When I write a column, I almost never feel I have had enough time using the product under review. Even in the rare instance in which deadlines aren’t bearing down, I often realize later on that I’ve missed a fair amount. In the case of Microsoft’s Windows Vista, flaws that I thought would grow less annoying with extended use have actually become more troublesome.
Most of the time I spent testing Vista was with sluggish pre-release versions. I expected things to improve when I ran the finished software on PCs configured for the new Windows version. I now realize that Vista really is slow unless you throw a lot of hardware at it. Microsoft (MSFT) claims it will run with 512 megabytes of memory. I had recommended a minimum of a gigabyte, but 2 GB is more like it if you want snappy performance. Read More»
Posted in Office, Software, Windows Vista | 1 Comment »
Vista comes with a lot of different language packs available for download through the Windows Update. Unlike with XP, with Vista you can change languages as easily as logging off and logging back on, and each user of the computer can use his or her preferred language to interact with the PC. This is really great if you have a foreign exchange student at home, if you are learning a new language, or if you just simply want to have some fun! Read More»
Posted in Windows Vista | 1 Comment »
February 02, 2007 by
Jason Windows XP is full of helpful applications, but some of them take too much control or have other downsides. MSN Explorer, the Outlook Express e-mail client, and even the Internet Explorer browser may all be mere baggage to you. All of these can be removed, saving you as much as 20MB of drive space in the process.
To remove them, navigate to the Control Panel by first clicking Start. Then open Add or Remove Programs and click on Add/Remove Windows Components on the left-hand side of the window. You can uncheck options that you do not use, such as Outlook Express, MSN Explorer, and, of course, Messenger. Read More»
Posted in Computer | No Comments »
January 26, 2007 by
Jason Anyone who has ever received an email from a friend or relative with several megabytes of picture attachments will know that newcomers to the wonderful world of computing and digital photography are often unaware that they need to re-size images before they are sent by email or uploaded to websites. Windows has a picture resizer built into the My Pictures folder options but here’s an even better way, a small freeware program called PIXresizer. The key features are that works with both single and multiple files, it converts between most popular image file formats (.bmp, .gif, .jpg, .png, and .tif), it creates thumbnails and there are multiple resizing methods, to make sure you get the best looking results
Posted in Software | No Comments »
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