Friday, April 3, 2009

Micros--t strikes at the most opportune times

So we’ve hurriedly traveled to California. My father-in-law has just died unexpectedly, and we’re in the midst of making funeral arrangements. I’m frantically scanning in photos for preparation of memorial service materials. We’re going to take the resulting pdf files to Kinko’s for printing. And of course, those Micros—t #$%&*@s strike again. For the fourth time since I’ve set up Vista Ultimate on my laptop five weeks ago, I get the dreaded spooler sub-system error message. I reboot, and its back. So no printers, including Acrobat.

I’m becoming a veteran at this. I go to the c:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\w32x86 folder, and delete its contents. I reboot and open the printers menu. All the printers are back. Now I right-click on Acrobat and select properties and am told that the drivers are not installed, and asked if I want to install them. I respond yes, and my Acrobat printer is back.

This will have to do in a pinch, and I generate the necessary pdf files, and am off to FedEx/Kinko’s.

Why does this happen? Why the continuing saga of spooler subsystem issues? I hadn’t been printing or using any printers at the time that it happened? Its happened with a variety of printers. Microsoft says that its because of bad printer drivers, and they specifically cite Lexmark. I don’t have a Lexmark printer. I have, however isolated it to occurring with Adobe Acrobat only; HP Photosmart only; and Brother MFC only. I’m sorry, but I fail to believe that all of these drivers are causing the problems for poor Micros—t. After all, the common denominator is Microsoft Vista.

Micros--t, I continue to despise you more each day.

On a bright note, I can offer only praise for Kinko’s – they did a magnificent job in producing our materials for the memorial. Thank you, Kinko’s!

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