Coming soon

• Protecting Your PC - What can I do to protect my PC, am I doing enough, am I spending too much. How to protect your PC and not spend a fortune.
• The Internet - How it works. Internet Phone directories, Server farms and routers.

Are we ready for Vista?

• Fact, every new operating system released by Microsoft has been slower than the previous version when tested under exactly the same conditions.
• Fact, when you purchase a desktop PC or laptop with Windows XP installed, part of the cost is for the Windows XP license.

So you might ask “Why would I even consider Vista?”... Good question, I also ask the same, but Microsoft is in the business of selling software licenses and if everyone stayed with Windows XP what would they sell?

The majority of the world is running on Windows software and despite what you may feel about Microsoft, Windows XP at least has become a well understood and stable operating system. So it’s now been more than a year since Vista was released and if you go to your local technology store you will only be able to purchase a PC or Laptop with Vista preinstalled. However the major computer suppliers such as DELL, HP etc, still offer computers to their business customers with Windows XP preinstalled. This fact alone must make you question the need to move to Vista. Businesses have learned that changing an operating system can cost them millions of dollars in retraining, license fees not to mention lost revenue when the computers go awry. The popular publishers of computer magazines say that Microsoft has to support Windows XP through 2014 and by then who knows Windows Vista may be as well understood, bug free and as stable as Windows XP is today.

From the end user standpoint who has never used Windows XP buying a computer with Vista preinstalled is a pretty innocuous affair. They will blissfully turn it on, follow all the instructions, read all the warning screens and hopefully make the right decisions about whether to “Allow” or “Not”. If they don’t make the right decision, and it’s easy to do, they can be into hours of fighting a computer that will no longer let them get on the Internet or do much else.

For the rest of us Windows XP users, buyer beware, with Vista you will have a new user interface to learn, and it’s not always intuitive, it’s slower, it asks questions that you never had to answer before, and many programs are still not updated to work with Vista, especially some of the high end gaming programs and specialized business programs. So what are the pluses?

1. You get a cooler user interface with semitransparent windows, why I have no idea.
2. It has an advanced memory manager that not only supports larger amounts of memory but it will also learn what programs you use frequently and will try to keep them in the faster memory rather than having to continually load them from the slower spinning hard drive.
3. Security is improved, however they still do not supply an Anti-virus with the operating system, and you still have to buy or download one of the free versions. Many of the security issue are totally transparent to the everyday user.

So I guess you know by now that I am advising you to steer clear of Vista. If you need to buy a new computer then go online and find a company that will still offer computers loaded with Windows XP. As I previously mentioned, DELL offers XP to both its home and business customers. Let me know if I can help.

Until then Ctrl – Alt – Delete.

Steve Holder