A few weeks ago I had the chance to test the new Snow Leopard operating system from Mac — so I had a good chance to compare these two. Trying to install a network printer on the Windows network, I consulted those help files and immediately ran into trouble because the described steps were not available in that operating system. It was strange to receive the guidance of click A and select B, where B. was not even listed. In the Windows machine the network printer was automatically installed. Wow!

Wherever I went, the computer choose the available wireless network and connected to it as a public network. Wow again!

The annoying confirmation pop ups that we saw in Vista has been dramatically decreased. It now actually serves the purpose it was originally made for — making users aware that they are making changes to their computer.

Should you upgrade?

If your machine has at least a dual core processor — definitely yes.  To be sure, run the Windows upgrade advisor from the Microsoft website. It will also tell you which of your old programs won’t run under Windows 7.

Upgrade or new install?

If you run XP, your will have to make a fresh install. There is no way to upgrade directly. But be advised that the new Windows 7 Migration Wizard make that a charm: You can even choose which program  settings to migrate!

Vista Users can upgrade directly, but seeing the ease of installing and migrating to the new Operating System via Migration Wizard, makes you think twice.

• A regular virus scan (weekly)
• regular defragmentation (weekly to monthly depending on your usage)
• Clean up unnecessary files (weekly to monthly depending on your usage).

Clean up:

Some files that collect during installing new programs and browsing the Internet can be deleted after a while.
To do that click on My Computer, right — click on your local drive C.
It will open a context menu showing properties as the last item.
Opening the properties menu you will see several tabs, General being the first one.
Here you see how much your hard drive has filled up, generally any computer that has less than 25% of free space left will slow down noticeably.
If you click the clean up disk button, Windows will calculate how many files can safely be erased to free up space on your hard drive. You can review this offer and click OK.
Be aware that this can take a long time if you don’t do this regularly.

You will also notice that Windows offers you to compress old files. These are files that you have not accessed in a long time. It will take additional time to do this.

It will make sense to run a defragmentation afterwards.

Defragmentation

Defragmentation also takes care that files that are being used more frequently are easy accessible. We suggest performing this task regularly. There is software out there which does that automatically for you, Diskeeper being one of them.

The other day I received a computer that needed to be rebuilt with a new hard drive. Since I am always curious about software, it was a chance to ‘play’ with Linux. Linux is a free Operating System that basically everyone can contribute to. While it is a big competitor for Microsoft on servers, only few people use it as a desktop operating system. You will find it sometimes on low-cost computers. The last time I looked at it was already seven years ago.

Question: Is Linux ready for everyone?

I downloaded the current most used distributions Ubuntu and SUSE.
Starting with Ubuntu I was surprised how easy everything went. Nice and clean interface, easy to handle for beginners. It also seemed to require less computing power — my old Athlon processor with 512MB Ram and a standard graphic card were sufficient.

Everything is free and a lot of standard software is pre-installed

Included software: Evolution as an Outlook replacement, FireFox as a web browser, OpenOffice as a (very good) substitute for the Word/Excel/PowerPoint applications are easy to learn (easier and more intuitive than Office 2007). Solitaire is also there. Everything free! Many additional programs can be downloaded for free.  But looking at  known web pages, I notice some differences, but cannot put my finger on what it is.  Of course the graphic styles of all interfaces are more simple, no Aero style as in Vista. So far so good.

The bummers…

Then the first bummer: installing a flash player for FireFox is not working as smoothly as on Windows. Several to choose from,  not working instantly,  I am searching for solutions finally it works.
Next bummer: what about some a photo editing program? Gimp is easily installed, but it is not as intuitive and easy to handle as Photoshop or Photoshop Elements (that is where many users are coming from). The manual and help files are a nightmare. There is a Google program called Picasa available for basic photo editing.
Another bummer: trying to open existing Photoshop files with Gimp,  I notice that the Windows standard fonts are not installed by standard on Ubuntu – the MS core fonts can be downloaded, but that’s it. This is also the reason, why web pages looked a bit weird: usually even on MACs these core fonts Arial, Verdana, Times etc are available. Not standard on Ubuntu. Changing the standard font is relatively simple.

A similar experience is the free web publishing tool: the interface is simply not as intuitive as Dreamweaver or GoLive. You get what you pay for.

Great advantage: no AntiVirus needed so far

Since Windows has a market share of 90 plus percent, all the bad guys are targeting Microsoft’s operating systems, which need an ongoing updated protection.
With a tiny market share, Linux does not have that problem so far. I am still wondering why I have to put in my admin password when installing software or doing administrative stuff. The password needs to have eight letter/numbers. Come on, guys!

Difficult Networking with Windows machines

I tried to join a windows workgroup, but I gave up after an hour fiddling around and researching. Something that should be considered improving.

And Suse?

The Suse desktop is more appealing and has Microsoft Core Fonts pre-installed. Also here, joining the Windows workgroup is unsuccessful. Even worse: while installing different programs, or even for checking email, I have to put in my password pretty often. Did anyone complain about Vista’s pop up when you do administrative things?
This is far worse.

My suggestion about Linux:

If you need something basic and do not need to be on a windows network — fine.
If compatibility matters — better go the old way, unless you are a geek that enjoys challenges.

On the desktop market, Linux is still an isolated solution.

Beware of this pop up!

Those of you who were suspicious about this were lucky.

Others who follow the invitation got to know later that they actually installed a Trojan Horse by clicking on this advertisement.
This way thousands of people infected their machines and were not able to remove it themselves. It does not only prevent the user to visit websites like symantec.com or mcaffee.com; if you try removing it without expert help and specialized programs, it turns up again and again.

Don’t hesitate calling us at 928-300-7116. We know how to handle this program and remove it safely.

Remember to backup your files regularly! We use a secure online backup that is free up to 2GB!

Not funny.

Even the task manager did not allow advanced users to simply shut down the machine and restart.
Things have changed.
Now, after  SP1, I have not seen a single hang up or crash of this operating system on several machines.
Pretty amazing. I myself enjoy the Home Premium Edition, record shows from TV and have the commercials automatically removed!
I enjoy the Aero interface, and I am wondering why people complain about the slow machine with Vista.
Of course a new operating system always requires more hardware. But in return we get more stability and a more flashy interface for those people who need something to play with.

Even Vista Basic on a dual core processor offers decent speed and everything you need.
I have never been a friend of operating system upgrades. I usually recommend installing fresh, especially after a few years of usage. Also here I keep it this way: if you buy a new computer, consider Vista.
It’s far better than in the Mac commercial.

If in doubt, call me.

Usually it happens by mistake, and the task bar ends up on the sides or on of the top of the screen. Getting it back into the normal position is actually pretty easy:
put your mouse pointer on one of the spots highlighted on our image (if it ended up vertically, these points will be below the start-button), hold down the left mouse key and pull the task bar back to its normal position. Release the mouse key — done.

Note that the task bar can only be moved when it is unlocked.

So if your task bar ended up in the wrong place, it was certainly unlocked. To lock it again, just right click on an empty place on your task bar and check mark look the task bar.
Now you will not see all the quick launch buttons, but you certainly will not misplace it again.

If your computer freezes and does not respond anymore, press the power button for a few seconds until the system switches off. Disadvantage: when your computer is shut down like this, some files often become corrupted.
Although we think that a restart does all that needs to be done, it is better to run and error checking or check disk [CHKDSK] .

Frequent crashes can even damage your hard drive.

To do that, go to ‘My Computer’, right-click on your local drive C, and on the opening context menu go to Properties and open it.
On the opening box click on the second tab called ‘Tools’, and press on Error-checking, Check Now. It will open another box with two check marks to be set. Once you click Start, Windows will ask you if you would like to schedule a disk check. You just confirm this, close all the windows and restart the computer. It will restart in a non-Windows mode with white letters on a blue screen (in Vista on a black screen), checking all details of your hard drive in five steps. This might take an hour or even longer, depending on the speed of your system and the size of your hard drives.

It makes sure that all files over your system in best shape. It increases the stability of your computer.

You only need to do this after crash or abrupt shut down.

The choice of your Anti Virus program has become more and more easy. Basic free offers like AVG free Anti Virus already do a decent job.
Still there are threats out there, often to be found on download sites that illegally offer music and software. Get the free AVG virus protection at http://free.avg.com/.

Those years when Anti Virus meant nothing else than Norton seem to be over. Norton’s reputation has suffered in the last years immensely, since their Anti Virus products were proven to slow down client’s computers. When we tested the new 2009 version of Norton Internet Security we were very happy to notice that this is not happening anymore. Configuring of the home network was easy, but excluding special programs from being blocked by the  firewall is still challenging. A big plus is that the user is not being bothered with pop-ups by the program.

Another familiar name in the  Anti Virus business seems not that advanced. When we installed a brand new Dell Vostro 200  for a client, the preinstalled McAfee security suite bombarded us with questions like whether or not to grant the Firefox browser or Outlook Express access to the Internet.  On the other hand, there was no way to add programs like Outlook  to the ‘allowed’ list manually.

Come on, guys. You can do better… Imagine that non-savvy, non-geek user trying to send an email or setting up the computer and getting this message.

The Panda Security Suite turned out to be a nother user-friendly product. The interface is clean and clear, advanced configuration simple.

Virus removal

Virus removal can be a tricky thing, most Trojan horses and viruses keep on reinstalling themselves and can often only be removed by the use of another computer. If you try it yourself, backup your files before you start. Many people have messed up their Windows installation and had to reinstall everything later.

Best: Call 928-300-7116 for Virus Removal