boelie

Alright so just to be sure... if I pop in the XP cd and install that, it shouldn't give me any trouble? I won't hold anyone responsible obviously if it does, but to the best of your knowledge...

I do have another copy of XP lying around I believe. But what exactly do you mean with a backup plan? I backed up all the files that she wants to keep if that's what you mean. The laptop is an Acer Aspire 5310 series. I agree it probably has to do with what my mother does on the computer but I think she'll make less of a mess if I put XP on there because she's used to working with that. Vista is like a giant puzle for her sometimes. I installed AVG on it but I think it hasn't been working for a while. I've had McAfee on my computer and it was the most horrible program I've ever seen. I think programs like CCleaner might help somewhat but there's also a lot of stuff on there that's completely useless that came with the computer. The computer is very, very cluttered and I think starting off with a clean slate would be the best solution here.

Depending on your manufacturer, it may be on the underside of your laptop. The key for Windows XP? I doubt it since it came with Vista.

What do you mean I will need XP? You mean XP will run better than vista or do you mean I will need a XP disk? Because I do have one. And I've done this before on a PC but I don't know if it's different for a laptop, that's why I asked. But what can really go wrong? Last time I did it on my computer I just put the XP disk in and followed the steps. She doesn't use the touchpad so I guess that won't be a problem. I guess it would be a good idea to check if I can download the drivers before I try this, right? PS: I'm from Holland so I can't get that magazine here.

Hello, My mother has a laptop that she uses for school and her job. She's not very good with computers and since she's had it it has gotten slower and slower. My plan is to just empty out the whole thing, and install Windows XP instead of Vista because I think many of the problems occur because my mother isn't used to Vista and I can't stand Vista either. My question is is this safe to do on a laptop? Isn't there any integrated software (i.e. drivers or something) that would ruin the laptop if I removed it? Or maybe anything else I haven't considered? And what's the best way to do this? Just pop in the Windows XP cd-rom and instal XP or should I format the laptop in a different way? I'd really appreciate your help because my mom's complaining about her laptop being slow is driving me nuts. Thanks.

Alright then. I don't know how to replace it but I'm sure I can find some kinda tutorial on the internet. So the problem I used to have while playing Vice City wasn't because of my cd driver speed?

I live in Holland but I already have a good place that sells tons of different dvd players. I just don't really trust the advice of a salesman. I have no clue if it's IDE or SATA. How do I find out? And do I need to take that into consideration? And what is lightscribe? Is that the thing that burns a picture onto your disk? That would be cool but I don't want to pay a lot more for it. The speeds on the link that you sent me are the same as most burners I see. Is that an acceptable speed? PS: I got a free cd-rom drive (not burner) from a friend. It was made in 2002 but the speed on it is also 48x. Has that not changed over time?

Hi, My dvd burner broke so now I got to buy a new one (can't play any cd's or games with a dvd/cd now). What should I look for to buy a good one? I don't want to play blu-ray or anything. I noticed with my old one that if I played Vice City with a CD it would be slower than when I played it with a crack. Does this have to do with the quality/speed of my dvd drive? I want one that can burn and play both cd's and dvd's. I often see speeds on 'em like 22x, but I have no clue what it means or what speed is good. Hope you guys can help here.

Thanks for your replies everyone. I think I know everything I need to know now.

Alright so I'm going for Avira. So if I get me a firewall and maybe some more spyware stuff, am I not leaving any big gaps?

What is Windows Defender? Is that free? Also, what exactly does a firewall do?

The thing I like about AVG is that they're not really trying to sell their paid version to me too much. If I download Avast or Avira, will I get like annoying pop-ups or reminders to get a subsription or something all the time?

Ok I'll get Avast. Just to try something new lol. Those other programs you mentioned, will they slow my computer down a lot?

Hi, Currently I have AVG. It has a scheduled scan every day at noon but I often don't have my computer running at that time. I estimate it runs a full scan about once or twice a week. It almost never comes up with a virus but usually a bunch of ''warnings''. I always delete them all. I also have Spybot Search and Destroy, which I run about once every two weeks. it usually doesn't come up with anything AVG missed. I also have this nifty little program called Crap Cleaner. If I haven't run it for like a month it'll often get rid of like 4gb worth of junk on my computer. So, what do you guys recommend? Should I keep AVG or switch to another (free) virus scanner? And do you recommend and programs that I don't yet have? Just to remind you, I have AVG, Spybot, and this Crap Cleaner program. (I don't think Crap Cleaner does anything for safety though, or am I wrong here? Looking forward to your replies.

I haven't seen that option. But I suppose you can only get a costume option for the random events that used to give you a costume too? I don't think I've had any of those.