Messages

1

Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: HP Windows 8 Users Beware

« on: March 02, 2014, 12:07:44 pm »

Sorry, I meant "icons".  Still, my dad and I felt this was an odd place for it to hang.

After four days of back and forth between my dad and me, and two "site visits" by me, the system had become so unstable that even basic things (like bringing up the control panel, using System Restore, getting to the Settings charm were impeding our ability to work).

Unlike me, he has only the one computer.  I, at least have the advantage of owning four (three running W7 and the fourth running W8.1) and have had no such problems.  However, since one of the "compromised functions" was the ability to use remote assistance, I finally "caved" and bought official support from HP.

Interestingly, the HP tech team is struggling very much like I was, did not find any trace of a virus, and according to my dad, was using Tweaking AIO as part of their arsenal!  I hope you don't begrudge them using it, because it seems like a different situation--they have assumed overall responsibility for making him whole again--unlike "the other guys" who charged me simply to your tool.

More later when I know more.  As always, thank you for trying to make the world a better place! 

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Tweaking.com Support & Help / To Default, or Not to Default

« on: February 28, 2014, 07:43:22 am »

As a new WR-AIO, I have a newbie question.

When the AIO interface comes up, there is a DEFAULT settings option in the lower left.  I noticed that when I clicked it, the existing settings changed (I think more boxes got check marked, not sure, but the settings definitely changed).

From a human factors perspective, this is confusing to me.  In most other systems, DEFAULT means "get me back to the baseline, i.e. before I messed with the initial settings".  But apparently in WR-AIO, the "initial settings" are different than the DEFAULT ones.  Consequently, I don't know which set to use (1) the "startup set" or (2) the set modified by pressing DEFAULT.

Am I making sense? (I realize that Talking Heads advises against this.)

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Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: HP Windows 8 Users Beware

« on: February 28, 2014, 07:25:34 am »

I'm still somewhat confused about how to best run WR-AIO.  As I mentioned above, it appear that it *was* disabling Windows Essentials on my Dad's Windows 8.1 HP desktop, but didn't think to disable HPSA.exe--which we are now being told by HP was the likely cause of his numerous system problems.

In fact, the second time we ran WR-AIO it stalled (for ten minutes) on Step 11--which merely restores fonts.  Another sign that things were going downhill fast, since it had completed successfully the day before.  Fonts?  It couldn't repair fonts?!  What did fonts have to do with anything?

We tried to boot his machine in Safe mode (using SHIFT F8) but couldn't.  I found an article that says MicroSoft "buried" Safe mode under Windows 8 and that this F8 come works "sometimes".  Sheesh!

I don't know what to suggest for RT-AIO given that "certain vendors" load their own diagnostic "helpers".  I had thought the worst they would do is fail to help, but I've learned the hard way that they can bite really hard and essentially bring everything to its knees.

From this whole sordid adventure I learned only that "When the system, as a whole is crippled, it's pretty damn hard to do anything at all with it.  If I didn't know better, I would have accused a virus of doing this, because it had that "signature" feeling of disabling all of the tools one would need to remove it.  However, after running MBAM (and even MBAR for rootkits) followed by Super Anti-Spyware with nothing identified, my virus theory was looking weak.

Honestly, I've never felt so helpless.  Thanks HP!

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Tweaking.com Support & Help / HP Windows 8 Users Beware

« on: February 28, 2014, 07:01:34 am »

I just spend the past week or so in a failed attempt to get my Dad set up with his new HP desktop running Windows 8.

I eliminated much of the initial "bloatware" as well as Norton Semantic in favor of Malware Bytes (admittedly a close call) and set up some automatic tasks for maintenance which would otherwise not occur to him to run.

He subsequently upgraded to 8.1 without telling me first, and somewhere along the line things went downhill fast! Although his applications still worked, most of the normal "system stuff" was acting corrupted.  The first symptom was that the Control Panel was taking four minutes (!) to start!  Worse, most if not all of the other system tools I tried to use were either broken or compromised ("process had to stop").

The more I tried to fix the environment (including using MB, SAS and AIO) the worse it seemed to get. Soon,  I couldn't (a) Invoke the Control Panel, or (b) Connect Remotely, or (c) Update windows (d) use System Restore or even (e) use System Repair.  I finally threw my hands up and purchased some limited HP support.

Interestingly, their first observation was that their own "house brand" diagnostic tool (HPSA.exe) was "a" (if not "the") root cause of these problems!  According to the HP tech, this process "has its tentacles into everything" and has the potential to put a serious "hurt" on the OS.

I have seen this process many times on my own HP machines, but only under Windows 7.  On my Dad's Windows 8.1 machine, this HPSA process would pop up now and again only to declare that it needed to quit.  Based on my Windows 7 experience I wasn't surprised.  Since I'd never known it to actually "solve" any problem on my machines, I had come to regard it as "toothless" nuisance and told my Dad to just ignore it.  So imagine my surprise when the HP tech said it might have "gone over to the dark side"!

We're still awaiting the final verdict on this, but I'll admit I was seriously shaken by the whole experience, in part because I'm the most computer literate person in my family and it was beginning to look like I couldn't do anything right!  Oh, and I want those four days of my life back! 

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Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Why Do I need Reimage (your ad on this page) When Your AIO Performs So Well

« on: February 28, 2014, 06:34:02 am »

Yes, I understand why you post Google ads.  But that doesn't answer my question.  How would you characterize the differences between your tool (WR-AIO) and ReImage?  At the highest level of description they "sound" identical.  I suspect AIO is the superior product, but I wanted your take on it.

I guess we shouldn't be too surprised that Google would choose *that* ad (for ReImage--reminds me of RePet!) because they make a calculated effort to tailor ads to consumers.  But it is disconcerting to be on the Tweaking page but seeing ads for other like-sounding tools!  It's confusing.  I suspect that if *you* thought their tool was so great, you wouldn't have built WR-AIO!

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Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Why Do I need Reimage (your ad on this page) When Your AIO Performs So Well

« on: February 28, 2014, 06:23:57 am »

The latest news (on being charged for third party use of AIO) is that Discover is launching its own investigation to determine whether the charges were legitimate.  It's still possible that they may rule in favor of the defendants unless your site has language specifically prohibiting others from profiting directly from your work.

For now, they have "conditionally" refunded the charges to me, pending the outcome of their investigation.

Regardless, I'll let you know how this all plays out.

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Tweaking.com Support & Help / Re: Why Do I need Reimage (your ad on this page) When Your AIO Performs So Well

« on: February 24, 2014, 03:06:17 pm »

Shane --

I'm about to give you a web contact who has been shamelessly "re-selling" your AIO tool (and charging big bucks for it)!

I scanned my latest credit card bill which shows two entries totaling almost $300 to have this "service" performed on my machines.  I believe they are seriously ripping you off (and countless other people like me) and you are the logical person to take any action against them which you deem appropriate.

Please provide a direct email (outside this forum) so I can send you the page image of my Discover card charges with the offending organization and charges highlighted.

Feel free to "strip" my email from this post, but I'll need an email response from you to reply with my proof-of-purchase document.

-- Dave ()

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Tweaking.com Support & Help / Why Do I need Reimage (your ad on this page) When Your AIO Performs So Well

« on: February 23, 2014, 10:43:54 am »

Outstanding product!

I found you when "another outfit" offered to fix my machine and I noticed that all they were doing (for $199) was using your tool!

If you are upset to hear this, I don't blame you, and I can try to get more detail on this if you want to take any legal action against them.
YOU are the one with integrity here!  I think it's wrong for others to be "re-selling" your product.

The only way I can help is to make small donations to you via PayPal, which I have done.  You and your team are wonderful!

David C Blanchard ()