Lately I've seen this message turn up out of nowhere on Windows XP computers that do not run Outlook Express.

I don't know why it's turning up now after years of staying quiet but it reminds me that Outlook Express is one of several obsolete Windows components that can be safely removed from most Windows XP computers.

Open Control Panel / Add or Remove Programs and click on the left on Add/Remove Windows Components.

I routinely remove some of the items in the list that comes up. If you think you might be using any of them, please do not uninstall them. I don't want any silly mistakes.

• MSN Explorer  This was Microsoft's attempt to create a customized browser that looks like America Online. It's unclear why anyone would want to look like America Online.
• Outlook Express  This is now obsolete and replaced by Windows Live Mail. Look, let me reiterate - if you're using Outlook Express for your mail, don't uninstall it! This is not the same program as Microsoft Outlook, of course; if you're using Outlook, you can safely uninstall Outlook Express.
• Windows Messenger  This is NOT the same program as Windows Live Messenger, the one that most people use. If you have a useless instant messenger icon down by the clock that's always said "Not connected," it's probably a remnant of this program.

Uninstall them by unchecking the box by each item.

You may see an error message about MSN Explorer. I don't know what it means but in my experience it's harmless if you click OK.

Labels: mail, Microsoft, software, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 12/16/2008 01:52:00 PM | permalink

Ho hum. Another day, another batch of updates.

Microsoft released its regularly scheduled monthly updates last night. Your computer may have restarted automatically last night or it will tonight.

If you are using Live Mesh, there is an update that reportedly improves a number of features. Mesh may prompt you to install it at some point soon - I'm not sure if it's completely automatic.

You might want to take a look at the available updates proactively. Go to the Microsoft Update page. In Windows XP, you'll arrive at a web site where you can click the Custom button; in Vista, you'll open up the built-in update program where you can click on View Available Updates.

In addition to any required updates, you'll likely see some "optional" updates. Some of those are interesting! I found the Live Mesh update listed there today. If you're on Windows XP, you might find Windows Search 4.0, a truly useful tool. Perhaps you never got around to Internet Explorer 7, which is significantly safer to use than IE6.

Be careful installing hardware updates that way. If your hardware is working, you may want to be conservative and not install an updated video driver or network card driver. I have mixed feelings about suggesting that because many of the new drivers can be a significant improvement, but installing hardware drivers through the Windows Update system does not always go smoothly and I don't want you to blame me.

The other optional updates are likely to be safe. See if there's anything you're missing!

Labels: IE, search, software, Vista, web_services, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 12/10/2008 10:51:00 AM | permalink

Vista's built-in utility for screen shots is just perfect for most people. If you haven't found it yet, click on the Start button, type in Snip, and click on Snipping Tool. It's got all the basic tools to capture an entire window or a region, add some simple annotations, and do something interesting with it - send it by email, save it as a JPG, or put it on the clipboard so you can paste it into another program. Here's my thoughts about the snipping tool, and here's an explanation and some tips from Microsoft.

My computer has decided it doesn't like the snipping tool. About half the time I get this message:

As always, there are lots of people online with the same problem and the usual mishmash of advice and abuse and digressions. For many people, the problem can be cured at least temporarily by running "Office Diagnostics" from the Options / Resources menu in an Office 2007 program. No one seems quite sure why that works. It worked for me sometimes but it never lasted and I couldn't find a permanent fix.

I tried an inexpensive screen clipping program, Window Clippings, which worked fine but left me unsatisfied. It was kind of uninspiring - each thing I looked into wasn't quite as elegant or simple as I was hoping, and all the dialogs said "Kenny Kerr's Window Clippings," which looked silly. I know, that's not a big deal, but I kept looking at "Kenny Kerr" and wishing it didn't say that. What can I tell you? I'm shallow.

So I revisited a name I hadn't looked at for years, SnagIt, screen capture software that was first used on adding machines, or possibly abacuses, I think. It's been around forever.

It's expensive, $49.95 (free 30 day trial), and just wonderful. While I wasn't looking, SnagIt turned into a beautiful, full-featured office application. There are a variety of ways to capture screen shots - all the ones you'd expect plus a few you might not think of, like capturing an entire web page including the part that is scrolled off screen. An editor opens up to work with the snips with many of the features of a full-fledged graphics program, so it's a single click to add shadows, pointers, annotations, or more. It's a very pretty design and I'm finding the controls to be thoughtfully laid out and intuitive.

I'm going to pay the money and send you all screen shots bristling with arrows and circles, just because I can.

Labels: software, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 11/26/2008 01:44:00 AM | permalink

That rumbling you feel is a seismic shift in the field of security software. This will affect every single one of you and cause major changes in the entire industry.

Microsoft announced today that it will deliver free antivirus and anti-spyware software for all Windows computers, beginning in the second half of 2009.

Windows Live OneCare will be phased out and it will no longer be sold after June 30, 2009.

From the press release:

"Code-named "Morro," this streamlined solution will be available in the second half of 2009 and will provide comprehensive protection from malware including viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans. This new solution, to be offered at no charge to consumers, will be architected for a smaller footprint that will use fewer computing resources, making it ideal for low-bandwidth scenarios or less powerful PCs. As part of Microsoft's move to focus on this simplified offering, the company also announced today that it will discontinue retail sales of its Windows Live OneCare subscription service effective June 30, 2009."

Here's the Microsoft press release, and the post on the OneCare blog. There are a few more details in this interview with Microsoft's senior director of product management.

As far as I know, this is completely unexpected. No one seems to have had a clue it was coming. There have been rumors about an imminent new version of Windows Live OneCare; now there's no word whether it will ever be seen. When Microsoft officially released Small Business Server 2008 last week, one of its features was a new product, Windows Live OneCare for Server, and central management for up to 25 workstations running OneCare. To me, that was one of the compelling features of the new SBS, but it is now dead on arrival; it should not be installed and will not be supported after June 30, 2009.

I can easily imagine that Microsoft is frustrated. Windows is frequently blamed for the onslaught of viruses and malware but computer users around the world have resisted buying subscriptions to security software for a variety of reasons: they can't afford it; they don't understand that it's necessary; they don't keep it current or they never activate an expired trial subscription; or their computers are underpowered for the security suites that are currently available. It's a particular problem outside the United States, where the percentage of unprotected computers is much higher. The press release suggests that Microsoft particularly wants to provide protection for emerging markets and the new low-powered netbooks and OLBCs.

Microsoft claims that it will deliver new software (not a repackaged version of OneCare) which includes only the security protection, with the simplest, least intrusive, and smallest footprint possible. It will not be automatically included with every copy of Windows but it will be free and presumably so easy to obtain that it might as well be built-in.

I assumed that Microsoft had not done this up to now because it would be attacked as "anticompetitive" by the other security software companies. Apparently Microsoft thinks it can avoid those claims - or who knows, maybe it thinks it's the right thing to do and is willing to see how it plays out. Norton, McAfee and the rest will have to adapt - maybe by criticizing Microsoft's software, maybe by adding value to it with other features, maybe by exiting the field and finding something else to do.

ONECARE SUBSCRIBERS: Do not let your subscriptions lapse! OneCare will be fully supported and updated through June 30, 2009 and we will have much more information before then about our options. If your subscription expires on April 30 and you have to pay $49.99 for two months of updates, I'm going to insist that you renew without hesitation. I don't want anyone running a PC without current anti-malware protection - this is not an excuse to procrastinate!

COMPUTER BUYERS: If you buy a new computer, get it protected! If you have to pay $49.99 for OneCare and you don't get a full year out of it, so it goes. You'll get three months or six months or eight months, and that's just fine. Or get another product, I don't care. As long as your security, backup and update needs are covered, I don't care - but this is not an excuse to procrastinate.

[Update 11/20: It's likely that Microsoft will keep OneCare updated for the entire subscription term. See this post and watch for more information to follow.]

A few more points:

Microsoft Equipt was the ill-fated subscription package bundling OneCare with Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition, sold only through Circuit City. Microsoft never committed to it, Circuit City is defunct, and Equipt is being withdrawn from the market.

How could this major decision be made with so little notice that it kills a key feature of a major product launched last week? Is the SBS team angry, embarrassed, or resigned?

OneCare includes features that its users depend on - printer sharing, backups, system maintenance, attention to Windows and other Microsoft updates, control over the firewall, and control over startup programs. Everything that needs attention is reported by a single icon, and necessary actions are described in a consistent interface. If OneCare is discontinued, will something else be developed to provide those functions? Don't tell me that products from third parties will take over - I'll cry, really I will.

Will the new software run on servers? Small businesses really need easy software to protect servers and provide centralized security management. The choices now are difficult and expensive.

This is a remarkable change that will affect all of us. I hope it's for the better but boy, are there a lot of questions left to be answered. More to come!

Labels: computers, Microsoft, OneCare, SBS, security, software, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 11/19/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

Windows Live Mesh has just been updated, as of about noon on Thursday 10/30. If you are using it already, you will be notified to install the update; it will stop working until the update is installed on each computer running it. If you are not using it yet, it has been fully opened up to everyone - read about it, make sure you have your Windows Live ID set up, and you are free to sign up.

Windows Live Mesh is a place to store files online, a program that runs on your computer to keep folders in sync on multiple computers, and a way to get remote access to your computer from anywhere. Live Mesh now supports Macs, and limited testing has begun for Windows Mobile devices. (Click here for more information about the Windows Mobile client.) You will be able to take a picture with your cell phone and have the photo show up immediately on your PC and your Mac, or share files with anyone by sharing a Live Mesh folder so they can access it online or synced to their own computer.

The remote access is extremely well designed and will make it unnecessary for most people to pay for a subscription to LogMeIn or GoToMyPC. Connecting from one computer in your Mesh to another one is a single click - hover over the Mesh icon and click on "Connect." Files can be transferred between the local computer and the remote computer by dragging and dropping copying and pasting them.

[Addendum 10/31: Although files can be transferred between the local and remote computers by copying and pasting them, Live Mesh does not currently support dragging and dropping them. Live Mesh Remote Desktop also apparently does not implement any support for printing at all, so you can work on your remote computer but you can't print something directly on your local printer. Those will be compelling reasons for some of you to use LogMeIn Pro instead of Live Mesh for remote access!]

Other updated features:

• Tips for new users.
• Better support for large monitors in remote sessions.
• Permission levels for shared folders - creator, owner, contributor, reader.
• Drag and drop files between your PC and Live Desktop.
• Multiple file upload to Live Desktop.

Microsoft showed only a couple of applications built on the Mesh framework at the PDC this week. The BBC demonstrated a Meshified version of its iPlayer, an extremely popular service in England for watching TV shows online. The Mesh version will remember what you've watched and spread that information to all your devices. If you watch part of a show on your computer, the episode will start where you left off when you tune in on your cell phone or on another computer.

But that's just a taste of what's coming. Under the hood, Live Mesh has been moved to the Windows Azure framework that Microsoft announced at the PDC underlying all of their upcoming web services, and it's powerful stuff indeed. You are watching and taking part in a transition that will affect you just as deeply as the initial shift to the Internet. I'll write more about that in the next few days!

Labels: Apple, file_sharing, Internet, Microsoft, mobile, remote, software, Vista, web_services, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 10/30/2008 12:51:00 PM | permalink

If you don't have enough memory ("RAM") in your computer, it will run very, very slowly. Once you have a reasonable amount of memory, performance won't change very much if you add more. Memory has been so cheap for the last few years that most people don't need an upgrade but I still run into underpowered systems occasionally, usually when someone has complained to me about how slow their computer is.

You can check how much memory is installed by right-clicking on My Computer (WinXP) or Computer (Vista) and clicking on Properties. You'll see the amount displayed there. Typical business computer users should have a minimum of 512Mb RAM for Windows XP and 2Gb (or 2048Mb) for Vista. If you have less, then add more or replace your existing memory sticks with higher capacities and you'll get an instant, noticeable speed boost, typically for less than a hundred dollars.

Memory is easy to install - once you've done it a couple of times, it takes less than a minute. (It's a little unnerving the first time because it takes a harder push than you expect before the tabs click into place to hold the memory.) The difficulty has always been the process of buying the correct type of memory from the hundreds of choices. It would be nice if the industry had settled on generic memory chips that you could pick up at Costco but no luck - it's a blur of different shapes and sizes and speeds and acronyms. I long ago stopped helping people upgrade memory and started sending them to a hardware outlet - even Best Buy! - where there are shelves of inventory and the store can find the part that will work.

There is an online tool that looks genuinely helpful and might even tempt me into doing upgrades again. Crucial, a long-established memory manufacturer, has a memory scanner on its web site that will identify all the details about the memory currently installed on your system and show you the compatible upgrades from its inventory, right down to the available slots and the details of whether the memory sticks have to be purchased and installed in pairs. It's a lovely tool! You can buy directly from Crucial and in no time you'll feel all speedy again.

[Addendum 10/29 10am: My enthusiasm is tempered a bit by the experience of the very first person who tried this and reported back to me - the Crucial scanner confidently proclaimed that his computer has no memory at all and therefore is at its maximum and would he like to buy an upgrade? Sigh. Okay, maybe it works most of the time.]

Labels: computers, hardware, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 10/29/2008 12:32:00 AM | permalink

Microsoft rushed out a critical security update today that should be installed without delay on every Windows computer. It will have been installed overnight on Wednesday on many computers.

Please make sure this update is installed on your computer!

If you use Windows Live OneCare and it is green on Thursday, the patch was installed.

Otherwise, please check your computer! Go to Windows Update and check for updates. If any critical updates are listed, install them.

This is discussed in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-067 ("Vulnerability in Server Service Could Allow Remote Code Execution (958644)").

Apparently a vulnerability was privately reported to Microsoft, which realized it was "wormable" - capable of propagating across multiple computers very quickly. There was already evidence that it was being exploited in the real world, raising the spectre of a global attack like the SQL Slammer Worm that had a devastating impact in 2003.

The security problem, and the patch, apply to virtually every version of Windows. I'll be patching servers tonight. It may not be a direct threat to many of you but it's difficult to evaluate that, since details of the exploit are not being published for obvious reasons. As near as I can tell, it does not get through firewalls but once it's inside a network it can spread to any unpatched system with printer sharing turned on, which is virtually every computer.

Windows Live OneCare was updated to stop the exploit this morning, and I assume the other security vendors have issued updates as well. But don't count on security software - get the patch installed!

Labels: SBS, security, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 10/23/2008 09:45:00 PM | permalink

Microsoft released security updates on Tuesday night, following its normal monthly schedule. Your computer should have restarted during the night.

We're all overwhelmed by updates but we're stuck with them. The holes fixed today are the ones that the bad guys will be hammering on tomorrow. You should be installing the updates for Windows and other Microsoft products when they're released. Some of them will not be installed automatically - it's up to you to take care of the ones that require extra clicks!

Take a minute to check your settings!

(1) If you're running Windows Live OneCare, the icon should be green. If it's not, it may be waiting for you to install updates manually. Open OneCare and follow the instructions and keep the icon green!

If OneCare is green, you're covered for everything else I mention here. Go be productive.

(2) If you have a little gold shield (Windows XP) or update icon (Vista) by the clock, it's waiting for you to download and/or install updates.

• The Vista update icon is supposed to look like the figure at the left. I wondered about that! I couldn't have told you that by looking at the little blob down by the clock.

(3) Click on Control Panel / Automatic Updates (Windows XP) or Control Panel / System and Maintenance / Windows Update (Vista), and make sure your computer is set to automatically install new updates.

(4) Visit the Microsoft Update web site (Windows XP) or Control Panel / System and Maintenance / Windows Update (Vista), and make sure your computer automatically installs updates for Windows and other Microsoft products. The updates for Microsoft Office are just as important as the ones for Windows.

Updates for other programs can also be important but keeping up with the security fixes for Windows is a fundamental requirement of using a computer today. Be safe out there!

Labels: Microsoft, Office, security, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 10/16/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

You might find something you can use in this collection of tips from David Pogue. Take a look! These are just examples from a much longer list:

• You can enlarge the text on any Web page. In Windows, press Ctrl and the plus or minus keys (for bigger or smaller fonts); on the Mac, it's the Command key and plus or minus.
• You can also enlarge the entire Web page or document by pressing the Control key as you turn the wheel on top of your mouse. On the Mac, this enlarges the entire screen image.
• You can tap the Space bar to scroll down on a Web page one screenful. Add the Shift key to scroll back up.

Lots more. (He's wrong about the recycle bin, though - it doesn't have to be emptied manually.) And don't forget the keyboard shortcuts that I wrote up last year.

Labels: Apple, computers, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 10/04/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony can cause the installation of Windows XP Service Pack 3 to fail.

Ah, the good old days! I used to be able to solve so many problems because I would run into them more than once! These days nothing happens the same way twice.

It's true about Beethoven. A sample of the Fourth Movement named BEETHOV9.WMA is copied into a "Sample Music" folder during installation of Windows XP Service Pack 3. On some computers, an error message comes up that the file can't be copied, and the whole installation of the service pack fails, leaving the computer in an unsteady state.

As always, when I ran into this, I found in a Google search that other people have run into this, with lots of the usual handwringing and namecalling and workarounds. As near as I can tell, the service pack attempts to copy the file into one of Windows XP's default folders, C:\Documents and Settings\All users\Documents\My Music\Sample Music. On some computers, that file path is missing or permissions aren't set correctly. It's hard to know if this will always work but this solution seems likely to succeed:

• When the "beethov9.wma error" comes up, open My Computer.
• Click on the C: drive and go to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents.
• Right-click on Documents and click on Properties.
• Click on the Sharing tab.
• Check the box "Allow Network Users to Change My Files".
• Retry the copy.

But you won't run into that problem. The next time you have a problem, it will be something neither of us have ever run into - your monitor will rotate 90 degrees while your back is turned, or you won't be able to send an email without typing the word "chipmunk" into a box or Word will start typing text from right to left or good god, who knows what the next one will be? Not me.

Beethoven. Sigh.

Labels: WinXP

posted by bruceb at 10/01/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

Since the market for living room computers never developed, Microsoft decided to focus on "extenders," a different way to deliver media to your television.

Huge numbers of people already have a computer in the house running Windows Vista Home Premium, holding photos and music. An "extender" is a small box for the living room that connects to the computer over a wireless or wired connection to display the photos on the television and play music on the living room speakers. If the computer is set up for it, the extender can also handle all the TV programming and record TV shows like a Tivo. It works exclusively with a remote control - no keyboard or mouse! - and looks great from across the room. Here are some cute animations from Microsoft about how it works.

Extenders are not a new concept, and Microsoft is not the only company offering products that work this way. Apple TV is a box that streams music and video from your computer's copy of iTunes to the living room, hemmed in by Apple's fairly restrictive selection of supported formats and features. There is a rich selection of third party software and hardware that will send streams out onto a home network - Twonky, Tversity, music devices from Roku Soundbridge and Sonos, and much more. Tivo supplies software to send photos and music to the Tivo in the living room. Do-it-yourselfers and gadget freaks and technical types are having a wonderful time squabbling about the pros and cons of various setups.

Microsoft gets more attention in the mainstream because the technology it has chosen is elegant and because, well, because it's Microsoft, I guess. Media Center Extenders are based on a simple concept. The small living room box connects to the computer over the home network and displays the Vista Media Center interface, exactly as if it was running directly on the computer. Under the hood is a specialized version of Remote Desktop, which many businesspeople use to connect to their office computers from home.

All the work is done on the computer, but the computer can stay in the room suited for it. Multiple extenders can be connected to the same computer, and the computer can be used normally while it's sending media to the other rooms. The physical connections to the television for audio and video can be difficult but mating the computer with the extender is pretty straightforward.

Some people already have this technology without knowing it, because an XBox 360 can be a Media Center Extender. Chances are the XBox 360 is already on the home network to get updates and play online, so the only setup involves a bit of fumbling to bring a new blade to life in the XBox dashboard, full of photos and music. Microsoft recently announced that the XBox 360 dashboard would be completely overhauled to make it look like Media Center.

In addition to the XBox 360, there was a first generation of extenders from Linksys and others for Windows XP Media Center Edition, but they were slow and cranky and became obsolete when Microsoft rewrote everything for Vista. A new generation of extenders are now being introduced with some attractive features.

I don't have an XBox 360 - noisy things that fail a lot. (If you're interested, a good article appeared a few days ago about the XBox 360's sad history of hardware problems.) Instead, I'll tell you tomorrow about HP's MediaSmart Connect, which is the best of the extenders on the market now.

Labels: Apple, audio, hardware, Microsoft, network, photos, software, video, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 9/18/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

Your photos are on your computer.

Your music is on your computer.

It makes sense that computers should be able to record TV shows - it's kind of a computery thing to do, right?

It's probably occurred to you that it makes sense to store movies on a computer instead of buying them or getting them from Netflix.

Your new HD TV is basically a big computer monitor.

So why don't you have a computer in your living room?

You have no idea how many people have tried to figure that out. Microsoft introduced Windows XP Media Center edition, intended for living rooms, and no one cared, so it built an updated version of the Media Center interface into Vista, and still no one cared. (If you have Vista Home Premium, look around for "Windows Media Center" on the menu and start it up. Never seen it before, have you? The interface is designed to be seen from across the room. It's quite a nice design, just a little pointless on a desktop PC.)

There are lots of manufacturers making living room computers running Vista Media Center - Niveus, Avideus, Alienware, VelocityMicro, and many more. Many of them are very expensive and some of them are only sold through audio/video specialists, because it turns out that getting your media into the living room is frighteningly complicated.

Your needs are different than mine. Nobody will have the same setup, which is part of why this is so difficult. The best I can do is tell my story in the next couple of days and hope that it helps you think things through if you decide to go down this road.

For today, let me just give you a few of the considerations that make this so hard.

• Computers are noisy. A fan that's acceptable under your desk can quickly come to sound like a jet plane when you're watching television.
• Your living room doesn't have room for something that's shaped like a computer. The media center PCs have to be designed like a piece of audio equipment. That makes them too small to have adequate ventilation, so they run hot and need big fans, which gets back to the noise problem.
• Normal people find it virtually impossible to hook up a new television to cable and speakers, which is why Best Buy and the other retailers are getting deeply involved in sending installers to your home. A media center PC adds a new tangle of cables, each with its own quirks and requirements and possible incompatibilities - HDMI, component video, optical audio, S-video, and oh so many more. Your television connection might be analog cable or digital cable, it might require a converter box or a CableCard (a hellishly complex bit of equipment in its own right), it might be DirecTV, you might have an antenna for HD signals, and the setup will different for every one. Trust me - the Best Buy geek isn't going to set up your media center PC.
• You don't have a network cable running into your living room. Sure, all the new stuff claims to work over wireless connections but maybe you've noticed - wireless connections are not the most stable, troublefree items in our tech toolbox, are they?
• There are an endless number of proprietary formats and programs that will become barriers to making everything work. I'll touch on this more later. You'd like to think that someone could give you instructions for how to get a movie from the camcorder and see it in the living room but there is no guarantee that anything will work - and if it works today, it might not work tomorrow.

Pretty depressing, huh? There, there. I feel your pain. But I'm a survivor - I've got pictures running in a slide show, I've got music playing from my library, and I've got a lovely collection of movies to browse through, and it's all down in my living room where it belongs. It took some money and some persistence and things aren't perfect but it can be done! More to come.

Labels: audio, computers, Microsoft, photos, video, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 9/17/2008 01:35:00 AM | permalink

Apple reacted quickly to the reports that the latest iTunes update has caused some Windows systems to crash badly. Last night Apple posted another version of iTunes that rolls back the offending hardware driver to an older version. If your system is blue screening, all you have to do is uninstall iTunes, uninstall Apple Mobile Device Support, and then reinstall iTunes from last night's release.

That's absurd, of course. As one person commented:

"A kernel level device driver (like the USB driver that Apple installs rather than using the one built in to the OS) will always have the ability to take down the OS.

"This is true for any OS since a kernel level driver is the interface between the OS and hardware.

"That's why it requires Administrator level permission to install (it did), why it needs to be very well written and tested before it gets sent to users (it wasn't) and why the installer should notifiy users that a device driver is being installed (they weren't) and only be installed if absolutely needed to support new hardware (it wasn't)."

You might want to take my suggestion: uninstall iTunes, uninstall Apple Mobile Device Support, uninstall Apple Software Update, uninstall Quicktime, install J River Media Center for your iPod, and return your iPhone.

Incidentally, are you aware of what a disaster the new iPhone has been? iPhone users are screaming bloody murder about absurdly short battery life, dropped calls, AT&T's terrible coverage with its much-vaunted 3G network, and much more. New software was released for the iPhone last night but there is little confidence that it will actually fix the list of problems it purports to address. Apple promises that this update will deliver all of the following improvements, each one of which has been a source of anguish for iPhone users for the last couple of months:

• Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls
• Significantly better battery life for most users
• Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
• Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
• Faster installation of 3rd party applications
• Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third party applications
• Improved performance in text messaging
• Faster loading and searching of contacts
• Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
• Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
• Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
• Genius playlist creation

Labels: Apple, audio, mobile, phone, software, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 9/12/2008 10:43:00 AM | permalink

New slogan for Apple: iTunes ain't done till Windows won't run!

After its iPod conference this week - more of a non-event than usual for Apple - a new version of iTunes started to roll out to Windows users. For some people, it's causing crashes and even causing blue screens after it installs broken drivers without any disclosure or warning.

The problems don't affect everybody - like so many computer problems, these are likely to be caused by unfortunate conflicts with other programs if they're installed on the same computer. It's still being investigated but one writer suggests that any of these factors might cause the iTunes upgrade to crash the computer:

• Roxio disc burning software
• An HP USB printer
• Logitech software/hardware

This writer thoroughly investigated the 80Mb (!) download delivered by the iTunes installer and discovered that it was installing two hardware drivers, including one that has a long history of causing blue screens (fatal crashes) on Windows systems. Apple is also delivering the MobileMe software and a program set to automatically load the MobileMe software when your computer starts up, whether you're using the service or not. That's the service that was a disastrous failure for the first few weeks after it was released a couple of months ago, and is still barely limping along. It's irrelevant to most people.

Apple was roundly criticized a few months ago when it used its "software update" service to distribute its buggy and insecure browser, Safari, without adequately warning people. This time it's taking the approach of not giving any warning at all that this upgrade includes anything other than a facelift for iTunes and Quicktime.

If you use iTunes, you can't really avoid this update - about all you can do is hope for the best. Personally, I'm happy to stick to my longstanding conviction not to install any Apple software on my Windows machines. Apple has proven over and over that they write crappy software for Windows. Ed Bott comments:

"Nice marketing strategy: Tweak Microsoft for an operating system that crashes, then ship code that crashes Windows. Thank goodness I'm not a cynic or I'd think this was a deliberate marketing strategy."

Labels: Apple, audio, computers, mobile, software, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 9/11/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

I speculated a couple of days ago about a cheap device that might run Google's Chrome Internet browser - and here's the reality, right in front of us. Dell just formally introduced the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, a 2.28 pound device with a 1024x600 8.9" screen, running a reduced version of Windows XP.

The Mini is $399. In the next few weeks Dell will make them available in more colors and put out a slightly cheaper variation running Ubuntu Linux instead of Windows.

Here's who will be buying it, from a Dell blog:

"Purpose-built to keep teens, tweens, travelers and 'Tweeters' connected, the Mini is optimized for that '30-minute connection' experience - blogging, surfing, e-mailing, chatting, viewing photos, videos and music - you get the idea."

Yeah, I get the idea - not me, is the idea. I'm old.

Labels: computers, mobile, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 9/06/2008 12:03:00 AM | permalink

Microsoft's Live Mesh service, now in beta testing, has the most promise of any of the online services. With an easy setup, you can make your files available on multiple computers, you can share files with other people, and you can access your computers remotely, all for free. At the moment it only works on Windows PCs but soon it will be possible to add Windows Mobile devices and Macs.

Let me take you through a simple setup to help you get started.

Your use of the Live Mesh service starts with your Windows Live ID, the free email address and password that Microsoft uses to set you up with its services. Here are the instructions to set up a Windows Live ID. Have your Windows Live ID in mind before you start, and make sure your Live ID account shows "United States," per my instructions.

Now go to the Live Mesh web site, www.mesh.com, and click on Sign In. Provide your Live ID credentials and accept the license agreement on the next screen.

You should be taken directly to the main Mesh screen, shown on the right.

Click on the "Add Device" button. You'll be adding the computer you're sitting at by installing a small piece of software. It will take 3-4 minutes to install the software. (It hasn't frozen. Wait for it.) When it's done, you'll have a distinctive new icon by the clock.

Now click on the "Live Desktop" icon on the main Mesh screen. You'll be looking at your "Live Desktop." It will have icons for files and folders but don't get confused - these folders are online, not on your computer.

Add a folder and give it a recognizable name - "My Synced Files," say. Now close the browser window! You're done with "Live Desktop" for now.

Minimize all your open programs so you can see your computer desktop. Within seconds, a shortcut named "My Synced Files" will appear on your desktop.

When you click on it, you'll be asked where that shortcut should lead. By default, Mesh offers to set up a new empty folder on your desktop with the same name. Take that choice for now. The folder on your desktop will quickly turn to a translucent blue. It's now part of the Mesh system.

It's just a folder. You can put any files you want into it. You can fill it with Word documents and open them and edit them just like any folder. It's just a folder.

But everything in it will be automatically copied to the online folder. Every change will be copied online. If you delete a file from My Synced Files on your desktop, it will be deleted from the online copy automatically. You don't have to do anything, it just happens.

So put some files and folders into "My Synced Files"! Don't go nuts. Put in 50 files, not 5,000. It works with 5,000 but you'll get impatient and think it's broken. Put in some folders full of files.

The reward comes when you sit down at a different computer.

If you have a second computer, go to the Mesh web site on the second computer and log in with the same Windows Live ID, then click "Add Device" to install the software. After it's installed, you should have the same shortcut on your desktop to set up "My Synced Files."

• If that shortcut doesn't show up automatically, then go back to the Mesh web site and click on Live Desktop. When you right-click on "My Synced Files" and click on "Change Sync Settings," you'll be able to change your second computer to sync "When files are added." You'll immediately have the same shortcut on your desktop to click on to establish that you want "My Synced Files" to appear on your second computer desktop. Within minutes, the "My Synced Files" folder on your second computer will be filled with all of the files that are on the first computer.

From now on, when you change a file in that folder on one computer, the changed file will be there on the other computer right away, automatically. The two computers will always be in sync.

Let's reiterate. Once this is set up, you will work with your files on your computer, in the folders on your desktop, just like before. You don't need to "upload" files to Live Desktop - just save them into "My Synced Files." In fact, normally you'll never visit Live Desktop from one of your own computers except to set up a new folder.

Try that to get started! It's only a taste but you'll be past the hard part. Here are just a few things to look into when you've gotten your bearings!

• You can add existing folders on your computer by right-clicking the folder name and clicking on "Add folder to your Live Mesh." I'm syncing my Internet Favorites folder on my desktop and laptop, for example.
• You can share a folder that's been made into a Mesh folder. It's easiest to do that from Live Desktop - open the folder in Live Desktop, then click on the bottom of the right hand column where it says "Members."
• The person you invite will get a nice email invitation. It will lead them through installing the software and giving them shared access to the Mesh folder. Remember, they need to have a Windows Live ID ready, and they need that email invitation to lead them to your folder.
• You can share a Mesh folder; you can't share subfolders inside the Mesh folder.
• You can log into www.mesh.com from another computer and see all the files in Live Desktop. You should be able to download them or open them at that new computer but I've seen some bugs in that process.
• More interesting - you can log into www.mesh.com from any computer, click on one of your computers, and click on "Connect." If the computer is turned on, you'll start a remote desktop session that allows you to control the remote computer as if you're sitting at it. This is very, very cool.

This is a beta service. Test it carefully, with backups of important data, but by all means test it! This is one of those times when you can gain new powers that you do not currently have. Enjoy!

Labels: file_sharing, Internet, Microsoft, remote, Vista, web_services, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 9/05/2008 12:05:00 AM | permalink

Windows Search 4 was released last month as an upgrade to Windows Search 3.01 (Windows XP) and the built-in search capability in Windows Vista. It is an important upgrade for every Windows user; it will be pushed through the Windows Update system soon. Here's more information about Windows Search 4.

For the first time, Windows Search 4 can be installed on servers running Windows Server 2003 or Windows Home Server. This gives businesses an important new tool for finding information but there is one new trick to learn.

Many offices with Small Business Server have almost all important business files in a shared folder on the server, which is mapped to a drive letter and is universally referred to by its letter - "The file is stored on the N: drive." Normal people in small businesses don't have to be aware that the file is really in something like \\sbsserver\Company.

When the server is running Windows Search 4, it compiles an index of the business files. When a user with Windows Search 4 searches for something in the shared folder on the server, the server does the work of searching its index and providing the results. The search is completed nearly instantly and it is consistent for all users.

(The underlying technology is referred to as "remote query" or "remote index discovery." A computer with Windows Search 4 responds to a search query from a remote computer by consulting its own index and sending the search results. This works between any computers with Windows Search 4, not just searches on a server - a Vista computer can do a remote query on a shared folder on another Vista computer, etc.)

This is a significant improvement over Windows Search 3.01, which required each individual computer to compile an index of the files on the server. That created a lot of network traffic and search results were uneven - there was always a question of whether an individual computer's index was up to date or complete.

Note the requirement for this to work: Windows Search 4 must be installed on the server and on the workstations. As far as I know, the only way to tell if it has been installed is to look in Add/Remove Programs.

Putting this to use requires a simple technique for searches.

HOW TO USE WINDOWS SEARCH

SEARCHING OUTLOOK AND FILES ON YOUR COMPUTER

Use the toolbar by the clock (Windows XP) or the search bar above the Start button (Vista) to search files stored on your own computer and everything in Outlook.

SEARCHING FILES ON THE SERVER - WINDOWS XP

Open the folder with the business files. (Example: open My Computer and click on the N: drive.)

Click the Search button and do the search from Windows Search on the left.

SEARCHING FILES ON THE SERVER - VISTA

Open the folder with the business files. (Example: open Computer and click on the N: drive.)

Use the Search bar in the upper right corner of the window.

As far as I know, there is no way to do a single search that covers Outlook and files in a shared folder.

Now go find something interesting!

Labels: network, Outlook, SBS, search, software, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 7/28/2008 01:43:00 AM | permalink

[Originally posted October 30, 2007]

I wish we could count on the software and hardware vendors to play fair and treat us well, but it's not happening. We have to take responsibility for our computers.

When Windows XP and Vista are installed on freshly formatted hard drives, they are secure, rock-solid, and fast. Both operating systems are loaded with features. Vista has a mail program, an address book, a calendar, voice recognition, rich support for multimedia, built-in CD/DVD burning, several backup options (including automatic retention of previous versions of files), and much more.

Mac OS 10.5 offers a virtually identical list of features and a similar secure, stable, fast environment.

Yet Macs have a reputation of being easy to use and "just working" while Windows computers have a reputation of being slow and unstable. The reason has little to do with the merits of the operating systems.

Other than hooking up a printer, many Mac users add almost nothing to their computers. They use the applications supplied with the computer, which work well.

If you installed Windows Vista on a freshly formatted hard drive, installed Microsoft Office 2007, hooked up a printer, and added almost nothing else, your computer would just work - elegant and stable and fast.

It's hard to do that. It's up to you to stay as close to it as possible.

Everything conspires to interfere with your computer experience - every piece of software that adds a hundred registry entries, every startup process, every online service that installs a new ActiveX control, every printer monitor and registration reminder and duplicative function and unnecessary utility program. Software and hardware manufacturers make poor decisions about how often you want to see their logo or how much you want badly-designed free programs or how much you care about their partnerships with unrelated companies or how much you need their version of a program that duplicates a function built into Windows.
All too quickly, our Windows computers take three minutes to be usable after our desktop appears. Our programs crash. The system freezes.

Windows is rock solid out of the box. It stays that way for a remarkably long time. Whose responsibility is it when our experience starts to deteriorate?

I'm not talking about blame. There's plenty of that to go around.

The responsibility is ours. No one else is going to help us. For better or worse, Microsoft has created an environment where other manufacturers can contribute. Few of them are doing it well. Few of them are looking only for your best interests and smooth computing experience.

• Our computers arrive with too much preinstalled software. Look at the list in Add/Remove Programs, find out what the unfamiliar names are, and remove the ones that won't be used.
• Don't install programs unless you are confident that you know what they are and that you will use them to accomplish something you couldn't do before with another program already installed.
• Always do a "custom" installation. Watch every checkbox and don't install anything that isn't necessary to use the program to do what you're going to do.
• Never install a system utility or security software unless you thoroughly understand why it's necessary. Windows is able to be secure and do its own housekeeping without much help.

There are only two choices for happy computing. One is to become knowledgeable about what you install. That allows you to explore the rich world of new devices, programs and online services with a minimum of side effects, while still being conservative enough to avoid harming your computer.

The other is to buy only the simplest hardware accessories and install as little new software as possible. If your computer can't already do it, maybe you should assume it can't be done. We live in a world where too many gadgets don't work and too many programs are badly written.

The third alternative is the one that doesn't work - buy devices on a whim, avoid reading instructions or web sites or even the descriptions on a box, install whatever is presented on a setup CD, click OK whenever a website asks permission, and expect everything to just work. You already know about the bad guys, but in the long run, we can't trust the good guys either.

Labels: Apple, computers, hardware, Microsoft, software, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 6/30/2008 12:12:00 AM | permalink

Let me give you a simplified overview of printer terms, then offer a tip that might save a few seconds someday. (This is basic stuff. If you can tell where I'm leaving things out, then this isn't for you.)

LOCAL PRINTER 

A local printer is connected to your computer with a USB cable.

• Installation: almost always, the software for a local USB printer is installed before the USB cable is attached to the computer - insert the CD or download and run the installation software for the printer before hooking it up.

NETWORK PRINTER 

This term has become ambiguous.

When you're looking at printers in the store, the term network printer means the printer is connected to the network with a CAT5 network cable; it does not use a USB cable and it is not connected directly to any computer. 

• Installation: almost always, connect the printer with a CAT5 cable to a router or switch and turn it on, then insert the printer CD in each computer. The installation software finds the printer on the network automatically.

When you're working in Windows, the term network printer is also used to refer to a shared printer - the printer is connected to another computer on the network with a USB cable, and shared so other computers can use it.

• Connecting to the shared printer from another computer: Windows XP and Vista both have wizards to add a network computer in the Printers folder, but there's another way that is frequently faster and less quirky. You'll need to know the name of the computer sharing the printer. (Click on Start, right-click on Computer, and click on Properties.)

• At your computer, click on Start / Computer and type in two backslashes followed by the name of the computer sharing the printer, like this:

• Hit Enter. If the other computer is set up correctly for sharing, you'll see the shared printer, probably along with some shared folders.
• Right-click on the printer and click Connect. You should be set up to print to the shared printer in just a few seconds. Often I find that works more reliably than using the wizards.

Labels: computers, network, printers, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 6/25/2008 12:33:00 AM | permalink

Quicktime has been an annoying bit of software for ten years now. My experience tonight was the final straw. I've spent the better part of an hour cleaning it off my system and I don't intend to let it back. What is it with Apple? Every time I feel like giving Apple the benefit of the doubt, swayed by all the hype, I have an experience where I'm reminded that Apple writes crappy, invasive software.

Quicktime has been around forever, a bit of free software that will play online videos in certain formats. In the last few years YouTube and the other big video sites began using Flash for movies, so Apple shifted its focus to new high definition video formats. Most of you will only run into Quicktime now if you go look for movie trailers - the studios use it a lot.

And Quicktime has been a pain in the neck forever. When I began this news page, one of my first comments was a complaint about Quicktime. (I've got old archives here - I was ranting about Quicktime on 09/27/99. "Is it just me or is Quicktime incredibly annoying?") For years Apple released Quicktime updates that did not remove older conflicting versions; at one point Apple literally hid the free version of the program in an attempt to deceive us into downloading a paid version; recently it used a Quicktime update as a mechanism to deceptively install its unnecessary and insecure browser.

A couple of days ago I installed the Quicktime 7.5 update, supposedly an important update to cure serious security problems.

Quicktime stole my file associations. I hate it when programs steal my file associations.

An easy example: You probably have three or four or five programs on your computer that can open JPG files. One of them is the default - the one Windows will use if you just click on a JPG file. That's the file association - they're the default programs assigned to dozens of different types of files recognized by your computer.

Manufacturers have been trying to steal file associations from each other for years. Each program that you install for photos will try to become the default program for opening JPG files. When you click on a file and the wrong program starts, it's because something else has grabbed that file association.

It's possible to reassign the program of your choice but it's a pain. (Right-click on a file of the type you want to change, click on "Open with / Change default program" and you'll get a list of likely programs, along with a checkbox to "Always use this program to open this type of file." Vista has a well-organized set of controls - click on Start, type "default" and click on "Default Programs." It's not a friendly place to hang out.)

I guard my file associations jealously. When I click on an MP3 file, I want J River Media Center to play it. When I click on a JPG, I want it displayed in Windows Live Photo Gallery; when I click on a PNG, I want Microsoft Digital Image Editor. You might not think of it but you're just like me, looking for continuity and familiarity, not sudden unexplained changes in the programs that pop up.

Quicktime 7.5 has a confusing installation routine and tries to become your default program for dozens of types of files, but if you're careful during installation it's possible to deselect all of the file types so Quicktime is not the default for anything. That's my favorite result - it's a yucky program with terrible controls and insistent advertisements for a paid version. (Remember, always do a custom installation of any software and read all the things with checkboxes!)

I stopped Quicktime from grabbing any file associations and installed the update. No worries, eh?

I clicked a link tonight in Internet Explorer to download and save an MP3 file. The Quicktime logo appeared and the file started playing in Quicktime's stupid player embedded in a big empty white Internet Explorer page.

WTF?

Come to find out that Internet Explorer has its own file associations, separate from the rest of the computer. Without asking, Quicktime had installed an IE addin that took over god knows how many file types in Internet Explorer - movies, PNG files, MP3 files, more.

Research, experiment, more research, more experiments. Once Quicktime steals those Internet Explorer file associations, it's virtually impossible to put them back to the defaults. They are stored completely separately from all the regular file associations, so repairing those doesn't do anything to IE. I tried registry fixes, I tried IE7's tool to reset every browser setting to its default (Tools / Internet Options / Advanced / Reset Internet Explorer Settings). I tried disabling Quicktime's addin (Tools / Manage Add-ons) and discovered that the file associations were hosed - web pages had red Xs where PNG files should display, error messages appeared when links were clicked for some file types. According to what I was reading online, uninstalling Quicktime does not put things back to normal!

In the end, I was saved by a system restore. Once the IE file associations were back to normal I was able to set about to scrub my system of Apple software, including the "Apple Update Utility" that I had specifically told it NOT to install. (Apple: "I'll be darned. How did THAT get there? Little rascal.")

This is obviously not a huge problem - most of you would be mildly inconvenienced and a little confused, nothing more. But I'm watching our interactions with Windows computers become more complex and more confusing and it's the result of a lot of little invasions like this by companies who have only their own corporate interests at heart. So trust me, I'm only thinking of you when something like this makes me furious.

I'm not sure what the conclusion is. Quicktime occasionally comes in handy online and if it's installed then it really should be updated for security reasons. It's not so awful that I'm going to urge you to remove it. But personally, I'm going to swear off movie previews and see if I miss it. I hope not.

Labels: Apple, IE, video, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 6/23/2008 02:29:00 AM | permalink

I bet you don't know how to turn off your computer.

Lots of people ask me why their computer doesn't turn off when they hit the power button on the front of the case after the system crashes or freezes. Hold the button down for 4-10 seconds. The computer will turn off even if it is otherwise completely unresponsive.

Let's go through a little history to help you understand why that's actually a feature.

Back in the old days, the power button on the case was directly wired to the computer's power supply. Hit the button and bang! the computer went dark and cold. Not only was that a really bad thing when the switch was hit accidentally by your knee, but it also made for some potentially dangerous wiring and frequently made it almost impossible to replace power supplies with soldered connections to the power switch.

Old-timers will recall that the Windows shutdown sequence would end with a screen advising that "it is now safe to shut off your computer." The power button had to be pressed manually to finish turning off the power.

In 1995, Intel introduced the ATX form factor for computer cases, motherboards, and power supplies and for the first time, Windows could shut off the power to a computer. When you click on Start / Shut down / Shut down in Windows XP, Windows closes all your open programs, shuts down running services, and shuts down Windows, and as its final act it tells the power supply to shut the computer's power off completely.

The ATX form factor lends itself to other tricks for low power consumption, leading to a change in Vista: when you click on Vista's power button, the computer goes to sleep by default instead of shutting down completely. You can get it to shut down or restart from the flyout menu on the right. Here's some information about Vista's power management features. If you have trouble with sleep mode, you can change that behavior in Vista's power options console.

All of that leads to the thrilling conclusion: when you push the power button on your desktop computer case or notebook computer, you're not directly turning the power on or off. You're asking the motherboard and the operating system to work with you on whatever they are designed to do.

When the computer is operating normally, pushing the hardware power button in Windows is exactly the same as pushing the onscreen power button. In Windows XP, it starts the normal routine to shut down programs and only then turn off the power. In Windows Vista, it sends the computer to sleep.

If the computer is completely frozen, the motherboard and operating system will not respond to a poke on the power button any more than they will respond to a click on the onscreen Start button. When the power button is held down for 4-10 seconds, though, there is a fallback that will turn off the power regardless of the condition of the operating system or motherboard.

So when you need to shut down and nothing else will work, hold the button down. You'll feel powerful. When you do this for someone else, don't give away the secret. They'll respect you and give you cookies. But don't do it unless absolutely necessary! Computers should always be shut down gracefully whenever possible.

Labels: computers, hardware, Vista, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 6/17/2008 12:01:00 AM | permalink

Microsoft has done a terrible job of branding things in the last few years. "Microsoft Network" morphed into "MSN," which has at various times been a software package, a collection of TV-like programming, a brand for web services like Hotmail and Messenger, a dialup Internet provider, and a web portal.

Many MSN services were included in a reorganization under the new brand name "Windows Live" in 2006, and Microsoft began creating more and more services with the Windows Live name, including some that have no obvious relationship to each other. The Wikipedia list of Live-branded services is pretty daunting!

Some of the services will be dying quietly soon - Microsoft just announced that it will be closing down Windows Live Expo, intended to be a competitor to Craigslist, joining recently deceased Live Search Books and Live Search Academic.

I find myself joining clients and friends now in stumbling over one particularly poor bit of naming.

Vista comes with Windows Photo Gallery, a simple but useful photo program that's well suited for many people.

Later, Microsoft released Windows Live Photo Gallery, a free download for Vista and Windows XP. It's almost identical, but changes some things around on the menus and makes it easy to put photos online in free photo galleries for sharing.

When Windows Live Photo Gallery is installed on a Vista computer, it does not replace Windows Photo Gallery. They're visually indistinguishable, so the only way to tell which one you're using is the name on the title bar in the upper left corner.

Frankly, most of the time it won't make any difference. The two programs both display the same pictures and the same tags and almost all of the same features. But why do that to people? When it's time to put pictures on a DVD and someone looks for the "Burn" button, why should they have no idea why it's under "Make," instead? The access to online services will appear and disappear randomly if people aren't careful to click on the right program.

The situation is basically the same with Windows Mail (Vista's mail program) and Windows Live Mail (a separate program for Vista and an upgrade for Outlook Express on Windows XP).

Didn't Microsoft learn anything from the years of confusion caused by "Outlook" and "Outlook Express"?

Labels: mail, Microsoft, photos, Vista, web_services, WinXP

posted by bruceb at 6/08/2008 03:24:00 PM | permalink

Microsoft released Windows Search 4.0 today in final form. It is a free upgrade to the search features built into Windows Vista. It adds indexed searching to Windows XP; this release is an upgrade to the prior version of Windows Desktop Search that many of you are already using on Windows XP.

Programs for indexing and searching Outlook and document folders have literally revolutionized the business flow in small offices. Windows Desktop Search is the single most important and most successful new technology that I've introduced to my clients in the last three years. Businesses drowning in e-mail and files have new confidence that information can be retrieved instead of lost. People understand it, they immediately see its power, and they immediately begin using it every day.

"Instant Search" is one of the most heavily promoted features of Windows Vista. "Search" is deeply embedded in the system; it's the first place your cursor lands when you click on the Start button, it's the primary method intended by Microsoft for finding programs, it's available everywhere ? from the Start menu, from Windows Explorer, from Internet Explorer. Windows Vista is built on the same technology as Windows Desktop Search version 3.0, running in the operating system as a service and constantly keeping an up to date index of everything in Outlook and every file stored on the system.

I wrote up the features of this new version when Microsoft released the preview version a couple of months ago. Briefly, it runs more quickly and economically than prior versions, and it greatly enhances searches of files located on other network computers.

I have different advice for different groups.

• If you are one of my clients in an office run by Microsoft Small Business Server, wait for me to work with your office before you install this. Windows Search 4 will work best for you after it is also installed on your server, and that has some prerequisites that I'll be working on.
• If your computer runs Windows Vista, you already have a searchable index of your entire computer. This improves the indexing in modest ways that you likely will not notice in day to day use. Install it freely but there is no urgency.
• If your computer runs Windows XP, I have long maintained that Windows Desktop Search is one of the few essential programs that everyone can and should run. This is an important improvement to the prior version for its performance and stability, but you will not notice any significant change in the design from the previous version. Everyone with Windows XP is encouraged to install or upgrade to Windows Search 4.0.

This is not difficult to install, but you should close other programs before you install it and you will have to restart your computer when the installation is completed. After your computer restarts, the index will rebuild itself, so searches may not be complete until the system has time to do that.

There are different installation packages for Vista, Windows XP, and various servers. Click on the "32-bit" package for your version of Windows on