Posted on 08/15/2016 5:46:00 PM PDT by Fai Mao
Microsoft is doing everything it can make me an Apple customer - except that Apple, in my experience is just as bad with customer service and more expensive.
I turned on my main computer, not the old laptop I am typing on now, this morning and was greeted with a request for a user name and password for a Microsoft Live account. I didn't even know I had a Microsoft live account. Something in the updates must have activated it. So, I powered up the trusty Acer Aspire with Windows 7 laptop and tried to look up the unwanted Microsoft Live account so that I could reset the password. The message I received was: "Your account has been temporarily suspended due to suspicious activity." I beg your pardon? How can there be activity on an account I didn't know I had? There was no way that I could reactivate the account without having a text sent to a cell phone and using that text message to unlock the account. I am of the firm belief that message texting (rather than money) is the root of all evil and do not even own a cell phone so I can't get a text. I called a friend and used his cell phone number. I entered everything and the computer booted, then restarted, froze, restarted again and then crashed. The disk is unrecoverable.
Not being an idiot I do not keep important documents on the internal hard-drive so I won't lose anything important but what a pain! The end result of two hours of calling a friend and going through the rigamarole and virtual hoops that I had to electronically jump through was that Microsoft Live took a machine that was working well, and did everything I needed it to do, and caused it to need a new hard drive. Thanks Microsoft, a new hard drive is just what I wanted to buy today anyway!
Years ago I took several online courses and became a certified Red Hat Linux technician because the school where I worked was talking of switching the school's machines to Linux. The switch would have saved a not inconsiderable amount of money on OS and WP programs. They didn't switch but I had the certificate anyway. I've not moved my home server to Linux because of, well; (smirk) computer games. Since most of my games are now on Steam and Steam is compatible with a Linux system that wouldn't be a problem and, other than games there is almost nothing I can do on a Microsoft platform that I can't do just as easily on a Linux program for less money. I could also setup a dual boot system with a Windows XP or Windows7 for the few things that Linux won't do. It may be time for Unbutu in my home system.
There are days I miss my Commodore-64
I’ve installed/upgraded 10 machines now. You can skip the MS account...bottom left of screen...
Linux Redhat. Never look back. Comes with a C compiler. All you need.
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
> Not sure if you were using Windows 10 but they require a “Microsoft live account”
They want you to think you do, but you can skip the MS account and use whatever you used before. It should be under user accounts at the control pannel level.
I have an ASUS external USB Blu-Ray recorder I didn’t think would work with Linux. Brasero and K3b failed me. After a brief search I found xfburn. Works great and it was in the software manager. You wouldn’t know it could do that from the summary.
I burn my movies as “data” in the mp4 format to use in my Sony Blu-Ray player for my television, so I can’t tell you if it does the conversion to DVD MP2 format.
Thanks!
I miss that show.
No, you could set yourself up as a local user - I've never had a Hotmail / Outlook account, so I couldn't have played their game even if I had wanted to (which I didn't). Of course, you have to look for third party software since they won't let you download what they now call 'apps' without an account.
Still quite happy that I never let the Windows 10 virus infect this computer. I do play with it some on an old laptop.
Windows 10 ate my email accounts and won’t allow me to
re connect with them.
I clicked on do not update and zap it was changed.
I can’t say I’m happy.
I play Civilization 3. I find there is too much animation for Civ 4 and 5 and 6 for me to enjoy.
Uh, your link is 7 years old ...
Darn it I never knew that, all this time I have been using my hotmail account..will skip the next time
And my Mercedes is still running!
I don't know what you've been doing to your Mac's hard drives but I've been managing Mac networks with upwards of 20 and 30 Macs for a couple of decades. During that time I have seen one (1) hard drive failure on a Mac. I simply do not believe your claim. Apple Macs have to be beaten to death with a Mack truck. The drives Apple uses are selected from the 95% percentile quality of the manufacturers' output. . . only those are selected by the manufacturers; to get an Apple logo and be sold to Apple.
We just retired a bunch of iMacs purchased in 2008 due to upgrades. One of those was the one that had the hard drive fail abut five years in service. Except for one, the rest are still working fine and they are being sold for $400 each at eight years old. The exception has a dim back light and we are selling it for parts for $150, even though it still works as a computer.
Check out the Apple refurb store on Apple.com. You'll find it on the bottom of the page on the second column. You'll save money and still get the factory new warranty. Many of those are actually brand new but returned to stock from cancelled orders from set asides for large companies who order excess but don't need as many as they initially indicated their requirements were. All you miss out on is the retail Apple un-boxing experience.
If you watch the drive activity light on a Windows PC, it flashes all the time. Install Wireshark to see the network activity and you’ll see how “chatty” Windows can be. I have no idea what those servers are that it talks to constantly.
I put wireshark on Linux Mint and I don’t see all that.
Anyhow, this constant activity probably means constant wear on the hard drive of a Windows PC, especially if indexing is enabled.
“Dumb question - why would you look for an account you didn’t know you had - or even remember you signed up for?”
Because as of this morning I to log into that account before I could access the computer. It required me to log in before accessing anything
Thanks!!!!!
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