Did You Miss Me?

CRASH! Well, perhaps not quite that dramatic but the end result was that my PC would not boot after it hung.

Ironic really, considering I was installing software to emulate a PC so that I could try out new software in the emulation without the risk of it crashing my real machine. Just as well I'm not phased by having to reinstall Windows. I've done it enough times that I've got used to it as a normal part of PC-using life. It's the price you pay for allowing your TechoNerdGeek-self the freedom he craves to fiddle (I mean 'make things work better', of course).

If you're not TechoNerdGeeky then your eyes have no doubt started to glaze over already, and I'll warn you now there's more to come, so if you prefer to listen to some music there's an appropriate song at the bottom of the post.

One of the real pains of reinstalling an OS is that all the tweaks you implemented since the last time it crashed have to be set up again and invariably you can't recall exactly how you did this or that. Grrrr!

Just as well I'd found the marvelous Dropbox, which does such a good job of backing up stuff without making a big deal out of it, so my data was safe.

Of course, my applications needed reinstalling and setting up, a very time consuming and tedious business. It's a good thing that I'd started using some 'portable' applications, ones that store their configuration info in their own folder rather than the eggs-all-in-one-basket Windows Registry. I was checking for updates for those applications when I came across LiberKey.

It really is the dog's bollo ... errm ... the bee's knees. Managed, portable apps that can run either from a USB stick or, and this is the good part as far as I'm concerned, from any folder on your hard drive. The 'managed' bit simply means you are automatically notified of updates which can be downloaded and installed automatically. Dare I think that I've found a crash defying solution that will have me up and running in no time after the next crash? I've no doubt I'll have the opportunity to find out at some point.

In the meantime, it's good to be back.

Everything But The Girl 'Missing'

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