Dales Computer Services

One of the common questions people ask me, when I am out and about fixing computers, is should I upgrade to Windows 7? This short article will, I hope, at least pose some useful questions to consider before taking the plunge and will also point you to some useful tools.

1) Can my computer cope with Windows 7? If you have Vista then more than likely yes it can. If you have Windows XP or earlier you need to check your computer has the necessary capacity. Use Microsoft’s “Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor” to examine your system.

2) Will my programs and peripherals (printers, cameras etc) work? Again Microsoft has produced a website where you can check thousands of tested software and devices.

OK so now you know if you can – but should you? Some things to consider:

1) You can buy an upgrade version of Windows 7 so long as you own a previous version of Windows (and actually the upgrade disk works even if you don’t have a previous version of Windows) but you have to do a clean installation for all versions of Windows except Vista. I always recommend doing a clean installation of a new version of windows to avoid inheriting problems from your old system on your new system. Windows 7 helps you with this – start up your computer as normal and insert the Windows 7 DVD. It includes tools to help backup your previous data (documents, photos, music etc) and program settings (such as internet favourites) before you do a clean install of the new version.

2) If you are doing a clean installation before you go ahead visit the websites of your favourite programs and devices and make sure to download Windows 7 version of your software and drivers wherever possible so that you are prepared to install your programs again when Windows starts up for the first time.

3) Does Windows 7 do something that I can’t do with my current system? If you are still using Windows 98, ME or Windows 2000 then it is time to move on as support for those versions of Windows has either ended or is coming to an end. If you are using Windows XP or Vista you may want to stop and think if an upgrade will add anything worthwhile. See Microsoft’s reasons for upgrading.

Personally I like Windows 7 a lot (and I have now been using it through various testing phases for nearly a year and the full version for about 3 months without any issues). It is a huge improvement over the new release of Vista but Vista has now improved with the regular updates that have been released and an upgrade to Windows 7 seems harder to justify.

The good things in Windows 7 (for me) are the new TaskBar (the bar at the bottom of the screen) which has been totally redesigned and is now not only good looking but also has a lot more functionality also the new search functions work much better than in Windows Vista which makes it very easy to find what you are looking for. Windows  XP didn’t really have a proper search function. If you have more than one computer in the house/office Homegroup is a very useful idea for setting up shared information and keeping it private. Finally for the first time all versions of Windows 7 have a good quality backup system built in.

Carol Haynes

Ever heard the term ‘cloud computing’? Basically it works by storing your information (emails, letters, spreadsheets etc.) on an internet based  server rather than on your own PC. You access your data using a browser such as Firefox or Safari. Examples you may have used are Hotmail, Google Mail and Yahoo Mail.

In the past you would collect your emails using a program on your computer and then the emails would be stored on your hard disk but now many services store your emails on their computer and you can read them by using a web browser and logging in. You can read the email and reply to it but it is never actually stored on your computer (and neither is your reply).

Cloud computing is of growing importance and allows you to have access to all your data wherever you are on the planet. The benefits to users are fairly obvious – it is not dependent on the computer you own. You can access documents from a Windows PC, a Mac or, for the geeky, a Linux PC and even mobile phones and personal organisers. Many of these services are ostensibly free. The big disadvantage is that you have to trust the companies with your data: ie. a stable service, reliable storage and keeping your data private). You also need to have reasonable broadband to make it work and generally the web based programs are not as feature rich as normal desktop programs.

So why am I wittering about this now? I was reading an article the other day about a telephone called Sidekick (by T-Mobile). It uses cloud computing to store customers’ address books, emails, documents etc. and uses Microsoft’s services to do so. Fine you might think but the other day those servers had a big problem and as a result many Sidekick customers have lost all of their data (apparently Microsoft didn’t keep usable backups). I had a similar experience a number of years ago when I set up my first website on Microsoft’s servers and lost everything when there was a glitch. I no longer trust Microsoft (or any other third party) to safeguard my important data.

Lesson – if you use a web based email or web based documents such as Google Docs or Microsoft Office Live Workspaces then do make sure you keep copies of all your emails and files on your own computer. These big companies claim to care about your data but when push comes to shove these services are purely revenue streams for them. If your data is lost it may briefly be an embarrassment to them but they won’t really be bothered. For you it could be a nightmare if you lose all of your emails or all of your other documents.

I want to finish off this month with a brief explanation. Over the last few months I have had a number of people telephone assuming I work at the computer shop in Leyburn. I am in no way related to the computer shop and run my own web design and computer repair and supply business from Carperby. If you want to know more or would like to contact me I have just completed a new website at www.dalescomputerservices.com. Why not pop along for a visit and see what I have to offer. Read regular news and articles. Do sign up to join in the forum where you can ask questions and hopefully get a few answers. I am also going to start up a regular email newsletter – keep your eyes open for how to sign up for that. Hopefully you won’t find the website too geeky – I do want it to be a resource for locals that you will find useful and informative.

As time goes on we increasingly become dependent on e-mail for communications and many people are turning to online solutions such as Googlemail, Hotmail and Yahoo as their service of choice. If you use BT internet then you use Yahoo, although you may not realise it and many companies, schools etc. are moving their services to Google whilst remaining branded with their own identity.

All this is great but the experiences of a client recently got me to thinking about how safe it is to rely on these systems for our email needs. There are a number of issues some minor and some major depending on your needs.

E-mail is not intrinsically secure. Only one of the three big services uses encryption for their web-based service (Googlemail  - and you need to enable it – click on Settings and choose “Always use https”). This means that normally tech-savvy snooper can read email as it passes through the internet!

Also did you know that even after you delete emails they remain on the servers of the service provider. If the government gets their way all emails will be stored for at least 5 years and open to government and police scrutiny (along with every webpage you view – Big Brother would have had nothing on this!).

Given the shortcomings, it is probably best to not commit very sensitive information to email and certainly never disclose financial information (such as credit card numbers) in an email!

These web-based services provide a convenient way to collect, reply and send email from any computer in the world that is connected to the internet and also provide large amounts of storage space to keep many years worth of emails. It is therefore tempting to keep important emails filed away in your email account at Google or Hotmail or Yahoo so that you have quick and easy access wherever you are but what happens when something goes wrong and you lose emails? It is vitally important that you keep an archive of important emails on your own computer and preferably regularly copied to CDs or DVDs for safe keeping so that your critical data is backed up securely.

You can achieve this by archiving your emails in a standard email application (such as Outlook or Mac Mail) but if you want to keep a copy in your web-based account you must change a setting in the account details on your computer. Ensure that you find the email account setting that allows you to leave a copy of your email on the server and make sure it is enabled otherwise when you check your email it will delete the emails from the service providers computers and you won’t be able to see them via a web-page.

An alternative approach is to use an application designed to archive email. One such application for Windows is MailStore (free for home users from www.mailstore.com ). This won’t delete emails from the server but will collect and archive emails for you and can also archive emails stored in common email programs on your computer (such as Windows Mail or Outlook). It is very easy to use (if you have your account settings) and provides a fast way to search your old emails and copy them to an external device such as a DVD for safe backup storage. It has many other features too that are worth exploring.