Microsoft Sucks

This week more than anytime that I can remember, I've joined the bandwagon of people attesting to the demonic nature of this software behometh. One of my responsibilities is to design cds that mirror our binder products. They are basically a compromise between a print binder and an annual database subscription.

So what happens when you get up against a deadline and finally have all the pieces to the puzzle in place? Microsoft's changes to Internet Explorer's security settings blocking active content from not only the cd, but the local hard drive rears its nasty mocking head. I found some websites that spoke of the futility of Internet explorer with dealing with basically a local version of a website on a cd or hard drive. Using a cd isn't too bad, you just choose the option to allow active content to be loaded and your good to go. This I've known of for awhile, as Windows XP Service Pack 2 basically forced cd developers to completely change the way they designed cds, a lot of irrate customers and developers ensued.

So I read all of these sites that told me what code I had to put into these pages to stop those nasty little active x content is trying to be loaded...)*_*(++*+...could be harmful to your machine*_(_*()_* messages from coming up. Guess what? It didn't work. So I basically wasted my day trying to get this to work and it didn't. Microsoft says you can tell the user to alter their security zone, can't see that making anyone happy. The funny thing is you have no problem with Firefox or Netscape. However, we've advertised that the cds work with any browser, pounds head.

I also was sent an email disclosing how Microsoft is basically refusing to deal with updating non-Windows 2003/Vista machines to the revised Daylight Savings Time. So as an administrator I'm responsible for fixing this issue for all of the machines on our Network (that run Windows 2000 Professional). I can't believe that they won't fix the issue using Windows Update. It's completely idiotic. 80% of the PC market has Windows XP installed. In a non-networked environment it's not bad for machines not to properly read the time. However, this has a significant impact on Microsoft Outlook clients and Microsoft Exchange Servers. So we have a month to get a script to fix this problem. I guess I should feel grateful that we were sent an email.

Thanks Axis of Evil for all the aggravation that your causing--when you could actually come up with a patch to fix both problems.

It's kind of ironic that I'm stewing and typing this post using IE 7, but what the hell--I'm shackled to Microsoft like millions of Americans. I'm just voicing my opinion on how much you suck today--knowing how much I'm dependent on your software/browsers/operating systems. Just throw us some crumbs damn it!