programmer doesn't see usb blaster

I have a Samsung netbook running win7-starter. I read several threads and tried firewall settings and different versions of quartus programmer -- and had several frustrating days and many hours of lost work. One common thread seems to be the compatibility of windows & programmer versions. So ...

I tried different versions, in this order, 11, 10.1, 7.1, 7.2, 7.2sp3, 9.1.

All failed until version 9.1.

Now I turned the firewall back on (recommended settings in win7), and it still works.

Just thought I'd share this with you all. In this day where smart-phones are smarter than PCs from a few years ago, and millions of gadgets are running flawlessly everywhere, we still get stuck for days with junk like this.