In addition to staying on top of your Windows and Office Updates, you should install and/or run the following:


Malware protection

• To prevent viruses, we like AVG.  It’s FREE!  Of course, you can upgrade to the Pro version which is probably even better.  Also good are BitDefender, ESET NOD32, Kaspersky.
• To get rid of malware/spyware, we like MalwareBytes best.  Also good are a-squared, AVG’s “suite,” SpyBot, AdAware and SuperAntiSpyware. They all have free and “pro” versions.
• To clean out unnecessary junk files (where malware often hides), we love ATF-Cleaner.  You’d be amazed how much space this sometimes frees up.  It’s much better than Windows’ built-in Cleanup utility, although that’s good, too.  It’s free, but we recommend you donate to them.

Disaster recovery

• We highly recommend Acronis True Image, no matter what your operating system is.  It creates an image of your existing installation and copies it to a bootable, protected, hidden partition (or an image file on an external or network drive) that is easily restored.  You might lose recent documents after restoring, depending on how it’s setup, but it’s the best thing we’re aware of for quick and painless disaster recovery.  Windows VISTA and 7 also have the ability to make a complete backup of your system, but we haven’t tested it thoroughly enough to rate it here.
• For flaky/weird/hinky recovery, assuming you can get into Windows, we recommend ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility for NT-based Windows).  It puts itself into the Startup group and makes a backup of your Windows registry (where all settings are stored) every time you startup.  It’s free.
• Don’t forget System Restore, again assuming Windows will at least start.  It’s a great tool.  It’s under Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools.

Browsers, etc.

• You also need to stay on top of your Java and Adobe Reader and Flash updates, if you browse the Internet.
• If/when Internet Explorer gets messed up (less likely now with IE 8), it’s good to have alternatives to go and download these repair/recovery tools.  We prefer Opera and Chrome, but there’s also Firefox, K-Meleon and Safari.  They all take you to the same Internet. 

Hardware

• For your hard drive, the physical piece of equipment where all of the above happens, we recommend:
  • An external hard drive (here or several here) to safely copy your files.  They’re getting bigger and cheaper all the time.
  • For the integrity of the drive inside your computer, we recommend running Check Disk every 2 or 3 months, like so:
    • Open up a DOS/command prompt (click Start, Run, type “cmd” without the quotes, hit Enter or click OK.  For VISTA and Windows 7, you don’t click “Run”)
    • Next, type (without quotes): “chkdsk /r” and hit Enter
    • When chkdsk starts, it’ll say it can’t be run now, “would you like it to run next time you start Windows?”  Answer Yes and then restart your machine soon thereafter.  Otherwise, you’ll forget, and the next time you start your machine it will take forever to finish that check and load Windows, you’ll be in a hurry, and you’ll start cursing me and my advice.  :)

PROBLEM:
I’ve been very happy with Windows Frontpage, but that’s no longer supported and there is no Windows replacement for it. I have tried a couple others, but nothing seems as easy and powerful as Frontpage. So I’m wondering if I can install the old Windows 2000 OS onto this computer so that I can continue using my favorite html editor (frontpage).
The problem is that my other computer is on its last legs and it is my only one I can use for this program. It’s getting pretty worrisome. I need to have an HTML editor I can use with Vista Home Basic but will seriously consider Windows 7 if that one allows me to run the old Frontpage designed for Windows 2000.

SOLUTION:
Microsoft replaced FrontPage with something called Expression.  I tried using it for a while, but it was just such slow, complicated bloat-ware, I found it easier to use a text editor called Notepad++, in combination of course with what’s built into Google’s blogger where I host hepya.com and WordPress editing that I use for  friendsnews.com.
I wouldn’t count on Windows 7 supporting something that Vista doesn’t support.  Here are a few WYSIWYG html editors, some free, here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_HTML_editors.  Of the non-free programs, I’d recommend Dreamweaver.  I’ve always liked it best.  Although I see on this list that Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer is free, though it might only work with XP.  You can download that here:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=baa3ad86-bfc1-4bd4-9812-d9e710d44f42.

PROBLEM:
     Everyday I get an MS auto update message for the same update: MS XML Core Services 4.0, Service Pack 2. I have updated several times now and get an “update complete” message, but the next day when I fire up the computer it is back again. Do you think I have a bug that is not allowing updates?

SOLUTION:
     This should work for most if not all MS updates. Try the following:

• turn off Windows Update temporarily (may or may not be necessary)

• go to a Command (cmd) prompt (Start, Run, cmd, OK)

• type in, without quotes:  “sc stop wuauserv” (or, “net stop wuauserv”)

• in Windows Explorer delete all files from the following folder: c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download

• to get there, just copy and paste that path, above, into your Start, Run line and click OK or hit Enter

• highlight all the files in there (press Ctrl-A) and either right-click and choose Delete or just press the Delete key on your keyboard. Don’t delete that folder itself, just all files and folders within it

• turn the Windows Update service back on

• go to a Command (cmd) prompt (Start, Run, cmd, OK)

• type in, without quotes: “sc start wuauserv” (or, “net start wuauserv”)

• at the end of all that, MANUALLY go to http://www.update.microsoft.com/ and let it search for any necessary updates again.

Good information here from HP: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&docname=c00372672

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    For those who hate waiting for their computer to start up in the morning, but don’t want to leave it on all night, this is for you.  Most manufacturers have made it possible to set your computer to automatically startup at a certain time.  I don’t know the exact steps for each manufacturer, but if you can get into the BIOS/Setup screens, you should be able to find the Power options.
    If it’s a recent enough Dell computer, go into Setup (BIOS) by pressing F2 when it first starts up (before Windows starts).  Other brands might use F10, F1 or Del to get into Setup.  Go to Power options, and in there you can set it startup all by itself at a certain time every day or just week days.  This only works when connected to AC power, though.
    The above, alone, might be good enough for you.  But if you want to complete the process, do the following.  After Windows starts up, type this in the Run line (by clicking Start, then Run):  control userpasswords2.  Highlight your username in the list.  UNCHECK the box saying “Users must enter username and password…”  Click OK.  It will prompt you for your password, so type that in, twice, I think.  If that box was ALREADY unchecked, just check it, click OK, then uncheck it and follow the rest of my instructions after that.
    For Windows 7, the “control userpasswords2″ never worked for me, but “netplwiz” does.
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PROBLEM:
You get this error message when trying to access a Windows XP Home computer from a Windows XP Pro computer: 
     “The user has not been granted the requested login type at this computer”

SOLUTION:
On the XP Home computer (shouldn’t be necessary on the Pro computer), run this:
     START > Control Panel > Network Setup Wizard

Leave the “Home” PC name as it was (as long as it’s unique), but make sure the WORKGROUP is THE SAME on both computers. It also simplifies things if both computers are using the same USER name.

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Windows VISTA and 7 require BCDEDIT for this.  With XP (and NT and 2000), you can use any old text editor.  First make sure the file is not marked Read Only.  Then open and edit your boot.ini file.  If you don’t know where that is, you probably shouldn’t be messing with it. 
Add the second line, below, based on the values from the first line.  Make any changes appropriate to your machine:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS=”Safe Mode” /safeboot:minimal /sos /bootlog

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Avoid screensavers and toolbars that don’t come with Windows from Microsoft. I just had a customer whose Internet Explorer wouldn’t close after they installed “My.Freeze.Com” screensaver. Luckily, it uninstalled properly when using its uninstall program this time. These things just cause problems not worth the pretty pictures you get in return.

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I installed Windows 7 RC1 (release candidate 1) on a home PC with 1gb RAM and 1ghz processor.  It took FOREVER to install.  I had to let it run overnight.  Maybe they fixed all the problems prior to release, but I doubt it.  They never do, hence the need for Service Packs.

Anyway, once it finally finished, everything was fine except for two fairly important things: video and audio problems.  The display resolution would not go any higher than 800×600, which is just not enough these days.  It seemed to install my video adapter drivers, but not the monitor (MAG Innovision) driver.  It could not find a suitable audio driver at all.  If this was a server, I wouldn’t care, but as a home PC, I like to be able to play music and videos (with sound) once in a while. 

On a work laptop (Dell Latitude D600) a month or so prior to this, everything installed just fine.  I was fairly impressed, especially with how fast it shutdown and started Windows.  With my home desktop, however, the shutting down and starting were not fast at all.  I think the only real difference between the laptop and desktop in regard to RAM, processor and hard drive specs was that the laptop had a 2ghz processor.  Everything else was the same, so, maybe that’s the problem right there.

Having said that, not a great endorsement, if you’re still interested in buying Windows 7, here’s a decent deal from Office Depot.  Like I said, maybe Microsoft fixed my problems in the official release:   Windows 7

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