Finally Pulled The Trigger On 7

So I finally made the jump from XP to Windows 7. The process took a long time, since there's no direct upgrade path from XP to 7. So I had to backup all of my data to my 2TB external hard drive. Unfortunately, since I don't have an eSATA port on my motherboard, I had to do it via USB 2.0 which is really slow. (I definitely plan on looking into getting an eSATA card in the future.) Roughly 400 gigs of stuff had to be backed up. (All of my assorted media like images, videos, music, but also things like my poker databases, and various customizations to programs.)

Then I made a checklist of every program I planned to install once I got 7 up and running. Then for a majority of them I had to go through and take screenshots of all of the settings. (I love any program that has a built-in import/export system for their settings!) I used Lightscreen for this, because having to hit "Prt Scr" and save a picture in Photoshop would've taken 2-3 times as long.

Next I had to update my BIOS, and I guess it had been awhile, since the new version was quite a few numbers away from the version I had been using. So I lose some geek cred for that.

Once I had everything prepped and backed up (or so I thought, more on that later), it was time for the install. I chose to reformat, and began the install, which I had to restart because the first time it stalled early on. (Turns out I had to turn off my external drive, and make a small temporary change in the BIOS.) Once I got that fixed, I just had to wait. So I played with the dog for a bit and just screwed around until I had to enter the basics (timezone, user name, etc.) Then once I was in Windows itself, I started installing a few essentials like Firefox (which was super easy since I had my profile backed up).


Then, most importantly, and the thing I was the most worried about, I reinstalled Holdem Manager, and after a scary first attempt where everything was blank, I restored my database. So I didn't lose all my stats, hand histories, etc. I then reinstalled PokerStars and played for about a half hour to make sure everything was okay. I did however, forget two important things with Stars...

I use mods on the Stars software. Instead of a tiny little colored box when I have a note on a player, I have colored rings around their avatar. it's much easier to read. Well, I forgot to backup (or just jot down) which colors were in which place in the software. I forgot that I changed the colors from the defaults, so I had to try and remember which slot corresponded to which player type and then reset my custom colors. I also use a custom deck, since I think the default decks don't look as good, but that was easy to fix.

Anyway, the most important thing was, I had all my data and everything poker-related was working fine (aside from forgetting a few little settings). The biggest impact on my game is that I didn't really have time to play today. (I only squeezed in the half hour last night testing, which I only one-tabled the next level in stakes up from my normal level, and then I just two-tabled for about a half-hour right after getting up this morning because I had only slept about 2 1/2 hours the night before, and because I stopped to eat.) Then again, I haven't had time to catch up on my Feeds, so I can only imagine how much of a backlog I've got in Google Reader.

There were a few snags. For whatever reason, Windows 7 won't recognize the front headphone jack on the front of my computer's case, unlike XP. I still haven't found the solution after screwing with various Windows settings, the BIOs, and three different drivers for the onboard sound. Finally I just plugged my headphones into the speaker jack on the back of the computer, and that's how I'm using them for right now. That really sucks though, since the cable became much much shorter that way. If I can't find a solution soon I'll have to spend a few bucks and get an headphone extension cable.

The program I use to view images contained in a zip or rar file won't work with the mouse wheel anymore. Every other program works as normal and I'm using the latest version, so I'm not sure what's up with that. I guess it's keyboard shortcuts or manually clicking the "next" and "back" buttons. This wasn't as annoying as the headphone thing, since I use the headphones far more often than this program.

Then my main video player, GOM Player, has a conflict where if you use the default settings it disables Aero when you play a video. I had to change the rendering mode, and now it seems okay. But I can't tell if video looks as good with the alternate renderer.

I also forgot that Gmail Notifier needed to be patched with a mod to connect via SSL. I couldn't figure out why it couldn't log in to check for new mail.

There might've been a few other minor things, but I can't think of them at the moment.

Then, restoring most of my media took awhile. (Again, USB 2.0 sloooooow.) In fact, I decided to leave a good chunk of stuff on the external drive, which I don't normally leave turned on. But, that'll free up space with some videos or other stuff I don't use as much.

I'm still tinkering around with getting things like my folders set up the way I want. For instance, I don't want a zillion items always showing on the taskbar, so since the Quick Launch is out, I decided to use the Favorites section on the Start Menu for programs I use a lot but don't want to keep showing on the taskbar permanently.

Overall, I'm pretty much done with the transfer. It took about a day. (I started around 9pm on Sunday, and as I write this it's almost midnight on Monday going into Tuesday.) I still have to reinstall my games, like MODERN WARFARE 2 and THE ORANGE BOX, but I'm in no rush. In fact, I think if I do reinstall a game anytime soon, it might be FALLOUT 3 if I restart it. (I hope my backed up save games work okay for the titles that I don't want to restart from scratch.)

Meanwhile, I'm just trying to enjoy new features, like keeping some of my most frequently used documents in the jump lists, and getting used to the differences.

Pretty happy so far.