Thus it begins...

..the unending litany of curses upon Microsoft Windows! Now that my computer has been brainwashed and lobotomized, it's all spiffy and spyware-free. It's also missing a shit-ton (yes, a shit-ton, it's heavier than a normal ton) of software that is specific to my department. And all the settings I've so laboriously changed over the past year to make this machine mine are back to the Windows default settings. And changing things back is KILLING ME.

Why does it have to be so hard to set an icon for a certain file type? And when I set a certain program to be the default to open a certain file type, where the hell does the "Apply" button go? Why is it gray? Why can't Windows conceive of the fact that I might want a program not created by Microsoft to be the default program for something?

My kingdom for an Apple!!