Posted: 8/19/2011 9:45:22 PM EDT
Like the title reads, I need the input from some savvy puter nerds genius. After a long illness from assorted viruses and no more free space my old Dell I've had since '99 finally died. It had Windows XP I believe. My new computer came with Windows 7 and it sucks! I can't get around in it, find my files, can't attach them to emails when I do, it won't accept my my Picture It! picture editing program from Microsoft and it's a bigger challange than when I first got a computer. At least I could navigate around in my old system even when it only had 15% free space. Is there anyway I can download an older version of Windows? Windows 98 was way more user friendly than this new one with 7 which I'm about to dropkick over the back rail.
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I have not tested any of these. I am still on xp. copy and paste this into a google search how do I change windows 7 look to windows xp? However you can try doing the below mentioned turnaround, which will almost customize the start menu look like XP. To perform this you need to change Windows 7 to classic mode. 1. Click start 2. Select Control Panel->Personalization 3. Choose the "Windows Classic” theme under and high contrast theme |
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Like the title reads, I need the input from some savvy puter nerds genius. After a long illness from assorted viruses and no more free space my old Dell I've had since '99 finally died. It had Windows XP I believe. My new computer came with Windows 7 and it sucks! I can't get around in it, find my files, can't attach them to emails when I do, it won't accept my my Picture It! picture editing program from Microsoft and it's a bigger challange than when I first got a computer. At least I could navigate around in my old system even when it only had 15% free space. Is there anyway I can download an older version of Windows? Windows 98 was way more user friendly than this new one with 7 which I'm about to dropkick over the back rail.
The best thing to do is to learn Windows 7. It is actually much better but you need to understand the quirks and differences. A lot of old software is obsolete including a lot of the older Adobe stuff. That is the way it is. |
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Thanks.
I just simply typed in "Windows 7 sucks" on Google and it is filled with dissatisfied people who use to have XP. They're saying Win 7 is just a repainted version of Vista which had so many bugs in it they scrapped it. Only one person out of ten said Win 7 is better but only if you're adding hot rod attachments such as new printers. It's drivers are not compatible with existing proven programs and according to those more experienced it's very unstable compared to the XP workhorse. It's designed to be faster and simpler but is defective and so confusing it's slower. Some major hate being spewed by old XP users that have to use a computer and laptop for work. |
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Like the title reads, I need the input from some savvy puter nerds genius. After a long illness from assorted viruses and no more free space my old Dell I've had since '99 finally died. It had Windows XP I believe. My new computer came with Windows 7 and it sucks! I can't get around in it, find my files, can't attach them to emails when I do, it won't accept my my Picture It! picture editing program from Microsoft and it's a bigger challange than when I first got a computer. At least I could navigate around in my old system even when it only had 15% free space. Is there anyway I can download an older version of Windows? Windows 98 was way more user friendly than this new one with 7 which I'm about to dropkick over the back rail.
The best thing to do is to learn Windows 7. It is actually much better but you need to understand the quirks and differences. A lot of old software is obsolete including a lot of the older Adobe stuff. That is the way it is. MS Picture It! wasn't obsolete as it was one of the best if not the best photo editing programs out there. In fact there was a big write up in the paper recently about me and my company (I build high end swimming pools as part of my construction business) and the writer used my pics I edited using PI because she said their proffessional photographer couldn't take any better. I read where some people are swicthing from Win7 to Apple just so they can retain their Picture It!. |
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there is a way in windows 7 to run a compatibility mode that sees programs as windows xp. before you go to a mac... this is what should be done. i have not tried and it might or might not be complicated. you can pay a computer guy to do if needed. instructions might be straigtforward search google for this and 2 links I found below how do I setup windows 7 compatibiltiy mode for xp |
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going with Apple may be a good idea.
Until everyone makes the transition to 64 bit software, there are going to be some issues. There actually technical alternatives to resolve the incompatibility issues. If you have a Mac with OSX Leopard or higher you can run vmware Fusion 3.0 and run Windows virtual machines on your Mac. Windows 7 users can run vmware workstation and run XP as a virtual machine on your Windows 7. I can get most recent Windows software to work on Windows 7. If your Picture It is only a few years old, there is no reason it should not work. You probably have to run the installation program using the "Run As Administrator" feature in Windows 7. That works most of the time for stubborn installations. Windows 7 also has an compatibility mode installation wizard that solves a lot of problems as well. Google or Bing will actually get you there. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Make-older-programs-run-in-this-version-of-Windows |
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Thanks fellas. After a late night / early morning frustrations of unsuccessfully trying to attach progress pics of a job to my new Gmail address to send to a client I was ready to shoot this thing. To me,
this Win 7 has been less natural to learn than when I plugged in my first computer with Office 95 and AOL dial up. |
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If you have windows 7 pro or above, you can download "windows xp mode" for free from microsoft. It is essentially a virtual pc that runs windows xp. You should then be able to install picture it on there.
Also, the file system is the same as in windows xp. The only thing that chaged are the default my docs/my pics/etc folder locations. Its very intuitive once you get used to it. Windows 7 is Much more stable than vista and xp ever were. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Thanks fellas. After a late night / early morning frustrations of unsuccessfully trying to attach progress pics of a job to my new Gmail address to send to a client I was ready to shoot this thing. To me, this Win 7 has been less natural to learn than when I plugged in my first computer with Office 95 and AOL dial up. So, in addition to a new computer with a new operating system, you are using a new e-mail program? |
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They're saying Win 7 is just a repainted version of Vista which had so many bugs in it they scrapped it. Strange that I have been running Vista for a couple of years now and never had a problem with it. It's as stable as can be. Now when I first got it I turned off some stuff and set it up how "I" it, but in any case it runs fine. Now one problem I did have and you appear to be having it as well is Vista and Windows 7 can come in 64bit versions. If you have a 64bit OS, which it soulds like you do, alot of older software will not run on it. I ran in to that with a lot of my less used software. As for switching to a Mac . . . .Go ahead but you will be hiting the same learning curve, it will just cost a lot more. Hardware is about twice as much for Mac vs PC, and as you have no mac software at all you will be spending alot for NEW mac software. I would say stay with Windows 7, learn it and move on. There is no reason at all why you should not be able to attach any file to either a yahoo or Gmail e-mail. So if you have to paid someone $100.00 for a hour or so of their time to setup and teach you how to use your new computer it will be well worth it. Any thing else will end up costing you alot more. |
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Thanks fellas. After a late night / early morning frustrations of unsuccessfully trying to attach progress pics of a job to my new Gmail address to send to a client I was ready to shoot this thing. To me, this Win 7 has been less natural to learn than when I plugged in my first computer with Office 95 and AOL dial up. So, in addition to a new computer with a new operating system, you are using a new e-mail program? I updated to Gmail and it sucks to. I have been trying all morning to get a list of pics attached to an email and a few minutes ago I saw where I had dbl. loaded one pic so I unchecked all the others and hit discard. It discarded all ten of the the others and left the checked one of the dbl. pics I wanted to delete. Of course with Win 7 there is no right click Delete. So I started alllll over attaching pics which is a four to five step process OK'ing pop up windows as opposed to a two step process using XP and AOL which goes straight to My Documents where I'd click on the labeled pic sent over from Picture It! The second attempt I came across an attached pic I didn't want to send so this time I unchecked it only and hit discard. This time it discarded the whole damn email. I loath this Win 7 and Gmail. People can say what they want about AOL but at least it was user friendly. What I would give for my old WinXP computer with more space. Edit to add: Hell, I use to be Catman2 with almost 3,800 posts but was without a computer when my membership expired and ARf.com doesn't accept membership renewel from Gmail (it doesn't honor memberships from Gmail, hotmail) so I had to use a buddies AOL and log on for a temp. membership. I know I'm computer challanged but I shouldn't have to become an overnight computer geek to be able to function on the same level with Win7 as I did with XP. I am not a crook geek. 
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Whats the most painful, slowest way to destroy a new computer? Blowing it up is too quick. AR maybe, shotgun better, sledgehammer but I don't want to get my hands dirty as I hate it that bad.
I just sent ten pics after it said I had reached it's max. download cap. and I had deleted three without deleting the whole email. Then I sent a second batch of ten and recieved a 'sent' message. Then of course a little tag at the bottom appeared saying 'mailer - dameon', that neither went through. I called the recipient and confirmed the spelling of their email and tried again. Same results. Then my mouse froze to the screen and I had to turn it off maually and restart. It now says I exceeded my download capacity, So with this new gmail, I guess I have send twenty pics one at a time. The people at Google and who designed Windows 7 are some kind of mind f*&king demons. What would have taken me two months ago to complete in maybe fifteen minutes with my old system has taken me all day with no success. I'm sorry, rant over... |
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Strange that I have been running Vista for a couple of years now and never had a problem with it. It's as stable as can be. Most of the people that had problems with Vista were running older hardware of software. Microsoft dramatically changed the way a lot of things worked under XP. Microsoft also let other companies know this years in advance, but other companies didn't do shit until after Vista was released to the public at large and the masses started complaining that nothing worked anymore. Drivers and anti-virus were two of the worst areas - there weren't any decent AV programs that worked on Vista until about 7-8 months after it was released. Those that bought new systems and used new software and hardware generally didn't run into all the issues that upgraders did. ~Bill |
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Quoted:I updated to Gmail and it sucks to. I have been trying all morning to get a list of pics attached to an email and a few minutes ago I saw where I had dbl. loaded one pic so I unchecked all the others and hit discard. It discarded all ten of the the others and left the checked one of the dbl. pics I wanted to delete. Of course with Win 7 there is no right click Delete. So I started alllll over attaching pics which is a four to five step process OK'ing pop up windows as opposed to a two step process using XP and AOL which goes straight to My Documents where I'd click on the labeled pic sent over from Picture It!
The second attempt I came across an attached pic I didn't want to send so this time I unchecked it only and hit discard. This time it discarded the whole damn email. I loath this Win 7 and Gmail. People can say what they want about AOL but at least it was user friendly. What I would give for my old WinXP computer with more space. Edit to add: Hell, I use to be Catman2 with almost 3,800 posts but was without a computer when my membership expired and ARf.com doesn't accept membership renewel from Gmail (it doesn't honor memberships from Gmail, hotmail) so I had to use a buddies AOL and log on for a temp. membership. I know I'm computer challanged but I shouldn't have to become an overnight computer geek to be able to function on the same level with Win7 as I did with XP. I am not a crook geek.
It sounds like most of your issue is with the way the Gmail interface is set up. I assume that you are using the web interface with Gmail? I'd suggest accessing your Gmail through Outlook or Thunderbird, you might find that to be a better experience. And Win 7 most certainly does have right click Delete. ~Bill |
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I think you need to get someone who really knows what they're doing to watch you work for a while and show you how to do things properly, since you just changed a bunch of stuff at once, and all of the new stuff is going to be a little different. A few other notes:
Gmail is a web application, so what web browser you're using it with makes a difference. What web browser are you using? Internet Explorer 8 or 9? Something else? Picture It looks like it was discontinued around 2006 or so, so it isn't too surprising that it doesn't work with Windows 7. You can try various hacks to get it running anyways, but long-term, you're probably better off biting the bullet and switching to something well-supported now. Playing around with XP mode and virtual machines and such will be a huge pain in the ass to get working, and it's just going to cause even more problems on the next upgrade. Depending on your needs, you could try Photoshop Elements, Paint.net, GIMP, or some other mainstream program. Yeah, that's just more new stuff you'll have to learn, but that's just the way it is. |
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Also, I am dumping Google Apps for Office 365. I really don't like gmail and how it hosts my email I have my own domains and I prefer Exchange hosting using Outlook over IMAP and the gmail interfaces. Exchange Online hosting from Microsoft is $5 per month per mailbox and the full Office 365 cloud is $6 per month.
I get 25GB storage with spam and virus filtering. It works with all of the major smartphones such as Palm, iphone, and Android. Blackberry, however, costs extra because RIM insists you have a Blackberry host front end to Exchange. Fuck them. I have been using Google for a year now. For some things, it is ok. I have problems with it and Mac mail and I don't like web based email. When I did the migration, it screwed up the dates on my older email. Outlook and Exchange never did that. Google needs to clean up its act. |
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I appreciate all the patience and input and will read everything tomorrow again. I haven't found right click Delete with Win 7, sorry, it's just not on the list whenever I right click. I managed to stumble through and get 20 pics attached to an email sometime last night so the immediate pressure's off.
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I think my Gmail is with basic Google, not Chrome.
Another quirk is when I hit the Quote box to respond to a speciific post as soon as I start typing my text dissappears below the pane so I have to type blind and constantly have to hit the scroll up/down bar to check typing, where I am. That ain't right. I just now went to photobucket to see if i can post a pic but after I hit 'Copy' and hid PB's page this page was of course gone so I had to go back to Favorites and click back on to ARF Hometown. Thats not right either. Again, I never had to put up with this annoying crap from my old computer and if I did I'd conclude it had a virus and was ready for the dump. 
ETA: Well at least it'll let me post pics 
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I am reading this as someone who used to teach people how to use computers (way back when) and none of these are problems with the computer, you just need to adapt to the modern interfaces and modern ways of doing things instead of expecting everything to be the same.
Seriously, have someone teach you how to use it. It will be money WELL spent. |
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I think my Gmail is with basic Google, not Chrome. Another quirk is when I hit the Quote box to respond to a speciific post as soon as I start typing my text dissappears below the pane so I have to type blind and constantly have to hit the scroll up/down bar to check typing, where I am. That ain't right. I just now went to photobucket to see if i can post a pic but after I hit 'Copy' and hid PB's page this page was of course gone so I had to go back to Favorites and click back on to ARF Hometown. Thats not right either. Again, I never had to put up with this annoying crap from my old computer and if I did I'd conclude it had a virus and was ready for the dump. ETA: Well at least it'll let me post pics Those issues would be annoying. I do not think that they are a direct result of Windows 7 - I am on Windows 7 right now and hit the quote button to respond to your post, and there is no problem with my text disappearing below the pane or anything like what you describe. As for the right click delete, try clicking on the folder icon on the taskbar (by default it should be next to the Internet Explorer icon). A window showing your libraries should come up. Right click on Documents, and you should see the option to delete appear in the context menu. Obviously you don't want to delete the Documents Library (it'd be like deleting My Documents folder in Windows XP) but you can do this to see that the option to delete is still alive and well. I'd agree with others who have suggested getting someone to work with you for an hour or two. I suspect that you just had too many changes occur at the same time, and it's been a little overwhelming. Kinda like you just left your house one day and flew around the world to India and moved into a house there. The landscape is completely foreign from what you're used to. Grab a guide to show you around, and you'll adjust to Windows 7 much easier. ~Bill |
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Like the title reads, I need the input from some savvy puter nerds genius. After a long illness from assorted viruses and no more free space my old Dell I've had since '99 finally died. It had Windows XP I believe. My new computer came with Windows 7 and it sucks! I can't get around in it, find my files, can't attach them to emails when I do, it won't accept my my Picture It! picture editing program from Microsoft and it's a bigger challange than when I first got a computer. At least I could navigate around in my old system even when it only had 15% free space. Is there anyway I can download an older version of Windows? Windows 98 was way more user friendly than this new one with 7 which I'm about to dropkick over the back rail.
Shoulda got a MAC... 
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I think my Gmail is with basic Google, not Chrome. Another quirk is when I hit the Quote box to respond to a speciific post as soon as I start typing my text dissappears below the pane so I have to type blind and constantly have to hit the scroll up/down bar to check typing, where I am. That ain't right. I just now went to photobucket to see if i can post a pic but after I hit 'Copy' and hid PB's page this page was of course gone so I had to go back to Favorites and click back on to ARF Hometown. Thats not right either. Again, I never had to put up with this annoying crap from my old computer and if I did I'd conclude it had a virus and was ready for the dump. ETA: Well at least it'll let me post pics Those issues would be annoying. I do not think that they are a direct result of Windows 7 - I am on Windows 7 right now and hit the quote button to respond to your post, and there is no problem with my text disappearing below the pane or anything like what you describe. As for the right click delete, try clicking on the folder icon on the taskbar (by default it should be next to the Internet Explorer icon). A window showing your libraries should come up. Right click on Documents, and you should see the option to delete appear in the context menu. Obviously you don't want to delete the Documents Library (it'd be like deleting My Documents folder in Windows XP) but you can do this to see that the option to delete is still alive and well. I'd agree with others who have suggested getting someone to work with you for an hour or two. I suspect that you just had too many changes occur at the same time, and it's been a little overwhelming. Kinda like you just left your house one day and flew around the world to India and moved into a house there. The landscape is completely foreign from what you're used to. Grab a guide to show you around, and you'll adjust to Windows 7 much easier. ~Bill I know, I'm quoting your comment now, typing blind. Too add to the perfect storm of frustrations, I went from dial up to Verizon Wi-Fi and where I live I only get a paltry 3G weak signal. From where my cabin sits no radio tower signal can get a direct line of site like my neighbors have. At first I was only getting a 55% connection rate to get online and then would lose bars and the connection. I moved the card thing to the west side of the cabin and it improved it to maybe 75%. Not being able to scroll with the mouse, having to manually turn the computer on every morning coupled with other aformentioned things and roadblocks that I'm sure will arise; Like just now, I go to highlite a sentence in blue and the whole paragraph highlites in blue. I know it sometimes takes a fine touch to highlite a word/sentence but this is prohibitive. As recommended, I have no choice but to stick with Win7, try and operate it with an expert sitting there and when it fucs up just turn and say "See, now what?" and see how they cope with a screen full of text dissappearing under the radar when thhey try and type. The nerds that 'improved' WinXP must have a sadistic sense of humor, thats all I gotta say. |
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I have actually seen people do that a few times.
I wasn't able to get my hands on the system before it went into the dumpster and down the road. Quoted:
The problem is you, not the computer. Quoted:
I'd conclude it had a virus and was ready for the dump. You throw away a whole computer just because it has a virus?  |
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The problem is you, not the computer. Quoted:
I'd conclude it had a virus and was ready for the dump. You throw away a whole computer just because it has a virus? No, just 1/2 or a quarter depending how big the virus was......
I should have said virus'sss. My old unit had virus'ss and no more free space but still was better than this POS. When it didn't have enough memory to de frag and kept locking up I had to dump it |
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The problem is you, not the computer. Quoted:
I'd conclude it had a virus and was ready for the dump. You throw away a whole computer just because it has a virus? No, just 1/2 or a quarter depending how big the virus was......
I should have said virus'sss. My old unit had virus'ss and no more free space but still was better than this POS. When it didn't have enough memory to de frag and kept locking up I had to dump it Bet if you put an Ubuntu CD into your old computer and re-formatted it, it would still work fine... |
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The problem is you, not the computer. Quoted:
I'd conclude it had a virus and was ready for the dump. You throw away a whole computer just because it has a virus? No, just 1/2 or a quarter depending how big the virus was......
I should have said virus'sss. My old unit had virus'ss and no more free space but still was better than this POS. When it didn't have enough memory to de frag and kept locking up I had to dump it Bet if you put an Ubuntu CD into your old computer and re-formatted it, it would still work fine... Can you enlarge on that a little? |
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PEBCAK
I had no problem whatsoever transitioning from XP to 7. Anything I couldn't figure how to do in 7 that had been changed from XP took all of five minutes with a quick google search. You keep talking about problems with gmail. Gmail is accessed from a web browser and works exactly the same on 7 as XP. Are you not reading the error messages and missing gmail's 20mb attachment size limit? Zip the pics up and send using WeTransfer. Some email providers, especially corporate, don't allow attachments of pictures or any at all. That could be why they're being bounced. |
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PEBCAK I had no problem whatsoever transitioning from XP to 7. Anything I couldn't figure how to do in 7 that had been changed from XP took all of five minutes with a quick google search. You keep talking about problems with gmail. Gmail is accessed from a web browser and works exactly the same on 7 as XP. Are you not reading the error messages and missing gmail's 20mb attachment size limit? Zip the pics up and send using WeTransfer. Some email providers, especially corporate, don't allow attachments of pictures or any at all. That could be why they're being bounced. What it did was when I attached a series of pics I would attach a new ones while the little loading bar would be indicating the loading progress of the previously attached images. In other words I was attaching them faster than they were loading. When I got to thirteen I saw where the last three were highlighted in red with a message saying it was unable to download them so I figured I had reached a capacity, something I never experienced with XP using AOL. So I deleted or unchecked the highlighted last three and sent the email. The only error message I recieved was the red highlighted images I had unattached. When I sent it it was returned. I ended up splitting that number of attachments and sent twenty in total in four emails of five attachments. Update- I just spoke with the recpient of the emails and she said she recieved messages from Earthlink saying, in my layman parlance, she had filled her limit of space because of the high definition photos I'd sent. So we surmised that it was her Earthlink that was kicking back my emails. I just assumed it was Gmail since all the other problems I'm having. |
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The problem is you, not the computer. Quoted:
I'd conclude it had a virus and was ready for the dump. You throw away a whole computer just because it has a virus? No, just 1/2 or a quarter depending how big the virus was......
I should have said virus'sss. My old unit had virus'ss and no more free space but still was better than this POS. When it didn't have enough memory to de frag and kept locking up I had to dump it Bet if you put an Ubuntu CD into your old computer and re-formatted it, it would still work fine... Can you enlarge on that a little? Ubuntu is a different OS (based on Linux) which runs well on older hardware and is virtually immune to most viruses. It is free including updates and thousands of software packages so there is little to no risk to try it. It is, however, NOT Windows, and it won't run every Windows software, so if you are a hard core gamer it probably isn't for you (although there are some simple games so if you like minesweeper, solitaire or even online Texas Hold 'Em, you're covered). If you need the basics (word processing, internet browsing, etc), most of what you need comes pre-loaded (and installing more software is usually as simple as going to the package manager, selecting the software and clicking "install". It looks somewhere between Windows and MacOSX as far as the user interface goes. You will have some learning curve coming from any other OS, but as you've noticed, that is also true going from XP to Win7. http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download Anyway, bottom line is it is used by a lot of people as a way to rejuvinate old PCs that suffer from "Windows Rot". |
I had to use this POS Win7 this morning sending emails and after composing one in a 'comment' box of the recipient's website I needed to add a link from a saved email. So, I went to my gmail, found the saved email and right click copied it. Of course I couldn't go back find the current page where I had composed the message. It was gone.  So again, I started over and tried to recompose the message as best I could from memory and then 'paste' the link. In XP all I would have had to do is minimize the current page which would have gone down on the lower tool bar, gone to my then AOL and copied the link, hit the restore on the minimized page with the message, add the link and be done. And yes, I did hover my mouse over the e icon on the toolbar and to see if the lost page was there.
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In XP all I would have had to do is minimize the current page which would have gone down on the lower tool bar, gone to my then AOL and copied the link, hit the restore on the minimized page with the message, add the link and be done. You can do the exact same fucking thing in Windows 7. I don't know why you're making this more difficult than it has to be, but 7 is not that different from XP. It seems like most of your "problems" have nothing to do with the operating system at all, and it's only because you're using a new webmail program that you aren't used to. |
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In XP all I would have had to do is minimize the current page which would have gone down on the lower tool bar, gone to my then AOL and copied the link, hit the restore on the minimized page with the message, add the link and be done. You can do the exact same fucking thing in Windows 7. I don't know why you're making this more difficult than it has to be, but 7 is not that different from XP. It seems like most of your "problems" have nothing to do with the operating system at all, and it's only because you're using a new webmail program that you aren't used to. Well you don't have to yell at me I screwed up by not hitting the min. bar and instead used the back arrow. In XP and 98 I think I could have gone back and then forward to my current page using the back/forward arrows otherwise I wouldn't have automatically done that. I min. this page just now and restored it by hovering over the e. My bad.
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The problem is you, not the computer. Quoted:
I'd conclude it had a virus and was ready for the dump. You throw away a whole computer just because it has a virus? No, just 1/2 or a quarter depending how big the virus was......
I should have said virus'sss. My old unit had virus'ss and no more free space but still was better than this POS. When it didn't have enough memory to de frag and kept locking up I had to dump it Bet if you put an Ubuntu CD into your old computer and re-formatted it, it would still work fine... Can you enlarge on that a little? Ubuntu is a different OS (based on Linux) which runs well on older hardware and is virtually immune to most viruses. It is free including updates and thousands of software packages so there is little to no risk to try it. It is, however, NOT Windows, and it won't run every Windows software, so if you are a hard core gamer it probably isn't for you (although there are some simple games so if you like minesweeper, solitaire or even online Texas Hold 'Em, you're covered). If you need the basics (word processing, internet browsing, etc), most of what you need comes pre-loaded (and installing more software is usually as simple as going to the package manager, selecting the software and clicking "install". It looks somewhere between Windows and MacOSX as far as the user interface goes. You will have some learning curve coming from any other OS, but as you've noticed, that is also true going from XP to Win7. http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download Anyway, bottom line is it is used by a lot of people as a way to rejuvinate old PCs that suffer from "Windows Rot". I consider myself to be a Linux fan and am typing this on Ubuntu right now, but I wouldn't recommend it for this situation. If you're at least somewhat computer-savvy, are willing to learn some new things, and have a spare computer and some free time, then by all means give it a whirl. If you're having trouble with basic web-surfing and file navigation, then installing a new OS you have no experience with is probably going to end badly. Hell, even installing a new version of Windows can be a real PITA. Get comfortable with the basics, and then think about stuff like that. |
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The problem is you, not the computer. Quoted:
I'd conclude it had a virus and was ready for the dump. You throw away a whole computer just because it has a virus? No, just 1/2 or a quarter depending how big the virus was......
I should have said virus'sss. My old unit had virus'ss and no more free space but still was better than this POS. When it didn't have enough memory to de frag and kept locking up I had to dump it Bet if you put an Ubuntu CD into your old computer and re-formatted it, it would still work fine... Can you enlarge on that a little? Ubuntu is a different OS (based on Linux) which runs well on older hardware and is virtually immune to most viruses. It is free including updates and thousands of software packages so there is little to no risk to try it. It is, however, NOT Windows, and it won't run every Windows software, so if you are a hard core gamer it probably isn't for you (although there are some simple games so if you like minesweeper, solitaire or even online Texas Hold 'Em, you're covered). If you need the basics (word processing, internet browsing, etc), most of what you need comes pre-loaded (and installing more software is usually as simple as going to the package manager, selecting the software and clicking "install". It looks somewhere between Windows and MacOSX as far as the user interface goes. You will have some learning curve coming from any other OS, but as you've noticed, that is also true going from XP to Win7. http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download Anyway, bottom line is it is used by a lot of people as a way to rejuvinate old PCs that suffer from "Windows Rot". I consider myself to be a Linux fan and am typing this on Ubuntu right now, but I wouldn't recommend it for this situation. If you're at least somewhat computer-savvy, are willing to learn some new things, and have a spare computer and some free time, then by all means give it a whirl. If you're having trouble with basic web-surfing and file navigation, then installing a new OS you have no experience with is probably going to end badly. Hell, even installing a new version of Windows can be a real PITA. Get comfortable with the basics, and then think about stuff like that. There is a whole list of greivances I still have here. As I type the I can't see this text. Screw it... |
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As I was saying, I can't see my typing with this new PC when I type in a qouted response.
And so far I find that when I minimize a screen it goes to my e or Explorer icon and I can re enlarge it. OK, cool. But if I minimze more than one page as in multiple pages, it only stores one or the last minimized page and I can't find the others. In WinXP it would line the min. pages along the bottom of the tool bar and I could click the one I wanted to restore. Real simple, perfect, no reason to change that feature. I'm sure they're somewhere hidden here now and I haven't unlocked that secret. Or maybe Win7 sucks like I say it does. |
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In XP all I would have had to do is minimize the current page which would have gone down on the lower tool bar, gone to my then AOL and copied the link, hit the restore on the minimized page with the message, add the link and be done. You can do the exact same fucking thing in Windows 7. I don't know why you're making this more difficult than it has to be, but 7 is not that different from XP. It seems like most of your "problems" have nothing to do with the operating system at all, and it's only because you're using a new webmail program that you aren't used to. Well you don't have to yell at me I screwed up by not hitting the min. bar and instead used the back arrow. In XP and 98 I think I could have gone back and then forward to my current page using the back/forward arrows otherwise I wouldn't have automatically done that. I min. this page just now and restored it by hovering over the e. My bad.
 Sorry 
I really think that everything you're having a problem with is actually the same in windows xp and 7, and you're just not used to the new email program. |
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As I was saying, I can't see my typing with this new PC when I type in a qouted response. And so far I find that when I minimize a screen it goes to my e or Explorer icon and I can re enlarge it. OK, cool. But if I minimze more than one page as in multiple pages, it only stores one or the last minimized page and I can't find the others. In WinXP it would line the min. pages along the bottom of the tool bar and I could click the one I wanted to restore. Real simple, perfect, no reason to change that feature. I'm sure they're somewhere hidden here now and I haven't unlocked that secret. Or maybe Win7 sucks like I say it does. Try right-clicking on an empty part of the task bar, click properties in the menu that comes up, in the drop down box next to "Taskbar Buttons" change it to "never combine." And if you want to, click the third box from the top for "use small icons." This will make the taskbar more like it was in XP. |
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As I was saying, I can't see my typing with this new PC when I type in a qouted response. And so far I find that when I minimize a screen it goes to my e or Explorer icon and I can re enlarge it. OK, cool. But if I minimze more than one page as in multiple pages, it only stores one or the last minimized page and I can't find the others. In WinXP it would line the min. pages along the bottom of the tool bar and I could click the one I wanted to restore. Real simple, perfect, no reason to change that feature. I'm sure they're somewhere hidden here now and I haven't unlocked that secret. Or maybe Win7 sucks like I say it does. Try right-clicking on an empty part of the task bar, click properties in the menu that comes up, in the drop down box next to "Taskbar Buttons" change it to "never combine." And if you want to, click the third box from the top for "use small icons." This will make the taskbar more like it was in XP. Thanks, but I already tried that. BTW, that carbine in your avatar looks like my BCM. 
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I shall dispatch Michael Dell to come help you. Seriously, go buy a book or something, NONE of these issues are problems with Windows, its lack of knowledge that is the issue here. Really? Dell has too high a security force around him otherwise I'd snatch him and stuff him in my truck, bring him out here to set this thing up right uncrack the secret formulas and then take him back to his Toro Canyon estate. Ironically, I do ranch backhoe work and just built a big pool for the guy that founded Symantec which later aquired Norton, a bona fide computer genius. He's the one who told me to buy this new computer, get off dial up, drop AOL and go to Gmail saying I would be so much happier. He built me a kick ass website in one day recently but when I asked him to help me with this Win7 he said I had exceeded my help minutes for the month. I may reapproach him here in a few days. |