General Blogs

from CaptainPC - With the release of Windows Vista users were confronted with too many flavors of the OS from which to choose. Should I go with Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, or yada, yada, yada? To make things even more confusing, the Vista flavors also arrived in both 32 and 64 bit editions. Vista 64 bit was new to most users, but XP was actually...

from CaptainPC - The Windows page file, also known to many as the “swap file”, is an area of hard drive space set aside for Windows to use as “virtual memory”. As users open programs and files, Windows will make more room in the “ram” (random access memory), by writing to the page file some of the ram contents. In this way, hard drive space, which is “storage”, is...

from CaptainPC - Never have I involved myself with any Windows operating system during the first week of its release. I continued to use DOS and a menu setup on my computer for months after the release of Windows 3 back when dinosaurs still roamed the planet. After switching to Windows 3, I promised myself to await the first service pack of all subsequent Windows...

from CaptainPC - In the past week I have had more time to explore Windows 7 Home Premium. While I have not experienced any severe difficulties, there have been a few minor problems. Some problems are to be expected with the release of a new operating system. Still, in my experience, Window 7 has thus far proven to be the best new release of Windows yet....

from CaptainPC - The long wait is over. Brand new desktop and laptop designs loaded with Windows 7 became available to the public yesterday, October 22. Microsoft has placed a lot of hope in the new operating system. Microsoft’s reputation is on the line, and if Windows 7 does not redeem the Vista fiasco, at least in some measure, there could be some dark days...

from CaptainPC - If you have wanted to try a Linux operating system, but felt intimidated, the good news is there is an easy way to try Ubuntu Linux without all the hassle of creating a new hard drive partition and formatting for the Linux file system. Ubuntu Linux, in the last few releases, comes with an application called ‘Wubi’ which is a short term for...

from CaptainPC - If you use any flavor of Windows XP or Vista on a laptop or desktop with an LCD screen, then ClearType will make all your text much more sharp and readable. ClearType looks great on laptops, and on large desktop LCD screens, particularly those with very high resolutions. ClearType is native to Windows XP and Vista, but it might not be enabled...

from CaptainPC - Microsoft released the finished version of Microsoft Security Essentials on Tuesday, September 29. This is a free download available at Microsoft.com, and consists of antivirus/antimalware protection all rolled into one software program. The beta version of Security Essentials has been out for some time, however the number of people...

from CaptainPC - Experts tell us that the safest way to surf the internet and use e-mail is to do so with a limited user account, which is a user profile that excludes administrative rights. A limited user account allows the user to run software on the computer and change his/her user password, and little else. The limited user account will not allow system wide...

from CaptainPC - Recently I read an interesting article by Michael Scalisi, an IT manager based in Alameda, California. The title of his article is “I Surf Unprotected”. This is the reason for the title of today’s blog, which kicks off the topic of PC security. As a follow up to this posting, we will look at some safe security practices that will help us all in...

from CaptainPC - A good thing to check when you are buying that new computer is whether or not it comes with a manufacturer’s rescue disk. Some vendors provide a rescue disk that will restore your computer to its original state the day you took it home. Some provide an invisible rescue partition on your hard drive to serve the same purpose. It is better to have...

from CaptainPC - Creating strong passwords is a vital aspect of securing your data and online resources from prying eyes. About the only thing bad guys like better than breaking a really weak password is finding password sticky notes all over a person’s desk or hanging from their computer. For many users, that is exactly the extent of their password security. I...

from CaptainPC - While as a PC user I personally prefer Firefox to Internet Explorer for my web browsing, there are occasions when IE must be used. Not all web sites are Firefox friendly, and some users have to use IE to do most of their online chores. My wife, for instance, must use IE to access most of the online apps used on the University’s web site where...

from CaptainPC - Until a few years ago I used Adobe Acrobat Reader to open Portable Document Format files, aka PDF files. Most people were and still are using Adobe to read PDF files. Have you ever wondered why Adobe Reader seems to take a long time to fully load your document, unless you allow the Adobe Reader Accelerator (or whatever they call it now) to reside...

from CaptainPC - Are you a Firefox browser user? If so you are most likely aware that you can customize Firefox in numerous ways to suit your taste. Many extensions are available that greatly enhance not only your browsing pleasure, but also security and convenience. I use Firefox much more than any other web browser. I like Firefox, and I like the way I...