Forgotten fun

I'm sorta-kinda mentoring a co-worker while he re-installs Vista on his Mom-in-law's PC this afternoon. By "sorta-kinda" I mean trying to apply the principles of many Win2K and XP installations to an updated platform. Thus far, the process hasn't thrown anything at us that we haven't been able to fumble our way through. But he's a Mac guy, which means that some "routine" installation line-items like rearranging the device boot order in the BIOS is foreign territory to him.

He's been so profuse in thanks for my help, which has basically been an exercise in back-seat driving. The funny thing is, I consider it more or less an even deal, because some of the discovery and wonder crept back into the process. In the infrequent instance that I rebuild a PC nowadays, the process runs purely by rote because I need it now-Now-NOW. Which is sad, IMO, because coaxing "magic" from these fractious contraptions is--or should be--the game for me.