[Wylug-discuss] [OT] windows gripes...

[Jim Jackson]

[Story cut short to prevent terminal boredom, not that you can be bored in 
a terminal :-)]

A close friend asked me to upgrade JAVA on her Vista laptop, because the 
old version was incompatible with a new version of Firefox. She'd tried but 
failed.

First problem, removing the old version of JAVA which didn't show up in the 
MS control panel tool for removing programs etc! Can't work out whether to 
blame Oracle or MS, so lets castigate both! Turns out there is an 
independant GPL'd tool for doing this.

So I tried the latest JRE install and got an error message[1] early on in 
the install. JAVA Install FAQ suggested downloading the offline installer. 
So did that, downloaded and double clicked the installer and... same error 
message!

So google time[1], and discovered an interesting thread on a Micro$oft 
support forum[2]. The upshot of which was[2], that after you download the 
offline installer you disconnect your machine from the network and run the 
installer! You see, the offline installer was what it said on the tin :-) 
Maybe some code somewhere checking if online and trying to do the online 
stuff in the offline installer? Doh!

Jim

[1] Ok another gripe, at one time it would be aimed at MS, but now I aim it 
at alot graphical applications. Why are error messages flagged up in a 
jolly little window that doesn't allow one to cut n' paste the error 
message! You have to type the ****** thing out into google (or similar). 
<sarcasm>Yes I know the messages look pretty.</sarcasm>

[2] It appears that MS techies attempt to "answer" queries on this MS 
forum. Most of the "answers" simple regurgitate the stuff in the JAVA FAQ 
or repeat the installation instructions. It was one the users who had been 
stuck with this problem and got fed up with the MS techies that discovered 
"offline" might actually mean "offline". I can only applaud his logical 
thinking.