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Great suggestions in here...Ubuntu or Xubuntu and Openoffice...if you don't play games you don't really need Windows. Malware will be basically a non-issue and you'll get rock-solid reliability.
The only thing you have to worry about is hardware compatibility...it's generally not a problem but if, for example, you have any Broadcom hardware in your PC, you could be in for a rough time...
Angry,
Download Adaware 2008. This will get rid of the worm you have. At least that is what is sounds like to me.
-Will
Edit: One of the things I remember when I was in programming is that once a worm or virus opens a port on a computer, it stays open forever. This means your computer is susceptible to future "attacks". I recommend doing a fresh install of XP. This will solve a majority of your issues.
Quick question, is there a serial number on the bottom of the laptop for XP and Office? If not go into word and I believe you can retrieve the serial number under the about tab. Edit: I forgot where I was going, morning coffee still has not kicked in. If you get the serial numbers for the office already on the computer you can use them again on your "fresh" copy of XP.
Tim is right. Reinstall XP! I promise it is less time in the end.
The more I hear about this machine, the more I think you need to wipe it and start over. It sounds like trying to patch up what you have is just going to frustrate you.
I also need to wipe an older laptop clean and reinstall and OS. It's an Apple, but I was thinking about doing Ubuntu just for the halibut, and since I don't want to cough up the change for the modern OS.
Anywho, I'm curious: short of external hardware or storage devices, is there a good way to store the stuff I want to retain from this computer? It's running 10.2 (not fun trying to find software downloads) with no DVD burner, so I can either try to dig up an older hard drive, or burn onto CDs.
I'm been trying to network onto my other laptop and dump onto its external HD, but I haven't got that to work yet, and anyway that strikes me as a little Goldberg-esque.
What can I do with this junk?
Angry,
You are just going to be chasing your tail with this machine. All of the common AV stuff never really uninstalls and that causes all kinds of problems when you install another AV product. The fastest and least frustrating thing to do is wipe the machine and start over.
If you are going to put XP back on the machine and don't have what you need shoot me a PM and I can get you squared away.
alex wrote:I also need to wipe an older laptop clean and reinstall and OS. It's an Apple, but I was thinking about doing Ubuntu just for the halibut, and since I don't want to cough up the change for the modern OS.
Anywho, I'm curious: short of external hardware or storage devices, is there a good way to store the stuff I want to retain from this computer? It's running 10.2 (not fun trying to find software downloads) with no DVD burner, so I can either try to dig up an older hard drive, or burn onto CDs.
I'm been trying to network onto my other laptop and dump onto its external HD, but I haven't got that to work yet, and anyway that strikes me as a little Goldberg-esque.
What can I do with this junk?
Ahhh... somebody I can help...
First, assuming the other laptop is also an apple, moving stuff is easy. Hook up a firewire cable between the two and one will see the other as an external drive. Alternately, hook 'em up on the same network (if they're not already), hit Apple-K and just connect through the network. Drag and drop.
If it's that old, it's almost certainly not an intel chip, which means you'll need to find a flavor of Linux for a PPC chip. Not sure how that'll go for you. I think PPC linux development is pretty dead these days.
If it were me, I'd look for a deal on 10.3.
thanks to all the leets who got me squared away. old machine is up and running sweet, after the following:
reinstalled XP from original CD; downloaded and installed SP2 (don't know why the windowsupdate page didn't offer me SP3?); downloaded and installed AVG 8.0 free; downloaded and installed Firefox 3.0.
this old brick is actually fast enough that i'm not offended by its lack of performance. then again, i think corvairs are fast enough, too. 
next up: OpenOffice, unless i can find the original MSOffice installation CD from one of our other machines.
Rangeball wrote:Also give Chrome a shot. I have found it better than Firefox. Better is my subjective opinion.
Don't go to chrome yet. They are still beta, but workable. I have both but Firefox has advantages such as plugins. I have firefox set up with Ad Block Plus plugin and also the Element Hiding Helper [I can block flash ads and animations. YAY!] I havn't seen a pop up ad since.
Chrome will get upgraded but Stick with FF.
BTW Chrome is on a brand new platform and built to be fast so can't wait for its further devo
Good stuff! Still say give Chrome a try. Also I would recommend Zone Alarm as your firewall.
Glad it is working!
You need to have SP1 or SP2 first in order to get SP3. I would suggest choosing Microsoft Update instead of Windows Update and either way you'll need to run it more than a few times before it will stop giving you updates.
phillyj wrote:BTW Chrome is on a brand new platform and built to be fast so can't wait for its further devo
[web geek] Actually, Chrome is built on WebKit, the same as Safari. Both are derived from Linux's KHTML browser, which has been around for some time. Webkit is just a very good browser engine. Much better than IEs, and arguably better than the Gecko engine used by Firefox and others. Arguably. [/web geek]
OK, so i found the original MSOffice installation CD. Before I install, I'd like some opinions on pros and cons of OpenOffice versus the MS products.
I'm on a Mac, and Microsoft products for Macs are notoriously buggy, but I've never liked how they dig into your system and put stuff everywhere. I like OpenOffice. My wife, the excel power user, doesn't.
Personally, if you are use to MSOffice, use it. Especially since you have it. OpenOffice while good is still not as good as Office. IMO.
Honestly, try OpenOffice first. If you don't like it, install Office. Or do both! Not going to hurt.
I've been playing with Google Docs lately and while not the most powerful solution it works relatively well. The ability to store them online and use add people to collaborate on them is great. Saved our bacon when helping a family member put together an invite list for her wedding.
The SO and I use to keep track of our monthly budget, and projects around the house. With the addition of using Google calendar to schedule events, etc.
The pluses are the fact that this information is not machine specific, so we can access anywhere an internet connection exists, the negative is that if we do not have internet access the data is not available, but that can be partially rectified by caching some of the data locally.
You'll be getting the offer to install SP3 shortly. Only after you'e installed SP2 do you get the offer for SP3, even through SP3 includes SP2. Go figure.
I installed Ubuntu via Windows on my laptop and desktop. The battle of trying to do a side by side installation on one hard drive drove me nuts. Doing it within Windows gives me the option upon startup of going either way. I know it's not supposed to work this way, but that's the way it's worked for me twice on two different computers. The doubly nice thing about doing it this way is Ubuntu interfaces nicely with the Windows file structure, seeing all "my documents" easily.
Open Office is nice, play with it on the Ubuntu side. It is different from Office, and can drive you nuts if you're used to Office. The location and structure of things is substantially different, though the end result is virtually identical.
Fox, its SP1 that is needed, not SP2. However, I'm guessing his install CD didn't include SP1 or SP2.
Information for anyone that is interested:
MY only problem with other browsers is the lack of good ad blockers. Firefox plugins let me block any thing I want. Ads or non-ads. And its part of firefox so nothing runing in the background when i don't use internet.
I'm late to the party, BUT!
Do you have another PC to work from? Assuming you do, get yourself a (free) program called nLite. Read some of the tutorials, it's pretty handy.
Download your SPx and do what's called a "slipstream" to integrate them into your XP install. The BEST part is you can remove all sorts of crap you know you'll never use just by checking a few boxes. Then you burn it to a brand new, fully customized installation CD with all the upgrades already in place.
Fun stuff, I have XP SP3 installed in a dual boot setup on an eeePC that I nLite-nd and it worked very well.
