Windows
I’ve been busy in the past week or two setting up a Windows
XP machine … a PC which I bought off my son-in-law, Kris. The
PC is 4 years old, but I’m hoping that I’ll get several year’s
use out of it. Kris gave me a Microsoft wireless mouse and
a Microsoft wireless keyboard also, which I’ve very impressed
with … the younger generation are more into having the latest
gadgets than we are, I think.
I felt sad to give up my old Windows 98 machine, which I’ve
had for about 9 years … but it was getting left behind with
incoming new hardware and new software too … all requiring
more powerful machines and Windows XP or Vista … very annoying
as I was very happy to continue using Windows 98.
For example, most USB flash drives won’t work on my old machine
– I’ve only got one flash drive that does. I haven’t completely
abandoned the old fossil, until I’m happy with the new machine’s
performance, such as burning and copying CD-Roms, which I’ve yet
to have a go at.
I will probably extract the hard drive from the old machine, and
convert it into an external hard drive for extra storage.
If you’re thinking about taking an old machine to the refuse tip,
here’s some advice from Jack Schofield of The Guardian … that is
to extract the hard drive, wrap a tea-towel around it, and then
to wack it several times with a hammer to destroy it. It would
be a good idea to wear safety glasses at the same time. You can
leave a lot of personal info on your hard drive despite attempts
to wipe it clean of data, so it’s best to destroy it physically.
I’ve put free Avast anti-virus software onto the XP machine, and
so far I’m very pleased with it.
I also have a fairly new Sony VAOI laptop with Windows Vista on
it, with a wi-fi broadband internet connection. My wife Sue will
be using this one mainly, after her laptop’s motherboard died on
us after about 18 months’ use. Buying and fitting a new
motherboard would have cost us £400, which is more than buying a
new laptop these days. Our local computer expert, Gary of GB Micros,
told me that you have to regard laptops as being disposable items.
So, a cautionary tale for you all there.
I called Gary out to our house last week, to help set up both
the laptop and my “new” PC to the internet via the wi-fi unit …
something I couldn’t get my head around from reading all the blurb
and following the advice given on the CD that came with the wi-fi
unit… it was all Greek to me.
Gary set it all up in a jiffy – I was very impressed with the
DOS commands he typed up on the computer screens to link everything
up, and to set up some security (including a 10 character WEP
password) to deter hackers from getting hold of our personal
details. One tip Gary gave me is to use the word Network in
describing the make of the wi-fi unit, to keep any hacker
guessing for its make.
Another of Gary’s tips is to re-set the modem, if your internet
performance appears to be slowing up. We’re on Virgin Media
broadband here with a cable connection to the internet. Gary
unscrewed & detached the cable from the modem and powered it up
without the cable in situ … this resets the modem.
Put the cable back in again and power it up again, and this could
improve your modem’s performance.
Another piece of advice from Gary is to stick with Windows XP
until Vista’s problems are fully sorted out. Our Graham is of
the same opinion. I’ve got some bad faults on the registry of
my Windows Vista, dating back to my attempts to remove Norton
anti-virus software from our laptop and installing other
anti-virus software … the machine repeatedly crashed. I got
Gary to help me sort that problem out, and I now have AVG 7.5
Pro on the machine.
However, some of the downloads from Microsoft are not being
accepted by the machine, resulting in intermittent computer
crashes. I did have a go at reinstalling Windows Vista, but
my back-up DVDs wouldn’t work (which is b----y annoying also).
Sony didn’t supply these back-up DVDs, but advised new owners
to do an initial back-up onto several DVDs at the outset, which
I did.
As regards XP, I’ve just downloaded Service Pack 3 from Microsoft
onto my machine, which took up half an hour of my evening
yesterday – something you’re about to experience if you’ve got
Windows XP too.
Oh, what fun.
Here is a link to Gary’s website. Both Ken and I have used his
services, and can recommend him. He is based in Daybrook in
Nottingham, not far from Sainsbury's.
http://www.gbmicros.co.uk/index.htm
