PC tech question

vanity | 10/18/07

[pabianice]

I run Microsoft Money on my PC. A week ago when I tried to log in I got an error message saying that Money could not validate my password and that I should go online, log into MSN Money, and update my settings. But I can no longer log into MSN.com, either. I just get a long string of possible problems but no solution.

This problem follows a notice one morning last week that in the night my Windows XP was updated automatically and that "this may cause some programs to run more slowly or not at all."

Does anyone know how to overcome this so I may agaiin access MSMoney? Thanks.

[BlueCrab]

Get a Mac.

[Fairview]

I have no solutions for you, but something similar happened to me after Mr. Gates paid my computer one of his unwelcome late-night visits: suddenly all my saved email from December 2006 onward was gone. Much of this was business email. It was supposed to be backed up on my computer as well as stored on MSN. Gone. Mr. Fairview, who is a computer scientist of some ability, agrees that it's just not there anymore. This happened the last time there was an unsolicited update, too.

I wish Mr. Gates would mind his own damn business and stay out of my computer in the small hours. I don't go busting into his personal computer, do I?

[papasmurf]

Funny, but it won't work. That's the same as pulling the rug out from under your own feet, while standing on said rug.

Better option is to put a fresh, blank in your cd burner, navigate to: this website and click on DOWNLOAD. After downloading it will be a file type of .iso. Now opening your burning software and create a data disk, selecting your download as the data to be burned.

Once completed, it will be a bootable CD that you can just browse Ubuntu Linux with, or actually install it. It will ask you if you want to keep your windoesn't, and if so, will happily allow that and will promise to play nice with it, as well.

Even if you don't actually install it, you can browse your network and even the same windows partition on that drive, and recover all of your data you have stored on it. I would burn that data to a cd or move it across the network to a safe location.

I'm serious, and not being sarcastic. Gates and Co. have become so arrogant and power mad, they feel they own your machine and everything in it. I simply cannot accept using their products anymore than is absolutely, positively, without a doubt, emphatically, life or death, necessary.

If you can't get in to your MS Money, I would call MS and raise hell.

[zeugma]

I tried that and now my computer won’t work. Now what?

Are you logged in?

;-) 

[ASH71]

I really hope you did not follow most of the advice so far given on this page. I would suggest deleting your temps and cookies and giving it a try.

Telling someone to format C is a very foolish thing to do, same with shutting off auto update. All it does is make more PC’s for me to fix.

[pabianice]

Re: #25: we have a winner! I loaded and ran Ccleaner and presto! Access to MSMoney has been restored. There must have been some .tmp or cookie or similar file that was blocking it. Thanks.

[Still Thinking]

I haven’t found that to be the case. Now bear in mind I didn’t say I’m totally against updating, but if you put it in auto, you make it too easy for MS to sneak in things you don’t want, as some of the other posters have mentioned. Any updates you actually want are available from other sources anyway.

MS’s hubris in trying to decide which updates you are not allowed to refuse is WAY beyond the pale.

[Still Thinking]

And I also run both software and hardware firewall and a fully updated antivirus and exercise decent email and downloading discipline.

For people who don’t do these things, I submit that the answer is for them to start, and not to give MS one iota more control of their machine.

[ASH71]

I agree in some instances, but someone who is newish to pc’s (not in years of use but experiance beyond the norm) should not be shutting off autoupdate and formatting is beyond them.

I had someone tell my Dad to do this, so instead of asking his geeky/gamer son who has been building my own pcs for a decade he started formating. Long to short he drove his pc 45 mins on a ferry and two hours in the car to my house for me to fix it. :-)

[Still Thinking]

Doh!