Thoughts about the new computer

[tiggymalvern]

I was supposed to be on a birdwatching trip east of the mountains today. It's snowing heavily for 50 miles through the pass and the wind is gusting at over 30mph where we were planning to go, so the birds will be hiding and the trip was cancelled. Of course, it wasn't cancelled until after I'd got up at 5.45am to make a 6.30 meeting spot. So I got back home at around the time I would normally be crawling out of bed, and it's looking like a long day!






See the cool neon blue glow! Wouldn't it look classy, if the case was blue, or maybe green?

Anyway, aside from the look, here is the experience so far.

1. Windows 7 is proving less annoying to learn than I had dreaded, because I've already learned how to find some basic functions while swearing at the TV computer over the last few months. It does still bug me that some previously easy to access features are now buried deep in the menu system.

2. Why did Win7 take away the little icon that reminds me to install new updates? Instead it daily tries to browbeat me into letting them all install automatically. No, because then you will restart automatically when I don't want you to, you little shit.

3. LOTR online looks so very pretty in the high graphics version. It should do, because it took 17 hours to download and install the whole thing from scratch, with all the updates. (This is partly our fault for simultaneously downloading it to both of our machines, but still...)

4. I now hate iTunes marginally less, as it was clever enough on installation to ask me where I had put the missing music files and locate them seamlessly. All except one, apparently. I still haven't figured out which the missing one is, and what the heck can have happened to it when everything else transferred. I still hate iTunes for forcing me to contaminate my computer with QuickTime.

5. Canon have apparently decided that my six year old scanner, which still works perfectly well, is obsolete, and they haven't bothered to create a Win7 driver for it. Manually installing old drivers using backward compatibility is a PITA, and at some point I will get around to doing it. Epson win here - my seven year old printer apparently still receives their support.

6. Firefox 4 does not seem to automatically restore my tabs when it restarts. I'm hoping there's an option somewhere for me to fix this, or I'll need a new filing system.

I also still need to install some software from disc, like photoshop. I have so very many software discs to look through....

Comments

[solo.livejournal.com]

Damn, LJ ate my comment. Okay, once more.

The pink is very unfortunate. :-/

Firefox: http://www.askvg.com/how-to-bring-back-save-tabs-and-quit-feature-in-mozilla-firefox-4-0/

I actually like Windows 7, to me it's the first time that Windows actually became user-friendly. Having said that, I do get the little update notification icon, so idk what's going on there with your system.

ETA: and of course I have to make typos so that I have to spend another half hour trying to *re*post the bloody thing. ARGH.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

LJ ate a couple of my comments yesterday. It's been having a bad few days all round.

I'm learning not to look at the pink.

Thank you for fixing my Firefox, you're awesome! I wonder why they took that out? It was so awesomely useful.

There's probably a box in Win7 I haven't checked yet for notifications. I'll admit that XP had quirks, but I'd been using it for so many years, I'd learned those quirks, and it was automatic. Now there's a whole new set. It took me far too long the other day to find add/remove programs because they've changed the name to something less usefully descriptive.

[jambery]

Maybe you can mod the box and get rid of the pink :D Steampunk? Cyberpunk? The Matrix?

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Sadly, I'm just generally not creative in an artistic way. I might have to settle for hiding it!

[alcina2.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

Maybe won't upgrade my puter till I absolutely have to, in case it doesn't like my 14-year old printer. Assuming it's got a parallel port to plug it into of course...

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think that printer might just be a problem...

One of the things I do love about the new computer is that it finally has enough USB ports, ie 10. Even the four year old one still thought people only needed 6, which resulted in extension USB hubs trailing across the floor.

[teaforme.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to say that the computer is way uglier than I'd imagined. Condolences.

But hey--you have a new computer!! And it sounds like it doesn't totally suck either!

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

It has many good things, which do outweigh the bad. It has enough USB ports, for the first time ever!

[rzyna.livejournal.com]

Wow. that is something.

And oh yes, I <3 a good graphics card. Having had to upgrade mine recently has made RIFT all the prettier. Yay.

As for FireFox, I've been using 4 since beta and it restores my tabs, so I think it might be a setting, you may just need to fiddle with it.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

RIFT wouldn't run at all on my old one - the graphics card overheated and reset about every 10 minutes when I tried it.

[rzyna.livejournal.com]

Oh that stinks! But hooray for a new machine and a new graphics card! I love being able to be able to set games on the highest graphics setting.

[tameiki.livejournal.com]

Wow. Yeah. Very... um... well, pink. But hey! pretty blue lights. XD

Win7 still has the little pop up reminder that there are new updates that go away after a bit when you don't do anything with it. You go to Control Panel, System and Security, Windows Update, Change settings, then under "important updates" you click on the drop down menu and choose:

Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them

See? No more brow beating :)

Haven't upgraded to Firefox 4 yet as I got the message saying that some of my add ons wouldn't be supported. Think I'll wait and give the add ons a chance to catch up first.

Still haven't installed iTunes on my computer yet. I think I'll wait until I have several hours of fiddling and learning how to use the thing before tackling that. And... ew! Do I have to have Quicktime on my computer to use iTunes? *backs away slowly*

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them

You see, that's exactly what I did. And now there's a permanent flag sitting at the bottom of my screen telling me I need to fix an issue with my update settings. I hope that means, 'hey do your updates now', because I'm still at the stage where when I do some updates there are instantly more. It literally has never gone away yet.

Sadly, yes, Apple won't allow you to install iTunes without QuickTime, they come as an inseparable bundle. It didn't used to be that way - I actually stopped using iTunes for several years when they bolted it to QT, and only gritted my teeth and installed it again when I was given an iPhone.

[tameiki.livejournal.com]

There are quite a few updates you'll probably have to do to get up to speed on Win7 so that's what's going on. Probably. And you've already customized the bottom task bar to hide the notification when it's inactive, right? Hopefully, before too long, it will be inactive soon except for the regular update Tuesdays once a month.

Ugh. I was afraid you were going to tell me that QuickTime was a necessary part of iTunes. Feh.

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Yay! I updated again this morning and it has finally gone away. And I found the ticky box to stop it binging at me whenever I get an email too.

[moonriddler-mim.livejournal.com]

well... that is.. pink. piglet pink. XoP

I hope I'll never have to get a new computer. I LOVE my WinXP and simply loathe the Vista (my dad's computer) and the Win7 (work computer). what the heck did they mess up Word and Excel like that for??!?!!?!

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

I never interacted with Vista in any way - everything we heard about it convinced us to stick resolutely with XP! Unfortunately, that's no longer a choice :-(

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I think it's shiny even with the pink, honestly. It's, IDK, more subversive this way?

[tiggymalvern.livejournal.com]

Oh, pink is definitely subversive in our house! XD