The Truth About Windows 7

Windows 7 will be released soon and bringing with it an injection of much needed new life for the IT world this October. Microsoft did themselves several favors with this upcoming new release. It is everything Windows Vista should have been, and much, much more. I can’t wait.

Windows 7 will be delivering everything that speedy Windows XP was, with the few added features from Windows Vista in a much slimmed down format, and will especially boast more security than Windows XP and faster response than Windows Vista.

The feeling of “this is a good thing” only happens once every so often in the computing world, and with Microsoft feeling slightly disappointed by the sales of Windows Vista, they have poured everything they could into making Windows 7 the new dream product that everyone should try out at least once, and it shows, it really does.

Some of the new improvements include much more realistic system requirements. Windows Vista really needed a lot of grunt to get it working at full speed, but Windows 7 will be much more reasonable, though the more system memory you give it, the more Windows 7 will be able to work for you more efficiently.

Just like Windows Vista, it will come in 32-bit and 64-bit versions. What does this mean? It simply means if you just want to browse the web, send some emails or listen to music, then you can do that. If you need a little extra processing power for image or video editing, playing games or just like to push the limits of your programs, now you will be able to do that too.

Other nifty features include built-in native handwriting recognition, which goes hand in hand with Windows 7’s increased support for touch devices such as tablet and touch screen PCs. Those using netbooks with Solid State Drives, or if you have an SSD in your desktop machine, Windows 7 includes all the latest support to fully take advantage of and self-optimize itself to work best using the new hard drives.

There will also be a built-in Windows XP Mode which will provide near full compatibility with all your existing software and hardware drivers by actually running a virtual “pretend” version of Windows XP at the same time as running Windows 7.

Other great changes include improved boot/start up times and streamlined features to ensure maximum speed and response during your work and play. A few old favorites are removed, but are available separately as part of Microsoft’s Windows Live suite.

So, will Windows 7 be a new challenger to the devoted Mac and Linux market share, or will it be another Windows Vista. Only time will tell, but things are looking like Windows 7 will be good. Really good. It is showing great potential and is proving itself to be a very worthwhile investment for your computer.

For more information on Windows 7, or purchasing a new computer with Windows 7 pre-loaded, or upgrading to Windows 7, please feel free to contact me.

How to Speed Up E-mail

If you use an e-mail client such as Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express, you may notice that over time, it might seem to get slower and slower. This is most likely due to the fact that all of those e-mails you have saved up has slowed the e-mail program down. With attachment sizes regularly topping 5 to 20MB per e-mail, it’s no surprise that this can occur. Here are some tips on keeping your e-mail nice and neat as well as speedy.

For Outlook Users

• Consider saving attachments to a folder on your desktop or inside your Documents folder. Once you do this, you should remove the attachment from the e-mail message itself to keep it slim in size.
• Consider setting up AutoArchive to where it can automatically move or delete older messages out of your main personal folders file into one called “Archive Folders”.
• You can scan through all of your e-mails for large e-mails by using Outlook’s built-in “Large Mail” search filter. This will help you identify all e-mails that are larger than a certain size. I recommend anything larger than 500KB be moved out of Outlook or deleted.
• Regularly empty your Deleted Items folder. You can set Outlook to ask you to empty it automatically every time you close it.

Outlook Express or Windows Mail Users

Consider upgrading to Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007 or another program such as Mozilla Thunderbird. Outlook Express does not handle large stores of e-mails very well and can end up causing errors over time.

Webmail Users

If you use a service such as Gmail, Yahoo, MSN Hotmail, your ISPs webmail server, or others, you’re probably okay. However, some webmail accounts have limited space so it would be wise to delete large attachments from your account if you want to ensure that you can keep receiving and sending e-mails. For a great, free webmail service, I highly recommend Google’s Gmail (www.gmail.com). They offer over 7 gigabytes of storage for your e-mails and climbing. You can also set up direct POP3 or IMAP access with an e-mail client such as Microsoft Outlook, for free.

I am offering a limited time remote support service to overhaul and optimize your e-mail client for $29 per PC/e-mail client*. With this service, I can:

• Perform a scan against your personal folders file to ensure it is error-free.
• Help you identify large e-mail attachments and move them out of your e-mails.
• Set up AutoArchive for you to ensure that you will always have a lean e-mail client.
• Configure other settings such as “Empty Deleted Items on Exit” and your own custom e-mail signature if desired.
• Remove unnecessary toolbars/add-ons in your e-mail client for better performance.
• Defragment and compact your e-mail files for even better performance.

* Note: This service applies to Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007, Windows Mail, or Outlook Express users only. If you are interested in switching your current e-mail client or webmail over to Outlook, or have any questions regarding this service, please feel free to contact me.

What is Spyware?

Spyware/adware, herein referred to as spyware, is software that covertly gathers user information through the user’s Internet connection. This occurs with or without his or her knowledge, usually for advertising purposes. Spyware applications are typically bundled as a hidden component of freeware or shareware programs that can be downloaded from the Internet; however, it should be noted that the majority of shareware and freeware applications do not come with spyware.

Unlike viruses and worms, spyware does not usually self-replicate. Like many recent viruses, however, spyware exploits infected computers for commercial gain. Typical tactics furthering this goal include delivery of unsolicited pop-up advertisements; theft of personal information, including financial information such as credit card numbers; monitoring of Web-browsing activity for marketing purposes; or routing of HTTP requests to advertising sites.

Spyware does not directly spread in the manner of a computer virus or worm. Generally, an infected system does not attempt to transmit the infection to other computers. Instead, spyware gets on a system through deception of the user or through exploitation of software vulnerabilities.

Most spyware is installed without users being aware. Since they tend not to install software if they know that it will disrupt their working environment and compromise their privacy, spyware deceives users, either by piggybacking on a piece of desirable software such as a free screen saver, or tricking them into installing it. Some “rogue” spyware programs even masquerade as anti-spyware software, and actually install the spyware they detect and offer to remove, for a price.

The distributor of spyware usually presents the program as a useful utility, e.g.: as a “Web accelerator” or as a helpful software agent. Users download and install the software without immediately suspecting that it could cause harm. For example, Bonzi Buddy, a spyware program targeted at children, claims that:

He will explore the Internet with you as your very own friend and sidekick! He can talk, walk, joke, browse, search, e-mail, and download like no other friend you’ve ever had! He even has the ability to compare prices on the products you love and help you save money! Best of all, he’s FREE!

Once installed, spyware can monitor user activity on the Internet and transmits that information in the background to someone else. Spyware can also gather information about e-mail addresses and even passwords and credit card numbers.

Spyware is similar to a Trojan horse in that users unwittingly install the product when they install something else. A common way to become a victim of spyware is to download certain peer-to-peer file swapping products that are available today. Spyware can infest the computer turning it into a “zombie” that will spoof email usernames and send spam to other computers without the user’s knowledge.

This will usually only occur on a computer with an “Always On” broadband connection since the dialup process can be easily detected by the user. If using a dialup connection, an indication that the computer has active spyware running is its constant attempts to dialup the internet connection. Another good indicator of a computer being infected with spyware is an extended boot up time. Since spyware is designed to do many of its dirty deeds undetected, there will be no reference to it in the system taskbar, or in the Add or Remove Programs dialog.

Aside from the questions of ethics, privacy and it being illegal, spyware steals from the user by using the computer’s memory resources and also by eating bandwidth as it sends information back to the spyware’s home base via the user’s Internet connection. Because spyware is using memory and system resources, it can lead to system crashes or general system instability. Spyware can get so resource consuming that it becomes impossible to use the computer.

Spyware exists as independent executable programs, and therefore has the ability to monitor keystrokes, scan files on the hard drive, snoop other applications such as chat programs or word processors, install other spyware programs, read cookies, change the default home page on the Web browser, and consistently relay this information back to the spyware author who will either use it for advertising or marketing purposes or sell the information to another party.

Licensing agreements that accompany software downloads sometimes warn the user that a spyware program will be installed along with the requested software, but the licensing agreements may not always be read completely because the notice of a spyware installation is often couched in obtuse, hard-to-read legal disclaimers.

Some likely sites that may try to push this spyware to you include free greeting cards, free games, free game cheat codes, free screen savers, free anything, etc. If the site is offering something for free, check it closely, very closely and be absolutely certain of the sites trustworthiness.

Even if all they ask for is your email address, it is entirely possible that they will be selling your address to spammers. This is one place where this old adage really applies, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”.

Windows 7 Official Release Date Announced

Yesterday, I posted a blog entry and sent out a newsletter that discussed Windows 7 and speculated that it would be released sometime this fall. Well, turns out my speculation was spot-on, as today, Microsoft has officially announced the release date to be October 22nd, 2009. This date is 3 months ahead of schedule and puts it out just in time for the holiday season. Find out more here.

Finally, A Replacement for Vista and XP

It looks like Windows 7 is coming out very soon! Microsoft released the Release Candidate of Windows 7 last month and usually when they do this, the final release comes out 3-5 months later. I downloaded and installed the Release Candidate for Windows 7, which is publicly available to anyone who wishes to try it out (I do not recommend doing so on production computers).

The download should be available until at least June 2009. The software, however, is time-bomb trial-ware which will disable itself on June 1, 2010.

I installed it on my main desktop computer onto a secondary partition and configured it in such a way that it dual boots both my primary/production Vista OS and my Windows 7 Release Candidate OS. I have been playing around with it for about 2 weeks off and on. I can say that this new operating system will finally be a replacement for Windows Vista and Windows XP. I can tell the difference in performance and usability, even on the same machine, when doing similar tasks in both Vista and 7. It is stable, solid, clean, and feels very fast.  It uses a lot less hardware resources than Vista or even XP and puts all the computing power at the forefront for the user’s disposal rather than using it all up for its own thing. It resembles Vista a bit, and was built on the Vista core, but feels less flashy and more modest.  Applications that run on Vista should run on Windows 7, and hardware that runs Vista will run Windows 7. There are also several compatibility options for Windows XP-era applications as well.

One of the goals of Microsoft was to improve the performance from Vista, and they have addressed this by both increasing the speed of the OS and by developing features that help the user operate more efficiently.
Overall, Microsoft worked on providing a fundamentally secure platform, helping secure anywhere access, protecting users and infrastructure, and helping protect data.

There are many new features to explore, but here is a quick bullet point list of some of the highlights:

• Improved desktop search
• Internet Explorer 8 for improved Internet security
• DirectAccess (automatically connect remote workstations to Windows Server 2008)
• BranchCache (used to sync files between corporate and branch offices)
• Improved BitLocker (drive encryption)
• BitLocker To Go (encrypt portable devices such as USB keys)
• Built-in Biometric support
• Improved taskbar
• Improved device management
• Better compatibility for both hardware and software
• Windows Touch (for touch screen enabled monitors)
• Tight integration with Windows Live online services
• Remote media streaming
• PlayTo
• Windows Media Center improvements

Before the Release Candidate was released, Microsoft fixed over 2,000 bugs that were reported by beta testers (including me). With the success of the Release Candidate, I have already decided that I will be upgrading to Windows 7 on both my production workstation and my laptop as soon as it comes to market. I’m not even worried about application compatibility or hardware compatibility as all of my applications already work fine in the RC and anything that runs in Vista should run in Windows 7 with no problems. My computers will feel like new computers again with the performance, reliability, stability, security enhancements that Windows 7 offers over XP or Vista.

Additional Microsoft Resources

Videos: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/videos.aspx
Windows 7 Home: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/default.aspx
New Features: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/whats-new.aspx

Information Privacy and Encryption

Pretty much anyone who has dealt with ordering goods and services online or doing online banking has heard of encryption. But what exactly is it and how important is it really?

I would say it is absolutely crucial that any personal information being transmitted online be encrypted to the highest level possible. Modern web browsers such as Mozilla FireFox or Internet Explorer have good encryption and do a good job in letting you know if you’re about to send personally identifiable information to a third party. You should always look out for the yellow lock icon whenever you’re about to send a password, address, or other personally identifiable information. Anything less, you should avoid doing so.

Encryption does not end at web browsing and using services on the Internet, however. It’s also important to have strong encryption for your home or office wireless network. The most common type is WEP, which unfortunately, is not as secure as originally thought. With the right tool, it can be hacked in less than a minute. I recommend at least WPA encryption security, or WPA2 if your wireless router and laptop support it.

A growing trend in data privacy and security is the encryption of storage media such as the hard disk drive or even flash drives. I use a Lexar JumpDrive, which can be configured to have an encrypted, password-protected volume. There is a new flash drive called the IronKey. It not only encrypts and protects your data with a hardware Cryptochip, it can also self-destruct. Should it get in the wrong hands, it will literally fry itself so the data cannot be recovered.

For encryption of your files on your computer, there is a non-profit organization called TrueCrypt that has developed a great, free software program. Their program, TrueCrypt, allows you to encrypt entire drives, folders, or individual files with ease.

Here are some quick tips for making sure your data is safe and protected:

• Make sure the yellow lock is on and visible whenever you send information via a form online.
• Make sure the website address is prefixed with an https:// instead of just plain http://. This denotes Secure Socket Layer (SSL) SSL security.
• If you need to transmit sensitive information or documents via e-mail, you really shouldn’t. Instead use fax, certified postal mail, or a secure file-sharing service such as ShareFile.com.
• Contact me if you have any concerns about the privacy of your sensitive data.

For a great article on on encryption, check out How Stuff Works. It is rather technical, but still offers insights on protecting your information online.

QuickBooks Pro 2009 & Windows Vista 64-bit Printing Problem

Ever since I upgraded my computer to Windows 64-bit, as well as QuickBooks 2009 up from 2007, I’ve experienced a lot of lock-ups with QuickBooks. More specifically, these lock-ups would occur whenever I tried reconciling accounts, saving an invoice or estimate as a PDF, or sending an invoice via E-mail from within QuickBooks. Upon further troubleshooting, I discovered that the QuickBooks PDF Converter “printer” was erroring out with the document stuck in its queue. It was also setting itself as a default printer as well. Needless to say this was extremely annoying and NOTHING worked…until now.

I tried everything initially. Reloaded the PDF Converter numerous times by deleting it and letting QB rebuild it, upgraded to 2009 R2 web patch, and a bunch of other miscellaneous things. I was about to pick up the phone and call QuickBooks for $79 dollars a month. How lame! It’s a rip-off to pay a software vendor for support when it’s their own software that has bugs and doesn’t work! Googling like crazy, I finally came across this Knowledge Base article from Intuit’s site:

http://support.quickbooks.intuit.com/support/Pages/KnowledgeBaseArticle/1007856

I was finally able to fix this annoying issue by following the steps to make the PDF Converter compatible with settings in a 64-bit OS environment. I’ve copied and pasted the exact steps below for our future reference:

Windows Vista:

1. Make sure that you are logged in as a user with administrator rights.
2. Click the Windows button, select Control Panel, and click Printers.
3. Right-click the QuickBooks PDF Convertericon and select Run as administrator and Properties.
4. Click Continue.
5. Select the Ports tab, then click the Add Port… button.
6. Select Local Port and click the New Port… button.
7. Enter PDF1 for the new port name and click OK. Close the Printer Ports window.
8. Ensure that the PDF1 port is selected in the Ports list.
9. Select the Advanced tab.
10. Select the Spool print documents radio button to make the options below it clickable.
11. Clear (uncheck) the box labeled Enable advanced printing features.
12. Select the Print directly to printer radio button again.
13. Ensure that Amyuni Document Converter 300 is selected in the Driver: drop-down arrow
14. Click the Apply button, and then click OK.
15. Important: In order for the changes to take effect, you must restart your computer.
    Reboot your computer and then try to print, email, or create a pdf from QuickBooks.

64-bit computing is GREAT, but beware of pesky little issues like these. Mental note to self: Whenever upgrading to 64-bit, make sure ALL hardware is compatible (i.e. have compatible 64-bit versions of drivers) AND make sure that software “printers” like PDF converters are also compatible. There are three other printers loaded on my system: Dell 3110cn Color Laser Printer (networked and fully 64-bit compliant – works great), Adobe PDF (from Acrobat 9 which is fully 64-bit compatible), and Microsoft XPS Document Write from Office 2007 (I never use it but it does work fine).

Now I can get back to business!

How to be more productive on your computer

Computers and the Internet have made all of us incredibly productive. Long gone are the days of writing letters on paper with a pen. With typing speeds on average of 30-45 words per minute, computer users can type up an e-mail and send it off far quicker than mailing a letter via the United Slow Postal Service. With such a dramatic increase in productivity with computers, it may be hard to imagine even faster ways to get things done and do things on a computer. Well, in this blog post, I’m going to talk about several ways to increase your productivity with your computer.

Use the Keyboard More
Moving your hand constantly from the keyboard to the mouse is a time-waster. For example, filling out a form online where it has fields that ask you to fill in your name, e-mail, and other information can quickly be navigated with the Tab key instead of using the mouse to click on each individual field. Here are some other great keyboard shortcuts to speed up your productivity:

Alt+tab: Hold down the Left Alt key and tap on the Tab key to quickly navigate the open applications that are running on your computer. Let go of the Left Alt key to switch to that application. The slow method: use your mouse to click on the application on the bottom task bar.

Windows Key+M: Need to quickly see your desktop screen? Hit the Windows Key (it has a logo of Microsoft Windows) and then M to minimize all the open windows on your screen. The slow method: clicking that minimize button one after the other with the mouse.

Ctrl+N: Need to make a new document, e-mail, or web browser window? Just hit Ctrl+N to create a new whatever.

Alt+F4: Close a bunch of windows and applications that are open by hitting Alt+F4 repeatedly. The slow method: clicking all those X buttons one after the other with the mouse.

Ctrl+Enter: If you use Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, or Windows Mail, you can send off e-mails faster by hitting Ctrl+Enter instead of clicking the send button with the mouse. You can also do Ctrl+R for replying to an e-mail, or even Ctrl+F to forward.

For a more comprehensive list of virtually all available keyboard shortcuts, check out the following knowledge base article on Microsoft’s site.

Go Dual Monitor, or more
The more you see on the screen, the more information is there to help you get things done even quicker. Before, it was all about getting the bigger sized monitor so you can have the biggest desktop screen space. Nowadays, however, it’s not uncommon for businesses and individuals to have dual monitor setups. Personally, I started out with a 24-inch Dell widescreen monitor that sports a 1920×1200 resolution. I have tons of desktop screen space. However, I quickly outgrew it so I added another 17-inch monitor. The result is I am now, statistically speaking, up to 30% more productive with two monitors than with just one. For more information on this great productivity gaining idea, check out this article.

How about going Triple Monitor?!

Find & Open Programs Faster With Launchy
This great, free software lets me use the keyboard to launch any program I want that’s in my Start Menu or Quick Launch bar. All I have to do is hit Alt+Spacebar (by default; it can be changed to any keyboard combination you want), then type in a partial phrase of the program I want to launch. For example, I can type “quic” and right away it shows QuickBooks, which I hit Enter to launch. I don’t even have to worry about spelling. Wait a few more seconds and other program suggestions will come up. This increased my productivity tenfold because I no longer have to dig around endless Start Menu entries to find the one obscure program I’m looking for. Check it out here: www.launchy.net. Don’t forget to check out the Tips & Tricks of the program as well.

Do you have ideas for increasing productivity on the computer? Please feel free to share them with me!

My Take on Windows Vista

A lot of people are confused about the transition from Windows XP to Windows Vista, especially since Microsoft has really pushed for Vista despite a rocky, well-published start. In this blog post, I’m going to talk about this very situation and give you my honest take on the whole deal with Windows Vista. Read on!

My Take On Windows Vista

For starters, it has always been my policy to stay away from any new operating system release until at least the first service pack (SP) has been released for that particular OS. I did this back in the days of Windows 98, 2000, and even XP. I held onto Windows 2000 the longest, for at least 4 years, well beyond the time frame of Windows XP’s service pack 1 release. I can even recall how people complained about Windows XP’s flaws and shortcomings when it was first released. I’ve seen reviews of the “new Fisher Price toy operating system that does not offer any new, exciting features over Windows 2000″. However, Windows XP is an exception to Microsoft’s line of operating systems because of the fact that it has been the operating system of choice for over 7 years now (it was released in 2001). As such, it has been patched, re-patched, updated, and is currently at SP3 level. The result of 7 years of Patch Tuesday updates has brought on a rock-solid operating system that millions of users have come to love and appreciate. As an IT tech, computer gamer, and computer hobbyist, it still remains my operating system of choice for myself, friends, family, and clients. I currently run Windows XP on my primary desktop PC as well as my “Tech Station” PC that I use to backup hard drives and serve out files on my network.

My Dell XPS m1330 Laptop Came Preloaded with…

I purchased my new Dell laptop back in November of 2007 preloaded with, you guessed it, Windows Vista. The first service pack was not yet released for Vista at this time, so I actually did break my own golden rule of “wait for SP1″. However, since I am an IT technician, I have to stay on top of the game and keep my knowledge and skills sharp with the latest software and hardware technologies. This was the only reason I chose to get my laptop preloaded with Vista. Despite all of the negative publicity surrounding Vista in terms of performance, stability, and most importantly, compatibility, I personally did not experience any problems whatsoever with my Vista laptop. However, with other clients’ Vista computers, the most common problems I faced were:

• Printer compatibility: Very, very rocky in the beginning. It was nearly impossible to get even a 6 month old printer to work with Vista as drivers were not released. Microsoft had completely changed the printing subsystem, so as a result, it broke a lot of applications’ printing capabilities as well as printers.
• Software compatibility: While Vista does have a “compatibility mode” feature where you can make programs run as if it were installed on Windows XP, for example, they were still flaky and unstable in some cases.
• Learning curve: The user interface of Vista has changed dramatically from XP. It took time for some clients to adjust to the interface. While you can turn off a lot of Vista’s new user interface features, and make it look practically like XP, it’s still a different and unfamiliar way of doing things.
• Performance: Forget about running Vista on less than 2 GB of RAM. You can also forget about running Vista’s Aero interface on a slower, older graphics card. Memory requirements for Windows XP are recommended to be at least 128 MB (512 for even better performance) whereas Vista recommends 1 GB. It’s such a huge leap in memory requirements, but luckily memory upgrades have become dirt cheap.

The Future of Windows XP

Microsoft officially stopped selling Windows XP on June 30, 2008. You can no longer walk into a retail store to pick up a copy of Windows XP. However, the good news is, OEMs like Dell or me can still provide copies of Windows XP on preloaded systems. You can purchase a Dell with a valid Windows Vista license and legally “downgrade” to Windows XP and the computer will come shipped with XP preloaded and ready to go. The same holds true if you want to purchase a PC from me, although there won’t be a Vista software DVD included – only Windows XP.

Windows XP patches and support will continue until the end of 2014, even though sales will officially end, regardless of Dell, OEM, etc, at the end of 2009.

So, in short, we have until Q4 2009 to get our hands on Windows XP but our investment in Windows XP is good ’til 2014.

The Bottom Line: Should We Embrace Windows Vista?

My short answer to that is yes, but only for very specific situations. If you are running brand new hardware and have business applications that do support Vista, then it would be an ideal choice. If you have a relatively new Windows XP computer that has absolutely no problems, then there is certainly no need to upgrade to Vista. You wouldn’t be missing out on anything if you chose not to go to Vista in that case.

In my recent experience with working with Windows XP and loading updated third party software, I have noticed some programs actually get broken with their latest update, since they were “fixed” or “optimized” for Vista. This has happened in some cases with clients’ computers and networks where business applications that were once rock-solid on Windows XP became very buggy and broken due to updates tailored for Vista compatibility. Ouch!

As for me, I love the fact that I’m running Vista on my laptop because it is great with managing battery life, networking/wireless connectivity in multiple locations, and has gotten much, much more stable with SP1. However, I’m not in a hurry to switch my main desktop PC over to Vista anytime soon. In fact, I have decided to hang on to my current setup, as-is, until at least 2010, when Windows 7 is slated to come out. At that time, I will upgrade with totally new hardware that would be more compatible and in line with the requirements of the next generation operating system.

Bill Gates Retires

Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates is stepping down from daily operations at the software maker, to focus on his philanthropic efforts. Go here to see a cool time line of all the major events in the life of Microsoft, the company he co-founded in 1975, and in the Gates’ life.