Skip to main content

Adventures in the wonderful world of Microsoft

So when I turned on my home computer this evening, I got an error messsage I hadn't seen before, something about a Generic Host Process...I also got a message asking if I wanted to send an error report to Microsoft. I did. Suprise, when I opened my brower (or maybe it opened for me)? I got a screen saying there was an update for Windows XP that would prevent this error, but really, I ought to validate my copy of Windows first. Click again. Download a little program called GenuineCheck.exe. (OK, now I am just intrigued).

Ran the program. Got a nifty little validation number which I was told to paste into the appropriate form in my browser. Click again to continue. Now I get a message that my browser is not compatible...Oh yeah, I run Firefox as a default, Microsoft never likes that. So I open IE and paste the address bar in from the previous screen. Click continue. This time I get a similar message but it kindly offers to have me pull out my CPU to find my Windows product key which is pasted on the side somewhere. Not really wanting to do that, I go back to Firefox, which had offered a download as an alternative. I download and run legitcheck.hta. Guess what? A screen opens up with, you guessed it, exactly the same instructions to pull out my CPU and boxes to type in the product code. OK, at this point I am committed anyway, so I do it.

Once all the numbers are in and properly verified, I get to download and run yet another program, this time it is the update. At the end, I am asked if I want to restart now or later. I chose later. Interestingly, Microsoft chose now, since my computer shut down and restarted...

Once restarted ZoneAlarm no longer recognizes programs I have previously OK'ed.

I had the impression that I could have downloaded the fix without validating, but I was curious. I felt like Microsoft was just collecting information on me...must be an easier way to do it!

Anyway, here I am now.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi Alex. You might want to change some of the terminology in this blog. I would hate to see people attempting to remove the central processing unit from their computer in order to retrieve a product key (which isn't on the CPU anyway). Maybe MS didn't make it clear. I am assuming they meant to check the side of your computer "tower" for the product key sticker. Taking apart the computer and removing it's CPU is not something average user should attempt. It will result in more trouble then help...

Kev
Admiral Computer Repair
1:51 PM
Anonymous said…
Something similar happened to me the other day, however, I never got the device that had the error to work again. I had assumed that it had something to do with installing a second hard drive messing up my number of ports or something.
7:19 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Storytelling

A couple of years ago I organized a conference session on storytelling as a means to communicate anthropological findings in non-academic environments. Storytelling is central to anthropology as a discipline—not only do we all study some aspect of human story, the stories of the cultures we study are key to our understanding of them. Stories become mechanisms for collaboration and change, as well as carriers of history. But we don’t always stop to think about the stories we tell, even though anthropologists regularly use storytelling as a communication device. In order to be relevant in settings dominated by non-anthropologists, we must not only pass on the data we have gathered, but convey its importance and convince decision makers in business, design, development, public policy, environment, and a myriad of other fields. Constructing these stories involves editing and carefully choosing what to relay to our audience. Delivering the stories involves performance on many scal
6 comments
Read more

Kids Day and India

Last Friday was bring your kid to work day at Pitney Bowes. It's all very fun, begins with breakfast and a magic show, followed by tours for the older kids, then a big outdoor picnic. I was a tour stop, "Let's Travel to India." They put the kids in groups by age, since some of the stops are better for older or younger ones...I ended up with groups ranging from about 8-13 years old. It was fun but exhausting. I figured the point was more fun than educational, so pretty much I set up a slide show to talk about the fact that we invent stuff by understanding how people live and work, and asking what they knew about India. Answers: lots of people, cows...Showed them pics of cellphones, malls and offices and lots of things that look pretty similar in India as in the US, then pictures of things that look different. Fun to see their reactions. They all noticed the Subway in the mall, and they all recognized the well in the village and understood what it was for and that
6 comments
Read more

Fishies

Today I am reflecting more on ichthyology than anthropology. Our big event last weekend was setting up an aquarium--10 gallon, freshwater tank. Did a bit of research beforehand, mostly consisting of asking people with some existing knowledge what we should do, but arguably, not very much prior investigations, other than when I was a kid we had several aquaria in the house (not to mention dogs, turtles, birds, snakes--we were pretty well supplied with pets). So, a week ago Saturday we got the tank, set it up, got the water in. Next day went to get fish, relying on the guy at the Petco who assured us our choices were OK for a starter tank. Get home, introduce them to the tank, Kurt decides to read up some more on our new friends. Learn one is in fact not such a friendly species and might torment the others--so back to the pet store for a fish exchange. At that point, we did more web research, which I have to say is more confusing than anything else--a case of too much information and som
4 comments
Read more