The programmers at Microsoft must think that it’s really fun to torture their users.
If you even try to login to Windows Live service once (definitely including such original titles as Windows Live ID, Windows Live Messenger, but probably others too), they setup your computer to automatically prompt you to log back in the next time you reboot.
I have several old laptop hard drives that I use in cheap USB drive enclosures for backing up or sharing data. These things are great and then generally just work, even though you can buy them for as little as $3.82 from Amazon!
I recently plugged one of these drives into a new computer and, although the drive initially worked, it randomly disconnected after only a few minutes of use. I was only able to get it working again by unplugging it and plugging it back in.
If you’ve purchased a new computer in the past few months it likely came with Windows Vista installed AND an offer for a free upgrade to Windows 7 when the new operating system is released. It’s almost a certainty that if you purchased a new system sometime after June 26, 2009 then you qualify for an upgrade. Some refurbished systems will also be included.
Windows Vista has a really annoying habit of changing the way that it displays files in folders in Windows Explorer (or My Computer) based on the content in those folders. For example if a folder contains pictures it tends to show small icons (or thumbnails) instead of a simple list of files. And the default view for other file types tends to be a list of file names that doesn’t display any of the other details about the file, such as that date that it was changed or the file size.
Windows 7 is due out on October 22nd and many people will be planning to install it as soon as possible after it arrives.
