Not being one to change for the sake of it I am perfectly happy typing this on a XP laptop. Mt poor old mum’s new one though has Vista and its very unfriendly. Many things are complicated in the name of progress but one that’s really being a pain is shutting down. With XP you click Start then a nice red button then another and that’s it.With Vista you click an un-named button then you get a drop down type menu which with several clicks on totally un named buttons leads to shut down. this is very small, the scope for wobbling when moving across is great and it is enough to have got my PC phobic mum to either leave the laptop on for days or switch it off by leaning on the power on button until it goes off. Is there a way in which it can be set to a simpler version ie as or similar to XP
2nd issue is with Google earth. No problems with any thing on many computers until I loaded it on to mums. No I get a “google end user authorisation” message. No x to close it and it just sits in the middle of the screen. All google stuff has been removed via control panle yet the bloody message is still there. Why. If going via control panel and remove soft ware doesn’t work , whats the point of the flamin thing?

Any one out there help???

I also use Vista after my XP died and I couldn’t find the disc. FAIW I hardly ever swich the PC off, hibernate it from the keyboard (a button), you can set it up so a single press-in of the on/off switch hibernates the computer.

Worth a thought but my mum is the type that doesn’t want electrical things left on for days despite what I said earlier. Shee just waits for the battery to die!

When hibernated, it doesn’t need to be left switched on.

Hibernation means it freezes so when she switches it on it goes to where she was earlier, like in the middle of the page.

Install XP. There’s a reason corporate enterprise hasn’t adopted Vista wholesale. We have over 20,000 desktops and we’ve made the decision not to move because of the problems people have with it (a few directors have demanded they be upgraded but have all, shortly afterwards asked to be moved back). XP is now stable and while not exactly secure, is mangeable.

In the power control panel, can you set the power button to shutdown or hibernate the PC? (dont have vista to hand to check)

As for the google problem, perhaps it is their crapware updater which runs in the background after installing a google app. maybe download startup control panel and see if you untick it to prevent it running at startup.

What retro83 said. However, if she has a laptop it’s probably best that she simply closes the lid and lets it sleep. Power usage is negligible.

just a quick press on the laptop power buttons shuts down vista for me, same with most o/s and laptops.
If you really need to use software to shut down then maybe you can add a gadget to the siderbar that does it.
or you can choose to use classic view menus exactly like xp so your mum is familiar with the o/s.
vista is a bit non intuitive at times but seems fairly robust

On my Vista I have a power symbol at the bottom of the start menu, next to a padlock button. Then I have an arrow that lists shutdown, restart, hibernate etc. From what I can tell, whatever you select from the list (i.e. shutdown) is executed, and then next time you hit the power button, it remembers that you want it to shutdown.

My lappy has a mind of its own at the moment and restarts after shutdown, only sure way to turn it off is to shutdown from the login page!