A new machine
So I have finally done it.
I bought a new laptop, so that the Missus can inherit my old one.
It is a rather nice machine – a Packard Bell EasyNote LJ71
I have spent the last twelve hours transferring gigabytes of data onto it from the old one. Not a joyful task.
It has one or two quirks that will take a little getting used to – a very flat keyboard, that actually feels like a keyboard and not a slab of rubber, a smaller screen (same width as my old one but widescreen, so shorter) and keys in places I don’t expect.
The one major difference though is that it runs Windows 7.
I have never seen Windows 7 in operation before. Of course I have heard a lot about it, but as I didn’t have it on any machine, I didn’t pay that much attention. Now I am learning the hard way.
First impressions? On the upside, it is extremely fast.
On the downside, I find it terribly fiddly finding my programmes. I confess I always set my Vista to ‘Classic view’ menus, but this little feature is no longer available.
I suppose it is something I’ll just have to get used to?
The wheel was perfectly round.
Why did they have to reinvent it?
Bob Rankin, publisher of Tour Bus, has published a work around for your problem. It works.
Ten Mile: I searched, but couldn’t find Rankin’s solution. I found a nice tweak though that does the job very nicely. I’ll put the details in a new post.
Packard Bell? I didn’t even know they were still in business. My first PC was a Packard Bell. A 386SX33 with a whopping 2 MB worth of memory. Paid $80 for another 2 MB. Can’t recall what DOS version it came with (5 or 5.5 I think).
Anyway, I tended to just use the search field at the bottom of main start menu to find my programs. Kind of a throw back solution but it worked well enough. I also added my favorites to the taskbar. New computer someday soon. Hope the Packard Bell works out for you.
This machine has 4,000 times the memory of my first PC, and over 9,000 times the disk space. It cost less than a quarter of the price too!