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Ugh ... Vista - 6/19/2008 10:44:56 AM
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PolarBear
Posts: 735
Joined: 4/11/2005
From: Moving to San Antonio!
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So I got my realtor wife a new laptop, with Vista. I was hoping to get her to use Linux, but I sort of caved. (She has few problems with my Kubuntu box, but still thought she needed Windows, and the local realtor board site seems to require IE.)
It arrived and I set it up. First, although we have our own WiFi, it connected to our neighbor's unsecured WiFi and started downloading Windows updates without asking me!!!! How stupid is that?
Also got some 18 zillion windows popping up for various things while I was just trying to get it set up.
The laptop has 2GB RAM and the disk thrashes for quite some time after Vista starts.
How utterly annoying. I'm seriously unimpressed with Vista! Linux simply works way better IMHO.
Now, just a quick "best practice" security question, since I don't use Windows and don't know that much. Is it really necessary to buy some subscription based protection, or can she be reasonably safe by taking some precautions like using Firefox instead of IE (I'm insisting that she do that for all sites that don't require IE), and being careful what kinds of files she shares and opens?
Thanks!
I do plan to install Fedora 9 alongside it in a dual-boot, and who knows, maybe I'll get her on Linux yet ...
_____________________________
My current ministry dream:
http://victorymuseum.org
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RE: Ugh ... Vista - 6/19/2008 10:48:24 AM
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Miss Giggles
Posts: 3941
Joined: 4/18/2005
From: MI
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Yes I'd use some kind of firewall and antivirus or combined program . many are free.
I use avast, its free. zone alarm has a free version of their firewall program.
Upgrade the RAM to the max the system will take, but Vista is known to be a memory hog
Or if you have a licensed copy of xp throw that on there
I use firefox, less annoying popups and virtually every website works on it now.
< Message edited by Miss Giggles -- 6/19/2008 1:34:58 PM >
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RE: Ugh ... Vista - 6/19/2008 5:30:56 PM
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PolarBear
Posts: 735
Joined: 4/11/2005
From: Moving to San Antonio!
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Ok, guess I better check out AVG or something. I don't see how anyone stays sane with that operating system. All these annoyances and virus/malware threats are completely foreign to me as a Linux user!
_____________________________
My current ministry dream:
http://victorymuseum.org
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RE: Ugh ... Vista - 6/19/2008 5:40:03 PM
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stellaluna
Posts: 3516
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Actually, I'm on XP and holding tight. My husband just bought a laptop with Vista and we bought a book to go with it that made it a lot more user friendly. I'll find out what it is when I get home and post it for you. He hasn't had any trouble since he made the changes the book suggested. Also, we're both using AVG--just upgraded to 8.0.
_____________________________
CW Underground
"In one century, we went from teaching Greek and Latin in lower schools to teaching remedial English in colleges."
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RE: Ugh ... Vista - 6/19/2008 5:55:45 PM
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JonCo54
Posts: 191
Joined: 5/12/2008
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The first thing you want to do when buying systems with ms products pre-loaded is visit here. http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,67264-page,1-c,systemresourcestuneup/description.html
The next thing you want to do is install a good AV program. AVG or Avast comes to mind. And remember Do Not install more than one of each type of program. A personal firewall is good some are free.
Seeing as your wife uses her laptop for work, a USB drive with encryption would also be a good choice to save important files to. This way if anything happens to the llappy her work will be protected.
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RE: Ugh ... Vista - 6/19/2008 6:04:04 PM
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JonCo54
Posts: 191
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BTW PolarBear I also noticed you use Kubuntu basically it's Ubuntu with the KDE desktop. If you like KDE give PCLinuxOS 2007 a try. It's polished, fast, and just works. You won't be disappointed.
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RE: Ugh ... Vista - 6/19/2008 6:52:05 PM
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Technophile
Posts: 36
Joined: 3/21/2008
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if you're using firefox, i recommend getting the addon called NoScript. it prevents ads on websites, and other scripts and site code that auto-run things and install files on your computer. it makes for very safe web browsing.
http://noscript.net/
for someone who doesnt know computers very well (i'm assuming your wife doesn't have the know-how that you do), a virus protection program would be a good idea. i'm running windows xp right now, and i dont have virus software at all. i just dont visit 'shady' sites, or download tons of junk off P2P programs, and firefox+noscript works for me.
< Message edited by Technophile -- 6/20/2008 11:14:00 AM >
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RE: Ugh ... Vista - 6/19/2008 8:01:27 PM
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bzirk
Posts: 2985
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From: Where the deer and antelope play
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Miss Giggles
Yes I'd use some kind of firewall and antivirus or combined program . many are free.
I use avast, its free. zone alarm has a free version of their firewall program.
Upgrade the RAM to the max the system will take, but Vista is known to be a memory hog
All that idiot proofing takes up a lot of room. 
quote:
Or if you have a licensed copy of xp throw that on there
After the hue and cry over Vista, Dell has actually gone to back to offering some systems with XP.
quote:
I use firefox, less annoying popups and virtually every website works on it now.
That's what I use mostly and it works well. I've also found that I'm drifting more and more toward Mac's. We have two mac laptops now, and I love those compared to the IBM compatible.
_____________________________
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)
Great quote: I just ain't God and don't know it all. -- SonInMe1
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RE: Ugh ... Vista - 6/19/2008 8:34:38 PM
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stellaluna
Posts: 3516
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The book I was talking about earlier is Windows Vista Tips & Tricks. We bought it at Barnes & Noble.
_____________________________
CW Underground
"In one century, we went from teaching Greek and Latin in lower schools to teaching remedial English in colleges."
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RE: Ugh ... Vista - 6/19/2008 10:06:13 PM
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semperfidelis
Posts: 408
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Rule number one that was overlooked with ANY Windows laptop: ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS format and re-install Windows.
I don't care what version of the OS you are using, ALL major brand laptops come with garbageware installed that slows down the laptop.
quote:
It arrived and I set it up. First, although we have our own WiFi, it connected to our neighbor's unsecured WiFi and started downloading Windows updates without asking me!!!! How stupid is that?
That's the manufacturer's mistake, not Vista. Do a proper install from scratch and it will ask if you want to. At least, mine did.
_____________________________
The man in the arena....
If I rise and succeed, it's because His hand has lifted me.
I may not have 3 greek letters but I have 2 latin words: SEMPER FIDELIS (no, I'm not a marine, but we like the same things)
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RE: Ugh ... Vista - 6/19/2008 11:31:45 PM
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semperfidelis
Posts: 408
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From: Let me think on that.
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True, but ever since "SystemCleaner" came out in the good old days of Windows 98, I haven't really ever trusted programs like that.
Nothin' better than a good ol'
format /P:1 C
_____________________________
The man in the arena....
If I rise and succeed, it's because His hand has lifted me.
I may not have 3 greek letters but I have 2 latin words: SEMPER FIDELIS (no, I'm not a marine, but we like the same things)
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RE: Ugh ... Vista - 6/19/2008 11:46:55 PM
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bzirk
Posts: 2985
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From: Where the deer and antelope play
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I agree that manfacturers install a bunch of garbate, but Vista itself is too proprietary no matter the laptop manufacturer.
_____________________________
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)
Great quote: I just ain't God and don't know it all. -- SonInMe1
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RE: Ugh ... Vista - 6/19/2008 11:53:08 PM
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JonCo54
Posts: 191
Joined: 5/12/2008
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First, I can't imagine PC World a reputable publication in the industry for many years, recommending a "bad" piece if software.
Second, most people reinstall from disks their computer came with. The same bloatware will be reinstalled. These same people usually have never installed windows or formated a hard drive. They just want to get their computer working. That is why utility programs are made available.
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RE: Ugh ... Vista - 6/20/2008 12:38:01 AM
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bzirk
Posts: 2985
Joined: 4/11/2005
From: Where the deer and antelope play
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Hmm. If I'm not mistaken, PCWorld isn't raving about Vista. Quite the reverse. It was a big disappointment, and SP1 is also a disappointment. Here's part of the hypothetical letter PCWorld proposed sending MS:
quote:
March 19, 2008
Dearest Microsoft,
We need to talk. We, the people of the PC World forums and the Vista user base, waited patiently for Vista to finally come out. We believed you when you said Service Pack 1 would fix most of Vista's shortcomings. Then we waited patiently again for SP1 to arrive.
And now, well, we're sick and tired of waiting--not just for Vista to get better, but for our Vista PC to finish booting up. And after waiting that out, we're fed up with having to "allow" various things to happen by clicking pop-up screens.
<snip>
and it doesn't get any better as you read on:
quote:
Don't get us wrong. We love Vista. In fact, we love parts of Vista. Senior Editor Yardena Arar, for example, loves the pop-up previews of pages in the taskbar and the seamless way Vista syncs with her Windows Mobile devices. Senior Writer Darren Gladstone loves Vista's integration with his Xbox 360. Working as a Media Center Extender, it tracks sports stats while he watches a game--though he longs for better native video codec support over his Xbox 360 for viewing AVI files.
Vista just isn't what we want it to be after buying a system with enough RAM, battery life, and processing power to run it.
Basically, we want XP back. We liked XP. Can you hook us up?
You can read the rest here:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/143608-4/test_results_does_sp1_fix_vista.html
In addition, financial analysts have lowered revenue expectations for MS for the rest of 2008 and all of 2009, and have cited the disappointment with Vista as the primary reason.
_____________________________
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)
Great quote: I just ain't God and don't know it all. -- SonInMe1
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RE: Ugh ... Vista - 6/20/2008 2:53:45 AM
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JonCo54
Posts: 191
Joined: 5/12/2008
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If you had read my posts in other threads you will know I'm not a fan of Vista or any MS products. However I do dual boot with XP Pro and PCLinuxOS. PCLinusOS is the main OS while XP is used strictly for gaming. XP is not allowed on the internet. All updates and downloading is done with Firefox or Ktorrent and Thunderbird is used for mail. If you google Vista you will find many articles some of which I've given links to in other threads about the pitfalls of MS and Vista. You will have to do a search though. It seems that all but a few MS shills and fanboys don't like Vista. There is a lot to read out there. It's a matter of becoming informed. There is a better way it is called Linux. I do have to thank MS for one thing though. If they hadn't brought out Vista, I wouldn't have found out about the wonderful world of Linux.
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RE: Ugh ... Vista - 6/20/2008 2:56:27 AM
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bzirk
Posts: 2985
Joined: 4/11/2005
From: Where the deer and antelope play
Status: offline
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It seems we're on the same page. , and you are so right about Vista opening up Linux -- for a lot of people.
_____________________________
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)
Great quote: I just ain't God and don't know it all. -- SonInMe1
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RE: Ugh ... Vista - 6/20/2008 4:41:12 PM
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bzirk
Posts: 2985
Joined: 4/11/2005
From: Where the deer and antelope play
Status: offline
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MS has got Vista so hamstrung, it's more difficult to reinstall without it possibly looking like an expansion of the license. Good luck.
_____________________________
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)
Great quote: I just ain't God and don't know it all. -- SonInMe1
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RE: Ugh ... Vista - 6/21/2008 2:22:52 AM
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humbleinspirit
Posts: 15031
Joined: 4/13/2005
From: Just Outside of Boston
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quote:
ORIGINAL: PolarBear
So I got my realtor wife a new laptop, with Vista. I was hoping to get her to use Linux, but I sort of caved. (She has few problems with my Kubuntu box, but still thought she needed Windows, and the local realtor board site seems to require IE.)
It arrived and I set it up. First, although we have our own WiFi, it connected to our neighbor's unsecured WiFi and started downloading Windows updates without asking me!!!! How stupid is that?
Also got some 18 zillion windows popping up for various things while I was just trying to get it set up.
The laptop has 2GB RAM and the disk thrashes for quite some time after Vista starts.
How utterly annoying. I'm seriously unimpressed with Vista! Linux simply works way better IMHO.
Now, just a quick "best practice" security question, since I don't use Windows and don't know that much. Is it really necessary to buy some subscription based protection, or can she be reasonably safe by taking some precautions like using Firefox instead of IE (I'm insisting that she do that for all sites that don't require IE), and being careful what kinds of files she shares and opens?
Thanks!
I do plan to install Fedora 9 alongside it in a dual-boot, and who knows, maybe I'll get her on Linux yet ...
Yeah, I get very frustrated with Vista as well! You can shut off the automatic updates though, something I did not figure out until late yesterday evening.
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