Computer questions

Check in preferences. You may be able to override this.

Google seems to be trying to monetize their browser, so they collect all manner of information. But the browser does work pretty well, by most reports.

You can have any number of browsers, and do not have to uninstall one to have another. In each browser's preferences, uncheck the box about checking for or being the default browser, so they won't fight for dominance.

Firefox works pretty well, and is what I usually use. There is no risk to trying it. Firefox is not really a newsreader, and so will not replace Outlook Express, which has many problems.

But there are many newsreaders, so you ought to be able to find one that you like. The best approach is to try a few of them, as there is not one best newsreader. While you can have multiple newsreaders, some may conflict if downloading news simultaneously, so make downloading manually triggered until you settle on one.

The big thing to look for in newsreaders and email clients is how well filtering works, so you can automatically ignore most spam and scams, and bozos.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn
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I was getting nagged that my IE was outdated, and that I should download the newest greatest Google Chrome, which I finally did. Now, it must not have gone in, as I still get the nag message. I'm not fond of it, as it takes me to BING on a lot of things, and I hate BING.

I need a little help understanding this. I hear all sorts of bad things about Google, and IE, and such. I seem not to have all these problems, tho I am not fond of some things my computer does, like: taking me to Bing, where it is impossible to find the article you went there for; taking a long time up to forever to download some stories and videos, redirecting, etc.

Will downloading Firefox improve my computer life? Do I have to uninstall IE, and will my computer allow itself to be castrated thusly? Is there a lot of configuring to do afterward? Do I have to get rid of OE, and download a new news program, or does the installation of Firefox fix all that? I am somewhat handy on computers, but not sure about setting the things behind the curtain.

Advice appreciated on selecting a browser, news reader, and general computer setup to make my computing life a little smoother.

Thanks.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

What is the reason you don't ask your computer related questions in a forum that has nothing but computer geeks / computer experts in it?

This is the best forum I know of:

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Uh, I don't know. Why do you talk politics here?

Reply to
Steve B

You have to turn off the notification for IE to tell you it has to be updated. That should be in the tools /internet options/ advanced section. Just turn off the selection for "automatically check for IE updates"

Then download FF17, install the following add-ons

ad block+ (blocks 99% of the adds and pop up crap on web pages. Can be disabled on individual sites as needed)

Image Zoom (allows you to right click an image and view just the image, or zoom in/out on images easily)

Download helper (allows you to very easily download videos/music and other stuff with a couple clicks)

I also install a couple appearance items to make the background nicer.

Reply to
Steve W.

Thunderbird has a good newsreader in it. BUT the newer versions are somewhat of a PIA. You can find the older versions on

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personally I stopped at version 2 but version 3 isn't hard to alter to be usable.

Reply to
Steve W.

Or kill it.

Reply to
clare

Might be helpful to mention the OS version you're using and how old the IE is...in the proper browser newsgroup. Sometimes, it's helpful to upgrade IE even if you don't use it. Sometimes, it makes things worse. Other programs use dlls that get installed with IE. YMMV.

Reply to
mike

You can't do Winodws Updates with an out of date version of Internet Explorer.

BTW, Steve posts through a well known troll server, (Aioe.org NNTP Server) and has a Gmail address. Neither of which speak well of him.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Sure you can. I have IE 6 and the only thing it does for updates is check for the windows installer package. You can't use a different breed of browser though, without a few add-ons.

The latest and greatest sometimes really sucks. Win 8 is a perfect example.

Reply to
Steve W.

Who was nagging you? A website? Microsoft did not tell you to download Google Chrome.

of it, as it takes me

It takes you to Bing? What is "it"?

So, your computer takes you to Bing... Who's in charge, if you aren't doing it?

No. Because, like Chrome, it won't have "gone in".

You can't uninstall IE.

Not for you there isn't.

installation of Firefox fix all

OE is shit. You can keep it.

the curtain.

This is what you need.

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Reply to
Falstaff

It won't offer you all of the updates, just some.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Thunderbird has problems with really large newsgroups (my newsserver keeps over a decade of old messages on these groups) and limiting the history didn't seem to work. So, I now use knode on Linux, but I'm pretty sure they also have a Windows version. It is lightning quick, and the historical horizon does work.

Jon

Reply to
Jon Elson

I use Giganews as well, and one newsgroup had over a million messages since 2003. I had to download the headers in groups of 10,000 with Netscape 4.80, but got them all.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

This is what Ive been using for over a year so far and its very very good.

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Gunner

The methodology of the left has always been:

  1. Lie
  2. Repeat the lie as many times as possible
  3. Have as many people repeat the lie as often as possible
  4. Eventually, the uninformed believe the lie
  5. The lie will then be made into some form oflaw
  6. Then everyone must conform to the lie
Reply to
Gunner

[snip]

I tried Thunderbird, but didn't much like it. Merging handling of email and newsgroups doesn't actually work that well - each has its own metaphor.

I prefer MT Newswatcher on the Mac, but Newswatcher has been getting a bit long in the tooth, not having been updated since 2006, and has been developing some weird little problems. Currently, I'm playing with Thoth.

Joe Gwinn

Reply to
Joseph Gwinn

It gives you the updates for everything MS you have installed. Plus any hardware driver firmware updates, what's left?

It also shows IE security/version updates. Which I don't install because I don't run IE.

Reply to
Steve W.

Never noticed it, but the servers I use don't keep messages that long.

Reply to
Steve W.

It won't let me install .net updates without the current version of IE. All the computers at a local business need .net to run Quickbooks. Also, some updates were corrupt, but claimed to install OK. That caused problems installing other updates. Until those were fixed, over 70 other updates weren't offered. I had to remove .net from one computer and reinstall it because of a corrupt update. Then I had to reinstall the updates it affected. It took six hours to download and install everything, but their XP Pro was finally up to date.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Hmm. Never seen that. .net seems to update just fine. I wonder if it isn't something to do with QB causing the problem?

Reply to
Steve W.

No, I found the information on the Microsoft support website. A bad update was loaded to their servers, and later replaced with the files fixed. They had updated three computers that day, and all three had the same problems. Only two were confgured for Quickbooks.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

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