Last week’s column generated more questions so today I will hit a few of those.

First, “Why did you say Dell is the best computer maker? I think (fill-in-the-blank) is much better.”  Well, I understand your comment; however, that is not exactly what I said.  I believe when you reread the column you will see that I said, “At this point in time I always suggest Dell.”  I stand by that statement, but they have not always been at the top of my list.  In the past they have been close to the bottom.  My recommendation takes into account quality, price and service.  Many manufacturers have fallen down on customer service.  In my opinion, while Dell is not the best in customer service, they are not the worst.

Many of you appreciated me bringing the AIO computers to the forefront.  Some of you “googled” about them and found that they are quite an interesting concept.  Also, they are currently more expensive than most of us would like to experiment with.  So, thanks!

Now the one where I guess I drew most of the “attacks”…iPad!  I did not include iPads in my comments about computer types, i.e. netbook, notebook, desktop and even AIOs.  The reason being that although it is technically a computer it does not have all of the abilities and features of a standard computer.

The iPad is a computer whose main calling in life is to allow the user to view prepared things online. It is not used much for creation.  For instance, you can view any website, e-book, picture, movie, etc. you wish.  However, it is hard to contribute to those same things from the iPad.  Yes, I could have written this column on an iPad but from what I hear and have experienced it isn’t the most comfortable keyboard to use for longer typing.  Emails yes, documents no.  I could also purchase a keyboard that would connect to the iPad and make typing easier.  If that’s the case why wouldn’t I have just bought a netbook at half the price or less?

They are neat and I think that over time they will affect the e-book readers like Kindle and Nook more than the notebook/netbook markets.  They are perfect for reading books (once they come out with a version that has an antiglare screen) and magazines with much better quality than the e-readers and the page size is a great deal nicer.  Even an Apple lover told me that they are basically an overgrown iTouch.

I would love to own one but not at such a high price for a feature-poor computer.  One of the major drawbacks is the iPad’s small storage space.  The highest end iPad has 64 GB of storage, which is probably OK if you do not want to add many programs and save files. I personally am not for putting all of my files on the cloud as of yet.

I like the concept of the iPad but it needs some increases in functionality before it can fairly be compared to a computer.

Tags: aio, all in one, comparison, desktop, iPad, netbook, notebook

I say, “Not”!  And this article from TechRepublic writer, Debra Littlejohn Shinder gives my reasoning exactly.  I am especially in agreement with the even numbered items in the list.

I would add an 11th reason to the mix and that is I never want the first version of anything.  That includes tech stuff, cars, phones, etc.

The engineers and developers never consider every option and everything you and I can do with the device.  I have found that the 1st of anything is usually the poorest of the versions with more issues.

I would like to add that even though I have been reading the TechRepublic site for years to great techie benefit, I will have one of my articles appearing there within the next month or so.  It does require a membership to read all of the information and articles there.  However, it is free and I have never gotten spammed from them.

They send me updates on the specific parts of the site that I want to receive them for.

Tags: Apple, computer, desktop, iPad, iPod, Mac, not ready for prime time, storage, zune

Many of you had questions and suggestions about Windows 7 after last week’s column.  Thanks for asking them!  And no, that is not all I will be writing about now.  Since it is the newest and one of the most popular Windows operating systems I will talk about it from time-to-time.  I do realize that not everyone has W7 or plans on upgrading to it so I will continue with other various computer/internet topics too.

Having said that, today we will look at another W7 feature…themes.

For years people have said that you should be able to change your wallpaper automatically (the picture on your desktop).  Windows 7 allows this through the use of themes.  First, we need a definition of themes.  A theme is a collection of digital images, possibly related sounds, coloring and shading to make your desktop environment more personal.  Interestingly enough Microsoft calls it “Personalization”.

Microsoft estimates that one of the first things that approximately 90% of windows users do is to personalize their desktops.  You know you have a picture of your kids, grandkids, dogs, cats, etc. on the desktop in XP.  Windows 7 allows you to use a themed group of graphics that change at a predetermined interval.  You can also personalize your themes even more by including your own collection of pictures in a theme.  That way you can cycle through your own pictures throughout the workday.

To change your computer’s theme simply right click on an empty space on the desktop and click on “Personalize”.  Next, click on one of the available themes, close the personalization window and you are done.  The new set of graphics will start cycling through at a predefined rate which you can speed up or slow down if you wish.

Now I have a secret for you.  There are several themes loaded in to W7 when it is new; however, there are some hidden ones too.

Getting to them is a multi-step process.  Step one is to click the “Orb” (Start button) and type “Show hidden files and folders” (always without the quotes) and press enter when it appears in the menu area.  Next, under the “Hidden files and folders” section select the radio button labeled, “Show hidden files, folders, and drives” and then remove the checkmark from the “Hide extensions for known file types” checkbox and also from “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)”.  The only warning here is that you will now be able to see “secret” windows files that you should never try to edit or delete.  If you do you WILL have major issues.

The final step is much quicker.  Navigate to “C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT” and you will see several other themes.  Once you double click them they will each load into the themes window and be ready for use.

You may also create your own themes if you have artistic abilities…or, if you’re like me, Google or Bing for them.

Tags: bing.com, desktop, Globalization, google.com, MCT, Personalization, show hidden files, Slideshow, wallpaper, windows 7, Work

I got an email from a reader in Mt. Crawford over a month ago asking an excellent question.  They wanted to know if there was a way to keep all of their programs up to date, keeping the latest version always on their system.

In talking back and forth with them we came to the conclusion that there should be something on the market that was similar to “Windows Update”.  WU comes with all versions of Microsoft windows as all of my readers should know.  It allows you to check and see if there are any new versions of your MS products that need updating.  If there are, it allows you to update them so that you can stay ahead of the curve.

After a little Googling and searching I found a program called Secunia-PSI.  I have no idea what “Secunia” means but PSI is for “Personal Software Inspector”.  This program does almost everything the reader wanted.  I have been testing it for a little over a month and it seems to work very well.

You can go to secunia.com to read about and download the personal edition of the application.  There are actually three different versions of Secunia.  They are OSI (Online), PSI (Personal) and CSI (Corporate).  I tried the OSI and it was adequate but does not look for as many programs as the PSI and CSI versions.  The CSI version is really for the corporate environment and home users do not need it.  All three are here: bit.ly/bx3f5u.

All versions are free but I recommend downloading/installing the PSI version which seems to  be very thorough.  You will find it in the middle of the three on the page recommended above.

The default setting for Secunia runs in the background all the time checking your computer’s software for updates.  I leave it like that on my desktop since I have loads of memory. However, for my netbook I just run it once a week or so.

I pride myself in always keeping all of my software up to date, so let’s take a look at how my three computers faired after being scanned by Secunia.

My netbook scored 100% as all of my software was up-to-date, yeah!

My notebook didn’t do as well.  There were four applications that weren’t up to standards.  But I still did better than 15% of users in Virginia; Secunia gives you this info if you register the product.  (free)

Now my pride and joy, my desktop computer…oops, I had 11 applications that were not where they should be.  I spent about an hour uninstalling some old versions which Secunia advised me to do, before I updated them.  I also downloaded some of the new versions from the links provided by Secunia.  And I learned a valuable lesson, as the bible says, “Pride goes before destruction.”

Now, let’s look at  a couple of drawbacks.  It indicated that all three browsers on my system were insecure and needed updates.  They are MSIE, Firefox and Google Chrome.  Come on, give me a break!  They were all updated and as secure as possible.  I guess it wanted me to uninstall all three of them. Of course, then my surfing the net time would be cut down considerably.  I decided to ignore those threats.  You can always make rules to ignore certain warnings.

Tags: application, browsers, desktop, netbook, notebook, PSI, Ron Doyle, secunia, software, update