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Microsoft Engineer Installs Google Chrome During Presentation After Edge Freezes (softpedia.com)

Posted by msmash on from the bloopers dept.

A reader shares a report: We've seen lots of blunders on stage, and still happen occasionally, but this must be the best of all. A Microsoft engineer downloaded, installed, and started using Google Chrome during a live presentation after Microsoft Edge, the default Windows 10 browser, stopped responding in the middle of a demo. In just a few words, Microsoft Edge froze while the engineer was working with virtual machines in the browser, and judging from how fast he proceeded to downloading Google Chrome, this wasn't the first time it happened. Because, you know, sometimes reloading the page or restarting the browser does help, but you can't risk hitting the same error twice, right? "I love it when demos break," he said. "So while we're talking here, I'm gonna go install Chrome," he continued before he started laughing, with many people in the audience cheering. "And we're going to not make Google better," he added when unchecking the box to send usage statistics and crash reports to Google, as if this made things less worse. "We're going to do this again, I'm sorry about this. The age of these machines are [sic] wacked down a little bit, there are some things that just don't work."

14 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. "...There are some things that just don't work." by sirpwn4g3 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Like Microsoft Edge.

  2. Sums it up by wbr1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    https://i.imgur.com/9TxWoa9.pn...

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.
  3. Demonstration by Artem+S.+Tashkinov · · Score: 5, Informative

    The snafu begins at 36:46.

    1. Re:Demonstration by RavenLrD20k · · Score: 5, Informative

      Ok...the summary states he said "The age of these machines are [sic] wacked down a little bit..." when if you actually listen to the presentation on that link you can tell he said "The 'Edge' on these machines are locked down a little bit..." Which makes a hell of a lot more sense to convey that security functions are making certain necessary features unavailable for the demo. Bogdan Popa, who wrote the linked article on Softpedia, needs to get the earwax out of his ears.

  4. Not what he said at all... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    "The age of these machines are [sic] wacked down a little bit" is totally wrong. What was actually said is "The Edge on these machines are locked down a bit...".

    1. Re:Not what he said at all... by PingSpike · · Score: 5, Funny

      Naw, he probably did a dry run last night, but then Windows auto updated at 3am to a new version of Edge that was broken. Rookie mistake not removing the ethernet cable and burning out the wifi with a soldering iron.

  5. A more serious question... by wbr1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Did this engineer not know that Windows 10 also has IE installed? It is just a simple start menu/cortana seach away. Not favoring MS productrs here.. IMHO Edge and IE both suck in very different ways. Edge sucks becuase it is immature and doen't know any better. IE sucks because it apparently has decided that sucking is its purpose in life.

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.
  6. Re:I guess... by v1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    he is sooo fired. and in the inevitable reference to windows 95 crashing on the live demo, at least in that case the presenter had Bill himself on stage to save him.. Presenter: "And watch as we plug in this.... (BSoD) whoa...." Bill: " and that's why we're not shipping it just yet..."

    --
    I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
  7. Re:I guess... by barrywalker · · Score: 4, Funny

    he is sooo fired. and in the inevitable reference to windows 95 crashing on the live demo, at least in that case the presenter had Bill himself on stage to save him.. Presenter: "And watch as we plug in this.... (BSoD) whoa...." Bill: " and that's why we're not shipping it just yet..."

    Not to be a pedantic prick, but it was Windows 98. Yea, yea, I know - there wasn't much difference at that point.

  8. Re:Potemkin browser by PingSpike · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually, if you compare October 2015 https://www.netmarketshare.com... to September 2017 https://www.netmarketshare.com... it looks like most of the IE users left for Chrome and basically none of them moved to Edge.

  9. Re:Chrome still sucks by Teckla · · Score: 5, Informative

    Isn’t Opera owned by some dodgy Chinese company now?

  10. Re:I guess... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hmm, idk. He's not on the Edge team, otherwise he would be fired. But this guy did what he had to do to get through his demo; persisting with Edge and hitting the same issue several times, which it seems like he expected, would not only have trashed his demo, but it would hardly make Edge look good either, so switching to Chrome at that point cut the losses and minimised the damage all round. If heads were going to roll from this, I think it would be on the Edge team.

  11. Re:I guess... by haruchai · · Score: 4, Insightful

    he is sooo fired. and in the inevitable reference to windows 95 crashing on the live demo, at least in that case the presenter had Bill himself on stage to save him.. Presenter: "And watch as we plug in this.... (BSoD) whoa...." Bill: " and that's why we're not shipping it just yet..."

    Not to be a pedantic prick, but it was Windows 98. Yea, yea, I know - there wasn't much difference at that point.

    Anyone who complains about Wn95 or Win98 has never tried to live with Windows Millennium which was so bad it made everyone think that Y2K was happening a few months late.

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    Pain is merely failure leaving the body
  12. Re:Edge did not freeze by samwichse · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yes! This is an even better (worse) headline!

    Group policy on Windows 10 has been a nightmare, as different builds seem to fail in new and exciting ways.