So, I've made the plunge to Windows 7 Pro.  Install of the operating system was, in fact, painless.  It seems like yesterday I was dinking around with Windows 3.11 for Workgroups and coping with the headache that was the config.sys and autoexec.bat files that were necessary to load the correct drivers for the CD-Rom drive, RAM drive (if it was necessary), mouse, joystick, special keyboard, graphics board, and a myriad of other necessary settings to get the most out of the system.  In comparison, these setups are virtually a godsend … but they do feel considerably dumbed down.

What promtpted this change? Curiosity, mostly.  The other major change that this OS install is moving to a 64-bit OS and as odd as it sounds, I want to know first hand any oddities that are brought about by using 32-bit applications in a 64-bit environment.  In the process, I did find a nifty website Ninite.  Ninite allows a user to select from a collection of popular open-source or freeware applications to create a bundle that will be downloaded and installed automatically.  Another, rather painless procedure for a task that would've taken me a better part of the morning to complete.

I'm currently installing all my development apps:  Visual Studio 2008, Code::Blocks w/ MinGW.  Ninite already installed Python and the JDK.  Next on my list will be to install World of Warcraft and the millions of patches that come from that.  To follow will be to transfer back some of my documents so I can finish out this week's worth of schooling.