There’s a funny quote somewhere, I think it’s been attributed to Einstein or something, about how doing the same thing multiple times and getting different results each time is a cause of insanity.

That is what my job is on occasion.

We got new computers for one of our departments. I made a master hard drive containing most of the stuff each staff member would be needing to do their jobs, and used an awesome piece of software to clone the drive a bunch of times (it’s called Acronis True Image, in case you ever need some, and it does a lot more than drive cloning). Nearly instant new desktops for the staff. It’s been a breeze, really. Just some minor user-related config to do after the drive has been cloned and then the physical installation of it at their desks… and then dealing with the aftermath when they realize they’ve lost their desktop arrangement. Sheesh. But I digress.

One of the new desktoppers emails me today to tell me that two of her pieces of software that are supposed to play nicely with each other and allow interaction are in fact, not.

I hop back to that department. All five of the other new machines I have already put into use have had no such problem, not even once.

????!!!?!?!?!?!??!!

Can you say WTF?!?

After doing all the things I could think of to troubleshoot, I ended up doing a full uninstall/reinstall of one of the programs, and then the bastards worked just fine.

It makes me feel a little nuts, to be honest.