Sunday, September 21, 2008

The Big Windows Registry Swindle

Its interesting isn’t it how companies can build in obsolesce into their products? It is also remarkable how companies can make a lot more profit from selling you product to maintain what you ahve already bought than they do from selling you the inital product. A good example of a product that makes its sellers little money to begin with but then rakes in the profit is Gillette razors; you buy a cheap razor and pay through the noise for the blades. Most people will probably still buy It though as it is slightly less money and a lot less effort than changing the printer.  

 

Returning to the subject of built in obsolescence, this is less of a problem than it used to be when it comes to things such as white goods and other solid products. The reason for this is that manufactures are obliged to supply parts for these products seven years after they stop making them so repair is often now a real option. The area where built in obsolesce really does seem to still be a problem is that of software and in particular Microsoft Windows. The problem that Microsoft and probably a lot of hardware manufacturers have is that most people never use their computer to its full potential so although you can keep making better and better computers most people will never feel the need to upgrade. Most people only ever use their computer for word processing and surfing the net, this puts no strain on your computer? And If you chose not to upgrade, well Microsoft don’t sell any new copies of Windows. So they Microsoft and the computer manufacturers get round the problem by building in obsolescence.

 

The first and probably most effective way in which they do this is that they encourage people making software to make it incompatible with older version of windows and older computers. At lot of the time the software being released has been built to put a strain on older systems even though it is often totally unnecessary for it to do so. The second and most shocking way in which the likes of Microsoft force you to spend more money and change your computer is that programs like Microsoft Windows slowly decay over time until they become unworkable, with the computer running slowly and regularly crashing. Most people when their old computer starts to slow down and go wrong assume that the computer is no longer up to the job and go and buy a new one. You do not need to buy a new computer you need to repair the windows registry. What’s the Windows Registry you ask? Well it’s a list of all the files and programs on your computer and their locations. As you add and remove programs this registry becomes corrupted and your computer starts to run poorly, this problem can be easily fixed with a windows registry error repair tool so don’t buy a new computer make the one you have already run like new again.  

No comments: