Computer Problems and\or Advice 2008 to 2011

[Anthony Darby]

No I don't regard 5mpg big. I'm quitting Firefox as it is more trouble than it is worth.

[gote]

One man's poison   
Göte

[Anthony Darby]

Still thinking about my computer and its operating systems etc. My wife's laptop has Vista and it seems to work fine. I wondering if it is a simple, worthwhile venture to change to Vista? Would it knacker all the stuff loaded on my computer?

[maggiepie]

Still thinking about my computer and its operating systems etc. My wife's laptop has Vista and it seems to work fine. I wondering if it is a simple, worthwhile venture to change to Vista? Would it knacker all the stuff loaded on my computer?

Anthony, if you are serious about putting Vista on your PC, I think you would have to save what you want, and reformat and install it cleanly.
You already have some sort of problem, maybe nothing more than crosslinked files.
Vista is also a bit of a hog, so you need lots of RAM, plus, a lot of old software won't work with it, but I am finding lots of my old programs still work.
On the other hand, if you have a spare bay, you could buy a new HD and install the OS on the new HD, ( Vista or XP) and use your old HD as a slave.
The programs would need to be reinstalled but you'd still have all your graphics and other stuff you've saved.
However, if you are going to reformat, you might as well stick with XP, I would.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

I changed to Vista a couple of months ago Anthony - had to buy new printer and scanner.... the old ones didn't work with Vista...

[Anthony Darby]

Apart from that, how do you like it Luc?

[TC]

Hang on for a bit longer, Vista's replacement should be out by the year end.  Beta versions of Windows 7 are already available to try out on your computer if you are bold enough.

[gote]

Anthony,
Vista is regarded as a pest by many users including myself. (The quick emergence of Windows 7 is a silent admission by macrohard that vista was a mistake.)
The last desktop we bought had vista installed and XP on CD as an alternative.
I started on Vista and found:
A: I never made it through all the safety barriers so I could connect to my LAN.
B: It was awfully slow because the high demand on computing power.
Because of the slowness I gave up figuring out how to get over hurdle 'A'.
I made use of the CD and we now have XP happily running on it.

I would advice against using vista on an old computer simply because it grabs so much memory and needs so much CPU power.

Generally speaking: "If it ain't broke don't mend it"

Good luck with whatever your choice may be.
Göte

PS
If you get yourself a LAN-hard disk that you connect through your LAN or directly through an USB-port you have additional storage capacity at a cheap price. One terabyte will cost me here between £150 and 200. If you only run this disk when you back up or look for something it will have a low mileage and low risk for crashing. 

[TC]

I bought an external hard drive yesterday from Asda for £78.29.  It was a La Cie with a capacity of 750 Gb.  I will use this to back up all my pictures, videos and any other items from my main hard drives.  As the drive will only be used for back up, it should last much longer than the main hard drives on the computer.  All you do is plug it in through an USB port and it is ready to use.  The only change I will make is to change the format from FAT 32 to NTFS as FAT 32 is restricted to 4Gb per sector.  If this is double dutch then Gote can explain it better than I could.  Tesco's and PC World also sell external hard drives from 250 Gb to 1000 Gb at about the same prices.

On a different note, I would recommend two free downloads for your computer.

Belarc Advisor.  This scans your computer and produces a history and description of your computer and shows all the additions made to the system including Microsoft updates.

Secunia.  This scans your computer and warns you of any dodgy programs that need to be updated, patched or uninstalled and tells you how to do it..

Neither of these two try to sell you anything.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Apart from that, how do you like it Luc?

Difficult one Anthony, I'm not a specialist.
We bought a new pc and it had Vista on it, so not much choice, but the new pc had enough power to handle it, so no problems there.  We did (and still do) struggle though trying to install our firewall called "Zone alarm".  The same thing happened with other programms we wanted to install or download - it simply didn't allow it...  in other words : Vista is the boss of your computer, it often does what it likes and not what you want...
Now again, I'm not a specialist and I might do some things "wrong", but I never experienced the same problems going from Windows 95 to 98 - 2000 - or XP.... maybe that says enough.
If we could change back to XP - I'd do it tomorrow...

[Anthony Darby]

Göte, Tom and Luc
Thank you for the brilliant advice. I will stick with XP and check those free downloads. This info is far more helpful than any trawlling through websites etc.
Anthony.

[David Nicholson]

Luc and Anthony, you should ask Michael Campbell what he thinks of Vista

[Michael J Campbell]

I have never had a problem with vista and would never go back to XP . All my family have vista and are very happy with it,but then as the old saying goes,Doctors differ and patients die.

[Anthony Darby]

Heigh ho.

My brother has just been round to see me. He has Windows 7.

[Michael J Campbell]

Run this through the spell checker on your computer and find out if it is working correctly.

Eye halve a spelling chequer.

I have a spelling chequer,
It came with my pea sea,
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye cannot sea.

When eye strike a quay, right a word,
I weight four it two say
Weather eye am wrong oar wright
It shows me strait aweigh.

As soon as a mist ache is maid
I nose bee fore two late
And eye can put the error rite
Its rarely, rarely grate.

I've run this poem threw it
I'm shore your pleased two no,
Its letter perfect in it's weigh
My chequer tolled me sew.