What is the first thing that you will do when you power up your nice new shiny Vista computer?

If you are a beginner, you might:

• look for and play Freecell
• look for and play Solitaire

If you are a fairly accomplished Solitaire player, you might:

• install Yahoo or Windows Live Messenger so that you can start chatting again
• get somebody to install the software for your digital camera

If you are a fairly accomplished general user, you might:

• install the software for your digital camera all by yourself
• attempt to set up Windows Mail with your ISP mail account

If you are an 'expert' user, you might:

• remove all of the crap trial software installed by the OEM
• set up your ISP mail account and actually be able to send and receive mail

What you should be doing, ALL OF YOU, is:

• checking out the OEM Welcome panel to see what it has to offer, e.g. recovery options, what is installed, how to contact the manufacturer
• ensuring that you have a working, fully updated anti-virus and anti-spyware solution installed
• responding quickly to any notification re updating the operating system

If the computer is not working very well, jittery perhaps, slow to respond, some things not obviously working, be prepared to take it back from whence it was bought. Don't let family armchair experts try to fix problems. If you can't wait to take it to a professional, seek advice in forums and newsgroups, but be aware that these are not places for easy answers necessarily.

Until you are sure that all is as it should be, avoid putting much by way of personal stuff on it.

Have patience, and above all, have a great day..

Obsessions..

If I was the type of computer user who can only have the absolute best and nothing else will do, I probably couldn't afford one. I can understand a gamer wanting the best because every 1/000th of a second counts (apparently). I can understand a video/movie/graphics fanatic wanting the best because graphics require power to push them around.

I do not understand why somebody who surfs and sends e-mail needs that absolute best other than for bragging rights (a la Top Trumps cards) 'my computer is faster than yours'..  

If my main concern re my computer centred on how fast it boots, I probably wouldn't own one. I don't suffer with limited attention span so, if it takes my computer maybe three or four minutes to reach its usable state, that works for me.

I have the usual stuff installed on my reasonably good three year old AMD single core 'puter, and the following items which start up with Windows.

• Firewall
• Anti-virus (NOD32)
• Hostsman
• Vista sidebar running the default calendar, Weather Networks 'Weather Eye', Addgadget.com's Network Meter v 2,21 and their Control System v 1.0
• WinPatrol
• NetMeter 1.13 because it can log network totals
• Ultramon because I use dual displays
• Speedfan 4.33

I can justify all of the above.

• Five of the items relate to security
• The sidebar items make life easier, especially the 'weather eye'. In Canada, we can get to see all seasons in the space of an hour, and it is good to know what is coming next
• Ultramon maintains a task bar on the 'other' monitor
• Speedfan tells me when I should stop playing games which are GPU intensive (the temperature of the video card climbs steadily)

But I have limits..

   .. and they are reached and passed when I have to work on a client computer where Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, AOL Buddy, ICQ, Trillian etc start up, because they can take forever and they use up all resources while doing so. Some computers users have them ALL installed.

And to make things worse..

.. they are often set to sign in automatically. As soon as the computer is connected to my router such that I can update the thing quickly because the owner was 'too busy', too tired, didn't know what the icon meant', I get deluged with messages as friends of the client see the name pop up on their computers.

--------------------------------

It's OK. You can come out now. I have gotten over it.. :-)

Vista SP2 Beta 1..

I downloaded it last night, and installed it just a few minutes ago. The install process was surprisingly short and painless, the machine booting to how I remember it before running the update.

Something I always do before running any major service pack is turn off anti-virus protection. WinPatrol has a facility to disable/enable start-ups very easily, just one more reason for having it installed.

Well, so far so good. If I get any problems, I will post them here..

Windows 7 Beta 1..

.. is earmarked for release on or around

 January 13, 2009

after having been previewed at CES a week earlier. TechNet and MSDN download sites should get it at around the same time. I have a feeling that both servers will be put under much strain as news of its appearance quickly filters from one tech to another.I will be one of those poised ready to grab the download.

Are you ready?