Setting Up Re Installed OS

I had to re install my operating system after my computer was wiped out when trying to install windows service pack1. My first suggestion would be to not try installing any service packs. I have had nothing but headaches every time I tried to put this in. I had to send my computer out this time to get it to work at all and the first night without my laptop what comes on the tv but a Mac commercail where PC says Window 7 is out and there will be no problems like in the past, I promise. Yeah I though it will be a whole set of new problems.

Anyway, I just got the thing back and am a bit daunted by all the stuff I have to install. I made a list of the things I was using and would need to download but have been looking into using new stuff. Things change in monumental ways daily on the internet so as long as I can easily add to my eBay Store sales and my Zazzle Stores I am going to take my time and try some new stuff.

Right now I have to wake my husband because the World Series is coming on ...

The first thing that I was worried about was hooking up my wireless. I had checked to see if I needed the install disk that came with it because honestly I don't remember using one. I found out the one is not necessary for my Belkin. Next I was interested in getting my browser up and running because I really hate using the supplied IE and have found that the best for my variety of uses is Firefox. I installed Firefox 3 even though 3.5.4 is available. I remember having problems with that. I next downloaded an email program. Email programs have come a long way over the last 10 years. I am most comfortable with Thunderbird, another Mozilla platform like Firefox. I did get use to working with my ISP web based email but it is slow to load where as with a separate program your mail is easy to get to. The best part of the ISP email is that I can send out large bulk email to my vintage photo clients at one time. Using a program to do this slows this process down because you can only send a limited amount of emails at one time.

I just started to look for my old programs to start downloading things in order to get back to being able to do some work. I wanted to make some graphic areas for one of my Zazzle stores Toppings. I figured out of all the graphic art type programs I was using I liked paint.net best. I downloaded the newest version and got stuck when a message came up. Need .NET framework 3.3.5 or higher from sp1. The dreaded service pack is already haunting me. If you go to download it tells you that this is needed and gives a link to download which I did but it did not work. I do not want to spend 5+ hours waiting to download and install the full Vista sp1 and I am actually afraid to do it. I have no disk drive to reinstall the OS and would have to take it to the computer shop again if anything happens this time.

More to come ......