AN OPEN LETTER TO MICROSOFT

I have experienced every Windows Operating System since the beginning of time!  Windows 95 was definitely the biggest splash!  Microsoft lit up buildings in London and New York with the 95 logo and it was a huge marketing extravaganza including the theme song from the Rolling Stones!

At that time I lived in the Midwest and remember driving to Chicago’s McCormick Center for the big event.  Windows 95 was the first real user interface.  Many versions have passed, some good and some not worth mentioning, including Windows Me and Windows Vista.  The OS that the world passionately embraced was XP which served us well for 12 years!

The last worthy OS was Windows 7, then came along Windows 8, a total disaster!  People were confused and frustrated.  The general public, most businesses and corporations refused to migrate.

Microsoft quickly upgraded to 8.1, but it wasn’t any better.  The biggest downfall was a new perplexing start button.  The system was really two, the Metro and the Desktop and did nothing but offer frustration.  In order to make any sense of it all you had to install a third party start button to regain any familiarity and unless you were pretty computer savvy this had to be accomplished by a technician.

Microsoft slowly woke up to the fact that they had a real loser on their hands and decided to totally skip the next progression which would have been Windows 9.

So here we are in 2018 using “The Revolutionary New Windows 10” as our operating system.  Tens of thousands, perhaps millions were forced to download and install Windows 10 whether they liked it or not.  This was performed with an intrusion of privacy and with no permission from the user!  We gave up Windows 7 and now are faced with a Mickey Mouse start button, and frequent system updates that often destabilize the OS.  It’s just not rational that people have to hire a technician to repair Microsoft’s updates.

I have installed applications on all my computers and on hundreds of customer’s computers to maintain ease of operation and enhanced security.  Namely,  CCleaner, Malwarebytes and  Classic Shell, which gave us an alternative start menu that we have been accustomed to for years.

Certain MS updates have removed all three of these programs.  Your answer maybe that those applications did not meet the criteria of your updates.  That would not be true as they performed to standards after reinstalling them.

Now, after almost a decade, the author of Classic Shell is giving up because of frequent Windows 10 updates which continually make Classic Shell unusable. 

Not only these problems, but now you have taken away Windows Essentials which included Windows Live Mail.  We have used your email program for eons and now you have left us with Windows 10 mail which everyone loathes!  Again, the user has to hire a technician to set them up with a new mail program.

Microsoft, we are pleading with you to supply us a start button that allows us easy access to the task at hand,  a credible email program, and to stop removing programs that belong to the user!

I wish I had a Giant Megaphone!

MegaphoneI wish I had a giant megaphone so I could loudly announce to everyone who owns a computer this warning.

If you ever see a message on your desktop or laptop stating that you have a dangerous virus and telling you to call an 800 number for the fix, don’t do it.  THIS IS A SCAM.  DO NOT CALL THE NUMBER!  Simply re-boot your machine and get on with your life.

Another scam that is prevalent today is getting a phone call.  The person will say he’s from Microsoft and
that you have a dangerous virus on your computer.  He’ll give you a real “snow job” in an effort to scare you and will ask for permission to get into your computer by installing a small snoop program.  Soon he will inform you that he has found the problem and for a fee he will fix it.  You give him your credit card and now you’ve been had!

In both cases the criminal’s object is to get your credit card number.  Once they do it’s a wild spending spree with your money!