Replies

I have an Acer netbook that I bought right before they switched from XP to Win7. It is not hardware compatible to upgrade, and I use it in a machine shop to control devices (a label printer and a CNC router) that don’t have Windows 7 compatible drivers. This is on a network so I can transfer CAM files from the main desktop. It was my understanding that MS would be supporting the version of XP on these netbooks longer than on other systems, as these were tailored specifically for these little niche machines. I’ve heard nothing about that concerning end-of-life for XP. If Microsoft expects me to toss out a nifty computer that fits my shop (goes into a tool cabinet drawer quite nicely), maybe they could also send $$$$ to upgrade all my CNC machinery as well.

The updates to Firefox disable so many add-ons that they would invalidate my reason for using Firefox in the first place, many of which are security related. AIRoboform, Google taskbar, the ClearCache button, my banking Virtual Account login for disposable online credit card numbers, and more …. Firefox 4 updated didn’t fix these, and the same holds true for Firefox 5. Until I start to see compatibility for the add-ons that make Firefox my default browser, I’ll stick with what I’ve got!

I’m losing my internet connection as much as several dozen times a day. It seems to happen in clusters, where it will go off and back on every minute or so for an hour. It seems to be most often in the evening when traffic picks up as people logon at home, because it is stable during the day until around 5pm. This is on ATT DSL, and the problem just began appearing perhaps 2 months ago.

I happily used Windows 2000 on my main home computer right up until the hard drive died last year. I’m currently using Windows 7 since there’s no other reasonable expectation of updates for drivers and security on older Windows systems. However, I also have a netbook purchased just last year which still came with XP. I understand this is a streamlined version just for such machines, and was told Microsoft will continue support for these a longer time. I sincerely hope so! Even if support is pulled, however, I’ll just shut down the internet features and use it as a stand-alone for the applications needed in a machine shop.

Once again Microsoft makes it ridiculously complicated to use the services they offer. After reading the article, I decided to try Windows Live OneCare online safety scanner, but I don’t have the time or inclination to pursue it when other options are available without the roadblocks. I’m running Windows 7 64 bit and Firefox is my default browser. When I went to the OneCare site, first it told me “We’re sorry. This version of the Windows Live OneCare safety scanner doesn’t work with your Web browser or operating system.” After I opened IE8 to the site, the scanner program still wouldn’t install, even after I clicked the link for the Windows 7 version, then gave permission for pop-ups and turned off the protected mode. Each time the website said “We were unable to install the scanner. Please follow the instructions for each troubleshooting step below and then click Retry Installation to try to install the scanner again.” The full extent of their “instructions” was a button that says “Retry installation”. BTW, when I opened the default window in Internet Explorer, there was a tiny link with “special instructions” for running the scanner using Firefox. How very clever that the same link in Firefox did not make this information available! After failing to get anywhere up to this point, I’ll stick with the security programs I already run. I don’t feel like playing games with Microsoft this morning!