Tech Help and Discussions

I am getting to grips with the Windows Vista "speech recognition" program. Being a quadriplegic, I find it a Godsend, however, there are still some things about the program that frustrate me and an answer to this question would be greatly appreciated. When I am dictating an e-mail, I seem to lose all of the punctuation and direction commands and the speech recognition just keeps on typing what I am saying. For example if I say comma, or space, or backspace, it just types the written word just like I have above and it just keeps on typing what I am saying. Even in a message like this, it will start perfect and "text to speech" will be working fine and t…

I don't suppose this will be allowed to stay on here, but I have to vent. I got Vista with my new Dell computer, and so far, I have had to replace 4 programs that don't run on vista, and for which the companies "don't plan any upgrades in the near future". This has cost me a lot of money that I don't have. The computer was a large expense for me, and now it is getting rediculous. I am now looking unsuccessfully for a simple photo editing software program that will run that has the features my old program had, and I am very frustrated. Knowing what I know now, I would have never had Vista, and would have paid extra to have XP put on my new computer. T…

I like Vista! After reading about the horrors of Vista for over a year I decided to take the plunge anyway and upgrade. I have a stock Dell Inspiron 640m laptop with 1.6GHz Dual Core Processor and 1G of memory that is labeled "Designed for Windows XP. Windows Vista Capable." I did a lot of research on drivers and downloaded a couple that needed to be updated. I also backed up all my data and did a clean install on a freshly formated hard drive. The install went smooth. I upgraded to Vista Ultimate and I like it! It runs smooth, the graphics are awesome, and the sidebar has some useful tools. I also migrated to a dock program called RocketDock which …

Hello everyone, I’d like to submit a little bit of public commentary regarding Windows Vista and the threat that exists of coming into contact with malicious software (viruses, Trojans, worms, spyware, etc.). At first I had composed and was planning to post a newsgroup article which completely downplayed the threat of malware while using Vista, as if Microsoft’s new OS had unequivocally brought us into a new era in which we don’t have to give a second thought to this risk. However, I have a slightly different view now, and because I have in the past written newsgroup articles where I state that the threat of malware under Vista is so incredibly low to the …

Why does everyone hate Vista? I have been running Vista Ultimate on my desktop machine for 6 months and it is awesome! Super snappy with my system (Core2Duo, 2.4Ghz, 4GB ram - nothing extreme). Stable - running continuous without a reboot for a month - no crashes. Sexy user interface. Tons of 3rd party support for applications and games. Yeah, some security issues but I have never had a virus with Kaspersky, and Updates are frequenet. Whats with all the nay-sayers??

Earlier this year I started a thread expressing concern about the MBR virus. I had many replies and again thank everyone for their contributions. The thread is still available on Google, here:- http://groups.google.co.uk/group/microsoft...e5f99b403a1e451 The final post in that thread was from '-jen' . I noted with dismay that I failed to acknowledge his/her advice and apologise now for my oversight! This was the advice given:- The OP's OS is XP. He should instead boot from the Recovery Console and type: fixmbr. Fixmbr Command Syntax: fixmbr (device_name): device_name = This is where you designate the exact drive location that a master boot …

For various reasons I turned off UAC. Is there a way I can prevent that bubble in the lower right from warning me constantly?

We are getting a new computer and generally only buy a new computer every 5-6 years, so we take whatever OS comes on the computer at that time(currently using XP with no real issues). I keep seeing all the negatives & problems with Vista, is it really that bad for a non-technical user like myself? Should I be opting for XP instead, because if I do it seems to really limit available computer selection?

I purchased two new computers in the past six months. A CyberPower desktop with Vista Home Premium and an Acer laptop with Vista Home Basic. Thank goodness I kept my old Dell with XP Pro. I find I spend almost all of my computer time on the Dell. Vista does not seem to do anything any better then XP and does many things worse. To wit: 1. I can not record a CD from the CD player with out hardwiring the audio card headphone out to the audio in. 2. I can not use my company Web mail (MS Exchange server) as it does not work with Vista. 3. Many of my old programs were not compatible with Vista and even though I purchased new versions they are still buggy (i.e., Window…

My desktop intermittently messes up making icons not work. The toolbar disappears where the time is, open programs displayed on the toolbar slide behind the start button and I lose the start menu. I press the button and all I see is an empty start menu. Since vista wont actually help anyone without an outrageous price im hoping ill piss off the vista lovers who might be able to help me by using this title. and yes it does

People who have vista 1.000.000 20 Percent of that are people who got a "vista ready" pc with XP installed and were promised a copy of vista that they never touched because its a pile a do doo. 18 percent are people who got vista with a new machine but were fed up with it and formatted and installed XP 12 percent are people that installed XP on a second partition with Vista and boot to vista only from time to time. Real work is done on the OS that really works:XP 40 percent are people who pirated vista because they would never really pay for such crap, or live in a 3rd world country and the cost of vista is what they make in a year! 5 percent got free…

Is there a trick to get Vista to work as fast as XP?

Some people like Vista. There is nothing in Vista that improves the way I work, and Office 2007 was so much worse than Office 2003 that I removed it. I know Microsoft doesn't listen or care, but many people agree they really failed to deliver the improvements people wanted in their new software offerings last year.

Could someone please tell me why Microsoft would release a product knowing that there are unresolved issues with the product? What is the point of doing Beta testing if you are not going to find all the bugs, fix them and then release the product? I'm not trying to be flippant(sp?) here. This is a serious question. With all the money, man/woman power and brain power available to Microsoft for R&D, why is it so hard to put out a product that works from the word go? I don't want to become Microsoft certified in order to keep my computer running. I shouldn't have to fool with my computers registry so that I can install an update to fix a problem that they…

On Sat, 12 Apr 2008 23:37:38 GMT, Matt wrote: > RonB wrote: >> Matt wrote: >> >>> Hmmm ... how are we going to help people migrate from Windows to Linux >>> without knowing anything about Windows? The fortunes ought to be made >>> by people who first learned and loved Linux and later learned Windows. >> >> What makes you think that most people here don't know anything about >> Windows? > > You're right. And those who knew Unix or Linux first won't look like > carpetbaggers. What makes people suspect you Linux fools know little or nothing about Windows is the endless tales we hear …

Can someone help me? I am using Vista and it is presenting no problems. It is fast, works well and is nice to use and look at. What am I doing wrong?

I wonder if now this ng can have a discussion on the merits of Vista vs Linux. If so then I can see that printing and scanning are the items in Vista favor. Everything else, except for some standardization of where applications are stored (what folders) appears to be in favor of Linux. There also appears to be less things in Linux that one finds very annoying.

Will the fun ever stop! Nope, Vista is bad news no matter what Microsoft tries to do! Apple's newest "honest Ad"... A Classic... -

My son (away at university) has just installed this week's Microsoft updates and now is unable to get his laptop re-started (it's an Acer Aspire 5633 about a year old). It says "Configuring Updates. Stage 3 of 3 0% Complete. Then it says "Shutting Down" and restarts the whole cycle. This goes on and on.... He has tried to get it into Safe Mode but it won't, just goes back into the cycle described above. I've searched on Google and come up with only one hit - that described identical symptoms and was posted in a blog about three hours ago. There are some references to the same message related to SP1 installation but my son is just using the standa…

Hi: Windows Vista Defragmenter is about the worst that I have ever seen. It does not show you any progression status and it takes forever. Does anyone have an alternate free defragmenter and/or suggestion? Thanks, ColTom2

I would like to know if it's possible to configure alerting with MRT? We would like to know when an infection is detected on a workstation in our enterprise, is this possible?

I'm planning to build a new system (Intel 860 CPU). I was sort of looking for a reason to go with the 64-bit version of Windows7, since "they" say, 64-bit computing is where the future is. To me, it seems like it's going to be a long time in coming. I mean, if MS Office-2010 is being sold as a 32-bit app, then what does that say about 64-bit computing at this point.... I recall 4 years ago when I last built a system, Vista (64-bit) was going to be "the thing"....I steered clear of that bandwagon and never switched from XP. I think the problem is most (consumer) software development companies don't have much incentive to build for both 32 and 6…

#1 Constant blue screens: Why is it that I get blue screens stemming from my video card drivers, and check for a solution only to find that the issue was supposedly fixed in SP1?!!!! #2 Freezing: I'm getting Windows Vista freezing (sporadically, 30 second lockups) after your last update? #3 Booting: Why is it that I freeze 1/3 of the time I boot up my PC? #4 Data Execution Prevention: I downloaded a piece of software from Steam (Valve's product for gaming), and not ONLY does Steam get blocked by DEP even though I've already told the O/S that the app is fine, but I can't run my game as well?!!!! #5 Security: I recently downloaded your "One C…

After reading the many posts in this newsgroup, blogs from Microsoft, blogs from Microsoft critics and fans, magazine articles, I have come to the conclusion that Microsoft has overstepped the boundary of trust here. I know they legally have the right to update files with out notice because of the EULA. This does not excuse what they have done. They have an option to "Never check for updates". To me this includes updates for Windows Update. If it doesn't this should be stated clearly on that screen. The only thing that will make this clear to them is a public outcry. Please add your comments here for or against. It may not do any good but it will help to …

My daughter has an old Gateway computer running Windows 98. She says no one wants it because it is slow and obsolete and she wants to turn it into the local recycling place. She is worried about (personal) data on the hard drive. I wonder if reformatting the HD will destroy all the data? My old W95 computer, I took the HD out and smashed it with a sledge hammer, but she doesn't want to do that. She took it to a computer store, and they offered to "hose" the HD and dispose of the computer for $50.00. Any suggestions? Jim