Windows Vista security.

[NickD 202]

Three years ago I set up my wife's Vista HP notebook, a dv9420us that came with an extra slot for a second HD. Then it was a 120GB that I partitioned to two 60GB partitions, or should I call those volumes, who gives a damn, a partition is still a partition. One was drive D for her data, the other was for me where I stored an infinite number of upgrades, backups, and those countless down-loadable programs.

But somehow she ignored all that and started saving her key data in the root drive. Have no idea why XP and Vista have the same kind of directories under both Desktop and in the C drive directory under users. And when they say, MY Pictures or music, or documents, you can find your data in any of those places.

And exactly what is add and remove programs all about, over half the ####### is left the computer even after you remove those programs, if you can remove them. Using Nortons clean everything, still found Nortons, Symantec all over the various sub directories, and over 1,200 entries in the registry. Man, that is a pain to remove, plus the other 15 trial programs that were added, even to the recovery disk I had to pay extra money for. With her crash, had no choice but to recover.

I did set up a directory on her data drive to transfer her files over, her bookmarks, favorites, all that ####### has to stay in the root drive, plus they also like to store downloads, man, they can eat up a drive in a hurry, plus Windows had a zillion uninstall directories loaded. In the process and frustration of working with those sub tiny triangles in windows explorer, I accidentally copied two HP programs we never use/ Even though they were in the data drive, no way to remove them.

She also likes Windows Mail, there I stored her e-mails also on the data drive, that was another headache. She has many well meaning friends that are constantly sending her this internet ####### on with most of these files in the 10MB range, most of them she never opened. And a good thing too as many contained mail and spyware or some strange type of virus. I deleted over 2.7GB of those files, if Visa would let me.

Security is what Vista is all about, with many sub directories, could change the ownership of these files under the same directory, but rarely not all the time, had to do that individually with many files, and that also held true for the thousands of photos, documents, MP3 files she had on that drive. This computer only had administrator rights and I have no idea why the owner lost these rights with many personal files..

The only way I could get rid of those HP programs I accidentally copied over was to transfer just her files to a 3rd HD, but many I didn't have the right to even copy until I right clicked, selected properties, selected security, selected add users, typed in the computer name, everyone, administrator, owners rights, and owners grouped, then allowed each one full control over that file. If you don't do all, not knowing who owns that file, you have to do it again. Doing that with the HP programs, was told to go to hell, you ain't deleting, moving, or nothing with these files. But they do let you copy them. In attempting to move 40GB of her data, just couldn't walk away, this was a nightmare as you do not have permission to do this kept on popping up. I finally got all of her data moved out of that HD. But was shocked when Vista let me format that drive.

It did occur to me, maybe I should have tried this file transfer from one HD to another HD using a Win98 box, it does have the NTFS upgrade but didn't have the extra adapters I needed. What a pain MS is doing to us.

Sured looked over the internet for Windows Mail problems, said the msoe.dll is used by the anti-virus program and wouldn't opened. Did learn by tracking down e-mail files and not only in the appointed directory where they are supposed to be, but all over the damn place, and deleting them after I gave myself permission to do so, winmail.exe finally opened.

Swore those guys at MS are smoking crack with all this security, damned Vista is still very susceptible to ####### off the internet and they have a zillion security upgrades in an attempt that doesn't work to block them.

Yeah, I know, get a Mac, but nobody supports a Mac. Hopefully my wife will do better housekeeping with her computer. I like to please her, she is a wonderful woman, but not sure why she wanted a notebook, sits permanently in a docking station that is always running out of batteries.

On my next computer, going back to what I did for years, but the components and a Windows CD. Now tell me MS is loading up the OS also with all these trial programs.

With hesitation, I did try my XP Pro disk on her HP notebook, hesitation, because it already has installed on another computer that has been long in the trashcan. For whatever reason, XP went into a loop, formatting th drive, loading the program, the formatting the drive again. Didn't know how to solve that, so quit. It was doing this all on it's own with no choices on my part.

Well, her computer is working again, but I am a complete mess and badly in need of therapy.

[Ali G. 37]

HP's usually come with a standalone (clean) version of vista or 7. All you would need to do is install this OS and then download and manually install the lateset drivers from the HP site.

Did this on my wife's HP and she is having no issues whatsoever. Her laptop is using 64bit ultimate.

Edited February 25, 2010 by Booyah

[NickD 202]

HP's usually come with a standalone (clean) version of vista or 7. All you would need to do is install this OS and then download and manually install the lateset drivers from the HP site.

Did this on my wife's HP and she is having no issues whatsoever. Her laptop is using 64bit ultimate.

When did that start doing that, even my daughters' 15 month old HP dv9815us has all that ####### on the recovery disk. She did get a Sony, but having headaches with that as well. Told her to take it back to Bestbuy within that two week period. Naw too busy, well sent it back to Sony then, I don't work on computers under warranty.

[Ali G. 37]

When did that start doing that, even my daughters' 15 month old HP dv9815us has all that ####### on the recovery disk. She did get a Sony, but having headaches with that as well. Told her to take it back to Bestbuy within that two week period. Naw too busy, well sent it back to Sony then, I don't work on computers under warranty.

Maybe it was an extra option or something but I definitely have a OS only DVD, which specifically only runs on HP machines.

The other thing you can do is find a copy of Vista and then use your legitimate key to activate it. Then install the drivers only manually.

I will say this though. Windows 7 works well on laptops.

[The_Dude 1,142]

Maybe it was an extra option or something but I definitely have a OS only DVD, which specifically only runs on HP machines.

The other thing you can do is find a copy of Vista and then use your legitimate key to activate it. Then install the drivers only manually.

I will say this though. Windows 7 works well on laptops.

Most vendors charge extra for that unless you've bought the top line model. About 5 months ago, I had to call the vendor to get a new copy of the OS, and I requested an OEM version. Dell was pretty good about that and sent me an XP disk that did not have all the proprietary content on it. Some of that stuff, especially on HP is a pain in the #### to strip off the OS after you buy it. I'll be buying a new computer in the next 3 months and it's really disheartening to see all of the really good computer companies like Alienware and Voodoo have been bought up by Dell or HP.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Yeah manufacturers have stopped giving you the OS disk - you either have to download it, burn a set of "recovery" disks when you get the machine, or its already on a separate partition of the HDD.

Rob - don't bother with Alienware or HP, Asus make really good laptops.

Check these out:

UL30VT

N61

G51

Edited February 25, 2010 by Gene Hunt

[The_Dude 1,142]

I'm not going to get a laptop as the one I still have is serviceable for what I need it for. I'm getting a more high end gaming rig

[NickD 202]

Most vendors charge extra for that unless you've bought the top line model. About 5 months ago, I had to call the vendor to get a new copy of the OS, and I requested an OEM version. Dell was pretty good about that and sent me an XP disk that did not have all the proprietary content on it. Some of that stuff, especially on HP is a pain in the #### to strip off the OS after you buy it. I'll be buying a new computer in the next 3 months and it's really disheartening to see all of the really good computer companies like Alienware and Voodoo have been bought up by Dell or HP.

Yeah I really like Compaqs as a very well engineered computer, still have three left I hate to part with. But HP only uses that name today. Purchased a bunch of Compaqs including the montior, a laser printer, mouse, and keyboard from a bank that was upgrading for 50 bucks each. They trusted me to format the HD's. some of the printers only had 50 pages printed on them, and the HD's only one or two general letters on them. These were like $4,000.00 systems back then. But that is history today, they are hanging unto the old stuff.

Software companies are very good at making perfectly good computers obsolete. Offered one of my Toshiba notebooks to my daughter for a

week, still gets on the net and just as fast as anything we have today, the net is the big bottle neck. The word processor has no problem in keeping up with your typing skills. But they think all this new ####### is good. Only thing I have noticed, is that the user is quickly losing control over their box. Damn thing has a mind of it's own.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

To completely remove Norton, you should download the Norton Removal Tool at symantec.com/nrt and run it twice just to be safe. As for the rest of the programs, use RevoUninstaller in the advanced mode to get rid of all the traces in the registry.

[The_Dude 1,142]

To completely remove Norton, you should download the Norton Removal Tool at symantec.com/nrt and run it twice just to be safe. As for the rest of the programs, use RevoUninstaller in the advanced mode to get rid of all the traces in the registry.

I just had to do that on my parents computer. I used CCleaner and it worked great. Norton certainly don't make it easy for you to break up with them.

[spookyturtle 9,465]

I just had to do that on my parents computer. I used CCleaner and it worked great. Norton certainly don't make it easy for you to break up with them.

CCleaner is a great tool, I use this for my regular clean ups. RevoUninstaller is better for program removal, IMHO. And best of all, it's free, as is CCleaner. SpywareBlaster is another good freebie for IE and Firefox, and best of all, it uses no system resources at all.

[Scott & Lai 12]

Norton certainly don't make it easy for you to break up with them.

Which is why I refuse to go out with them in the first place

[M.O 6]

[NickD 202]

CCleaner is a great tool, I use this for my regular clean ups. RevoUninstaller is better for program removal, IMHO. And best of all, it's free, as is CCleaner. SpywareBlaster is another good freebie for IE and Firefox, and best of all, it uses no system resources at all.

I use Registrar Registry Manager to search for and delete unnecessary items in the registry, CCleaner, Registry Mechanic, System Mechanic Pro, PCmedic only find a dropfull of these entries. After running the Nortons' Complete removal tool, twice, three times, doesn't make any difference, Registrar found another 1,200 entries. Plus still at lot of Symatec and Norton left in various subfolders in Desktop, Users, program files, program data.

Even worse is trying remove that trial version of Office 2007. You do have to be wide awake when dealing with the registry.

From the recovery with all that ####### on it, started off with 312,000 entries, cut that back to about 250,000 with all the other programs installed. Then I left the computer on, MS installed 102 upgrades on it's own, and the registry count jumped up to 363,000. Screw it, no wonder why you need a 500 GB drive today, just for the OS.

[Darnell 8,478]

NickD - you've an 'opening salvo' for a PC Users magazine article.

Flesh it out a bit more, and get it sold !

with a bit of twisting and plot changes, you could also sell it to

1. readers digest (for the funny section)

2. field and stream (what do dem fishermen do when they're not fishing, anyway?)

3. road and track (I couldn't drive my fast car this weekend because...)

4. scientific american (why is microsoft promoting incompetent computer scientists? look what I have to put up with ! )

5. Woman's Day (Look what a Good Husband I am ! )

6. Guns and Ammo (I was scheduled to shoot at the range this weekend, but instead, I did this )

et.etc., ad.nauseum.pax.hominibum..

you get the idea...

now get out there and make some money.

FWIW, if you EVER want to 'fix' a Vista machine - boot up with Knoppix CD.

Edited February 25, 2010 by Darnell