Well, for values of fun that include making finicky repairs on small electronics with arthritic fingers. *heh*
Hardware fault on the lil lappy I’ve been using for the past six years for casual Internet browsing, email, etc. while away from my primary computer (which is any time I’m sitting with my Wonder Woman and she’s on her lappy). So, backup lil lappy. And this time, when I say “lil” I mean :tiny”–a discarded netbook I rehabbed and installed Linux Mint on. Works surprisingly well, apart from
1. Cramped keyboard *feh* that makes typos almost certain, and
2. Crappy, tiny mushpad, and
3. Difficulty disabling the crappy, tiny mushpad, making typing even more of a chore–strictly “Biblical method” typing (“seek and ye shall find” *sigh*)
I will figure out that last one. . .
Meanwhile, decision time: definitively diagnose and repair the other lappy or replace it? I don’t really want to purchase a Win10 laptop, so pickings might be slim. For a casual use lapptop, Win7 works pretty well, shich is the reason I had kept that one at Win7 Pro. I like the way Linux Mint works just fine on this lil thing (apart from the obscurantist nature of disabling the touchpad–although it’s probably a simple task and I’m just missing something that’s staring me right in the face. Only one cuppa joe and all that.*heh*)
Anywho, at least most of my data from my regular ole lappy is secure elsewhere, apart from recent bookmarks and the like. The only really irksome things about replacing it with a Linux or Win8.1/10 compy would be
- The PITA of putting Win7 version of Freecell on one (it has a more attractive look than any other version I’ve seen out there for other OSes, and I use it for “Freecell Zen” mind-clearing)
- Transferring the record of nearly 10,000 to 0 win-loss would be nice, too. *heh*
Yeh, like that is such a big deal, eh? 😉
I’m certainly not the computer whiz that you are (can I borrow you for about a week :-), but I seem to be the go-to geek for a lot of people. I mostly understand the stuff you say. I have a Dell laptop that has XP on it, still use it often for some graphics and music software, and it”s the best for playing Minesweeper. I got a nice Toshiba laptop last year with 8 on it, quickly made the 8.1 move before I had to shoot myself. I’m still adjusting. I hate that it doesn’t have the usual Windows stuff, everything is in the store. Makes me crazy. 8.1 is on the church computer, and it has taken forever to teach the media team how to find things. College computers are still on 7 Pro. My very favorite is my little Toshiba netbook with 7 on it. That little thing is a workhorse. I run my projection program with it, and it just does whatever I need. The only downside is that now I have a wad of flash drives the size of my fist. My oldest daughter, now the administrative assistant to HLGU’s president, is doing her degree completion and has borrowed it for her schoolwork. I am also a FreeCell addict 🙂 Now if I can just learn how to use the tablet that my daughter gave me. and I’m hopeless with a phone. I guess that’s why I have grandkids. CAT
Solving all the stupidities of the Microsoft-preferred Win 8/8.1 interface, making all your old desktop apps work in an easy, familiar manner by bringing back the full functionality of the Start bar (and more) for desktop use: http://classicshell.net/
My Wonder Woman had NO difficulty transitioning from her Win7 notebook (that had started life out as a WinXP computer) to her new (last year) Win 8.1 notebook, because the first thing I did (after improving its anti-virus) was to install Classic Shell. It boots directly to the desktop and just works like Win7. The #gagamaggot “Modern Interface” is still available, but one never needs to see it.
I did the same thing on my Win 8.1 media computer (that began life as a WinXP Pro compy, then Win 7, Win 8, Win 8.1), and kept it so that when I “upgraded” it to Win10, all I really had to do to keep using it the way I wanted to was turn off all the Microsoft spying.