I cannot help my insatiable appetite for change. I grew up at a time when all advertising targeting children always started with "Hey kids, be the first of your block to ..." followed by the sale pitch. I bought into that slogan and have lived it ever since. If it is new, I want it. If it is experimental, I want to play with it. If more than ten people that I know have it, I no longer want it until the next generation comes out.
When I am wasting time, like sitting on the metro, waiting in a line, things like that, I am reading the tech news on my phone. This is when I discovered the beta version of the next Window OS is available for download.
The specs say that from the time you press the computer's on button to full boot up, ready to tackle the world is less than 60 seconds. To give to you another way, it is about the same amount of time that you first realize you are going to sneeze. That annoying tickling sensation starts in the back of your nose, you feel it sliding back and forth down you nasal passages, not sure if is wants to commit or not both teasing you while giving you a false sense of security that the coast is clear. Then it suddenly erupts like a volcano's gushing lava spraying out of your nasal holes.
We all know what a problem I have been having with the desktop computer, though it has improved. It now only takes 1 hour and 14 minutes to boot up whereas before it was half the day. I thought maybe, just maybe Windows 8 may improve the performance, so I downloaded it and installed it. When W8 installs, it turns the computer on and off several times. Well this sucker takes so long to restart, W8 threw in the towel or rather raised the white flag of surrender and just gave up. Okay, I thought. I will leave well enough alone.
However, being naturally curious, I had to continue to investigate. My netbook, which I have been using extensively has Win XP. Microsoft is not going to support XP much longer. Let's face it. After using Windows 7 for so long, using XP is like going on vacation alone with your grandmother and taking her out clubbing with you. There is just something wrong with this picture.
After Googling, I found the exact article I wanted. How to upgrade an Asus eeePC HA1000 from XP to W8. The guy starts out with saying that his net-book is yesterday's news, about 4 years old. Four years in computer years is like 8 in dog years. You are ready to have it put down. He showed the entire process and advised that the only other thing he needed to do was increase the screen resolution beyond the capabilities of the net-books natural state. He did this by installing a new driver and gave two links.
My net-book has a partition, so I thought I would install W8 on one partition so I could dual boot. It didn't work that way, because the program didn't give me a choice of location for installation. By this time, I was so anticipating this new toy that I threw caution to the wind, letting it do its own thing, while once again ignoring that inner voice that was screaming at the top of its lungs "Stop it, stop it now, before it is too late".
As predicted, nothing would work because the screen resolution was too low. After downloading the driver, it still would not increase the size W8 demands. After much Goggling, I finally found a hack and got it to work. What seemed to pass me by in my state of attention deficit disorder was that this preview OS would obliterate the existing one and all of your programs that once resided there.
Goodbye MS Office Suite. That is the one I will miss the most. Sure, I can reload it. I have legal disks for it, but the net-book doesn't have a CD/DVD drive. The time I installed it, I had to borrow someone's external unit. Do I want to bother with that again? Nay! Why bother with a computer that is so ancient being in its fourth year. I may just have to spill a cup of tea on it again to try to put it down.
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