I officially hate Microsoft for one thing: bluetooth support.

I have no major problems with them otherwise. I've supported them and I am a happy user of Win2K (although that's about the extent of my praise for them). My experience with their hardware has been the most frustrating experience I've had with computers. Just to recap:

-I built my girlfriend's computer, and she really wanted the MS Bluetooth Wireless Desktop she saw in Best Buy, so she ordered it online
-the hardware arrived with no software in the box
-I, being used to plug and play, assumed everything would be allright
-I reformatted the Win2K drive I had just set up to install the XP OS required by the hardware
-I installed the service pack required by the hardware
-I installed the bluetooth update required by the hardware
-the device works and the girlfriend is happy (always a good thing)

Flash forward a month, and one day the mouse ceases to function.
-girlfriend buys a cheap USB mouse (anticipating this as likely to happen regularly in the future)
-I use it to tell the "Wireless Link" program in the control panel to find the bluetooth mouse - this works

Flash forward another month, and one day both keyboard and mouse cease to function.
-using "Wireless Link" I was able to get the keyboard functioning, but the mouse refuses to be found
-Attack generously opens his FTP site so I can download the 500+MB installation disc that didn't come with the product and is the only software not downloadable from MS (figures)
-now that Intellipoint is installed, I am certain the mouse will be found. No luck.

Believe me, I have changed out batteries, uninstalled and reinstalled software and service packs, and read as much on the internet as possible. I have no idea how to fix this. I welcome any suggestions. I think she would return it, but it's too late now. She would sell it, but I'm not sure the recipient would appreciate all this crap. What do we do??

This is one of those situations where you must weigh up the financial gain of selling it with the feeling of bad karma as you have released this thing upon another innocent victim. in comparison with the spiritual gain of taking it outside and jumping up and down on top of it several times and baseball batting it to death.

That is the feeling I have about my car. I could sell it pay off the loan and get a new one but I would feel bad dumping it on someone else.

You know, given that my girlfriend has just taken the LSATs and 5 midterms, she might just be willing to do that

The pain of it is the whole expense of the hardware. I'm pretty sure it was over $100. The keyboard really has a wonderfull feel to it, but when I think of my immaculate Logitech RF keyboard, and how I paid $40 for it, the product just wasn't worth that much...