# Two quick Vista questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 6, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-quick-vista-questions/545713 "2010-07-06T14:17:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-quick-vista-questions/545713/1 "2010-07-06T14:17:39Z")
1)Why does Microsoft constantly want me to download and install “important updates” to Office…which I don’t have? Without having Office on my computer, I assume I have no use for the Office security updates…or are there still other things those updates are applied to? 2)I’m suddenly having a problem printing. I _can_ print, but the time between pressing the print button and the box popping up (the one that asks how many copies etc…) is about 10 seconds and the current window will change to “Not Responding.” I’m not sure if it makes a difference but I’m printing to a network printer, I’ve reset my computer and the computer the printer is hooked to. Also other computers on the network aren’t having this problem. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-quick-vista-questions/545713/2 "2010-07-08T14:03:51Z")
I’m bumping this because I have something to add. Today I had to save some Quickbooks reports as PDFs. This also took a looong time. The reason I’m mentioning that is because when Quickbooks saves a report as a PDF it prints it to a virtual PDF printer. So where between telling a document I want it to print and the print confirmation screen coming up it’s lagging, but I have no idea why. ETA it also lags between clicking Okay on the print confirmation screen and actually printing. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-quick-vista-questions/545713/3 "2010-07-08T14:21:04Z")
How much disk space do you have free? Do you have a new anti-virus? ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-quick-vista-questions/545713/4 "2010-07-08T14:32:03Z")
Do you have MS Works on your computer? Have you installed a version of MS Office (trial or pirated - Sometimes your kids will try to install pirated versions then remove them) Usually the RegEdit still have items in it that are signaling for updates ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-quick-vista-questions/545713/5 "2010-07-08T15:06:39Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > How much disk space do you have free? Do you have a new anti-virus? 350GB and no. I’ve been using AVG since I got this computer a year or so ago. > [@Markxxx](#): > > Do you have MS Works on your computer? Have you installed a version of MS Office (trial or pirated - Sometimes your kids will try to install pirated versions then remove them) Nope, strictly OpenOffice (no kids, it’s a work computer) > [@](#): > > Usually the RegEdit still have items in it that are signaling for updates Is this part of the MS Works/Office thing? What would I be looking for in the Registry? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-quick-vista-questions/545713/6 "2010-07-10T12:30:31Z")
Just another update, I ran AVG, Malwarebytes and Adaware, nothing was found. ---
**Author:** ![mikews99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@mikews99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikews99)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2010, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-quick-vista-questions/545713/7 "2010-07-11T07:36:12Z")
If you’ve installed any of the Office document viewers, which are sometimes installed automatically by other programs when they need to display a particular document (PowerPoint viewer seems to be the most common), then Windows Update will see that some Office support binaries have been installed and will update accordingly. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2010, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-quick-vista-questions/545713/8 "2010-07-12T14:29:18Z")
> [@mikews99](#): > > If you’ve installed any of the Office document viewers, which are sometimes installed automatically by other programs when they need to display a particular document (PowerPoint viewer seems to be the most common), then Windows Update will see that some Office support binaries have been installed and will update accordingly. There might be a PP viewer on here, but I thought OO was running that, maybe not. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-quick-vista-questions/545713/9 "2010-07-17T17:23:15Z")
I’m gonna give this one last bump with some new info regarding the printing issue. My computer is still very slow to print. Also, until the printer actually starts running, the program that’s trying to print will lock up. Also, I’m having problems accessing web pages. I’d say that for every 100 times I click a link 5-10 times I’ll get page saying the one I’m looking for can’t be found, a simple refresh brings it up. Lastly, I’ve noticed that my computer can’t even get through a youtube video without stopping a bunch of times. There are three other computers on the network, so I have to assume it’s an issue with mine. Also, it started very suddenly. It’s not that it progressively got worse, it was fine one day and not fine the next. Any other ideas? ---
**Author:** ![kim\_jung\_il](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/54ee81/32.png) [@kim\_jung\_il](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kim_jung_il)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-quick-vista-questions/545713/10 "2010-07-17T17:49:49Z")
Joey, tell us what the computer specs are please. i.e. RAM, etc ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-quick-vista-questions/545713/11 "2010-07-17T17:57:31Z")
> [@kim\_jung\_il](#): > > Joey, tell us what the computer specs are please. > > i.e. RAM, etc 64 bit AMD at 2.4GHz 4GB Ram . . . I just realized I have SP1 and looking at MS’s website there’s an SP2. I’m going to install that and go from there. No point in troubleshooting a problem that might get fixed with an update. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-quick-vista-questions/545713/12 "2010-07-19T14:01:41Z")
OK, SP2 installed…no difference. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2010, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-quick-vista-questions/545713/13 "2010-07-19T14:23:38Z")
Ditch Vista and get Windows 7. Unless you have apps that won’t work under W7, of course. You won’t regret it. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2010, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-quick-vista-questions/545713/14 "2010-07-20T14:41:29Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Ditch Vista and get Windows 7. Unless you have apps that won’t work under W7, of course. You won’t regret it. Even if I wanted to switch to Windows 7, there’s no guarantee that it would fix the problem. It could just be a setting somewhere that I accidentally bumped. If it is something like that it could get carried through the upgrade. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2010, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-quick-vista-questions/545713/15 "2010-07-23T11:42:49Z")
Something else that may or not be related. Anytime my computer resets (or at least if it’s power cycled). I lose my Default Gateway. All the other settings remain, but I lose that one and can’t get online until I put it back in. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-quick-vista-questions/545713/16 "2010-07-28T15:09:31Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Something else that may or not be related. Anytime my computer resets (or at least if it’s power cycled). I lose my Default Gateway. All the other settings remain, but I lose that one and can’t get online until I put it back in. Okay, figured this out. But I’m still having a problem with these very long waits to start printing and my web pages not always loading on the first try.