back but only just

Don't worry, you're worth the wait:)

We'll wait France. ..we're a patient lot we gardeners lol!

Hard changing pc and operating systems.....you'll persevere I know ?

You can buy a separate keyboard and plug it in to the
new PC instead of the one they gave you. I did that with my new laptop and its bigger and easier to deal with.

Was wondering where you'd got to - good to hear you are feeling better anyway.

Goodness I don't think I could cope with that ... Help !

thanks all for the kind thoughts. I have a box of old bog-standard keyboards, prob is reaching to the back of the machine to plug it in. lol I've already got at least a dozen tweaks for the tech so he might as well do this as well - or I can just go back to XP and put up with not being able to access some sites - at least the ones i CAN access,I CAN really access! NS I q]won't HAVE TO STOOP SO LOW MY CHIN IS ALMOST ON MY HANDS!

Hope you are sorted soon Fran..

I got the keyboard sorted - took me over an hour, he'd made such a rat's nest of cables that when I pulled the CPU forward a few inches to get at the back, one of my external drives was pulled off the shelf on to the floor. gulp. seems to be working, though. so now at least I can type properly and not keep engaging the caps lock by mistake. The rest of it will have to wait; they can't do anything over the weekend so it's "phone them Monday". sigh.

We have all been there Fran.

think I'll go back to XP - outdated and unsupported it may be, but at least I can read the screen without having to keep standing up! ah well, I suppose an expert can do the necessary tweaking; if not, XP is def back on the cards

Nice to have you back, Fran. Do not give up, all new things are pushing us from our comfort zone, but then we will accustom and the new becomes the usual :-)

You & I are not alone in our computers "going West",Fran! Mine went some weeks ago & I'm using a tiny one that my brother gave to me a couple of months before mine went "West". I think its a notebook computer but it had the very latest OS Windows 8.1 - quite a leap from the Windows XP that I'd been using for the best part of 15 years!

I've had a bit of practice over the years with Windows 7 but 8.1 is a very different "kettle of fish"! Perhaps if this computer had a touch sensitive screen, (8.1 was designed for that), it might be easier.

Being such a small PC (almost a toy!) & having to use it on my old computer desk it is causing me much pain at the base of my neck & the middle of my back from stooping over the screen which is at the same hight as the old keyboard. Even though I make the pages bigger in FireFox I can't make the text bigger over all the computer. I'm using the biggest size already & I have difficulty with some programmes even wearing reading glasses.

There are lots of things that are done very differently on this OS & it's hard knowing what to do. I, too, would like to return to Win XP!

This PC is eligible for upgrading to Windows10 - Microsoft's newest OS. So I preordered it & I should get the 3GB download soon. It's supposed to be an improvement on Win 8.1 & most of our old programmes should work on it. Nevertheless I must get a new desktop computer soon.

the "expert" came out today to do some tweaking, rename drive letters, sort out the screen area, resolution, etc - I asked about XP and he said I could get an independent internal hard rive and have XP on that, and 8 for online, but I couldn't run both at once. Half an hour after he left, I was typing aletter in Open Office )not got Word installed yet) and the whole system froze. phoned them in some indignation - this is a brand new machine, not had it a week, not added any software, and the whole thing froze up to the extent that I had to turn it off at the CPU and back on again? and now I've lost the miniscule amount of text formatiing that I was able to do before - all the menus are back to nose-on-screen. some "expert"!

Sorry to hear about your computer "wows" again, Fran :((

Has the expert been back & fixed it again? I can quite understand your rage at the computer freezing up & having to turn it off! The first day after installing Windows 10 on this Notepad (or "mini-computer" as I call it) it also froze on me & I had to restart the computer! I wasn't very happy either!

However since then I've had no problems in particular con Windows 10 or the computer but I did have problems with my ZoneAlarm Firewall & Antivirus programme. It started downloading updates that never seemed to install correctly. I've used ZoneAlarm products practically since I started using a computer of my own & it has rarely given me problems. After "installing" the update patch to make the programme run under Win10 5 or 6 times I grew tired of it & uninstalled it & found another old stalwart of mine AVG. This installed & works fine only that it doesn't include a firewall & I have to use Windows own. This is supposed to be a great improvement on the old version - I hope it is!

I've not got back to them yet. Apart from the callout charge, I don't have much confidence in them. Found out that my window-cleaner builds computers! so I've emailed him to ask him to give this PC a once-over - no point my installing software now if it has to be done again later because the system isn't properly set up.

I heard that one can get 10 as a free download if one has 8 - which probably shows how good it is if they're giving it away! Oh for XP again! still got the disk, so likely will go back. but no closer to being able to play some of my pc games unless I can get right back to 95 or 98 - or re-learn how to get to DOS and more important, how to get out of it again!

Yes Windows 10 does come as a free download if you have at least Win 7 or higher. It can't be installed in computers running XP nor Vista - both OS that my wife & I have (had)! I was able to install it because the notepad computer my brother gave me had Win 8.1 installed.

Do you still have games going back so far?!!! There is "compatibility mode" on most Window OS but I've no idea if you can use it for games that old. If Win 10 has it still it will probably only work for Win 7 & 8. :( I can't help you with getting into or out of DOS, I very rarely have anything to do with it.

I hope your window cleaner can help you out.

Microsoft's argument for giving away Win 10 is that they want up to 3 billion computers to be running it in a couple of years time.

Microsoft makes software (& money) by encouraging programme makers to make programmes, or apps as they now prefer to call them, to run on the new OS.

ha, I've gone back to XP, and glad to do so - though I have to admit that 8 could do soem things that XP an't - but XP lets me set the display so i can see it AND sit up straight! - well, nearly. it just needs a few tweaks now.

November 19th, and I've only just got back online again: for three months I was totally pc-less sigh, even more to catch up on ...

You have such bad luck with computers Fran - hope its OK this time.

well, sort of: I can get online with one pc, but the settings are rubbish. the other pc is easier to work with, but won't go online. lol rather than trying to make the best of what I've got, I should chuck it all and start again with brand new stuff. of course, that doesn't guarantee that they'll work ...

I've just finished reading through this blog again & all the comments we made! I hadn't realized I'd had the mini-computer (Notebook) for so long! I was still using it right up till about 2-3 weeks ago when my son-in-law gave me a new one he had "hiding" away in his loft!

It goes very fast only it has Windows 7 installed & in a year or so Microsoft will stop supporting it - as it has already done so for Windows XP, & Vista.

I find it much more difficult to get on with than Windows 10! I've been using W10 since it came out on the notebook PC & it has always worked very well for me & once I became accustomed to it I would never (?) return to another OS! I did miss XP terribly but I've become accustomed to Win10 & find it great - most of the time!

I've not been on GoY as much during this last year as I used to be so I also have a lot of catching up to do!

Hope you can manage to get your woes sorted out & get back on line with a computer you can use again!

As I explained about the Notebook PC I worked out a system whereby I put it on the shelf where the monitor would normally sit, on top of 3 books, then I connected my old keyboard & the mouse to it, via USB ports, &, apart from the size of the text on the PC itself, was able to use it almost as well as a "normal" sized PC!

Now I have a proper desk top PC again I can work much more comfortably - now if only I could load Win 10 on it I'd be the most happy of happy bunnies! LOL! ???

my main problem with 10 is that it won't let me customise the display to what I need for my vision - large text and non-white backgrounds. of course it's still very new to me, and I suppose i'll find ways to work with it, but it's a literal pain in the neck at the moment.

I'm sorry I can't help you with that, Fran. Although my OS is Win 10 I practically only use it for getting my photos off my phone & onto the computer & saving them. I don't use practically any other function. Really it's similar to how I use Win 7 as well, only the photos can't be MOVED from the phone to the PC, I can access them without any problems but I have to copy them to wherever I want to store them & later delete the originals from the phone!

Also my Netbook PC is almost postage stamp size & I have a great deal of problems in seeing the TINY, TINY text on the PC itself. Before they made the first upgrade to it I was able to make the text bigger & save it but since they made the first upgrade that has disappeared. There was a 2nd upgrade a few days ago but I can't see any differences it has made. I'm slowly beginning to use Win 7 more & more, it's so much more comfortable to work with!