Beta Software & VPC

It seems like every couple of days, I'm talking to someone on a newsgroup where their post was something like:

“I installed SQL Server 2005 beta and .NET Framework 2 beta on my XP SP2 system and now other things are stuffed up. Plus I can't get rid of it and I think I have to reformat.” This is usually followed by a heap of whinging about the situation.

DO NOT BE THIS PERSON

When the instructions (that no-one reads) tell you not to install the beta on any system you care about, THEY AREN'T KIDDING.

I've just finished talking with yet another person today. Their big whinge was that at least the uninstaller should work.

This shouldn't be a newsflash but the install/uninstall routines for the product are only beta versions as well !

Virtual PC is your friend.

The only other hint I'd give is to make sure you disable the “autorun“ in your VPC images. I stuffed myself up a few weeks back. Was in a VPC in full-screen mode and inserted a .NET framework V2 beta CD which autoran. Bummer was that it was the host operating system that had autorun. Once it was installed, the host O/S was toast. The uninstaller GPF'd all over the place. I couldn't go forwards or backwards. At least if you disable it in the VPC's, you'll know which one is autorunning it.

I was SOOOOO glad I also ghost my notebook to an external USB2 drive every week. At least then, I could just say “uncle“, back up my recent work and drop the latest ghost image back on. Highly recommended. Full image of about 70G on my notebook takes about 1 1/4 hours to the external drive.

Sorry about the rant but it's gettting to be a daily occurrence.