This is my first computer with Vista: HP Pavillion dv7-1273cl
A Costco deal, so i think it's set up with hardware and software unique to Costco.
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11333677With the HP TotalCare monitoring things right out of the box and a problem with the wireless connecting to my router, i've spent well over 6 hours just getting it to be fully updated. It does not come with a restore DVD and recommends making one ( really, just one? ).
So before i get out a few blank DVD's and follow the instructions for making the restore DVD(s) i want to know about the programs that come with this laptop that will expire in 60 or 90 days depending on the program.
60 days with Norton Internet Security version 16.2.0.7 It's been a long time since i purchased Norton anything. Do i keep it for the 60 days then uninstall it ( been told that i have to get an uninstall tool from Norton to do that ) So before too much time passes maybe it's a better idea to uninstall it now and use a different set of programs. From what i gathered this Norton program has more to it than just virus protection ( firewall? phishing? pop-up blocker? ) So if that is what's in the program than what are good replacements that are Vista friendly?
On my XP i'm using Avira and Zone Alarm.
90 days on an Office suite with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote ( which i know nothing about ) Costco happened to have Office Home and Student on sale for about $77.00 That said ( and i purchased it before the discount expired and it went back up to $119.00 ) a few CH experts have told me that the free office program is actually better than the MS suite. Any thoughts on that OpenOffice free program vs the real deal?
Is it a smart move to shut off or disable the HP Total care? It obviously shows things down as it's checking EVERYTHING on boot up and my guess is that it's sucking up resourses as my computer runs. And on that subject can it be a program like that that keeps the hard drive spinning pretty fast all of the time?
It seems to me that not so long ago a hard drive didn't work so hard all of the time just to play free cell or type a letter in notepad or wordpad. If my observation is correct what happened to put a demand on the harddrive; is it Vista?