Monthly Archives: June 2009
Hard Drive Enclosures
I was speaking to a young chap last week who had been saving up for an external hard drive. He’d filled up his Dads laptop with an entire library of music and desperately didn’t want to delete it but at the same time the machine was unusable due to a lack of space. Rather than pushing him down the route of a £70 external hard drive we suggested opting for a hard drive enclosure for £6.50 then reusing the drive from his old computer which was about to be consigned to the scrap heap.
External hard drives are a big market but in many situations they are redundant; most users will have purchased more than one computer and chances are that when it has come to the end of its useful life it would be considered close to worthless. Most charity shops won’t even take old machines anymore as health … Read the rest
Living with Windows 7
I’ve been living with the release candidate of Windows 7 now for a couple of weeks now at home. To be honest, I’m so impressed that it’s got to the stage that going to work and having to use Windows Vista again has become a chore. If you missed my article last week on obtaining and downloading this free pre-release (test) version of the new version of Windows from Microsoft then check out www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk or www.computerarticles.co.uk for a copy.
Unlike the change from Windows 3.11 to Windows 95 or from Windows ME to Windows XP there are no revolutionary changes. Windows XP users will notice the most difference in terms of the look and feel of the software as visually it looks very similar to Vista, perhaps just a little more intuitive.
Using this software you get the impression that finally Windows may have ‘come of age’ with this release. … Read the rest
Windows 7 : Release Candidate 1
Last month Microsoft made the Windows 7 Release Candidate available free of charge with the intention that it will give Microsoft a chance to identity and iron out any bugs present before the final release.As you are all no doubt aware, Windows 7 is the successor to the somewhat criticised Windows Vista and is due for release in October of this year.
The release candidate not only provides users with the ideal opportunity not only to get their hands on the software before it hits the shops but also provides what is essentially a completely free Operating System on a ‘try before you buy basis.’Of course, the product isn’t free for ever and in the second quarter of next year you will have to either purchase the finished version of Windows 7 or revert back to your previous OS.
I did preview Windows 7 back at the tail end of … Read the rest
AVG Internet Security 8.5
Regular readers will no doubt be aware of the fact that I recommend AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition over popular paid for rivals time and time again.Ignoring the obvious “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” scepticism that I usually encounter whenever I mention this application I’m usually also asked about the features absent; most notably a firewall.
Fortunately AVG are aware that their free anti-virus package doesn’t cover the needs of all users so they have also produced a security suite going by the name of AVG Internet Security. To save recapping I am simply going to focus on the differences between the two applications so if you’ve missed my review of the free edition it can be located at www.computerarticles.co.uk.
Potentially the most important issue, it’s worth noting that the free edition of AVG Anti-Virus is not licensed for business use or for use on multiple machines; … Read the rest
