HammyToy has given me his old Lenovo X61 Tablet Laptop in exchange for a monetary concern later on down the road once I start receiving a regular pay-cheque. Initial impressions are good, but I do have to admit, I hate fighting with Windows 7 64bit.
Oh yes, my love-hate relationship with Microsoft continues now that I have finally taken the big step from regularly using XP to using 7. The little things I used to take for granted and do with ease are now missing, replaced with "new and improved" versions that do bugger all and have actually had features removed. How is removing a feature, therefore having less to offer, considered an improvement? Like a Windows Classic option for the Start Menu... still I should be happy, at least Windows 7 HAS a Start Menu. Windows Media Player 12 is another source of butt-ache too.
I was able to fix the Classic Start Menu however by downloading Classic Shell, which gives my computer that nice vintage feel that I have come to love and expect from my OS. Heck even some versions of Linux have a variation on the Start Menu!
So after 2 days of tweaking (still not done yet) I am pretty happy with the feel of Windows 7... still have a huge hard on for XP; I should probably see a doctor about that as it has been more than 4 hours so far... I do like how even though this is a slower processes than my home system, it does run smoother for when I stream, so I will probably hook the camera up to this computer for all my future streams so I can switch back and forth from Traditional to Digital when ever I like.
I still can't get the printer to work though, which is annoying. If I hook the printer up directly to this laptop, no problem I can print.. If I hook the printer up to the Linux Box, no problem I can print.. If I hook the printer up where I traditionally keep it, to my main system, the XP box, then the thing refused to install because it can't find the driver.. nor does it give me the option to install one.. nor can I install it from the CD because this laptop has no optical drive. I have been doing less and less printing anyways, and I will probably end up keeping the printer hooked to the Linux Box, especially if this laptop becomes my main art computer.
Speaking of art, I will be doing more and more streams with the tablet, but I will also be keeping up work on the traditional too, switching back and forth between them depending on which project I am working on. What I will probably do more often than not is draw/sketch with pencil and paper and try inking with the laptop on anything that is just for fun, but ink traditionally on anything I want to be tangible and possibly sell-able. I also want to get back to work on the comics I have been neglecting for so very long...
I have been doing some work on a bit of DTBC but if I get it going again, I will scrap this location and do a full rebuilt... mostly because I can only make changes via the FTP and can not access the site's control pannel. I even have the admins stumped on this one! I have a GIFT for finding problems that NO ONE ELSE GETS! I kid you not! If there is a 1 in 1000 chance for some obscure problem to happen, I am the one that will find it. And all because I did not want to have a DTBC Forum; I refused to sign up for one when I had the option, and now I can't access the account other than via the FTP. So once I have new files to post, I will move to a new location or reset the current one.
So expect to see more digital art, but expect it not to be up to par for me just yet.. still getting used to this thing. I am also going to be learning FLASH too, so I can do a few builds. I would like to at some point make a few basic animated icons. If any of you have advice or such, please feel free to leave a comment.
It allows you to set it back to windows XP like behavior when you right click them too. Good choice sticking with Win 7 instead of trying 8. The full screen thing is a pain in the ass. Who thought it was a good idea to put a tablet operating system UI on a desktop?!
As to the printer, just go to the maker's website and download the driver from it. You then install the driver from that. No need for a CD.
Here, you'll want this with windows 7 to turn off those damned annoying popup windows when you hover
