"and plead guilty to spending far too much time on my computer"

And in that vein. I asked my wife what I could get her for her birthday and she suggested a computer so that she could 'send e:mails and look things up'. I'm happy to buy her one but the snag is that she has never switched one on in her life. The closest she will have come was when we were copying these 45's and I left her to click pause on the computer and change the records on the USB linked deck.

Even then she was confused by the movement of the mouse.

I'd willingly buy her something - but trying to teach her how to use it would be a quick route to divorce. I wonder if anyone round here has had the experience of getting a spouse, in her sixties, confident enough with a computer to realise that if her e:mail will not print out it could be because the printer is not switched on.

TP

Buy her an Applemac machine virtually crash proof, forget what a Blue screen looks like.
Cheers.

But Macs are SO slow for compared to a PC and the same software is available for PCs even the graphics and publishing stuff. And now Macs are subject to the same sorts of viruses as PCs. Macs are a curiosity that I expect to disappear one day.

TP

I can easily identify with your problem.

The solution is easy. Make sure the computer has Win XP Pro, leave it switched on all the time and every few days use Remote Desktop to check your wifes email ;)

Porky,

Only a few message earlier I spoke of the advantages of having something the same as your friend uses. If she finds a good one-to-one tutor, as I hope she will, I really don't want to be trying to work out why a Mac cannot see the WiFi that my PC sees perfectly well on a Sunday afternoon when we ought to be in the garden.

And, not wanting to tempt fate, my experience of Win XP is that it recovers from the most unfortunate close downs. I was removing the external DVD writer from my laptop and must have inadvertantly pushed so hard on the keyboard panel that it shut down. OK I was subjected to a fairly slow segment check, which did worry me somewhat, but the system came back up again as if nothing had happened.

My experience of Win 2000 has been that if you pull out the plug of a PC without a controlled close down you can end up in a real pickle - seemingly not with XP.

TP

It's more to do with the NTFS file system TP rather than the old FAT system which Windows used up to the 98/ME versions. When 2000 came along people still tended to install on a FAT disk, although NTFS was an option, whereas with XP I think NTFS has taken over.

Just a thought - if you're doing photography then a wired network would be better as the files can be quite large.

K,

"It's more to do with the NTFS file system TP rather than the old FAT system "

Thanks, I had not understood that.

My main grumble now would be the time it takes my laptop to boot up after a year of adding new software and MS adding its upgrades. I avidly read anything anyone finds about cleaning up all the memory resident software it presumably has got committed to.

When I get home from the office the solution is to turn the laptop on before I take my overcoat off. It's about ready to do what I want, rather than what Mr Gates wants, by the time I've poured a decent g&t !!

TP

TP

Perhaps you can clean it up and also speed it up a bit with 'CCleaner'?

Obtainable from http://www.filehippo.com -CCleaner

CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space. The best part is that it's fast! (normally taking less than a second to run) and Free.

Obviously, it has to be used with care and it cleans the following:

* Internet Explorer Cache, History, Cookies, Index.dat.

* Recycle Bin, Temporary files and Log files.

* Recently opened URLs and files.

* Third-party application temp files and recent file lists (MRUs).

Including: Firefox, Opera, Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, Office XP, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and more...

* Advanced Registry scanner and cleaner to remove unused and old entries.

Including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more... Backup for registry clean.

* Windows Startup tool.

Screenshots:

I have now added more memory to my computer and this has done the trick.

After the advice from Seymour & Haystacks I was told about this site , it scans your computer and tells you the maximum you can have and what is compatible. I ordered from them early afternoon and it was delivered next morning.

Crucial for memory and graphics upgrades

Sput,

Crucial are the guys I use for CF cards for my cameras and they provide an excellent service at prices I find hard to beat.

Endorsement number two.

TP

Doc,

Thanks for that suggestion. I have something called System Security Suite
http://www.igorshpak.net/

I am not sure that it achieves anything so your pointer is much appreciated.

TP

I have a problem with Outlook When a message is in the outbox and a send receive is activated the message does not move to the sent box. When I delete it fron the out box it continues(each time Outlook is in send receive mode) to resend the message as if it is on a send loop whilst showing the outbox as empty.Is a possible solution to reinstall MS office as I am unable to find the path to uninstall Outlook

Haystack.
Thought you would like to know that Applemac sales are on the up percentage wise, and the experts predict that this percentage will increase markedly in the future.
Remember that the Applemac can now run OX10 and Windows, so you now have rthe best of both worlds.
So I don`t think Apple will be disappearing any time soon.
Regards.

Digger

Is the email not being sent or sent and then not moved to the sent items?

If it is the latter then a reinstall might help but I suggest that you first try clicking Help then Detect and Repair...

If the mail is not sent, then it is most likely a problem with your SMTP settings.

Op,

I can promise you it is being sent..............I'm getting the dratted stuff.

Digger and I are still chums.........but only juuuuuuuuuuuuuust.

TP

Optimist
Sent and then not moved to the sent items
Thank you will try the detect and repair when not connected to the net on the weekend

Doc,

OK I've got that installed here and I'll do the same at home with the laptop.

What seems to take an age seems to the loading of masses of software. I have an addon to my Startup icon in the Control Panel called Startup Control Panel 2.8 by Mike Lin

http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml

However, it does not seem to identify anything that I'd assume should not be there.

Someone told me that quite a lot of the problem is XP immediately looking around the MS site on the net to see if there is anything new to download. I don't mind that happening, but I'd quite like to be allowed to use my computer a bit first.

TP

Docproc,
I am very keen to get my PC running faster and to use the crap cleaner, but before I do, I have security certificates installed and several programmes that update via the internet daily (databases and applications). Are these likely to be affected by CC removing the bits it removes??
Thanks in advance,
Alan

One of the problems with MACs is they cannot be upgraded like PCs. Just change the motherboard, hard drive, memory, CPU in any combination and you have a new PC. If your MAC goes wrong then you cannot do much yourself about it and it is an expensive process to get it fixed and you paid more for it to start with.