I felt brave yesterday and I started an upgrade of Windows XP on my Dell Latitude D820 to Windows Vista. I remember reading that this time around the upgrade of OS is not copy-over but clean install and port of settings somehow. I never bothered to look into details, I just ran the update...
Well, the fun soon ended as setup informed me that I'm not connected to the net. But I was. Then my MSDN key was pronounced invalid but it's not. I ran the upgrade without running updates and without the key (you can enter that 30 days after the installation). And it started... The setup process was painfully simple - choose language, country and of you go. After couple of hours (I went to sleep during the procedure and left installation running) it was done. I could log into OS, found all my programs, even all drivers where there. I was able to enter the key without problems.
But (yes, there is a but) I still couldn't run Windows Update. I got a weird 80072efd error that just would go away. I figured it has something to do with the fact that my Windows Update settings were locked since our admin has set them though domain policies. I decided to take computer out of the domain and fix the damn updates. But during this smart move I lost my account and my profile. Great! The files were there but I would have to move the to non-domain account...
Since I stepped into the s**t already - I went further and did another install of Vista, this time clean. I took less than an hour, no questions asked, all drivers found and working. It will just take me sometime to configure and install everything as it was before.
So - hi from Vista! So far, I love it.
But there is one thing that I really don't like at the moment - the default sounds. One of them is very similar to the sound a hard drive makes when it dies. I had an accident like that before so it sends shivers down my spine every time it plays. I really have to turn it off...
Oh, and one more thing. So far I have always preached that you should maximize your windows to maximize productivity. I really couldn't understand people that waste screen space with non-maximized Windows. New Aero somehow made me into on of them. I like my windows floating. I'm not shure why and I'm not sure it will last...
Ok, I have to get out and check out the sun now. I rarelly see it these days!