ok so. I got a terrible virus a few weeks ago and my computer went to shit. I had anti virus... just the software wasn't good enough to remove the virus. It locked up my reg edit, stole my ctrl+alt+del functions, made it so i couldn't load CDs, and made it so i couldn't save anything off the internet.

So i reformatted, and tried to install an old OEM version of windows home XP that i had from who knows where. After my product key failed and i spent 5 hours on tech support trying to get the thing activated i've given up on that CD.

So i'm going to go buy a new OS. I get some pretty cheap discounts through my school (i.e. <$20) but i'm wondering which OS to spring for? XP home or pro? Or should i take my chances with vista?

NO VISTA. Stay away. Just get XP Pro.

What he said. Vista is such a scam it is beyond words, even by Micro$oft's standards. Been dealing with so many broken Vista systems, I could write a book at this point. Less of an OS, more of a broken anti-piracy ploy. (At least I now know why Sony pays for Micro$oft's movie theater ads.)

I used to complain about XP Pro - but now it seems like a godsend by comparison.

If you need help activating your winderz, PM me, I maybe able to hook you up with something that'll fix you, if you have a legit key.

try using a distro of linux, then do virtual pc/virtualization software to get winxp back on inside of a secure os.


ive told a few of my computer tech customers(who mess up their comps frequently) to go the virtualization route, so when they mess up they just scrap the virtual hard drive for a backed up good copy.

Wow sounds like something I have been trying to do myself please explain what is required to do this either PM me or Email me I am a sponge and will learn master.

i honestly dont know how yet

ill try it some time myself.

Hornet a good flavour of linux like mandriva, unbuntu,or fedora core is virus free and fairly user friendly. To run windows games I run cedega [ http://www.transgaming.com/index.php?mo ... =2&meid=-1 ]

As for buying windows xp or vista I would prolly stick with windows xp as vista has alot of driver issues. As for that old hard drive you have you might want to kick it to the curb, sounds like the boot record is fubared and someone prolly has your key also . Remember when installing your new os, get antivirus and firewall set up a few free titles you might want are spybot, avg free virus, soho or segate personal firwall. Remember alot of viruses are spread through zip, exe, or wmv files. Anyways any questions you might have Im or email

XP if you game. Else linux.

How is Cedega by the way, I used wine to game for a bit there, but it was pretty useless.

Yes wine is pretty useless, but its free and sometimes you can get it to run stuff. But for better game support I use cedega hasnt gave me any problems thus far.
Wine was built to serve its first purpose to run day to day apps under linux. Cedega on the other hand charges you for its up keep ..if you maintain a subscription. I run both cedega and wine. Transgaming even has "cider" for the mac so you can run windows games on intel macs.

Actually alot of shit infects your PC just by visting certain websites. Even legit websites can be compromised and install some crap on your PC via javascript and other measures. Spybot Search and Destroy isnt going to protect you against much when its infecting you real time.

I like the Virtual idea. VMWare is easy for that, just sandbox your OS, so any shit gets loaded into your os while you are on the net, vapes when you close the program.

They do have web browsers that prevent the installing of any material from websites you know . I use to have an old 400 mhz pos cpu beside this one I would just ssh into it and run the web browser on it

not to mention the performance hit you would get trying to run a game on a virtual machine (do they even support directX/opengl via vmware?). Just go for the deep freeze route if you're that worried :p

Im sure you would suffer big time in using a vm for gaming.Vmware does support directx,but win4lin does not.

vmware != vnc :p

vnc would also be a horrid option for gaming though