Messing with the new laptop.

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First thing was just trying to get the thing to sort of work.  First thing I had to do was remove Norton.  Beside being a poor performer, it was trying to get me to pay.  Don't come to me with your hand out and a bad report card.  Especially don't try to jack the operation of my device while doing so.  Expunged.  Now to figure out how to get Window 8.1 itself to behave.  It's a lousy system, made so that only they can jack it.  Not hooked to the internet?  No problem, they will just screw with you on autopilot.  At least 8.1 has a window setup, if it keeps opening various controls as if I had moused over the corners.  It's a monster, whole, and ugly.  I call it the ObamaWindows.  I honestly thing the two are connected.

Next I need to find what else can be expunged from the system.  Bloatware, like bureaucracy, unchecked, has to be sorted out.  Seamless operation means control.  Between .gov and .corp, they aren't, none of them, on your side.  Anything they offer for free will cost you, one way or the other.  There are enough stupid people, ignorant people, and lazy people, that they get away with it most of the time.  And if you don't care, they don't care, as they ware selling your data or otherwise walking to the bank with money they stole, or made from stealing, or otherwise harming, you.  When the two work together, you get what you get. 

For my part, while I can't fix it all, I can give it a good shot.  The number of programs on this thing that aren't needed, or wanted, isn't too bad.  I dumped a bunch of games, so far, and am looking to get rid of ebay and amazon connections.  But those seem to be in a program, that for the moment, I see as useful.  Which means I either have to find an alternative, go without the utility, or figure out how to remove that junk from within the program.  After ridding bloatware, I will move on to figuring out access.  I won't be using kindle, for example.  Some things have to be allowed access through the firewall.  It's more a matter of figuring out which ones are needed for basic operation and which ones aren't needed or wanted, or are a threat all by themselves.  No, toshiba is not on my side.  Money, money, money.

The thing is, you can't trust much internet available advice.  They'll sure tell you how to open your machine up to hacks.  Yeah, it might perform better, until they own it.  Damned things are monsters.  There are few places were advice isn't ruled by hackers, .gov, or .corp.  That's just the way it is these days.  I, generally, don't download executables.  I generally go to websites I know.  Doesn't matter.  They are even learning to hack through photos.  Viewing the photo is executing it.  And just going to some internet sites is enough.  Java scripts, I guess.  To be honest, even the pros don't know anymore.  If they ever did.  Nasty business.

I don't have much worth stealing, but that isn't the point.  Not all of it.  I'm still deciding what to do about security.  But first I have to tame windows itself.  The damned os just does what it wants.  I have to figure out how to turn of charms, or whatever, but know how to get to them if I do so.  Bleh...  Lots of work before I even begin trying to install photoshop.  I sure dug a hole this time.  I am feeling just a bit overloaded.  I'll... get to it.