New laptop!!

[jimfisheye]

Yeah, I keep a simple text file that I add authorization codes to as I get them.
(A spreadsheet would be a little more evolved. Oh well...)
Also any challenge/response questions/answers.

I intentionally avoid the keychain and storing passwords. I find that after a year goes by, not only do you forget a password but you forget that it was even something you needed a password for to begin with!

After initially installing an OS and all my apps, I'll make a clone to a disk image and stow that away on a data drive. That way if I botch up the backup clone, I can restore from the disk image and I'm back to day 1 with the completed installs.

Some software queries the serial numbers of both your system hard drive and logic board as part of their authorization or generating challenge/response. When you swap out a hard drive you get asked for your authorization again. If it's a challenge/response, the old response no longer works. In this scenario you have no choice but to call and whine to the software maker. Don't be a pushover.

D'oh! Sorry about the Little Snitch if you aren't OSX then! Apparently Mac only is still a thing.

I don't know... I think there are a lot of options nowadays if you're careful. Lots of crap to watch out for too of course. The above is my experience and comes out of the age of audio options being Mac only. I'll say this again though. Post-Jobs Macs (2013 models forward) are the worst choices you could make save for stuff like Dell and Lenovo. Hackintosh is a thing if you like DIY.

 

[gene_stl]

I used to use MailWasher Pro and even paid for it. Then it stopped working. Since I move three years ago I have been "living out of my laptop" and use webmail anyway.

I bought my current maschines used from a famous off lease seller Epc. I got a Dell tower and Lenovo Laptop with i7 s and Win Seven Pro. I got them because I bought a new camera for use on microscopes. The reason I tell this is that when Win Seven went off support I upgraded both to W10 from MS website and although the downloads took a while it was one of the most seamless upgrades I have ever seen. I have to confess to having been amazed both times. I didn't have to do anything. Not even enter the windows code. Win 10 update faqs

The Lenovo does I have few things loaded that I don't need or use but I just x them off or unload them. I like the mouse joystick gadget.
I had a couple of thinkpads when they were IBM and liked them. My particular Lenovo and Dells both have been fine. I have had fairly fortunate luck with computers except when they died on me. I have used a lot of HPs. I have been lucky and haven't ever gotten a lemon.

I have never had to do a clean re-install of windows because I run Eusing Free Registry Cleaner which gets rid of stuff you aren't using anymore. It works great on W10 and I have been using it for a very long time. I will say that there are people that don't like registry cleaners but I have never had a problem with EFRC. I also sometimes use CC Cleaner which allows you to get stuff out of your start menus as get rid of things that load when you reboot that you might not want.

Historically I have been very foot draggy about updating Windows. If it's working I leave it alone. But when I wanted to Install Chrome or Various versions of TurboTax it was time to update windows.

 

[JonUrban]

Mailwasher folks are very helpful. The older licenses were lifetime, so I think if you connected with them they could get yours working again. Been using mine since 2006!!

C(rap)Cleaner is a must have, although they have gotten a bit aggressive lately trying to get you to subscribe to their yearly fee. Very annoying.

Here's another tip for Win10 Users. Whenever you install something, a new program or something you want to try out, once it's installed immediately go to Settings, Apps, and sort the apps by DATE. You will be surprised of what other shit tagged along on the back of the program you actually wanted to install. Many times there's a check box you might miss when you update something and a program will install, be it Spotify, Disney, McAfee, etc. Other times they don't even give you a choice!

I had to load that ZOOM program to connect with a customer a few weeks ago. I used my oldest laptop because I didn't want any crap happening to my good one. I did the meeting, then went to uninstall the zoom and sure enough, there were about 5 other programs that got installed, nothing that had to do with zoom or the conference. What a joke. And the link I used to get zoom was from the company I had to meet with, and they are a very big insurance company!

 

[HomerJAU]

I built a new Win10 PC about 18m ago. 8 Core i7 with two NVME SSD drives (4 times faster than standard SATA SSDs).

Since I’ve been doing lots of multitasking while running Penteo upmixes I’ve recently added 2 internal SATA 2TB SSD drives and a second NAS with 10GBe Ethernet (which transfers files at nearly 4 times speed of standard 1GBe network). Not such ‘waiting‘ time now...

 

[jimfisheye]

Sounds like a kickin' video editing production system there HomerJAU!

I'm going to go straight to network audio moving forward. Looking at the Dante system. (QSC's Q-sys uses the same.) I've been trying to find someone that had any complaints/comments/struggles with the clocking and I can't find a single complaint. I know another engineer with a strong background in video as well that went this route and it really looks like happiness and light.

I did a setup for a live broadcast streaming system recently. (The club owner then lost his mind and it's all closed down now but that's another story. And losing one's mind when losing one's business is a thing right now.) I though I was going to need to grab my Mac Pro for this but the 2011 MBP rocked it.
20 channels of audio input from a USB audio interface.
Video input on the thunderbolt port from a HDMI to thunderbolt capture device.
Live mix dialed up in Reaper. Mastering the output to -12 LUFS.
OBS broadcast software.
Audio mix routed to OBS via Soundflower virtual device.
Recording all raw multitrack audio to hard drive. (With Reaper while mixing with it.)
Recording the raw uncompressed video to hard drive with ffmpeg.
Single SATA SSD for system and all recording. (HDD in the optical drive bay for immediate backup.)
Solid 80% CPU use. No glitches of any kind.
I really like this machine!

 

[Ranasakawa]

I’ve read, there’s been a lot of boot up problems with some of the recent Microsoft OS updates, especially for laptops.
What brand is your new one?
Picking a brand of laptop is really tough IMO. Sure, you can go the stable route with Apple, but will it “easily” be compatible with all your software?
I’ve had many Dells in the past, and most have been fine. My last older one is a Samsung and it’s Windows 7 and been stable but now too old and slow (processor).
My current favorite is my Win. 10 Microsoft Surface Pro, but has too few connectors, maybe 3-4 years old now.
So I’ll be in the same boat as you very soon, but I’ll never again buy a Toshiba, customer support from them was a nightmare!

Win 10 update is absolutely woeful. I also have boot up issues every time. My lenovo laptop was working fine before then

 

[Larry Geller]

Just ordered a 2020 Dell XPS 15, 4K screen w/2TB. Coming around June 9.
Home 24/7, so WTF.

 

[Eggplant]

My 2 year old DELL is simply wearing me out ... 2 days ago, it was doing an update and when it was rebooting it simply would NOT reboot. That's been the biggest issue with it, even had a new motherboard put in while it was under warranty...same problems continued.

Exactly why I haven’t owned a PC since 2006 and now use only iOS devices. PC hardware and Microsoft’s crappy OS constantly break down and when they do, there is no help. As you note, there has never even been a reliable way to transfer data and programs to a new device. None of these basic tasks are ever a problem in iOS.

I ended up hating every Dell device I owned and swearing off Microsoft forever. My life is much the better for it.

 

[GOS]

Woo hoo! My new laptop is mostly setup now. It is fast as all hell! Totally blows my previous one clean out of the water.

 

[Audiowannabee]

My 2 year old DELL is simply wearing me out. I have documented it fairly well on QQ over the last 2 years many of the challenges this lemon has given me. 2 days ago, it was doing an update and when it was rebooting it simply would NOT reboot. That's been the biggest issue with it, even had a new motherboard put in while it was under warranty...same problems continued. AFter about 15 failed attempts, if finally decided to boot up. Out of extreme frustration, and honestly, paranoia...I've ordered a new one and will be picking it up curbside at Best Buy later today.

The challenge with the new one will be figuring out how to get all the programs I own on the new one. I guess, before my DELL totally crashes, I need to locate all the programs I need, figure out if I have accounts, etc.

Or, is there some other way to transfer everything to my new laptop?? Sure, files are easy...programs maybe not.

What did u buy...i need to shop for a new computer...havent had one in years...want it for music n business

 

[JonUrban]

Honestly, I reinstalled everything again. Every single program again from scratch. As for me, it's safer to do that rather than to copy them from the old one. At first, I wanted to copy all of them because I new I have installed the best free registry cleaner, so the computer shouldn't have any malware, but I changed my mind and reinstalled everything again. Now I'm sure everything is safe and will work properly, but I'll still try to find out what happened with the old computer. I still have some content there that I'd like to get back.

Beware of "registry cleaners". They really don't do anything but have a huge potential to mess up your Windows installation. Cleaning cache and temporary files is one thing, having a program assume that it knows what's right and wrong with your registry is extremely hit or miss - mostly miss