Today I’m attending BlogPotomac, where many DC area bloggers, social media stars, and geeks will gather in the illusion that the rest of the world is like them to share insights with one other.

For those visiting from BlogPotomac, I hope you’ll get to know me as the guy who wants to save you some time. If you’re not a blogger then try this.

Read the Windows Live Writer tips, tweaks, and updates article on Lifehacker…or check out my other social media tips.

• Partitions. I can’t say how many times this has helped me out. I segregate my program files from my data by partitions. This way I can literally format the drive with Windows and all the programs, and then start anew. (There was no need for me to backup before reinstalling Vista. Partitions also help me to place data in the appropriate location (for example, I have my program files and important work data on 72gb of mirrored Raptor drives–which are lightning fast (10000 rpm) and synchronized in case of hardware failure). My multimedia files, though backed up, need not be mirrored or fast. (fyi, I use Drobo + Vembu for local backup, FTP Sync to mirror our offsite file/svn data locally, and fully plan to get an S3 backup like JungleDisk in place soon)
• Change your Outlook default path. Someday Microsoft will wake up and place people’s Outlook data with the rest of their documents. While Outlook 2007 + Vista places data in the mildly improved “C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\” instead of “C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\” it’s still nearly impossible for the user to find and thus often not backed up. With Outlook closed, just move the Outlook.pst and any archives to your documents folder (create a new folder there called Outlook). Then when you open Outlook it’ll ask you where the file went and you can point it there. You may have to remind Outlook of your default Outlook Address Books, but now your data will be stored in a place where you’ll never forget it

• Google Toolbar. I use the Google Toolbar to keep my frequent bookmarks across all browsers/computers in sync. (I wrote more about this earlier). I also use del.icio.us, but only for public-facing bookmarks. (While del.icio.us allows for privacy, its interface isn’t designed for prioritizing bookmarks–however, the new toolbar does have data analysis to keep track of popular bookmarks, so we shall see)
• Excel spreadsheet with serial numbers. If you don’t keep your serial numbers in a spreadsheet or database, you’ll kick yourself someday scrambling to find a key for an $1800 application like Adobe CS3. I also have way too many CDs to keep them in their packaging, so I store them in CD cases. (I wrote more about this earlier)
• Backup your really important CDs/DVDs. This isn’t for everyone, but if you’re someone who frequently installs certain applications then it makes sense to backup their installation CDs/DVDs. I use Nero to burn images of my very important discs, like Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise, Adobe CS3, etc. While it may be easy to find a copy from a friend, your license key may not work with their disc. This came up yesterday when my Vista installation DVD had a small scratch–but I had an image handy. Since I use Remote Desktop Connection, it also means I can access these backed up images when I’m traveling–in case there’s an emergency where I need to reinstall
• Store your drivers in one directory. If you have a laptop (or even many PCs) you probably have had to download drivers for it at various times. Keep those drivers in one place so that the next time you rebuild your computer you can install them quickly. The same goes for pretty much all installation files you download, but it’s helpful to keep the drivers in a separate (or sub-) directory

So all in all it was kind of fun for me to upgrade–contrary to what you may have seen me writing on Twitter. Besides being a smooth process, I’ve also upgraded to Penelope (a Mozilla project that combines Eudora’s interface and Thunderbird’s functionality) and begun using Google Apps standard edition to better manage dancingwithwords.com and goralnick.com’s email. I’ll report more on that later. In the next few weeks I also plan to try KeePass to store passwords and LeechBlock to keep me focused when in Firefox (both tips from Gina Trapani of Lifehacker’s new Upgrade your Life book).

Any advice for other readers on how to make upgrading or rebuilding your computer a little easier?

In today’s Washington Post, there are two articles about the new Google lobbying powerhouse here in DC. While Microsoft has had a strong policy influence in this city for the last few years, they’re continuing to suffer the consequences of a poor presence in the time leading up to their major federal antitrust case. Google recently delivered a striking blow by bringing attention to the officials tracking Microsoft’s antitrust compliance the “issues” with third-party desktop search applications in Windows Vista. As a result, yesterday Microsoft agreed to “allow users to select a default desktop search provider in the same way they choose a default Internet browser or media player” and “to provide technical information to other companies so thay can make their desktop program run more smoothly on Vista” (as paraphrased from a Microsoft executive in this article). These changes will come in the Vista Service Pack slated to be released (at least for testing) near the end of the calendar year.

For the last couple years I’ve been recommending Windows Desktop Search (WDS) over Google Desktop Search (GDS) simply because of the Vista and Office 2007 compatibility advantages. WDS is built into the Start Menu, every Windows Explorer window, and every Outlook folder (see below) so it just makes sense for people to get used to WDS in XP and then stick with it in Vista. Until now GDS in Vista has been slow and had poor OS integration. And trying to running both applications would be a huge system hog.

Microsoft has had good reason for making search a big part of their operating system:

• We’re all growing more accustomed to search because of our web behavior and the increasing amount of information we all (can) hold onto
• They’re in the process of working on a new file system, called WinFS, that should change a lot of the way data is stored, tagged, and retrieved on a local and local network basis. WDS is being built in anticipation of some of these changes

Microsoft has always benefited from offering applications with tight integration into their operating system that dissuaded people from using third-party applications. Whether you call that monopolization or good business, they’re going to have continual struggles if their core features, like desktop search in Vista, are to be as interchangeable as web browsers. And, without doubt, this will be no small development effort to open up these APIs and ensure proper compatibility.

It’s hard to feel sorry for Microsoft, but I think the articles in today’s Post raise a good point–how much of this is all the result of poor policy planning years ago? I look forward to GDS as a viable search alternative in Vista. And hey, maybe it’ll give Microsoft an excuse to innovate on some key features rather than just integrating them…

1. You frequently guess wrong
2. Until researching for this article I hadn’t realized a reliable way to correct the display when you guess wrong (and I’d been trying for months)
3. You do really stupid things like changing the view when searching a folder

The purpose of this article is to both point out an issue and also to provide a thorough step by step for how to fix Windows Explorer Folder views for those who are running into a similar frustration.

As to be expected, there are times when Windows Explorer guesses wrong with folder views. For instance, in a folder with some images and many files it doesn’t know which view to select. Personally I think that if there are many different types of items in a folder that it would make sense to use the more general “All Items” view (the view we’ve become familiar with for the last twelve years in Windows), but so be it. Here’s what happens:

So I do what we’ve all been trained to do in Windows when we have the wrong view, I change it to “Details”:

Unfortunately this still does not display the information I need such as “Date Modified” or “Type”.

Okay, fine. So it’s time to dig. But it’s not where you’d expect:

Where it actually is under the Organize Properties (see above) or the Customize this Folder context menu option (right click in the window):

Which leads you to what you actually want!!

Was that worth all that effort? Heck no!!! But it gets worse… Let’s say you want to search the folder after changing it’s type to All Items. This is what drove me over the edge today to write a post about this. It changed the type to “Music Details” and removed the ability to customize the folder now:

As you can see, I can’t efficiently work with my search results now that I can’t sort them by the obvious relevant fields. No, this doesn’t usually happen. This is clearly a bug in Vista (yes, my updates are current).

I’ve run into other UI frustrations with Windows Explorer, such as how in the List view you can’t resize the column widths even though they look like you can and how it’s difficult to tell which sort order your results are displayed in that view.

Microsoft, you’ve succeeded in taking a small step forward in helping to organize our information with a few more flexibilities. But you’ve taken a giant step back in making the core organizational functionalities of Windows Explorer inaccessible and painful. I’m trying to master your new user interface, but it’d be great if you could come up with some better names than View and Layout and Organize when they all mean the same thing and don’t accomplish my needs. And, please, don’t hide parts of my interface when I need it most.

I’m really enjoying Windows Vista. Sure, a few programs don’t work (I don’t want to upgrade QuickBooks and iTunes isn’t even upgraded) but the visual improvements are stunning. Sure, Mac may have had similar features for a while…but it’s great for us PC users to finally get a break.

Some of my favorites: the integrated search, the new Windows Media Player, the lovely Aero interface, the massively improved wireless and network connection management, the better display options, the weather gadget… I really dig it.

On the other hand, I’ve been seriously disappointed with Apple. The majority of my gripe is that I purchased a lemon of a MacBook. I’ve spent about 5 or 6 hours on the phone in the last week with a unit that is now officially considered DOA. Now I have to run between a few places to get it repaired. And I’m going to think twice before purchasing from MacMall again. When business is so busy, as it is now, this is a horrible waste of time.

But, for the record, when this MacBook was working it was no panacea, no magnificent wonderful machine. It wasn’t necessarily more intuitive to work with, and I’m not in any way sold. Some of my least favorites: error messages that are immensely unhelpful, no manual way to eject a CD (and no eject button that works without software), a remarkably sparse online support, no visual or audio indication when important statuses changed (like connecting to a network or disconnecting from a network), and about a million compatibility issues with Office. But I’m going to take a deep breath and get this machine (for SET’s designer; it’s running Vista, as well) repaired…

So this week has seen a great deal of upgrades. A MacBook. A Vista install on my primary machine. A gorgeous new notebook (Dell XPS M1210) with all the bells & whistles. Now it’s time to update the infrastructure a little bit–redo the server, clean up a dedicated XP box for use as a computer-to-be-dialed-into, and figure out some more features in OneNote 2007 and Groove Server…

Well I’m not in much better of a position than when I started. I called Microsoft the next morning (2/2) and they offered a number of good ideas. The most likely idea they mentioned was that by attempting to install Vista I had overwritten the master boot record with one that the XP installer couldn’t use…and thus I could no longer install Vista. The solution was to restore the boot record to the XP one. I followed the steps listed on a few websites and discussed it with the Microsoft tech, but had no luck reinstalling XP.

I was on the phone with Microsoft for about 2 hours, being juggled around between different people, all of whom were very friendly. Unfortunately, they all said that the solution for me was a product key that they couldn’t provide. Funny how much time Microsoft is willing to spend to avoid the potential of giving out a license to someone who already legally purchased their software.

So, in short, purchasing an upgrade can be a real waste of time. You have to have the previous OS running, and if you don’t, you’re SOL.

I guess I’m going to purchase another copy of the software. Buying it OEM is still cheaper than using their online purchase. Something just doesn’t sit right with me about the whole experience.

So I whipped out the ‘ole PartitionMagic, created 25gb of NTFS space. And got ready for whatever Microsoft was going to throw at me.

Pop the CD/DVD in. Change the boot order. No more nasty blue screen–the setup engages. It didn’t even want my RAID drivers–Vista’s cool like that.

Then the Product Key Screen appears. So I enter my Vista Business Upgrade product key. Naa-aah. Microsoft pleasantly lets you know that you can’t perform an upgrade unless you’re in the operating system you intend to upgrade. No longer can you just stick in some old CD from Win98, Win2000, or WinXP to prove that you own it–WTF?

But it gets worse. They let you continue if you want. So you can install Vista…and pay for it again. They give you plenty of time to get used to it before they ask you to pay or register, too. Very nice. I actually went through the whole install because I was curious what my clients were going to start calling to complain about…

This wasn’t my plan. I think it’s flat-out evil to force someone to perform their upgrade from an already functioning version of Windows. That means that when you redo your computer you need to reinstall XP first. That means if your computer is totally hosed you have to take two steps back before taking one step forward. Which led me to my next problem.

Again, I refuse to upgrade my perfectly-functional XP partition. I’ve learned that lesson more times than I’d care to admit. Rather I decided I’d go through the pain of installing XP on my clean partition. Then I would “upgrade” to Vista from there…
So I pull out the trusty XP SP1 disc. After rummaging around I find the RAID drivers disc and recall (after a reboot or two) that I have to press F6 as soon as the ugly blue screen appears. Without that I can’t see the mirrored RAID Raptor drives. So I reformat the clean partition and allow the XP setup to copy the install files. It gets to the stage where it’s about to reboot. And fails.

Then it fails again.

I tried an OEM disc. I tried an SP2 disc. No luck–apparently my computer doesn’t want to get too far in the XP installation. Certainly not far enough to let me install Vista over it. It’s 1:30 on a school-night and I’ve been working on this since 9:00.
Am I missing something–or is this not the ultimate irony: Vista installs perfectly fine, but I can’t get that far because their previous crappy installation program can’t handle it.

Let’s review the issues:

• Upgrades require a functioning version of Windows
• Product keys are not necessary but you have to pay a second time if you accidentally install the wrong version (such as a clean install when you purchased an upgrade)
• Redoing your computer with an Upgrade is now a doubly time-consuming process

In all fairness, I really liked the Vista installer. And I’ve been a fan of Aero Glass for quite a while. But why oh why did Vista’s upgrade process have to be a nightmare? And I haven’t even figured out yet how I’m going to fix this…I’m fairly convinced that they won’t give me the product key that would solve this. We’ll see…