Tech 21 Century » Windows

Comparing Windows 8 with its predecessors

BlogAdmin — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 07:23:12 +0000

What Art Thou, Windows?

Love it or hate it, Microsoft Windows is a part of your life, at least in some way. It matters not if you personally use Linux or Macintosh. And unless you barter goods for services even if you don’t use Windows, Someone you are interacting with does. Even then, chances are they are using the venerable operating system.

It is a matter of future history that Windows 8 will land on planet Earth, and it will impact you. Let’s take a brief tour to see what is coming at you, one way or another.

The computers of yesteryear were character-based. Technically, we just didn’t have the spare machine power for a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Xerox had a research center known as PARC (Paolo Alto Research Center). They also had a small investment and a small computer company that sounded more like an orchard. They call themselves Apple Computer. At this research center, they daydreamed up things such as: the mouse, ethernet, and the GUI.

In the time period when Steve Jobs was considered a black sheep the Apple Board of Directors. He was ousted and worked on the NeXt computer. As CEO they had brought in the marketing maven John Scully, who wanted to go directly at IBM. IBM and Microsoft were in bed together. Bill Gates strong-armed Scully for licensing of GUI patents in exchange for MS office on the Mac.

Mr. Gates was having a fight with IBM over what to do with the next-generation operating system (OS/2), which included the GUI. The short story is IBM and Microsoft got a divorce. Windows sitting on top of a character-based operating system (DOS) stayed with Microsoft, while IBM got OS/2.

With hardware technological advances growing by leaps and bounds Gates wanted out of the limitations of DOS. He snagged Dave Cutler from DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) to work on NT. To this day Microsoft vigorously denies that stands for New Technology.

NT was created to address a multitude of issues with a DOS-based Windows. The two biggies being segmented memory, and the nonexistent security. Game programmers hated NT. The digital equivalent of checkpoint Charlie, every step of the way, crushed real-time game performance. Microsoft gadfly Alex St. John (an avid game developer in his spare time) solved that with DirectX.

In an effort to slide the consumer over, Microsoft released its last space Windows calling it Windows Me. It looked like NT-based Windows 2000 (really NT version 5) buying game developers a little more time to adopt DirectX. On the server-side Windows 2000 was the first iteration to adopt LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol). They called it Active Directory (AD).

Next came NT 5.1 which marketing called XP. It was the first time Microsoft offered Windows as either 32 or 64-bit code.

At this point Microsoft had a challenge. XP was carrying legacy code deep in its bowels from the mid-80s. A great deal of the tribal knowledge had either retired or died. They wanted to clean up NT’s act. The internally numbered NT 5.2 became the disaster known as Vista. While the effort was valiant, it broke a tone of applications. To make matters worse, they wanted to clean up the open door security that made it previously so easy to connect everything together. The challenge was it made it easy for the bad guys too. So Vista became a mother hen, are you sure? End users despised it.

So much so that when Windows 7 came along planet Earth was fearful of Vista: the sequel. That’s too bad because technically Windows 7 modernized security and had considerable improvements in everything from features to actually reducing resource needs by eliminating legacy garbage and have given time for application developers to catch up.

So here we said at the close of the year and Windows 8 is not even yet in beta. Yet there are some of us who have been living in Windows 8 since its release in late August 2011. The verdict?

So far Windows 8 looks like hot stuff. It’s resource needs are less than Windows 7. And they seem to be managing the impossible of addressing the demands of the desktop and a tablet-based computer. Microsoft is even going so far as to support the super low power processors known as ARM. Often these are found in smart phones and tablets.

Clearly they are looking to match Apple, which is merging OS X and IOS. OS X runs on desktops, while IOS is for iPhone, iPad, etc.

Microsoft claims that whatever runs on Win 7, it will run on Win 8. Overall, our experience of that has been true. Only a few applications have really choked. And it’s early in the game.

A word of warning to you. If you’re still on XP, plan for a complete reinstall. There will be no migration path. The underlying code has simply changed too much. It would be easier to convert your car from gasoline to diesel. If you’re thinking of staying on XP, think again. The operating system is over 10 years old, and has security issues that simply cannot be addressed. Forewarned is forearmed.

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Computer repair and optimization tools

BlogAdmin — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 18:06:17 +0000

The worst thing that can happen to someone is a computer breaking down when they are in the middle of an important piece of work. The worst of all is that you stand a very good chance that you might lose all that important information you need for your business, which is very frustrating. Most of the time people do not wait, they immediately take their computer for repairs, ending up with a hundred dollar or more bill.

Saving money and doing general repairs yourself instead is something that not many people know about. In most cases you only need some kind of optimization and computer tools to do it all by yourself. You can fix many problems with no assistance when you for instance use some sort of Windows optimization tools. An example of such a tool is advanced system optimizer 3.

You will be able to fix problems such as no response when clicking on the mouse, a windows program that takes forever to load, certain crashing programs, and an Internet explorer that loads too slow, programs that automatically switch down all by themselves, or a locked application on windows. By fixing these kinds of problems by yourself, you now can spend that extra money on some other important things you need.

Another great thing is these different programs and/or software to help you fixing these sorts of problems is that you will not need as many programs. You need only four special optimization and computer repair tools to fix these kinds of problems whenever you need it. Your anti-virus, desk defragmentation, anti spy and repair utility for registry programs and software are included amongst these kinds of tools.

When someone tries filtering your system in the form of some virus the anti-virus program/software will warn you immediately. Many of these sorts of viruses damage you computer in such a way that it is impossible to repair it at any way. On the other hand, the anti spy tool quickly warn you when someone is busy using your bandwidth without any permission or payment.

The defragment tool is there to help you making more space available on your computer so that you can do important work without worrying about space. The repair utility for registry fixes any errors that might occur on your computer so quickly that you can hardly notice an error. With regular updates and these four optimization tools, you can be sure of a trouble free working experience on your computer.

You might ask the question why you need these kind tools when you will be able to repair such problems all by yourself or get some assistance. Fact is that your computer will be able to work on a more efficient basis while warning you about harmful threats. This is why the optimization tools advantages is far more than the cons.

The Windows website is the first place online that you should access to find these types of software for your system. Now you will be able to download these tools directly from the site and depend on online assistance from consultants.

Why is it necessary to update your PC’s hardware drivers?

BlogAdmin — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 19:50:44 +0000

Often it so happens that people are not satisfied with the speed of their computer though they have a very good antivirus and other protections installed. The system slows down without the presence of any malware such as a virus. One probable reason behind this phenomenon may be hardware drivers that they have forgotten to update. Many times the problem of a sluggish computer can be attributed to hardware drivers that have not been updated.

By updating hardware drivers, it is easy to keep a computer performing at an optimum level. It has been seen that people update their software but forget about hardware. The OS used by a person is connected to the hardware by these drivers. This connection is done with the help of software called “driver”. It is when there is a better understanding between hardware and OS with the help of driver software that the system performs at its maximum speed.

People have this habit of not updating hardware drivers despite it being essential. In a system that operates on Windows, this is a prerequisite as drivers are integral part of the system and hence it affects the performance of the PC. Updates of hardware are as easily available in the market as you get software updates. This is an ongoing process and manufacturers do it to get rid of any bugs and also to make drivers better. Although hardware drivers are usually available by the manufacturers, it is a pain to select the correct driver for your specific hardware system.

People use a plethora of devices with their PC like a camera, scanner or a printer that do not work efficiently as there are bugs in the drivers. Old drivers having one or the other problem make it difficult for your computer to keep performing at a high level. Either because of any invalid response from you or because of the presence of any virus, driver files may be deleted or get corrupted. Single missing or deleted files simply means that the devices attached to the PC may not work at a desired level.

Sometimes your computer itself tells you about any problem present in the drivers but they get unnoticed by you. It normally happens that the sound of the computer may behave abnormally and then the system crashes or the PC goes blank in between a game telling you that there is something wrong with the drivers of hardware. It is not only audio but also video drivers that need updating frequently.

Manufacturers keep updating drivers and they are freely available on the net which means that you can update your hardware drivers whenever you think they have become outdated. Then there are people who become used to an older operating system despite having latest hardware drivers. This mismatch also causes problems and necessitates matching of hardware drivers with the OS.

The problem of outdated problems is unique to systems that are Windows based as Windows it is that offers so many choices when it comes to using devices that leads to a mismatch between hardware drivers and the OS. It is natural for Microsoft to think that users would take care of drivers while using different devices.

Regular update of hardware drivers means that you are always using the most advanced and better drivers. Being available for free, you need not make any effort to get these drivers. Another way to get these drivers is to look for driver databases and “auto-update” tools which go out and find the correct drivers for you. One such tool is driver navigator.

Recover Deleted Data – Potential Setbacks With Using Freeware

BlogAdmin — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:25:01 +0000

Data recovery software (such as spotmau powersuite) has made it possible to recover deleted data sometimes weeks after a file has been lost. In this post, we’ll take a look at some of the potential barriers to successful file retrieval.

Before using a data recovery tool, it is worth pointing out that if files have been deleted as a result of application faults or some form of operating system corruption (e.g. the registry has become corrupted file virus attack) then you are better off fixing a computer issue like this using computer maintenance software prior to attempting to use data recovery software.

Data recovery tools are capable of retrieving deleted documents due to the fact that file deletion will only alter a documents index in the file allocation table so that the document is no longer visible in Windows Explorer, but your files data clusters will still be intact. Your document is stored on the hard drive as data clusters located around the disk, and file recovery software can easily read these and try to reassemble them to form your original file.

Where the process starts to fall over is if you have been continuing to use the hard drive for applications. Any type of new file that is being created when using applications (this includes temporary Internet files) will be stored to the hard drive and can potentially overwrite the data clusters belonging to your deleted documents. While these clusters are not originally wiped from the drive, they are flagged to Windows as free to reuse for saving any new data. Over time, running applications and saving documents will gradually overwrite all your old deleted files.

You will also find that different data recovery tools will have varying capabilities for finding your deleted documents. Each program is developed independently of the next so use different logic to try and piece together data clusters (some are better than others at piecing together this jigsaw puzzle of data fragments). For this reason, you are better off using freeware applications (e.g. Smart Recover) or trying the free trial scans that come with commercial tools before committing to a product.

How to recover my Windows 7 product key

BlogAdmin — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 13:53:57 +0000

Problem:
Let’s Say you want to reinstall your system since it is corrupted, but you forgot your Windows 7 product key. Have you been worried that your Windows 7 product key has been lost? Have you been worried that you will have to purchase another product key?

Solution:
Spotmau BootSuite 2011 is the solution for you. One of Spotmau’s BootSuite 2011 highly recommended functions — Password Kit — can help you.

MS Key Finder in “Password Kit” is an effective and powerful recovery tool. It checks a system for all possible MS product keys, and shows you the product keys immediately with the option to select which one you want to recover. With it, you will be able to find out almost all hidden MS product keys including all Windows product keys, Microsoft Office product keys, etc.

Procedure of finding back Microsoft products key:

1. Double click Spotmau icon and enter BOOT SUITE 2011 interface, follow these steps: Self Service —> PowerSuite 2010 Wincare–>Password Kit –> MS Key Finder, then you can see the interface looked just like the following picture.

2. Afterward, you can either write down the Microsoft products key you need (if so, to put them in a safe place is suggested.)

3. Or you can export them as a .txt file by clicking“Export”.A “Save to file” dialog will pop up, and you can specify the destination for the file or rename it.

4. Click”Save”, MS Key Finder will finish its task for you. And the whole process is finished.

NOTES:
With the same procedures you can find out your lost product keys of Microsoft Office(2003/2007) and Windows XP (all versions), Windows 2000 (all versions), Windows 2003 (all versions) ,Windows Me, Windows NT, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

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Fix Microsoft Windows after virus infection

BlogAdmin — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:35:23 +0000

Have you ever had a bad virus attack on your PC running the Windows XP software? Well, now you don’t have to worry about all the time that will be lost in trying to recover your system, not to mention the difficulties associated with dismantling it, sending it to your local repair guy and then getting it back. You can now get your operating system thoroughly cleaned up in just 30 minutes. The Reimage Windows XP Online Repair service is meant to fix Microsoft Windows computers and make them function like brand new. It will correct all the components that are not functioning optimally and replace them with others from its vast database of component files.

However, the best way to protect your machine from a virus attack is to ensure that your antivirus software always remain up to date. You also need to run periodic virus scans on your machine, especially after you visit suspicious websites or open email attachments which do not make sense. But this is not always possible. The war between computer viruses and antivirus software is an ongoing one and often you may find your machine is already attacked, especially if you have Windows as your operating system. The viruses usually exploit the vulnerabilities that are inherent in your operating system and then wreck havoc in your machine.

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The online Reimage service has the biggest advantage of very quick turnaround time. All it takes is thirty minutes to scan your machine, identify the fixes needed and then apply these changes. In fact if you are a small business owner who runs a computer repair shop, chances are quite high that several of your requests would be to handle and fix Microsoft windows machines affected by viruses. If so, maybe you can sign up for one of their plans which offer servicing of unlimited number of machines for just $149 per month. Imagine all the additional revenue and goodwill that you can generate by opting for this service in order to ensure a fast turnaround for your repair work.

Remember that one of the key things to be careful about while you fix Microsoft windows after a virus attack, is to ensure that the data integrity of the user files and the login credentials of the user accounts are maintained. Online services such as Reimage take extra precaution to make sure that the data integrity is not lost and that all user login ids and passwords are retained as best as possible. This would however also depend on what kind of a virus attack was your machine subjected to. You can now fix Microsoft Windows easily after a virus infection, but you always must remember that prevention is better than cure. So do not be penny wise and pound foolish. Spend the money required to get a good antivirus software. It is well worth the effort to protect your machine from the vagaries of a virus attack than to keep searching for fixes to Microsoft Windows after the attack has occurred.

What is The Best Registry Cleaner Tool

BlogAdmin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:15:10 +0000

If you are anything like me, you probably don’t think much about what makes your computer work. You simply hit the power button and get started with whatever has to be done. You probably don’t notice that as time passes your computer is steadily slowing down. It isn’t until error messages start popping up all the time, that you realize something is wrong. Again, if you are anything like me, the first thing you do is run a virus scan, then, when that doesn’t turn up anything, you start to panic that your hard drive is crashing, which quickly leads to the frantic estimating about how much you can afford to spend repairing the defective hard drive. What time and experience has taught me is that the panic isn’t always warranted and that the whole thing can usually be solved with a registry cleaner. The best registry cleaner you are going to find is RegCure.

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Computers that rely on Windows operating system are created with something called a registry. The purpose of the registry is to provide your computer with a space to store any information that you may need to access later on. As time passes, a lot of stuff gets stored in your computer’s registry. As you can probably imagine, after awhile a lot of the stuff in your computer’s registry is stuff that you no longer need, or even remember. As more and more stuff accumulates in your computer’s registry, you computer slows down. The purpose of installing a registry cleaner like RegCure on your computer will clean all the unneeded stuff from your computer, restoring it to its old speed.

Again if you are like me, you probably are thinking that installing a registry cleaner on your computer doesn’t make any sense, not when you can clean all the old files out yourself. Let me assure you, manually cleaning your registry is a very bad idea. It can be very difficult to figure out which files are old and what applications are needed to run other applications. Cleaning your registry by yourself is an excellent way to brick your computer. RegCure is a far safer and faster way of cleaning your computer’s overloaded registry.

After installing and using RegCure the error messages will disappear and your computer will return to its old speed. RegCure is very simple to use, all you have to do is download it to your computer and it will go to work. After the initial cleansing of your computer’s registry, RegCure will continue to regularly scan your computer and make sure that you never have to deal with a slow computer again.

More than 60 million computer owners agree that the best registry cleaner on the market is, without a doubt, RegCure. It is compatible with Windows 7 and is easy to install and easy to use.

Speed up windows with a Registry Cleaner

BlogAdmin — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 07:52:09 +0000

Your Windows computer has something that is called a registry. The purpose of the registry is to store information. Often the information stored in the registry has to do with applications that you’ve installed on your computer, but the registry also saves information records about files that it thinks you might want to open again, and also keeps a record of system changes. Over time the registry becomes over-stuffed with information, which in turn causes your computer to slow. Eventually your computer becomes so slow, it moves like a turtle!!

Most of the records stored in your computer’s registry are broken, and either need to be repaired or deleted. Trying to manually clean your computer can be a daunting and ill-advised undertaking. The best thing to do when your registry is stuffed to capacity is to install a registry cleaning program like RegCure.

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The way that RegCure works is that once you have installed it on your computer, it scans your computer’s registry. The program is looking for bits of programs that you thought you’d deleted from your computer. When RegCure finds one of these broken records, it deletes it. The second thing that RegCure is looking for is files that haven’t installed properly, these RegCure repairs.

If you are like me, the first thing you do when you hear that you are about to install a software that’s sole duty is to delete other software, is panic. You can’t stop yourself from worrying about what will happen if RegCure deletes something important. Well, when you are using RegCure you don’t have to worry. The software is designed with a failsafe backup system. The backup is implemented before RegCure starts to run its scan. If a wrong file is accidentally deleted, your computer will not crash.

You will be happy to learn that once you have installed RegCure on your computer, you will no longer have to give your computer’s registry a second thought. The people who designed RegCure designed the software so that it will run regular scans of your computer. As the user, you can decide how often you want your computer scanned; your choices are every day, once a week, or once a month. If your computer starts to act up in between scans, and you suspect the problem is your registry, all you have to do is activate the programs immediate manual scan.

RegCure is one of the best registry cleaner programs currently on the market; it is being used by more than 60 million computer users. RegCure is compatible with Windows 7.

Improve Your Registry with RegCure Software

BlogAdmin — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 16:13:12 +0000

It has happened to everyone; you are typing away on your computer when a pop up appears in the middle of screen saying that your computer has an error. The sight of that error message usually causes your stomach to drop and your brain to start calculating just how much money you can afford to spend on computer repairs. Before you completely panic, read the message, its possible that the error simply means that you have to clean your computer’s registry.

The reason your Windows computer has a registry is so that it can store entries and records that the operating system needs to operate properly and to have a reference of the applications installed. Since we all have a bad habit of installing and then uninstalling software, the registry fills up bits and pieces of software that haven’t completely installed. This eats into your computer’s memory and hinders it’s ability to work quickly and efficiently. The good news is that you can improve your computer’s registry optimization with RegCure software.

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RegCure is a registry optimization software that is designed to go through your computer’s registry and examine all the files that are currently stored there. When it finds files that are broken, it repairs them. When it finds bits of software that should have been removed when the rest of the program was removed from your hard drive, RegCure eliminates them. And sure, technically you could do the same thing manually, but RegCure does it faster, and when you let RegCure take care of the broken files, there is less chance of something vital being removed.

You don’t have to worry about RegCure making a mistake and deleting something that you need in order for your computer to function properly. Before it starts scanning your computer’s registry, RegCure makes a backup of the original registry and saves it on your hard disk.

Using RegCure is easy. All you have to do is download the software from the website, install it on your computer, and let it clean your system’s registry. Once you have finished installing RegCure on your computer, you can set up a schedule to have RegCure scan your registry on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. You can download Regcure Here and give it a test for Free.

One of the first things you will notice when RegCure finishes its scan is how fast your computer suddenly becomes. The chances are pretty good that you didn’t notice that it was gradually getting slower and slower, but you will now get the feel that it is moving again. In addition to once again having a computer that runs at a decent speed, you will also be freeing up a considerable amount of hard drive, and be able to reinstall some of the programs you didn’t think you had enough room for.

RegCure is compatible with Windows 7 and can be purchased online.

Online Windows XP Repair Service

BlogAdmin — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 13:05:34 +0000

Are you looking for options to repair Windows XP online ? Then the Reimage computer repair service could be a good idea. There are several advantages of choosing to repair Windows XP online instead of using a computer repair technician. First of all you can repair windows XP online any time, whenever it is convenient for you. Thus you don’t have to waste all that time spend hauling your computer to the repair shop, driving through all that traffic, and then searching for a parking space. What is more, it will take several days to get back your machine. This can even mean a loss of finances, if you are operating an online business and spend several hours on your machine. By choosing to repair Windows XP online, you are thus saving valuable time and resources.

When you select the option to repair Windows XP online, then you are really improving the productivity of your machine in less than half an hour. The Reimage service also ensures that your data integrity is maintained while you do the repair online. It has a huge database of Windows components that can be used to replace your components that have been identified as faulty during the initial scan. The price of this software that lets you repair Windows XP is just $47 for a single computer and then you need to pay a little bit more for additional two machines. There are also other options such as $139 for repairing ten machines, which can be considered if you have employees working for you. There is also the option of unlimited repair of your Windows XP online for just $149 per month.

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The service also offers a guarantee of service by offering money back on any unsatisfactory service within 7 days. The flexible plans on offer allow you to choose the one that matches your particular requirements the best. One of the UPs of this Reimage service is that the repair time is reduced drastically. And this can be a boon for small businesses that offer computer repair services for their clients. You can serve more number of clients within the same time, thus offering better revenue and better reputation for fast turnaround time. In addition if you want your employees to perform at their peak productivity levels, then you need to give them machines that work at peak productivity. You can thus choose to repair Windows XP online for all the machines that you use!

Reimage is a well known player in the computer repair market and they know exactly how to get the best out of your system by fixing issues such as virus attacks, broken registry entries, corrupted windows files and even upgrade the outdated drivers in your machine. And what is great about it is that all your user settings and personal data will remain intact while the scan and repair happens. You cannot wish for more features in an option that lets you repair Windows XP online. So why wait, go ahead and make use of the services of Reimage to get your machine work like brand new.