Vista and Silliness, or Silliness and Vista.... err... whatever

Today it's story time in Mr Rogert's Neighborhood. As you read, think of the calm setting, with light music in the background, a toy train coming around the corner and a sweater wearing show host, in a calm and soft-spoken voice telling you his experiences with Vista.

Well boy's and girls, I've decided to use a Dell Inspiron 1720 laptop computer for my tale today.
Being that our neighborhood is a business designed to entertain and educate you, we went ahead and accepted Vista Business as our operating system of choice. I know, I know, maybe we should have chosen a MAC, but the package this came in, was deceptively attractive, playing with our imagination was a black encased notebook in well organized white boxes with neatly stacked, color coordinated manuals. The minimalism of the entourage really spoke to what Apple pulls you into in their world.

Well, children, we plugged in and turned on our new Vista Business machine and the setup process began. We were then promptly greeted by a pretty Blue Screen with lots of cool words, like "Please contact your System Administrator".

Somehow those words come across a lot less impressive when you are the "System Administrator". Well, a reboot later and setup seemed to complete successfully. Little did we know that a week later, post Windows Update, the laptop would take yet another dive. This one , this time, into a seemingly unrequitable death.

Well, it all started, innocently on a Tuesday morning. In Mr Rogert's neighborhood, we affectionately call this "Patch Tuesday". We think this name came from the memories of a radical children's doctor, Patch Adams, or possibly from the patched plaid shirts worn by our comrade in sitcom's, Al Borland from Tool Time.

Regardless of origin, we decided that our Windows Vista machine wasn't functioning quite as up to par as we would expect it to on this one Tuesday. So, automatic updates started coming down to it. At their completion, we went out to the Dell website and downloaded the rest of the drivers and started applying all of them. The cute little Inspiron 1720, seemed to be happily winking and smiling at us, as it survived reboot after reboot. So, half an hour after all the reboots were completed, upon finishing our Peanut Butter and jelly sandwiches on wheat bread, we decided to test out the glowing laptop with Lord of the Rings Online.

As we watched in anticipation, getting ourselves ready to send Sauron to his doom (well, really... trying to get our level 12 dwarf champion up another level trying to get ready to take out Sauron and his minion, the evil Witch King,).... "Blue Screen". Oh my, this one actually generated a memory dump and some jibberish about video card failure.

Our stomaches clenched in knots, as suddenly our green, tree lined, Mr Rogert's neighborhood streets turned to Molten Lava, the skies overcast with black and gray rolling clouds, the overcast shadows seemed to shimmer and stand out as if cast by ring wraiths themselves. Ahh, but, no worries, a beam of sunlight shined through the sky for a brief hour, as we attempted every new Windows Vista recovery tool known to man! This will not fail, it will work, we will survive!!!!

Bull-Pucky! Nothing worked. The blue screen continued with it's ominous warning, whether Safe Mode, Recovery Mode or Restore Mode. The Video card had succumbed to the evil Dark Lord and would be tossed into the fires of Mount Doom or tortured in the slave pens under Dol Guldur that none return from.

Then, a bright light came from the North, A Rugged Stranger with a Friend garbed all in white rode up to challenge the flame. As the 1720 booted from the Knoppix CD, hope was restored, the clouds turned back and a bright light shone from the skies.

Customer data, critical applications, e-mail and documents were now recoverable. A beautiful landscape glistened across the screen as data copied to an external USB 2.0 hard drive. After the data backup completed, the only sound that could be heard was the foolish wooshing and spinning of the CD-Rom drive as Vista Business reinstall CD's made their way back onto the now spotless hard drive.

Well, the system now runs everything, and Mr Rogert's neighborhood is back in business. High hopes are that the doors will not shut again or the streets turn to Molten Lava. A great evil has been avoided, lets hope that it stays that way!!