Bombing Windows

I formatted my hard drive on Sunday and reinstalled Windows 98. This is only the second time I have ever done this. Last year I cleaned up my old computer and learned a lot of things that made this reinstall easier. For instance: I didn't have to install/reinstall sound card and video card files because I had the latest drivers burned on cd. I had also printed a list of passwords/codes and a list of things to do. These lists also helped.

The process went well but there were some frustrating moments when I had to remember old DOS commands to get what I needed. The biggest headache was getting my Internet connection working. I could send and receive email and my firewall was registering "hits" but I couldn't access the net. I had to find a copy of IE 6 on one of my cd-roms that came with games or magazines. I thought that I could use IE 4 to get to Windows Update but the program is too old.

Updating Windows and my Virus Scanner took a looong time.

The only annoying result of doing a reinstall is that Windows asks for a password every time it starts. I will do a little research so I can stop this irritation. The problem is minor.

The computer is clean and fast now. It is leaner by 8 gigabytes so it should be. What a diet!

I am slowly loading my favourite programs. I want to load Open Office and stop using Wordpad.

What did I relearn? Don't be afraid of change. I don't have to put up with a misbehaving computer.