I *STILL* Hate Microsoft

Microsoft have done it again, and I have just lost most of this morning.

The problem?  Backups on my Windows 7 machine started failing.

All I got was a popup window saying that the backups had failed, and suggesting I look in the logs for details.  And when I looked in the logs, this is what I found:

Windows Backup failed while trying to read from the shadow copy on one of the volumes being backed up. Please check in the event logs for any relevant errors. (0x81000037)    

Helpful, huh?  "One of the volumes being backed up".  No hint as to which one, mind.

But, nothing daunted, I remember that Google is my friend, and I try searching for the relevant string.

And I get pages like this one http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973455#workaroundissue12

Which is obviously about the relevant error message, and is completely incomprehensible.  Now, OK, I'm not a Windows expert, but I have been using computers "all day every day" for 30 years.  But the problem description, and the solution, mean nothing to me.  So although there is a glimmer of light in the darkness, I am certainly not enlightened.

Apparently I have got a problem with a "reparse point" in my "library", and if I remove it, the backup will work.  The first problem is that I've never heard of a "reparse point".  A few minutes with Google suggests they are some kind of file system sorcery that causes files to appear to be in places where they are not, or making additional or network disk drives appearing as folders in the file system.   But knowing that doesn't help much because I have not done anything unusual to my "Library" in months.  I believe it contains "My Photos" and "My Documents" and such like, so I have no doubt added things to it.  But I haven't done anything unusual, and certainly nothing knowingly involving "reparse points".  So it is not obvious where the problem is going to be.

The instructions go on to describe how to use the Windows Command Prompt (Remember that?  This is Windows 7, mind) to identify the "junction points" (which is a synonym for "reparse point" --- why have one inscrutable jargon term when you can have two) in my system.  And I see that there are many --- about a dozen.  One of which, apparently, may be a problem, even though none of them have apparently changed in nearly three years.  So although Microsoft give me instructions on how to delete one, I still have no idea how to decide which one to delete.

So, back to Google, which finds me many other people expressing similar frustration.

But then buried away on about page 4 of a long discussion of the problem in a Microsoft forum, I notice a couple of mentions of virus checkers.  Which reminds me that, a few days ago Microsoft Security Essentials had detected a problem --- could that be it?  I had told it to remove the offending file, but...

So I look in my Security Essentials history, and it indeed tells me that it has quarantined a file -- some kind of Java exploit.  So I tell it to remove that file, and try the backup again....

And it fails again.

But some kind of virus checker problem seems a much more plausible cause of the problem than unexpected "reparse points" in my "Library".  So, at the suggestion of another forum participant, I turn off Security Essentials and try another backup --- which succeeds!

So the problem is definitely with the virus checker causing the backup to fail, and Backup's messages about inability to read a shadow volume are completely wrong.

Trick is, the virus checker history is not showing me any quarantined items.

Oh, but just a minute...   I'm asking to see "Quarantined Items" --- but there is also an option to see "All detected items"...  And yes, that is showing another problem that has been found --- a different Java exploit, in the Java cache in my son's account.  Which has, apparently, been quarantined -- though for some reason this didn't result in it showing up in the "Quarantined Items" list

So I remove this file, and run the backup again without problem.

So, after over two hours of thrashing about, I learn that if Microsoft Security Essentials quarantines a file, it will prevent Microsoft Backup from backing up your computer until it is removed.  That may, or may not, be reasonable.

But neither piece of Microsoft software warns you of this interaction, and that certainly isn't reasonable. 

I Hate Microsoft Windows

I haven't said that for a while, so I thought it was a good thing for getting this long-dormant blog going again.

What's my particular reason for saying it on this occasion? Internet Explorer and Cookies.

We've written some software that uses cookies to identify users who have logged in, and I wanted to actually look at the cookies to see exactly what it was doing.

How? Well, IE 8, at least, doesn't make that it obvious how you do that, but after a brief burst of Googling, I found the answer: go to the Tools menu, select "Internet Options", and in the "Browsing History" panel, select "Settings". You get a new window, entitled "Temporary Internet Files and History Settings", from which you select "View files". Not exactly obvious, but OK. And there, in amongst 99 assorted files, were a bunch of 10 with names that started cookie:. Super.

Except that none of those cookie files had been modified for weeks, and none of them were obviously related to the site I was working on.

Puzzled, I looked again at the "Temporary Internet Files and History Settings". One of the settings, "Current Location" was the name of a folder:
C:\Users\Robert\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\TemporaryInternetFiles\

Presumably, I thought, the name of the folder where my cookies (and other "Temporary Internet Files") were being stored. And when I looked in that folder, I indeed saw the same 99 files that Internet Explorer had shown me. And no sign of the cookie I actually wanted.

So I prodded about, and after a while tripped over another folder:
C:\Users\Robert\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Cookies

Where I found 13 files that looked like cookies: 9 corresponding to the ones I had seen in The Other Place, plus a couple more that didn't correspond to anything, but that weren't the one I was looking for either.

But there was also a folder, named Low. And lo! In there, I found 98 further Cookie files! Including the one corresponding to the cookie I was looking for.

So when I looked in IE, it told me I had 9 cookies stored in one place.

But it was actually using cookies stored somewhere else, where it had almost 100!

I have long hated the way Microsoft, and Windows in particular, try to protect naive users (or, alternative, avoid putting off non-technical buyers) by hiding complexity, in such a way that turns the whole system into black magic.

But this surpasses their normal level of obfuscation. To explicitly say IE has 9 things stored in one place when it is actually using 98 things stored somewhere quite different, is not just "hiding complexity" -- it is confusing, and misleading users (perhaps dangerously).

This kind of thing just makes it more likely for people to find computers incomprehensible, and think they are beyond them.

And I think that is a nasty thing to do.


P.S. And I've just noticed that when I told IE to delete cookies, it deleted almost all of them from the "Other Place". Strangely, it left behind four that came from microsoft.com.

XDA / Windows Mobiles Woes 5

I had to do (yet) another re-boot on my XDA Orbit the other day.

Because I couldn't turn the radio off. The software application for
the radio became unresponsive. But even when I killed it, the
radio continued playing!

Really impressive.

Robert.

Windows Mobile Woes 4

The O2 XDA Pilot has a built-in FM radio, and I have just
used it to listen to a program.

No problem... until the program finished and I tried to turn
off the radio... and find that the FM Radio application is completely
unresponsive. I can't turn it off.

Fiddle, poke. Nothing. So I go to the list of running applications (so
easily found, under Settings / System / Memory / Running programs),
find the "FM Radio" and "Stop" it. Silence. Fine. Back to work.

Until a couple of minutes later, when the radio comes back on!

So it's back to the XDA and try to start the "FM Radio" application.
It won't start... but the sound stops!

Great. Just great! Back to work.

Until a couple of minutes later, when the radio comes back on AGAIN!

Try again. Same thing happens.

Bang head on table. Doesn't help.

Time for reset number 3, it seems.

Robert.

Windows Mobile Woes 3

Now, I've had my second forced reset since upgrading to WM 6.

The other day I turned on my XDA Pilot and found that the left-hand
side of the screen was not touch sensitive. The device was locked,
and was displaying the big numeric keypad for me to enter my PIN.
The buttons on the right-hand side of the screen entered characters.
Those on the left did nothing. And nor did the "unlock" button (also
on the left). Which was a bit terminal, really.

So I was down to poking the reset button.

After the reset, everything was fine. So, no hardware problem...

So, that's two resets in just on six weeks. Suggesting that WM6 is
in fact no better than WM5.

Robert.

Windows Mobile Woes 1

Last year (2007) I switched from using a Palm OS device to using a phone that ran Windows Mobile 5.

Specifically, I got an O2 "XDA Orbit". It seemed a really neat bit of kit - small (it didn't have a too-small-to-use keyboard to clutter my pocket) but with all kinds of connectivity (bluetooth, wi fi, and GPS) built in.

The experience was, well, horrible. So many aspects of the system and its "core" apps (by which I mean diary, contacts, phones...) seemed so poorly designed and unreliable. I'll no doubt write something about it at some point, but basically the one-sentence summary would be that whereas in something like four years of using a Palm OS device I had had to use the reset button twice, the Windows Mobile device had to be reset every couple of weeks.

So when I learnt that there was an upgrade to WM6 available, I thought I'd give it a go.

The most awful discovery was that it was hardly any better.

OK, I've been running it for three weeks now and, apart from when I have been installing software, I haven't had to hit "reset". So that's progress of a sort, I guess.

I won't attempt any kind of comprehensive summary of the things that have disappointed me, because I'll never actually post it. Rather I've put a "1" in the title, and listed what comes to mind right now...

• I use the "Block Recogniser" system for character input, which involves writing into a pop-up space that appears at the bottom when the system is expecting you to type/write. Except that in WM6 it quite often it doesn't actually appear when I select a type-in field: I have to explicitly call it up...


• Phone numbers in the call history are not selectable as text, so it's not possible to cut-and-paste them into a "Contacts" record. There is an option to "Add to contacts", which creates a new "Contact" entry for the number, associated with "Unknown Caller". But there isn't an "Add to existing contact" option. So if an existing contact calls from a new number (say, a new mobile), the procedure is
  1. Add the number to contacts
  2. Select/copy the phone number
  3. Save the new contact entry
  4. Find their existing contact entry
  5. Paste the new number into place
  6. Save the edited contact entry
  7. Find the newly created contact entry
  8. Delete the newly created contact entry.
  Easy, huh. Or, of course, you can just copy the number on a scrap of paper and then edit the contact entry and add it. That's what technology is for.
  
• There is an awesome lack of linkage between the "core apps". When you get a text message, it will automatically look up the number that sent it in the address book, display the message as "From" that person, and give you a button to immediately "Reply" by text message. You want to phone them about the message? Ah! Well, you have to go to the "Contacts" application, search for the sender (that's right, by typing/writing the name you just saw on the text message), select their mobile phone number and then select "Call".
  

And I'm also aghast to see they've introduced the most howling bug into the "Tasks" system: it will no longer display only "active" tasks. By which I mean it is no longer possible to hide tasks that have not yet reached their start date. There is still an option to show only "active" tasks, it is just that ticking it doesn't actually make any difference to how the system behaves. It still knows about active --- the "Today" screen will cheerfully and correctly tell me that I have, say, 12 active tasks. But when I go to the tasks list, it shows me all my tasks. Including a reminder to do my tax return next September --- 6 months before I can sensibly even start it! Which completely cripples what was, for me, the only application that Windows Mobile did better than a Palm.

Masterful.

It is obviously disappointing (or alarming) that such a howling bug got through Microsoft's quality control and pre-release testing. It would be nice to think that one could buy (or commit to use) a mainstream package from the world's largest software company without having to check whether the basic operations actually work.

It is equally, but more subtly, disappointing that none of the reviews of WM 6 that I saw picked up on it. Presumably they just looked at what it claims to do and reviewed how it tries to do it, and just assumed that it did actually do what it said it would.

Sigh.

Robert.