New PC with Windows 8.1

  I am finally using my new computer, after being disappointed that I couldn’t seem to transfer Photoshop into it. For now I instead have downloaded a freeware program to handle simple jobs needed for blogs. It is a program recommended by someone on Copyblogger (whose blog seems to be on my regular reading list lately). This program is only for windows and works nicely ( I used it today for my Garden Journal post. A simple photo editing program, FastStone Image Viewer is freeware and works lightening fast. While it is a hassle to set up a new computer, I like the ease of using a large screen and the touch feature, though it takes some getting used to… I had been using my laptop almost a 100% of the time. Maybe being older, I like to sit at a desktop. After all, I spent lots of time looking for a comfortable desk chair, which I bought at Ikea a few years ago. I gave my old PC to my daughter, who is using it for games, mostly. It is a Dell, and I wouldn’t recommend that brand, although mine lasted for as long as you might expect. This is an HP, the brand of my previous PC. I like it better and feel it is more reliable. One thing probably totally unrelated to the brand, is the difficulty I have in getting the Canon printer and this PC to talk to each other. Sometimes I can get things working smoothly and sometimes it just won’t. Another thing. I have Sony memory cards, and it got stuck in the slot on my new computer. I don’t think I was supposed to put it in without some sort of resizing sleeve. Took a bit of work to jimmy it out. So I hooked up a Targus USB card reader I had bought while on a vacation (to handle uploading into my laptop). I use it quite a bit. It makes things easy, which is what I need right now- simplify things for me! I have too many tasks to do to waste so much time troubleshooting why my stuff won’t work. Which reminds me. This computer automatically… or maybe I accidentally… synced the logon with Microsoft live. Took me forever to recover the password. Such a complicated process…since I use different emails than usual. Finally have it written down on good old paper. That is story so far of setting up. There is far too much automatic stuff for a regular, semi-techy person to keep track of… so much is tied up with social media, too. It really is a web, now; but sometimes more tangled than I’d like. So I started using file cards, in a recipe box. Very old fashioned I know, but it works for me.