# Microsoft? Anyone home? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 16, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-anyone-home/532691 "2010-03-16T20:05:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cedman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cedman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cedman)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-anyone-home/532691/1 "2010-03-16T20:05:45Z")
Are there any links that can get you to [Microsoft.com](http://Microsoft.com)? Typing in the full url goes to a “broken link” page as does every link from any other page on the web. I’m trying to install the software for our new Microsoft VX-2000 webcam and getting nowhere. Has Bill Gates died? Been taken hostage? Terrorist attack on world headquarters? Gone out of business? God how I hate PCs! :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-anyone-home/532691/2 "2010-03-16T20:18:56Z")
As [http://www.microsoft.com](http://www.microsoft.com) is operational for me (and, I’m sure, almost everyone else) I would think that you have a virus or Trojan hijacking your Internet access. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-anyone-home/532691/3 "2010-03-16T20:39:17Z")
[Bookmark this.](http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/) ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-anyone-home/532691/4 "2010-03-16T21:14:54Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > [Bookmark this.](http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/) I think that site is down. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-anyone-home/532691/5 "2010-03-16T21:46:59Z")
> [@UncleRojelio](#): > > I think that site is down. If only there were a way to be sure. . . ---
**Author:** ![Apex\_Rogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@Apex\_Rogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apex_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2010, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-anyone-home/532691/6 "2010-03-16T22:25:46Z")
> [@cedman](#): > > Are there any links that can get you to [Microsoft.com](http://Microsoft.com)? Typing in the full url goes to a “broken link” page as does every link from any other page on the web. I’m trying to install the software for our new Microsoft VX-2000 webcam and getting nowhere. > > Has Bill Gates died? Been taken hostage? Terrorist attack on world headquarters? Gone out of business? > > God how I hate PCs! :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: Your browser seems to have been hijacked by viruses or malware, most likely from careless browsing on your part. Try to visit [http://www.malwarebytes.org/](http://www.malwarebytes.org/) and download their latest scanner. Sign up for their forums and post your log, and some helpful expert/knowledgeable user will help you from there. If you cannot access that website from your computer, try doing it from a friend’s computer to download the scanner so you can copy it to a USB stick and run it from your PC. BTW: I’m wondering how this has anything to do with the fact that you’re using a PC, other than you evidently do not know how to use it safely. ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-anyone-home/532691/7 "2010-03-17T04:48:48Z")
> [@Apex\_Rogers](#): > > BTW: I’m wondering how this has anything to do with the fact that you’re using a PC, other than you evidently do not know how to use it safely. Macs can access any site, any time, even if it doesn’t actually exist. Macs can still get to Geocities. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-anyone-home/532691/8 "2010-03-17T13:59:45Z")
> [@Silophant](#): > > Macs can access any site, any time, even if it doesn’t actually exist. Macs can still get to Geocities. I use my Mac to access a BBS I used to use in the early '80s. It’s nice to be able to e-mail friends who have been dead for 20 years…😃 ---
**Author:** ![Apex\_Rogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@Apex\_Rogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apex_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-anyone-home/532691/9 "2010-03-17T18:16:33Z")
> [@Silophant](#): > > Macs can access any site, any time, even if it doesn’t actually exist. Macs can still get to Geocities. Everything just works with Apple! Just take my iPhone. After upgrading to 3.1 OS and trying to sync music with iTunes, the iPhone helpfully decided to erase the entire contents of my music library. I am now unable to sync any music to my phone. There is a 15 page thread on the apple support forums filled with people in the same situation and hair-brained “solutions” that involve erasing all of my iPhone and resyncing it, with the caveat that the problem will return and require a repeat of the procedure. Hmm, so I should repeat the original act that failed (syncing music) except now, do it with the whole phone! I’m sure nothing could ever go wrong, it’s Apple you know. ---
**Author:** ![cedman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cedman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cedman)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2010, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-anyone-home/532691/10 "2010-03-17T18:52:25Z")
> [@](#): > > BTW: I’m wondering how this has anything to do with the fact that you’re using a PC, other than you evidently do not know how to use it safely. In the time that I have been using computers, I’ve NEVER had a problem with a Mac that I couldn’t resolve on my own within a short time period. On the other hand, PCs running any Microsoft program require much more effort and sometimes the PAID support of the damn fools who wrote the progam to start with. Yeah, that makes sense… pay someone to fix a problem that they caused. How astute of you to miss the fact that other family members use this computer including a 12 year old and a 14 year old for school work. In coming to the SDMB, I’d hoped to get help in resolving a problem. If, instead, I was looking for smart-assed comments, I would haver gone to the middle school where the kids go to school. Thanks to you, I have saved myself a trip. Appreciate it much! 😃 BTW, webcam is working fine, the hard drive has been cleaned of any and all malware. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-anyone-home/532691/11 "2010-03-18T01:54:56Z")
> [@cedman](#): > > In the time that I have been using computers, I’ve NEVER had a problem with a Mac that I couldn’t resolve on my own within a short time period. On the other hand, PCs running any Microsoft program require much more effort and sometimes the PAID support of the damn fools who wrote the progam to start with. Yeah, that makes sense… pay someone to fix a problem that they caused. > > How astute of you to miss the fact that other family members use this computer including a 12 year old and a 14 year old for school work. In coming to the SDMB, I’d hoped to get help in resolving a problem. If, instead, I was looking for smart-assed comments, I would haver gone to the middle school where the kids go to school. > > Thanks to you, I have saved myself a trip. Appreciate it much! 😃 > > BTW, webcam is working fine, the hard drive has been cleaned of any and all malware. Even the Microsofties who wrote the OS can’t help you. When it comes to Winblows, everyone makes jokes, because they REALLY don’t want to have to go look at that collection of nightmares. If you allow enough time for the gallows-humor jokes to run their course, maybe someone who’s willing to look will actually find the problem before losing his/her sanity. It’s the risk of losing our sanity that makes us reluctant to look at anything Microsoft made… ---
**Author:** ![Apex\_Rogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@Apex\_Rogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apex_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2010, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/microsoft-anyone-home/532691/12 "2010-03-18T03:16:43Z")
> [@cedman](#): > > In the time that I have been using computers, I’ve NEVER had a problem with a Mac that I couldn’t resolve on my own within a short time period. On the other hand, PCs running any Microsoft program require much more effort and sometimes the PAID support of the damn fools who wrote the progam to start with. Yeah, that makes sense… pay someone to fix a problem that they caused. Your problem was caused by acquiring malware, which then hijacked your browser and blocked certain websites. So why are you blaming Microsoft instead of the punks who wrote the piece of malware? I don’t see what your diatribe about Microsoft programs has to do with this in the slightest. > [@](#): > > How astute of you to miss the fact that other family members use this computer including a 12 year old and a 14 year old for school work. In coming to the SDMB, I’d hoped to get help in resolving a problem. If, instead, I was looking for smart-assed comments, I would haver gone to the middle school where the kids go to school. > > Thanks to you, I have saved myself a trip. Appreciate it much! 😃 Yes, how astute of me for not being clairvoyant and failing to determine from the paucity of facts in your OP that someone other than yourself may have downloaded the software. I assume you have a program that monitors for and blocks malware, as well as protected user accounts for the kids so that they cannot cause too much trouble, right? This would rightly fall under the purview of “using your computer safely.”