June 28, 2006

Hi, All! This Week: Windows Vista! Part - 3

If you were with us the last two weeks you know I tried to install the new Windows Operating System Vista on two of my test PC's. One could not upgrade from Windows ME and the other was too slow and small.

I know that many of you in the valley are in the same boat. You are using the same PC that you got many years ago and you are still running Windows 95/98. What are your options? We know that Microsoft has stopped support for these older O/S's--no more security updates or fixes. If what you have is working for you, don't change. Maybe upgrade to Windows ME if you are running 95/98. If you have a newer PC, upgrade to XP; it works well on older hardware.

But if you want Vista, you will have to make sure your PC is at least 800 mHz and 512MB in RAM. All the current manufacturers exceed the speed requirements, and memory is inexpensive and easy to increase.

The other option is to wait until Vista comes out and purchase a Vista-built machine. At this time I cannot attest to its quality because I cannot test it.

'Til next week,
(ComputerFAQ#298)

Robert

Please send your questions to

June 28, 2006 New Windows Vista Part 3- Good PC Required

June 21, 2006 New Windows Vista Won't Run On Many Older Computers

June 14, 2006 First Attempt To Test Run Windows Vista Beta Version

June 7, 2006 An Almost Benign Virus Savagely Attached to System File

May 31, 2006 More On CD and DVD Audio Formats

May 24, 2006 Audio Formats, What Is Best?

May 17, 2006 How To See What The Dial-Up Is Doing

May 10 2006 Computer Looks Like It's Frozen Part 2

May 3 2006 Receiving Emails Containing Large Photos Make Computer Look Like It's Frozen

Apr. 26, 2006 Cables & Connectors on Your PC

Apr. 19, 2006 Keep Your Windows Upgraded Easily

Apr. 12, 2006 Microsoft May Quit Supporting 90's Versions of Windows, So Get Your Updates

Apr. 5, 2006 Three Good Free Antivirus & Anti-spyware Applications

Mar. 29, 2006 Install Wouldn't Work, Installing Software Requires No Applications Be Running, And Some Applications Must Be Uninstalled To Stop Them

Mar. 22, 2006 Outlook Express Part 3: Save Many Messages as One Word Document to Save Space

Mar. 15, 2006 Outlook Express: Empty "In", "Out" and "Sent" Boxes Frequently

Mar. 8, 2006 Outlook Repair Kit

Mar. 1, 2006 Flash Drives

Feb. 22, 2006 Microsoft Works- a Very Useful, Inexpensive Application

Feb. 15, 2006 "Spyware" to Record Your Kids' Online Activity?

Feb. 8, 2006 All Those DVD Formats- Part II

Feb. 1, 2006 All Those DVD Formats- Part 1

Jan. 25, 2006 Windows Desktop Cleanup

Jan. 18, 2006 Replacement PC Available and Static Electricity Kills PC

Jan. 11, 2006 Printer says "Operator Intervention Required" Part 2

Jan. 4, 2006 Printer says "Operator Intervention Required"

Dec. 21, 2005 No Display in India

Dec. 14, 2005 Adware and Spyware and Removers

Dec. 7, 2005 Email Inserted Objects Get Converted Into Attachments

Nov. 30, 2005 Fine-Tuning Internet Searches

Nov. 23, 2005 Be Careful Paying Bills Online

Nov. 16, 2005 First Fix: Reboot

Nov. 9, 2005 What Is A Modem?

Nov. 2, 2005 Keep Your Computer Setup Sheets and Manuals!

Oct. 26, 2005 Anybody Have A Retired But Decent Computer?

Oct. 19, 2005 More About Phishing

Oct. 12, 2005 A New Way Spammers Phish For Your Info

Oct. 5, 2005 How To Handle Spam

Sept. 28, 2005 When To Replace Your PC

Sept. 21, 2005 Instant Messaging Phrase Abbreviations

Sept. 14, 2005 Clearing Auto-Fill History List in Explorer

Sept. 7, 2005 Using Special Keyboard Characters Like The Cents ¢ Sign

Aug. 31, 2005 Upgrade CD with 121 Improvements But What Are They?

Aug. 24, 2005 Funny Characters in Email

Aug. 17, 2005 Making Backups Reduces Fear of Trying Computer Fixes

Aug. 10, 2005 Giving or Selling Old Computers

Aug. 3, 2005 Deleting Erroneous Login Names and Cloning the Laptop Drive Still Hasn't Worked

July 27, 2005 Badly Infected PC's: Cheaper to Fix or Buy New?

July 20, 2005 Upgrading by Increasing Your RAM Memory

July 13, 2005 Retrieving Deleted Emails

July 6, 2005 Are PC's Fun? Part 3

June 29, 2005 Are PC's Fun? Part 2

June 22, 2005 Are PC's Fun?

June 15, 2005 Non-working Printer Found To Be Just Paused

June 8, 2005 AVG Problems Complicated By An Automatic Outlook Update

June 1, 2005 Printing Problems Possibly Related to Update to AVG

May 25, 2005 Serious Problem with Update to Our Best Email Scanner AVG

May 18, 2005 Challenges in Cloning a Laptop Replacement Hard Drive

May 11, 2005 CMOS Error on Startup Means Replace Battery

May 4, 2005 Switches, Outlet Strips, Windows Start & Shut Down Buttons, UPS's

Apr. 27, 2005 Reader Suggest Bad On/Off Switch in Dead PIII Gateway

Apr. 20, 2005 Microsoft's Free Word Viewer to Open Newer .doc Attachments

Apr. 6 & 13, 2005 Asking Help for a Dead PIII Gateway

Apr. 6, 2005 Various Anti-spywares' Success vs. the Especially Troublesome Virus

Mar. 30, 2005 An Especially Troublesome Virus

Mar. 23, 2005 Deleting Unwanted ID's and Passwords from Messenger

Mar. 16, 2005 How to Block an Email Sender

Mar. 9, 2005 Computer Swallowed Grandma

Mar. 2, 2005 Add New Email Address with Right-Click

Feb. 23, 2005 No Downloads or Games After Updating Explorer

Feb. 16, 2005 User ID's Stored in Cookies by Passport

Feb. 9, 2005 Installing System Monitor

Feb. 2, 2005 Shortcuts to Websites and System Monitor Program

Jan. 26, 2005 Beeps on Startup by Power On Self Test (POST)

Jan. 19, 2005 Where Does MS Messenger Store Passwords?

Jan. 12, 2005 Clean PCI Board Contacts Easily

Jan. 5, 2005 Don't Defrag Too Often, It Can Cause Trouble

Dec. 22, 2004 Try Different Free Anti-Virus Programs to Clean Your Computer

Dec. 15, 2004 A Computer Infested With Over 20 Copies of Trojan Virus Must Be Completely Erased

Dec. 8, 2004 Choosing Folder Into Which Application Will Install

Dec. 1, 2004 Spyware

Nov. 24, 2004 Explanations of Various CD & DVD Formats

Nov. 17, 2004 New User Asks About CD & DVD Drives

Nov. 10, 2004 Windows PC's Hard Drive Crashes, Explanation

Nov. 3, 2004 Question about Windows PC's Hard Drive Crashes

Oct. 27, 2004 Printers and Refilled Inkjet Cartridges Revisited

Oct. 20, 2004 Windows Update Utility

Oct. 13, 2004 Explorer Screen Still Doesn't Refresh Automatically with SP2

Oct. 6, 2004 Yahoo Games Don't Work Without JAVA Virtual Machine

Sept. 29, 2004 More on Phishing, Part 2

Sept. 22, 2004 More on Phishing, Part 1

Sept. 15, 2004 Who are the ISP's in East County?

Sept. 8, 2004 Screen in Windows XP doesn't refresh

Sept. 1, 2004 From India: Computer doesn't start #2, only LEDs and fan come on

Aug. 25, 2004 From India: Computer doesn't start, doesn't show POST Power On Self Test

Aug. 18, 2004 Reminder- Terrorist Computer Attacks Like During Republican Convention

Aug. 11, 2004 More Phishing

Aug. 4, 2004 Three Old Viruses WORM_BAGLE.AF, WORM_BAGLE.AM, WORM_MYDOOM.M

July 28, 2004 Celebrating the 200th ComputerFAQ

July 21, 2004 Sleep, Standby & Hibernation

July 14, 2004 Parts of Windows Screens, such as Status Bar

July 7, 2004 Parts of Windows Screens, such as Desktop

June 30, 2004 Losing the Address Bar and Accurate Communication

June 23, 2004 Spyware and How to Remove It

June 16, 2004 Suggestions for the iMac writer of June 9

June 9, 2004 MacIntosh User Finds Trick to Display Emailed Photos

June 2, 2004 Internet Options "Cookies" Configuration

May 26, 2004 Internet Options Box #2

May 12&19, 2004 Worm_Sasser.B and Clearing Old URL Addresses from IE

May 5, 2004 The F5 Refresh key and other Function keys

Apr. 28, 2004 First Purchase on Ebay and More on Recycling Computer Eqpt.

Apr. 21, 2004 Repairing a Laser Printer and More about Disposing Used Computer Equipment

Apr. 14, 2004 How to get rid of an old PC

Apr. 7, 2004 Another Virus Alert

Mar. 31, 2004 Keeping Both Home and Ebay Pages Open At the Same Time

Mar. 24, 2004 A Complex Alert about a Very Complex Virus

Mar. 17, 2004 A Hoax Virus Can Cause You To Damage Your Computer

Mar. 10, 2004 Should I Reload Windows?

Mar. 3, 2004 HTML Email Viruses: Disable Preview and Receive Only Text Email

Feb. 25, 2004 Spoofing and Zombies

Feb. 18, 2004 Using Spyware

Feb. 11, 2004 Spyware

Feb. 4, 2004 Phishing and the MyDoom virus

Jan. 28, 2004 Microsoft Extends Support for Windows '98 and ME

Jan. 21, 2004 More Keyboard Shortcuts

Jan. 14, 2004 The Lifesaver "Undo" and Other Keyboard Shortcuts

Jan. 7, 2004 Microsoft quitting support for Windows 95 & 98 plus minimum computer requirements for Windows XP

Dec. 24, 2003 The Trouble with Mice

Dec. 17, 2003 System Restore & Windows Safe Mode

Dec. 10, 2003 Backing Up using an external USB Hard Drive

Dec. 3, 2003 SpamSubtract, a good way to reduce spam, also other ways

Nov. 26, 2003 Disgusted about Spam

Nov. 19, 2003 How Vulnerable is Your Computer to Data Theft?

Nov. 12, 2003 Safely Deleting Thousands of tmp Files

Nov. 5, 2003 Finding the Windows Search Button & Misc Program Problems

Oct. 29, 2003 How to Print a List of Files

Oct. 22, 2003 Fall Cleanup Part 3

Oct. 15, 2003 Fall Cleanup Part 2

Oct. 8, 2003 Fall Cleaning of Your PC

Oct. 1, 2003 Explanation of DSL

Sept. 24, 2003 Installing DSL at the Shopper

Sept. 17, 2003 What New Computer Should I Buy? Part 2

Sept. 10, 2003 What New Computer Should I Buy?

Sept. 3, 2003 Protecting from Viruses and Worms

Aug. 27, 2003 Current Viruses "Bast Worm" and "Sobig"

Aug. 20, 2003 Does Microsoft Password Make Changing Passwords Easier?

Aug. 13, 2003 Passwords and Passport Part 2

Aug. 6, 2003 More About PassPort and Passwords

July 23 & 30, 2003 Where Are Microsoft Passport Passwords Stored? and More About Passport and Passwords

July 16, 2003 Internet Explorer Helpful Hint Part 2

July 9, 2003 Internet Explorer Helpful Hint Part 1

July 2, 2003 Some More Icons Explained

June 25, 2003 Online Ordering

June 18, 2003 Followup on Refilled Ink Cartridges

 

July 05, 2000 Introduction to ComputerFAQ

July 12, 2000 Computer Definitions

July 26, 2000 More Computer Definitions

August 02, 2000 Defining Bits, Bytes and Hex

August 09, 2000 Internet Service Providers (ISP)

August 16, 2000 Backup up your PC

August 23, 2000 Backup Devices.

August 30, 2000 What is the slowest PC for Internet Access

September 06, 2000 PC Nomenclature

September 13, 2000What to do with Mail Attachements.

September 20, 2000What Happens at boot up

October 04, 2000Desktop Areas

October 18, 2000Start Button

October 25, 2000Display Made Bigger

November 01, 2000 More Monitor Controls

November 15, 2000 Right Click Display Menu

November 22, 2000 More on Desktop Menus

November 29, 2000 More on Desktop Menus

December 06, 2000 Desktop Properties Menu - part 1

December 13, 2000 Desktop Properties Menu - part 2

December 20, 2000 Desktop Properties Menu - part 3