fun with microsoft.

R

rvb

Well-known member
i sent the following email to those wonderful folks at ms:

i've had a bit of difficulty downloading the trial version of windows 2003.

ok. i got this far. i successfully downladed x11-11635.iso. it weighs in at 692,602 kb.

right so far?

WHAT THE FUCK CAN I DO WITH IT???

(cls)(cls) ok. i'm back now.

i have no option to run it cause it isn't an exe file. stop me if i'm too technical and i'll back up a bit. the dialog box suggests that i open it. BRILLIANT i say to myself and click "open" and (i bet you guys already know this) it says, "Windows cannot open this file:

File x11-11635.iso

To open this file Windows needs to know what program created it. Windows can go on line to look it up automatically, or you can manually select from the programs on your computer. What do you want to do?

STOP!! i hear chortling! NO chortling.

(cls)(cls) ok. i'm back now.

i see that you have defaulted to "use the web service". thinking this a decidedly new approach, i say, "OK"

you funny guys suggest:

Gilles Vollant Software WinImage

GoldenHawk CDROM Recording Software

IsoBuster

Padus DiscJuggler

my confidence wanes.

"One choice left", i somewhat less enthusiastically say to my self.

you reccomend internet explorer with suggestions that i might also want to try mo excel, mo picture manager, mo word, notepad, paint, quicktime player, real player, shortcut, winamp, windows media player, windows picture and fax viewer, windvd creator and word pad.

i have one qustion.

where do you live?

 
i got a reply much faster than i thought...

A message (from ) was received at 9 Sep 2006 23:27:18 +0000.

The following addresses had delivery problems:


Permanent Failure: 550_5.1.1_User_unknown
Delivery last attempted at Sat, 9 Sep 2006 23:28:01 -0000

 
And an update on how Microsofty can be mean to a ten-year-old, for anyone interested.

After much tribulation and being without his beloved XBox for months, Microsoft told us the letter they included with the unit the last time it was returned to us that accused us of TAMPERING was....... are you ready for this?..............

A TERRIBLE MISTAKE!!!!!!!

It never should have been put in there, and "have we tried to hook up the unit?"

"OF COURSE NOT YOU NUMB-NUGGETS! WE WERE TOLD IN YOUR STUPID LETTER THAT YOU DIDN'T FIX IT BECAUSE IT HAD BEEN TAMPERED WITH!!!! WHY WOULD WE HOOK IT UP???!!!???"

We plugged the darn thing in, and it works fine. They had repaired it the second time we sent it to them, and sent the "TAMPERING" letter by mistake.

It's been sitting here for weeks now, FIXED, and we didn't know it. Not to mention getting into a shouting match, if you remember, with an un-helpful "supervisor".

Sheesh.

Michael

 
That is insane!!!!!!!!!and some other stuff too #%^*(@#+"*^!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 
Little Help From Barbara's DH:

Hi Rick:

Barbara asked me to take a look at your dilemma, becasue she thought I might be able to help (and because she's seen me rant occasionally about our good friends in Redmond -- which answers the where they live question).

I Googled the file name and found out just enough to understand that you appear to be attempting to download the Vista Beta OS. So I took a look at the Vista Beta site and came up with the following snippet from the MS instructions:

DVD burning instructions

After completing the download, you will need to burn the ISO file to a DVD. This means you’ll need a DVD burner with appropriate software. If you are unsure if your DVD burning software will support burning an ISO file, please refer to your DVD burning software program and search “Help” for instructions on creating a disc from an ISO file. If you are still unsure about burning your own DVD, ordering the Windows Vista RC1 DVD kit might be a better option for you.

Here’s a summary of how to download, burn, and install Windows Vista RC1:

1. Download the ISO image file from the location indicated in the e-mail message you receive after registering, and save the file to your hard disk. (If the download prematurely terminates you can resume the download process from where you left off using the download manager.)
2. Using a DVD burner and software, burn the ISO image of Windows Vista RC1 to a new blank DVD. We recommend burning at the lowest speed supported by your DVD burner (1X or 2X) to ensure the highest quality. Most DVD burning software will recognize an ISO file. If your software does not automatically recognize this format, refer to the software’s “Help” section for instructions.
3. Insert the DVD on which you burned the software into the DVD drive of the computer on which you want to install Windows Vista RC1.
4. The installation process should start automatically. If it does not, run Setup from the DVD to begin installation and follow the step-by-step instructions that appear on the screen.

I've put the link for the page in in case you want to have a more complete look. Or you can just paste it into your browser: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx

I've not personally worked much with ISO files, but it appears that they are DVD images, and allow for the creation of bootable DVDs. That's why Windows doesn't do anything with them -- this one in particular isn't designed to be run from within Windows. I could probably find you some better info with more time, but here's a little something to get you started:

http://www.ezbsystems.com/ultraiso/

Meanwhile, you may want to coinsider whether installing the beta is something you really, really want to do unless you have time for more issues (it is a beta after all) and unless you have a pretty hot machine (it has fairly demanding minimum resource requirements, and the word is you need a good bit more to really make it work).

Did Barbara tell you that I'll be rebuilding a Windows XP intallation today? Yep, I moved a hard disk without bowing sufficiently to the Windows uninstall Gods and while windows does "plug and play," when you pull things OUT and try to reinstall . . . well, we refer to that as "unplug and pray." And as you might imagine such prayers, I find, are not often answered. I blew it, and I know what I did wrong, but it would be really really nice if you could move hardware without having to do all of this stuff. Ah, well, life in the big city.

Can't help you with your OTHER headache, but we're all thinking about you and hoping for good news soon.

Regards,
Mike (Barb's DH)

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/preview.mspx

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top