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Helped way more than 2, I think. Anyway, I am seriously considering disabling win 7 updates soon. Am considering the pros and cons of running win 7 in "shadowed" mode until this hardware fails. That is still a successful strategy here for win xp, has been since before microsoft abandoned it. The win 7 to win 10 push really disturbed me. It basically crippled my family's computers. I'm not sure it's even safe to continue auto updates for win 7 until microsoft abandons it.

Thanks, Hazelnut. Worked very well here on win 7.

"Try this old trick I use (not guaranteed to always work though):" Sometimes works. Thanks.

Thanks, Hazelnut. Very useful information for me also.

OK. Thanks for the quick reply. All is OK here now.

It is here. Win xp, Firefox portable 48.01. I know, old stuff, but the slowdown doesn't affect other sites or forums. The little spinner wheel grinds for 3-5 minutes on each link. Or, sometimes, not. Just an FYI.

I will back up first, for sure, thanks. I TRY not to take anything for granted. But some times just forget, or sometimes something just goes blooey in spite of following the instructions. For example, on this xp box, after booting up the Mint 18 USB stick a couple of times, when going back to xp the wrong time shows in the system tray. Small problem, easily fixed, but it might be enough to send a rookie user into a tailspin. Also raises questions in my mind how did it do that? What else might it have changed?

Helped me, for sure. Thanks, Tas. I'm near the end of a long day, will sign back in tomorrow and read tht post more carefully. I'm on here right now using Mint 18 on a USB stick and Firefox. Haven't had time to tinker with it much, but it's fun.

Looks sort of painful . . .

Politely said, Tasgandy. Actually, there are a couple that would serve my purposes as a full time OS right now, but then there wouldn't be much to talk about on here. Mta, just because you favor one OS over another doesn't make you a fanboy, just a thoughtful evaluator. The great thing about this forum is that by and large one can disagree without creating a furor. Windows breaks down a LOT, but it has a huge infrastructure to correct problems. (With win 10, that's everybody.) And they DO have fanboys who border on fanatical. And fire breathing lawyers, and lots of money. But the biggest thing they have is a head start. Consider what would happen it the Linuxes and windows started even today. I guess I'm doomed to cheer for the underdog, but I'll keep trying out those Linux distros.

Thanks, Tas, downloading the cinnamon version now. Have you ever used YUMI to install several distro's on a single USB stick? I did in the past, and iirc you could not get persistence. Now the site says you can if the distro supports it. Still, I agree in part with ROCKNROLL. Most Linux distros are not ready for prime time yet. And Linux will always be Linux. Imho that may be a good thing, not a drawback. Linux developers are indeed trying to create "windowish" OSs, because that's what's familiar. Success in that will really help the popularity of Linux. The two biggest problems with using Linux distros used to be compatibility and the learning curve. Both are improving fast. For the past few weeks I have been in combat with win 7 through win 8.1, and the win 10 giveaway fiasco. Windows doesn't seem much easier than Linux these days. As a not so tekkie computer user, all I want is an OS that just works and doesn't jump all over the place once a week. I have been using computers since before there WAS windows, and haven't found it yet In any case, the price is OK for Mint. Free.

Andavari, here on this xp box using firefox 4.8.02 portable, that screenshot link just goes to the page, not an image. But the thumbnail looks right on the forum page. edit: its the same on win 7. http://www.bild.me/

I got a Zorin live cd to boot and run smooth as silk here, but could not get the ReacoOS cd to boot. This is an xp system, roughly the same vintage as yours, Andavari, and also DennisD's. Go figure. ?? I sort of like the idea of exploring alternative softwares. Microsoft seems to be losing interest in the individual user these days. ReactOS is an innovative approach and I hope it works out. Will keep watching it.

Yes. Quite right. This topic is about ReactOS and software that works with it. After all, an OS is of little use if there are no softwares for it, eh? If we go about a fourth of the way down this page, we see that Apache Open Office 4.1.2 is recommended over LibreOffice.for ReactOS. Even though AOO seems to be less than optimal right now. https://www.reactos.org/wiki/Tests_for_0.4.2

I recently tried Apache Open Office. It worked well, was very compatible w/ microsoft office. Actually better and faster than LibreOffice, Abiword, or Kingsoft. It may be discontinued soon. I never try the spreadsheet functions, but most agree they are not very compatible. Se here: https://forum.piriform.com/index.php?showtopic=39089&page=8&do=findComment&comment=276208

Just got ReactOS going here on this xp box, running in oracle's virtualbox. Works OK, is faster than some of the older versions if I remember correctly. I wasn't able to get it to actually do much, can't get onto the 'net, doesn't have much in the way of softwares. But to be fair I didn't work very much at it. They are going in a good direction, imho, but they have some polishing yet to do, as ROCKNROLL suggests. I do like some of the more recent Linux distros, Linux Lite, Zorin, and good ole Puppy. Now that dual booting is getting easier, with rufus, YUMI, etc., It would be a good option for the more ambitious to dual boot their favorite Linux alongside windows. That would take the urgency out of the learning curve. Also, some of the "alternate" office suites are getting very compatible with the microsoft office. I want an OS that will just work, and won't leak my every mouse click to somebody. When the necessity to replace a computer arises, I intend to just build a fast one and install a couple of Linuxes (Linuces?).

Win xp here. I clicked on the blue link "Change Systems" and it went to a page with the same URL, but it then showed xp as supported in the "System Requirements" section. It offered to download Windows-KB890830-V5.39.exe, but Windows-KB890830-V5.39.exe will not download. The file that will download is Windows-KB890830-V5.40.exe and it will not run on xp here. Had a bad moment there, thought the mind had finally gone. So I backtracked and cobbled together this picture. Doesn't really matter, Hazelnut said it all more concisely, but it's nice to know I am not yet round the bend.

Thanks, ROCKNROLL. Got it. Edit, 2:18 pm: Live CD wouldn't boot here on xp. Just froze. Will try later.

OK. Thanks, Hazelnut & mta. Got it. Forgive me for saying, but I won't believe it till I do it. There is some sort of computer curse on my family, nothing goes as advertised.

15 years ago.

I upgraded a laptop from win 8.1 to win 10 during the free giveaway period. It has win 10 on it now. If I revert back to win 8.1 and run that for a while, then wish to reinstall win 10, which of these "keys" will I need? It sounds like it will be the one stored by microsoft, aka the digital entitlement key. Right? Microsoft already has it stored. . . where is it? I assume it on their servers, but wouldn't take anything for granted. Will my computer automatically be recognized and activated during the reinstallation of win 10? I shall now have a nice slice of key lime pie take a rest.

Well, maybe, but it talks!! American English, not Apache.

Apache Open Office (AOO) ver 4.1.2 Its a free, full featured office application. I have been tinkering around with it for a couple of days now. It seems a pretty good alternative to microsoft office. AOO is available for windows, Linux, and OS X. Download from here: Http://www.openoffice.org/download/ There is a portable version available at Portable Apps dot com. It has been suggested that AOO Open Office may be gone soon. That's what prompted me to download it and try it. See here: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/09/openoffice-after-years-of-neglect-could-shut-down/ However, there is a recent patch dated August 30, 2016, so it seems development is continuing. The patch is here: https://www.openoffice.org/security/cves/CVE-2016-1513.html AOO seems a bit faster and lighter than Libre Office, but thats just my personal impression. They are very similar softwares, each will open the other's files. Somewhere I read that AOO requires Java, but I don't have java here and it still works. Here, it seems as fast as microsoft office applications. AOO will: - Open microsoft office documents such as .PPT, .PPTX, .doc, .docx. I didn't try the database applications nor the spreadsheets. - import PDF files so you can edit them, or cut and paste parts into other documents. - allow for modifying microsoft files and saving them as either microsoft files or AOO type files - Create new documents that can be opened with microsoft office software. Just "save as" the proper file type. - One way cool feature is that it has an extension that will read your text aloud. I have tried it, it works, but haven't experimented much with it.

Dennis, you're post is quite right in all particulars, imho. In case it isn't obvious, I posted that above because Whatsapp was initially hailed as a sort of ultimate privacy app. And it is quite good, as you say. But one is never sure who reads these forums, so i thought I might just mention a couple of the privacy "leaks". My main concern is children, as you probably know. I worry that they may think some app or the other is ultra secure and say or do something foolish that will plague them forever. OK. Done. Crawling back into my lead-lined cave now. :lol:

I skipped installing Whatsapp because of the old TOS. The new TOS seem worse, they just don't match up with a privacy/security oriented software, imho. I may be reading it wrong, would welcome correction if I am. The current TOS as of 27 Aug 2016 : https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/#terms-of-service Some excerpts, the bold emphasis is mine: Whatsapp collects: - your mobile phone number - the phone numbers in your mobile address book on a regular basis - including those of both the users of our Services and your other contacts - You confirm you are authorized to provide us such numbers to allow us to provide our Services. (much more important than it might seem) - We receive information other people provide us, which may include information about you ... your phone number from their mobile address book - we may create a favorites list of your contacts for you - device-specific information [including] device location information - third party services use their own TOS This is a privacy app?