Comments on: A Fresh Start

By: Hui...

Hui... — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 13:25:00 +0000

Doug, I would still prefer to re-load an image even if it is a Yr old, At least it gets the Majority of the Grunt work out of the way.

This is why Virtualisation is the way to go, Reload an image, update drivers versions etc, save a backup and off you go with a fresh system and fresh backup as well.

By: Doug Glancy

Doug Glancy — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 18:10:00 +0000

Hui, I’ve used images when a hard drive has died and was able to quickly reload the machine from a week-old image. Very nice! How does it work with a years-old image? After you’ve reloaded the year-old image how much time do you spend patching, updating drivers? What about programs you’ve added in the meantime?

By: Hui...

Hui... — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 11:05:00 +0000

Dick
I share your frustrations at re-installation, but got over it years ago by doing an install once and then taking an image of the whole machine. Norton Ghost etc
But I'm thinking about moving to virtual environments as well very soon
Hui...

By: Dick Kusleika

Dick Kusleika — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:16:00 +0000

I almost forgot Irfanview.

By: Mathias

Mathias — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:38:00 +0000

I also recommend Notepad++ btw – great free text editor.

By: Mathias

Mathias — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:36:00 +0000

I totally second the advice on virtual machines; my base machine has only basic capabilities, and I have a few dedicated virtual development machines, with different environments. It's very nice because 1) you can test any environment, which is super-useful for Office development (does it REALLY work with Office 2000? Check) and 2) you can maintain a history of the changes on your machines and revert to previous states, or clone machines fast.
I am using VMWare rather than Virtual PC, though. Never tried VPC, I love VMWare Workstation.

By: Dick Kusleika

Dick Kusleika — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:42:00 +0000

Harald: Or I'm just slow. Actually I had to pause on occasion to swap a CD, restart, or just click a button.

By: Dick Kusleika

Dick Kusleika — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 21:40:00 +0000

Mike A: I used to get that all the time from people I know in the meat-based world. "I tried to read your blog, but it's over my head.", they'd say. Every year I say I'm going to increase my post count and attempt to bring in a wider audience. Since I'm actively pimping myself as a consultant, maybe this is the year to do it. Two fears: If I blog about stuff that's not interesting to me, I'll lose interest; Even if my additional postings are in addition to the two, or so, a week I do now, regular readers won't like it.

Woody: That's exactly why I didn't do those on Saturday. I thought I should at least attempt to do it the hard way and learn something. It's difficult to be a Rails on Windows guy because of the lack of good help.

Jon: Good point. VPC added to the list. I suppose I'll have to put Office 2000 on one since I intend to make a widely distributed add-in.

By: Harald Staff

Harald Staff — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 19:39:00 +0000

So a solitaire game lasts for four songs in average ? This is either speed punk or a new interesting game version {g}

By: Jan Karel Pieterse

Jan Karel Pieterse — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:50:00 +0000

Roger.