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Having
quite a mobile lifestyle I decided to purchase a laptop. The
following describes issues I found in buying a Vista operating
system. If you are wondering about purchasing a
computer with Vista pre-installed, please make sure whatever you
purchase it has at least 500 MB of RAM as Vista is pretty RAM
hungry. My Toshiba came with Vista Home Premium. There
is I think four Vista versions Home Basic, Home Premium, Business
and Ultimate. As far as I know Microsoft has now
discontinued marketing the XP operating system. They only now offer support
for Vista, not that, that really matters much as XP like 98se are
probably complete I found Vista runs most
programs ok, I’ve found it a very stable operating system. Some older programs and printers required
updated drivers before running at all on Vista. Like my old Canon
Scanner wouldn’t install on Vista until I downloaded new free Vista
compatible Canon software for it. Another issue I found, Vista
wouldn’t support my old Office 2000 Premium Outlook program as the contacts address book file format is
not supported by Vista. To resolve that I purchased Outlook 2007 to get
around the problem. Vista
only supports address book file format from Microsoft Outlook 2003
onwards. Another issue I found even though the
computer came with a Smart Fax digital software Modem neither Home
Basic nor Home Premium Vista versions support an ability to send a
fax from your home computer. Bill Gates has apparently locked codes.
Reckons you need to purchase Vista Business or Ultimate versions
before you can fax
according to an outrageous opinion I heard. Premium version of Vista
is only intended for home use, not business, nobody I know
would agree with that. I’ll manage my non-profit activities my way
thanks. Found an answer, purchase a shareware fax software program. I could only
locate one that was capable of installing a fax driver into the Windows
Printer folder. The first Office suit I purchased came on 32 floppy disks, legal terms and conditions said I owned the program. However Microsoft wouldn't correct all the flaws in that version and came out with Office 97, then Office 2000, terms claimed if you opened the plastic rap, you couldn't return the program to point of purchase, and first page that loaded said Gates owned what was mine not me. I didn’t like the Vista permissions setup and
it took quite a while before managing to shut all that down. I also
don’t run Windows
Defender, Vista’s built-in firewall, nor either do I allow
Windows Mail to load as I have my own preference for mail handling. The anti-virus protection I use is the
excellent Kaspersky Internet Security Services, that program runs
well on Vista, the program manages most of my computers security,
but not all. Kaspersky
handles most mail security and anti-spam including all Outlook
security mail handling on my
computer. I very much like the Toshiba Laptop with one or
two exceptions; it came bundled with a third party software program
called “Ulead” which handled the computers default backup and
recovery restore system. The program, in my opinion messed up a
default system restore, which I once used, only once mind you. In
doubling up its own files and others. In consequence I figured Ulead was probably
later responsible for the computers DVD RW failing. I’ve purchased other programs to replace
Ulead and also have an external hard drive that hopefully
insures better backup security. Recently I ran an un-installer program called
Revo, which is tailor made to un-install Trial versions of Microsoft Office 2007
programs, being programs that are commonly bundled
by default on Toshiba Laptops. My older Microsoft Office 2000 Premium suit is
all I needed. Thus far Windows updates have installed well
over 2 gigs of updates currently its downloading
another 214.9 MB. A bit daunting at first, months of fiddling, but once those issues were
finally sorted I’ve found I really do like my Vista after all…. |
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| Links to
useful free software programs.
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| Exchange program that converts between major currencies. | http://www.theabsolute.net/sware/index.html | |
| WordWeb spelling program will work with most windows programs. When you click on the icon in the system tray, or press the keyboard shortcut the program copies the highlighted word to the clipboard and then pastes it into WordWeb. | http://wordweb.info/WW2 | |
| Belarc Advisor shows you where software is installed, windows updates and other program information. | http://www.belarc.com/ | |
| Karensware program replicates, or copies, selected files or complete directories. The replication jobs can be scheduled to occur at certain times of day, and occur repeatedly at intervals measured in minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months. | http://www.karenware.com/ | |
| ReadPlease This amazing text-to-speech program is an easy-to-use application that reads aloud any text from your computer. | http://www.readplease.com | |
| RegSeeker will scan your
registry, find invalid entries, unused extensions, missing files,
bad references and much more. Having an older upgraded computer, I found RegSeeker really worthwhile. The program without causing any problem safely removed well over 2000 entries from computers registry. |
http://www.regseeker@hoverdesk.net | |
| CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) is a freeware system optimization tool. That removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster. | http://www.ccleaner.com | |
| RoboForm fills forms, manages passwords and performs many other useful tasks. The program installs in you IE browser and jumps up to offer to save or fill your logins etc. | http://www.roboform.com/ | |
| Xenu checks on and offline webpage links. | http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html | |
| HTML-Kit Comprehensive Free program for sorting HTML |
http://www.chami.com/ | |
| Fax Machine shareware link: | http://www.nicocuppen.com | |
| Revo a free for personal use un-installer program I found really worth trying, everything else failed, so I tried this one... | http://www.revouninstaller.com/ |
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Useful Web Site Submission Links:
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| http://kneistler.com/submitforce/ | http://addurl.eigenpage.nl/ | http://www.geocities.com/site_vortex/search_engines.html |
| http://www.webportal.com | ||
| http://www.linkpartners.com/ | ||
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The best Webmaster Toolkit |
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Good information here: http://www.langa.com/newsletter.htm |
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Search Engines or Directories:
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| http://www.webportal.com.my/ | ||
| http://directory.sootle.com/ | http://cgi.www.whizz.uk.com/ | http://www.ozengine.com/ |
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Miscellaneous links: |
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| Landscaper.net | Bovinebazzaar | UK Birth, Marriage and death certificates links page |
| Tasmania Online | Cheese factory in Girenbad near Hinwil Switzerland |
The Spice Guys |
| New Zealand Brown Swiss Cattle Breeders Association |
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