Hmm, dosbox section of Vogons? 😉

The ones I hate are the ones who open up a thread asking about a problem and then make three more posts to it inside of 5 minutes wondering why nobody is helping them, or the ones who think using caps lock and lots of exclamation points is more likely to get them the help they are looking for.

OMFG!!1!! WHY ISN'T ANYBODY HELPING MEEEEEE!!!!!1!

Even worse is tech forums with problems like this:

Q: Help I can't change the volume

A: Run Registry Fixer 2012 Pro and Anti-Malware Plus 1000 you might have a virus! Post full Hijackthis log

To me the worst is this:
A: I have this and that problem with such and so. Help?
B: Try this and that. Did it work?
A: No, any other ideas?
-then a long time between posts-
A: Nevermind, already found a solution

...but he doesn't actually post the solution! And now I am left with the Aaaaaarrrgghhh!!! 🙁

That's why I only post my problem in question if I absolutely can't find the answer using google.

http://lmgtfy.com/

The only forums I've found to give useful info when I look for Windows problems are Microsoft's ones. They aren't perfect, but they have the correct info most of the time.

The sad fact is that the majority of the forums are useless from a tech support perspective. They are great for chatting and leisure, but not for finding help when you're in a hurry.

Apart from the official forums from IT companies, the only other forums that are worth their dime are those that have active developers in it (like this one, for example).

PS: Sometimes the info you want is REALLY REALLY hard to find, even when looking at all the right places.

For example, the other day I was searching for the difference between BOOTMGR.EFI and BOOTMGFW.EFI files in Windows 7.

After almost a week of thorough searching I STILL DON'T KNOW what the damn differences are!!

It seems that BOOTMGR.EFI is almost useless, and BOOTMGFW.EFI is the only one that is needed, but, why?? Why is a useless file distributed with windows???

Nah the worst kind of forum posts are those that go about how annoying tech support forums for changing light bulbs are and one replies "I agree! But I wonder what is the second tray in my fridge for? I googled everywhere couldn't find an answer. I think it is useless but why is it shipped with that?" 😉
No offense meant, just found the above post funny because of that 😉

Actually Tetriums beef is a worthy beef, I second that

xDD Hahaha, actually, I didn't expect any answer at all! (in part because probably nobody besides Microsoft knows the answer, but also because it's really intended to be a rhetoric question).

I've always thought that all those millions of unanswered questions hanging on the forums do still serve a useful purpose: to vent the frustration of the people who ask them! 😀

Leolo wrote:

xDD Hahaha, actually, I didn't expect any answer at all! (in part because probably nobody besides Microsoft knows the answer, but also because it's really intended to be a rhetoric question).

I've always thought that all those millions of unanswered questions hanging on the forums do still serve a useful purpose: to vent the frustration of the people who ask them! 😀

He he, yes those are mostly for venting frustrations 😉

Another of those that I don't like to see is :

Q. How can I do this "xyz" thing with "abc" for "efg"?

A. Why the heck do you want to do that? You can simply do this and that (all the preferences of the replier here).. For that matter, I just don't know why the heck people do the xyz with abc in the first place.

Then the person who posted the question goes to great length to explain that why he wants to do that, and that he knows other alternatives are present, but he really wanted to know how to perform his method, if possible.

I just wish those who want to answer, just answer the question, or don't post at all.

I don't mind when people answer the above (but not directly answering the question) in the following manner :

A. Try doing this and this. I'm using "jkl" with "qrs" because that works properly in my system.

or,

A. I'm not sure why you want to do that, but I always do "klm" and "pqr". Works for me.

But I guess, there are too many empty cans out there....they're the ones who make the loud noises.... 🤣

Edit : The above incidents seem like mine, but nope. I'm just reflecting what I saw at few sites where I went looking for solutions, all for my main system. I try to stay away from such threads where I see endless nothingness. 😁

(Same goes to those unscrupulous, irresponsible feedback leavers. They think that they have too much power with them, and easily blame the owner/poster. There are too many noobs, and happy-to-leave-feedback groupies who will leave half-baked comments in the feedback. I just black-marked a buyer at ebay for leaving a manipulated feedback. Had the negative feedback removed, though.)

leileilol wrote:

Even worse is tech forums with problems like this:

Q: Help I can't change the volume

A: Run Registry Fixer 2012 Pro and Anti-Malware Plus 1000 you might have a virus! Post full Hijackthis log

Haha, exactly. This has been a trend for a while, and people with sluggish systems are often advised to install all that crap, resulting in their systems not being able to boot anymore because of the new batch of useless exe's and services bloating up the already collapsing startup process, usually the source of the sluggishness to begin with.

Barry_Purplelips wrote:

leileilol wrote:

Even worse is tech forums with problems like this:

Q: Help I can't change the volume

A: Run Registry Fixer 2012 Pro and Anti-Malware Plus 1000 you might have a virus! Post full Hijackthis log

Haha, exactly. This has been a trend for a while, and people with sluggish systems are often advised to install all that crap, resulting in their systems not being able to boot anymore because of the new batch of useless exe's and services bloating up the already collapsing startup process, usually the source of the sluggishness to begin with.

Yup, in the end I prefer to do it manually.

I don't put much faith in all those "This program will fix your registry, destroy all malware, make your system run without any errors and even order pizza when ur hungry" programs, unless I have some particular reason to do so.

I'm one of those who think Microsoft should be ethically obligated to provide a bootable ISO of Microsoft's Security Essentials for free (and also a tool to create a bootable USB drive from the ISO for people without an optical drive).

To be honest, it does offer something similar, but only to corporate customers who cough up the money for the "Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack".

A simple, easy to use, bootable rescue CD would be a god-send for many newbies who don't have enough knowledge to clean a malware infection manually.

Heck, even those who know how to clean malware manually (with the help of sysinternals tools) would appreciate such a gesture!

Rootkits are so widespread on 32-bit versions of Windows that you can never be sure unless you boot from a known clean system.

W7 allows you to burn a "System Repair Disc". It gives you the same menu as when you press F8 > repair.

It's not perfect, but it's a start. For viruses you can also use a Linux Live CD or something like that. With Bart PE you can make a XP live CD, but it's a bit of effort.

Yes, there are alternatives, but most of them require a bit of technical knowledge that keep them out of reach of the computer newbies.

Microsoft knows how to make things simple. Take, for example, their freeware tool to create a bootable USB drive from a Windows ISO.

I'd wish something similar. An easy download link for a pre-packaged and updated ISO, together with a very simple tool to burn the ISO or to create a bootable usb drive.

Those things are easy enough for people who don't know much about computers (and those are the people who need it most, because they get infected more often).

It would be easy for Microsoft to do what I'm asking for, but it won't earn them any money, so they don't do it.

That's why I said that they should feel "ethically obligated", because they are in part responsible for the security of their operating system.

I know that they didn't create the malware, but they designed Windows in a way that makes it too easily hackable. They should have a moral responsibility to help the victims of their design decisions.

my buddy just lost his Win7 partition (probably some kind of MBR-trashing virus). The 'System Repair Disk' proved absolutely useless... according to him, it ran scans for something like twelve hours, and finally enlightened him with the helpful message: "There is a problem with your hard drive". Nothing was fixed.

I searched the net for quite a while for a good bootable-CD / USB solution for modern Windows machines, and was amazed at how little of it seemed to be of any use. Is there really nothing outside of costly MS 'kits' that can even deal with NTFS drives?

Leolo wrote:

Yes, there are alternatives, but most of them require a bit of technical knowledge that keep them out of reach of the computer newbies.

IMO it's good this way.

I'm in this industry and as harsh as it sounds, if someone stuffs up their computer they should see a professional and pay some money.

Obviously I'm very biased, but if you have worked in this industry you know very well about that "expectation" that you can "just fix it" free of charge or ask a friend who is "into computers" to do it for you.

And then you go to the dentinst and get charged a few hundred bucks just for a quote 🤣

VileRancour wrote:

The 'System Repair Disk' proved absolutely useless...

As you said, this disc is for the end consumer (noob). Now if your budy didn't create any "PC complete backups" which is basically an image of the whole drive and / or set a backup schedule, then he just has himself to blame.

It's not like Windows doesn't remind you several times that you shoud:

- install AV
- Create a backup schedule

I don't know what else MS has to do. Maybe a message blinking on the screen in font size 100 "Create a backup schedule" 🤣

I'm in this industry and as harsh as it sounds, if someone stuffs up their computer they should see a professional and pay some money.

Obviously I'm very biased, but if you have worked in this industry you know very well about that "expectation" that you can "just fix it" free of charge or ask a friend who is "into computers" to do it for you.

FWIW my uncle is a mechanic (worked at a Toyota dealership) and whenever I go to his place he's got someone else's car/motorbike in the garage that they asked him to work on. So its not just IT people that cop this.

I agree though, it is pretty annoying sometimes, you've spent 40 hours a week at work, (realistically, even more with unpaid overtime) the last thing you want to do in your time away from work is... more work.

And yes, some people need to stop fiddling with things they don't understand and leave it to the professionals. I'm all for people learning and experimenting.... but you shouldn't do that on things you can't afford to lose.

On another forum i'm a member of, this guy went and bought all brand new parts for an AMD system last Christmas... then posted a 'how do I build this' thread. For the sake of $50-100 I told him to pay someone who knows what they are doing. He ignored me and proceeded to attach the CPU to the bottom of the heatsink then ttried to force thast into the motherboard... ended up flattening half the pins, wasting a perfectly good processor. Then he couldn't fit the power supply cables into the motherboard and was asking where he should cut them to fit??????? We were all WTF at this point. of course he had no camera so he couldn't take a picture of it. He ended up taking it back and getting the shop to deal with it- which he should have done in the first place.

I have this problem all the time. It drives me fucking nuts. 🤣