PC setup is difficult...

I finally did it. I bought a brand-new PC (as in "a computer that runs MS Windows") yesterday. Surprisingly, it is my first. Not the first Windows PC I've worked on... by a long shot. Just the first PC that I ever purchased and configured for myself. I've been a software professional for more than 20 years. But at work, all of the Windows machines came pre-configured from the IT department. At home, over the past 20 years, I've owned different types of Apple computers (and even a few Sun computers!).

Have you seen the Apple commercials recently? They're pretty humorous... the one that got my attention recently shows the "PC guy" stuck in his box, lamenting about how he will have to uninstall software and drivers that came pre-installed that he doesn't want, and then spend time installing security patches and updating drivers... all before doing anything productive. The Apple guy just gets out of his box and goes off to make use of the computer... to create music, edit photos, create movies... whatever.

Watch the video: it's fun.

As an Apple owner, I chuckled when watching this... but: surely it couldn't really be that bad, right? Surely this was some exaggeration for effect, right? It's advertising... intended to create fear... *right*?

Well, my first impressions indicate otherwise.

My PC (from HP - they seemed to have the best performance * capacity per dollar during my search) was very professionally packaged in a single box - PC, keyboard, mouse, documentation-kit. I had purchased a nice monitor already, and intended to use that (actually to share it via a KVM switch) with my Mac.

So: I opened it up, and plugged it in; plugged in it's keyboard and mouse. Right away I had a "problem"...

The keyboard and mouse that came with this current-generation (it's July 2006) PC had "PS2 connectors". (My Apple keyboard and mouse are USB). Think about that: there are these two dedicated "PS2" connectors on the back of this PC that serve no other function than to connect a keyboard and mouse to them. Now think about the timeframe: the PS2 keyboard connector was introduced by IBM on the "Personal System 2" series computers back in 1987. That's almost 20 years ago. Apple has been using USB keyboards and mice since 1998 - that's 8 years ago. So: back to my problem. I have a Microsoft USB wireless mouse (yes Microsoft) that I have used on my Apple for quite some time... and that I had used at work for some time (on a Windows XP computer). Surely, I could just plug this nicer mouse into my brand-new PC and things would work fine, right? Wrong. During the initial configuration, (setting the country, timezone, etc.) the system failed to recognize the mouse... I had to use an old PS2 mouse -- and restart the computer to recognize it -- before I could complete this initial configuration.

Step 2. I have been careful to not connect the computer to the Internet (via my home DSL network) yet. I have been warned that the average time it takes for an unprotected PC to be hacked after connecting to the internet is under 40 minutes... (and that was a year ago). So I look to make sure I can re-install the software my machine shipped with... in case something bad happens.

A frenzied look through the packing box shows that I didn't get any CD's or DVD's in my box! Is something wrong? Did they forget to send me "system restore" media? I decide to act cool-headed and read the gray HP "PC Troubleshooting and Maintenance Guide". Mind you, this is not the glossy, colorful "My HP Pavilion PC" guide that looks so much more inviting. No, it's an 8.5" x 11" black-and-white "manual"... that eventually, on page 18, explains how to make System Recovery Media.

There are warnings indicating that you can only make 1 set of media... you can only do this one time! I wonder if I should fully configure my machine... get it "just right" before making the recovery media or not. If something goes wrong in the interrim... my recovery media will be bad. And: in order to get things running "properly", I'll have to connect to the internet... so: it's possible I will have contracted a virus before I create my recovery disks. Rats. I decide that I should create recovery disks that are as close as possible to what I got "out of the box".

Maybe I don't understand this system recovery thing correctly. Reading elsewhere appears to indicate that HP/Microsoft has created a separate restoral directory (or partition?). I can't risk it. The maintenance guide advises creating restoral media... so I start doing this. I am further advised that the media I create will only work on this one computer... (hm... I wonder if it's encrypted with some unique number it finds in the processor...)

I start the restoral media creator program... which advises me that I'll need either 3 DVD-R's or 18 CD-R's to complete the process (!! wow). I opt for DVD's. My new system shipped with a fancy LightScribe all-format DVD/CD reader/writer. And it's surely faster at writing DVD-R's than my 2x unit on my older Apple... It asks me to insert a DVD-R... ok. I start to time the write process... first it has to think about what to write (I don't time that), then: the write starts... it looks like it completes in about 5-7 minutes... great. I should be done with this pretty soon. Wait: it starts to verify the disk... and takes 25 minutes (!!!) to complete this task. Wow. I'm sure it's important to verify (since, after all, I can only create this media once) but 25 minutes!?? Something just doesn't make sense here.

The whole process takes me ONE AND A HALF HOURS to complete.

My Apple MacOS X computers shipped with system restore dvd's... and separate installation CDs for certain 3rd party software. At this point, that would easily be worth $150.

Time for bed: connecting to the internet will have to wait for morning.