Computer Hope

The forums were designed to help users with all of their computer questions. However, they have not been designed to help users obtain illegal content, bypass protection, or cause users grief. This is a community driven forum, which means all help is given by Computer Hope volunteers and you use the forums and suggestions at your own risk. Below, is a short list of rules you must follow when using the Computer Hope forums.

Spam and solicitation

Spam, affiliation programs, referral link sites, schemes, or any solicitation is prohibited on the forums and can result in a permanent ban for life. Computer Hope will allow in moderation a mention of your own personal web site in your signature ONLY if you are a contributing member (e.g. over 50 helpful posts). In other words, if you are just looking to advertise or sale something look elsewhere because it wont be worth your time to try it here.

Causing users grief or hacking

• Treat others as you expect to be treated. Do not flame, harass, tease, or offend any member of the forums.
• Only make posts or comments that relate to the original question or the current topic.
• If you're looking for help with getting revenge on someone else or hacking into a program or service look elsewhere.  This also includes supposedly "harmless" pranks.  This is not what Computer Hope was designed for.
• No help with stealing or otherwise obtaining another user's password.
• No flooding the forums with unnecessary text.

Race, religion and politics

• Please do not make any posts related to race, religion, or politics. Computer Hope is meant for Computer help, and support, there are plenty of other forums for these types of posts.

Copyrighted material

• No help with downloading or using a program (e.g. torrent or P2P program) to download a copyrighted software program, game, movie, song, TV show, book, or any other content protected by copyright laws.
• No help with finding places on the Internet to watch movies or TV shows or listen to copyrighted music.
• No help with making backups of copyrighted DVDs.
• No help users use copyrighted material in their own video, song, or website.
• No posting any copyrighted material, even if it's being used for helping others.

Unlicensed or cracked versions of Windows

• We will not help with making an illegal or invalid installation of Windows work. You need to get a legitimate key from Microsoft.
• To activate Windows go to the Microsoft Product Activation website and follow the instructions to activate Windows or call Microsoft at 1-866-PCSAFETY (1-866-727-2338)
• In the event, you bought a computer and are being told your Windows key isn't valid, help is available from this site: Protect Yourself from Piracy.

Bypassing protection

• If you need or lost your CD-KEY or other authentication key for a software program or game, contact the developer of that program. We will not provide you or link you to where you can find a new one.
• No help with bypassing any type of password protection in place by parents, schools, or other family members. We will provide limited assistance for users who've forgotten their Windows password.
• Filters on school computers and in the workplace are there for a reason.  If they don't want you to do certain things on their network, it is your obligation to respect that.  We do not assist in bypassing these filters.  If you feel that you have a good reason, you need to discuss it with the network administrator.

Language

• Computer Hope should remain family friendly for all ages. No swearing allowed.
• Although we love helping all people, at this time Computer Hope and the forums are only capable of answering questions asked in English.

Reporting

• Steps on reporting to a forum moderator can be found by clicking here.

Post removal

• Computer Hope and its moderators reserve the rights to edit, move, and delete any post that they feel break the forum rules.

Finally, additional legal information relating to Computer Hope found on our legal page.