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Click here for the Grey Nomads website -> The Grey Nomads Forum -> Techies' Corner -> All things computers - a Nomad travelers compendium.
Post Info TOPIC: All things computers - a Nomad travelers compendium.
oz-demigod


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All things computers - a Nomad travelers compendium.
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After 23 years in IT i've finally given it away and moved into another industry. Apparently, being 49 with 23 years in one industry makes you "too experienced" and unemployable so i've retrained in anticipation of the last 18 years of my "travel-round-oz-to-make-$$-for-fuel" working life. Not that i want to work for all 18 of them, but who knows......

I spend a fair bit of time helping my dad and associated family members over the phone between qld and victoria and there must be a lot of people out there who struggle technically as well (he never used to struggle, but a couple of minor strokes does have that effect on your mind) so i've decided to start at the beginning and put down in writing most of what i know so others can be helped. I know for a fact that prevention of problems in 90% of the cases can lessen the stress of relying on a computer, laptop or tablet device. Good, accurate advice is generally hard to find and frequently expensive.

I have no vested interest in any IT related organisation, i don't charge for helping and all advice is given in good faith. Having said that, all my experience has been gained working in the Information Technology departments of some very large corporations and some small-medium companies and i like to think my standards are higher than most. I do believe that most companies i've worked for and left have been better off for my work ethic (remember what that is? everyone used to have one years ago...)

So here we go, IT tips and troubleshooting for the nomad in all of us. I'm going to tailor what i know to suit Windows Vista, 7 and if necessary, XP. If you're still on Windoze 95/98/2000 you need to update. If you're on Windoze 8 i feel for you.

 

 



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sean

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'spose i should put something in here....dunno what tho....
oldbobsbus


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Try this one for size..
I am running w7 that is 100% up to date
it has a 100gig HDD
1.5gig RAM
P4 Chip
I only want it for simple Google searches and for doing online banking etc.
No Games
I would like to use FireFox as my browser but everytime I try to install it it gets to the part where it imports the cookies, favourites etc and then the screen goes black followed 1 sec later by the dreaded BSoD.
It auto restarts itself and reports it has recovered from a major...

I have tried different graphics cards without success, including 32mb up to 256mbcards..
I can get it to load and work by rolling back the Graphics driver but that stuffs up the screen resolution..

I have loaded most other things I want on it including MSE..




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oz-demigod


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windows and associated program updates.
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First things first the real basic stuff.

You're on the road either regularly or permanently. You'll have limited bandwidth and download quota - either through your mobile phone tethered to your machine or through a USB dongle, maybe even a satellite internet connection - and the last thing you need is for Windows, Acrobat, Java, iTunes, Flash or any other installed application downloading ridiculously large program updates every single time you log onto your laptop to check your email. These can all be disabled, usually at the point of installation or through the 'check for updates' option inside the program menu. Updates can also have the unintentional effect of causing corruptions within Windoze and the last thing you need when you're on the road is to have to go looking for someone to reload your operating system and all the programs you use.

In Windows 7 click on the Start button and choose Control Panel. In the top right corner of the screen where it says View By: choose Small Icons. The last icon is Windows Update and if you click once on it you'll see something akin to this: Pic: Update1

update1.JPG

If you click on Change settings in the left menu panel you'll see a screen that looks like below: Pic: Update2

update2.JPG

The most important option here is the pull down menu that allows you to change the update regimen to Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them but setting your options the same as mine won't be a bad thing. No updates are downloaded until i've looked at them and decided whether or not to install them or hide them. To view the available updates, click on the link that says 1 important update is available Pic: Update3

update3.JPG

If you hide them they'll be permanently hidden and you won't be reminded about them again unless you deliberately choose to Restore hidden updates: Pic: Restore Options.

restore options.JPG

To hide an update you only need to highlight it, right click and choose Hide Update. I don't install things like Bing Desktop and new versions of Internet Explorer so they're hidden. Also, if you don't install optional programs such as Bing Desktop and IE10/11 you won't get notification of those updates. More on internet browsers later but suffice to say I use Opera and totally avoid internet exploder of any version. Firefox is good too, but it's very subjective and a purely personal choice. 

To disable updates in Acrobat Reader you can click on Edit > Preferences > Updater (bottom of the left menu panel) and once again choose 'Notify me but let me choose when to download and install updates'. On all of my machines Java is set to 'Never auto-download' and Flash 'Notify me'. If you're on a limited download quota and don't want your money to be wasted, this is a sensible set of changes to make.



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sean

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oldbobsbus


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RE: All things computers - a Nomad travelers compendium.
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I'm at home at the moment with really good internet access..
All of the above are under control and as you should be able to see by what I have said I do have a reasonable grasp of IT..
This is just a problem I am having with a computer I am trying to set up..
I have never struck this problem before in the 15 yrs I have been playing with them..
I have googled the problem and read about a 100 posts on the subject without any success..


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oz-demigod


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you say it works if you back out the video drivers and it crashes if you change the resolution. try removing all versions of firefox and clean out the cache of IE

If your computer has an onboard video card i'd be inclined to connect to it and remove the plug in card. track down every set of installed video drivers you can find, search through windows updates for microsoft video card driver updates and uninstall them all. choose which video card you want to use and download the full driver pack from your card manufacturer and store it where you can find it. reboot the machine in VGA and start the firefox installation again without importing anything. shut down, reinstall the video card and restart. log in but do not allow windows to install the drivers automatically. run the downloaded driver pack for the card, choose the settings and restart.

If you want to get really interesting with it, log in under the administrators account and remove the one you have been working under. reboot, recreate the account again. see how the installation goes under another account. try running a defrag under safe mode and run a checkdisc to make sure the drive isn't faulty. reset the bios to factory defaults. check that the RAM isn't faulty. try updating the BIOS for the motherboard.



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sean

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oldbobsbus


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Yep have already tried all of the above... except for flashing the Bios but I really cant see that making any difference.
The board doesn't have an onboard card but I have tried about 4 cards with the same result all the cards I have tried work perfectly in other units..
While I was waiting for your reply I thought I would see if Chrome would do the same but alas it loaded and worked perfectly..

the RAM is working perfectly... My IT mate reckons I should just forget about FF and now Chrome is working ok I might just do that..lol..
I really do hate IE with a passion..

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dorian


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Have you tried disabling hardware acceleration for your graphics card(s)?


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oz-demigod


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dorian wrote:

Have you tried disabling hardware acceleration for your graphics card(s)?

 Good point...didn't think of that.



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sean

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oldbobsbus


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I'll give that a try in the morning as I have shut it down and reverted to Plan B (Grab a stubbie and think about something else)..

At the moment I am inclined to file the FF thing in the too hard basket..lol..

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hako


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oldbobsbus wrote:

I'll give that a try in the morning as I have shut it down and reverted to Plan B (Grab a stubbie and think about something else)..

At the moment I am inclined to file the FF thing in the too hard basket..lol..

 

Geez Bob, that's exactly what I'd do, and I'll tell you what, Ive done it many a time too.

oz-demigod - good tip about disabling auto updates that chew your mobile broadband allocation up. 

 

Thanks.



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oz-demigod


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I've just purchased a new computer – what do I need to do now?
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Long gone are the days when your computer would be assembled in the back of a retail store to your specifications. 4 days later when you went back to pick it up the salesman would run you through everything you needed to know before he put it back into the boxes for you. These days they're delivered to your front door by a courier if you bought it online or it comes in a set of boxes if you've gone to 'hardly normal', Myer or Dick Smith and bought off the shelf. Sometimes they might even give you a bit of paper with diagrams on it showing you how to assemble it and listing a telephone number for post-sale customer support. You diligently unpack and assemble it (if required), turn it on, let it boot up, set your time zone and create an account with a password and off you go. An hour after you unpacked the box you're connected to the internet and the world is at your fingertips and this is where the real problems start.

You've got a legitimate licence for windoze so you're fully legal but you get no cd's or dvd's with modern machines. They create a partition on the hard drive in the factory and copy the dvd's onto it and as you were starting to get the wee beastie up and running you probably saw an option to create a set of rescue discs but skipped past it because you didn't have any spare dvd's and anyway, it's brand new- what could possibly go wrong? From my experience, if a person doesn't create those discs on the first day of taking possession of a new computer, they'll never create them, but it's not a hard or involved process and most times all it'll take is an hour and 3 or 4 dvd's.

The first option is to create a set of Windows Installation Discs. If you didn't get a set of Windows discs in your boxes your computer manufacturer will have created a small application that you can run to create them. On my Fujitsu laptop the program is called Fujitsu MyRecovery Make Factory Recovery DVD. It will even tell you what type of discs you'll need.

my recovery.JPG

You'll find these programs either on the desktop as a shortcut generally called something like Create Rescue Discs or you can click on the start button, go to All Programs and scroll through the folders there. One of them will invariably be named in a way that reflects the creation of the system restore discs for your specific brand or make of computer. If you have a Dell it will create a copy of the Dell branded discs, if you have a Fujitsu it'll create the Fujitsu discs. All you will need is some blank dvd's, some spare cases to store them in and a marker pen to label and number the discs. The program will normally make the installation discs for Windows, a bootable disc for accessing the Windows recovery options and one for all of the installed applications (anti-virus software, Microsoft Office, DVD playing software, webcam software etc etc).

The installation discs are self explanatory. If you turn your laptop or computer on one day and you get the dreaded BSoD (blue screen of death) there's generally not a lot you can do. Yes you can try getting the machine into safe mode and uninstalling the last 2 programs you installed or updated, or you can try removing the video or network drivers (both common causes of the BSoD) but you're 300km from the Alice and you want to upload photos of the sunset and sunrise yesterday, to the GN forums. You grab your recovery disc set, open the DVD drive, put in disc 1, close the disc tray and hold down the power button to turn off the machine. Hit the power button again and everything should start whirring. If it doesn't boot straight to the DVD you may need to watch the screen normally there will be a prompt that says something like 'Press F2 for Boot Order'. All keyboards have a Pause key so don't be afraid of using it if everything skips past you too quickly. You press F-whatever and choose the DVD drive and follow the prompts. It's very simple and will take about an hour to reinstall, so grab a coffee (I would say beer, but you'll need your wits at some point), make sure the computer is plugged into a mains socket and watch the magic happen. If you haven't got 240v a fully charged battery should be ok but the DVD drive spinning incessantly will drain it fairly quickly.

 

 



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sean

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oz-demigod


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I've just purchased a new computer – what do I need to do now? pt 2
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The next disc you created is a bootable rescue disc. Some people have luck using these but unless you really know what you're doing, you'll struggle to make much sense of Microsoft speak. They can be useful in rolling back a windows installation to a previous stable configuration but my opinion is that you're just going backwards so your system can be corrupted by the same process again. I prefer the re-installation discs because you can start afresh with a full data wipe and a nice clean install.

You can also create a Microsoft utility disc by clicking on the Start button and going to the Control Panel. Click on the Backup and Restore Icon and you'll have 2 options.

backup & restore.JPG

One is to create a System Image. These can be incredibly large files, easily upwards of 20gb so you'll need 5 or 6 DVD's or a USB hard drive/thumb drive

create sys image.JPG

These can be really good if you've got all your software installed and everything is configured the way you want it. If you create a system image you're effectively taking a snapshot of what your computer looks like at that point in time. If you were to restore that image in a months time it would be reinstalled to exactly the same state as it was when you took the snapshot. I normally say to people install what you want, get it configured so you're happy with it and then do a system image. If you install some dodgy software in 3 weeks time and your machine gets the BSoD blues, you can use the utility disc to reinstall the clean and uncorrupted system image and you won't need to spend the next 4 hours reinstalling all your needed applications.

win sys repair disc.JPG

The application disc is an interesting case. You'll find things like the very latest version of Microsoft Office, some version of anti-virus software, DVD playing software and other such applications that you'll wonder if you really do need them. The A-V software is a yes, but you are not forced to use what is on the disc or loaded onto the machine. The software you get with a new computer is generally a trial version that you need to pay for after 30 or 60 days. You get the option to upgrade to a fully licensed copy at a cost of $xx and you can do it all via the internet with your credit card. You can also look around for a better deal. The version that comes pre-loaded with your machine will normally only be licensed to your computer, but you can go to just about any other website for the A-V companies (Kaspersky, Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro to name a few) and you'll get a license for multiple machines. For around $80-100 you can get a fully licensed copy of the A-V software of your choice and you can install it on your laptop, your daughters computer and your grand kids' computer. When your time for renewal comes up in 12 months time you'll normally get the renewal for about half of the original cost (in most cases anyway). All you need to do is a little bit of homework and make a choice. If you decide to change from what is pre-loaded onto the machine you only need to uninstall it before you install the copy you have purchased and downloaded.

 

Microsoft Office is a very different case entirely. Microsnot recently released Office 365 which is a subscription based, server installed version of what we used to install onto our computers. Office 365 now costs a minimum of $119 per year. For that money you do admittedly get 5 licenses so you can share it around the family, but it's going to cost a minimum of $119 every year and realistically you can only use it properly if you're connected to the internet. You can still buy a standalone, installable version of Office 365 but it will cost $599 and it is only available for installation on one machine. Or, you can do what I do and use a free, open source application called OpenOffice. OpenOffice is free to download, free to register and fully supported by a viable community of people who are genuinely interested in the concept of making software available to those without a corporate bank account. It does have some minor limitations, the main one being that whilst it will open pretty much any file format Microsnot can come up with, it won't save in that format. For instance, Microsoft's current Word document format is .docx but OpenOffice will only save in a .doc format. Excel's is .xlsx but OO will only save in a .xls format. If you're no longer involved in the corporate world, rarely get documents of any importance and only need something to bang out a document or spreadsheet here and there, it's a very viable alternative that won't break the bank. As with all open source software you are free to make a donation to help keep the developers enthused but this is entirely voluntary and should you choose to not donate the functionality of the software is not affected in any way.



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sean

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jules47


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RE: All things computers - a Nomad travelers compendium.
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oz-demigod wrote:

After 23 years in IT i've finally given it away and moved into another industry. Apparently, being 49 with 23 years in one industry makes you "too experienced" and unemployable so i've retrained in anticipation of the last 18 years of my "travel-round-oz-to-make-$$-for-fuel" working life. Not that i want to work for all 18 of them, but who knows......

I spend a fair bit of time helping my dad and associated family members over the phone between qld and victoria and there must be a lot of people out there who struggle technically as well (he never used to struggle, but a couple of minor strokes does have that effect on your mind) so i've decided to start at the beginning and put down in writing most of what i know so others can be helped. I know for a fact that prevention of problems in 90% of the cases can lessen the stress of relying on a computer, laptop or tablet device. Good, accurate advice is generally hard to find and frequently expensive.

I have no vested interest in any IT related organisation, i don't charge for helping and all advice is given in good faith. Having said that, all my experience has been gained working in the Information Technology departments of some very large corporations and some small-medium companies and i like to think my standards are higher than most. I do believe that most companies i've worked for and left have been better off for my work ethic (remember what that is? everyone used to have one years ago...)

So here we go, IT tips and troubleshooting for the nomad in all of us. I'm going to tailor what i know to suit Windows Vista, 7 and if necessary, XP. If you're still on Windoze 95/98/2000 you need to update. 

If you're on Windoze 8 i feel for you.

 

 Thanks - I know exactly what you mean - worst thing they have ever done - Windows 8!!!!!!!!

 



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Ontos45


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When my last Toshiba laptop gave up the ghost last year after 3 years of bashing round outback Qld. I brought another Toshiba. It came pre-installed with Win8. and damn Norton Antiviris. I use AVG paid version. Deleted Norton via their un-install program and loaded AVG. So many crashes nearly threw laptop out of caravan door. Used regedit and found over 50 entries left over from Norton install including entries in windows firewall. I ended up buying Toshiba OS re-install discs as the back-up files on the HDD were corrupt...not accessible. Think this new idea of on-board back-up a bloody con-job, would happily pay a little extra for OS discs when buying a new computer.

Found this site showing how to enable Win8 safe mode at start up.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/enable-the-f8-key-in-windows-8/

Hope it helps as it helped me, some other advice on this site too.


Peter



-- Edited by Ontos45 on Monday 18th of November 2013 11:23:33 AM

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bill12


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Have tried that , too. 3.8 gig, and it didn,t work. And used up most of my megs for the month.I have a reg copyof win 7, but the bios won,t let you delete win8.The laptop is working reasonably well at the moment, so I will have to wait and see. Bill



-- Edited by bill12 on Monday 18th of November 2013 03:13:08 PM

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bill12


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Bob,stay with win 7, win 8 is a pain.Had a good read of the pc world stuff and decided its too much trouble.The laptop is working , and I want it to stay that way. Thanks, but no thanks. Bill



-- Edited by bill12 on Monday 18th of November 2013 05:18:55 PM

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GaryKelly


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Gee, our very own personal IT person on the forum! How flash is that?

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oldbobsbus


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Ontos45 wrote:

When my last Toshiba laptop gave up the ghost last year after 3 years of bashing round outback Qld. I brought another Toshiba. It came pre-installed with Win8. and damn Norton Antiviris. I use AVG paid version. Deleted Norton via their un-install program and loaded AVG. So many crashes nearly threw laptop out of caravan door. Used regedit and found over 50 entries left over from Norton install including entries in windows firewall. I ended up buying Toshiba OS re-install discs as the back-up files on the HDD were corrupt...not accessible. Think this new idea of on-board back-up a bloody con-job, would happily pay a little extra for OS discs when buying a new computer.

Found this site showing how to enable Win8 safe mode at start up.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/enable-the-f8-key-in-windows-8/

Hope it helps as it helped me, some other advice on this site too.


Peter



-- Edited by Ontos45 on Monday 18th of November 2013 11:23:33 AM

 There is a free program on the net called "Advanced Uninstaller" that removes all of the leftovers after it uninstalls a program like Nortons and all the other rubbish that comes with a new lappy..



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spida


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maybe we can have a sub title in Techies corner just for this - cool


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_wombat_


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oldbobsbus wrote:
bill12 wrote:

I tried this path a number of times, and failed as they have put numerous obstacles in the Bios and as far as I can see you can only downgrade if you have win 8 pro on your comp.I have resigned to having win 8, but still don't like it.Bill

 Hi Bill, I believe there is relief on its way for you.

Microsoft have suffered since the release of W8 and have been busy working on a service pac for it so it shouldn't be too much longer till you can patch it and it will work much like the OSs of the past with a start button etc.. I haven't been able to find out if it will come as an update or as an optional patch... but either way there is relief on the way..

 8.1 was the upgrade that was supposed to have a start button, it is not the start button like Win 7, if you have Win 8 the only way to make it work like Win 7 is to get this FREE program http://www.classicshell.net/ and you now have your start button, and you also have 3 options to set it up.

You can setup Win 8 to start from any page you want to, you do not have to use the tiles supplied by Win 8 boot direct to your own desktop bypass the tiles.

I love Win 8, BIT I do think it should be for iPad's iPhones etc



-- Edited by _wombat_ on Monday 18th of November 2013 08:21:41 PM

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El Gringo


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Ontos45 wrote:

When my last Toshiba laptop gave up the ghost last year after 3 years of bashing round outback Qld. I brought another Toshiba. It came pre-installed with Win8. and damn Norton Antiviris. I use AVG paid version. Deleted Norton via their un-install program and loaded AVG. So many crashes nearly threw laptop out of caravan door. Used regedit and found over 50 entries left over from Norton install including entries in windows firewall. I ended up buying Toshiba OS re-install discs as the back-up files on the HDD were corrupt...not accessible. Think this new idea of on-board back-up a bloody con-job, would happily pay a little extra for OS discs when buying a new computer.

Found this site showing how to enable Win8 safe mode at start up.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/enable-the-f8-key-in-windows-8/

Hope it helps as it helped me, some other advice on this site too.


Peter



-- Edited by Ontos45 on Monday 18th of November 2013 11:23:33 AM

 The Norton uninstall does not do what it claims as you have found out, however for those that wish to get rid of it properly Norton do have an uninstall utility that does actually work.

download it here. https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/kb20080710133834EN_EndUserProfile_en_us

 

Cheers,



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bill12


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I know this is a pain, but how do you get rid of win 8. It was pre installed on my Toshiba laptop, and has caused all sorts of problems. I have tried many times and failed.Can you help me . Thanks, Bill.

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El Gringo


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'tis a popular request i reckon, try here for details on how to go about it.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2417359,00.asp

Cheers,



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bill12


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I tried this path a number of times, and failed as they have put numerous obstacles in the Bios and as far as I can see you can only downgrade if you have win 8 pro on your comp.I have resigned to having win 8, but still don't like it.Bill



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oldbobsbus


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bill12 wrote:

I tried this path a number of times, and failed as they have put numerous obstacles in the Bios and as far as I can see you can only downgrade if you have win 8 pro on your comp.I have resigned to having win 8, but still don't like it.Bill

 Hi Bill, I believe there is relief on its way for you.

Microsoft have suffered since the release of W8 and have been busy working on a service pac for it so it shouldn't be too much longer till you can patch it and it will work much like the OSs of the past with a start button etc.. I haven't been able to find out if it will come as an update or as an optional patch... but either way there is relief on the way..



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El Gringo


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You can download 8.1 right now, it's huge though and most who have it are not any happier with it.

If you refer back to the link i put in my last post, you can go back to windows 7 so long as you have a legitimate copy of it (V7).

Cheers,



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El Gringo


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bill12 wrote:

Have tried that , too. 3.8 gig, and it didn,t work. And used up most of my megs for the month.I have a reg copyof win 7, but the bios won,t let you delete win8.The laptop is working reasonably well at the moment, so I will have to wait and see. Bill



-- Edited by bill12 on Monday 18th of November 2013 03:13:08 PM

 If you read through the instructions in that link, it tells you how to fix the issue with the BIOS as well.

I have tried it and it works.

Cheers,



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oldbobsbus


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El Gringo wrote:
bill12 wrote:

Have tried that , too. 3.8 gig, and it didn,t work. And used up most of my megs for the month.I have a reg copyof win 7, but the bios won,t let you delete win8.The laptop is working reasonably well at the moment, so I will have to wait and see. Bill



-- Edited by bill12 on Monday 18th of November 2013 03:13:08 PM

 If you read through the instructions in that link, it tells you how to fix the issue with the BIOS as well.

I have tried it and it works.

Cheers,

 I have had a good read through that link and to be honest it is to involved for me (I'd rather be fishing) and there is still a chance it won't work 100%...

My current lappy is running W7 and I bought another one as a spare last Sat at a garage sale for a very very good price..smile



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SnowT


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Personally I don't think I would buy a Laptop if it came with window's 8[I hate it], I completely missed vista as that was a Piece of !@#$ and only got Win 7 after I played with the Beta test.. Loved it..

so my progress in life has been..

window's 5.1
win 95 for age's..
window's XP
Skip'd Vista as an ugly system..
Got Win 7 and Love it..

Win 8 will never get it or any version of OS that Look's like it.. the interface is just to hard to use as novice hack to be able to do many thing's..


Juergen

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Santa


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Been running XP for 11 trouble free years, love it.

Not sure what I'll do when Microsoft withdraw support for it in 2014, I have programs I use daily that wont run on Vista or later.confuse



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Santa.

Moonta, Copper Coast, South Aust.
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