This being December, I was trying to print out a wish list from Amazon.com, but it wasn't working. First of all I tried to open Microsoft's Internet Explorer --- Double-click the icon; nothing happens. Do it again; nothing happens. Do it again; etc.. So I finally notice that the light, indicating my computer is broadcasting wi-fi, is off. But the switch is on, so I have to do a complete shutdown and reboot.
Now the light is on, so when I double-click the IE icon, it correctly opens to my Comcast home page, so I select the drop-down for Amazon.com. It freezes up and eventually gives me a message saying that the program is not responding. So, I open the Task Manager and kill the non-responsive program. Double-click the icon and attempt to go to Amazon.com, and again have to kill it for not responding. And again, and again, and again.
Finally I get halfway smart and right click the Internet Explorer icon. I can open the program with no Add-ons. Swiftly and perfectly, the Comcast website opens. But Amazon.com will not. Imagine requiring the Flash Player Add-on, the Java and Javascript Add-ons, or (for Netflix) the Microsoft Silverlight Add-on in order to run the screens the way they were designed to be run. But one good thing is the pop-up ribbon which allows me to manage the add-ons. There must be thirty or forty of them. I spend a significant amount of time trying to get IE to work with more or fewer Add-ons.
Finally, after two hours of having it continue fail time after time, I gave up and downloaded and installed Firefox.
It is such a breath of fresh air to have a computer program actually work the way it is supposed to work, and do it quickly.
Dear Microsoft,
I am not at all willing to be forced to delete and re-install your applications every three months just to keep them (barely) functioning. I was already forced to do that once on my wife's computer just to make Internet Explorer work. Since then, she has been complaining for the last 3 months that it keeps freezing up. The next time it fails to work as specified, I will replace it. I give it a week.
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