Replies

Great post! Classic. Thank you for sharing your remarkable experience using an unsupported operating system.

There’s certainly a lot of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) thrown around to encourage people to upgrade. I would say most of it is warranted, especially for people who don’t practice “safe hex” (which is a great term, BTW; thanks for sharing it because I’ve never heard it before, even though I wrote the “best practices” post above while not logged in.)

My AV provider still releases definitions for Windows 9x, so they won’t be pulling the plug on XP any time soon;

Who’s your AV provider? Sounds like a good one.

Are your XP machines connected to the internet? If so, what web browser do you use if any?

What do you use your XP machines for primarily?

deanwmn, my opinion based on many years of experience with Macs is to avoid them unless there’s software you need that only runs on Macs. I actually built my own PC to run Windows 7 after being frustrated with Apple, my MacBook Pro, and the Genius Bar. Here’s my post about it.

Here’s a video from a guy who runs a successful MacBook repair shop in NY and often complains about how poor Apple’s repairs are, while showing how he makes the repairs. (If you prefer to avoid YouTube, you can watch it on Invidio.us and on Vimeo.)

Here’s a video about Apple’s Genius Bar caught ripping off a customer on camera by CBC News: YouTube, Invidio.us.

I suggest considering Linux as an option, specifically Linux Mint or Ubuntu because they’re popular, easy to use, and have a lot of good community support. I’m still on Windows 7 for now, but I’m planning to move to either Debian (another popular Linux “distro“) or Linux Mint Debian Edition as soon as possible. I’ve been doing my research and learning about Linux for a while. (I also wrote the post further down this page about online banking security with Windows 7, while not logged in, and thought it might be helpful to respond to your post about Macs and because others might be interested.)

There’s a Linux for Windows wonks forum here on AskWoody.

Here’s a big thread about Linux Mint on AskWoody.

If you’re looking for a good laptop, consider a Dell which can be ordered with Ubuntu (Linux) already installed; scroll down on this page to see “Customizable with Ubuntu OS” and “Ubuntu Linux 18.04” as the installed operating system.

Canadian Tech and others on here on AskWoody have had good experiences with Dells, and I would buy one if I needed a laptop.

Here’s a thread on AskWoody about using a Dell Refurbished Laptop for Linux Mint.

Article from Forbes: “Ditching Windows: 2 Weeks With Ubuntu Linux On The Dell XPS 13”.

ZDNet, May 31: “Dell releases more high-end Ubuntu Linux laptops – Linux PCs are growing in popularity for professional programmers and Dell continues to back them.”

“Dell Inspiron 15 3000 Series Laptop Ubuntu Edition”

Here’s a list of Dell laptops certified for Ubuntu, but you can install Ubuntu, Mint, and other Linux distros on a very wide range of hardware, and I plan to install it on my custom-built computer that’s currently running Windows 7.

Of course, I have no affiliation with Dell or any of the organizations or companies listed above, or anyone for that matter.

Good luck!

2 users thanked author for this post.

jburk07, SueW

I don’t understand something: Since the recovery email is now set to woody@askwoody.com according to the screenshot, which I assume Woody controls and has controlled all along, why doesn’t Woody just reset the password on the Google account and log back into the account to regain control of it?

Furthermore, Woody now owns the woodyswindows.com domain again, so he can change the DNS entries so that all mail sent to [anything]@woodyswindows.com will now go to him.  Right?  Which should be another way to change the password.

What am I missing?  Can someone please explain?

Thank you!

As an OLD geek, my days of having to (wanting to) build my own machines is past. Now I just want something that works and lets me do what I want to do (not that I won’t still swap storage media, up the RAM, or replace a power supply).

Why did you decide not to get a custom, pre-built Intel/AMD Windows machine instead?

Today my daily driver is a 2.6GHz Ivy Bridge i7, 16GB RAM MacMini. I runs 5 Parallels VMs from XP to Win10 Insiders.

This is amazing given all your great contributions to this site, that you’re running Windows on Mac VMs.

What I enjoy are my Macs – They just work.

Your Macs just work.  Which means that you’re lucky.  I decided to build my own PC for the first time in 2010 after having problems with my MacBook Pro.  Building my own machine is something I always wanted to do and had the skills, but didn’t have the need until I had problems with my MacBook Pro display, and going back and forth to the Apple Store to help the “Geniuses” troubleshoot it and fix it right.  My MacBook Pro had the same display issue around 2010 that Dell’s had with regard to the Nvidia cards failing due to heat.

Apple’s computers are just like other manufacturers; they all have problems of one kind or another.  Fortunately, my custom built computer is running fine (knock on wood) and I just need more storage space and maybe more than 4 GB RAM.  I just haven’t had the time to upgrade.

The main reason I wanted to move to Windows is that I felt that Mac software was always playing catch-up to Windows for basic things like email, web browsers, and utilities.

The other problems I have with Macs is that they’re costly and difficult to upgrade, if you can upgrade them at all.  I like the freedom of choosing my components, but I understand that’s not something that most people want to be able to do.

My computing experience is similar to yours.  I’ve been using all sorts of computers since the early ’80s, including Windows since 3.1 or even 3.0, many Mac OS versions, some Unix and NeXT in the late 80s, Atari (thus my username), and even high-end graphics programs running on DOS, and a little programming and scripting.  My next step is to move to Linux which I’ve wanted to do for a while, but haven’t had the time.

I cannot back up my software anymore due to a bad disk error.  I have run chk dsk several times, but, each time, I thought the problem was solved, and tried backing up my operating system, I got the error of bad disk sector before 5 minutes was run on the backup.

What does the chkdsk report say when it’s done?

What software are you using to backup your operating system?

I am a novice computer person.  I have learned some of the lingo, but, get lost with all the instructions out there.

It sounds like you’re doing pretty well, with how far you’ve gotten, at least in understanding things.

Try some of the following programs.  They are robust, mature, and popular, but I’m not sure if they will help in your exact situation.  I haven’t used them but I would try them if I was in your situation.

https://clonezilla.org/ – makes a complete sector-by-sector copy of your hard drive.  Make sure you have at least one and preferably two copies of your hard drive on two separate hard drives for this current repair project of yours.  Redundancy of your data is important.

https://partedmagic.com/

https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ – You don’t need to download and install the entire CD along with all of the tools, but you can pick and choose which tools you might need from the list on this page.  But you might not need any more of the tools on this page because I linked above to the ones that you might need.

For further help, try posting in one of the forums for the software I linked to above because this current web page we’re on isn’t ideal for solving hard drive problems, and you can also try posting in this forum at: https://www.askwoody.com/forums/forum/askwoody-support/pc-hardware/

Finally, read the pdf “Options for backing up your computer” which you can get here: https://web.archive.org/web/20170421085906/https://www.eset.com/fileadmin/Images/US/Docs/Home/Staying_Secure/2205_19_0_EsetWP-OptionsBackingUpComputer.pdf

… and is linked from here:

https://goretsky.wordpress.com/2013/06/11/the-secret-guide-to-uninstalling-any-anti-virus-software/

The following pages about the “3-2-1 backup” strategy are good too:

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/the-3-2-1-backup-strategy/
https://www.unitrends.com/blog/3-2-1-backup-sucks

Also, I’m not sure I could re-install windows myself.  I don’t want to lose everything I have now.

Always make sure you have multiple backups first.

I had a surge of electricity, or something caused the computer to stop working

Always connect valuable computers and electronics to high-quality surge protectors.  This is a good article:

https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-surge-protector/

Good luck!

Wait a minute.

The laptop is only a year old and he wants to replace it already?  How about just try zeroing it out completely and reinstalling Windows 10?  Or Linux Mint?  Or getting some support from someone reliable, instead of spending hundreds of dollars on a new machine?  Sounds wasteful.

I’m more interested in what the technical issues are with the laptop. If there’s genuinely a hardware defect with the laptop, then that should be taken up with HP, ideally within warranty, but it can also be done outside of warranty.

What’s the model of the HP laptop?

A new machine from a different manufacturer may not be the solution to his problems, because the new machine may have similar problems or problems that are just as critical.

And I hate to say it, but maybe the problem isn’t with the computer, but the approach to solving the problems with the computer.

Or maybe the uncle just has money to spend and wants to buy a new laptop, which isn’t necessarily a problem in itself either. In which case, can I have the old laptop?

All computers are going to have problems eventually. Buying a new one may only solve the problems in the short term.

Do you buy a new car after your year-old car develops issues or your car is just out of warranty? No, you get it fixed.

Therefore, to answer the title of Woody’s post, “Which PC should I get?”, the answer is “None. You fix the computer you just bought or get the manufacturer to replace it.”

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MrJimPhelps, rc primak, lurks about, Bluetrix, SueW, Klaas Vaak, satrow, UKBrianC, Fred, Microfix, Ascaris

Hello and thank you PKCano, Woody, Kirsty, and everyone else for all of your help with these patches!

Can you please clarify if it’s safe to patch through to June, or only through April?  On May 13, PKCano said the May patch has not been approved, and I’m not sure if the May and June patches are safe to install at this point.

I’m on Windows 7 Pro 64-bit SP1 in Group B, and I haven’t patched since September, but I’m catching up now.

I have a suggestion if it’s not safe to patch through to June: At the end of AKB2000003 where you list links to the monthly patches, please indicate somehow which ones have not yet been approved and should not be installed yet.

Thank you very much!