Why do we tolerate poor software reliability?

tomstickland

The thing is, I'm quite capable of doing google searchs and meddling around with registry settings etc but ie8 really annoyed me.

I also wonder why it's considered normal practice to have to reformat windows as a way of improving its performance.

computershack

tomstickland wrote: »

I also wonder why it's considered normal practice to have to reformat windows as a way of improving its performance.

It isn't. Its the standard advice trotted out by people who quite frankly don't have a clue and would be better off keeping their advice to themselves.

Clearing out GBs of temp files, removing the 100 browser addons and deleting 99% of the stuff set to start up then giving the whole lot a good defrag usually sorts most machines out.

As for the browser bugs, many times its actually caused by add-ons, not the browser itself.

tomstickland

OK I've decided to stop being lazy and investigate the issue with .doc extensions.
Looks like it's the settings for that file extension.
I've fruited about with it and now it will open .doc documents but then complain that it can't find the file.

I've googled around and found too much advice so just tried loads of combinations.

This is in folder>tools>folder options>file types>.doc>advanced>
select "open" then edit
________________________
Action: &Open
Application used to perform action:
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\WINWORD.EXE" "%1

Use DDE: ticked
DDE Message: [REM _DDE_Direct]
Application: WinWord
Topic: System
________________________

I think the problem was caused by me opening a word document from an estate agent that was in a later format and that did something to the settings.

Any ideas what I need to set things to work? Win xp home and Word 2000?

Edit:
I just deleted the DDE command and now it seems to work.

So, taken me an hour of googling and bashing around trying things to fix it.

John_Gray

So - IE8 lives to fight another day! :T

(Said by someone whose Bookmarks (IE: Favorites) file in Firefox - places.sqlite - is 256 MB, for no sensible reason)

spaceboy

tomstickland wrote: »

Firefox:
Every day says "the latest update failed to install, do you want to download and install it again?"
Click yes.
A while later it says "You need to restart Firefox."
Do so.
Next day it starts all over again.

Never had that problem so dont need to tollerate it.

tomstickland

https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/forum/1/24495

PROLIANT

Hmmm, never had an issue with IE, Firefox and the rest of the open source Utopia crew are forever having issues with ASPX, ASHX web applications.

As for reliability - if i cant find a suitable app to fit the bill I will simply write my own in C#.

DatabaseError

I've never had the .doc extension getting lost, and I've been using MSWord since ...er... version 4.3?
I have firefox on multiple machines, with multiple profiles on some of them, and it's never got stuck in the loop you describe.

I suspect it's an id.10t error you're experiencing, which is shared by many other users.

Oneday77

If it ain't broke don't fix it...God I am fed up slipping on Horse !!!!!! left on the road from all those Horse Drawn Carts..Oh wait something newer came along and wouldn't use a bail of hay as fuel...the combustion engine.
Things change and evolve, not all legacy files, add-ons, settings can be carried over. If IE was still IE1 etc how many security holes would hackers use to steal your details. If my house is built of bricks would I still expect my windows to be covered with shutters rather than glass. New OS come along, would we be happy if DOS didn't evolve and we were stuck with tiny amounts of memory and pictures were in 8bit colour.

Stompa

computershack wrote: »

It isn't. Its the standard advice trotted out by people who quite frankly don't have a clue and would be better off keeping their advice to themselves.

You'd be fairly hard pressed to find a professional in the field who would agree with that!