Info/Help with Acer ZC 700G

I'm a 78 year old guy who is only very moderately knowledgeable about computers. I've owned several Acer laptops over the years and been pretty happy with them for surfing the web and spending lots of times on boating and model train forums. Those laptops run Win 7 which I have become comfortable with after being happy with XP. I was told I likely need to upgrade to Win 10, but I'm not real happy learning a whole new operating system.

I purchased a used Acer ZC 700G computer a few months ago from a father who said it was too slow for his son's gaming desires. I DO NOT do gaming so I thought it would be OK for me. I resisted hooking it up as I was hesitant about learning W10. I've decided to give it a try now. But first I need a manual to even know how to hook it up as I can not understand some of those icon labels. When I went to find a manual to download i keep running into LOTS of 'bait and switch' sites that wanted to install various apps, etc on my computer, RATHER than just me a straight forward PDF.

So my first question is how do I find a good old manual for this computer??

(then I will likely need help making it operate like a W7 machine, which I understand is possible?)

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AnhEZ28

@beiland here is the website for getting the manual: https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/6302?b=1&pn=DQ.B2MAA.001&sn=DQB2MAA001537017236300
It is possible to install Windows 7 but not recommended because there is no drivers provided for Windows 7 meaning that some functions like USBs connection , audio might not work.

billsey

As suggested, just go to Acer.com, select support, put your model number in (ZC-700G, not ZC 700G), then choose the user guide. Your machine came out in 2015, just as they were switching from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. That means it's fairly likely that some critical drivers needed for Windows 7 were never written for that hardware. I believe you will find Windows 10 to be pretty close to what you are used to, no big changes like we saw when they tried to get Window 8 accepted. The biggest difference is that when you open the start menu you are shown icons and text instead of text only for the program names.

beiland

AnhEZ28 said:

@beiland here is the website for getting the manual: https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/6302?b=1&pn=DQ.B2MAA.001&sn=DQB2MAA001537017236300
It is possible to install Windows 7 but not recommended because there is no drivers provided for Windows 7 meaning that some functions like USBs connection , audio might not work.

Thanks, found that manual link. Going to play with this 'new to me' computer today.

BTW I was not looking to install W7 on this computer, but rather I had read that that new W10 could be made to look more like the W7 we were use to,..not sure but not 'touch screen type, but rather like the W7 it was now replacing??

BTW I believe i recall the previous owner telling me that he had cleaned off the older 'stuff' his sone had on the computer. I hope this is the case?

beiland

billsey said:

As suggested, just go to Acer.com, select support, put your model number in (ZC-700G, not ZC 700G), then choose the user guide. Your machine came out in 2015, just as they were switching from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. That means it's fairly likely that some critical drivers needed for Windows 7 were never written for that hardware. I believe you will find Windows 10 to be pretty close to what you are used to, no big changes like we saw when they tried to get Window 8 accepted. The biggest difference is that when you open the start menu you are shown icons and text instead of text only for the program names.

Yesterday I got a number of things up and running on thisW10 computer, and I took notice of a comment about desktop or tablet appearance. But I have been playing with this piece of **** for 4 plus hours and it still looks TOTALLY different than my old W7.

At the moment I'm about ready to throw this piece of **** out in the garbage,...freaking Microsoft operating systems,....I liked good old XP and Win7, but this new **** is for the birds.

Frustrated older guy trying to find out if this W10 program can really look friendly like my old W7 program??

billsey

Just ask us when you run into something different than what you are used to. You likely won't be able to get an exact look and feel like W7, but almost everything is similar...

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