Clever s*ds - help required please!!

[clvrlad]

you do realise your telling him how to!!
dont you?

[Looby]

I have windows XP at present.
I may have the chance to upgrade to Windows 7 for a very cheap deal (legally) what would be the advantages and disadvantages.

[MBH]

My instant answer is always "What's wrong with the operating system you've got? All it does is give you access to the programs that do the real work..." - but I keep getting told I'm a Luddite [OK --- an Technology Luddite --- anybody see the irony???]

I saw Windows 7 for the first time this week, and at a casual glance it looked just like Vista (which I've only seen 2 or 3 times). I was able to find and start the programmes I wanted to get to using exactly the same techniques as I used back on Win98 and all my shortcuts seemed to work.


OK Guys - shoot me down

[Scurra]

That's because to all intents and purposes Windows 7 is Vista but with one significant change under the bonnet - although it's a change that will impact the vast majority of people not at all. But that change is so important that it makes Win7 a much better choice - if you feel you have a need for snazzy graphics on your desktop...

Yes, OK, there's more to it than that. But again, for the vast majority of people, not a lot more. The main reason to upgrade is that MS will stop supporting XP at some point in the future. Then again, they threatened to do that when Vista came out, and it actually led to a backlash which they had to acknowledge.

(Incidentally, that reminds me - if there is someone out there with access to a "student" who can get the cheap upgrade deal... )

[gill216]

Some body quick!!!! I can see you Richard Whats the instruction to back up my entire hard drive- I have a portable spare. My laptop just snapped apart.

[LAT]

have PMed you with comments from a colleague

[SparkOut]

Quickest answer for urgent response:
Click "Start" and go to the "Run" box and type in "ntbackup" and hit return.
Follow the wizard and save all the stuff you want. This isn't the most convenient way when it comes to restoring, but if your laptop is about to crumble, then it should be the quickest without having to try and install some other backup software to ghost your image.

[gill216]

Thanks Lat & Sparkout.

[clvrlad]

oops sorry gill never noticed you must have just missed me

[tricia]

I am going to ask a very silly question. I am thinking of purchasing a lap top - how to I get the same email address as my computer - do I have to load the disc from my provider.

Tricia

[SparkOut]

No NO NO NO NO!!!
Never do that! Computers will pick up email from wherever you tell them, without any interference from nasty CDs that the ISP give you, which basically just shove unnecessary branding on, and often make it awkward to work with other things on your computer.

The actual specifics of what you need to do depend on your ISP, what connection you have at home (wifi enabled router?) and what software you will have on the laptop that you want to use (Outlook? - for just domestic email that's probably overkill, especially if you have to buy a new licence for it - or Windows Mail? - which comes free with the computer automatically - or Thunderbird? - which you can download for free, etc etc). In any even it's not hard. Depending on the service you use (eg googlemail) you can have emails synchronised between your laptop and "desktop" computer so that you can read them on either machine, and one you send from your laptop you can also find in the sent items on the desktop too.

You can also have more than one email address. Never believe that you are tied to the one that the ISP gives you.

So, it's not possible to say exactly what you need to do just yet, but as and when you decide that you want to get a new machine, just ask again with a bit more detail as to your setup and it will be quite simple. Honestly.

[clvrlad]

please note sparkout is an "expert".........

[Bunnylump]

Well, he IS isn't he?

[Scurra]

Yes, but he wasn't giving "expert" advice there - he was giving the sort of advice that ISPs ought to be giving routinely because it's not technical or related to your particular set-up (which is the cause of most problems.)

But they don't, because it might mean that their customers understood what they were saying, and wouldn't therefore need to ring up their expensive "support" lines (always assuming they don't have a "clever s*d" to help them in the first place.)

[Bunnylump]

Ah, I see what you mean. It is very helpful to have some clever sods on here, especially lovely patient obliging ones. I'd love to be able to offer some help for someone about something, but I don't have any SKILLS*. Well, none which I could mention on here!!

*Although I was delighted to be able to help Thomas with his personal statement for uni. So I suppose that was quite satisfying.

[clvrlad]

an expert is someone more than 50 miles from home carrying a briefcase

mostly i was insinuating that as an expert sparkout's opinion on simple might be different

most experts jobs seem to be explaining simple things to normal people L-D

[Bunnylump]

He'd have a job to find any normal people on here...

[clvrlad]

well me and you dont count

[MBH]

He'd have a job to find any normal people on here...

Wonderfully True

Definition of an expert that I was told:

Ex - old / no longer current

Spurt - a "drip" under pressure

[SparkOut]

most experts jobs seem to be explaining simple things to normal people L-D

Oh how very true!

But that guide to using MS Paint wasn't so hard to follow was it? I can do a similar step by step on email setup. I just don't know yet what exact steps would be involved because of the specifics of the situation, so the message was "don't let worries about email setup affect whether or not to buy a laptop - if and when a decision is made to buy, it's not going to be too hard to get the email questions answered at that point."