Download Windows 8

Microsoft Windows 8 is here at last, well in beta form anyway. It isn't due to go on sale until the summer. In the meantime you can download and run the beta for free. Go here and click the Get it Now button. This takes you to the download page and there's a large Download Windows 8 Consumer Preview button. Don't click it! Instead, click the link below labelled ISO format, which takes you to a page where you can download a DVD image of Windows 8.

A .iso image is basically the contents of a DVD (CD images are possible too), saved as a file. There are several advantages to downloading the .iso file and one is that you can burn it to a DVD with free DVD/CD burning software and install it on multiple PCs without having to download it each time. If you ever need to reinstall Windows 8 on your PC because it has gone wrong or you have messed it up, it is easier to do this from the DVD rather than download it all over again.

The 32-bit version of Windows 8 is significantly smaller than the 64-bit version, 2.5Gb vs 3.3Gb. It also needs less disk space and memory, so if you want a lightweight version of the OS because of limited hardware then go for the 32-bit version. If you have a new-ish PC with lots of disk space, RAM and processing power then the 64-bit version is the one to go for.

I grabbed the .iso file because I wanted to run Windows 8 in a virtual machine. Using VirtualBox you can install and run Windows 8 in a window on the desktop of your normal Windows installation. You don't need to back up your PC, reformat the disk or change anything on your PC, you just run VirtualBox, choose the option to create a new virtual machine, select Windows 8 from the menu and so on. You don't even need to burn the .iso file to a DVD because you can tell VirtualBox to boot Windows 8 directly from the .iso file.

After creating the Windows 8 virtual machine, but before you start it, select it and go to settings. Go to Storage, and click the disk icon on the right. Select Choose a virtual CD/DVD file, select the .iso file you downloaded and that's it. VirtualBox will boot up from the .iso file and you can install Windows 8 into the virtual machine.

Is Windows 8 any good? It is interesting to look at previous Windows releases...

• Windows 98 - good
• Windows ME - poor
• Windows XP - good
• Windows Vista - poor
• Windows 7 - good
• Windows 8 - ????

Can you see a pattern here? If Windows 8 follows the pattern of previous releases then it will be poorly received and we'll have to wait for Windows 9 to see the next great operating system from Microsoft.

The problem with Windows 8 is the interface and partly it is just too different from previous versions of Windows, but worse is that it is non-intuitive. Give people any previous version of Windows and they will be able to find their way around, run programs, and so on. Give them Windows 8 and they will be lost.

The new Start screen with its metro interface that is reminiscent of a Windows phone is hard to use until you learn all the tricks and techniques required. The problem is that it just isn't obvious how to use it and you need someone to tell you what to do. I've been using Windows since 1990 - that's 22 years - and I'm lost in Windows 8. I'm scratching my head wondering how to do simple things, things I do without thinking in previous versions of Windows.

I'll quickly figure it out because I'm a geek and I'm used to learning new software, sometimes with strange interfaces, but not everyone is like me. Some people will just take one look at Windows 8 and ask to be put back to Windows 7, or they'll stick with XP. (Like a lot of people, I'm still running XP on one of my PCs and will continue to do so until the hardware dies.)

I can't see companies upgrading all their PCs to Windows 8 because employees will not be able to use their PC without spending hours or days on a training course. It would be chaos if everyone turned up to work to find Windows 8 on their PC.

Of course, we'll all get used to Windows 8's way of working, but I suspect that it we won't love it until Windows 9 is released, which will fix all the faults like Windows 7 fixed Vista. Windows 7 is Vista with just a few tweaks and underneath it is pretty much the same. Windows 9 will be Windows 8 with a few tweaks, but they will make all the difference. I can't wait.

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Take your time and avoid problems

Computers are multitasking devices that can do several things at once. For example, you can download files, play music and edit a document all at the same time. Just imagine how much more awkward it would be if you could only do one task at a time and you had to wait until one had finished before you started another.

Sometimes though, it is actually a good idea to do this and to limit the number of tasks that the computer has to do. Trying to do too much at once can be counter productive. The computer gets bogged down and everything gets slower. It may also cause problems.

Sometimes you don't know that the computer is getting bogged down and all you see is that it is very slow for some reason. You wonder why the computer isn't working very well today and you click something again or try to do some other task, which simply adds to the workload and makes the computer even slower. It doesn't help.

If you have ever tried to write software that can perform two or more tasks at once you will have an idea of how hard it is. Does one task rely on the other? How do you prevent the user from starting the other task before the current one is finished? Do you need to wait for the results of one task before proceeding to the next? And so on. I've done a little programming and I can tell you it's hard. It must be extremely hard with an operating system that performs countless functions and consists of millions of lines of programming.

I wonder whether the programmers always get it right and in some circumstances I sit back, wait and give my computer time to do whatever task it is doing. A good example of this is is with operating system updates.

You download the latest service pack, patch or update to the OS and then restart the system. When you get back to the desktop it is tempting to start clicking on things to quickly get back to work, such as starting a web browser, word processor, email or whatever.

This is not a good idea and the speed at which the desktop appears is misleading. It is displayed early in the boot process to give the impression that the computer starts quickly, but really it is only part of the way through all the tasks it has to perform. After an OS update it often has a lot of tasks to perform after the first boot and it is best to wait until the system has settled down and done all that it needs to do before you start using the computer. It can sometimes take five minutes or more.

How do you know that the computer is busy, apart from it slowing down? On the Apple Mac I use an old program called Menu Meters. It is not the best utility of its type and iStat Menus has more features, but Menu Meters is simpler and uses fewer resources, which is better for my ageing MacBook that's struggling to run the latest software.

Both of these programs add items to the menu bar at the top of the screen on the Mac and they display processor activity, disk activity, upload and download speeds and so on. Take a look at the screen shot as I was shutting down one day. The red and green triangles show that the disk was being read and written to and the CPU bars (two because it's dual-core), are right up near the top.

Clearly OS X was very busy performing some housekeeping task. I could have clicked Shut Down to force the Mac to power off, but I waited until the disk and processor activity stopped before clicking it. Was it necessary to wait? I don't know, but I do wonder why some people always have lots of
problems with their computer and whether this sort of thing has anything to do with it. I reckon that a little patience pays off. Just wait until it has finished whatever it is doing.

There are utilities for Windows that perform a similar task and on Vista and 7 it is useful to install some desktop gadgets. There are some good ones to choose from and I like the gadgets at AddGadget.com. There are some great ones, such as All CPU Meter, Network Meter, and Drives Meter. Another one to try is System Monitor at Build A Gadget.

 

Menu Meters and desktop gadgets can explain why your computer has slowed down to a crawl and it is may be busy performing some essential housekeeping task, but it could also mean that a program has a bug or has crashed, or is poorly written too. Load a few web pages with Flash content and watch the CPU meter rise, particularly on the Mac. When CPU and disk activity rises when it shouldn't, such as after several hours working on your computer, it may be time for a reboot.

These gadgets are a bit technical, but I am convinced that keeping an eye on the system and giving it time to finish tasks before starting another pays off with greater reliability and fewer problems. It is interesting to watch these meters go crazy when you boot up first thing in a morning or after an OS update. You may be surprised at the amount of activity that goes on and I think it's best to let it finish.

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Chrome Web Store problems

One of the great features of Google's Chrome web browser is the way that it can be enhanced by adding extensions. One of the reasons why Firefox has grabbed such a large market share from Internet Explorer is because if the huge range of add-ons and extensions. Chrome is catching up fast, both in terms of extensions available and market share. Perhaps the two are related in some way, who knows?

Finding and installing extensions for Chrome is very easy and Google has built an online store. Just click the spanner icon in the top right corner and select Tools, Extensions. Then there's a link to go to the store. Well, store isn't quite the right word because most extensions are free. You just browse the categories, find one you like and click the button to install it. It's a piece of cake, or is it?

It is not hard to find people having problems accessing the Chrome Web Store though and some people have the curious problem of the images not displaying. The text is fine, but most or even all the images just appear as broken link icons. If you manage to browse the store and find something you want (even though you can't see it), clicking the install link fails to install it. You just get a message stating that the app is currently unreachable.

If you search the web for this error message you will find other people with the same problem. Many people offer solutions in forums and help pages, but they rarely work or they worked for one author and not
for anyone else.

I had this Chrome Web Store problem for weeks and tried some of the suggested fixes, but none of them helped. One thing that did work though, was to clear Chrome's cache, Click the spanner, Tools, Clear browsing data. Restarting Chrome and going straight to the store afterwards then enabled it to work, but only briefly. Just enough time to grab an extension. I installed Chrome in a virtual machine running Vista and the Chrome web store worked straight off. However, it soon stopped working. Perhaps it briefly worked because the cache was empty and when it was full it stopped. It's weird.

There are reports of people having this problem and they find it suddenly fixes itself. I had this. It wasn't working for weeks, then one day I tried it and it worked perfectly. It is still working. I didn't change any settings, install any software or do anything special. One day it just started working. I don't know what the problem is or how to fix it and no-one else seems to either. Just keep clearing the cache and trying it each day. One day it will work.

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Should you upgrade?

With Christmas and the New Year rapidly approaching, it is the season for spending and thoughts of treating yourself may have crossed your mind. Should you upgrade your software to the latest version? Perhaps there is a new release of some application that you use and it looks very tempting. Maybe the software you are currently using is now getting quite old and needs a refresh. The same is true of hardware too and there are lots of shiny new computers and gadgets sporting the latest technology to choose from, so is it time to upgrade? My philosophy has always been to skip a version, so for some people the answer is yes, upgrade now, but the advice is to wait for the next version whenever that may be,

Take Windows for example. Windows 98 was a great operating system and it was very popular. Then along came Windows ME (Millenium Edition), which wasn't so popular. You should have skipped it and waited for the next version, which was Windows XP - another great operating system. Vista, which came after it wasn't so hot (although it was unfairly criticised), and you should have skipped it and then upgraded to Windows 7. This is another first class operating system.

The same is true of other software products too and with new Linux distros appearing twice a year in some cases, you should skip a version and not accept every update as soon as it is released. Ubuntu 10.04 is fine if you've applied all the updates and 10.10 doesn't bring that many benefits. You should wait for 11.04 at least before upgrading.

OS X is slightly different either and Tiger to Leopard was a useful upgrade, but Leopard to Snow Leopard was more of a service pack. However, it was dirt cheap so there wasn't actually any reason to avoid it in this case, but if it had been full priced, then it would have been best to skip it and wait for the next version, Lion, which is under development.

Applications are similar and upgrading from v3 to v4 of some program may not always bring many benefits and sometimes you just get a few tweaks and a few new features. Skipping a version and waiting for v5 brings many more benefits.

You can upgrade the hardware every year if you want to constantly be at the cutting edge of technology, but you see a huge difference in performance unless there is a new generation of processor, such as Intel Core 2 Duo to Core i7/i5/i3. Don't be in too much of a hurry to upgrade, wait until there is a significant benefit, and then go for it.

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Keep Windows 7 running at top speed

Windows runs quickly and seems the most responsive when it has just been installed or when you buy a new PC. Very slowly over a long period of time it seems to get slower and slower. Why is this?

There are several reasons and one is that as the disk drive fills up it becomes less efficient and files become fragmented. Fortunately, there are some good disk defragmenters that can solve this problem. Windows has it's own disk defragmenter, but if you are looking for a better freebie then try IObit Smart Defrag, it's compatible with Windows 7.

Another reason why Windows slows down is because of updates. Extra features, bug fixes, patches, and service packs are downloaded and installed by Windows update and they add code to the system. The more code there is, the slower Windows runs. Unfortunately, you can't really avoid this and it is a good idea to leave Windows Update turned on for security and stability reasons.

A third reason why Windows slows down is that you install lots of software. Even if you uninstall software you don't need, it's sometimes impossible to remove all traces. As the software builds up on your computer and dlls, registry settings, configuration files and other items are added to the system, Windows gets slower.

Sometimes you can avoid installing software. For example, a device like a digital camera will often work fine if you simply plug it into the USB port of the computer. Windows will detect it and offer to open a window to display the photos on it or download them to the computer. You might not need to install the software that is bundled with the camera. It's the same with other devices - see if they work just by plugging them in and only install software if you have to.

Some software is essential though, such as an office suite or a photo editing program, but even with these you can sometimes get away by not installing anything. Instead of a regular software program, look for what is called a portable app. These are programs that are designed to run from USB flash memory drives (which is why they are called portable), and they don't install anything into Windows. There is a portable version of OpenOffice, Firefox and GIMP, for example. You just unzip the programs to a folder on the disk and that's it. And if you ever decide you don't need a portable app you can just delete the folder. This removes everything and leaves nothing behind. You won't get any uninstall errors or other problems that you occasionally get when removing software.

Sometimes you will find a portable app on a website with the regular app and you just need to look for it. There are also websites that specialise in portable apps, like PortableApps. There are other places, like this article listing 100 portable apps, this Wikipedia article, and Pendriveapps.

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Decoding a website URL

It is easy to get caught out by phishing scams if you don't know how website addresses work. The URL of a web page has several components and understanding them is important to your security. It's easy to spot fake ones and to avoid phishing if you know how to decode them.

URLs like http://paypal.verification-processing.com/index.htm look complicated, but it isn't. Chop off the http:// because that is unimportant, at least to us reading the URL. (To a computer it actually specifies the communication protocol.)

This leaves paypal.verification-processing.com/index.htm. Now chop off everything after the first forward slash. That refers to a page or program on the website.

We are now left with paypal.verification-processing.com from the original URL. Now read from right to left. The item on the right in this case is .com, but it could be .org, .gov, or any one of a number of two or three letter country codes. Let's skip this for a minute.

What remains is paypal.verification-processing and the right-most item is the important bit. In this case it is verification-processing and that is the website we would visit if we typed in the original URL or clicked a link with the URL. So what looked like a PayPal website URL at first glance is actually a website called verification-processing. This is obviously not PayPal. It's a fake website that is designed to look like it and to steal your login details.

This recent news story tells of a new Twitter scam that steals your login username and password. The URL that you are sent to is http://videos.twitter.secure-logins01.com/ and it's an obvious fake. Strip out the unnecessary bits and you get the name of the site, secure-logins01, and it's clearly not Twitter, so don't enter your login details!

Going back to the .com that we skipped earlier, it's worth noting that not all companies register all possible URLs. For example, www.apple.com is the Apple website where you'll find Macs, but www.apple.co.uk is The Apple Agency, which is a completely different company that deals with artwork and illustrations. In theory it would be possible to create a look-alike website with a different top level domain name, such as www.paypal.ru so it pays to know what it should be - .com in this case.

One final point, it is easy to disguise URLs. Click http://www.google.com/ and you'll get Bing and not Google.

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Internet Explorer is past its use-by date

Are you still using Internet Explorer to browse the web? If you are, you are in the majority, but Microsoft's market share is steadily shrinking because people are slowly drifting away from the browser that is bundled with Windows and are choosing an alternative like Chrome, Safari, Firefox or Opera. Why?

One reason is the speed difference between IE and Chrome and Safari. If you have IE, go to one of the JavaScript speed tests like SunSpider and run the benchmark. IE8, which is faster than IE7, has a score of 8500ms, but if you try this with Safari you'll get a score of about 775ms. Chrome has a similar score to Safari. They aren't just slightly faster, they are increadibly fast and code that takes Internet Explorer several seconds to execute takes Safari and Chrome milliseconds. Don't take my word for it, run the test yourself.

There are other speed tests, but the results are the same - IE is dog slow. This is one reason why people are switching browsers. Unfortunately, the internet is very congested and the amount of traffic in the pipes and people on popular websites nullifies the effect of the enormous speed advantage of Safari and Chrome. With a dodgy internet connection, ISP throttling and overburdened web surver IE can almost keep up with Safari and Chrome. This means that people stick with IE even though it's so slow - they don't notice because the internet's slow anyway.

Another reason why you should switch from IE to another browser is that sometimes it just doesn't work. seriously, it cannot display some web pages. For example, go and check out Norton Utilitiesat the Symantec website. Internet Explorer 8 makes a complete mess of it and fails to display it. It's perfect in every other web browser. This page isn't a one-off and when you've had a few of these you'll probably think that there's something wrong with your PC, Windows, your internet connection, or the website. It's none of those, it's IE8 that just can't work with the latest web standards.

If you are still using IE, go and get Safari. Chrome is fast, but doesn't have as many features.)

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Why Windows starts so slowly

How long does your PC take to boot up? Two minutes, three, longer? Why can't Microsoft make it start faster? Actually, it isn't Windows that is at fault because if you format the hard disk drive and install a fresh copy of Windows on it, it will boot up very quickly indeed. The problem isn't the operating system, it's the software that is installed afterwards that makes it so slow. (Microsoft may be partially to blame because Windows allows or even encourages programming practices that slow down the boot up.)

It's amazing how much gets installed into memory when you switch on and half of it won't be used. For example, I run iTunes once a week to update my iPod, yet an iTunes Helper, an Apple Mobile Device driver and an iPod Service is loaded every time Windows starts up. They run 24/7 even though iTunes is run once a week. Why can't these things be loaded when they are needed instead of slowing down the boot process and consuming memory and processing power?
iTunes is just one example and it isn't the worst by any means. Looking at what's loaded on my computer it is clear that Roxio is a particularly bad offender. The company makes some useful software, but does it have to be loaded all the time? Surely it doesn't need to be loaded unless it is being used?

If you have a Blackberry mobile phone and have installed the software to sync it with your PC you'll have a Media Manager supplied by Roxio. This runs RoxWatchTray9, RoxMediaDB9, Roxio Hard Drive Watcher 9, Roxio UPnP Renderer 9, and Roxio Upnp Server 9 every time you start Windows. It doesn't matter whether you want to plug in your Blackberry or not, it all gets run every time Windows starts. Why can't these things be run when you want to plug in your Blackberry? They don't need to be running 24/7.

I have Roxio Creator Ultimate on another PC for burning CDs and DVDs, a task I perform perhaps once a week or once every couple of weeks. To use this software though, the following files are loaded automatically with Windows every time it starts whether I need it or not: CPMonitor, RoxTrayWatch, Roxio Upnp Server 11, RoxLiveShare11, RoxWatch11, PxHelp20, Sahdla32, Saibla32, saibsvc, and SaibVda32.

That's 10 programs just from one software application I installed. Now this is OK if you have just one a application on your PC, but who has just one? We have many applications, so when you multiple this by the number of apps you have the number of files loaded on startup can be quite large. And you probably won't need most of it. Not today. Maybe next week or whenever you run the associated application next, but it still gets loaded. It consumes memory, time, and processing power. Why?

Software developers: Stop loading all this crap into Windows every time it starts! When a program is run it can load all the files it needs, but don't run stuff when it's not being used.

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Download Windows 7

Windows 7 is almost here and it is in the final stages of beta testing. This can't last much more than a few months, so we are probably looking at an autumn release. Autumn and Christmas are traditionally peak times for computer sales and Microsoft would gain the most benefit from launching Windows 7 in the second half of the year.

Some people have said that Windows 7 has been rushed out because Vista was such a disaster. It has hardly been rushed and by the time is it released Vista will be three years old! Yes, it was released to businesses and OEMs in autumn 2006 and to consumers a couple of months later in January 2007. That's not rushing things and it seems pretty normal. Compare it to Windows 95, 98, ME release dates or Windows 2000 and XP. It only seems rushed because there was such a long break between XP and Vista. And Vista is hardly a disaster. It's actually very good now that PCs are bigger and faster and there have been service packs to fix bugs and enhance features.

Windows 7 is much better than Vista though and you can try it for yourself - for free. Anyone with a fast broadband connection, a DVD-writer and a couple of hours to spare can get Windows 7 up and running on their PC. You'll find the download link here.

If you don't want to wipe your hard disk drive and replace the contents with Windows 7, go and get either VirtualBox or Virtual PC. These are excellent tools and you can run Windows 7 in a window on the desktop using XP or Vista.

Actually, now that we mention VirtualBox and Virtual PC, it's interesting that Microft is supplying Windows XP as a virtual machine to run in Windows 7. This means that you can run all your XP applications in Windows 7. Most will work natively, of course, but problem programs can be run in the XP virtual machine.

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