So, I go to sleep, leaving my LOST playlist on, fell asleep after a few episodes. I wake up and it’s had an Automatic Windows Update. I log in (I dunno how it saved my login password if everything is reset.. weird)..
Immediately I notice something is wrong, as the vista “Welcome Screen” and Sidebar popped up immediately, I then noticed my wallpaper was the one which came with the laptop (A HP One)..
I load Opera, which is still installled, and all my bookmarks and passwords are gone, so I go to my backup list, and every dir (like Pictures, Music, Documents etc) in my C:/Users/Mikey file is empty..
I’m really up shit creek without a paddle now, every program is acting as if I’ve only just installed it, including IRC and such. So, no bookmarks, no settings, and some things aren’t even installed anymore, such as Dropbox and Google Chrome..
So I tried to do a System Restore to yesterday, it just brings me back to the same point, factory reset. This is bollocks, it gives me a popup saying my user account isnt loaded and that I’m on a temporary one, so is my data safe then? No. I realised that programs are installed for ALL users, not just one, so Dropbox and Google Chrome SHOULD STILL BE INSTALLED. Well they’re not.
I think the only thing to do now is to install clean Windows 7 and re start EVERYTHING.
Fucking annoying.
Update: An update to this, I upgraded to Windows 7 (choosing the upgrade option in the setup) and presto, after like, 4 hours of upgrade process my files, settings and user profile are back, I’m glad it’s back, disappointed that it happened in the first place.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE restarting from scratch on a PC. It gives me a warm feeling inside to see that clogged up drive sparse and empty with real estate to throw around.
I envy you.
Well, I can see your point there, but seeing as I consistently have 700GB free space on one drive alone, I’m not that fussed for space. The laptops internal drive is only 80GB and ALWAYS has at LEAST 50Gb free. I have a 500GB which is pretty full, luckily my Externals (1TB and 500GB) didn’t get any data loss.
Oh, I never struggle for space. I have just under 3TB available to use across various machines, I just like my drives like empty. I guess I get off on potential…
Wish I had that much
This is another reason why you should never turn ON Auto-update “anything”.
Did you purchase the hardware and software? Yes. Do you own it? Obviously Microsoft feels that they do, because they came along, auto updated and wiped away what was important to you without giving it a moment’s thought. Pathetic and IMO unacceptable.
Mid way through Windows 2000, I noticed MS did this, even though I had set my setting to ONLY update when I wanted to update, they ignored my wishes and took over my PC anyway.
Having worked in computers since before MSDOS existed, I can attest that this is 100% unacceptable under any circumstances. The fact that so many pundits in the industry have bought into the auto-update BS is immaterial and short sighted on their part, but buy into they have.
If the company can not make an operating system that you can configure to be secure, and/or a browser that you can configure to be secure, then wake up and stop using it! Problem solved.
Am I the only one that has noticed that most of the exploits require “local” access to the PC? I don’t know about you, but I did not give the keys to my house to anyone yesterday, today, nor do I plan to give them the keys to my house tomorrow.
Yet they want me to auto-update because of this “local” access required exploit. Sorry, but my time is more valuable, obviously not to MS, but to me, thus MS can bugger off.
Standard Operating procedure use to be:
Get a copy of the software, new operating system, BIOS, micro-code, whatever and attempt to load it on a “sand boxed” (though we did not call it that at the time) PC where it could do no harm. If the software came up, which we expected it to do, we then preceded to test how it inter-operated with other business critical applications. If it did not, we did not roll that code out to other PCs. Problem solved.
Oh and before we rolled anything out on another person’s PC, we always performed a backup of at least their data first to be sure that if something went wrong, we could reinstall the operating system, software and than their data. Worst case scenario, they lost some time, but nothing that was important to them.
Based on your own blog post, MS took the “backup” option away from you…nice of them. You don’t own your PC.
This use to be, is and still considered a software defect. My suggestion to you and others, stop using defective software. If a company takes away your ability to use your hardware and software as you see fit, even once, no amount of marketing BS can change the fact that they screwed you.
Take advantage of me once, shame on you!
Take advantage of me twice, shame on me!
No way in “you know where”, will I allow you to take advantage of me a third time. Again problem solved.
Yet these companies do it, again and again and again. No one can take advantage of you unless you let them. Stop letting them.
Thankfully there are “superior” options in the open source and FOSS marketplace today, there is simply no excuse for this to ever happen. The question is what are you going to do about it?
They do it because they honestly believe they can get away with it? They think that most consumers are sheep or mushrooms, and will put up with it. Will you?
I certainly hope that you are neither, you seem smarter than that to me.
End of Line.
Nice comment, and yeah, it is unacceptable, I was extremely annoyed with Microsoft at the time, and if the update to Windows 7 hadn’t fixed it – I would’ve been on the phone ranting and raving – not much that would’ve solved but it would’ve made me feel better I guess.
I’ve since turned off automatic updates, even when they try to force one I kill the process.
Your blog is fine. I just want to comment on the design. Its too loud. Its doing way too much and it takes away from what youve got to say –which I think is really important. I dont know if you didnt think that your words could hold everyones attention, but you were wrong.