Battle of the Operating Systems

One question I am frequently asked is "which do you prefer, XP or Vista?"

Of course, I couldn't possibly reply "Windows 2000"...


There is no disputing the fact that Vista had a very bad press at launch. And deservedly so. Microsoft were so keen to promote it that they encouraged suppliers to put "Vista Ready" stickers on kit that really wasn't up to it. This led people to upgrade to Vista early and be immediately disappointed.

That is in the past now, we have been Service Packed and it is time to move on. After all, plenty of people slated XP before Service Pack 1 was released - see Windows 2000 comment! Vista is perfectly good and I have sold PCs running it with a clear conscience.

(Note to conspiracy theorists - is it a coincidence that the launch of Vista PC sales also saw many retailers bundle Notrun 360 on the machines? Pick a decent AV package and see a very nice performance boost.)


On a good spec PC, Vista will run very nicely, I wouldn't install it on anything with less than 2GB of RAM. On an older PC, XP is better. It's horses for courses. You must also take into consideration what you are comfortable with - if you haven't used XP then there is little reason to pick it over Vista.

But if you want to get the most out of your machine, take two identical spec machines and the one running XP will feel faster than the one running Vista. As long as all the drivers are available, not always the case with very new laptops.

My desktop is very happy running Vista 64-bit (8GB of RAM, yummy) while one of my laptops is running XP.


But it doesn't end there, oh no. Next month sees the launch of Windows 7. It's really rather good. All the nice bits of Vista but leaner and meaner. I have installed it on my other laptop, a teeny-tiny Dell Mini 9, with impressive results. It's actually running faster than XP did and, as a netbook, it's sensitive to such things.

It also has quite a few improvements over Vista. The ability to (easily) quieten those annoying "User Account Control" pop-ups (yes, they can be turned off on Vista if you're feeling naughty), some really nice improvements to the task bar and all round goodness.


I have been using a Mac recently and was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked it. Windows 7 seems to have taken the bits I liked and then improved on all the bits I didn't. Take the Dock and make it useful, if not quite as pretty.

The upgrade from Vista is pretty painless. Sadly, upgrading straight from XP isn't an option, so one for those more confident with backups and operating system installs.


You can try Windows 7 too, for free - take a trip to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/evalcenter/dd353205.aspx?ITPID=carepgm - with two caveats. Firstly, it will stop working properly next March and secondly, to replace it you will need to do a complete re-install with a purchased operating system. This is the 'Release Candidate' not the completely final version, you would become one of the army of guinea pigs. Smiling guinea pigs.


Let us not forget the Linux alternative - most of my PCs dual boot to Ubuntu and very good it is too. That really gets more performance out of your PC and if it satisfies your needs then you should go for it. For the average user though, until it gets a lot more hardware support, it probably isn't a very realistic option. Your children will hate you when they cannot install everything their friends have. Something worth considering by you Mac owners too, I have clients who are devoted Mac users but have bought their children Vista laptops to make their life at school easier.


So, to sum up...

If you have a recent PC running Vista, don't let anyone put you down! Go to Windows 7 if you want but remember that nobody ever got fired for suggesting that they wait until the first Service Pack.

If you've got an older PC running XP and you're happy with it, great. If you're thinking of replacing it, do so after Windows 7 is launched - who really needs the hassle of these special buy now upgrade later offers?

If you have more than one machine or time and curiosity to kill, download the Windows 7 RC and try it out. It will boost your geek credentials no end.

And whichever you have, consider moving to a leaner antivirus / security solution. Ask me about ESET and how it can save you hassle and HDG, as approved resellers, can save you money.


HDG

PC Repair - beware the rogue traders!

Sky News have been out discovering some of the people who are giving our business a bad name. It's shocking what some of the 'big boys' get up to...

Big Names Exposed In Laptop Investigation


...but even more shocking what some of the backstreet outfits are playing at...

Exposed: Repair Shops Hack Your Laptops


So, I thought I'd give some tips on what to look for when getting your computer repaired so that you can play it safe:

1) Phone numbers

Nothing says "dodgy" more than a mobile number in the back of the newspaper. Could be anyone, anywhere. Mind you, 0800 numbers look impressive but they are very cheap and easy to arrange. Look for a proper telephone number with a proper, geographical dialling code.


2) Address

Does the company's website have an address somewhere? It is a legal requirement to make your name and address known if you are a trader of any kind. After all, if they offer to take your computer away for repair, where are they taking it?


3) Insurance

Do they look like the kind of company that has public liability and professional indemnity insurance? If not, what happens if something goes wrong?


4) Qualifications / Trade bodies

Do they have something like Microsoft Certification or a Comp TIA qualification? "25 years experience" of playing games on a PC doesn't really mean a lot!


5) Trading Standards

A very good indicator that a company does everything right and by the book is Trading Standards Approval. You can call your local Trading Standards Office and they will recommend a trusted company.


6) Ltd, VAT registration

Another good indicator that a company takes itself seriously is if they go through the 'hassle' of registering as a company or for VAT. If they are a registered company, you can find out where the directors live, so they should behave! If you are a business customer, can you claim back your VAT, or are you throwing 15% down the drain?



So, who are you going to call?

Well, to make things easier, I'll tell you the only company in East Kent that can answer YES to ALL the above...

For safe, reliable Computer Repair in Kent, call HDG!

Secret Service

"Oh, hello Mr X. It's Jonathan from HDG here, just calling to see when it would be convenient for me to pop over and replace a hard drive in your server."

"Why?"

"Our monitoring has shown that one of the hard drives is starting to report errors. Nothing serious to worry about, all your data is safe as the drives are configured to be redundant if they fail. Just a precaution."

"Sounds expensive?"

"No, no charge, all part of your package. Should only take about 10 minutes to swap it out and we won't need to stop the server, so whenever it's convenient for me to pop in..."


Sound too good to be true? Actually, this was based on a real conversation with a customer on our Small Business Peace of Mind Package a few days ago.

HDG

Add some polish to Sky with Chrome

Now, I'm not one to force (or even encourage) people to change their web browser. It's a matter of familiarity and personal choice. I've always liked Firefox and used it in preference to Internet Explorer. But when I worked at a certain big pharma corporate, it was IE or nothing.

<old geek> This could be because I had always used Netscape (well, Mosaic briefly when t'interweb was first invented) and watched it wither and die under the onslaught of IE. Sob.</old geek>

However, today I saw first hand a good reason to change. I was trying to sort out a customer's PC that was running very slowly when accessing his email. He uses Sky as his provider and accesses email via their website. Rather than just blame Sky, I asked him to try accessing his email on his partner's laptop. No problems there, her laptop was a lot faster.

Both running Internet Explorer, both accessing the same mailbox, one significantly faster. I suggested uninstalling IE8 on his machine, in case it was that (IE8 has been going out as a high-priority update on Microsoft update - tut tut). But he didn't have IE8 installed. So I suggested he install it.

Not clutching at straws at all, then.


Still no luck. Then a flash of inspiration. Sky email is actually provided by Google, so why not try that flash new browser, Google Chrome?

Now, bearing in mind I was doing all this in a remote support session, which makes things slow, I nearly fell off my chair when I saw the difference.


Accessing Sky Email with Google Chrome was fantastic, so if you have the first I recommend the second. I just don't recommend the first...


However, I will be sticking with Firefox a little longer, for reasons I will explain another time.


HDG

Beware "Personal Antivirus"

Most virus or malware infections at the moment are introduced using "social engineering". They do not install themselves without you knowing, they instead use tactics to encourage you to install them without realising.

One horrible example is "Personal Antivirus". Recently, we have had a couple of calls where clients are being told that they have hundreds of infections on their PC. Each infection warning is more dire than the last - 'this virus deletes files', 'this trojan steals credit card numbers', 'this virus eats your first-born'...

In fact, they have only one infection - "Personal Antivirus". At some point they have clicked on a link, disguised like a warning from Windows. They are cleverly designed to look like warnings from Windows Security Center [sic] or the little activex warnings that Internet Explorer pops up at the top of the page.

Once you've clicked on the link, you've installed "Personal Antivirus". Hurrah, you must be safe now? Well, no, because all this software does is throw up more warnings, telling you that you are visting infected websites or have all these infections. The interface looks very much like an old version of AVG and incredibly genuine.

Until you click on the button to clean the infection. Which is when it asks you for your credit card details so that you can activate the antivirus software. Run away, fast.

There is no entry in Add / Remove programs for "Personal Antivirus" and selecting the close option does nothing.

Fortunately, something like the wonderful Malwarebytes' Antimalware package can clean it easily. You can download it for personal use for free.

And if you must use free antivirus software, use something decent, like AVG. Better still, or for business use, buy something good. We're resellers for AVG and the wonderful ESET range.


HDG

Embarrassing Confession Time

When we first moved into our house we bought a new oven. It was a combined electric oven with gas hob. The electric bit was easy. So was hooking up the gas - B&Q had the right kind of hose out there on the shelf. Picked it up, plugged it in, all fine.

Until the gasman came to check the meter and condemned the cooker.

A little bit of some special grease around the connections and we wouldn't have been leaking gas everywhere, and we wouldn't have needed to get a Corgi engineer in to certify everything. But then, if we'd got him in in the first place, we wouldn't have had any of that trouble.

No, this isn't just about confessing to DIY disasters (although, with hindsight, if that collapsing bedroom cabinet *had* killed my ex-wife, I'd be a lot richer now). It is, instead, building up to an analogy.

Last week, I went to see a customer who was nervous about setting up their wireless router and had called me in. Their neighbour had scoffed at them - 'setting up wireless is easy, you're wasting your money'.

Well, the wireless was set up and a couple of other problems sorted all within the first hour, so not exactly expensive.

I then left a card for the neighbour. Their wireless had been so easy to set up that they'd managed to leave it completely open and share it with everyone else in the street.

I don't think they intended to be so generous. Sometimes a little money spent on getting in the expert can save a lot of embarrassment.

So, if you need help with your home network in Kent, you know where to come.

JAG.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Or so they say. So I am indeed a little flattered that someone decided to 'steal' our website template. After all, if I'm trying to make a business out of website design in Kent, I should hope that people like my work. Besides, most of my template was inspired by the default template from CMSMS.

One tip if you're going to 'creative swipe' someone else's work - take out the bit of code that registers on their Google Analytics. Otherwise, it's a bit blooming obvious when your url appears on their web stats.

And no, I'm not giving them the pleasure of a link!