Microsoft ruins my computer

March 29, 2023

Microsoft ruins my computer

I had performed one clean install of Windows since 2018. Since then I didn’t have any particular problems until last week when my laptop started acting up…

I figured some driver is corrupted. A format is past due for that champ anyways. Let’s start over. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Too much lemon though.

I procceded with the recommended ways to make a windows install drive. Took my backups and everything. The works. I installed, removed the drive and grabbed an aspirin in case of headaces with multiple input methods.

However I couldn’t get far. Apparently a Microsoft account is required these days. At this point my guard was down. I was still at the office at 20:00, tired and figured what the heck I will sign in.

“That username looks like it belongs to another organization. Try signing in again or start over with a different account”
The Windows install wizard (remember wizards?)

I couldn’t figure out what this means. For the love of me, it didn’t compute. So I turned to official support.

After some registry dives I figured that my device which I bought brand new directly from Lenovo 5 years ago is setup for the domain soulfresh.com.au. I blame some IT guy in Australia mistyping a serial number in their company deploy configuration or something. Don’t care about the particulars. I am angry that I cannot get out of it.

That means my work account cannot be setup. Same for a local account. So my expensive computer is essentially useless.

Having the device essentially bricked I decided to install Linux to work the next day. After years off Linux for Desktop the experience for a working professional who is not a programmer or an academic was a constant fight. If this is the price of freedom it is too expensive.

Next day after having called Lenovo and gotten nowhere I decided to find out how to avoid the Microsoft account completely which was the initial intention. I found out about Rufus and the ability to do what I want and all went smoothly.

At this point I am furious and realized why everyone hates Microsoft as a necessary evil company. However I am glad it is over and I have some thoughts.

Windows can do everything in computerland and the alternatives are not reasonable. The accounting software is on Windows. The CAD software is on Windows. Excel is on Windows. You can have Linux on Windows nowadays. What other OS can do all that?

Apparently we are not paying for Windows enough. Microsoft is putting ads everywhere while at the same time keeping tabs on us through a Microsoft Account.

Putting insult to injury the performance is not going up or even stay constant. They just released a video where they are bragging for their chat app starting up in 10 seconds and for less placeholders when scrolling through messages.

I hope the Windows team finds their step towards a leaner, faster, simpler product.

Until then I will just act annoyed until someone at Microsoft notices. You can send them this article.

Opinion

Fix, Opinion, Windows

Posted by:

Tasos Sangiotis

I recon you know that already from the name of the page. I build robots and I’m always right. If you choose to wander this wasteland do so with caution. Consider this your final warning.

2 responses to “Microsoft ruins my computer”

Anon

March 30, 2023 at 12:57 pm

Good article pointing out some of the major privacy issues with Microsoft’s operating system !

I however disagree with your statement around “Windows can do everything in computerland and the alternatives are not reasonable.”

Linux Desktop works remarkably well and even a lot better than windows in many aspects as long as you don’t install some crappy Ubuntu distribution.

And if you say “Windows has Linux” which is nothing more than a glorified Cygwin – then we can say Linux has Windows with Wine.

So yes if the price of freedom is to learn some bash and read a couple of “man” pages and this is too much then maybe you just don’t want to be free.

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1. Tasos Sangiotis
  
  March 30, 2023 at 3:52 pm
  
  Hello and thank you for your comment.
  
  Windows can do everything in computerland and the alternatives are not reasonable for someone **with my specific requirements** I should have said but wanted to be dramatic.
  
  Notice that my problem is not drivers or configuration. I use a seasoned ThinkPad model that has good Linux support and I am a very seasoned and experienced Linux user.
  
  However I work in an engineering firm where I need to produce, edit and print blueprints.
  In my quick day with it, Linux couldn’t print on the Plotter printer and was not able to find a CAD option with the features needed for such work. I installed a VM just to install my CAD, Plotter printer/scanner drivers and our accounting software which is only on windows.
  Also just thinking the day I will have to reprogram a PLC CPU I started sweating as the programming environments are only on Windows.
  
  Like it or not, Windows is a cornerstone in the engineering and industrial space. Recently I found a Windows XP box monitoring a building generator for 15 years. Resilient beasts.
  
  As for WSL on Windows it is great for my kind of workflow.
  I manage a couple of Django apps. Both locally and on Docker they run fine and since WSL2 came along I have faced zero problems. Maybe it doesn’t work for other cases that I am unaware of but in my case it works great.
  
  Concluding, the price of freedom is not bash scripts or reading man pages. It is a timetrap where hours of work which would be toward billable projects, are exchanged with half measures. Be it research and tryouts of different programs or slower performance through a VM. Sometime no measures at all. You just have to “deal with it” or “do something about it”.
  
  I love Linux and I use it everyday on servers and embedded industrial applications but for my situation the best tool would be a more reasonable, simple and performant windows system.
  
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About Me

My name is Tasos Sangiotis and I work at Arpedon, an engineering company. This website is a collection of posts, essays and photos. They are mainly about travel, food and technical stuff. Occasionally I shoot photos. They are mostly on Instagram. If you choose to wander this wasteland do so with caution. Consider this your final warning. To contact me use [email protected].

Tasos Sangiotis