Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!orcisi!michael
From: michael@orcisi.UUCP (Michael Herman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Microsoft Windows and MS support?
Message-ID: <1269@orcisi.UUCP>
Date: 17 Mar 88 11:45:58 GMT
Article-I.D.: orcisi.1269
Posted: Thu Mar 17 06:45:58 1988
References: <496@xios.XIOS.UUCP>
Organization: Optical Recording Corporation, Toronto, Ontario
Lines: 41

> Is this new?  I just bought MS Windows 2.0 and when I opened up the
> packet, Microsoft did not provide any information about getting
> support.  I guess that they are finally formally recognising that
> they sell software without support!  Anyway, I have a couple of
> questions that I would like to ask MS or anyone else who might have an
> answer.

MS has a telephone support number but they expect you to use DIAL,
their support bulletin board.  At one point, MS wanted US$300/year for
DIAL.  About a year ago, DIAL was very understaffed and couldn't keep
up with the requests that were arriving (which I calculated to be about
30/day).  6+ week turnaround was not uncommon on some pretty basic requests.

The Windows group at MS then started a Windows support group on GENIE
(which is now available in Canada) because DIAL wasn't proving
effective.  MS then withdrew their direct support for the GENIE
bulletin board because the DIAL people were crying mutiny.  However,
some MS people still continued to support GENIE as private
individuals.

We dropped our DIAL subscription and have been using GENIE (although it
has been a several months since I used either).  Perhaps someone can
provide a more current update.

> 1.  Is it really that s....l....o.....w on printing.  Bill Gates claimed
> that MS Windows on an AT is as fast as a MAC. Hmmmm.  Well, my 8 mhz. AT
> goes away for minutes on end when I print a paint file, or even a write
> file.  It's speed is so poor that I would class it as unusable.

You're probably using the spooler.   In your win.ini, set
spooler=no
Under 1.0, MS recommended that the spooler be avoided.  I don't think the
problem is with the spooler but the amount of compute power needed to run
Windows and spool at the same time.  It is certainly pushing your 8M Hz AT
beyond its limits.

> 2.  I have an LQ-800, I have set it up properly, I believe, according to

> 3.   Is there a way in paint to get rid of the tools display? It occupies

Can't help you here.