Vista

Users who are viewing this thread

Jimbo

Plumber
Messages
8,918
Reaction score
18
Points
0
Location
San Diego, CA
Came home from a couple of days visiting new granddaugher born 1/3/08, to find computer ^#$^%$^#@%.

Had the geek squad at Best Buy check it out, ruled out power supply and hard drive. Motherboard issue, so give it up! Bought a new HP Pavillion, and of course it has Vista. I am not loving it, but what is a person to do. I may regret not getting a MAC!

I am pretty much 'left handed' about all this stuff, but I am up and running. I had the geek squad transfer my data from the old hard drive, so I did not lose pictures, etc. The darn thing tries to stuff AOL down your throat, and I don't wan't that. I use ATT Yahoo DSL, which I can get to , but it doesn't really act like it used to!

Went to HP website to get a driver for my printer. Answer was : "too bad, so sad; you get to buy a new printer!"

Oh well, I did get to my forums, which was the real panic! Do any of you other guys go into "internet withdrawl syndrome" if you can't get to the internet for a couple of days? Fortunately, while I was away, the hotel has a public computer in the lobby for guest use.
 

Cookie

.
Messages
5,580
Reaction score
8
Points
0
Location
Home
Congratulations on the new grandaughter Jim, you almost had a New Year baby!
 

Maddog

Engineer
Messages
128
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
near San Jose, CA.
Someone told me that DELL will still load XP on a new system, if requested. I can't confirm that from personal experience, but it wouldn't harm asking .... Otherwise, you'll get Vista (yuk!) by default.
 

Jimbo

Plumber
Messages
8,918
Reaction score
18
Points
0
Location
San Diego, CA
It's a photosmart 1215, which is apparently a little older than I remembered it . I went to HP website and they said "no vista for you, pal!". Not being too savvy, I gave up on that and bought a new Kodak 5300, the one that the ink is cheaper, because you don't have to replace the print head with each cartridge.
 

Cass

Plumber
Messages
5,947
Reaction score
7
Points
0
Location
Ohio
I was talking with someone at Micro Center and this is only 1 of the problems with VISTA, but a costly one.

Very few of the company's are making drivers so their accessories are compatible with vista causing people to have to spend more $$$ on new equipment. I believe it was planned that way so it would increase their revenue.

Heck, if Micro S*ft comes out with a new OS every few years and no one make drivers for the older equipment used with it people will have to spend lots of $$$ updating.

jimbo, keep us up on what you think of VISTA with regular updates.

Thanks.
 

Jimbo

Plumber
Messages
8,918
Reaction score
18
Points
0
Location
San Diego, CA
I am not loving, but I don't respond well to change!

My Yahoo DSL has a different look and feel than before, can't find a switch user button, so have to log out one user and log in a new one. Favorites lists are "misbehaving". I'm sure most of this is that I just am a slow learner on tekkie stuff like this!

At least I have a working printer and email. I can keep in touch, and pay my bills!

My next adventure will be to reload turbotax. It seems that I have all my old data, but applications did not xfer over. I hope turbotax does not give me a hard time about a new computer!
 

Herk

Plumber
Messages
545
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
S.E. Idaho
Overall, Vista isn't so bad. You might as well switch now as later. There's a tendency to want everything to last forever, but the world of computers moves faster than the real world.

Some of the things you need to get used to are the lack of menu items (just tap the alt key to get them back) and finding your way around the filesystem. Since I'm a bit of a techie, I have used keystrokes for years to get places, and those still work. For example, Windows key + E key brings up an explorer window. Windows key + Pause key brings up System Properties.

There's no longer a "run" choice in the menu, so type your choice in the box at the top of the explorer window. (e.g. msinfo32)

I think the worst thing about Vista is that networking has become worse than ever. You'd think that with people networking computers in their homes, making it simple would have been a priority, but nope.

I'm typing this on a Linux system, the OS is only about a year old, but the computer is more like seven. It's too old and slow to run my business on, but fine for this browsing and email stuff. No antivirus - no firewall - no need.

My main computer still sports XP - it should have a few more years in it. We do have an in-house laptop with Vista on it, and it's been working fine for my sweetie, very stable and pretty. The computer's stable and pretty, too.
 

Patrick88

Plumber
Messages
832
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Location
Webster Ma.
My kid has a vista system. He needs Wintrash to run games.

Debian Gnu/Linux runs great on Pentium I, II, III, IV etc... No need to mess with Geek squad or any other crazy tech people that do nothing but try and sell you upgrades. I have looked at there cd and riped it apart looking for what great tools they have. It was filled with help files that answer questions for the geeks that don't know *&^%. Most of the guys that come on here know more about computers than most of the geeks squad.

Download a live cd and toss it into your old pc and breath new life into it. Install one of the many distros and have a new computer that doesn't have the same problems that wintrash has.
 

Jimbo

Plumber
Messages
8,918
Reaction score
18
Points
0
Location
San Diego, CA
Patrick, I have no idea what you just said! But you are right that Vista was invevitable for me sooner or later. I would have preferred later!! But the old computer apparently ate the motherboard, so here we are!
 

Patrick88

Plumber
Messages
832
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Location
Webster Ma.
I tried to install linux tried on two different computers,didnt work

Ubuntu works great for most new people to Linux.

I would have preferred later!! But the old computer apparently ate the motherboard, so here we are!
I have a few computers running that Geek squad says the mother board doesn't work.
If Geek Squad were plumbers we all would be calling them "Hacks". They can't fix something so they tell you to replace your computer.
 

Jimbo

Plumber
Messages
8,918
Reaction score
18
Points
0
Location
San Diego, CA
I can tell that those guys are not rocket scientists, necessarily. But I did watch them plug in a new power supply, to rule that out, and verify my hard drive was not crashed. It was an E-machine that probably only cost $350 4 years ago, so I wasn't going to put any serious money in it. It is very true that I am not well versed in technology any more ( I used to be , 20 years ago! But I didn't keep up!).......so therefor I am at their mercy!
 

Speedbump

Active Member
Messages
4,511
Reaction score
12
Points
38
Location
Riverview, Fl.
I'm like Cass, I don't want to switch until all the kinks have been ironed out. I like XP just fine and fought it until W2000 got outdated.

Keep us informed Jimbo. Who knows, you may be our Guru with Vista. You will have more experience than the rest of us.

bob...
 

Mikey

Aspiring Old Fart, EE, computer & networking geek
Messages
3,024
Reaction score
17
Points
38
Location
Hansville, Washington
I was given a Lenovo laptop for a going-away present when I retired, and it had Vista on it. I gave up after a few months and upgraded to XP Pro so I could get my work done; same with Office 2007 and Office Pro 2003.

Having said that, I advise all my clients (that's a strong word for "people who ask me about computers") to get Vista on their new computers. They're going to have to switch someday, so they may as well start now. I make sure they're getting enough oomph (sorry for the techy term) in their new hardware so that Vista will perform halfway decently (halfway is about all you can expect), and generally they're happy. The Vista for Dummies book is pretty good, and now there's a "Vista for Seniors" that is OK too.

Having said THAT, I've got 3 machines running XP, and just got an old laptop with Fedora on it so's I can learn Linux. I actually took a Linux certification course a few years ago, but all those bits have run out of my head, so it's back to square 2 or so. I'm running Open Office, Thunderbird, and Firefox on my main XP machine, and see no reason to buy Office any more, which is a darn good thing, what with living on a fixed income now.
 

Herk

Plumber
Messages
545
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
S.E. Idaho
cwhyu2 said:
I tried to install linux tried on two different computers,didnt work

The Linux systems get better all the time. I'd try a live CD before I installed anything, to make sure it works. The latest version of Knoppix usually starts on just about anything for me. I use Kubuntu, but Ubuntu would be a good place to start. (I just prefer the KDE desktop.) Burn a live CD and if it works, you can choose to install it.
 

Herk

Plumber
Messages
545
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
S.E. Idaho
Mikey said:
I actually took a Linux certification course a few years ago, but all those bits have run out of my head, so it's back to square 2 or so.

It's hard to keep it in your head, partly because they keep changing it. If you don't stay current you lose things. Many old commands no longer work, have been replaced. And there are more distros than ever now.

I've taken to using Open Office for all new things, and just use Word Perfect and Word for things I've already got done. Thunderbird and Firefox, all my machines. I had an HTML bomb open one time on the Windows machine and decided I didn't want to stay with Outlook Express.
 

Patrick88

Plumber
Messages
832
Reaction score
0
Points
16
Location
Webster Ma.
I will take an old pc like a Pentium I with Linux on it. Long before a new pc running Vista or any of the windtrash systems.
 
Top
Hey, wait a minute.

This is awkward, but...

It looks like you're using an ad blocker. We get it, but (1) terrylove.com can't live without ads, and (2) ad blockers can cause issues with videos and comments. If you'd like to support the site, please allow ads.

If any particular ad is your REASON for blocking ads, please let us know. We might be able to do something about it. Thanks.
I've Disabled AdBlock    No Thanks