Win32 Makes Me Feel Unclean

I spent yesterday setting up a shiny new Gateway desktop for my mother-in-law. I got to see the insides before I even booted it, since I dropped the old harddrive into the new machine to facilitate faster copying of her old data.

The construction and layout on the inside was very standard and clean -- it seemed to be built for easy disassembly. They also did away with those little seal stickers. (It's been a long time since I've worked with consumer-grade machines.)

I booted it up, answered a bunch of Gateway/setup questions, got it to a very clean desktop -- There was nothing but the Recycling Bin, no pollution. The Start Menu is a different story, but it still wasn't too bad!

The dirty parts come from using AOL all day, punching in licensing keys, staving off product registrations and advertisements from Gateway, Norton, Microsoft, AOL, etc. I think I wasted more time doing that stuff than real work at times. I couldn't help but realize how long it's been since I've had to do those things. It's a good feeling. :)

Anyway, the machine's up and running nicely, and I'm pretty sure she's got the hang of it, so all is well.