IT problem (slightly OT)

Do that, and retain the Windows in a separate partition in case you want to continue to play with it. That way, you have a useable machine while still trying to sort out Windows. Then realise that you don't need Windows anyway.

From memory, there was an issue with a recent Windows update that caused problems for some machines. I believe Microsoft issued a fix.

If you do linux it you simply wont have these problems in future. If a linux distro doesnt behave with your machine, its trivial to put another linux disc in, and if all is well install it

I learnt the time wasting way that windows is best not to spend too much time on.

NT

Agreed. I just gave up after spending an hour trying to move contacts from my old windows phone to a new android one. Can't get the old phone to synchronise to any of my MS accounts (hotmail, livemail, outlook).

I'm still looking for some ammunition to hit the laptop supplier with, though. I wouldn't be *too* unhappy if they just gave me a non-oem Win

Tried..?

When I saw read the O/P I bet myself which respondent would say what you just did. I bet No 1 - and I won! What a really usless reply to give someone. It's the same as giving directions to someone by saying 'I wouldn't start from here'. Usless, outdated and we've heard it a zillion times before.

Best I can suggest is dont pay for windows in the first place. Since I went linux I've not looked back. 99% is self explanatory, but I had to learn about mounting discs. Easy enough.

NT

... and the remaining 1 % is completely insoluble because the manufacturer doesn't support the hardware or the software isn't available.

Owain

????

what ARE you on about?

That sounds more like OS-X...

Its always solvable, you just write your own software, that's what open source is for.

Stuff and nonsense. I've never had any trouble getting OS X drivers.

There seem to be several other posters who agree with me.

When I installed Linux, everything worked, I didn't have to hunt for any drivers.

That is of course the general situation with Linux installations. Everything you need (applications and drivers) lives in one Linux repository and gets installed as needed.

Getting drivers from a particular manufacturer's web site just doesn't happen, neither does the 'searching for drivers' that you often hear about with Windows.

Now this does mean that Linux doesn't work with every single device out there but the coverage is pretty good. The only exceptions tend to be where a manufacturer has written a custom driver that doesn't conform to existing standards.

In my personal experience the only things that don't "just work" in Linux are Garmin SatNavs, some functions of smartphones and an Epson scanner (which works in Linux, but the custom software for Windows is good enough for me to want to use it).

I think the 'well if I were here I wouldn't go there' approach is more valid than people assume.

If there is a purpose to going to there, maybe that purpose can more easily be satisfied by going *somewhere else instead*.

Exactly.

The last time I *had* to manually install a driver was to get an ageing laptops broadcom wifi chipset to squawk.

The reason for manual installation being that broadcomm wrote the driver and didn't release its source code..so legally it couldn't be included as part of the main distribution.

I have also added Nvidia graphic drivers manually, but the default drivers work as well so I didn't need to.

The current workaround seems to be an unholy compromise that whilst you cant actually include non-free code as part of the distribution, you can include code that is capable of downloading it from somewhere else and installing it...

To that list, I would add the VCR->PC device EZCap, which I could not get to work with Linux, even with the help of folks in the UK Linux NG. It is quite possible that there is a way, but when the Windows software supplied, which was what it was designed for, works fine, that is what I use. If it were not for that one instance, I would not bother to keep Win7 on my machine. My Samsung laptop's NVIDIA card had problems working with Ubuntu 10.04, and needed some work to sort out, but ver. 12.04 just loaded up and ran the card without any intervention required. And I don't miss the interminable hours taken for Windows updates to download and then install, I just don't bother to connect Windows to the internet any more.

You may be right, I think...... And I still think that my original message was valid, there was nothing wrong with the advice I offered, old or not.

Yes. I never actually noticed it happening, but at some point in the last 5 years using a modern Linux actually was EASIER than using a modern windows in terms of installation upgrades and general user friendliness.