The laptop's all set up - and dd received it on Tuesday. For now we'll try open office. She does have a desktop pc with word if she needs it. And at school they use Mac's. So no matter what we use at home, it won't be quite the same as in school. abreeze - thanks for the link. It's beyond anything she or I will do now - but one or both of us might get more versed in powerpoint over time. That's a helpful comparison. I created recovery disks - but when I went to create a password reset disk, the laptop kept asking me to insert a disk. There was a disk in there. I even switched disks in case one was bad. But it was birthday day - so I figured I'd get to this later. Well - it came back and bit me in the butt. Birthday night had some trauma. After dinner, my mother fell backwards and hit her head on the sidewalk. I took her to the ER. My daughter was distraught - and the parent controls had logged her off at 9pm. Husband thought this was a reasonable exception - so he logged into the admin account for her. She immediately eliminated the time controls. No big deal, I thought - I'll reset them another time. Somehow she tricked my husband into entering the admin password again - told him she'd restarted the computer by accident. Well - that sneak had gotten him to enter the password in a field that allowed her to change it. She changed the passwords and locked us out of the laptop. So this is where that password reset disk would have been helpful - to override what she did and reset a new admin password. So this is partly a note to people about the important of creating a password reset disk (or set up on flash drive). I'd never even heard of this before. We're at the beach with my daughter and friend - it's instead of a birthday party. So we're not having the confrontation with this weekend. Monday - we tell her she has to hand back the reins for the admin account (or no laptop). The joys of parenting preteens. It took her less than 24 hours to violate most of the terms of the contract she signed. Sure wish I'd had that reset password disk. When I get admin control back, I'll be sure to create one somehow. (I assume at this point my only option is getting her to give me that new password she created.) Thanks. Lynn.

See my thread on Windows versus Linux MINT ... Buying a new computer because you are having problems with the software is not necessary. Spend a couple of hours and you can have a minty-fresh system :) ============= Back up your data files to somewhere safe, export your bookmarks and stored passwords (Firefox has an add-on that will show you the site and password - screen grab it) and e-mail them to yourself at an on-line account. DELETE your data AND/OR then compact your hard drive like this: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000528.htm Then download and "burn the ISO" for Linux Mint (if you insert a blank DVD and then double-click the Mint "iso" file, your DVD burner should do it automatically). Then reboot your system with the Mint DVD in it and follow the instructions. It's REALLY easy. You can choose whether to keep the Windows installation or not, and you can decrease the Windows file space by sliding the divider bar towards the left. NOTES: Libre Office can read your MS Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files. You will be able to READ the Windows part from Linux, so you can retrieve files . I haven't tried the reverse, and I haven't tried writing to the Windows side. Linux has "WINE" which lets you run most Windows software, including MS Office.

If the Dell is still under warranty, he can call Dell tech support and they will completely walk him through reformatting his computer. I have reformatted with Dell's assistance numerous times, ending up with a 'just like new zippy' computer. I bought the extended warranty on my Dell which covered up to 5 years on the hardware, and now no longer have to pay for any warranty, but have life time coverage for tech support. The extended warranty was not very cheap, but since my computer is 7 1/2 years old now, and I've not 'had' to spend a cent on it, I feel the warranty cost was well worth it. I did recently have a local computer repair person install a new drive, and reformat the computer, and he got all the updates and installed all necessary programs. He only charged $50, so I thought that was well worth it for me to not have to spend a lot of time getting all the updates and everything, since my ISP speed is not very fast. I would not feel very comfortable with trying to attempt to reformat without tech support walking me through everything.

yes I have used many of the nirsoft utilities which will show as a false positive, the situation is that the technology they have to use to allow you to find your lost keys on your own pc are very similar to the technology that is used in trojan/virus to steal your info, the difference is that with the nirsoft tools no info is sent to anyone it does not connect to the internet it is just for you to use on your pc and capture the info you lost. They make tools to find your wireless password, your router password, your outlook info, windows key, many many useful tools. when used by the pc user on their own pc they are then not malicious. I do not know if all of what is showing in Malwarebytes is just nirsoft products but part of it looks as if it is. That is why it list it as a PUP potentially unsafe product not as a Trojan. It is not a keylogger a keylogger is dangerous and sends out the info it captures to some one through an internet connection, nirsoft just finds it and gives it to you. I have used them and know many others that use their utilities. But if you no longer need the program the best thing to do is just after using it remove it so none of your AV programs will alert on it.