So I brought my laptop into work and our IT guy completely deinstalled and rebuilt the whole operating system (because my computer was running out of hard drive space, etc.) which I am very grateful for....

However....

I asked him to reinstall the same OS as I had before--Windows XP standard edition--and he installed Windows XP Office Professional. (And installed Service Pack 2 & 3.) I hate the way it looks...I want my old square style back.

Also, he installed McAfee Virus protection because it was free download, and that is already driving me crazy too....because you cannot configure the settings so that you can choose when to run the security updates.

My questions are:

1a. If I want to de-install Windows XP office professional and install XP office standard (which, yes, I have the software disc that came with my laptop to do this), will I have to re-install Service Pack 2 & 3, too?

b. How hard is it to deinstall XP office professional and reinstall the other? He did this as a favor for me so I didn't want to tell him I would rather have whatever old version of XP I had...can I just do it myself? How do I do it?

c. Will I have to install anything else so that I can connect to the internet (I just use whatever wireless is available in my 'hood)?


2. Any suggestions for different security software? I would rather have free. I can't remember what I had before--I was in grad school at the time so I just took my laptop to their computer lab and had them install whatever the university required. I would manually run the security updates weekly.

Please

get a mac

horatio said:

I don't have enough disposable income to do that but even if I did I am not the type of person who throws away technology/gadgets that work just fine because something new and shiny comes along. It's so wasteful.

But thanks for the completely useless response!


.
[Edited 7/31/08 16:54pm]

DevotedPuppy said:

no problem

Under "Control Panel / add remove programs" you can uninstall whatever you like.

Make sure you have the key for Office as well as that disc before you do.

AVG anti virus is free and very un-intrusive.

Mars23 said:

Thank you. What do you mean by "key for Office"? I definitely have all the original installation discs that came with my laptop...but if I remove windows I will only need to reinstall that, right? (Not the system software.)

I fucking hate this McAfee shit. It keeps installing crap and slowing down the whole computer.

DevotedPuppy said:

OK, before we get into trouble here, you're not removing windows AT ALL. That's very important. You're removing office and McAffee. This is a personal use computer right?

Your key is an alpha-numeric code needed to install the program.

It sounds like you may only have system restore discs rather than a disk for office, in that case it is a bit trickier to pull this off. Is that the case?

Mars23 said:

Yes, this is my personal laptop. I do not use it for work at all. The IT director is a friend, though, so he did it as a favor. He completely wiped out my whole computer and reinstalled the system software (using my disc that came with my laptop). But I think he used a work software disc to install Office XP Professional. But I have an original Microsoft Office XP standard (Academic Edition) cd which is mine, that came with the laptop. (It says version 2002, which seems right, because I bought the laptop in 2003.) This is what I want to install.



Might this be the 'product key' that is on a sticker on the back of said XP Standard jewel case? (It's about 25 digits long and says, "Don't lose this number! You must use it every time you install this software." under it.)



No, I am pretty sure I have everything I need....what do you think?



ps. Thank you SO much for helping me.
[Edited 7/31/08 17:23pm]

DevotedPuppy said:

OK we're cool. That is the key I'm talking about.

You should be able to remove the two programs under control panel as we discussed. The install of Office is very straight forward and will not effect your SP installs.

AVG is available for free on their website.

Mars23 said:

Okay, I definitely know how to do what you're talking about with the remove software/control panel thing. (I've done that before with other stuff.) So I just do that for XP, wait for it to finish, then put in my disc and follow the prompts? Or do I need to reboot before I install the new xp?


edit: I didn't read carefully
[Edited 7/31/08 17:31pm]

Orgnote...

Okay, so it's not Office XP, it's the Windows operating system that I hate the look of. (Because when I uninstalled XP the look of the desktop did not change.) How do I find out what version it is? (It's the one with the really ugly green start button and the really big, elementary looking menu.) Maybe it's because he installed service pack 2 & 3 (which I didn't have before).

I hate the way it looks!!!!!


Will it be really bad if I uninstall service pack 3 (and will that fix it)?


Or maybe he used Windows operating system for office and I had the home edition before. (I know because I do have the original Reinstallation CD for Windows Operating system and it says Home Edition. I know he did not use that because it is still sealed.


How complicated is it to undo that?


This is why I like doing things myself, so they can be exactly the way I want.
[Edited 7/31/08 18:16pm]

Right click your task bar and choose properties or options, I can't recall which. There are options to change the look of you task bar.

Mars23 said:

Yes, I just figured that out. But it still looks different. When the windows are open (e.g. this webpage), the edges are curved instead of sharp and the start button is still big, ugly, and green. (I'm being such a girly priss, I know. )


Do you know how to make a shortcut bar on the side? I always have to have a shortcut bar on the far right that has all the same shortcuts as on my desktop.

DevotedPuppy said:

Okay, I figured out how to make a "desktop toolbar" on the right, but it is fat and has the icons and the words. My old one just had the icons...


(I am very resistent to change, as well, if you haven't noticed. )

DevotedPuppy said:

I fixed it! (right click on the toolbar and uncheck "Show Title" and "Show Text".


Okay, I'ma stop posting now b/c I'm making myself look kinda

DevotedPuppy said:

Can't you just drag it there? Also try right-clicking on your desktop and looking at the display options, you might find the look you want there.

I don't use XP, so I really can't recall exactly what the options are.

Okay, I swear I'm done, but I just had to say I figured out how to get rid of the ugly green start button and the rounded corners:

Right click on desktop, choose display properties, and switch to Windows Classic.


Yay!


Mars23, thanks again for your patience and help!

I really dislike AVG as an anti virus program. It doesn't do its job very well at all. I still have it installed, but I rarely trust it as it doesn't do anything for spyware/malware and the like.

When I was a full on scan on my PC I use the free scan at www.pandasoftware.com its very in depth and will fix your virus' and tell you where all the other dodge crap is so you can get rid of it or fix it yourself.

Example I scanned this PC yesterday with AVG and it only came up with a about 10 or so things on the PC. Today I've used the pandasoftware one and its already come up with 106 pieces of infected files! AVG is way over rated

kcwm said:

This got me interested so I scanned with Panda, it found 3 cookies and I left them alone. AVG ran it's scan and found 4.

I love threads like this, they are really useful and the great folks here at the org are always so helpful.

Mars23 said:

I dislike the changes they have done with panda now tho

KoolEaze said:

That and Mars has his PC shite together so KUDOS to you dude!