Yesterday during Bible Study my laptop decided to bluescreen. I suppose a good hour of us discussing sins was too much for this oldtimer to bear.
When I re-started the computer, it asked me to send Microsoft an error report, which I allowed. Microsoft, in turn, informed me that the crash had been caused by “spooldr.sys” and that I had better run the Windows Live OneCare Scanner to remove this malware.
I tried, but was first told I needed to be using Internet Explorer 7. So I opened Internet Explorer, but I’ve got Internet Explorer 8, which apparently doesn’t allow the Windows Live OneCare Scanner to work right either. I ended up installing the IETab add-on for Firefox and ran the scanner overnight, with the result that it found one joke program, a boatload of registry entries, and a fragmented hard disk. No “spooldr.sys” – which my PCTools AntiVirus had said after a scan of less than five minutes.
Of course, this doesn’t do much for my trust in Microsoft for correctly analysing what is wrong with my PC. However, commensurate with that lack of trust, I also refuse to believe any conspiracy theories that Microsoft is generating fake virus warnings to promote the Windows Live OneCare Scanner Which Doesn’t Work With IE8.
Ahh…IE8.
IE8 is driving me nuts. We installed it on the main computer, but held off on the laptop. I had gotten into trouble on our old computer by not keeping up with updates offered by Microsoft, so that is why I loaded IE8. However, first we ran into a problem with not being able to hear videos. That ended up being a simple fix, but it took awhile to figure it out.
Now there are certain webpages that won’t load. Wikipedia being one, but only certain entries. If I can remember an entry that will load, I can just search within wiki and it will bring up the page that wouldn’t load. Wikipedia is not the only one this happens to, but is the one that comes up most often when we are just trying to find out something quickly. This problem does not occur on the laptop, and only happened after installing IE8, so I am pretty sure that is the culprit.
I suppose if I knew what I was doing, I could figure out how to fix it, but for now, I use the wiki work-around and the laptop.
I thought IE8 was an improvement over IE7 when I began using it, and didn’t really ever have any trouble with it at work. I still think it beats its predecessors. (I’ve just decided to switch to Firefox at work, but that’s mostly because of the rikaichan add-on.) I did once run into trouble with the Aleppo University website on IE8, but always put that down to missing a plugin or some such thing.
In short, use Firefox. Rikaichan may not convince you, but AdBlock Plus will.
Dear friend
You have to be careful with the things you post. I nearly died laughing and I had barely gotten to the second sentence …