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Competition Among Windows Operating Systems
The Helpful Neighbor
By Ray Wilson, For The Bulletin
They are at the post! Lined up ready to go! They’re off! Jaws flapping 90 miles per hour, nitpicking, degrading and tearing apart every bit of the new operating system: Windows 7. Yawn! Same old, same old, ad infinitum! No, I am not one of the thousands that jammed the bandwidth to get to it. I am taking a wait-and-see posture since MS seems so hell-fire to bury Vista, then producing a Service Pack (SP2 also in beta) that makes many changes and additions. I am very curious about this move. Where is the logic in admitting Vista was a mistake then, in the face of the situation, produce a substantial Service Pack to upgrade their mistake. (Not yet, Scotty!) I want to see how this plays out with thousands hanging tough with XP and thousands of others enfolding Vista and both groups being intimidated with W 7. So, who are the “poor unfortunates” caught in this web? Hmm!
Whatever Windows 7 may bring, XP fans are loyal to their, oops ... Dell continues their offer of XP to their customers with a surcharge of $150 and people are paying it just to get XP. User interest has not changed, albeit switching from Vista to XP. There are even people trying to buy old computers just to get the XP system. If you are so inclined to go to an extreme to get the XP system, beware of a so-called pirated operating system. You may get more or less than you bargained for.
Question: “What is all of the emphasis being put on Service Packs, updates and patches? Are they that necessary and important, where do they originate?” Answer: Services Packs are born of the glitches, oversights and improvements by the software writers to fix and upgrade their work. There are many who are working on the same operating system and some aspects will fall through the cracks until the cracks are sealed. These are the primary reasons for Service Packs. Patches are of a different breed and should be introduced into your system with immediate urgency. Patches are used to shore up liabilities in the software and seal those cracks that could be vulnerable to breaching by many cyber crooks. Two different tools, with two different purposes! Both invaluable to the health of your operating system. However, be cautious about whatever you introduce to your system. Make sure of the originality of the SPs and patches before you proceed to download. Working in Windows? Make sure they have the imprimatur of Microsoft!
There are rare circumstances when even the SP may have to be revised. That being the case, you can wait for the correction or go to the KB [followed by numbers] site or other sites that MS has to help fix specified problems. For example, the hot fix solutions, where you choose the problem, go to a specified site, pick the fix and MS sends you an e-mail to download the correction. In any case, be careful!
Question: “I received an HP laptop for Christmas but I cannot find the parental control.” Answer: You failed to tell me which version of Vista you were using so, to answer, you must have Vista Business, the only version without it.
How many of you, my readers, hopped right on the Web and scooped up W 7 Beta when it was released? Jammed up the bandwidth right? I doff my fedora to Steve Ballmer for invoking one of the oldest, but most effective, merchandising tricks in the books: Limit the amount! Sure, you would have gone for it sooner or later, but the minute you heard it was limited to 2.5 million, your next thought was get it now before they run out! This was a legitimate means to an end, which lead millions right down the garden path! There are two operable words to remember: “free” and “limited.” With a lesson to be learned: The man knows how to market his product.
Chrome: There it is! In all its glory! Waiting for users to hop to it as fast as a weaver’s shuttle! But wait! They also announced, “Though they stripped away the Beta indication, they were still revamping the way to update the browser and that users will be involved in a ‘never-ending Beta test!’” Interesting! If they ever get it right, I may try it!
Question: “Has a decision ever been made on Wins Defender? Should I keep it or get rid of it?” Answer: I dare say there has been a lot said, pro and con, regarding different new and innovative features included in Vista: Ready Boost, Superfetch, Windows Defender, to name a few. Looking at Windows Defender, we find it is one of the most underrated programs to be had (free in XP or Vista). Rather than go into a long dissertation of its merits, if you have not already downloaded it, or turned it off, download and/or turn it on! Go to the top of the page and click on Tools. (A couple of weeks back, I mentioned always clicking on the “tools tab of any program.”) It is here that this program releases its value to your system. This done, you will have ANSWERED your own question!
Another uninstaller: “Your Installer” is a carbon copy of REVO Uninstaller. There is one big difference, REVO is free. “YI” is on trial for 21 days with standard and pro versions. It sells for $39.99.
• It’s not easy being “green!” Now there are ways for us to make our computers green. There are Europeans that want Plasma Screens banned since, when disposed of, they harm the environment. If I hear any more about “stuff” going green, I may throw up! (It won’t be long now, Scotty!)
• Security predictions for 2009? Grim,very grim! More and more hungry people are taking to Internet thievery to make a living, which stands to reason. Old, and fairly new, schemes are being applied daily to “whom it may concern” by the thousands. I am one person and I have received 88 “Hushing” letters, not including the ones that contained nothing but a blue hyperlink to click. All of this is considered spam mail, and there is really no way to stop all of it. What is considered as spam to my system is routed to a special spam file, where I can sort through it to find any legitimate e-mail that has been sidetracked. Then I simply delete the rest. With the address I use for this column and my personal address, I do get a bunch of mail. This system of handling spam utilizes very little time.
W7: Those mentioned at the start of this column are already heading into the back stretch — a little knowledge is dangerous. Having read countless articles on W7, I confess I am not, as yet, hands-on with W7 simply because I have a problem of what to do with a fourth operating system — XP, Vista Home Premium, Vista Ultimate and now W7. I am surely not going to invest in more equipment! For now, I will rely on my ingenuity for a solution.
There is an old saying about “fools rushing in,” and I have found no angels in the Wonderful World of Technology, just a lot of greed and avarice. I have just read what I feel is about as honest an account of W7 that will be bantered about. An absolute expert was given a copy of W7 to be used exclusively for a 72-hour period and come up with an evaluation. His first comment was, “It is named wrong! It should be called Vista SP2.” Which just about sums up his whole experiment. He ran the gamut, from finding files and folders to the gaming aspect and some of the changes he had to make in Vista, he also had to make in W7. After reading the entire summary of his 72-hour investigation, taking into consideration that MS was offering it at a price as a replacement of Vista, he said, “As for me? I think I’ll go back to Vista for now.” You cannot get any more honest than that.
It stands to reason that MS was not producing a totally new operating system in the short space of time it took getting out a Beta copy. It has been inked, right along, that W7 was to be a re-worked Vista. I am wondering which of the three versions — Netbook, Consumer or Enterprise — is the Beta version, or is this our next surprise?
Question: (This question is paraphrased.) “ Do you recommend Imaging a Disk?” Answer: Again we have a situation that equates to a matter of choice! My stress in this column, to maintain sanity and civility, always points to backing up. Here again, leaving a lot of doors open for a user to choose how, what and when a backup should be implemented. Now you have the new ‘sync’ system, which is touted to be better and easier than a regular incremental backup. There is also the opportunity to take snapshots of your data for reference, but you asked about imaging!
Once you have your system working perfectly, saving a full copy of the drive as a disk image is an excellent idea. If you ever run into a full reinstall, the image file will contain your applications and Windows updates; you can restore your opsys and applications in one swoop, then restore your documents from a recent backup. (There it is again — you can never get away from a full backup.) Some disk suites include imaging software. True Imaging Home 11 can handle most of any imaging needs (there are others), even incremental, so you can keep the image up to date.
Circuit City is in the midst of selling off all of its merchandise as it closes the remaining U.S. stores. The merchandise sale ends March 31. This leaves 34,000 CC employees without jobs (including their FireDog repair service, which is really of no great loss except to the employees). They were the second largest retailer of consumer electronics. At best, I found their store lacking and haphazard, but it is still a jolt to watch our waning economy claim yet another. My first clue to their problem was their admission that their first quarter losses were from the lack of “extended warranties.” Within a couple of decades, we have lost: CompUsa, Computer City, Egghead, Tweeter and The Wiz. I have also been wondering about Staples; I never see more than three or four people in there at a time. Stay well.
Ray Wilson was raised in Upper Darby and has lived in Chester County since 1973. He has over 48 years experience in computing and he has been testing virus and Spyware programs for the last five years. His “The Helpful Neighbor” column will appear once a week in The Bulletin. He can be reached at RJWhelpful4u@aol.com.
Whatever Windows 7 may bring, XP fans are loyal to their, oops ... Dell continues their offer of XP to their customers with a surcharge of $150 and people are paying it just to get XP. User interest has not changed, albeit switching from Vista to XP. There are even people trying to buy old computers just to get the XP system. If you are so inclined to go to an extreme to get the XP system, beware of a so-called pirated operating system. You may get more or less than you bargained for.
Question: “What is all of the emphasis being put on Service Packs, updates and patches? Are they that necessary and important, where do they originate?” Answer: Services Packs are born of the glitches, oversights and improvements by the software writers to fix and upgrade their work. There are many who are working on the same operating system and some aspects will fall through the cracks until the cracks are sealed. These are the primary reasons for Service Packs. Patches are of a different breed and should be introduced into your system with immediate urgency. Patches are used to shore up liabilities in the software and seal those cracks that could be vulnerable to breaching by many cyber crooks. Two different tools, with two different purposes! Both invaluable to the health of your operating system. However, be cautious about whatever you introduce to your system. Make sure of the originality of the SPs and patches before you proceed to download. Working in Windows? Make sure they have the imprimatur of Microsoft!
There are rare circumstances when even the SP may have to be revised. That being the case, you can wait for the correction or go to the KB [followed by numbers] site or other sites that MS has to help fix specified problems. For example, the hot fix solutions, where you choose the problem, go to a specified site, pick the fix and MS sends you an e-mail to download the correction. In any case, be careful!
Question: “I received an HP laptop for Christmas but I cannot find the parental control.” Answer: You failed to tell me which version of Vista you were using so, to answer, you must have Vista Business, the only version without it.
How many of you, my readers, hopped right on the Web and scooped up W 7 Beta when it was released? Jammed up the bandwidth right? I doff my fedora to Steve Ballmer for invoking one of the oldest, but most effective, merchandising tricks in the books: Limit the amount! Sure, you would have gone for it sooner or later, but the minute you heard it was limited to 2.5 million, your next thought was get it now before they run out! This was a legitimate means to an end, which lead millions right down the garden path! There are two operable words to remember: “free” and “limited.” With a lesson to be learned: The man knows how to market his product.
Chrome: There it is! In all its glory! Waiting for users to hop to it as fast as a weaver’s shuttle! But wait! They also announced, “Though they stripped away the Beta indication, they were still revamping the way to update the browser and that users will be involved in a ‘never-ending Beta test!’” Interesting! If they ever get it right, I may try it!
Question: “Has a decision ever been made on Wins Defender? Should I keep it or get rid of it?” Answer: I dare say there has been a lot said, pro and con, regarding different new and innovative features included in Vista: Ready Boost, Superfetch, Windows Defender, to name a few. Looking at Windows Defender, we find it is one of the most underrated programs to be had (free in XP or Vista). Rather than go into a long dissertation of its merits, if you have not already downloaded it, or turned it off, download and/or turn it on! Go to the top of the page and click on Tools. (A couple of weeks back, I mentioned always clicking on the “tools tab of any program.”) It is here that this program releases its value to your system. This done, you will have ANSWERED your own question!
Another uninstaller: “Your Installer” is a carbon copy of REVO Uninstaller. There is one big difference, REVO is free. “YI” is on trial for 21 days with standard and pro versions. It sells for $39.99.
• It’s not easy being “green!” Now there are ways for us to make our computers green. There are Europeans that want Plasma Screens banned since, when disposed of, they harm the environment. If I hear any more about “stuff” going green, I may throw up! (It won’t be long now, Scotty!)
• Security predictions for 2009? Grim,very grim! More and more hungry people are taking to Internet thievery to make a living, which stands to reason. Old, and fairly new, schemes are being applied daily to “whom it may concern” by the thousands. I am one person and I have received 88 “Hushing” letters, not including the ones that contained nothing but a blue hyperlink to click. All of this is considered spam mail, and there is really no way to stop all of it. What is considered as spam to my system is routed to a special spam file, where I can sort through it to find any legitimate e-mail that has been sidetracked. Then I simply delete the rest. With the address I use for this column and my personal address, I do get a bunch of mail. This system of handling spam utilizes very little time.
W7: Those mentioned at the start of this column are already heading into the back stretch — a little knowledge is dangerous. Having read countless articles on W7, I confess I am not, as yet, hands-on with W7 simply because I have a problem of what to do with a fourth operating system — XP, Vista Home Premium, Vista Ultimate and now W7. I am surely not going to invest in more equipment! For now, I will rely on my ingenuity for a solution.
There is an old saying about “fools rushing in,” and I have found no angels in the Wonderful World of Technology, just a lot of greed and avarice. I have just read what I feel is about as honest an account of W7 that will be bantered about. An absolute expert was given a copy of W7 to be used exclusively for a 72-hour period and come up with an evaluation. His first comment was, “It is named wrong! It should be called Vista SP2.” Which just about sums up his whole experiment. He ran the gamut, from finding files and folders to the gaming aspect and some of the changes he had to make in Vista, he also had to make in W7. After reading the entire summary of his 72-hour investigation, taking into consideration that MS was offering it at a price as a replacement of Vista, he said, “As for me? I think I’ll go back to Vista for now.” You cannot get any more honest than that.
It stands to reason that MS was not producing a totally new operating system in the short space of time it took getting out a Beta copy. It has been inked, right along, that W7 was to be a re-worked Vista. I am wondering which of the three versions — Netbook, Consumer or Enterprise — is the Beta version, or is this our next surprise?
Question: (This question is paraphrased.) “ Do you recommend Imaging a Disk?” Answer: Again we have a situation that equates to a matter of choice! My stress in this column, to maintain sanity and civility, always points to backing up. Here again, leaving a lot of doors open for a user to choose how, what and when a backup should be implemented. Now you have the new ‘sync’ system, which is touted to be better and easier than a regular incremental backup. There is also the opportunity to take snapshots of your data for reference, but you asked about imaging!
Once you have your system working perfectly, saving a full copy of the drive as a disk image is an excellent idea. If you ever run into a full reinstall, the image file will contain your applications and Windows updates; you can restore your opsys and applications in one swoop, then restore your documents from a recent backup. (There it is again — you can never get away from a full backup.) Some disk suites include imaging software. True Imaging Home 11 can handle most of any imaging needs (there are others), even incremental, so you can keep the image up to date.
Circuit City is in the midst of selling off all of its merchandise as it closes the remaining U.S. stores. The merchandise sale ends March 31. This leaves 34,000 CC employees without jobs (including their FireDog repair service, which is really of no great loss except to the employees). They were the second largest retailer of consumer electronics. At best, I found their store lacking and haphazard, but it is still a jolt to watch our waning economy claim yet another. My first clue to their problem was their admission that their first quarter losses were from the lack of “extended warranties.” Within a couple of decades, we have lost: CompUsa, Computer City, Egghead, Tweeter and The Wiz. I have also been wondering about Staples; I never see more than three or four people in there at a time. Stay well.
Ray Wilson was raised in Upper Darby and has lived in Chester County since 1973. He has over 48 years experience in computing and he has been testing virus and Spyware programs for the last five years. His “The Helpful Neighbor” column will appear once a week in The Bulletin. He can be reached at RJWhelpful4u@aol.com.
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