Recently I had a hiccup with my main SSD drive. I have a dual boot Win/Kubuntu setup. Linux was crashing hard and Windows was giving me blue screens. After I resolved the issue (cooling/loose connection, idk) my Linux was doing fine, but Windows was giving me blue screens. I think it was doing an update when it crashed.
After a couple of hours messing with my recovery USB and booting in safe mode, I was able to fix the bad update and reboot normally.
I tried to open Firefox and it couldn’t find the executable. Looking into the Program Files Mozilla folder, I found the .exe files had been renamed to .exe.sig???
Then looking for the Edge browser, I suddenly found out that Microsoft Copilot AI had been installed!?!?!?!?!?!?
What the actual fuck???
I never wanted that trash on my PC! That’s one of the reasons out of the many that I didn’t want to use Windows 11.
And it’s a weird fucking coincidence that Firefox was fucked. I couldn’t even rename the files to .exe because they wouldn’t execute. Looks like they were encrypted or some shit? What the fuck is Microsoft pulling?
It’s a happy coincidence because you know what? I’ve been thinking about going full Linux install since all my games and Windows applications work with Steam, Proton and Bottles now.
I really don’t see any fucking reason to keep using Windows. Fuck this shit and fuck Microsoft.
Edit: Oh and that’s on top of all the other bullshit like forcing users to create a MS account to install Windows 10 now and having to jump through hoops to have an offline installation. And also defaulting to having all your user folder documents into their fucking One Drive cloud.
I’m done.
Embrace it. Most of us used to use Windows at some point. But I think it’s really nice here on the other side. Hope you find your nice and bullshit-free way to use your computer.
Welcome in from the cold. We have blankets and cocoa.
And cats 😺
You found a .sig file where you expected a .exe? Did Windows crash while the Mozilla Updater was running? Sounds like a file that’d be present to verify that a new copy of the .exe was legit and complete, but the .exe itself was never written to disk.
As shitty as Microsoft is, I don’t think they encrypted your Firefox.exe…
Ah that could be it. It was such a weird coincidence.
How auspicious that this popped up on my Lemmy feed
Earlier on my Misskey I was bitching about how like
Holy shit
I hadn’t realllly used windows in 2 years (only for emergencies, and my emergency windows install is a debloated windows 10 AME thing that I set up one geological era ago). But today I was setting it up in a family member’s laptop as a favour. It somehow got even worse in the past few years!
Like to not even get into the whole privacy and control over one’s machine discussion (someone smarter can explain that in an eloquent way that isn’t just “windows bad”, though windows IS terrible for that, mind) – it’s just annoying!
Like you can’t even start using the computer without setting up a Microsoft account, and then you have to go through seven different screens where Microsoft wants you to give consent to them spying on you, and even if you were to say yes (don’t), it still is slow and plodding to do. And THEN after that it still sees fit to drop advertisements for Microsoft 365 and Gamepass because hey you just bought a license key to premium software? How would you like some fucking subscription services with that?
Everytime I use a windows machine it’s a real “damn bitch you LIVE like this?” moment
Same. And I’m going insane over Android and Google/Samsung as well. How much control over our personal data do these companies want???
If you are expecting stuff to never go wrong and software to never be updated in a way you disagree with on Linux then you’re in for disappointment.
Remember the KDE kidney bean? What about Gnome’s idiotic hamburger menus?
No that’s not the point.
Of course software can go bad and files get corrupt, especially when hardware fails.
But I won’t expect some corporate AI spyware to get installed and my files to be put in a cloud to be scanned and analysed without my consent.
Understandable. I want to tell you a little story for the lolz too.
A few years back, I was dual booting with Ubuntu and Windows 10 to play certain games. 2016 released a highly anticipated game for me, Civilization 6. I think that I purchased it in its release period on Windows and … it did not start. I’ve researched and tried to find a solution, but nothing worked. After a few days later contacting the support in Steam, we found out it was because the Skype installer. Go figure.
So I removed the Skype installer and the game run! How**?!** I didn’t even had the Skype installer before. Windows got me it without asking me through some updates. That’s pretty spicy, but not all! See, I’m saying “Skype installer”, because this is not even the application itself, its just the installer for Skype. I’m asking again, How**!?** (Notice this time the exclamation mark has priority over question mark…)
At that time, I already had enough of Windows for years. But purchased a license and installed it after years without Windows, because I couldn’t play some of my favorite games otherwise (Overwatch wasn’t playable on Linux in the beginning, Street Fighter 5, Civilization 6 and many other games…). Someday I nuked that Windows installation too, as it was just not worth it anymore.
That’s so weird.
And yeah, wasn’t Skype another software pushed onto users in Windows?
The thing holding me back is multi monitor support. It’s just atrocious on Linux (and has been for a long time). I have issues with:
- can’t duplicate screens (“not supported” huh?),
- random screen not detected,
- broken layout when screen changed,
- flickering and constant layout changes
Not sure if anyone has tips? NVIDIA and Intel displays, scarred to even try VR.
NVIDIA
That’s your problem right there. So often, when somebody says “I have a problem with Linux”, they mention NVIDIA. Sir/Madam, you have a problem with NVIDIA. Those fucks have been a thorn in the backside for more than a decade. As the creator of linux said “single worst company they’ve dealt with”.
Tips… uh… in rising order of monetary cost
- no cost: install a distro that might have support for downloading the right proprietary drivers (linux mint, Pop!OS, ubuntu, bazzite? nobara?)
- no cost: try to install the proprietary drivers yourself
- variable cost: get a geeky friend to try and fix it for you, compensate with a beer, meal, or vacation depending on how annoying it was
- buy an AMD GPU
For temporal cost, reverse the order.
I have a simple setup with only one monitor. I haven’t messed around with having two screens yet. But I used to when I had a laptop and I don’t remember it being that difficult. I dunno.
Were you using an antivirus program on Windows?
Edit: for the benefit of people downvoting this question: missing executables sounds like the behavior of an overzealous antivirus. It’s a relevant question to ruling out what may have caused the issue.
The best antivirus program to run on a windows system is “fdisk” .
/jkJust read
fdiskin my head as “fuck disk” for the first time ever possibly due to the inclusion of Microsoft in the current context
Yeah I know that you mean. When I searched for my .Sig file issue, I saw some older posts about Avast doing this to programs.
According to other people on here, my Firefox was probably in the middle of an update when it crashed.
In the few cases I need Windows, I use it on a VM, and usually through an old iso I keep around and with Windows Update Blocker. Maybe it would be viable for you too?
Yeah. That’s probably what I’ll do. Install it without an internet connection, then remove all the bloat and online stuff. Then keep it as minimal as possible. Just as a backup.
Windows shouldn’t be blue screening. Check your hardware before installing Linux. If the hardware checks out (I doubt it will) go ahead and install.
Yeah it was an SSD issue. It’s fixed. It was just loose.