The Dell Dork, Dlls, Drivers, and John Bigboote
The guy who pretended to be a teenager ands pushed Dell computers always annoyed the fuck out of me. I used to call him the Dell Dork.
I have recently discovered that the Dell Dork was a very appropriate representative of Dell computers.
I found my Dell disk with programs for my Dell laptop which were pre-loaded when my computer was new. Those programs were all lost when my hard drive crashed. I wanted my little camera at the top of my monitor. So I loaded the programs.
Then the "fun" began!
Each and every time I re-booted, the little message window appeared above the Sys-tray. The link is NOT a clickable link. The Window goes away before I could copy down the URL. Very very VERY frustrating. I know such idiocies are not the fault of the Dell Dork, but I want to make him a scapegoat anyway.
So I moved my Clipmate Window (click pic for full size image) to the monitor containing the sys-tray, then re-booted. Then, before the little pop-up window could disappear, I clicked on the capture screen area button (dotted line square) which freeze the screen so I could drag my cross-hair mouse cursor over outline the little pop-up window to capture it. The graphic was now in Clipmate which I exported to the desktop, then U/Led it to my web host so I could insert it here.
When I went to the Dell website, my horror grew and grew.
Nothing on that page pointed to updating drivers for my Webcam. When I attempted to allow Dell to come snooping on my system looking to see what updates I might need, I was told their utility only worked with Internet Explorer. So I loaded the URL into IE.
Then IE did not want to allow Dell to snoop. So I told IE to allow it.
Next, I was shown a very long, nearly incomprehensible list of updates i *MIGHT* need. Whoa Man! This is a Dell Computer! You folks built it. Why the fuck don't you KNOW what updates I need!
So I scanned the list. Some things looked like they might apply to my system. So I checked lots of boxes.
Then lots of files with utterly incomprehensible names were placed on my computer in very strange places. I doubt that 99% of the computer geeks on this planet who do NOT work for Dell actually know what those file names actually mean!
OK, now what?
With much trepidation, I began to poke at one of the many files with the bizarre looking Dell Icon. I realized these were all files I was supposed to install. Gee thanks Dell for not bothering to tell me this!!! Fucktards!
So, one by one I installed them. Some gave me error messages telling me my machine could not handle those DLL files. Another one gave a scary warning message warning me that the change could NOT be undone and did I really want to proceed.
So, with much trepidation, I installed them all. What did I get? A whole bunch of file folders with totally USELESS names like R226903.
Today, I attempted to look at System Restore to see what restore points had been set during this process. Holy Fuck! John Bigboote re-installed Win-7, he never bothered to activate Windows Restore. That guy really is from the 8th Dimension!
I RELY on System Restore to Save my Butt! Now, after close to a full month, I discover I have NO System Restore sends very unpleasant shivers down my spine.
I attempted to restore System Restore (no pun intended) but Windows does not want me to do that. Looks like that is my next project.