Vista SP1: Another Scourge from Microsoft

By Karen

Once again, Microsoft offers the fix to launch a thousand problems. If you see Service Pack 1 coming, take your PC and RUN the other way.

My mother wanted a laptop to check e-mail while away on vacation. While helping her find a deal, I noticed Vista SP1 came standard on everything.

(Cue to the Jaws theme here.)

Ten hours later, I’m still trying to get her new Acer Extensa to run Office 2007, Norton 360, and a few games right.

Of course, the biggest snag is Office 2007. It keeps saying “version doesn’t match.” Yesterday I tried to download a 218-MB “Office SP1” update that failed midway.

But hope springs eternal. As I type this, I’m downloading 300 MB of Microsoft updates, praying they’ll fix something.

In my book, Bill Gates stands right behind Bush and Cheney as the world’s most evil influences.

Microsoft’s motto should be “Bend over.” Their products are always so bloated and buggy, they sustain a vast third-party support industry that troubleshoots, works around, and documents their infinite deficiencies.

And now after bilking the world out of billions of dollars – partially our own fault because we let his inferior, execrable operating systems become the “standard” – Gates has turned philanthropic.

I hope he’s establishing a large foundation to rehabilitate the hapless souls being driven mad trying to get a Vista PC up and running.

I endured similar agony last August without SP1 when I replaced my own desktop system and laptop. Switching from XP to Vista meant rebuying every software application. Some that were supposedly “Vista-ready” still don’t work right.

And now that I’ve seen Vista’s first major “fix,” I know my next computer will be a Mac.