will I never learn?

when the nice shiny new machine arrived last week, in an effort to save time I zapped the program files directory across from the old one, exported and judiciously edited the software registry, and installed over the top. Now, perhaps it was the fact that the machine kept locking up (because I didn't, at the time, have the proper USB2 drivers to install), but a nassty case of software rot appeared to set it.

it manifested itself in sneaky little ways - the machine seemed incapable of finding an application to play streaming MP3s, Google refused to open a new window despite having its preferences set, my e-mail client (The Bat!) wouldn't action new sorting rules.

so, today, in desperation, I zapped the XP install and started again. Reinstalling what seems like hundreds of apps from scratch, without any registry keys, ini files, etc (well, I cheated on a couple of them, like Putty). All seems stable now, and I won't attempt to cut corners like that again.

of course, now I'm going to have to work over the weekend to finish the rugger buggers' site ... bollox :(