Can someone give me directions to MSN?

I'm usually not one to 'join the crowd' so-to-speak, choosing to go my own way and decide on my own about whether or not products, or rather the rumors and/or complaints about said products are true, or just the consummation of that age-old American pastime of whining.

However, that said, whining can, in an odd sense, be very good for the soul.

Ok, so it's not, but I prefer to think of it in this fashion when I'm the one doing it.

Anyway, if the Bill Gates World Domination Fund gives me any more resident systems folders that I can't delete, I may have to do something drastic...like become a Republican.

Well...maybe not that drastic. Not that I have anything against Republicans per say, I just simply don't have the clothes.

And then there is the Rush Limbaugh factor.

But I'm getting off track.

Which Microsoft Engineer sat down one day and decided that I 'needed' a folder called Favorites? Or for that matter, one called Documents? Am I so inept that I cannot decide for myself what to name a Start Menu folder that suits my needs at the moment?

And to be completely honest (I'm always completely honest...and forthright...and thrifty...and a bloody pain in the ass if you ask my wife), I don't -want- a folder called Channels, replete with Microsoft affiliates. I can find those web site all by myself. Not that I'd want to, but if I needed to, I could.

Really.

Have you ever tried to get -rid- of these folders? They keep coming back like a bad sexually transmitted disease. I delete the Channels and Links folders on a daily basis, but lo' and behold, the very next day, there they are again, taunting me. And they bring friends. Web sites from the annals of web history. Or rather, Microsoft's version.

Let's go through them, shall we?

Internet Explorer News: Now this is a great site for me, a confirmed Netscape user. I'll be sure and bookmark this one. Maybe I should put it in my Favorites folder? Hmph. I'd send them a very large explosive, but it keeps getting stuck in my combination fax/printer/scanner.

Internet Start: Bill's very own portal page, replete with everything one needs for navigating the wonderful world of the Internet...or in this case, the wonderful world of everything Microsoft owns. Yep, it's all there, MSN, MSNBC, Hotmail, and a large list of other Microsoft affiliates. You don't think they are overdoing it a bit, do you?

Nah.

Customize Links: Another fantastic addition to my bookmarks. How to customize (read: perform basic functions found in every other browser) Internet Exploder...er, I mean Internet Explorer.

The Channel Guide: I can rush off to this site to download the Microsoft's Media Player! This is a good thing, though, considering the lack of places to go to download this.... However, to be completely honest, this isn't such a bad site, with access to many very cool songs. I clicked on the new Sarah McLachlan song...and was immediately asked to download Microsoft's Media Player.

As if I didn't see that one coming...

My all-time favorite of all, of course, is Microsoft's 'Best of the Web' link, which it turns out has nothing to do with the 'best' sites, as one might think. It's nothing more than a cut down version of the Yahoo search engine.

Of course, there is that link to MSN...

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