Freda

I managed to get Vista to more or less behave on my friend's laptop after a lot of swearing and some total incredulity on my part. It's soon to be replaced with XP, though. MagicAndre, thanks for the warnings about Windows 7 - When Vista appeared I bought a second PC I didn't need at the time because the music software I use either wouldn't run properly or wouldn't run at all under Vista (this was being confirmed on all sides by competent and computer-literate musicians). I reckoned a second PC with XP would at least keep me working for a few years. In the meantime I've been backing off from computer-based music software and going for hardware instead. So if Windows 7 turns out to be a step back from Vista, God help us. That backup PC seems even more like a good investment. Thanks for your input on this. Problem solved - despite a little expense on the part of the laptop owner to get an operating system that will do what she needs it to do. Buggy and imperfect, yes - I'm not making undue claims for XP and I know its lamentable failings all too well - but it'll work after a fashion. So this topic can be closed. Thanks for your advice.

Thanks. I thought it was surprising Microsoft had admitted an error. That was how it was reported in the press when word got round about Vista and no-one would touch it. I've never seen Vista before this as no-one I know wanted it. I'll break the news to my friend that she's bought a lemon and will have to buy a copy of XP or pay someone to install it.

A friend of mine made the mistake of buying a second hand laptop with Vista installed. As I recall, when Microsoft admitted they'd made a massive mistake with Vista they offered people the option of having XP installed instead. Does this offer still hold - i.e. do Microsoft still stand by their admission that Vista was a mistake, and honour that by replacing it - or did it only apply to people who bought a new computer at the time?

Thanks for that. I'd forgotten that Outlook is part of Office and not an intrinsic part of Windows. I've now got rid of it. It turns out the problem with used hard drive space is due to a bug in Outlook Express when it has more emails than Microsoft expects people to have. I've been battling this problem for a long time, but I didn't realise it was causing the disk usage problem this time round. I've now been able to address that as well, now I've been able to eliminate Outlook from the equation. - thanks

I've never previously found a use for the various features in Outlook, but I installed it earlier today to see what options it offers for backing up emails (I was prompted by the export command in Outlook Express). I exported my emails to it, but decided the way it works wasn't a helpful option for me, so I deleted the files I'd brought in from Outlook Express. So I now had Outlook installed and no need for it. I noticed three or four gigabytes of hard disk space had been taken up by something, and I'm assuming that's due to Outlook. I went to add and remove programs, but there's no listing for Outlook either in the intial section or in the Windows components section, so I can't see any way to remove it. I'd be grateful for any advice on getting rid of it. - thanks