Computer problems and/or advice 2012

[Maren]

I am a bit of a dinosaur and when I got my latest PC last year, it came with Windows 7, which I didn't like because it forces me to submit a password every time I use email. So I had a virtual player installed and am back to using Windows 2000, yes, really, and I love it. No messing about with passwords and it saves me splashing out on software upgrades of much loved applications which currently run happily under W2K.

The only trouble is with permissions; I still haven't cracked that. When I download pictures from my camera, they go onto the C: drive of my W2K partition, which is OK. But my picture library is on the shared drive, and the moment I put them there, I can no longer modify them in W2K. Then I have to go poking about in W7 to try to give permission to modify. It's hit and miss and wastes a lot of time and nerves. I wish I knew a definitive method of giving unlimited permission to anyone to modify the data on my shared drive. Any ideas of the steps I should go through?

[johnw]

johnw was able to pick any laptop as long as it was with Windows.  It's speedy but a horror. I am going to have our tech man switch me back to an older Windows version or give the laptop to someone else and use my old one.

johnw

[Palustris]

I am puzzled by this aversion to W7. We have it and had Vista before it and XP before that and one before that. I cannot see any major differences betwixt what I do now and what we did before.
Certainly do not have to enter a Password before using an Email program and I have 3 of those. The only Password I have to enter, and that  is by choice. is one when I switch the machine on in the first place.

[David Pilling]

Maren - right click the shared drive ->Properties->sharing...

[Alan_b]

... Windows 7, which I didn't like because it forces me to submit a password every time I use email.

That's not generally true but there is a bit of an issue with Outlook XP (2002) running on Windows 7.  In fact you have just reminded me that I promised to fix this for a client and have not yet done my research.  Let me know if this is your problem and I will post how to fix it when I know. 

[Alan_b]

I am puzzled by this aversion to W7. We have it and had Vista before it and XP before that and one before that. I cannot see any major differences betwixt what I do now and what we did before.

I'm inclined to agree but then I know lots of tricks to ensure any computer is configured to my taste.  Anyone who feels that is's a big step from XP to Windows 7 should not go near Windows 8.

[Martin Baxendale]

Probably the main reason I've stayed with Windows XP is that I want to continue to use Outlook Express for my email.

[johnw]

Well, after many months I solved one problem with W7.  I mainly work in Excel and the toolbar changed drastically from XP, not more efficiently.  So to use the old toolbar I had to click Home which would take me there.   A few weeks ago  things changed as the old toolbar would disappear with every use of a function, thus requiring me to hit Home again  - for instance if I highlighted a row and want to change it to bold and increase the font size I had to hit home hit bold, hit home, hit font size and home again if I wanted to print but printing's another story.  Solved by the use of a strange little icon to the upper right called a pin which of course is not there until one hits an upward-facing arrow, now the old toolbar stays up but where did set gridlines get to? 

Not a version for sloppy ancients who tend to hold keys, click mouses inadvertently and then wind up in uncharted waters....................I bet there's a manual that explains all as opposed to the Help button which in Windows has never solved a single problem, if only it would just scream for me.

johnw   

[Alan_b]

I mainly work in Excel and the toolbar changed drastically from XP, not more efficiently

Sorry John, nothing to do with Windows 7.  You bought Office 2007 or 2010 with the new revised toolbar.  Incidentally, the team that did this went on to create Windows 8.

What you need is here http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/dont-ms-office-ribbon-bring-back-proper-menus.htm .  This will restore the old toolbar to these later versions of Office.  You only had to ask.

[Alan_b]

Probably the main reason I've stayed with Windows XP is that I want to continue to use Outlook Express for my email.

Fair enough, but what do you do when Outlook Express prompts you to compact the folders?  If you don't do it then they are liable to get corrupted and you'll lose all your emails.  If you do do it then accidentally turn-off or distract the computer whilst the process is taking place then the folders get corrupted and you are liable to lose all your emails.

Outlook Express, and other contemporary email programs, were never designed for the sheer volume of emails we get these days.  If they get too full they just cannot cope.     

[Martin Baxendale]

That did happen to me once - a power cut while OE was compacting messages and I lost them all but managed to recover back ups from the recycle bin I think, or some other back up. Now I have them backed up to an external hard drive with all my other files via Norton Backup. And I never touch the keyboard while OE is compacting out of sheer paranoia and fear 

[David Nicholson]

I thought that too Martin but I'm now happily using Mozilla Thunderbird but I didn't like the Mozilla browser and continue to use Goggle Chrome with Internet Explorer just as a back-up reserve


Whoops, missed a page this refers to martin's reply 899 on the previous page.

[Palustris]

I like W7, but from what I have seen of W8 it is definitely a no go for me. The chances of us getting a Touchscreen type gadget are fairly small.
Still puzzled by the aversion to W7. I have just finished, at the same time, Backing up the Computer to an External Drive, Playing Patience (Spider) and Reading various Internet pages. The Computer coped with no trouble at all. Now I am about to run Spybot, AVG and Windows Defender, usually manages all three together.

[Alan_b]

Still puzzled by the aversion to W7.

Maren has a bug which she has lived with and resented rather than seeking assistance.

JohnW dislikes the user interface on newer versions of Microsoft Office.  Now I happily run good old Office 2003 on Windows 7 and you could end up with Office 2007 or 2010 running on XP but for JohnW the two came together so he thinks he dislikes Windows 7.

Martin likes the user interface on Outlook Express despite the fact that he knows from personal experience it can be flakey.  There was good reason to ditch Outlook Express in favour of something that works better but the cosmetic changes to recent equivalents (like Windows Live Mail) are mostly about change for change's sake.  Although you cannot run Outlook Express on versions of Windows later than Windows XP, you can run Windows Live Mail on XP and that is a good idea if you can cope with the cosmetic differences, because it is much less likely to crash and lose all your emails.

In general, many people like their new computer to look and behave as much as possible like the old one.  It does not matter if what is going on under the surfaces is radically different so long as the surface looks familiar.  Apple grasped this when they brought-out OSX but Microsoft have abandoned its conservative clientèle with Windows 8.       

[Palustris]

In general, many people like their new computer to look and behave as much as possible like the old one.

Very true. To me the worst fault of all the machines and systems we have used is the lack of documentation which comes with a new machine and the technobabble in which Help is termed. I am fortunate in having a son who designs micro-circuitry for a living and other offspring who use computers all day every day and a grandson who can do anything with the machines. Also helps to have begun computing with a ZX81 and a Tandy machine so many years ago I shudder at the thought.
Ah, the good old days of DOS and 1 k memory eh?