Freeze up and not responding are often related to your internet connection. Are you using a wireless connection? If so, try a direct connection and see if there's a difference. As stated before I'm not a fan of Firefox and especially for someone who's not very computer "techy". It requires a lot of updates and things so it's definitely more for the geeks. I'd recommend Opera long before it. Opera is a proven, well designed browser and not a committee project. K-meleon is another good browser, albeit more simple. It's also open source, as is Firefox but doesn't seem to have anywhere near the issues Firefox has. Chrome is a relative newcomer but a very good browser and I'm using it more and more although nothing compares to Opera in my book. All three are much faster browsers than Firefox too and I definitely notice the difference. I always encourage people to try out several browsers and give them a workout so they get a good feel for them. I'm troubled when I hear people claim there's only one of most anything in the way of good programs. FWIW I often run two or three different browsers at the same time. You don't have to be committed to just one browser. I totally disagree with those who fear registry cleaners and saying to never use them is poor advice. There's also people who say to never do Windows Updates or update virus/malware definitions, or to never run a disk check or defrag because "it can cause problems, which is equally bad advice. I would not recommend using registry cleaners daily but I've used Ccleaner (and other registry cleaners) for probably 10 years now and on thousands of computers I've serviced and set up over the years. Not once has there been as issue attributable to any registry cleaner I've recommended. If you're apprehensive about it, back up the registry. Simple enough. Now you do it by doing a "system restore". Also, Ccleaner gives you the option to make a backup of the changes made. Again, if apprehensive, do it. A good friend of mine always said never show fear to a computer - they smell it! :) And I always say backup your computer. At least important stuff. People don't seem to understand what the "registry" actually is. It's not a mysterious deity watching over you every day. It's nothing more than a text file, one of the simplest files on a computer. Now I will agree that haphazardly using registry cleaners that aren't proven could and I emphasise could cause issues. But the registry cleaner in Ccleaner is a very basic cleaner. There are many that go far deeper in cleaning on the registry and some are very good but like anything, there's good and bad. The easiest way to access the task manager is to right click on an open spot on the taskbar and select task manager. How old is your computer, what version of Windows are you running and what do you use for maintenance on it? Are you running a firewall? Do you do the Windows Updates regularly? Have you done a disk check and defrag lately? Updated virus/malware definitions?

Maybe try hitting F11? Or maybe there's something in this video... I think if it were me and I needed to stick with Windows, instead of resetting to a no longer supported OS, I'd try upgrading to Windows 10 for free. Will it activate? I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. How to get Windows 10 for free Personally though, being a Linux user, I'd download Linux, write the ISO to USB Flash, boot it up and install Linux. I use this one but there are many good ones. Linux wouldn't be much good for a gamer but for almost everyone else it would probably be fine. Especially coming on a free computer. :-)

I think Wordpad, also a free inclusion with Windows, is a bit more useful as a simple, no frills typing program. Notepad is very limited and rudimentary. Be careful describing a saved Notepad file as being a "document". In common usage any text file is a "document", no matter what program produced it and no matter what format it's in. Notepad will only save files in .txt format, which is arguably just as if a character-based DOS text file. Wordpad does more (including .rtf, rich text files, for using basic formatting and other text effects) and some others. The more elaborate programs offer even more choices. Google Docs as mentioned above, a free online offering, offers a good balance of functionality and simplicity. All these programs offer interoperability of saved files with other programs and other platforms, if that matters. And from all of these, it's simple to cut and paste text into an email or workspace of another program.

I quoted your words, there was nothing to assume. In response to your words, I said I thought it wasn't a good idea to keep a backup drive connected to a PC for the reasons I mentioned. Immediate, right at the moment backups are rarely necessary. Most programs do that as a normal feature on the installed drive anyway, to protect against user error. If the external drive is not left connected to your PC, how does it do backups "Every time a document is saved or changed". Again, those are your words. I've learned to quote what you say that I'm commenting on because you've used the "that isn't what I said" response before. If I've copied your words into quote marks inaccurately, you can explain further so that I and other readers can better understand. Or don't, it doesn't really matter.