I have a difficult question that I yhope to get an answer to. To start out, any technical things I say are just things that boil over thye pot. (1) Is windows 7 much different (read difficult) than Vista? My Vista has a vius (amware, alware, etc) and will cost a fortune to get rid of.m I now have an XP that is fast, and OK, but the wife likes my XP. So I am in a quandry. (2) Do I get the ista fixed? O Buy a refurbished windows 7 and hope for the best? I think a 3-4-250 or so. (Don't question that, I got no answers.

You will converse with an I don't know twitter, text, Ipod , or none of that stuff

Thanks in advance
Lynn :? :?

Lynn, I am an older person too, and have used computers for over 30 years, and I can tell you windows 7 and 8 are just too much different to learn. I bought a refurbished dell from walmart with win7 and after a month I just found a new winxp pro operating disk and bought it and installed it. I will stay with xp as long as possible, and it works with all my programs and hardware. There are reconditioned computers out there available with winxp still, and if all you need is the tower they can be had resonable. You might even find one on Craig's list but be cafeful of them. I had a girl try to sell me a computer that belonged to a school. (It had a big warning when winxp was loading .
The cheap way out is to just put your vista disk in your computer and do a reformat and a reinstall. Of course you will lose everything you have unless you have it saved elsewhere.
There are programs you can get for free that will remove the virus if it will run. You can download and run malwarebytes. It might clean it up, and Maybe Running Bear will chime in. He might have some advise.

Just a note, but Win XP will lose its support next year sometime. I'm using Win7 on this computer, and WinXP on my laptop and I've got Win7 set up with the look and feel of XP. Some of the menus and function names and locations are different, and that can be frustrating at times. When MS stops supporting XP, there will be no security upgrades and the bad guys will take advantage of that. At least if you can get your Vista working it will still have support for a few more years.

That having been said, you should be able to run your computer in the "safe" mode and as Charlie says, run some A/V and other free programs that can perhaps get your Vista machine back on track. If you do upgrade, I'd look for a machine with Win7 on it rather than Win8. There is a baby step between XP and Win7, but a giant step to Win8. Win 8.1 is due out next month, but even then it's not going to be and easy transition.

This is just an opinion, it may or may not help you out.

I have 2000 on my desktop and Win 7 on my laptop and l like both. I did find Win 7 had a few differences but it really wasn't a big deal getting used to it and I'm an old fart also.

Lynn;

Try running Trend Micro's Housecall http://housecall.trendmicro.com/before you pay someone to try and remove the virus and malware programs. I've found it to work when other programs won't. You might want to run several of the different free anti-virus programs to clean up your computer. No sense paying someone a box car load of money to clean up your computer when you can probably do it yourself for nothing, but your time.

I have no experience with Windows 7 although it looks more like Vista or XP then Windows 8. My new Dell computer came with Windows 8 installed and I HATE IT! I liked Vista and Windows XP, but this Windows 8 is very confusing and takes quite a learning curve to get used to it. Hey Microsoft! If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

All sorts of separate programs that I was used to having are missing in Windows 8 (email program, to name one) and the darn system is really aimed at touchscreen use. Your Start button is no longer available, although I've installed a free program that brings it back. Of course things like the missing email program, I quickly replaced with Thunderbird and of course I use Firefox rather than IE.

Even the upcoming Windows 8.1 upgrade doesn't look to be much of an improvement. If it weren't for the fact that I've got some expensive programs that only work on Windows operating systems; I'd switch over to one of the free 64 bit Linux (Unix) systems in a heart beat!

Tyson Rayles Wrote:I have 2000 on my desktop and Win 7 on my laptop and l like both. I did find Win 7 had a few differences but it really wasn't a big deal getting used to it and I'm an old fart also.

Hey, no one is more old fartier than I am, so if I can get along with any of these, so can anyone else.

I remember my first Windows machine, it came with a hammer and chisel for writing text and a burnt stick for drawing on the GUI interface. I won't even talk about the tin cans and string. :hey:

A lot of people complained about Vista, but I didn't have any problems with it, so the next step to Win7 was a piece of cake.

Loved , LOVED , my XP and wanted it to last forever , but when it destructed I had to go to Win 8 .....kicking and screaming . .....I did enjoy the speed of Win 8 and the good news is the " desktop " side of Win 8 is much like Win 7 ( I'm told ) and Win 7 reminds me a lot of Win XP . So I am somewhat converted to Win 8 but it does take a while . It's inevitable that keeping XP will be difficult because Microsoft has essentially abandoned it . That's my story

T

Windows 8 is much more useable with a touch screen, but that doesn't help people installing it on existing computers.

I thank everyone for all of the help. I'll try to bring other things kind of up to date. The Win Vista tower IS working. Office depot gives free diagnostic checks, so yesterday I got that. They scrubbed a bunch of trash, then said all I had was this one virus. It works, but locked up every so often when I was using it. It is an Emachine. I'm on a Dell XP right now,m but Wifey would sure like to have it. That's OK, as I want my Vista. The Norton has run out on it, so when I connect it, virus protection is #1 thing to do.

You all say Malware, or whatever, can be got rid of by some programs. If so, I'm a toddler and have to be taken by the hand and told which foot to put where. I'll follow up wih a PM, and probably get straightened out. I'll get back

Lynn

Not that it will be a quick fix, but many libraries and community colleges offer computer literacy courses for, um, those further along in life.

railohio Wrote:Not that it will be a quick fix, but many libraries and community colleges offer computer literacy courses for, um, those further along in life.

Very funny

Maturity comes with age, and that dang maturity keeps coming faster and faster. Now according to Webster, I am quite intelligent. However, that intelligence tells me that I am Just ignorant of a lot of facts, and I mean a L-O-T of facts. Howsomever. it tell me, "When you don't know, ask". I did, and WOW, there's a lot of knowledge on this forum. So - - - since I have reached an - um - um senior, or um - mature age, any 'smart' remarks are made only out of pure, cussed ornery jealousy. HAR HAR

Any way, seriously, I can do everything I want t6o on a computer, but if, and when it screws up, I'm lost. I can turn the key in a car, but if it don't run, forget it.

Again, this is why I love Big Blue so much.

Lynn

I was a fan of XP, Vista is a pain and doesn't like to run free and hold you back because of dangers. 7 is a very good OS that reminds me of XP's big brother.


There are many antivirus programs to choose from, not really a fan of mcafee or norton. I currently use SuperAntiSpyware, Malwarebytes, Avast Antivirus.

I also clean my computers with CCleaner. Frees up space from use.

Only other thing I can suggest is when downloading anything online is to make sure you Uncheck Boxes before hitting ok, it's the sneaky way of sliding in downloads where you don't know you're doing it.

Tom, you got right atwixt the eyeballs. You said you use Malwarebytes to keep garbage out. I just had mine hooked up to put some Norton in (it had nothing), and the readout from the diagnostic check said I had a Malwarebyte virus. Come on now, you wouldn't pick on an old man, would you? When I talk, I can't understand what I'm saying, so - - - - -. So really, I got lost when one says I got it as a virus, but you use it to keep them out. I guess tomorrow I'll undo this Dell (XP) and connect up that emachine (Vista) and read again what it says. Thanks Tom

Lynn

Lynn,

it's been a while since I ran Malwarebytes, but after this conversation, I thought it might be a good time to do it again. This time it showed I had picked up something called, "sweetpacks". I think I got it when a friend of mine had his email highjacked and I opened something "he" sent. I use Avast! A/V, Spybot, ccleaner and a few others, but this went undetected. Malwarebytes cleaned it up, but when I rebooted Sweepacks reinstalled itself. I had to do a complete scan to get rid of everything, a total of 53 files . I had no idea this bugger was hiding on my machine, but it could have crashed anytime. Like Tom and the others say, one type of protection doesn't seem to be enough nowadays.