I'm also sure that if MS had full and total control of the hardware that the situation would be a lot better. As it stands, we still have to put up with atrocious BIOS which should have been replaced over 15 years ago. Plus no such thing as hardware standards to speak of, where each and every device requires specialized drivers that obviously Windows doesn't ship with.

No matter how bad MS is, most hardware vendors catering to that market produce far worse software with even worse installers. ATI, Realtek, Promise, etc... All stuff I had to instal today. And on top of it all, I actually had to download a third party tool to tweak ATI graphics settings to be able to turn on Overscan on TV output. Can you believe that? I'd have had to install the 50MB ATI Catalyst Control Center just for that single feature otherwise.

Installing the brand new version of SageTV was in fact the least painful aspect of the whole afternoon. Of course I wish it could do something with files it has previously recorded - but it can't if you've lost your settings files.

The system seems to be fine right now doing what I need it to do. Play back and record TV on multiple tuners. I've not applied any Windows updates yet but will probably install a select few tomorrow. I'm definitely keeping automatic updates OFF.

Does anyone know how to (really) disable *all* pop-up messages from the tray area? I don't need to be reminded that some files haven't been used in a long time, to turn on auto update, etc... All the other shit Windows is constantly throwing in your face.

One *major* item I have to remember to download and install again is TweakUI. Gives me the opportunity to clean the dust out of the PC case and check to make sure all the fans are running OK. If I had any money I'd replace the case and power supply with fanless solutions - this thing is way too loud (Silverstone products).