Mara

Thanks, Wolfeymole. (Our daughter was given a laptop that is so, so slow. (Trying to speed it up by stopping all unnecessary processes running and was completely confused before).

Can't comment on the computer itself but wow, I'm drooling over your 22" screen! Enjoy your new computer, DSTM!

Okay and thanks, Dalo! (Wouldn't it be lovely if all programs we download were polite and just asked - when being installed - if we wanted them to start auto or not. Gentle grin).

It's great having the 'stickie' guide for keeping our computers safe - thank you, thank you! (For instance, hadn't even heard of 'Site Hound' before but it's doing a lovely job!). And I wonder if, for those of us who are a tad bewildered about 'Windows Start Up', could have a site added to our 'stickie' section? I ask because when I rummaged around to find what programs were starting up automatically, some were easy to understand - while others were a bit mind-boggling (and I followed the great advice, "When in doubt, don't!" - gentle smile). I found this below link that shows which processes are which ... and wonder, if you think it's suitable, it could be used as a reference when trying to decide what to have start automatically. Sysinfo.org Thanks once again, Mara

How wonderful to have the 'sound card' and the differences between them explained so well! And having a photo of the add in makes things so much easier to understand, too! Thank you, thank you to both of you, Dalo and Seth - I truly appreciate it!

Would someone please explain what a 'sound card' is. (I saw it mentioned in another thread saying that sometimes if the ports don't work for headphones, one can "install a new sound card"). Not too sure if this (a 'sound card') is a physical thing (like a skinny floppy?) or a software thing (like drivers) or ? I ask because my headphones worked great after reloading my C: Drive and, in fact, worked great yesterday. But now the silly thing won't work no matter what port I plop it into. Zipped over to the normal 'Windows Update' site and everything seems to be up to date - so thought maybe a new 'sound card' might be worth a try. Thanks once again, Mara

Yes welcome - lovely to have you join us, Malivich!

Aah, yes ... furry does not = friendly. Poor fellow but yes, he's lucky. A lady here was gardening in her front yard a couple weeks ago and guess a bear mistook her for breakfast - even the neighbours stoning and hitting it with anything handy didn't scare it off. Sadly, her face and well as nearly all other body parts was pretty gnawed on before police arrived to shot it. We teach our children here to never, ever turn and run - no matter how terrified they are. And arm them with 'bear sirens' - can only hope neither of our little fellows will need it. Something to remember when buying a new house in an unfamiliar area (gentle smile) ... "location" may be "everything" in real estate terms but there can be such a thing as living a tad too close to nature. Surely snakes and other scary critters are limited to your 'out back' areas, DSTM ... not something that visits when you're enjoying your sunshine outside, I hope?!

Yup, suspect it may well be an egg - and likely a raw one at that. (Have a few Asian friends who love breaking raw eggs into hot soup and swirling quickly with a chopstick or spoon). Hope DSTM doesn't mind my gently stealing the topic for a moment ... One of our girls married a gentleman from Asia now living here and a citizen of Canada ... and we all loved the differences in culture and learning from each other until our first Christmas together. Image one huge, perfectly roasted turkey 'resting' on the counter before carving ... and one young man who thought he would surprise us by helping in the kitchen. Now imagine this poor turkey literally hacked into huge hunks with a meat cleaver, rather than sliced and displayed on a serving plate. Yup, skin, stuffing, bones and meat all intermingled and 'chunky'. Different cultures, different ways of doing things - huge gentle laugh. Back to wonderful Australia and comparisons ... do people honestly find kangaroo meat in their grocery stores? Or is that sort of the same thing as people saying we Canadians eat buffalo meat regularly too? (And live in igloos and have moose wandering through all our streets, etc ... all true, by the way, but only in select areas!).

My relatives in Wales would be so, so happy that you didn't lump them in with England, maynardvdm! Huge smile! Okay DSTM, those photos were downright scary! (I'd add a smiley here if only I knew how) ... one look at those snakes in real life this healthy heart would stop from sheer horror! Give me our big furry bears anytime! Gotta admit that what I thought I knew about Australia was mostly incorrect, though. Knew it was huge and knew you have nasty creatures both on land and in the sea - but now I've spent time researching it, wow, what a beautiful Country!

Happy birthday!! Hope it's a wonderful one filled with love and lots of laughter!

Yes, so glad you've joined us, Devo!

Seth, suspect a "purely Canadian technical support site" may well be impossible - if one believes my American friends (grin!) - who maintain we "Canadians are so laid-back even computer problems don't cause gray hair!" Australia is, without doubt, one of the places that I wish we'd visited when we were jaunting around - drat, drat! But then again, apparently you've got HUGE snakes there, Doug - eeeeeek!

Suspect visitors to your Country may be as confused as to it's true size as they often are when visiting Canada, DSTM - huge smile! (Can honestly remember when relatives from England actually packed a suitcase when they heard we were driving 200 miles to show them our Canyon. To us, it's a day trip). Wonder what it costs to fly from one side of your Country to the other? Here, it costs considerable more to fly across Canada than, for instance, to Europe.

How interesting that people would actually choose to eat in this place - ugh!

Thanks every so much, Wolfeymole - do appreciate it.

Since Mood Logic is dead, guess it can't hurt to give the program away if the 'friendlie' is content to use it as-is with no future updates. (And yes, it will be interesting to see if it and the other program work on a non-Sony computer). Think what I'll do is take a change that if I completely delete any program from my computer, it should be 'legal' to give it to another person. There are the two above mentioned programs, of course, but a neighbour lady wants to prepare to re-enter the work force and could use my 'Quicken' and 'Microsoft Works' programs to learn on. I did wander through the internet prior to posting this question to see if I could figure out 'copyrights' and what is/isn't legal and the answers seemed far from clear - so do appreciate your response, Wolfeymole.

Pesky Cruzer 'stick' ... My Cruzer stick by SanDisk lights up green when plugged into the computer and shows everything on it ... but when I try to transfer something from computer's hard drive onto it, computer doesn't recognize it as being plugged in already. Went to SanDisk site again ... tried to see if I could download a new 'driver' (it said one isn't necessary when using Windows XP) ... then clicked on their general help page for these items and only get a blank page showing on screen - so guess they won't be any help. Found the section in my computer that shows 'Device Manager' (I did read all the other posts re these pesky 'sticks' - gentle smile) and there are no yellow exclamation marks showing. Then tried using 'Device Manager Wizard' but it couldn't find anything better than computer has now. My question is ... Would someone please be kind enough to let me know how to "reformat" one of this little sticks? Thanks again ever so much.

On my Sony Media XP computer, I have two programs that I never use (and have never used) and a 'friendlie' is wondering if I would give him the below two programs. 1. Sony Stage (it is a digital music manager that does custom compilations, etc) 2. Mood Logic (it organizes music according to genre, etc) If I burn them onto a CD for him (he does not have a Sony computer) and then completely delete both above programs from my computer, it is legal, I wonder?

What a lovely accident that lead you to our site, Adele- welcome!

Hi Pash - welcome!

Hi Steve - welcome! Glad you've joined us!

Hi snooky - welcome! Not to worry about still learning ... this is a terrific place to learn - wonderful people and terrific help, too.

Just zipped off to try it ... and alas, it won't open with Paint either. Gentle sigh. But have decided to drop this woe into my little mental file folder called, 'Will it matter a year from now?' - and since the answer is 'unlikely', think I'll just consider this one of those wee hiccups in life - gentle smile.

My computer is two years old now - so off I go to the site you were so kind to provide the link to - and shall bookmark the site. Since I did the C: Drive restore the other day, the CD burner is working once again, thankfully - but should it start to act up, I'll do the upgrade. (Knowing that upgrades "can render your drive inoperable" is daunting - eep! - so thanks ever so much for the warning).