A ‘Cure all’ alternative..

What program cleans up all in the list below:

1. Downloaded Program files
2. Temporary Internet files
3. Offline webpages
4. Office setup files
5. Recycle bin
6. Setup Log files
7. System Error Memory Dump files
8. System error Minidump files
9. Temporary files
10. Thumbnails
11. Per User archived Windows error reporting
12. System Queued Windows error reporting
13. Removes all but the last Restore Point
14. Links to Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features

Answer: Windows Disk Cleanup

So why go looking for some third party crap cleaner which has dangerous additions like a registry cleaner? The majority of third party cleaning utilities will screw up your system. Some do it at the very next reboot, while others bide their time, slowly whittling away at the system. It is only a matter of time. It is all very well installing this and that, but you should think first. Do you really need it? You see, indiscriminate installing of junk which promises a great deal but in reality offers no deal is not a good long term plan. Running with the idea that there is a program which can remove all of the crap which you have installed and safely restore you computer back to fully working is a pipe dream. Windows Disk Cleanup can’t do it either, but at least it is a safe utility to use.

An example of one of the very worst utilities is the duplicate file finder. Installing one of these and following through with what it suggests will leave you with one screwed up computer which will do nothing but go through the boot loop. Another is the registry cleaner. You may think that it makes your computer run faster but what it is actually doing is chipping away at stuff in the registry until eventually your computer will maybe not update properly. When time comes to remove the beta service pack you installed just for fun, it will not uninstall. A whole host of problems can be building up in the wings when using these cure all’s. Blame XP/Vista? Sure, why not! XP/Vista made you do it, eh.. NOT.

It isn’t all third party crap that screws things up either. Manually removing folders which you don’t think should exist is always good for tears before bedtime. Getting all uptight about all of the folders in the Windows main folder and the space they take up is going to lead to tears too. If Windows or any application has deposited files and folders all over the place, there is a good reason.

So the system is screwed and the cure all’s have failed. Now it is time to finish the job using a Windows utility. Lets try System Restore, and just to make sure that we are successful, we will go back as far as we can. Maybe not the best decision and yet another wild grab at straws. System Restore will try to put things back the way they were for the date you pick, but it will only try to put system files the way they were. This does not include stuff which you have added. You can end up with more problems than you started with by doing this. I have also found that Vista System Restore does a better job and more often than the XP version.

If you place your pride on that pile of assorted CD’s which you didn’t put back in protective covers after you used them, we will discuss the biggest problem of all. Yes, that’s right: YOU made the decision to install junk, pressed the ‘install now’ button. If you had just used your computer to write the letter, do the artwork for the Scout Troop Jamboree, taken the redeye out of the last bunch of family pics, sorted your home finances out in Quicken etc, the computer would still be ok. You wouldn’t be running around like a scalded cat looking for the recovery set which was last seen being put in the box marked ‘Kitchen stuff’ last time you moved house..

A final note: I have covered this topic before but there are slow learners amongst you. To make it more interesting second time around, I changed some of the wording, but the overall message remains the same..

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it..

64bit + Canon Lide 30 + Vuescan 8.5

It works, and I should be really pleased, and I was until I clicked on ‘Purchase now’. There are two versions of Vuescan: standard or professional. Pricing is essentially half the price of a new scanner, or almost full price of a new scanner. To offset the cost, I believe that you get a five license package so that the software can be used on multiple computers on a home network for instance.

But there are compelling reasons to buy new

1. New versions of support programs like photo editors, OCR’s etc.
2. Quieter operation.
3. Faster scan times.
4. Higher resolution.
5. The warranty.

All good stuff but consider the reasons for not buying new..

1. Some people are still using Paint Shop Pro 7 for photo editing, and why not. It works very well. For basic stuff like red eye removal, the free Windows picture viewers do a decent job too. OCR software may have improved since I last tried it but it sure was hit and miss back then.
2. Noise can be a problem, but unless you are scanning an entire book, the buzz saw sound is never that bad.
3. Scan times as advertised can be misleading because they really only apply to the default resolution setting which is generally the lowest available.
4. Usage at higher resolution other than the default results in slow operation and huge file sizes.
5. The GREEN issue. It will be one less perfectly good scanner in the landfill site. 

Unless you are looking to buy a scanner which has more advanced features, a transparency adapter or maybe a auto sheet feeder, the only obvious benefit to a new one is that it is new and you get a new warranty. Scanners can break of course. The band which pulls the scanner head can let go and/or the circuit board can shut off power to the scanner light or refuse to tell the host computer that it is available for use, but the chances are low if the scanner is not used very much.

Like many others, I face a dilemma to which I would normally answer ‘Go buy a new one and get over it. The reasons for buying new are obvious’. Then again, the reasons for not buying new are quite compelling too. In the case of old ‘parallel’ scanners, there was a very good case to dump them, but the case for USB scanners is not so clear cut. I think that I would be more amenable to paying for Vuescan if my scanner was a much better model than the Lide 30, but we are talking ‘budget’ scanner here.

The parting shot: Vuescan 8.5 does as it claims and does it very well. The control panel is just like the original and the scanner even seemed to be quieter in operation. I can’t fault the program at all, and wish that my scanner was worth the outlay. If it was, I would definitely have a licensed Vuescan running on this computer right now.

As it stands, I still have a computer running a 32bit OS, so I will hold off making a decision for now.

Internet Explorer 8

.. is finally RTM, and despite some saying that it still has bugs, it works for me. In fact, in 64bit guise, it works extremely well for me, but then all I want to do is browse with it.

• The compatibility button (to the left of ‘refresh’) seems to work with website pages which seem not to display too well at first load, and the whole thing looks nice and clean.
• Unlike Firefox, there is no annoying popup offering the installation or update  of yet another add-in.
• It lacks the confusing and for the most part useless array of features in Maxthon 2. This is a good thing, by the way.
• In 64bit guise, it loads fast
• It works..

So what else should a browser do? What were you expecting?

Security is always an issue and IE8 is probably as good as any and apparently better than Apple’s Safari which, if you read between the lines, can almost be breached just by opening it. You have to face facts. A browser is like a domestic cat flap. It is designed and installed to make life easier for one’s own pet cat, but try putting that message across to any local moggy, Skunk, Raccoon or Squirrel.

Defragging..

I had recently installed Diskeeper Pro Premier 2009 on a 32bit installation of Vista Ultimate, but set it for manual rather than automatic defragmentation because I felt that it was interfering in normal operation. Since then, I have installed Vista Ultimate 64bit and re-installed Diskeeper 2009.

I have to tell you that it works very well indeed, and is not noticeable when set for auto operation. A few minutes ago, I opened Diskeeper in order to do a manual defrag, and none of my drives and partitions needed doing. It doesn’t get any better than that. Version 2009 is without a doubt the best yet.

There is no more.. that’s it. Go try it for yourself.. http://www.diskeeper.com/

Reputable anti-Malware solutions..

Antivirus

Avira – AVG – Avast – Kapersky – ESET NOD32

Antispyware

Spybot S&D – Malwarebytes – SuperAntiSpyware

OK, there are others BUT

The decent ones never produce unsolicited popups which warn of multiple infections UNLESS you have one of the above installed..

Neither do they appear as ads every time that you go to any webpage..

Just because an ad appears on the webpage of some IT professionals does not mean that the program has any merit. Some of the ads are most decidedly crapware. The IT professionals should know better and clean up their act.

If you are not sure about a program, go to a newsgroup or forum and ask BEFORE you attempt an installation..

Internet Service Provider Mail

When you sign up with an ISP, you will be given an e-mail ID too. It will look something like this: a.n.other@ISP name.com .. If in Canada, .ca, in the UK, .co.uk, in Australia, .au and so on. I always use my ISP mail account as my primary mail in/mail out box because it looks better, especially when sending mail to sensible people and institutions like banks and insurance companies. Mail ID’s like hot_diggety-dawg@web mail.com just don’t have the air of sensibility required for some messages.

So, the cable guy has called, or maybe the DSL provider has sent you their DIY kit, and you are ‘net ready’. How do you get to your ISP mailbox?

ISPs generally provide a way via their home page which can be accessed from your home computer or any computer anywhere in the world. All you have to do is find the link on the page and then type in your given e-mail ID and password, details of which will be in the manual given to you by the cable installer or included in the DIY package.

Personally, I don’t like accessing my mail via a homepage. It is ok if all else fails, but the best way to get mail is through an e-mail client installed on your computer. Windows XP comes with the Outlook Express client, Vista with Windows Mail (pretty much the same as OE), and Windows 7 comes with no e-mail client at all.

Setting up a local e-mail client is not difficult, but does require that you have ISP specific connection information to hand, and setup is much the same regardless of mail client. Apart from your mail ID and password, you need to know the server address for incoming mail, outgoing (smtp) mail, the ports through which the e-mail flows, and whether or not it all requires a secured logon. This information is generally available on a web page which you access by typing into a search box ‘<ISP name> mail setup’.

If you want to make mail account setup easy, the best way is to call your ISP and ask the operative at the other end to walk you through the process. Making notes along the way will make it easy for you to do it yourself in the future, or in fact for the next part of this piece.

ISP’s don’t just give you one e-mail box. There will be others allocated for your use, maybe as many as eight, but they will not be setup yet. Note that you can’t just make one up and expect it to work. You have to make the ISP aware of the proposed names. What you have to do is to log into the ISP members area of the homepage, and find the part where you can add secondary mail accounts. Having found it, enter the new mail ID;s into the appropriate boxes, and you are done almost.

Next, go to each computer which requires one of the new mail ID’s setting up in Outlook Express, Windows Mail or other preferred mail client and, using notes taken during the walk-through, set up the mail account. It is that simple..

Secondary accounts are also useful if you want personal and business account names or maybe just two personal accounts coming into the same mail client but to different inboxes. What you do in this case is set one mail ID as a POP3 account, and the other as IMAP. Setup is more or less the same, but the incoming port for the IMAP account will be different. IMAP accounts are handled differently to POP3, but they are easy enough to work.

A final note..

At the end of the account setup, you will see checkboxes relating to leaving messages on the server. ISP mailboxes are nothing like as large as webmail based boxes like Yahoo and Hotmail, so check the box to leave messages on the server, but also check the box relating to erasing messages when the ‘deleted items’ folder is emptied, and remember not to leave too much in your inbox and to empty your deleted items. Deleting messages removes them from the inbox, but does not delete them from the server until you empty the folder. If you want to save e-mail, create mail folders in your mail client and move stuff to save into them. This keeps your inbox level down, and you will not incur warning shots from the ISP about overfilling their mail server..   

A new USB keyboard and mouse?

If you buy a new OEM computer these days, it will most likely come supplied with a USB keyboard and mouse. It wasn’t always this way.

Early IBM clone computers used a 5 pin DIN port for the keyboard and a 9 pin ‘D’ serial port for the mouse. These were replaced by the IBM PS/2 type connectors. PS/2 keyboards and mice generally had grey or black plugs attached to them, and these changed to purple (keyboards) and green (mice) when motherboard manufacturers decided to make it easy for anybody connecting up a system. It was a great idea which overcame the mystery of why the keyboard and mouse were not working. To explain, the keyboard and mouse ports were essentially the same, and it was very easy to cross connect them.

USB enables the input devices to be connected to any USB port on the computer. No problems?

Supposing you have a computer on which you have traditionally used a PS/2 keyboard and mouse. If you connect a USB keyboard and mouse, Windows XP/Vista/Win 7 will eventually acknowledge their presence and will advise you that drivers are being installed. OK, so next time you boot, your keyboard and mouse will be active as soon as Windows starts. So far so good.

So, one day you venture into a Windows newsgroup or forum with a problem you would like answered, and a meanie like me tells you that you will have to go into the system BIOS or setup and make changes to a boot priority list, for instance. If you have an older computer (look on the front panel for a diskette drive), there are a couple of BIOS settings which may not be set as ‘enabled’ by default.

One of them is ‘USB Keyboard’ which allows the computer to recognize the USB keyboard as soon as the computer is powered up.  Enabling this one will allow you to access the System BIOS by pressing DEL or F2 or whatever. Now, your computer and Windows will recognize your new USB keyboard. There generally isn’t a ‘Legacy Mouse’ setting because the system BIOS does not allow for a mouse to be used, so there is no point enabling such a feature.

The other BIOS setting which will most likely be disabled by default is ‘Legacy USB’. If you enable this one, you could theoretically use a USB flash drive to boot into the operating system or maybe start an OS recovery process. If you haven’t caught on, I am suggesting that you enable it NOW.. :-)

A quickie reminder about hooking up a wireless keyboard and mouse (desktop set). RTFM !!!!

There is a procedure which one has to follow to the letter in order that the setup does not incur tears before bedtime, and that procedure is in the ‘fine’ manual, OK?

Vista 64 drivers – my Canon Lide scanner..

I have been thinking about options today and I have three. None of them are too good, but I will save anything up to $110.

Option 1. Use a KVM switch attached to a computer which will run the scanner

Pro’s: It would work..

Cons: I don’t have a KVM switch which works with a wireless desktop set, and the noise of two computers running within earshot could drive me insane.

Option 2. Attach it to another computer on the home network which will support the scanner.

Pro’s: It would work

Cons: Unfortunately the computer in question is almost in constant use by somebody, and I would have to book time on it.

Option 3. Install another hard drive on which is installed a 32bit OS, and either dual boot or F9 to boot from another drive.

Pro’s: It would work.

Cons: I could die waiting for the computer to shut down and boot twice before I could get at whatever I had scanned.

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

For want of something better to do, I plugged my Saitek ST90 joystick and P880 gamepad in, and Vista 64 found and installed drivers for both items. Oh well, I may not be able to easily scan anything, but I can remind myself why I don’t ever buy expensive games which require dexterity with a joystick or gamepad.

The Crow Dilemma..

A few days ago, I wrote about 64bit Vista and losing the use of my scanner, an aging yet still cute Canon Lide 30. Well, after having used my 32bit Vista installation since November 17, 2006, I have finally thrown in the towel.

It was taking longer than it should to boot up, and the Windows Update feed for the SP2 RC was really playing up. I decided to try out 64bit Vista, ensuring that I put it through the WU SP2 saga before making a decision. Everything worked as it should. I also solved the ‘external drive’ issue, so here I am, typing in Windows Live writer with Vista 64bit as the base OS.

I am still frustrated that Canon never released 64bit drivers for what must have been one of the most popular scanners ever, but such is life. I will just have to have a 32bit OS on one of the drives to control it until such time as I feel the need to get a Vista 64/Win 7 64 compatible model. I have probably lost the use of a cheap Saitek Joystick and gamepad too. I am not much of a gamer and haven’t been bothered to see if either will still work. I use my scanner about the same as the game hardware, but that is not the point. My Lide 30 is half useful, where my gaming hardware just makes me look totally inept.. :-)

Having made the leap to 64bit, I will most likely stay with it if only because IE seems to load pages way faster than its 32bit equivalent. It’s not a case of me being slow to accept new stuff so much as my intense dislike of ‘waste’. The one good thing to come out of it is having the chance to clear out some of the junk that I have been storing for so long.

In the next couple of days, I will wipe out the old install and use Acronis Disk Director to drop this installation into it’s place, making sure that I have everything I need from the old one. Actually, before I dump it, I might just uninstall everything but the OS and try to work out why it became so sticky at times. It served me well, and I do so hate initiating reformat on a working OS. I have only just gotten over the loss of my XP installation.. :-(

Vista 64 and Vantec Nexstar USB IDE enclosures..

It took me a day or two to figure out why Vista 64 would not see my USB enclosure. It has a WD 80gb IDE drive installed in it, and the jumper was set to slave.

It seems that 32bit does not really care where the jumper is, but Vista 64 likes to see the jumper set for Cable Select.

Vista 64 drivers..

Whenever I have mentioned anything about installing a 64bit OS and compatibility, some have been very quick to say “no compatibility problems here’

What they actually mean is that all motherboard devices are detected. In some cases, drivers for peripheral devices are available, especially if the devices are NEW models. Apart from the desktop combo, printer and USB headset, mine aren’t.

Installing Vista 64 on another hard drive was quick and easy. I didn’t have to remove memory, and all devices were detected. I also installed MS Office 2007 and the Vista SP2 RC update. It was all looking so good.

BUT..

1. Canon don’t supply Vista 64 drivers for the Lide 30 scanner.
2. The Nexxstar 3.5 USB enclosure does not have the correct firmware to be recognised, and from what I can see, none is available.
3. The Intel 536P analogue modem may as well evaporate.

The question is this. What benefit will I get from 64bit that would be worth the cost of a new scanner, USB enclosure and analogue modem?

I have no 64bit applications and I don’t do video or picture editing.

The problem of whether or not a major change is worth what it will cost in $$$$$ is something that many have to weigh up. When a system and peripherals are fitting the bill, it is hard to throw them out and replace with new when they are doing exactly as asked and without issues.

This is how I feel about it, so I will not change up to Vista 64 or anything 64 until such time as my scanner rolls over and dies. I don’t use it much, but I do use it, and I do not feel disposed to laying out good money when what I have works for me.

When I switch to Windows 7, I will use the 32bit variant because all of my hardware, internal and external is supported.