Infuriating misbegotten Microsoft blues

[rustythread]

A couple of weeks ago, I got around to replacing my 10-plus year-old, no-upgrades-beyond-Win-10 Dell laptop with a new Dell with Windows 11. Bought online direct from Dell, with Microsoft Office and Dell Migrate programs loaded. Used PayPal, not a credit card.
Early in the set-up process, up jumps Microsoft and says I have to prove to them that I am me, before I can be trusted to set up or operate this computer. While the big M admits recognizing my cell phone number as belonging to some guy with my name, that is not sufficient proof that I am he, much less me. I have jumped through hoops, stuck out my tongue with my eyes crossed, and stood on my head in the corner as directed; I have untangled skeins of misshapen letters--all to no avail.
Since my vision at best is around 5% and I am currently down to around 1% most of the time, (depending on state of the meds) I spent a lot of the screen time just trying to find the damned tiny cursor with a hand-held magnifying glass.
I' up for more eye surgery Monday, and a while flat on my back thereafter If I can see after that, I intend to spend some serious time with the Dell service people discussing their apparently perverted relationship with Microsoft.

End of rant for now.

End of rant








































update

3 eye surgeries (first 2 didn't work) and a cornea transplant later; may be another year before I can read. Typing this using hipower magnifier. sucks

 

[Rustyt1953]

Prayers for successful eye surgery as I know you have been battling this for quite some time.

 

[rwsmith]

I am happily computing........

....but I have nightmares about getting locked out of my own computer.

 

[Mike0251]

What Windows 11 software came with it? Home edition has "S" mode. Which means you can only download and install software from the Microsoft store, hence all the ******* they want. Do a search on "S" mode on how to get out of the Microsoft trap. Good luck.

 

[twodog max]

Dell and Windows two peas in a pod. Bureaucratic BS artists

 

[pharmer]

When I bought this new box I had my stepson carefully set it up as a clone of my 11 y/o Windows 7 unit. All was well until a couple months later when it "updated" and automatically set it back to "factory default settings." I had to add as much back as I could but 2/3 of "saved favorites" were gone as well as 5 gigs of "pc saved pix" moved to the now full "One Drive." Evil it is. Joe

 

[johngalt]

It's sometimes hard to tell who is the best or worst. I've been a die hard Mac guy, but now their ecosystem has been turned into locked down appliances. Microsoft treats the customers like thieves. Linux is getting better but still has a way to go before it 'just works'.

Then all those cloud services. I have never trusted them so never used them. Mom has been a heavy user of iCloud photos. I just saw an announcement that Apple is shutting down the photo streaming service. So now I have to figure out what the impact will be to her.

When multi terabyte hard drives are cheap, it escapes me why anyone bothers with cloud services.

 

[BigBoy99]

Filling a thumb drive with all of the data on your computer and taking it to a local mall and giving it to some random person is EXACTLY the same as using the "Cloud" to store data!

 

[WR Moore]

Microsoft keeps sneaking in stuff in their software updates. I'd refused to do Word 365, preferring to actually buy and install an earlier version. Went through all the hoops to do that (Microsoft quit putting the "key" needed to activate the programs in the packages, keeping it themselves and then only after clearing an ID check as bad as for a security clearance, download it to your computer-if you get a good tech) during the installation.

So, after a later software update, the Office suite refused to recognize my downloaded program, trying to open it brought up the 365 program and insisted I needed to pay up to be able to use it.

Called Dell support. Software problem, call Microsoft. Spent hours on the phone with various techs with no solution. They kicked it up to level 3 support. Who couldn't be contacted. At this point Microsoft was switching to online support where the computer guides YOU through what it thinks will solve your problem.

Ended up calling a friend of one of my kids who's a network administrator. Took him my computer and he fixed it in about 20 minutes. AND showed me how to solve the problem should it happen again. Cost me a bottle of booze.

Apparently, Microsoft only cares about corporate clients and making sure all of us digital slaves have to support them in perpetuity. They slip stuff like I experienced in periodically. The question is if it's intentional or that they don't vet their code properly before releasing it. What I've learned over time is to wait for a version or two of any Microsoft product before jumping on the bandwagon. By that time most bugs will have been resolved.