Does Windows rot over time?

[Clerisy]

In most of the cases I've seen, and I'll be honest and say that I haven't seen many cases, people's Windows seems to "rot" after they do something to it.

For most of my friends, it's spyware. In fact, one of my friends had something so bad it marked one of his vital registry files as spyware so that when he performed a microsoft anti-spyware check, he deleted and messed up his install so bad he couldn't run it anymore.

I know that's not the way it is for everyone, but I've never had windows just screw up for me.

 

[K15]

In most of the cases I've seen, and I'll be honest and say that I haven't seen many cases, people's Windows seems to "rot" after they do something to it.

For most of my friends, it's spyware. In fact, one of my friends had something so bad it marked one of his vital registry files as spyware so that when he performed a microsoft anti-spyware check, he deleted and messed up his install so bad he couldn't run it anymore.

I know that's not the way it is for everyone, but I've never had windows just screw up for me.

A couple days ago I woulda said that. But I had a minor driver problem for my new computer (though task manager said no problems).
But XP refused to boot in normal mode. I ended up reformatting and reinstalling. Linux would not go on its knees due to a small driver problem, i'm sure.

 

[ToiletDuck]

I don't believe it rots over I think we just keep changing things and doing things to it. Such as installing software then removing it halfass ect. I go to places like the library and they have the same install of windows for 4 years now. They just don't let people run rampid in it.

 

[benbaked]

my vote goes to third party software breaking windows.

i don't believe statements such as "windows is poorly designed". windows has come a VERY long way over the years and competes very well with other systems such as OS X. my xp and 2k installs are still running strong after years of troublefree operation because i keep them clean of spyware and viruses. granted OS X and linux have a big leg up on windows due to their apparent immunity (at the moment) from viruses and spyware.

also, windows ME was not too bad of an OS. that is an exaggeration to say it needed to be reinstalled every 12 hours, 98 1st edition might rather fall into that category - mainly due to the embedded crappiness that was IE4. ms should've just called millennium windows 98 3rd edition because that's basically what it was. i think alot of people disliked it because the rumor was that ME was supposed to finally combine the NT kernel with the 98 user-friendliness and it didn't.

 

[remote_username]

6 and 7(but wheres the food?)

i think that m$ WANTS it to rot over time so you go buy it again/buy a new verson

if there were more programs like wine that chold also emulate dx9 and such linux whold be used by almost everyone

 

[michaell]

Windows ME must be reinstalled every 12 hours or it becomes unusable.

That was a horrible product.

I never used it but a friend of mine had it on his computer for well over a year and he never complained about it being bad. When I asked him about how he found it he said it was fine.



I don't believe Windows 'rots' as such but with the constant install / uninstall of programs and various other things the performnace drops. I guess also as this is a computer community we're gonna notice problems within WIndows more than a normal user.

 

[MadSkillzMan]

6 and 7(but wheres the food?)

i think that m$ WANTS it to rot over time so you go buy it again/buy a new verson

if there were more programs like wine that chold also emulate dx9 and such linux whold be used by almost everyone

Cedega runs most DX9 apps, runs Dx9 itself, as does cross over office

 

[Enablingwolf]

Ya look at the list. There is very few apps not in it. A standard issue Windows(nVidia gamer) user could be very happy using Linux. The only hardship is reading and learnig past clicking and playing.

 

[futura2001]

I rarely if ever have any problems with Windows "rotting". I don't exactly fit in with the norm, as I run a very heavily hardened and modified Win2k, hand optimized by me with some help from information gleaned from two of my Microsoft employed roommates (not joking at all, I currently live 4 blocks from Microsoft building 26) and I rarely have problems with it at all. Memory usage rivals that of most *nix distros with similar functionality at ~55-80mb usage on boot with nothing running. I have a nightly defrag set to run while I am sleeping, and the only times I ever restart are when I am forced to by a windows update or a software installation. The few times it has crashed have all traced back to 3rd party software or poorly written drivers. Rarely do I have any kind of a problem with spyware (and I use IE) because I control all writing to the registry and everything downloaded beyond the internet caches, which are deleted nightly prior to the defrag.
All in all, I have had a very good experience with Windows.

 

[K15]

I rarely if ever have any problems with Windows "rotting". I don't exactly fit in with the norm, as I run a very heavily hardened and modified Win2k, hand optimized by me with some help from information gleaned from two of my Microsoft employed roommates (not joking at all, I currently live 4 blocks from Microsoft building 26) and I rarely have problems with it at all. Memory usage rivals that of most *nix distros with similar functionality at ~55-80mb usage on boot with nothing running. I have a nightly defrag set to run while I am sleeping, and the only times I ever restart are when I am forced to by a windows update or a software installation. The few times it has crashed have all traced back to 3rd party software or poorly written drivers. Rarely do I have any kind of a problem with spyware (and I use IE) because I control all writing to the registry and everything downloaded beyond the internet caches, which are deleted nightly prior to the defrag.
All in all, I have had a very good experience with Windows.

So want to ask your M$ friends why the HELL M$ didn't design XP like that to begin with? I guess letting the user control entries in the registry would be disasterous for most people, but they could have always made it a deeply hidden "secret" only available if you knew what you were doing.

 

[futura2001]

Coincidentally, I have asked my roomies that question before.
Their answer?
The goal of Win95 was a "user friendly" OS
The goal of Win98 was to further integrate networking/internet
The goal of Win2k was a business class OS built on NT
The goal of WinXP was to optimize the migration from 9x to NT and add usability
The goal of Vista is going to be security

Finally, why didn't M$ design XP similarly to how I secured it or at least make options available to change the settings?
90% of the editing I did was through the registry with rgedt32, through administrative tools, and through the Windows commandline (i.e. "Run...") itself.
9% was mostly editing the look of Windows through resource files. And I modified the look a hell of a lot, I have been asked what *nix distro I'm running on occasion: Windows Rebuilt
The other 1% pertains to material that I can't talk about, although it is/has/will be coming to a windows update near you.
Microsoft does provide a very, very useful document to making your computer more secure: the Windows hardening guide. If you know what you are doing, are not afraid of the registry, and can fix anything that you might break, then by all means read through and utilize the Windows XP Security Guide.

 

[dfonda]

Compared to anything else, and if you want to play games.Its the best. I have way more compatibility issues with 3rd party applications. Restore has never failed me yet and winxp has been running without a reinstall for 2 years straight now.

So I am one of the lucky ones.

 

[azu]

i just say its crap in general

 

[MadSkillzMan]

 

[AngelfireUk83]

I had a problem after I moved my PC it was just to get near an old heater so we could remove it and make more room. After that I put my PC back together and when trying to boot up a black screen came up with IPSEC & ISSVC services couldn't load.

It restarted and got to the log in screen restarted it again once I got back in I tried to repair XP from the set-up disc. It got about half way and said there was a file missing or damaged in the system32 folder.

So I just re-formatted and I'm back to normal but can't overclock it all happened after I removed The Sims 2 then the next day re-installed it. About 5 Min's into the game it came up saying the Application has crashed I've had XP Pro for 2 years and it's never stayed on my PC for more than 6 months without having to format.

 

[benbaked]

madskillzman was that video real or doctored up? i can't really tell, i swear that blue screen is from win9x but the gui looks xp-ish.

 

[MadSkillzMan]

yea its from YTMND, all kindsa dumb stuff goes on there. it just made me laugh, classic windows. Heck ud get BSOD in win 9x/ME if you didnt pu the CDROM back in that you were using. And half of the time once you got the BSOD it wouldnt come back from it.

 

[Duneadan]

I think part of the problem is that Microsoft refuses to release the source code to Windows. Consequently, there are lots of pitfalls that third party developers cannot fail to see when writing software for the darn thing.

On the other hand, it may simply be craptastic programming on MS's part. I installed word 2000 on my dad's windows ME computer the other day, and the whole system went to hell in a hand bag. I would like to have hoped that at least MS's own software would work with their own operating system.

Oh well.

 

[futura2001]

On the other hand, it may simply be craptastic programming on MS's part. I installed word 2000 on my dad's windows ME computer the other day, and the whole system went to hell in a hand bag. I would like to have hoped that at least MS's own software would work with their own operating system.

Oh well.

Holy Crap! Somebody still uses Windows ME? I pity the foo'...
Holy Crap! You actually expected something to work with WinME?
Seriously though, Windows ME was a terrible product, and anyone still running it should be given a free copy of WindowsXP or 2k. I'm surprised anyone hasn't charged Microsoft with crimes against humanity for letting that one out of the bag...

 

[benbaked]

Seriously though, Windows ME was a terrible product

aw c'mon now, windows me really wasn't that bad. my computer illiterate brother and his wife still have it on their compaq, with a 1ghz thunderbird it flies and in all of that time the only problems they've had was when the hard drive on the computer died.

But their OS division sucks.

how so? i used to work in win95/98/me tech support and i feel the support we gave was good. i'm not sure how it is these days with winxp.