Computer help - Calgary

[jasond]

Thank-you Tony, I may take you up on that (I would make the trek to the far far south)

Olnobodaddy...thank you very much for your input, I will try tonight what you have suggested (these types of things I can handle). I currently do have spybot and use AVG antivirus as well, and have run them lots. I thought by having an external hard drive (to store pics, music, etc) this would help speed things up, but doesnt seem to have. As well, I do have a router which I was told would help against virus's...same thing there, didnt notice much help.

Anyways thanks again guys, I appreciate it.

Jason

[mike31154]

Just a note, sometimes it is the Anti Virus application that throttles your computer and slows it down.... it takes time to scan incoming/outgoing traffic. Most AV programs have options as to the level of security to apply and the higher the security, the slower the machine...

[lastlight]

*cough*buy a mac*cough*

[jasond]

Originally Posted by lastlight

*cough*buy a mac*cough*

Haha, seen that coming..

I looked at buying a new computer, but I will first try my best to get this one fixed. I am not a huge gamer or anything, so my needs are not huge. Just lots of canreef surfing

[Snaz]

If you suspect you have virus and can't clean it confidently. Save your documents, bookmarks and wipe the machine.

Oh and upgrade the RAM if you have $100.00 you want to put into the machine. Minimum 1GB but 2GB would be better.

[wolf_bluejay]

Just a though from a linux geek:

Get a copy of kubuntu on cd, save everything important to the external drive, and install it instead. You can get the install CD free by downloading it, or having it shipped to your house for free as well (ubuntu.com)

The install is easy enough that my wife did her own laptop, just put the cd in the drive and boot the machine. You have to answer about 6 questions (your name, timezone, password, etc..) and it does the standard install with firefox, openoffice and a bunch of other stuff.

If you are planning on wiping the machine, there is not much to lose by trying. And linux doesn't require A/V software or anything like that (much like a mac). It is much quicker, and doesn't require the usual maintenance that windows does at all (spybot/AV/defrag/cleaners). Just use and enjoy.



Disclaimer: I'm a linux sysadmin, running 4,500 linux machines in a public school system. I think if a 6 year old can run it just fine, most people should be OK

[jasond]

Interesting, so you can still run all of the same programs with Linux? Word, Excel, etc? Sounds like I could handle the install, so worth a try. Thank-you, I will do some research but definately sounds appealing. What are the drawbacks?

I have definately heard that wiping the machine is a worthwhile try, so maybe I will give it a shot. One thing I dont understand, I thought if your PC had a virus, even reloading windows will not necessarily get rid of it?

[wolf_bluejay]

Originally Posted by jasond

Interesting, so you can still run all of the same programs with Linux? Word, Excel, etc? Sounds like I could handle the install, so worth a try. Thank-you, I will do some research but definately sounds appealing. What are the drawbacks?

I have definately heard that wiping the machine is a worthwhile try, so maybe I will give it a shot. One thing I dont understand, I thought if your PC had a virus, even reloading windows will not necessarily get rid of it?

Well, It's not Word and Excel, it's OpenOffice. But it does run the same way and can read/save all your existing stuff without a problem.

As for the viruses, linux (mac's as well) can't get viruses. And I mean CAN'T. So there is a noticable speed up from not having to have AV software running all the time.

The only downsides that I have come across, are if you need a very specific program that runs on windows. Some do run just fine, but most do not. There is always a comparable bit of software, IE : no photoshop, but there is "GIMP" that is very similar. And linux software is free and easy to install. There is about 170,000 software packages available for free.

It never ceases to amaze me how much windows users limit the email they read, or what web sites they go to for fear of viruses and the like. Mac users can agree with me on this one, do whatever you want and never worry..... Once you have it running it stays that way without the usual windows re-install.

[Floop70]

+1

You ask about Word and Excel though. While there are ways of getting it to work, Openoffice.org should work just fine (and it's included with the install of Ubuntu)

Originally Posted by wolf_bluejay

Just a though from a linux geek:

Get a copy of kubuntu on cd, save everything important to the external drive, and install it instead. You can get the install CD free by downloading it, or having it shipped to your house for free as well (ubuntu.com)

The install is easy enough that my wife did her own laptop, just put the cd in the drive and boot the machine. You have to answer about 6 questions (your name, timezone, password, etc..) and it does the standard install with firefox, openoffice and a bunch of other stuff.

If you are planning on wiping the machine, there is not much to lose by trying. And linux doesn't require A/V software or anything like that (much like a mac). It is much quicker, and doesn't require the usual maintenance that windows does at all (spybot/AV/defrag/cleaners). Just use and enjoy.



Disclaimer: I'm a linux sysadmin, running 4,500 linux machines in a public school system. I think if a 6 year old can run it just fine, most people should be OK

[lastlight]

openoffice is available for free for mac as well.

If you're not planning to buy a new computer I'd definately just format and start from scratch. When I ran windows I'd do that every six months or so.