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Windows 7 Professional is easier to use, more reliable, more secure and faster than Windows XP.  Windows XP is nearly a decade old, with limited support for new hardware and software.  On the other hand, Windows 7 Professional has been specifically designed to meet the growing demands of modern technology users with more sophisticated networking, mobility, entertainment, data protection, and compatibility features.  And with Windows XP Mode, you get the compatibility of Windows XP in Windows 7 Professional! Be aware though, to use XP Mode you need the right processor!

So our first post on Windows 7 RC was relativly short, this one comes after a bit of use and testing and we stand by the previous title “Windows 7 RC is BRILLIANT”  we are very impressed.

If you don’t want to read on then you can take these three things away from our findings

• Speed
• Stable
• Compatible

For those with the time to read on we will explain what we are meaning by these three findings.

Speed

We have Windows 7 running on a pretty average system, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB Memory, 160GB Hard Drive. Nothing hugely special by today’s standards but we have found it to run very nicely.

The sort of use it has got is in the list below and at no point have we found it to be slow, non-responsive or sluggish. Obviously it is a new install and this helps but still we are impressed! So it has been used for the following over the last few weeks

• Website design
• Internet / Email
• General Office work
• FTP
• Remote Support

Stable

No crashes or hanging to date! What more can we say…?

Compatability

Software / Hardware we have successfully working on the Windows 7 system is as follows:

• Dell Optiplex 360 – ok, this is actually the hardware it is running on, but still useful to know!
• T-Mobile Mobile Broadband Adaptor – this didn’t work on the Beta so we are very impressed it works now!
• Macromedia Dreamweaver MX
• Microsoft Office 2007
• Hamachi VPN
• Filezilla
• Firefox
• Crossloop
• AVG 8.5 Internet Security
• Windows Home Server Connector Software

We still have got a bit more testing before we would be happy to adopt it as a operating system for a production office machine, but I am very tempted! Roll on Final Release…

Here are our Top 3 Keyboard and Mouse Desktop Sets!

1. Microsoft Desktop 1000 – Its cheap, reliable and has good battery life…what more could you want!?  We use these here in the office and they’re brilliant, a really nice feel to type with and we seem to replace the batteries every 6 months, Simple and Cheap is sometimes the best and most reliable way!  It’s easy to install and on Vista it doesn’t seem to need a disk!
2. Microsoft Desktop 3000 – For those who liked the old style natural keyboard this might be the one for you.  The curve isn’t quite so sharp but this is certainly a comfortable keyboard to use.  A bit more than the desktop 1000 but if you need the natural layout well worth considering!
3. We don’t have a third keyboard.  If you don’t want to use the one that came with your machine then we would personally go for one of the two above.  If you really don’t like those options then the best suggestion is to visit a local PC supplier and have a try on a few.  Most big stores have a variety of Microsoft and Logitec keyboards and mice on display for people to try out!

Do you have a keyboard and mouse desktop set that you can recommend?

What exactly is computer memory and what does it do?

Memory in industry is known as RAM (Random Access Memory), its main job is to momentarily remember information for different tasks to be completed.  The computers CPU (Central Processing Unit) is then able to access the information, stored in memory, very easily and quickly.  In simple terms the CPU could be described as the boss of a company, it tells the different parts of the machine what to do.  For example, if you were to open up an application program like Microsoft Word, the CPU then brings the program into memory.  Therefore, as the program has been brought into memory you are able to perform the task at a quicker rate because you’re not waiting around as long for the program to load as the program is ready to be accessed in memory.

A process can be started by simply just typing something on your keyboard.  The CPU interprets what you have done and tells the hard drive to load the information required into memory.  Once the information is in memory, the CPU is able to access the information quickly, especially when compared to having to access the information itself.  In simpler terms, this is a bit like saving your files in a certain folder on your computer, because you know where they are you can find the files quickly, whereas if you were to save then in any old place you could be searching for the file for ages.

How does memory affect performance?

Adding memory to a computer, in most cases, increases the performance of the machine significantly.  If a machine doesn’t have enough memory to store the required information the computer creates what is called ‘virtual memory’.  This means that the CPU reserves space on the hard disk for the data which simulates additional RAM.  This process, known as swapping, considerably reduces the performance of your computer (slows it down a lot)!  So you get an idea of how much slower here are some figures, for an average machine it takes 200ns (nanoseconds) to access RAM, compared to 12,000,000ns to access the hard drive.  So you get an idea of how big the difference really is, think of a basic task at home like washing up…instead of it taking 3 1/2 minutes to wash up, it takes 4 1/2 months.

What difference is made when upgrading memory on a PC or Laptop (usually)?

When you add more memory to a PC or Laptop you notice the difference straight away…

• Programs open quicker,
• Web pages open faster,
• Your machine can cope better with multi-tasking,
• General jobs are performed much faster and reliably

If your machine is getting a slow and you can afford it, it’s well worth increasing the memory!

Well, we have had the new Windows Vista with us for over a year now so I thought it was about time to write a review from a “how it is to use” point of view, rather than “look at what Microsoft say this new Operating System (OS) can do!”.

I think I have mentioned in past blogs either here on on Brandstar.co.uk that I was using the pre-release of Vista codenamed longhorn and thought it was good although wasn’t completely convinced. When Vista was fully released to the public at the beginning of 2007 I moved over to Vista on my existing system.

Installing Vista Business on my XP System

I didn’t want to have to buy a new machine just to use Vista, mainly because I didn’t know if it would be worthwhile. Instead I decided to install it on my existing machine that was running XP fairly well. There begun a number of problems. Firstly the graphics card drivers didn’t work properly so I had to replace the graphics card (took two attempts!) and then stability did seem to be an issue although I think that was due to the XPC motherboard as I was aware of some problems with them at the time.

Despite those problems, what I had seen of Vista, I liked but I needed in the office something more stable than this XPC machine that would randomly freeze. So I bought a Dell Vostro Desktop. Intel Core 2 Duo 2.33GHz, 4GB Ram, 200GB Hard Disk etc. In short..a nice machine!

Vista on a nice new PC

With this machine built for Vista it had hardware in it that I knew would be compatible and stable and so I thought a good ground to really begin using Vista properly.

I have to confess that I was surprised when I found all my existing hardware to be compatible with Vista. I know Microsoft raved about the compatibility but that was just marketing surely! My Canon IP5300 printer had drivers I could download, the Samsung ML-1210 works nicely, both Epson scanners worked too!

Some people say – “It is important that my digital camera works”. You rarely need drivers for your digital camera to work on XP or Vista, let alone the bloated software that comes with them. Might I suggest that the next time you get a digi camera you take a photo and plug the camera in…see what happens! I think you will be surprised!

It was a new OS so there were obviously things to learn, the first one for me being how to overcome networking issues. Turns out you have to use Network and Sharing Center and turn on things like Network Discovery, File/Printer Sharing etc. Once you have sussed that and set the Vista machine up on the right workgroup then my experience so far has been good. Set it up and do a reboot…away you go!

Secure…Really? - Microsoft’s sales team spent goodness knows how long telling us how much more secure Vista will be compared to XP. I have to be honest despite knowing how much time and effort had gone into testing the OS before release I was still a tiny bit sceptical. Having said that..It turns out that Microsoft might actually have been telling the truth! From what I have read the reported security problems with Vista is not only way below XP’s security vulnerabilities upon release but is also beating other brands of OS as well! What’s more, my experiences on my own Vista machines as well as clients match their findings. Well done Microsoft!

Crash, Hang, Reboot - How is the stability. Well I am yet to see a blue screen on Vista, anyone got a screenshot to prove they exist? Seriously, I am sure they do exist. I am just yet to see one. Because I access my desktop remotely all the time it tends to get left on and it does so quite happily. The only thing that does cause it to shutdown against my will are the powercuts we randomly get around here and that isn’t really Vista’s fault! When I last checked how long my Vista machine had been up and running for, it was 21days, and still going strong. I only rebooted because I installed an application that wanted a reboot.

It has only been in the last week that I have actually seen Vista crash, which isn’t bad after working on it for a year or more. That was on a clients machine and it actually turned out to be a problem with the storage controller and not Vista. The other crash I have seen on Vista happened last week and that was caused by a fault with a CD rather than Vista.

So is this a perfect Operating System then..? Well..No, I don’t believe in such a thing. Vista isn’t perfect, if it was they wouldn’t be releasing Service Pack 1 for it in March. However the things that I have come across more than once with Vista that make it not quite perfect are these:

• Windows Mail – There is a bug in this that will randomly lock out and corrupt the outbox mail folder. There is a way round it but you loose any unreadable messages from the outbox. If you are struggling with this we wrote about it on Brandstar along with the fix, check out the Brandstar Site for details.
• Windows Mail – An issue, not really a bug with Windows Mail this time, but a little disappointment is that there is no UK dictionary.
• Office 2003 doesn’t fully work with Vista. There are the odd little bugs here and there which annoy more than anything in Office 2003 running on Vista. The one I found on a users machine was that they couldn’t use Word to edit their signature in Outlook. Small but annoying. Office 2007 I have to say is better and works perfectly on Vista, but that’s not really the point!
• Bit-Locker only on Vista Ultimate – In my opinion the Business version of Vista should have the Bit-Locker facility as well. I appreciate Microsoft’s argument that Ultimate has to have something ‘extra’ to warrant having that version but surely just having all the components of Premium and Business is enough?

They are the things that come to mind, and although there might be one or two more I don’t really think there is anything terribly worrying that should put users off this Operating System.

Am I recommending people get Vista?

The answer is yes and no. Much like when it was first released I don’t recommend upgrading your machine unless you bought it as “Vista Ready”. If you are buying a new machine then I wouldn’t even think of advising you against Vista! My most important advice. Make sure your computer peripherals are compatible with Vista!

I hope this has helped, particularly if you are on the edge of buying Vista. So far Vista has been very well taken up but at the same time there are still many users uncertain about making the change, and understandably as the OS is still pretty young. But with the first milestone of a year in use and no real scares I think Vista will only become more and more popular. I think this year will be an important one for Vista!