The latest Vista Adventures

[susandennis]

So...  The last two things on my list were to connect up the Netgear USB wireless adapter and see if I could connect the Vista machine to my neighbor's internet network and install the printer/fax.

Wireless adapter.  Check.  Well, kinda.  I plugged it in.  Vista found it and found a driver and said we were good to go.  I unplugged the ethernet cable and, sure enough, no sweatola.  Cool.  Then I plugged the ethernet cable back in and unplugged the adapter and WHAP!  Blue screen!  no shit.  haven't seen one of those in forever. 

Note to self, why don't you try the Safely Remove Hardware thingie next time??!! 

But, Vista came on back up and repaired itself.  It stopped just short of apologizing but I understand. I probably hurt its feelings.

On to the printer.

First I checked HP's pages.  Nope.  No Vista driver yet.  BUT, the page says that Vista includes drivers to make it print and with Vista Ultimate (which I have), it will scan and the memory cards work.  (It has a memory card slot??!!! Who knew?!) 

One of the things that I don't like about HP is all the crap they make you install just to get their stinkin' drivers.  All I want to do is print and scan. 

So... I unplug the USB cord from the old desktop and plug it into the new one.  In less than 2 mins I'm printing and scanning!  And the scanning thing - built into Vista is VERY VERY nice!

Wow.   Cool.  Excellent.

Comments

[geordie.livejournal.com]

A lot of these new 'out of box experience' things are really nice. It's just that user security (are you sure? are you sure you are sure? last chance to change your mind!) stuff that I really haven't liked. I hadn't even thought about the printer, I just swapped the 8 port USB hub over and said OK to everything, but thinking about it I did print something last night. Excellent!

[dkgoodman.livejournal.com]

HP makes nice hardware, but their software sucks. It's invasive and bloated and HP-centric. They don't like to let you do things your way, it's their way or the highway, most of the time. Plus, their stuff is often more expensive. So, for a long time, I tried to avoid HP equipment but once in a while I'd break down and buy some. Then I read about their CEO using pretexting to illegally snoop into the phone records of their board members, and the weasely way they acted when caught, and now I won't buy anything HP any more. They're on my blacklist, along with Sony and Home Depot. I vote with my feet. :)

[susandennis]

I've had so many problems with printers - hardware and software that I can't let politics stand in my way. I got this little puppy for way cheap and it does all I want it to and now that I don't have to have the HP software, I'm even happier. There's something in my DNA which plays havoc with my printer karma. OR it could be flashbacks from the time I spent on the IBM ProPrinter team about 783 years ago.