Microsoft Has a Digital Death Star and Windows 11
December 21, 2021
If you are not familiar with Microsoft’s digital Death Star, you will want to watch the story in the December 26, 2021, Dark Cyber video news program. You can find it in the mini player at this link. More than a year after the SolarWinds’ security misstep became public, the Redmond giant can digitally slay the 1,000 malefactors responsible for some data exfiltration. Quick.
My hunch has been that Microsoft rolled out Windows 11 as part of a red herring campaign. The idea may have been that Windows 11 would capture the attention of “real” journalists, thus reducing the blow torch directed at the Microsoft enterprise software processes. It seems to have worked. No one I have spoken with knows much about the Death Star meme and quite a few people are excited about Windows 11.
ZDNet remains firmly in the camp of writing about Windows 11. Why not? Users who want to use a browser other than Edge or a specialized software to perform a specific PDF function find that some noodling is required. Windows 11 is supposed to be simpler better cheaper faster more wonderfuler, right?
“8 Harsh Realities of Being a Windows 11 User” presents a distinguished lecturer’s view of some Windows 11 foibles. Let’s take a quick look at three of the eight and then circle back to the year long wait for digital retribution against the 1,000 engineers who created the SolarWinds’ misstep and made the Softies look inept and sort of silly in the security department.
Reality 1. The Browser Lock In
Microsoft does not want a Windows 11 user to load up a non Microsoft browser. I find this amusing because Edge is not really Microsoft code. Microsoft pulled out what I call soft taco engineering; that is, the Chrome engine is wrapped in a tortilla crafted in the kitchens of Microsoft Café 34. I am a suspicious type; therefore, I think the browser lock in is designed to make darned sure the geek bloggers and the “real” journalists have something to Don Quixote.
Reality 5. Control Panel / Settings Craziness
Okay, where is the widget to have the weird File Explorer show me “details”? And what about Display controls? I have a couple of places to look now. That’s helpful. Exactly what is the difference between a bunch of icons grouped in one place under one jargonized name? I am not sure about the logic of this bit of silliness, but, hey, one has to do more than clean the microwave in the snack area or hunt for the meeting room on the campus. (Where did the alleged interpersonal abuses take place? Is there a Bing Map for that?)
Reality 8. What Runs Windows 11?
Now if there is a super sized red herring being dragged over the SolarWinds’ misstep it is this one: Will my PC run Windows 11? Lame? You bet, but we are in the distraction business, not in the useful software business. Subscribe and pay now for the greatness which may not run on your PC, you computer dolt. But why? Maybe SolarWinds’ stuff saying, “Look here, not there.”
You have to navigate to the distinguished lecturer’s cited post for Realities of 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7. There are more Dusies too.
Now the circle back: SolarWinds’s misstep is still with us and Microsoft. At least I can understand Windows 11 as a quick and dirty distraction. Can users?
Stephen E Arnold, December 21, 2021
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
