6 Windows 7 Versions

We don’t know exactly when Windows 7 will be done, or what it will cost. But we do know that there will be six– yes, count ‘em – six different versions of Windows:

• Windows 7 Starter
• Windows 7 Home Premium
• Windows 7 Professional
• Windows 7 Enterprise
• Windows 7 Ultimate.
• Windows 7 Home Basic

Luckily for you, you only really need to worry about deciding between two of them, unless you run a business network of Windows computers.

Windows 7 Starter will most likely be available only via pre-install, from select manufacturers.  Windows 7 Enterprise and Ultimate are probably more than most “normal” users need. Windows 7 Home Basic is a stripped down version, which Microsoft says it will sell only to “emerging markets.” Meaning, mainly in second- and third-world countries, although not exclusively. Their list of emerging markets starts with Afghanastan and ends with Zimbabwe.

That leaves Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional. Pretty much the same split as with XP, where we have Windows XP Home and Windows XP Pro.

Microsoft will most definitely do a better job explaining the differences, at least if they’ve learned from their mistakes with Vista. Also, it’s important to note that you can actually upgrade to a higher level of Windows online – give MS your credit card, and you download whatever it is that turns one version into another. In other words, the core of all the various versions is identical, and all you need to do is unlock the additional functionality to upgrade.

ExtremeTech has a pretty decent, if not preliminary summary of the 6 versions of Windows 7. If your next new computer purchase happens when Windows 7 is the main offering, you might want to spend some time looking at the various versions and deciding ahead of time which is right for you.

In the XP days, I recommended that people buy the Pro version, even if it was for a home computer. It just made the computer more valuable on the used market, because Home was limited in what you could do in a multi-computer business network. Looks like the same advice may hold true for Windows 7.

Windows Live Writer – Something New, Something Useful From Microsoft.

One thing I stumbled across when trying out Windows 7 was Windows Live Writer, part of the Windows Live Essentials collection which you can download for free from Microsoft. The Essentials collection, by the way, also contains Microsoft’s email, instant messenger, Movie Maker, and Writer programs for Windows 7. Those programs apparently will not be included by default with Windows 7, unless this has something to do with the beta period. Note, too, that you can run Live Essentials programs on Windows XP.

Windows Live Essential Options

Anyways, Live Writer gives you a word processor style tool for editing content on your blog. Just give it your blog address, username, and password, and it downloads the theme so that you can work in WYSIWYG mode. And it’s a way better typing/editing environment than the browser, at least for me.  Inserting images, tables, and lots of other goodies looks to be really easy.

Below is a screen snap of the very window I’m writing this blog post in right now. Careful – it’s like that looking in a mirror into another mirror trick; you might get vertigo.

WYSIWYG Editing with Live Writer is sooooo much nicer than using the Web interface

Very, very handy tool. It looks like it covers all the bases for editing your blog, including downloading your tags, showing a preview version, saving drafts, etc.

I with there was something like this for OS X. Maybe there is. Until now, I haven’t thought to look for ‘cause I didn’t know such a thing existed. Mac-using bloggers – anything out there like this for OSX?

I think I’ll install Live Writer into my main Windows XP virtual machine. It’s the first program to come along in a long while to give me a little touch of Windows envy, and it makes blogging – a task which I enjoy but still takes a lot of work – a little more pleasurable.

Browse or search all your blog posts & choose one to edit. Sweet!

"OS Rot" - Like vulgarity, it's hard to define. But you know it when you see it.

I don’t think there’s a single Windows-using tech support customer of mine out there who hasn’t heard me talk about Windows “OS Rot.” I’ve even blabbed about it in other blog posts.

There’s a great piece by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes at ZDNet called “Windows Bit-Rot: Fact or Fiction?”  He takes a look at whether OS Rot is real, imagined, or mainly just used as a way to justify getting a bigger-better-faster new PC.

Turns out the debate can really come down to semantics. Yes, if you install tons of badly-behaving applications over the years, uninstall things, and generally junk up your computer, it will get slower and less reliable. But some would argue, that’s not really the operating system’s fault per se.

Anyways, check out the article and the discussion thread that follows it. Some good reading for computer nerds to be sure. However you define it and determine what causes it, the results are the same: if you actually USE your Windows computer, it will eventually start to slow down. The only way it stays as fast as the day you took it out of the box is if you don’t use it.

And by and large, in my experience this simply does not happen on OSX. Maybe the upcoming Windows 7 operating system will make bit-rot a thing of the past. I’m not betting on it though.

Still using XP but thinking of upgrading to Vista?

Not so fast there, my pioneering amigos and amigas.

If your computer is running Windows XP fairly well right now, you might want to skip Vista and wait for the Next Big Thing from the folks in Redmond: Windows 7.

Windows 7, scheduled to be released either later this year or early 2010, is getting some pretty good reviews. Although it’s available in public beta right now, I haven’t downloaded and tried it out yet. I plan to this weekend. 

Everything I’m reading tells me that Windows 7 will be a much better release than Vista. 

For starters, Vista represented a major re-tooling or re-write of the previous operating system, Windows XP. Early adopters had to put up with a lot of compatibility issues (drivers, etc). The road to its launch was filled with potholes and there was some sufferin’ early on.

Windows 7, on the other hand, is more of an incremental upgrade. Microsoft is supposedly really focusing on making sure it’s compatible out-of-the box with current hardware and software. 

They’ve also been working hard at improving performance. This is the stuff I can’t really claim to understand. But suffice it to say they’ve found ways to cut-out inefficient code and just make it work better (like OSX, ha ha). Testers have reported faster startup and shutdown times and overall zippiness when working with applications and files. Sweet.

They’ve also added a slew of useful control panels and other applets. One new feature called “Peek” does pretty much what Apple’s “QuickLook” gizmo does - let you click a single button to get a preview of what a file is, without having to launch its corresponding application. Also on tap are new home networking features, something called “Jump Lists,” new gadgets (think: Apple Widgets), multi-touch support, and improvements geared specifically to notebook and tablet users.  

Finally, Microsoft is said to have listened to customers when it comes to all the things they dislike about Vista.  The Start menu area has been simplified, the Taskbar improved, and the much-aligned UAC system is more tweakable. 

UAC, short for User Account Control, is one way Vista is supposed to be more secure than XP. With UAC prompts in Vista, you’re notified when system changes are being made. The process takes over the desktop until you decide what to do).  Apparently you have more control over UAC in Windows 7.

Side note: I’ve always thought that people were a little hard on Microsoft over Vista’s UAC. Yes, it can be annoying sometimes. But try running a computer loaded down with malware and spyware, if you really want to be annoyed. Besides, if they didn’t put in the UAC controls, people would complain that Microsoft still wasn’t taking security seriously).

Anyways, like I said - I haven’t gotten my hands on Windows 7 yet. But when I do, I’ll take it for a spin and report back. It’s an interesting time for computing - a new version of both Windows and the Mac OS are forthcoming, USB 3.0 devices are starting to appear, storage keeps getting bigger and cheaper, bad guys find new ways of attacking us on the Internet, and Google keeps rolling with the punches. 

I guess I won’t have many excuses for posting to my blog so infrequently!

Crossover - another Windows solution

Parallels and Fusion are great applications for running Windows programs on your Mac, but how about this:

There's also a way to run Windows programs on your Mac...without Windows!

It's called Crossover, and it's based on WINE technology. WINE is not the same thing as virtualization; it stands for "Wine Is Not an Emulator." I guess it doesn't matter to you or me what the technical distinctions are, really.

Anyways, Crossover is really handy for some of the same reasons Parallels or Fusion are handy - but in one regard, it's more handy. You don't have to boot an entire virtual operating system (XP or Vista, etc). You can launch just the Windows program. I use Crossover most for Internet Explorer - I can test web pages with it, and I find that certain Web sites (like our company's Outlook Web Access) work better in IE than anything on the Mac. For some reason, GoToMyPC works better using Internet Explorer, too - so much better, that this alone makes it worthwhile to me.

Below is a capture of my desktop, where I'm running Internet Explorer and Microsoft Publisher 2007 using Crossover. No Windows XP operating system is loaded, just the programs - which actually saves a good amount of RAM. I'm only using the RAM these programs would normally use, with no overhead for the OS.



Again, I could do the same thing using Parallels, and sometimes I do if I've already got Parallels loaded, but if I want to quickly just check my company's web mail system, IE is just a few seconds away.

Or maybe I couldn't do the same thing with Parallels. What if I no longer had a PC and no longer had a Windows XP installation CD, but I still had my Office 2003 discs and serials? I could still make use of them with CrossOver.

Now, Crossover is a little more "wild west" than Parallels or Fusion. It only supports certain Windows programs. You can try programs not on the official Crossover list, but you're on your own at that point and the good people at Crossover make no guarantees about their stability.

Some things are really, really hard to get working right in Crossover. It's hard to explain. If a program depends on certain Windows components aren't really there, then it could get hinky. I've had trouble getting network printers to work right with certain Windows programs running in Crossover. Another example would be updates, like Microsoft Office updates. Because the Microsoft updating system is so dependent on the operating system - which isn't there - you have to wait for the Crossover people to release their own versions of the updaters. I know, it can make your head spin.

But for quick and dirty Windows program work, this could be a nice thing to have in your bag of tricks. CrossOver's standard version costs $40.00.

Parallels 4.0 - Good Stuff

If you're a Parallels user at version 3, I think you'll find the Version 4 upgrade well-worth the price. (Note that if you bought Parallels after September 1st, 2008, you get the upgrade for free.)

If you're not familiar with Parallels, it's a program for the Mac (intel-based Macs only; it doesn't run on G5s or G4s) that lets you run Windows on the Mac. And it works very, very well. For most people, it'll be just as good as running a real Windows computer. You still need a Windows XP or Vista installation disk and serial number, of course.

But if you need to run specific PC programs - Office 2007, Quickbooks for Windows, Access, etc - it's a great solution. I use it a lot to get screen shots of PC programs when I'm creating tutorials for Windows applications at work, and of course to work in and troubleshoot the programs I support on the PC-side. It's literally like having an entire second PC computer, but with no need for another box, keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc. You can easily transfer files back and forth between the real operating system (Mac OSX) and the virtual operating system.

Below is a screen shot of a Windows XP virtual machine running on my Mac:



Keep in mind - when you're running Windows on your Mac, you're running Windows - which means, you'll also want to install the approrpriate security software such as antivirus and antispyware.

The list of new features and existing capabilities is extensive, so check out the site for yourself.

I use both Parallels and Fusion. Fusion is VMWare's similar offering, which competes directly with Parallels. For a lot of subtle reasons, I prefer Parallels. It just seems faster and more mac-like to me. But you can read the reviews yourself and download trials for each, to see which you prefer.

New Browser on the Scene

As if there weren't already enough Web browsers to choose from - and as if Google didn't already have its paws wrapped tightly around our computing lives...along comes Google with its very own new Web browser, Google Chrome.

Of course, the tin-foil hat types are already going on and on about how this new browser, in its first beta release, is in truth an insidious effort to wreck everybody's privacy and show you more ads. After all, if Google can not only keep a history of your search habits, but also control the browser you use to interface with the Web, doesn't that give them an inordinate amount of power over your privacy and personal life? One example I heard was "What would a health insurance company pay, secretly or otherwise, to know that your last sit-down in front of Google included searches on "cancer diagnosis," "hospice care," "writing a will," and "terminal illness" ? The other question that comes up is: Will Chrome support ad-blocking plug-ins, considering that Google's business is serving up ads in the first places?

All those issues aside, what about Chrome as a piece of software? Well, it's early yet, but from what I've been able to glean from limited testing, it's very fast. The installer is lightweight, making for a quick download. Chrome launches quickly, and it loads pages in a VERY sporty manner. Now, it's hard to say how much of this speediness is because there aren't plug-ins loaded (yet). And it's a "virgin" install. A lot of software seems fast at first, only to bog down over time.

Its interface manages to be clean and simple, yet this browser offers most of the major features you've come to expect from a browser, such as tabbed browsing. Its full screen mode is nice. I read somewhere that Chrome will support running Web applications (a fancy term for "web pages that perform some function versus just providing reading material - a mortgage calculator tool, for example) in a browserless environment. Meaning, web apps will run in their own windows like standalone programs, not Web pages with all the web browser buttons and so forth.

It also has excellent, searchable history tracking. For those who forget to make bookmarks when they find something worth remembering on the Web, this should help. And I really like how the opening screen shows you large, full-color thumbnails of your most-visited Web pages. And, of course, the address bar can take either a web address or - surprise - keywords for a Google search.



Incognito is another major feature, which lets you browse in a "privacy" mode that does NOT keep track of what you've searched for or where you've been. Some have jokingly referred to this feature in Microsoft's upcoming Internet Explorer 8 browser as "porn mode." Finally, it does some sort of auto-complete guessing when you start to type a URL, but I'm not sure what that's about just yet.

Of course, reviewers in the computing industry are all over the place. Some say this signals the beginning of the end for Google, others say it's a brilliant stroke. Either way, it'll be fun to play with and interesting to watch what happens. I feel bad for Web developers, though, who now have yet another browser to test against.

Mac users will have to hold out a little longer; at the moment, Google Chrome is only available for Windows XP and Vista.

More info:

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080902-hands-on-with-chrome-googles-browser-shines-mostly.html

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=9878

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_chrome

AVG and Me

If I've ever helped you with virus problems on your PC, chances are one of the issues was that your old antivirus software was outdated, expired, ineffectual, or resource-heavy. That's when I probably recommended AVG Free antivirus. The price is nice: free for personal use, without sacrificing the basic protection most users need.

For businesses, an AVG commercial version is also a good choice - although it's not free. BUT, you get a lot of additional components, options, and management tools - the kind of stuff required in corporate environments. And although I haven't done exhaustive price comparisons, it's cheaper than many of the other brands out there and AVG promises steep discounts for yearly renewals.

We ditched Symantec AV (SAV) at Godfrey a few months back in favor of AVG's Small Business Server edition, and it's been great. We were starting to have compatibility issues with our old version of SAV, and frankly what I'd seen of Symantec's new offerings left me less than impressed. The "bloatware" train just keeps on rolling at Symantec.

AVG consumes fewer system resources that SAV, yet also adds spyware, malware, and dangerous link protection along with AV. This means you could ditch Windows Defender, AdAware, Spybot, or other overlapping-applications, further freeing-up of resources.


AVG's interface is clean, intuitive, and informative.

From my standpoint as the network administrator, the central management tools are solid. I set up an AVG server and within half an hour or so, was able to use the AVG Admin Console, push-install the AVG program to all the desktops and laptops on our network, update their definitions, and create custom settings to distribute to everybody. It's got great reporting tools, keeping me updated on everything from new virus definitions to non-compliant workstations (computers with some sort of error, such as a virus, spyware infection, outdated definitions, etc.).


AVG Admin Console - the brains behind my network's antivirus defenses

Downsides? Well, it's a good thing the AVG server and client components are generally easy to set-up and use, because the documentation is spotty and at times downright confusing. Relying on their FAQs and product pages, it took me a long time to sort through the differences between the versions. Nowhere did any help files mention, in exacting terms, that you use the same installer for both workstations and servers (FYI, the installer automatically detects the platform and installs the proper components). That took several tech support requests to figure out, requests which weren't exactly answered in a speedy fasion.

I was REALLY frustrated with how AVG organizes its downloads; the email link I received after purchasing the software on AVG's web site didn't have descriptions next to any of the 5 download links, and the file names themselves were not descriptive. They could do a much better job with delivery and documentation, to be sure. The limitations are senseless and self-imposed. A little bit of useability testing would have gone a long ways, folks.

I mentioned before that Symantec had that "bloatware" feel to it. In fairness, AVG comes with a lot of components, too. I chose not to install "the works" at first. Instead, I installed the basic coverage, and then tested the other parts such as LinkScan and WebShield, adding them one at a time and testing as I went along. (The only component I didn't install was the anti-spam module; our email is already protected from spam by a Barracuda.) After all AVG components were installed, Windows still ran smoothly and none of the components appeared to have interfered with normal email or web operations. The biggest test is this: does it catch what it's supposed to, and are users happy? The answer, for us at least, is yes in both cases.

All in all, despite the documentation and installer confusion issues, I'm glad we went with AVG.

Four quick, final points:

1. First, the link and info above is for the corporate version of AVG, presented here for benefit to IT administrators and uber-geeks. For your home PC, go here.
2. Second, antivirus software is only as good as your updating habits, so make sure you stay current with updates and subscriptions. And having good AV software does NOT negate the need for you to run a router-based firewall, or keep current with Windows Updates.
3. Third, don't get too attached to one AV program or another. You're dating, not getting married. A year from now, the landscape could be totally different. Symantec's corporate version used to be GREAT.
   
4. NEVER install a new antivirus program without removing the old one first.

Computer running slow? It's either an easy fix, or it's not.

A customer and friend recently asked what he could try on his own to remedy a slow Windows computer,
before possibly scheduling an appointment for me to come out and look at it.

I get this question often. On the surface, you might think that I’d be hesitant to answer it in any substantial way. After all, if told him how to get his computer running faster - and it worked - he wouldn’t need me. But the truth is I’m more interested in helping people getting their technology working properly, period. I know that for the ‘bigger stuff,’ he’ll call me. He knows I have his best interests in mind and am more interested in a good, long-term customer relationship than a quick buck.

That said, this is usually a very tricky question to answer. The main issue is that there are SO many reasons a computer could be running slow, and so lots of things need to be investigated. Sometimes it’s obvious: age. For example, a really old Gateway tower that came originally with Windows 98 and was upgraded Windows XP is going to be slow, period. Especially when it still has only 128 megs of RAM.

“Yes, but I used it for years and it's always done everything I needed it to do and it didn’t really seem slow until recently...”

That’s a valid point which I’ll demolish nonetheless.

First, realize that everything ELSE in the computer world has gotten bigger and faster. There was no YouTube or iTunes when your computer was produced, no matter how cutting edge it was at the time. File sizes all around were much smaller. And networking is different today. When you were on dial-up (egads!), your Internet connection was so slow that your computer seemed fast by comparison. Fast forward to 2008. All this “Web 2.0 stuff,” multimedia, games, digital photography, webcams - it all requires ever-greater horsepower. It sorta creeps up on you. But then one day - WHAM - your computer is “suddenly” slow.

Oh, and let’s not forget a little something I call “OS Rot.” Windows operating systems, especially, will develop a sort of virtual decay over time. Programs have been installed and removed, viruses and spyware discovered and fixed (or not), drivers updated, and so forth. Windows does not always handle this gracefully, and one of the main reasons is the Windows registry.



I could go into a whole article on just the registry, but suffice it to say that it’s a big, cumbersome filing system containing configuration and launch settings and parameters for everything that runs in Windows, from your desktop settings and default fonts in Word to booting parameters. It is easily corrupted, not easily optimized, and - after just a year or even a few months - gets littered with all sorts of debris.

Hand-in-hand with OS rot are Windows services - things that are running on your computer but aren’t really programs per-se (although sometimes they are). Print Spooler is a service, for example. It handles traffic between your computer and your printers.

Some programs are notorious for going a little crazy with service installations - Nero CD burning software comes to mind. After you install programs like Nero, not only do you have 10 new things in your start menu - but you've got all kinds of extra services of dubious value that start-up every time you boot your computer.

To check out your running services, go to Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Services. One column shows you which services are running, and another indicates their start preference (disabled, manual, or automatic). There's also a brief description which may or may not be useful.



This is a realm within which you want to tread carefully. Most people can usually stand to disable 3-5 services, but if you disable the wrong ones you could really hamper some particular function or another on your system (although it's easy to undo - messing with services isn't as dangerous as messing with the registry).

Spend some quality Google time checking any that look unfamiliar. Or better yet, leave them alone if you’re just not sure. Any improvements you make, unless you're able to whack really egregious and useless services to recover resources, will be marginal.

So what can you do about your slow old system?

I can tell you what I do NOT recommend: registry cleaners, speed boosters, and other gimmicky software that claims to make things run faster. There’s no free lunch. I’ve never seen anything that really works as advertised, other than physical hardware improvements. In fact, I’ve seen systems get totally whacked by this stuff. And I don’t recommend putting good hardware money into a REALLY old system. So, save your pennies and plan on a new computer to replace your old eMachines 1999-vintage computer. Windows ME in the wild is rare for a reason, you know.

If your system just isn't that old BUT is running slowly, here are some other things you can look at:

• Fragmented hard drive
• Hard drive that’s about to fail
• Lack of disk space - and I mean, you’re down to less than a gig free.
• Virus or spyware taking over computing resources
• Bad network card constantly churning out malformed packets
• Problematic Windows update causing conflicts with other software on your system
• Missing firmware updates for motherboard or other hardware components
• Backup software running during your peak usage times
• Neighbors are using your wireless broadband

This is just a short list - there are a LOT of different places to poke around as you begin your troubleshooting - in Windows itself, on your network, inside the case. Maybe your home router is part of the problem?

Fact is, there are simply too many steps and variables to list here. I’m not sure I could even easily explain in writing how to perform general performance troubleshooting. I've been doing this for so long, that now I kinda start just poking and clicking around and follow my intuition. It seems unscientific, and sometimes it takes only a little time and sometimes a lot. But I usually get it figured out.

Unfortunately, sometimes it's cheaper for my customers to tombstone a not-that-old computer than to pay somebody by the hour to fix it. It's just the reality of commodity PCs and low hardware prices. People don't want to pay 50% of what their computer costs for repairs or upgrades, yet IT professionals can't afford to reduce rates low enough to be commensurate with cheap PC prices. It would be like pursuing a career in toaster repair.

Anyways, to wrap-up this novel: if your system is running slow and you need help, feel free to give me a call. I may not have a snappy, silver-bullet answer for you. But neither am I doing a mental "cha-ching." It just is what it is.

Burning CDs with ImgBurn (Windows)

In a previous post I discussed using Windows Explorer to burn CDs, instead of those complicated and often massive burning "suites."

Programs like Nero install tons of services and add-ons - everything from video conversion utilities to CD drive diagnostics and so forth. Anybody know what "Nero Scout" is and why it suddenly shows up at the "My Computer" level after installation?

Windows disc burning is functional but without some options that come in handy, such as the ability to close a disc burning session (important if you're sending out your disk to be duplicated), a step that verifies your discs, and the ability to burn from or create disk images.

In the meantime, I found a program called ImgBurn which seems to bridge the gap. It's a no-frills and FREE program for burning CDs. It has a fair number of options, but I went through all the defaults and luckily for novice users, it makes smart choices for you.

ImgBurn's opening screen has a "wizard" type of menu where you can quickly get started with your burn job:



The subsequent screens and menus are nothing fancy to look at, but they've got everything you need for handling a variety of burn jobs. Here's the basic data disc burning inteface:



You can learn more about ImgBurn or download a copy for yourself at http://www.imgburn.com.