kay, I’m not a fan of Vista.  It really has some quirky (i.e. stupid) things about it so I looked online to see if I could find any fixes.  Thought I’d share them with you.

In Windows XP, I was able to select files and move them by a “copy to folder” or “move to folder” command.  In Vista it seems that you can only drag and drop files, of which I am no fan because the cursor always moves at the last moment and I’m always dropping my files into the wrong folders.  I did a quick search and found out that it bugged others too and there was a fix posted on the How-to Geek’s website.

Another little (actually quite big) annoying thing Vista does is it’s always nagging me with ”permission to continue” windows.  Following the steps posted on lifehacker.com fixed that problem for me too.

I may not like Vista but there are many things that I do love about my new computer…I have a huge 24″ monitor, my CPU doesn’t make any noise (…it’s really quiet!), I can watch tv on it, all of my printers and tablets and things have a place to plug into, it does seem faster, no dreaded out of memory window while rendering in Poser, and I have plenty of space again.  I did find that a couple of filters won’t work no matter what I try but I figure that I can probably live without them.

Some important tips about moving to a new computer…

• Backup your computer regularly…I was lucky as my hard drives were still readable and Michael was able to save all of my work
• Take your fonts with you (select all the font files from the c:/windows/fonts folder and zip them up and then reinstall on your new computer)
• Keep all of your program installation disks together in one case…get a new program, put it in the case…buy a new program online, burn the zip or exe files to disk and put it in the case.  Burning filters and other programs’ setup files to disk will also make your life much easier
• Have hard copies of all of your programs’ registration and serial numbers…make copies and place one in with the installation disks
• Transfer your bookmarks, your emails, your documents (some programs use your documents folder so make sure you transfer those files too).  A quick online search will show you where your bookmark/favorites/email, etc. folders are located on your computer
• Copy all of your filters/plugins folders to your new computer as most will work without re-installing and then just re-install those that need to be installed so you don’t lose your filters’ settings
• Keep your PS Brushes, Palettes, Actions, Styles, etc. in separate folder from the applications folders…makes it easier to find when you have to move
• Keep track of Login/User Names and Passwords.  There are many free programs that do this for you (just do a search) but also make a hard copy (and keep it with your programs’ serial numbers)
• Weed out what you don’t use or really need…it took days to transfer some of my folders because they are so big (My Poser 4 folder alone is 82 GB and my Graphics folder is 152 GB
• Don’t try to do it all at once.  Setting up a new computer takes a lot of time and if you start installing and copying files when you’re brain dead you’ll end up making stupid mistakes so make sure that you are well rested and do get up and move around after sitting for awhile and get that blood that’s pooled down to your butt back up to your brain.  *smile*