Windows 8

Yeah, AVG is good and Avast also gets good reviews and both probably give slightly better protection than what's built in. However, Windows Defender is so unobtrusive that for me it's a no brainer. If you're going to the dark scary corners of the internet and you found that in Windows 7 AVG would pop up warning about some dodgy file very frequently it may be worth it. Personally, I prefer the extra convenience of Windows Defender over the slight security advantage.
 
Does anyone know how to resolve the issue of getting a google calendar (that my work uses) on the calendar app on windows 8.1 ?

It seems they are having some sort of calendar war and no longer support each other :dunno:
 
I get the impression that Micro$oft and Google are trying their best to hate the other more than the other hates them. It seems very likely that Micro$oft consider Google to be their main competitor.
 
Google certainly isn't working well with 8.1 on my computer. It's slower and often stalls especially when I'm searching for images. A visit to a couple of 8.1 related forums seemed to blame Avast and other anti-virus prog's but I found the same issues with the relevant features disabled. There are known issues dating back over a year and Microsoft and Google don't appear to be doing anything to fix them.>:(
 
Just install the chrome browser it works fine for me, also never try to use an embedded google search engine as any results you get will be shit full of adverts always use the google home page...
 
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My Dad's laptop (Samsung) only couple of years old, which he updated from Windows 8 to 8.1 a few months ago, has now developed a serous case of Blue Screen of Death.

I spoke to him on the phone today. Apparently, the BSoD has appeared on and off for the last few weeks, but now it's got much worse. At first, my Dad accidentally hit F8. Then he was back in and running okay until a few days later.

But now, it's much worse. On boot up, instead of the screen where you enter your password, there's nothing but a blue screen. Hitting F8 doesn't work. The laptop refuses to turn off. You have to let the battery run down until it runs out of power...

Every time the laptop is turned on, it's BSoD...

Sorry for the scant info. I don't know what messages are accompanying the BSoD, if any. I'm over my Dad's tomorrow, to try to get his laptop running again... On the off chance, does anyone have any ideas? :unsure:
 
I assume a full reinstall has been tried and different hardware drivers been tested. I would suggest running something like memtest86+ to exclude memory faults, and possibly get a disk diagnostic tool from its manufacturer.
 
McZiderRed Instead of letting the battery run down try removing the battery completely leave for a few minutes and replace it, my mother had a similar problem after updating to windows 8.1 and this seemed to fix it, I will look for more solutions but this one may work as it resets the BIOS.

This is the same as the information you get when asking a tech who's standard answer is "Have you tried switching it off at the mains and turning it back on again." but with a laptop the battery is the mains which is why you need to remove it..
 
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My wife's stock solution has the words "Windows" and "Exit" however these are usually aimed at me after I point out that hitting the computer is unlikely to resolve an issue with iTunes.
 
The laptop has been sorted, but not by me! Mephistopheles the battery on the Samsung laptop is not easily accessible. It needs 11 screws removed and it looks a complete nightmare! Also it probably invalidates my Dad's laptop warranty.

John Lewis gave my Dad a 3 year warranty, so we took the laptop to John Lewis and they sorted it out. :D

Okay, they pressed a couple of buttons and the laptop came to life... :facepalm:

We got home, I downloaded some updates (Samsung updates) and my Dad's happy. :)
 
Removing the battery does not reset the BIOS. When I use my Laptop at home I never have the battery in it and remove the power supply when I turn it off. That would mean I'd resetting my BIOS nearly every day.:o

Every main-board has a small battery in it though which when removed does reset the BIOS but you would have to unscrew the Laptop to access it.
 
Not really when I said resets the BIOS I meant back to its defaults it will start from these each time it started up and default are defaults so it doesn't matter how often you reset them they are the same but then there is a more basic start up program than that which is called the CMOS which lives in the main processor which is not reset by removing the main battery but is reset by removing that little battery...

The BIOS is not something to be concerned about it will not bugger up your computer no matter what you do to it..
 
As an aside, one of the Samsung updates was an update of the BIOS and it took a couple of hours! I thought the bloody thing had crashed again..! :o

But no, it was my mistake. The BIOS update had downloaded, but a dialogue box was hidden behind something else and the laptop was waiting for me to click on OK..! The laptop then rebooted, came up with some text in DOS, thought a bit and asked me click on any key...

Bloody thing! Still, all's well ........ :ermmm:
 
Ok, I admit, it is late and I might have to think and read about it again. Anyway I will continue with this post. :D

The CMOS serves as the memory for BIOS which is booted when the power button is pushed by the user. If you turn a computer off and remove the power supply it doesn't reset the BIOS it restarts it with all the settings a user may have applied to it.
Therefore a reset can only be accomplished when the CMOS battery is removed, that would then reset the BIOS to the default factory settings.*

*There are other methods to reset the BIOS as well
 
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CMOS stands for Core Memory Operating System and basically what it does is ask a simple questions like "Hello is it me you're looking for." And if the answer is "Yes" then it hands over responsibility to the BIOS which stand for Basic Input/Output System which decides which shit is booted on start up and which shit isn't, it used to get annoyed if the keyboard or mouse wasn't connected but it doesn't care anymore due to the introduction of USB ports and lack of PS2 ports.
 
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