Lucky 7

About a month and a half ago I did something stupid. Like a moron I followed a link on a questionable web site and infected my computer with what is known as 'ransom ware'. Its that crap that pretends to be an anti-virus program but takes over your machine and won't go away until you buy the remedy. Well I wasn't having any of that, and I grappled with the beastly thing for over six hours. When the dust cleared I was victorious...but my operating system was critically injured. No worries, thought I, for I have the XP install discs that Unkk so graciously supplied when he gave me this computer. So I popped the first disc in, clicked 'repair', and waited for the return of full functionality. Alas, twas not to be. I ran the install several times, with the same results...I couldn't go online, and several drivers wouldn't install. I contacted Unkk, who tried to assist over the phone, but we couldn't figure it out, so he tried sending me a copy of Windows 7. It's a huge program that took about two hours to send, and it didn't work. So he said he'd send the disc via mail. Then, alas, he vanished under an avalanche of real life stuff, and I have yet to hear back from him. So, after limping along on a trusty, but swiftly deteriorating laptop I finally decided to bite the bullet and purchase Windows 7. Amazon was selling it for about $50 cheaper than anywhere else, and the Missus said we could, just barely, afford it. It wasn't supposed to get here until Wednesday, but the package was in the box yesterday. I was both elated and nervous because if it didn't work that would be $150 wasted. So it was with great trepidation that I popped the disc into the computer shaped paperweight, and clicked 'install'. Oh...My...Flying Spaghetti Monster! It's like a brand new computer! This machine is finally living up to the potential of its monstrous components. The install was smooth as glass, and did not take anywhere near as long as XP had, and everything works perfectly. To be honest I never liked XP, and have long lamented the loss of Windows 98. XP was, to me, like going from driving a stick-shift to a car that only had an accelerator and brake pedal. It was designed for people who don't care what's under the hood, but I had been used to tinkering with the guts of the OS, which was relatively easy in 98. I never dealt with Vista, but from what I hear that's a good thing, but Windows 7 seems to be an awesome OS, though I'm only just beginning to explore its features. One example of how much better it is, when I installed City of Heroes on my old machine, just loading the program from the install discs usually took about 20 to 30 minutes, so I got ready to do the dishes while it loaded yesterday. The game loaded in about 10 minutes!! And every other program install that didn't involve a download has gone equally as fast. I had heard good things about 7, and from people who generally aren't fans of Windows, and I'm starting to see why. So I still have a lot of downloading to do to get back to where I was before, but methinks it will be fun this time, rather than a chore.

Peace, y'all,
Marius