Oxenbury R. J. G.
December 6th 03, 10:24 AM
I have this new IBM-style computer and am using very few
of its facilities. It runs Microsoft Windows XP: Home
Edition. I thought it would come with a comprehensive
manual, but the documentation is pathetic. There are all
kinds of books about Windows XP, but I cannot find a
comprehensive Microsoft official manual for XP-HE
anywhere. "Help" files invariably refer me to the root of
the Windows CD; why I cannot figure, as the blessed thing
is supposed to have been installed: and besides, if I try
to load it, it would not surprise me (Microsoft Windows
being what it is) if it re-installed the operating system
without the updates I have religiously downloaded
recently and without which nothing works properly, if at
all.
I have been advised by an "expert" that it would
be "disastrous" to enable "cookies": as a result I cannot
even order groceries from my local supermarket, let alone
get in touch with Microsoft.
What I need at the moment is hard-copy of fully
comprehensive documentation about the system: only then
can I begin to find out what I have and how I may use it
in part, let alone in full. Microsoft and its system are
not much use to me at the moment - I am still using my
word-processor for "snail mail" for reliability, "Outlook
Express" not being fully accessible to me in terms of
drafting and attaching long documents and the like
through lack of a proper manual - and besides the system
must still be a pig's breakfast because I keep
getting "pop-ups" on the opening screen telling me I need
to download updates that have already been successfully
downloaded and successfully installed (according to the
installation history) ages ago. Perhaps the installation
history programme is badly bugged, but I cannot find out
at the moment.
I realise that youngsters prefer to "dip into" 'help'
files for this and that, rather than wade through
reference materials; but that is not my way, and I am
getting nowhere with it: moreover, it seems to me that
the cost of printing out some of the little "snippets" of
information available here and there (and elsewhere that
cannot easily be determined) must be far higher than
getting a proper manual for the lot.
I suppose this will sound like a bit of a Meldrew moan,
but I should be most grateful for any information that
might assist me with any of the above.
of its facilities. It runs Microsoft Windows XP: Home
Edition. I thought it would come with a comprehensive
manual, but the documentation is pathetic. There are all
kinds of books about Windows XP, but I cannot find a
comprehensive Microsoft official manual for XP-HE
anywhere. "Help" files invariably refer me to the root of
the Windows CD; why I cannot figure, as the blessed thing
is supposed to have been installed: and besides, if I try
to load it, it would not surprise me (Microsoft Windows
being what it is) if it re-installed the operating system
without the updates I have religiously downloaded
recently and without which nothing works properly, if at
all.
I have been advised by an "expert" that it would
be "disastrous" to enable "cookies": as a result I cannot
even order groceries from my local supermarket, let alone
get in touch with Microsoft.
What I need at the moment is hard-copy of fully
comprehensive documentation about the system: only then
can I begin to find out what I have and how I may use it
in part, let alone in full. Microsoft and its system are
not much use to me at the moment - I am still using my
word-processor for "snail mail" for reliability, "Outlook
Express" not being fully accessible to me in terms of
drafting and attaching long documents and the like
through lack of a proper manual - and besides the system
must still be a pig's breakfast because I keep
getting "pop-ups" on the opening screen telling me I need
to download updates that have already been successfully
downloaded and successfully installed (according to the
installation history) ages ago. Perhaps the installation
history programme is badly bugged, but I cannot find out
at the moment.
I realise that youngsters prefer to "dip into" 'help'
files for this and that, rather than wade through
reference materials; but that is not my way, and I am
getting nowhere with it: moreover, it seems to me that
the cost of printing out some of the little "snippets" of
information available here and there (and elsewhere that
cannot easily be determined) must be far higher than
getting a proper manual for the lot.
I suppose this will sound like a bit of a Meldrew moan,
but I should be most grateful for any information that
might assist me with any of the above.