(A blog with no name)

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Rebuilding my system with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Decided to start a record of the customizations I make to and programs I install on my computer since I rebuilt it using Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Saturday, March 6, 2010
  • Installed all Windows Updates, rebooting as necessary.
  • When the Action Center warned me that no anti-virus was installed, I installed Microsoft Security Essentials.
  • Went to Tools > Folder Options > View in Windows Explorer and un-checked "Hide extensions for known file types".
  • In a folder window, grouped everything by "Type" and then in Tools > Folder Options > View, clicked the "Apply to folders" button.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
  • While re-organizing stuff on my drives, went to Tools > Folder Options > View and checked "Use check boxes to select items".
  • Installed Foxit - fastest PDF viewer ever.
Monday, March 8, 2010
  • Installed Firefox 3.0, 3.5 and 3.6 for development - I keep IE8 as my default browser, to stay in touch with the experience most people are familiar with, but I often use Chrome as well.
  • Enabled Bookmark Sync for Chrome and cleaned up my bookmarks using Google Docs (got my social networking bookmarks organized finally!)
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
  • Finally needed to print something, so I used the "Add Printer" wizard to install my network printer - worked flawlessly as always.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
  • Been noticing something since moving to 64-bit and have decided it's not a fluke:

    Explorer does not refresh views as well as 32-bit - at least, I didn't notice the behavior until moving to 64-bit, and I'd been using 32-bit for like a year prior.  Basically, if I move file(s) and/or folder(s) from one location to another, or rename files or folders, etc., any progress dialogs appear and then close as if the operation's complete, and it does appear to be, but the icons are unchanged in the view.  If I refresh the view (F5, right-click > Refresh, close/re-open, navigate away and back, etc.), the view instantly updates correctly.  Haven't been scientific about it (yet), but it seems to happen more often than not, and I think the view does update eventually if I let it sit a while.

    Just happened now - I'd created a bunch of files on my desktop while working on a project and I was ready to delete them.  I selected them all and then drag/dropped them onto the Recycle Bin.  The cursor and everything behaved as if the operation was complete, but the files were all still sitting on my desktop.  I waited about ten seconds, and then went ahead and refreshed (right-clicked > Refresh) and bang, they all disappeared from the desktop.

    This seems to happen often, and it seems to happen in any Explorer view.  I found a thread about it, which is unhelpful so far:
    http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproui/thread/8afb8b65-900c-4f42-b1df-3c2394417b6e

    Gonna monitor this for a while.


  • Installed Yammer to get updates from my work network.
  • Installed Komodo Edit.
  • Used ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) to connect my laptop (running Linux Mint which has no drivers for my laptop wifi NIC) to the Internet via my desktop - worked FLAWLESSLY.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Saturday, March 20, 2010
  • Installed FileZilla to manage my several websites.  Windows Explorer has integrated FTP so you can manage a remote FTP location just like a local folder, which is great for on the fly operations, but for large-scale file transfers FileZilla is faster.
  • Installed RealVNC to manage the other systems on my network.  Remote Desktop is better in some ways, but Microsoft has just messed with it too much over the years, rendering it almost unusable, and now it's not even available in Home Premium, so, okay Microsoft, I get it, you want me to use VNC instead.  Fine by me.  Message received.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
  • Installed Microsoft Live Mesh to try it out - allows access from my cell phone as well as my computers.
Monday, April 5, 2010
  • Installed DeepBurner - Windows has had CD/DVD burning built in for a long time, but it's still stupidly slow and involves making a copy of the files to a "burn" system folder - that can be ~4.4 Gb of data!  What if the reason you're burning the files is because you have less than 4 gigs remaining on your drive?  Stupid!  DeepBurner is free, lightning fast, and burns your files directly from their original locations, so no making duplicate copies BS.
  • Installed IrfanView to view PSDs quickly.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
  • Installed The Gimp - Photoshop is soooooo expensive. And therefore uninstalled IrfanView.

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