I mentioned earlier in the year that I finally got Windows 7 put on my laptop, and since then, my computer life has been “trying” to put it delicately.

I have a dodgy copy of MS Office 2007, and had managed to hack the Vista registry to keep the program from reminding me constantly that it wasn’t “Windows Genuine”.  Well, Windows 7 has not only brought the reminder back (with a vengeance), but also won’t let me hack the registry to disable the issue.  And since I’m not MCSE-certified, the only work-arounds I can find are through Google.

I’m stuck.

With technology, I think it’s important to have options.  I do not blindly love Microsoft, just as I will never blindly love Apple (I pretty much tolerate Apple, but I can espouse on that at another time).

I will usually use products that I have found to work well and are economical.  There are very few technological innovations that I am blindly brand-loyal to.

I have used Gmail exclusively for my email for a long time, and used a lot of the Google tools to sync my Blackberry and keep track of my calendar.  I finally dumped Outlook to use Gmail and Google sync exclusively, and I’ve downloaded OpenOffice in the hopes that I can extricate myself from Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Like other tips to “go minimal” with technology, I’m going to see if I use any of the Microsoft Office products in a year.  If I don’t use them within a year or by the time I get a new computer (whichever is shorter), I’ll either delete them from my laptop or not install them on the next computer I get.

I cannot tell you know nice it will be to not get the “This Copy of Windows is Not Genuine” popup every time I open a document or spreadsheet.