The Final Computer Countdown

It has been awhile since my last post. Many things have happened and I have learned much during that time. I will try to cover them in future posts. However, I will finish my computer saga and hopefully all is now well.

I finally completed the recovery of my computer. It was working like a new machine, awesome, and then; another cloud suddenly appeared. Odd how things can be great and then problems suddenly arise out of nowhere. Not one or two, but it seems it comes in large groups. I used to have three computers with different Windows software. I now have one. First the oldest one went ‘kaput’ and soon afterwards the second one. All that time spent for nothing. In spite of this, I had learned much and applied this to upgrading my last resort, the laptop.  I now had a working idea of what was needed and what was an unnecessary burden on my limited laptop.

I carefully wiped off the accumulated dust. It is Windows 7, but I had not used it in years. Well, not much work to get up and running, I thought. Wow, was I wrong, it was completely out of date. The first thing I did was to update everything. The Microsoft website was some help but limited. I do not care for Internet Explorer. It is flashy, but filled with many security loopholes. It seems Microsoft loves resource eating bells and whistles over basic real world functionality. I tried Google Chrome. It does have a language translating application which is helpful, but the user interface is a bit hard to get used to.

I kept Google but decided on Mozilla Firefox as my default browser. This was a fortunate decision as previously mentioned, they have a tool to help a person upgrade other software, such as Java and updated security measures. With all the deleting and upgrading of software, my registry was a confusing mess to my computer and it moved like a slug. I wanted a free application that would help. It had to be good and simple. I am not a computer savvy person and did not want to hit the clean button, only to discover that my computer was inoperable.  The CCleaner free download was the choice and has performed well.

Finally, Windows 7 comes with installed security software that is basically useless. My previous purchased security software was not installing. Most security companies are so paranoid that someone may install the software and they would miss out on additional income. After many tries with customer service I gave up and found something just as good for free.  The free software detects 90% of viruses and provides other security measures. No security software is perfect, but it worked so well I eventually paid for the premium upgrade.  The free AVG anti-virus download is strong basic protection.

Well my laptop is working great and fully functional. I hope it lasts while I save up for an 'Alien' computer. A power house and lean, mean, fighting machine, Yes!