I'm a bit pissed that I am faced with having to reload the Wintendo now, all because of a fatal flaw in System Recovery. Right out of Microsoft's own tech database: "Windows XP includes the System Restore tool, but you cannot start the System Restore tool from a Recovery Console prompt."

Ok. So, when something screws over my system to the point where safe mode won't boot, I can't use the built in recovery tool to rollback to a working state. So, why did I ever bother keeping it enabled?

This all started because I wanted to install Visual Studio 2005 now that it is out. The installer told me that I had to remove .Net 2.0 Beta first (in an indirect way). So I hit uninstall for it, and the .Net 2.0 refused to be removed, also giving a not so useful error with a URL to Microsoft's site (mind you, a non clickable URL and lengthy). I pull up the URL and it explains that error means I have to uninstall WinFX first. Thinking back, I now remember I installed Microsoft Max to see some of the new stuff Vista might offer, and it required WinFX. So I remove Microsoft Max, then go to uninstall WinFX. It's uninstaller churns for a while, then asks for a .msi file long since removed by it's own installer. I hit cancel, the WinFX uninstaller errors out, but this time with a clickable URL. That leads me to a place where I can download the missing .MSI to then uninstall it properly. I download it, and find the Add/Remove programs control panel locked up from the attempted uninstall. So, I hit start, shut down, and choose to reboot.

Upon rebooting, the box just hangs on the Windows XP logo screen with the bar still animating. I reboot and try Last Known Good, same thing. I then reboot and try Safe Mode. Locks after listing the drivers loaded. I try Safe Mode with Command Prompt. Nothing. I then search on how to run the System Restore from the recovery console, and get that lovely message above that you can't.

So tomorrow, I get to spend several hours nuking Windows, reinstalling, and then reinstalling every other program, since the concept of self contained programs in the Windows world is a complete joke.

Yeah, I was running a beta product. And it worked fine. I didn't expect the uninstall to be the reason my system got screwed over. Thank god I don't trust Windows for anything critical, as I'll be able to do work tomorrow on my Powerbook running Mac OS X.

Now to wait for the Intel based Macs, so I can just play Windows games via Wine and be rid of Windows completely.