Monday I was greeted by chaos at KigMcGrath Dudley as none of the computers were operating the damn Silverlight/Insight software that operates the newer version of the company programmes and handles all the individual children’s lesson plans. Now, given that the whole thing is a bit of a camel to do a horses job in the first place, and I had struggled with the damn programme to enter all the lesson details, I was less than impressed to find that it wouldn’t work.
Ambrose checked his emails and there was a note from the head office saying the software was being updated today (a working day!) and would probably be out for about two hours. The email was over six hours old and nothing worked. Fortunately, we have back up old system software to use but, this doesn’t have all the lesson plans on, so it was back to pen and ink for that.
To say I was less than impressed with microsoft and the franchise management for allowing an update on a working day was a bit of an understatement and I let Ambrose know in no uncertain terms. If I could have got my hands on the damn fool that decided to ‘improve’ the system, I could cheerfully have strangled them there and then.
When we were in the same situation on Tuesday, I told Ambrose to get the franchise to fix it as it was there cock up. However, he is a lot calmer(or alternatively, more naive than me) so he checked his emails again and there was a rather optimistic note from head office saying that clearing the ‘cache’ would solve the problem. Not that Ambrose or any of the other managers had a clue what a cache was, but by then I had already decided to fix it myself using CCleaner
This free piece of software is right up there with FB Purity in my mind because not only will it remove all the duplicated files all win systems generate, but it can also check for registery errors caused by software removal or in this case updates. I cleared all the junk off and checked the registry on the first machine: 41 errors ! Fixed those and surprise surprise, the software worked. I then spent the next 15 minutes fixing the other machines.
So it all worked as well as it ever does, it is still littered with errors and I go so mad one day I actually sent an error report in stating ” The damn thing won’t accept the password I used to open it up in the first place”. Just before we left for home Ambrose got a call from his woman in West Bromwich saying none of her computers were working. I was handed the phone and asked to explain to her how to fix the machines post upgrade.
There was supposed to be a meeting about the upgrade and how wonderful it all will be on Friday. I told Ambrose to point out that a) it had caused chaos b) Who in their right mind updates on one of the busiest days of the week?