If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
Thread Tools | Rate Thread | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
MS virtual assistant
|
Ads |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
MS virtual assistant
Ed Cryer wrote:
https://goo.gl/U8pKA7 OP did not show both long (original) and shortened versions of the redirection URL. Google does not have a preview option for users to see to where a redirection URL points *before* going there. So I used a URL lengthener service. The above Google-ized redirection URL points to: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/... c&query=10016 The 'referrer' argument can be deleted since it merely tells that landing page from where you originally came, and if you go directly to the landing page then you aren't coming from where the OP was originally. In fact, none of the arguments are required. The already short URL below works just fine to hit the same landing page: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...virtual-agent/ No need to hide the target by using using a redirection URL. Can anybody get this to work under Win7? There's no reaction at all here. No information as to what client (web browser) the OP was using when rendering the web page. No information what extensions were installed by the OP in that unidentified client. Could be the OP is using an adblocker or other extension that is blocking the resources called for by that page or its scripts. Could be some user-defined tweaking of the client's configuration prevents the page from running as originally coded. The page is poorly designed. Took me a while to determine where to input my query string. It's at the bottom under the horizontal bar where is shown some grayed out text. Then you click on the rightward paper airplane icon; however, you can probably just hit the Enter key after entering your query string. Guess they think everyone visiting there is a texting junkie. The page worked for me using Google Chrome v70 on Windows 7 SP-1 Home Edition x64. It does have some extensions installed, like uBlock Origin and uMatrix, but none of that page's resources are blocked in my setup. The page also worked for me using Firefox v62 on the same host. Same uBlock Origin and uMatrix extensions. Some resources for the page were blocked but the page still worked. |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
MS virtual assistant
"VanguardLH" wrote
| OP did not show both long (original) and shortened versions of the | redirection URL. Google does not have a preview option for users to see | to where a redirection URL points *before* going there. So I used a URL | lengthener service. Thank you. I didn't know such things existed. I usually just ignore these halfwit posts with obscured links and no explanation. If someone doesn't have the time to actually ask their question then why spend time trying to figure it out? I didn't even know whether he was talking about the webpage or the topic on the webpage. | https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...virtual-agent/ For me that goes to one of those Microsoft pages where they block me completely for not allowing script. So then I put the URL into Google and get the perfectly readable, script-free version. But I don't see the agent. Maybe that's because I've blocked script. Google shows it getting redirected to an MS Office forum page that happens to have a virtual agent question on it. The picture on this page... https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...9-2f1005c17e8c ....seems to indicate that the annoying silliness of Microsoft Bob has been cross-bred with the irritating faux solicitousness of the actual MS people who staff MS forums: Q. How much is 2 + 2? A. Thank you so much for asking your question. Are you still having this problem? I'll be delighted to help you. Please restate the problem twice and include your Windows version along with all error logs. ...Come to think of it, maybe all those MS experts on their forums were just bots all along. That would explain the inability of anyone to communicate with them. |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
MS virtual assistant
"Ed Cryer" wrote in message news
https://goo.gl/U8pKA7 Can anybody get this to work under Win7? There's no reaction at all here. Ed I'll assume you're using Chrome ver 70 and it does not work most likely because Chrome is not accepting a lot of certificates that were breached/faked etc. The page works in IE-11. -- Bob S. |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
MS virtual assistant
Ed Cryer wrote:
https://goo.gl/U8pKA7 Can anybody get this to work under Win7? There's no reaction at all here. Ed If a person puts a "+" on the end of the URL, they'll get some info about the link before visiting. The particular shortened URL has been visited 8 times since creation. Putting a plus on the end, takes me here. https://goo.gl/#analytics/goo.gl/U8pKA7/all_time Since I was able to connect with Seamonkey, that means the underlying URL isn't too specific with regard to browsers. https://i.postimg.cc/CxXW6Ttf/my-dat...the-vortex.gif Paul |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
MS virtual assistant
VanguardLH wrote:
Ed Cryer wrote: https://goo.gl/U8pKA7 OP did not show both long (original) and shortened versions of the redirection URL. Google does not have a preview option for users to see to where a redirection URL points *before* going there. So I used a URL lengthener service. The above Google-ized redirection URL points to: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/... c&query=10016 The 'referrer' argument can be deleted since it merely tells that landing page from where you originally came, and if you go directly to the landing page then you aren't coming from where the OP was originally. In fact, none of the arguments are required. The already short URL below works just fine to hit the same landing page: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...virtual-agent/ No need to hide the target by using using a redirection URL. Can anybody get this to work under Win7? There's no reaction at all here. No information as to what client (web browser) the OP was using when rendering the web page. No information what extensions were installed by the OP in that unidentified client. Could be the OP is using an adblocker or other extension that is blocking the resources called for by that page or its scripts. Could be some user-defined tweaking of the client's configuration prevents the page from running as originally coded. The page is poorly designed. Took me a while to determine where to input my query string. It's at the bottom under the horizontal bar where is shown some grayed out text. Then you click on the rightward paper airplane icon; however, you can probably just hit the Enter key after entering your query string. Guess they think everyone visiting there is a texting junkie. The page worked for me using Google Chrome v70 on Windows 7 SP-1 Home Edition x64. It does have some extensions installed, like uBlock Origin and uMatrix, but none of that page's resources are blocked in my setup. The page also worked for me using Firefox v62 on the same host. Same uBlock Origin and uMatrix extensions. Some resources for the page were blocked but the page still worked. Thanks for taking the efforts you've shown. I quite agree that I was very lax in the paucity of information I gave. I'll try and do better next time. Ed |
#7
|
|||
|
|||
MS virtual assistant
In message , Mayayana
writes: "VanguardLH" wrote | OP did not show both long (original) and shortened versions of the | redirection URL. Google does not have a preview option for users to see | to where a redirection URL points *before* going there. So I used a URL | lengthener service. Thank you. I didn't know such things existed. I Nor did I. usually just ignore these halfwit posts with obscured links and no explanation. If someone doesn't have You mean like this (-:? http://www.khanya.org.za/peeves.htm the time to actually ask their question then why spend time trying to figure it out? I didn't even know whether he was talking about the webpage or the topic on the webpage. And people make opposite assumptions; VLH assumed he meant the webpage, I assumed he meant the topic (going from the thread title). | https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...virtual-agent/ For me that goes to one of those Microsoft pages where they block me completely for not allowing script. So then [] Q. How much is 2 + 2? A. Thank you so much for asking your question. Are you still having this problem? I'll be delighted to help you. Please restate the problem twice and include your Windows version along with all error logs. Priceless! I think that's going in my quotes file ... (-: (Though you missed "your question is important to us".) ...Come to think of it, maybe all those MS experts on their forums were just bots all along. That would explain the inability of anyone to communicate with them. (-: 3 -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Her [Valerie Singleton's] main job on /Blue Peter/ was to stop unpredictable creatres running amok. And that was just John Noakes. - Alison Pearson, RT 2014/9/6-12 |
#8
|
|||
|
|||
MS virtual assistant
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote
| A. Thank you so much for asking your question. | Are you still having this problem? I'll be delighted | to help you. Please restate the problem twice and | include your Windows version along with all error | logs. | | Priceless! I think that's going in my quotes file ... (-: | | (Though you missed "your question is important to us".) Woops. Yes, indeed. I guess I'm not the only one who's pulled out some hair over those inanities. The worst of it, to me, is that many of those people asking the questions have enthusiastically abandoned the relatively sane and helpful abode of usenet to be abused by such idiocy. |
#9
|
|||
|
|||
MS virtual assistant
On Thu, 1 Nov 2018 20:20:59 +0000, Ed Cryer wrote:
Thanks for taking the efforts you've shown. I quite agree that I was very lax in the paucity of information I gave. I'll try and do better next time. Don't worry mate, most of us understood perfectly well what you were asking. I just trialed a query on booting in UEFI mode and a useful article was listed in response. Obviously comparable with Cortana or even Google in what the answer might be but more fun to use. |
#10
|
|||
|
|||
MS virtual assistant
mechanic wrote:
On Thu, 1 Nov 2018 20:20:59 +0000, Ed Cryer wrote: Thanks for taking the efforts you've shown. I quite agree that I was very lax in the paucity of information I gave. I'll try and do better next time. Don't worry mate, most of us understood perfectly well what you were asking. I just trialed a query on booting in UEFI mode and a useful article was listed in response. Obviously comparable with Cortana or even Google in what the answer might be but more fun to use. Thanks for that, pal. I've tried the link through Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome and Safari; all from Win7 64bit. The first three find the page, but nothing is clickable on it; and I've moved the cursor all over it, no change at all from usual cursor to hand icon. The last (Safari) doesn't even find the page. The router is busy for a couple of seconds, a colour change moves through the entered address, but nothing turns up. The full address I'm using is this; https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/... c&query=10016 I was thinking that maybe MS had simply disabled it, having moved on to other interactive help. But some in this group say it works for them. Ed |
#11
|
|||
|
|||
MS virtual assistant
Paul wrote:
Ed Cryer wrote: https://goo.gl/U8pKA7 Can anybody get this to work under Win7? There's no reaction at all here. Ed If a person puts a "+" on the end of the URL, they'll get some info about the link before visiting. The particular shortened URL has been visited 8 times since creation. Putting a plus on the end, takes me here. https://goo.gl/#analytics/goo.gl/U8pKA7/all_time Since I was able to connect with Seamonkey, that means the underlying URL isn't too specific with regard to browsers. https://i.postimg.cc/CxXW6Ttf/my-dat...the-vortex.gif Paul The plussed version of the URL does indeed show some stats. It does have a hyperlink to the target URL; however, what it shows is NOT to where it points! The hyperlink whose *comment* in its URL shows: support.microsoft.com/en-us/contact/virtual-agent (no protocol prefix shown) actually goes to: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/... c&query=10016 You have to hover over the bogus URL hyperlink to see what the status bar in your web browser shows, or you can right-click on the hyperlink, copy the link *address* and paste (which is what I did here). Thanks for the hint on using "+" at the end of the Google redirection URL. Not really what I'd call a preview showing to where the redirection URL actually points. Remember that URL shortening services, like Google's and others, are logging the user's IP address that visited that shortened URL. So, it's a privacy issue: everyone clicking on that shortened URL is getting tracked. Also, if the URL shortening service is discontinued, all those archived short links are dead. The point to the shortening service, not to the actual target site. If you consider the data as transient then you don't care that someone reading your articles several years old cannot see to what you previously redirected. I've hit several web forums where the posters showed a shortened URL but it was dead, so you couldn't see what they referenced. https://www.forbes.com/sites/ygrauer.../#5b0550123f69 http://arxiv.org/pdf/1604.02734v1.pdf After reading those and other articles regarding URL shortening services, I'll lessen or perhaps even curtail my use of such services (and prod posters to reveal the original URLs when all they show is the redirection links) and try to remember to show both the long (original) and shortened URLS, like: Original URL = originalURL Shortened URL = shortURL Then both forms are available: the original URL that doesn't hide the target and goes direct to the target and the shortened URL for users who use crappy clients that corrupt the original URL. The only time anyone needs to use the shortURL is because their client screws up by slicing long lines into multiple physical lines which slices apart the URL (by injecting newlines into it). My client doesn't force a line-wrap of a long line, so long URLs will still be in one physical line. However, some posters use clients that will slice up a long line into multiple physical lines hence corrupting the URL, and readers are stuck patching back together the sliced-up URL and why short URLs became popular. There are still some console or terminal NNTP clients that don't have a horizontal scrollbar, so a short URL is handy for them but only if they don't care about knowing to where they're going before they get there. Those users really need to dump the crappy client. Some users - yes, there are some - that use a web forum to get to Usenet (it operates an HTTP-to-NNTP gateway). I've seen forums that truncate long URLs by slicing off at some point and substituting "..." (ellipsis). Perhaps those users can hover over the truncated URL to see to where it points, or right-click on it and select "Copy URL to clipboard" but then they have to paste somewhere to see the entire URL. Shortened URLs don't just point to web pages that the site owners created using horrifically long paths. They can also point to executable files, so clicking on one without know to where it points, like a path to a page or to a file, is as dangerous as opening and running an executable attachment is an e-mailed scam. Not everyone is going to bother visiting some URL lengthener service to find out to where a shortened redirection link points. Just clicking on the short URL can result in infecting your computer. They've become hazardous. I've run into the same problem with Microsoft's e-mail service. They want to slide in their protection service (Advanced Threat Protection) by prepending their own domain into all URLs within e-mails delivered to their service. If you look at the HTML code for an e-mail, you'll see something like: a href="originaldomain.tld/path/target" ... replaced with: a href="https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/..." I forget the arguments Microsoft puts in the redirection URL to identify what was the original URL (I suspect the argname is url). If you have a business or school-sponsored account, supposedly there is a user-configurable option in your account where you can disable/enable the ATP "feature". Freeloaders, like me, don't get that option. Instead you have to contact Microsoft to request they disable ATP. I used the feedback option in their webmail client (yep, they do respond) to get them to remove their crap "feature" in my free account. They claim they won't track, but they do albeit perhaps not personally to yourself. It lets them kill their redirections that are found malicious. It requires their ATP server not only be loaded but also responsive AND reachable through whatever hops are needed between you and their ATP server - so valid redirections will be dead if their ATP server goes down (and it has) or is unreachable (they don't control the routing between you and them). Sorry, I don't want nor need Microsoft to cover my ass in the Internet. That's my responsibility with no interference from them. Besides, I don't want them corrupting my e-mails. I do report spam but Microsoft stymies that reporting because tracking to the source of a hyperlink points at Microsoft, not to the original target. Okay, guess Microsoft wants themself identified as the spammer and I will honor their request. As long as Microsoft modifies the hyperlinks in my e-mails, Microsoft will get identified as the spam source when reporting the spam e-mails. They wanted to be the source. I had Microsoft disable their ATP feature once, they complied, but later they reenabled it (perhaps when they modified their webmail's UI), so I had to contact them again to get ATP disabled. Each time it took over a couple weeks before the ATP prefixed domain was no longer prepended to the hyperlinks in my e-mails. However, all old e-mails with the ATP prefixed URLs were stuck that way. If Microsoft decides to stop corrupting their customer's e-mails by modifying the hyperlinks (URLs) within then the customers are stuck with archived e-mails that will have dead hyperlinks. |
#12
|
|||
|
|||
MS virtual assistant
Ed Cryer wrote:
mechanic wrote: On Thu, 1 Nov 2018 20:20:59 +0000, Ed Cryer wrote: Thanks for taking the efforts you've shown. I quite agree that I was very lax in the paucity of information I gave. I'll try and do better next time. Don't worry mate, most of us understood perfectly well what you were asking. I just trialed a query on booting in UEFI mode and a useful article was listed in response. Obviously comparable with Cortana or even Google in what the answer might be but more fun to use. Thanks for that, pal. I've tried the link through Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome and Safari; all from Win7 64bit. The first three find the page, but nothing is clickable on it; and I've moved the cursor all over it, no change at all from usual cursor to hand icon. You do realize that this is a chat-style UI, don't you? At the bottom of the page, there is a - rather crummy - message composition box with the usual 'paper aeroplane' send button. If you use chat-style ('instant messaging') apps like WhatsApp, you'll recognize the UI-style they use. BTW, I asked "How to disable Windows 10 updates?". Next thing I saw that CNN reported that a server-farm in Redmond went up in flames. :-) [...] |
#13
|
|||
|
|||
MS virtual assistant
Frank Slootweg wrote:
Ed Cryer wrote: mechanic wrote: On Thu, 1 Nov 2018 20:20:59 +0000, Ed Cryer wrote: Thanks for taking the efforts you've shown. I quite agree that I was very lax in the paucity of information I gave. I'll try and do better next time. Don't worry mate, most of us understood perfectly well what you were asking. I just trialed a query on booting in UEFI mode and a useful article was listed in response. Obviously comparable with Cortana or even Google in what the answer might be but more fun to use. Thanks for that, pal. I've tried the link through Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome and Safari; all from Win7 64bit. The first three find the page, but nothing is clickable on it; and I've moved the cursor all over it, no change at all from usual cursor to hand icon. You do realize that this is a chat-style UI, don't you? At the bottom of the page, there is a - rather crummy - message composition box with the usual 'paper aeroplane' send button. If you use chat-style ('instant messaging') apps like WhatsApp, you'll recognize the UI-style they use. BTW, I asked "How to disable Windows 10 updates?". Next thing I saw that CNN reported that a server-farm in Redmond went up in flames. :-) [...] Ah, got it. Ha, ha, ha. It only opens when you type something in the "eg Replace password" box. That's the first time I've ever come across that. Ed |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | Rate This Thread |
|
|