How about that update that never happened?

Some of you have probably had this happen. You run "Check for Updates" inside the security center. IE opens up to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com./ It check to see if you have the latest version of Windows Update. Awesome! You have it! Now are are presented with a choice, you can roll the dice and click "Express" and let Microsoft install everything Bing on your computer. Or, you can go pro and click "Custom" where you can select to install everything but the Bing crap. Ha! Jokes on you, no matter which one you click it will just sit on "Checking for updates" indefinitely. You search Google, you find the Mr. Fixit on the Microsoft Knowledge base and run it. It finds everything wrong, it fixes it, you are the champion, you reboot, you try again and the same thing. The green bar mocking you as it checks and checks and checks. You restart the Automatic Update Server, it doesn't help. You go pro again and hit Start -> Run and type "notepad.exe %windir%\WindowsUpdate.log" You are mocked! There are no errors, no warnings, nothing of value! You grab the tower, you give it a DDT, then you expel the foul beast from the office window into the parking lot 5 stories below. You return to your desk the victor, problem solved, life is good.

Greetings, As someone in the IT industry maybe I can give you some advice.

Since she is on Vista, you might want to look into Local Group Policies.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725970.aspx

You have much finer, granular control over many aspects of Windows through it. It can take some trial and error, but you can setup an environment where only specific applications run and nothing else. Or, you can do things like not allowing application to run from specific locations (E.G. C:\Users\\AppData or C:\Program Data). Doing this can greatly reduce the amount of Malware and Virus infections. You can also prevent changes to things like the Start Menu or task bar, etc. A lot can be done with Local GPOs that doesn't seem widely known to the standard Windows user, but they can really help lock a machine down.

bring back the gopher! I might have to host a Gopher server just to put Gimp on there.

I can't help but think about Apple already doing this and seeing this as another Microsoft copy cat act. And I pity those that adopt Windows 8. I have clients that use windows 8 and some that have Server 2012. Stop for a second, Why the #%^$%^#@ do you need the metro interface on the server? That's a rant for another day, back to this current one. My current field experiences with Windows 8 have been filled with annoyances and frustration. Want to put a short cut on your desktop that is on the Metro interface but not on the desktop? Push the Windows key on the KB, start tying the application name. When the application appears, right click it. Click some bullshit down at the bottom of the screen. From there, click some other bullshit. From there select "Open Location." When the explorer.exe window open, fine the applications executable. Right click the executable, then select "Send To" then select "To Desktop(Create shortcut)." Seriously, W.T.F. You want to set up a VPN connection using Microsoft VPN? Well, remember the good old days when you could put a short cut of the VPN connection on the desktop, double click it open the actual VPN connection? HAHAHAHA Those days are GONE! Make your little VPN connection, stick the short cut on the desktop, double click it, guess what opens? The little network connectivity sidebar(Sorry, I don't know the proper name of it), where you select your VPN connection, then click the "Connect" button, THEN we are at the point to how it used to be in Windows XP, Vista, and 7. Anyway, I am tired of typing.

Please allow me to tell you how shitty I feel that I cannot update my brand new, still sold and under contract WP8 phone to 8.1. I feel like a camels turd on a hot summers day in the Sahara desert. That's how I feel.

Yes, paying the ransom works for some but doesn't work for others. I deal with little puck ass ransom ware from time to time, but Cryptolocker is an a class of it own. Whoever wrote cryptolocker is an evil, mad, rich, genius. Last I checked it still remains undefeated.

Yeah, Sure, Blocking malicious downloads has the potential for bad, but it also has the potential for good. You get hit with Cryptolocker and not have any good backups then tell me how much you hate a feature like this. I have already seen it too many times, companies that loose data because of that virus and the sysadmins that are too proud to pay the ransom. Or even worse, the employees who get hit with it then doesn't say anything until after the timer runs out. People might hate on features like this, but at the business level it can be a life saver.

The NSA has been caught, granted, but what about other countries like China? They are known for having a cyber army division as a part of their offense/defense. Other countries have the same, recognized and funded divisions of their military devoted to cyber warfare and defense. How deep do their fingers go?

Can confirm, and despite being a plumber you still deal with less crap.

I Work in IT. Today I was asked to work on a computer that was not managed by my company and I had zero knowledge of current network setup. Within thirty minutes I had privilege escalated up to the point where I could created my own local administrator account was logged into it fixing the issue. The other day, domain controller goes down early AM, i arrive get it back up. The database built and used by their clinic software was corrupted. Restored from backup my company doesn't give me info about because they don't think I'm smart enough to use it and had company back up and running. I only have a GED.

As an owner of a windows mobile device it has to be data gathering and transmitting it to the NSA because the mobile device damn sure doesn't do much else besides look good. WP fan boys can hate, the more I use this device the more I utterly dislike it. Do you know how much I miss being able to tap inside of a word and the cursor go where you tap, instead of tapping and highlight the whole word, tap again and unhighlight the whole word. Tap again and highlight the whole word. No. I have to press and hold and then the cursor appears like half an inch from where I want it then I have to move the cursor to where I need it. Oh how I miss a swiping keyboard too. On top of that, I violated my EULA with this post. Thou shalt not use Microsoft products to speak Ill of Microsoft!

IE10 broke many things. Want to edit your Shortel configuration? Better not do it in IE10 or you will wind up with a corrupt database. AdvancedMD? Stray far from such things, broken in IE9 as well without a registry hack. Inspire E-Learning? Not going to work in IE10 Speaking of Advanced MD, any medical website that any of our(the company I work for) clients use is broken and unsupported in IE 10. Calling the tech support line results in something like this,
ME: "My client is having such and such issue, I have been looking at everything for 15 - 20 minutes, I can't find anything wrong, do you have any ideas?
Tech: "We only support Internet Explorer, are you using Internet Explorer?"
Me: "Yes"
Tech: "What version of Internet Explorer are you using?"
Me: "IE10 64bit."
Tech: "Oh...... We don't support Internet Exploder 10.... I can't help you..." *click*
Me: "Da Fuq?"

Not much in the way of options for WP8 either. You pretty much have the choice of IE, or some browser based on IE.

The IT company I work for co-hosted a clinic with Baylor Health, Baylor switched the clinic over to Citrix. I will go along with your statement, "Citrix applications seem to work." The clinic had a lot of problems with Citrix. Personally, one thing that really grinded my gears with citrix is when you added a new printer to the machine. You had to completely exit out of Citrix and then restart it before the printer would appear in a Citrix application for use. Small, I know, but can be a pain when you are replacing a printer with a newer model, different brand, etc.

I really liked my LG Optimus L9, i think it was a very solid buy for $200. I had the T-Mobile version (P769n) and couldn't unlock the boot loader, but I did root it. I used a different launcher, removed all of the worthless T-Mobile apps and everything else I didn't need. I ended up with a snappy, responsive phone that had a Galaxy S2 or S3 (don't remember which now) users envious. My mistake was going for one of those confounded WP that T-Mobile gives away for my GF after breaking the screen on her phone. She basically threw it at me so I had to give her my droid and use this WP8 phone. Its..... Its.... Not a day goes by that I look at my old LG and think about stealing my phone back. I've even gone as far as to plot this out. As soon as I'm able I am getting back on Droid and I would like another LG. As I said, I was very happy with my Optimus L9.