|
OK in goes the
CD, it does'nt get recognised? bah! I put it in my laptop,
it gets recognised - It's a DVD, in fact two enormous DVD's.
I share the Laptop DVD drive and install over the network,
now I'm going to need some other method of getting screenshots.
I continue on the work one, but take the disks home and install
Virtual PC 2004 and load it up there. |
| So now I have
a crash course in Virtual PC 2004, load up, it seems a bit
sluggish, but I'm also running Outlook, Quickpost, and a host
of other stuff so I can't complain. |
|
|
All looks very
"Server 2003-ish", at work the resolution was much
better so I assume this is due to VPC. |
| This looks
a bit more cool, point to note: 15 to 25 minutes left it says,
I go get a coffee - on return it says 15 minutes - at this
point the whole exercise matches the speed of a two legged
dog - dragging a boat anchor - uphill - in the snow :( I go
and do my weekly shopping, wash the car, clean the barbeque
and return - the display defiantly says 14 minutes left -
I go and watch "Underworld" on DVD on return it
says 6 minutes. |
|
|
At last
something happens - it's unlock code time (I had to download
this from the Microsoft secure web site earlier) the time
counter goes back to 15-25 minutes and I loose the will to
live - and click OK. |
| After about 2
minutes :) the EULA pops up, like every other person in the
civilised world I did'nt read it and ticked "yes I agree".
In the event of my death, my soul is now the property of Microsoft
:( Also note we are back at the magic 15-25 minutes again. |
|
|
At last things
to click - I try to change the input locale to UK - its locked
to US, as is the keyboard, not a problem for me at home cause
I've got a US Keyboard but at work that's gonna annoy the
hell out of me. |
| Again this is
in VPC so I can't change anything - I've no choice but to
accept the defaults and click continue. |
|
|
Again time stands
still, I get bored and go in the front room, I get my daughter
to tell me if the screen changes (cause I'm a considerate
parent) |
| "Dad the
screens changed!" Ah looks like we are booting in to
Longhorn at last methinks :) I put the kettle on and return
to my desk. |
|
|
So- far so good,
Time for another jolt of Caffeine. |
| Coffee finished
I start to get bored again its getting late and this is taking
forever - its like watching a Windows 98 PC defrag - (why
are the blue and red dancing squares so hypnotic) I kill time
by counting how many times the hourglass does a summersault
and again loose the will to live at about 15315 times :( |
|
|
"Dad its
changed again!" Note "This can take up to 10 minutes"
In the time it took to do this I could have walked into town
bought a complete PC in component parts, walked home and assembled
it - after drinking 14 bottles of Absinthe :( |
| OK
- In reality at this point VPC and I fell out, it booted into
Longhorn set itself to 4 bit colour, and ran like like an
asthmatic seal. This like all the problems above I put down
to VPC and NOT Longhorn, the remainder of
the shots are from the clean install PC I did at work. Which
annoyingly took 15-25 minutes to install :) |
|
AAAAAARRRRRGGGHH!
My eyes are bleeding! - Who in their right mind at Microsoft
decided to use that as the default desktop! I decide the
decision must have been made by someone who wears "Red
Dwarf" T Shirts and had no girlfriends at school. Just
as I get used to the XP "Teletubbies Hill" I'm
assaulted with that :(
I read on other
sites that the new sidebar has a "wealth of features
and it's a great new addition to windows" I decide
I fear and loathe change and disable it instantly, I might
have been more open but the clock looks like a cheap plastic
one you would get in the bargain bin at B&Q, that runs
on 1 AA battery. The clock knows this and returns to annoy
me later. |
|
The Start menu
is "XP like" but most of the Icons are much better
finished, I've finally come round to this start bar, but they
still hide "My network places" so I have to click
around when I'm not in "Classic Mode". Unfortunately
my habit of annoying everyone, who's PC I work on by switching
it to "Classic View" will continue for some years. |
| Now this I do
like! - search straight from the task bar! I do a search for
*.msc to see if they have included any cool new mmc consoles
I can play with, it searches for "Files containing text:
*.msc" There is nowhere in any search command to change
this :( Conclusion - yes leave it there its cool, but fix
it. |
|
|
I
Like! Very clean - At first the folder icons take a bit
of getting used to, but the bits you can see inside them
are actually what's in the folder (small things please small
minds)
At first I thought
"Oh no where's the [up directory] button" but
the path at the top becomes a row of buttons when you hover
over them which is much better. |
|
OK - I'm building
this thing to do some temporary backups so I need to create
a folder to put them in, right click > New > folder?
And its not there :( damn! this is the way I create new folders,
in fact its the way I always create new folders! The more
observant of you will have spotted the "Make new folder"
button before I did, I click it, nothing happens, I click
it again - still nothing. in fact I have to drop to command
line and issue an MD command to make a new folder (Mental
note to self - DONT use Beta OS's for
work things). |
At
this point I decide to fire up IE (v6) and take a look at
PeteNet, there's no Java :( I zoom over to Sun to download
Java - Sun Tells me....
"Warning you are using Windows XP - This version
of Java works best on Windows XP"
I smile - the PC crashes, after a reboot I try Microsoft
JVM (Still available on my download page) and it works fine. |
| Fantastic! you
can schedule and alter the priority of your downloads, this
is the best (working) thing I've found. |
|
|
PeteNetLive
Longhorn Style :) |
|
The forward arrow
stays hidden (till its needed) and this is where the "history"
folder is hidden - this makes the main window a lot cleaner. |
| Seeing as I spend
a lot of time in Device Manager I fire that up, the interface
is horrible, I mess around with the view to make it slightly
less horrible - who am I kidding this is terrible! All the
technical bits I know how to play with are not there! |
|
|
Reeling from the
above I quickly run devmgmt.msc and my old friend (thankfully)
re-appears looking like it should. |
| Hovering over
pictures gives a nice thumbnail view. |
|
I
then proceed to write a backup script and schedule it, at
this point I notice the time says 06:49 AM (its about 14:15
PM) reluctantly I launch the cheap plastic clock again.
it cant be altered, no amount of clicking or dragging helps
me, I drop to command line and issue a TIME command and
reset the time, it remains unchanged, I download and install
atomic time, it remains unchanged, from command line I force
it to take time from the Domain Controller, still no change.
The cheap plastic clock mocks me from the corner of the
screen.
I discover that (quite obvious already to most of the techies
reading this) that's its in the wrong time zone, after some
tweaking and poking around its on GMT. WHY does every Microsoft install set the time to Tijuana time?
Does Bill Gates live in Tijuana? In fact how many people
live in Tijuana, that every release of every Microsoft product
I've ever seen set its time with Tijuana - Time is set in
Greenwich! hence all other time zones are +/- GMT
There are probably
a wealth of other things under the bonnet I've missed, or
been to lazy to talk about - apart from the plastic clock
and the "Grandmothers Curtains" desktop, its a
promising well polished (even for a Beta) OS
Hopefully BillG
or SteveB will read this and send me the next Beta Build
so I can test the bits that look promising but are not yet
working, at least by then I'll have worked out how to put
Mickey Mouse hands on the clock.
NEXT
WEEK: Pete lifts the lid on the Arc of the Covenant! |
