CTRL-ALT-DEL alive and well in Redmondville

Thats strange, my PC is windows and its been running great for years. Mine is windows 7, windows 8 is just bad.

Yeah, Win7 finally hit the mark for me. I upgraded from XP with a new desktop computer the October that 7 was released. I forget what year it was. I forget about rebooting for weeks at a time. I haven't had a system crash since the upgrade, but sometimes an application will crash. They don't take out the whole system though, just a matter of restarting that one program. Never sen a BSOD. I use NIS for security and an occasional scan with MBAM, run a scheduled full image backup every week with Acronis. The only thing NIS conflicts with is Outlook, I have Office 2007. So I keep the Norton anti Spam turned off. I also have some trouble with Outlooks IMAP folder synchronizing. Other than that it's smooth as ice.
Rusty

My wife bought me a laptop with the (then) brand new Windows 8 OS about 2 years ago. It's been a trouble-free machine for the most part. The frequent "automatic updates" are a PIA.. but I'm used to them. I'm not a "guru" by any means.. but my wife doesn't like Windows 8... and she's been a long-time Windows user. We are all such creatures of habit.. especially when it comes to using a computer.

For most people who buy a new computer.. I think that it's probably worth the expense of having it custom-configured by a reputable shop. They can load what you need.. and get rid of the annoying after-sell and "crap-apps" that you don't or won't ever use.

I learned on Windows.. and I was a resistant and very late learner. My EX-wife had been a Windows user from the beginning.. but I was never interested.. (not even when she bought me flight simulator software..) It wasn't until the late 1990's that I needed to understand basic operation for running a software controlled machine at work. A couple years later (2001?) I bought my 1st computer; which was a Mac "mirror door" G4 running the first generation OSX. A Mac was highly recommended by AVID, for running their Pro-Tools  music recording software. It was a combination purchase I had made with my tax return $$. One afternoon.. I went to "Comp USA".. bought the Mac (less their mondo-bucks 17" flat-screen..) and opted for a "KOGi" flat-screen that had a $100 factory rebate.. and then drove a mile down the highway to "Guitar Center".. and bought the Pro-Tools software/hardware. I should have done my homework.. but lucked-out. The Mac also came with OS9 (classic) installed.. and the Pro-Tools software wasn't compatible with OSX yet. It was weird enough; getting use to a Mac.. (single-button mouse.. ) but needing to boot-up in one of two operating systems, took a lot of getting used to. "Classic" was only for music production and archiving of that specific file-type. When I bounced the files to disc.. they were converted to AIFF (high resolution) audio files that iTunes would play. I could also convert from AIFF to Mp3 in iTunes.. using a "less-squashed" 320 kbps sampling speed.. which allowed me to burn the files to CD. OSX was used for web browsing and general file storage.. as in documents, photos, mp3's etc.

The Mac died about 7 years ago.. so I later tried swapping the software to a SLOW old Windows machine running ME.. This was pointless.. and frustrating. The install went fine using the proper CD's/drivers for Windows.. but the machine didn't have the processing power. The Mac had fast dual-processors.. and was just superior to the PC for AV applications.

Currently.. my Pro-Tools software/hardware is running on Windows XP.. on a dedicated decent Dell OptiPlex PC that my wife was allowed to take, when her employer upgraded their system. I needed to purchase an install disc for XP.. which "is" the last Windows version that my hardware is compatible with. Upgrading "now" would cost me over $1000.00.. and I have no plans to do that. I'm not a professional sound engineer.. but the system does what I want it to do for my own personal needs... which is the ability to multi-track, automate, mix and master my own compositions.

For general file storage, we currently have 3 external USB drives.. for a total of 1640GB of space.. of which less than 500GB remains. (600+GB are music files) The CEF folder that's on my desktop is 1.85GB alone. I need to back it up again.

I haven't been doing much music writing/recording lately though...  because I got interested in an on-line forum that I've been obsessed with for the last year or so..