Windows XP SP1 and earlier

Having upgraded two PCs yesterday from Windows XP Service Pack 1, I wonder how many old, unprotected systems are there out there? Users, in this case a teenager and a senior citizen, are oblivious to any notion that you have to protect and maintain these computers and if you don't, eventually they stop working.

Now that Windows XP SP1 has been added to the unsupported list of Microsoft products, there should be someway of telling these people that a free upgrade is available and reasonably simple to apply. Then when it is installed the usual warnings that 'No antivirus' or 'Out of date antivirus' should at least warn them that something is wrong.

With all the publicity that is about Internet security, fraud and ID theft that appears, you would think some bells would start ringing somewhere. Indeed this week as been all about the Internet Explorer vulnerability and few of my customers contacted me about this. Yet for many people there is obviously no concern at all and they continue to think that they are invulnerable to any of these issues They are protected by the trial version of the antivirus software that came with their PC purchased six years ago and never bothered to pay from any further subscriptions or look for free alternatives such as AVG.

I try to tell them about the risks, even overplaying them to scare them into action, but I think that my words are falling on deaf ears as they claim not to be 'computer literate'! Anyway all the more work for me I suppose.

Snake oil software

Looking for the ultimate resurrection software for your failing PC? A lot of the utility packages offered in the market are pure snake oil software. But for years I've been using Norton Utilities (now Systemworks) and especially Norton WinDoctor to analyse and repair PC problems. For Windows XP and earlier, it does a good job in analysing and repairing the registry, finding invalid shortcuts, missing program files and libraries, etc. And big advantages that you can run it directly from the CD, it is quick and effective and it impresses the customers.

Now that Windows Vista systems are getting older, I've been on the lookout for something similar. I could upgrade Norton Systemworks but I'd like to see a positive review of it for Windows Vista and I don't want to pay full price (£38 inc. P&P) for it as there is no upgrade version. Recently I've been trying Iolo's System Mechanic 8 trial version and it appears at least to do a good enough job in cleaning up the clutter in a system without destroying it. The Advanced automatic mode works better and defragments the hard disks and registry as well, but I've yet to try the individual tools. I'm happy with the results but do not like the annual subscription method of renting the software. At present I'll continue using the trial period on customers computers and then uninstalling the software.

I remove a lot of this sort of software from people's computers who have download and ran these programs in a desperate attempt to recover their systems back into working condition. Mostly these programs are scams which did not achieve their advertised capabilities, demand money to complete the process and usually make the situation much worse. The snake oil products of the IT industry.

DELL mini 9 netbook

I bought and installed my first netbook for a DELL mini 9 netbook for a customer recently and I was not impressed. It seems to me that these netbooks are a bit of a fashion item especially for the young and not an effective IT appliance at all.

This was the more expensive Windows XP model with 16Gb solidstate disk drive. It took an age to install Windows not it and I had to use an old external CD writer drive to install additional application software. The 9" screen is too small for me to see properly so you either have to bend over to look at it when it is on your desk or hold it one hand and peck at with the other instead of resting it on your lap. The processors (Intel Atom N270) seems quite slow and it becomes warm to the touch underneath after a while.

My other concern is they quickly get expensive. I see that you can get a similar hardware spec Acer Aspire One running Linux lite for just over £160 and this is probably worth the money. But if you want Windows, extra data storage and a 10" or 12" screen the prices quickly rise to well over £300. For this money you can begin to get a proper laptop with larger screen, hard and optical disk drives, etc.

I think that I'll pass on these for now.

Fighting the urge to build

I haven't built a PC for over a year now. I find myself browsing the component websites choosing just the right motherboard for the best 'bang for the buck' CPU, the cheapest, fastest hard disk drive, the latest graphics card, etc.

I usually browse the DELL website for the best value computers that I can offer to my customers. Since starting this business, I quickly realised that building PCs was an expensive waste of time. You have to:

1) spend time selecting and ordering the components
2) assemble then into the case, typically at least a couple of hour's work as usually something goes wrong.
3) pray that the thing starts
4) load the Windows operating system and basic software applications
5) try to convince the customers it is what he wanted
6) persuade the customer to buy a legal version of Windows as well
7) not offer a warranty, but feel morally obliged to fix if something goes wrong

I realised that I could offer ready-made DELL configurations that were easier to sell, the customer has a warranty and I made most of my money on the installation services. DELL has a good reputation for making good looking, great value computers that are well designed and built. I don't get to fix much old DELL hardware.

You get some satisfaction from opening the box of the latest whizz-bang PC from DELL, but it is not the same as building your own. It is a statement to your technical knowledge and skill of getting this selected bunch of assorted parts to leap into life as the fastest computer you have ever worked on.

Ahh well, I'm fighting the urge to waste money in choosing which motherboard would best suit this processor. Because by the time I add the case, PSU, hard and optical disk drives, memory, graphics card, software, etc., I could have bought a great DELL desktop, have better peace of mind and saved myself some time and money.

Finding a test bed

Microsoft finally released Windows Small Business Server 2008 last week and duly made available for download a trial version to try out. So I downloaded it onto my Windows Home Server where I keep all my large downloads (this was over 3Gb for the first DVD image), then burnt it to DVD and looked for a PC to try it on.

My first choice was a large trade-in PC that I'd just cleaned. reconditioned and reloaded Windows XP on. All I had to do was to replace the 160Gb hard disk with another and away we go. Not so. Apparently this system has one of the few Pentium 4 (Northwood) CPUs that aren't 64-bit. Even though it is 3GHz. Loading CPUID confirmed that this was a non-starter as SBS 2008 is only available in 64-bit version.

So I started looking around at my other systems for a suitable test bed:
a) another reconditioned AMD Athlon XP 2600 also not 64-bit.
b) my eMachine Windows test PC already has Windows XP and Windows Vista on it and is only a Pentium 4 2.8GHz.
c) my HP ProLiant server is 64-bit but is already setup as a games system with RAID 0 disk drives and I don't want to mess with it, just sell it.
d) my DELL Inspiron 530 demo and games system is a Core 2 Duo E6550 which would work but it has my new nVidia 9600GSO graphics card, the hard disk drive is fairly full and I don't want to add another. Anyway I'm enjoying Far Cry 2 on this.
e) my daughter's DELL Vostro 200 has a C2D E4500 processor and plenty of space, but she wouldn't appreciate me messing about with it.
f) my DELL PowerEdge SC440 server is running Windows Home Server on it and is the centre of my network so that's out.
g) my old DELL Dimension 4550 with 2.53GHz Pentium 4 is still doing a grand job as my administration computer and is strictly hands off for any new hardware or software.
h) my trusty DELL Inspiron 1300 laptop is also 32-bit and anyway it doesn't seem right to run SBS 2008 on a laptop.

So that's the story so far, I'm keen to try this out but no hardware platform is available at the moment. Maybe it is time I tried this virtualisation technology. If only I could find a system to put it on.

I've started Far Cry 2

One of my favorite FPS (First Person Shooter) in the last five years has been Far Cry, so I was eager to try the sequel. I enjoyed the original for the graphics, the atmosphere and the believability of the game.


The magazine and online reviews of the Far Cry 2 were positive, so I purchased the game online last week. I was amazed at the graphics, even from the opening sequence. The atmosphere and the action from the start seemed superb, as was the freeform nature of the game. However, it wasn't till a couple of hours later that I realised that I was just playing the training portion of the game. Having been let off the hook so to speak, it develops into a much deeper a certainly less scripted adventure. The time effects of night, dawn, day and dusk are new for me as is finding a safe house to sleep.

I'm addicted already and eagerly looking forward to many months of amazement and excitement.

AOL bad_pool_header

About last August, a customer of mine with a fairly new DELL Vostro PC started getting 'Blue Screen of Death' bad_pool_header crashes in Windows Vista when she attempted to start the AOL 9.0 VR software. It had been working fine for about six months before that. The usual advice from AOL was to uninstall the AOL software and reinstall. That didn't help.

The Thomson Speedtouch 330 USB modem was working fine and she could surf the Internet, download updates, etc. without any problems. The AOL crashes were starting to make Windows Vista unstable, so I recommended that she read her email through AOL's webmail facility for now. No solution could be found and though the customer was concerned that she could not use her favourite software on her new computer, at least she could work.

Then last week another customer with an almost identical configuration, started to get exactly the same problem. I suspected the unsupported networking access to AOL was causing the problem. I substituted the USB modem with a router and immediately AOL 9.0 VR was fine and working well. OK, as well as AOL software works which generally is not great!

Back to the first customer with my new solution and bursting with confidence that this will fix her problem. No it didn't. AOL 9.0 VR still crashed even after uninstalling, cleaning up, and reinstalling. Go figure? Suggestions welcome.

As an aside to this, I signed myself up for a free AOL screen name and email address. However this does not allow you to download and use their software. You have to be a member for that. So, I can't diagnose the problem at my workbench.