I wouldn't mind it so much if the ribbon were a little more flexible - drag and drop customizing of items in toolbars is essential, especially in software like AutoCAD, where there are about 10 times as many toolbars as any given person wants to see. In a couple cases I've seen, the ribbon seems to sequester custom commands (say add-ins, macros or vb) in a corner of one tab, so far out of context that they compel you to set up keyboard shortcuts. Apart from that, though, the ribbon seems to be like the dvorak keyboard layout. It's apparently much quicker, but only if you never learned qwerty first. Look at the top left of your keyboard and tell me which won. :)

hakz.code wrote:

Then I would just start concentrating on lyrics of it!
I would better play some music with no lyrics..

For this reason alone I've acquired a taste for the Groove Salad station at SomaFM - You barely notice it's playing, except for the odd uber-eclectic song. Beats listening to a noise generator... :|

Michael Bergman wrote:

Before messing around with the registry on your main machine, you might want to create a virtual machine (Virtual PC) and try to install it on that.

That was my thought... if the installer is having that much trouble, you may come to have several issues with the software itself. If it uses embedded IE controls, it might depend on a certain interface being there which may or may not be in your system. VirtualPC is good, Virtualbox works and it's available for free. If you have an old Windows 2000 disk set, that might all take an afternoon to install but it's more likely to work out in the end.

You know, I don't know if you do any 3D graphics work.. but as an engineer I can't live without some form of 6DOF device like those from 3dconnexion. Maybe I'm just spoiled, but it's the best "input device" for that type of work, as it saves thousands of points clicks and drags a day. If you've haven't seen these things lately, it's worth a look just to know they exist. By the way, does the slight lag time in the average Wireless Mouse bother anyone else?