New Laptop

[Herb]

Cheers Steve, I will check it out.

She has put it on hold for a couple of weeks. I think she is hoping her pay and Xmas money will get her into Mac territory.

It took some time, but we managed to get her Dell working. Not holding out much hope for it in the long term, but I have at least managed to back her files up.

[McBoxer]

I thought I'd posted this a couple of days ago, but I can't see it?
So, apologies if you've seen this before....
I bought a Sony from the Argos Outlet on ebay back in the summer for a good price, so it might be worth checking them out. At the time it was the best deal that I found - and one of the few with windows 7.
Have a look on; http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Argos-Outlet/_i.html?_fsub=3844977016&_sid=66512606&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

[Herb]

Pushed the button on a Toshiba from the Argos link supplied by McBoxer, many thanks. £300 seems like a deal, 8gb ram and 1tb hard drive. Seems a lot. No doubt she will fill that with ripped off vids and music in no time.

Windows 8 unfortunately. That said, I don't have to use it. I am sure she will get it figured out.

Thanks for your advice guys. I used to know about this stuff once upon a time, but things have moved on since then.

[conkerman]

Update to Win 8.1 makes it a bit less of a ball ache.

[Boxered]

Sounds like a good deal Jim, once you get your hands on it, log onto Toshiba's website and see what they want for an extended warranty, I paid £53 to turn my 12m std warranty into a 3 year collect and return warranty, never had to use it, but it is a little piece of mind.

Steve

[Herb]

Why did I ask for advice but ignore half of it.

Windows 8 is a joke! It is not at all intuitive. It took me ages just to find out how to turn the bloody thing off.

I really don't know what they were thinking. When you can pick up an android or apple tablet, and it all just falls to place, in comparison, this is a joke.
No doubt my daughter will figure it out, but someone at Microsoft should be shot for this mess.

[slparry]

Why did I ask for advice but ignore half of it.

Windows 8 is a joke! It is not at all intuitive. It took me ages just to find out how to turn the bloody thing off.

I really don't know what they were thinking. When you can pick up an android or apple tablet, and it all just falls to place, in comparison, this is a joke.
No doubt my daughter will figure it out, but someone at Microsoft should be shot for this mess.

either install 8.1 ( http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/wind ... 8-tutorial )

or easier ..... go to

http://www.classicshell.net/

and install classic shell, it's free and gives a start button back and gets rid of a lot of the W8 b*ll*cks and makes it appear more like W7

http://www.classicshell.net/gallery/Classic-Shell-4

[Boxered]

Why did I ask for advice but ignore half of it.

Windows 8 is a joke! It is not at all intuitive. It took me ages just to find out how to turn the bloody thing off.

I really don't know what they were thinking. When you can pick up an android or apple tablet, and it all just falls to place, in comparison, this is a joke.
No doubt my daughter will figure it out, but someone at Microsoft should be shot for this mess.

This is a link to a useful tutorial on w8, I have been putting it on all W8 PCs that we sell, my customers find it helpful ( as long as you can put up with the annoying characters involved )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wAlVz3tJvw

Steve

[Herb]

Why did I ask for advice but ignore half of it.

Windows 8 is a joke! It is not at all intuitive. It took me ages just to find out how to turn the bloody thing off.

I really don't know what they were thinking. When you can pick up an android or apple tablet, and it all just falls to place, in comparison, this is a joke.
No doubt my daughter will figure it out, but someone at Microsoft should be shot for this mess.

either install 8.1 ( http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/wind ... 8-tutorial )

or easier ..... go to

http://www.classicshell.net/

and install classic shell, it's free and gives a start button back and gets rid of a lot of the W8 b*ll*cks and makes it appear more like W7

http://www.classicshell.net/gallery/Classic-Shell-4

I will start with 8.1 and see how we get on. I have had to get a few things up and running in 8 first so it is fully up to date before installing 8.1. I can see why people don't like it.

I went for 8 in the end because the hardware seemed slightly better at a given price point. I just thought, she only needs it for college work and web, how bad can it be? The answer is very bad indeed.

[slparry]

On a tablet it may be ok on a PC without a touchscreen it's just horrible expecting users to make the transition from the now widely accepted norms

[SP250]

I had exactly the same issue going from Windows XP to Win 7 - they moved everything and you can't find anything. Then they say it is easier - forgetting that most of the world has got used to using XP

My next laptop may well be an Apple even if I have to pay 3 or 4 times as much for it.

[slparry]

I had exactly the same issue going from Windows XP to Win 7 - they moved everything and you can't find anything. Then they say it is easier - forgetting that most of the world has got used to using XP

My next laptop may well be an Apple even if I have to pay 3 or 4 times as much for it.

then your woes will really start

[Dog Tyred]

My next laptop may well be an Apple even if I have to pay 3 or 4 times as much for it.

then your woes will really start

I hear that! Currently running Windows software on my work Macbook Air

After years of Windows going to Mac is like trying to read manderin !

DT

[SP250]

So - no different than any new version of windows then and a lot less virus's.

[slparry]

So - no different than any new version of windows then and a lot less virus's.

I find W7 ok, and being fair W8 is ok with Classic Shell. I've got around to trialing 8.1 yet but it should also restore some of the lost functionality.

Viruses aren't an issue with a decent AV solution, my personal faves are Sophos and F-Secure. Hate Norton AV & McAffee with a vengance .... oh and the freebie Security Essentials from Microsoft is ok.

Of course part of the problem often is that people don't use common sense and run emailed executable files etc.

Recently there's been a flood (still ongoing) of zipped executables going around on emails purporting to be from the HMRC, DHL, Royal Mail, Barclays etc etc all trying to get a user to run the attached file. Once run that machine would also be infected and start pumping out emails from its contact list. So if you receive any such emails just bin them.

The other side of the coin is just how many of the shadier sites on the web, those dealing with smut or pirated media and programs etc are infected. Part of my job entails playing web police on our corporate network and Sophos blocks many such sites. It's suprising how many users attempt to download pirate movies and music on their corporate laptops and the amount of warnings I have to give about this is surprising.

People seem willing to grasp the concept of security and common sense for their car or their homes but get confoosababbled when asked to apply that same common sense to their PC's

There's a reason Windows has an 80% market share and Macs about 6% .. and Linux just over 1%.