Rant of the day

It is getting a bit like that, isn't it?

Today's target, for once, is Microsoft.  Or maybe Ahead's Nero.  Or just possibly nVidia.

Today's problem, however, is clearcut enough - Vista loses the ability to open the control panel, run standard applications such as telnet, and change the screen properties.  Kind of like an unlicensed version... which should really have led me to the solution a lot faster than was the case.

I depend on telnet - nearly as much as I used to need serial connections.  Telnet is the toolkit that accesses nigh on any network component worth its salt.  So when I type the command in, I expect to see a nice 'telnet' prompt.  Not another C:/>

OK, to control panel to check I have got the components installed.  No control panel - beyond a fraction of a second's glimpse of something that might or might not have been an opening window.  Select from the Start menu?  Not a chance - 'Empty'.  Now I'm approaching panic, a situation that doesn't get any better when direct application to the .cpl files also fails, various other tools either fail catastrophically or simply hide under the sheets until the problems gone away (Sysinternal's RootkitRevealer - yes, I said I was panicking - displays in some hidden mode that needed several CTL-ALT-DELs to get at).

Google once again to the rescue.  After a brief false start getting drawn into a discussion about the merits or otherwise of nVidia drivers, which were suggested as the cause, I finally found it.  The Software Licensing service - restart it and lo and behold, functionality returns.

This is where the story gets ugly.  Further references indicate the problem may lie in the Nero InCD service, which upsets something when there's no CD in the drive; for the first time since the box was built, my CD drive was empty today.  There is a hotfix somewhere: start at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/936686/en-us and follow the sordid tale.

So let this be a warning - don't use unlicensed copies of Vista, the functionality is appalling.  In fact, I'm starting to think that using any version of Vista comes under the heading of 'a bad idea', but it's something that we have to do to clear up the problems before everyone else wants a copy.

Now how much do I charge Microsoft for my work as a beta tester?