Windows is Wonderful, Part 9487

My brother fights with his computer:

PC processes debug

Hi, I had thought that I was lacking when it came to figuring out why my PCs would run slow.

The following link shows that it is not a easy task to find the process that is slowing down the PC.

Now I don't feel so bad. It only took this Microsoft expert a couple weeks, in cooperation with other companies, to debug and then he is not really sure it is fixed.

So how do I prepare my kids for a world of hype & false expectations and the beating it gives the ego, other than to say 99% of what you hear, perceive and think is bullshit.

Meaning... I had thought with all the tech info available, I should figure this stuff out, after all it is only so many 0's and 1's. Yet I never made much headway.

http://blogs.technet.com/markrussinovich/archive/2008/04/07/3031251.aspx

For example: I had trouble with my internet configuration, it was intermittent, then fail, then I would [futz] with the PC internet comm. settings and it would work....then fail after weeks. No rhyme [or] reason. The ISP Mediacom, swapped out my modem for a modem to support the VOIP. Haven't had a problem since. So it wasn't the PC, it was the modem. Maybe.

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Red Demon - Of self torture
Donna Willard-Moore

I wouldn't bother with the link. My eyes glazed over after the first couple of paragraphs. Why people torture themselves with this stuff is beyond me. Well, it is beyond me now. I did put in my time trying to make Windows systems work, time I will never get back. But at least I stopped. Now I won't spend more than an hour a month on it.

This is why I hate Windows. It's better now, in some ways, but in the beginning it was a real piece of junk. It was never a "real" operating system. It was a program some kid cobbled together that put some flashy stuff on the screen and everyone thought it was cool. It was a lot like the wizard of Oz, a lot of smoke and mirrors, but no real substance, and no, we are not going to show you what is behind the curtain.

A real OS maintains control of the computer. Applications run only when they are allowed to run, none of this hog the CPU behavior is allowed. Windows never had any control of the computer. Whatever program was running had control. Poorly written programs behaved
poorly, they did not share like they were supposed to.

Windows has gotten better, I think there is some task control going on now. With XP, Ctl-Alt-Del will bring up the task manager and if there is an obvious CPU hog, you can usually kill it. Some web sites will cause my browser to lock up the whole system. Of course, there are still times when you cannot get control back, even with the task manager. That is why the power cord from my computer is plugged into a power strip with a switch. If you can't bring up the task manager, it's a fair bet the front panel power switch won't work either. If it won't behave, I can, will, and have shut off the power. It might take a little longer to boot next time, but I have yet to out and out kill a system doing this.

Unix/Linux/Mac is better this way because it starts with a real OS, a real task manager, and programs only get to run when the OS says so. I bought my son a Mac when he went to college a year and a half ago and I haven't had to touch it once. And he is tech-abhorrent.

Update December 2016 replaced missing pictures.