How do you wintrolls...

....put up with the steaming pile that is Windows?

I was asked by a client if I could help a user transfer some of his
files from an old and completely bogged down (by what, I can only
imagine; I've never seen a Mac get to the point where the only answer is
a complete reinstall) laptop to a brand new Dell.

So I share the C drive and try to copy the files to the new system.

No.

Make sure I'm using the correct user and password.

No.

Fiddle around for a while, then run the Network Setup Wizard! All of a
sudden, I can connect...

....but the permissions are all wrong.

So turn off sharing on the C: drive and turn it back on.

And after realizing that for some inane reason, Vista no longer displays
the menubar in Explorer Windows by default (and doesn't make the option
to show it appear where you'd expect it: in the View semi-menu that it
does have; no! It's under "Organize"!)

Oh, and along the way, having connected to the C drive as "Guest" by
just browsing to it, the only way I can disconnect to re-connect using
the correct credentials is to restart. It keeps telling me to disconnect
from the mapped drive, but doesn't actually have any place where you can
do it.

Now the permissions seem to be right and I copy the Documents and
Settings folder along with some folders at the top level.

Only without even mentioning it, it failed to copy the one folder that
you'd think would automatically have the correct permissions for the
user and password I was using: the user's folder in Documents and
Settings!

This is what you guys think is worth it because you can save a few
hundred on your computer purchase.

You can have it.

--
Alan Baker
Vancouver, British Columbia
<http://gallery.me.com/alangbaker/100008/DSCF0162/web.jpg>
.

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