Congratulations, you’ve found an instance of a bug in Office XP.
Oh wait…we were talking about Windows XP here…
Actually every once a while when you hit back and forward your information magically dissapears in IE.
Monster, bugs like that are the best reason not to buy XP.
Yes, but Office XP and Windows XP are quite different. Because a bug is present in a product that is selling does not mean a product in development will have the same bug.
I’m aware of that. But this requires some sort of action on the part of the user, doesn’t it? 
Which XP? Windows or Office? Because - surprise! - they’re not the same. A glitch in one isn’t necessarily shared by the other simply because Microsoft decided to latch “XP” on the end of the product name.
True, but XP is almost guaranteed to have bugs of the sort:)
I would just like to say that I am on XP build 2486 and I love it. I upgraded from ME where I had to reboot several times a day, at least a few of them by hard reset.
XP hasn’t crashed once in the 8 days I’ve been using it.
I had to download NT drivers for a USB harddrive and that was it - worked beautifully. No problems, no complaints.
I should also point out that we’ve been using Windows XP for quite a while now (well over a month)… no problems at all.
Dirty, I’m surprised you had to download some USB drivers… so far, XP has had built-in support for everything we’ve plugged in: Scanner, digital camera, portable memory stick drive… it also comes with built-in support for CD-RW, which makes it a lot easier to burn a CD…
Anyway, the point is… no major glitches yet (there was one glitch near the beginning where it wouldn’t shut down properly, but hey, it was a Beta).
At this point, I don’t know if it’s a bug or not. My reason for bringing it up, however, is that IMO it is directly related to the issue of the recent debate – that of Microsoft selling the user a license that s/he can only use on “one machine”. Aside from the questionable tactic of the practice (as I wrote earlier, I agree with Homer that a user should be allowed to install multiple copies if it helps his workflow), there’s the question of what constitutes a “single machine” in Microsoft’s eyes.
And yeah, I won’t be surprised if similar screwups happen under Windows XP, either. Microsoft has never been known for writing quality software … just for squashing competitors.
I know that this has sort of been covered before, but I want to through this out again based on what happened at work today. I work for a satellite phone company and one of our customers called in with problems interfacing his sat phone with his laptop to do a data connection. Now, since I’m the tech guy, I’ve done this before, and its a fairly straightforward operation. You just load the software, adjust a few minor settings, hook your phone up, and as long as you’ve got signal, you’re surfin’ the web (at 10k/sec)! This guy was a non-starter, the software screwed his machine up and wasn’t letting him do anything. So, I take down the essential information: what version of Windows (ME), what kind of laptop, etc, etc. And I call up the software vendor, explain the problem to their tech guy, who’s as puzzled as I am. So, he calls up the customer, and a few other in-house experts and they have a nice long chat. Turns out that the customer’s Sony Viao (sp?) when its in its docking station think’s that its hooked up to a network, when its pulled out of the docking station (and this model has 2 different kinds), it no longer thinks that its networked and it was this that was causing the problems. Last I heard, they hadn’t come up with a solution. Now, I have to wonder if Microsoft took things like this into account. Not the sat phone software, but that laptops can be plugged and unplugged from networks at any time. And since this guy’s docking station has things like serial ports which his laptop doesn’t have, I’m wondering if that’s enough of a change to cause XP to go nuts. Not looking promising, based on the Office XP article, if you ask me.
From what I understand about Windows XP running on laptops (I don’t know firsthand as I don’t have a laptop), you would install XP under the laptop option, and it recognizes PCMCIA as such and not a change in the hardware configuration (It treats them like peripherals, and you can add as many peripherals as you want without having to reactivate).
I do not know how XP handles single or multiple docking stations, and I will not speculate on it, either.
I haven’t read this whole thread, in part because there’s been so much swearing the the 'net filter is cutting off the pages. However…
People who chant about “big business” (a pejorative term some like to taint discussions with) being greedy seem to forget that they too would like set rules for the use of their labor. How would we like it if people who only rented our car said, “Well, you said rent, but I meant buy, and your terms in the contract can simply go hang. I dare you to come to my house and get it back.”
This next point can not be stressed strongly enough: The value of something is determined by the demand for it and the scarcity of the supply. This is why we don’t pay much for dirt. The supply is pretty stinkin’ big.
If you increase the supply artificially, you are significantly reducing the earning power of the people who took the time and effort to make it in the first place. If this happens enough, you eventually start driving out of business the people who have the talent to do the design and manufacture.
I’ll tell you, if someone cloned my subscription-based web site, I’d be in their server room with a hammer. That took us months to build, and if you just doubled the supply, may God have mercy on your soul, and the decision may be coming up soon.
This reminds me of a great point that I got off http://www.smartertimes.com, which makes a daily critique of the NY Times. Why is it that leftist newspaper editors will rag on corporate America, as if the executives, employees, and stockholders are not American citizens and voters, with every right to have their opinions heard?
Corporate America is what made those Lincoln Navigators semi-affordable to two-faced editorial writers. How expensive was the equivalent of a Navigator 30 years ago? Basically, it wasn’t availabe at any price. Many of the components hadn’t been invented yet.
Another rant: It is the profit motive that keeps companies doing r&d to come out with wonderful products for you. Cut off their funds, and the possibility of their making a profit on the new products, and you can kiss it all goodbye. If this is your idea of a perfect society, I suggest you go to the rural Phillipines or something. There you can have freedom from the force of law that keeps people from taking what you have made. Go right ahead.
I’m done now.
By the way, Microsoft has decided not to include Smart Tags in the final version of Windows XP.