Archive for December, 2009

I’m collecting Windows Vista Tips / Tweaks / Easter Eggs. Please post them here I’ll add them to http://www.vistaarticles.com

I’ll start:
When you have many windows / icons on taskbar you may find it hard to read titles or click <, ^ etc… to access them.

You can drag your taskbar upwards (make sure its not locked) and increase the space. You will also be able to see time, day and date.

While this may not be a high-tech tweak – I have seen it help many people (even computer geeks!).

I’m looking for similar tips which can help users. So what is yours?

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We are all witnesses of how the Windows operating system has evolved since Windows 95. You have to admit, the Windows operating system has come a long way. From Windows 95, an OS that’s very buggy and often crashes to the current highly visual Windows Vista. So what happened in between?

Well, we have Windows 98, Windows Millenium, Windows 2000, and for enterprise level systems, we have Windows NT and Windows Server 2000. These different operating systems are created to suit the needs of the various market segments. A home user will choose the home edition, and a developer could choose the professional edition.

For most home users, Windows 98 second edition is already a rather stable OS, compared to Windows 95. However, it’s still lacking in features. There is no firewall, and networking features are almost non-existent. As home users grow more and more sophisticated, the demand for these features grow as well. For enterprise level users, they face similar problems as well. Windows 2000 server doesn’t come any form of protection, making the Internet Information System (IIS) prone to packet attacks. Packet attacks mean hackers are sending bogus packets of data to the server from computers that they hijacked all over the world. So the server administrator will experience the server slowing down to a crawl, till it’s almost non-functional. Since then, many software companies have sprung up to fill this gap by introducing protection software.

Meanwhile, the hardware side of the personal computer industry is heating up. CPU power is doubling almost every year, RAM is getting bigger in size as well, and hard disk cost have taken a nose dive. Improvements in hardware provides the fertilizer for improvements in software. No longer are software constrained by hardware specifications. Recognizing this trend, Microsoft knows that it’s high time that they get their act together, and surprise the market with a brand new software – the birth of Windows Vista.

The process of creating Windows Vista was a painstaking one. Microsoft took pains to really listen to customers. They talked to customers, did surveys, analyzed the results, and based their new OS on what the customers want. Everyone was talking about Windows Vista for many months before it was finally launched. The result?

Many users were tremendously pleased with the visual improvements in the OS. Windows 98, was a far cry from Mac’s OS in terms of visual effects. With the launch of Windows Vista, Microsoft has finally been able to close the gap. Many additional functions such as firewall, desktop personalization, etc. that were non-existent in previous versions of the OS are now made available. The new OS is definitely more stable, but as with all new software, there are some compatibility issues with other third party software and drivers. But none are too serious to matter much. Now, it’s time for the software vendors to play catching up. And many have already done their part by upgrading their software shortly after the launch of Windows Vista.

Today, Windows Vista is a formidable force. The additional powerful features sure make it very tempting to perform an OS upgrade. With online downloads so conveniently available, it’s no surprise that most will be downloading their own copy very soon.

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There are certain ways wherein you can keep the data of your computer secure. Your first option requires the downloading and installation of firewall and antivirus updates. Or else, you can choose to remove the rootkits which you have detected on your system. Another common way for you to protect your system from possible threats is by downloading and installing Windows Vista updates. This is probably the most popular method which has been employed by a lot of users to protect their network. If you want to know more about this topic, you can check out Windows Update Guide. This online site offers information and news on Windows and the programs or features that come with it.

Windows updates introduce Windows Vista, which is highly appealing because of its graphic interface. Not only this, Vista is also of high use to the users installing it. If you are a system administrator, this system can be very useful and beneficial for you. This will allow you to provide your network with more protection and security which you can never obtain from the other types of operating systems. If you want to keep viruses and hackers from getting into your system easily, you might want to download and install Windows Vista. This is very beneficial especially when your business is using a large computer network system, and this system manages most of your tasks.

Vista updates have several features to offer to its users. Some of these features are improvements from the software which has already been installed on the older versions of Windows. On the other hand, some of the features of Vista are new releases from Microsoft. One of these features is Windows Shell, which is different from Windows XP in terms of navigation and search abilities. Through Shell’s preview panel, you are allowed automatic thumbnail views of your documents. Its details panel allows you to determine the size and type of the file. Still another feature of Vista is Aero, which makes the operating system irresistible. Through Windows Aero, you are provided with fresh methods when you want to utilize or view your desktop. These methods are supported with thumbnails, live animations, transparencies, and icons. Other than Shell and Aero, Vista also comes with a center for restoration, backup, and its own help section.

Although there have been negative reviews about Windows Vista, the choice whether you download and install its updates is entirely up to you. If you want to provide optimum security and protection for your computer, this is something which you should choose. In order for you to acquire more information and news about Windows Vista updates, log on to the website of Windows Update Guide. Maybe you will be enlightened on the importance of the Vista when you get to read what the site has to say about it. Unlike other sites wherein you have to register and pay to get information, Windows Update Guide does not require you to pay. You will be able to learn about computer safety for free.

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What is an Operating System? A good answer would be “A set of programs that provide a GUI to interact with various devices in a computer”. This definition would hold good until a few years back, when an operating system is just a few icons and menus that you see when you switch on your computer. Operating systems provided file and device management using a Basic GUI.

But with the development of computers, operating systems also evolved a lot. From simple file and device management solution, modern day operating systems should be stable and secure the data stored on a computer. The data stored on a computer can be anything from music, movies and photos to data that you have generated and stored in different files. It takes only a small virus, a power surge or a device failure to destroy data.

Today’s operating systems try to anticipate such scenarios and issue warning messages and take pro-active steps to minimize the data loss. I would talk about Windows XP and Windows Vista because 80% of computers run on Windows Operating system and Windows Vista is an upgrade to Windows XP.

Windows XP has been around for 8 years now and in considered one of the best operating systems released by Microsoft. When Windows XP was released it was considered a resource hogger. Windows XP required 128 MB of RAM to run smoothly. And there are many complaints from long installation times to frequent crashes. Microsoft released Service Pack 1 and things changed. Most of the security holes are fixed and Windows XP became stable. Windows XP was built to give a better user experience by easy installation and plug & play capability.

After a few years with XP, internet threats have grown and Microsoft started bundling Anti-spyware products along with Windows XP. This didn’t help much, and since Windows XP is the most used, hackers tried to find ways to break into Windows XP systems. This triggered the need for a more secure operating system and there came Windows Vista into picture.

Some of the problems with Windows XP are that password protection is not secure enough, users can use Bootable live CD’s like miniPE or Road Starter to bypass Passwords and access the file system. The other major issue is Internet Explorer 6 which is the number one target for hackers. By exploiting the security homes in IE6 hackers can take control of IE and hence the Windows XP box. And last but not least, when you try to search for a file under Windows XP, you have a terribly slow search tool.

Now its Windows Vista which is structurally more robust and is much more visually appealing. Vista comes with Encrypted File System (EFS) which takes care of file level security. Vista allows one to encode an entire partition or hard disk with just a few clicks. In Windows Vista Internet Explorer runs with restricted permission. If a malicious piece of code enters the system through the browser it cannot do much harm, since Vista simply refuses to permit to run it. File Searching has improved a lot with Vista.

But 2 of the night mares with Vista are getting your old hardware running and the annoying popup prompting you to allow or block any action you have performed.

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