Comments for The PC Informant

Comment on The decline of Dell by dan

dan — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:48:37 +0000

I too have noticed the decline of Dell, I have been a loyal customer for over 12 years, and they seem to have lost their ability to ship computers on time. I just cancelled an order, I have to purchase dell from their channel, because their BTO is just amazingly slow. Also no Windows Home Server, how can you leave such a gaping hole in your product line up.

What the hell dell, get back on track.

Comment on A view of advertising from the other side by Greg

Greg — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:07:09 +0000

I do not use an Ad blocker.

If I find the advertising obnoxious, I stop going to the site. Very little content on the web unique or necessary to the point of putting up with bad advertising.

Comment on What do behavioral trackers know about you? by Vic Laurie

Vic Laurie — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:03:14 +0000

Thanks, George and welcome to the blog. I mentioned Flash Cookie Cleaner in a previous post. And Nirsoft always has good things.

Comment on What do behavioral trackers know about you? by George

George — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:50:15 +0000

Re: flash cookie management

For those who want to manage stored cookies locally, there are two freeware utilities available.

Flash Cookie Cleaner – The Free Flash Cookie Cleaner http://www.flashcookiecleaner.com/

Flash Cookies View – Nirsoft Utilities
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/flash_cookies_view.html

Not that all cookies are bad, but sometimes they linger on and get old, so it’s good to at least check up on them once in a while.

–George

Comment on Problems with Windows XP update by Vic Laurie

Vic Laurie — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:39:32 +0000

The update problem has been traced to a rootkit infection on some computers. See the later post, http://tips.vlaurie.com/2010/02/windows-xp-patch-problem-due-to-rootkit/

Comment on Problems with Windows XP update by Sean

Sean — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:25:41 +0000

Is there any solution to this yet? I had to go out and buy an external hard drive but I’m having difficulty with that as well, my HD is on its last leg.

Comment on The desktop metaphor doesn’t work anymore by Sol Libes

Sol Libes — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 14:59:55 +0000

Interesting observation
User interfaces have changed for users of smart devices (e.g. iPod Touch), smart phones, and soon to become available iPad and other tablet computers. Touch sensitive screens, downloaded Internet apps, social networking, etc. are causing the change.
A few netbook makers have also changed to easier-to-use interfaces (e.g. Easy Peasy and Jolicloud).

I look forward to your future observations on this subject.

Comment on Problems with Windows XP update by Vic Laurie

Vic Laurie — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:30:25 +0000

Thanks, Susan. I have updated the post above with some more information.

Comment on Problems with Windows XP update by Susan Betz

Susan Betz — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 21:03:05 +0000

I just went to download and install Tuesday’s Microsoft updates to a Windows XP Professional system and find that 977165 (MS10-015) is still included with a date of 2/9/2010. I will skip it, but please keep us updated on this, Vic.

Thanks, Susan

Comment on Restore missing or disappearing tray icons in Windows Vista by Vic Laurie

Vic Laurie — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:56:33 +0000

I don’t use CCleaner because I have my own ways of cleaning things so I was unaware of the setting you mention. I took a look and it seems CCleaner will indeed do this task. Thank you for pointing that out. That’s a useful tip. I agree that using CCleaner would be safer than editing the Registry.