I just helped someone delete a file that they couldn’t delete in Windows by booting into a Linux live USB, mounting their HD there and deleting it in Linux.
I think it was due to the filename containing special characters or even maybe that it was over 255 characters long. How is it 2023 and Windows still has problems like this?
You can disable the path length limit on Windows 10 by editing registry or group policy.
The person was running Windows 11. I sent a detailed article about it to them as well (with some thousands of words), but in the end they even found it easier to just boot into Linux and delete it.
Yeah. I think the issue is you sent them an article with thousands of words. If I saw that I would look for a different solution.
How did you even find an article with so many words? It is a simpleish fix to do.
Look man I don’t really run windows anymore. I’m no longer a l33t power user like yourself. I found some microsoft learning bullshit article and sent it over because I didn’t have an agenda to make them use Linux or anything.
Look at this fucking thing: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-US/troubleshoot/windows-server/backup-and-storage/cannot-delete-file-folder-on-ntfs-file-system
If you want to apologize for a system that still has problems like this in 2023, feel free to waste your time. I’ll be here not having these 1990s problems on the regular because I don’t run this pile of crap anymore except on my gaming computer.
Oh yeah no I missread what you wrote. That article is ridiculous, which is about as good as any other microsoft made article for windows.
It also doesn’t tell you how to actually resolve file names being too long either. Which is what I meant is a simpleish fix. It’s one edit in registry.
deleted by creator
who the fuck knows how to do that anyway
Same as Linux, first you don’t know then you learn.
Yup, I have a few folders of classical music on an old hard drive that I can’t delete in Windows because the name is too long. I just haven’t bothered connecting them to Linux yet.
I once naively used Windows file copy utility to transfer my huge MP3 library to an external hard drive and later lost the originals. I came to find out it silently failed to copy any songs containing certain nonalphanumeric characters. To this day I’m still traumatized when I try to locate some song and find it’s not there. Burn in hell Windows.
„Hey youre good with computers. Can you fix my annoying Windows specific issue on my poorly setup laptop that has a bunch of other issues too?“
There is no operating system that doesn’t experience stupid problems. macOS probably has the least, but it makes up for that by being generally underwhelming.
The Windows specific issues that average users have are usually caused by bloatware that comes preinstalled on the machine or some obscure driver issue (which Linux can also have - maybe even more so than Windows).
MacOS has the least issues for me but I disagree with it being underwhelming. Might be an unpopular opinion in this community but I quite enjoy using it. It’s a fully fledged unix system with some really good software.
Even more unpopular opinion: any os is good, as long as you know how to use it.
2000ME would like to have a word with you.
I was speaking generally in terms of linux/windows/Mac os
Free Dos falls short in so many ways.
Is there anyone that uses freedos as their daily driver?
Honestly, all the issues I have personally found on linux were either fixable, or I knew the cause of. I cannot say the same of windows, even though I used windows for far longer.
It’s just that, in comparison, windows is a black box. And if something goes wrong, you may just be shit out of luck.
At this point I don’t help people with non Linux computer issues anymore. I’ll happily help people with Linux because I actually know how to. If a family member wants to build a pc I’ll help but if they want Windows on it, they have to figure out the licensing and installation hoop jumping themselves because this stuff is designed to be equally difficult to use for users of all skill levels. You’re either typing sfc /scannow or reinstalling when that doesn’t fix it. I’ll gladly take the obscure and user-fixable Linux issues over having to reinstall Windows once a year.
My family asks for help with their phones, which I’m happy to provide.
The problem is they always hand me an iPhone.
Strange, I’ve literally never had to do that and don’t have any issues with “jumping through hoops.”
Linux isn’t bad, but outside of Nobara Linux I’ve gotten more roadblocks installing it than any Windows upgrade or fresh install. It just really makes me wonder if you guys are operating on two decade old Windows expectations and pretending that’s still standard, or you’re just being obtuse about how “difficult” it is. It’s pretty damn simple. I’ve literally walked people who have no idea what computers are through an install by phone, that’s a pretty good test of how idiot proof you’ve made your process.
Yeah, I’m in the same boat. I use both systems on a daily basis, and I’m far more likely to have to do a clean install of Linux when shit breaks than with Windows. And like you said, the Windows installer requires virtually no configuration outside of selecting the drive you want to install on.
Once you run a simple powershell script to remove the garbage, Windows is a pretty solid OS.
Got any locations for said removal script?
but outside of Nobara Linux I’ve gotten more roadblocks installing it than any Windows upgrade or fresh install.
Than you haven’t tried installing Linux Mint. There’s nothing easier.
Ironic, I actually tried Mint Cinnamon and had issues lol I checked the hash and downloaded it from the MIT mirror so I don’t think it was an integrity problem.
Maybe Rufus failed me? Who knows. I use that for all of my other installs including Windows 10/11, Nobara and Kali and never had an issue.
I feel like it’s a good idea to do a clean install every once in a while regardless of your OS. Shit gets cluttered, you have programs installed you’ll never use again, etc.
The trick is to keep a setup script maintained so the reinstall is painless.
And I’m not sure where you’re getting your info that installing or licensing Windows is a hassle. It’s much easier to do a clean install of Windows than it is for Linux, and the installer pretty much requires no configuration.
It’s much easier to do a clean install of Windows than it is for Linux, and the installer pretty much requires no configuration.
Bullshit. Putting an installer medium in and booting into the preconfigured Windows system is not the install process. The actual install process starts after that, when you have to disable / purge all the crapware and unnecessary services to get a somewhat usable system.
The hardest part of a Linux installation is to choose a distro, and set up a bootable USB stick while still on a windows system. After that it’s
- boot into live CD
- click the install button
- select a keyboard layout
- let it auto-partition, because you’re a first time user
- let it detect your network (wifi can be a bit tricky depending on chipset, admitted)
- choose a computer name, root password (if any) and a main (first) user
- complete installation & wait for 5-15 minutes. Done - you now have a working system
Now for Windows, you still don’t have any useful software. Whereas on Linux you just select whatever you need from the package manager.
Also, when is the last time you actually set up a Windows from scratch? The main reason people think it’s easier, is because they use OEM versions and never actually install anything.
I did a clean install of Windows last week. It took 20 minutes start to finish, including reinstalling all my software manually.
To do a clean install of Windows you just have to click the mouse a few times. To do a clean install of Linux you have to do things no average user is reasonably going to do.
If you’re going to argue the superiority of an operating system, you should at least know what you’re talking about instead of parroting ‘hur dur windows bad.’
Tell me you have not read my comment without telling me you have read my comment.
Now for Windows, you still don’t have any useful software. Whereas on Linux you just select whatever you need from the package manager.
There it is, this sums it up perfectly.
The OS is fine, it’s just not what you want. There are plenty of perfectly useable pre loaded media capable programs on install, it’s just not what snobs like you consider “good enough” so you claim that it literally doesn’t exist when it does by defining it as “useful” so you can get away with your misdirection.
I’ve installed windows from scratch on half a dozen machines over the last couple years for personal use/friends and that’s not even counting supporting it at work occasionally even though it’s not really my department. Never had an issue with the install or the post configuration. You can’t even be bothered to give an objective analysis, trying to compare the two then classifying the removal of software you personally don’t want as “part of the install.” Lol
I love Linux and run multiple installs from Arch to Debian and Fedora but Windows is fine for most use cases and this pissy middle school behavior fron Linux elitists where you pretend everything that isn’t a “0.5GB RAM at idle” Arch install is a steaming pile of shit is just ridiculous.
My opinion has nothing to do with “elitism” and everything with usability. Windows used to be a decent OS until Windows 2000. XP was already phoning home, but the user experience was still “okayish”. Windows 7 was only usable when you disabled all the UI bullshit and went as far towards XP looks as possible. Anything Windows beyond that is just shitting in your face “fuck you user, we’re laughing our asses off that you are so stupid to still give us money”.
There’s nothing from Microsoft that makes your life easier than it used to be. MS Office peaked at Office XP, beyond that, usability has been discarded. I discarded Windows not out of principle, but because it was killing my productivity in every way possible. And that was before even considering that you have zero control over your data or privacy.
The entire point of an operating system is to allow your computer to run programs. Blaming users for breaking it by having installed programs, literally THE thing operating systems were invented to do, just isn’t acceptable.
If you pirated the right software you used to be able to backup and restore your windows programs between installs but I doubt that’s a thing that works anymore. It’s easier to just use Linux and avoid having issues as frequently.
And installing windows isn’t a hassle? LOL, good one. I watched someone take all day just to get windows 11 to recognize a m2 ssd once on a pretty normal run of the mill Gigabyte motherboard. During that time, an installation of arch was performed just to help troubleshoot and it worked right away.
Blaming users for breaking it by having installed programs, literally THE thing operating systems were invented to do, just isn’t acceptable.
No one said they are breaking it, just that OS’s get cluttered with directories and files which occasionally could use removal for organization’s sake either via sifting through your entire file tree or just keeping a good backup image available to fresh install from when you need to.
And installing windows isn’t a hassle? LOL, good one. I watched someone take all day just to get windows 11 to recognize a m2 ssd once on a pretty normal run of the mill Gigabyte motherboard. During that time, an installation of arch was performed just to help troubleshoot and it worked right away.
Fascinating, yet I’ve constructed and imaged from scratch seven Windows machines in the past three years for various friends and purposes without a single issue. Plug it in, hit f12, boot from USB, GUI loads up, select drive and preferences, wait, profit.
The only issue I ever had was one of the motherboards being preset in legacy mode after a refurb cause I bought it on eBay, I had to allow UEFI boot and then repeat above.
I’m starting to think you guys just refuse to learn anything about windows and then complain when your Linux knowledge doesn’t suffice, or you’re just making shit up about how bad it is. Who knows, either way I’ve never run into anything like that on my builds. Don’t get me wrong, Linux is seamless depending on distro but Windows is literally baby’s first OS level of difficult on install and I hear so much crying on here about how it’s this massive dumpster fire and I literally cannot conceive of how you’re even having issues let alone thinking it’s harder than setting up most Linux machines.
So you come to introduce Linux problems?
yes
are these linux problems in the room with us?
/s
Also, when grub starts acting up and your machine doesn’t boot properly.
The nikes is like a universal symbol for nerd
