Linux – you either love it or hate it. I’d love to love it, but my affairs with Linux always end up in an uncomfortable position. Windows is simply more practical than Linux for a home user – don’t agree? You’re probably not the typical home user.
To be fair, if all the user is doing is browsing the internet, Linux will probably be sufficient. However, the typical home user has a hard time installing an application – and installing applications in Windows is terribly simple when compared to Linux.
- Very little is intuitive. Windows has a Start button – an obvious starting point for anyone that uses a computer. Linux isn’t as intuitive.
- Familiarity – people are so familiar with Windows that they’ve even removed the word ‘Start’ from the Start button. There are so many different versions of Linux, it’s hard to get used to.
- Restoring lost files in Windows is much easier than Linux because of file system differences
Linux doesn’t store file names in its directory entries, Windows does. When the file tree is damaged, good luck naming the thousands of files that are restored without names.
- Windows is a widely used operating system in homes and is easy to find support for online. Virtually every computer shop supports Windows, so finding a technician to work on your machine is a breeze. Many technicians don’t like dealing with Linux.
- Any hardware you buy will come with Windows software that is easy to install. In Linux, either the device is automatically supported or it’ll be a pain finding a driver that’ll work with it. For the average home user, fiddling with the computer’s internal workings is a scary proposition.
Let’s face it – Linux is fighting a battle that is incredibly difficult to beat. Until a version of Linux appears that is truly user friendly, how likely is it that it’ll be mainstream in homes?
I can’t help but wonder if Google Chrome OS might change the scene.
Linux, Windows
If you run applications in the background like BitTorrent or LimeWire, you have probably noticed that your computer becomes less responsive. There’s an easy way to fix this, though!
Using the Task Manager, you can under prioritise these applications.
- Right click the taskbar and click Task Manager – or hit CTRL ALT DEL.
- Go to the Processes tab.
- Find the application name in the list, and right click it.
- Go to Set Priority.
- Select ‘BelowNormal’ or ‘Low’.
That’s it – now all the other processes running will be prioritised higher. What a simple trick!
Got problems? Don’t we all! If you haven’t solved it, it probably isn’t easily solved. Sometimes though, a quick scan and repair does the trick.
Using Window’s System File Checker, you can restore broken system files. Here’s how:
- Go to Start > Run.
- Type: sfc /scannow
- Click OK.
Have your Windows CD ready, because if it finds anything to repair it’ll prompt you for it!
It started with audio tapes. Then we upgraded to floppy disks. Soon we found ourselves in the mass storage era with the hard disk. Now we’re on the road to solid state disks – that is, disks with no moving components.
Not only do these new devices use less power than traditional mechanical hard drives, they’re also blisteringly fast!
Intel’s SSD (that’s short for solid state drive) is the best on the market right now, and they even guarantee them for a number of years. The best thing about SSD is its potential in the future:
- Dropping your SSD isn’t likely to result in damage.
- Before your SSD dies, it can likely warn you – not like those traditional drives.
- Some reports suggest an SSD can improve battery life on a laptop by an hour.
The pricing of solid state drives has come down dramatically over the past year, and like all things in the computing world will soon be in reach of the typical computer user.
Combine this with the possibility of EEStor and other new technology batteries, your laptop could begin powering your house! (Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration… so what?)
If you have dial-up, or a satellite connection to the internet, you probably suffer from latency issues. That is – any page with lots of imagery and text takes forever to load. Loading Internet Explorer and going straight to MSN.com or Yahoo.com usually takes several seconds to complete.
Here’s a tip: Try using Google as your home page.
Google is engineered to load in a split second. Seriously, just try it!
The page code is actually optimised for slower connections. Besides it being incredibly fast to load, it’s also a great starting point for your internet needs. Whatever you need, Google probably has it.
While you’re at it, you could even try Google’s new browser Chrome. That’s super fast too.
We’ve all been there – one day your computer is working fine, the next day it blue screens with those dreaded words ‘UNMOUNTABLE BOOT VOLUME’. How inconvenient. With that said, you can turn an inconvenience into a convenience using preventive hard disk maintenance.
To run check disk on your hard drive and correct any structure errors, you do the following:
- Open a command prompt (Start > Run > type CMD > click OK)
- At the command prompt, type: chkdsk C: /F
- It will ask if you want to schedule the scan for the next reboot, type Y and hit enter.
- Reboot and the machine will now repair the disk errors.
Do this once a week and your disk is sure to remain in good health. If you’re lazy or you simply forget, try scheduling it as a task.
Something that has frustrated me for a while, that I mentioned in my tips on how to speed up your computer, is how the Windows Defrag utility doesn’t defragment the system pagefile or registry.
This is important – because these are two large files that are accessed frequently, hence these files are probably top on the list for defragmentation.
I found a handy post at online-tech-tips that explains how to defragment the pagefile and registry in Windows XP. Go there and take a look. 
Windows XP has a feature called ‘Fast User Switching’, that allows other users of a machine to log on without you logging off. This is great for machines with lots of memory, but if your memory is scarce you’ll probably benefit from disabling this feature.
To disable it:
- Go to Start, and click Control Panel.
- Go to User Accounts.
- Click ‘Change the way users log on and off’
- UNCHECK ’Use Fast User Switching’
Simple, right?
An often overlooked feature of Windows is its ability to alter the power settings of the computer. In Windows Vista, selecting an adequate power scheme is very easy.
Look for a tray icon that looks like a battery, or a plug if you’re plugged in. Left click it once, and a power plan selection should appear as pictured to the right.
For maximum performance, select the ‘High performance’ power plan.
If you have Windows XP, you can click the battery and a menu will appear where you can select Maximum performance to achieve the same effect.
Note that selecting a higher performance mode will use more power when on battery only, thus reducing the time you have between charges.
Windows has a list of applications that load at startup, and using the MSCONFIG tool you can disable any applications you don’t want to load.
To disable applications, follow these instructions:
- Hold down the Windows key and hit R, (or go to the Start Menu and click Run).
- Type MSCONFIG, and click OK.
- MSCONFIG should load as pictured to the right.
- Along the tabs at the top of the window, select Startup.
- If an application is checked, it will load at startup. To stop an application from loading at startup, uncheck it.
If you’re unsure about what an application does, Google the name to research it.
