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Microsoft To Stop Offering Support For Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Old Surface Devices in Forums (betanews.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft has announced that starting next month it will no longer be participating in the technical support forums for Windows 7, 8.1, 8.1 RT and numerous other products. On the software front, the company says that it will also no longer provide support for Microsoft Security Essentials, Internet Explorer 10, Office 2010 and 2013 as of July. It is not just software that is affected. Microsoft is also stopping support for Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2, Surface RT, Surface 2, Microsoft Band and Zune. Some forums will be locked, preventing users from helping each other as well.
Where will the 15 Surface owners go to for support?
Surface RT - 2012
Surface Pro - 2013
Surface Pro 2 - 2013
Surface 2 - 2013
How does this compare to apple? I think macOS High Sierra runs on laptops from 2009 onwards?
The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
Microsoft forums are awful. Time is better spent using Google and avoiding any results that link to Microsoft's forums.
Like you can actually get any help in Microsoft forums.....
Fuck you. Strongly worded letter to follow.
Regards,
Sysadmin
considering Windows 7 doesn't EOL until 2020. I think Microsoft needs another pimp slap from the anti-trust folks in the US Government. This is a blatant attempt to make currently popular versions of its operating system appear less secure in an effort to consolidate everyone under Windows 10.
After months of usage, I've come to the same conclusion as when it was first announced -- Windows 10 sucks. I don't need a tablet/phone interface on my desktop. Their attempt at giving us a "regular" desktop really doesn't cut it either. I do not need the internals obfuscated so that "normal" users find it difficult to affect them as that makes it difficult for IT staff to reach them as well unless I learn a whole bunch of new shortcuts. Shortcuts that are there just because Microsoft decided to change how access worked; not because workflow is better or follows the Vulcan principles of logic -- just because they needed a UI change.
Dream as if you'll live forever.
Live as if you'll die tomorrow.
~Anonymous~
U: I have a problem with xdog.dll not regestering and giving result code 0x32De32
Top Solution--------
MS: Hi this is sanjay. I will help you with this problem now. Have you tried system restore: **Irrelevant ms KB article**
I will now walk you through windows re-install **Irrelevant KB article** Link to irrelevant microsoft fix it.
Other solutions:
U: You need to replace the dll with version 32.64.99 and try again.
So no big loss.
So easy to set up a subreddit for "Win 7 Support." If Micro$hit doesn't want to host the forums, they're not needed.
Anyone else notice that Microsoft products work better after they no longer support them?
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
In my experience, the advice on Microsoft forums always boils down to the following anyway: Save all of your data an reinstall Windows from scratch.
The advice is pretty useless in many circumstances, but since most people don't have the time&money to sue Microsoft for their own loss of time & money, the advise always works for Microsoft. If I could bill Microsoft for every hour I've spend fixing what their operating system messed up, I could be a rich man...
Uh, MSFT doesn't really support anybody in the Forums. Sure you'll get an occasional MSFT employee who provides some clues as to why something that they wrote is broken but that's rare. Remember, there *used* to be a lot of QA people and others who provided answers but those folks are long gone. There are other sites that have better information than some point fetish fairy looking to tell you to "refresh your installation." You know the ones I'm talking about, one level above the "IT Crowd." They troll the MSFT Forums giving out the canned answers that have no relative bearing on the question posted just so they can get them thar points.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
Some forums will be locked, preventing users from helping each other as well.
Is Office 2016 so radically different from Office 2013 that they can't support it anymore? I don't know *anyone* who has upgraded, nor feels the need to upgrade, and I know a lot of people who spend all day in Excel.
Not that this is a big loss, since there are other support forums, but seems odd that Office 2013 is getting the boot after only 5 years.
12:50 - press return.
I'm one of those people with Surface 2 RT. To be honest, the support has been a lot better than I've seen with any Android device I've ever owned.
If that isn't damning with faint praise I'm not sure what is.
Microsoft may have made some mistakes with the Windows RT line...
"May have"? You don't need the qualifier. It was a huge and expensive fuck up on their part. It was an intentionally and needlessly crippled product with no obvious benefit to customers that was outperformed by better devices running uncrippled Windows and it was an object lesson in terrible branding. (you don't call something Windows when people have an existing expectation for what that means) Microsoft tried to create a device in between their smartphones and PCs when they didn't need to and they fucked it up.
I still use my Surface 2 to this day, and find it hard to justify getting something new, because it still works quite well as a tablet/media consumption device, which was my primary purpose for it.
That's fine but there were/are better devices available to do that which are less limited and more useful to most of us.
I had to call for support sometimes in my life.
Microsoft NEVER solved the problems. And no answer on the forum different than "reinstall".
Examples:
- regsvr32 not working (problem with an old DLL that triggered a bug with regsvr32, messing up with registry rights) - Microsoft never identified the problem
- office365: can't open files with french accents. Microsoft "solved" the problem: "use Firefox or chrome instead of Internet Explorer"
- office365: use the office version from O365 portal - it works better (than the downloaded version from volume license site)
- sql server won't restore a database - please reinstall the server
Usually, they don't understand the problem. Event if you point what is wrong in the SharePoint online javascript - producing an illformed encoded url, they ask you to reinstall office...
The Support Provided was usually the 4Rs:
1. Reboot
2. Reinstall
3. Repurchase
4. Recovery Mode
5. Roll-Back
I'm sure the users can handle it.
... no way to provide feedback for those patch installed on Windows 7?
After months of usage, I've come to the same conclusion as when it was first announced -- Windows 10 sucks. I don't need a tablet/phone interface on my desktop.
If you believe this then you haven't actually used Windows 10. It's desktop interface is pretty much exactly what Windows has been since Windows 7 and not much different from XP in practical terms. It does not have a tablet/phone interface unless you explicitly tell it to behave that way. There are plenty of things you can criticize about Windows without making up shit that doesn't actually exist in the product.
Their attempt at giving us a "regular" desktop really doesn't cut it either.
I use it daily at work and it's fine. It's exactly what one would expect from Windows, good and bad. The interface on Windows 10 is decidedly NOT the problem with it unlike with Windows 8.
I do not need the internals obfuscated so that "normal" users find it difficult to affect them as that makes it difficult for IT staff to reach them as well unless I learn a whole bunch of new shortcuts.
So your argument is they shouldn't try to make anything better because you might have to learn something new? If you don't like Windows that's fine but please stick to critiques that aren't your failings. Microsoft fails plenty on their own without being responsible for your deficiencies too.
Every time I hit a thread in an MS forum looking for a solution i get nothing helpful at all other than the absolute basics. Tantamount to useless.
Microsoft is an ABUSE company, not a software and hardware company, apparently.
A while ago I decided Windows 7 will be the last Windows running on my machines.
Disabled and blocked all that I could find that reports and unnecessary info back to whoever. I also control traffic via the network firewalls. Only installing security fixes and even those after a few weeks / months after I read about them not causing issues with stability of the systems.
I'm happy to report that my systems are way more stable than at any time in the past.
Once MS stops providing security patches to the OS I will gladly switch to a nice Linux distro. Already using mostly cygwin for a lot of work so the transition should be smooth.
I just wish Linux pushes forward with improving Desktop experience (i.e. drivers, utils, etc) and the major desktop developers have a plan to accommodate current and future Windows defectors because I think there will be more and more of us switching to Linux and never looking back. I'm a very long time Linux user (think kernel pre version 1.x) but mostly on the server. Desktop was another story. I think Windows still has an edge but very small at this point and mostly because of drivers and stubbornness of vendors and some usability lagging. The key is dev momentum on desktop (developers, developers, developers, yadda yadda).
Windows 10 is a 100% phone/tablet interface. You can easily verify that yourself: they did away with the right mouse button.
That's strange. I'm typing on a Windows 10 machine to make this comment and my right mouse button works just fine. If you want to criticize Windows there is plenty to choose from without making up a bunch of bullshit that is obviously wrong.
Correction: not a 100% phone interface. They are apparently incapable of actually fully replacing the old control panel what the "settings" crap is supposed to do.
The old control panel is available if you prefer it. Just hit the Windows key on your keyboard and start typing "control panel" and it comes up just fine. Make a shortcut to it if you prefer it. I do this all the time. But the newer settings functions work just fine too if you can be bothered to actually take 5 minutes to figure them out.
So yes, I have "tested" Windows 10 and running it. I'm not sure if you are however.
Pretty clear you haven't since you think it has a phone interface as the primary user interface.
Can you explain why they fractured the Control Panel / Settings? Why it takes 15 clicks between two/three different panels now to adjust a network connection?
Since I don't work for Microsoft you'll have to ask them for their reasoning. But it's just different routing to the same stuff for the most part. I think they were trying to make it easier to use for the things that happen most often. You can debate whether they succeeded or not but it certainly does not take "15 clicks" or anything close in most cases. It's not like the old Control Panel was a paragon of ease of use even if you were accustomed to it.
If you like the old Control Panel it's still there and pretty much identical to the one in Windows 7 for all practical purposes. I'm familiar with it so I sometimes pull it up sometimes and it works fine.
I think there are lots of things in Windows 10 to get bent out of shape over. This isn't really anywhere near the top of the list.
"... Windows 10 is useless as an operating system, it's just a toy made by monkeys."
Joke: Yes, Windows 10 is useless. However, the World Huge Association of Monkeys, WHAM!, says you are not sufficiently respectful of monkeys. Monkeys act in their own self-interest.
With Windows 10, Microsoft has been extremely self-destructive. If Microsoft had spent a billion dollars running ads trying to get negative responses from professionals who are knowledgeable about computers, those ads would not have been as effective as Windows 10 at destroying whatever positive thoughts people had about Microsoft.
Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made. "Buried in the service agreement is permission to poke through everything on your PC."
7 ways Windows 10 pushes ads at you.
Microsoft again forced upgrades on Win10 machines specifically set to block updates (March 12, 2018)
This, just two articles after "How Microsoft's Windows Red Team Keeps PCs Safe".
Yeah, they're really looking out for their community, here, alright.
1) Kill Windows 7 .... ...
2) Kill Windows 7 and all support for it
3) Kill games for windows 7
4) Force users to DX12 and KILL 11
5) Kill users on windows 7
6)
7) all bases
I could be wrong, but I don't think IE 10 is still a supported browser (in terms of security updates) on ANY platform.
Your choices for a currently-supported Microsoft browser are: IE11 on any platform it's supported on, Edge on Windows 10, and IE 9 on Windows Server 2008 (non-R2) SP2 which is the Vista generation of Windows Server and is supported for another year and a half.
Those few poor slobs on that 2008 non-R2 are the ones to feel sorry for - IE9 is the best from Microsoft, Chrome doesn't support it anymore, not sure about Firefox. Fortunately there shouldn't be many end-users on it, just a few services that nobody's gotten around to moving.
fencepost
just a little off
Windows 8.1 is not that old. Isn't this premature?
Table-ized A.I.
I just wish Linux pushes forward with improving Desktop experience (i.e. drivers, utils, etc) and the major desktop developers have a plan to accommodate current and future Windows defectors because I think there will be more and more of us switching to Linux and never looking back.
What drivers can't you get on Linux? Most stock kernels have arguably more hardware support than Windows out of the box. Don't get me wrong, I own a printer and I work with pro audio, so I'm more than familiar with incompatible hardware issues. However, that forced me to learn a thing or two about which manufacturers of those products support Linux the best, and I'm quite happy supporting them with my money in return. Here's a hint for pro audio: buy USB class-compliant devices.
Also, what are you looking for in terms of "utils"? If you are talking about GUIs for sysadmin tasks, many already exist. Check Ubuntu and its derivatives, they've made a lot of them. Though, really, you oughta learn the command line. It's not that scary, it's a lot faster at getting shit done than clicking around with your mouse.
As for accommodating the Windows defectors, have you seen Plasma? It looks almost identical to Windows 10, at least in screenshots. Every time I see a computer on TV I have to squint my eyes to see if they're using Plasma 5 or Windows 10. You want something that looks and feels like Windows, there you have it.
In any case, I think you're ready. You've got the will, and the way is already there. You could switch today if you wanted to. Give it a try.
I just love Windows 8.1 with Update 1 installed. IMNSHO it's the most underrated MS OS of all time.
Should have been called Windows 9, but I'm aware of the potentially programmatical impasse that might have caused with Win9x apps. Of so they said IIRC
Windows 10 is way too intrusive and I simply don't like it.
obviously, the sales are down, and marketing is finding all ways it can to sabotage old but perfectly working hardware by wiping al info and support.
Creative labs now does it too , with the excuse their forums been hacked. Yep, wipe it all so customers can be told to buy new hardware when they contact support in the future. Instead of finding solutions in support forums, solutions they mostly never suplied either. Considering most support in such forums comes from other users and mostly never the company.
Like MS forums only answer with standard replies and never any to the point answer or solution.
Some forums will be locked, preventing users from helping each other as well.
This is outrageous.... if people are still using Windows 8, then don't interfere with the community supporting each other,
Or, perhaps, people will stop trusting your forums in the future and setup their own or move to Linux.
This is why embracing yet another attempt at ARM based Windows devices will never be on my device list. Personally, I don't think Microsoft has had any clear Windows path since Windows 7. I think the whole focus of Windows 8 was bet on mobile and that was a complete failure. Windows 10 has somewhat reverted back to Windows 7 days, but obviously Microsoft feels that it must keep pushing mobile platforms of some sort. If not smartphones, then always connected notebooks.
Another failure in the making if you ask me.
I agree that spyware and telemetry are serious problems. But I think you have under-appreciated exactly how terrible the "new" UI is. They basically have gotten rid of everything that we use to tell one UI element from another. Everything looks like a background element. Nothing looks like something you can actually interact with. There are no borders to help determine where one element ends and another begins. Title bars blend in with the rest of the window. It's like someone on some seriously powerful drugs is making the UI decisions.
I understand that MS changes the UI so that people do not wonder why they are spending money on an update.
That's true for previous Windows OSes. Although I wouldn't say "changes" in this case. Change would be like making Windows look like KDE or some other different but still usable UI. For this case I would say, "royally fucked." And nobody actually buys Windows 10. They either got force upgraded during the force upgrade period or they bought a new computer and didn't know how to get a better OS.
What I don't understand is why people fall for that.
This makes it sound like you are trolling. Nobody "falls for" the Windows UI. That doesn't make any sense.
Sure Microstiff, stop supporting your crappy software, but why don't you put the source code in the public domain so we can fix it and make it work better. If you dont support it, and will not receive income from it, then put on freecycle!
User1: Windows 7 hangs when doing updates
MS: Reboot and try again
User1: Does nothing
MS: Run the troubleshooter
User1: Does nothing
User2: A Microsoft developer wrote a powershell script to fix this download it here :XYZ
MS: Yeah do that
In my experience, Microsoft tech support participation in forums just gets in the way and increases frustration. Typically it's an offshore person pasting in a script like "Please update your video drivers to the latest version". And then a user who actually read what the OP had written offers the real solution. So, really no loss.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I agree. My wife is almost completely tech-illiterate, and nearly melted down when I set her up a Linux box instead of installing Windows on her notebook. (Mint 17, for what it's worth). I set up Thunderbird and Firefox, imported a few bookmarks, created a few desktop icons. She's been happy as a clam ever since. Her last Windows experience was an unmitigated nightmare, in contrast.
Microsoft only cares about its (big) corporate customers now, and is only interested in lock-in. If you needed more evidence of this, now you have it.
I was wondering why I saw several pro-Microsoft stories here the last few days. It seems like those were put out to counter this bad story. What will I ever do without my Zune???
The only reason to run Windows is for device support. It doesn't really need to be how I use the Internet. It works well with Garmin GPS, camera, SD cards with DJI footage, bass guitar., etc. My long term support involves air gapping Windows 8.1 from my network.
My issue is Windows 10 is always beta. One day I looked at the updates status of a bunch of laptops in a store. Almost all of them had update 76 (it was Dec 2017) failing. But users don't even know it is failing to update. The intelligence in hiding that is like driving a car with burnt out warning light bulbs and saying you didn't really need them.
We should demand they forfeit all copyright/patent protection also! But we all know nobody really gives a shit, so that won't happen. Welcome to the Trump/Clinton universe...
MS forums are a rather comical example of the dangers of "playing to the metric". I suspect most would be better served if they were shut down in their entirety and all traces purged from search engines.
There are much better alternatives for crowd sourced support.
Because linux desktop standardization has started make Linux more windows-like in that regard. Previously if I knew the app name, a simple 'tar caf appname.tar ~/.appname' would handle all the configuration files and any savedir/user specific data files in a single place. Now it's split between .config, at least two places in .local, and I think possibly a third place as a result of the new 'lets separate everything into arbitrary directory types'. One of the side effects of this is a .local/share/appname dir that seems to contain a lot of local savefiles/datafiles, which may be instead of, or in addition to .local/appname . The whole situation has gotten truly fucked. But at least usually, you can assume that reinstalling / with a preexisting /home on a separate partition, will leave your user profiles in place for recovery when you reinstall, and for us advanced users, backing up /etc/passwd* /etc/group* will let us have all our existing users on the new install with a small amount of manual effort. Doing the same on Windows without Active Directory is well nigh impossible without an app that does it all for you, and heaven forbid if directories were changed between windows versions or service packs.
With the death of Windows 7, ReactOS becomes our only hope for a decent Windows platform.
I'll never use Windows 10. Ever. They can eat a bag of penises.
The last version of Windows I fully trusted was Win2K. When WinXP came along, it insisted on phoning home at least once after installing (which sucks if you want a secure machine NOT on the internet.
Every version since XP has had some version of spying on you and going behind your back to contact the mothership and transmit who-knows-what to the house Billy built. With each release this has become more intense and thus less trustworthy. I consider Win10 worse than Facebook. The main purpose of facebook, after all, is to be a repository of information about you that will be shared with the world - all the current anti-facebook rage is really just about how all that data was corellated and used. The main purpose of an operating system, on the other hand, is supposed to be the allocation of computing resources to applications, the abstraction of the platform to allow more portable application coding, and the pre-canning of commonly used functions so every program need not reinvent the wheel to do disk access or display an image etc. Spying on users and periodically phoning home to the vendor with the results is NOT a legitimate function of an operating system.
Microsoft seems hell-bent on making it so there IS no Microsoft product that is at least as trustworthy as a cocaine dealer or a pimp.
See my subject & you LOSE LIBELING me w/ LIES saying I molest kids? https://meta.slashdot.org/comm...
* I DO NO SUCH THING nor have I EVER motherfucker.
(You had BEST stay behind that FAKE NAME for your FAKE LIFE, fucker... 'cuz I'd END YOU for it!)
APK
P.S.=> Tell you what - Come say that to my FACE you scumbag FAKE NAME for your FAKE LIFE fuck - I will f'ing HOSPITALIZE you motherfucker - oh, that's right - YOU WOULDN'T LAST TIME I SAID THIS TO YOU, you dirty little fuck... apk