Windows Vista - Quick Setup
by David Pankhurst - Wednesday Aug 27, 2008
As I mentioned earlier, my new computer came with Vista pre-installed - and I’ve been slowly working on it to get used to it (and test) while I plan the move over to it.
It’s a good test machine, but a bit anemic for development (but FAST - the Athlon 64X2 is far faster than my current system), and pathetic for games. so I’m in no hurry to move permanently.
But in the initial setup, I did find I followed a pattern - so here’s a few items in case they help you with your new computer:
- First, I partitioned the disks (or tried to - see this article for details). I like keeping my operating system and data separate, and so split the drive into at two partitions (maybe more later).
- I installed FireFox. I felt a bit silly doing it, but the fact is I’m used to FF, and even if Internet Explorer becomes the most wonderful browser on the planet, I’m used to a particular way of browsing. ‘Nuff said.
- I installed UltraVNC. This is an incredibly useful tool if you’re working on two computers. Set one up as the server, one up as the viewer, and you have a window into the other computer. Do things remotely, send files over, etc. You can do just about anything there as if you were on the other computer (weird to watch too, as a phantom mouse goes to work on your screen!) Although there were a few gotchas with it (the dialog asking for permission to run system programs in Vista couldn’t be handled remotely, and the Aero glass display turned off when UltraVNC was run), the process was overall successful.
This is just a ‘first view’ basics list - but it gives you and idea of how to start with your new system, as a few tools can make the transfer a bit easier.
