August 2008

With the announcement of Windows 7, Microsoft has declared that Vista is dead.

Look at the record:

1. Microsoft has announced the replacement of Vista in Windows 7.
2. The announcement of Windows 7 means that no corporation is going to buy Vista when the corporations will merely wait two years for Windows 7.
3. The same corporations didn't like and didn't shift to Vista so they are wide open to consider going to Windows 7.
4. Only 8% of corporations went to Vista after a year of pressure from Microsoft.
5. You can bet your bottom dollar that Windows 7 user interface will be simiar to the series Windows 95 on through XP.
6. I am led to believe that Microsoft contracted to a company in India to design [Vista] with no reference to the millions of people that had a store of knowledge of the human interface that prior versions used. No matter how Microsoft came up with the Vista interface, it is so far a departure from what millions of people are accustomed to that the uproar will not stop until an operating system with some sort of human interface continuity is made available.
7. I contend that Windows 7 desktop will be an evolutionary product and thus will be an extension of the series beginning with Windows 95.

SP3 for XP is ready to go. It is time to install it on your computer with a caveat: Make a backup first.

The program takes about 20 minutes to load and will plug some holes that viruses like, but you will not see much difference.

Errors in the SP3 load have pretty much been patched by Microsoft in the intervening two months and thus after the install of SP3, one should then run an update for patches and install them.

SP3 turns on ALL of the programs in MSCONFIG so they ALL start at boot time, so be sure you bring some sense back into the boot process.

One of the problems with most computers is that they run for months while obsolete software is present. This means that the security patching is missing because it is a pain to update a computer - so nothing happens for months.

The effect is that the security patching is non-existent and the computer is vulnerable. Yes, it is true that once in a while an error is introduced by the patches, but frankly that is quite rare and that even includes Microsoft.

So how can you make the updating process painless?

Go to SECUNIA and run their update tracker to find out what patches are missing. Use the facility provided to get right to the vendors' exact download location.

There may be others, but so far they all have had their out, so FREE is still better than the usual $50 for the service needed.

Only one firewall is permitted. I'm working on a computer now that has both Symnatec's Norton and also Zone Alarm and it is a mess to set up new programs as the two firewalls fight. There seems to be an assumption that "more is better" but not in this case as all the various programs do is fight for control of the computer thereby causing glitches and crashes.

The moral is: Chose one of each of firewall and anti-virus programs. ONE!

Beware the sneaky program! It is not unusual to install a program that is needed for an occasional task and that is beneficial to you, but it decides that it needs to enter itself into the MSCONFIG string so that the program is started up each and every time.

Secunia is like that. It is a great program to run once amonth, but does not need to be ever-present in the menu bar at the bottom and to be consuming resources. So go to RUN once a week and type in MSCONFIG and then look at the STARTUP tab and decide how many of the programs found there do not need to be started at BOOT time. Each program unchecked will release resources and decrease the boot time. The computer will run faster on a daily basis if only what is needed is started.

If you think your anti-virus program is doing a great job for you and you have an unstable computer, then go to VIRUS.GR (click on English on the top left) and print out the listing of the effectiveness of over 50 anti-virus programs. Hank passed out the sheet at the last meeting and it is an eye-opener to see just how poorly your favorite installed program is performing. They all have the money-collection process set up very well, but the delivery of good product is extremely poor. This service of rating the various anti-virus products is way overdue.

With Trend Micro stoppoing 86% of the viruses and NOrton 84%, the high-cost anti-virus programs aren't stacking up very well against Kaspersky at 99%. Possibly it is time to revisit your money. Even AVG-free is interdicting almost 95%.