Vista Computer Freezing - Windows Vista Keeps Freezing, How Do I Fix It?

Tired of your Vista computer freezing? Want to know how to fix Vista freezing problems? Well you have come to the right place. Computer freezing can be a real pest to deal with. Especially if you had been working on an important document, playing a game, or had saved information you needed. Sometimes whatever you were working on can be lost forever. And this can happen at random times, often completely out of the blue. When Windows Vista keeps freezing you may get the following symptoms:

• Vista completely freezes, not allowing you to do anything. This forces you to have to manually restart your system, causing further damage due to improperly shutting down your computer.

• Windows Vista locks up and shows a blue screen of death. This causes the system to reboot, performing a physical memory dump.

• Whatever program you are using stops working while the mouse seems frozen on the hour glass symbol. This forces you to hit alt/control/delete to fix it.

The #1 cause of Vista computer freezing is running too many programs at once. If this problems occurs when having too many things open then there are really only 2 solutions. Do not run so many programs or purchase additional RAM to meet specific requirements.

If Windows Vista keeps freezing and the problem is not running too many programs, then the issue lies in the registry. The Windows Vista registry controls information to run all software programs and hardware devices.

Often times the registry becomes congested with corrupt files and errors which inhibits your computers ability to communicate effectively. When your system cannot communicate it freezes up.

The only way to fix Vista freezing in this case is to scan your computer for registry errors. I recommend download top flight software that can automate the process for you. This way you will not only stop Vista computer freezing, but also prevent it from happening in the future.

By Jim Marshall

Sick of your computer freezing up? Want to repair computer errors the easy way? Scan your computer for free and fix corrupt registry problems with the #1 registry cleaner on the internet. After scanning your computer, I promise you will be quite surprised by all the errors on your system

http://www.registry-clean-up.net

Jim Marshall is a computer technician expert with over 15 years in the industry. He has an intimate knowledge of the windows registry and various register repair software. After testing some of the top registry cleaners on the market, he has created a comprehensive review site that details his findings

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jim_Marshall

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7 Ways to Speed Up Windows Vista

There are many ways to speed up Windows Vista. Some methods are more straight forward than the other and some will help you see huge improvements to the performance of Windows while others offer less noticeable results. Here we will look at 7 most effective ways to speed up Windows Vista from my personal experience.

Turn off unnecessary Windows features.

By default, Vista comes with tons of features that are enabled based on assumptions which may or may not apply to you. Hence you get a system that is running lots of background processes, most of which you do not need at all. So one of the great ways to speed up Windows Vista is to disable them. To see the list of Windows features and turn them on or off, go to Control Panel, change to "Classic View", click on "Program Features" and then select "Turn Windows Features On And Off". Some examples of features you may want to disable are:

- Remote Differential Compression

- Windows Meeting Space

- Tablet PC optional components

- And so on.

Graphical features.

One of the better ways to speed up Windows Vista is to turn off fanciful graphical features if you are not too much into aesthetics. One example is the Aero feature. Open your start menu, go to run, and type in 'systempropertiesperformance'. At the Visual Effects tab, uncheck 'Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing'. This will do the job. There are many graphical features that you can take out from here. This can give you more immediate results as compared to other ways to speed up Windows Vista.

Turn off Windows Indexing.

The Windows Indexing service was initially designed to be one of the ways to speed up Windows Vista by shortening the search time for files. However, as the volume of hard disk increases exponentially, the service has proven to be a resource intensive program causing massive slowdowns when Windows start to index the millions of files in the system. Select Start then choose Computer, right click on your C Drive and select properties. Under the General Tab, uncheck "Index this drive for faster searching". On the next dialog box, choose "Include subfolders and files". Do the same for the other Drives.

Remove Spyware and Trojans and protect your system against future attacks.

Out of the many ways to speed up Windows Vista, this has to be one of the most crucial things you need to do. This is because not only your system performance is at stake, the security and confidentiality of your data is too. Use free tools such as Avast for anti-virus protection, Spybot for spyware removal and protection as well as Zonealarm for firewall protection. There are other good tools around but make sure they are not spywares themselves!

Remove unnecessary start up programs.

When Vista boots up, many programs run at the start up either in the background or as pop up Windows. Many of these you do not need. You need to take control and eliminate these memory suckers that are lurking in the background. Open your start menu, go to run, and type in 'msconfig', choose the Startup tab and uncheck any items that you do not want to auto-load and click OK.

Defrag your hard disk.

This may not be new to you but if you are thinking of using the Windows Defragmentation Tool in Vista, you can forget about it. Instead, use a free 3rd party tool known as Defraggler (Google it for the download link). It is still quite effective in comparison to other ways to speed up Windows Vista.

Clean your registry.

One of the often neglected portions of Windows is the registry itself. Many do not realized that one of the best ways to speed up Windows Vista is to make sure the registry is clear of invalid entries that causes Windows to perform unnecessary tasks. Cleaning the registry has other advantages too. In certain cases you can remove Windows errors that pop up during boot up.

George Tho is an IT support specialist. One of the best ways to speed up Windows Vista is using registry cleaners. Read his review on the top 3 Registry Cleaners that come with free scanning features to help you improve your system's performance and remove errors.

By George Tho

Author's review website on clickbank products: http://www.clickbankproductreview.com
Disclaimer: The content of this article is provided for the purpose of education and illustration only. This article may be freely reprinted or distributed in its entirety in any ezine, newsletter, blog or website. The author's name, bio and website links must remain intact and be included with every reproduction

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=George_Tho

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How to Start Windows in Safe Mode

To use one of the safe mode options just follow these simple steps:

1. Restart your computer.
2. Press the F8 button on your keyboard. On a computer configured with several operating systems F8 may be pressed whenever the Boot Menu is being displayed.
3. Select one of the options from the Windows Advanced Menu and the simply press Enter.
4. When a new Boot menu is being displayed and the "Safe Mode" words appear in blue, select the install you wish to start with. Then press Enter.

The options you select when you start you computer in safe mode are accepted by Windows. They load a minimum set of drivers that will keep your computer running. This way Windows will be able to load the registry. Also in this stet drivers may be eliminated or added, depending on what you need.

When loading your Windows in safe mode a safety environment variable is being set. The variable's name is SAFEBOOT_OPTION. This may be set to either Network or Minimal. The Microsoft VGA driver is used implicitly. The driver will load 16 colors in a 640 x 480 resolution. In order to modify it you need to be fully connected to the Security account Manager, according to the mode you have opted for.

Here are some of the options you have available when starting in safe mode:

1. Safe mode - sets the SAFEBOOT_OPTION variable to Minimal value
2. Safe Mode with Networking - sets the SAFEBOOT_OPTION variable to Network value
3. Safe Mode with Command Prompt - "cmd.exe" in opened instead of Windows Ecplorer
4. Enable VGA mode - uses "vga.sys" driver
5. Last Known Good Configuration - starts an anterior working configuration
6. Directory Service Restore mode - solves the directory problems
7. Debugging Mode - useful for finding errors
8. Enable Boot Logging - enables the use of a boot journal
9. Start Windows Normally - does just that
10. Reboot – reboots

By Sturat Mitchel

Sturat enjoys writing articles on topics like how to start in safe mode and how to install fonts . For more information you can visit us

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sturat_Mitchel

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How to Downgrade Your Laptop From Vista to XP

Now the first question you might be asking when you read this article is 'Why would anyone want to downgrade their laptop from Vista to XP?' There are many reasons, but the most common one is speed and stability. Windows Vista is noticeably faster than Vista on the same hardware. Also, Windows Explorer crashes more often in Vista than in XP.

In this article we will take a look at how we can downgrade Vista to XP in the simplest way. There are actually a few options for doing it, so we will run through three of them here.

Option 1: Perform A Windows Recovery

One way to downgrade to XP is to perform a Windows Recovery. Now, this approach is more convenient because you don't need to wipe out your hard drive.

The flip side is that it is generally not as 'clean' as the other option (the Start from Scratch option below).

Let's look at what you need to do:

Back up your entire hard drive.

The first and most important thing to do is to back up your entire hard drive in case anything goes wrong with this process. If you have Windows Vista Business or Ultimate, there is a Complete PC Backup and Restore tool you can use. Also, make sure you leave Several free GB of hard disk space on the boot drive after performing the backup.

A safer (and my preferred) way is to copy your data onto an external hard disk. You can easily copy it all back once XP is up and running. Ensure that you back up the entire C:Users folder, which will include your Documents directory, your desktop files, plus application data such as e-mail.

Back up your entire hard drive.

The first and most important thing to do is to back up your entire hard drive in case anything goes wrong with this process.

If you have Windows Vista Business or Ultimate, there is a Complete PC Backup and Restore tool you can use.

Boot up using your Windows XP disc.

Insert your Wnidows XP disc into your optical drive and turn on the laptop. You can then press the spacebar when you see the message Press any key to boot from CD .... Now, if you don't see this message, you need to go into the laptop's BIOS setup screen and change the boot options. Your CD drive should appear before your hard drive in the boot sequence list.

Open the Recovery Console.

Once Windows XP Setup starts, you should press R on the first page and open the Recovery Console. When asked to choose a Windows installation, type 1 and press Enter.

At this point, you might be asked for the Administrator password. This is where it gets a bit tricky. If you don't know the Administrator password, you can get it this way:

* Boot back into Windows Vista

* Open the Start menu, type lusrmgr.msc and press Enter

* Open the C:Users folder

* Double-click on the Administrator account and turn off the Account is disabled option

* Open the Start menu again, type Control userpasswords2 into the Search box, then press enter

* Click the Reset Password button, choose a new password, and start over

That gives you the Administrator password and you should be able to proceed with the downgrade.

Prep your hard disk for XP. Next, we go back to the Recovery Console command prompt, and type the following commands.

fixboot

fixmbr
cd
ren windows winvista

exit

Allow your laptop to restart, and boot using your Windows XP CD again. The Windows XP setup will start normally.

Move your documents. Once the Windows XP setup completes, you will have a working Windows XP operating system. However, you will need to move some files manually. Most importantly, these would be your documents, the your desktop contents, as well as any other data in Vista's redundant C:Users folder into XP's C:Documents and Settings folder. You'll also need to reinstall all your applications and device drivers, and eventually delete the abandoned C:Winvista folder.

And that's it ... if you've followed through this far, you will have downgraded Windows Vista to Windows XP successfully, without re-formatting your hard drive.

Option 2: Start From Scratch

The second way to downgrade to XP is to start from scratch. This method has the advantage of being a very 'clean' install. That is, your laptop won't be loaded with remnants of Vista, mixed up with XP. Everything in there will be pure Windows XP.

Here's how we do it:

Back up your entire hard drive.

As before, the first step to do is to back up your entire hard drive in case anything goes wrong with this process.
Just copy your data onto an external hard disk - you can copy it back once XP is up and running.

Perform a Clean Windows XP install.

The procedure here varies widely, depending on your laptop. You should consult your laptop's manual for details.
Typically, the laptop software will wipe out the hard drive and put in a preinstalled copy of Windows XP onto the drive.

This image should come with all the drivers and demo software that you got with your laptop when it was first purchase.

When the install is done, simply hook up your backup drive and copy your files back.

Option 3: Dual-Boot Configuration

Now, consider a third option. What if you have some essential application or device that simply won't work with Vista. You also don't want to downgrade to XP.

What do you do in this case? One option is to perform a dual-boot. Be warned, however, this option is an advanced option, so you should have some idea of dual-booting before you try it out.

You will be installing XP alongside Vista, so you'll need a second hard drive, or a second partition on your primary drive.

You should start off booting from a Windows XP Setup disc, then install the operating system on that second drive.

Once you have done that - DO NOT panic when Vista won't start. Just simply reinstall Vista's boot manager.
Boot off your Vista Setup disc, and click Next on the first page.

On the Install Windows page, click Repair your computer.

You'll be prompted to choose between Windows XP and Vista each time you turn on your laptop.

Conclusion
Right! I hope this article has given you some idea of how to downgrade from Windows Vista to Windows XP. The downgrade does indeed make good sense if you're having problems adjusting to Vista. However, you should also take into account that new software is being tuned for Vista. And legacy Windows XP support will disappear very soon. In any case, if you feel the downgrade is still needed, try one of the above options. I hope they work for you!

By Gary Hendricks

Gary Hendricks runs a website about laptops. Visit his website at Best-Laptop-Guide.com to learn more about selecting the best laptops and accessories to suit your needs.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gary_Hendricks

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Home Network File Sharing On Windows Vista, XP And 2000

Recently, I got a laptop with Windows Vista installed. On my home network file sharing is enabled on each computer. I share a couple of folders on each computer in order to easily access and transfer files between computers.

For security reasons, it's important to share a certain folder especially intended for filesharing, instead of just your C:\ drive for example. This way you can control which files are accessible from another computer. This way you have total control which files on your computer are exposed to the outside world.

At home I make use of a workgroup with the following name: home. It's important that each computer is also a member of the workgroup home, otherwise you can't share files between all of your computers in your home network.

With my Windows Vista laptop I had some trouble sharing files, because Windows Vista's file sharing security is better than on Windows XP or Windows 2000. On my Windows Vista I was able to 'see' the shares on my XP and 2000 machines, however I was not able to see my Windows Vista shares on my Windows XP and Windows 2000 computers.

On my Windows Vista laptop I granted user 'Richard' with administrator rights access to these shares. This is an essential step when you share a folder. Also I gave the user 'Everyone' and 'Guest' and 'Anonymous Logon' rights to these shares (but this was really not necessary, as I realised later on). Still, on my XP and 2000 machines I was not able to access Vista's shared folders.

In Windows Vista's networking center all settings were correct: my network had local and internet access, networking detection was enabled, file sharing was enabled, sharing public folders was enabled (this is actually only necessary when you want to share your public folders), printer sharing was enabled (this is not really necessary for file sharing) and sharing with password protection was also enabled.

The Windows firewall on my Vista laptop was also enabled (which is no problem in case in the Windows firewall settings on the tabpage 'Exceptions' the file- and printersharing setting is 'checked', because then the Windows firewall is not blocking file- and printersharing).

The cause of the problem of not being able to access my Windows Vista's shares was because in Windows Vista's networking center, sharing with password protection was enabled. I quickly found out that when this setting was disabled, I was able to access my Vista shares on my XP and 2000 machines. However, I rather have a good security, that's why I turned it on again and I quickly found out that the user 'Richard' on my Vista laptop must also exist as a user with the same name and same password on my XP and 2000 machines.

After having user 'Richard' on both my Windows Vista and Windows XP and Windows 2000 machines, I was still not able to access my Vista shares. I wondered how this can be. The reason was that my user 'Richard' didn't have a password. After setting a real, non-empty password for user 'Richard' on all my machines, Vista's shares became visible on my XP machine (after logging of from Windows and logging on again on my Vista and XP computers).

Unfortunately, on one of my Windows 2000 computers, I still was not able to see Windows Vista's shares. I suspected that I needed to install the latest Windows 2000 service pack 4. Indeed, after installing this service pack on my Windows 2000 machine, Vista's shares also became available on my Windows 2000 machine.

On my Windows XP and Windows 2000 machines, I run ZoneAlarm as a firewall. My experience is that this is a great firewall. It's important that ZoneAlarm is not blocking traffic to and from ip numbers in your home networking range (which is in my case the ip range between ip numbers 10.0.0.150 and 10.0.0.153). I added this ip range to the trusted zone in ZoneAlarm. In case you suspect your firewall is blocking filesharing, try shutting down all of your firewalls in your home network and figure out which firewall is blocking the filesharing in your home network.

By Richard Zwinkels

Author is a professional software engineer and has over 10 years of software development experience.

For more information visit his site http://www.software-secrets.com.

Free online computer training - Software Secrets - Your Software Guide. Computer Training, Microsoft Excel Tutorial, Microsoft Word Tutorial, Microsoft Software Explained. Be more productive and save time and money.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Zwinkels

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How To Fix The Automatic Restart Problem In Windows XP

Windows XP was introduced as the most stable operating system for home users, since it was the first version of Windows for personal usage, that was based on the Windows NT kernel. The Windows NT kernel which was first developed for usage on servers and company environments, where high stability was important, is much more difficult to crash than the old Windows 98 core.

Although the kernel of Windows XP is much more stable than previous versions of the operating system, there are still some rare cases where it may stop responding or it may end itself for security reasons. In this case the user should see an error displayed with white letters in blue background mentioning that the operation of Windows has been ended to protect the user from unwanted results due to software or hardware problems. This type of error messages are also known as "Blue Screens Of Death" abbreviated to BSOD.

With its default settings, Windows XP does not display these error messages, but if a critical system error occurs, it automatically restarts the computer without any warning and without displaying a BSOD. This makes for the average user, very difficult the process of fixing any system failure.

In this article we will explain how this automatic restart feature can be disabled, in order to see a detailed error message with the reason of the system failure. Given this error message, the user can search the Microsoft Knowledge Base or other web sites, to define which software or hardware incompatibilities are responsible for the system crash.

The first step is to right click on the "My Computer" icon on your desktop and then select the "Properties" option. Then select the tab named "Advanced" and click "Settings" in the "Startup and Recovery" fieldset. In the window that opens there is an option "Automatically restart" which should be disabled. Then click OK on all open windows and dialog boxes. After following these steps, the operating system will never automatically restart again if a system failure occurs, but it will display a BSOD instead. In this Blue Screen error message there will be displayed an error code or file name in the first 5 lines. This error code or file name must be entered in the search fields of Microsoft Knowledge Base at http://support.microsoft.com or search engines, in order to narrow down the reason that causes the system crash and find a solution.

Microsoft Knowledge Base usually gives detailed instructions for each type of blue screen error message, so the user must always begin searching there, before looking somewhere else.

By Nick G Gars

Nick Gars writes technical articles for NGI Technology Site where you can find guides and troubleshooting instructions for Windows and most programs we use every day.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_G_Gars

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Troubleshoot Windows with Task Manager

Task Manager is a Windows system utility that displays the
tasks or processes currently running on your computer. To
open Task Manager, press Ctrl+Alt+Del. The Applcations tab
lists the applications currently running on your computer.
A single application may actually consist of several running
processes, and many programs that run in the background are
not listed (you can see icons for some of these programs in
the System Tray).

Note: With Windows 98 and Windows Me, Ctrl+Alt+Del will
open Program Manager, which allows you only to close
aplications. However, you can download one of the many Task
Manager utilities from the Web.

The Processes tab displays a comprehensive list of all the
processes currently running on your computer. This can be
very useful for monitoring your system. The process tab
displays information about the processor useage and memory
usage of each process. The problem is, how to identify a
process. Below is a list of some processes you may see in
Task Managers Processes list.

"System Idle Process"
"System" The Windows System Process
"SMSS.EXE" Session Manager Subsystem
"CSRSS.EXE" Client Server Runtime Subsystem
"WinLOGON.EXE" The Windows Logon process
"SERVICES.EXE" Services Control Manager
"LSASS.EXE" Local Security Authentication Server Service
"svchost.exe" Service Host
"spoolsv.exe" The print spooler service
"explorer.exe" Windows Explorer
"TASKMGR.EXE" The Task Manager
"regsvc.exe" Remote Registry Service

"System Idle Process" is basically another name for the
time when Windows is doing nothing. There are hundreds of
thousands of processes that run on a computer, so you will
definitely find names of many other processess that are
not listed above. For a list of well known processes,
visit www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm
You can also learn about almost any task by using it's
name as a search term in google.

Task Manager can also be used to tweak your system if it's
running slow. The Performance tab displays running graphs
of your computers CPU and memory usage. If the CPU usage
seems to be running over 80 percent most of the time, or if
the memory usage seems to be running higher than the total
physical memory, you may want to shut down some
applications or processes.

On the Process tab, you can identify processes that are
consuming a lot of processor time. Click twice on the CPU
column heading to sort the CPU column so the processes
hogging the most CPU time on top. You can sort the
"Mem Usage" column the same way.

On the Application tab, if you right click on the name of
an application and, in the popup menu that appears, choose
"Go To Process", Task Manager will open the Processes tab
and highlight the process that runs the application. On the
Processes tab, if you right-click on the name of a process,
you can choose "SetPriority" and promote the priority of
the process you need (or demote the priority of a different
process to free up some resources).

If you go to the Application tab and shut down an
application, you will shut down any processes related to
that application. Or, you might choose to shut down a
background process that you can identify. To shut down an
application or process, click on it's name in the list to
highlight it, then click on the End Task button.

On the Processes tab, if you right click on the name of a
process, you can choose "End Process Tree" to kill the
process and any sub-processes started by the process.

Task Manager can also be used for troubleshooting. If an
application freezes up, you can open Task Manager and shut
down the application. If the entire system freezes up, you
can use Task Manager to shut down a process that is hogging
all the CPU time or memory.

If you spend some time monitoring your computer with task
Manager, eventually you will become familiar with the
processes that commonly run. Then, when you see an
unfamiliar process, you can do a little investigation to
make sure it's not a virus. For example, if you see
msblast.exe in the process list, your computer is infected
with the Blaster virus. You might be able to detect and
eliminate a new virus before an antivirus update is available.

By Stephen Bucaro

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How To Get Out of the Microsoft Habit

In our country, we have become so addicted to Microsoft that we cannot seem to do without it. It has become like morphine: we get off it, we feel pain so great, we writhe in sheer agony.

Don't get me wrong. I am a BIG fan of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Encarta. But the OS's? Oh, don't ever get me started!

From the moment I saw Ubuntu Linux, I was... Stunned to say the least. I always thought that Linux OS's were... Primitive. Turns out, it just got bad press.

Though I thoroughly enjoyed Ubuntu, I had to delete my Ubuntu drive after about a month or two of using it when I needed the space for my other files. And the parting wasn't easy. Though I loved Ubuntu Edgy Eft like crazy, I wasn't ready to be weaned off Windows yet. I thought I “needed” Windows. Yeah right. Like a hole in the head.

The decision to fully migrate my desktop to Ubuntu or any other reliable Linux distro came when my Windows XP melted down. I decided I was finally ready to move permanently... When I discovered Wine. But more on that later. This is an article on how to choose a different OS. :p

The mainstream Operating Systems for desktops for the everyday user come in two major branches. I know, I know, there are other OS's out there, but for the moment, I'll just talk about the most well-known, most user-friendly “Windows alternatives”.

How to choose the OS for you

Choosing is a universal function of needs, desires, and availability, among other factors. There is no one way to go about it, and sadly, it is not a science. but I have made a system for myself on how I can go about my own choices. I hope my system would help you. Below are the steps on how I go about making Operating System choices.

Know what you need.

Knowing what you need need not be a precursor to lobotomy. Just grab a notepad and the guidelines and questions below may help you:

What is it that you do?

Are you a graphic artist? A web designer? A writer? A student? A casual user?

Base your choices on what you do, because your needs will depend on this.

What software needs to be on your computer?

If you are a graphic artist or a web designer, you would definitely need tools like Adobe Photoshop. If you cannot afford the price, there are alternatives like the Gimp on Linux. However, I have a friend who says that he can never work on Linux, though he's not a Microsoft loyalist. According to him, Adobe Photoshop doesn't look as good on Linux as it does on Microsoft Windows. BUT, there is Adobe Photoshop for Mac, and it actually looks light years better than on Windows. Why? Mac screens are just rich, with the million-color support. If you have the money to burn, and you need apps like Adobe Photoshop and even Dreamweaver, then you better get OS X. Or else, get yourself a Macbook/Macbook Pro/iMac. Now. :p

As for the writer, since word processing is light, and doesn't really require as much RAM as applications like Adobe Photoshop or Dreamweaver, which, in turn, require support for high resolution, I guess it would be safe for me to recommend that you use Linux. There are excellent applications to replace MS Office, like Open Office, Star Office, etc. AbiWord is an excellent MS Word replacement. It's light, fast, and simple. And you can write in pure white space, if you're allergic to distractions. These applications can save in the MS Word .doc format. But if you just have to have the MS Word formatting for your work, then by all means, go for Ubuntu Linux's Feisty Fawn! It has Wine built into the system. Wine is the application that can run your MS programs, and it's really an excellent tool to wean you off the Microsoft addiction. Though I have yet to try out Wine on Linux, as I am waiting for the official release of Feisty Fawn on April 19, I have tried Crossover, a non-free distro of Wine, on my OS X. It was able to run MS Office seamlessly so far. It's not slow when it's up and running, and though the fonts are just smaller, the main point is, it's running the Microsoft program. Enough said. I'm planning to pay for my copy when the trial expires.

Students, on the other hand, have varied needs. I recommend Linux if you're not into heavy photo editing anyway, as:

• It's free.
• If you want games, Wine can run World of Warcraft for you. Yes it does. Games are the priority of the Wine community!
• Linux helps sharpen your skills, if you're a Computer Science or Information Technology student.
• It's free.

If you are a casual user with money to burn, then you could definitely work well with OS X! OS X, according to my friend, is better for the dummy user than Windows! Why, I am a very destructive dummy user. I actually install anything I fancy. I have installed some pretty serious stuff here in my Macbook, decided I didn't want them anymore, couldn't find the documentation for how to uninstall the stuff I did, and decided, “What the hell, I'll just toss all the programs in the trash”. The only thing I noticed that was different right after was that the fonts in iTunes got messed up a little. :D But after installing an update on everything including the system, that problem was fixed. :D Oopsie. :D

But if you're like me, a total cheapskate, I believe that you would do well on Ubuntu or PCLinuxOS. Both are very user friendly, and I was blown away by the two Operating Systems. As soon as I get a stack of CD's, I'm trying out the other user-friendly Linux OS's, and I'm going to feature them here. Meanwhile, why don't you check out these OS's themselves, and see for yourself that they really are nice. :) Go to http://www.distrowatch.org or http://www.ubuntuforums.org to see what people think about the different OS's, and which are the popular favorites. :)

What are the primary features that you would want on your operating system?

You would do well to make a list of what you want as features on your OS. Below is my own list:

--User-friendliness
--Easy to install built-in applications
--Package manager/handler for easy installation
--Applications that are good equivalents for Windows applications
--Easy networking setup
--Compatibility with Wine or any other Windows emulator
--Can read Fat32 (hard drive format) for easy Windows sharing
--Customizable User Interface
--Installable Windows/Apple media codecs
--Easy install of Java and other media support
--Fast loading/non RAM hog
--The OS does not “hang,” restart randomly, or crashes. If it does, it should be rare, or like in Ubuntu, will only prompt that it has crashed, but will not affect the operation of the system or its applications.
--The OS should have a very helpful support community.

So far, Ubuntu Linux is my best choice. It is the best in application installation, has a really wide range of built-in apps, and with each release in its 6-month cycle, it gets increasingly user-friendly, and is getting more packed in features as the days go by. Ubuntu Feisty Fawn comes with a Windows networking setup manager, so it will be easier to manage your local network/s. It also comes with Wine, so you don't need to really rack your brain with how to install this (non) emulator. The only thing that's annoying with Ubuntu is that it takes long in starting up.

If you want a faster OS, you can try PCLinuxOS. I have yet to install it, so I don't know about its application manager: if it's easy to deal with or not. But it's highly user-friendly according to forums, and as I've used it through its live CD. And it's eye candy, too. :)

Ubuntu can also become eye candy if you install themes and change the desktop background. If you find the pre-installed brown theme yucky, change it! The options are shown when you right click on the desktop, the panels, and if you go to system>themes. Mine is delicious pink. Heehee. :D

Another thing that is great in Ubuntu is the kick-ass community. According to some people I read there, PCLinuxOS has a great community, too, as according to people I've read on Ubuntu's forums. It's actually better, according to them, as the programmers/developers themselves entertain questions on PCLinuxOS.

If your hardware cannot support heavy programs, there are “thin clients” out there, which can be run even on a decade-old machine. If your machine used to support Windows 95 and is still wired for 95, you can go for OS's like Xubuntu or Puppy.

Research on your options.

If only I didn't need to work, I would rather be on the forums all day and clicking away at Linux sites. So far, the best Linux distros as far as I've learned are Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Sabayon, Arch, Mint (Ubuntu based), Puppy Linux, Mepis, Xandro's and Knoppix, to name a few. Knoppix and Puppy can be installed on removable media, and you can save your files there, especially if it's a multisession/rewritable disk or flash drive.

Again, do try to frequent the forums, you will sure learn a lot there.

Test the top three to five on your option list.

I do not like to wade through the hundreds of Linux distros, only to find them to be lousy. I would rather know about the best few then test them. It's a good thing that most Linux OS's come in Live CD's, so you can run them without having to install them. I suggest you try Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Xandro's and Puppy. They are the most user-friendly around, according to most people. PCLinuxOS and Puppy are very fast. If you really like Ubuntu and just want it to run faster, as I've said, you can go for Xubuntu. Take heart, there is an OS out there for you. Or else, you can compile one from Linux's source code. Hrhr. :p

As for OS X, I cannot say more. It is really an excellent Operating System. It has the stability of Linux, being also a Unix-based OS, and it is far more user-friendly than Windows. No, you do not need to have an Apple machine to run it. People have been able to run it on X86 machines successfully. Just read the how-to's on the Internet.

OS X is really eye candy, and they have “dumbed down” the controls on a lot of the programs, to increase user-friendliness. Yes, there are moments when I feel that some Mac programs (especially the iLife programs) are too simple for my taste, but I really don't want to complain, as they do the job, and they do it excellently. Where else can you install programs by just dragging the icon to the Applications folder? If that isn't idiot-friendly, what is?! :D

As I said, choosing an OS need not be brain lobotomy. Just explore, research, and have a system in making choices. You need not suffer on a system that melts down with every trojan and spyware outbreak. You can be free. You can migrate. Screw Microsoft. Screw Vista. Go for Open Source (or Apple :p).

By Lorie Therese Locara

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lorie_Therese_Locara

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Windows Vista: Secure Or Just Frustrating?

Modern operating systems such as Mac OS X operate under a security model where even administrative users don't get full access to certain features unless they provide an in-place logon before performing any task that might harm the system. This security setup protects users from themselves, and it is something that Microsoft should have added to Windows several years ago.

Here's the good news. In Windows Vista, Microsoft is indeed moving to this kind of security model. The feature is called User Account Protection (UAP) and, as you might expect, it prevents even administrative users from performing potentially dangerous tasks without first providing security credentials. Sounds good, right? Before you agree, remember this is Microsoft we’re talking about. They made a royal mess of UAP.

The bad news, then, is that UAP is a sad, sad joke. It's the most annoying feature that Microsoft has ever added to any software product, and yes, that includes that ridiculous paperclip character from older Office versions. The problem with UAP is that it generates an unbelievable number of warning pop-ups for even the simplest of tasks. The frequency with which these warnings pop-up for the same action would be comical if it weren't so amazingly frustrating. One could almost laugh thinking of the millions of people rushing into computers stores to purchase a new PC preloaded with Vista, completely unaware of what they are getting themselves into. It’s almost criminal in its insidiousness.

To fully appreciate just how frustrating Vista’s implementation of UAP truly is, we’ll look at a simple example. One of the first things I do whenever I install a new Windows version is download and install Mozilla Firefox. Overlooking, for a moment, the number of warnings during the download/install process still leaves us with one glaring issue. Once Firefox is installed, there are two icons on my Desktop I'd like to remove: The Setup application itself and a shortcut to Firefox. I simply select both icons and drag them to the Recycle Bin. Sounds simple, right? Wrong. Here's what you have to go through to actually delete those files in Windows Vista. First, you get a File Access Denied dialog explaining that you don't, in fact, have permission to delete a ... shortcut?? To an application you just installed! Seriously? OK, fine. You can click a Continue button to "complete this operation." But that doesn't complete anything. It just clears the desktop for the next dialog, which is a Windows Security window. Here, you need to give your permission to continue something opaquely called a "File Operation." Click Allow, and you're done. Hey, that's not too bad, right? What's the big deal?

What if you're doing something a bit more complicated? Well, lucky you, the dialogs stack right up, one after the other, in a seemingly never-ending display of stupidity. Indeed, sometimes you'll find yourself unable to do certain things for no good reason, and you click Allow buttons until you're blue in the face. It will never stop bothering you, until you agree to give up and leave that file on the desktop where it belongs. This will happen to you, and you will hate it.

The problem with Vista’s security implementation is that lots of warning dialog boxes don't provide security. Users get frustrated and eventually stop reading them altogether. They think of them as annoyances, an extra click required to get a feature to work. Is Windows Vista really more secure than the operating systems that preceded it, or simply more frustrating? Since Microsoft left us with no choice but to buy a PC with Vista pre-installed, we’re inevitably stuck with it. Let the frustration begin.

by: Christopher N. Goebel

About The Author

Christopher Goebel served in the United States Navy for four years during which he built a substantial I.T. knowledge base. He currently maintains a blog dedicated to Windows Vista security and virus protection found at http://windowsvistaantivirus.blogspot.com/ or accessed from the link here.

Article Source : www.articlecity.com

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