A quick reply to several posts because I'm stupidly busy atm...

Joanne said:

"it did us no flaming good did it!!! Comes to something when you start celebrating the fact that a ManU player scored for Germany!!"

John replied:

"I certainly wouldn't let the English team have a dog - they wouldn't be able to keep hold of the lead!!

Joking apart, the blame there lay solely at Roy Hodgeson's door, should have brought on an attacker rather than trying to defend the lead."

Umm... Wibble wibble guys. No idea what language you are talking. :p

Shaun wrote things I did understand:

"UEFU (Unified Extensible Firmware Update"

Close. It's UEFI - Interface, rather than Update.

"When you boot your machine you should not randomly press the PF keys. Generally to enter BIOS which seems to be what you were referring to you would hold down F2 on startup (be holding the key when you press the power button and release it as soon as you are given the option to enter the machines BIOS)."

Holding F8 when a Windows computer starts can usually boot Windows into "Safe Mode". When you do this you'll usually get a menu of options, such as running Windows with or without networking - and these days you usually also get the recovery options.

Recovery options will include access to the basic Windows restore, so if (for example) you've installed a piece of software and it prevents the computer running correctly, you can hopefully find a restore point created when the software was installed; restore that, and that software should now be gone - but all your files should remain intact.

At the other end of the scale, it usually includes the option to do a complete reinstall of the operating system - the same as putting in a Windows installation disk, booting from that, reformatting your hard drive and installing Windows afresh (along with all the pre-installed crud that the manufacturer dumped on your computer in the first place).

As you say, creating a boot disc should be an option - but that brings that crud with it. Installing from a proper Windows installation disc is preferable, but not many people want to buy a copy of Windows when they've already paid for it with the computer. One option is to borrow an installation disc (for the same version of Windows you have) and, when installing, use the licence keys that came with your computer - but that might not necessarily be ideal; although I've never done that, per se, I have installed a newer version of Windows onto an old computer with a new hard drive - and then had to seek out drivers for some hardware that Windows didn't understand out of the box.

I prefer, therefore, to create that boot disc*. As soon as I set up a new PC I do that, and then (as well as if ever I have to reinstall from that disc) go through what's installed getting rid of the unnecessary crud.

* Although I haven't done so for this computer - no optical drive - and unfortunately, I haven't been able to get the cheap piece of trash to boot from USB.

"(I find that many people working as PC repair guys are not experts)."

Amen to that. I've never yet met one who does it "professionally" who I would ever recommend to anyone.

abacus12345 wrote:

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Ok Shaun, yet again you single out my post to insinuate I'm wrong, again. Fine.

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Sorry for the delay, been a bit busy.

There's nothing personal. If I think that a post is incorrect or misleading I disagree with it no matter who posts it.

You post a lot, many of your posts state that they make assumptions, as such we're probably going to disagree a lot. That doesn't make it personal.

To be honest I'm quite surprised that you feel that way considering the number of quite amicable exchanges that we have had Johnny.

Which of course brings us onto your latest post. Its actualy quite nice that things have moved on and one can now boot from an external drive as in the old days it used to be that machines would not recognise an external drive or even a USB as the drivers needed to be on the system before it could use the external devices (bit of a catch 22 there).

Anyway, I digress. Can you explain what you mean about ripping the hard drive out of the PC and using it as an external drive instead and where the Linux operating system comes into that? Is that on a new HDD in the old machine that you have partitioned to hold multiple operating systems on?

Personally I feel that having a set of backup disks / backup drive and a regular file backup regime to non volatile storage (i.e. DVD's) in place does seem a much simpler option than ripping drives, partitioning and installing linux on a partition.

All seems a bit too complex for me but as I say I've probably missed something or over complicated it in my mind. 

VinceH wrote:

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Shaun: What Johnny is referring to is taking the hard drive out of a computer, and plugging it into an external device that has the necessary connectors (just like *inside* the computer) to take a hard drive. The device - or caddy - connects to the computer via USB, and the hard drive is then seen as an external drive.

The most common use for such a device (for me, anyway) is when someone's computer dies - and, like so many people, they don't have backups. As long as it isn't the hard drive that's failed, I can recover their files by simply making that old hard drive an external drive for the new computer, and copy their data over.

And, in fact, when the fan in my old Lenovo Thinkpad workhorse died, it was quicker and easier to do that to get *my* files onto the new computer than restoring a backup would have been.

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Hi Vince,

Many thanks for the answer. In this instance it was actually meant as a rhetorical question intended as an olive branch for Johnny.

It was the keyboard that went on my old IBM (was an X12 rather than a thinkpad but had a similarly robust build). Took it appart and fixed it but boy can they hide some of the screws on that laptop!

kindest regards,

Shaun.

"When I am writing an email the screen flickers and the text goes really big or really small"

Don't know about that - but I wonder if it's down to the program you are using for email in conjunction with the next problem:

"it starts to under line everything in red (just like when you make a spelling mistake)"

i.e. I wonder if the program in question is doing that deliberately as another level of bringing the mistake to your attention?

The underlining itself is probably because you ARE making spelling mistakes as far as your current settings are concerned. One of the most common problems I've had to fix with people's Windows 10 downgrades is that it defaults to the wrong locale; it probably thinks you're in the Untidy States of Overpuddle, rather than the "Disunited Kingdom of Increasingly-less Great Britain and Northern Ireland (for now)".

In other words, it might think you're in America rather than Britain.

Offhand, I can't tell you exactly where the settings for this can be found (because I don't have anything running Windows 10) - but try going to control panel, and looking for "Locale" or "Location." Try also time zone settings if it doesn't jump out at you.

"and if I want to go back and correct or amend an email I am writing I have to keep clicking the mouse in the spot I want to amend for ages because the cursor isn't there and I cant write anything."

That's almost certainly something buggy (perhaps not fully compatible with Windows 10), or something running very slowly so not responding. I sometimes see that behaviour in Firefox on Windows 8.1 - usually when it's still fetching (or trying to fetch) data.

"Is anyone else having this problem? Its almost like there's a virus (but I know there isn't)"

Well, many would argue that there IS a virus on your computer: Windows 10.

At the very least it's spyware.

"Oh and finally : Don't laugh, where's the bloody home button?"

Ah, so let me guess: You're using Microsoft's new web browser, Edge? (I don't know if it lacks a home button - but that's something you expect to see on a web browser, so it seems a good guess!)

"I've changed the location to English UK. And it starts underlining in red even when I've not made a mistake."

There might be more than one place that English/UK needs to be set. Bear in mind location and language aren't necessarily the same thing.

For example, if you were in France but spoke English, it would be a bit annoying if you told it you were in France and then it assumed you were speaking French. So as well as the location, you probably need to tell it what language to use as a second step.

As I said, though, not having a Windows 10 computer, I can't point you in the exact direction - only give hints and hope you can use them to find your way to the right setting.

But to help be certain about this, type in the word "color" (without a 'u') - does it underline that? (I'm guessing not, but it will underline "colour" (with a 'u').

Bear also in mind that as well as making sure Windows 10 is using the right location and language, it is also possible that the program you are using for email doesn't obey the OS settings (or can override them, and perhaps is doing so) and needs to be set correctly itself.

For example, Firefox can have its own dictionary set up independently of the operating system.

"I use BT (that's my home page) and don't know how to get back to the home page after visiting a site."

The home page isn't the web browser - the web browser is the program you are using to see that home page, and it's the name of the web browser itself that I asked about. Microsoft Edge is the new browser that Microsoft are including with Windows 10, and which it uses by default.

"I've run virus checks , all seems ok. I don't think btinternet.com is compatible with Windows 10."

I suspect you mean the btinternet.com web page and (again) Microsoft Edge, because I know the internet service itself isn't a problem. Replace it with Firefox or Chrome.

Hi Georgie, Getting the home button back depends on the browser you're using.  I've attached a screenshot of the ones I have.

Left to right they are Google Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Microsoft Edge. If you can let me know which one yours is I'll see if I can help.

Which email program are you using?

Hi Georgie.  Open edge and you'll see 3 dots in top right hand corner.  click on that and find settings. Click settings and scroll down to advance settings. Click on that and you will see "show the home button", slide that to on and a box will come up underneath.  If it shows BT that's fine if not past the following in:  home.bt.com

If you're using BT on the website for emails then it's a browser problem rather than the email I suspect.  May be worth downloading Firefox or Chrome, and after downloading type home.bt.com into google and trying it from there.

If that works I'll guide you through setting bt up as the default page with a home tab.

I was thinking you might have gone for the Lenovo Ideapad 305 or similar, but then realised it's a W10 machine. Well done on getting W7 Pro, I should imagine they're getting harder to source.

Glad you sorted it Georgie. So it was Microsoft Edge causing the problem.  Not a massive surprise, but did think that edge, er , had the edge over Internet Explorer.  Obviously not.

My main browser is Chrome, although I occasionally use Firefox, which I used to absolutely love, but it's gone down hill in the last couple of years.  

Revisiting the joy of Windows 10 and the problems it has brought to so many people...

I received an email from Sage today. The gist is that some Sage 50 Accounts users are unable to use the software since their Windows 10 machines received the adversary anniversary update.

It doesn't state which version(s) of 50 Accounts - but the workaround page (linked from the email and the webby version) mentions the .NET framework 3.5; so any version that uses that could be affected.