Can anyone recommend a competent and trustworthy tech. to work on my pc. Last local tech. solved my problems by installing ghost software and god knows what else. Should be able to explain what he's doing (I'm a novice)

I sympathize with this one. Most local techs I have come across are at best overenthusiastic amateurs. The big problem is a general lack of responsibility. This means that if they don't know, they won't say so. If they mess up your computer, they will blame something else, even if they know they did it. And like you said, they frig solutions without even asking you.

Options. If you have a newish computer under warrantee go to the registered official service centers. They won't use ghost software, and they have at least been trained. The second option is to find an expat who may also be not much more than an enthusiastic amateur, but they won't usually do stuff without discussing it first.

If you can provide some more information about your PC (like what operating system and version) and the problems you are observing, someone here could have more motivation to have a look at it.

Thanks TT but the computer is 3 years old...long past warranty shelf life. To JJ: Its a window 7 (originally) my biggest handicap is that I don't know what I don't know. I think what needs to be done is the computer needs to be wiped clean and start over again. I'm not looking for a charitable expat to bail me out of my predicament. I'm willing to pay a reasonable fee.

I have a desktop computer with windows 7 and it is a struggle to avoid the updates and the new windows.

In times of trouble, when I call on someone to fix the computer for any reason the first thing they want to do is delete the old and add the new windows - for me that has been my biggest problem so I am very clear from the start that I do not want new windows installed.

In such "wipe clean and start over" scenario, it usually happens so that after it is wiped and started over, there are questions about where my files are and why I cannot login to FB or access my email anymore.

So whatever you do, first make sure that all your personal/work files and passwords possibly stored in browser are copied or otherwise moved to some other place than the computer.

This would of course be smart thing to do periodically anyway, but especially in such case as yours.

The others are right. Backup and reinstall would be your best bet.

If it came with some discs when you bought it, find those. Some should hopefully be diagnostic or reinstall discs. Then try those.

If not, you can try this guide to reinstalling Windows 7.

www.intowindows.com/[...]

It's a big pain in the ass for anyone trying to stick to Windows 7 now. Microsoft is making it impossible to download original install disks. They still have pages showing the downloads but wont serve any files. Also that crap with forcing windows 10 of you while you're asleep.. WTF.

A good reason why people are shifting over to Linux. A bit of a learning curve, but not too harsh, no more than the learning curve for switching to Win10.
The office suite does not have as many functions as Win Office, but for most users it shouldn't be a problem.
I think MS may look back at their Win10 moment in history as a turning point. MS seem to have peed off so many people.

My 82 year old father was really getting irate over the attempts to get him to upgrade to 10. Took my brother 2 days to finish upgrade but now father loves 10 and no longer wants a new computer to replace his old one. 7 was running very slow and 10 much faster and he loves new options.