Petty Vents

[rodentraiser]

I'm not sure if I have a petty vent or a real vent tonight. I suppose it's a petty vent, since it's such a first world problem.

I got a new computer after 12 years and I was ready to throw it out the window before I had it under control. Why do they make these things so difficult?

My techie friend (whom I called for help) told me a lot of it was because I had jumped so much technology and that basically it was like I was going from vinyl records to Blu-Ray in one fell swoop. OK, fine, I understand that, but why couldn't they have just upgraded good old XP?

I had hundreds of photos that needed to go up on Photobucket, then I couldn't download my browser with Microsoft Edge and had to call tech (they told me to download IE to download my browser and eventually I had 4 browsers downloaded on this new computer), then the new browser didn't bring over my bookmarks, so I had to disconnect the new computer, reconnect the old one, save the bookmarks on a thumb drive, reconnect the new computer and download all the bookmarks, then I had to write down all of my saved passwords (all 35 of them and those DON'T include the ones I never save from banking, Paypal, etc), and now no site is asking me to save passwords so I'm not being automatically logged in anymore, and to top it off, since I close down and turn off my computer every night, now it's asking me to log in every time I reopen it, which I never had to do before! My tech friend said be glad because if he didn't have any activity on his computer for 10 minutes, he had to sign in and that meant he signed in all day long.

I'm not happy with Windows 10 at all, but I guess I'll learn to live with it.

The best thing is the speed this thing performs at and the fact that I was able to set my icons up again above my URL bar and get rid of those stupid tabs! I hate tabs.

Then I was finally able to find an app that enlarged the icons so I could read them. I can't wait till all computer programmers get old and need to have large icons in order to read them. Serve them right for making such small print and icons.

The worst thing so far is Yahoo mail is not working well with my now updated browser. So I get to open Edge and read my email there, but that's not as big a deal as I feared.

And as a final small petty vent, nothing loads to the desktop anymore. All my downloads go into some stupid folder called Downloads on my "File Explorer" now. *mutter, mutter, mutter*

 

[dragnlaw]

rodent... I hear yuh! My computer would send me a message all day long urging me to try Windows 10... until finally my finger accidentally clicked on the download button while it was traveling over it for the the X. Tarnation! it took forever to download. and of course my son said "Oh Mother!

There is a way to bypass the log in. My 'go to guru' did it via Team Viewer so I don't know how to tell you to do it.

There are things here I have no idea how to do. But the worst ... computers (laptops anyhow) cannot read discs anymore. They don't even have the tray/slot. Everything has to go to a thumbdrive. Guess where all my recipes and photos are saved? I don't know it I have the energy to move them all over. Besides which those thumbdrives are EXPENSIVE!

 

[GotGarlic]

But the worst ... computers (laptops anyhow) cannot read discs anymore. They don't even have the tray/slot. Everything has to go to a thumbdrive. Guess where all my recipes and photos are saved? I don't know it I have the energy to move them all over. Besides which those thumbdrives are EXPENSIVE!

You can buy an external CD/DVD drive that connects to a USB port for $20-30.

 

[Andy M.]

I tried to sell my sofa on Craig's List once. Now I've bought off Craig's List often, but this was my first time selling. I got nothing but scam replies, the ones that wanted to send a mover to pick up the sofa, give me a check (for more than the amount of money), have me cash the check and send them the difference (or keep the difference, whatever).

It got so bad I finally added to the ad:

"I am here to sell a sofa. First person with CASH in hand gets it. I am not going to run around to a bank, cash checks, wire money anywhere, deal with any movers, or allow the sofa out of my house without first getting paid in CASH."

Did that stop the scammers? Oh, heck, no...

I still have the sofa.

Try Facebook Marketplace. There are local groups you can broadcast your sale item to so you can keep it within 20 miles, etc. It's all through FB Messenger so no phone numbers or emails are shared.

 

[GotGarlic]

Try Facebook Marketplace. There are local groups you can broadcast your sale item to so you can keep it within 20 miles, etc. It's all through FB Messenger so no phone numbers or emails are shared.

We sold our old small freezer through a local sales group on Facebook. It worked very well.

 

[msmofet]

I'm not sure if I have a petty vent or a real vent tonight. I suppose it's a petty vent, since it's such a first world problem.

I got a new computer after 12 years and I was ready to throw it out the window before I had it under control. Why do they make these things so difficult?

My techie friend (whom I called for help) told me a lot of it was because I had jumped so much technology and that basically it was like I was going from vinyl records to Blu-Ray in one fell swoop. OK, fine, I understand that, but why couldn't they have just upgraded good old XP?

I had hundreds of photos that needed to go up on Photobucket, then I couldn't download my browser with Microsoft Edge and had to call tech (they told me to download IE to download my browser and eventually I had 4 browsers downloaded on this new computer), then the new browser didn't bring over my bookmarks, so I had to disconnect the new computer, reconnect the old one, save the bookmarks on a thumb drive, reconnect the new computer and download all the bookmarks, then I had to write down all of my saved passwords (all 35 of them and those DON'T include the ones I never save from banking, Paypal, etc), and now no site is asking me to save passwords so I'm not being automatically logged in anymore, and to top it off, since I close down and turn off my computer every night, now it's asking me to log in every time I reopen it, which I never had to do before! My tech friend said be glad because if he didn't have any activity on his computer for 10 minutes, he had to sign in and that meant he signed in all day long.

I'm not happy with Windows 10 at all, but I guess I'll learn to live with it.

The best thing is the speed this thing performs at and the fact that I was able to set my icons up again above my URL bar and get rid of those stupid tabs! I hate tabs.

Then I was finally able to find an app that enlarged the icons so I could read them. I can't wait till all computer programmers get old and need to have large icons in order to read them. Serve them right for making such small print and icons.

The worst thing so far is Yahoo mail is not working well with my now updated browser. So I get to open Edge and read my email there, but that's not as big a deal as I feared.

And as a final small petty vent, nothing loads to the desktop anymore. All my downloads go into some stupid folder called Downloads on my "File Explorer" now. *mutter, mutter, mutter*

You can set it to send downloads to your desktop. I have done that.

 

[GotGarlic]

You can set it to send downloads to your desktop. I have done that.

To add to this, dragnlaw, just about any default setting can be changed. Just write your question - in simple terms, with no grumpy language - into a Google search box and see what comes up. Lots of people wanted to change Windows 10 default settings to something else.

 

[dragnlaw]

You can buy an external CD/DVD drive that connects to a USB port for $20-30.

Thanks GG, and yes, I knew that, what I didn't realize, was how cheap they are.

*** just about any default setting can be changed. ***.

That's why I got my guru to do it for me. I've looked up many things but there always seems to be just one term or one step that doesn't match for me. Or a term that means nothing to me but that others understand easily. I'm just not technical and get bogged down or end up in a loop (I hate those!).
Far better for me to let someone else do it, with my luck I end up changing things for the worse.

 

[dragnlaw]

ARGHHH! They've changed things AGAIN!!! Went to download some photos from my phone and they have completely changed the format! They should not be allowed to do this to "sweet little old ladies" who take forever to figure it out.... Not even sure my pictures are there.... or anywhere!

Where do you want to put them? Wha? where ever you used to put them! I don't know what it's called!

Choose the photos you want. Wha?? Where did all those commercial photo's suddenly come from?? on my phone?? WT**!!! I did not take them!

 

[rodentraiser]

There are things here I have no idea how to do. But the worst ... computers (laptops anyhow) cannot read discs anymore. They don't even have the tray/slot. Everything has to go to a thumbdrive. Guess where all my recipes and photos are saved? I don't know it I have the energy to move them all over. Besides which those thumbdrives are EXPENSIVE!

That's why I got my computer now. It's a desktop and I made triple dog sure that it had a CD and DVD reader and writer. I was afraid if I waited a couple more years, those would be obsolete.

I didn't think the thumb drives were that expensive, though, compared to the $30 DVDs I wanted to buy. I paid almost $20 for a thumb drive about 10 years ago and I think it held 10 songs. The ones I just got are 16 GB and I only paid $7.99 for each one (I got two).

Which actually brings me to something funny. I was going to buy the DVDs and download a couple movies on them, but at 16 GB, the thumbs were more than up to that job (and so much cheaper), so I decided to use those instead. I found out why people use DVDs though. I barely got home and lost one thumb already and I hadn't even taken it out of the package yet!

I did find it later. I was sitting on it, package and all.

You can set it to send downloads to your desktop. I have done that.

I tried that. But on Windows 10 there is now a folder called 'Desktop' and when you set your downloads to save to the desktop, that folder is where they end up in. And the Desktop folder is right next to the Download folder in the computer file.

I suppose I could move the desktop folder to like, the actual desktop and delete it in my computer file, but ...why? Is there really a computer programmer somewhere that's being paid millions of dollars to put in a folder called Desktop when we already have a real desktop on the monitor???

 

[GotGarlic]

I tried that. But on Windows 10 there is now a folder called 'Desktop' and when you set your downloads to save to the desktop, that folder is where they end up in. And the Desktop folder is right next to the Download folder in the computer file.

I suppose I could move the desktop folder to like, the actual desktop and delete it in my computer file, but ...why? Is there really a computer programmer somewhere that's being paid millions of dollars to put in a folder called Desktop when we already have a real desktop on the monitor???

There has always been a folder called Desktop. Whenever you save anything to a computer or laptop, it has to go into a folder somewhere.

I have never understood why anyone would want to clutter up the desktop with downloaded files anyway. It's not difficult to create a shortcut on the desktop to the Downloads folder if you really can't find it. And the search function works well, too.

 

[Andy M.]

I download all files to my desktop as a staging area to deal with a file then file it in it's appropriate folder.

 

[GotGarlic]

I download all files to my desktop as a staging area to deal with a file then file it in it's appropriate folder.

You're a very organized person, Andy. I've seen computer desktops covered with icons for downloaded files etc. I don't know how a person finds anything.

 

[Andy M.]

You're a very organized person, Andy. I've seen computer desktops covered with icons for downloaded files etc. I don't know how a person finds anything.

Drives me crazy. I'm OCD enough to have to have a clean desktop. It forces me to deal with things.

 

[Just Cooking]

I am totally OCD with my desktop too...
I save files there first but as quickly as possible, find their proper place.. If I could find a way to get rid of the Recycle Bin, I'd be pleased...

Ross

 

[rodentraiser]

There has always been a folder called Desktop. Whenever you save anything to a computer or laptop, it has to go into a folder somewhere.

True, but in the past, when I've wanted to save a download to my actual desktop, that's where it went. On my desktop, not into a folder marked Desktop or Downloads.

I don't keep my downloads on my desktop anyway, unless they're TV shows or movies. I just want them there so I can access them quickly once they're downloaded. Once I check them out, I sort them to their respective folders.

In fact, I am pretty much OCD when it comes to my desktop, my email, and especially Photobucket. Right now I have more than 6300 pictures sorted into albums and I even alphabetized the bazillion smilies I collect in their albums. Check it out if you want:

Just type in photobucket.com/rodentraiser

If I could find a way to get rid of the Recycle Bin, I'd be pleased...

Ross

In XP, there was a way to replace the recycle bin with an alternate icon. I used a small star when it was empty and a larger star when I put anything into it. I'm still looking for that on Windows 10. But at least I can rename the recycle bin on Windows 10. I had a hard time doing that on XP.

Come to think of it, there was a way to replace a lot of icons on XP. I remember replacing the My Computer folder with a computer icon and something else with a tiny briefcase.

 

[blissful]

My desktop. On the left, some programs I use. On the right side, some adblocker, rkill, malware bytes, adaware, anything anti crap programs. In the middle, all kinds of junk. I could delete everything in the middle to the recycle bin, temporary pictures, things I MIGHT like, things people send me, just junk.

 

[rodentraiser]

Ross, it's not much, but I did find a way to replace the trash bin on the desktop AND remove the name from under it. I found two matching folders, one closed and one with a paper in it. The closed one is replacing the trash when it's empty and as soon as I put something into the trash, the folder shows the paper inside it.

If you're using Windows 10 and want to delete the Recycle Bin name (not just change it), first right click on it, go to RENAME and back the name out. Then press ALT 255. Lift up and press ENTER. The Recycle Bin name will be gone. And no, I don't know how to get it back.

 

[Just Cooking]

Ross, it's not much, but I did find a way to replace the trash bin on the desktop AND remove the name from under it. I found two matching folders, one closed and one with a paper in it. The closed one is replacing the trash when it's empty and as soon as I put something into the trash, the folder shows the paper inside it.

If you're using Windows 10 and want to delete the Recycle Bin name (not just change it), first right click on it, go to RENAME and back the name out. Then press ALT 255. Lift up and press ENTER. The Recycle Bin name will be gone. And no, I don't know how to get it back.

Thank you...

I have Windows 7...

Ross

 

[Addie]

Any computer problems I may have in using or understanding, I have Spike!