Installing Windows 7

My last article was about the upgrade I made to my computer. This is the follow-up to that article about my experiences installing Microsoft’s new operating system – Windows 7.

By the way, before I get to the actual installation of Windows 7, I want to comment on the box or container that the system comes in. I don’t believe there was ever a box designed that is more aggravating than the one chosen by Microsoft to ship and display their products. It took some tinkering to get at the enclosed system without resorting to an axe to open it. But being a klutz, it could have just been me.

Your first looks at the disks that came in the box gives you the impression that this was indeed a fancy iteration of the venerable operating system. They are laser inscribed with a wavy pattern around the outside edge. One of the disks is for a 64 bit installation, and the other is for a 32 bit installation. You have your choice of the system you want to employ.

If not for the limitation of memory I was experiencing because of a bad memory module, I would have installed the 64 bit system, but with only 4 gigabytes of memory, it made sense to install the 32 bit system. 4 gigabytes is the limit that is addressable by the 32 bit system, but the 64 bit system can address a lot more than that. In my case, I will do with the 32 bit system until the other half of my memory gets here from Corsair. They say it has been shipped, but I still have not seen hide or hair of it. When it arrives and posts properly, I will make the decision about whether or not to reinstall Windows using the 64 bit system.

Getting started: I allowed the new DVD with the system on it to boot up the computer. It was a surprise to read that I could install the system and retain my applications or do a clean install and then reinstall my applications. But printed clearly on the box, the new Windows has to be a clean install if you are replacing Windows XP. If you are replacing Vista, then you can install and retain your applications. Since I was replacing XP, I made the necessary preparations for a clean install. (I had to save those files that I wanted to keep that were on my System drive.)

When Windows 7 does a clean install, you will lose the old system, but some files are preserved and moved to a folder named windows.old. This new folder will contain your old Documents and Settings folder with all of your personal info including your music, photographs and videos. Just about everything else disappears so if you go the new or clean install route, be sure to back up any data files you have that are not in the Documents and Settings folder.

The new system is not a quick install. Be forewarned that in the process of Windows 7building its nest on your hard drive, it is moving a lot of information around and in a out of your computer. It is also very helpful to have your internet connection available to the new system.

Once the installation starts, Windows is pretty much on its own. Eventually you will get to the part where you have to type in your key code but other than telling the system your time-zone and language preference, that’s about it. The real adventure starts after the system is successfully installed.

Reinstalling all of your applications is a pain and time consuming. If you have downloaded programs from the internet, you will have to find the codes sent to you before they can be activated. I hope all of you either wrote down those codes or preserved your emails that contained them. Those codes are among the first problems I encountered.

For the applications I had downloaded like Winzip, Paretologic’s Driver Cure, Spider Sol and a lot of others, the key codes were in emails saved into a folder I named ‘Confirmations’. I use Mozilla’s Thunderbird for a mail client program and after installing the latest and greatest version from the internet, I tried to restore my saved email folders. Thunderbird would have none of it. Compounding the problem were the emails I received and sent during the few days between my having saved the folders and the present. The only up-to-date folders that contained all of my email addresses and saved emails resided within the new folder of windows.old that Windows 7 had created. I had to figure out how to retrieve those files, but they were hidden and I had no access to them.

So my predicament was twofold. Thunderbird would not restore the saved files that I had saved and I could not locate the files that Windows 7 had saved. It was getting close to panic time. If you experience the need to see the hidden files, do this --:

• Click on the Windows Icon(You’ll find it on the left bottom most of the screen)

• Click on ‘Control Panel’

• With control panel open, Click on ‘Appearance and Personalization’

• From the list of options that appear, Click on ‘Folder Options Show hidden files and folders’

After you set your system to show you the hidden folders, then you will be able to access the ‘Application Data’ folder within the old ‘Documents and Settings’ folder. For Thunderbird users, this is where you will find your address book and mail files.

My email program is my link to the outside world. I have literally over 2000 email addresses, all of the comments from my blog and the other web sites that I write for. Not to mention all of the thousands of emails saved from friends and family. Yep, all of the factual, funny, and ridiculously outrageous emails along with their accompanying attachments are to be found in my email archives. If you sent me a joke in the last 7 years, I still have it. My library also contains the videos, photographs, Power Point files and cartoons that have come my way. So reestablishing those files to an active status and making them once again accessible was vitally important to me.

Once I had located those files and pointed Thunderbird to them – it still would not recognize them. What to do ---?

I started the laborious chore of manually transferring the data to the new Thunderbird directories. It took nearly two weeks but at the same time I separated the data into categories and files that were not only accessible to Thunderbird but also to my file management system. I should have been doing that all along, but being the slug that I am, I didn’t.

As a side note, I also tried to get MS. Outlook to read those files and it would not. For a lot of reasons, I do not use Outlook. Outlook is the only program in the MS. Office Professional suite that I do not use.

Media player also gave me some concerns. I had to reauthorize all of my protected music. The process wasn’t too bad, just an annoyance. But once Media Player found my saved music files I was in business.

Windows 7 is a winner. It operates smooth as butter and once the UAC (User Account Control) settings are quieted down so that you aren’t pestered to death with those nagging popup windows – it only gets better. You can get to the UAC settings several ways, but I use the access through MSConfig. To get to MSConfig, do the following:

• Click on the Windows Control Button at the bottom left of your screen.

• In the space provided type ‘msconfig’. (without the quotation marks.)

• From the menu that pops up click on the tab labeled ‘Tools’.

• In the tools menu, you will find a lot of useful, helpful applets, including the UAC control panel.

• Click on the tool of your choice and then click ‘Launch’ at the lower right side of the window.

Whether you want the device manager, event viewer, or registry editor, this is a great place to find those programs. Mind you, it is not the only place to find the various tools, but it is a good place to find most of the tools you will need all in one place.

The MSConfig program also has other tabs that give you control over which services and programs start automatically, and the boot sequence. I rate it high as a versatile tool to keep windows running efficiently. A word of caution though – if you are not familiar with some of the services and programs that start automatically, I suggest you research it on the internet before you disable it. But there is a saving grace, all you have to do is recheck the box if you find you have made a mistake.

Cheers,

-Robert-

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