I installed the software this morning. That was a job and a half. For some reason, the software must have been an old(ish) version because, no sooner as it was installed, than that little yellow shield appeared to tell I had updates. All 220mb of them. I then found out, that the Executive version did not overwrite the Home & Student version. all in all it must have taken a good two hours.

   I also installed the new RAM at the same time. That did not take as long. If fact, if you take away the time I spent clearing the dust out of the box, it will have taken no more than 15 minutes from start to finish. Things do seem to be a little faster now. All the Office programs start a bit quicker, I think. I’m having a little trouble with Outlook though. I don’t seem to be able to import my contacts from Outlook Express. I know they are different formats, but I thought I should be able to import all the messages and contacts, but it does not seem to work. I may have to just type them in, although I do not use my Gmail account for much.

   I downloaded some useful Microsoft Office guides from Custom Guide. It is a great resource for Office training materials. They have a lot of what they call Quick Reference Guides, which are very useful for learning the basics. For slightly more advanced tutorials, I downloaded some  stuff from a site called Office Tutorials. They have a good tutorial for Outlook 2003, which will be useful for work, and I got some stuff for Outlook 2007. I think I may need it. I will now have to think of something useful to do with Access !! Only thing I ever see any thing for is the usual Record Collection database, or possibly an MP3 database. Neither of which I need.

   I really need to get my Geek head on and sort out installing that old hard drive. The more I think about it, the easier it seems. There is just that nagging fear, that something will not go to plan. Silly really. I have added new RAM, various DVD and CD drives, USB cards and stuff like that, but never a hard disk. I suppose, all the other things just slot in, and away you go. A hard disk is a little more involved.