Opti: I'm sure that Microsoft have learned a lot from their bruising experience with Vista. I guess my point is that by then they should already have known better than to have committed all the Vista sins. I don't belittle the difficulties that face Microsoft in introducing a major new system - a vast customer base, myriads of applications, huge numbers of device drivers for third party devices to accommodate, all sorts of pathological couplings between their system and all this, well, stuff.

But the thrust of my point is essentially caveat emptor. I have a computer which is my major business tool, not an experimental lab for some bunch of hacks in Redmond. I merely suggest that caution is required before adopting Redmond's latest and greatest onto the computer that you rely upon to earn your living. Their track record isn't exactly pristine.

It should be noted that keys for different versions of Windows 7 are being sold on ebay from the USA for 11 or so. They apparently are from MSDN subscriptions which come with 10 free keys. They are said to work fine provided of course you can trust the seller not to sell them many times over. They might be worth filing away for future use as presumably Microsoft will soon come to their senses.

Also there is an education offer on at the moment, expires at the end of the month:

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/education/studentoffer/

PlanB
I'm installing a new HD and sure enough AVG is causing some holdups. This is the first time it's happened although I've installed several before.

for an explanation you might be interested in the following:
http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt-2000-xp/709220-solved-avgrsx-exe-why-so.html

The holdups definitely coincided with installatioin of programs which AVG identified as problems. Hopefully once I've installed everything it won't happen again.

iiwarm - thanks for the link etc.

Still nothing I can pinpoint as a cause though; (not scanning for tracking cookies, for example).

PlanB
new ver 422 available, perhaps it has a patch :)
I only had a prob when trying to install some cracked software which I have been using for years on other installations (I think avg picked it up whenever I installed it in the past but didn't use 100% cpu). I'll give it a miss and see what happens.

I need to check some email passwords of mine.

I see I have something called Asterix Logger on my machine, but it is not loaded and the web suggests it may not work under Vista anyway.

Before I start what will be a trial and error process could any good soul point me to some freeware that they know works under Vista - please.

TP

I have a problem which cropped up last night.

As you can see, the synbol keeps coming up unbidden.

Have tried anti virus, system restore etc, nothing works.

Any ideas?

Try using a different keyboard.

Thanks Optimist, worked a treat!

Carefully lever off the symbol and remove that missing piece of toast/fingernail?

Have a WesternDigital Essential Passport 320gb USB about 2 months back found it worked on my Philips 5990 DVD player thru USB Yeah!

So bought the new WD EP 500gb USB 2.0 for dads xmas, put some files on it, tried it on the Philips nothing showing up, any ideas how to fix it??????? works on pc

Has anyone tried Microsoft's anti virus software - Security Essentials. It has received good reviews, in particular because of its small memory footprint and in tests it has found viruses that other software failed to find.

I'm using it on my Netbook, it appears to work fine.

I am installing it on a laptop to try it. I usually use Avast.

MS security essentials seems to work fine, I am using it now and have dropped AVG. My PC seems to have speeded up a bit

Help!

The monitor on my home pc has a message on it about not detecting a video signal, or somthing like that.

I've been told that it might be the graphics card.

Any help would be appreciated.

Most likely the cable between the monitor and the PC has come loose.

Some monitors have two inputs, normally analogue or digital. If yours does, it could be that it is trying to get the signal from the wrong socket. That would be fixed in the monitor setup.

Otherwise it's likely either the graphics card or the monitor has packed up. Check by swapping the monitor but not much you can do apart from getting a new monitor or card.

KEAYDIAN: Just in case you haven't, do check that the video cable is properly inserted at both ends - they do work loose.

Kayak: Snap!

Many thanks.

I've checked this several times. I've seen the message on my screen in the past but it usually goes if i turn the pc off and back on.

When I turn the P.C. off the monitor usally says "entering sleep mode" but it's not doing it this time round.

So a new graphics card might do it?