Yeah, I like The Gimp. My father had a full license for PS and DW, so I'm mostly keeping them out of a sense of continuity.

Somehow, I couldn't hold on to the really important things -- like where is the original artwork for the site logo? Sucks that the only version I can manipulate is a moderate resolution jpeg.
And. . . I couldn't hold on to him. For the first few months it seemed like the bizarrest thing that I couldn't just send him an email when I had a question about his site.

How do I go about doing a "clean install", rather than an upgrade or repair?

User title?

xoB, it's pretty much just boot the install CD and follow the instructions, but here is the best page that explains the steps. The only tricky bit, I think, is the partitioning bit, but (I happen to know) since you are reinstalling, you can select NTFS Quick format and get good results. It will delete everything and start fresh.

Yeah, on Barb's PC hopefully it can repair or replace.
But when mine puked awhile ago, it wouldn't repair and ended up with a new set up on a partitioned C drive. That takes up room and slows the start up, plus when AVG or Malwarebytes is doing a C scan, it takes a lot longer scanning a lot of unused crap. Because I don't know jack shit, I'm leery of going to the C drive and deleting stuff.

http://gallery.roadbikereview.com/da.../NukeOrbit.jpg

So, I'm still not seeing why I or anyone would need to sidegrade to windows 7, even from XP .

Well, it seems a lot faster. It's certainly prettier. There are a lot of built-in gizmos to smooth the user experience.

Oh, and Windows XP will cease to be supported by Microsoft on June 30, 2010.

Even as far back as moving from Winblows 3.1 to 95, I've found it's often asking for trouble to upgrade Windows in place. I always recommend staring from scratch whenever possible.

Bruce, one option is to buy a new hard drive and install the new OS on it. It's especially attractive if you've been thinking you could use the extra space anyway. But once you're up and running, you can copy all your files off your old disk (install it in the computer as a second drive, or buy an external enclosure for it). This gives some peace of mind for people who are scared to just wipe out everything on their computer.

The only reason I'm reluctant to do a full wipe of that laptop is that it was my Dad's, the one he was using during his transplant last year. I keep expecting to stumble upon one last document, or an email, or something that will give me two more minutes of his time...

We do have a doubly-redundant full bare-metal backup of the laptop, so I know I'm being silly. The other option would be to buy a $70 hdd and cache the old one (as SD suggests).

There isn't any reason for most people.

Some people that got stuck with Vista get free upgrades to Windows 7. In that case it is worth it.

This video finally talked me into a mac. :)

This made me chuckle:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/10/30/

Oh, guys?
After all this it turns out Windows 7 was a British invention. Yay! Up the Brits!
Sorry if you don't like it (the invention) but then maybe Microsoft shouldn't have listened to a bird in the back of a taxi.

Crystal? Not a common name here.
Still, I'm impressed at her perspicacity. And tenacity! After all, even getting through to the helpdesk is tricky.

Although a little worried she's not been more universally acknowledged. OMG! You don't think they've killed her to protect the patent?! Well, either that or they're LYING in the advert!

Either way I am changing my view of Uncle Gates :)

I just saw this. Those fuckers. That's only 9 months from now, and XP is still by far the number one operating system in the world. It's not like they are getting rid of some old unused system.

I don't believe these announcements. Remember when they said they were going to stop selling XP in June, 2008?