31st Jul 2002

Microsoft Is Really, Really Stupid

Here is another example of why computers and the Internet are just too hard to use, or rather, how incredibly stupid and dysfunctional Microsoft is.

I am not a great fan of instant messenging, but a friend has been bugging me to get MSN Messenger. I already have Yahoo’s and AOL’s IM tools, and I generally think Microsoft has too much control of my life already, but he’s hung up that MSN Messenger is the best, so I relented and decided to install MSN Messenger today after he bugged me about it again. So I download and install it and am prompted for my .Net Passport password, thusly:

Again, I’m not thrilled about giving Microsoft any more information about me, but I’ve got to register to use it, so I click the link that reads “Don’t have a Passport? Get one here” and I am met with this error message:

It’s telling me I don’t have a browser installed. I’m using Microsoft Explorer 6.0 and Microsoft Windows 2000, and Microsoft MSN Messenger can’t find a browswer on my computer? I’ve searched throughout the settings in IE to make sure it’s the default browser, but I can’t find any such. Besides, though, it’s the only browser on my machine. I can even generate the error message starting in the browser, selecting “Messenger” under the tools menu and then try to create a new Passport that way. How absurd.

Sorry friend, you’ll just have to call or email me.

An Update


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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 31st, 2002 at 2:52 pm and is filed under aa-home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.