Computer questions and solutions....thereof...

[ofblong]

Hey guys I got a question for you tech gurus out there. My mom just got a new computer (first and second problems, basic Dell running Vista).

Her problem is that the computer won't open up any shortcuts that should open in office. For example there's a .ppt powerpoint presentation that just won't open up a new powerpoint window. If you open up the office program, such as powerpoint or word or the like, and find the file, and open it through the program it opens up just fine. But if you try to open the shortcut it won't open up.

Ideas?
Wrider

And to all the US people out there, Happy Memorial Day!

most likely the properties of the file havent been set to have Power point open it when you double click it. I would get rid of office anyways and use Openoffice. Its free .

http://www.openoffice.org/


blues2cruise I just noticed you said something happens that you here clickety click..... Unless I am misunderstanding what you are saying 99% of the time that means the hard drive is dieing on you.

[Wrider]

Ofblong, I've set it to open with powerpoint, and I can open powerpoint and open it through there, but if I double click on the icon for the file it decides it doesn't want to open.
Wrider

[jonnythan]

Ofblong, I've set it to open with powerpoint, and I can open powerpoint and open it through there, but if I double click on the icon for the file it decides it doesn't want to open.
Wrider

If it doesn't open with Powerpoint, it's not set to open with Powerpoint

I'm not overly familiar with Vista, but if you hold shift and right click, you should be able to select "Open With." It should be easy from there.

[Wrider]

Lol no that's just the thing...
It's set to open it with powerpoint. I used the open with function, found powerpoint, set it to that, and it's still not working... It's confusing the crap outta me because it seems fairly simple yet is not working at all!
Wrider

[blues2cruise]

blues2cruise I just noticed you said something happens that you here clickety click..... Unless I am misunderstanding what you are saying 99% of the time that means the hard drive is dieing on you.

I think maybe I didn't explain it well. On the right hand side of my monitor which is attached to the hard drive.....it's a Sony system), there is a green light. That tells me it is on. There is a also a red light when it is in sleep mode...or when something is saving or when somethng is running in the background.
I have now uninstalled Windows Defender and I uninstalled Ad aware. It is running much better now. Norton seems to be just fine for spyware as well as viruses.
Prior to unistalling those 2, the red light (and the clickety clickety of saving or running) was on almost constanlty and my system was so slow.
This past few days since I did the removal, it has been much better.

[jonnythan]

Lol no that's just the thing...
It's set to open it with powerpoint. I used the open with function, found powerpoint, set it to that, and it's still not working... It's confusing the "crumb" outta me because it seems fairly simple yet is not working at all!
Wrider

Might be easiest to just reinstall Office

[ofblong]

Lol no that's just the thing...
It's set to open it with powerpoint. I used the open with function, found powerpoint, set it to that, and it's still not working... It's confusing the "crumb" outta me because it seems fairly simple yet is not working at all!
Wrider

Might be easiest to just reinstall Office

or install openoffice. Better program anyways and less of a resourse hog :d.

[ofblong]

blues2cruise I just noticed you said something happens that you here clickety click..... Unless I am misunderstanding what you are saying 99% of the time that means the hard drive is dieing on you.

I think maybe I didn't explain it well. On the right hand side of my monitor which is attached to the hard drive.....it's a Sony system), there is a green light. That tells me it is on. There is a also a red light when it is in sleep mode...or when something is saving or when somethng is running in the background.
I have now uninstalled Windows Defender and I uninstalled Ad aware. It is running much better now. Norton seems to be just fine for spyware as well as viruses.
Prior to unistalling those 2, the red light (and the clickety clickety of saving or running) was on almost constanlty and my system was so slow.
This past few days since I did the removal, it has been much better.

Norton is a bigger memory hog than windows defender and ad aware. With that said your problem was you had 3 spyware programs fighting each other. You most likely had it set to run a sypware scan 2 or 3 of them at the same time which would SEVERLY lower how well your computer runs. Norton will SERVERLY make your computer run slower. Norton and Mcaffe have always been that way. I would rather use avg anti virus and super anti-spyware than any of the 3 you were using but thats my preference. Either way check to make sure norton doesnt scan anything until say you going to bed.

[MrShake]

Lol no that's just the thing...
It's set to open it with powerpoint. I used the open with function, found powerpoint, set it to that, and it's still not working... It's confusing the "crumb" outta me because it seems fairly simple yet is not working at all!
Wrider

Maybe you just did a 1-time "open with" on that file. That doesn't necessarily set a default. Look for a checkbox or select box that says something like "always open with this program"

[jonnythan]

Lol no that's just the thing...
It's set to open it with powerpoint. I used the open with function, found powerpoint, set it to that, and it's still not working... It's confusing the "crumb" outta me because it seems fairly simple yet is not working at all!
Wrider

Might be easiest to just reinstall Office

or install openoffice. Better program anyways and less of a resourse hog :d.

Ignoring compatibility problems, which can be significant (especially if you're trying to view or save Office 2007 formats, which seems to be all but impossible in OO), OpenOffice does not contain the equivalent of Accounting, Infopath, Groove, OneNote, or Outlook. For many people, one or more of these are necessary applications.

For most people, OpenOffice is fine. However, it's simply not an option for lots of people. Suggesting it is fine, but ramming it down their throats is not.

And when I open up Excel, I see memory usage of about 7 MB. Without any OpenOffice applications whatsoever loaded, it's using 42 MB.

OpenOffice has always, in my experience, been slower and more memory-hungry than Microsoft Office. I remember seeing a few Slashdot posts relatively recently about how OpenOffice is "finally" about on par with Microsoft Office in terms of speed and resource usage.

It's one thing to recommend things based on merits. It's another thing to be so blinded by fanboyism and groupthink that you start to lie and fabricate "poo poo" about the product.