Okay good one, thanks everyone.
Carverman that sounds pretty rough. Sorry to hear.
Okay good one, thanks everyone.
Carverman that sounds pretty rough. Sorry to hear.
What my myositis muscle inflammation (losing my ablity to walk)? or the "computer deal" on Kijji?Originally Posted by Dopplegangerr
At this point in my life, the computer s/w copy is the least of my worries.
I live alone and getting around to do my daily routines + shopping for groceries is more of challenge and concern. Winter will be even worse for
my mobility. I have a wheelchair and a scooter, but I'm prolonging resigning myself to the wheelchair..trying to keep my leg muscles still exercised
in spite of the pain.
Ok, so I learned a lot about buying used computers online for next time..it won't happen again. Had the guy told me, I would have reloaded right
away with my licensed version that I bought..but he didn't and unfortunately before I bought it, I used the "Up to 4 computers" allowed on some applications for my friend's two computers that I worked on to fix some corruption issues...and two of my own...
my HP desktop and now this "BrandX" one.
If I re-install now..I will be forced to buy another Norton 360 licence. I have until March 2013 on my current Norton licence
but because of the "Up to 4 computers" rule, I have used up some of my licensed application options..well..for now.
Compared to the tens of thousands I spent on divorce lawyers and divorce from 1994 to 2003...the few dollars I spent on a used
computer is insignificant. It still works ok, and I can fix the MS s/w..I just don't want to do it right now..
because it will be another few hours stuck at the keyboard during the night, having to download all sorts of applications after Win 7 home premium is installed in from the CD. (Have to start "clean". Right with the fall sunshine and cooler weather, I'd
rather sit outside and soak up the sun and carve in my back yard.
I'll do the re-install in Novemember, when the weather turns wet, dreary and slushy.
Last edited by carverman; 2012-09-17 at 07:36 PM.
Carver, look into some free antivirus software. Check out AVG. It's not really necessary to spend money on antivirus.
Thanks Andrew. This used "refurb" did come with AVG freebee and (to my chagrin), a copy of Win 7 Ultimate when he delivered it.
I have used Norton 360 over the last few years, because it offers a lot of additional features, (internet file cleanup, backup),
since I do my banking on line, it also lets me know if there are any tracking cookies or snoopers as well as warning me of any unsafe sites, while internet browsing + the firewall.
After about 5 years of using it, I trust it. It also tells me I am protected on all counts, which gives me that "warm feeling,
eases my peace of mind.
I usually get it at Staples when it goes on sale a couple times a year... (about $49.95 or $20 off the Norton online price).
This yearly licence allows for 365 days of protection and up to 4 computer applications.
However this year due to a motherboard failure of my first PC and also installing it in my HP replacement (backup PC),
and my friends two PCs that he brought to me to troubleshoot (when they wouldn't come up in Windows XP),
and now this new PC..I have now used up all 4 allowed applications allowed by Norton under the current licence
which is still good until March 2013.
Question for CMF'ers:
Does AVG have?
PC Security, Identity protection, Backup, and PC Tuneup built in? I don't believe it does..so you get what you pay for.
The other thing I like about Norton 360 Premium Edition V6 is that you can request virus definition updates at any time and it will also
do virus updates for you, if you forget.
Dan
When I bought the second used one
Last edited by carverman; 2012-09-18 at 10:39 AM.
Norton is way too much of a resource hog imo. There are free anti-virus and all that extra stuff that Norton does is covered by other programs and even Windows 7 does them now itself. It's worth sticking with what works for you I guess, I've always paid for ESET and it runs very light and non-intrusively. For the same reason I don't run Adobe Reader... Free PDF readers read PDFs just fine without bi-weekly updates and constant restarts!!
When everyone thinks the same they don't think at all
Yes, you have a point. Sometimes my computer runs very slow, but I'm not sure it is because of Norton.
I get a few of these "foggy whiteouts" where Win 7 gives me a 3 choices, find a solution, kill the program running or wait for it to respond. But it seem to be related to Skype which is a real resource hog.
I hate paying and paying (Norton yearly licence) , but I've used it for about 5 years now and it gives me peace of mind.
Yes you are right about some of the applications coming up with popups that an update is available.
Those are now added to the "Nag" list, I ignore them.
I bought a licence for CA PCTuneup and everytime I run it, it finds "problems", then tells me it has corrected them, and rescan and restart..what a colossal waste of money and time! Once the licence expires, I'm never going to use it again.
Same with Driver Manager..another licenced application that goes out and finds drivers for all the devices in your computer..or NOT.
Well, I guess I asked for it.
I got a used HP desktop for nothing and it had a lot of hardware on it that I wasn't familiar with and since I wanted to
get it going as quickly as possible after I installed Win 7 Home Premium..I didn't want to be bothered trying to figure out what the hardware was that came with the HP media center desktop,
So... I went online and found the Driver Manager..that would run and identify all the devices that needed drivers, but in order
to get these drivers downloaded by it, you had to pull out your credit card and buy a licence to activate it.
Seems to be a lot of these application shenanigans going on these days!
In retrospect, it probably would have been as cheap to go out and get a new Desktop with Win 7 already installed and legal..but by doing it the hard way with a "free HP Desktop computer", I learned a lot more about PCs than before,
because I had to learn to troubleshoot it myself at home. Learning doesn't come cheap these days either.
Free apps: Adobe Reader X
Skype
QuickTime Player
Irfanview (picture file editor)
Fuji FinePix (Came as a CD with the Fujifilm digital camera0
Apps I had to buy a licence (or CD) to install:
- Norton 360 Premier edition ($49.95 for one year, on sale at Staples (with tax $56)
- Microsoft Works (crappy file editor with templates) $20.00 at Staples (one time purchase),
but it has a bug that Microsoft wont fix for me, so I use it as a file editor.
- Driver Manager (partnered with Norton) $39.95 licence expires Dec 2014
- CA PCTuneup (by Total Defence) $49.95 (CD with tax $56) Expires Feb 2013
So I guess all these apps to help me fix hardware and s/w problems, but cost me about $140 this year.
On top of that Win 7 Home Premium cost me $129 + tax ($146.84)
On top of all that, I bought a spare 160gb hard disk on line...$89 tax (which I haven't used so far)
and $150 for a second computer to help troubleshoot my WIND data stick problem that kept dropping the
connections on me earlier.
So this year, my 2 PC(s) has cost me a LOT...about $400 for the experience of tearing into the hardware and installing s/w and all the applications..
For all that there is Mastercard...experience gained in troubleshooting (and frustration,those long sleepless hours downloading-restarting-downloading-restarting..etc...) Priceless!
Last edited by carverman; 2012-09-18 at 07:06 PM.
One of the reasons I prefer Apple is demonstrated in the above re-install/tuneup/antivir/tearing into the hardware etc discussion. In the three years since I switched to a Macbook Pro, I have had exactly zero issues with anything and it performs as flawlessly as when new. Cheaper in the long run by far, and no time wasted.
"What good is money if you can't inspire terror in your fellow man?"- C.M. Burns
It's true that you can get by without anti-virus software for the Mac (I've never used anti-virus on any of my Macs since the late 1980s), but that won't be true for long. More and more malware is being written for the Apple platform as it takes up a larger share of the PC market.
I'm also not convinced the Mac platform is cheaper in the long run: Macs are mostly premium machines, and while they're not priced significantly higher than Windows machines with identical specs (and in some cases when I've done comparisons the Mac is cheaper), you can get a perfectly adequate Windows machine for a lot less money. Given that there are free antivirus programs available and Windows 7 is a lot more secure than previous versions of Windows, it doesn't really cost more to run Windows than Mac OS.
The one area where I think the Mac clearly outshines Windows is stability. I've been running OSX since version 10.1 was released in September 2001 and the operating system has crashed exactly twice during those 11 years. Windows XP crashes on my PC once every few months, and Windows 7 crashes several times per month (sometimes several times per week). And I'm talking about serious crashes, where control-alt-delete has no effect and you have to power off the machine and turn it back on. Windows 2000 was the most stable version I can remember; I could go for a few years without a crash. But those crashes are merely annoyances; they don't cause any lasting problems and they require maybe 5 minutes of waiting while the machine reboots and you get back to what you were doing.
i don't belong in this erudite group at all since i'm not in love with IP machines & i detest their problems ... i have windows 7 & i truly miss XP but getting it back would not work for me ...
re anti-virus, there is a retired math schoolteacher in my area who repairs home computers at the home. He regularly visits - no i am not making a dirty remark - he regularly visits all the ladies in my neighbourhood except me, because i have a longterm dell contract which works for me.
schoolteacher (ret.) is crazy about free Avast as an anti-virus. All my neighbourhood friends are therefore are running Avast. No problems. Apparently it is very light in the memory. I also hear praise from other people. I've never heard any complaints about Avast. It's supposed to be better than free AVG, which itself is supposed to be less protective than paid AVG.
i can't run Avast because broker says they sometimes have noticeable connection problems when clients use this anti-virus. But folks who don't trade heavily could perhaps consider Avast.
I run free Microsoft anti-virus on all of our home PCs. It's called Microsoft Security Essentials. For what it's worth, CNET editors rate it "spectacular".
http://download.cnet.com/Microsoft-S...-12530959.html
I don't know if it's spectacular or not. I hardly ever notice it. Which is exactly what I want from the anti-virus.
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