windows

Tips for Keeping Vista Running Smoothly

As we all know, people are having issues with Windows Vista. While personally I know that these issues truly aren’t the fault of Windows itself, the world seems to want to think of it that way. Here are some tips to keeping Vista running smoothly:

• Don’t buy your computer cheap. Now, I know this doesn’t help people who already own a computer with Vista, but for anyone looking to get a new machine in the near future, my advice is to not go cheap. Ultimately, you’ll be getting bad or unstable hardware which will cause you a plethora of problems with Vista in the future. If you’re buying a desktop, I’d recommend spending at least $700 for the tower itself, not including the monitor and peripherals. This way you know you’re most likely getting higher quality hardware.
• Keep your computer clean. Don’t be installing tons of software you’re only going to use once. I personally go through my Remove Programs list once a week and uninstall anything I don’t need again. Don’t let programs launch when Windows starts up. Only open programs when you need them. If you don’t know how to turn off a program from starting up when Windows starts, there’s a great way to stop it from happening.
  1) Hit Windows + R and type “msconfig”. Hit Enter. If Windows asks you to allow, hit Allow or Continue.
  2) Go to the Startup tab and uncheck any programs you don’t need running when Windows starts up. This includes things like Adobe, MSN, AOL, Quicktime, Java, or iTunes. Be sure not to disable any Microsoft items or Antivirus/Antispyware!
• Have a computer with a dual core or quad core processor? Use it! For some strange reason, Windows will not use multiple cores when booting up the computer. Once you’re in Windows it will use them, but not during the boot process. This significantly slows things down. Here’s how you can turn on the other cores:
  1) Hit Windows + R and type “msconfig”. Hit Entier. If Windows asks you to allow, hit Allow or Continue.
  2) Go to the Boot tab and click Advanced Options. Check the “Number of Processors” box and from the drop down, select 2 or 4 or however many processors your computer has. Note that if you only have 2 cores, only 2 will be listed. If you have 4, only 4 will be listed and so forth, so chose the maximum number in this list.
• Use a good Antivirus and Antispyware program. By “good,” I mean a few things. Firstly, the detection rate needs to be high. Secondly, is it a “lightweight” program. What I mean by this is how much resources does it use on your computer? The number 1 cause of slowness on computers is not the hardware but the Antivirus program that is running in the background. Absolute no-go programs are Norton, McAfee, or AOL protection. These programs will bring your computer to an absolute crawl regardless of how powerful it is. The #1 program that I recommend is Kaspersky Internet Security (kaspersky.com). Kaspersky is a full internet protection suite protecting you against both viruses and spyware. It is extremely lightweight and runs in the background without you even knowing it’s there. Another recommendation would be Trend Micro Internet Security (trendmicro.com). I personally don’t like this as much as Kaspersky, but it is a very decent solution.
• Keep your desktop clean. Surprisingly, the number of icons you have on your desktop can affect the performance of your computer. While this isn’t as much of an issue with higher-end machines with good graphics cards, you’ll notice performance hits on lower end machines since the computer needs to re-render all of these icons every time you go back to your desktop. Folders are a Godsend. Use them.
• Useless programs, while sometimes fun, can actually hurt your computer. This includes stuff like Weather programs which keep you updated (use the Sidebar in Vista!), programs that change your mouse cursor, or toolbars for your browser. More often than not, these programs also contain high amounts of viruses and spyware. Stay away from them.
• Leave your computer on all the time. In the pre-Windows XP days, leaving your computer on 24/7 was a sin. The reason for this was that the hardware in your computer wasn’t meant to be kept running for that long. These days, the same exact hardware that’s going into enterprise-level servers is pretty much what you’ve got sitting in your computer. It can more than withstand staying on all the time. The advantage to this is huge: Windows Vista will automatically perform maintenance on the computer while its not in use, such as defragmenting the hard drive. Also, constantly shutting down/booting up your computer will effect performance of things like Superfetch as it has to not only load Windows, but commonly used applications when booting up.

So there you go. That’s my list of tips for running Windows Vista smoothly. I hope they can be of help to you.

Getting into Windows Vista x64

I went against my better judgment and formatted my desktop’s main hard drive in order to reinstall Windows Vista Home Premium. This time, I decided to install the x64 (64-bit) version of Windows. The advantages of an x64 operating system are numerous. Applications designed with x64 in mind will run ridiculously faster, such as multimedia applications, server services, and even the latest games. The operating system itself will also perform a fair bet better. However, x64, for the average user, does have it’s extreme downsides.

For example, have you ever had a window pop up when installing a new device telling you that a “driver isn’t signed by Microsoft” and then asking you if you wish to proceed? The good news is that box doesn’t exist in the x64 version of Windows. The bad news is you can’t install any drivers whatsoever that haven’t been signed by Microsoft. That eliminates a majority of devices and drivers out there.

I know what you’re probably thinking, though: I’m insane. And in most cases you’d probably be right. However, I did a fair bit of research and came to the conclusion that Windows x64 is the right direction for me. Here were my reasons:

1) Compared to x86 (32-bit), x64 (64-bit) Windows has horrible driver support. More often than not, you won’t find the driver you need for peripheral devices such as printers. However, in my case, I extensively researched my hardware and discovered that all of it has up-to-date x64 drivers, all signed by Microsoft. Any peripherals that I purchase are typically high name-brand devices (such as Creative, Logitech, HP, etc) which I know will have signed drivers from the get-go. I never go generic, and to be honest, neither should you when it comes to computer technology. I’ll only get you in trouble in the long run.

2) The programs that I run on a day-to-day basis are either fully, or partly “with a few minor quirks” compatible with an x64 operating system. Once again, I try to stay away from specialized software or generic brands. Also, I’m a major geek, so if I ever need to run an application that doesn’t support x64, I’ll just run it in my Windows XP x86 virtual environment.

3) As I just indicated, I’m a geek. That means I’ll intentionally put myself through trouble just to have the best stuff. An x64 operating system is a bit different, mostly in highly-technical ways. The average user isn’t going to see a UI difference or anything. But the nitty-gritty backend has some pretty major improvements, and as a geek, I want to take advantage of those, play around with them, possibly screw up, and find out how to fix my mistakes.

4) And to put it simply: I want higher framerates in Crysis. But in all seriousness, I wan raw performance in every aspect of my machine, which includes the operating system. Windows Vista x64 is the right choice for me.

Microsoft, Windows Media Player, URGE, and Live Services

Earlier in August, MTV announced they would be merging with RealNetworks to form Rhapsody America, thus ditching URGE and Microsoft. For those of you who aren’t aware, URGE is essentially a competitor to iTunes but also allows you to have a music subscription where you can download and listen to any songs you want provided you keep paying the monthly fee.

URGE hasn’t been extremely popular, though the users who use it have reported that it is overall a very good experience and excellent service to have. MTV ditching URGE for Rhapsody is a huge blow to Microsoft. It was also a stupid move on the part of MTV, in my opinion. For the last 10 years, Real Network’s desktop software has been, to be blunt, crap. It’s been bulky, slow, unstable, and one of the worst UI experiences I’ve ever seen in Windows software. Whether MTV and Rhapsody will succeed in this is anyone’s guess.

However, I see this as a massive opportunity for Microsoft to gain some ground in in online music store and subscription industry. Microsoft has already invented PlayForSure which was one of the most ingenious ideas in the history of MP3 players. If only Apple would accept that standard, we could all be happy. However, Microsoft’s biggest mistake in all of this was their refusal to add PlayForSure support into the Zune. To be honest, I think this is one of the main reasons MTV left Microsoft. URGE has long supported PlayForSure, but when Microsoft has said URGE can’t connect with the Zune (which were announced hand-in-hand), it just screws up everything.

Live services by Microsoft is also another example of joining everything together into one standard platform. If Microsoft wants to take advantage of this situation, they need to firstly, ditch the Zune software. It’s a horrible piece of software as it is. They need to just stick to Windows Media Player. Secondly, they need to add PlayForSure support into the Zune. Why in the world they ever decided to not add a Microsoft technology to a Microsfot MP3 player is beyond me. Thirdly, they need to create their own version of URGE entirely from scratch and integrate it into the Live services so you can manage your account from anywhere using the Live account you already have.

I don’t like Microsoft for a lot of things they do, namely screwing up Vista’s release. However, Microsoft has a ton of incredibly awesome ideas rattling around up in their heads. They know how to create a good product and what users are asking for. They know how to wow people. They just need to successfully do it. Microsoft Research is a prime example of this. Why exactly Microsoft Research isn’t at the forefront of everything that comes out of Microsoft I’ll never know…

Microsoft … if you’re reading this, don’t screw this opportunity up. You had a good thing going with URGE. You screwed it up. Learn from this experience, take the bull by the horns, and create something much better and something which the end user will want to experience on a regular basis. I beg you … don’t screw this up.

Top 10 Annoyances in Windows Live Mail

For those who may not have read my previous blog posts, over the past 12 days I have been using Windows Live Mail exclusively for my desktop email client needs. I normally use Mozilla Thunderbird. So far, the experience has been pleasant, but it isn’t without its annoyances. I’ve already posted my Top 10 Annoyances in Mozilla Thudnerbird. Here is my top 10 for Live Mail:

1. UI inconsistency - When I go into Options or open a dialog/properties box, I’m expecting it to have the same clean look the regular interface has. But for some reason it reminds me of Windows 95. And when I add a new contact, why does the color scheme suddenly change?
2. For the love of God, don’t make me have to go into the message properties just to view the full headers. And when I get there, I don’t want to have to use the horizontal scrollbar in order to read it. Can I please just Right Click -> View Sorce?
3. As a part of the Windows Live services, Microsoft also offers Windows Live Writer, which allows you to post content to Wordpress, Movable Type, Live Spaces, Blogger, etc, all in one desktop client. But in their Windows Live Mail, why does the “Blog” option only allow you to use Live Spaces? That’s hypocritical–change it.
4. Why isn’t there a “Print” label next to the button? Even though it’s obvious, it’s inconsistent.
5. The searching options, while simple, aren’t customizable enough. I can’t search just in subjects or just in the body.
6. I really don’t get the point of the “Storage folders” section being present by default. If I want to store something other than in the standard drafts, I’ll create my own folder for that purpose.
7. When I right click the title bar, the standard menu bar shows up. But when I click off of the secondary click dropdown, the menu bar disappears. Is this a bug, or is it a feature that’s not working properly? I’d prefer it not to show up at all…
8. I doubt there’s legal issues involved, so why can’t I import email/settings from a Thunderbird profile? Here I am thinking about switching, and I wouldn’t even have the option to import.
9. There’s a big difference between email security, and junk email. Just because an advertisement comes in, it doesn’t mean it’s a fraud or trying to send you a virus. Please give Junk Email it’s own option in the Tools menu.

In a few days, I’ll make my final decision as to whether I’ll be staying with Windows Live Mail or going back to Thunderbird. I’m still kind of torn between the two.

As always, if you have any suggestions or comments, please leave a comment, or Ask Me!

Update: It seems in posting this the code got screwed up and I lost one of my points. What’s odd is I can’t remember what it was, so sorry for there only being 9 … but there were originally 10, I promise.

Windows Live Mail - The Exclusive Trial

For the past few years, mid 2003 or so, I have used Mozilla Thunderbird for my desktop email needs. At the time I had various @hotmail.com and @msn.com email addresses, so I used the webbased client for these. So you could say I used Thunderbird almost exclusively for my email ever since version 0.1. Previously, the only viable basic desktop email option previous to Thunderbird was Microsoft’s Outlook Express, or the full Outlook if you had Microsoft Office. However, I didn’t need the address books. I didn’t need the calendar. All I needed was a desktop application to control my mail. So ever since I Windows 98, I ran Outlook Express.

Very recently, along with the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft announced that Hotmail and MSN email would be incorporated with their Windows Live services. In May of 2007, Windows Live Hotmail went live, sporting a brand new AJAX interface and new options.

Now, Microsoft in currently in development for the replacement for Outlook Express (for XP) and Windows Mail (for Vista), which is simply called Windows Live Mail. I was introduced to it a few weeks ago and thought I’d download and try it out. So far, I’m impressed with it’s performance and simplicity, and also the UI is massively improved from either Windows Mail or Outlook Express.

I have decided to give Windows Live Mail a two week exclusive trial. I wanted something that’s simple and effective, but that had a nice UI. Unfortunately, Thunderbird covered the simple and effective part, but the UI is in desperate need of improvement. I won’t even open Thunderbird once to check my email during this period. No matter what frustrations I encounter, I’ll only use Windows Live Mail.

What do you think? Do you have any suggestions for email clients for Windows?

As always, if you have a question, be sure to Ask Me.

Tier 2 support rep, please!

Staying on topic with my previous two posts about my upgrade to Windows Vista, I’m still very happy I made the upgrade and absolutely loving Vista. However, with that said, I have one persisting problem.

Randomly throughout the day while I’m browsing the internet I suddenly cannot connect anymore. Sounds like a typical connection problem, right? Think again. What’s even more strange about this issue is that only my browser connectivity cuts out. I always have mIRC open with an active connection to various networks. I always have Trillian open with several chat windows open. I have Thunderbird open which is regularly downloading any new email. Every single application outside of my browsers is able to connect perfectly fine. Yet as soon as I try to do something in a browser (whether it’s Firefox, Opera, or IE7), I have absolutely no connectivity.

But wait, it gets stranger. I can’t even connect to my router. Even worse, I can’t even connect to localhost. Yet I can do pings and tracerts in the command line to absolutely anywhere I like with no problem whatsoever.

Clearing all cache has no effect. Disabling/enabling the network card has no effect. Releasing and renewing my IP does nothing. Flushing the DNS cache does nothing. Manually editing my HOSTS file to point to a specific IP is pointless. Updating to the latest drivers doesn’t work. Heck, I can log off my user account and log back in and nothing budges.

And to top it all off on the weirdness scale, there is absolutely nothing in the Event Viewer to indicate anything strange or any error occurred at any point anywhere close to the time I lost connectivity. No failed drivers, no security restrictions, no memory allocation errors. Nothing.

I don’t consider myself to an MCSE or anything, but I’ll be honest and say I know a heck of a lot and I know how to fix most any issue that comes up. But this one has me completely and utterly stumped.

So I decided to buckle down and call Microsoft. So after going through 30 minutes of verifying that my version of Vista Ultimate had actually been activated, I’m put on with a tech support rep who had a hard time firstly understanding what the problem was, and secondly understanding that I probably knew a infinite amount more than her about Windows. But I decided to play along for the time being.

But after she asked me to uninstall the Google Toolbar from IE7 and use a proxy server, I put my foot down and said clearly that Internet Explorer is not the problem! I mean, come on? The first thing I said to this rep when I got on the phone was it wasn’t local to Internet Explorer. It happens with any browser and anytime I try to access something via the HTTP protocol. Apparently that flies over her head.

I also indicated very clearly the only way I had found to temporarily resolve the problem was to reboot the computer. Yet she instructs me to reboot into Safe Mode after I put my foot down and corrected her about the toolbar/proxy. At that point, I gave up and asked to be moved to a Tier 2 rep. After a bit of trouble with that, I at least get on with someone who knows what they’re talking about.

I can at least talk to this guy in technical jargon and he trusts me when I say I’ve tried things that haven’t worked.
So he gave me a slightly modified driver to try … which unfortunately required me to reboot.

I honestly don’t think it’ll work. So basically, at this point I’m just waiting for the issue to pop its head up again.

Lesson learned: ask for a Tier 2 rep right off the bat.

Windows Vista - One week after installation

Just under a week ago I upgraded my laptop (running Windows XP MCE 2005) to Windows Vista Ultimate. You can read more about this in my previous post: (here).

As I indicated in my previous post, I was outright impressed with the quality job that Windows Vista did when it upgraded my system. In the past, Windows upgrades were almost a taboo in the computing world. Windows 98 to XP? Forget it. Not happening. However, with Vista, this is completely changed around. It’s now a pleasure to upgrade.

Of course, it hasn’t come without its downfalls. For one, my printer drivers aren’t working properly since HP has yet to release Vista compatible drivers for their printer line (at least my models). My antivirus software (CA Antivirus 2007) supposedly works on Vista with a minor patch. This isn’t the case. I discovered that whenever my computer was idling and CA attempted to update, the system would entirely lock up, requiring a hard reboot. From CA’s website, another patch won’t be around until the end of March. I can’t wait that long. I’ve since switched to Windows Live OneCare. On a side note, I must say that when I was BETA testing OneCare, I wasn’t impressed. Since the release, I’m very impressed with its quality, and most of all, how it works in the background without so much as making a peep.

I also was enlightened to the fact that Intel’s 945GM chipset drivers for Vista weren’t as compatible as Intel claimed they were. However, that was readily fixed with another patch. And at this point, I’ve not seen any glitches pop up.

All in all, the only issues I’ve experienced have been with third-party applications causing problems (like VLC media player switching the interface back to Vista Basic every time a video is played). Vista in itself is ridiculously stable. And in the rare event of an error, it’s readily able to recover completely.

I’m thoroughly enjoying my experience on Vista. I hope you make the decision to upgrade soon. It really does, as the ad campaign says, make you “wow!”

I took the plunge - Windows Vista

I had downloaded the BETA of Windows Vista when it became available publicly and used it on both my desktop and laptop through a dual-boot scenario. This really got me used to the new changes in Vista so I feel very comfortable with it.

However, on my laptop, I have Intel’s 945GM onboard graphics card, which in the beta, and serious problems with Vista’s Aero Glass style (transparency, flip 3D, etc). Any of the new graphical things in Vista also were quite sluggish. This is why I originally didn’t plan on buying Vista until I replaced my desktop.

Just last night, I did a bit of research and discovered that Intel released a new driver for their 945 series graphics chipsets which support Vista to the smallest iota, including the Vista premium features (Aero Glass). So today, I took the plunge and purchased Vista Ultimate and upgraded my laptop’s XP MCE 2005 to Vista Ultimate.

In the past, you dared not upgrade a Windows installation if you didn’t want to have to deal with a ton of compatibility issues afterwards. I had reports of how smoothly Vista’s upgrade is compared to previous Windows versions, though when I was using the BETA, I did a clean installation and not an upgrade. I hadn’t experienced it firsthand until earlier today.

I must say with great enthusiasm that Vista’s upgrade procedure was absolutely flawless. Every file, ever folder, every setting, everything was perfectly preserved. My email, my music, my photos, my recently viewed/opened files, my playlists, heck, even my browser’s cache was preserved in the upgrade from IE6 on my XP installation to IE7 on Vista. Not one thing has gone missing. Not one application has given errors. Not one incompatible driver. I am thoroughly impressed with Vista’s upgrade procedure.

I also must point out that significant improvements have been made since the BETA in terms of speed, reliability, aesthetics, and ease of use. Vista is truly almost twice as fast as my XP installation on the same hardware. Vista can actually take advantage of my dual-core processor with 2GB of RAM, unlike XP. File searching is incredible and fast. Application launches are even faster. Boot time was almost cut in half, and I’m not exaggerating.

Vista’s new style is gorgeous. It has wonderful Aesthetics. 3d animations and hardware acceleration features execute with absolutely zero lag. Media Center is vastly improved over MCE 2005, and it runs flawlessly.

Vista is absolutely wonderful. Period. Kudos to Microsoft for getting away from their stereotypical bug-filled, unstable, and unusable operating system. Vista is amazing. I’ll leave it at that.