back to article Titsup Windows Phone 8 orders user to cram 'boot disc' in mobe

A Windows Phone 8-using wag claims he provoked his Microsoft handset into asking for an installation DISC - with a boot manager error message familiar to anyone who's wrestled with Windows NT. The offending boot screen At least it didn't do a blue screen of death The error is by no means standard and - we're told - only …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Bob Vistakin
    WTF?

    True innovation

    Right there in the palm of your hand.

    1. LarsG
      Meh

      The next

      The next lot of mobile phones circa 2013, will have even bigger screens so there will be an opportunity to install a disc drive in them. Problem solved.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The next

        ...and you wonder why phone OEMs lock down bootloaders and try to stop people flashing their own firmware. It is to stop this sort of publicity caused by people messing around with the OS.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: The next

          No RICHTO, we know why Windows phone manufacturers ("OEMs" in Microsoft corporatespeak) lock down bootloaders and try to stop people flashing their own firmware. It's because the licensing agreement with Microsoft requires it. Microsoft wouldn't want people wiping the virus off their new (subsidised) purchase and installing better on it. What would Microsoft gain from that?

        2. JEDIDIAH
          Linux

          Re: The next

          > ...and you wonder why phone OEMs lock down bootloaders and try to stop people flashing their own firmware. It is to stop this sort of publicity caused by people messing around with the OS.

          This would not be a problem on my phone. I could just use an OTG cable and plug a CD drive into it.

        3. Citizen White
          Stop

          Re: The next

          Are you advocating a position that users should not be able to do what they want with their own property?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The next

        > will have even bigger screens so there will be an opportunity to install a disc drive in them

        Well the Lumia 710 and 820 did suddenly add a microSD slot ... seems like a suitably mini "disc" drive.

    2. JDX Gold badge

      Re: True innovation

      Unlike Android of course, built on an OS that pre-dates Windows NT.

      1. Ian McNee
        Linux

        Re: True innovation

        @JDX: You, sir, are a troll, though a troll with a very nice gold badge!

        For once I'm going to give M$ the benefit of the doubt here: maybe there is some wag of a code monkey in the WinPho8 dev team who mocked-up this screen to be displayed on a boot failure likely to have been caused by tinkering with the standard boot image. Surely someone at M$ has a sense of humour...surely...

        1. hplasm
          Happy

          Re: True innovation

          That's what the big Tiles are hiding...

        2. Dana W
          Meh

          Re: True innovation

          I'll believe a lot, but someone at Microsoft having a sense of humor? That is TOO much to ask.

          1. Mr_Bungle
            Alert

            Re: True innovation

            You don't think the guy just took a photo of a desktop PC bootscreen error, then displayed it fullscreen on the phone?

            Would be a fine joke to play.

      2. JEDIDIAH
        Linux

        Re: True innovation

        > Unlike Android of course, built on an OS that pre-dates Windows NT.

        NT is a VMS knockoff. So that means that it is no spring chicken either.

    3. the-it-slayer
      Facepalm

      Re: True innovation - and laziness?

      The fact you can scoop out an error message (regardless whether it's been hacked or not) that's designed originally for desktop OSes is pure laziness in my own opinion. To disguise it is worse. It really serves nothing more than some embarrassing headlines, but still; it's nasty to the common consumer user who'd be totally confused with such an error if one of the key files corrupted.

      Even the title for the error page isn't centred. Sheesh.

      1. Charles Calthrop
        WTF?

        Re: True innovation - and laziness?

        assuming that the common consumer mucks about with their flash rom image

        I bet that if you asked a man on the clapham omnibus if you could muck about with his flash rom image to show him something funny, you would get a smack.

        1. the-it-slayer
          Facepalm

          Re: True innovation - and laziness?

          What about over-the-air updates that could go wrong due to the battery cutting our or some data becoming corrupt during the download process? This is what I mean. You don't see Androids and iPhones chucking out random guzzle that consumers don't understand.

          Flashing the ROM on a WP Phone is the same as asking iTunes to do a restore on an iPhone (to a certain degree). How can anyone defend the laziness Microsoft has showed here to tie up loose ends?

          1. fiddley
            Thumb Up

            Re: True innovation - and laziness?

            http://www.flickr.com/photos/coreforce/3562389946/

            1. the-it-slayer
              Happy

              Re: True innovation - and laziness?

              @fiddley - okay, you have me on that one. still, i like the fact they're prepared to put a funny within their crash code... "we are hanging here".

              1. sabroni Silver badge
                Thumb Up

                Re: True innovation - and laziness?

                Agreed! When I see Chrome crash and take down Windows with it, it's the hilarious Star Trek message ("it's dead Jim") that makes the loss of all my work bearable.

                1. Anonymous Coward
                  Anonymous Coward

                  Re: True innovation - and laziness?

                  "When I see Chrome crash and take down Windows with it"

                  You use an OS where a program crash will take it down ? Good grief !

                  1. sabroni Silver badge

                    Re: You use an OS where a program crash will take it down ? Good grief !

                    Yeah, I just don't use chrome. I've not had any other program crash the OS. I run Safari, firefox, Iron, Opera and sometime even IE and they all manage to run without breaking the OS. I guess those Google engineers are just really clever (as well as really funny!).

                    1. sabroni Silver badge

                      Re: You use an OS where a program crash will take it down ? Good grief !

                      Actually, thinking about it, it doesn't crash the OS so much as make it shut down. It goes through the same process it goes through when you click shut down, so it's not technically a crash, it's an unwanted reboot...

      2. MIc
        Thumb Down

        Re: True innovation - and laziness?

        you are just talkin' mess.

        Why would you spend the resources to take it out especially is the actual server and desktop OS still need that code? Why would you spend the time and money to remove a scenario that you can only get to by screwing with the boot loader? What % of smart phone owners do that?

        You my friend would make a terrible dev manager and or PM.

    4. CmdrX3
      Thumb Down

      Re: True innovation

      Because android phones don't crash into those kinds of death screens....

      http://instagram.com/p/UYNjOVHjD4/

      and Apples iDevices don't either....

      http://instagram.com/p/UYN-zoHjEC/

      Perhaps it's simply because it asks for the disk, in that case...BFD. By the way those photos are from links in the comments from the page that you posted in another article Bob, but maybe you didn't read that far in your excitement to get another anti-MS comment posted. You (again) fail to mention this "true innovation" happened because they were pissing about with their phones and flashing firmwares.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The two trolls must share a bedsit and woke one another up to post!

    Newsflash : Messing around flashing your phone may break it. Coming up : Windows Phone 8 built on NT kernel.

    Pretty pathetic excuse for linkbait if you ask me.

    1. Natalie Gritpants

      May have a point

      It shows there is some code in there to handle errors that should never happen. How did Microsoft test that code? Are there any bugs in it? Even if you assume the code identical to and fully tested on other platforms it shows there is unreachable code that make your ROM bigger than it need be i.e. more expensive, slower and more power hungry (more cache misses).

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: May have a point

        Says to me that all those vicious rumours, dismissed by experts like RICHTO, that Windows had layer upon layer of old code lurking under the bonnet were all true.

        1. vagabondo
          Facepalm

          Re: May have a point

          AC -- what time-zone are you in? Wake up. Don't take everything so seriously. It was mildly amusing. Enjoy a grin/smirk while you have your coffee.

          Or are you one of MS's attack dogs just doing your job?

          1. Fatman
            FAIL

            Re: Or are you one of MS's attack dogs just doing your job?

            Loverock Davidson strikes again!

        2. Ian Yates

          Re: May have a point

          Has anyone found any detail on what he was doing?

          I can't find anything on whether he has played with the shipped ROM and found an error that shouldn't be displayed (so, hidden code) or whether he's shifted a ROM from a different product across, where the error would make sense.

        3. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: May have a point

          @AC "Says to me that all those vicious rumours, dismissed by experts like RICHTO, that Windows had layer upon layer of old code lurking under the bonnet were all true"

          How does it show that? All it shows is that there is some code in this part of the system which exists for both the WP, probably RT, Desktop and Server versions of NT.

          In other news, MS make a big thing about the fact that it's the same core OS on each device.

      2. Androgynous Crackwhore
        Gimp

        Re: May have a point

        What does "Gritpants" mean?.. I think we may have met in person?

      3. Anonymous Coward 15

        Re: May have a point

        It shows there is some code in there to handle errors that should never happen.

        Anything that Should Never Happen (tm) will happen.

      4. El Andy

        Re: May have a point

        "It shows there is some code in there to handle errors that should never happen. How did Microsoft test that code? Are there any bugs in it?"

        They tested it by having it in the Windows source for the last couple of decades. #1 rule of large-scale software engineering is not to mess with code that doesn't need it. Do you really think it would be a good idea to fork the NT kernel just so that an error message you'd never see on a phone isn't included? Every little change like that exponentially increases the test matrix, making a future failure all the more likely.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: May have a point

          @ El Andy: Eh? Even rewording the text of error messages? Just how fragile can the NT kernel be? Shhhhhhhh... Softly now... you might crash your phone.

  3. Monty Burns

    SHOCK!

    Non-standard, f*&ked with ROM shows Non-standard error!

    And the story is...... ?

    1. Syntax Error

      Re: SHOCK!

      Windows8 is realy NT in disguise!

      1. Monty Burns

        Re: SHOCK!

        "Windows8 is realy NT in disguise!"

        I'm guessing that since this is about Windows PHONE 8, you mean Windows PHONE 8

        And, so....?

        So are pretty much all the other Windows releases, probably also including the ones most of us use on our Windows desktops.

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_NT

  4. Herby

    Next step?

    So, now one presses CTRL-ALT-DEL?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This article smells of queef.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      So does your mum.

  6. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

    Could have been worse

    At least it didn't ask him to press F1 to continue...

  7. Schultz

    It's so retro, It'll be chic

    Better, of course, with a proper blue screen and the 'press any key' option.

    1. Gordo Rex
      Coat

      Re: It's so retro, It'll be chic

      Sorry, but I'm not sure where they put the ANY key on those phones.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It's so retro, It'll be chic

      Remind me again which One was the Any Key?

      1. Simon Westerby 1
        Joke

        Re: It's so retro, It'll be chic

        > Remind me again which One was the Any Key?

        Duh! Its the on next to the Other Key ...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Hopefully someone will hack it so it displays a proper blue BSOD. Come on MS! Where is the gut wrenching, oh shit when I have not saved my work kind of BSOD?

    1. S4qFBxkFFg
      Joke

      I thought fake BSOD apps were 20% of the Windows Phone Store?

      1. Simon Harris
        Facepalm

        BSOD

        I had a photograph of a Windows 98 BSOD as the screensaver image on an old Sony-Ericsson phone.

        My girlfriend at the time really thought she'd crashed my phone!

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: BSOD

          Is that why she dumped you?

          1. Simon Harris

            Re: BSOD

            It was probably the previously documented paedo camera incident that did it!

  9. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

      Re: installation disc?

      So he did not make the "recovery discs" most laptops ask you to make? That is much safer than a recovery partition (in case the hard drive goes titsup). Machines with windows pre-installed often come with a product code on the underside of the machine. Could this be used to get a reinstallation disk from MS (not likely I guess, but perhaps worth a shot)?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: installation disc?

        The OEM Windows key is usually on the PC case. In my experience of secondhand laptops - the OEM MS Office keys are never(?) attached to the PC case. If you do a key retrieval in order to reinstall - then the value that is found is often a generic key for that supplier. Trying to use that key causes the installation to fail "piracy" checks.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: installation disc?

          lol piracy checks how quaint. I always use the same code and it never fails haha.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: installation disc?

            If you have a major brand machine that came with a Vista or 7 sticker it is quite easy to abuse the OEM activation process to get Ultimate at no extra cost, with no mods and no keys that aren't generic.

        2. Simon Westerby 1
          FAIL

          Re: installation disc?

          If your talking about the Recovery CDs I needed to recently needed to Recover my old Acer Travelmate 2000, cunningly labeled as "Recovery Disk 1 of 2" and "Recovery Disk 2 of 2" ... which fell over when it asked me to insert the "Next" Recovery CD after restoring 90% from Disks 1 and 2 ....

      2. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Fuzz

      Re: installation disc?

      If the laptop runs Windows 7 you just need a windows disc and you can reinstall using the product key on the bottom of the computer. Microsoft removed the requirement to match up discs and product keys in Windows 7.

      1. Davidoff
        Holmes

        Microsoft removed the requirement to match up discs and product keys in Windows 7

        No, they removed that in Vista already. Any Vista DVD can be used to re-install with an OEM product key, and even cross upgrades (32bit to 64bit or vice versa) are allowed as the key does not resolve the word length.

      2. This post has been deleted by its author

        1. Rob Beard
          Windows

          Re: installation disc?

          Try this link :-)

          You can download the ISOs from Digital River, you just need a legit key to be able to use them and they aren't limited to just Dell machines. If you Google it you can find out all sorts about reinstalling Windows with a manufacturer key and certificate, it's a great way of doing a clean install of Windows without all the extra stuff that the manufacturers install.

          Rob

          1. Andus McCoatover
            Windows

            Re: installation disc?

            Erm....

            Some folks are not using a PC....using their 'phone to do all they need. What now?

          2. This post has been deleted by its author

  10. Avatar of They
    Thumb Up

    Lol.

    Its not that he is messing, it is that the code is still from NT, shows windows can't code anything anymore without relying on bygone code that is, at it's core, now unstable in the world of hacking and viruses.

    Then again tesco tills and cash points run on windows (I have seen the windows error reporting screens), that is more worrying than a phone OS I will never go near.

    1. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

      Re: Lol.

      Software re-use often has these side effects.

      1. Lars Silver badge

        Re: Lol.

        One code to rule them all. Will suggest some code cleaning, hard work as nobody knows what that old code does anymore.

    2. sabroni Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: bygone code that is, at it's core, now unstable

      Of course, all the old instructions that computers used to use are now unstable. We have new instructions for new code that are much more robust.

      If you were to take a modern os, hack around with an image of it and try and run it there is no way you could reproduce this sort of problem.

      When oh when will we get an answer to the problem of code degrading over time?

      1. Simon Harris
        Coat

        Re: bygone code that is, at it's core, now unstable

        Of course, all the old instructions that computers used to use are now unstable. We have new instructions for new code that are much more robust.

        and the datasheets for old microprocessors are not there so much as to tell you how the things worked, but to wedge under the dodgy leg on their opcode tables.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Lol.

      Err... It shows nothing of the sort, it shows that the same Kernel is being used for all Windows devices.

      In other news, there's still a "Is printer on fire?" error in UNIX.

    4. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Lol.

      Crap troll. When Linux is used people are building on a legacy. When NT is used it's "can't be bothered to write a new OS".

      People who don't know the first thing about programming probably shouldn't weigh in on subjects they are embarrassingly ignorant of, especially when they are fans of a 25-year-old OS.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Coffee/keyboard

        Re: Lol.

        What part of 'complete rewrite' for Vista/7/8 did I not understand?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Lol.

          The part where a complete re-write of code to perform the same specified operations can be totally new, but still appear from it's inputs and outputs to be the same, but faster or to have had bugs fixed.

          Here is how it works: Senior guy specifies how the code is to work, junior guy codes it up. Other senior guys aren't happy with the code, so a different junior guy re-writes it from scratch, but it still carries out the same task. Yes, part of my job is specifying code for junior guys to write.

          1. hplasm
            Devil

            Re: Lol.Here is how it works...

            You certaiinly don't work for Microsoft, then.

        2. El Andy

          Re: Lol.

          The part in which "complete rewrite" was an entirely made up pipe dream of people without much of a clue. Microsoft themselves have never made any such statement, in fact they've been very clear that all modern versions of Windows are built upon the foundations of NT.

    5. mickey mouse the fith

      Re: Lol.

      "Then again tesco tills and cash points run on windows (I have seen the windows error reporting screens), that is more worrying than a phone OS I will never go near."

      Heh, i managed to crash one of those back to the xp desktop, complete with windows error message. I kept jabbing the touchscreen until it froze playing a continual loop of the "please place item in the bagging area" sound at quite a volume. The assistant didnt see the funny side as she didnt know how to reboot it and had to put up with the sound for about 5 minutes until a tech arrived and sorted it out. She got really pissed off, probably not helped by me laughing.

      I do wonder how secure these things are to tampering. Could a keylogger be installed by a corrupt employee to pinch cc details and pin numbers? I would like to think the payment side was isolated from the crashy insecure windows bit and i prey to god they are not internet connected in any shape or form.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And where is the 8 bit colours version?

    1. Juillen 1
      Mushroom

      Now we know why they called it "Windows 8" and had that colour scheme!

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Seems utterly reasonable.....

    This is classic Microsoft ingenuity and efficiency - sharing bootloader code is eminently sensible. What else would you expect from the company who produced the fearsome Windows 8? Freetards need not reply - go back to recompiling your kernel in a cave linux boy.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "A Windows Phone 8-using wag claims he"...

    Wife and girlfriend = he?

  14. JDX Gold badge

    Demonstrates that Windows NT code still lurks under the surface of Windows Phone 8

    That's the whole POINT of W8 that it is built on a proper PC kernel for the first time, not a crippled CE/mobile OS like WP 7.5.

    1. Shonko Kid
      Holmes

      Re: Demonstrates that Windows NT code still lurks under the surface of Windows Phone 8

      Exactly, which was the whole point of not being able to use any of the underlying CE APIs in WP7, as they were all going to get thrown out when WP was switched over to the NT based kernel. This isn't news.

    2. hplasm
      Windows

      Re: Demonstrates that Windows NT code still lurks under the surface of Windows Phone 8

      That's the whole POINT of W8 that it is built on a crippled PC kernel for the first time, not a crippled CE/mobile OS like WP 7.5.

      FTFY.

  15. Andy Farley

    Don't care.

    If I was buying a phone with my own money I'd probably go for a Lumia 920. Bored of iPhones and it's got a good camera and looks nice.

    People really get too heated about all this. It's only a phone.

  16. greenmoose
    WTF?

    Lurking? Really? Is this news?

    "graphically demonstrates that Windows NT code still lurks under the surface of Windows Phone 8"?! how is it lurking? Isnt the idea of WP8 vs Windows 8 to bring about some kind of code parity between the two platforms? You make it sound like some kind of conspiracy that with some mucking about with the firmware that this device can be made to "reveal" what we all already knew?! "Popping the bonnet of my 2007 Ford Focus ST revealed a Volvo engine lurking underneath"... its not a conspiracy!!

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: Lurking? Really? Is this news?

      You are hilariously reading too much into one word.

      C.

      1. greenmoose
        FAIL

        Re: Lurking? Really? Is this news?

        lurking present participle of lurk (Verb)

        Verb

        1) Be or remain hidden so as to wait in ambush for someone or something: "a killer lurked in the darkness".

        2) (of an unpleasant quality) Be present in a latent or barely discernible state, although still presenting a threat.

        The poster of this article chose the word, not me. Sorry for actually knowing what it means without requiring a definition. The story is interesting and amusing but ultimately worded in such a way that the people who've hacked their phones into displaying this error message have uncovered something microsoft would rather have kept secret. This kind of laziness can lead to all sorts of histrionic over-reactions if enough people jump on the bandwagon.

        1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

          Re: Re: Lurking? Really? Is this news?

          "Be or remain hidden so as to wait in ambush for someone or something"

          Yes, I guess an operating system kernel that is out of sight and only visibly strikes when something's gone wrong isn't lurking at all.

          C.

          1. greenmoose
            Stop

            Re: Lurking? Really? Is this news?

            So in your expert opinion the kernel of an operating system only does something when something goes wrong? Do you actually know what a kernel is or have you some strange delusion about a world war 2 battle field with a call for charge happening squared at hapless users?

            So they didnt remove some text from functionality that while essential to the OS is never going to be seen by the end user in a real life scenario that doesnt involve modifiying the device in some way. Demonstrate to me that this can commonly occur on joe bloggs phone and you have a story worthy of the kind of ridiculous uneducated responses that this story is already generating.

            1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

              Re: Re: Lurking? Really? Is this news?

              "Do you actually know what a kernel is"

              Yeah, I wrote one.

              "Demonstrate to me that this can commonly occur on joe bloggs phone"

              That's not the point of the story as plainly pointed out.

              C.

  17. Greg J Preece

    graphically demonstrates that Windows NT code still lurks under the surface of Windows Phone 8.

    This is a surprise? I thought that was the point of modern WP?

  18. Davidoff
    FAIL

    That is no NT error message

    This is not a WindowsNT specific error message, it comes up on Windows 2000, XP and Vista (haven't tried W7 and W8) as well if the startup fixer assistant can't be launched.

    The other clues that this is not a relict from WindowsNT 4.0 should be the path of the missing files (which is 'Windows', not 'Winnt' as it was the default under NT) and the fact that it refers to an EFI boot loader (which doesn't exist for WindowsNT).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: That is no NT error message

      Win 2000, XP, 2003, 2008, 7 and 8, WP7 and WinRT are all Windows NT.

      The specification of the path only goes to show that %systemroot% has been set to "\windows\" rather than "c:\winnt"

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    anyone who buys one if these Windows phones when they could buy an Android or dare I say it an iPhone is the word used to describe the characteristics of a vehicles ignition that is firing after top dead centre

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Are we sure this isn't a mocked-up pic and an article more worthy of the Onion?

  21. Mark Allread

    Surely this has been faked?

    No? It's just a still image, on a phone?

  22. The Alpha Klutz
    Alien

    happy to BUY WINDOWS PHONE. a+ purchase am pleased eternal! you buy me too.

    yes brothers and sisters

  23. Neil 38

    Don't forget to load himem.sys and emm386.exe before you call win.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Don't forget to @echo off before you do!

  24. DrXym

    Bad messge but not surprising

    Android and iOS devices can suffer a kernel panic. Why shouldn't an NT kernel suffer a boot error or BSOD?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Bad messge but not surprising

      Because Android and iOS have only been around for a few years. The NT kernel has been around since the 60's and has almost a trillion dollars invested and hundreds of thousands of hours from the world greatest programmers, some have spent their entire careers coding the NT kernel.

  25. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge

    "some have spent their entire careers coding the NT kernel."

    Sisyphus comes to mind.

  26. json

    At least..

    ..its doesnt have a blue background =)

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like