Tag Archives: microsoft

Microsoft Store Support – An Experience

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As you may have read in my last blog post about my Windows 7 installation, I finally took the leap to upgrade from Vista.  I had heard lots of good things about Windows 7 — it was more stable, faster, interesting new features, etc.

Aside from the fact that it took awhile to both:

  • download and
  • install

…it also had a few “default” settings that I had to work through.  Luckily there was a guy on Twitter that helped me out.  God knows that Microsoft Technical Support is wanting.  More on that in another blog post.  This is about the Microsoft Store support.  Two totally different animals.

Not a Two-for-One Special

First, let me say that I use Firefox as a default browser.  Yet, I realize that if I’m going to buy a Microsoft product and download it from a Microsoft site I better damn well be using Microsoft Internet Explorer.  So, I launched the version of Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 I had on my desktop and proceeded to try and download Windows 7 Home Premium.

I began to go through the routine to purchase and download and my system froze.  I clicked.  I waited. I clicked.  Nothing.  All I had done was select the product I wanted, started to fill out my contact info part of the form and the sucker froze.  So, I closed the browser and re-launched Internet Explorer 8.  Under normal circumstances I would have thought that all the data I had entered would have been dumped. Lost. Not saved.

I was wrong.

The second time I was able to get through the whole purchase process complete with credit card number and the whole nine yards when, lo and behold, TWO copies of the same product were in my cart.  The worst part is that there was no way to delete anything.  This surprised the hell out of me.  Normally, shopping carts in many an e-commerce site has a way to delete items or even “update” by increasing the number of items.  Not so at the Microsoft Store.

Phone Support Was Excellent

I needed to call to get one of them removed.  It’s not that I wouldn’t love to give Microsoft some more money.  Well, OK, I really don’t want to give Microsoft more money. It was just a pain in the patootie that I had to call.

Luckily, though, Microsoft Store support actually had a phone number that connected to a real, live person who spoke flawless English. And someone answered the phone before I reached retirement age.

She was friendly, competent and knew how to resolve my “issue”.  It took about 5 minutes for the money for the extra product that had inadvertently been purchased to be credited back to my card.  I got the reference number and, voila, I was done.

Well, almost.  I still had to go through the download and installation but the Microsoft Store part of the transaction was complete and Microsoft had a happy customer.

Microsoft must have known everything worked out because they sent me this nice customer satisfaction survey the next day.

This was not the case with Microsoft Technical Support which is another story and completely different experience.  Something I’ll write about in the next blog post.

The Windows 7 Upgrade Installation Saga

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I guess I was getting spoiled.

I was so used to blinding speeds on the Internet due to a great broadband connection that I had forgotten how slow a major download and installation can take.

Yesterday, I decided to see what all the hub bub was about with Windows 7.  I put the word out on Twitter to see if anyone would tell me to stop.  To the contrary, I got quite a few responses that Windows 7 was the best thing since sliced bread.  The Mac users, of course, had a different take.

But I digress.

So, I went to the Microsoft Windows 7 website and did my compatibility test (downloaded their compatibility advisor) and ran it.  I had to uninstall a few things that Windows 7 wouldn’t like but that was OK with me. I didn’t need ‘em anyway. Then I went to purchase the product which is fodder for another blog post.

The Download Begins

The download started and all seemed to go well…until it didn’t.  It got hung up and eventually timed out.  I logged completely out of the browser (Internet Explorer only!) and re-launched it and went back through the labyrinth to the page the product was one and started again.  This time, it seemed to work.  Although it took a looong time to download.  Then it came time for the installation.

Installation took almost two hours.  To be fair, the message at the beginning of the installation said it might take “several hours but in this age of blinding speeds and all, I really didn’t believe it.  I was wrong not to.  It poked and poked along hanging up every now and then and then pushing forward with the continued installation.  It restarted a couple of times and then, voila, it was done.

The Final Product

Even after all was said and done and Windows 7 was completely downloaded and installed, it still had a couple of little quirks.  The desktop wallpaper was the Microsoft logo, which is to be expected, but it’s ugly as sin.  The choices for different wall paper are few.  But I had to choose something else. So I did.  The taskbar along the bottom of the scree was “always on top” which mad using the Internet or any other program a little difficult to do.

Luckily, there was someone on Twitter that was able to help me work through a couple of the “default” settings in Windows 7 and now it seems to be a little more usable. Still there are parts of the aesthetics that I’m not overly thrilled with.  I guess the functionality and the stability that everyone is gushing about will more than make up for it.

In any case, for right now, I only have it on my laptop.  I may wait a tad longer before I upgrade my desktop and then I might actually go out and by a CD from Costco or someplace similar so I don’t have to sit around forever waiting for the thing to load.