Okay. You guys are great. Clearly the collective wisdom is not to throw money at the problem - but figure the problem out. Owbist - in my thread on not connecting my husband's vista laptop to our network, I tried quietly, methodically to troubleshoot the issues - to no avail. I found lots of similar frustrations on google - but no solutions that worked - and I think I tried them all - at least to the best of my ability. thanks for those great, easy-to-follow instructions to transfer to an external hard drive. He'll want to do that anyway - even if he keeps this computer. This computer guy is pricey - but where I am in DC they seem to fall in the $125-140/hour range - and they can usually fix a problem. Others that charge $40-75 - that the uninformed think are good - but their know-how is less than what I find here. I tried a few of those locally recommended guys - and they accomplished the simple tasks but also made mistakes I had to hire the more expensive guy to fix. My main complaint with him is that he's wedded to his biases - he hates Vista - so his recommendation is usually to avoid or ditch it. Our struggles with Vista seem to often be how often we're blocked from things or performing simple tasks have all sort of obstacles - for "safety's" sake. Thanks to everyone for pointing out that Windows 7 is just a revamped Vista. I got my first issue of Smart Computing and they were tauting it and described some features I thought I'd love. DA - if W8 is in process, is there any indication of what it will be like? Probably worth waiting for - or at least waiting to hear more about how Windows 7 is panning out. So I'll keep plugging away on my other thread to get him connected. If I don't succeed by Tuesday, the computer guy will come and fix it. I guess we'll stop there. Thanks. Lynn.

NO I do not really care at this point in time at all if you agree or disagree this is not a forum for conversations it is a help forum and needs to stay on TOPIC! If you care so much to pontificate your points of view then please do it on the other side if you have not noticed there is another little link button up there for the conversation side. Doing what you have done over and over again causes the topic to go off course and it makes it exponentially more difficult to keep track of what we have tried and done to help the person that came here needing help. If you want to have that type of conversation and discussion then please for the sake of everyone start a NEW thread of your own for that and do not do it on someone elses thread that is in need of help. On most of the other professional help forums I am on causing a post to go off topic is cause for banning and doing it repeatedly is just absolutely rude. My time is just as valuable as anyone else including the person that started the post asking for help! Most of us that are volunteers on help forums are on many many other help forums all over the internet not just one! Keeping threads on track for the actual problem is essential. As I said feel free to start your own threads to discuss what ever you feel the need to discuss but please don't do it in the middle of a post of someone else. Thank you grandms for stating exactly the point.

You will probably have to buy a unit with Windows 8. I had to. I didn't want a laptop though - prefer a PC. I just use the Internet and e-mail - plus I bought Office Student 2013 so that I could get Word. I live in Canada - so things may be different in the U.S. I would strongly suggest that if your dd needs Word etc. that she buy the product from Microsoft - NOT from a Best Buy or similar store. Many people have had problems using the key card - the store employees will tell you that should it need to be reloaded (say husband deletes the program or something else happens) you just have to reload it. Not true - one time load only - and then you have to call Windows which starts a whole new story. And I asked since I used to have the Windows Office Professional discs. Your printer is probably for an XP or 7. I bought a new laser black & white printer because I was tired of the cost of the colour inkjet cartridges that I did not need. After finding out the hard way that my Internet provider (one of the 2 largest in Canada) does not support Windows 8 when it comes to security I decided to check the printer discs - sure enough XP and 7. So I had to call the printer company. In the meantime, my Internet provider had me uninstall the 60 day trial of Norton anti-virus that came with the computer to load back on my paid-for anti-virus. I did tell the CS person that I had Windows 8 - he didn't know that Rogers wasn't capable with it. So I had to call the computer company. They installed Defender for me. NOTE - Windows 8 is NOT! compatible with MSE - you need to use Defender if going with Microsoft. When you install the printer you will need to disable Defender. Turning it back on as not as easy as it should be - and rebooting didn't do it. I finally went to the Action Centre - that is how I did it. The computer company will strongly suggest that you make a flash drive of the factory settings and store it in a safe place - and buy the best flash drive you can find. I did - but as it was loading, it stopped and the "next" went grey. I checked on the trouble shooting forum and many people had the same problem - but could solve the issue. So I called the computer people again after checking said :flash drive and seeing the dreaded XP and 7 on it. The fellow had just been through this with a few other people. When you get to "next" and can't proceed, you go up to the body where the size of the flash drive is noted and you hit it. I needed the 64 bit - which I had purchased. That did the trick. My husband's company is not going to go with Windows 8 -they are waiting for 10. To make matters worse, my first home computer had Millenium. I do not use a cell phone, tablet etc. so 90% of the features are useless to me. But since your daughter probably does use said features she might be okay - except that Windows 8 has problems. I don't even use Facebook. I didn't want to buy a laptop - and I didn't want to deal with a MAC - but all things considered - a MAC is looking pretty good at this point. By the way, since we all get those fake calls from people pretending to work for Windows, make sure that your daughter always has a Case Number and that when she receives a call back that the person knows the Number. I had 7 such calls with my last computer and I know that Windows never calls you unless you call them. So during a 3 week period I had 9 scam calls during the exact time frames that I was expecting a call from Windows. The calls were extremely abusive because I expected the person to know my case number and the reason for my call. When they didn't the abusive nature of the calls became horrendous. Finally, I looked for a North American number for Microsoft - found one just outside of Toronto, but it went to the Philippines - but not India. The fellow I spoke with was very helpful and agreed that there was just too much coincidence going on. So he put me through to a tech who quoted me my Case Number and fixed my problem right away - and then gave me a new case number. Apparently a lot of people feel that the scam calls are inside jobs - just like in any industry. So just be careful. I am lucky to be able to turn the computer on and off. My Rogers Internet keeps telling me to upgrade to Internet 9 (I have Internet 10) and that my Rogers e-mail can't be upgraded because my computer does not have the proper specifications - the implication being that it is too old - just the reverse. Hope everything works out better for you. My husband uses Word 2010 - naturally. I am also not keen on 2013!

There are SO many wonderful daylily farms out there - one reason I personally would not buy from QVC is that I would not be completely sure I was getting the named variety I was promised. Another reason is that all these wonderful farms depend on continued business to stay open, like rose people discourage buying from "big box" stores in favor of rose nurseries, to help them stay in business. I have ordered from quite a few rose and daylily nurseries this year [more than I should!]. If there is a particular daylily you want, google it - you will find a list of farms that carry it. Also, I really enjoy The Lily Auction online. LOTS of great daylilies and great prices! I have bought very expensive lilies for a fraction of their cost, and they sell seeds so you can raise your own. I have known Jack Carpenter for years { I cherish his huge diploids, no one else breeds those like he did]. Mark is a worthy heir - SUCH a nice friendly guy and will go overboard to earn your business. He is putting in a nursery that carries other kinds of plants, opening March 2. Well worth the trip! He digs huge fans, super healthy plants and gives daylily gifts with purchase. Other farms do this too....something QVC doesn't do. I have found so many great daylily farms just by googling a particular lily. Just ordered from Tom Kearst Gardens for some particular lilies I wanted......