Clair are you looking to turn off the French functions when using the Fn key? If so I found the following here:- To turn on and off Bilingual blue keys: Hit Ctrl + Shift + shift (yes, both shift keys at the same time in addition to ctrl) and that turns on and off the Canadian bilingual blue keys on HP lap tops. You could also start reading here starting at post #15 and onwards.

when I had my HP I let it do the updates and never had any problems, usually it is to keep things updated so you do not run into problems with things getting out dated and often it could be to fix a hole that could be a security issue. I was able to click on the individual items and see what they were for.

It does not seem to be a network adapter issue either, as both wireless and direct connection are problematic. The next step to see if a program typically Anti Virus is causing issue. So lets boot the computer to safe mode with Networking and see if you can connect that way, lets just concentrate using a direct connection. Restart the computer, keep tapping the F8 Key, the computer will boot to the advanced boot options menu black screen with white letter. From the list presented to you, use the arrow key to select Safe Mode With Networking once selected hit enter on the keyboard. Now try to connect to only Google.com. Let us know if you can connect that way. Do not surf the internet in this mode. Please be sure to try another browser too maybe before doing all this above in case this is a silly internet explorer issue.. Joe

Try a search for them, search for .jpg No luck download Picasa program and that will find all photos on computer, see link Here is a link that might be useful: Picasa