PC World columnist, David Coursey, writes this week that the hassle of upgrading a Windows XP computer to Windows 7 isn’t worth the time and price. It pretty much mimics the exact advice I gave to Windows XP users when Vista came out 2 1/2 years ago.
Software developers build software for the future, so older computer simply cannot run the newer software as efficiently. Especially when talking about operating systems like Windows.
Bottom line: If you are Continue reading →
Over the past few weeks, AVG has been a little more agressive in their attempt to get folks to convert to their paid product by showing advertising screens every 2-4 days that ask to upgrade your security. It is completely your perogative to upgrade if you like, but I still use the free version and recommend you do the same.
Like any business, AVG simply wants to convert more of their of customers to paying customers. You can see a chart of the extra services that the pay version provides by clicking here.
photo credit: lucam
Since Service Pack 3 for Windows XP (security update) was released late last year, many of my XP clients started experiencing slower performance. This upgrade put an additional strain on systems with less than 512mb of RAM. Upgrading the RAM will make a big difference in speeding up the system again.
RAM is the temporary memory that the computer uses to give us the feeling of programs opening and running with some pep. It’s like giving your computer a larger desk to work from so it can spread out and find things more efficiently. RAM also allows us to open multiple computer programs at the same time with less impact on the speed of the computer.
256 megabytes used to be a lot of RAM. Today, I’m recommending users have at least 512 megabytes for Windows XP machines and consider a full gigabyte. If buying a new PC with Vista 2 gigabytes (2048 megabytes) is absolutely the minimum and 3 GB or more is even better.
Instead of spending a $500 and up for a new computer, adding extra RAM can breath new life into any computer. Continue reading →
AVG released the new version of their security software about two weeks ago. Many of you have asked, should you upgrade and if so, how. Follow these steps and watch this video on how to get through process quickly and correctly. It is imperative that you both read these instructions and watch the video.
AVG 8.5 is still free (for home users), it is being offered now, but it isn’t at all critical to get yet. If you still haven’t upgraded from 7.5 to 8.0, then go the whole nine yards and get 8.5. But if you are using 8.0, don’t rush over to 8.5 yet. It doesn’t seem to have any problems, but let me test it for you and I will post a how-to video for it soon.
I posted this article nearly 2 years ago, but with the release of Google’s Chrome browser yesterday, I thought it was appropriate to bring this important tip back to the forefront again. Also, read my tip on the new Firefox 3 browser released earlier this summer.
I have downloaded and tried out the new Google Chrome browser and look for a video and more comment about it coming up soon.
Windows XP users will all have to deal the upgrade to Internet Explorer 7. ..eventually. Microsoft released the upgrade three weeks ago and has started to roll it out as an automatic Windows Update. Since this is the first new release of Internet Explorer in more than five years, a lot has changed. Microsoft promises that it is safer, easier to use, and more flexible than ever. We will see about the first claim in weeks to come, but with a little help, it will be easier to use and more flexible. Overall, we still highly recommend using the Mozilla Firefox browser which also released a new version last month, but if you want to stick with Internet Explorer, moving to version 7 is worth the work.
One of the biggest additions to the new Internet Explorer is ‘tabbed browsing’. An unbelievable feature that you will wonder how you did without once you start using it. Tabbed browsing was first introduced by the lesser known Opera browser, and brought fully to life with Firefox. Tabbed browsing allows you to open multiple Internet windows without cluttering your taskbar and makes them easy to find with easy to read tabs in your window.
Explaining tabs is difficult, so instead, watch the short video tutorial (by clicking here) that I have put together for you explaining what tabs are and how to use them in Internet Explorer 7.
Admittedly, Grisoft has not had a great summer with the roll out of their newest product, AVG 8. They tried to force the upgrade on users a little too quickly with quick deadlines. However, almost five months after the release of the new version, I still find users who haven’t upgraded yet, but Grisoft is still updating the older version.
The installation of the new version included some new features that are designed to scan links for bad web sites in your searches. This feature caused some problems for Windows Vista users and even caused some problems for email users.
Earlier this summer, AVG’s upgrade servers downloaded a bad update to many computers that caused an error that confused and dazed many users.
Today, the upgrade servers again failed. Again, confusing and frustrating many users.
Despite the rough start for AVG 8, I still would not recommend another anti-virus product at this time. Nothing protects as well while at the same time not killing the power of your computer. And so far, Grisoft has maintained their belief that price should not be a barrier to protecting your computer…and thus all of our computers by offering a free version of their software. Also, with version 8, AVG has integrated anti-spyware to their anti-virus protection. When I find a better product than AVG, I will let you know.
All that being said, it is also important to realize that when your updates are delayed, like today, that does NOT mean your computer is flying around unprotected. Your anti-virus program is still protecting your computer and is fighting against all the known problems it fights against through the last update. And since AVG updates a minimum of once per day, you are protected very well even if you go a day or two without an update.
As the Internet grows and more people learn to protect their computes, there will be inevitable bumps in the road. Usually, these problems are corrected pretty quickly, but the key is to not panic and be patient. Don’t try reinstalling, changing settings, and monkeying with your computer. Just sit back knowing that you are protected and these things will happen, but they will also be corrected.
Adobe released version 9 of their PDF (Portable Document Format) Reader program. Once the king and almost sole PDF reader on the market, it, like so many other mainstream programs, has become bloated beyond recognition. This software bloat slows down the performance of even the fastest computers, and for this reason, I firmly stand against software bloat.
I added Adobe Reader to my do not use list almost two years ago. Instead, I recommend the svelte and fast FoxIt Reader which does everything that Adobe Reader does, faster and better. The download for Adobe Reader 9 is almost 35 megabytes compared to under 3 megabytes for FoxIt Reader. Also, if you aren’t careful, you will add 12 megabytes to the Adobe download and end up with eBay Desktop, whatever that is. Do not upgrade to the Adobe Reader 9, and better yet uninstall all versions of Adobe Reader you may have and use the FoxIt Reader instead. Like Adobe Reader, FoxIt is free and a link can be found in the Links and Resources section of the site.
For those interested, my do not use list and their superior equivalents now looks like this:
| DO NOT USE |
USE INSTEAD |
| AOL | Any other Internet provider |
| Any Norton security or Utility product |
AVG or Avast security |
| McAffee |
AVG or Avast |
| Internet Explorer |
Firefox or Opera |
| Windows Vista |
Windows XP, Mac OS X or Ubuntu Linux |
| Microsoft Office 2007 |
Any previous version of Microsoft Office or OpenOffice.org or Zoho.com’s online productivity suite |
I want to keep singing the praises of an operating system that I used to make fun of on our show; Linux. In partial defense of myself, Linux traditionally has been known as the geeks operating system, and a user needed to be permanently attached to a forum for help and have an affinity for the command prompt or as its known in Linux, the terminal.
That started to change about 10 years ago or so with the advent of Graphical User Interfaces (GUI’s) that started popping up, but were never quite perfected for the average user…the folks I support and the majority of computer users. Three years ago the landscape of Linux changed forever with the release of Ubuntu. Ubuntu became the media darling of Linux and of users alike for multiple reasons:
I started looking at Ubuntu almost two years ago and immediately saw the potential for many of my customers and general computer users everywhere. To date, I have converted about a dozen computer users to Ubuntu and plan on converting three more this week alone. All, except one AOL user who missed the AOL software, have been thoroughly satisfied and pleasantly surprised at the lack of problems and the intuitiveness of the system. It takes me awhile to explain and sell an Ubuntu conversion, but after explaining all the benefits and then telling them that it can run on their current hardware, they decide to try pretty quickly.
If you happen to be mainly a web and email computer user with some word processing, card or board games and some digital photography mixed in, you will never miss Windows. Save yourself the money of buying a new computer and upgrade your current computer (preferably built after 2000) to Ubuntu Linux and you also will be pleasantly surprised and virtually problem free.
HelpMeRick.com started as a monthly tip site for beginners in 1996, and now supports our popular call-in computer show, and hosts thousands of useful computer tips and links.
Even if you are an experienced computer user, use our site as a resource to provide help to the friends, family members and co-workers you provide tech support for every day.
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