WINDOWS LIVE NAMING CONFUSION

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...

WINDOWS SEARCH 4.0 – FINAL

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...

VISTA vs. XP

I’m starting to get annoyed when I sit down at a Windows XP computer because it’s missing so many things that I take for granted in Vista. I just reformatted a hard drive and installed Windows XP from scratch for a client and it required far more work than...

DELL LAPTOPS & POWER MANAGEMENT

On a Dell laptop, it is crucial to DISABLE one “power-saving” feature guaranteed to drive you mad. In Vista’s “Power Options” panel, the bottom item on the left is “Dell Internal Network Card Power Management.” It is intended...

VISTA POWER MANAGEMENT

Vista is very smart about power management! Use the default settings, you might be pleasantly surprised. As always, the goal is to make a computer more like other appliances – ready to be used within a few seconds after turning it on. Any computer –...

ADWARE – NOT DEAD YET

The best security software will not protect you if you click “OK” and install something from a web site. Adware/spyware was at epidemic levels until a couple of years ago when Microsoft released Windows Defender and the antivirus vendors reluctantly...