New computer... grrrrr...

[Jainarayan]

Well it finally happened after 11 years... the old computer couldn't take it anymore. It didn't crash, but connecting an external drive to it to move files, pics, vids and music off, to give the hard drive more room to work, caused it to not want to boot. I had to power off, remove the external drive, re-boot, then connect the external drive. Uh... that was not going to fly as s.o.p. Besides, everyone and everything is yanking support for Windows XP. So off to Best Buy yesterday for an HP All-In-One. The whole computer is in the monitor housing. It's pretty neat. The problem is Windows 8. I hate it, but I am getting used to it. MS Office is now "rented", as is the a.v. software, Webroot SecureAnywhere. I am finally free of Norton! :clap I can't do without Word or Excel, so I got the subscription. It's something like $20/year. Fortunately I didn't lose anything except e-mail addresses, bookmarks, and logins, which I printed and can re-enter. All my pics, vids and music are on the external drive. Besides, I use Carbonite. It saved my butt the last time the old computer went to lunch.

 

[Sunstone]

Yay for no Norton! Congrats on the new computer!

 

[Jainarayan]

Thanks. Yeah, one Norton update caused the computer to crash. The install deleted a .dll that Windows needed to boot up. I called Norton, but all I got was a circular conversation from the rep. That is... "I installed the update and now my computer is trashed, it won't boot". "I'm very sorry about that, let me help you. Re-boot your computer and ... " "I can't boot the computer because the update trashed it". "Well, let's see if we can fix this, re-boot the computer... "

 

[Nyingjé Tso]

.... norton .... *shiver*

So is win 8 on a subscription basis now ? Like you have to pay monthly or yearly fees ? I got 8.1 for free since I'm still considered a student, but I guess starting december i'll have to pay for it...

Congrats in your fiding ! And 11 years is pretty huge, you must have been taking good care of this old boy !

Personally I prefer to buy each thing separately and then make the pc myself. It's cheaper, and this way I'm sure that the beast have what it take since I use very demanding software for 3D work ...

 

[Jainarayan]

Not the o/s, just the Office products like Word, Outlook (for e-mail), Excel, PowerPoint, etc. the o/s comes with the computer. Yeah, I was lucky the old computer lasted as long as it did. Years ago I did some upgrades to another computer, but there's no way I have the time or patience anymore. I work with the big systems, so when they need upgrades or repairs we call IBM.

 

[Treks]

Nice! Let us know how you get on with the all-in-one. I don't know anyone with one of them yet.

 

[sun rise]

Good luck on your new computer. I'm no fan of Windows 8 either but the later version is not quite as bad as the first one was. I don't know why Microsoft decided that everyone had to use a computer like it was a tablet including touch screen but they did. Even Server 2012 works that way which is a shame given the extra work it causes to do everything.

I know you hate Norton, but it's worked fine for me for quite some time. Maybe it's Windows 7 vs XP that makes the difference. Such software is like religion - we defend our choices, um, "religiously".

I use LibreOffice (and OpenOffice back and forth a bit) not Microsoft's product. I'm not willing to have my files become unusable if I don't pay them their "Danegeld". Unless you have complex documents and spreadsheets the free product works as well as Microsoft's. But if you're happy with Microsoft, it's not an issue with me.

 

[Apex]

Well it finally happened after 11 years... the old computer couldn't take it anymore. It didn't crash, but connecting an external drive to it to move files, pics, vids and music off, to give the hard drive more room to work, caused it to not want to boot. I had to power off, remove the external drive, re-boot, then connect the external drive. Uh... that was not going to fly as s.o.p. Besides, everyone and everything is yanking support for Windows XP. So off to Best Buy yesterday for an HP All-In-One. The whole computer is in the monitor housing. It's pretty neat. The problem is Windows 8. I hate it, but I am getting used to it. MS Office is now "rented", as is the a.v. software, Webroot SecureAnywhere. I am finally free of Norton! :clap I can't do without Word or Excel, so I got the subscription. It's something like $20/year. Fortunately I didn't lose anything except e-mail addresses, bookmarks, and logins, which I printed and can re-enter. All my pics, vids and music are on the external drive. Besides, I use Carbonite. It saved my butt the last time the old computer went to lunch.

If you don't want to pay for your anti-virus check out this link:
The Best Antivirus App for Windows

Basically, you should never have to pay for an anti-virus program on a personal computer.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I got rid of Norton with a vengeance That software acted more like a virus itself than what it was supposedly designed to protect me from.

 

[Jainarayan]

Nice! Let us know how you get on with the all-in-one. I don't know anyone with one of them yet.

It's not bad, I'm getting used to it. It has some nice features, like a key on the keyboard that puts it to sleep. The same key will then wake it up. The cd/dvd drive is kind of flimsy, but I don't use it that often. I didn't even know what model it is until I looked at Bestbuy.com again. I saw the price and said "that's the one I want". This is it HP 19.5" AllInOne Computer 4GB Memory 500GB Hard Drive 19-2114 - Best Buy

HP - 19.5" All-In-One Computer - 4GB Memory - 500GB Hard Drive

It's good for home use.

Good luck on your new computer. I'm no fan of Windows 8 either but the later version is not quite as bad as the first one was. I don't know why Microsoft decided that everyone had to use a computer like it was a tablet including touch screen but they did. Even Server 2012 works that way which is a shame given the extra work it causes to do everything.

I know you hate Norton, but it's worked fine for me for quite some time. Maybe it's Windows 7 vs XP that makes the difference. Such software is like religion - we defend our choices, um, "religiously".

I use LibreOffice (and OpenOffice back and forth a bit) not Microsoft's product. I'm not willing to have my files become unusable if I don't pay them their "Danegeld". Unless you have complex documents and spreadsheets the free product works as well as Microsoft's. But if you're happy with Microsoft, it's not an issue with me.

We use Norton here at work, actually an office/network Symantec product. It does slow down the computers , especially when n360 runs. One of our techs just told me that. I said "ah ha!" He's not a fan of 8.1 either. They decided not to roll it out to the users, who have a hard enough time with XP. But he said he heard that Windows 8.1.? or 9.0 is going to be more similar to XP in screen design.

The biggest reason for getting Microsoft Office 365 is because I shuttle documents back and forth from work to home and vice versa. We use Office 2003 at work, so I don't have much of a choice. The Office I had on the old computer was "loaned" to me by the company because I do work at home. When I installed it I installed it as my company owning it, so there are no legality issues. Windows 8.1 won't run MS Office 2003, otherwise I would revert to that. But the files are compatible.

 

[DreadFish]

Congrats on a new computer. I need one myself

How is it so far? Im suspicious about change because that HP looks a lot like a mac...

Macs... >_>

Can you still access all the hardware on your own?

Im also a bit afraid of getting Windows 8. It's different enough to other windows OSs that I might just use it as the final excuse to just learn Linux.

 

[Jainarayan]

Thanks. It's really quite nice, and fast. We're getting used to Windows 8. There's only one old app we have that won't run, it's an address book from Aldus (Touchbase). There's nothing to read the files, but my work computer has XP. I'm going to load it on that and print the address book. It's dumb things like that, that are gotchas.

Access hardware, as in make modifications myself? I don't have the know-how, and it would probably void the warranty, but I'm sure it can be done. I showed my boss the link and the price. He was wowed by it. He and his wife use his work laptop, but he said if he ever gets fired (or hits the jackpot ), they won't have a computer, it's time to get one for the house.

 

[outhouse]

You can change settings so that it will go to your desktop, and act just like normal windows.

I hated win 8 at first, but it does help boot times and runs less background stuff the win 7

I like it now and run it on 1 rig.


If you need help let me know.

 

[Jainarayan]

Thanks. It's almost two weeks I have it, and it's not bad. I like the speed and capacity of the hardware. Windows 8 isn't all that bad after you get used to it. Yeah, there is a lot less crap running than with XP.