REIMAGE SUPPORT - ANOTHER SEARCH ENGINE DISASTER! - AND A COSTLY ONE TOO!

I unpacked my brand new acer computer 3 years after buying it (about 2 months ago) - I had bought another one at the same time but microsoft helped to reduce that one to an unusable state with windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10 - and this new one still had windows 7 installed so I anticipated no troubles.

What one needs to remember at all times is that, according to our late friend Sister Mary Mary Quite Contrary, they should not be called computers because they are confusers which seems to be the case no matter what one might anticipate of hope for.

The brand new Acer with windows 7 had all my usual programmes loaded into it with all my documents, photos and emails and now does nothing but freeze all the time.

Still being naive after all these years of computer use I looked online for a solution to the freeze problem and found an organisation called Reimage. For $100 I could download a repair programme and for another $40 dollars I could use it on another 3 desk top computers. There was a 1800 phone number to contact and I was told they would talk me trhough the whole process.

Here I am a month later, having spent nearly $200 (including a long phone call which, it seems, I am having to pay for) and windows 7 is still freezing.

More and more I am grateful to Linux where I seem to have a minimum amount of problems.

More and more I am learning not to trust what is presented online as solutions. They simply aren't and cause more troubles than one already had.

MICROSOFT 2010 AND WINDOWS 8 - SO USER UNFRIENDLY THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO OPERATE EITHER!

Having upgraded my new computer which came with Windows 7 to Windows 8 from a special offer, I hadn't even got used to Windows 7 when I was trying to contend with Windows 8.

Windows 8 has some word programme which works without problems, but when I transferred my word documents from my old computer which runs on Windows XP to my new computer, this installed word programme didn't recognise the old word documents and told me to download Microsoft 2010.

When I tried to download Microsoft 2010 I was told I needed to insert the Product Key which came with Windows 8, so I duly tried to use it to download Microsoft 2010.

While typing in the Product Key - remember this was sent to me by Microsoft when I upgraded to Windows 8 from Windows 7 - I was told I was making an error because Product Keys did not have the letter "N" in them!!

This was an astonishing statement because I was typing in the Product Key from the email sent to me with the Windows 8 information!

It was fortunate that Charles Wright had written an article about Windows 8 in the "Livewire" section of that week's Greenguide programmes in The Age newspaper. I wrote to Charles Wright who sent me some possible links to download in order to have - once more - the start button so sorely lacking in Windows 8 together with all sorts of other necessary operating buttons such as had successfully operated Windows in all its manifestations over the last 20 years.

As I didn't succeed with those links I looked for others and found a most successful FREE DOWNLOAD link at

windows8startbutton.com

Next I reinstalled my original word programme from my Windows XP set of CDs and at last I was out of the woods.

Microsoft may think that Windows 8 is very "jazzy and snazzy" for those who use IPads and apps all the time, but it is hardly suitable for a PC, and this is what it is also supposed to be for.

Send Microsoft back to the drawing board - in my case, once bitten, twice shy!

WINDOWS 8 - DID MICROSOFT THINK WINDOWS 8 WOULD BE A CHALLENGE TO APPLE??

When we bought new computers in September from Officeworks they had Windowes 7 installed. There was an offer that came with the purchase which was that we could order Windows 8 for a special price until the end of January 2013, and we could install it on the new comupters.

The offer seemed too good to be true, and as it has turned out, it is too good to be true.

I have been using computers since 1980 with various operating systems and programmes, and in this 30-year period, NOTHING has been as user-unfriendly as Windows 8.

Did Microsoft really think they had something which would be in competition with Apple? If so, they have seriously miscalculated.

It is easy enough to get started, but it is downhill all the way after that.

All one has to do is put Windows 8 into a search engine with one of the problems one is having, and already, in such a short time, people are saying how appallling the system is!

I am thinking of uninstalling Windows 8 and going back to Windows 7, which, after many years of Window XP, was different but accessible.

It reminded me of a children's poem from many years ago which I have changed slightly for reasons which are obvious:

"Win 8 tumbled down the drain;
Couldn't scramble out again.
Now it's floating down the sewer,
And there's one Win 8 the fewer."

One thing is for certain and for sure - I will certainly wait to let new operating systems settle down before rushing in to buy because of special offers - which in the light of our experiences did not seem to have been the best decision. Just remember what happened to Windows Vista which was somewhat of a disaster, and probably Windows 8 will prove to be the same!