New Laptop - Help Please

[Howard]

Hi gang ,

Got my new laptop , but everything wants to be running on startup ...

So the bar at the bottom right hand corner is chocka with rubbish ...

How do i select what i actually want to start when i turn the laptop on ?

Thanks

H

 

[Fandango]

Start - Run - type 'msconfig', enter - go to startup tab, uncheck as many items as you need to.

 

[A210AMG]

Hello

If its Vista,

Start

Control Panel

Administrative tools

System configuration

Then the Start up Tab

Highlight what you want / don't want

BE CAREFUL though only untick things if you know what they are, google them to be sure. Some are obvious such as iTunes, HP printer etc...

This should help. There are other ways but thats a start

 

[Howard]

Good news fellas !

Now , next question , i have ticked the box in tabbed browsing , that says 'open home page instead of blank tab ' but still it opens a blank tab ( i have restarted it like it said )

 

[A210AMG]

Not sure I understand what you mean.

Do you want your Home page to open with say 'google'

thanks

 

[GrahamC230K]

Good news fellas !

Now , next question , i have ticked the box in tabbed browsing , that says 'open home page instead of blank tab ' but still it opens a blank tab ( i have restarted it like it said )

Read the text on the "blank" page - there is an option to accept.

 

[Howard]

It has tabbed browsing ( IE 7 i think ) , and when i open a new tab , not a new page , it opens a blank page instead of my home page ...

Tools
Internet Options

Tabs - Settings

Open home page for tabs instead of a blank page ...

Clicked this , and it still opens a blank page ..

 

[BTB 500]

Have you defined what the home page is?

 

[A210AMG]

Sorry I havn't upgraded to ie 7 yet

but will have a look.

try a quick google search although someone will be along I'm sure that knows

 

[Howard]

Grahams solved it !!

Thanks all ...

Seems slower than my old laptop ...

Hate Vista already , i can't install my copy of Nero for example

 

[A210AMG]

Vista is ok when you use it a bit....

You can sort of change it to 'look' like XP

Will not open a can of worms with the merits of different OS though.

 

[Howard]

Can i wipe Vista and put XP on it ?

I have Vista home so i know i can't downgrade ( only Vista Business can do that so i am told )

But if i just installed XP , would it work ?

 

[flango]

Ditch Vista and go back to XP, Vista too resource hungry and slows down your machine. Bought my daughter a fujitsu Siemans laptop from Tesco great spec, on Vista so slow so ditched it and loaded XP pro and it's now like lightening

 

[Howard]

Nice , will try and find someone to do it for me ...

Won't i lose all the drivers and everything though ?

Machine doesn't come with a recovery disc , you have to make your own ...

 

[whizzkid11]

Nice , will try and find someone to do it for me ...

Won't i lose all the drivers and everything though ?

Machine doesn't come with a recovery disc , you have to make your own ...

I am based in Watford if you need a hand....

 

[GrahamC230K]

As a home user, I would persevere with Vista, for a while longer at least.

 

[HughJarse]

Nice , will try and find someone to do it for me ...

Won't i lose all the drivers and everything though ?

Machine doesn't come with a recovery disc , you have to make your own ...

You're in for bother if you go down this route... bother I tell ya, bother...

 

[lil.smartie]

P tried that with a Vaio he bought, all went pear shaped as there was no XP driver for his hard drive (IIRC) so ended up, after lots of swearing at it, putting Vista back on!

Now he likes Vista nad has just bought another laptop also with Vista!

Kate

 

[drh1210]

theres nothing wrong with vista if it comes pre loaded on the laptop, ive only ever had one issue with vista and that was when i was trying to upgrade a XP machine, having said that i also upgraded my old laptop from xp home to vista home without any issues ( so ive not really help much here have i....)

the main thing to remember is that vista does need a lot of memory, even though it will have you beleive you dont... i run 3gb or ram in my laptop and all is well. Vista is ok, and so was XP, its down to the individual to see if they like the change or not.

 

[w124coupe]

You can go to the Sony support site and "log in" using the 15 (actually 8 plus 7) digit serial number on the base of your machine.

That will link you to a page with all the drivers etc ready for download for the exact revision of your machine.

Usually have both Vista and XP versions.

Sony are known for integrating strange components (e.g. no-name webcams etc) so do this in advance of trying to install XP so you have them to hand for the install process.

If it was mine, I would go through "add remove programs" first and ditch the bloatware you don't want and then see how Vista performs.

Re the recovery disk, Sony usually includes a hidden recovery partition on the disk and some software to cut a DVD (once) from it - my daughter's Vaio has the option to restore just the Vista system rather than all the pre-installed software (hers arrived with a ton of crap we didn't want).

Also worth looking at how much memory is installed as Vista likes a lot and its dirt cheap from, say, Crucial (their website is not the absolute cheapest but will analyse what's installed and suggest the parts you could add)...