New computer
#1
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New computer
The time is long past for upgrading my computer (I'm still running XP) and I have a few questions. Since my needs are pretty much limited to E-mail and simple "cruisin' the 'net" I don't need much. I'd like a decent version of Word and maybe Excel as well.
I noticed refurbished laptops at Tiger Direct including Win10 pro and Office Home and Business 2019 for a combined price of about $550. but it says it is available in either touch or non-touch...what the heck does that mean?
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?EdpNo=5969924
I noticed refurbished laptops at Tiger Direct including Win10 pro and Office Home and Business 2019 for a combined price of about $550. but it says it is available in either touch or non-touch...what the heck does that mean?
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?EdpNo=5969924
Top Answer
06-05-19, 09:00 PM
You can download and use for free..... LibreOffice. It's an open-source office suite. It is very similar to Word and the file system is compatible. I refuse to pay what microsoft wanted for Word.
#2
It means touchscreen or non touchscreen. You can touch the screen with your finger and do whatever you would do with a mouse.
#3
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One gotcha will be Word and Excel as those programs are now sold as a subscription so you will have a yearly fee for them. There are very restricted versions in Windows that come with the operating system but most of the programs features are locked unless you subscribe.
#4
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Thanks, Shadie. I assume I could get the touch screen model and then not use it as such and yet still have the option.
Thanks, Pilot. I saw something to that effect but I'm not sure it applied since I would be using the simplest version.
Thanks, Pilot. I saw something to that effect but I'm not sure it applied since I would be using the simplest version.
#5
You don't have to use it at all or just sometimes. I have one and I'd say I use it 25% of the time. I still prefer a mouse but sometimes the touchscreen comes in handy.
It may include the Office Home and Student version, which includes Word, Excel and Power Point for a one time fee. If you want it all plus One Drive and Skype, you need to pay a yearly or monthly fee.
It may include the Office Home and Student version, which includes Word, Excel and Power Point for a one time fee. If you want it all plus One Drive and Skype, you need to pay a yearly or monthly fee.
#6
If you don't have anything against a Dell refurbished laptop, go to: https://www.dellrefurbished.com/ and select the laptop you want. Enter Coupon Code 45BRADSDEALS and get an additional 45% off and free shipping. I have purchased a number of Dell Latitude E6540 laptops for myself and friends and all have worked very well and have been inexpensive (
#7
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I have bought many used computers from IBM over the years and not all of them were IBM brand. While I now build my own desktops, I bought my daughter a used Dell laptop from there a few years ago and all is still working well.
#8
You can download and use for free..... LibreOffice. It's an open-source office suite. It is very similar to Word and the file system is compatible. I refuse to pay what microsoft wanted for Word.
#10
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I also use Libre Office. I've been using it for the last 4 years or so when MS started requiring you to pay a monthly fee their office. I like Libre, but there are a couple of things I have yet to get it to do. There are very few things it wont do that MS office will do, but as long as I can do the basic stuff, I am fine.
As for touch screen, it does take some getting used to..... remembering you have it. The first computer I bought that had touch screen, didn't last long. I disabled the option. I tried to deal with it for a couple of weeks & got so aggravated with all the "accidental touching". I didn't realize how often I actually, unconsciously, touched my computer screen. Every time I did, it was like clicking the mouse on that part of the screen & changed to another web site etc.
My wife uses her's sometimes..... well, she tries, then becomes aggravated because it doesn't do exactly what she wants it to. She likes to enlarge a picture by dragging it wider etc, then it either changes pics or goes away etc.
I just use my mouse & keep my touch screen option turned off.
Everyone's different & likes different things. It maybe something you like but, first thing I do now with a new laptop is make a backup of the system, delete all the pre-installed crap I don't want & turn off the touch screen.
Just my 2 cents.
As for touch screen, it does take some getting used to..... remembering you have it. The first computer I bought that had touch screen, didn't last long. I disabled the option. I tried to deal with it for a couple of weeks & got so aggravated with all the "accidental touching". I didn't realize how often I actually, unconsciously, touched my computer screen. Every time I did, it was like clicking the mouse on that part of the screen & changed to another web site etc.
My wife uses her's sometimes..... well, she tries, then becomes aggravated because it doesn't do exactly what she wants it to. She likes to enlarge a picture by dragging it wider etc, then it either changes pics or goes away etc.
I just use my mouse & keep my touch screen option turned off.
Everyone's different & likes different things. It maybe something you like but, first thing I do now with a new laptop is make a backup of the system, delete all the pre-installed crap I don't want & turn off the touch screen.
Just my 2 cents.
#11
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The first computer I bought that had touch screen, didn't last long. I disabled the option. I tried to deal with it for a couple of weeks & got so aggravated with all the "accidental touching". I didn't realize how often I actually, unconsciously, touched my computer screen. Every time I did, it was like clicking the mouse on that part of the screen & changed to another web site etc.
#12
I noticed refurbished laptops at Tiger Direct
One gotcha will be Word and Excel as those programs are now sold as a subscription
You can also use Google office suite
99% of the world uses Microsoft and when you need to communicate guess what it's nearly impossible.
Can not tell you haw much frustration we went through over the years working projects that would have been so simple if not for the crappy software!
Now hes going to college and has little experience using real tools so he's back to square one!
#13
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My laptop computers have both been refurbished and lasted well into obsolescence. I have no brand loyalty and it is coincidence that all have been Compacs or H-Ps I do wonder if it makes any more sense to get the latest OS as a hedge against MS "sunsetting" another OS like they did with XP. Heck, XP is all I need except for it (a) periodically crashing or at least screwing up Firefox and (b) not being compatible with so much other software these days.
I just never thought that a touch screen was a big deal and with all the mistakes I make on my smartphone I can see it will be an amusing source of frustration.
Chromebook...yeah, what's that? I'm definitely into saving money. Does it run genuine MS programs or are they just enough different to cause you to tear your hair out with the dissimilarities?
I just never thought that a touch screen was a big deal and with all the mistakes I make on my smartphone I can see it will be an amusing source of frustration.
Chromebook...yeah, what's that? I'm definitely into saving money. Does it run genuine MS programs or are they just enough different to cause you to tear your hair out with the dissimilarities?
#14
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The laptop I bought a couple years ago has a touchscreen, and I don't use that computer a lot, but when I do I find the touchscreen extremely helpful. But I have never seen any value to it on a desktop. At the time I bought that laptop, I had the option of Office 2016(?) or 365, and opted for the 2016, but was told that 365 would be the only choice within a very short period of time. But I bought a new desktop a few weeks ago, and was able to buy it with Office 2019. I suppose that there may be advantages to 365, mainly, I think anyway, that it stays current, but my fondness for annual subscriptions is right up there (or maybe I should say down there) with paying for extended warranties, which I don't do.
#15
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Quick points-
A touchscreen IS helpful if you get a "flipbook" (a laptop computer that has double hinges and essentially folds over on itself, disabling the keyboard and becoming a big tablet- very useful for reading documents, browsing web pages, or watching media.
For Office, I've (reluctantly) upgraded from my classic Office 2003 to Office 2010 Pro 64 bit, that cost about $10 for a license from E-bay.
I've converted a pair of ten-year old XP netbooks (Samsung NC10 and HP Mini) which were no longer usable under Windows-10 to pseudo-Chromebooks using "Cloud Ready OS" which is a 3rd party version of Google Chromium OS. They went from painfully slow under Windows 10 to usable - a good option for a spare computer.
A final point- I highly suggest getting Macrium Reflect to make a disk image file of the XP computer's hard drive, then copy that file onto the new computer. That lets you mount the image and search through the old laptop's C:\drive in the same way you click on an .ISO of a cd-rom. You can (usually) run the disk image as a virtual machine, i.e. you can "run" a virtual copy of your old XP laptop on the new computer.
A touchscreen IS helpful if you get a "flipbook" (a laptop computer that has double hinges and essentially folds over on itself, disabling the keyboard and becoming a big tablet- very useful for reading documents, browsing web pages, or watching media.
For Office, I've (reluctantly) upgraded from my classic Office 2003 to Office 2010 Pro 64 bit, that cost about $10 for a license from E-bay.
I've converted a pair of ten-year old XP netbooks (Samsung NC10 and HP Mini) which were no longer usable under Windows-10 to pseudo-Chromebooks using "Cloud Ready OS" which is a 3rd party version of Google Chromium OS. They went from painfully slow under Windows 10 to usable - a good option for a spare computer.
A final point- I highly suggest getting Macrium Reflect to make a disk image file of the XP computer's hard drive, then copy that file onto the new computer. That lets you mount the image and search through the old laptop's C:\drive in the same way you click on an .ISO of a cd-rom. You can (usually) run the disk image as a virtual machine, i.e. you can "run" a virtual copy of your old XP laptop on the new computer.
#16
Furd, a Chromebook runs Chrome OS (by Google). It is a lightweight OS, so it runs pretty fast on minimal hardware. The downside is that it will not run Windows software since the Operating System is not Windows but Chrome. If you have Windows software that you need to run, I would recommend that you stick with a Windows laptop.
#17
My Son had this on his school supplied laptop, pure garbage!!
99% of the world uses Microsoft and when you need to communicate guess what it's nearly impossible.
Can not tell you haw much frustration we went through over the years working projects that would have been so simple if not for the crappy software!
Now hes going to college and has little experience using real tools so he's back to square one!
99% of the world uses Microsoft and when you need to communicate guess what it's nearly impossible.
Can not tell you haw much frustration we went through over the years working projects that would have been so simple if not for the crappy software!
Now hes going to college and has little experience using real tools so he's back to square one!
I have a very complex complex spreadsheet running on Google sheets and I can share it with anyone anytime and make changes in real time just as they can. We use it at work for any kind of document that needs to be shared across 100's of miles between stores. AT NO COST TO THE COMPANY! And that is real world application! Actually it's very good. Sure it might lack a few of the very fancy things that MS has but if money is no object then OK. I have found out that any any person, office or organization that has MS Office suite uses only about 25% of its capabilities. The rest is wasted. And that means $.
At first I thought it was a real hassle but it's all a matter of getting use to a few new rules. And spreadsheets, documents and databases all share the same basic format and understanding of how they work. Your son should not have to start at square one to understand and catch on to using any other office suite be it Libre, Open Office, MS or Google. I have learned to cross use on all 4 and seldom have a problem. And there is a whole Internet waiting help with formatting questions. This form has done wonders for me in both Excel and Google Sheets. Depending on what the objective is, determines what suite I use.
And I can assure you not nearly 99% of industry use MS. In fact they have lost a lot of ground to Google.
However, I will admit, once a person gets use to using a particular program it's tough to change.
#19
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Originally Posted by Tolyn Ironhand
Seems to me that you could find a Windows 10 laptop for about $250.
I've got a HP MIni 210 for free, upgraded to a $25 120GB SSD drive, running a FREE Cloud-Ready-OS operating system.
It's nice to have a work/shop computer that is, essentially, disposable. As in, if it breaks, I get another $25 SSD drive, a $10 netbook, and re-clone the shop computer.
#20
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Well, I got the laptop I linked to in the first post. I let it sit for at least a week as it was so alien to me when compared to Win XP that I couldn't do anything with it. I had my sister come over and set it up for me I still dislike all the crap it has but I guess I will adjust.
So far I have been shutting it down by merely pushing the power button as I don't seem to be able to find the windows shutdown button. Is there one?
So far I have been shutting it down by merely pushing the power button as I don't seem to be able to find the windows shutdown button. Is there one?
#21
Click the "windows" button (the start menu) at the bottom left corner and (it should be the first one that looks like a circle with a line at the top) you'll see "power" and click on it. You'll have 3 options - Sleep, Shutdown and Restart.
#22
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This works for win7. Not sure about win 10 but suspect yes.
Make Windows 7 look like XP
https://www.askvg.com/get-windows-xp...windows-vista/
Make Windows 7 look like XP
https://www.askvg.com/get-windows-xp...windows-vista/
#23
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Shadie, my "windows" button looks like a window and while it gives a whole lot of information nowhere does it have anything concerning powering down.
Joed, I'll try that later.
Joed, I'll try that later.
#24
I guess when they refurbished it, they forgot to enable it.
I think you have Win10 Pro, so go here and follow the first set of instructions. Looks pretty simple.
https://www.groovypost.com/howto/add...-login-screen/
I think you have Win10 Pro, so go here and follow the first set of instructions. Looks pretty simple.
https://www.groovypost.com/howto/add...-login-screen/
#25
Shadie, my "windows" button looks like a window and while it gives a whole lot of information nowhere does it have anything concerning powering down.
Joed, I'll try that later.
Joed, I'll try that later.
Right click on that window.. it will give you the shut down option..
#26
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#27
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Originally Posted by Furd
So far I have been shutting it down by merely pushing the power button as I don't seem to be able to find the windows shutdown button. Is there one?
You can also get into the habit of Windows-Key + L which is the shortcut for logout.
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YumKimanery
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