-=PCTechTalk=- Re: Reinstalling WinXP MCE

  • From: "Sr. Dorothy Robinson" <srdorothy@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 5 May 2010 18:36:10 -0700

Terry,
One alternative might be to find a Linux group and get them to help you
install Ubuntu Linux (side by side with your Windows). At our house (a
monastery) we have several people who don't know much about computers but
happily run Ubuntu as their operating system. Pretty much cuts out a lot of
trouble: viruses, virus scanners (which take a lot of resources), and so on.
We use open source software which is free.  And Ubuntu runs faster on my 5
year old machine than Win XP does (I still have it available to boot into--a
multi-boot situation which is not hard to do--for cases where I have to use
a Windows program).
For a machine older than mine or with less resources, one wouldn't want to
run Ubuntu (in my opinion), but maybe a smaller version of Linux like Puppy.
 But if you're still paying for your computer, it should be new enough to
have plenty of oomph to do the job.

This said, if I were in your shoes, I'd still try to "fix" Windows since you
might need it sometime. I'm sure others will know if your plan is a good one
for that.

Good luck!
Sr. Dorothy
p.s. I belong to a computer user group which has been very helpful to me
over the past few years: first they helped me with Windows, and then they
helped me learn enough about Linux to be able to administer some Linux
machines on our network!    Here is a link to the national assoc. of user
groups; you can see if there is anything near you.....and by the way, I'm
glad to hear your surgery was successful!  Sounds like you went through a
lot...

On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 4:28 PM, TERRY MILLER <terrym@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hi, this is Terry in Montana.My computer had a virus problem last year
> and I had to drop out in the middle of the discussion. My spinal cord
> got very compressed and I couldn't type or even use the mouse. I
> actually had problems even feeding myself.  I had an eight hour
> operation in October, they pretty much rebuilt my neck, my hands were
> even worse after, but they're coming back now.
>
> I had the computer taken to a local shop for the guy to get the virus
> off. He wiped everything I had, didn't even give me a chance to write
> down info needed. Lost over $4,000 worth of PDF's. He said they were
> all infected with spyware. I think now that he's an idiot. The one
> folder was even titled Paid For and one was receipts, mostly just
> text, that I could have copied into emails and sent them to myself,
> since I have Earthlinks virus blocker I shouldn't have had a problem,
> but I didn't even get to try.
> And now my computer runs worse than it ever has, even when it was
> infected. I can do searches that I couldn't do with the virus, but
> every time I open a program it locks the computer up for 2 to 3
> minutes. He also put Word 2002 on it, after I told him I used Open
> Office. I believe that's illegal since I didn't have Word. I
> uninstalled that but my computer is so slow. I took it thru PC pitstop
> and it's performance  ranked in the lower 50% of computers like it.
>
> So I want to reinstall windows myself and see if it works better then.
> Also programs like RealPlayer used to work and now don't, even if I
> uninstall and reinstall them. Google Chrome closes any tabs that I
> click on anyplace,not just the x
> .
> I tried searching the archives for instructions but was unable to find
> them. And I would like to get your opinions on this plan of action and
> see if anyone has any other ideas to make my computer work better. I'm
> still making payments on the dang thing.
>


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