FANTOM PLANET

I know it is a pain in the butt that I never want to do again. Re-install Windows.

Yesterday, after weeks of frustration trying to get ArcGIS to install and run properly on a machine, I decided to do a “clean install.” I thought it would be easy, but noooooo. Microsoft Update runs at least for 24 hours to download and install all the updates to bring the OS to the most current state.

Well, I’m done with the XP re-install, which has cured a lot of my computer’s issues. Now it’s on to installing ArcGIS. . .

. . .Someone wish me good luck.

U.S. News & World Report magazine’s has a list of U.S. colleges and universities who offer geography as a major. I came across it as I was looking for something and did a quick search on geography.

Anyway, I thought you might find it interesting.

“Good luck with that.”

It’s a phrase I heard from six different ESRI employees——who are friends——when I told them that I was installing ArcGIS yesterday.

Strange; What does this occurrence mean?

I don’t know. But I had one heck of a time trying to figure out how to get the software off of a DVD that didn’t autorun properly. Then I got ArcGIS installed, which I’m having all sorts of woes with it on my home computer. ArcMap will open, but no toolbars will show. I try to open an MXD, I get a premature termination from a C++ runtime error.

It may be the software, it may not be the software. It runs fine on other computers I have. It may just be that my home machine is junk. Still, if anyone has any thoughts or tips, let me know how to get ArcGIS running properly on the machine I want it to run on.