Posted on 04/23/2015 10:13:10 PM PDT by dayglored
iTunes users who still run Windows XP started to experience connectivity issues this week. As documented in an Apple Support Communities thread, they can’t log into the iTunes store, meaning functions like buying content, watching already purchased movies and TV shows, playing DRM-protected content, backing up, updating, and syncing all do not work.
The issue has to do with the secure connection iTunes uses to connect to the iTunes Store, meaning it doesn’t affect users until they try to log in. While the support thread in question only has some 50 replies at the time of publishing, we expect it to grow quickly as more and more users get logged out and try to log back in.
the iTunes version doesn’t matter — it’s the communication protocol that seems to have changed. Most users are on iTunes 12.1.2, and there was no update this week that could be blamed. One user even booted up an old Windows XP machine to try iTunes 11, but got the same error.
It appears that Apple changed something on Monday night or Tuesday morning and either didn’t bother testing on Windows XP or simply didn’t care it would leave XP users behind...
(Excerpt) Read more at venturebeat.com ...
The “classic” start menu is not natively available in Windows 8, but I always remind people that Microsoft moved a TON of system stuff to the right-click menu on the Start button. If you right-click on the Start button from the desktop, you can access all of the sysconfig stuff easily (i.e. Control Panel).
What I love about 8/2012 is that they integrated search into the Start interface. Click Start > start typing what you need, and it shows you what you want to see. That, in my opinion, is leaps and bounds faster than clicking a half dozen times to find an installer.
You can also customize the Start interface to show you the Apps menu instead of the tiles, and the Apps menu is designed to be the replacement for the Start menu. It shows you all of the stuff you’ve installed on your machine in all of its disorganized glory, much like the Start menu of old.
Ah... I've also always simplified my Start Menu structure. No "most recently installed" or "favorite" programs, just an alphabetized top-level (that's important) list of installed apps. So I see "Microsoft Office" but not every single app within Office, unless I want to.
The other thing I do in Win7 is make a new shortcuts folder that lives on the taskbar, over on the right end by the SysTray, giving me the equivalent of XP's QuickLaunch icons.
Man, writing all this, I realize I'm a Luddite. Dang, what do you mean I'm not 22 any more??? :)
Funny thing is, my over-30 users love that setup, anachronistic though it is. Nothing like familiarity, I guess.
Buy Windows 7 Home edition at Ebay for $50
Hundreds of sellers.
That it is!
The Start screen can be completely customized. I dragged a bunch of my network engineeers over to Server 2012 just a few weeks ago. Despite initial trepidation, they love it now.
Okay, now you've got my attention -- my professional self just sat up and said, "Oh that's great, my users will be screwing with the standard interface. Better get in and get ahead of them!" LOL.
But seriously, thanks, truly.
Absolutely, and particularly in cases like mine: Mechanical/Aeronautical/Manufacturing Engineer, with ten years or so working with Naval Aviators as an instructor on various jet fighters/bombers.
That computer is a TOOL for me, it helps me earn a living and I have grown to depend on certain inputs resulting in clearly defined outputs from the basic program, because my CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) programs demand so much of my attention I simply don't have the time or faintest inclination to play around with the latest programming whim or merchandising tactic to come down the pike from Windows.
I would react in exactly the same manner if I were pointed at an aircraft and told that the "Operator Interface" (i.e. controls and instruments) had been "updated" making all of my past experience obsolete and I could now begin to learn to fly all over again.
....or maybe I'd just go look up some of the folks who made those "improvements" and invite 'em to go flying with me. (Sure, I'd be the only one with a 'chute.....)
Okay, it isn't an airplane, I don't have to go back to E School to learn to run Win whateverthehell (even if my choices have long been limited to Windows by my peers and employers) and no, I'm not going to learn yet another new Apple/Linux/fill-in-the-blank base program just so I can flip the bird to Windows after all these years. I'd be lucky if I could recover all of my past data and get it talking to a "new" system before I got too old and feeble to give a sh**.
What I will do (and long have done) is identify the Windows platform that works for me, make a few adjustments that I deem necessary (dump IE, any bundled "security" softwear and all but the absolutely vital Win support programs) and go my happy ol' dinosaur way. That's precisely why I hung on to XP for as long as I did, why I (and apparently a whole bunch like me) rejected Vista as unacceptable and viewed Win 7 and especially 8 as Vista-with-ribbons-in-its-hair until forced into a Win 7 Pro setup only just this last year.
Had to fool with it a bit, but I do think that I'll keep W7P around for a while. Almost like running XP again, only faster.....once I got "my" Start screen and all those icons back, that is.
....plus being able to wonk around with iCloud and our collection of iPhones/iPads on this rig is kinda neat, too.
> Had to fool with it a bit, but I do think that I’ll keep W7P around for a while. Almost like running XP again, only faster.....once I got “my” Start screen and all those icons back, that is.
That’s exactly it.
You can lock down the Start screen through group policy.
Great if all your machines are in the Domain, a bit more challenging if you also have to support VMs that come and go; then again, they're not the real problem with users customizing, so maybe it's okay.
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