So my new laptop has Vista on it — it’s pretty hard these days to buy a new computer that comes with anything else, so although we really wanted NT, we resigned ourselves to working with the Vista. It couldn’t really be all that bad, could it?

TOTALLY THAT BAD.

I’ve been working on and off this week to install new software and configure my machine the way I want it, and it’s SO annoying. First of all, it came with about 15 pieces of software pre-installed, on all two-month “trial” licenses. Then at the end of 60 days I’m sure your computer explodes because all of this expected software is no longer running, and you have to go spend a couple of hundred dollars on licenses. I HATE that kind of negative billing, like, “Here you go! You get it by default, and we’ll charge you for it too, unless you say no!” Grrrr. So needless to say, we’ve been busy uninstalling all that AOL and Norton crap, and uninstalling stuff is brutally slow and annoying and requires plenty of watching and inputting and clicking and it’s SO BOTHERSOME.

And then, after we’d uninstalled a bunch of stuff, I installed some software that I actually wanted. It created icons on the desktop as part of the install. And know what happens when you double click that icon, to start your new software?

A dialog box pops up asking you if you really wanted to start that software. Really? REALLY REALLY? ARE YOU SURE?

And I wouldn’t mind much if this happened the first time, if I could say, “Sure, I really REALLY wanted to start it, and I installed it, and I am the administrator and sole user on this PC, so trust me when I say, this software is good, and I really wanted to start it.”

But no…this REALLY REALLY dialog box pops up EVERY TIME I START THE SOFTWARE. EVERY. TIME.

To make this dialog go away, I have to turn off my security warnings. When I do that, a big friendly RED X appears at the bottom of my screen at all times to warn me that I am doing something so potential fatal, so incredibly dangerous, that I’ve been Scarlet Lettered. DANGER, TURTLEHEAD! YOU ARE RUNNING SOFTWARE!

You can turn off the friendly red X if you really want to. But my point here is that I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO. I should be able to install some software and approve it somewhere for now and forevermore and then all is well.

Oh, and did I mention that I installed Word — THEIR OWN SOFTWARE — and now every time it starts up, I get a million warnings about stuff that could not be initialised and add-ons that are missing? And EVERY TIME I do something in Word — save a document, load help, insert a table, leave it idle for a minute or two — these warnings about the add-ons and whatnot are REPEATED. Requiring me to click “OK” many, many times, until I no longer have any fingerprints.

I’m off to try installing some more crap. Luckily the kids and are at swimming lessons, so I can use all the blue language I want. Fucking Vista!