RustyKnight

i've tried again now and its working, I have Mint up and running and everything seems to work fine. I tried adding an image but it won't let me. Now I have it all up and running I'm wondering if it would be possible to dual boot - just because it would be better than using the USB stick idea.

I haven't had time to try it yet but I made a Linux Mint 18 USB with Linux Live, from a guide on the Linux Mint page (I'm on the wrong computer for the link). If I can get Mint to boot on the x360 from USB with persistence, and it works OK I was thinking of getting a low-profile USB drive that I could leave plugged in to use Mint without having to worry about dual booting it. At the moment I have a desktop PC with Windows 7 and another with Ubuntu Mate.

Oops sorry Starbuck That was a typo - no it isn't an IUSB - its a standard USB external DVD writer for PC. I'll try creating the USB stick from Windows instead of Linux. I tried it in all 3 USB ports but had no success from any. Rustys (nice name ;) ) I used Linux Mint Cinnamon, and created the USB stick using Unetbootin on Ubuntu Mate. I tried booting from DVD with a Puppy disc I'd used on a desktop PC so I know it was OK. I didn't try the USB on another PC though. I tried it with Legacy on and off as well as Secure Boot on and off, the USB was always before the HDD.

The USB was a bootable one as was the DVD I tried in the IUSB DVD drive. I tried both with both USB options at the top of the list in the BIOS and the hard drive below them, wouldn't work either way. I found a review of the laptop on a Linux website and it said it was easy to boot a Live version of Linux by changing the "Legacy" setting in the BIOS - it didn't work for me. I'll have another play around with it and see if I can get anywhere.

I have an HP Pavilion x360 convertible laptop with Windows 8.1, and it is useless. I want to try a Linux via a liveUSB but not matter what settings I use the laptop always boots into Windows. I've tried booting for a USB flash drive and a USB DVD, with different Legacy settings, and still I get Windows 8.1. In case you are wondering, Windows is useless because it won't install updates, I left it all night checking for updates, connected by LAN to a 20MBs connection all night and it was checking. Also every time I try using apps they won't start until I've "Repaired the Windows Store". I tried updating it to Windows 10 but had the same problem, it won't boot from the USB drive.

At risk of being thumped can I suggest you look at Chromebooks as well :rolleyes: I was a bit worried about Chromebooks because of the cloud computing system but its much better than I expected. The only thing my Acer isn't very good at is photo work because the image editing software is a bit limited. Google are supposed to be bring in Android apps to new Chromebooks so that will provide much more software choices. The only downside is the storage, I have a 64Gb SSD in mine. Fortunately, when an SD card is inserted it doesn't stick out and get in the way so at the moment I have a 64GB SD card which I use for my files.

We had one a few weeks ago from someone saying they were from BT. According to him my computer was infected and that was causing a problem for all other BT internet users in my area. I told him I don't have a computer, he said I must have because I wouldn't need the internet if I didn't have a computer. I just said "haven't you heard of smart TVs" - he hung up

Its a scam, just hang up, or tell them you don't have a computer and hang up.

I followed those instructions but every time I reboot it just switches back to auto. I think I've cured it now. I managed to download the OpenDNS Updater program again.

Sorry if this has been asked elsewhere but I couldn't find anything. I'm trying to change the DNS server to OpenDNS on Windows 7 but every time I reboot it goes back to the original settings. When I was using a wifi connection I had an OpenDNS software that checked the settings on boot but since my wifi connection stopped working and I've gone wired the software stopped working so I uninstalled it, now I can't seem to find it to try downloading it again. So how do I change my DNS settings and make them permanent?

Thanks for your help

It booted without any problems the last two times. I haven't had any Windows updates yet, I guess if I get them and it stops again that will confirm the problem.

I ran system restore from the recovery menu - pressed F8 at boot. It said it had failed, but when I restarted windows I got a box to say it had completed successfully. The computer booted from cold this morning OK. Now I have to fix the stuff that updated in the past week and re-update Zonealarm internet security.

Thanks, I'll try that. I've done a disc scan, no errors and system file check. I also tried the option to repair start up problems but it said there weren't any.

Since Windows installed updates last week it won't boot from cold. It gets to the log-in screen, I enter my password then it freezes on a black screen with mouse pointer. I pressed Ctr-Al--Del and click restart and it goes back to the black screen. I have to hold the power button down to switch of my PC, then when I start it again it works fine.

Presumably if you don't connect to the internet until after you've disabled updates you should be OK :rolleyes:

You can use the same CD but you need two different Windows serial numbers, one for each laptop.

The link worked for me - luckily I checked my laptop settings :rolleyes:

A friend of mine posted on Facebook yesterday that her laptop upgraded to Windows 10 without asking - she was very unhappy! She is now reverting to Windows 8!

Anyone know of a similar site or tool that works with Linux?

I was going to suggest LibreOffice :rolleyes:

They are only dangerous if you download them from dodgy websites! I download disc images from the Raspberry Pi website as torrents and the Ubuntu website.

A few years ago, when I had Windows XP, I had a program that would compare the actual photos and show possible duplicates so you could delete them. I can't remember what it was called but it was very good and the only reason I got rid of it was because it wouldn't run on Windows 7.

I had a problem with Paypal last week, I had an email saying there was suspicious activity on my account and it wouldn't let me log in until I'd changed my password and when I had logged in it wouldn't let me do anything. I had to phone their customer service number. Apparently a lot of spoof emails had been sent but my problem was that someone in Illinois had tried to access my account, and a lot of others so they blocked every account that the Illinois IP address had attempted to access. Annoyingly the email I received just said their was suspicious activity didn't tell me that I had to phone Paypal to get them to unlock my account so I could actually use it.

At the moment the exclamation mark has gone but windows still says there's a problem with the adapter even though it also says its working properly. As I don't use my Xbox much now I have connected my PC to the Devolo home plug adapter in place of the Xbox so I think I'll just leave it like it is. Thanks everyone, for trying to help and sorry for not solving it.