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THE BUG REPORT
A monthly publication of
GS-BUG Inc. (c) copyright 1996.
Reproduction of any material herein by any means is expressly prohibited
unless written permission is granted. Exception: Articles may be reprinted
by other users groups in unaltered form if credit is given to the author
and the original publication.
STAFF
Editor - Kay Burton
NEW SUPERPATCH FOR INTERNET EXPLORER FIXES SIX FLAWS
SIX WAYS TO MOVE TO WINDOWS
XP
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PERSPECTIVES
By Dr. John Hanson |
Topics for September
1. Extra USB ports
2. Ink Prices
3. Power Supply Failure
4. Color Laser Printers
5. NiMH battery chargers
6. CD-R Disks - More Info
7. Olympus Digital Camera 2100
1. Extra USB Ports: Many motherboards have only
two USB ports which come out together near where the mouse
and keyboard plug in. Some motherboards have a
header that allows for two extra USB ports to come out
some other place on the back or front.
It’s useful to have extra USB ports
if you have a digital camera or flash card reader, etc.
You can get an extender cable that allows four more with or
without extra power in the form of a plug- in power
module. This solution uses up one of the USB ports in
the back and it could be a fire danger if you leave the power module
plugged in all the time so it would be useful if you had an easy way to
turn it on only when you need it.
A better solution for the same price
is to buy a PCI card that fits in a motherboard slot
and provides powered USB ports. I bought one at Frys with two
ports for about $20 and then Emmett Ingram found a better one with
two ports using the newer USB 2.0 which is much faster for
$26 at PC Club. Then, by accident, I stumbled on an even
better deal at the Pomona Computer Show. For only $18 you can get
five ports of USB 2.0. Four of these ports come out
in the rear as expected but one is inside so you can connect
an extension to have ports in the front or near
the front. The vendor’s web site is www.Logisyscomuter.com.
Another vendor had the same item for $2 more so you might
be able to find it at other places. The box is labeled
“USB 2.0 PCI Host Card”. For any who get
the Dr. Hanson special at one of the recommended computer
vendors spend $15 more and get a newer case with two USB ports
in the front and then you might not need the card altho it would
give you the faster speed potential.
2. Ink Prices: We have already mentioned that
CSI on 190th is a good place to get ink and Charlie is very good
at replacing any that are bad. But be cautious as the generic cartridges
for the Epson C-80 are not identical and may not stay
in place which could be serious. One of our talented members
decided not to use CSI for his replacement cartridges because he
did not want to take a chance as the clips are diferent than that of the
Epson cartridge.
3. Power Supply Failure: If your computer doesn’t start
at all when you press the on button it is likely to be the power
supply. One clue is that the fan is not running but you could
also measure the 5 and 12 volt lines as they are readily available
at any of the four pin sockets. I have been very lucky
for many years but last week one failed after only one year and it
was a different brand from the Deer brand I told you that has repeated
failures in the same spot. Soon I will take mine apart to see if
I can find out why it failed.
4. Color Laser Printers: I almost bought one last
week. The normal discount price with mail in rebate is
$800 for this 2200 Minolta but Sam’s has it for only $700 and
no rebate required. The week before
I had visited the Minolta show room
near Hawthorne and Del Amo and was very impressed
by the young salesgirl, Jill. I was
concerned about the color quality because PC World said the color was “So
So” but she showed me on various models fantastic results with a
photograph of a girl in the rain. I didn’t see it printed on
the low end machine so that is why I hesitated to buy it along with
the fact that it takes four passes to make a picture so is
very slow at rated 5 pages per minute which in
actual practice may take a minute or more per page.
This model is also quite heavy at 110 lbs. and very
bulky to lift.
Minolta has new model out called the 3100
which is a single pass machine and it has a built in duplexer so
you can print both sides automatically as well as an ethernet connection.
It only weighs 77 lbs. and is only $2000 with all this but
Jill did not have one available so I will wait ‘til she does.
I want to print some of my own pictures I use in my business
on her machines and time them as well as check the quality.
While Minolta claims about 6,000 sheets
per toner cartridge it is only for 5% coverage which is only
a square 2.1 inches on each side. In my case where
my pictures are almost 100% that would mean only
300 sheets if only one color were used so in actuality
one might expect 1,000 sheets per set of toners. A set of
toners is about $500 which would be about 50 cents per side
which is what Kinkos charges for 1,000 sheets.
Costco charges only 39 cents so in general it is less expensive
to let Costco do it and not have the extra investment of buying
the printer. If you factor in the cost of the printer,
Costco is the way to go. On the other hand the
convenience of being able to make laser color prints
on the spot can be very useful and in only
the quantity I need without paying the much higher price for
small quantities.
5. NiMH battery chargers: Costco has a Panasonic
NiMH charger set with 6 AA cells plus some AAA cells for about $20
which seems reasonable as you can get 4 AA cells of 1800 mAH at Frys
for only $2.50 per cell. I am not a big fan of NiMH technology
but one doesn’t have much choice and NiMH is getting better.
The charger says 5 hours for a charge and the little green lites
do go off after the batteries are charged but I haven’t
timed them. But there is one disturbing factor you need
to be concerned about.
The charger doesn’t seem to recognize when
the batteries are charged if you have unplugged the charger and then
plug it back in again which makes the batteries overheat
and could start a fire so make sure batteries are discharged
before charging them. On the other hand the charger that
came with my Olympus digital camera seems to be more
sophisticated. This same problem could occur with NiCad
battery chargers also so be careful. Users are at a dilemma
as how do we discharge the batteries if not in our equipment?
If you are experienced with electricity you could design
a discharge circuit that shuts off at one volt per cell so you
must know how to make a comparator circuit to trigger
the discharge relay. It is not a good idea to go below one volt with
NiMH batteries nor with NiCads but NiCads are very forgiving
if you do discharge them much lower.
George Austin had a problem with
a tiny 7.2 volt NiMH battery in his laptop and the hardware SIG members
were not able to fix it so George gave it to me.
What I did seemed to work so here are the details
if you have occasion to try on your own. Apply 9 volts
to it thru a limiting resistor so that only one or two mils flow.
Feel carefully and if it doesn’t get hot after 5 or 10 minutes, leave
it for several hours. Remove the charge and apply a voltmeter and
it should read over 8 volts for at least a week. Then you can
add a 2,000 ohm load to see if it holds up as George’s did.
If you have fancy laboratory power supplies it is a lot easier as
you can control both the voltage and the current but a
quick and dirty fix would be to apply the nine volts as described.
I used 1.42 volts per cell to get the 9 volts.
In George’s case the pin connector is so tiny that I found
it easier to strip the wires just enough to put
on some clips. Always strip in a different
place so the open parts are not likely to touch and cause a
short.
6. CD-R Disks - More Info: One of the sharp
experts at the Tuesday Hardware SIG pointed out that
one of the best web sites for info
on CD Burners, disks and
software is: www.cdmediaworld.com.
They even have a program that you can download
to identify CD manufacturers. It’s called CD Identifier.
You can also get info on the quality of CDs and also on what
you can tell from the dye color. At the main site there are
all these links on the left hand side.
7. Olympus Digital Camera 2100: My Kodak 4800
is a marvelous digital camera at 3.1 megapixels with great
8 x 10 prints so why would I buy a 2.1 megapixel camera. If
you do the math it seems very foolish but from a practical
standpoint I get very useful 8 x 10 prints even when
using only one megapixel. When George Margolis
of the Orange County computer club showed his to me
I was very impressed. In addition, it has 10X
zoom and image stabilization which is very useful in low light
conditions where speeds must be slow. For
the $400 cost, it gives me another useful tool
in my arsenal of cameras for taking pictures of
children moving quickly.
Many members of the Digital SIG and
others think you will benefit from more megapixels and
theoretically they are right. Jack Burton, who is a very experienced
camera expert, decided to upgrade from his 2.1 megapixel Olympus
to a 4.1 megapixel Olympus C-4040 for $450 at Samy’s
Camera. It will be interesting to compare
the results of his with mine. Emmett Ingram gets excellent
results with his 2.1 megapixel Minolta flat camera which
just came out and this week another friend,
David Griffith, bought one and so far he is very pleased with
the results.
Editor’s Note: John Hanson is the inventor
of Tooties, a superb self-teaching system used by millions
in schools, homes, and byeye doctors around the world to improve
vision. He also invented a new form of psychology called
QET (Quick Effective herapy) which transforms poor students
into good students, almost over-night, usually in 5 to
15 days. He has also had outstanding success
in helping brain damaged people, even years after their accident.
Why go to therapy for years and spend lots of money when
you can improve quite fast with QET? He uses computers to document
his cases for his books so that others may benefit and improve
their vision and other skills. Visit his web site
at www.Tooties.com
for more information.
.
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INTERNET TALK
By Frank Chao |
This is the 50th article in the “Internet Talk” series and it resides
in the seventh newsletter that is edited by Kay Burton. Last month, Kay
started placing “Top” and “Home” buttons at the end of each article in
the online version of these newsletters. You can see her wizardry by visiting
the club’s Website at http://gsbug.apcug.org
.
The new Web page buttons work as follows:
-“Top” takes you to the top of the newsletter
-“Home” takes you to the home page of the GSBUG
Website.
They work great !
Liz and I greatly appreciate Kay’s efforts to enhance both the paper
and online versions of the monthly newsletter.
NETSCAPE 7
The “Netscape 7” Web browser is now available. You can learn about
or download it at
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/browsers/default.jsp
I have been using it since the end of August and it works great.
It loads and runs about 20 percent faster than “Netscape 6”. It continues
to do a better and more reliable job of printing Web pages, to both inkjet
and laser printers, than any version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
Enjoy !
WORKAROUND FOR “IE” PRINTING PROBLEMS
If you are using Internet Explorer (“IE”) and you get a partial
or trashed printout after hitting the “Print” icon:
From within Internet Explorer, highlight the URL in the “Address
bar”.
Press the “Control” key of your keyboard.
Leave it pressed down.
Press the “C” key of your keyboard.
Release both the “Control” key and the “C” key of your keyboard.
Start “Netscape”.
Click once on the URL in the “Navigation bar” of your Netscape
window in order to highlight the URL that is there.
Press the “Control” key of your keyboard. Leave it pressed down.
Press the “V” key of your keyboard.
Release both the “Control” key and the “C” key of your keyboard.
Press the “Enter” key of your keyboard once.
“Netscape” will probably take you to the same
page that you were viewing using Internet Explorer.
If it does so, use Netscape to print the Web page.
If Netscape does not go to the same page that you were viewing in
Internet Explorer, you will have to start an earlier page (such as a login
page) at the Website that you are accessing. You then have to work your
way to the page that you wish to print. Have fun !
PAC BELL DSL PROBLEMS
I experienced yet another problem with a Pac Bell DSL “Customer
Self Install”. Yesterday, Liz and I journeyed to Corona, California to
help a friend of hers with a DSL installation. Upon arriving at this lady’s
residence, we went through the “Customer Self Install” kit that had just
arrived in the mail. This kit was lacking an “Installation CD-ROM”. We
then phoned the Pac Bell’s technical support and their help desk person
stated that an “Installation CD-ROM” is usually included in “..Self Install”
kits. She stated that this was a mistake and that a CD-ROM would be mailed
in two days. The help desk person also stated that suggested that we might
be able to download enough drivers and software from Pac Bell’s Web site
in order to get the DSL connection running. Using my Netzero dial-up Internet
access, we accessed this Website and downloaded a copy of Enternet “Point
to Point Over Ethernet” (“PPOE”) software. Next, we installed this software
into our friend’s Windows 98 computer. After a bit of a struggle,
we also successfully installed a 10/100 Base-T Ethernet PCI network adapter.
After this three-hour effort, we were still unable to activate this customer’s
new DSL connection. We then installed Netzero software into the computer
and helped the future/hopeful DSL customer obtain a free dial-up account,
as a temporary means of accessing the Internet. In future weeks, Liz and
I will return to her friend’s house to continue our struggles to activate
the new DSL Internet connection. Stay tuned !
“PLAN B”
If Liz and I cannot get this lady’s DSL connection working, we plan
to put her on the free version of Juno Web also. Then she will have 10
free hours from Netzero and 10 free hours from Juno for a total of 20 free
hours of dial-up Internet access per calendar month, while we struggle
with the DSL connection. Some you will remember that a friend of
mine in south Torrance spend over 3 months hassling with Pac Bell Internet
before his DSL connection was functional. I never stated that Internet
access was easy !
CABLE MODEM SUCCESSES
In contrast to stories about problems with installing DSL, I continue
to hear success stories about cable modem “self installations”. At
least for the Los Angeles area, cable modems appear to have better technical
support and less installation problems, relative to DSL. Let me know if
you have problems with installations of either type of Internet connection.
TRW SWAP MEET
The TRW Swap Meet was cancelled for September 2002. This was a one-time
aberration. This extravaganza will resume again on the last Saturday in
October.
For information about this swap meet, see
http://www.w6trw.com/swapmeet/swaprule.html
http://www.qsl.net/iecaro/maps/trw_swap_map.html
http://www.docsradioden.com/trw_1.htm
See you there !
WAYS TO CONTACT ME:
If you have any questions or problems, I can be contacted by the
following methods:
1. Leave a voice message for me at (310)768-3896.
2. Send me e-mail at: fchao@pacbell.net
3. Send “snail” U.S. Postal Service mail to
Frank Chao
PO Box 6930
Torrance, CA 90504-0030.
Or sell your computer and take up golf instead
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SOFTWARE LIBRARY NEWS
By BOB HUDAK |
Here it is October already. Time for the election
of GS-Bug’s officers. I wonder who is running for office this year? I guess
the train conductor will tell the members who are at the general meeting.???
Last month I told you about a program that
would automatically improve your digital pictures. It is called Digital
Camera Enhance (DCE). I used it some more during the month and I still
believe it is a pretty good no brainier program. Of course if you want
you can move from the default settings and make corrections manually. I
found two things that did not make me too happy. First, I found one of
the three computers I tried it on would not show the picture you were working
on. It is supposed to show the before and after pictures. It does
the work and saves the results which can be viewed with your favorite viewer,
but not in the program like it is supposed to. Probably does not get along
with the video card. I really do not know and when I contacted the author
about it I did not have the problem resolved. If you pick up the trial
version and it doe not work, the registered version will not work either.
In my case at least. Second thing I do not like is the small size of the
before and after pictures. Hard to view the results. The auto working part
of the program is using up most of the screen when it could be working
in the background and just letting us view the results. Maybe in the next
version. Disk # 103 is the free version and 104 is the full 30 day version.
I believe the full trial version is the one you want to try out. It really
improves the pictures. You can run it in batch mode before burning your
pictures to a CD. Remember it does not over write the original so if you
do not like the changes, no harm done. Give it a try.
Keith Decker would like to finish up making
the photo ID cards for all members. We need you to help a bit. If you do
not want a card made send a email message to Keith at:kdde@juno.com
Just say “no ID Pic”. Keith can then make a card for you without a picture
and mark you off the list. you want your card with
picture, come to the general meeting and we will take a picture. You can
also send an attached digital picture to an email to Keith or a hard copy
in the mail and we will scan it. This project is scheduled to end at our
Dec. Christmas party on Dec. 2nd. So please do not put it off.
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PARTITION MAGIC
- by John Sullivan, GSBUG
The Club had given me a copy of the new Version
7.0 of PowerQuest’s Partition Magic, on the condition that I review it
for you, both here and at the General Meeting. If you attended the Sept.
2 Meeting, you saw it demonstrated live, and this article will pretty much
be just a repeat of that information.
Partition Magic is an excellent software program,
which I’ve been using for a number of years, since I first picked up a
copy of version 2.5. The new Version 7.0 works with Windows XP, will accomodate
harddrives with up to 120 GB as a single partition, supports external USB
harddrives and, can merge NTFS partitions, supports Linux Ext 2, and also
RAID 0 and RAID 5. Now granted, a large number of computer users
go through their whole lives without ever needing to partition, or re-partition,
their harddrives, getting along just fine with the C: drive that came with
their computer when it was new. But people who join User Groups, and take
time to read newsletters like this one, usually are looking to more with
their computers than just read email and play Solitaire.
So what are some of the reasons for partitioning
a harddrive into more than just one section? Some people want to run more
than one Operating System, (DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, Linux, BEOS, etc.)
and be able to select which one to boot up into. Other people just like
the organization aspect: installing the Operation System in one partition,
installing software programs into another, using another for saved work.
Occasionally people have a need to hide a whole partition from other people
who might be using the computer.
As always, if you’re working with a FAT 16
or FAT 32 filesystem, like Windows 95 or 98, you can use the DOS command
“fdisk” to partition your harddrive. But once you have data saved into
your partitions, fdisk can only alter the partiton sizes by deleting the
respective par titions, then making new ones. Partition Magic can actually
Move and ReSize partitions that contain data, without destroying the data!
Partition Magic can also convert from FAT 16 to FAT 32, (and back!), and
demonstrate how much space on your harddrive is saved by doing so; showing
the amount of space regained by changing cluster sizes.
For myself, I wouldv’e bought Partition Magic
anyway, had the Club not offered me a free copy in exchange for demo’ing
the program. I had just decided to move up to Windows XP from 98, but didn’t
want to do an actual “upgrade” to XP (overwriting my Win 98 files with
the XP files). I wasn’t sure I was going to like XP, so I wanted to keep
my old Win 98 system functioning. Also, I was planning to buy a larger
harddrive (about 80 GBs) so I could dabble in digital video editing without
cluttering up my normal harddrive, and I wanted to be able to create and
resize partitions on it at will.
Before installing XP on my home computer,
I was reading up on it, trying to decide if I needed the Full Install
version or the Upgrade version. I figured the Upgrade version would see
the old Windows 98 installation, and want to upgrade it. It looked like
I was going to have to buy the Full Install version, in order to keep my
old Windows 98 intact, although I would have to make a separate partition
that I could install XP into. Just in time, I read an article that explained
that the Upgrade version doesn’t require that you have a prior version
installed, just that you own one. During the XP upgrade installation, the
system will stop and ask you to put in the CD from a prior version of Windows,
(from Windows 98 up) and will verify that you have a valid copy, then will
ask you to put the XP CD back in, and will continue the installation.
To me, it made sense to make a separate partition,
and install the XP upgrade into it. This worked perfectly. Windows XP noticed
that I had another version of Windows in a separate partition, and asked
if I’d like it to set up a “dual boot” system, which is an included feature
in XP. Now when I bootup, I get a menu asking which Operating System I
want to boot into, Windows XP or Windows 98. For people who are not using
XP, Partition Magic comes with a built in Boot Magic utility, which gives
you a similar boot menu on startup.
A caveat to all this is that software
programs that are “Windows compliant” usually will write their information
into the Registry of the respective Windows system under which you installed
the software. This means that most programs that you ran under the first
Operating System will have to be re-installed when you install the second
Operating System. This didn’t turn out to be a nuisance, though, because
I had installed a bunch of stuff under Windows 98, but really didn’t want
all that junk under XP. So I just reinstall software if I think I’m going
to use it alot. Things that I only use occassionally I still have under
Window 98, and simply boot into that system when I want to run them.
Other features of Partition Magic are: Remapping
Drive Letters (when a new partition bumps an existing one), Changing Drive
Letters (Windows NT\2000\XP only), Retest and Recover bad sectors, Resize
the Root directory, Set Active Partitions. Partition Magic also runs Scandisk
(Windows 9x and ME) or CHKDSK (NT) and Disk Defragmenter from within the
program.
For users who manage a network of computers,
Partition Magic is available in a Pro version, which includes the ability
to create and manage partitons remotely over the network, make and run
Scripts to automate functions, and contains various command line switches.
All in all, I’m very satisfied with Partition
Magic, and like I said, had the Club not offered me a copy in exchange
for a demonstration, I would have bought it anyway!
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NEW SUPERPATCH FOR INTERNET
EXPLORER FIXES SIX FLAWS
Microsoft Corp. has issued a cumulative
patch for its Internet Explorer Web Browser
that also fixes six new vulnerabilities, the
most sserious of which could enable an attacker
to take control over a user’s system, the company said.
All currently supported versions of Internet
explorer --5.01, 5.5 and 6.0 --are affected, putting tens of milllions
of Internet users at risk, Internet explorer is the world’s most popular
Web browser. Microsoft is urging all users to immediately apply
the patch, the company said in a security bulletin. Versions of Internet
Explorer that are no longer supported could also be vulnerable, Microsoft
noted. A cumulative patch is one that includes all previously
released fixes for a software product. The six newly patched vulnerabilities
are in various parts of Internet Explorer and mainly put client systems
at risk, but Microsoft rated the superpatch “critical” for Internet and
intranet servers, too.
Three of the six new flaws enable an attacker
to run code on a user’s system, while other vulnerabilities could be exploited
to read files on a user’s system, Microsoft said.
In addition to fixing the vulnerabilities,
the patch package also permanently disables two vulnerable ActiveX controls,
one linked to the MSN chat application and one to a feature for terminal
services sessions, Microsoft said ActiveX controls are small programs designed
to perform a single task Find the patch here; http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/q323759ie/default.asp
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SIX WAYS TO MOVE TO WINDOWS
XP
By Gene Barlow
User Group Relations
Copyrighted February 2002
During the past few months, I’ve seen a growing
interest among user group members to adopt the Windows XP operating system.
Questions about how to move to Windows XP are coming up more and more in
user group meetings. This article briefly describes the six ways to move
to Windows XP, so that you can determine which would best suit your personal
needs.
Families of Operating Systems: For the
past several years, Microsoft has offered two families of operating systems
to use on personal computers. For the home user, they provided the Windows
95/98/Me family of operating system. This operating system has included
five major versions over the years — Windows 95, Windows 95B, Windows 98,
Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Millennium. While it may sound like
these are several different operating systems, in fact, they are different
releases of the same operating system with different names.
While end-users were using the Windows 95/98/Me
operating system, businesses were getting to know the Windows NT operating
system. This operating system included six different versions over the
years — Windows NT, Windows NT2, Windows NT3, Windows NT4, Windows 2000,
and Windows XP. While Windows XP comes packaged two different ways - a
Home Edition and a Professional Edition they are both the same operating
system with slightly different features to meet the needs of their intended
audiences.
Microsoft has told us that Windows Me was
the last version of the home operating system that they will release and
that Windows 95/98/Me users are expected tomove to the new Windows XP operating
system for the most recent version of Windows. All future personal computer
operating systems put out by Microsoft will be based on the Windows XP
system we now have. This has prompted many users to take a close look at
Windows XP and to determine when and how they will move to this new operating
system version.
Six Ways to Windows XP: A look at the
documentation that comes with Windows XP will identify one or two ways
to take when moving to XP. Upon closer inspection, there are actually three
approaches that you can take to move to Windows XP plus a couple of options
on each of these three approaches to give you a total of six ways to get
to Windows XP. Let’s briefly review the three main approaches and then
look at the two options that make up these six ways to Windows XP.
The first way to move to Windows XP is also
the easiest way to get there — buy a new computer with Windows XP already
installed on it. This saves you the expense and effort to upgrade your
current computer to a level that will support Windows XP. It also saves
you from installing the new operating system on your computer. All of this
is taken care of for you by the computer manufacturer. Microsoft has stated
that they expect 90% of their users to take this first approach.
The second approach to getting to Windows
XP is to purchase a Windows XP upgrade package from your software dealer
and to install it on your computer replacing your current operating system.
When you are done, you will have Windows XP on your computer and your old
operating system will be gone. I find this approach a bit risky and do
not recommend it to most users. If anything should happen while you are
installing Windows XP, you might end up with a bad installation of XP and
you may also destroyed your old operating system in the process. Select
this option only if you have taken a full backup of your entire system
before starting the installation.
The third approach is to purchase a Windows
XP upgrade package from your software dealer and to install Windows XP
on your hard drive, side-by-side with your old operating system. When you
are done, you have both your old operating system and your new Windows
XP system on your computer. This approach takes a little more disk space
to run and some partitioning utilities to set up the hard drive, but it
is by far the safest way to move to Windows XP. You will also find that
some of your hardware and software may not run at first under Windows XP.
This side-by-side approach gives you the ability to continue to run these
hardware devices and applications on your old operating system until you
can get them to also work on Windows XP. Therefore, you can migrate your
system slowly from the old operating system to Windows XP and still have
all of your system working on one operating system or the other.
Each of these three main approaches has two
sub-options to choose from - a Clean install or an Upgrade install. This
refers to how closely you connect to your applications and settings on
your old operating system. A Clean install is a total replacement of your
operating system with little connections to your past operating system.
You will need to re-install all of your applications on your new XP system
and then select all of your application settings again after they are installed.
This approach may take a bit more work, but it promises you the most efficient
system after you complete the installation.
The Upgrade install retains as many
links to your old applications and settings as it can. It is sort of a
merging of the new Windows XP operating system with your old operating
system, so that when you are done, your applications will run just the
same as they did on your old system. While this may appear to be the easiest
to do, it may take you longer overall to take this option. Not all of your
applications will work under Windows XP and you may need to spend a great
deal of time testing out your applications to make sure they work properly
on XP.
Which Way is Best for You: At first,
all of these six ways may sound like they should work for you. Actually,
it is a bit more difficult than that. Here are some guidelines to help
you decide which of the six ways to move to Windows XP is actually the
best one for you to follow.
One of the first things to determine is if
your computer hardware is powerful enough to support Windows XP. The Windows
XP operating system is a robust and stable operating system, but it demands
a more powerful computer to run on. As a rule of thumb, if you purchased
your computer in the past two years, then it will probably handle Windows
XP without too many equipment upgrades. If it is older than two years,
then the cost to make many upgrades to the computer may offset the cost
of purchasing a new computer instead. Take a close look at your computer
hardware to make sure it has the following equipment on it:
· 300 Mhz Processor
· 256 MB RAM
· 1.5 GB of Available Hard Drive Space
If your old computer is not up to these minimum
specifications, then you need to buy what is needed to bring your computer
up to this minimum level. The cost to do this may help you determine whether
to spend your money upgrading an old computer or purchasing a new computer
instead.
If you purchase a new computer, you may be
able to use most of your external devices on the new computer. For example,
your display and printer may work just fine on your new computer, thus
saving the cost to replace these devices, too. To be sure that your devices
will work on your new Windows XP system, you can download a free tool from
the Microsoft website and run it on your current system. This tool is called
the Windows XP Upgrade Advisor. After you run the Upgrade Advisor on your
current (non-Windows XP) system, you will know which of your devices may
not work under Windows XP without obtaining new drivers for them.
The next consideration you need to make is
whether your applications will run on Windows XP or not. If you currently
run an earlier version of Windows NT or Windows 2000 and your applications
work ok on that operating system, then there is a good probability they
will also run under Windows XP. If you are using a release of the Windows
95/98/Me operating system family, then some of your current applications
may not work unless they are re-installed or new versions of them have
been obtained and installed. Low-level utility software is almost certain
not to run on Windows XP without a new release of the utility. The Windows
XP Upgrade Advisor mentioned above should also tell you which of your applications
will work on XP and which ones may not work for you. This information is
good to know in advance so that you can be prepared by obtaining the latest
versions before you install Window XP.
Tools to Help you Move to XP: Perhaps
the best tool you can use to help you move to Windows XP operating system
is PartitionMagic by PowerQuest Corporation. Version 7 of this excellent
partitioning utility is designed to work with Windows XP as well as other
common operating systems. PartitionMagic will let you create multiple primary
partitions in which to install your new operating system. With the BootMagic
utility, which comes as a part of the PartitionMagic package, you can switch
between your new Windows XP system and your older operating system as mentioned
in the third approach above. This is one tool that will make the process
of moving to Windows XP so much easier for you to accomplish. Don’t attempt
this move without PartitionMagic.
The second tool that you should have is Drive
Image v5, which also works with Windows XP. Making changes to your operating
system is a serious undertaking that you don’t want to attempt without
a full backup of your current system before you start to install Windows
XP. Drive Image is one of the best backup utilities on the market and one
that you really need to have to accomplish this project of moving to Windows
XP.
Finally, I have just completed an educational
CD entitled, “Discovering your Hard Drive” that contains all of the detail
steps of these six ways to move to Windows XP. This CD will guide you through
the steps of each of these six approaches, besides providing many additional
topics to help you better understand and organize your hard drive. This
information is difficult to find in other sources and many of the ideas
covered on the CD are only found in this one source. This is a must to
help you get to Windows XP.
How to Order Products: User group members
and guests can order PartitionMagic v7, Drive Image v5, and the “Discovering
your Hard Drive” CD at a significant discount off the list price of these
products. PartitionMagic and Drive Image have a list price of $69.95 each,
but the user group price for these excellent utilities is only $35 each.
That’s the best price you will find on these quality products. Likewise,
the “Discovering your Hard Drive” CD is available to user group members
and others for only $20. With a $5 shipping fee, the total price for these
three items is only $95 delivered to your door.
To order the products, access our secure web
site at www.ugr.com/order and complete the order form. Enter the special
price code of UGEM02 on the form where required. You can use your VISA,
MASTERCARD, or Discover Card to purchase the items or complete the form
and mail it with your check or Money Order. As soon as we receive your
order, we will ship it via US Priority Mail and your products should arrive
at your door in less than a week’s time. If you are not happy with your
products, you may return them within 30 days for a full refund of their
purchase price.
I hope this has helped you think about when
you need to move to Windows XP and how to do it. I plan to write other
such technical articles in the future that you can watch for. Thank you
for your interest inhard drives and PowerQuest’s products.
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