Cancel or Allow THIS...

I recently upgraded my laptop from Windows XP Pro to Windows Vista Business and this is my story. Oh yeah, and I am sticking to it. I went into to this with the full knowledge that if you use your computer for anything more than solitaire and surfing the Internet, upgrading is almost always a mess of some sort. There is always a ton of stuff that isn't compatible from one version of an operating system to another and you have to relearn where all the usual control stuff is all over again.

I also know I shouldn't want to change anything since Vista is 100 per cent perfect; Uncle Bill knows best about what I want anyway. If I had my druthers I'd still be using DOS 5.0; it was pretty nice and it worked pretty well. Then along comes Windows which made the pretty interface the way to go. I know it opened up computing to a lot more people, which is a good thing, right? Unfortunately they didn't quite get it right till Windows 3.1, and then they fumbled through to one of the better ones with Windows 98 Second Edition. Then Windows XP, which is now the standard for Windows users. As usual, everyone complained about the Fisher Price like interface at first then learned to accept it. So it should come as no surprise that people are whining about Fisher Price 2.0 in Vista.

As an IT manager, a network consultant and an all around compooter fixer, I figured I will need to know how to work Windows Fisher Price 2.0 eventually. Sooner or later I am going to have to upgrade to it and people will bring me their computers with it installed that they made a mess of. So I took the plunge.

The first thing I became annoyed with was the security advisor thing. I already knew what I wanted Windows Vista to do -- that is, all the stuff that I was already doing on Windows XP -- so the incessant prompts got really annoying and quick.

Would you like to allow yourself to continue to do what you are doing?
[Cancel] [Allow]

Are you REALLY sure you want to do this?
[Continue] [Cancel]

Are you sure you are not a moron?
[Yes] [No]

I really think it was a bit more complicated the way I went about it because I did a roundabout upgrade using PC Mover, usually a great app but going from an OS that is compatible with everything I have to one that makes an old finicky cat seem carefree was a real pain.

Anyway after a few evenings of adding and removing programs, sometimes via the registry and sometimes with downloaded tools I found on the internet, I managed to get it to do what I wanted. All in all I have to say about upgrading to Vista the way I did, if you value your sanity, don't try this at home.

While doing this I thought several times of those silly Apple computer commercials with the guy that does a bad impression of Mr. Smith, the Matrix agent guy, that does the Cancel or Allow thing to the poor fat dorky guy that is supposed to represent Windows. I feel sorry for the Windows guy in those commercials. While I wouldn't mind the money from a commercial, that isn't something I would be proud to have on my resume.

While those commercials are amusing sometimes, they make me remember when I upgraded from an OS 9 machine to OS X machine for someone. I thought that was supposed to be pretty easy to upgrade a Mac. To hear Mac people talk about it, it is like taking candy from a baby. I guess if the baby in question was Baby Huey, the gigantic infant duckling cartoon character that would apply, I suppose. There is also a quote I heard somewhere about taking candy from a baby: those that say that have never actually tried taking candy from a baby. After a fair amount of hassle, only two of the old applications actually worked on the new machine. The new $2,500 Mac machine ended up costing about $6,000 once all the fancy Adobe artsy stuff had been upgraded to work with OS X.

I guess the main difference here is that Microsoft doesn't act like it is the computer of the people then charge outrageous prices for Little Tykes looking computers; Microsoft just acts like there are no other computers in the world. I guess they could be like Linux instead, and just act like everyone else is evil then require you to go through 15 hours of hell to install it properly.

Now if someone could come up with a Winuxintosh computer with the best of all three. I heard that Lindows was supposed to be that, but I think the main programmer got kicked out of his parent's basement for smoking pot or something like that.

Imagine, if you can, a secure OS that is compatible with everything, and has great file handling capabilities, installs easily and doesn't look like it was designed by the fine folks at Lil Tykes or Fisher Price. I know I would be first in line for one of those.