mta

@drabs, I take it you had no backups?

agree with Hazel, I have had one success (out of maybe a dozen) with the freezer technique. if you are going to do it, not only make sure it's air-tight but also try sucking out as much air as you can. as soon as it comes out of the freezer it's going to start condensating like crazy. (I actually hate this technique, water and electronics are never good bedfellows, all the water you see on the outside will also be happening on the inside) @keatah, I must try your 'hot' technique, like layering it between two hot water bottles.

monthly subscription would simply suck. I can see current users just sticking to their current versions until they are absolutely forced to migrate up, or over to something different. why not embrace the App Store, Market Place philosophy. sell the Word program (as an example) for some nominal amount, $10 or so, and that gives you the basic functions; formatting, tables, spell check etc. then charge extra, a $1 or so, for 'add-ins' like headers/footer, grammar checking, ToC and the like. I've been using Word for over 30 years and can count on one hand the number of times I've needed to use Track Changes, or Table of Contents or Mail Merge.

@Willy2, better in what way? I have always tended to install AVG or Avast on people's PCs that were after free AV protection, over MSE, only because of the poor reviews MSE got upon release. but by the number of qualified forum members here, I'd have no hesitation in using it if the other 2 failed in some way. PS: it would be nice to see how the Avast Bug Bounty Program is going. Can't find anything about progress on their website, only 2 weeks old I guess.

great testing Keatah. guess it really highlights how far PC's have come. and how the current bloated software struggles on the older gen hardware. thanks for your efforts.

I guess you get what you pay for. expensive MS but quick or free office clones and slow. still, 20 secs and 48 secs, that's very surprising. thankfully most docs aren't > 3meg I suppose. I wonder if OO & LO opens .DOC any faster. if those timings are standard across all file types they can open, then I wonder how well used those programs are?

can you elaborate on your browser and plugin so it's known for future reference?

@fpm, so you know for future software choices, you need to get programs that work on ARM architect which is the processor Win8 RT is. CC only works on x86 processors.

more people than I would have thought seem to get into trouble with what CC can do for them as it is. (reg cleaning, wipe free space, to name a couple) add a 'scorched earth' function to nuke an installation completely and I'd guess there would be significantly more. I think it would make CC too aggressive for the average user who, more often than not, just runs this sort of software without understanding potential risks. personally, the idea has merit, but it's not the job of CC, especially when there are already great uninstallers out there. (as Winapp2 stats; Revo does an outstanding job at this)

@keatah, I agree, I too thought LO was a 'better' product than OO. admittedly I didn't give it too much of a run, a couple of weeks. but the turn-off factor was it's java requirement but it would appear from Barky that it's changing. I found both have very good Word equivalents and both very average Excel support. (but Hazels naughty neighbour only wants Word, so all's good)

if it's any Writer he's after OpenOffice allows you a custom install where you can just select its Writer component. and it doesn't require java.

i'm with rridgely, about 2 years ago I saw a lot of people in the corporate sector, white collar professionals, all ditch their blackberry's in favour of iphones. and they all told me they loved their BB's but love the iphone more. (can't remember the reason they said they switched, but it was very obvious, in the space of about a month) come across my first BB this week I've seen in more than a year. it's like nokia, I remember when every second phone you saw was a nokia, but now, I can't remember the last time I saw anyone with one.

I have seen something like this before but can't be sure if it is your problem. in MSCONFIG you may have had a program that was starting out of your TEMP folders, either a legit or bogus bit of software. the ones I've come across have all been bogus. now you have ran CC, it has cleaned up the TEMP stuff but the MSCONFIG startup list of programs still has it listed. from the error message you are getting, it should say what the program is that can't be found. look at the startup list of program in MSCONFIG and, if there, untick it.

there is no version 4 of CC, latest is 3.27.1900 make sure you are downloading from the official Piriform website.

the thing I like about it is you can convert a personal file to a tile, in my case, I have an Excel spreadsheet I use numerous times a day, I now have a metro tile as a way for quick access.

discovered a nice little free app in the Win8 Store called Tile A File. lets you create a metro tile of any file, great way to stick shortcuts of your most used files onto the Start Screen.

what else is running in the background? - windows updates, AV scan etc. what other programs are active? - Word, emails etc. have you setup CC to use winapp2 or INCLUDES ?

why not just pop in the Windows 7 install DVD. you can then either to a 'custom' upgrade and it'll reload windows, creating a backup of system files in windows.old since you have already done a backup, you can then delete that folder (it gets created regardless) or during the install, select drive options and delete the partition and create a new one. quick & simple, no extra software needed & you use the one process to wipe as you install.

that's great news that Cosmos will be back. it really was a great series that made science relative for all. Neil is a good choice, would rather see Brian Cox myself, but I guess his work with his own show would make them too similar.

,chk files shouldn't be cleaned by CC by default as they could be used to 'restore' a lost file. the found.000 folder naming convention is created when Windows finds a bad drive sector during normal use and not by the CHKDSK operation. (unless the operation itself finds more lost files) files in the bad sector are renamed to xxxxxxxx.chk in an attempt to recovery the contents of the bad sector. if you want CC to clean it, you'll need an INCLUDE

dropbears are OK as long as you don't look straight into their eyes - very territorial and can get aggressive. stay out of their way and they tend to stay out of yours. it's the hoop-snakes that'll get ya. those things can easily outrun a man. @Tas, all good, give me flood over fire. flood=wet, fire=cooked on gennie power for 3 days, only downside was the cold showers. @winapp, your island is it?, with how many million of your closest friends?

Damn, I must have only had a boy-look, what can I say.....

I couldn't see it on my Win8 Pro. After some digging around it was due to .iso being associated with PowerISO. So the Mount command will only be available in the context menu if ISO's are associated with File Explorer.

What?!?, no COBOL - now I'm depressed...

I've just got access to reliable internet again (no power for 24 hours, lots of flooding, ex-tropical cyclone moving down the coast, typical summer day in Brisbane). I found that Cosmic Calendar at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln8UwPd1z20 I was a bit out, fire was tamed 14 minutes ago, all recorded human history fits into the last 10 seconds. (apologies to all you Creationists - you're not going to be happy )