This category contains posts about computing, programming, and development

Monday, 2008-06-16

A lost day

Last week I uninstalled a piece of Microsoft software (SMS management console) which managed to remove a large part of my executables. I tried to restore from a restore point, but predictably, that didn’t work. So I decided to save my files and install Vista.

Big mistake.

From the beginning, I was getting frustrated. My mouse would stop responding. My DVD drive was not recognised, leading to a freeze and crash. The resolution on my second monitor was much worse than in XP. The computer kept auto-logging in to the Administrator account created during installation.

I hung in there for 3 hours. Then I realised that I was losing precious work time struggling with something that was obviously not ready for prime time.

I tried installing SP1, but the computer crashed before I got anywhere.

I’m now installing Windows XP. Maybe by the next version, Microsoft will get it right. For now, this has been a day where I have got very little done. Thanks, Microsoft!

Update: for my sins, I’m making another attempt. We’ll see if that’s another fool’s errand.

Update 2008-06-17: Today’s “progress”.