Tag: microsoft money

Warming up to Windows 10

On By Michel McDonaldIn App, ComputerLeave a comment

Windows 10 logoI wasn’t happy with Windows 10 when I installed it because it took hours to install, then everything took forever to load. I couldn’t get the Start window to come up, and when it finally did come up, it would go away because I was clicking the Start button too many times in frustration. I also hated the new Start window because when I would try to move things around, the icons would disappear, and then there would be huge gaps with no icons, so I took out ALL icons and just added them again in the order I wanted to see them, like this…

win10startThe first couple of days using Windows 10 was a learning experience, and things have gotten a lot faster since I started. The Start window comes up immediately now and when I click All apps, the list of apps comes up right away, although, there are times when it takes a few seconds longer, but I’m patient.

Now the only thing that still concerns me is Microsoft Money. Someone tweeted me a link to a blog that tells me that all I have to do is go into my Registry and change something, which isn’t always the best idea, especially coming from a stranger. Oh sure stranger, I’ll screw things up even more, thank you. And the sad thing is I went into my registry and looked for that string, but it wasn’t there. I’m actually glad I didn’t find it because it would’ve been a disaster if I screwed things up and had to start over again. I hope Microsoft comes up with an update to fix this issue so I can use MS Money again.

This is the error message I am getting when I load MS Money.

money needs ie6When I started using Windows 8.1, I wasn’t using the browser to use Facebook, Facebook Pages Manager or Twitter, I was using the Windows apps instead. Gradually those apps stopped loading quickly until they just stopped loading at all. Eventually I had to go back to using the browser.

When I installed Windows 10, those apps load quickly, and in a small window. In fact, all of the apps, including Windows Edge, their new browser, all open in a small square window. I have a widescreen monitor, not a square one, not that Windows really cares. But still, when I use Edge, I have to stretch it on both sides to see everything on the website. When I close the website and Edge reloads when I click a link, it opens in that square box again. Not that that is a real issue for me, I don’t really care about that. I’m not bitching about anything, I’m just saying this is what’s happening when I open Edge.

I had mixed feelings before installing, and I was outraged after I installed, but I’m warming up to the new version of Windows and believe it or not, I’m happy I installed it.

For anyone who just installed Windows 10 without burning it on a DVD, you should probably think about downloading the ISO file for both 32bit and 64bit and burning them to a DVD or putting it on a USB drive. They give you both options. You’ll regret not doing so if/when the day comes when you have to reformat or even if you buy a new hard drive and you have to reinstall Windows 8.1 and then upgrade back to Windows 10. After a year, you won’t have the option to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. It’s just a suggestion, and trust me, you will thank me later.

Windows 10

On By Michel McDonaldIn ComputerLeave a comment

Windows 10 logoI love change. Whenever there is something new, I’m usually one of the first on the bandwagon to try it, that is if I can afford it. It took me 14 years to finally upgrade from Windows XP, only because I couldn’t afford Vista, then Windows 7. I only upgraded to Windows 8.1 because I was forced to by Microsoft threatening “If you don’t upgrade, you will get a virus.”

A few people have told me how much they absolutely hate Windows 8.1 and that I would hate it too based on the fact that I still had Windows XP. Well, they didn’t really know why I was still on XP, read the paragraph above if you forgot. I actually loved Windows 8.1.

When Microsoft announced they were giving away their new upgrade Windows 10, I jumped on the bandwagon. I knew it would be different and that they took away the Start window and replaced it with a more compact one, which I actually don’t mind that much, although I did prefer the bigger start menu that took up the entire screen.

Okay, so here are my complaints. First of all, I couldn’t even install it because I had too much crap on my computer, so I uninstalled a bunch of things and believe it or not, that didn’t even put a dent in it. The programs with several gigabytes were gone, but the gigabytes were still used somehow. I backed up all of my pictures and documents onto 4 DVD’s, and it’s a good thing I did because OneDrive is gone. It’s nowhere to be seen. I am so glad I backed all that stuff up. Where did OneDrive go? After I backed everything up, I went to do all the Windows Updates I could because it’s been giving me crap for months. Every night it tells me to either shut down and update or restart and update. I never just get shut down or restart. When it does do the updates, it starts up saying it couldn’t complete the updates, undoing changes. So I let it do all the updates even though they said it couldn’t complete them.

I finally started the upgrade at 9pm and it finished at 1:30am. I never thought it would take that long to upgrade. I thought at the most I’d be finished by 11pm and then I’d have a few minutes to check it out before going to bed, but that wasn’t how it worked out. I did stay up until 2am checking it out, and discovered how much I actually hate it because of how slow it was.

Today I woke up and turned the computer on and for some reason decided that I needed to add a bunch of receipts in my pocket to Microsoft Money, but I got this message.

money needs ie6Ugh! Windows 10 doesn’t have Internet Explorer anymore, they’ve switched their browser to Microsoft Edge. So that screws things up for me. I use Microsoft Money every day instead of a check register because at least this program calculates my balance every time I enter a purchase. Now what do I do? And I have a feeling I’m going to have trouble with a lot of programs that may require Internet Explorer to be installed.

When I click the Start button, sometimes it takes a few minutes to bring the start menu up, and when I click an icon, it darkens and nothing happens. The app or program may take a few minutes to load and then the icon goes back to normal, or the icon may go back to normal and the app or program still never loads.

I know I’m complaining, a lot, but I mean come on, if you’re going to put out an operating system, make sure everything works lol. Then again, perhaps it did work on their brand new computers. And perhaps some people who installed the upgrade may not be having the same issues I’m complaining about, but then again there may be some people who are having a worse experience than I am having. Everyone has a different experience based on their system, because like fingerprints, we all have something different. A different video card brand or model, a different motherboard brand or model, a different ram size, brand or model, a different hard drive size, brand or model.

It would be awesome if everything worked the way it should, but if it doesn’t, well, you just have to either deal with it, or go back to the way things were when everything worked right. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

New Video Card

On By Michel McDonaldIn ComputerLeave a comment

In 2006 or 2007, now I’m not quite sure when, I got money for helping Darrin and his brother refurbish a house that was left to them by their mother when she past away.  I did a lot of work and didn’t get paid until the house sold.  I believe I got $2000.

When you get $2000 and you have an old computer what do you think you do with that money?  You buy a new computer!  Well, since I build computers I didn’t buy a computer, I bought all of the guts to build a new one.

Well, first I bought the hard drive from Tiger Direct but then when I went to turn my computer on nothing happened.  I think the mother board was too old for that hard drive.  The computer I was trying to install the new hard drive to was one that I built in 2004.  So I figured it was only a few years old, it should work.  But it didn’t because technology had already surpassed that computer.

So, I was forced to buy all new stuff so I just put the old hard drive back in there and gave it to Darrin.  I bought myself a new case, motherboard, cpu (w/heatsink), dvd burner and video card.  New computer!

A week ago we went to San Diego to visit Chips brother for his 50th anniversary party.  My computer did an update (which I could only assume was a Windows update) and suddenly I’m getting these strange blue screens (of death aka BSOD).  I didn’t worry about it because I didn’t want to stress on anything while we were gone so I put it in the back of my mind.  When we came home I was having the same problems.

Someone told me that I might have gotten a virus but I’m not convinced that is true.  I don’t visit websites on my desktop, I only visit websites on my Chromebook, I use the desktop for my Microsoft Money program and playing Lord of the Rings Online.  So there is no way I could have gotten a virus from visiting websites because it never happens.  I don’t even read emails on that computer.  My desktop is strictly for video games and Microsoft money, that’s it.

I got a couple of BSOD and accidentally allowed Microsoft to report the issue.  I have a jerk reaction to click no but for some odd reason I clicked yes.  When the report was sent a browser window popped up explaining to me that the issue was with my video card software or hardware.  Then suddenly another BSOD.

After that last blue screen I was done with being in regular mode so I went into safe mode.  I figure if I could download the driver update I might be ok.  How wrong I was.  I downloaded and installed the update and my monitor didn’t come on.  I plugged my monitor into the chromebook and everything I look at on the chromebook showed up on my monitor.  Ok so it’s not the monitor.  I plugged it back into the desktop and it turned on.  BSOD.  I turned it on again and the monitor wouldn’t even turn on.

So that is where I am at now.  I haven’t had a desktop in a week and I’m starting to go through LOTRO withdrawals lol.

This is my current configuration.  Well, I can’t turn it on so I can’t tell you the full details now can I?  This I do know.  I have:

  • MSI K9N4 Ultra motherboard – AM2, Nforce4 Ultra, 2*DDR2, Gb Lan, 5.1ch Audio, 1.
  • Gigabyte Tech GeForce 7600 GS 512MB DDR2 PCIexpress video card (I dug the boxes out of my closet)
  • Windows XP
  • I’m not sure about my CPU but I think it’s an AMD Sempron, don’t know the speed.
  • 1GB DDR2 memory

So this is what I’m looking for.  Any brand video card with 1GB DDR2 memory, PCIe.  I’m looking at Tiger Direct again for this new card and this is the one I have chosen.

Visiontek Radeon HD 4650 Video Card – 1GB DDR2, PCI Express 2.0, CrossFireX, (2) Dual-Link DVI, S-Video (Refurbished) – it’s $36.99 which is what I can afford.  My other video card was over $100 in 2007 and I just can’t afford to spend that kind of money right now.  I’m going to be paying for shipping which means I really can’t afford to spend any more on it.  So… is it a good one?  I won’t have the money to buy it until August so hopefully it will be on sale by then and they will hopefully still be in stock lol.

I think it’s a good video card but I’m no expert so I would love some feedback.  I’m choosing 1GB because I play Lord of the Rings Online and sometimes I get a lot of lag and I’m hoping that more memory will help that but you tell me, will it?  I would love some feedback on this.

So… until August lol.  By the way, I am not hung up on Tiger Direct so much that I want to wait 7 to 21 days for it to ship to me.  If I have to go to the computer store and pay a few extra $’s then I will.  As long as it’s not over $50 that is.

Acer and Samsung Chrome Netbooks Announced

On By Michel McDonaldIn Computer, CR-48, Google Chrome3 Comments


I saw the news this morning on Twitter from Editor for PC Magazine Lance Ulanoff:

Google: ACER introing netbook-sized ChromeBook #$349. Samsung’s ChromeBook: $429 for Wi-Fi Avail June 15. #io2011

I was way off on the price.  I figured that since the Google Chrome OS is a browser-based only computer that they would sell a Google Chrome OS Netbook for $150-$200.  I never thought they would sell as high as they are.

Chrome OS Site also reports the specs for the Samsung netbook along with other pictures of the netbook from different angles.  The Samsung Chrome OS netbook will sell in WiFi only for $429 and 3G for $499.

I have been using my CR-48 Google Chrome OS netbook since mid December when they first started shipping and I love it.  I still use my desktop computer but only for things that I can’t use my CR-48 for like photo editing with Gimp, balancing my checkbook via Microsoft Money and playing Lord of the Rings Online.  My CR-48 has basically become my default computer for everything else, as it was supposed to be for the pilot program.

I cannot say that I agree with those prices because you can get a netbook for the same price with Windows installed and be able to install software that you want on it to do everything my desktop computer can do.  The Google Chrome OS is internet only.  You can get the internet on a Windows netbook so why pay that much money?

It’s a great operating system, I just don’t think it’s that great that you would pay $500 for it.  I think that they will go down in price eventually so I would wait until they are a more reasonable price.

My Newly Reformatted Computer

On By Michel McDonaldIn Computer, TechLeave a comment

I reformatted my computer yesterday and it went better than I thought it would.

I typed out my check list in Open Office and printed it out so that I could check things off as I went which was a very good idea because I think I would’ve been lost without it. My checklist was files/folders to back up, drivers, programs and my browser extensions to install etc.

I had a few video DVD’s that I had to burn to get off my computer first before I could burn all the backups. The backups were about 4 dvd’s worth which were my home movie files that were still in mpg format, all my documents, pictures, mp3′s… you know, the basics.

One of the things that was very important to me was my Microsoft Money file. I did a backup in my Documents folder and put that on a dvd but after I reformatted the computer and installed MS Money and restored the file, it came up with nothing. I did it wrong. I’ve done it before in the past when I had to reformat and never had that problem so I don’t know what went wrong.

But that’s ok because when have I really ever needed to use that old information? Never that’s when. So, I can start fresh from my current balance and continue from there. The only reason I use it is so I always know my balance so I don’t overdraft.

One of the reasons I wanted to reformat was because my computer was so slow to load so I just left it running 24/7 to avoid having to wait to read my email. Also, when I load TweetDeck it can take up to 20-25 minutes for the columns to load. Now it’s instantaneous like it should be.

One thing that I wasn’t expecting was the Georgia font to be missing from my browser. For some reason, whenever I load my blog admin area, it forces me to type using the Georgia font. I don’t know why, it won’t allow me to change it, or at least I can’t figure out how to change it so I just had to deal with it. That’s why I liked Windows Live Writer, it used a default font like Arial which is easy to read. Georgia is very difficult to read, especially when you have eye problems like I do. You get used to it after a while but still. I just checked and Georgia is installed but I’m seeing something else, it’s not Arial but it’s easier to read than Georgia.

I have only installed half of my programs that I wanted to install so I still have work to do today but I’m sure it won’t take too much longer to get it all done and over with. I’m pretty sure all the Windows updates are complete. It’s been a few hours since it did any updates so I think it’s done for now.

I have a love/hate relationship with reformatting. I love how fast my computer is when I reformat but I hate all the work that goes into it and the risk of losing certain information. But you know what? When your computer is as slow as mine was, it’s worth the headache. I’m glad it’s finally done and over with.

Loading………….

On By Michel McDonaldIn ComputerLeave a comment

Since I’m not using my laptop anymore because I can’t afford to renew my warranty, I’m only going to use it for GPS when we go on trips and it’s really slow so I’m going to have to reformat it so when we do go on trips the GPS will load much quicker.  Although, I would love it if we could buy a $99 TomTom.

When I was using my laptop, I had it specifically for all the IM programs like MSN Messenger, Yahoo IM, AIM, ICQ, Skype and MySpace IM.  Plus I was using it for Microsoft Money 2004.  It came with the laptop.  But since I’m not longer using the laptop I had to install all of those programs onto my desktop and since I’m not playing EverQuest anymore then I have no reason not to have those run on the desktop.

The only drawback is that when I turn the computer on I have to wait forever for it to load.  The laptop typically took about 10-30 minutes to load.  Yeah, I know.  I’ve reformatted it but then as soon as I install all that crap back on there it takes forever again to load.

So why do I have all these IM programs installed?  Because some people absolutely will not use some IM programs.  Like for example, my cousin refuses to use anything but ICQ.  Well, he’s the only person that I know who uses ICQ.  I have friends who will not use anything but MSN Messenger.  Some friends will only use AOL or AIM.  So in order to accommodate all those people I must have 6 IM programs running at the same time.

Actually, to be honest I stopped using ICQ because my cousin never gets on it so why keep loading it?  All I get are spam IM’s so if he can’t get on another IM program then I’m not going to accommodate him.  I mean, he ain’t using ICQ so why should I have to load it right?