Vista Download Disaster: Microsoft Customer Service – Columns by PC Magazine — This excellent column by Ulanoff outlines a ludicrous situation. A classic horror story.
You know what comes next. Jim took a recent backup image of his Averatec hard drive and reverted to Windows XP.
Where did Jim go wrong? Apparently, it was when he took a risk on the downloadable version of Windows Vista.
Microsoft has made a number of small missteps here, but the biggie is that it won’t send out a Windows DVD to download customers. If the only way to “repair” Vista is to use that DVD, Microsoft must send them one. To say no is inexcusable.
This is bad. However: the user really should have made a back-up DVD of the Vista installation — basically creating an install DVD — before they ran the upgrade. The ability to burn downloaded software to CD/DVD is built-in to the applet used to handle the actual download.
Full disclaimer: I was dev lead on the download applet. I absolutely agree that the user’s path to having a hard copy of their downloaded software should be made much more clear to users.
The latest Mac TV ad pokes at Vista in their usual style.
How much do those download versions cost? Newegg is selling the “Home Premium” version of Vista for only $125 shipped.
Update: I went to Circuit City‘s website and I cannot find Vista available for download. Can anyone else find it?
John Dvorak has commented before on the internal struggles within Microsoft. I think this is another classic of mismanagement because the company is too large.
Personally, I think that if a company can’t do a turn-around of a flagship product within one calendar year, there’s a major internal problem.
I live it myself, when one person has too many projects to handle simultaneously, and delegating adds time to IT projects.
Smaller baby steps is the way to go. IMHO they changed too many things, too many times, with Vista, so it’s a mess.
Let me get this straight. He intentionally did a “clean install” but was upset that “all the settings, all the apps, and his trusty hardware—had been pushed out of reach.”
The guy sounds like a fu#king moron. What else did he expect from a clean install?!
I bought an HP/Compaq a few months back. Good price, limited duty. An older app trashed one of XP’s files and it demanded a CD. Problem was that the machine doesn’t ship with a CD, and the dialog box lacked the “Browse” button that can be used to select another location than the default. Ended up having to do a clean install again, and re-load the stuff I’d already installed. Ain’t going to do that again….
There was an option to create a couple of backup DVD’s. Hadn’t done it yet.
HP told me to either stuff it or return the machine. I should have….
Regards,
Stu.
The Microsoft credo….
“It looks good, but don’t try and use it”
Pass the popcorn.
Wow, Microsoft is just kicking themselves while they’re down. (Maybe they want more bloggers wondering if they’re doomed.
If this is how MS treats their customers, how do they treat the pirates?
– Allie
Comment #1 — thanks Dan. Good info.
Stu- “There was an option to create a couple of backup DVD’s. Hadn’t done it yet.”
Sounds like a personal problem to me. HP Compaq computers (while I am not a big fan) warn you repeatedly until you manually turn it off, when you start the program for the first time to make the recovery disk. Why is that so hard? If you are too lazy to do it, then pony up and pay the $15.00 (yes, its only $15.00) for the set.
Jerk-Face- you nailed it. Heres a quote from the article. “This time McCabe did a clean install, which meant that all of his software and hardware would be shoved into a Windows Old folder (a resting place for things you’d likely never see or use again).”
WTF does that mean? Who wrote this column. A clean install is just that. It wipes the slate CLEAN. Hardware shoved into a folder, wha? Lance Ulanoff has been with PC Mag a long time. I dont get this.
Wow, the author of this article not only reads dvorak.org, but he also plagiarized my comments here. Some of the things he says in the article are stole directly from my posts on the day Vista was released. Sheesh, just credit me when you steal my stuff, its not like I want to be paid for it or anything.
#11 – Mark
You got it. I’m regarded in tech support as a guy willing to cheerfully go that extra mile and then some to help a user in trouble – but I won’t carry the can for lazy fools whose asses are in a sling from being too goddamn clever to read and follow a few simple, emphasized, 8th-grade-level directions…
14. Thanks, and I apologize for saying you were partial to goats, (yeah that was me) I was just tweaking a newbie.
All more the reason to switch to another operating system..
:P:P
#11 – HP Compaq computers (while I am not a big fan) warn you repeatedly until you manually turn it off, when you start the program for the first time to make the recovery disk. Why is that so hard? If you are too lazy to do it, then pony up and pay the $15.00 (yes, its only $15.00) for the set.
That’s $15 MORE than it should cost. Recovery DVDs contain a CLEAN OS should be mandatory in the BOM on each unit shipped.
#17,
The third party install disks filled with crapletts were made possible (and required) after many years of AOL, Apple, Netscape and Symantic repeatedly suing Microsoft for the right to do so. Its a little late to complain about it now. The Microsoft FUD’O’sphere was cheering em on at the time.
#18 – I didn’t just start complaining about it yesterday, you know…
Vendors might hear less carping about switching to downloadable installation files if U.S. broadband were brought up to Asian and European broadband standards. With all the dark fiber in the U.S. there’s really no excuse other than that the protected monopolies (free enterprise my ass) don’t need to, so they won’t. It takes genuine competitioin or government intervention to push the penny-pinchers forward. Meanwhile, if someone spends the many hours needed to DL a copy of Vista and then runs into trouble, whether through ignorance, unsupported hardware, software incompatibility or broken porn collections, they’re going to get mad and complain to Microsoft.
Considering what Microsoft customers shell out for its operating systems, there’s no excuse for not automatically shipping backup install disks as soon as a paying customer starts a download.
I keep seeing in the blogs that Vista is a crash and burn, like ME or that, what was it called, Bob’s Yer Uncle edition. I’m sticking with XP until I’ve learned Linux and switched (once I get some unsupported hardware issues). Microsoft, which treats its customers the same way the RIAA treats its most enthusiastic music listeners, can go to hell with the RIAA. It’s their train wreck, they can have it.
17. I agree. Of course its a cost saving measure due to fierce competition (and the fact that PC users are extremely tight fisted buggars). The customer should insist on it. Comapnies such as Dell still give you the recovery disks.
#20,
The blogs have gotten more wrong about Vista than they have gotten right. That’s why I have been calling it the FUD’O’sphere.
For example, just today, the Vista key-gen hack was proven to be just a Vista FUD hoax. Worst yet, all the bloggers immediately jumped on it as though it somehow proved their thesis.
After the Gutman article was disproved, and now the Key-gen article, it appears tech bloggers credibility on Vista is precisely zero.
But I see the retractions are not forthcoming.
*takes a deep breath*
Doooooooooooommmmmmeeedd……
#22
“After the Gutman article was disproved …”
Can you supply a reference to that, please?
[By the way, yet again I receive “Sorry, you can only post a new comment once every 15 seconds. Slow down cowboy.” When will this be fixed?]
Download it? I wouldn’t even buy it! This is just turd polish…