Hi,
Trying to keep a sense of humour, you might like to hear this tale of Woe?!
I installed some talking keys software on my Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop.
This software automatically reset my key board layout so I could not use the laptop properly.
So I tried all the 'features' with Vista to no effect.
I had a choice of completely remounting Vista from the Dell backup disc at this point but it seemed too dramatic to me then (I did not know what was to come). So rather than lose all my work on the main drive, I tried to copy files from the recovery folder into the Windows folder hoping to overwrite the keyboard driver.
Now in days gone by I had an IBM Easy Office system with windows 3.1.
All I had to do in the same situation was go into DOS and unzip compressed files to recover the whole system.
Of course progress has moved on............
I now had a message saying I had to connect by the web for microsoft to verify I had a legitimate copy of Vista (no point in metioning I was sitting there with a Windows Vista disc provided by Dell which would not boot up?!). Now I do not have internet access and just use the local library to post this, ecetera; and dont really want it.
I now have to pay a 'service charge' to get out of prison. Oh yes, did I mention the laptop now refuses to power up and the DVD drive will not unlock either!
Now seriously who wants to pay Microsoft £40+ to 'rescue' you with a system like this?
Of course I could enjoy long meaningful conversations with their support department on 0870 numbers but I prefer to phone sex chat lines as they seem cheaper!
I am wondering if I can remove the Windows system and start with a Linux system from scratch next time around but would all my existing software work (including Office 2004)?
I can probably pay a local dealler £25 to fix this for me and I would rather do that. Still I suspect this is not an unusual problem. Has anyone got any good ideas or similar experiences to share before I go down this route.
Thanks for your time,
Alex

Microsoft Office and other windows programs will not run on linux.

Your best hope would be to plug in your laptop to a friend's internet and verify the copy as legitimate then.

Roz

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