OT: Microsoft is really annoying

[Richmond Mathewson]

  On 16/04/2010 21:05, J. Landman Gay wrote:
> Bernard Devlin wrote:
>
>> I think all Windows installations must be assumed to be toxic. 
>
> Yes, that's the assumption I use too. It's also the reason I'm so much 
> in favor of running Windows in a virtual machine. In Parallels (and 
> maybe other emulators too, I'm not sure,) you can set a sort of 
> bookmark for the current state of the machine, and when you're done 
> working you can revert to that state. That removes anything that's 
> been installed on the virutal hard drive since the state was set.
>
> So I run Windows virtually, keep no important data on it, use it only 
> for testing Rev apps and creating installers, and never use it to for 
> email or web browsing. I've got virus detection software installed but 
> it has never identified any malware. Rev's direct internet access 
> works fine and I don't mess with anything else internet-related. So 
> far, so good, and I haven't had to revert to the saved state yet.
>
I run XP on a heap of old junk (Well; a COMPAQ Pentium 3, 256 MB RAM); 
headlessly - administered via my G4 Mac;
it has no internet connexion and is ONLY there for checking Windows builds.

Nevertheless I am already, after 3 months, getting endless error 
messages in the middle of the Desktop. I really
wonder whether it is worth the effort reinstalling!