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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: HEAVEN: Ancient Geek - the computer thread
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Wesley J
Silly Shipmate
# 6075
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Silver Faux:
Can anyone advise me whether this will be a faster computer, compared to my 6 year old Compaq Presario, with a 15" CRT screen?
IBM Think center S51
Intel P4 running at 3.2Ghz, 1GB RAM memory, 80GB hard drive, DVD Read (cannot create DVD's but can read CD's and DVD's), Floppy, Ethernet 10/100 for direct connection to cable Internet, windows XP Pro
My current computer has one drive with 4 GB and one with 40; the one with 4 is 80% full and the drive with 40 GB is 55% full.
The moniter I am looking at getting is:
Philips 190VW9FB 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 5ms, 1400x900, 16:10, 800:1
Does this seem like a good upgrade that will be a great deal faster?
Can't say if it's any faster, as you don't give the specs of your 6-year-old machine.
It's certainly neither the fastest nor best you can get today, but I imagine you need a reasonably priced desktop?
Pentium 4 with 3.2GHz ain't too bad - HT (hyperthread) or dual- or even quadcore processors are even faster though, and industry standard today. Of concern might be the 1GB RAM - you could upgrade for Windows XP to 2 or 3GB, so see if you can in fact do that (find our before you buy) - the machine will run better.
80GB HDD is comparatively small today - I think at least 160GB should be taken into consideration, with most new machines now having at least 250GB, or a lot more.
Do you really need a floppy drive? If you keep the old machine (which you might), you can still read (and then transfer on another support) floppies there - don't forget each floppy disk only takes 1.44MB (!), so pathetically little; better get a multiple memory card reader. There are very cheap external USB floppy drives, if you really need one.
A DVD burner (not just a CD one) is urgently to be adviced - namely for backups and safeguard. On a CD-R(W) you can get about 800MB, whereas a DVD-R(W) offers about 4.7GB space. Always helpful being able to make/copy DVDs, possibly even double-layer.
Screen - the bigger the better, and possibly in 16:9 format (rectangular): more space for films, but also mainly for several parallel open windows at any one time, though 19" is certainly an upgrade from what you got now. In addition, LCDs will normally take less power than CFT ones, which is nice as well.
Hope this helps. So - if you can afford it, do get a better one; if not, upgrade the RAM, possibly get an internal DVD burner and an internal multicard reader. DVD burners and multicard readers you can also get as external ones, but why do that if you can get them as internal drives - saves extra USB and power connections.
Hope that helps.
[ 11. October 2009, 19:39: Message edited by: Wesley J ]
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Be it as it may: Wesley J will stay. --- Euthanasia, that sounds good. An alpine neutral neighbourhood. Then back to Britain, all dressed in wood. Things were gonna get worse. (John Cooper Clarke)
Posts: 7354 | From: The Isles of Silly | Registered: May 2004
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monkeylizard
Ship's scurvy
# 952
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Posted
Intel released the 3.2 P4 in June, 2003. Typical Intel production runs go for about 9 months, so at best, the IBM is already pushing 6 years old. I doubt you'll see stellar improvements by moving from one 6 year old PC to another 6 year old PC. But as Wes said, without the Compaq specs, it's hard to say.
Just for fun, let's run some numbers on the IBM:
IBM S51 (est US$100)
2GB memory upgrade (US$30)
DVD/RW drive (US$40)
New Hard Drive (US$80)
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Total: US$250 (GBP 160)
The bottom-of-the-barrel stuff from Dell is about US$350 (GBP 220) and beats the IBM by a hundred miles.
If the IBM is free or close to it, then I'd say go for it, and don't bother putting any upgrades in it aside from perhaps some memory, which is dirt cheap right now. I'd save the rest of the upgrade cash for a new PC. If the PC is going to cost more than about US$30 (GBP 20), I'd pass.
The IBM would probably have a noticable speed increase over your Compaq simply by having a fresh install of Windows. But this could be achieved by formatting the Compaq and starting fresh on it too.
As for the monitor, The Philips looks like a fine general use monitor. Given what I estimate you use your PC for (ie. not for high-end graphics design or gaming), it's probably a solid choice.
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The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. ~ Herbert Spencer (1820 - 1903)
Posts: 2201 | From: Music City, USA | Registered: Jul 2001
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Loquacious beachcomber
Shipmate
# 8783
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Posted
Okay, I will try again to give a comparison:
Propsed new system:
IBM Think center S51
Intel P4 running at 3.2Ghz, 1GB RAM memory, 80GB hard drive, DVD Read
Current system:
Presario_RP running at 2.3 Ghz
(D:) Local disk 4.07 GB; free space 851 MB
(C:) Local disk 34.1 GB; free space 20.3 GB
So, the new one should be quite a bit faster?
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TODAY'S SPECIAL - AND SO ARE YOU (Sign on beachfront fish & chips shop)
Posts: 5954 | From: Southeast of Wawa, between the beach and the hiking trail.. | Registered: Nov 2004
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monkeylizard
Ship's scurvy
# 952
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Posted
Sure, and it has more storage space. If the price is right, go for it. Like I said before, if it's going to cost you much more than 20 GBP or so, I don't think it's worth it. You'll probably see a similar performance gain by simply formating your existing one and reloading Windows.
If it's much more than 20GBP, I'd just save up for a new one.
Oh, and speed depends on what you're doing. If you mean "will it surf the web faster?" and you have a 14.4kbps dial-up modem, then no...
[ 12. October 2009, 17:09: Message edited by: monkeylizard ]
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The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. ~ Herbert Spencer (1820 - 1903)
Posts: 2201 | From: Music City, USA | Registered: Jul 2001
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Foaming Draught
The Low in Low Church
# 9134
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Posted
A few enlightened (read We know what we're talking about) souls here keep telling you this, but perhaps you'll take it from an anti-cyber-fraud police conference. Don't use Windows, and hence don't use Internet Explorer.
[ 15. October 2009, 06:20: Message edited by: Foaming Draught ]
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Australians all let us ring Joyce
For she is young and free
Posts: 8661 | From: Et in Australia Ego | Registered: Feb 2005
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monkeylizard
Ship's scurvy
# 952
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Posted
Unfortunately, unless you drop serious coin on a Mac, normal users don't have any options aside from Windows. Say what you want about linux distros, but in the end, they're intimidating to non-technical users.
Browsers are a different story.
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The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. ~ Herbert Spencer (1820 - 1903)
Posts: 2201 | From: Music City, USA | Registered: Jul 2001
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Max.
Shipmate
# 5846
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Silver Faux:
Okay, I will try again to give a comparison:
Propsed new system:
IBM Think center S51
Intel P4 running at 3.2Ghz, 1GB RAM memory, 80GB hard drive, DVD Read
Current system:
Presario_RP running at 2.3 Ghz
(D:) Local disk 4.07 GB; free space 851 MB
(C:) Local disk 34.1 GB; free space 20.3 GB
So, the new one should be quite a bit faster?
Not necessarily. What type of processor does the current system have? It may well be 2.3ghz but if it was say a Core 2 Duo processor running at 2.3ghz then it's going to be much faster than an old Pentium 4.
Personally I wouldn't even go for a Pentium 4 as it's still a fairly slow system, I'd also recommend getting more RAM than 1gb.
Max.
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For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.
Posts: 9716 | From: North Yorkshire | Registered: May 2004
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monkeylizard
Ship's scurvy
# 952
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Posted
It's a plain old P4, according to the model of IBM.
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The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. ~ Herbert Spencer (1820 - 1903)
Posts: 2201 | From: Music City, USA | Registered: Jul 2001
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Alex Cockell
Ship’s penguin
# 7487
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by monkeylizard:
It's a plain old P4, according to the model of IBM.
And how much are you paying for that?
Posts: 2146 | From: Reading, Berkshire UK | Registered: Jun 2004
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vascopyjama
Shipmate
# 1953
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Posted
Help wise shipmates!
I appreciate that I am not computer literate and there are better ways of computing and surfing...
I use Internet Explorer version 8. I have inadvertantly installed a program called dominating clickbank. It opens up explorer when it feels like and will stop all my tabs until it loads itself. ( how rude)
I have been to the microsoft website and dowloaded the malware fixit tool. It says I do not have any nasty progs to deal with. I beg to differ.
I have searched my computer and deleted everything I can find with dominating click bank in it. I still get the interruptions. I use bigpond security suite which picks up quite a few viruses and all that but still this damn thing lives.
Any advice that does not involve apple macs??
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Behold the duck. The scent of a wet dog. The familiar ahh of your own bed. Things to ponder.
Posts: 298 | From: The Sea of Turbidity | Registered: Dec 2001
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
I take it you've been to My Computer | Add or Remove Programmes?
Personally, I would download Mozilla Firefox and never open IE again.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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vascopyjama
Shipmate
# 1953
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Posted
Thanks Firenze. Been there sneaky bugger does not appear... have used search function well. Still it appears.....
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Behold the duck. The scent of a wet dog. The familiar ahh of your own bed. Things to ponder.
Posts: 298 | From: The Sea of Turbidity | Registered: Dec 2001
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Mr. Spouse
Ship's Pedant
# 3353
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Foaming Draught:
A few enlightened (read We know what we're talking about) souls here keep telling you this, but perhaps you'll take it from an anti-cyber-fraud police conference. Don't use Windows, and hence don't use Internet Explorer.
That won't mean a thing to the majority of Windows users, who have probably never heard of Linux. What do you do if your bank won't work in non-IE browsers? Internet banking = convenience. I can't see Linux live CDs catching on somehow.
My bank uses a PINSentry device for security, so no one can get money out of my account without knowing my debit card PIN and having the card in the their possession at the time. So it doesn't matter which OS I use.
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Try to have a thought of your own, thinking is so important. - Blackadder
Posts: 1814 | From: Here, there & everywhere | Registered: Sep 2002
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Mr. Spouse
Ship's Pedant
# 3353
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by vascopyjama:
I have inadvertantly installed a program called dominating clickbank. It opens up explorer when it feels like and will stop all my tabs until it loads itself.
If it's not malware, the application probably activates itself on startup, through various startup registry keys. This is one way of looking at and disabling startup commands, but must be handled with care! (Putting the names into Google will usually give guidance on what's good and what's not) One good thing about msconfig is that it doesn't delete anything but kind of quarantines them, so re-checking a box will put the item back.
[fixed code]
[ 18. October 2009, 21:36: Message edited by: jedijudy ]
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Try to have a thought of your own, thinking is so important. - Blackadder
Posts: 1814 | From: Here, there & everywhere | Registered: Sep 2002
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vascopyjama
Shipmate
# 1953
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Posted
Thank you thank you thank you Mr Spouse!!!!!
You have killed the beast!!!!
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Behold the duck. The scent of a wet dog. The familiar ahh of your own bed. Things to ponder.
Posts: 298 | From: The Sea of Turbidity | Registered: Dec 2001
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Sparrow
Shipmate
# 2458
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Posted
I've always had Yahoo as my home page and been very happy with it - until recently when it was updated to an all singing all dancing version which I don't like nearly as much - specifically the very annoying advert clips which play whether I want them to or not. There was an endlessly repeating, infuriating AntanDec clip the other day that nearly drove me mad. I guess I will get used to most of it but is there any way of permanently killing the film clips?
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For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Posts: 3149 | From: Bottom right hand corner of the UK | Registered: Mar 2002
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The Revolutionist
Shipmate
# 4578
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sparrow:
I've always had Yahoo as my home page and been very happy with it - until recently when it was updated to an all singing all dancing version which I don't like nearly as much - specifically the very annoying advert clips which play whether I want them to or not. There was an endlessly repeating, infuriating AntanDec clip the other day that nearly drove me mad. I guess I will get used to most of it but is there any way of permanently killing the film clips?
What browser are you using, and what extensions (if any) do you already have? There are various Firefox extensions that you might find helpful, such as Adblock Plus (which blocks adverts) and Flashblock (leaves placeholders for Flash content until you click to load it).
Posts: 1296 | From: London | Registered: May 2003
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monkeylizard
Ship's scurvy
# 952
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by vascopyjama:
Thank you thank you thank you Mr Spouse!!!!!
You have killed the beast!!!!
Maybe....
Removing it from the startup items only keeps it from running by default, but doesn't actually get rid of it. For your purposes, the two are reasonably synonymous, but if it were me, I'd want to know the beast was gone instead of just asleep.
For getting rid of this garbage, I've not found much better than Spybot Search&Destroy. It's continually updated and always ranks highly in CNET, PCWorld, PCWeek, etc. And best of all, it's free and fairly simple to use. I reccomend against its "Tea Timer" module. It's really annoying. Just don't opt for it during the install procees.
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The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. ~ Herbert Spencer (1820 - 1903)
Posts: 2201 | From: Music City, USA | Registered: Jul 2001
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Pheonix
Twisted fire starter
# 2782
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Posted
Something else I'd highly recommend is malware anti-bytes from malware bytes and it seems to get rid of a lot. Used with spybot they get most things.
Posts: 2384 | From: on the move. | Registered: May 2002
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blackbeard
Ship's Pirate
# 10848
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Posted
Belt and braces?
I have recently moved to Virginmedia from another ISP. Virgin say their package comes with anti-virus (though I have never seen hide nor hair of it, I assume it's in there somewhere).
As a legacy from previous ISP I still have McAfee anti-virus/firewall, for which I'm still paying a modest amount of dosh.
Question is - is it worth retaining McAfee?
Posts: 823 | From: Hampshire, UK | Registered: Dec 2005
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monkeylizard
Ship's scurvy
# 952
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Posted
McAfee isn't a bad product. If I were you, I'd check with Virginmedia and find out where this free AV/Firewall product is at. If it's a decent one, then use it. If not, you're probably fine with McAfee.
To find out if it's decent or not, just google the name of it and read some reviews.
If all else fails, AVG is a good free antivirus. ZoneAlarm is a good free firewall.
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The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. ~ Herbert Spencer (1820 - 1903)
Posts: 2201 | From: Music City, USA | Registered: Jul 2001
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Wesley J
Silly Shipmate
# 6075
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Posted
Spam Alert:
I've just got a spam e-mail from a hotmail account belonging to a Shippie (who shall of course remain nameless), which obviously has been hacked.
May I suggest that, with regard to the recent surge in hacked free e-mail accounts (which has been widely reported in the media, see e.g Daily Wail, here), users of free webmail accounts might want to change their passwords as a matter of urgency.
Thank you. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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Be it as it may: Wesley J will stay. --- Euthanasia, that sounds good. An alpine neutral neighbourhood. Then back to Britain, all dressed in wood. Things were gonna get worse. (John Cooper Clarke)
Posts: 7354 | From: The Isles of Silly | Registered: May 2004
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patriotic_mason
Shipmate
# 15246
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by vascopyjama:
Thank you thank you thank you Mr Spouse!!!!!
You have killed the beast!!!!
Not likely. Have you considered running a restore point?
Start - Programs - Accessories - System Tools - System Restore.
Select a date before the problem showed up and it will reboot your PC. It will not delete your personal data. This is more likely to "kill the beast" than what you have already done.
If this does not work, you may end up reloading your O/S.
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"Look with the eyes of Thy love upon our manifold imperfections and pardon all our shortcomings, that we may be filled with the brightness of the everlasting light and become the unspotted mirror of Thy power and the image of Thy goodness."
Posts: 125 | From: Wyoming - USA | Registered: Oct 2009
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St. Stephen the Stoned
Shipmate
# 9841
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Posted
Has anyone else just upgraded to Karmic Koala? Any comments?
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Do you want to see Jesus or don't yer? Well shurrup then!
Posts: 518 | From: Sheffield | Registered: Jul 2005
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Amorya
Ship's tame galoot
# 2652
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Mr. Spouse:
What do you do if your bank won't work in non-IE browsers?
Get a new bank? I don't know of any with that restriction. Certainly Natwest, Abbey, Nationwide and HSBC work fine on other browsers.
As for the security of a card reader to stop moving money, that of course helps. But if someone sniffs your password from online banking, and also sniffs your card number (when you make a purchase maybe), then they can bypass the verified by visa security and spend your money at online shops.
Amorya
Posts: 2383 | From: Coventry | Registered: Apr 2002
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Foaming Draught
The Low in Low Church
# 9134
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by St. Stephen the Stoned:
Has anyone else just upgraded to Karmic Koala? Any comments?
I've been using Karmic since the toolchain was loaded at the end of April. By Alpha 2, it was already obvious that Ubuntu had come up with a marvel. It's the best yet, I can't think of a single con.
After you've upgraded/installed, think about adding these extra goodies.
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Australians all let us ring Joyce
For she is young and free
Posts: 8661 | From: Et in Australia Ego | Registered: Feb 2005
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Leetle Masha
Cantankerous Anchoress
# 8209
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Posted
Noticed recently that RealPlayer no longer records videos using the latest update of Mozilla-Firefox 5.0 as a browser. It will play them, but the RealPlayer recording feature is grayed out and the "Download this video" button does not come up.
However, RealPlayer downloads work fine if you're using IE 8. Tech support says that the RealPlayer techs are working on the issue and should have it solved soon.
[ 01. November 2009, 03:55: Message edited by: Leetle Masha ]
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eleison me, tin amartolin: have mercy on me, the sinner
Posts: 6351 | From: Hesychia, in Hyperdulia | Registered: Aug 2004
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St. Stephen the Stoned
Shipmate
# 9841
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Foaming Draught:
quote:
Originally posted by St. Stephen the Stoned:
Has anyone else just upgraded to Karmic Koala? Any comments?
I've been using Karmic since the toolchain was loaded at the end of April. By Alpha 2, it was already obvious that Ubuntu had come up with a marvel. It's the best yet, I can't think of a single con.
After you've upgraded/installed, think about adding these extra goodies.
Thank you for the link to the goodies. I've installed some and bookmarked for future reference.
Well, it looks nicer, probably because I've switched appearance to Mist, which is, er, clearer than the one I had before, and is not brown!
I had a problem with Tomboy notes because I'd installed a version of mono for use with yWriter5. Ubuntu forum helped me sort that out. But I can't load MuseScore. I've filed a bug report with Launchpad and am awaiting reply.
[ 01. November 2009, 11:14: Message edited by: St. Stephen the Stoned ]
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Do you want to see Jesus or don't yer? Well shurrup then!
Posts: 518 | From: Sheffield | Registered: Jul 2005
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Zoey
Broken idealist
# 11152
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Posted
![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif)
My name is Zoey and I am a pointless-computer game addict. (I am addicted to a specific, simple brainless computer game, but it sounds so stupid I'm not admiting which one - think tetris-type level of complexity.) This has become enough of a problem that drastic action is needed.
On Internet Explorer I accessed the content advisor tool, gave myself unrestricted access to all categories of web-page naughtiness, blocked the specific domain where I access the pointless computer game and then typed in a meaningless combination of letters for my 'supervisor' password (in the hope that after a couple of weeks self-restraint I will have forgotten said password). Job's a goddun.
However, I almost always browse the web via Firefox - Firefox has all my favourites bookmarked, website usernames + passwords remembered, etc, etc. And I can't find anything like the content advisor for Firefox - arrrggghh. So far the only option I can find on Firefox is setting up a whole new account for myself on my computer (it's my own computer to which only I have access) in order to then set up parental controls over the new 'child' account - which sounds like a load of hassle and means that in future I'd need to log on using the 'child' account (I presume without administrator privileges, etc). Surely there must be a simpler way of blocking a single website / domain from being easily accessible on my computer via Firefox?
(Not sure that that all makes sense - it's the end of a long day. Hope folks understand what I'm trying to ask, get back to me if not, kthxbai.)
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Pay no mind, I'm doing fine, I'm breathing on my own.
Posts: 3095 | From: the penultimate stop? | Registered: Mar 2006
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
This would seem to give you the necessary control.
You'd simply blacklist the website.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
looked further and also found this.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Jengie jon
Semper Reformanda
# 273
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Posted
I also tracked down Leechblock. I have tried using it myself. What is really nice is once you have it in place if for a set time, then during the time you cannot just unset it and let yourself get at the website.
Jengie
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"To violate a persons ability to distinguish fact from fantasy is the epistemological equivalent of rape." Noretta Koertge
Back to my blog
Posts: 20894 | From: city of steel, butterflies and rainbows | Registered: May 2001
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
My PC running XP has started stopping going into standby mode. That is to say, it gets as far as the "going into standby mode" screen and then churns on and on. Only turning it off and on again gets it going again. I have fiddled with the shutdown options, disabled hibernation mode or whatever you English-speakers called it, fiddled with the monitor switch-off times, all to no avail (the monitor will go off but it still gets stuck, apparently at the same place).
This seems to be the case even with no obvious apps running. I have slight suspicions about Skype or my AVG antivirus, but nothing more.
Casual browsing has turned up lots of exciting suggestions like "reinstall Windows" which I'm not about to do. Can anyone suggest any less invasive fixes that might be possible?
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Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
Posts: 17944 | From: 528491 | Registered: Jul 2002
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monkeylizard
Ship's scurvy
# 952
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Eutychus:
My PC running XP has started stopping going into standby mode.
I had this problem being cause by Yahoo! Instant Messenger. I found the culprit by accessing the Task Manger (via Ctrl-Alt-Del) and doing an End Task on a running app, then trying to ShutDown/Standby.
Trial and Error until I found the one causing the problem.
Note: I was only ending running tasks where I knew what they were. Quick google searches of a task's name will usually turn up what it is and what it does.
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The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools. ~ Herbert Spencer (1820 - 1903)
Posts: 2201 | From: Music City, USA | Registered: Jul 2001
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churchgeek
Have candles, will pray
# 5557
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Posted
I'm hoping to put my sister's mind at ease.
She is worried that her computer has been hacked, but I don't think it's likely - though, not being a computer expert, I can't say for certain.
She was on a website for a hospice (related tangentially to her job) and clicked on a link, only to get a screen that said "Hacked by [some name]" with a picture of a red-eyed cat and some music. She quickly shut the computer off. She says it was not a separate pop-up window.
I suspect it was the website that was hacked - someone put up a page on the site to prove they were able to hack the site. It sounds to me like the page she was trying to visit had been replaced by this message.
My question is: is it possible she would get a result like that if her computer were being hacked? I can't imagine that they could make it appear that a web page she was visiting had this message on it. I thought people here could perhaps help.
I suggested she try to look at her browser's history (while offline, perhaps) to see if there was a URL associated with what she saw, but she wasn't at her computer when I was on the phone with her, so she couldn't check right then. She's not sure if she might have cleared her history cache when she deleted her "temporary internet files".
Any suggestions?
(Oh, yes, it's a PC, and she has freeware virus protection on it, but I don't know which - I use a Mac.)
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I reserve the right to change my mind.
My article on the Virgin of Vladimir
Posts: 7773 | From: Detroit | Registered: Feb 2004
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basso
Ship’s Crypt Keeper
# 4228
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Posted
You're almost certainly right that the 'hacked' message had been added to the page she was trying to reach.
But if that page was hacked, some kind of malicious content might have been added that would try to infect computers arriving at the compromised page.
Re-running her virus protection (and something like SpyBot) is probably a good idea.
Posts: 4358 | From: Bay Area, Calif | Registered: Mar 2003
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Sparrow
Shipmate
# 2458
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Posted
Has anyone installed Windows 7 yet, and if so, what's your opinion so far?
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For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Posts: 3149 | From: Bottom right hand corner of the UK | Registered: Mar 2002
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Pheonix
Twisted fire starter
# 2782
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Posted
Been using it for 2-3 months now as we had the RTM version through technet.
Its a massive improvement on Vista. Where it really comes to life is on a laptop where hibernate and sleep mode really work quite well. There are lots of nice tweaks such as you see on all the annoying TV ads.
If you get business version that its got lots of nice little things (try pressing Windows key and either X or P) that make presenting that bit easier.
It is in effect Vista as it should have been, but it uses a lot less resources, is more stable and responsive and a whole lot less annoying. For those that liked it I'm afraid classic start menu is no more.
Posts: 2384 | From: on the move. | Registered: May 2002
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Hebdom
Shipmate
# 14685
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Posted
Has anyone tried Microsoft Security Essentials? I ignored the old adage of never use version 1.0 of anything and downloaded and installed it. Inspired by this site.
I'm in two minds about it. It seems to develop hiccups on me, but I need to fine tune my security programs. Just wondering whether anyone else had tried it.
Am posting this from the delightful security of Karmic Koala, where everything works as it should (bliss!). Unfortunately can't stay here, my printer only talks to Windows.
![[Paranoid]](graemlins/paranoid.gif)
One of these days the printer will die and I won't make the same mistake twice!
Posts: 163 | From: Terra australis | Registered: Mar 2009
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Mr. Spouse
Ship's Pedant
# 3353
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sparrow:
Has anyone installed Windows 7 yet, and if so, what's your opinion so far?
I got the RC and Enterprise RTM version trials from Microsoft months back just to see how compatible W7 was with my trusted older applications I run on XP. There were some issues, but I decided to buy a pre-release version anyway on the basis that I would probably get it one day. I went for the Home Premium edition and stuck it on my MacBook with Parallels[1].
I'm finding it ok. A better 'feel' than XP now I'm getting used to where everything is. Even the old applications run ok. I am restricted to the 32-bit version (mainly because I don't want to buy a new printer and the last driver for it was issued for Win2000!) but don't do anything that serious to really notice the difference over 64-bit. So far there is only one application - a CBT package written in Adobe Authorware - that will only run in XP.
[1] I also got myself Parallels 5 - much faster than version 4.
Hebdom, I've heard good things about MSE. Personally I have Comodo for firewall and run Symantec Corporate AV, though did install Comdodo on my W7 trials. The only advice I can offer is don't use AVG! It's a good product, but a pain to maintain and the constant nagging to 'upgrade' to the paid version just got annoying in the end.
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Try to have a thought of your own, thinking is so important. - Blackadder
Posts: 1814 | From: Here, there & everywhere | Registered: Sep 2002
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Timothy the Obscure
Mostly Friendly
# 292
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Posted
I just bought a new computer with Windows 7 (Home Premium). I decided to install Ubuntu 9.04 alongside (I can't really dispense with Windows entirely, though I'd love to go all-Linux in principle). The installation seemed to go well, selecting which system to boot to was no problem...until I logged into the Ship. At that point I was informed that I needed a plugin for Firefox (to view Flash content). I was offered a choice of three, picked one at random, and after a flutter of installation activity got an "insufficient disk space" message (ridiculous, obviously, with a near-virgin 320 gB HDD). Then Firefox stopped responding, so I restarted--except that Ubuntu would not load--I just got an arcane error message. I tried to reinstall Ubuntu, but was told that my disk partitions were all wrong and would have to be redone. I vaguely remember partitioning a hard disk drive back in the old days of DOS, but I had a printed manual to guide me (there's one for the nostalgia thread). At this point I'm tempted to run the Restore program to take the machine back to factory condition and give up on Ubuntu, but if there's a reasonably elegant way to make the dual-boot system work, I'm game to try it.
Suggestions?
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When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.
- C. P. Snow
Posts: 6114 | From: PDX | Registered: May 2001
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Timothy the Obscure
Mostly Friendly
# 292
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Posted
I've had some experience with near-virgins--nothing I'd care to repeat....
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When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.
- C. P. Snow
Posts: 6114 | From: PDX | Registered: May 2001
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RooK
1 of 6
# 1852
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Posted
Huh. Makes me wonder if Micro$oft has gotten wise about many "power users" becoming bi-OS-curious, and have made W7 throw a kink into Ubuntu's usual remora-install method. It wouldn't be a new trick for them to pull.
Posts: 15274 | From: Portland, Oregon, USA, Earth | Registered: Nov 2001
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
I haven't seen Windows 7 yet, but if it's little more than a repackaged Vista look-alike, then forget it! I'll stick with XP until they pry my cold dead fingers off Crtl-Alt-DEL.
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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Foaming Draught
The Low in Low Church
# 9134
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Posted
Hmmm, sorry you've had hassle with dual-booting, Timothy the Obscure. After you read Zappa's post, you didn't get this message, did you?
PM me if you want to put the dual-boot right, or if you have trouble restoring (which you might do, now that W7's Master Boot Record is in the wrong place).
FD
Posts: 8661 | From: Et in Australia Ego | Registered: Feb 2005
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Net access has become very sluggish. Don't know why.
My wireless network monitor tells me the connection is good, and the speed is greater than 100Mbps. The other user of the broadband connection is not seeing a problem.
So, local to PC/browser? Memory perhaps? I have disabled add-ons and cleared the cache.
Read-out on performance in Task Manager is
CPU Usage - about 10%
PF Usage - 523 MB
Physical Memory - 523892
Available - 110516
System Cache - 238876
Kernel Memory - 128800
Paged - 93864
Nonpaged - 34936
Does that look to anyone like too little memory?
PC is a bit old, and I know half a Gb is way below what is current (2 Gb on my work machine) - but I don't have MS Office or any other resource-gobblers (that I know of).
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
Assuming this is a sustained phenomenon?
What percentage of hard drive space do you have free?
If have not added any progs lately or dumped large amounts of data onto your drive, it might be some sort of malware.
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
It's just today and yesterday.
I checked my security apps, and they couldn't detect any spyware or viruses.
83% free space on the hard disk.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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