New Computer

Paul Douglass

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S E Washington State
I just received my new computer today, a Dell Inspiron 660s. Small little thing compared to my past computers. I think the PC is going to be fine for what I do, but holy cow, why do they have to screw around with the operating systems!! I had Windows 7 which was pretty much like XP, and I got along just find with them. My wife has Vista, and I don't care much for it but I can figure it out, but this new system....... I have Windows 7. Legitimate copies I had purchased for my last computer that went bad. Does anyone know why I couldn't install Windows 7 on this new computer? I'm not a computer wiz, so I'm afraid to just try it. But, I really do not like this new system. I think it was made more for touch screens or something.
 
You would probably have to ask Microsoft, and it may depend on which version you have. (Full license or OEM) I know on the OEM, it is tied to the motherboard somehow. Guess that info gets transmitted to Microsoft during part of the install. I'm not sure how the full license works, but seems there may be a way to transfer it to a different computer. Not sure if there has to be some way to prove the original MB is not being used anymore or not. If it allowed, the install would not be hard to do. You would have to wipe the hard drive clean, then start over as a new install. You would lose everything you might have on the computer, so if there are any programs that came with the computer you want, you would have to copy them to another hard drive. That part I would have to do some research on how to do. I'm sure there are tutorials on the net on how to accomplish this. Jim.
 
Paul i am sorry i dont quite understand. I looked up your pc and it should have arrived with win 7 on it. Did u order it without operating system?

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Paul, I assume you got windows 8, which I can sympathize with you. I've done just about everything I can to make it look and run like window 7. The one thing I found that helped was purchasing the Stardoc Start8 app, which puts the start button back on the desktop, there are some free ones to try out, I just wasn't happy with them. With Start8, there is an option in it to "Automatically go to the Desktop when I sign in" that at least brings it up to what I was used to.

As for installing windows 7, it may be possible, but some of the hardware may not have windows 7 drivers, you would have to lookup each to see.
 
Darren, I don't know why they still advertise it as coming with Windows 7. I should have asked, but I was told it came with 8.

I have another problem and it is probably some setting I have wrong, but when reading posts on forums, there all sorts of words that are highlighted and have a line under them that looks like they are to be clicked on for more info. If you click on one your open a new website the is advertising something totally unrelated. I didn't have this with my old computer. Anyone know what I need to change to prevent this?
 
paul i had that and didnt have anew puter,, its a hacked browser from what brent and darren told me i got it cleaned up by getting rid of some addon's in firefox.. but i am not a brent or darren so will let them tell you in the new machine.. the one i had was called tidy network and once i deleted it from addon's it was gone
 
Darren, I don't know why they still advertise it as coming with Windows 7. I should have asked, but I was told it came with 8.

I have another problem and it is probably some setting I have wrong, but when reading posts on forums, there all sorts of words that are highlighted and have a line under them that looks like they are to be clicked on for more info. If you click on one your open a new website the is advertising something totally unrelated. I didn't have this with my old computer. Anyone know what I need to change to prevent this?

That does sound like a browser hijack. Which browser are you using? IE? Firefox? Chrome? Can try to walk you through checking the add-ons, but need to know which browser you have and can go from there.

I'd also recommend going to malwarebytes.org and downloading the free version of the MalwareBytes software and running it to see if it finds any issues and fix any that it does.
 
Okay I downloaded the malware and ran it. It detected about 10 item, which I deleted and it seems to have cleared up. Now how do I keep them from returning. Doesn't you computer security protect this? I have McAfee now, it came with the PC. Is this malware worth purchasing?
 
Okay I downloaded the malware and ran it. It detected about 10 item, which I deleted and it seems to have cleared up. Now how do I keep them from returning. Doesn't you computer security protect this? I have McAfee now, it came with the PC. Is this malware worth purchasing?

Last time I used McAfee I ended up buying a new computer Will NEVER us it again if I can help it. I have AVG Security now but have used AVG free for years with no problems.
 
I've used AVG and mostly use Avast now. Just leave the malware bytes on your computer and allow it to alert you when there are threats and almost always you don't have to do anything except leave the page you're visiting. I've had it pop a few times on reputable sites even, but mostly due to an ad on the page. I've never bought the full version of malware bytes, but it's worked well enough I would if the free version didn't do what I needed.

Follow those rules that Brent layed out his his post and you'll typically never get a virus or malware, but sometimes they happen to the best of us.
 
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