution set in Windows 7 it was set at the native resolution of the monitor, but the programs still looked fuzzy like they were set to 800x600. I don't remember why I did it, but I opened my power point presentation in office and all of the fuzziness was gone. At that point I realized that the DPI setting I had changed a week ago was probably affecting those programs. I tried toggling the windows xp style scaling with no luck. But putting the DPI scaling back to none cleared up all of the fuzziness. The issue is documented here but unfortunately I couldn't get the XP mode to fix the issue.

Just so long as you don't have an nVidia, AMD, or intel graphics card.

I have an nVidia card. Works fine. Worked out of the box, too. Install the drivers, and off I went.

Or want sound that's in sync and in more than 2 channels.

My sound's always in sync. Works fine. Why would you think it doesn't? Are you a troll?

And as long as you don't need HD full screen video cutscenes.

Damn, I'd better stop watching those HD full screen videos then. If you're telling me they don't work...

I guess if you consider editting .conf files to be a game, it's the best gaming platform out there.

On the other hand, why would you ever need to edit the registry database in Windows to make your optical drive work again? Or how about editing the registry so you can make exe files work again?

It definitely looks like Windows is years ahead in its .conf technology. Which reminds me, I've got a joke for you:

Why wouldn't Windows log in?

Because it had hives!

You know, like that time Windows wouldn't log in because it wasn't activated, but it wouldn't activate because it already was? The Microsoft rep on the phone told me that they knew all about it, and it was too bad because they weren't going to fix it. That cost someone about $300 to reload Windows and all his applications...

Clearly, they have the superior support system.

Ubuntu has an app store too, as does OSX, so I guess those aren't open platforms either.

Well, I can't speak for OSX, but Ubuntu's is. You can add whatever sources to it that you like. A number of people above have noted so. Finding them is left as an exercise for the impotent troll.

Good luck to you, Valve! One day we'll look back and remember when you were relevant, sort of.

Yes indeed, good luck Valve.

What's wrong with auto-hide? Also 3rd parties to the rescue: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/54842-taskbar-always-top-disable-enable.html

Not the AC, but the quick launch still exists in Windows 7. It isn't accessible by default, but it's there.

And I disagree about pinning working better. Quicklaunch always displays its icons in the same location. Pinning shifts the bloody icons around. "What's that? You opened a new Firefox window? Well now the Chrome icon has shifted to the right / next row". No thank you. It's bad enough that all Firefox windows, all Chrome windows, all notepad windows, etc, get placed next to each other.

Toms hardware and other sites have done extensive tests of these hybrid drives with a very mixed bag of results. Usually they are still an order of magnitude slower than SSDs, and only achieve their near-SSD perf after it's been 'trained' for a while on the data.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/momentus-xt-750gb-review,3223.html

And for all the complaining on here about SSD failure rates, wouldn't the lifetime of the solid-state memory units in a hybrid drive be even worse because it's a much smaller block of memory and therefore must swap much more data in/out of the total capacity? What's the point of a hybrid drive if the caching part is likely to fail much faster than the SSD equivalent?

I finally made the jump to buying an SDD and have a 180gb Intel one coming from Amazon's super-sale last week. I'll be installing my OS on it and using the procedure that many others have used with great success. Maybe you can find some real solutions to some of your counter-arguments there:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/70822-ssd-tweaks-optimizations-windows-7-a.html

After having my work laptop with one, I simply am amazed at how much more real-life usable my machine is. Waking from sleep is near instantaneous and I know longer wonder if it's worth it to wake my machine and wait 20 seconds to check something out before walking out the door. Batter life is nearly doubled. I don't hear clicks as the drive parks itself every time it gets a chance. I don't have to worry about josteling or even *dropping* the laptop while it's on. It's honestly the most amazing upgrade to PC technology and usability I've seen in years. Beats any graphics card upgrade since first going to VGA and proc upgrade since the original Pentium.

Sure, it's life might be shorter; but I've been watching my hard drives have shorter and shorter lives too. Warranties are no longer 5 years, they're 2 if you get that. Out of 5 seagates I've owned in the last few years, 3 of the 5 have died. One of the replacements even died. I switched to hitatchi's and have done better. So, and SSD won't make any different to the regular backups I do now anyway.

We tech nerds often forget it's about the usability stupid. Usability as your mom and girlfriend see it. I.e. - you turn it on and it works. You don't see all kinds of cryptic mysterious stuff happening, or cross your fingers and hope something works. You press the button on the appliance and the toast comes out. Until we really grock that - these arguments are pedantic to non-techs who are just as likely to toss an old computer or give it to the kid because it's getting slow or the drive dies in it.

That's a bummer.

As a counterpoint: Can you tell me how to turn off that same feature under Windows? I *don't* want it to auto-switch, but it insists upon it.

Depends on the audio hardware and driver, but for many it should be under advanced sound settings, like this Realtek example: http://www.sevenforums.com/attachments/sound-audio/132788d1295356338-switch-between-headphones-speakers-capture5.jpg

Probably talking about the eMac's predecessor, the all-in-one Perfoima machines that were sold primary in the education market. Absolutely terrible computers.

Suuuure. And yet they had no such problems with keyboard buffers. http://www.cocoabuilder.com/archive/cocoa/45927-keyboard-buffer-overrun.html

There's no keyboard buffer on the Mac, only an event queue (which includes things like mouse movements, disks insertions etc), which should be able to grow to the max memory size. That limited keyboard-buffer is an IBM-only-invention.

Which explains things like this http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/69701-keyboard-not-registering-every-keystroke-2.html

Yes,and I could wallpaper this page with link after link saying it isn't. Once again, the fact that you can't get it to work doesn't mean others can't. Linking to a joke site certainly proves your point though, thank you for that. I'm sure that clears it up for everyone. Oh, and here's another hint for you genius, the same thing holds true for Windows.

The link to theinquirer.net also certainly proves your point. Dell shipping a laptop with non-functioning drivers or software (and really old software at that) is certainly Linus's fault, cause everyone knows Dell would never even be ABLE to do that with Windows, right? Like here or here or, say, here.

As for Asus, the first article you linked explains exactly why they 'abandoned' Linux. To help you out, since reading that much text must really be hard, I'll repeat it here: “People bought the original seven- and eight-inch Eee PCs for a computer to give to the kids,” Kerr said seriously.

The last article is even funnier. Did you even read it? Did it say anything about linux being broken? Bad drivers? Things not working? Nope, none of those. Why are return rates so high? Again, let me paste it in, since reading is so challenging for you:

“Unclear selling is happening, typically online. The customer will get their netbook sent to their home and they imagine to find something like a Microsoft desktop, but they see a brown Ubuntu version. They are unwilling to learn it and they were expecting to have Windows.” Carr stressed that, in these cases, it doesn’t even matter how good or bad the Linux OS is. These customers just don’t want to try something new.

So it turns out, the return rate is so high because folks like you are too lazy or stupid to even give something a try. Go figure.

In the future, if you want to prove how the driver model is broken, or it crashes constantly, or the entire thing is 'shit', you might want to actually find some supporting articles that say that, and not something else. It's how people do this whole 'debate' thing. Argue their side, provide supporting evidence...

Just for the record though, no, I don't think Linus is 'smarter than every single OS designer in the world'. I do think he's a pretty brilliant guy (when did you write your last OS?), and I think the other THOUSANDS of people who work on, and contribute to, the Linux kernel are also by and large pretty bright guys. Brighter than you, certainly. Just the fact that you think Linus is the only person controlling kernel development proves that.

At least with focus-follows-mouse, there's a X-mouse workaround involving a couple of registry edits, but I'm dreading Win8.

Every time Windows "evolves", I'm forced to add another 10-15 minutes to undo the latest round of dumbing-down.

Actually the scary part? The pirate version RUNS BETTER and is MORE stable on old hardware than the full version! honestly the guys at MSFT really ought to hire the guy that makes "Tiny Windows (insert version)" because he makes a better light OS than even embedded and winFLP. we are talking about an XP that uses 56Mb of RAM on the desktop, 63Mb for Win2k3, 386Mb for Vista (even he can't work miracles) and 248Mb for Windows 7. I of course don't sell units with it and have only played with it for my own amusement but the speed this guy gets is just nuts. you can tell it isn't some Vlite job, he really tore into the guts and rebuilt like like a hot rod. Here is the only changes I would make if I was using the Tiny version. One it doesn't have UAC by default on, you have to make a second account to enable it. Two it doesn't have WMC which I like, but in both cases I can understand why, as its mainly built for gamers that want to squeeze that last drop of performance and not for HTPCs.

But I have to disagree on netbooks unless you are talking about atom which frankly is shite on a crusty roll no matter WHAT OS you are using. I have one of the new AMD Brazos netbooks and honestly even the default non tweaked Windows 7 X64 HP runs like a dream on it. Its snappy, apps loaded quick even before i stuck 8Gb of RAM in it (which yeah i know its overkill, but hell with the gift card I got 8Gb for $31. How could I turn THAT down friend?) and both HD video and games play with nary a stutter. While I'm not the type to game while i'm mobile there are even videos of guys playing L4D and other shooters on it and getting decent framerates. Just because its a netbook doesn't mean it has to suck the big wet titty. Oh and I get a full 6 hours under Windows 7 and if all I want is the web it also comes with ExpressGate which gives me 6 seconds from cold start and an extra 2 hours on the battery. Its the EEE 1215B and they have it with 2Gb for $299 at Tigerdirect if you know somebody that wants a good Windows 7 netbook. With the RAM and a carrying case i got out at less than $350 for the whole smash, you just can't beat that for a dual core with Radeon graphics.

Finally if you want to know how to get Windows 7 running decently on even a shite Atom may I suggest you check this out friend? Its a central repo of links to how tos for squeezing every last bit of performance out of Windows 7 . I've found that if one wants a that runs fast this site really gives some good performance tips and have used a few on customers whose hardware was borderline Windows 7 capable and by the time i was done they were actually enjoying 7 more than XP. It won't crank out the speed like tiny 7 does but it will make windows 7 faster, especially if you are talking about running it on shit like the Atom. although to be honest my advice to customers on Atom since the beginning has been a giant NO WAY. You can get an AMD based unit for just a tiny bit more money and the performance just stomps a mudhole in Atom's skinny ass. I've sold plenty of both the MSI Wind and the Asus EEE AMD netbooks and they are worlds better than Atom when it comes to actual feel and user experience, its like night and day. if you haven't tried one you really should, they are sweeeeet!

You should try reading the manual. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/desktopsearch/technicalresources/advquery.mspx It is called Advanced Query Syntax and it is very powerful and easy to learn. Use it like this: ext:.cmd folder:bin filename:*z*

Powerful, perhaps. I suppose if I want to, I can search for businesspostalcode:90210 in my email contacts. (WTF? Why would I be doing this from Explorer? Why do I need to be able to do this from anywhere in Windows other than in the email client, or possibly an address book application??)

Easy to learn? Easier than the old search GUI? I think not. Also, it is restricted to files that have been indexed, unless you set up the 'hidden' search options under Folder Options to search non-indexed locations as well, which loses you the supposed performance benefit...in which case, what's the point?

more results than you ever needed, or no results if it's a system file, not in an indexed location or Windows simply doesn't like it for some reason

windows Explorer -> Alt T -> folder options -> Search.

Oh, you want additional search parameters? Good luck finding any besides filesize and date modified!"

It is a pain in the butt that the search has been dumbed down so much, but most of that can be restored to its former functionality. eg a quick google will find you stuff like http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/129437-windows-search-configure-use.html

Okay, that site tells me how to set up global options for all searches everywhere in my system. Sure, some of them could be useful, but what if I change my mind? Maybe I don't want to search inside encrypted files under this directory, but I do want to in this other one? What if I want to search inside files in my C:/windows directory, which is *never* indexed, ever? (I see that Alt-T gives you a *few* more real-time search options [under 'folder options'? WTF? really??], but it's still pretty anemic)

I think it's mostly the indexing that's the problem. I don't really need another database on my computer to track what's in all my files, and where they are. That's what the filesystem is for (well, tracking where they are, at least). Besides the security and performance hits, it isn't terribly reliable and has to be rebuilt *from scratch* if you make trivial changes to the way you want things 'searchable'. Sure, without indexing, sometimes a search for a phrase inside a file could take a half-hour or more...but at least I knew that a) if it was in there, it would find it, and b) it's not copying the contents of sensitive files to another location for my 'convenience'.

Thanks for the tips, but I think it'll be a third-party solution for me...now I just got to get out there and try some, instead of bemoaning the 'old days'! ;)

Here's how to do it without..
on Win 7.. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/19494-firefox-3-5-1-download-without-browser.html
on XP & Vista.. http://www.ronsilvoza.com/download-firefox-without-a-web-browser/

If you have ever had a working Internet connection, but a borked up IE that won't repair.. It's kind of like having a full pack of cigs with no lighter or matches.

It's a known issue not only on Windows 7 / Vista http://support.microsoft.com/kb/977178 but also on XP http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317272 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330100 - however the lastest incarnation of the flaw does not seem to get fixed for the older systems such as XP (or has anyone found a solution for this?), and Intel Matrix drivers as a workaround http://www.sevenforums.com/crashes-debugging/50479-1-tb-wdc-black-fails-wake-sleep.html#6 require (and have their installer check for) one of a few specific boards.

I bought Fallout 3 for PS3 on sale since the PC version I bought on Steam consistently froze after a scant few minutes of play. Should I as an end consumer really need to dig into minutiae of Windows settings to try and tweak it enough for a game to run properly?

This has nothing to do with Windows and is a Fallout 3 bug. And no, a mere consumer couldn't figure it out, so he'll end up buying the same thing twice.

I thought we had left the bad old days behind us.

"Bad old days" return whenever there's some new development in hardware. The use of protected mode - first through DOS extenders and later through pmode OS freed us from messing around with DOS's memory types, but then 3D accelerator cards arrived, with their proprietary APIs of course. Now everyone uses Direct3D or OpenGL, but multi-core has arrived, forcing games to switch to parallel execution, and bugs result during transition. Compute shaders - using the 3D accelerator as a math co-processor - is the newest fad; we'll see what new problems arise from there.

Repeat after me: PCs for surfing and work, consoles for games.

Consoles are for people who's Google-Fu is weak.

Links:
http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2010/03/stop-windows-7-from-deleting-your-desktop-shortcuts/
http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/9570-some-desktop-shortcuts-disappeared.html
http://www.ghacks.net/2010/03/30/fix-windows-7-desktop-shortcuts-disappearing/

BTW noticed someone modded my post as a 'Troll'. Come on Slashdot. You really need to crack down on people who mod down anyone they don't agree with. In this case the mod didn't even do rudimentary research.

Alltough I never got this working: booting from a VHD :, it occurs to me that are a lot of people doing this for different purposes...

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2953-virtual-hard-drive-vhd-file-create-start-boot.html

Would this be affected too?

On general purpose machines such tactics are much less successful, because users actively fight such measures. At some point the user runs into a conflict between that they want to do something that the firewall/permissions/etc don't want to allow. And in such a case the security system is never seen as a good thing, and actively fought, disabled and worked around. Even if what the user wants to do is a seriously bad idea.

You know, I just one a several-day fight against Windows 7 insisting that 60 Hz is good enough for everyone on a CRT. It took extracting the EDID information on my display, manually tweaking it to hide the 60 Hz modes, turning the edited EDID to an INF, and finally installing said INF as a driver to prevent fullscreen applications (mainly games) from choosing modes that make my eyes bleed. Getting Ati Tray Tools working with Windows 7 - they aren't signed, and don't like UAC - is another fight I've decided to give up on.

What I'm saying is, automation and safeguards are nice, but they should always be bypassable just by responding "yes" to a warning prompt. If I want to disable some display modes (or add more), let me. If I want to load an unsigned kernel driver, let me. If you don't let me, it simply makes solving the problem even harder.

When automation makes your users reminisce about XFree86's modelines with longing, you've suffered epic failing.

For anyone interested, here is a link to the 17-step procedure to prevent Windows from lowering the refresh rate to eye-bleeding level when display modes are changed. In step 4, simply disable the "standard timing" modes that have low refresh rates, and change the minimum rate to your liking. User-friendly, eh ?-)

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/39314-cant-remove-autorun-worm.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/6529-problem-avast-conficker-some-other-worm.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/4072-project-snowblind-worm.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/8763-downadup-removal-tool-conficker-worm.html

I can't vouch for the technical savvy of the members at sevenforums, but they probably share a few clues among themselves. Machines up to date? Hell, I don't know. But, if they are getting this stuff on Windows 7 machines, they can't be very far OUT of date, can they?

Nice try at coming across like a pompous ass - it just didn't quite work. You missed the pomposity, anyway.

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/39314-cant-remove-autorun-worm.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/6529-problem-avast-conficker-some-other-worm.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/4072-project-snowblind-worm.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/8763-downadup-removal-tool-conficker-worm.html

I can't vouch for the technical savvy of the members at sevenforums, but they probably share a few clues among themselves. Machines up to date? Hell, I don't know. But, if they are getting this stuff on Windows 7 machines, they can't be very far OUT of date, can they?

Nice try at coming across like a pompous ass - it just didn't quite work. You missed the pomposity, anyway.

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/39314-cant-remove-autorun-worm.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/6529-problem-avast-conficker-some-other-worm.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/4072-project-snowblind-worm.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/8763-downadup-removal-tool-conficker-worm.html

I can't vouch for the technical savvy of the members at sevenforums, but they probably share a few clues among themselves. Machines up to date? Hell, I don't know. But, if they are getting this stuff on Windows 7 machines, they can't be very far OUT of date, can they?

Nice try at coming across like a pompous ass - it just didn't quite work. You missed the pomposity, anyway.

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/39314-cant-remove-autorun-worm.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/6529-problem-avast-conficker-some-other-worm.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/4072-project-snowblind-worm.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/system-security/8763-downadup-removal-tool-conficker-worm.html

I can't vouch for the technical savvy of the members at sevenforums, but they probably share a few clues among themselves. Machines up to date? Hell, I don't know. But, if they are getting this stuff on Windows 7 machines, they can't be very far OUT of date, can they?

Nice try at coming across like a pompous ass - it just didn't quite work. You missed the pomposity, anyway.

Here is the solution to the problem. It worked for me.

This is copy pasted from the second post here : http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7install/thread/aedb1245-f8f9-42ec-9a0c-1aa932363bbb

Where this guy got the solution from is here : http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/30470-make-bootable-iso-student-d-l.html

* * SOLUTION * *

There is a way to create an image file dispite recieving this error we seem to be all recieving.

1. You will need to use an additional Microsoft command-line tool, called Oscdimg.

Details here
Download here

Download the .zip file and extract it. Then cut and paste the Oscdimg.exe file into your C:\Windows\System32 directory

2. You now need to start up your command prompt, which can be done by Start->Run then enter 'cmd' into the prompt. (Run as administrator if in Vista!)

3. You should now have the command prompt open, now you need to use the Oscdimg tool to create the image, by entering the following:
Oscdimg.exe -u2 -bC:\ \expandedSetup\boot\etfsboot.com -h C:\ \expandedSetup C:\ \Win7.iso

For example: Oscdimg.exe -u2 -bC:\Users\James\Downloads\expandedSetup\boot\etfsboot.com -h C:\ Users\James\Downloads \expandedSetup C:\ Users\James\Downloads \Win7.iso

It will now scan the source tree then begin creating the image. PLEASE note: you must replace ' ' appropriatly as to where you have downloaded the files.

4. You should now have an image file, called Win7.iso, in the same directory.

5. You can now burn this .iso file to a blank DVD using appropriate software. I personally use PowerISO (You dont need the paid version to burn the image)

6. Viola! You have your not so shiney Windows 7 disk. Restart your computer and install away!

- I take no acknowledgment for this, I dug about and found the info at: http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/30470-make-bootable-iso-student-d-l.html Thanks SIW2 :)

* Edited byNixonInnes Thursday, October 22, 2009 8:54 AMtypo's
* Edited byNixonInnes Thursday, October 22, 2009 9:02 AM
* Marked As Answer byKevin HauMSFT, ModeratorThursday, October 22, 2009 6:35 PM
* Edited byKevin HauMSFT, ModeratorThursday, October 22, 2009 9:52 PMstep to run CMD as admin

Here is the solution to the problem. It worked for me.

This is copy pasted from the second post here : http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7install/thread/aedb1245-f8f9-42ec-9a0c-1aa932363bbb

Where this guy got the solution from is here : http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/30470-make-bootable-iso-student-d-l.html

* * SOLUTION * *

There is a way to create an image file dispite recieving this error we seem to be all recieving.

1. You will need to use an additional Microsoft command-line tool, called Oscdimg.

Details here
Download here

Download the .zip file and extract it. Then cut and paste the Oscdimg.exe file into your C:\Windows\System32 directory

2. You now need to start up your command prompt, which can be done by Start->Run then enter 'cmd' into the prompt. (Run as administrator if in Vista!)

3. You should now have the command prompt open, now you need to use the Oscdimg tool to create the image, by entering the following:
Oscdimg.exe -u2 -bC:\ \expandedSetup\boot\etfsboot.com -h C:\ \expandedSetup C:\ \Win7.iso

For example: Oscdimg.exe -u2 -bC:\Users\James\Downloads\expandedSetup\boot\etfsboot.com -h C:\ Users\James\Downloads \expandedSetup C:\ Users\James\Downloads \Win7.iso

It will now scan the source tree then begin creating the image. PLEASE note: you must replace ' ' appropriatly as to where you have downloaded the files.

4. You should now have an image file, called Win7.iso, in the same directory.

5. You can now burn this .iso file to a blank DVD using appropriate software. I personally use PowerISO (You dont need the paid version to burn the image)

6. Viola! You have your not so shiney Windows 7 disk. Restart your computer and install away!

- I take no acknowledgment for this, I dug about and found the info at: http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/30470-make-bootable-iso-student-d-l.html Thanks SIW2 :)

* Edited byNixonInnes Thursday, October 22, 2009 8:54 AMtypo's
* Edited byNixonInnes Thursday, October 22, 2009 9:02 AM
* Marked As Answer byKevin HauMSFT, ModeratorThursday, October 22, 2009 6:35 PM
* Edited byKevin HauMSFT, ModeratorThursday, October 22, 2009 9:52 PMstep to run CMD as admin

Most if not all versions of IE (6+, and probably older ones too) have a feature called search from address bar. With this setting enabled, anything typed in the address bar which does not resolve to a website, is passed on to the default search engine, whichever that may be.
Perhaps a recent update turned this feature ON for people who had it turned OFF? But the feature itself is most definitely not new or news.

The shareef dont like it

Lockin' the taskbar

Lockin' the taskbar

Here are some of the "most of us" http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/8241-rc-hangs-every-4-seconds-about-2-3-seconds.html http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/8058-build-7100-vs-7077-x-64-anyone-7077-better-me.html http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/8955-7077-much-faster-than-official-rc-7100-a.html I am going to revert to my 7077 drive image tomorrow as RC is quite a low slower than 7077 that I had. YMMV

Here are some of the "most of us" http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/8241-rc-hangs-every-4-seconds-about-2-3-seconds.html http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/8058-build-7100-vs-7077-x-64-anyone-7077-better-me.html http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/8955-7077-much-faster-than-official-rc-7100-a.html I am going to revert to my 7077 drive image tomorrow as RC is quite a low slower than 7077 that I had. YMMV

Here are some of the "most of us" http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/8241-rc-hangs-every-4-seconds-about-2-3-seconds.html http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/8058-build-7100-vs-7077-x-64-anyone-7077-better-me.html http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/8955-7077-much-faster-than-official-rc-7100-a.html I am going to revert to my 7077 drive image tomorrow as RC is quite a low slower than 7077 that I had. YMMV

According to the message boards build 7077 is actually faster. Apparently build 7100 is the RC branch and 7077 was a different branch for the RTM.