Being a Computer Dummy Ain't Easy!

Egon · Feb 2, 2008

Welcome to the club Bird.

Over the holidays my son was here and made the decision our computer was kinda old, slow and very out of date just like me. Anyways he goes ahead and orders a new one. HP with vista. A little camera that glares at me and a key board and mouse that have no hard connections. The darned keyboard was clean to. Not covered in spaghetti sauce. I've been confused ever since.

I'm actually starting to think about getting myself boxed up and put in the closet with the old computer!

billbill1 · Feb 3, 2008

Bird, I have a "black belt" in computer ignorance!! My son keeps me up and running (he does it for a living). I can turn it on and read and type, anything beyond that and I'm lost. I know this doesn't help you at all but should ease your pain some.

ronjhall · Feb 3, 2008

Biggest problems I have heard with Vista is using older hardware and software that has not been updated to Vista. Just using Vista for us guys on the Internet should not be a problem.
Are you still using the Norton stuff on your new computer?

Bird · Feb 3, 2008

Egon, at least mine is still all wired together; no wireless stuff. Even an optical mouse instead of the little ball in the bottom is new to me. And this is my first one with the little wheel in the middle to scroll up and down. This keyboard has 6 keys along the left edge and 7 along the right edge that I've never seen before and have not used yet. I'm kind of guessing what they might be for, just from the little pictures on'em but don't know for sure.

Bill, I think our youngest daughter is about to marry a fellow who is supposed to be a computer whiz. He's just got one more week before he retires from the Navy, has started applying for jobs, and I know they were out house hunting the last few days. Maybe he'll be some help someday.

Ron, I don't think I'll be mixing much older hardware and software with the new, but who knows. Since my Password Manager 2004 from Norton SystemWorks won't work on Vista, I just won't try to use any of the SystemWorks 2004 or 2005 (I have both). Best Buy installed the new Norton Antivirus, but I just may buy the new SystemWorks and install it. I did install Quicken Deluxe 2004, which I like better than the 2008 version, but I do not download any financial data or updates; just manually enter everything I want.

I've still got a lot to do. This new computer and printer have the 15-in-1 slots to transfer photos from the digital camera. I've never used anything like that before, and have no idea how it works.

I do have the new stuff plugged into my APC UPS, but I haven't tried to install the software to automatically shut the computer down during a power failure. I'll have to check with them before I do anything with that.

I also have the USB cable to transfer photos from the cell phone to the computer and I had the software installed on the old computer. I once transfered 3 pictures to see if it worked and it did; haven't used it since

So, I'll be checking with them, too, before I attempt to install that program.

And I think today, I'll be trying to clean up everything from the old computer, remove personal data, etc. before I decide what to do with it.

Bird · Feb 4, 2008

Rox, I don't know just how I missed your post until now, but if you told HP you saw a puff of smoke, I'll bet they spent a lot of time trying to figure out how the magic smoke got out of that thing.

I've always heard that was secret to all things electrical; keeping the magic smoke in them. If you let any out, you've got big problems.

Yesterday, our daughter's boyfriend/fiance/future husband or whatever suggested dumping Vista and installing XP on the new computer. I don't think that's going to happen. It might be the smart thing to do, but it would just go against the grain for me to buy the newest and latest thing, only to go back to the older way. I would assume that Microsoft will continue to support XP for quite awhile, but I would expect them to support Vista even longer. And there actually are a few things I like better in Vista.

I think I'm gaining on this thing, but I wouldn't bet on it yet. I think they call the little slots on the new computers a 15-in-1 or some such name. Anyway, you can supposedly take the little card out of your digital camera and insert it in one of the slots to move the pictures to the computer or printer. That was something I wanted. Now I'm sure there are some instructions somewhere, but I didn't find them, but yesterday I figured out how to insert my SmartMedia card into one of the 4 slots in the computer and transferred some pictures. Then I decided to see how it worked with the printer. Now the computer has 4 slots and the printer has 4 slots, but they ain't all the same.

I couldn't find a slot in the printer for my SmartMedia. But I stopped in at Best Buy again and the young salesman takes my SmartMedia card, looks at it, and says, "I've never seen anything like that. How old is it?" OK, so now my camera is as obsolete as I am, and as my old computer was.

Anyway, none of their printers had a slot for SmartMedia, but I can live with that since I can put the pictures in the computer, then print them from there.

And I did buy Norton SystemWorks and installed it.

Now for the next question. I really liked the free Image Resizer from the Microsoft Power Toys for XP website, but on that website it says not for Vista. So what's the best/easiest/quickest/cheapest image resizer for Vista?

Egon · Feb 4, 2008

Bird: I believe there are lots of free picture programs out there. Do a Google. I tied one called GIMP but it overwhelmed me.

Pat introduced me to "Irfanview" which is almost within my abilities.

Ken_CT · Feb 4, 2008

Bird,
I'm using PIXresizer with Vista Home Basic and have no problems. Many years back when XP was introduced people hated it too. I just had to buy a new flatbed scanner as my older but expensive HP 6200c wasn't compatible, and HP's fix was to suggest I buy a new scanner, they were not going to come out with new drivers for it. The new one is not HP

. It takes a while to get used to Vista, but overall I like it. I still have the older XP computer, but I almost never use it anymore. My biggest complaint with Vista is the software compatibilitis issues. Why isn't MICROSOFT Office 2000 compatible with MICROSOFT Vista???So you will buy their new Office 2007, of course.

Bird · Feb 4, 2008

Yep, I tried a google search and apparently there are a lot of such programs, but the old one for XP was so simple. I don't want a big program that does all kinds of other things; just want to be able to easily downsize pictures to post on the Internt or to send via e-mail. So I'm wondering which is the simplest.

bones1 · Feb 4, 2008

Ken_CT said:
Bird,
I'm using PIXresizer with Vista Home Basic and have no problems. Many years back when XP was introduced people hated it too. I just had to buy a new flatbed scanner as my older but expensive HP 6200c wasn't compatible, and HP's fix was to suggest I buy a new scanner, they were not going to come out with new drivers for it. The new one is not HP . It takes a while to get used to Vista, but overall I like it. I still have the older XP computer, but I almost never use it anymore. My biggest complaint with Vista is the software compatibilitis issues. Why isn't MICROSOFT Office 2000 compatible with MICROSOFT Vista???So you will buy their new Office 2007, of course.

Ken, there are ways to install Office 2k on Vista that folks use.Check this one Outlook 2000 on Vista
and here Is MS Office 2000 compatible with Vista Premium?
The majority of the problems is with getting Outlook mail program working.This addresses that concern.

Rox.Here is a real good linux/unix program you can install yourself. I use it on a few machines at home and it's very interesting.
Ubuntu Desktop Edition | Ubuntu

dfkrug · Feb 4, 2008

Ken_CT said:
I'm using PIXresizer with Vista Home Basic and have no problems. Many years back when XP was introduced people hated it too. I just had to buy a new flatbed scanner as my older but expensive HP 6200c wasn't compatible, and HP's fix was to suggest I buy a new scanner, they were not going to come out with new drivers for it. The new one is not HP . It takes a while to get used to Vista, but overall I like it. I still have the older XP computer, but I almost never use it anymore. My biggest complaint with Vista is the software compatibilitis issues. Why isn't MICROSOFT Office 2000 compatible with MICROSOFT Vista???So you will buy their new Office 2007, of course.

Hey, Ken, I just got a new Dell w/ Vista Home Premium. My old Dell with
XP SP2 still works fine, but is nearly 6 y old.

I see no advantages to Vista, but some of the things I read about it have not
been true. It boots up plenty fast with only 1GB RAM, and Office 2000
(at least Word and Excel) work fine on it. No way am I paying for Office 07.
The only printer issue I have found is with my old DeltaCAD s/w using the
USB interface to my Samsung Laser printer. My Canon LiDE scanner also
works fine.

What I have not figured out yet is why a user with Admin privilege can not
access certain folders like "documents and settings".

MSFT says they will offer an XP SP3 update this year, BTW, as many
individuals and companies out there have no plans of "upgrading".