Windows Tips and Tricks

Somewhat to my surprise and definitely to my delight is the progress that Linux-based machines are making in the computer market. Big manufacturers Dell and Lenovo are offering Linux machines and ZDNet reports:

Linux is not just for computer whizzes.
In fact, buying Linux and learning how to use it are easier than ever, thanks to the open-source operating system’s expanding presence in affordable computers and mainstream retail outlets.

In quick succession, the number of mass-market, sub-$200 desktops has tripled–from one to three–in less than three months. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month, small form-factor PC maker Shuttle debuted its $199 KPC. The catch? It’s not preloaded with Windows, but an operating system based on Linux. Then last week, Mirus and Linspire collaborated on the Mirus Linux PC, which is now for sale at Sears.com. It’s $299 (although an included $100 rebate brings it to $199), and is preloaded with Freespire 2.0, an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution.

But the beginning of the low-cost computer trend actually started last fall. The Everex gPC showed up on the shelves of Wal-Mart for $198, a low price even for a desktop PC. It’s bundled with speakers, a mouse, and a keyboard, and it comes with 24-hour tech support. The operating system is called gOS, a version of Ubuntu 7.10. Sure, that may be almost unpronounceable for most average consumers, but despite that, Wal-Mart is having trouble keeping the gPC in stock.

Related to the previous post is a suggestion from Shipping Seven. This is the anonymous blogger, who supposedly is part of Microsoft’s team working on Windows 7, and posts about the upcoming OS (without Microsoft’s approval). He or she also posts on other subjects and makes this interesting suggestion to recreate your profile or user account instead of reinstalling Windows (the formatting is that of the original post):

On your home machine (not a domain-joined machine):
If your Windows installation is in a terrible state (too many application installs and uninstalls, weird application crashes at weird times, file associations that don’t work anymore, etc):

Instead of wiping and re-installing Windows:
Back up all your files
Log on as a different user on the machine
Delete the user profile of your user (in Computer Properties, Advanced Settings)
Log on as your old user account
All your files will be gone (you did back them up, didn’t you?) but you will have a clean registry, and as far as all applications are concerned, you are a new user.
Restore your files

These are old tricks but worth repeating since I find that many average PC users don’t know them. If you’re having a problem, try logging off and then back on. It’s quicker than turning the computer completely off and then turning it back on, which is the next recommendation I will mention for clearing up a problem. Windows can often repair itself with a restart.

If it’s a particular program that has crashed and is hung, try closing it with the Windows Task Manager. I give the details about how to do this at vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/taskman.htm. In Vista, you can’t open Taskmanager with the old three-finger salute, Ctrl+Alt+Delete. Instead, use Ctrl+Shift+Esc.

The Internet is often compared to the printing press in its influence on society. Writing at the Guardian, John Naughton comments on a study by the British Library (PDF download here) that suggests that the way that our minds process information is changing (and not for the better IMO). Naughton writes:

‘It is clear’, says the study, ‘that users are not reading online in the traditional sense, indeed there are signs that new forms of “reading” are emerging as users “power browse” horizontally through titles, contents pages and abstracts, going for quick wins. It almost seems that they go online to avoid reading in the traditional sense.’ These findings apply to online information seekers of all ages.

The study confirms what many are beginning to suspect: that the web is having a profound impact on how we conceptualise, seek, evaluate and use information. What Marshall McLuhan called ‘the Gutenberg galaxy’ - that universe of linear exposition, quiet contemplation, disciplined reading and study - is imploding, and we don’t know if what will replace it will be better or worse. But at least you can find the Wikipedia entry for ‘Gutenberg galaxy’ in 0.34 seconds.

I have posted previously about how those who have no Windows XP installation disk can get a nice program to create a CD to run the very useful Windows XP Recovery Console. The program is from Dean Adams and has been a very popular download on this site. Dean has updated his program and it can be downloaded at the link vlaurie.com/computers2/downloads/recovery_console_cd.zip.

A new book, Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob, is out and The Wall Street Journal has an interview with the author, Lee Siegel. The article begins:

Where most people see the Internet as an essential part of modern life, providing convenience, access to friends and speedy information, essayist Lee Siegel sees a dark force intent attacking modern culture.

In his new book “Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob,” Mr. Siegel rails against the worst aspects of the Web, which he views as a vehicle for commerce that devalues serious thought in favor of “page views.” The Web, he suggests, nourishes a youth-focused culture that prefers gossip and buzz to reporting.

Mr. Siegel, a cultural critic and senior editor at the New Republic, sees the obvious advantages of the Internet but focuses here on what he describes as “its destructive side.”

Siegel makes many points worth serious consideration. The interview concludes:

WSJ: Most people don’t post nude videos of themselves on the Web, or spend hours anonymously hurtling invectives at people they’ve never met. Do you worry that you might have extrapolated too much from the behavior of a few knuckleheads?

Mr. Siegel: My book is really about what it means to be online. The Internet is the first social environment created for the asocial individual. There is no signal of a real presence: not a voice not a face. Just words on a screen. The Internet is a remarkable phase in human civilization and it has its beneficial side, such as the access to information. But it also has its dark side, and we have to talk about that.

WinPatrol is one of my favorite programs and it has just been updated again. Download site is here. Although there is a very worthwhile free version, consider supporting this excellent software by springing for the Plus version. (I have no connection with WinPatrol. This is an unsolicited plug. I bought my own.)

Today’s desktop computers may come with 500 GB or even terabyte hard drives but something around 100 GB is still a common size for drives in laptops. Nowadays laptops are often the choice for home PC buyers but don’t plan to store a lot of videos and music files on your laptop. If multimedia is your interest, you are likely to need an external drive to store the files. If you have a laptop with Vista, half your hard drive may be used up before you install a single file of your own.

Here’s some actual numbers from my own HP laptop with Vista and a 100 GB hard drive. Actually, as explained in a previous post, the 100 GB drive is 93 GB when measured the usual way. Also, 8 GB are used up by the “recovery” or “restore” partition. So the usable space is only 85 GB.

Next, there is the Windows folder, which is over 13 GB. But the Windows folder isn’t all that the operating system involves. There are several big hidden files that you won’t see unless you configure your computer to show system files. There is the page file (once called the swap file) that provides temporary memory. On my system it is about 2 GB. Then there is the file that is necessary for the system to hibernate. It is also about 2 GB, which is the size of my RAM. Then there is the space for the System Restore files. System Restore (aka System Protection) can take up to 15% of your hard drive. On my system that would be about 13 GB. So altogether I could lose as much as 17 GB or so to these system files.

Let’s count up how much space is left. That would be 85 – 13 – 17 = 55 GB. And I haven’t counted a single file of my own. Actually, there is even less space. Vista also takes up room in the Program Files folder with stuff for any number of Microsoft applications that come with Vista, like Windows Defender, Windows Mail, Windows Sidebar, Windows Games, Media Player, and more. It’s almost impossible to make an exact count of how much space is involved but it might be a GB or two. In any event, it is clear that, before I installed even one file or application of my own, I had only about half of the hard drive capacity to work with.

One way to recover some space is to limit the allocation for System Restore but that requires a somewhat arcane command line entry and deletes possibly useful previous backups. Also, you can twiddle with the page file size and never hibernate but who wants to have to do this?

If I told you that a company’s major product, which took years to develop and was called a make-or-break product for the company, had received an unenthusiatic reception, you would begin to wonder about the profitability of that company. If I further told you that the company constantly irritated its customers by never ceasing to check up on them to make sure they weren’t cheats, you would wonder even more. And if I also told you that the company’s products were so faulty that they had to be constantly patched up, you would then be sure that this company’s bottom-line must be in sad shape. Ah, but we are talking about Microsoft. Profits are way up.

Service pack 1 for Windows Vista is scheduled for release soon, by sometime in March or perhaps even earlier. Version RC1 has already been made available to the general public. (Incidentally, I do not recommend that the average PC user try to install this package.) Many have been waiting in hopes that SP1 would improve Vista enough to entice them to switch to the newer OS from Windows XP. I haven’t tried out SP1 but, from what I read, improvements are on the margin. The update is not in final form yet so more improvements may occur but it seems likely that SP1 is in nearly finished shape. PC World has an article on SP1 that first asks:

With dissatisfaction over the Vista operating system persistent, can Microsoft right the OS’s wrongs with its upcoming Vista service pack?

Then the article gives some impressions from the author’s testing of SP1. For example, he says:

Many of Microsoft’s promised performance gains were negligible on my machine. I ran a number of tests before I installed SP1 and after. The only tasks that were noticeably speedier were those that involved transferring files.

The article concludes that so far SP1 is a “ho-hum release”.