Windows 7, another step backwards

H2SO4 · 02 Nov 2009

whs said:

Tell your inlaws that there is no reason not to learn about the system because they are in their 60's. I got my first PC in 2007 and I am in my 70's. And it was fun to explore and learn about it. It's never too late to learn. A friend of mine started going to university in his 60's and is now nearly done completing his PHD. He did it just for the fun of it.

Well said. Age should not be allowed to become a barrier, nor a detriment to self-confidence.

My grandad's brother was in his late 80s when he took up computing for the first time in his life. Within a couple of years he was running "How To Email Your Grandlings" workshops for "silver surfers". He eventually became a minor community celeb for his efforts, to the point where the ISP awarded him a year's free subscription. During the inevitable interview, he quipped along the lines of: "thank you very much for your generous award, and I sincerely hope I'm going to be able to make use of all of it"

harpua · 02 Nov 2009

"Computing" is such an enabling activity, especially for people with handicaps or who have age related limitations. After many years, I still find it fairly amazing that I can sit at my desk in my room and instantly communicate with people all over the world with shared interests essentially free of charge.

Johnston7 · 03 Nov 2009

I understand where you guys are coming from, but beieve me I have tried and this problem of the explorer window appearing at start up still has me beat.

kanehi · 03 Nov 2009

Vista is a fine OS and never had a problem with it. Win7 is based on the Vista kernel so I don't understand why XP users who detested Vista suddenly liked Win7! XP will be supported until 2014 so there's no reason to rush. In 3-4 years Windows 8 will be out. If everything is working in XP then no need to change. The old adage.. 'if it ain't broke....' applies. If the OP really wants to learn it'll be on his own terms and we can't force him to change.

BeechV35Pilot · 03 Nov 2009

Johnston7 said:

I understand where you guys are coming from, but beieve me I have tried and this problem of the explorer window appearing at start up still has me beat.

Did you try to boot to safe mode to see if the problem occurs within that mode? I didn't see a follow-up.

Johnston7 · 03 Nov 2009

Peter, I wouldn't know how to boot in safe mode, my IT skills don't stretch that far.

BeechV35Pilot · 03 Nov 2009

Johnston7 said:

Peter, I wouldn't know how to boot in safe mode, my IT skills don't stretch that far.

Apparently you missed my previous post within all those age-questioning comments going back and forth yesterday.

Here is a copy of my post again, with a link to the tutorial on how to boot to safe mode. Launching Windows into safe mode is actually very easy and nothing to fear:

-------------------------- start copy -----------------------

Some more ideas: Try booting Win7 into Safe mode to see if the problem is related to an add-on program or driver instead of the base OS. Here is this forum's tutorial on how to do that:

Advanced Boot Options

One other question: Do you have any external hard drives (MyBook, for example), USB flash/thumb drives, MP3 players, or any other USB or Firewire devices attached to your computer? If so, try unplugging all of them and rebooting Windows.

Johnston7 · 03 Nov 2009

Thanks Peter, I'll try that when I get home as I am at work now, (UK resident).

Nothing attached to computer other than printer.

Will reply in 4/5 hours.

Johnston7 · 03 Nov 2009

Peter, yes it still appears when starting in safe mode.
And nothing but printer attached.

whs · 03 Nov 2009

Have a look at this. Seems to solve the problem. How to solve: Explorer window reappears on startup

Windows 7, another step backwards

hmmmm...