COMPUTER SHENANIGANS...
...or, I've Got A Life, at least I Think I Do...

I posted a computer-based entry earlier this week that I deleted. I really didn't like the way it turned out, although I was right about one thing: If you sign up for automatic Windows Updates, you'll find Microsoft has stuck Windows 9 among the many other updates that MSN thinks you should have. Sneaky, sneaky. Me, I'm a big fan of Windows 7. I like the way it works; it ranks right up there with Windows XP as a very easy way to go online. Actually there were two reasons I deleted that computer-based entry; number one, I had some of the information wrong, and, number two, an "anonymous" person commented on it saying that I Really Needed To Get A Life. That Ticked Me Off. If he read thru that post, he needs a life too. At least I don't take cheap potshots at other bloggers. I save that for the politicians.

Recently, I found that I was running Internet Explorer 9 instead of IE. Microsoft found a way to sneak it in. I had already stripped IE9 off my computer and replaced it with IE8, since IE7 is no longer available. I got all of that done, and found that my screen resolution (size of print and images) was different for every site I went to. That drove me nuts! I had desktop icons which took up more than half of my screen! And every time I tapped the touchpad, the type kept changing sizes and I had no idea how to stop that. But I got everything installed the best I could and called it a day. Tonight, I was going thru various functions, trying to get everything to operate just a little better, when I found a system recovery option which said, "use this only if you have installation disks." Well, I have the Windows 7 disk. I bought it a while ago to replace Windows 'Vista' that originally came with this computer. Vista is Purely Awful. But that's another subject altogether. Back to Internet Explorer...

When I tried to download Internet Explorer 7 from an online site, the best I could do was to get IE8, since IE7 is no longer supported, the latest in a long line of Computer Dinosaurs. Tonite, after finding the System Recovery/Disk program, I put my Windows 7 disc in the tray, all the while hoping that I hadn't converted my laptop computer into a large paperweight in terms of function. And, voila, it worked! Everything's running as smoothly as it did before I was forced into Internet Explorer 9. I opted out of Windows Automatic Updates; I still get updates, but can choose what I want. Up popped a Windows Page with a list of 84 updates that Microsoft said I needed. And sure enough, in that list was inserted the deadly Windows 9. I picked all the updates except for that one. I will not let MSN be the boss of me. It took ages for all of those updates to be downloaded.

So why is everything working now, when it hadn't been? Probably because when I tried loading IE7 (which was bounced up to IE8) online, my computer still contained remnants of the IE9 that I didn't want. It was as if the computer couldn't make up its mind what version of Internet Explorer it was running. I tried to Defrag several times, but that didn't help. It's my theory that when I installed from Disk, everything that had gone before had been completely erased and I could start on a clean slate. The fact that I have to reinstall programs I used to have bears that out. So, do I have a life? Of course. But tonight, getting all of this computer stuff done has taken about 7 hours of my time. Good thing there was a baseball game on; waiting for a computer to recover and download can take forever.(The Seattle Mariners played the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the M's shut 'em out 3-0. YAAY! See? I've got a life.At least I think I do).So anyhow, if I'm gonna invest a chunk of time getting something to wor, which takes up hours of my life I'll never have again, I'm gonna post about it. And so I did.

Looks like I've been online a little too long...

Many, many times, I'm online only 2 or 3 hours a day. If that. But I've got this annoying tendency; I Hate It When Things Don't Work. And nights like this are long, dragged out affairs, trying to do stuff that takes forever to accomplish. I suppose if I was a tekkie who indeed Didn't Have A Life, I could probably have gotten this stuff down in half of the time it took me.

Public Service Dept.: Of course, there's all kinds of nasty things out there just waiting to invade your computer and send it reeling;  protecting your machine is necessary, and can be important and can be costly. I've been running the Comodo Firewall, which is free for home use; I've run it for a couple of years now and it's great! And the price is right, too. Okay, I'm done. Back to my life now...