From the whiteboard to the keyboard
Archive for the ‘Rant’ Category.
I installed Windows XP Professional with SP 2 today and was amazed to see this when I ran Windows Update:
96 updates!
It literally took longer to install all the Windows XP updates than it did to install Visual Studio 2005 Team Developer Edition. Amazing!
Maybe it’s time for SP 3?
One of the first things I do after installing Vista is turn off UAC (ooh, I can already feel the criticism). I just can abide having to authorize every single action I take on the computer. It’s one thing to ask me to confirm a change to IIS or a service running on my machine, but don’t make me authorize the deletion of files on the operating system! If I clicked delete and confirmed the deletion, just delete it!
Previously, if you wanted to add a network printer that ran on Windows XP or 2003, you had to have UAC turned on. This means that I would have to turn on UAC, reboot my machine, add the printer, turn off UAC, and then reboot my machine again. Just to add a printer. Brilliant!
Fortunately Microsoft just released two updates:
The first of the two specifically addresses the following “issue”:
If User Account Control is disabled on the computer, you cannot install a network printer successfully. This problem occurs if the network printer is hosted by a Windows XP-based or a Windows Server 2003-based computer.
Finally!
To test this, I installed both updates (rebooting after each on), and then attempted to add a network printer. Previously, clicking the Install driver button caused failed if UAC was turned off.
After installing the updates, however, it works exactly as one would expect it to work.
It only took six or seven months, but it seems this annoying “issue” was finally resolved. Thank goodness!
As those of you who subscribe to this blog’s feed have noticed, a place holder record was written into my RSS feed. Having just reinstalled my operating system (I have switched back to Vista Business once again), I was configuring my Windows Live Writer for this blog. If you click View –> Update Weblog Style you will be asked the following:
Just say No!
If you click Yes it will post the following placeholder on your blog. And, while it is able to delete it successfully (meaning it won’t show up when you browse your blog), you will have problems getting it out of your RSS feed.
This is a temporary post that was not deleted. Please delete this manually. (79142faa-4883-4d2a-bb80-daabb3ef865c)
Pretty annoying. I’m still trying to figure out how to get rid of it. It no longer exists in my blogs contents, yet I can’t seem to get it out of my feed (which is managed by Feedburner).
I’ll post an update if I figure it out.
Just be warned!!
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