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Windows 7 – First Impressions

Windows 7 Desktop

I just finished installing the Windows 7 Beta version released by Microsoft on Friday. I installed it on my Toshiba Intel dual-core processor with 4 GB of RAM. It was running Windows Vista which took more than 4 minutes to fully boot (I consider the boot up process to be finished when the hard drive stops spinning and I don’t have to compete with a still booting computer to do what I want to do), and running any applications was like walking through molasses. I can say that my expectations were pretty low, but I am pleasantly surprised…so far.

  • It took exactly 21 minutes from

Correcting some spyware infections with an often overlooked tool

Some of the nastiest spyware infections can be dealt with easier than previously thought if you try the following steps immediately after becoming infected:

  1. Shut off your high speed modem OR simply unplug the Ethernet cable connecting your computer to the modem or router
  2. Restart the computer in Safe Mode and attempt to run a disk cleanup from the Accessories –> System Tools menu or use the CCleaner or Cleanup program if you have them installed.
  3. Then go to the accessories menu and run System Restore. Choose a date at least two weeks prior to the infection and restore the computer.
  4. After the computer restarts, IF the restore was successful (and it will tell you so), run a full disk scan with your antivirus software and any anti-spyware software you have loaded
  5. Restart your computer again, and this time connect back to the Internet
  6. Update your antivirus and antispyware products and run another full scan

I have had good success with this routine if the infection is caught quick enough (usually within a day or so).

Rick’s Answers his email Videocast – 019

I answer questions about Palm handheld computers, custom XP & Ubuntu computers, the AVG update outage (relax, you are protected), resizing photos for email, freeing up disk space and more. This episode is brought to you by: Gail, Gene, Salma, Jason, Jean, Elizabeth, Greg, Rajesh, Laurie, J, and Joe.

Oh, and I also reveal who I voted for in Tuesday’s presidential election…but you have to watch!

Treo, what Treo?

iPhone 3G Screen ShotAfter two solid months of using my iPhone 3G, I decided it was time for a short update. As many of you know, I used a Palm device for many years, ending with the Treo from 2003 through this August. When the first iPhone came out, I was intrigued, but thought Apple missed the boat, for me, by not utilizing the fastest cellular data network and not allowing 3rd party applications. When they announced the new iPhone last January and finally released it this summer, they had added the fast cellular network service and opened the system for third party development. It caught my attention in a big way this as it has 7 million other new iPhone 3G owners since its release in July.

Overall, the iPhone has performed wonderfully and with the exception of no cut, copy and paste (when Apple?  when?) it has performed admirably. I have been able to duplicate all the functions I used the Treo for, and added many new capabilities. I use the phone the most…after all, it is a cell phone. The visual voice mail system that lets you pick which message to listen to first or have the ability to visually pause, rewind or fast forward voice mail is stunningly implemented and makes managing voice mail much easier.

For extra applications, I settled on SplashID to manage my passwords, Grocery Zen to create shopping lists (I get through the store in at least 25% less time now), Now Playing to look up movie times, Pandora for listening to music (don’t have much time to do this, but it works well), Woot On! to check the daily Woot, but especially helpful when there is a Woot Off, WeDict for a dictionary, Wikipanion for great mobile access to Wikipedia, SportsTap keeps me up to date on sports I follow, Units application for converting volume, length, weight, etc. I also downloaded and occasionally use Word Warp, Sudoku, Tris (tetris clone), reMovem, and Blocks Classic for quick games. For future travel, I downloaded the mobile versions of Yelp and Hotels.com.

The built-in email application works well, and I use it daily in addition to browsing the web. The iPhone truly has exceeded

You can do what I do

Smart RabbitI love learning. My goal is to learn something new every single day I open my eyes. Luckily, I learn multiple new ideas, techniques, or facts every single day. When it comes to my job troubleshooting computers, I believe anyone can do it if they follow the formula I use.

  1. You need to be able to be able to learn and learn quickly. Computers, software, peripherals and the infinite combinations of them change at a rapid pace. Learning to be flexible and adaptable is a must.
  2. Remember and/or document solutions that you discover so you can use them again. 
  3. Work with as many different computers and situations as possible. Every computer is different than the next because of the way they are configured, what software is installed, whether the software has been updated, what security packages are installed, and more make every computer a unique challenge. The more of them you work with, the better your foundation becomes for the next one.
  4. Read as many online troubleshooting blogs, tech newsletters, support pages, and magazines as you can possibly digest. And again, document and/or remember the information that you deem the most helpful or applicable to everyday computer users.
  5. Hone your Internet searching skills (I use Google almost exclusively) so you can quickly find answers to problems you may have not yet encountered. When I say hone your skills, I mean learn how to properly word a search phrase and re-word it if necessary. Learn how to quickly scan the results of a search for the most logical and applicable result. Learn how to use tabs in your browser to make your searches and reading even faster. Learn how to discern which possible solutions apply to your specific situation. And finally, learn how to properly implement the solution you just found.
  6. Learning to carry out a solution requires that you to learn how to safely and properly make use of tools like Windows Device Manager, the registry editor, the command prompt, task manager,  computer management tool, anti-virus, and anti-spwyare scans to name a few.
  7. Always keep track of the steps you take as you work towards a solution. By keeping track and leaving yourself some bread crumbs, you can often back track if a solution results in a dead end and you need to star over.
  8. And most importantly, follow Harry Callahan’s (Clint Eastwood) advice, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” Computer problems can eat up more time than a late night infomercial. Know when to walk away and re-evaluate a situation.

I’ve laid out most of the steps and techniques I use every day to solve computer problems. Feel free to use them and develop your own skills. When you decide that you need more help, follow Callahan’s advice and then call in the professionals.

What kind of computer do 3 teenagers use?

An extremely slow and sick computer!

Today, again, I ran across a family who has multiple teenagers (3 in this case) who use a computer that has become polluted with spy and adware. I see this situation again and again, week after week. This computer was less than 2 months old!

Give the typical teenager a Windows based computer (doesn’t matter if it is XP or Vista) and within weeks (sometimes hours) the computer is almost useless. Parents always ask me the next logical question, “Why did it happen?”

AVG stumbles again

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.

AVG .bin error

Sunday morning update 8/17/08:  Grisosft has already corrected the .bin problem and the panic is over. You can RIGHT click your AVG icon by your clock and click Check for Updates, then update on the screen that appears and all will be well again. This was a perfect example demonstrating that when something goes awry with your computer, the best thing to do is to remain calm and patient. The problem will get resolved automatically much of the time. If you start monkeying around with settings and changing and reinstalling programs, the problem will only get worse.

 

Windows XP Service Pack 3

Microsoft released the 3rd service pack for Windows XP about three months ago. Microsoft packages many operating system updates and fixes into one large package and then releases it as a service pack. Because these are extremely large files that apply many updates and changes to our systems, they can sometimes have trouble.

Adobe Reader 9 update – DON’T DO IT!

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.