I thought you might enjoy reading about my pain.

Both the hardware and the software fought me every step of the way.

A windows auto download froze up shortly after I turned it on for the first time. Mouse would not travel in a slant, only L-R, up-down. Later a new drive download update froze up as well.

Here's a comparison on transferring over my email contacts list. I recently transferred my Outlook contacts to my Apple iPad using a clearly written easy three or four step process. When I went to do the same to Win 7 I ended up looking at a 12-slide process on a web developers site and still had a terrible problem because Win 7 had hidden menus that I initially could not find. Does that make any sense - a Win to Apple transfer works 10 times easier than a Win to Win transfer!

I found Win Live Mail to be the worst experience ever. The contact layout was great but everything else about it was unreal. My email accounts in Comcast, Yahoo, and Gmail were all supposed to meet in this one happy spot. There's not enough time to tell you all the frustration I had with it but I did manage to get CNN news updates (that I never wanted) every 10 or 20 minutes. Every time I thought I had removed the source, they came back.... all at the same time I could not get the mail program to do what it should have.

As for Chrome, I soon learned I did not like it at all for a variety of reasons. I was never able to even get the local weather on it - temporarily out of service for days. I finally downloaded Safari, which I've never used except for a few times on the new iPad. Oh my, it was so much better to figure out and use.

During the two weeks I went back to Best Buy three times for assistance, called the Geek Squad two or three times, called Toshiba a couple times (one which involved doing a power recycle which had me removing the laptop battery), called Comcast twice as Live Mail or some program keep putting in the wrong #'s for the out box, called Logitech three times because neither the orig new mouse or it's replacement wanted to work at a slant (turns out it was the laptop). On and on it went....

All that in addition to burning 4-system recovery DVDs, backing up whatever little progress I made, and uninstalling a fair amount of crap I would never use. I invested 80 to 100 hours in the learning process and learned what I don't like.

The final straw was when Win Live Mail actually prevented me from opening a word document attached to an email from a friend. The same document I could easily open on my iPad. What really pissed me off today was finding out MS wasn't going to answer my Win 7 questions about security settings in Win Live Mail unless they charged me for the call. I've got two week old OS software and they want to charge me to talk to them. Even the so-called-free Geek Squad service wanted to charge me $49 to look at it over the internet when they couldn't answer it over the phone. Thankfully, I said I would take the pc back if I could and he said I could. Made my day.

I returned the Toshiba laptop today (the 14th day within the 14 day return policy). I should buy a lotto ticket.

I am without question going to buy a Mac. Nothing could be as bad as the past two weeks. Good learning experience since I got to try out Win 7, iGoogle, Chrome, Win Live Mail and other apps. Honestly, I did not like any of them. Oh well, live and learn.

Stay tuned..


Sorry, but I can not give you one simple answer.

 

Wow!!! Sorry you had all these issues. I will never recommend anything again, and that includes computers, books, restaurants, pets, and cars!

 

But you already did.... you said I should get an Apple. Gene, Hopefully, your HP experience will be good.

 

[QUOTE=dlq04,Jan 20 2011, 05:49 PM]

 

Dave.

You traded your pain for an itch. Great choice, would have recommended it but I came late. I love mine. I'm sure you'll love yours too.

 

Wow! I've rarely used Windows Explorer, and never used their Email programs. I used Thunderbird to surf the web and use their email program too.

I've not thought of what would be involved if I switch my home PC to Windows 7. I don't have much that I care about on my computer with the exception of some documents and lots of pics.

My little experience with Windows 7 on my net book has been without issue, but I'm not looking to transfer any data.

 

When my laptop locked up with an update to Vista, I bought Windows 7 and put it on. I really don't notice the difference. I still have Vista on my home PC.

 

Wow....what a disaster! Did they charge you a re-stocking fee ???

Makes me glad that I stuck with Windows XP, OE and Mr. Softee Home Office. I had no problems with either my DELL refurb OR my little Acer Netbook (although I haven't done much except web surfing and logging into Comcast webmail or Gmail when travelling).

Don't know much about Apple, as I'm too frugal to spend 2X on almost anything The only Apple that we've had was an Apple II GS in about 1990

Oh, did I mention the MicroCenter that's about an hour away....

 

Lainey, I've been using IE, Microsoft Outlook (full version) and Outlook Express for the past 10 years. I know they reportedly have programing holes to attract virus and worms but I had good experiences with the programs. But, I thought I would take advantage of the upgrade to change out all the weak stuff for the new and reportedly good stuff. I knew it was big undertaking to change everything at the same time (new OS, new browser, new email service, switch to wireless pc, switch from tower to laptop, switch to a wireless keyboard/mouse, switch search engines, update drivers and apps, etc., etc.) but I thought I would take my time and do it right. I expected a steep learning curve but not the mess I ran into.

 

I beleve you did, a time or two.