Worst Windows Experience that forced YOU to switch?

[VoodooDaddy]

Ok, my story. I don't have any big, bad, terrible experiences with Windows per say.

The first mention of ever getting a Mac came from my wife. About 2-3yrs out of the blue one day she said "I want a Mac." She is always one to want to break from the norm, and this didn't surprise me. She's not very computer savy so I knew she knew nothing about them. I mean she could get around ok in XP, but she didn't know where most of the settings were, how to changed them, what to do if she ran acrossed a problem, that kind of thing.

My reaction was "Pfft, what do you want a Mac for? They are over priced and over hyped by fanboys." Her reply "I don't know, I just do." Well that's not exactly a convincing argument to get me to even consider it.

I didn't know anyone that had a Mac so I had 0 experience with them. I had seen them at Compusa and maybe clicked around a bit to see what it was like. But it was more out of odd curiosity, like staring at a circus sideshow freak just because. I had no interest.

When the first mac mini came out, about 2yrs ago I think it was, at that point I developed a small spark of interest. I toyed with the idea of getting one just to see what it was like. I think the cheap version was only $399 which wasn't a big investment. I actually went to an Apple store with a small possibility I might buy one. Well about 5min in the store and I was thinking "what am I doing here?? Why do I want this??" I left and that spark died.

So fast forward to this past May 06. My "newest" built-by-me pc was going on 3.5yrs old. It was still on its initial install of XP and had begun to choke up a little bit. Boot up, when I had to, was very slow. I would get unexpected errors from time to time, programs increasingly not responding, that kind of thing. Really nothing that a fresh install couldn't clear up. But with the computers age I was ready to get something new. I was really past the build-your-own stage. It was fun and interesting the first 3 or 4 times, but I didn't feel like it.

I had heard of the new Intel Macs. At that point there was no Bootcamp and getting XP to run on there was a fairly complex process, not something I had much desire to try. But then Bootcamp came out and my interest was peaked like it had been stuck with a straight pin.

I had for a while still harbored some desire "just to try a Mac to see what OSX was like." But now, with the ability to run XP natively on a Mac it did make some real sense to get one. I could use XP still, but boot into OSX and fiddle around at my leisure.

So I settled on a mini core duo. H
I had to get the one with the superdrive as I needed dvd burning ability. I have to tell you, the $799 price tag was still a bit hard to overcome. That would buy a heckuva lot of PC hardware.

So I go back to the Apple store again, this time maybe 50/50 I was going to buy. I clicked around on one, not really knowing what I was looking for or doing. I then asked one of the sales guys "Do you have Bootcamp running XP on any of these?" He tells me no, and I said "hmm, ok." I turn around and leave with the "what am I doing in here looking at Macs" thought in my head for the 2nd time in my life.

My desire for the mini really took a nosedive when I walked out. But, a few weeks go buy and I become interested again. I end up at a Frys and to my luck I guess you could say, a guy comes over to ask me if I need help and he just happens to be a longtime Mac user. So we talked for a few and I said I was really interested but I still didn't know if this was for me. I ask my wife "what should I do?" The longer I thought about this the less likely I was to buy it. She said "just get it." So I turned, and knowing if I just didn't go for it, I never would. So I said "I'll take it."

Now my intention was to, that night, put XP on there. I got home, got it unpacked. Wow, this thing was tiny. Holy cow, this thing is whisper quiet. Very unlike my last custom built rig which, if you put wings on the side, probably could have flown with all the fans inside.

I then decided "maybe I should just wait a day or two before I put XP on." Give (ie - force) myself some time to learn OSX a bit.

Well days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and I've never done Bootcamp. I did buy Parallels when it was 49.99, before the price increase, but I've booted into XP 3 times only. And the first time was just the novelty to see it working. So only 2 times have I booted into XP to actually do something. And it wasn't anything big. I probably shut it down 10min after I started it up.

So that's my story. I will say initially I wasn't blown away by OSX, and I'm still not. But I have grown to appreciate it more and more with passing time. Windows, when I'm on it now (oldest boy still uses it) seems a bit archaic.

Brevity is not my strong suite sorry to say. Oh, and after the mini I got the wife a Macbook a month later, and just bought the younger kids an iMac G3 DV SE to use to play on the internet.

3 Macs in 7 months. Not too bad.

:)

[jessep28]

I officialy wish that every link going to either that video or the "Hi, I'm a Wii, Hi, I'm a PS3" video be banned, and the person who posted it should have their index fingers chopped off!

Incase you didn't get it, that video has been posted literally hundereds of times.

That was nice.

[mikes63737]

this

[Quboid]

I was ona windows box and I accidently went unto the apple website. I looked at the computer on the website and then looked at the computer i was using.
Suddenly i knew what i had to do.:D

[zephead]

this

Haha, could that be anymore of an obvious statement? That happened to my cousin's computer and I told the computer "Thank you, Captain Obvious!!" :rolleyes:

[Nym]

Ok, my story.


Sorry but I have to ask this question:

You say it was not until bootcamp came out that you started to become interested in Mac's, however, from your personal info I can see your register date at MacRumors is from 2003 :)

I'm not trying to be a PITA, but that confused me :D

[iBookG4user]

This didn't make me switch as it happened today but it's things like this that made my decision easier.

Today was my Grandma's birthday and she got to go on a cruise around the bay, after dinner a slideshow was planned. I got to help setup the slideshow, it required the use of speakers, a projector and my uncle's laptop (he was the one who put everything together). Everything started out ok until the dell laptop was brought out, the project worked (he said it cost $10,000 when it only used VGA :rolleyes: but that's beside the point) and the laptop booted. First he started the slideshow without the projector hooked into the laptop and windows complained about some random crap as always but it did work. Then he hooked up the projector and every-time he started the slideshow it would reboot the projector, half an hour after the slideshow was supposed to start it still wasn't working and finally after some 10 reboots of the laptop and even more for the projector it worked. I was thinking that with my MacBook Pro it would have been ahead of schedule... (it finally working was just pure luck, nothing more.)

Yeah, windows truly messes up things that shouldn't be messed up, if he just used Macs than the event wouldn't have been over half an hour behind schedule. My uncle is supposedly the computer wiz, but he uses windows and this event shows why he should be open to using Macs, the CEO of his company uses a MacBook Pro and he has some dell latitude.

[UserofMacOSX]

I got tired of everything being hard to do. IMO, nothing is easy on a PC, plus they are very touchy. I accidentally clicked "Open in Finder" on about 300 selected pictures and this computer opened about 300 Finder windows without even flinching. They were a PITA to close though! Plus PCs require sooo much maintenance just to stay up and running. Besides the Disk Utility, is there even anything like all the crap on a PC on a Mac??? What exactly does the Disk Utility do? Is it like a disk defragmenter?
Another thing that made me switch was just the way Windows operates, it seems like there was no thought whatsoever and they just slung it out on the market. When I was building a website, the computer froze many times causing me to lose all my data. I hate saving every 5 seconds, so I got a Mac, I don't save until I am done for the day with this one.
I also like how Apples just come with almost everything you'd ever need. Over half of the apps on my computer have never even been ran, most I don't even know what they do. On a PC, most apps cause a rapid freeze-up and/or system crash.

[wrldwzrd89]

I got tired of everything being hard to do. IMO, nothing is easy on a PC, plus they are very touchy. I accidentally clicked "Open in Finder" on about 300 selected pictures and this computer opened about 300 Finder windows without even flinching. They were a PITA to close though! Plus PCs require sooo much maintenance just to stay up and running. Besides the Disk Utility, is there even anything like all the crap on a PC on a Mac??? What exactly does the Disk Utility do? Is it like a disk defragmenter?
Another thing that made me switch was just the way Windows operates, it seems like there was no thought whatsoever and they just slung it out on the market. When I was building a website, the computer froze many times causing me to lose all my data. I hate saving every 5 seconds, so I got a Mac, I don't save until I am done for the day with this one.
I also like how Apples just come with almost everything you'd ever need. Over half of the apps on my computer have never even been ran, most I don't even know what they do. On a PC, most apps cause a rapid freeze-up and/or system crash.
Sounds to me like you could use a keyboard shortcut or two. Try Apple+Alt+W in the Finder - this closes ALL Finder windows at once. Very useful if you find yourself in that situation again.

[PCtoMac-change]

I had just got my 2nd PC that year, and then it kept cutting off one day. Then the next day in school I had a mid-term and the PC just cut off, I thought to myself "I get enough of this at home."

Then I got thinking everyone I know that has a Mac loves it, and everyone I know with a PC always complains about it. So why not just try a Mac out for myself? And I did now I will never ever ever ever go back :) .

[richmon22]

i got rid of windows because my old lapto was poorly made machien that would crash all of the time. also because i do a lot of design and media related things.

haven't gone back but installed vista on my dad's computer and realized how super osx is.

you know that new security comercial that apple has is 100% true

[Cristian]

The common one, having to reinstall/reformat my pc all the time.

[ricgnzlzcr]

I just ended up wanting to switch to a laptop and switching OS seemed like a fun idea

[EMKoper]

Entered the Mac community in ~2002 with a PowerMac and in ~2004 with a PowerBook -- both are great and still running well, no problem. Recently purchased a $600 dell laptop ... compared to my PowerBook ($2000), I like the Dell's keyboard better, I like the Dell's glossy screen better, Dell's sound/speakers are better, Dell's wireless reception is much, much better, Dell has a 2x layer DVD writer, and XP has yet to crash on me (only complaint is my old copy of Illustrator 10 and PhotoShop Elements 2.0 won't install and run properly and took some amount of time to remove all the cruddy pre-installed software). The only drawback is the size (portability isn't that important to me--expect around the house!) and the power cable comes in at a strange place making it difficult to comfortably rest on your lap with your legs crossed.

So, every reason I switched doesn't appear to be valid any longer in my particular case.

[00hkelly]

"The service 'Help and Support' is not avaliable, to fix this open Help and Support."

there were many, many others...

[zephead]

Entered the Mac community in ~2002 with a PowerMac and in ~2004 with a PowerBook -- both are great and still running well, no problem. Recently purchased a $600 dell laptop ... compared to my PowerBook ($2000), I like the Dell's keyboard better, I like the Dell's glossy screen better, Dell's sound/speakers are better, Dell's wireless reception is much, much better, Dell has a 2x layer DVD writer, and XP has yet to crash on me (only complaint is my old copy of Illustrator 10 and PhotoShop Elements 2.0 won't install and run properly and took some amount of time to remove all the cruddy pre-installed software). The only drawback is the size (portability isn't that important to me--expect around the house!) and the power cable comes in at a strange place making it difficult to comfortably rest on your lap with your legs crossed.

So, every reason I switched doesn't appear to be valid any longer in my particular case.

Wait about a year or so. ;)

[EMKoper]

Wait about a year or so. ;)
I'll report back if my story changes significantly good or significantly bad... for both my Dell and Apples (PM and PB). :)

[polishmacuser]

blue screen of death for installing a graphics card, booting up one day saying missing system 32 file please reinstall application updates, and the concept of it being created by bill gates and steve ballmer :mad: MAC RULES im never switching back to my crapbox that is called a buisness machine:p

[sparkyms]

reliability issues.

Fed up with it being slow.
Use Macs at university, im doing a design degree.
It's just easier and so much better. Plus my 24" screen is rather lovely as well.

[Mikael]

Reading through this entire thread, one thing that struck me is that a very large chunk of these "Windows problems" are hardware problems. As a hardware enthusiast, computer tech and programmer, I can say without doubt that most of the following problems are not OS related:

- "I have to reformat every day/week"
- "I get random restarts"
- "My computer BSODS all the time"
- "My registry gets corrupted over and over again"

Those are hardware problems. They can also be caused by bad drivers, BIOS settings and possibly virus infections, but hardware errors seem to be the most frequent source of these errors.

I might also add that Windows XP isn't unstable if the hardware/software and drivers work. I have not experienced a single crash that could be attributed to the OS in the 5 years I've used it at home. Neither have I experienced an OS related crash during the 30,000+ hours that the three XP computers at work have clocked since I built them. It might also be of interest to you guys that these computers haven't been reformated since they where built back in 2003... They still boot in about 40 seconds.

During my work with XP computers, I've learnt that it is a very stable OS. When you have a stability problem you can infact work from the assumption that the OS is the one thing in the hardware/software chain that probably doesn't have anything to do with the problem. I honestly can't think of any occasion where I've actually discovered that it was in fact a WinXP bug that caused the instability.

As for viruses, none of the four boxes at home or three at work have antivirus software. Judging by the posts in this thread, they should all be full of viruses. The truth is that they don't have any viruses at all (as confirmed by a few different online scans). For example, the machine I'm writing this on has been constantly connected to the web since it was built last september. To this date it hasn't contracted a single virus and I use this machine for browsing the web several hours a day.

I'm not saying that Windows XP doesn't have problems, though. Just wanted to point out that stability is not one of them. A lot of posts in this thread have a clear newbie vibe to them and there's nothing wrong with being a newbie. We all start there. Being a newbie and diagnosing computer problems is probably not a good idea, though, and that's pretty well illustrated by this thread.

[zephead]

I can say without doubt that most of the following problems are not OS related:

- "I have to reformat every day/week"
- "I get random restarts"
- "My computer BSODS all the time"
- "My registry gets corrupted over and over again"

Those are hardware problems. They can also be caused by bad drivers, BIOS settings and possibly virus infections, but hardware errors seem to be the most frequent source of these errors.

I'm sorry, but you're just wrong. The registry is not part of the hardware, it's a part of Windows. Otherwise, Macs would also have a registry (thank God they don't!). And let me ask you something, what runs the hardware? Well it doesn't just run itself, the software runs it. And if the software doesn't manage the hardware properly, the hardware isn't going to work correctly.

I might also add that Windows XP isn't unstable if the hardware/software and drivers work. I have not experienced a single crash that could be attributed to the OS in the 5 years I've used it at home. Neither have I experienced an OS related crash during the 30,000+ hours that the three XP computers at work have clocked since I built them. It might also be of interest to you guys that these computers haven't been reformated since they where built back in 2003... They still boot in about 40 seconds.

As for viruses, none of the four boxes at home or three at work have antivirus software. Judging by the posts in this thread, they should all be full of viruses. The truth is that they don't have any viruses at all (as confirmed by a few different online scans). For example, the machine I'm writing this on has been constantly connected to the web since it was built last september. To this date it hasn't contracted a single virus and I use this machine for browsing the web several hours a day.

:eek: :eek: If that's true, then WOW. You may as well have won the lottery, as it's about an equal chance of what you're claming. Congrats!

[Mikael]

I'm sorry, but you're just wrong. The registry is not part of the hardware, it's a part of Windows. Otherwise, Macs would also have a registry (thank God they don't!). And let me ask you something, what runs the hardware? Well it doesn't just run itself, the software runs it. And if the software doesn't manage the hardware properly, the hardware isn't going to work correctly.
Yes, Windows manages the hardware, but the hardware is also what runs Windows. The software is run on the hardware and unless that works correctly, the software will act up. For example, registry errors can happen because of memory errors (or incorrect timing/frequency settings in BIOS), defective CPU, harddrive dying, etc. Servicing the XP systems at work, along with a few clients, all my friends machines and the four systems at home, I've had exactly zero registry errors in the five-six years that I've had to deal with XP. It's simply extremely rare. I got one registry corruption problem back when I used Windows 98. It turned out to be caused by a defective motherboard.

However, in the Mac community, it's somehow considered 'normal' for an XP system to throw registry errors, BSODs, reboot randomly, etc. I'm sorry, but I have enough experience with this OS to say that this won't happen on a correctly configured system free of hardware defects.

I spend a lot of time on hardware enthusiast forums and you'd think that all these extremely serious errors with XP would be reflected in the threads. They don't.

The machines I service and use have probably clocked several hundred thousands of hours in XP without registry errors, yet you say that it has a bug that causes registry corruption? A bug so random that it hasn't reared it's ugly head in five years and on any of the bunch of computers I service?

Here's an article from Microsoft on the matter: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822705

As expected, Microsoft also seems to think hardware failure is the most probable cause, and rightly so. Another cause is some process or program that corrupts the registry. You could for example have malware that's been specifically designed to corrupt the registry.

:eek: :eek: If that's true, then WOW. You may as well have won the lottery, as it's about an equal chance of what you're claming. Congrats!
Hardly. Just stay away from the most shady porn sites and be careful with what you download through P2P (and possibly Bittorrent) and you're much safer than you'd think.

[iToaster]

It looks menacing, I know, I don't like paragraphs, but listen to my story:
It all started when my mother said we needed a new computer. She wanted a Mac... an iBook G4. Don't hate me, I was foolish, I had no idea who apple was... I shot it down without a minutes research. We got a Dell XPSucks sunthinoranother. I suffered with it, thinking that Windows was the only OS (that made using what were macs awkward). I went to europe that summer. My roomie happened to have an iBook, an iBook G4. Quite simply, I was stunned. We did things on that every night when we got back from the day's excursions. And wouldn't you know it, one hotel we stayed at in France had an apple store right across the street from it. We went over and he showed me the new intel macs. I got home, I was obsessed. I told my dad I wanted a mac badly, I would stare at apple's website for hours on end, configuring the macs I wanted. My birthday resulted in an iPod. My desire continued. It was getting through to him, he was going to get me one for x-mas. One single text message ruined that: "Engaged." My sister had picked the absolute worts time to get married. So suddenly, that mac money became sister money (it's ok, she uses a mac actually). So I started saving up for myself. All I got for x-mas was money, which added well to my savings. We went to New York for part of x-mas break. We had to go to the apple store and stare at the macs. We walked into that sacred 32 cubic foot glass cube. We twisted down those stairs. I gazed upon the glory of the macs. I went over to the MacBooks and struck a deal. I was going to get one. "Excuse me sir, I would like to purchase a MacBook." "Ok, which one do you want." I spouted the lines that I had memorized for months... "I would like a black MacBook." We continue with .mac and such. Oh, I will never forget that glorious cachier, he, his iMac T-shirt, and interesting side burns went into that door. I peered in, seeing many boxes and even a G3 iMac. He emerged carrying that glorious box. We conducted our business. My dad took a few pictures. We went to our hotel. I had him film it all. Oh that glorious chime, it echoed throughout my brain. That awe inspiring startup video, it replayed in my mind for days. I was left alone with my MacBook for the first time. "Congatulations. You and you're MacBook were made for each other." The perfect lines for that treasured little manual. Never, ever, EVER will I use that disgrace of an operating system (Windows) ever again. I have converted may since that day. Only the most die hard of windows fans are left unswayed by my words. All praise Lord Jobs.

[polishmacuser]

i just loved when my pc went into the blue screen of death or one virus ********* your whole hard drive and erased everything lol now i love my macbook:D

[Kamera RAWr]

The blue screen of death a few too many times, talking to Dell technical support guys named "John" with distinctly Indian accents which were hard to understand. Nothing against Dell's technical support staff :) . It was just an all around horrible experience.

[thejadedmonkey]

Quite simply, I switched because I got bored with XP.

[Aranince]

Although I have yet to get a Mac(Need a job, and need money :(), I want one mostly because I'm bored of Windows and my career choice would be best suited on a Mac. Web design/programming. I have not had any problems(except for really annoying slowness and games crashing and what not). Macs are awesome. I have tried Linux but it crashes on my desktop after only a couple of minuets of running. So an OS that works flawlessly and is based of off Unix would be saweet. I defiantly love Unix based OS' over NT. As well as getting bored with Windows.

[mgmktx]

Personally I've never had any problem with Windows. At all. In fact, my experience with Windows (98 to XP and a little bit of Vista) has been quite pleasant.

The reason I switched was because I was curious about OS X. I tried it out a few times and liked a lot about the OS. So I bought a Macbook and now OS X is my primary OS. (No, OS X is not perfect to me and still miss a few things about Windows)

[sananda]

my first computer was an amstrad pc before the days of windows. then i got a clamshell ibook. i got that because it looked better than other laptops, not because i didn't like windows. and now i have an ibook g4. i guess i'm now used to OSX. my mother liked my g4 and got an imac G5 to replace her elderly dell. she was quite happy with windows but the looks of the imac won her over.

[Cindynjgirl79]

i never new about apple before i got my Ipod. everytime i called apple with a problem with my Ipod, they were always nice, helpful and the problems were fixed with one phone call. then this happened read here. (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=301277) i was sold with apple. there were many nights at my pc crying on the phone with a person i couldn't understand. this would lead to drinking. i started doing some homework on macs. if applecare was that good with my iPod, it had to be just as good with other things too. so back in dec i made the switch with my 1st MB. i still have the pc for the rest of the family to use. i don't touch it. it will be going out the window as soon as i get money enough money for a mini mac or an iMac.

here's a an analogy i came up with for what happened with me and my pc. the pc and i had a very nasty divorce. i took nothing from him, no money,no kids thank god! now i'm with my new hot boyfriend,mac. been together since dec and it's true......once u go mac, u never go back.

[spork183]

Worst windows experience? Hit the power button. It was all downhill from there...

[Cindynjgirl79]

Worst windows experience? Hit the power button. It was all downhill from there...

i think that's the best one yet!!! gave me a good giggle.:D

[yetanotherdave]

My dad is a computer geek, he used punch card computing in Uni, that sort of thing, so I don't currently understand why I ended up wiht a DOS box when I was a kid. I didn't know there was an alternative, so I had DOS, and win3.11 (I always used DOS, couldn't stand win3.11) until about 98 when someone "upgraded" me to win95 while I was out at a LAN party without my permission., Windows 98 followed and eventually 2000 and XP. So I have extensive windows knowldge and experience, having built and installed all my ocmputers from scratch from the age of about 10. At uni (you always dabble in things that are bad for you there) I was shown linux. It looked interesting and I installed mozilla on my windows box. I liked but wasn't ready for the switch, after all it worked didn't it? There were macs in the lab at uni but I hated them. Really really hated them. OS9 and the puck mouse. Gah that was awful. I was also a tinkerer, being able to open up my PC was important to me. I properly made the switch to Linux in 2005 (after dual booting for a year or so) after trying to install windows XP. I had a legitimate copy of windows, and I know what I am doing. After several hours I had a virus infected machine, and failed to complete the installation. That shouldn't be possible, should it?

I had a legit copy of XP Pro. I had got an external firewire drive, so decided it was time to back up date, and format my hard drives, clean install, and re arrangement of how my disks are managed. To start I needed to backup the data to the firewire drive. I wanted to format it in FAT32 for linux/windows compatibility. Windows XP refuses to format it as it is over 32Gb, after a bit of googling I decide I can either install win98 or boot into linux to format this hard drive in one partition (80Gb), annoying. It would appear that microsoft are trying to push people away from fat32 onto their sekrit NTFS, which no one else is allowed to fully support. oh well, in linux
$mkdosfs -v -F 32 -n external /dev/sda5

quickly sorts that one. And I backup my files.
First up for install Windows XP, as if I install it second it will refuse to add linux to the boot menu, whereas linux will happily add windows to the boot menu.
Booting off CD and wiping hard drives were surprisingly hassle free, entering the tiresome product key is always a pain, fighting to change the defaults from US to UK. But when you think it's all done, it really starts playing with you.
Knowing windows, I had already downloaded a firewall and antivirus software, and had SP2 on CD standing by. What I was not expecting was windows to inform me that my valid legal software key had expired because it had been used too many times. Well duh, I just formatted my HDD, of course I'm going to use it a second time. Cue me ringing microsoft to ask for them to activate it, for which it had to be online....
mistake
get the 54(!!!!) digit activation key, type it into the phone, get told it's wrong, get a NEW 54 digit key, get product (legal remember) activated.
Install AVG.
This PC has just had all the partitions wiped then formatted
It has been on about 5 minutes
AVG immediately on completion of install tells me I have Lsasser!!!
F**KERS!! I HATE YOU BILL GATES YOU USELESS C%NT. I HAVEN'T EVEN BEEN ONLINE YET!
W*NKER!
Quickly get firewall in place and install firefox, while installing SP2.
About an hour after windows has "finished" installing and I can get to downloading the updates from microsoft.
About 2 hours, 20 reboots and one trojan after I "finish" installing, and I've finished getting the box remotely internet worthy. Oh, and configure my hardware and plead with the gods of drivers to allow me to have a desktop bigger than 800x600
Install office, the rest can wait for now.
Welcome to the ******** future, today.
Of course then I restart the PC after putting a Suse9.1 install disc in, and within 5 mintues it is installing away. 30 minutes later and it's almost done, but first it wants to download updates, fine. 20 minutes later that's all finished, and I am loging in and online. One fully configured and ready to rock OS. Oh look, it's already got a firewall configured. What's that, a fully functioning office suite? Already installed? A stable browser? A fully fledged graphics package? And wait, I didn't have to call Asia to plead with them to let me use my legit software, or ***** around with 2 25 digit keys and 2 54 digit keys.
Maybe Windows isn't ready for desktop yet, and people were looking at me oddly when I told them that I was fully intending to switch to OSX as my main system with linux boxes to play with...
Just about the only things keeping me on windows (at the time, sort of) are an MP3 player which needs a bit of windows software, and. Nope, that's it. And for all I know there is linux software for it. So the MP3 player and familiarity. Bill, you'll never see another penny of mine.

Then all I had to do is convince windows that yes, really, there is only one version of windows on this pc, stop offering me two when you boot.
Since then, well, I didn't boot back into windows other than to put music on my createive zen MP3 player. The wide didn't miss it either. I found there was nothing we wanted to do on a PC that Linux couldn't do just as well as windows, if not better, and for free. I nuked the windows partition.
Not too long after that I bought a mac mini (mid 2005). I realised I hadn't upgraded the hardware for a few years, and it wasn't keeping up with what I wanted to do. Now I have everything I want. Great UI, good software, it Just Works, and it has UNIX underneath it. Perfect.

[Oryan]

~snip~
Reformatting a computer and reinstalling the SAME copy of xp shouldn't unauthorize the key because the hardware signature will be the same. At least that's been my experience.

[Cindynjgirl79]

i also had a problem with my pc's spooler. still have no clue why. i just fixed it myself, the tech guy on the phone was no help at all.

[yetanotherdave]

Reformatting a computer and reinstalling the SAME copy of xp shouldn't unauthorize the key because the hardware signature will be the same. At least that's been my experience.

Shouldn't but did, I'm pretty sure there were no hardware changes at the time. I think I just reached their re-install threshold of 10 times or something maybe.