I know ranting about Microsoft products is about as original and entertaining as a good “what’s with those fat circumcized SUV drivers talking on cell phones in the movies” thread, but I’m really pissed off right now.
I bought a new mouse yesterday (thanks to those of you that offered advice in my thread, BTW). Its selling point was that it was a “media player” mouse, with buttons designed to let you control movies, music, etc. The installation CD came with a crapload of programs that I’d never allow onto my computer - Real Player, for instance. Well, I was able to uncheck all of them except one - Windows Media Player 9. Believe me, I tried. It simply refused to not install it. I eventually gave up and allowed it to install. See, I already had two versions of WMP installed, but only used the older version without all the obnoxious bells and whistles. I figured I could keep using the old version, so installing version 9 shouldn’t be a problem.
Ha. Ha ha ha.
As soon as I try to open up a movie file (one that had previously been associated with my old WMP version), I get a setup screen for version 9. I can’t remember why I didn’t just shut it down and try to reassociate it with the version I like, but there was some reason. Anyway, sure enough, hidden in the setup process, in some place where it was hard to find, is the option where you can check which file types you want to associate with this version. Feeling clever, I instantly uncheck all of them, hoping it will just install itself and not mess with any of my settings.
Ha. Ha ha ha.
After it finished setting itself up, I opened up the file again as a test. Sure enough, up popped WMP version damn nine again. I closed it, went in, and reassociated the file with the good version. Again. I made sure to check the box that said “Always use this program to open files of this type,” and everything. Tested it again. Version nine AGAIN comes up! After much swearing and experimentation, I find that there’s a menu inside WMP v 9 where you can set file associations. It was set to associate itself with everything, of course, overriding what I told it to do during installation. And that menu apparently overrides associations I set in the freaking operating system!! Well, I unchecked all the options in that menu, went back into the OS, and redid all my movie file type associations. I opened a few files, and they came up in the right player, finally, and everything appeared to be working. At last! Victory, I thought!!
Ha. Ha ha ha.
This morning, I opened up a different file I hadn’t tried last night. It played in the right program, but now it’s unwatchably jerky, like it’s showing the frames out of order. I did some poking around, and found several more files that are doing that now, that never did it before. I’m guessing there’s some codec that’s been messed up by WMP 9, and anything encoded with that codec is unwatchable now.
So that’s my current state. I decided to write this instead of trying to tackle the latest twist in the saga. So fuck you, Microsoft. Fuck you for trying to take over my fucking computer that’s already running your fucking OS. All I fucking want to do is use an older fucking version of one of your own fucking products, but you won’t be fucking having that, now will you? No! You fucking think you need to fucking tell me how my own fucking computer should be fucking run. Why fucking even pretend to give me the fucking option of customizing things when you’re just going to fucking go ahead and do what you fucking want anyway? Fuckers. This is exactly why I never upgrade any software on my computer. Every time I try to make one tiny change - a new MOUSE, for hell’s sake!! - it turns into a days-long headache-inducing nightmare ordeal from hell.
Off to try to figure out how to uninstall this bastard. Yeah, I’m sure THAT’LL work.