Tech Support Team

Pewter7 · #1 (**permalink**) **Top** 5th April 2008, 01:40 PM

Hello again!

Hope all are well here.

Howard and Jason kindly assisted me recently with fixing a nasty trojan problem. I am really in need of assistance now. Yesterday afternoon my home was broken into and burgled. Well, you guessed it, they made off with my computer :frown:

I got a freebie from my friend which is an older computer that has two 19 GB drives on it C&D. It is currently using an illegal copy of Microsoft's Windows XP on it and I certainly don't want to continue using it as is.

I looked at some free OS and have found one that I think I want, which is UBUNTU.

I'm hoping that you can tell me what I should do to proberly install UBUNTU and then get rid of this illegal OS?

Thanks so very much!

Jason · #2 (**permalink**) **Top** 5th April 2008, 01:46 PM

This should help you to install Ubuntu.

Remember to format the current Windows installation.

**Daveskater** · #3 (**permalink**) **Top** 5th April 2008, 01:47 PM

Well I'm glad to hear you've decided to get rid of that illegal copy, we certainly don't condone things like that round these parts and I'd like to e-five you for deciding to get rid of it hehe

If you need further instructions on formatting your drive, feel free to ask.

samjohnson · #4 (**permalink**) **Top** 5th April 2008, 01:50 PM

Sorry to here that you got burglarized.

I have ubuntu myself. have only used it a couple of times though. But definitely should meet your needs if your not a gamer.

What you will want to do is pop the cd in. One it loads up you should see a list of things to click on. I think it is the first one you need. It says something like "boot cd". I can't remember exactly what it is so sorry for that. Depending on how much memory you have it could take a while to load up. Once it does there should be a "install" icon on the desktop if I remember correctly. From there just follow the directions. In one of the parts of installing it, you will be able to format the harddrives and wipe the illegal XP off of it. Hope that helps.

Howard · #5 (**permalink**) **Top** 5th April 2008, 02:22 PM

I`m so sorry to hear you got burgled mate.

I`m sure the guys here that know about Linux will be able to help you.

I hope the Police will be able to get your stuff back for you.

Take care and good luck.

Regards Howard

Pewter7 · #6 (**permalink**) **Top** 5th April 2008, 02:38 PM

Thanks everyone, for your good wishes and helpful comments. I downloaded Ubuntu to my desktop so will follow the wizard. I'm glad to hear from samjohnson that during the process I will have the opportunity to wipe the illegal copy from the machine. That was what I was not sure about. I am going to spend the day cleaning the house up (they ransacked it), and then tonight I shall attempt the install. I'll let you know how it goes. We have a neighbor who saw the purpetrators carrying our stuff through the woods in back of our home, so perhaps that will be of some help to the police.

samjohnson · #7 (**permalink**) **Top** 5th April 2008, 02:42 PM

Glad to hear there was some witnesses. I hope you get your stuff back.
Let us know how the install goes. If the download doesn't work to good, I can make a copy to send to you if you like. Though you may be a bit weary of giving out your address to a stranger after what happened. Or you can just request a cd from the ubuntu site.

Pewter7 · #8 (**permalink**) **Top** 6th April 2008, 01:33 AM

Hello everyone.

Well, got the house almost all cleaned up.

I was able to successfully install Ubuntu OS. I like the way it looks but I found out that I can't install any .exe programs so I can't install all my stuff!!!

I would really rather have an OS which works like Windows. I found one, called ReactOS, that I want to put in, but since I can't run any .exe (no suitable program to open this type of file), I'm at a loss as to how to do it.

Can anyone help me?

samjohnson · #9 (**permalink**) **Top** 6th April 2008, 01:45 AM

Yes linux can not run windows programs. There is a program called "wine" that will run windows programs. Unfortunatly it is kinda hard to install stuff on ubuntu, well at least I found it kinda hard. So I will let somebody else explain how to install it.

alan2273 · #10 (**permalink**) **Top** 6th April 2008, 08:03 AM

WINE will run Windows exe programs but it is a very hit and miss affair.
If you post what programs you are trying to install then some Linux alternatives can be suggested.

Pewter7 · #11 (**permalink**) **Top** 6th April 2008, 10:11 PM

Hi Alan,

Thanks.

I would like to install:

Paint Shop Pro 7, PhotoFiltre, Paint.Net, CCleaner, Zone Alarm, Avast, Spybot S&D, AdawareSE, AMP Fontviewer and Irfanview.

I don't know how to use Wine.

What I think I would prefer to do, however, is change the OS from Ubuntu to ReactOS, but I think that when I installed Ubuntu (I did not keep Windows at all) it did something to prevent the use booting from a disk.

samjohnson · #12 (**permalink**) **Top** 6th April 2008, 10:46 PM

Well the good thing about linux pewter7 is that you don't need cccleaner or zone alarm or avast or spybot s&d or adwareSE. Its not like windows in the fact that you don't get viruses on it. People just don't create them because its not a heavily used OS. It has a firewall already in it I believe. As for the other ones I don't know if wine will run them or not. I can't help you wit ReactOS cuse I don't even now what it is.

Just googled ReactOS. Seems pretty cool. Once its fully operational and not in the early stages I hope it will be a good free alternative to windows.

Pewter7 · #13 (**permalink**) **Top** 6th April 2008, 10:59 PM

Sam, that is such good news, about the viruses and firewall. I'm so glad to learn about this. So, now I guess all I have to do is learn how to (hopefully) install my programs.

I'm surprised about the seeming difficulty installing and running widely known programs. Can you tell me why that is?

samjohnson · #14 (**permalink**) **Top** 6th April 2008, 11:25 PM

Well to install things you have to use the "terminal" which is kinda like "command prompt" in windows. Except you use it for just about everything. I guess its not terribly hard to use it. It just takes some getting used to. As for why it linux does not run most programs is that it uses a different "base code". I am saying "base code" because I don't know what else to call it.

Somebody can probably explain it better than I can but that was my best try.

I answered your question.

Pewter7 · #15 (**permalink**) **Top** 7th April 2008, 12:08 AM

Thanks again Sam,

I appreciate your time and help. Yes, that does actually help me a bit. Im glad you mentioned about the Terminal because I saw that term on another site about using wine, but I quit reading then because I had no idea what a terminal was. Now, I can go back and read and it should be more clear.

samjohnson · #16 (**permalink**) **Top** 7th April 2008, 12:25 AM

Glad I was able to help. You may wanna stick to ubuntu for awhile yet as reactOS isn't out of its "alpha" stage. So they don't recommend it for everyday use yet. I just downloaded the "live cd" and can't wait to try it out. I hope its a good OS that you can use most if not almost all products that work with microsoft on it.

alan2273 · #17 (**permalink**) **Top** 7th April 2008, 10:48 AM

For a beginner in Linux, I would not recommend ReactOS, stay with Ubuntu, Linux Mint or PCLinuxOS, till you get more familiar with Linux.
If you do go ahead and install ReactOS then there is a list of the compatable programs at this URL.
ReactOS Support Database - Compatibility
And if you click on the community link that will take you to the forum.

Pewter7 · #18 (**permalink**) **Top** 7th April 2008, 11:43 AM

Thanks all.

Yes, I think I shall stick with Ubuntu on this machine for awhile. I'm hoping to get reimbursed for my losses by my insurance company soon, and hope to purchase a new machine like I had before. Then, I can use this one as a backup and continue to get more familiar with the OS.

Appreciate everyone's help!