Window 8 hmmmm

Here in Voipfone Towers we all use Apple for our office stuff – for our VoIP platform it’s Linux all the way down – and I’ve personally not touched a Windows machine for a couple of years.

In the good old days (ie Windows XP and before) I used to provide informal (ie free) tech support for my neighbours, but I’ve had nothing to do since Windows 7. I think that’s because W7 is a pretty solid OS and because it needs a lot of grunt in the hardware to work at all – this meant that most of the people I was supporting threw away all their old junk at Vista (oh dear) and after.

But this month I had a plaintive call from a neighbour whose Vista (oh God) machine had slowed to a near halt. As his machine is fairly decent, we decided to try the new and ever so cheap Windows 8 Pro.

[Interesting point: why is W8 so cheap? Is it a statement of intent or an admission of weakness?]

So we ran the upgrade checker and, not surprisingly, I suppose, we hit a problem – a nasty red cross on the network card and a message which read:

Intel® PRO Network Connections 12.1.11.0
X Go to app website for help

So we obviously need a new driver for that but it would be this one wouldn’t it? You know, the one you need to get on the internet to get the driver to get you onto the internet: return to start. Good old Windoze, friendly as ever.

It’s like having the engine stolen from your car and being asked by your mechanic to drive down to the garage to get a new one.

I’ll let you know how we get on.