LJ: Microsoft Windows, Stoneage Edition

Just a bitch today...

I installed Corel's version of Illustrator today, and despite protestations to the contrary, it does not work under Windows 2000. The open dialog box freezes when you attempt to navigate via the drop-down field. Can't Task Manager your way out, nothing. So I uninstall it and decide to wait for a patch (I wanted it so I could get my personal Mac out of the office and back to my place where it belongs). After the unistall, Windows starts crashing on startup. Even Safe Mode is messed up. So, after a run through Norton, I find that the Corel uninstaller removed some crucial Windows DLLs. Argh.

So I go get the Windows 2K install disk that came with the machine... it's kept (along with all the other OEM disks) in a central location so in case someone other than me (network guy) needs them for some reason. So I do a Windows reinstall, go through that process, eventually end up with a fresh install of Windows that works fine. Except Office 2000 no longer works. The Application itself and all of the components are still resident on the hd, but something about reinstalling Windows rewrote the registry to indicate that I now had to use the Office 2k Setup program to get it working again. So I go back to the Disk Mecca in the next office to get my Office installer... only to find it missing.

After an inqusition, I discovered that one of the sales folk took my disk home (apparently the plethora of Office 97 disks weren't suitable) and gave it to their daughter who goes to college in the area and needed Office. So we contacted the daughter who swears she gave the disk back to her parental unit. Parental unit doesn't think she got it back from daughter. (Said parental unit, by the way, is the bane of my existence sometimes, coming up with computer problems that baffle even the hardiest of IT guys, and is a complete flake besides.)

So, I think, fine... I need to get work done... I'll just uninstall Office 2000 and install Office 97 - we have plenty of old copies of that lying around. With a small update from MS, I can read and edit all of my 2k files, including my pricing worksheet that I've been laboring on all summer and am about two days within completing. I go to uninstall Windows 2000... except that you need the CD to uninstall the fucking thing.

OK, so I have a non-functional version of Office 2000 that I can't get off my machine. The steam coming out of the bolts on my neck notwithstanding, I decide to attempt an install of Office 97 on the machine anyway. Well, of course, the Office 97 installer sees that a more recent version of Windows 2000 is present and refuses to install.

So, four months of national and regional market research, dozens upon dozens of models and calculations is now thwarted by a family of technically inept morons who shouldn't even be allowed to look at a computer, let alone operate one.

If someone needs me, I'll be over in the corner sobbing quietly to myself.