vista

After the problems I had with my new PC last week I went back to using my old computer. Which worked nicely for a few days. But Saturday windows tried to install the new windows xp sp3 upgrade. After that I started getting blue screens of death.

My dealer advised my to install a pro version of windows xp on my new PC almost guaranteeing that all problems would be solved. But it seems his guarantee isn’t worth very much.
The last few days I’ve been busy installing windows xp pro. But almost immediately I ran into a familiar problem: Windows won’t recognize the usb ports. The same problem I had when I tried to install windows xp on the new PC.
Only this time the problem is even larger. Last week I only had problems when I tried to use my usb mass storage device (external backup harddrive). Now I’ve reach the point where I can’t even use my wireless modem. I can’t connect to Internet to find the right driver.

The funny thing is that about 15 years ago I would have loved a problem like this. A real challenge to get my PC working again. But nowadays a PC is kind of a tool I need to do my work. It should just work.

But anyway I’ve reach the point were I’m willing to through my towel into the rink.
I don’t want to spend more time trying to find a way to get a PC working with windows XP where it is so clearly meant to work with windows Vista.

Using the save mode I’ve set my old PC back to the last working configuration and turned the automatic updates off. That means that I have a limited time to get my new PC working with windows Vista before the old PC gets so buggy that it won’t work anymore.
That could mean that I’ve have less time to work at this blog then I would like but… Since backups are never perfect, I would like to be moved before the old PC runs out of steam.

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Windows vista comes with a few useless safety features.

New PC

I have a new PC. Birthday present by my father.
The new PC came with windows Vista pre-installed. I’ve been thinking about formatting the hard drive and staying with windows XP. But that would only postpone the inevitable. I’ll have to move over at some point and it will probably be less of a hassle if I have a running PC to render assistance.

Networks

On Wednesday I’ve taken a day off to deal with some personal business. Which gives a perfect opportunity to start with the installing of my new PC.

The first order of business is installing DSL. If I can get that running I can at least consult the Internet if I run into problems.
Sadly enough installing DSL presents me with my first problem. It’s seems that my administration account doesn’t have enough clearance to install the install CD I got from my local phone company.
At 7.00 AM I can’t call in to get some help.

Next on my list is installing the network between my two PC so I can start copying my programs. But that also doesn’t work because I have the wrong cable.

Playing around

That leaves me with nothing to do but to play around and see what kind of changes Microsoft has made to this new operating system.
The new screen looks very nice. There are a few new games. Windows still has the annoying power save configuration that turns your screen of when you walk away for a while. Microsoft has found a way to deal with home users who forget there password.

Never again forget your password

That’s interesting. Not that I’ve ever forgotten my password but I never had a password. I always felt that it was to much of a hassle. But with windows vista the advice is to install two accounts. One to make changes in your configuration and one to work. That way virri will have less of a change to install themselves.

The procedure for recovering from a lost password is very easy. You only have to make a recovery floppy disk.
There’s just one problem. Over the last ten years files have become bigger and bigger and people use less floppy disks. So when the builder of my PC had room to only install three out of four devices; Floppy disk station, DVD station, memory card reader and hard drive. You can guess which one he left out.