Those times when you just shake your head...

Right lads..here's the deal.

I have a partner at the accounting firm that i provide support to contact me on Wednesday and tell me that he downloaded a program to help him watch football games live on his work laptop. However, it didn't work, and he uninstalled it, but now that when he launches any program, it starts the Windows Installer everytime, and some programs aren't working at all.

Now nevermind the fact that he put his signature to our IT Policies that explicitly state that "Any and all software desired to be installed must meet the approval of the IT Department. Under no circumstances should software be installed by anyone in the firm, except for IT Staff.", nor the fact that we have hammered this in firmwide meetings, emails, etc.

Total time to fix his issue was over 2 hours straight of hardcore troubleshooting. I had to use two Registry Cleaners because, yep, that's right, the one thing that I didn't want fecked, got fecked and guess what it was? Microsoft SQL...that oh so lovely application that is next to impossible to totally remove if you are having reinstallation issues. But i managed it and everything is working now.

I got an email late last night when i finished working on his case and closed it out. It sends him and email detailing everything done. his response was only one word.

"Thanks"

It just amazes me because this guy actually blamed Windows 7 as the problem with all what happened in the same breath that he stated that the problem only started when he "uninstalled" the program that wouldn't work. My guess is he's not telling me everything and did more than just add/remove programs, but is embarassed at what a royal feckwit he is.


I'm motc7 and this is my Friday rant.

 

Perhaps you should recover from a backup rather than trying to decode the mess. It may have been quicker just to re-image his PC.

 

That was the first thing on my mind after the first hour. But you don't understand, these are the owners of the company. Even if you tell them you will backup all their crap, and it's mostly crap, they will fight you every step of the way, as this guy did.

 

Limit them with group policy, and if they complain that they cannot install, say it is a problem with windows 7 but it is too expensive to change to anything else. Cost hurts managers.

 

And lock down the parental controls too for good measure. :-Drolleyes

 

That's my thinking too. We've tried doing that in the past, and right now I'm trying some things out as having people setup as power users only instead of local admins. I've got to keep this crap from happening.

Problem is, it's a culture battle. For years and years, the system Admin before the current one let them do whatever the heck they wanted, so to take that away from them instantly I know will ruffle feathers. I don't care that it does so long as I have management support.

 

In my opinion power user is still too high. Give them the minimum needed to do their jobs and leave it at that.


Submit this as an action plan to a managerial meeting (I am assuming you are the IT manager/administrator):

Start with a comprehensive job function review, then write a policy document defining the job functions of all employees, then link this to the permissions needed, then write a policy on permissions and requesting higher access, with policy reviews scheduled for every 6 months or when requested on a case-by-case basis.

Note this process should take about 6 months to complete during which time you can define a temporary policy of limiting all users to user level until you have identified the criteria mentioned above for access permissions.

This way everyone is limited and cannot install without you providing an administrator password.

Oh, and include a form of training for higher access permissions within the policies.

 

Microsoft SQL Express 2005 you suck!!!

I friggin hate this thing, and yet, 3 of our main apps run off this piece of felgercarb.

I had someone having problems with an SQL service not starting when the computer boots up, even though I had it set to automatic.

So I uninstall the instance and the program, but the instance wouldn't uninstall. I had to rip every program out that uses the bloody thing, rip out SQL from Add/Remove, kill the program files folder and do so many registry girations that I feel like a registry slut of the first order.

Then when I finally got the installer to work on SQL, it said that I didn't have permissions to a registry key, but i'm the friggin domain admin!!!!

I finally had to login as local admin, set permissions and even then it was telling me to feck off. But looks like I'm golden now...4 hours later.


Why can't MSSQL be easier to uninstall?