Monday, October 8, 2007

New Laptop Computer

We bought a new laptop for Dianna to use when we are running off batteries. We have discovered that our desktop system sucks a huge amount of power so we will now use it mostly when plugged into power. It will allow us a lot more flexibility in using our solar system and enjoying our lifestyle without having to make compromises.

Fry's had a Compaq on sale for $499 and it seemed to have everything we needed. The only bad thing about it is Windows Vista. What a mess! Why does Microsoft have to keep making our lives more difficult? I know the answer is so they can continue to make Bill Gates richer. My backup software will not work with it and they have removed support for an older style of help files. I found a fix for that on Microsoft's support site, but of course the fix does not fix it. Who knows what else we will find.

It has a large screen (15 1/2 inches) and a larger disk than in my laptop. It is nothing fancy, but every year you get more hardware for less money.

We also purchased a wireless mouse for her, and we bought a new router. The one we have been using is only a B so we now have a G. It will allow my backups to run across the network faster, but I'm not sure what I am going back up the new laptop since my backup software does not work. I may have to plug it directly into the external hard drive and use Vista's built in backup feature.

Donna and Daryl can quit reading here. The rest of the world can hear the reason it was only $499. It has an AMD processor.

8 comments:

  1. Was this an early Christmas gift, a late birthday present, or in celebration of Betty's birthday? That's the closest date that you celebrate! Oh, yes, I guess a 39th wedding anniversary would be something to brag about; that happens so rarely these days.

    Congratulations on all four dates, anyway.

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  2. You might consider wiping the hard drive and installing Windows 2000 instead. I would certainly be tempted.

    I would even consider installing Linux, but it won't run Family Tree Maker, so that's probably out.

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  3. You might want to take a look at Cobian Backup. It's what I run and I think Daryl is also running it.(I heard about it from him)

    As for Vista the main thing I hate is it always asks if it's ok to do just about any installing or other non-normal stuff. I'm kind of sick of that and would like to disable that feature. If you find out how let me know. I haven't actually looked for the fix for that one yet.

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  4. Ok, never mind. It was Windows Defender. I just turned it off and it stopped nagging me.

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  5. Don,
    That's called "User Account Control", and can be disabled this way:

    Control Panel, Security Center. On the left hand side, click "Change the way Security Center alerts me" and choose "Don't notify me and don't display the icon".

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  6. Wow, three of those for what I paid for my Macbook. Great deal! Congrats!

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  7. Thanks Daryl! You'll probably want to do that too Richard. That is(was) the only thing I really disliked about Vista. I guess I shouldn't have been so lazy about fixing it but it only took a click or 2 to get by.

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  8. Happy Anniversary, R & D!

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