Low Relief Houses

Hi All             Being rather "Tight" I went for a Free download:sad: "Low relief Houses and a Signal Box" to keep up my morale whilst my train has come to a complete stop! But not knowing much about computers (After having to pay to get mine sorted after a SNAFU when I tried to load Firefox instead of Google Chrome put photos onto the Forum) now for some reason the start screen has changed, any ideas??                                                                 all the best  KevinP S The Model Signal Box printed fine, but the Low Relief Houses(what I really wanted) did not and still have not, they must have got lost?

It's quite common for downloads, especially free ones, to include additional software known as "Malware" such as browser home page hi-jackers or dodgy search engines or other cr@p, when downloading and installing read each screen carefully, looking for tick boxes relating to the unwanted stuff, they try to confuse, some needing a box to be ticked  to refuse the extra, others you may have to "untick" a box.

Some of them are somewhat obtrusive and take a lot of faffing about to get rid of.

Probably a good idea to download Malwarebytes which should take care of it and guard against future problems

Antivirus for Windows 11 | Windows Antivirus 2023 | Malwarebytes Windows 11

Where did you download the items from?

What version of windows are you running?

And what has actually changed on you start screen?

Hi Andy One was from Smart Models the other one from Wordsworth, I am using Windows 8, and the old screen had "boxes"? for YMRC BT email log in page and various others total eight. And the Bar across the middle is different.
                   all the best Kevin

Hi Kevin,
If you press your [Prt Scrn]   at your screen causing concern, open up paint and press [Control] and [V] keys and paste it into Paint then upload it to this site and put it on a post.
Forgive my lack of understanding as I am recovering from a B12 deficiency and it plays all sorts of havoc but  I am a bit "befogged" by your description and maybe others are too but it would be good to be able to see the screen.  I use Chrome all the time and I have had no problem uploading but I know others have had issues.
Welcome to the group mate and know that the help is here…
Regards from Australia
Trevor
PS I am putting my screen on as a demo! Cheers

Hi Trevor           It is not this screen that I have concerns about, but the next screen, once that screen comes on I select "Chrome" just as previously. Now I don't get the "Eight Selections" BT email log in page, your model railway, etc. but just the             From Doc to PDF My Way, with the search bar across the middle sponsored by Google.                                                   all the best        Kevin

Hi Kevin

I'm afraid I can't help much as I stopped using Windows last year, but someone on here might also be using Windows 8.

Have you got the version where you touch the screen to go in to something?

You could try something similar to what Trevor suggested and press the PrntScr button at the screen that has changed, then open a reply to this thread and try and copy the image of your screen straight in.

I'm sure this has nothing to do with the Smart Models or Wordsworth downloads, as both sites do not download any other additional software.



Ed

Hello Kevin,

Do you mean like this? Chrome will "learn" your go to pages and present them like this when you open the program …



but it does take a little while for the program to learn where you go …

Hope this helps
Trevor

Hi Trevor and Ed            Yes this is the screen that I mean, but it only changed after the free downloads:???:, so I assumed the downloads were responsible for the screen change. I just have not caught up with the technology:sad: thank you for your replies,                                 best wishes Kevin

No this is just what google chrome does, its why I stopped using it a while back, personally I dont want a browser to determine what are my favourites, I want to set that up my self, thats why I generally use Firefox and sometimes IE11

Hi Andy             I have got Firefox "Running Side by Side with Google" that is what my recent SNAFU was all about??:???: and I took it back to the shop, and they charged me £40.00:oops: to sort it out. All I have to do is find out how to get to Firefox.                                                    all the best Kevin

I'm on Windows 7 and just use Firefox Kevin.

I'm not in any way computer literate but Google is my "home page" - i.e. when I click on the Firefox logo, Google opens on the screen as my search engine.

I've never used Chrome because I heard such horrendous stories about it.  I'm also told Windows 8, like their "Millennium Edition", is not without problems although having used neither, I can't really comment………………:roll::roll:

Liz has an iPad but only really uses it for e-mailing.  She much prefers this desktop PC for web browsing ………………..:hmm 

I meant to add that I just downloaded Firefox (Mozilla) from the net - it's free.  I suspect you'd need to be a bit careful where you downloaded it from.  Like most of these "Freebies", there are dozens of people offering them as downloads and I'm sure some of them must be suspect …………:roll::roll:  I had no problems with mine ………..;-)

Firefox will do the same thing with your favourites.  They all will.

Any time you use any Google product, it starts collecting your meta data and reporting it back to Google.  Soon you start getting pop ups and annoying emails.

Firefox is freeware and doesn't do that.  Download it from Mozilla and you won't get any bloatware.

I was talking to our host the other day and he's developing software to deal with the pernicious effects of Google Chrome.

In the meantime, use Firefox.  It's the best choice.

Hi Kevin, did you mean that you had Firefox on your machine but couldn't find how to open it ?  If so then look on the desktop  ( the place that the computer starts up to ) and look for an icon that is a blue world with an orange / brown fox curled around it. Double click on that icon and it will open Firefox

 Cheers

   Matt

Hi Matt              Yes I have the Firefox sign, but when I click on it I still have to search and it seems so different that I have got to get used to it allover again. A mate of mine would like to help, but he is a bit busy at the moment.             Kevin

Kevin, once you have searched, then bookmark it ( same concept as favourites).

For the Home page to allow for normal Internet searching functions, you can use either Google   www.Google.co.uk  or Bing  www.bing.com

Firefox can be set up under Tools/ Options for many things.

Hi Kevin

If you have the Firefox icon, but it doesn't open, you probably don't have Firefox.  Just and old icon left over from the original download, which has possibly been uninstalled.

Check   . . .   Start  >  All Programs   . . .  to see if it's on the list.  You'll more than likely see that it's not there.

If it is there, click on it (in the list),  and it will open.

If it's not there, go to  . . .

Download Firefox for Desktop — from Mozilla

and download it again.

Hi Max              Thanks for that advice, my old computer was "Vista" I just got used to that but it was in the shop a lot of the time. So I went for a Laptop because it might be easier to carry it when it went wrong, I went into the store and said to the salesman, that "I would like to buy a 17" Screen Laptop with a Disk Drawer" no more no less. And I ended up with an H P Pavilion with Windows 8.The salesman assured me that it was so easy??:???: But it nothing like Vista, one day maybe.              Kevin

OK so instead of seeing boxes like you see in google crome , with some of the recent pages you have visited , does firefox open to the last page you were visiting when you closed it ?

I feel your pain, Kevin.

I'm using Windows 7, which I reckon is great.

Those who have Win 8 are happy with it.  It's just a new paradigm.

John Dew has just gone to Win 8.1  I'm sure that if you PM him, he'll help you.