Another leap

Leap of faith. Gonna try and do a digital download/upgrade of my desktop to Win8Pro from Win7Pro. As a technologist, it's something I need to do, if only to speak from experience, good or bad.

I am backed up. I do have a notebook on Win7, so it's not quite a blind leap. *deep breath* See y'all on the other end.

And "Temple of Syrinx" popped into my head, haha. Praying to the wrong gods...

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Update: Upgrade finished. About 2.5 hours, for my stuff, which included migrating files, settings and applications. Not bad, if anxious.

This will take some getting used to. Just about all the applications I have are considered "legacy" to Windows 8, so it keeps hopping over to the what is now "classic" Windows 7 desktop. Rather annoying. And that whole Tiles thing? That's the Start menu taking up your whole screen. I still need to find out how to reach my Programs listings, since there is no longer a flyout menu system.

For those that are stuck in the Windows XP (or earlier) world, this transition is going to hurt bad. If you were considering a platform move, to OSX or some Linux distro, now would be a good time. It's that different from XP, like "falling off a cliff" different.

Finally got my copy of CS5 installed

A quick once-through indicates there is a large transitional learning curve from CS3. Looks same, but there are some nuances that I have to get my head around.

Interestingly, it installs in parallel with CS3, so I can fall back if in a hurry. However, that would be counter-productive, education-wise.

Learning is good, right?

Dell is SO helpful (NOT!)

For those that have a Dell system, you probably know about the Dell Support Center. Gives you "helpful" hints, system alerts, etc.

Got a notice that there was an "Urgent" upgrade for the hard drive firmware (the hard drives local operating system). This is for my system drive; gut-check. Okay, we've done this before; download the right file, unpack it, read the instructions, install. Easy, right? Uh huh. Download the file, unpack it. No instructions. Check the site; it says to read the instructions contained in the download. Hmmm.

I am supposed to be a "knowledgeable" IT guy; I can do this! Don't need no stinkin' instructions! Plus, I'm a guy, so.... Create the CD from ISO, boot from the CD, it runs, and... OMG! "No recognizable boot device"!!! I can't start my system! Think, think, think! Try it again! Run the executable manually this time...

Hey, maybe if I shutdown and do a "cold-boot"... Voila! I have my system drive back!

I'm getting too old for this... What do the non-technical users do? I am thinking that it would be a bad time to call Dell about now; didn't want to talk to India anyway.

[edit: I should note that the fact they sent a notification out at all is helpful. They need to work on the execution, though, especially when it affects something that can permanently disable your system.]