The
Options: Vista Now or Windows 7 Later
One of the HOT topics
right now is, do we upgrade to Vista or wait for the all new Windows 7.
Here is s consensus of
what I've gleaned so far. The options appear to be four-fold:
1 - Buy Now! If you haven't
already done so, Buy a vista PC now
2 - Wait until July: then buy a vista PC and benefit from the promised
free upgrade to W7
3 - Stay with XP: If you're buying now look for an XP based machine and
stay with that until MS cease support in 2014
4 - Abandon Windows: Buy an alternative -a Mac or one of the many free
flavours of Linux
Whatever you choose, this check list is a good starting point:
Do I need a New PC Checklist:
What do you use your PC for?
If all your apps still function well and you know your way around your machine
do you really need to replace it? If it has slowed down, you may just need
to give it an overhaul. Check out my previous Blogs or get it in to
Hamilton Office & Home PC Care, or if you can't get
it to us seek out a good tech and as him/her to clean up your machine and advise
you on the options -apart from replacement.
Gamers: If you are a gamer then you may well need a new machine with more
grunt -that's another ball game and this Blog is really not for you.
Age of your machine: If your machine is older
than, say 4 years, you may have an argument for replacement, however, unless
money is not an issue (for most of us among the great unwashed it is -especially
with recession-itis setting in!) Again, seek some advise, because
component or peripheral upgrades may do the trick for hundreds less than even an
entry level new PC.
The Learning Curve: Are you comfortable with a
new learning curve right now? A new OS comes with the hidden cost of
learning lots of new things that you are probably doing reflexively right now.
You will probably need a book as well to read while you watch TV to bring you up
to speed. Vista is fun to learn if that's what you like doing. If,
on the other hand, you find your masochist tendencies can be gratified
satisfactorily in some other way -my advice, do the other! Hence, my
suggestion that, even if you decide to replace your machine, think about staying
with XP until 2014, or just put if off until later...
The Bugs Issue:
Any new OS will have bugs, and it is wiser to wait at least until the first
service pack (SP1) has been released. Vista has now passed that
milestone, so it is an option for now. As a result, a lot of the
compatibility issues are being sorted.
The Jones Syndrome: Of
course, there are those who have
the 'J' syndrome and just have to have the newest and shiniest model available as
soon as it hits the showroom floor. If that's you, and you don't give a
toss about the money, then go for it. Buy the "biggest and the best" you
can afford with lots of Ram, disc storage etc and keep doing it every six months
or so. This, will help the economy and my dividend check and that's fine.
You can also ask me to provide it for you and I will do so with real pleasure.
After all, that's why I'm in business. I'm very serious, by the way.
I love customers with lot's of money. You are the very best kind.
Call me now.
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My Pick of the Options:
1. Buy an external hard disc & Back Up:
If you haven't already, right now buy one of the many excellent USB
external drives with back up or sync software included and do regular back-ups.
This will protect your data, which is always consideration number one -and stay
with XP (upgrade to Pro if you can do so easily), or Vista if you already have
it. Check your RAM to see you are running the maximum your machine will
allow as, if you are running an early version of Vista chances are you are under
powered in this department.
2. Stay with Your XP Based
Machine:
Here's a couple of applicable cliché's: 'The devil you know is better than
the devil you don't know', and 'If it ain't broke why mend it?'
My argument for not abandoning Windows here and going with Mac or Linux, is simply because
of the 'Learning Curve' issue I dealt with earlier.
3. Wait Until July 2010 and Buy a mid range 64 bit machine with
Windows 7 and SP1 installed.
However, the variable here is my 'Age of
Your Machine' comment above.
Technology is always evolving. Unless you are a techno nut, as I am, your
only interest is in how it works for you and makes life better or easier.
If it doesn't do that what's the point? So, if your XP based machine is
working well, you can do all the things you want to do on it, stay with that for
at least the next four or five years. Upgrade as cheaply and effectively
as you can along the way and only buy a new machine when you absolutely must.
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More Scamming
As you know, I have written about this ongoing issue before. However, others do
to and we need it. Scams morph and multiply fast and staying informed is a task.
Here's a top article by a David Risley who owns and runs PC Mech. A great source
of information from a full-time blogger, who, as he says, makes his entire
income from the great art of blogging for a living.
Read on at: PC
Mech Blog
In the meant time, Season's Greetings and all the very best for 2009.
John
IE
Bleeps...again!
18 Dec 2008
A vulnerability has been discovered in Internet Explorer which is being rapidly
exploited by some web site and about which you need to be aware. To read
more:
Microsoft's Advisory Service, and a simpler explanation can be read here:
Secunia.
Identity
Theft: What it is & How To Avoid It
We can define roughly two levels of Identity Theft.
First, Social Theft: This is your online identity. If someone
steals your online identity it enables them to pretend they are you in online
activities in the area of what has become known as Social Networking. A
'social network' is an association of people drawn together by family, work or
hobby. The term was first coined by professor J. A. Barnes in the 1950s, who
defined the size of a social network as a group of about 100 to 150 people.
However, since the advent of the World Wide Web, social networking sites have
evolved online and provide networks numbering millions of members. These
are now virtual communities of people interested in a particular subject or just
as a 'place' to "hang out" together. On these sites, members create their own
online "profile" with biographical data, pictures, likes, dislikes and any other
information they choose to post. They communicate with each other by
voice, chat, instant message, videoconference and blogs. It is easy to see
how these can become zones of danger for the unwary. Indeed, there have
been plenty of news stories covering some of the pitfalls the unwary can fall
into while networking on these sites. These unfortunate events can range
from just nuisance level through to the more distasteful and criminal activities
of pedophiles etc.
The area of concern in this column to the wider community is when someone
assumes your identity to the degree they can start buying things in your name,
running up huge credit card debt, phone bills and relieving you of large sums of
money directly from your bank account, etc.
Sadly, identify hijackers very frequently get clean away and continue to
perpetrate their crimes again and again. Statistically, the police have
few prosecutions and are usually without any clue as to who the thieves may be.
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid! There is only one defense -extreme
caution. The old adage, ‘vigilance is the price of liberty’, is again a truism.
In this case, constant vigilance is required to stay free from all the various
ways in which someone can steal your electronic identity and use it to steal
from you. Sometimes, not just once, but again and again. Added to
the pain and loss of this is the downstream difficulties associated with
identity theft. Your ability to obtain credit is compromised, there are
ongoing difficulties with the police, the hassle of proving you are not the
person responsible for the credit card purchases made in your name and with your
card and so on and so on.
In the End, It's All Very Easy For the Thief
Authorities do agree on one thing, it is very easy to hijack
someone's online identity. For example, to do a credit card transaction in
someone else's name, the perpetrator often only needs the following information:
Your credit card number
The expiration date of your card
The billing address zip (or post) code
The CVC number (that 3 digit number on the back of your card)
Your name
If the thief already has your credit card in their hand, they already
have four out of these five pieces of information. They are only missing the PIN
(Personal Identification Number) and they can use your card whenever they
wish. This they may well harvest off your machine or by some other method
when your actually using your card at an ATM. Harvesting PINs from ATMs
while people are accessing their accounts is becoming very common indeed.
Second: Harvesting Your Identity From Your PC
Because It's Likely All There On Your Computer
In this connected age, the scary fact is that all this information is likely
stored in your computer waiting for a hijacker to get his or her hands on it.
Further, you don’t need any fancy technology to dig it out. Unless your
already practicising safe computing you can find it just by following these
simple steps:
Go to an online form, you can use my
Contact Centre
form for the purpose if you like. But any form where you fill in
information about yourself will do. By the way, I don’t harvest any
information from my form. It is a simple email form and I haven’t even
taken steps to guard against abuse on it. As a result I often get junk
email off it when online nutters fill it in with gobbledygook and I have to
waste my bandwidth and time and delete it from my inbox. So, use if
freely, although, if I get an increase in misuse as a result of this invitation,
I will certainly get busy and put some simple checks in place.
If, as you complete this form using Internet Explorer, Firefox or any other
browser, and the information you enter, such as your name, phone number, bank
account number, IRD/Social Security number etc and the details are automatically
completed for you as you begin to enter them, you know your compromised.
This is because the information is stored on your computer and it is available
to be harvested by an identity thief quite easily. If you’ve been using
computers and the net for a while, you should know this by now. If not,
consider yourself educated. Turn off auto-complete this instant and be many
times safer as a result. If you’re running Firefox, my preferred browser,
go to the Menu Bar and click ‘Tools’ and then the ‘Private’ tab. Check as
many boxes as you can to make yourself comfortable about what information
remains on your PC. You can also choose to have Firefox clear all your
Private Data when you shut Firefox down. Click the ‘Settings’ button on
the LHS of the Private Data section and check as many or all the boxes you feel
comfortable with as well. In Internet Explorer go the Menu Bar and click
‘Tools’ and click the ‘Delete Browsing History’ option right now. Then go back
to ‘Tools’ and choose ‘Internet Options’. Next, choose the ‘Privacy’ tab
and move the slider you will see as high as you feel comfortable with. If you
are now paranoid, you can click the ‘Advanced’ tab and check ‘Override cookie
handling’ and check everything in sight –or whatever! While you’re there,
if you wish, you can check the ‘Turn on pop-up blocker’ as well. You can
have a look around at the other tabs while you’re in Internet Options and read
all the information available.
Caution!
Be aware, that actions you take here will affect your browsing and you may
wish to return and fine tune your settings. However, keep in mind that the
point of the exercise is safeguarding your online security and privacy. To
do this some of the fancy gizmos you find on the net and some of the easy
options, such as having your browser remember passwords, may have to be
missed out on. It’s up to you.
The Telephone
Now for the telephone! I mention this because it's amazing how
trusting we can be. You can be asked a series of questions all related to
your security and your identity by someone on the other end of the line and pass
it all over without a second thought.
For example:
IRD or Social security number (or last 4 digits)
Mother's maiden name
Email address
Telephone number
All of this information is commonly given away to complete strangers whose first
name you may have only heard once and already forgotten, or, in today’s world,
you probably couldn’t understand it or pronounce it! So, be very careful
who you give information to over the phone. Make as sure as you can that
you are talking to a bona fide representative of a trust worthy organisation.
If you have any doubts, say, “I’m sorry, I’ve decided not to proceed”, and hang
up. Don’t let them talk you into proceeding. If they are genuine
they will understand your concern and make some alternative arrangement for you
that will give you more confidence.
Remember, if a thief can establish they are you, also over the phone, to another
bank or financial organisation or business etc, they could ruin your life for a
very long time. It’s worth taking precautions and, at the very least,
being aware of the dangers.
This sort of information could allow a thief to transfer money out of your bank
account, cancel your mobile phone, change all of your passwords, and access your
email (probably via web mail) and much more.
How to Begin to Safeguard Yourself
Use Your Own Machine: Never do online transactions on any computer other
than your own. Never at work, never on your friend's computer and NEVER NEVER at
a public terminal.
Perform the simple check I outlined earlier and try it with your bank account
number, IRD or Social security number, your phone number as well. Only
start to do it with, say the first four or so numbers and see if your machine
starts to complete it. If you know you’ve used another computer previously
to do online transactions of any sort, and you can go back to that machine, use
the steps I’ve outlined below to do the best you can to erase all stored
information and hopefully you’ll wipe out any traces you may have left.
Remove All Personal Traces: Perform a system wide sweep of your own and
any other machine you use, have used, to remove any traces of your online
identity from them. If you would like help with this we, at
Hamilton Office & Home PC
Care are happy to assist. That’s what we do! Bear in mind
that this means that you will have to type in your credit card number each time
you need to use it. This might take a small amount of extra time, but to have
your important numbers in your head, not in your computer, or any other, is
better than leaving them lying around for someone to pick up. You can use
encrypted software that you carry with you on a USB stick and have only one
master password to remember. This is what I do and I use a little
programme called Any Password for this purpose (www.anypassword.com).
This also has the facility to generate passwords that are reasonably secure.
However, if you are a gazillionaire, then likely you are a target already and
remember that sophisticated decrypting techniques and software are available
that could possible crack any utility such as this. However, for most of
us among the great unwashed, we aren’t that big a target and not likely to
attract that amount of dedicated evil. At the end of the day, even your
head is not totally secure. If a sufficiently large and well organised
criminal organisation wants what’s in your head, I guess they can get it. “They
have ways…!”
Scan Often: Scan your machine(s) for malware on a regular basis.
Say, once every five or six days. Under the heading of malware we include,
spam bots, denial of service attacks, and all sorts of other nasties.
Malware dedicated to capturing your online identity is becoming steadily more
common and you need to guard against it. So, install the best quality and
the most highly recommended antivirus, antispyware and firewall you possibly
can. More than one antispyware app is good. You can only run one
antivirus programme on your computer, so make it the best you can find.
These don’t have to cost the earth either. There are excellent free one’s
available. Check out
Hamilton Office & Home PC Care and go to my Tech links/Info page to
check out my recommendations.
Secure Login: Set up a reasonably secure login password on your PC.
Don’t use the obvious such as your wife’s or girlfriend’s name, your birth date,
your street address, your phone number and so on. Work out something that
you have to remember and don’t leave it written on a piece of paper stuck on or
near your PC! If I had a dollar for every time I’ve seen that…
Log off: Log off from your PC when you are not in front of it. Even
when going away for a moment or two. That’s all it takes for someone who
knows what they’re doing to harvest personal information. An ounce of
precaution is always worth a ton of cure. Trust me on this. On an XP
based machine click, ‘Start’ then ‘Logoff’. On a Vista machine click,
‘Start’, then the little right arrow and ‘Logout’. If you’re using a
laptop or notebook or netbook (see my blog about Notebooks v
Netbooks) you might just have to close the lid. You can set this up by
going to your Power Options in Control Panel.
Happy and safe computing,
John
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Buying
a New PC & the Internet
CERT/CC has composed this Tech Tip concerning the growing risk to Internet users
accessing the Internet without any knowledge about how to secure their nice new
machine from the growing number of Internet nasties. They say, "In recent
months, we have observed a trend toward exploitation of new or otherwise
unprotected computers in increasingly shorter periods of time. This problem is
exacerbated by a number of issues, including (they say):
Many computers' default configurations are insecure.
New security vulnerabilities may have been discovered between the time
the computer was built and configured by the manufacturer and the user setting
up the computer for the first time.
When upgrading software from commercially packaged media (e.g., CD-ROM,
DVD-ROM), new vulnerabilities may have been discovered since the disc was
manufactured.
Attackers know the common broadband and dial-up IP address ranges, and scan
them regularly.
Numerous worms are already circulating on the Internet continuously scanning
for new computers to exploit.
As a result, the average time-to-exploitation on some networks for an
unprotected computer is measured in minutes. This is especially true in the
address ranges used by cable modem, DSL, and dial-up providers.
Standard advice to home users has been to download and install software patches
as soon as possible after connecting a new computer to the Internet. However,
since the background intruder scanning activity is pervasive, it may not be
possible for the user to complete the download and installation of software
patches before the vulnerabilities they are trying to fix are exploited. This
Tech Tip offers advice on how to protect computers before connecting them to the
Internet so that users can complete the patching process without incident."
You can read the entire article here:
www.cert.org/tech_tips/before_you_plug_in.html
Addendum:
Check this link re Facebook scams:
http://billpstudios.blogspot.com/2008/11/your-facebook-photo-is-all-over-not.html
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Maintaining
Peak PC Performance
The Truth of the Matter
The more you use your PC, the more your PC requires maintenance. Every email you
read, every web site you visit, and every document you create, leaves a trail of
debris on the hard drive. Over the space of days, weeks and months, these
thousands and thousands of bread crumbs ultimately slow down your PC.
Fortunately, there are ways to keep your PC like new and in some cases better
than new. Here are the steps.
Backup, backup, backup...
Perform a backup now! Chances are you haven't backed up in a while, so now's
your chance. Whether we want to admit it or not, all hard drives fail, and
furthermore, hard drives never crash at a convenient time. So before we start
doing anything, let's back up your hard drive. I use an external hard drive
connected to a USB2 port and I automate my backup to take place daily. However,
please get into the habit of backing up at least monthly, and better yet,
weekly. Of course, if you are in business or have files you do not want to lose,
you should do it daily as I do. However, I only back up my critical data,
essentially the My Documents directory and my email folders. The entire process
takes minutes, if you do it manually, maybe half an hour at most.
Hamilton Office & Home PC Care can assist or advise with this if necessary.
Hey there! Put out the trash!
This means, delete your junk mail folder. Did you know that junk mail slows down
system performance? Every time you receive an email (good or bad), that email is
written to your hard drive. Not such a big deal, but 90% of the email that I
receive is actually spam, and it just eats up hard drive space, and further
fragments my hard drive. Usually before deleting my junk mail folder, I try to
take a quick skim to see if it accidentally classified a good email as bad (the
dreaded false positive). In the course of a month, I usually find about 1-2 good
emails marked as spam. This applies to some web mail utilities as well. For
example, if you use YahooXtra Bubble, which handles spam remarkably well, it is
vital you check the webmail spam & junk folder routinely as well.
There are two Trash Bins!
The second trash basket is the Recycle Bin. When you delete a file, it is
usually still on your hard drive (unless you've configured windows to bypass the
Recycle Bin and delete fully) in the recycle bin, out of sight, out of mind.
Although it is handy to be able to find an accidentally deleted file, over time,
gigabytes and gigabytes of junk accumulate and should be erased. Note: this also
poses a security risk because it makes it easy for people to find the things you
really wanted permanently deleted.
And still there's more...
That's right. There are other forms of trash on your hard drive. These are
temporary system files that accumulate like you wouldn’t believe. So, you need
to trash the cache from time to time. What happens when you open an attachment
from your favorite email client, or when Word is doing an auto save on your new
novel? All of your data, and much more, is constancy being stored in temporary
system files throughout your hard drive. Just like your recycle bin, it can be
handy, but over the course of days and weeks, it only serves to clog up your
hard drive. You should reclaim all of that space, and sometimes it can be a lot!
A quick fix, though not a thorough one, is to use Windows Disc Cleanup found in
(usually) System Tools in the Accessories folder on your Start/Programmes list.
More Cache to Trash.
This time it's Internet cache trash. Whether your browser is FireFox or Internet
Explorer, both have an internet cache with tons of information about each and
every web site you visit. In the short term, these caches speed up web browsing,
but over the medium term, if you browse the web a lot (who doesn't?), then these
caches get big and unwieldy.
Deal with Unwanted Fellow Travelers.
These are the accumulated unused programs that you no longer need. How do you
know you no longer need them? Well, if you haven't used it for three or more
months, chances are its surplus to requirements. Dump it ―now. It has happened
to all of us, we download 4-5 software applications, looking for a solution to a
particular problem. That's great, but your hard drive now has quite a few
applications that you never intend to use. Or perhaps, you downloaded/bought
something a long time ago, but you no longer have a use for it. If this is the
case, then uninstall any and all programs that you no longer have a use for.
There are three big reasons why you should uninstall programs you don't use. 1)
Programs take up hard drive space, 2) Many programs install background processes
that use up processor cycles and memory even if you are not using them, and 3)
All programs create entries into your Windows Registry. By uninstalling unwanted
programs, you are also uninstalling unwanted registry entries ―most, if not all.
To get rid of all the legacies of uninstalled programmes you may need assistance
form Hamilton Office & Home PC Care or a third party utility.
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Take Another Look at your Startup Items.
This is a pet peeve of many techs and performance junkies, and rightly so. Many
good and perfectly legitimate programs leave behind tray icons. These tray icons
serve no purpose other than to use up memory and processor cycles. Also, if you
are ever wondering why you’re PC takes so long to reboot, it is usually due to
excessive tray icons. The solution is simple. Microsoft has a utility called
MSCONFIG that allows you to manage your start up items. However, you do need to
do some homework before you start deleting items using MSCONFIG. Some entries
are important and removing them will cause Windows Boot failure. Nevertheless,
it's a job well done. Again, if uncertain, contact Hamilton Office & Home PC
Care for help and assistance.
Your Personal Space Mess!
This time the target is your own personal temp files. If you’re like me you
frequently create temp files on the fly. These are little files, usually in
Notebook, with pasted info you've harvested from somewhere, or you’re working
with and you just need to drop them somewhere while you carry on with what
you’re doing. You plan to come back later, but they just tend to get forgotten
and then they stack up. Some people keep a folder on their desktop called temp,
and put all their temporary work there. Include deleting these in your routine
housecleaning.
Now For The Nasties!
By this I mean, malware (short for malicious software). Scan for this now and
clean them off your hard drive. It is always a good idea to do a malware scan on
your PC as a proactive measure at intervals, even if you have scheduled a
routine scan. Even if you practice safe surfing, and if you don't, you should,
for the sake of others as well who can be targeted via your address book and by
transferring files etc. Today’s scanners not only detect the big bad viruses and
Trojans, but also hundreds of little problems. It is a good practice to perform
a comprehensive disc wide scan along with your routine programme of
housecleaning.
Don't Miss the Big Files.
Not just large MP3's, videos or other more normal files. A big file is, for this
purpose, anything over 1 GB. A good rule is to allow only your email folders to
be in this category. However, from time to time, for example, when working on
video, you may need to leave the video in raw format before compressing it for
YouTube etc. If there is anything that slows down your system fast, it is a 40GB
file sitting on your main system partition. If you have some large files, it is
much better to put them on an external or secondary disk.
Now For the Windows Registry...
Perhaps one of the most complicated and cumbersome files on your disk are those
in the Windows Registry. Not a second goes by that Windows is not writing,
deleting or modifying something in the Registry. Has your hard drive light
suddenly begun flashing and you are not doing anything on your PC? Windows is
probably writing to the registry. I use a registry cleaner routinely to keep the
registry as lean and mean as possible.
Update All Those Drivers.
Check your drivers at least once a month. You don't need to update all of your
drivers once a month, but you should check to see what's new. Drivers fix pesky
problems and add new features. As a rule, I try to keep my wireless drivers on
my Notebook up to date, because it can help improve the range, and they often
add more security features.
Health Check for Your Hard Drive
Checking the state of your hard disc is as vital as routinely going to your GP
and getting a physical. The HD is organised into sections, or sectors. Sometimes
they can be damaged. The fix is to run a chkdsk. Minor problems here can become
major over time. For newbie’s, chkdsk is a free Windows utility that checks the
integrity of the files stored on your hard drive.
Get Rid of Your DNA -Clean Out Keyboard!
Underneath the keys of every keyboard accumulates a forest of hair, fuzz, dead
skin and dust. If you have a black coloured keyboard you know what I'm saying is
true. Every time I rub my nose, scratch a facial itch, rub my hair, skin, hair
and general detritus drops on, into and around my keyboard. Over time this can
grunge up the keys and slow typing and more. I use a soft bristled brush that
NetGuide, the popular Kiwi computer magazine, gave away as a freebie some time
ago. It's still going strong and does a great job. I use it every few minutes, I
must confess.
Clean the Windscreen - I mean your PC screen.
Just take a damp cloth and in less than 20 seconds, your screen looks amazing.
Be sure to add only clean water to the cloth or tissue. If you are using a CRT
monitor (glass screen) you can clean it as you would a glass screened TV. If you
use a LCD screen, be very careful and DON’T use any form of cleaning agent. You
can purchase useful cloths for this if you feel inclined. Again, NetGuide gave
me another great little freebie for this purpose a short while ago. Warning!
With LCD (short for liquid crystal display), be gentle!
Here's a bit of Tech Jargon for you -Defrag.
There is, arguably, nothing more important than doing a good and thorough
defragmentation. Simply put, a defrag gathers up scattered files around your
hard drive that Windows has dropped in its hurry to perform the next important
task you’ve demanded of it, and left lying around. A defrag gathers these up and
puts them back where they belong, basically, so that Windows can find them
quicker next time. Before beginning a defrag, close all applications. In
particular, do not browse the web or do email when performing a defrag. Most
fragmented files are to do with email and/or the Internet. Also, you may need to
run your machine in Safe Mode to stop Windows writing to disc and halting or
even stopping the process.
The Results
Generally speaking, your machine will run faster and more efficiently and last
longer. Programmes should load faster and boot time should be quicker. I say,
'generally' and 'should' because tuning is not an exact science. There may be
other factors that need addressing, such as, not least, upgrading your RAM and
so on. But, as a general rule, these steps, performed routinely, will keep your
machine running optimally and with less frustration on your part.
Note: Windows is not alone in needing help from time to time. Apple and Linux
will benefit from routine system maintenance and cleaning.
Provided by:
Hamilton Office & Home PC Care
Phone us on: 027 441 2623 for help and advice.
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Have
you worked out the dif between Netbooks and Laptops yet?
It's quite simple: Netbooks are simply smaller than notebooks. A netbook
can have a screen up to 10 inches from corner to corner. They have smaller
keyboards; although I bought a good example for my wife recently, the Eee PC by
Asus, and the keyboard is not bad. Even I can use it, which says
something. Also, the Eee PC with XP has the new Acorn chip and runs like a
scalded cat!
Netbooks are cheap and, with excepton of those running the above
mentioned Acorn, have relatively slow processors. This makes them more
suitable for more basic tasks. Although, again I must qualify, the one
mentioned above, has so far handled everything we've thrown at it.
You'll also find that netbooks don't have optical drives. They sometimes have
Solid State Drives (SSDs) instead of Hard Disk Drives, which are lower capacity
but have no moving parts and should, in theory, increase battery life and speed.
The last difference is that most netbooks can run either Linux or Windows XP.
Some people look at notebooks and netbooks and think "Why should I buy a device
with a 9 inch screen, slow processor, no optical drive for US$500, (the Asus Eee
Pc we bought cost NZ$850 from Harvey Norman) when I can buy a full-featured
notebook for the same amount?"
The difference is convenience and speed. A netbook is more
convenient because it is generally more resistant to the elements, it's lighter,
and it usually has a lightweight operating system. As mentioned, the
processor itself is usually not as powerful, but generally, there's much less
processing that needs to be done. Particularly, when you're running XP or
Linux as your OS.
Netbooks come with one of three processors:
1. Intel Atom. Special low-power processor, which you will see in most netbooks.
2. VIA. Another low-power processor by a chip manufacturer who specializes in
this stuff. VIA actually has a reference design for netbooks, and a lot of
VIA-based netbooks use this exact design. (the Everex Cloudbook and the Astone
UMPC are two examples).
3. Intel Celeron M. Not really a good idea as it's simply a standard cheap
notebook processor.
If you're just looking for a portable computer to take along with you on your
travels, to check your e-mail, chat on Skype, watch some YouTube videos, write
letters, then a netbook is what you want. If you're going to do intensive image
editing, multimedia authoring, gaming etc then a notebook is more suited to your
needs. Still, as mentioned already, you will likely find your netbook can
do these too, just a tad more slowly.
Running a Linux distributed a version has the advantage of being modified for
the netbook environment. It comes with a simple interface and better power
usage. Windows, of course, has the greater compatibility with a wider
range of drivers -at least for the present.
he SIZZLING HOT RESPONSE LINE!
...call now to get your computer running again the way you like it! Cost? $25 per hour.
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You're Windows based PC is a target!
The facts are simple. If you are running a Windows-powered computer, you are
running the operating system which has the biggest bulls eye painted right on
it. See, Windows is used by around 90% of the marketplace. And that makes it
target #1 for hackers.
Experiencing slow PCs and Servers?
At Hamilton Office & Home PC Care we have seen time and time again,
customers computers or servers which are performing poorly, and much slower than
they used to be when they were new. Often we have been asked by these customers
if they need to buy new, faster, more expensive equipment. In 95% of the cases,
the answer is a resounding NO!
It is a little known fact that, over time, especially with prolonged use of the
Internet, computers get cluttered by applications, spyware, unnecessary
background services, out of date hardware drivers, fragmented disk drives,
corrupted or bloated windows registry, low swap disk space, and if you are
really unfortunate, viruses. A worst case example was a customer's Pentium 3
computer with 256MB RAM that ran so slowly he was thinking of giving it away and
buying another. This computer was brought back to life after an Hamilton Office
& Home PC Care warrant of fitness (wof)
and tune-up, the machine ran like new again.
This particular customer was using a well known, respected Anti-Virus product,
which unfortunately was out of date because the annual subscription fee was too
expensive, the customer was also using one of the better known Anti-Spyware
products!
The Hamilton Office & Home PC Care answer!
We do not believe that expensive software is the best
solution, we firmly believe in utilising the best open-source and freeware
solutions that do not require ongoing financial commitments to get the latest
protections. After tuning up your machines we will leave you with a free suite
of applications to better protect you in future, including anti-virus, anti-spyware
and automatic system maintenance regimes.
We utilise a multitude of tools, found and tested over many
years experience, to clean up, tweak and protect your IT investments. In
addition to software tools, often we need to draw upon our network of support
experts with 25 years experience in IT to solve some issues that software alone
cannot assist. The difference between Hamilton Office & Home PC Care and
other computer services companies is that we do not aim to make any profit on
software or hardware solutions, our IT expertise is our service, your
satisfaction and referrals are our bread and butter. This way we can offer a
highly competitive service and bring you better solutions that cost less.
Tips for avoiding scams & staying safe online:
Email Scanning: Ensure your e-mail scanning feature is ON by default,
this ensures that all emails received with attachments are scanned for malware
as soon as they hit your inbox.
Update: Always keep your security software up to date.
Smart Update (and other similar automatic updating software): is an automatic
and silent self-updating feature found in Spyware Doctor, PC Tools AntiVirus and
PC Tools Internet Security, and many other useful free security products, that
keeps your protection up to date at all times.
Quality Software: Install only trusted software from
known and reputable vendors such as those recommended on this site.
Passwords: Use different passwords, particularly when
transacting online. Ensure your password includes a combination of letters,
numbers and upper/lower case.
Use a separate credit card for online transactions that has a low credit limit.
Contact Hamilton Office & Home PC Care and secure your IT & PC
investment now!
The SIZZLING HOT RESPONSE LINE!
...call now to get your computer running again the way you like it! Cost? $25 per hour.
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