BoatBanter.com - Windows XP end of support

On Tue, 11 Feb 2014 20:31:27 -0500, wrote:

On Tue, 11 Feb 2014 17:22:24 -0500, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

On 2/11/14, 4:45 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 11 Feb 2014 11:53:09 -0800, Bill McKee
wrote:

On 2/11/14, 7:54 AM, wrote:
On Tue, 11 Feb 2014 06:55:56 -0500, "F.O.A.D." wrote:

But, of course, Windows XP is sooooo much mo'betta, and so is the highly
touted Microsoft support, so long as you want to deal with guys whose
first and second languages ain't English and whose ultimate answer
usually is, "Well, just reload windows."

That is what you get with the OEM support. Microsoft can give you the
right answer if you have a retail key. The only time I ever talked to
them, they sounded "merican" to me. When I went to Dell (the OEM), I
got "Bob from Bombay" who said I had to reload the system.

The only reason I called in the first place was that was what the only
message I had said to do (registration problems)
I ended up figuring it out myself, like I have done for the rest of
the 30 years I have been running Wintel products..

I used to talk to MS about problems at times. Both ours and theirs, but
the equipment I designed and the test systems, were run on PC's so I was
listed as a developer and got direct connection to engineers and not Bob
of Bombay. Was not bad service. But we also paid money for the privilege.

When I was still working, the best source of information was the old
VM Forums.
I never had a reason to talk to Microsoft about anything.

How wonderful, eh? So therefore you are an expert on Microsoft tech
support! I get it.

If you keep making things up you can always be right.
I clearly stated a couple of times, I only talked to MS support once
and they bl;ew me off because my father in law didn't have a retail
number ... but he did say he had the magic code I could type in to get
past my registration problem if I paid him. It was Dell (the OEM) that
said "reload the system"

I managed to get it going myself without any of that.

I would not have even called them but my FIL wanted me to.

I do understand that doing a "slip" install is the easiest way to fix
corrupted system files tho and if that is what MS told you to do, that
is probably what you had.
That install process only refreshes the files and leaves your
configuration alone.
I just did one a couple days ago because it triggers a complete update
from SP3 (the version I used) and I wanted all of those files in one
place from a clean load.
I would still like to see SP4.

I remember that ****! I called one of the support folks, don't remember where, and it was $25 and he
would stay until the problem is fixed. I figured by the time they said that they already knew the
answer and figured they'd get the money for 15 seconds of work.

Never paid it. Figured I'd spend all day on the problem rather than pay someone $25 to fix it over
the phone.