Orchid XP v8 wrote:
> Interesting. I have an email from WordPress notifying me that you just 
> signed up... ;-)

That doesn't help much if wordpress doesn't mail me the password. :-)

> Perhaps. I was kind of expecting the second DVD to burn quicker than the 
> first one - but no. Exactly the same speed. Both took about 20 minutes 
> to burn (and another 10 minutes to verify).

Some DVD burners (software) insist on writing the entire DVD whether there's 
useful content or not.

>> As for the start menu and the control panel: use the search bar.
> 
> 1. What's that?

Open the start menu. See the bottom left, where it says "start search"?

> 2. You need to search for stuff = you haven't organised your stuff 
> correctly.

Perhaps. But since you're not especially in control of how the start menu is 
organized a priori, it helps.

>> The "measuring performance" is indeed checking things including your 
>> graphics, RAM speed, disk speed, etc.
> 
> Why does that take 20 minutes? memtest86 gives me most of those 
> measurements in 0.2 seconds.

Dunno. It takes about 5 on mine, IIRC, but then I have a kick-ass graphics 
card. Much of the time is spent evaluating the abiltiy to scale textures, do 
shadows and lights, stuff like that.

> For some reason, the welcome page automatically opens every time I log 
> in and won't go away.

The checkbox at the bottom that says "Show this every time windows starts"? 
Uncheck that.

> Apparently the Windows experience index is 3.6. I 
> didn't see any more detailed stats - but those are probably under 
> "advanced" or something.

See the link next to the rating? Click on that.

> Already found out how to turn off transparency - but I kinda like it. As 
> I say, if you give it a slight tint, it makes it visible.

Yes. It's cool. It confused my wife till we set it to black for her.

> I was wondering why the HD runs *constantly* and never, ever stops, even 
> when the machine isn't doing anything. Nice to know that Vista has 
> built-in systems to waste my time and computer power on pointless tasks 
> that I don't want it to do. :-)

Well, turn it off, then. It stops after it finishes.

>> eSATA: external SATA. If you have an external drive case that supports 
>> USB and eSATA, use eSATA and it'll be about 4 times as fast to transfer.
> 
> Mmm, OK. But... they have the same electrical interface?

As what? USB? No, of course not. Different shape connectors. I'm not sure 
whether it's the same as SATA, but I'm not going to crawl under my desk to 
check. :)

> Also amusing was the manual's description of the covers on the bottom. 
> One is labelled "harddrive" and the other is labelled "secondary 
> harddrive". What, you mean you can put two in it? I suspect not! ;-)

Possibly. Why not?

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   There's no CD like OCD, there's no CD I knoooow!

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