Computer

[Teegate]

Jennifer went to Windows 7 and never looked back at Vista. I love my Mac but if I had to use a Windows OS it would be Windows 7. Contrary to the Windows 7 commercials where the ordinary folk say they gave Microsoft the idea's, it was the Mac OS that they took them from so it is pretty nice.


Guy

 

[LARGO]

Contrary to the Windows 7 commercials where the ordinary folk say they gave Microsoft the idea's, it was the Mac OS that they took them from so it is pretty nice.
Guy

That has been my understanding but since I have only ever known a couple MAC diehards I can only speculate. My man what has been fixing my buggered machine made the same analogy in a complimentary way even though he is a windows guy. He really likes it and... likens it to MAC.
Here's my deal, I'll just be happy to have back my healthy P/C with a functional and user friendly operating system and given my kid's highly demanding scholastic requirements, it seems we outgrew VISTA about 3 days after I got it.
This Toshiba laptop rocks but you all computer geeks out there that praise laptops amuse me. It is a bit tedious to work on. Probably just me being old fashioned.

g.

 

[Teegate]

.
but you all computer geeks out there that praise laptops amuse me. It is a bit tedious to work on. Probably just me being old fashioned.

g.

I agree. I don't own one and most likely never will. Even though I have been thinking about buying an old one so I can take it into the woods with me. Maybe one day.


Guy

 

[Ben Ruset]

If I did not own a Mac, I would be working on Windows 7. It's pretty good. My "gaming computer*" is a Windows 7 machine, but I very rarely use it.

I can't really stand desktops. I have a 24" iMac on my desk at work which is the bees knees, but I do most of my personal work - writing, photography, working on the site - on my 15" Macbook Pro. I have been thinking about picking up an external monitor for it, but to be honest, it'd just be more of an excuse to buy a new toy.

I've carried laptops into the woods and it's not fun. The 4-5lbs extra that you're schleping around gets really heavy really quick. I guess I'd be okay in the car, but if I was going to do that I'd want a car mount for it, and I just can't see making my truck look like a police car with a laptop mount in it.








* The only game on it is Silent Hunter 4, which is a WW2 Submarine simulation.

 

[Boyd]

Garmin Mapsource seems to have significant problems under Windows 7. There's a long thread about it on Garmin's site: https://forums.garmin.com/showthread.php?t=3059. It has also been discussed over at GPSFileDepot and the Garmin mapmakers group at Yahoo. Some people have given up and are using Garmin Basecamp instead. Others have found that certain old versions of Mapsource work better than the newest ones.

So if you use Mapsource with your GPS under Windows, just be aware that this could be an issue...

 

[imkms]

I will also be looking into some online backup. He seems to think Mozy is worth a look yet more than one person has thrown the name Carbonite at me. Any thoughts on this?

g.

I have not used the online backups, but one thing that i would recommend is to image your PC. Norton Ghost is the most recognized name, but I like Acronis products (True Image or Backup 10) better. Create an Image of your PC, place it on an external Hard Drive and if the PC blows up you can put just boot to a special CD and restore the image. the PC will then look exactly as it was when the image was first taken. You can also do incremental images to aid in backup. This is not a replacement for a file backup, but it will save you hours, if not days, when you need to restore your PC due to a drive crash or virus infection.

 

[MarkBNJ]

I have not used the online backups, but one thing that i would recommend is to image your PC. Norton Ghost is the most recognized name, but I like Acronis products (True Image or Backup 10) better. Create an Image of your PC, place it on an external Hard Drive and if the PC blows up you can put just boot to a special CD and restore the image. the PC will then look exactly as it was when the image was first taken. You can also do incremental images to aid in backup. This is not a replacement for a file backup, but it will save you hours, if not days, when you need to restore your PC due to a drive crash or virus infection.

Windows 7 now has system imaging built in and it works like a champ. I used it recently to move from a 74gb raptor to a new 500gb caviar black. Simply imaged the raptor, installed the new drive, booted off of a recovery dvd, restored the image to the new drive, then used diskpart to expand the created partition to the full drive capacity.

As for Carbonite, my dad uses it and although it has occasionally caused him problems I think he'd give it a thumbs up. Personally I don't get online backups. Carbonite runs constantly in the background shipping changed files off across the Internet, which is by orders of magnitude the slowest data transmission link possible for backups. The average person should probably just stick a 32gb thumbdrive in a USB slot and use SyncToy to synchronize key folders to it. You can encrypt it, and take it with you, and that's as good as offsite unless you're in the house when it explodes. If you have a lot of media/pictures, etc., then buy an external drive and dump stuff to that. Windows has all the necessary tools built in.

 

[Ben Ruset]

SyncToy isn't bundled with Windows.

 

[MarkBNJ]

True, but it's free and easy to get.

 

[bobpbx]

I got the Dell XPS and set it up. Download speeds are 25 mbps, an improvement of 12 mbps over the old computer. I am amazed at how much new stuff I have to learn on these programs. The features are endless. It is somewhat of a pain, but a good and necessary one I suppose.

 

[Teegate]

Glad you are enjoying your computer.

Guy

 

[MarkBNJ]

I got the Dell XPS and set it up. Download speeds are 25 mbps, an improvement of 12 mbps over the old computer. I am amazed at how much new stuff I have to learn on these programs. The features are endless. It is somewhat of a pain, but a good and necessary one I suppose.

Twice as fast? I'm thinking the ethernet adapter on the old machine was set to half-duplex.

 

[LARGO]

Well,
I got my machine back to day and I am playing around with Windows 7.
Pretty cool. I have to move some files around and I got my Microsoft office stuff all back in but there were some issues with music files corrupted from before. All cleaned up now, I think. I am liking to the taskbar and some of the things I can do with different windows at the same time but truthfully, I'm taking baby steps. Big jump from VISTA. Strange how all my other stuff seemed easy but I had to down load the printer drivers. It's the only device so far that seemed specific to VISTA. Easy fix though.
I am actually just happy to have my machine back and wow, going back from my 15.5" laptop to my 22" screen is like crazy!!! Especially with a better looking product on the screen. That part is true for certain. It is a better looking product and so far I think I'm going to like using it.

g.

 

[bobpbx]

Well, I got my machine back to day and I am playing around with Windows 7.
Pretty cool. g.

It really does seem to be absent of walls....still getting used to it. I have Microsoft Outlook as my email program now, and the scheduler is helpful.

 

[Teegate]

By the way, I was looking into what I have to do to reload security software. Comcast is moving to Norton from McAfee.

I have never used virus software on my Mac; however, since Norton is free from Comcast I installed it the other day to check it out. As I expected it slowed my computer down so Thursday night I uninstalled it. Then my computer would not restart and I had to boot off my external firewire drive. Last night I reinstalled the OS and it restated fine and I thought the problem was solved. This morning the same thing, so it appears I have to erase my drive and reformat it. The disk utility says the core service files have been altered and will not be fixed.

Not only do I have to reinstall everything, I also run Windows and I have to reinstall that. It will be an all day project along with replacing the tie rod ends on my car.

Guy

 

[46er]

I have never used virus software on my Mac; however, since Norton is free from Comcast I installed it the other day to check it out. As I expected it slowed my computer down so Thursday night I uninstalled it. Then my computer would not restart and I had to boot off my external firewire drive. Last night I reinstalled the OS and it restated fine and I thought the problem was solved. This morning the same thing, so it appears I have to erase my drive and reformat it. The disk utility says the core service files have been altered and will not be fixed.

Not only do I have to reinstall everything, I also run Windows and I have to reinstall that. It will be an all day project along with replacing the tie rod ends on my car.

Guy

Unfortunately to late for you Tee; I have found Norton has become one of the worst of the virus software products; huge system resouorce use is my main complaint. There was a time when they were the product of choice, that time has come and gone. I moved over to Trend Micro a couple of years ago. Uses very few resources, I have never had any problem with virus , spyware or malware since using it. I just bought a new laptop and deleted the software Dell supplies, McAfee, as my first step. Win 7 appears to be a huge improvement over what I have on the desktop, which is XP SP3.

 

[Boyd]

Interesting - my Dell had Trend Micro pre-installed and I have now switched all my PC's to Trend since McAfee brings them to their knees while scanning. I just got a nice netbook on sale and installed Trend on it too.

BTW, the main reason I got the netbook was to run Garmin nRoute software. This was a free program that Garmin has discontinued. Basically, it looks like Mapsource but supports real-time navigation and mapping. Quite a nice little program, and it renders my New Jersey and Pines maps beautifully - much nicer looking than Mapsource.

Garmin no longer supports it and has even removed it from their servers, but you can still get it here. I am using the nRoute_276 version: http://gawisp.com/perry/nroute/

If you use my maps, check this program out. If nothing else, it provides a nice way to view them on your computer. After installing, it will read all the maps that you have already installed in Mapsource, so just pick my map from the drop-down menu or use the View > Product menu.

If you have a Garmin handheld GPS, it can be used to display your position on the map. If you have a nuvi or a non-garmin USB or bluetooth GPS, take a look at GPSGate. It should allow you to connect them to nRoute and even split the GPS data between multiple applications - very cool little utility: http://www.franson.com/gpsgate/

 

[46er]

Interesting - my Dell had Trend Micro pre-installed and I have now switched all my PC's to Trend since McAfee brings them to their knees while scanning. I just got a nice netbook on sale and installed Trend on it too.

My desktop had Trend pre-installed. At that time they gave the option of Trend or McAfee. No choice this time around. Doesn't matter as Trend allows 3 machines per license.

 

[ecampbell]

I have never used virus software on my Mac; however, since Norton is free from Comcast I installed it the other day to check it out. As I expected it slowed my computer down so Thursday night I uninstalled it. Then my computer would not restart and I had to boot off my external firewire drive. Last night I reinstalled the OS and it restated fine and I thought the problem was solved. This morning the same thing, so it appears I have to erase my drive and reformat it. The disk utility says the core service files have been altered and will not be fixed.

Not only do I have to reinstall everything, I also run Windows and I have to reinstall that. It will be an all day project along with replacing the tie rod ends on my car.

Guy

Don't ya just hate it when you start installing something, then go away to do tie rod ends and come back to find the computer asking you a question instead of completing the task? I have Comcast and they provide McAfee for free on my PC. I never noticed them offering Norton. Is that a Mac thing and is it really true that Mac's don't get viruses?

 

[46er]

I have Comcast and they provide McAfee for free on my PC. I never noticed them offering Norton. Is that a Mac thing and is it really true that Mac's don't get viruses?

They dumped McAfee a while back and now provide Norton.

From Comcast's site.

"You want to know why Comcast is switching from McAfee to Norton.

We are always looking at different ways to improve our customers' security and safety. As we look for ways to improve your security, we evaluate the best offers and products to meet your needs.

Norton Security Suite powered by Norton 360 technology scans faster, boots faster, uses less memory and installs faster than McAfee."