I finally got the old Windows 7 computer, that I’ve been dragging behind me in a moving box for the last three years, up and running again. There were no hardware problems with it, other than I’m not sure if it’s the mini-Display Port port on my monitor, or the Display Port on the video card, which doesn’t work. Or maybe the cable was bad. I used to use DVI or whatever on the old monitor lo those many years ago, but I can’t use it with the current monitor; fortunately I had an HDMI cable and both the monitor and video card speak HDMI.

There, the tech talk has glazed over the eyes of the non-technical Mythical Readers; us tech types can now communicate freely (or could, if anyone read these postings, which of course no one does; all Readers are purely Mythical).

So, the Win7 box is up, is running, but is not connected to the internet. I haven’t updated it with any security updates since Win10 came out, as Microsoft (ruin be upon them) turned their security update functionality into a vector for their own malware insertions. At this point, hooking up the box to the internet is an invitation to have the box taken over by bad actors almost immediately. Solution is simple, just don’t plug it into the internet.

However, the software that I’d planned to use, very occasionally, on the box requires license verification to start. I’d forgotten that, because I always had it hooked up to the internet. If I want to use the software, that means plugging it to the internet.

Quite the conundrum.

It’s just some video editing software that I’d really use, again only very occasionally. Frankly the MacBook Pro I actually use these days has it’s own video editing software that came with the thing. I just haven’t gotten around to really learning how to use it. It has a completely different user interface than the old, altogether. (Everyone: “It has a completely different user interface than the old.”)

There’s a couple of games on it that I used to play, but I haven’t really missed them in the last three years so not playing them again isn’t much of a problem for me.

The computer components themselves are ten years old. I think I updated the hard drive later than that, but the CPU, motherboard, etc are all old. Very outdated. But they still work. And there aren’t anymore Windows 7 licenses out there to be had.

But there isn’t really anything I need or want to do with a computer that my current Mac can’t do and the Win7 box can. I just don’t need it anymore.

But the Win7 box is a computer I built myself. I bought all the components, assembled them, tested them. I bought all the software on it, which was not a small expense. I’m emotionally attached to it, still.

I guess I can just let it sit there and just almost never use it. Just in case. Having the capacity to use it might be worth keeping it around, even though space is always at a premium. Or I’m just rationalizing keeping it because it cost me so damn much over the years, and getting rid of it is more of a pain at this point than letting it sit there.

I’m pretty good at rationalizations.