Windows 7 Just incredibly bad

[RickyBobby]

This Windows 7 is so useless that mere words cannot describe it.

Fresh install on a new hard drive. No third party antivirus or security programs whatsoever. Connected directly to the cable modem with a good old CAT 5 cable. Nothing could be simpler or cleaner, right?

Try my Cox email account. Nope. Absolutely will not connect.

Try Usenet newsgroups on the same account. Nope. No connection. Obscure error messages.

Try to download Epson printer driver from Epson site. Nope. Will not do that either.


Try these same tasks on three other computers running Vista and XP and it is all flawless.

Maybe I should not have done a clean install. Perhaps I should format the hard drive, install Vista, get that configured, and upgrade to Windows 7 and see what happens.

Do not anyone try to tell me that I do not know how to enter "pop.west.cox.net" and my username and my password because I have done it at least a hundred times before.

Explain to me why Windows 7 Internet Explorer is incapable of downloading a driver file from Epson while the Vista PC I am typing on know does it perfectly?

I have tried the Windows 7 with the Windows Firewall on and off. I have turned down the internet security settings. I still cannot get it to do anything and I must admit I am at a loss. I have been fooling with this stuff since the Commodore 64 and this is the first time I have been stumped by software that will not ware.

 

[RickyBobby]

I tried to turn down the internet security setting to see if I would get any better results.

I got a result alright. Windows 7 refused to allow *ME* to access the internet until I allowed *IT* to reset the internet security settings to *ITS* liking.

Words cannot describe my disgust.

An operating system with a web browser that cannot or will not download a printer driver from Epson?

Somebody is just messing with me up in here. This cannot be real.

 

[neilesmith]

My advice is format the hard drive, install Vista and stay with Vista.Even if they pick all the bugs out of 7 and get it to run faster than Vista it still won't be as user friendly in my opinion.
Regards Neil.

 

[kbz1960]

Turn UAC off.

 

[thomasw234]

Are you sure that you entered the login details for your account properly

 

[Mike]

No third party antivirus or security programs whatsoever.

It was released too late to be bundled with Windows 7, and I'm sure they didnt want to do it due to the anti-trust regulations. But look at Link Removed.

 

[RickyBobby]

I think I know what I did wrong

I about fell off of my chair when IE would not download a printer driver from the Epson site.

Once I calmed down a little bit I started to try to think this through rationally.

All new parts. i7 CPU and motherboard and nVidia series 9 vid card and 1 Tb hard drive so I figure this box should be good for the next three years.

I know that MS did not release an OS and a web browser that cannot download a file from Epson. I know it is not my ISP because the other computers in the house do it just fine.

The only software I installed was Office and Money thus far. Cannot be that.

Then a possible answer sort of dawned on me. The motherboard and video card each came with installation CD's that also contained bundled software along with the necessary drivers.

I probably let them installation CD's autorun.exe and they installed everything, including some crapware that is causing these problems.

Once you eliminate everything else, what remains must be your answer.

It is simple enough to format the hard drive and start over. But when I do that I will just get the hardware drivers off of the CD's and make sure I do not install any bundled software that comes on the installation CD's.

Registry edit would probably serve the same purpose but that is not my cup of tea. I am more of a hardware enthusiast and a lot less nimble with software. As you can plainly see here.

Wish me good luck.

 

[RickyBobby]

Mike

Mike,

I think I cooked my own goose here and installed some third party malware off of the hardware installation CD's. That is the only thing that makes any sense.

 

[philgman]

All the problems you mentioned seem related to network conectivity.

Connected directly to the cable modem with a good old CAT 5 cable. = network
Try my Cox email account. = network.
Try Usenet newsgroups on the same account. = network
Try to download Epson printer driver from Epson site. = network

Can you clarify that you have installed the proper win 7 or vista network drivers, are you getting an ip from your cable modem and can you see the gateway ip the modem provides?

can you check your network settings (network and sharing center), does it show you connecting to anything?

 

[RAK]

I still use Vista occasionally. I have liked Vista but, like 7 even more & it is better. Triple-boot to Vista x86, Win7 x86 & Win7 x64. XP I just have virtual now & mostly for client support.

Again, I apologise as it is often tough or @ least challenging to respond helpfully to certain queries & comments when you can't, in your own environment find, duplicate or have the same problem(s).

It's just incredibly good.

Regards,
Drew

I stated this in several forums lately. I heartily concur, Drew. It is becoming a bigger challenge to duplicate the fault than actually provide help.

 

[RickyBobby]

Philgman

Nice guess but not at all correct. I have it all figured out now.

When I first started Windows 7 I kept on getting this nag messages about not having an antivirus program. So I installed Norton AV 30 Day Trial to shut Windows Up for a while. Then I started getting even more popups and nag screens from Norton AV about how I should buy their retail version right now. So I uninstalled Norton. Or at least I attempted to unistall it. Or I uninstalled it real badly if you prefer. In any event, the badly uninstalled Norton AV left registry entries and who knows what else in the OS? So that is why I could connect to the internet but could not actually download a file and why Windows refused to connect to my ISP on the Live Mail side. Just using the internet for general surfing is fine.

So now I have to format the hard drive and reinstall Windows 7 and avoid the damn Norton AV and just put up with the nag screens until I can figure out how to turn them off.

I bet the Mac OS and Linux users really miss having all of this fun.

 

[tblount]

Nice guess but not at all correct. I have it all figured out now.

When I first started Windows 7 I kept on getting this nag messages about not having an antivirus program. So I installed Norton AV.

Oh no. Oh Lord NO!

 

[neilesmith]

Norton AV

Norton should come with a health warning, use AVG instead.

 

[stueycaster]

You have to use this to get rid of Norton. It won't uninstall right without it.

Link Removed

 

[philgman]

N.360 and N.internet security both share a common default "firewall". the default action it will take whe there is a problem is to limit or block network activity. You can easily remove these from the add/remove. if your system came bundled with crapware from the manufacturer you should look at Welcome | The PC Decrapifier to clear out the crap demo applications.

the toughest thing about diagnosing issues is separating the symptoms from the problems and in a new os it's find out what is a problem and what is a feature.

give me a shout if the N.360 was not your problem.

 

[RickyBobby]

Philgman

It finally dawned upon my dumb ass that since I have concluded that the uninstall of Norton Internet Security 2009 is causing these problems it may be wise to simply reinstall NIS 2009.

Eureka! After I reinstalled this crapware my Live Mail worked just fine! I could download a file from Epson. Everything was good.

I am still going to format the hard drive and start over. This installation of Windows is tainted.

But I did my usual "trial and error" method of problem solving and found out what I did wrong the first time.

Maybe the next time MS introduces another new OS they could put the security in it up front instead of nag screens to install third party internet security. That would be wonderful.

 

[stueycaster]

Again, I apologise as it is often tough or @ least challenging to respond helpfully to certain queries & comments when you can't, in your own environment find, duplicate or have the same problem(s).

It's just incredibly good.

Regards,
Drew

This is something I run into constantly. I surf the forums looking for something that I might help someone with. But 98 percent of the problems out there I know nothing about because I have never seen them. My W7 installation runs almost perfectly.

 

[RickyBobby]

stueycaster

It is beyond impossible to correctly diagnose anyone else's issues unless you were at their desktop with one of those remote assistance programs.

And even if you were at their desktop with full control you still could not diagnose hardware issues correctly all of the time.

CPUs overheat and PSUs overheat and video chips overheat and memory sticks vibrate out of their slots and mouse connections work loose and keyboard connectors work loose and I cannot even imagine how good you would have to be just to get through the hardware issues.

I could go on and on about all the things that could be "wrong" and not even come close to listing all of them. How could you tell if someone had too much gear plugged into their UPS or power strip?

Notebook computers may be slightly less prone to hardware glitches but they have their share.

And then you get to software issues which approach infinity.

Look at my issues. I know my hardware is good because it is new and I know hardware. I know my internet connection is good because I have other computers using the same connection. I even know that it is not a wireless card issue because I am using a CAT 5 cable to the router. And still it took days to finally figure out that I had butchered the uninstall process of NIS. And that is only because the rig is so new that I was able to pretty much recall every keystroke I have made on it. Try that with an older computer that has dozens of apps or multiple users. Yikes! It boggles the mind.

So my "trial and error" method could often be necessary.