Hasta La Vista


I love the motto of the oldversion website

In my case this applies to the super duper all-singing, all-dancing Windows Vista

I installed it on my laptop a couple of month ago after a lot of time thinking whether I should or not, I am iPoddy(Taos' word) after all and like to have the newest and (2nd) best (when funds allow) in this case however it seems to have proved to be a big mistake.

My machine doesn't like it
My machine crashed 3 times while using Vista, not just the usual Blue Screen of Death where you reboot and verythings ok, but a crash that screwed up the registry, screwed up the boot sector or basically stopped my machine from booting up. This might be nothing to do with Vista, but it was problem-free for over a year running XP.

My Applications don't like it
I synchronise my work PDA and personal phone using Windows Active Sync. Active Sync doesn't work on Vista, instead you have to install and run "Windows Mobile Device Centre" however that doesn't seem to work with my PDA OR mobile phone.

My gadgets don't like it
I use my laptop for movie editing, however some software also doesn't work,

I can't print
I have a very good laser printer - guess what, this doesnt work with Vista either

My options are to avoid syncing my PDA/Mobile phone, printing or editing movies of Leah or...

Go back to XP

It's a no-brainer. I'll really miss Vista sidebar though. (no I won't, it's available for XP)

Maybe the oldversion logo should be

becausenewerisshit
or becauseolderworks

Broken
In the space of 2 weeks my personal laptpo has died twice, the first time due to installing some software whih knackered the registry rendering the machine completely 'kin useless, the second time I dropped it and it didnt work afterwards.

I work in IT, and have done for almost 10 years now, so I have to be my own (and my familys') IT guy. That also means I can't take my machine to someone and tell them

Not sure what's wrong, it just happened

...like everyone tells me,

Trust me, nobody working in IT believes people who say that. We may say "OK" but that's just so we can get on and fix the problem/s.

Death 1
I managed to use a piece of software called GetDataBack by Runtime Software. This software can read even the most dead of dead hard drives, and get hundreds of photos (of Leah) back. Just because I work in IT and tell everyone and their dog to back up their hard drive doesn't mean I do it.....

Death 2
I learned my lesson from death 1 and backed up my data, although admittedly, didn;t have that much time to put much on to lose in the first place.

So I am now on the 3rd install and have decided to;

A - Take a backup/clone of my laptop in it's current state
B - Save the applications I regard as essential on a USB Drive.
C - List them here for reference as well as


My Essential Apps.

1. MOST IMPORTANT - Drivers for your machine - remember you might not get internet access after a crash
2. Firefox Mozilla - Internet Browser
3. Smart Bookmarks Bar for Firefox (Hides text on the bookmarks toolbar thus allowing more bookmarks).
4. Media Players - Video Lan & K-Lite Codec Pack (Media Player Classic) (Free)
   
5. Burst Bit Torrent Client (Free) - Others available
   
6. Download Accelerator Plus (DAP) Free or Commercial
7. Winrar (Free - Nagscreen)
   
8. Quickpar - (Free) - Geek Alert
   
9. Foxit PDF Reader - Small file and doesn't take over your machine like Adobe Reader (Free)
   

I know I'm missing a lot, these are just the essentials I need to get me started, additionally I would also have. (Links are to free/opensource versions)

• Office Suite (MS Office or Open Office),
• Imaging Software (Photoshop, GIMP or Paint.net),
• Web suite (Dreamweaver or Nvu),
• Ipod Synchronisation (Anapod Explorer or YamIpod or iTunes if you must)

and many several others.

Links
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