I've tinkered with several bundled software packages and they are far from junk. Yes, if a user has too many installed they can step on one another. However, to use a broad paint brush to condemn all applications and declare card readers the absolute messiah to photo transfers is a stretch. In all, a card reader is a quality viable option. In my mind what bundled software actually are are self-serving for the manufacturer, "lite" applications and redundant. I've only ever kept one which I found easy to use to stitch panoramas. For most amateurs like myself free applications like Irfanview and Picasa are more than adequate. Installing the camera driver is absolutely a minor task and historically safe. In fact, it is not harder than installing any other driver. Since as a reader I had no knowledge to the experience and the financial well-being of the poster as I normally try to do stayed within the parameters of the thread rather than forcing the writer off the original question. Though I have God knows how many card readers on the front of my system I personally find for my use connecting the transfer wire faster and easier. 1-2-3. Nothing to it. DA

dudsiam- I have an HP all-in-one that I like, but it occasionally decides to go offline, too. I went through the fixes with HP tech support, and it worked for a while, but occasionally and inexplicably will go offline. Sometimes I'll hit "print" and nothing happens. When this occurs, I can typically open up that printer from the taskbar icon, click the "Printer" tab in the window, and just remove the check mark that has mysteriously appeared in front of the "Work Offline" option. Then the printer prints. I know zep mentioned unchecking this entry when he explained the initial setup, but I just thought I'd emphasize that this can recur. Hopefully, yours won't have a relapse. But keep that in mind if it does. After I uninstalled and reinstalled the software several times, I decided this is a simpler way to get mine to work.

Okay.....I did both updates, and then I ran JavaRa and removed all old versions. But then I went to the Mozilla Plugin Check Page, and saw that it still listed my Java as old and outdated. So I said okay, and I clicked Update--whereupon we went through the installation process again. However, the previous time I selected the 64-bit version because that's what my computer is, and this time I chose the 32-bit version. Now Mozilla says all my plug-ins are current and secure. Of course, I still can't load MSNBC and assorted other sites with Firefox. :-/ Since we've made all these changes, do you think it would help if I uninstalled and reinstalled Firefox?

I did get my gmail account to work in WLM, but not the way I had hoped. What I finally did was activate the 2 step verification, and chose my Windows computer as the "app" to be used. Gmail send me a verification code, and then a 16 digit password, with a space after each 4 digits, to use when asked by WLM for my password. After entering the 16 digit password, all my mail for the past six days downloaded in WLM. Instructions were that I would never need to enter this password again, but I did write it down in my little password book, just in case. What I find puzzling is that I have used WLM 12 for almost three years with the same three gmail accounts, all of which worked in the mail program. It was only on Sept. 27 that my default account stopped working and asked repeatedly for my password. At that point I had NOT done the 2 step verification, so this is very infuriating, Google! I was forced into the 2 step verification process to get gmail to recognize my computer as an approved "app".