Let's see... We're three days into leftovers, the newspapers are thick with ads, and most stores have had Christmas displays up for about ten weeks now. There's no doubt about it: we're officially sailing the Holiday Seas. Yes, it's that time of year again-- the time to gain ten pounds (twenty if you're a real pro), watch lots of sappy TV specials with snowmen befriending reindeer, and spend, spend, spend. And what would this time of year be without the Microsoft Holiday Conspiracy Theories? Heck, a Christmastime without suspicious Microsoft activity would be like... well, like any other time of year without suspicious Microsoft activity. Because when it comes to the festive holiday tradition of "questionable behavior," Bill Gates leaves the tree up all year 'round.

Still, we feel we just can't get into the holiday spirit until the nutmeg's sprinkled on the cocoa and Microsoft does something sleazy. Luckily for us, faithful viewer and Redmond watchdog Jerry O'Neil spread some holiday cheer by pointing out a Sm@rt Reseller article warning about Windows 2000's "one-way" behavior. Get this: the latest beta version of Windows 2000 (The Operating System Formerly Known As "NT 5") "overrides" the NTFS file system when installed on computers also running NT 4. In the words of consultant John Navas, "installing Windows 2000 to dual boot with Windows NT 4.0 will permanently and irrevocably change all NTFS partitions so that Windows NT 4.0 is no longer able to check for or repair file system problems." Basically, anyone "trying out" Windows 2000 may find themselves required to upgrade, since their disks will no longer work completely under NT 4. Unsurprisingly, the Windows 2000 beta installer conveniently forgets to warn the user about this little feature.

Sound familiar? We're reminded of those demo CDs for Office 97 that Microsoft distributed through Kinkos. Anyone working on older Office documents in the demo could easily and inadvertently save their work in Office 97's new format-- making the data unavailable to their original Office version and forcing them to upgrade. It's nice to see that Microsoft sticks with what works, at least as far as sneaky sales tactics go. And now we're deep into the holiday spirit. Mmmm, smell that? Nothing says Christmastime like the scent of pine needles, sugar cookies, and Microsoft extorting money from hapless customers...