Vista or EMachines?

If you are worried about loss of data I strongly recommend you buy a decent sized USB flash drive. They are dirt cheap now. Just dump your important stuff on there any time you feel queasy.

As to data loss on the PC itself I strongly recommend you store your data in the following manner:

- Desktop
- My Documents
- Edgar (or whatever you called yourself)
- Any number of subdirectories identifying the type of content such as Health, Resumes, Finances etc

- Also I strongly recommend you buy the data backup program (on line) called Acronis True Image Home and run it religiously.

- Also I strongly recommend you buy a USB external hard drive to complement Acronis True Image Home.

Here is the store I buy my stuff from, you'll get a good idea about what's hot and what's not and what to pay even though it defaults to being denominated in Canadian dollars, both currencies are rather equal these days. http://www.ncix.com/

Which travesty are you asking about?

(Have you looked at using OpenOffice? It has a freeware wordprocessor that is compatiple with the major players in the market.)

I use open office. Got me through grad. school. It's a little glitchy at times (or maybe it was just me....), but it's free!

I did not know about open office. I was unable to save WordPad documents in Documents, because it would not transfer in a readable format. I cosider it a travesty if every computer I bought had a word processor, and then without warning one came with none.

Since I already installed the one for $40 I don't need a free one.

The beauty of an external HD and of course the USB flash drive is that you can store it wholly independently of what might happen to your PC.

Another option I am not overly enamored with but does indeed do the job is various free / fee based online storage.

Regardless of how well you organize your PC, regardless of how much you do or don't trust the hardware/software config, regardless of one's computer skill level, **** happens and backup is essential to avoid this.

I put the important stuff on discs.

Here are a few free programs you should also use religiously to ensure your PC is optimized and safe and to lower your blood pressure. Outside of this short list you are on your own buddy - not to say there are not other arguably apropos / better choices:

1 Free Internet Window Washer

2 Ad-Aware

3 CCleaner

4 EasyCleaner

5 TCPOptimizer

6 Disk Defragmenter (integral to Windows already)

7 Avast!

8 Firewall (integral to Windows already)

Thanks, chumly.

A surprising number of PC ills can be corrected for free by percolating along with the 8 Chumly approved apps, however running other similarly intended apps may spell problems due to conflicts.

I keep the pc clean. I mainly needed a word processor to make it complete.

I'm gong to fry up some Canadian backbacon and eggs and toast.

Despite the impending storm, I am going to the VA cemetary with my wife.

Ok! If that's the issue then eMachines is to blame in your case.

What software gets bundled with a PC when it is sold is up to the PC maker. For years copies of Wordperfect or Microsoft Works were included with PCs but that is happening less and less. the PC maker's have to pay for those copies so to drop the price on the PCs they cut out some of the add-on software that wasn't free to them.

MS Works (the last incarnation that I worked with, anyway) saves in a proprietary format.

OpenOffice uses formatting compatible with MS Office.




We use Carbonite for an online backup; it has a free trial.

MS Works is being toyed with by Microsoft as well, they are experimenting with an ad-supported version and they may have required PC makers to stop bundling the free ad-free version.

But in addition to the suggestions you have seen I'd also like to point out that there are online word processors that work pretty well and can save to Word (and other) formats.

If you are having problems with saving your data these services can be particularly useful, as they save them for you on multiple backups and do a better job at data retention than the average user will.

You can use your computer like a thin-client and never have to worry about the software that comes on it or where you save your data. Many will even provide you with revision history and things that your basic desktop word processor won't.

I am between a lot of computers now, and I'm using Google Docs and other such services. It takes some getting used to but having the data networked and stored "in the cloud" is a big benefit.

"Data Roasting on an Open Fire"

And so I'm offering this simple phrase,
To kids from one to ninety-two,
Although its been said many times, many ways,
A very Merry Backup to you



http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/data/what.mspx

Edgar-- Let me add to the chorus of people suggesting you try OpenOffice.

It is much much better than the one that you paid $40 dollars for. It is one of the best supported piece free software. I use it professionally.

Let me suggest this. Take 20 minutes to install it and to fall in love with it. If you don't, then uninstall it and I will never bother you about this again.

But, for heaven sakes... try OpenOffice.

As far as Vista... I haven't tried it but my colleagues have and the consensus seems to be that this it is a mess (if not a disaster). I bet with OpenOffice you will be quite happy with your hardware.

Unless Edgar is willing to reformat and load Windows XP and/or dual boot he is stuck with Vista regardless of what applications he might run.

I agree I am not a big fan of Vista, but its file management protocols are not at fault. My critique of Vista is that it's a needles resource hog and too "helpful" for my tastes. The earlier lack drivers is not as much of an issue any more.

In any case Open Office is a good choice for some, although I personally cannot comment on how stable it would be under Vista.