help windows vista

StewL · Post by **StewL** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 2:08 am

Thanks Andrew

I followed the link and instructions and yippee it works

One happy little vegemite here, now I can go and follow up on those Balks/Flucker/Neilsons I now have a number of distant cousins for in my mothers line

Lizzie · Post by **Lizzie** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 1:56 pm

I am glad this came up again. Thank you Alan, but I still had no luck with your instructions but thank you anyway. I went back to the store I bought my Vista and the same young man showed me on a Vista Laptop how to change the font and I now can read my emails. But I still do not like this Computer.

However, I had a man over yesterday to fix my TV and I was telling him about my Vista. He told me that people who are Computer Geeks love it and the rest of us seem not so keen. He added he has put XP on to his and can do this for me. I am now giving this some thought. Have any of you Vista owners come accross this?

Elizabeth

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Sat Sep 27, 2008 10:19 pm

Hi Elizabeth,

I have to say that I'm not having most of the problems that others seem to be having with Vista. However, and this is a big however, I'm not a techie so I don't do much out of the ordinary with my computer ie. changing systems, adding software etc. The only problem I'm really running into right now is that my HP scanner is semi-incompatible with Vista. I can do routine scanning, but can't scan slides and negatives with out adding more software. Haven't pursued this strongly yet though.

I love my laptop. Not interested in ever getting a desk top computer again!

Carol

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 2:35 am

It good to know you’ve sorted it out Elizabeth. With the Vista to XP thing I think the options are.

1. You can officially downgrade from Vista to XP if you have Vista Business or Vista Ultimate and it’s an OEM version (i.e. it came with the computer). This doesn’t apply to Vista Home or Premium. And you also have to borrow a Windows XP Pro disc from somewhere. I’m not sure how long this option remains available.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/art ... Id=9040318

2. If you don’t have Vista Business or Ultimate you can purchase a copy of Windows XP, remove Vista and everything else on your computer and install XP. That’s if you can still purchase a retail copy of XP.

3. Some people install illegitimate copies of XP, i.e. versions which were originally issued to large corporations and did not require activation. Microsoft know most of the product keys of these versions and if you install one and then log into Windows Update the Windows Genuine Advantage process will get to work and you’ll have permanent embarrassing messages from Microsoft popping up on your screen.

So you would have to satisfy yourself as to exactly what it is the TV man has in mind. With anything like any of the above you would have to make sure you have backup copies of all your important data in case something goes wrong in the process. But you’ll probably get used to using Vista after a bit of time.

Carol, you probably need a Vista compatible driver http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/sup ... ay=drivers

Desktop computers are much more dust-friendly,
Alan

speleobat2 · Post by **speleobat2** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 11:58 am

Thanks Alan,

I hate to dust!

I had a look at the driver's while I was visiting because the first look showed a driver that took 7 hours to download on dial-up and my friends have high speed, but when I went back all I could find was something that said no driver was available but HP was offering a trade in on scanners because they were not compatible with Vista. I scrapped the idea then and went out to do something that was more fun. Now that I'm back home, I'll take another look at the site and see if I can make sense of it!

Carol