Windows 7 is quickly becoming the bane of my existence. I travel quite frequently for business. As such I figured I would install Skype in order to keep in touch with my family at home and to provide myself with the ability to do video calls with them (it’s nice to be able to see one’s family and not just hear them). It took me a while to get my Lifecam NX-6000 (which is, allegedly, compatible with Windows 7 according to Microsoft’s gospel) installed and working both with the Lifecam software and with Skype. However, for reasons I CANNOT fathom, whenever I plug the webcam into a different USB port (and my laptop has 4 of them) Windows 7 wants to reinstall the driver. Well…today, it tried to reinstall the driver (I couldn’t remember which port I last plugged the webcam into) and failed – repeatedly. This for a product that is considered COMPATIBLE with Windows 7 (the Lifecam NX-6000 is only 2 years old at most!).
So, now, I cannot use the webcam and Skype crashes when I try to do a video test. This is utter BS on the part of Microsoft. I have tried looking up the help for this problem only to get some ridiculous crap about a) making sure that automatic updating is turned on (HELLO! This is a corporate system – they are only pushing patches that they approve!) or b) manually updating the drivers (tried that…no luck) or c) installing the software for the device from the manufacturer (uh…Microsoft…YOU ARE THE MANUFACTURERS OF THE FRIGGIN DEVICE AND THE OPERATING SYSTEM!!!!!). I’ve even done the usual uninstalling and reinstalling of the driver (Several times in fact – all to no avail). I’ve even done the sane thing of rebooting Windows. What I can’t understand is that Windows won’t provide for me any detailed information as to WHY the driver is failing (the only thing I can surmise is that the driver being used for the 1TB USB drive I got yesterday is the culprit…however, I’m not sure which one it is). This is beyond stupid and represents a truly, phenomenally crappy operating system. I’m starting to think that I will be looking to get a second laptop to travel with just so that I can stay in touch with my family with hardware that actually WORKS!)…perhaps a MacBook Pro…if only I can swallow the fact that I will be selling my soul to “The Steve”!
Ido's Blog 
2 comments
May 10, 2011 at 11:30 am
Linear Fix
That’s really strange. Haven’t had any problems with Windows 7 yet. 🙂
May 11, 2011 at 11:21 am
Unix Ronin
Seriously. I thought after XP even Microsoft couldn’t make Windows any more brainstampingly stupid/retarded than it was. Windows 7 has proved me wrong. For just one example, Windows used to remember the sizes of a reasonable number of recently opened windows. But Windows 7? Forget it. It appears to default to opening any window at the size of either the last window you resized, or the last window you closed, according to its own whim of the moment. And then there’s all the crap in every damned window that you can’t turn off. No, no, Windows, trust me, I really DO NOT need to have half the accursed bloated Start menu duplicated in every window. And the Start menu itself has grown still more bloated… if this keeps up, before long, all Windows users are going to need dual-monitor setups, with one reserved entirely for the ever-expanding Start menu.
I only use Windows any more for gaming, and I wouldn’t use it for gaming if the games I like were all available for (and ran as well on) Linux. Good gods, is Microsoft trying to eventually make Windows COMPLETELY unusable? And they wonder why they’re losing market share to Linux….