I've been Windows free for the past 6 months or so - and really, I don't think I miss it.
I grabbed a copy of Windows 7 RC candidate just to have a look at it running in Virtualbox and see if I can maybe use it to easily stream to my Xbox360.
I boot it up again and I get a message on my desktop saying that my copy of Windows is not genuine. This could mean one of two things. Either someone snuck into my house, deleted the copy of Windows I downloaded and installed into Virtualbox, and reinstalled a "Non Genuine" copy, or Microsoft is subtly twisting the meaning of Genuine.
Not wanting to feel like a criminal, I click on the message. Nothing happens, its not clickable. I cudgel my head for a few seconds but can't really think of where I can go in WIndows to make it connect to the mothership and validate or whatever I need to do to make my Windows "genuine".
While I'm hunting around for the validation option, I notice a little flag waving from the toolbar. It says I have important tasks - such as searching the internet for an antivirus package and running a backup. Fair enough. But why should I need to search the internet for virus software? Haven't they heard of package managers?
So I do the search. It displays a bunch of logos. Several of them I don't recognise, and some of them remind me of paying $99 a year for something that doesn't improve my life. I remember that AVG offers a decent free anti-virus software, so I click on the AVG logo.
AVG offers me two options (working from memory here). One is Expensive and the other is More Expensive. Dang it, I'm sure that they had a free option. Oh well. I enter "Windows 7 Free Antivirus" into Bing and I get a link to AVG. This time, I get three options! Free, Expensive and More Expensive. I guess they think that people coming from Microsoft's page are more in the mood to spend money.
Several mouse clicks later, I've downloaded and installed AVG. At no time was I prompted for any kind of Root password. I thought this thing was supposed to be more secure!
AVG wants me to install make Yahoo search my default. I have no idea why this would benefit me, but I guess Yahoo is paying AVG for the begging space. No thanks, I'd rather have a few more pixels for looking at websites than some irritating toolbar. Especially since Yahoo is now powered by Bing and Bing is already the Windows 7 default search engine.
AVG has installed a desktop shortcut for itself. Thanks for nothing. But easily deleted.
But then I go back into IE, and AVG has installed a toolbar anyway! And it includes Yahoo search! Now I have two seach boxes and a toolbar with a bunch of links I don't need. And the toolbar has no close button. To get rid of it, I need to go into Advanced Settings, ask it to be moved above the tabs and only then do I get a close button. Sigh.
No sooner have I run AVG, I get another warning on my toolbar. Now Windows Defender wants to scan my PC. Now that I have AVG, do I need to run Windows Defender? Or did I not really need AVG in the first place. Who knows? I don't have time to research this.
But luckily this takes me a few minutes to figure out. Because during those minutes, Windows has gotten really upset about not being Genuine and has faded my desktop to an ominous black. Its telling me I need to Activate NOW and its offering me a box to type my activation key into. Along with some useless messages about finding the key on some sticker. I get a key from the Release Candidate website, enter it, and my windows copy is now a "Genuine" "Evaluation Copy". Sweet.
Some requests for the next version of Windows:
- a package manager which allows me to install and update all kinds of commonly used software with a unified interface
- a default security model which requires an admin password too be entered when I'm installing new software
- a new culture of not pestering users with addons that aren't going to benefit them
And AVG - please be more respectful of your users. I don't mind being pestered to buy the More Expensive version, but don't hide the Free one from me just because you paid Microsoft for a link to their Windows 7 Antivirus page!
And now that I've wasted an hour or so figuring this out, I've run out of time to figure out the Xbox streaming. Back to real work!
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