[XCSSA] The Tyrrany of Redmond

[xcssa@xcssa.org]

>>
>> My biggest gripe about Windows XP is how bad it is about shutting
>> down.  It takes many minutes, if it works at all.  First you wait and
>> wait, and then it asks if you want to terminate non-responding task
>> such-and-such.  You say YES and then wait a few more minutes, and
>> then it asks if you want to terminate some other non-responding task
>> (or maybe the same one).  Finally, it will sometimes actually shut
>> down, and other times it will simply leave your desktop in an
>> inoperable state which gives you no choice but to hit the hardware
>> reset button.  Then, of course, it complains that YOU did not shut
>> down properly.  I have to go through this ritual weekly because of
>> security updates, or whenever something else messes up the system.
>>
> Yes.. but you still want daemons to gracefully close things like  
> database
> connections, client sessions, etc.. before doing the final synch no?

Sure, I wouldn't mind orderly shutdown, if it takes a few seconds,  
not 10 minutes.  My Macs and Unix machines don't have this trouble.   
They shut down in a few seconds.  Only on Windows XP does it take  
almost forever to shut down, because Windows insists on being "nice"  
to all the bad processes that don't respond when they are supposed  
to, and gives them several minutes before even asking you if you want  
to terminate them.

BTW, as I said before, it's usually Norton Antivirus that causes this  
problem, but a few other things can do it also.  Somehow my system  
got messed up, such as when I installed Norton Systemworks.  Now,  
when it boots up, I get 1-3 dialogs like this:

"Microsoft Windows is installing new software on your computer..."

"Norton Antivirus 2006 does not support the repair option.  Please  
uninstall and reinstall."

But that's funny, because Norton Antivirus *is* installed and it is  
(otherwise) working fine (as fine as it ever works).  Anyway, I've  
learned to be patient with these bootup dialogs, and only click "OK"  
and not "Cancel".  If I click "Cancel", or close the dialog boxes  
with their close button, THAT is what causes the usual interminable  
shutdown later.

Now just last week, I looked this up on Norton's website, checked the  
directories that I was supposed to check (they were fine), and ran  
their cleanup tool.  I was rewarded for my efforts with a bootup that  
now has 3 of the above dialogs, typically, instead of just 2.  (In  
fact, IIRC, that was how I ended up with 2, instead of just 1, when I  
ran their cleanup tool last year.  But I had forgotten about that.   
Apparently every time I run their cleanup tool I simply dig a deeper  
hole.  Why can't Norton clean up after itself properly?  I'm thinking  
of trying out another brand registry cleaner, like the one that  
helped me finally clean out all of McAfee's TSR's on my Win98 system  
(which had slowed down that system so much it was nearly useless, and  
even a McAfee uninstall didn't help).  Also, it's very annoying that  
both Norton and McAfee don't put their temporary stuff in the usual  
StartUp location, but in some other strange places, where it's  
essentially impossible to dig out without a special cleanup program.

The only remaining option in the Norton FAQs is to wipe all Norton  
products and reinstall.  I have two problems with that.  For one,  
"Norton Internet Security" came pre-installed on my computer, so I  
don't have a disc for it.  Norton Systemworks came on a disc, but I  
can't find the disc, and my one year "license" for it has already  
expired, so I don't expect I'll be able to download a new copy from  
Norton, which is where most of it comes from even if you have the  
disc.  (In spite of being "expired" it still seems to work.)  BTW, I  
hate 1 year licenses.  I've hardly even used this $79 program, and  
now it's "expired".  So I put up with all the annoyances so I can  
keep this program in case I need it later.  Among other things, it  
has an upgraded "scandisc" that seems to clean up disc problems  
better than the built-in one.  But I've only used that once.  Also,  
"Norton Internet Security" has learned about all the ports it needs  
to leave open for other programs.  If I wipe and reinstall, it may  
need to go through that painful learning process all over again.

>
>> The disk cache should always sync to disk completely whenever there
>> is idle time.

>
> Yes.. but if a file is sent to disk.. and the disk replies  
> "written" before
> cache is dumped to disk, then the disk cache will need to be non- 
> volatile
> (either SRAM + battery or some new NV solution such as FeRAM).

Once again, I'd certainly be willing to wait a few seconds for the  
disc to write its own cache out.  I'm sure that happens on Macs and  
Unix systems, and it doesn't take long.

The problem is on Windows when it won't shutdown properly.  Then,  
you're stuck.  You have no alternative but to use the hardware reboot  
or shutdown.

Now, even that wouldn't be a problem if the disc were always kept  
syncd, as much as possible anyway.

Windows ought to have a seperate "sync disks" command so you can do  
that before hitting the hardware reset button.

>
> Later.. windows (with Win2k and newer) became more "resilient" to  
> crashes due
> to advances of and the stability of NTFS (as did Linux with ext2,  
> Reiser,
> JFS, and XFS).


That's good to hear.  It's good that the filesystem has become more  
resilient to crashes.  Especially since the system seems to  
experience crashes and hangs even more frequently than Windows 98.

Charles