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What I have discovered:

• There is a W7 upgrade product but it only works from Vista, not XP.
• Furthermore, the upgrade to W7 64-bit only works nondestructively from Vista 64-bit.
• So I might as well do a clean install…
  • (Which is probably wise in any case)
• …and from a Full (not Upgrade) version of W7
• Will initially try it on an experimental system disk.
  •  Want to be sure of no significant issues before committing the main system.
• One of the things to confirm is whether any of the (few but vital) progs I have that only run on XP will be able to run in W7’s “Virtual PC” (which has XP SP3).

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Back in early 2010, I bought a MacBook Pro.  Like my existing Mac Pro desktop it had a FireWire 800 (FW800) port, but unlike the Mac desktop that port would only function under Mac OS, not Boot Camp > Windows.  The desktop had Windows XP 32-bit while the MacBook had Windows 7 64-bit.

In a prolonged attempt (the latter half of 2010) I did a lot of searching, browsing, emailing, phoning and conversing to try to find out if it was “just me” or a recognised issue.   The main source of misleading answers to the effect that many had never had that problem was that those same people had never tried (saying that at the start would have been a more useful answer).  Or else my question got “pidgeonholed” into a standard one about booting from an external drive - something I was definitely not trying to do. Next, it seemed that some older laptops had a different chipset, by Texas Instruments, and those did not have the same problem.

One workaround some people employed was to go via a FW800 ExpressCard adaptor.  But that only works on certain models and certain versions of Windows it appears.

In conclusion, the issue appears to remain in force, it’s not “just me”, and sadly there is little prospect of it being fixed.  I had this vain hope that maybe newer macbook models or newer Boot Camp releases might have sorted things a bit.  Doesn’t look like it…

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• http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/opening-my-mind-has-opened-doors
• http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/eitheror-both
• http://www.tolisgroup.com/products/

I bought a discount copy of Adobe CS5.5 Production Premium, because (after much discussion with others) its feature-set seems to match my typical and forseeable production requirements more than those of other NLEs, including my current mainstay, Sony Vegas 9 (which I am still trying to wean myself off, but when any proper job comes along, I tend to fall back on the familiar and trusted, for low risk including avoidance of learning-delay).

Being (so far) a one-man-band who is traditional Windows user, I purchased the Windows version.  But, confirming what I had heard, it does seem that most media people I have met use Macs.  So should I have purchased the Mac version?  Are the versions exactly the same or have they different functionalities?  Is there an option for the license to cover installing the same product on both Windows and Mac OS provided only one of them is run at a time? (e.g. when on the same physical machine).  Ideally at zero or negligible cost of course.  For example Avid Media Composer does have this flexibility.  While the uncertainty remains, I will not open the box (in case it turns out that I need to exchange it).

Here is what I have learnt so far (mainly from web-searching, unverified information):

Differences between the OS-Specific variants:

• It appears that for CS5.5 Production Premium (at least), the Windows variant has slightly greater functionality.
• However it remains to be seen what will be the case for CS6, when it becomes available.

Some options are:

• Volume licensing.
  • Intended not only for businesses but also for individuals.  If the “volume”is for two licenses, they can be for each of the OS’s.
• Crossgrade.
  • But as far as I can tell it’s intended only for one-off (or infrequent) crossgrades, requiring “destruction of the software” on the old machine each time.  Shame it isn’t simply happy with repeatable deactivation/reactivation on each machine / OS.

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The default install of iTunes carries with it a bunch of entities and startups, some of which may not be needed.  If already installed, then first you need to uninstall it.  Ideally via Add/Remove Programs (whatever) but even then some registry entries may persist, that could cause problems later due to entities you may choose not to install.  Having “cleaned” the machine of iTunes and its Bloat, the subset of entities you choose can then be installed individually, command-line fashion.  You can select just the ones you need, plus the ones they depend on.

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http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/45/868715

http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/45/868715

•  Windows’ Paragon is better than Mac’s MacDrive ?

svchost Viewer - sounds good, not tried it or recommending it, just noting it for possible future investigation.

• http://svchostviewer.codeplex.com
• A program to see what all those svchost.exe are running
• Ever wondered what all those svchost.exe processes are running ?? Well here is an app
  to tell you. It gives you some basic information like the Name and description.
• No installation required.
• Only requirement is that you have .net installed (ver 2.0 or newer).
• Work in Windows XP (sp2) and Vista and Windows 7.
• Coded in C#

Looks like I’ve evolved a hybrid system:

1. Proper backup / synch tool: SuperFlexibleFileSynchronizer (abbrev to “SuperFlex”).
2. Procedural with lower-level tools: File drag-copy combined with MD5Summer.

The idea is that normally I would use SuperFlex, but for occasions where I already have manually-created (supposed) mirrors, I can retrospectively check consistency at content (not just datetime and size) level.  Have yet to experiment with SuperFlex to see if it can verify existing copies of files (as opposed to copies that it is making).

I was looking for an app to assist in synchronizing of copies of file systems, for example main and back-up copies.  I chose a good-looking application available for both Windows and Mac:

•  Super Flexible File Synchronizer [http://www.superflexible.com]

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