Internet account

Today I tried to send a Libre Office document as a pdf attachment to an email, which I regularly did before. This time, due to reinstall of everything (which is a periodic toothache which I contract every couple of years, this time because my system disk crashed), something in this edition of Windows didn't quite catch what is my email client... so it went to the regular route of "no email client? use default".

Now, this being W2003R2, it still thinks that everyone should start with Outlook Express, of all things - the nasty little piece of work which can't even be uninstalled, unless you know how to boot in console mode. I don't, I'm just a simple programmer with less than 30 years of experience.

So I get, tada... Internet connection wizard, no less. The aggregated wisdom of Redmond wants to help me, with all its wizardry, to finally get connected to The Internet.

Now, let's see... I'm writing this in a browser, so I should be connected already. I'm already using the internet for FTP to about a dozen places using three different clients (one of which is the Chilkat ActiveX which I use in my code), I got email to three addresses (and have a dozen dead addresses, but these happened before this installation, so it doesn't know about them), I use Terminal Services regularly, GoToMeeting, LogMeIn, Skype, Oovoo, and about twenty pieces of software probably call home regularly... using what, two tin cans and a string? Because it seems I was mistaken: if Microsoft says I need to connect to The Internet, then it must be that I'm not connected at all.

So I try to cancel the wizard, and I get this (not worth a screenshot -  this being a messagebox, a simple ctrl+c copies all text on it to the clipboard, which is a little known fact):

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Internet Connection Wizard
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The new Internet account has not been created yet.

Are you sure you want to exit the wizard?
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Yes   No  
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So the wizard thinks I need an "internet account". Great. As if there is a single account for everyone on one Internet. Though it does say "When you send e-mail, your name will appear in the From field of the outgoing message.", the caption is still "Internet connection wizard". Not "Email account wizard", no. Specially not "Outlook Express wizard". Outlook Express is the internet.

Just goes to show (nobody ever explained to me where exactly does it go) how confused was Microsoft when they designed the web stuff early on. And this being a 2003 edition of them Windowses, this is about ten years into the game, and they still weren't in the clear about what to tell their users.

I'm actually amazed they didn't call it "Microsoft Internet Connection Wizard". After all, the IE is not an internet browser, it's a "Microsoft Internet Explorer". As if there was a regular internet, and Microsoft Internet as a separate entity. Maybe they did see it that way. The above behavior and the wording used are just a symptom of it, whatever it is, I'm not a psychiatrist.

BTW, the first good definition of "internet account" I was able to google out is here:

A generic term for a registered username at an Internet Service Provider (ISP). An Internet account is accessed via username and password. Services such as dial-in PPP Internet access and e-mail are provided by ISPs to Internet account owners.

Every other link on the first page leads to an ISP in Sydney, called "The Internet Account". Smart guys :).