Drew Wutka
DWUTKA at Marlow.com
Thu Jan 21 17:24:29 CST 2010
>From a techie's point of view, while I understand the dread some people have towards doing a clean install, it is almost always better to do a clean install. The VERY rare occasion where I have had to do an in place upgrade, is when a driver for some way outdated software won't install on a new OS, but it will upgrade to it. A few personal habits I have gotten into that make a 'clean' install something I feel comfortable enough to do on the fly. --> Virtual PC. Can't tout this enough. I have a Windows XP virtual machine setup that has all of my standard 'tools', from development stuff all the way through network administration tools. So on a clean, blank computer, all I have to do is install Virtual PC 2007, and copy over that hard drive, and I am instantly back in business. (And as I get tools that I find handy, I add them to that environment). Now I even go a bit further on that. I have that same XP machine running on my network at work, on a Virtual Server (Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 (free)), so I can just remote into that machine at any time. --> Data structure. I always put my data on a separate drive/partion (preferably drive). That way, a clean install won't affect my data at all. I usually do a backup as a precaution before a clean install, but it's not absolutely necessary. --> Downloaded Programs Folder. This may sound silly, in todays broadband world, everything is available on the internet. But I have found that when I download a tool, I take the time to add it too an 'internet downloads' folder, in it's own category. That way, I don't have to go find the tool, it's right there ready to be installed again. --> Finally, this coincides with the first one. ISO images. When I get a CD or DVD with something that is going to be installed somewhere, I copy that CD/DVD into an ISO image and store it in a similar fashion as my Downloaded Programs folder. (I have this iso stash located in three places, my laptop, my desktop, and the virtual server at work). ISO images are great for use in both a regular machine, and a virtual machine. For a regular machine, I use MagicIso, a free utility that captures an ISO image as a DVD/CD. With all of these steps, I could go home tonight, I would have to copy my iso images from my C drive to my E drive on my laptop (I have to physical drives on it). Then I could pop in an OS CD, run the setup, wipe my C: drive completely and install the OS. Once that's done, I could install Virtual PC, and be up and running instantly. I can also install everything from my E: drive, and with the ISO images, the installations take about 20 to 30 minutes, cause I'm not hunting for CD's, opening and closing a CD/DVD drive, etc. It's all in one place. Drew -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Collins, Darryl Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 4:45 PM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: Windows 7 .. I'm VERY impressed Correct. You can upgrade from Vista, but XP to W7 requires a full/clean install. Regard Darryl. -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Jim Lawrence Sent: Thursday, 21 January 2010 7:40 AM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: Windows 7 .. I'm VERY impressed I am willing to be corrected on this but I believe only the data can be saved on an install-upgrade. All the applications must be re-installed. Jim -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Rocky Smolin Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 12:32 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: Windows 7 .. I'm VERY impressed I beta'd W7 on a spare comp. Like the look and feel of it. I'm thinking of upgrading my main production comp from XP to W7. Anyone have an opinion or experience the Upgrade version versus the 'other' one (whatever they're calling it)? TIA Rocky -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Drew Wutka Sent: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 8:12 AM To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: Windows 7 .. I'm VERY impressed True, a lot of 'features' are things that third party or even Microsoft products did on their own. Another nice feature is that I can burn an .iso image to a CD or DVD right from explorer, out of the box with Windows 7. Before I had to download/install utilities to do that. Drew -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Mark Simms Sent: Tuesday, January 19, 2010 6:50 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] OT: Windows 7 .. I'm VERY impressed > > One of my favorite features of Windows 7 is the ability to grab a > maximized window and move it, without having to click anything. > > Drew > Believe or not with the advent of these wide-screen LCD monitors, this is a great new feature. I do acknowledge however there are 3rd party utilities out there doing a good job of multiple screen / multiple window management. 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