Yea I remember the days of obscure hacks and fixes for windows. The good thing is that lots of people use windows, so eventually you'll find it. But I can honestly say I've never had to do any weird hacks since I've switched to mac.
This whole "it just works" thing never ceases to confuse me.
Gave up, went back to linux, never again considered a return.
This is the way always is and expected to be ....