Month: August 2008

I am not in the market for a fake Rolex watch. I have a perfectly good 20 year old Casio digital watch good for depths of 200 metres, thanks very much, and it keeps perfect time. Replacement batteries and straps have cost me more than the original watch, but I don’t care. It is not a fake Casio. I am not in the market for a fake Louis Vuitton wallet. I have a perfectly good Bosca wallet, now eight years old but still looking like new. It is not a fake Bosca wallet. I have no desire to join the … Continue reading Spammers, you are wasting your time..

According to a report in ‘The Register’, a third of all Vista machines have been put back to XP. Read more here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/19/windows_xp_vista_7/ Personally, I think that home users are wrong in doing this unless, like commerce, they have mission critical procedures vital to their well-being. Dubious support from 3rd parties in the early days, castigation by the press for the lack of promised features, and a completely unfriendly way of dumping people into standard user mode has done a great deal of damage to Vista’s image. Most people who talk to me about how bad Vista is have never … Continue reading Back To Past XPerience..

They told me that cloud computing was the way to go. I asked them if they thought that my connection was fast enough, and they said yes.   So I gave up my computer on the ground.   But my new computer was not fast enough, and neither was my Internet connection. Before too long, I could only get yesterday’s news.     My ISP told me I would have to pay more for a faster connection if I wanted things  to improve, so I paid more but it didn’t work out. YouTube movies were still going back in time. … Continue reading In The Clouds..

We’ll start with some observation. Affixed to the base of your new laptop is a COA sticker. The key code on the sticker will allow activation of Microsoft Windows Vista <Edition> No rocket science so far, eh. Make special note of the first letter of each of the first three words above. Just to ensure that we are on the same page before moving forwards, the letters are M W V OK. So you have been using one of the applications contained in the trial of Microsoft Office <Edition> 2007  Note the bold letters, because there will be a test … Continue reading Key Codes and Microsoft Office 2007..

I hear a considerable amount of talk about how good CCleaner is. Some computer users have a ‘thing’ about crap, going into each folder looking for stuff which they think that they no longer or never did need. It can become an obsession. So I downloaded CCleaner to see what it could do and, to conduct the test fairly, I ran it as most users would, making no changes to the default setup. It tells me that I gained 406mb hard drive real estate, but what did it cost me? It removed.. registry entries, but only safe ones which were … Continue reading One Man’s treasure..

If you have bought a computer recently.. ..you will have had a first taste of Windows Vistas UAC (User Account Control). This is the box which pops up now and again to tell you ‘NO’. As annoying as this feature can be, it is exists for your benefit. but is probably singlehandedly driving you to consider replacing Windows Vista with Windows XP. There is a utility which can take the pain of UAC away, and it is called TweakUAC. Click on the link below, which will take you to the web site where you can download it. http://www.tweak-uac.com/home/ And to … Continue reading New and potential Vista users please take note!!

Before you purchase anything.. Target Systems.. Vista needs more RAM and more space in which to operate than previous Windows editions. There is good reason for this, as Vista is way more capable of overcoming system errors, and has way more security coded in. In order to take advantage of Vista’s Aero facility, a good quality video card is also required. Target systems do not need to dual or quad core but dual core or higher is an advantage. RAM should be at least 1gb, and more if the target system has an integrated video card. Hard drive size should … Continue reading Upgrading to Vista..