Reasons:
- The install was SOOOOOOO SLOW, taking almost 1 hour.
- Almost everything you try to do, causes a pop up telling you, "Insufficient privileges" give yourself rights to do this..., and then another pop up asking are you sure... GRRRRRRRR When using the track pad on a laptop it is an absolute pain!!
- Again, total failure to get the Centrino Chipset WLAN recognised by VISTA, even after installing the latest BETA intel drivers.
So a couple of hours later, back to XP...
On Wednesday, after reading a number of glowing reviews of this new build, I decided to do something radical... I ghosted my main PC, and installed it on there!
The Install was a nightmare, it kept failing, but eventually I got it going.
The first problem I came up against was that although the WACOM graphics tablet worked, it was barely usable - so slow to move the mouse etc. So I borrowed the USB mouse from Amy's PC, and downloaded the latest WACOM drivers... They managed to completely lock up the system!! Got them back off, and stayed with the USB mouse for the time being.
With a working mouse, I found that the constant pop ups, whilst very annoying, were not such a pain as they were on the laptop. Searching the newsgroups etc, I managed to find ways of switching off some of this default behaviour, and the entire system became a little more usable.
However there are still major problems, and yes I know it's beta, but if you move a folder from the desktop to my documents store, it was taking almost 40 minutes to move 200MBytes!!, it would then tell me that it could not delete the now empty folder, did I want permission, and then that the now empty folder was not there - did I want to recreate it...
Most of these problems were reduced when I changed the permissions on the existing My Documents folder, to allow the administrator group full control!
After a while I was getting more comfortable with the system, but still found the SEARCH window completely unfathomable! But even so, time to go back to XP.
Booted back up into Ghost - No saved image found! AGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!
After a lot of messing about, I resigned myself to getting VISTA working as a proper PC, that's when I realised just how few of the utilities I rely on for my day to day usage I have copies of, and just how scattered the install keys, licence files etc are. I also noticed that in spite of the fact that I regularly back up all my data to external USB hard drive, I did not have a copy of the Outlook pst file - 3 years plus of e-mails lost... including a lot of keys / licences etc!!
Eventually , I gave up, and decided to give Ghost another go.
Long Story Short - the bootable CD cound not - for reasons I am yet to work out - see the partition which held the image. On Friday morning I copied it across to another partition that I knew could be seen - reboot to CD, system restored and working. :-)
Phewww!
I have now moved the .pst file onto the D drive - where it will be backed up. I have downloaded/collected loads of app/utilities togethere - complete with keys etc and burnt them all to a DVD. So, with the horse back in the stable, I have bolted it shut
However, That's not the only reason for the title of this entry...
On Friday AM - a VERY cold morning (-5C) a number of radiator in the house started to make 'strange noises'.... A quick trip around with a cup and a screwdriver revealed a lot of air in the system, and when I then checked the boiler I found ZERO pressure!! Refilled it back to 1 bar, and within 30 seconds - back to zero... BUM!
Spoke to British Gas, with whom we have a support agreement for pipes etc, and this is not covered, but they extended the cover (at a cost) and agreed to send someone out to fix it. Great!! No not really, they can't come till MONDAY MORNING...
All weekend we have been cold, and the electric bill will be awful - two fan heaters have been dragged into service to warm bathroom and bedrooms etc.
I have never been so glad to spend 4 hours around the shopping mall....
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