Category: My Pet Peeves

2021-05-132021-05-13

MS Edge – Hijacking my Default Browser

When I got this laptop (HP Pavilion) it came with Win 10 installed. Although I’d heard many negative things about Win 10 but what the hey, at least give it a chance. Actually it wasn’t the negative experience I thought it would be, at least after I’d removed a lot of bloatware that came with it. Somewhere I’d found or patched together a Powershell script to delete bits and pieces I didn’t want and I didn’t even mind the experience of MS’s pre-Chromium Edge browser. Different and not chrome.

Now also with this laptop also came an HP programme “HP Support Assistant“. Probably more akin to HTA’s I used to write in the early 2000’s for IE actually. It always opened my default browser to an HP page showing various messages, diagnostic tools and computer / driver updates. It sits on my Taskbar and occasionally sets a flag showing me how many messages there are (I have been ignoring).

Well today I opened it to check on a new new message and guess what? If you read the title you win today’s prize…

You guessed right and your prize is <sarcasm> “in the mail” </sarcasm>!
Yes Microsoft in it’s infinite wisdom has thought for me and pre-empted my opening this location in my default browser, which you all know by now is something far more useful as a browser, Vivaldi and is telling me how much better off I’d be opening this site with their browser. Hah !!

Yesterday I wrote about the time lost to Microsoft Updates on my WordPress site and just one day later I have another complaint.
I am sure this Hijacking by Microsoft contravenes many anti-monopoly laws worldwide, possibly (probably) even here in Canada.

P.S.
So far this has only happened with this particular application, actually a ‘Shortcut’ or .lnk file. There is probably not much I can do about it but rant as these files are controlled by the System.
I am just waiting for Microsoft to do more thinking for me and telling me to use Edge…

2021-05-052021-05-05

Grumble (a.k.a.. google) now wants my Birthdate

When I tried to log into gmail account it told me I had to give my birthdate. It further stated it was the Law.
Well I declined. They already have my name, location and Lord knows what the h*ll else they’ve collected about me since 2004(?)*.

I verified this was actually a Grumble page then clicked on the link that would explain why they needed such info. It explained nothing to me regarding why I needed to provide my birthdate or what Law required them to collect this information.

I clicked that the page was Not Helpful and left a comment that:
there was no Law in Canada requiring me to provide my birthdate and furthermore as a Canadian citizen, living in Canada, there is no requirement for me to provide this info.

That’s enough PII Grumble! No More.

2014-05-27

Gone, before its time…

It is unusual for me to toss something out that has not met its time (I have working computers from the 1990’s, I have had cars on which I’ve put on well over 400,000Km) but my barbeque went to the recyclers this morning.
It was only three years old 🙁 but it had some issues that I was not in a position to be able to repair.

The major one was rust. Yes I could buy the parts and put them on myself but I had issues there too. When I contacted the Canadian distributor regarding the rust issue they were only too pleased to quote me prices for the parts. As I pressed for why it be rusting out after only three years, the customer service rep was telling me that ‘well it is old and you should be getting a new barbeque’.
(Oddly enough my (10 year) old barbeque is just down the road as I gave it to a neighbour who could not afford one. He replaced the burner last year.)
The other major issue was the quality of construction of this unit. It was so poor that I was not willing to undertake any repairs on this product.

The fact that I paid zero dollars for this does not make me feel any better. It was won through a promotion at a local pub and at the time I thought it was a great thing. I checked it out at the store and it seemed like a good unit priced at $450.00. Only later did I realize what a piss-poor job of both design and manufacture this product was. For instance the front support bar was fastened to the legs with only one screw at each end resulting in it twisting out of alignment, becoming unstable and not allowing the doors to close. I was constantly having to tighten screws and bolts. The metal(?) heat shield seemed to be made of cardboard sprayed with metal paint. Not what I’d expect for something that is expected to protect the propane tank!

Now that I am shopping I have decided to stick to products manufactured here in Canada (we have some really good ones) or the U.S. (where they also make some quality products). I will have to pay a bit more but well worth it as the quality of parts and manufacture is far superior and Customer Service actually means Customer Service…

No names have been mentioned in the above post to protect the guilty.