I lost Chrome yesterday

[passiveporcupine]

It crashed and then refused to open tabs again, so I uninstalled it and today tried to reinstall it and it won't download or install properly. I'm a little frustrated as I lost all my favorites. Oh well. I hated chrome, but was used to it. I installed firefox, which I've never used before, and am using that now. My question is, why can't I see my Bernie avatar in my posts, but I can see other avatars? Is it something to do with firefox, or adblock plus?

I was using adblock plus with chrome and I could still see it.

[Make7]

1. Nothing to do with your browser - upload.democraticunderground.com is offline.

That server serves up certain images, including your own avatar in threads - once that is back online, things should be back to normal.

[passiveporcupine]

2. thanks

[Make7]

3. You might still be able to import your Chrome bookmarks into Firefox.

Hit Ctrl+Shift+B to Show All Bookmarks. At the top of the new window there should be an Import and Backup button. Click it, then select Import Data from Another Browser and see if it will find your Chrome bookmarks.

You could also see if the Bookmarks file in the Google Chrome folder is still there and then copy the data out of it (although if the file is there I would imagine Firefox would be able to import them). The folder location may differ in the various flavors of Operating Systems - so if you want to try that, a little bit more info will be needed.

[passiveporcupine]

4. I'm afraid I uninstalled chrome before I even knew I could do an import with firefox

I figured I'd have to uninstall chrome to be able to reinstall it...so that was the first thing I did.

[Make7]

7. Try it anyway. Uninstall doesn't always remove everything. ( n/t )

[passiveporcupine]

9. I tried and all I see only empty firefox folders

and tutorials and a stuff related to firefox

It's OK...I can rebuild my files. I am not sure how to do this with firefox...I was just learning how to fix/elinate all the crap that came with Chrome and it looks like firefox has a lot too. I hope it's more stable than Chrome. Chrome hasn't worked for me (progressively getting worse) for a long time now.

[TygrBright]

5. Try Aviator- it's a Chrome fork with better privacy. n/t

[TexasTowelie]

6. Be sure to download the AdBlock and noscript.net apps for Firefox.

I also suggest the Tile Tabs app so that you can have multiple tabs appear.

[passiveporcupine]

11. I did download adblock plus

what does noscript do?

didn't know they had a tab addon. I hated tabs at first but now am used to them. It seems to have installed with tabs already there.

[TexasTowelie]

12. Noscript keeps malicious scripts from running in the background unless you click and indicate that

you are using a trusted Website. It helps to avoid having pop-up windows appear and videos from running automatically if you click on a new Website. It's a good program that helps prevent malware.

The Add-on tile app that I mentioned allows you to have multiple tiles appear on your desktop simultaneously. An example would be that you could be on DU and then have another screen running TV or YouTube content so you could see everything at once. I find it helpful as a Forum Host because I can copy and paste new alerts from the SOP Alert list to start a new thread in the Forum Hosts folder.

[passiveporcupine]

13. Thanks Towelie

I will definitely do the noscript. I may not want the tiles...I will check it out though.

[passiveporcupine]

14. I'm afraid I'm too stupid to use noscript

I can't get anything to work right any more and I have no idea what I'm doing. It's asking me to know how to identify and handle things I don't know the first thing about. I just tried to open Netflix to watch a movie and it's not reading a script and nothing is working. I'm going to have to dump noscript. It is not made for use by normal people who are not computer nerds.

They've done the same thing with recent avast and comodo updates. They've made them so complicated that I no longer know how to do things with them, like how to let things install properly. I'm getting too old for this shit.

[TexasTowelie]

15. There should be a yellow bar that appears at either the top/bottom or on the side of your screen.

When you are using a service that you trust, then click the "Allow all on this page" option that is near the top of the menu.

[passiveporcupine]

16. I have to do that with every page I open, every time?

I'm not into that kind of continual maintenance. I also may be not understanding what is wrong with Netflix. Maybe it's firefox that won't let me use Netflix. There is a script that is not being read correctly on Netflix, so it won't work at all, and I have uninstalled noscript and restarted.

I need to figure out why Chrome won't load. I want my computer to be easy to use, and this is just not for me. I need to get chrome back somehow. It may be avast or comodo that is preventing it from installing.

[TexasTowelie]

17. It should only appear as you go from one Website to another

so it shouldn't appear on each separate page that you load.

However, I noted that when I tried to uninstall noscript that an option will appear asking you if you want to completely uninstall or choose a different option (I don't remember the exact message). If you choose that separate option it prevents many of the items that will appear in the yellow box so you don't have to choose to allow all those items each time you go to another Webpage.

Also note that at the top of your menu should appear a blue "S" that will allow specifying certain options on trusted and untrusted Websites. You might want to experiment a bit to fine-tune how it works.

While I've used Chrome before, I don't know as much about it to try troubleshooting why it is or is not working It should be an executable file that you goes to your Downloads folder and then you would run the .exe file from that folder to install. Normally you will be prompted to accept changes or if the install fails it will tell you why. Your anti-virus programs should not have any impact on why the installation would fail though if the .exe file is downloaded.

[passiveporcupine]

18. Thanks Towelie

I may just have to buy a new computer. I'm running an older system with Win XP pro and chrome only works with XP till the end of 2015. I also have been fighting with a dying fan for months (long story, but it's been a bear), and I lost a cable I need to use the card reader and high speed usb port on the front of the unit. Something I need to be able to use my new camera. The camera uses wifi, but the old computer does not support wifi. I do have a wifi router right now with wifi turned off as it interferes with my speakers. Right now I need to replace everything, and upgrade to a bigger machine and a new win OS.

I'm just too broke to cough up for a whole new system and I would end up with Win 8, which I have heard horror stories about, and I don't think I want it. I'd take win 7 but I doubt I can get it any more. I don't think my current system can handle either of them. I also want a system with wifi, as all the new peripheral stuff is designed for wifi. I bought a cordless (wifi) mouse and can't even use that, as it needs win 7 or higher.

I tried installing chrome from windows explorer, and from firefox, and it won't completely download on either browser. I do get a warning message from comodo, but it lets me "allow" the problem file, which I've done and it still doesn't work.

I've tried too many times and googled for answers and I am giving up. It's all too anxiety inducing for me. I'm going to have to stop Netflix for now, as I have no idea when I'll be able to fix this. Netflix is my only entertainment as I don't have TV here. Oh well...maybe I'll get some work done for a change.

I really do appreciate your advice. The computer age has moved beyond me.

[TexasTowelie]

19. I sympathize with you.

I purchased my PC at the beginning of 2011 and it is on a Windows 7 platform. I started having problems with the fan early this year and the hard drive eventually crashed. It is a touchscreen PC, has wireless keyboard, mouse and I'm connected to a wireless printer through my router, plus everything else is working okay. However, it cost about $235 to get the hard drive and fan motor replaced along with have an operating system installed. It sounds like you are reaching that point when it will be necessary to make the upgrades.

My brother's laptop is on Windows 8 and I've learned to operate it fairly well. If you are going to get a Windows 8 computer then I advise getting a touchscreen since the tile menu on the desktop is really designed with that in mind. I don't believe that anybody is selling computers with Windows 7 anymore. It takes a bit to get accustomed to not having a start menu, but in general I did not think that the learning curve was that great. Personally, if you are going to make the investment in a new system though I would probably go ahead and upgrade to Windows 10. I've downloaded the OS, but I've been hesitant to install it.

While I do enjoy have a larger screen, if I were actually thinking about getting a new computer I would probably lean towards a laptop instead for the sake of portability.

The other thing to keep in mind when buying a computer is to make certain that it comes with Microsoft Office installed and to keep the recovery media available. A lot of the computers that are on sell now do not actually provide the recovery media anymore. I was also surprised to find that my brother's laptop did not have Microsoft Office installed so the options were to purchase the software or do cloud computing. If you intend to keep or share photos, then that may be the route to go. I have a lot of my cat photos saved to Google Drive that I can view from any PC or my cell phone and I could allow others to access my information if I want to go that route.

Good luck with it all. I'm only 50 and worked for an IT company, but I recognize that much of my knowledge and experience is becoming obsolete so don't feel like you are alone.

[hunter]

8. Malware and other sorts of infections are always a good bet...

[passiveporcupine]

10. It's possible

I ran spybot a week or so ago. It found stuff I fixed and then my mailbox and e-mail software lost some functionality. I ran it again two days ago and a day later Chrome crashed. I wonder if I just don't know enough and "fixed" things that shouldn't have been fixed.

I use both Comodo and Avast (both free versions) and am pretty careful about opening stuff, but sometimes I think I get crap from searching for images. I use image searches a lot for plant and animal identification.