Behind The Scenes: Assistive Tech And The Singularity

I grew up listening to the great Milo Hamilton and Larry Dirker call Houston Astros games. While I couldn’t see the ball, a pair of binoculars and the radio duo allowed me to focus the small fields of the glasses onto the right parts of the diamond.

The older Astrodome was a wondrous place for a small boy. It was big, it was well lit and it was air conditioned. and in Houston that was a very important feature to have on a summer day. The other thing the Dome had was an awesome set of speakers. And I loved the art that was the introduction of a player that came to the plate.

One of my favorite introductions was for Jose Cruz. It was easy for me to recognize Mr.. Cruz as he had the oddest batting style I had seen in my young life. He held the bat up high. Almost like his elbows were parallel to his shoulders kind of high. But his introduction was even more memorable.

“Now batting.. Jose Crrrruuuuuuuuuuuzzzzzzzzzzzzz”

The crowd was always into it from the second the announcer said Jose. For sometimes up to 10 seconds the whole audience would shout “oooooooooosssss” in unison. It was mandatory, it was a part of being an Astros fan and I think it literally became a law from the City Council. When Jose stepped up, be ready to join in with the crowd.

In the late 80’s, my brother was into baseball big time. He even went on to play A and Double A ball. And attending the opening days of various Little Leagues was a family event. I was in college and already working in radio at the time of many of the opening day events.

For practice I’d sit in the score box, with some of the kids from the other players families, and call the game over the loudspeakers. The kids would let me know when the line ups had changed or gave me an idea of who caught what or tagged out on a base. It worked well really. I got to do commercials for the sponsors of the park, they got a professional for free to call the game and I got to watch my brother play from a grate vantage point.

On one of the opening days Mr.. Jose Cruz was asked to come and throw out the first pitch. And, you guessed it, I got to live out a dream by introducing him by doing the call that I had learned over so many years since the man came up to the big leagues in that magical Domed stadium.

My mother described the smile on Mr.. Cruz’s face in great detail. My father was working the concession stand and he froze for a few seconds hearing me do what I used to do for fun at home, now over the loudspeakers of the little ball park. Me? I smiled for what must have been for days. I remember my cheeks hurting that afternoon from hearing everyone’s immediate reactions to the introduction.

It was an amazing feeling to get to do something you have always wanted to do since you were a kid. And I’ve been looking for opportunities to catch that lightning in various bottles over the years.

This week I was able to snare electricity again.

I realize that it is a weird world now in AT. It has more pitfalls, there are more players now and let us not dwell on the legal issues. To be honest, it is hard to find common ground for many these days. I was, however, very lucky in that I was able to fashion a schedule of events recently that had me being able to get some heavy hitters all in one place.

And I was able to introduce another idol, and one good friend, during this past week. It wasn’t the 8th wonder of the world and I didn’t need a microphone. But my cheeks hurt just like old times none the less.

I was able to provide an introduction for Doug Geoffray of G.W. Micro. And, even better, I didn’t have to wait in a long line at CSUN to hear him speak. Years ago, at NFB Computer Science in Philadelphia, I was able to talk to Dan. So getting to talk to Doug allowed the circle to be complete.

As much fun as it was to introduce an Idol, it was even more fun to introduce a friend. As being able to provide an introduction to Ricky Enger from Serotek was a thrill for me as well. I could take up gigs of space in the amount of nice things I could say about Ricky. She is one of the kindest people in the Industry and I’m happy to know that more than 40 more people at this recent event now know that as well.

But that wasn’t all.. Eric Damery of Freedom Scientific was on hand too. I’ve had the opportunity to speak with Eric many times over the years and I always come away with more knowledge every time I attend a FS talk.

The fantastic thing is that all of these companies, along with some others, came to this event and were all there to promote their products in a friendly atmosphere. It isn’t often I get to work with so many luminaries on a smaller stage and I value the times I do have a chance to see many of them outside of the convention environment.

At the end of the day the road maybe well traveled, however, it is the various lanes of traffic that makes it such an interesting ride. Or, it is still fun for me to see so many companies all striving to help others with their products.

I normally don’t pass along stories like this from the offline world for lots of reasons. Doing so can cause a major headache for me in what I do for a living. I have been a bit of a downer though, over the last two years, with where my head was at running up towards Windows 7. I thought that I would pass along this particular story because this last week was the closest experience I’ve had in a long time that equates to what it was like for me in the beginning of my career in AT. And since it was such a positive one, well readers should know that there really are people behind the marketing and the fanboys/fangirls arguments out there in the mailing lists. Real people who do great work. And it was a real thrill to get to work with them all once again. The small boy who imitated newscasters and radio announcers sincerely thanks you. He also can’t wait for next season so he can do it all again.

Detroit NFB 2009 Day 3: My Windows 7 Presentation For The Computer Science Division

The room for Computer Science was kind of small this year and we were up against some other fantastic Division meetings. And a lot of people who wished they could attend my talks were working registration or they were in the Exhibits. Still we had a good crowd and a good time nevertheless.

Due to some technical difficulties my prepared speech of some 14 pages got condensed down to 20 minutes plus some time for a few well thought out questions from the audience. Most of the inquiries are answered in my full text. So, as promised, here is my original notes for my Windows 7 presentation.

Feel free to write or tweet or comment below if you have follow up questions. And thank you all for coming to the meeting or reading this on TRS.

Oh, by the way, the title is kind of a play on the late Dr. Timothy Leary’s last words before he passed on a few years ago. This is kind of an inside baseball remark to a friend who told me that only someone who was on drugs could like and defend Vista. I guess I’m trippin again with 7.!

Why 7? Why Now? Why Not?

I would like to thank the President of the Computer Science Division for allowing me to come here today to discuss the exciting new version of Windows that will be released in the fall of 2009. This is my third time speaking before this group on the subject of Windows and I truly believe that the third time is the charm for both Windows 7 and myself on making this presentation a more streamlined and User Friendly experience.

As I seem to be the last presenter today, and to stave off many who will be checking their watches and edging towards the doors, let me say that I am very upbeat about Windows 7. And I will try to be brief in my explanation of my next sentence. Windows 7 will be the most approachable version of Windows ever for the Blind who wish to buy, install and run the latest version of Windows, alongside their sighted peers, on the day that the operating system is released to the public.

Over the next few minutes I will explain that sentence by breaking it down into the “Who, What, Why and Whens” of how Windows 7 will affect you and your computer buying decisions for the next three years. But before we discuss those topics we need to establish some Windows history first.

Windows XP, hold for cheers from the crowd, is the most misunderstood version of Windows. It also enjoys a lot of revisionist history as well. And that is because the Windows XP that people praise today is a remote cousin to the Windows XP that graced our hard drives in 2001. The years, and the public, have been kind to XP, however, I will now show you XP’s high school yearbook pictures in order to prove that the ugly duckling did indeed become a beautiful swan.

In 2001, the home computer buying public was faced with three choices. Go for Windows 98 Second Edition, go with this new Windows XP thing or skip Windows all together and buy a Mac. It is hard to believe now but Apple had not even released the first iPod yet when XP was unleashed onto the scene. The possibility of using an Apple computer was not a viable one for a Blind user due to the first versions of the OS 10 platform having no Screen Reader, Braille Display support or even a Screen Magnifier available. That left many Blind users with the choice between XP and ME on the purchase of their new computers. So, many Blind and non Blind computer users chose to remain with 98 SE because Windows ME was bad but the perception was that XP was even worse.

For big business, the changeover from Windows NT to Windows 2000 was hard enough to orchestrate. This meant that considerations for another migration to Windows XP shortly into Windows 2000’s life cycle were out of the question. Many of them also chose to ignore the first releases of XP and many still went on to stick with Win2k even into the Vista era because that version of Windows met all their needs quite nicely.

Microsoft undauntedly moved on to promote XP as it had done previously with 95 and 98. A large effort undertaken by Microsoft to launch XP in a glitzy way by blitzing the world with tons of television ads, demos and a series of launch events around the United States fell flat shortly after the initial launch date. The costly marketing effort seemed to be ineffective with the public and the Press. Some pundits of the time were quick to say that the “Start Me Up” Windows 95 campaign provided a more compelling offer for users to switch to the latest version of Windows. Some even speculated that Windows XP was just another variation on the existing theme of Windows. This, of course, would not be the only time the phrase “run out of gas” would be used when discussing a new version of Windows.

[As a side note, the XP launch events also served as a marketing tool for the newly released Xbox videogame system. I remember it clearly as the Xbox portion of the launch party directly followed, with no break in between segments, the demonstration of backwards compatibility for older Windows 3.1 spreadsheet programs. Talk about going from one extreme to another. Here isan Accounting program and now here is a bunch of loud music with a backdrop of videogame footage. Then some poor person came out to discuss the joys of Enterprise Server Deployment of the new operating system. Surreal was a word that could have applied to the proceedings for sure. If you ever have the opportunity to go, I highly suggest you attend one of these Microsoft events as the food is generally quite good and the show ends up being humorous a lot of times either by design or default.]

Early adopter’s cries and common complaints started to undo the marketing hype. Some of their chief concerns were…

It takes too long to boot.
The driver support is terrible.
Why does it need so much RAM?
Why can’t I stay with the version of Windows I already have?

As crazy as it seems people ordered systems with Windows 98 and ME for two years after XP’s public release. Companies like Dell and Gateway proudly announced that they hadn’t given up support for 9x systems and you could still “downgrade” to a shiny new copy of 98 Second Edition today. And many decided to take that familiar road instead of forging ahead on the newly paved freeway of gold that was XP.

For Blind users of Assistive Technology the freeway to XP had no onramps to it as the adoption of Windows Xp support took some companies almost an entire year before they released compatible versions of their hardware and software programs. The loss of the DOS shell caused some AT makers to begin development again from scratch. While some Video Magnifier companies had to re-engineer their units from the ground up as XP relied on a new method of displaying video which rendered some early Split Screen units inoperable with operating system.

XP struggled for the next three years, and one Service Pack, to find its place in the market. Driver support grew better with the inclusion of faster hardware. USB devices worked better in XP and the use of the 2.0 standard was exclusive to that version of Windows. Eventually some of XP’s biggest critics became proponents of the NTFS file system and the security it inherently offered over XP’s predecessors.

To understand how the perception changed for the public and XP one must first understand the Microsoft product life cycle. Each version of Windows contains a major and a minor release of the operating system. This change from major to minor versions is mostly seemless and the public is unaware that it has even transpired in most cases.

Windows 95, arguably the standout release of Windows as far as operating system landscape game changers goes, underwent three revisions during its life span. These were catogrized as Windows 95a, b and c editions. Version C was also marketed as “Windows 95 with USB Support”. Enabling that support was a technical nightmare that would take me hours to explain, however, the original 50-diskette Windows 95a was considered to be the major release and 95c was considered to be the minor revision update.

With that said, you might be thinking ahead by guessing that Windows 98 Second Edition is the minor release to the major version of the original Windows 98. Except Microsoft, or the Microsoft marketing department, threw everyone a curve ball on that iteration of the product. Windows 98 SE stands as more of a Service Pack than a revision update to 98. Which means, gulp, that Windows Millennium is the minor release to that line of Windows. What a way to end the majestic 9x series of Windows eh?

The trend deviates wildly though when we move back to understanding how things changed perceptually for XP. When looking at Windows XP more closely you have to approach it from one of two perspectives as XP leads a dual life. With XP the rules change and Service Pack 2 is the actual minor revision update to the original release from 2001. The SP2 update for XP added new features like a firewall, an update to Internet Explorer and some substantial changes to the Windows kernel that had not occurred before in the way that Microsoft approached with previous iterations of what constituted as a Service Pack release.

Microsoft released Service Pack 2 in August of 2004 to a great reception by the public and the press. Many noted the update’s vast changes to XP’s security and driver models. The revisions to Internet Explorer 6, chiefly the addition of a pop up blocker, were welcomed in with open arms. Memory management and some changes to the Direct X video API, along with advancements in computer hardware that could take advantage of these enhancements, made the purchase of new computer systems preloaded with XP SP2 a more attractive option. Those who sat on the fence on the prospects of upgrading their existing boxes to XP now found less risk involved in taking the plunge to move to the XP platform.

SP2 seemed to stabilize the operating system; however, the Assistive Technology Industry once again took months before they released compatible versions of their wears that could work convincingly with SP2. One major annoyance for some users came in the form of driver detection of some hardware on the first boot directly following the installation of the Service Pack. In some cases the sound card would not be detected by Windows which in turn meant that a Blind user had to rely on Braille Display support or sighted assistance to regain their abilities to hear any audio out of their computer systems. Moreover, another round of Video Magnifiers fell by the way side as some units were not capable of splitting the video signal beyond Windows XP at the Service Pack 1 checkpoint.

The success of Windows XP Service Pack 2, and the delays its successor underwent during the next two years, proved to be a double-edged sword. Sales for XP Professional started to increase with large companies, who had mostly remained in the Windows 2000 era, were now finally finding their way forward into the newer support model of NTFS. But, it also fueled the desire for these companies to fall back to the I.T. Professionals mantra of “wait until they release a Service Pack before we look at adoption’. This well-worn tenacity to reject any or all product releases until the first Service Pack was not a new philosophy amongst the I.T. community by any means. It had proven its self to be true before with other programs from Microsoft. Now SP2 had shown them that they were right again in their hesitation to accept the latest product release as their default standard OS.

The other side of the sword, however, was that success has many unforeseen downsides. And one of those downsides happened to be that Microsoft had significantly altered their release cycle for one of their flagship product lines by not packaging Service Pack 2 up as the classic minor product release seen in earlier versions of Windows. This deviation from the norm, when combined with Vista’s launch delays, meant that the life cycle for XP would not fall within the three years that generally separated major product releases of Windows.

Paul Thurrott of the Super Site for Windows has stated for years that Microsoft had done themselves a disservice by not rebranding, or even charging the public, for Windows XP Service Pack 2. His contention was that there were enough features, changes and benefits in SP2 to warrant a full-fledged self-contained minor release cycle of Windows. He also states at his website that Microsoft had made the ability to charge for product updates a more difficult task to pull off convincingly by confusing the public’s perception on the issues of what a product revision was, and what a Service Pack could be, in the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2.

Essentially Windows XP SP2 is its own platform release of Windows, making it really only five years old. However, the public has now been familiar with the XP brand as a whole for eight years. The name and brand are trusted industry stalwarts whose market reach are staggering in the numbers of systems running XP actively today. Momentum from this success was unheard of in the industry before and the showdown between irresistible force and immovable object was inevitable for any product that followed XP.

Windows Vista, pause for laughter, will undeservedly go down through the annals of Computer Science as one of the worst Windows releases.. well ever. I still personally believe that Windows Millennium holds that mantle but I do recognize why many feel this way even two Service Packs later. Let us go down the short list of complaints that have been lobbed at Vista .

It is slow.
It is bloated.
It is resource hungry.
It has driver support? Really?

“What has happened before will happen again” Quote from the Cylons of the reimagined Ron D Moore “Battlestar Galactica”.

History does have a tendency to repeat its self. This seems even more so when it comes to Windows. In fact, a writer for ZDNet wrote an article where he performed a “Find and Replace” and switched out Windows XP for Windows Vista. He then posted it as a new article about Vista with a sentence at the bottom of the article telling everyone about the switcharoo. His point was that every version of Windows undergoes the same arguments and the same view under the microscope from each generation of Windows users at the dawn of each release. Authors and tech enthusiasts who defended Vista found them immediately branded with the status of being a “Microsoft Fandboy”. A term hereby relatively unheard of until 2006.

Vista’s performance woes did it no favors, moreover, the stumble out of the gate provided long time competitors a ideal platform in which they could go after Microsoft in a more direct fashion or comparative way. The power of the Apple Switcher ads cannot be ignored when looking back at how Windows Vista was perceived by the public. The funny attack ads bordered on myth and untruths most of the time yet they were extremely effective because Microsoft chose not to recognize or respond to the spots in any way for several years. Oh yeah, 30 million iPod sales helped as well I might add.

If Apple was the hammer then big business was the anvil in how Vista emerged from the forge of controversy. To say that the Enterprise customer ignored Vista would be an understatement of colossal proportions. Businesses just didn’t say “No!” to Vista, they said “Yes” to XP in such a resounding way that Microsoft was forced to abandon their EOL or “End of Life” policy that would have ended some support for XP next year.

Patches, updates and two Service Packs down the line have done little to stop the flood of negativity towards Vista. Even an advertising blitz called “The Mojave Experiment” which showed people who never used Vista that they *could like* Vista boomeranged against the operating system because some didn’t like the “bait and switch” tactics used in the ads. No matter how it was tried Redmond couldn’t undo what Vista and Apple had successfully presented to the public at large.

Ironically, Windows Vista received a good reception from the Assistive Technology Vendors and it was a well-supported version of Windows even on day one. Serotek and G.W. Micro were ready to go with full support on the day of release. While Freedom Scientific, Ai Squared and Dolphin shortly followed with public betas of their products for those of us who dared to become an early adopter of the new operating system. Driver support for various makers of Braille Displays took a little bit more time. And some Video Magnifiers that use an USB connection still have issues when running in Vista today. Overall, as a whole, the AT Industry provided their best response yet to the changing of the Windows guard.

This brings us full circle, to why I am here today… Windows 7 is a direct and well thought out response to the critics, the competitors and the public’s opinions of Windows XP and Windows Vista. It is the first version of Windows to be released after Bill Gates’s retirement and with that Microsoft is out to show the world that they have a very different uptake on today’s computing solutions.

Let me now focus on the questions and concerns I mentioned earlier in how they relate to Windows 7.

Whom... is Windows 7 for really?

7 will undoubtedly be labeled as a kneejerk response to the public perception of Vista. Many will capitalize in making some comments to the quicker than usual release of the product. And others will say that this is just another “money grab” on Redmond’s part to make up for lost Vista revenue. But that really isn’t the case.

7 isn’t Vista 1.5, however, it is hard not to say that the two aren’t linked. As stated earlier 7 is the minor revision to Vista. However, like XP Service Pack 2, there have been some hefty changes to the core of Windows and these alterations are designed to appeal directly to the Home and Enterprise customer.

Pure and simple..The biggest advantage to moving to Windows 7 is that it runs astoundingly well on Netbooks. Additionally, in some cases, the operating system has been optimized for these smaller computers in ways that Windows of the past have not. Support for touch screens, Solid State Drives and the next generation of wireless connectivity are just a few of the advantages 7 has over XP and its older brother Vista.

Netbook sales are fast becoming one of the strongest areas of growth in the computer industry. Microsoft currently dominates the operating system market in this category at a level where 93% of all Netbooks are running some form of Windows today. A new and specifically designed version of Windows should continue to capture that segment of the market for years to come once Windows 7 comes preinstalled on these devices.

On the home computing side we have better security for home networks, out of the box playback for most commonly used media formats and new Sync and Device Stage technologies that will make mobile devices easier to connect and use the family’s desktop as a hub for many computer related activities.

Enterprise customers see the most improvement in features since the older days of NT and Windows 2000. Windows Server R2, which shares the Vista/7 code base, allows for a more integrated virtualization model, better remote desktop connectivity options and some crucial support to applications like SQL and Microsoft Exchange. Full disk encryption for remote drives, USB thumb drives and other removable storage media options provides an enticing improvement to consider over the limited similar features offered by Vista.

In short, it will be hard for companies to ignore the efforts given to meet their needs in this release of Windows. Even a full-blown version of Windows XP can be run within Windows 7/Server via the new “XP Mode” [or XPM] feature. Now that aging spreadsheet program that the company just cannot live without will now run within a real copy of XP without anyone knowing that they are really just running a virtualized version of XP within Windows 7. This disarms the classic debate about older program compatibility quite nicely and it will be another foot on the gas pedal of accelerated adoption for major corporations.

What… has changed to make 7 a better choice than XP or Vista?

To answer this I have to pull out the WayBack Machine with Mr. Peabody and Sherman again to recall a bit of Vista history. Except we won’t spend as much time in the past as we did before.

One of the biggest problems Vista had was driver support. The long development time for Vista forced computer manufactures to stock pile XP systems. The component makers worked like crazy to meet the demands of Dell, HP, Acer and others had for these XP based systems and in turn they spent little time and effort on Vista compatibility. Microsoft did not make their task any easier with Vista’s numerous delays also playing their own part in the inability for the system makers to have stable drivers at Vista’s launch. T

A combination of a solid demand for XP and a moving target release date for Vista resulted in Microsoft standing at the altar with no one attending the wedding. Driver support for older devices, once Vista did launch, was either bad or nonexistent. In some cases it took months before stable drivers could evolve to a useable form. Some companies like Creative Labs had to be threatened by a user generated class action lawsuit in order for them to provide Dolby Digital 5.1 support for older lines of Sound Blaster cards. NVIDIA came under fire for their early support as well and it took almost until Vista Service Pack 1 before they too provided stable driver support.

Windows 7, conversely, finds its self at the other end of the spectrum when it comes to driver compatibility. Both Creative Labs and NVIDIA had working beta drivers available to the public one year ago and they are actively supporting equipment that by all rights shouldn’t be running Vista let alone 7. To their credit, as stated before, 7 shares a lot in common with Vista. So the development of stable drivers was not as intensive as it was during the time of Vista’s release.

And this brings me to my point on what has happened in the last three years since Vista. Many companies have worked on Vista development now for almost half a decade. This extended time with Vista, and the fact that 7 is a minor iteration of Vista, has provided Windows 7 with the best hardware and software compatibility support ever seen in a Windows release.

Two other factors have played a role in a kinder and gentler acknowledgement that Vista is not a horrible thing to be avoided at all costs [despite the public’s perception otherwise]. The rise of the 64 bit version of Vista has allowed those who covet their raw horse power the opportunity to go wild in the quest to build a more robust computer. Vista x64 allowed users to break the 4GB of RAM barrier while dangling the concept that one day their motherboards could hold up to 2 Terabytes of RAM one day. Bottlenecks that hold back XP from using bandwith more effectively are not a hindrance for those who are running Vista. Moreover, PC buyer’s guides that previously shunned Vista at launch now easily recommend Vista x64 based systems for the user who wishes to boast about what is under the hood.

The second factor is just now starting to have an impact on those who choose to continue to spurn the new and stay with the old. The option to *downgrade* your computer from a new version of Windows to an older edition did not start with Vista. Microsoft has allowed this practice for years. Vista made it fashionable, and practical, again. There is a terrible problem though for those who decide to take this route. Either XP drivers for today’s hardware are several years old or they are minor ports of other existing technologies used in a similar product line. Native support for XP drivers will become non-existent if Windows 7 does well initially.

Sure it is hard to ponder now a world without XP. The truth of the matter still comes down to the fact that equipment wears out, the user base will advance and at some point a company cannot support multiple versions of an operating system without it effecting their bottom line. Of course this change will not happen fast but it will happen this fall with everyone who chooses to buy a Windows based computer.

Why… should I upgrade to Windows 7?

The quick answer is this. If you bought a computer in the last three years that came preloaded with Windows Vista then you want to consider an upgrade to 7. Better, stronger and faster. Plus it doesn’t cost six million dollars to get all that bionic power that comes with Windows 7. True you might not get to use all the bells and whistles of touch screens and other new hardware advantages. Nevertheless, you will notice a jump in performance over Vista and that alone may be worth the price of admission.

If you are running XP, or if your computer is older than 2006, then I do not suggest you perform an upgrade to Windows 7. Older hardware generally responds well to 7 in many more ways than Vista. However, the benefits are very minor and you won’t see the price of the upgrade as a good investment to adding a few more years of life onto that aging system.

The XP user should really consider waiting until they buy a new computer system rather than create a Frankenstein tech support nightmare that can be an older system running 7. Ignore that part where I talked about the best driver support ever and hold off. It really won’t be worth your time, effort and money if you do upgrade that bargain basement flyer from 2004.

If you choose to go ahead with the upgrade, anyway, then heed this warning. Whatever issues prompted you not to upgrade your computer to Vista still exist in Windows 7. Slow processor? That will still be a problem in 7. Low end video card? That too will work against you in 7. That old printer or scanner would not work in Vista? Well it is highly probable that the same will occur in 7. So doing a healthy amount of research is a key factor in your mission to move that dot matrix printer into the 2010 era of computing.

When… can I lay my hands on a copy of Windows 7?

Microsoft has been very aggressive in their efforts to allow you to obtain a copy of Windows 7. A large scale preorder program started on June 26th and the public onslaught for $50 upgrades for Vista users to move to Windows 7 Home Premium buried the Microsoft Store up to their ears with requests. Microsoft has also stated that they will embark on a wide range of promotional pricing opportunities for Windows 7 Ultimate through various retailers.

Those who would rather have a free sample are still in luck. You will be able to download the Release Candidate version of the OS until August 15th 2009. This version will let you run 7 until June 30th 2010. In a way this lets you run Windows 7 as a trial for almost a year before you have to consider a purchase of the retail copy of the operating system. And many have downloaded 7 for that ability to “try before you buy”.

Those out there who wish to skip the beta/prerelease route will be able to line up outside their favorite stores on the night of October 21st. Windows 7 will go on sale, and come preloaded on new computers, starting on October 22nd 2009. But if you buy a new computer today Microsoft will give you a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it is released in October. This promotion varies from computer maker to computer retailer, therefore, you should consult with your retailer at the time of your purchase.

Windows 7 will come in several product editions. 7, unlike Vista’s product editions, does not vary wildly if you choose the Home track over the Professional tier of products. This time out MS has made it easier to understand what comes with what edition by having each ascending product contain all the features and functionality of the edition below that version of 7. Professional now has everything the Home editions have and Ultimate still has everything under all the other product editions. The need for Ultimate is not as great though if you are after the lion’s share of available product features. For most users Home Premium or Professional will suffice as both contain a large number of commonly used features.

So, you might be thinking, what about the needs for the Blind who use Assistive Technology? Well let me get back to that statement I said at the beginning of this talk. Windows 7 already has either full product support or beta support on hand from most of the AT software makers. Blind technology enthusiasts Rick Harmond and Mark Taylor have been posting their work with Windows 7 and Screen Readers since the public beta cycle began in January of this year.

Dolphin, G.W. Micro, Freedom Scientific and Serotek will have their products ready to go on the day of launch. A few Video Magnifiers, such as the iDex from FOCI, will work in Windows 7 but they are not actively supporting it as of this writing. Kurzweil 1000 will fully support Win 7 in the upcoming version 12 and Open Book will as well in an upcoming release.

You may have noticed that I ffeatured mostly Screen Readers in my last remarks on Assistive Technology. That is because Microsoft themselves have internally addressed the needs for some low vision users who do not rely upon speech assistance in their daily computer use. Windows 7 offers a full screen magnifier built into the operating system that could be easily compaired in quality to that of Screen Magnifiers from around 2002. While some Screen Magnification programs from Dolphin, Freedom Scientific and Ai Squared offer a tremendous number of excellent features.. most users who are new to vision loss will find that this new Windows Magnifier provides a better stopgap option until such time where those other programs would be needed for more intensive or long term use.

This new full screen magnification option joins a refined version of Vista’s Speech Recognition and the inclusion of touch screen technologies for accessibility in Windows. These options do not rival some of those built in features found within Apple’s Leopard but they do show us that there may come a time when Microsoft may rival those features within a future version of Windows.

Some of you may remember my Windows Vista talk in Dallas of 2006. Some of you also may remember that my talk became more of a debate with our esteemed guest from Microsoft near the end of that particular meeting. I had, and still believe I was right on many fronts, some concerns about Vista’s approach to hardware and the confusion that came about from the Vista Capable/Compatible/Ready upgrade programs. I was concerned about the AT Companies and their sluggish investments in working with Microsoft to have their products ready for a new technically aware Blind Community. And I was afraid that we would see patches and product updates for a long time as the Assistive Technology Industry strained to accommodate Office 2007 at the same time they faced down the barrel of support for Windows Vista.

In hindsight, the Vista problem took care of its self for many of the reasons I listed earlier. The same though can’t be said of 7 And I think this is why we need not fear this version of Windows. Now in 2011.. I might feel different about the next flavor of Windows. I hope to see you all again to discuss that release.

Take care and thank you for not leaving me in this room to talk to these four walls by myself.

My sincere thanks to the hard work and informative info these sites have posted over the years. If you want to learn more about Windows 7 these are some places to start reading.

The Super Site For Windows

www.winsupersite.com

Ed Bott’s Windows Expertise

http://www.edbott.com/weblog/

Mary Jo Foley’s All About Microsoft

http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/

The Blind Geek Zone

http://www.blind-geek-zone.net/

The Mark Taylor Candle Shore Blog

http://mark.candleshoreblog.com/

7: The Public Beta Of Windows 7 Begins Today

At the beginning of the summer of 2008 I looked back at my NFB Vista presentation and I speculated that Windows 7, not knowing that would be the name at the time, would be out by the Holiday Season of 2009. I got a lot of flack for that offline. I got even more from some major players in the AT Field at convention. And I held true to my convictions that all companies like money and the purchase cycle rules all. What I didn’t really think about at the time was that Microsoft would be out for blood to undo the damage caused by Vista and those Apple Switcher ads. But, nevertheless, I still held stead fast to Vista’s replacement coming to store shelves no later than Spring 2010.

Well… today Microsoft will move forward with those plans to release the next version of Windows within that timeline by issuing out the Public Beta of Windows 7 today. Major computer magazines and media outlets have been more than positive about the look and feel of 7. And I have to admit that this “happiness is a warm puppy” outlook from some earlier Vista detractors has refueled me a bit at the concept of another round of beta testing, article writing and hours of speeches on yet another version of Windows. Rest assured, like Vista before it, 7 is going to be a topic I cover a lot here over the next year. And that coverage begins in earnest at 12:00 PM PST when the Public Beta goes live on Microsoft.com.

To learn more about what to expect from the beta, and remember there is no AT companies with public betas for 7 at the moment, go to the Windows Super Site link below. Expect a few people at ATIA at the end of the month to talk about new product versions for 7 compatibility this year. And you might want to check the status of your SMAs as well. Hint Hint..

http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win7_beta_available.asp

Almost 2 Years Later.. Reviewing My 2006 Vista And Office 07 NFB Overviews Part 2

This is part two of my look back at my 2006 NFB presentation to the Computer Sciences group in Dallas at the National Convention. If you didn’t read that post or you missed part one here are the links for both.

Old Presentation.

http://therangerstation.blogspot.com/2006/07/windows-vista-and-office-2007-overview.html

Part One of my look back.

http://therangerstation.blogspot.com/2008/05/almost-2-years-later-reviewing-my-2006.html

We pick up with some reflections on Office 2007.

This is where things get a bit interesting. Some of the things I mentioned in my presentation were based solely on early builds of Office 07. And about a month after the convention some of my nit picks went away in another subsequent build. I'm not taking credit for these changes, however, I was on the panel with a key Microsoft person who did take some issues with what I said that day. Perhaps it was more than sheer coincidence? Nahh.. probably more due to the nature of the beta cycle more likely.

Quote: The good news about Microsoft Office 2007 is that all of the current 1,500 hotkeys/commands from 2003 have been ported over to the new Office Suite. The bad news is that they don't always do what they used to do in Office 2003. Being a power Office user actually works against you as the commands that have become instinctive will now take you places you have never been before. For example I was not sure how to jump my focus initially to the tab portion of the Ribbon interface. I tried several commands and modifier key combinations. It was only after I decided to do an Alt + H combination did I find myself sitting on the "Home" tab. of course I thought that Alt + H would take me to the "Help" tab instead. This is just one of the surprises in store for you when you first start using Office. It becomes even more readily apparent that we as Blind users are at a real disadvantage when you look at a more visual based program like power Point. The Gallery alone for the "Animations" tab is far too complex for me to even begin to describe non visually.

In early builds some common commands did not always work in the same way that you remembered in 2003. What came about over time was a move within Office to leave the key commands that utilized the Control key alone. So CTRL plus S, X, V and others all worked the same. Commands that used the ALT key were not always going to produce the same result in 2007.

Another new behavior came along with that ALT key. When using Office with the Ribbon you can jump to a desired location easily once you learn the path of keys that must be struck successively. For example, to drop in a Cover Sheet into a Word Document you can strike ALT plus N for the Insert tab then hit your V key once you have focus on the Insert tab. Instead of hitting two or three keys at once you could hit a series of keys to get two where you were going.

All things were not that simple though. A friend of mine liked to use Control plus Enter in Outlook. A box popped up to say that this was a 2003 key and it went on to ask if he wanted to continue to use that key command in 2007. He wasn't thinking and he said "No" along with the "Don't show this again" before he realized what he had done. I told him there was a long way of getting it back without installing over Office but it would take some time to get there. He decided to learn the 2007 keys instead that way he would not run into this issue again.

The good news is that you can remap a lot of stuff in Office 07 if it doesn't suit your fancy. The bad news is that these changes aren't global and you will need to do them for each part of the Suite. At least you have a choice now to customize all of this. The hard part is either discovering all of this on your own or sitting through training sessions to learn how to tame this beast.

In multiple paragraphs, both then and now, I stressed the need for training on the changes from XP to Vista and Office 03 to 07. I mentioned before that the AT companies have gone to long lengths to bridge this gap through verbosity language and the ability to read many of the tool tips on the fly. Even with all of this help at your command things can still be out of reach. Take this instance where I talk about how Microsoft has tweaked the Ribbon for mouse users.

Quote: As an experiment in terror I showed my sighted wife the new Office 2007. She took to it like a duck to water. In minutes she was creating a power Point presentation with advanced features in only minutes. She told me that the new interface was very intuitive and she liked how the program would give her visual indications as to what options were open to her at a glance. She could make changes to the format of a document without changing the document it's self by hovering her mouse over a picture of the format or scheme displayed in the Gallery up in the Ribbon interface. For me as a mid level user who can use either Screen Reader or Screen Magnifier products I found that it took me twice as long or longer to perform the same tasks my wife was doing in seconds. For once all the millions in marketing and user research have paid off for Microsoft as this new version of Office will dramatically change the way future releases will look and feel.

And it has done exactly that. Office 2009 is said to be "All Ribbon.. All the time!". Vista already uses a pseudo Ribbon. And MS was so happy with the reception of the User Interface that they allow third parties to use it under a free license. Sadly things are going to get even more visual from this point forward. The meta Media Universe has arrived to the party while some of us are still trying to figure out what to wear to this shindig.

Here again the Screen Magnifier user faces a greater challenge to using these controls. Due to the nature of enlargement, you can always make something bigger if you are willing to sacrifice the ability to see what is around your mouse pointer or text cursor. I mentioned that my wife could hover over a control and see the changes that control would make *live* on a given document. With a Screen Magnifier I have to make those changes in a more permanent fashion as I can either see the Control in focus or the document proper. Not both. Thank goodness for Control plus Z right?

But the Control Z key combo is a perfect example of why things are not so good for the Screen Mags and not so bad for the Screen Reads. Without going down the path of Low Vision people being in denial, the fact remains that some users will always do things the sighted way first. And try as you might you can't always teach a old dog new tricks. Which means that Low Vision users must either rely on memorization techniques in a dynamic environment or they may just give up on some features of a program entirely. Which then gives the sighted co-worker a leg up on being the Office Product Suite Guru.

Continuing on..

Quote: Like anything else more time with the products will increase my speed and abilities to navigate through Both Office and Vista. And again I am not doing myself any favors by learning both at the same time. It is very realistic, however, that this will be the case for a lot of Blind users who take my advice that I offered at the beginning on waiting to buy a new computer rather than upgrade piece meal. For them and others this will be the only option open when both Vista and Office come bundled with new computer systems. So there is a method to my madness for tackling both programs in this manner.

Hello! Just about any student getting a PC this graduation season falls under this one.

Quote: Due to what little time we have here today I haven't discussed that there are some features of both Windows Vista and office 2007 that are version specific. So in other words you might have a friend with Vista Home Premium and Office Student Edition who could not afford the ultimate Editions I am using in the Beta program. My options for creating and viewing files are far more vast than what your friend can do with his or her versions of Vista and Office. However, if your friend has enough money on hand they can upgrade their copies of both over the internet with On Line Distribution. Hopefully they won't alter their Assistive Technology in the process by going from what we now know as Home to Professional but that's another discussion for another time. The fact is that a person can rapidly change their Operating System's look and feel by purchasing an upgrade via the internet. Vista will even tell you that you will need to upgrade your software when you try to access an option in a lower priced version of the product. Better yet if you chose to ignore my advice and you upgraded your computer and it cannot use a particular function of Vista... it will let you buy the upgrade and then tell you that you will need to upgrade your hardware to take advantage of your new purchase.

Ah! Another one where I am 50/50. The hardware and software thing was on track. The current lawsuit about “Vista Capable”, “Vista Compatible” and “Vista Ready” is still pending and it addresses a lot of what I said above. However Microsoft has suspended the “Any Time Upgrade” via the net. There has been an “Any Time Upgrade Kit” which comes with a DVD and other materials but it wasn’t the exclusive way of upgrading until the begining of this year.

The problems with upgrading to Vista with AT ended up being awful. Time consuming or a pain in the rear because you had to use Narrator for almost everything. But it wasn’t awful enough to be beyond the realm of meer mortals As long as you keep in mind the Home versus Professional product lines of old. And if that is a headache then there is always the Ultimate Editions of both which has everything. Just remember that those Ultimate versions are considered as being Professional not Home when you update your AT Also give credit to Microsoft for not allowing you to overwrite Pro with Home or FAT32 over NTFS.

Tip: Uninstall your Assistive Technology of choice and use Narrator or System Access in XP to access the initial Vista upgrade screens. If Vista finds your sound card drivers, and that is about 90% or better now, you can use Narrator and Magnifier to get you through the first screens before you officially log on to Vista for the first time. When on the Vista Desktop use Narrator one more time to hear the Autoplay options of your Assistive Technology install disc as Vista doesn’t use an Autorun by default. You can close Narrator once you hit the install shield for your AT of choice.

This next part I strongly believe in as I just experienced it again recently. I just upgraded several Dell machines up from XP to Vista and each box reminded me of what I wrote two years ago.

Quote: Vista will scale it's self up or down to more readily adapt to whatever hardware you throw at the thing. So a copy of Windows Vista ultimate on a new computer will look and act very different from a computer made two years ago. Again it will run on the system but it will remind you when it cannot do something due to hardware limitations. Every system will respond and act differently if you take the upgrade path. That’s why I say that it may be worth it to you to wait for the Vista Ready machines to roll out next year before you decide to buy.

On my home boxes I run either Vista Ultimate or XP SP 3. At work we just moved to Windows Vista Enterprise. Enterprise isn’t too far off from Ultimate. But my main box at home is 16 months older than the newer ones at work. The speed and responsiveness of Vista on newer hardware is sometimes astounding. I say sometimes because I see some cycle intensive programs take on full loads the exact same way at home and at work. That is to say they both suffer and drag in the same spots no matter what the hardware specs seem to be on either system.

Overall, however, I am amazed at how performance can be so drastically affected by hardware configurations. And laptops especially tend to either flurish or flounder running Vista. Don’t scrimp on hardware for the notebook computer as Vista loves more than less. How ironic it was for me to see a recent Microsoft ad campaign proclaiming “Do More with less”. Oh well, that’s marketing for ya..

Okay, now we get to the real meat of the matter. Here is what I suggested 23 months ago as a mini buyer’s guide for future Vista boxes. Remember that I was speaking stricly on upgrade paths at the time as the specs for fully loaded Vista systems didn’t show up until five months later for business and 7 months later for consumer oriented products.

Quote: But I believe that everyone should have the freedom to do what they feel. So if you do want to upgrade or buy a new system for Vista here's a mini buyer's guide. Please remember that this information refers to the needs of some specific Assistive Technology programs like Screen magnifiers. And I am shooting low so you don't buy a system only to find yourself having to upgrade again in 18 months.

Desktop: We’ll take these one at a time. I will use a “Then:” for the old suggestion and a “Now:” for the current generation of hardware recommendations.

Processor Then: Intel Dual Core at 2.4 GHz or higher. AMD equivalent will work just as well. A Dual Core processor with Hyperthreading technology may not be worth the money to you unless you do a lot of video editing or massive data creation.

Processor Now: If you are updating an old system then the older suggestion still applies. Just about any new system from Dell, HP or others should be fine with Vista if you are buying new. I generally don’t choose the bottom barrel on the drop down list of available processors as a rule when custom creating a system though.

Memory Then: 2 GB of memory is recommended if you are going to use this computer with Assistive Technology. You can get by on 1 GB; however, Vista directly and dramatically increases its speed with more memory on board. Vista ultimate, for example, can recognize up to 128 GB of memory.

Memory Now: 2 GB minimum. 1 GB is really a struggle. In fact 3 GB is better but 4 GB isn’t used all that well by Vista in the 32 bit flavors. In 64 bit the skies the limit. In the original vista rollouts I saw a lot of 1GB configurations. Around mid 2007 that turned to a 2 GB minimum for most OEMs. So this shouldn’t be a problem as much for someone buying a new box.

Video Card Then: A dedicated Display Card of at least 128 MB is a requirement for some versions of Vista's AERO Glass interface. Screen magnifier users however should think about 256 MB based cards if they can afford them. All Assistive Technology users are better off using 128 MB cards though as this will free up system resources and it won't get in the way of your computer's memory/processor.

Video Card Now: If you are updating then 128 MB still applies. I would check the support forums for your display adaptor before you make the leap to Vista however. Some driver support is still kind of wonky, Hi NVIDIA, and it is better to download the latest and greatest drivers/patches on to a USB drive before you upgrade. If you are buying new it will be very difficult to find a card below 128 MB. Or 256 for that matter. You really want to be careful with machines designed as big time gamming rigs though. Dual video cards and some SLI configurations are not supported by some AT programs. Some Direct X 10 high end cards can employ layering effects that can also work badly with Mirror Drivers. So… like you need more research right? Yep. The best course of action is to check with your AT company on any potential issues with a particular video card before you click “add to cart” when buying a new system.

Sound Card Then: No longer can you scrimp on going with On Board Audio chips. It's in your best interest that you look at a dedicated sound card as Direct X sinks up audio and video for every program running on your computer. Having a fast video card won't help you if it has to wait for your low end audio card to do its work in order for both to sink properly. So if you want to avoid stuttering speech or lags in Screen Magnification you want to go with a real true blue sound card.

Sound Card Now: This area I screwed up on in a few ways. Part of the mistakes came about when Microsoft started changing internally the way that sound is handled under Vista. Another thing I didn’t see coming was the rise and fall and rise again of DRM with High Def video and audio. And then last but not least I was betrayed by Creative Labs with their dog awful response and subsequent lack of support for Vista. The best course of action for audiophiles is to buy, gulp, a new card that has far better support and features under Vista than your current card does. New computer buyers should again research the sound card option carefully because not all sound cards are created equal under Vista. And some are far better at music, others at gamming and others boast better audio/video experiences. My thoughts on this is the sound card game is one big craps shoot. I’ve seen and heard some great performance out of some cards with music only to then find that they stink with video files. And vise versa. Oh and don’t even get me started on sound with SAPI 4 and SAPI 5 with Vista. That is a rant best suited for when I have more time to write and you have a day and a half to read the thing.

Hard Drive Then: 80 GB or higher. Windows Vista and Office 2007 took up 17 GB on my laptop's 60 GB hard drive and that's before I loaded anything else. Remember that files are getting bigger all the time and you can't get away with a smaller drive unless you plan on backing up your data... a lot.

Hard Drive Now: Updating with 80 GB? Sure thing. Just plan on going out to purchase a gross of DVDs and an external USB hard drive later on in the day. With drive prices falling and storage being so cheap, when compaired to a few years ago,250 to 320 GB is the new low point I would suggest for HDD.

DVD ROM Then and Now: All future software releases from Microsoft will be in DVD format. The size of Vista alone is 3.4 GB.

Monitor Then: A widescreen monitor will give everyone, including Screen Reader users, a better experience with their Assistive Technology of choice. Using a more traditional square monitor means that a program will have to resize or reformat a page that is designed for wider displays or monitors running at a higher resolution. Think of it like a 40 cell braille display versus an 80 cell model. Speech products have a tendency to read better in some cases because they don’t have to pause between more lines of text. A wider display shows whole sentences which makes some products act differently. Weird I know but not all Assistive Technology products access and read text the same way so your mileage on this may vary.

Monitor Now: This one I kind of changed my mind on slightly. While a Widescreen display is still my first recommendation for both old and new, I concede that some eye conditions do not work well with a wider field of view. Those people with diminishing field restrictions or those who have nothing but their Central Fields may struggle with wider and larger monitors. The trend is going the way of the rectangle however. Therefore people who like the smaller 15 to 17 inch old fashion displays may have to turn to bargain store close outs or Ebay for a monitor replacement. As HDTV comes online in 2009 you will be hard pressed to find that square style in any stores or with Online Retailers.

Moving now to the laptop or notebook systems..

Laptop:

Processor Then: The lowest I even suggest is an Intel Dual Core Mobile at 1.66 GHz. If you can go higher than do so. The obvious difference in performance is based upon the number of application running at the same time. In other words running more than four apps in open windows is not a good idea on laptops with lower speeds.

Processor Now: My advice is don’t upgrade a Laptop to Vista period. It is more time consuming than it is worth to troubleshoot if something goes wrong and it is an arm and a leg to pay for what you need if you do need more hardware. Now if you are buying new higher can be better but it isn’t that simple. You want to look at power versus heat. A lower end processor might not replace a Super Computer, however, if all you are doing is spreadsheets and some light surfing with your AT of choice then stay in the middle range of processors with AMD or Intel. Heavy duty web apps? Go higher!

Memory Then: The same 2 GB is highly recommended. Although Windows Vista can be set to use a flash drive as virtual memory. A 4 GB USB Flash Drive could give you a 10% boost on some programs if you allow Vista to use the entire drive for its needs.

Memory Now: 3 GB if you can afford that level of memory. Readyboost is a lot better now than it was two years ago but it is still no match for on board memory.

Video Card Then: 128 MB cards are a must. Higher is better but 128 MB dedicated non memory sharing video cards will make your life a whole lot easier.

Video Cards Now: This one all depends on what you want to do with your new notebook. If you like rich dynamic content and video there within or playing movies on said new system then a high end card may suit your fancy. If you are a Screen Reader user who doesn’t have to give rich dynamic content presentations as a part of your job or playing DVD movies just isn’t your bag then the world of video cards is your oyster. Mind you if you DO like all that video Web 2.0 Blu Ray stuff I would suggest you buy an extra battery because you will be eating power like it was a $2.99 Las Vegas hotel buffet.

Sound Card Then: The rule here is to go with a card that will not share system memory. You may have a laptop with 512 MB of RAM; however, the On Board Video and Audio cards take 64 MB or more away from that 512 MB. One of the laptops I tested that had just such a configuration only shows that Vista has 384 MB out of 512 MB available. Trust me and shoot for a non integrated card.

Sound Cards Now: Um.. most of them suck. No really. I’m usually most depressed with this aspect more than anything else on laptop configurations under Vista. And I am not alone. Just look at the rise in popularity of USB external sound cards and sound chips in USB headphones. I recommend that a lot of Screen Readers, or Screen Magnifiers with assisted Speech, consider USB headphones with the sound chip option. It tends to be a far better solution then fighting with drivers and the sound mixer at times with Vista. To each his own though.

Hard Drive, DVD and the rest is the same as the desktop recommendations for both “Then” and “Now”.

We’re getting to the end but my gaffs in logic, and my underestimating hardware support, continue. Here are some aspects of vista that I, ha!, predict are worth looking out for in the next two years.

Quote: Windows Sideshow: This part of Windows allows you to view files wirelessly from a Tablet PC, picture frame or from a LCD monitor on the lid of your laptop. This secondary screen on the lid of the laptop can even let you view email or see your photos without you having to manipulate controls in Windows.

One Note/Meeting Space: Imagine being in this room a year from now and me saying that I have a file folder open on my laptop and you can download this presentation on your Vista based system. Its Peer to Peer file sharing on a whole new level and it will do wonders for the class room.

Windows Media Player 11 and Internet Explorer 7+: While both programs will be available for Windows XP both have specific features that only come with Windows Vista. For instance IE7 has a "safe mode" that lets it run in a protected memory file so you can avoid programs that hijack or redirect your browser.

Windows Sideshow Is just now starting to find some love from hardware manufactures. Around Christmas I saw a few wireless LCD picture frames that supported this feature. Last summer I saw maybe three high end laptops that supported the LCD on the lid. However as we move forward, and away from XP support, the hardware will eventually catch up to this software feature.

Microsoft can only encourage others to develop for a Windows platform. They can not easily jump into the hardware game with Desktops and Laptops without someone crying foul. But they have dipped their little toe in the water with a re-labeling of some monitor’s back at Vista’s launch. MS also does well with mice, keyboards and other accessories too. I guess never say “never”.

One Note/Meeting Space… I am starting to see this in colleges. Higher technically inclined Professors are either using wireless connections in class to pass along content via the internet or they are using Meeting Space if the University has adopted Vista for their student bodies. Sadly this technology is only as good as Vista’s adoption rate. In this respect Vista shares some traits with the Zune’s Social Sharing of music. While it sounds good on paper, finding someone with a Zune to share with is the problem. Same with Meeting Space. It works well. Now find someone to play with and you are all set.

The one I got right, and honestly it was pretty hard not to get it right, was WMP 11 and IE7 for Vista. Internet Explorer 7+, the original name for IE in Vista, was a label dropped almost three months later after I talked about it in Dallas. For the most part both have been stable and better versions of their respective products. Although Windows Media Player integration can prove to be a bear to troubleshoot. In a recent situation I learned that you can’t really uninstall or reinstall WMP 11 all that easily in Vista. There are work arounds for this kind of thing and they don’t involve reinstalling Vista thank goodness. But it did take me by surprise that one of the oldest and best tricks in my arsenal wasn’t available to me right off the bat.

Let’s skip down to the wrap up paragraph..

Quote: Before I conclude today I want to stress that all of this is very specific to today's technology. Windows Vista will use Direct X 10 for all of its video. But no one can test how well that works yet as no Direct X 10 cards are on the market as I stand here today. The information I have spoken about today is based on the Beta releases of Vista and Office with older hardware. It's a whole new ball game come this Xmas season when the new generation of hardware that is made with Vista in mind hits the streets. I urge you to do your research before you do absolutely anything. Seek out your local Assistive Technology Venders and try before you buy. Just don't base your needs off a demonstration on the Exhibit Hall floor. There is no way for you to get a real feel for all of these changes in a few minutes of a sales demonstration. My real fear is that many of you will have serious Buyer's Remorse if you don't spend some time kicking the tires of all this new fangled technology. So read, listen and talk to as many people as you can before you enter into anything.

Some AT companies did have trouble with Vista. Some did have trouble with Direct X 10. However most have either worked out the kinks or are useable enough in Vista to make it something not to fear. Vista for all it’s public misconceptions is a good operating system. It is faster on newer hardware, it is far more secure than XP and in two more years it may just be your best friend as we approach what ever the next version of Windows, now code named Windows 7, is called.

Don’t get me wrong. XP was a great operating system. But it is seven years old and MS will have to stop supporting it with updates at some point. If you decide on your next system to downgrade to XP you have two major problems to face. One is that around 2010 security updates will not be as frequent or timely because MS will be looking at Windows Vista, Windows Server and Windows 7. XP will slide downwards in importance no matter how many people are still using the OS. Don’t believe me? Just go ask a Windows 2000 user how fun life has been since the release of Vista. A big fish like Microsoft does move forward and when they do you can bet that the turbulence in their wake can be a very rough ride indeed. And that isn’t to say that their won’t be support for XP. 2014 is probably the very last year for XP support… for major corporations and volume license holders. Support for individuals gets harder and more costly around 2011.

My feelings are this..

The road from Windows 98 to XP for AT users was less than spectacular. The road from XP to Vista was three years too long and people got complacent with what they had. Hardware makers had a ton of old hardware to unload because MS took too much time shipping Vista. The supply outweighed the demand because the traditional Moore’s law hardware cycle was broken as XP just couldn’t do any better with the current or future generations of hardware. With no real reasons to upgrade due to lack of hardware support, Microsoft was forced to sell something that could only speak to future potential. Not to mention that they had to lower the bar for entry level products as hardware makers had that ton of old crap to sell. MS lived up to their side of things by lowering that bar but the hardware community then stuck it right back to Microsoft by creating the worst kind of drivers, if they did it at all, for Vista. Not to mention people tried loading their older than dirt drivers, applications and hardware on the thing only to cry crocodile tears when their printer from one generation past the dot matrix era didn’t work with Vista. You throw in the not so factual “Get a Mac” ads and you find that the public perception moved to a wierd level of trust that XP was the greatest while Vista was a buggy thing that should be avoided at all costs.

The reality is that XP was the exact same way at this point in it’s life cycle. Add to the reality that Vista has sold more than XP at the same point in it’s life, driver support for Vista pre SP1 was better than any version of Windows previously and then consider that we had AT products ready and rearrin’ to go on launch day… Plus that’s just for starters. Kick in the security features, the IP6 functionality, the level of search, the ability to uber customize the UI, built in voice recognition, better USB support and lots more that I could go on and on about.

I’ll close with some questions that I must answer almost daiily at work.

Does Vista have drawbacks? Sure. All software does. Should you fear Vista in 2008? No. Should you consider Vista on your next computer? Yes. Should you downgrade to XP on a new computer? No. Should you stay with your current system running XP? Yes, for as long as you feel you need to do so. Just be ready for Windows 7 when you do buy in the next 18 months.

Whew! We reached the end. Now it is your turn to sound off. Feel free to agree, disagree or generally run a muck in the comments section. Maybe your experiences range farther apart from mine. Maybe you see what I’m saying. Or perhaps you just have turned to Linux or something. In the end I wasn’t trying to have this be a praise of MS. I did, however, want to be one of the few lone wolves who stood by Vista because in all honesty it has been the easiest version of Windows for me to work with and troubleshoot.

I hope this look back was helpful or at least an interesting read. Thanks for going back in time with me. We will see how I do next time when I write about the betas for Office 2009 and Windows 7.

Almost 2 Years Later.. Reviewing My 2006 Vista And Office 07 NFB Overviews: Part 1

This month marks my two year anniversary of running Windows Vista on one machine or another. I've also been running Vista on my main box since launch, however, I played around some and my current Windows Install is a young 13 months old. In all this time I have been and remain a fan of Vista. You read that right. I am a fan. No version of Windows has caused me less trouble than Vista. The only hard crashes I have experienced have been directly due to me using beta versions of Assistive Technology or by me purposely poking the bear with a stick to see what could take down a box running the latest version of Vista. five weeks or so from now my office will switch to Vista for internal reasons and I can't wait.

Now before you call the men in their clean white coats to come and take me away know first that I don't advocate that you toss out your old or new computers today. Nor do I say that the "future is now" and it has flowers, trees and chirping birds and .. well you get the idea. If you are happy with what you have and it works for you then great. The next several paragraphs are not designed to sway you from where you are at the moment. And this post isn't a defense or praise of all things Microsoft either. Read on and see.

In July of 2006 I did have a lot to say on the topics of Vista and Office 07 because I was asked to speak at the National Federation of the Blind's Computer Science meeting on both of these programs with an emphasis on the pitfalls of running both from a Blind and Low Vision point of view. With the convention returning to Dallas this July my thoughts also have returned to my presentation from two years ago.

This multi part post is just really a post mortem on what I may have gotten right and what I realy got wrong. Sometimes when you do this Consulting/Futureist/Evangelism stuff you kind of have to keep score on yourself in order to then market yourself to others that you indeed have two sticks to rub together for that fire somebody wanted.

So journey with me now back to a simpler time where Krispy Cream ruled the Earth and gas was a low $2.15 a gallon. Let us go back to July 2006 and revisit what I said oh those many months ago before I move onwards to the future.

Windows Vista And Office 2007 Overview For NFB Convention In Dallas
http://therangerstation.blogspot.com/2006/07/windows-vista-and-office-2007-overview.html

You've finished reading all that? No me neither. Quite frankly I was hopped up on coffee and heavy music. Some of it is a blur that's for sure. Well if you didn't feel like going "Back to the Future" then you are in luck. Because I am going to post the key parts that stick out in my mind and comment on them rather than have you reread that whole big diatribe all over again. As always feel free to throw your own take on all this into the comments section.

Here we go!

At the beginning I made a joke about how I seem to be asked to speak right as new versions of Windows are released. I stated that the next time I would be back would be 2011. In retrospect that sounded right, however, I'm more apt to think that Windows 7 will fall between late 2009 and mid 2010. Microsoft has often said that the span between cycles should be three years. Which means if you consider that Vista officialy released to RTM in November 06.. Windows 7 should be on target for a similar release in November 2009. But that would also mean that the Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 would hit in 2011 thereby giving me an excuse to show up again and tell even more bad jokes. Problem solved!

Speaking of funny things, do you remember when MS was playing Twister with release dates?

Quote: Today in our brief time together I would like to speak to you about some of the aspects of both Microsoft’s new products scheduled for release in 2007. Windows Vista is currently set for release in January 2007 and Microsoft Office will be released in the first quarter of 2007. Both products will come in a variety of editions and flavors, however, my views will mainly focus today on the Ultimate Editions of both.

I was speaking about the retail editions there not the OEM and big business editions. Those did go to RTM in November 06. Where I got it wrong, and really this was a shocker, was in the release of Office 2007. In July many of us in the industry were told that Vista would go first then Office. Several AT companies thought that this would give some, not a lot of course, time to work on Vista code for release with some small window of development time built in for Office. That didn't happen. In mid to late August MS changed up the schedule and they announced that both products would be released on the same date.

Sure this decision was a great idea from the marketing, and the cost of said marketing, standpoint. Playing Armchair Quarterback for a second, this plan kind of scuttled some of the buzz on Office. The Office Team finished on time and their product was ready to go for the Summer of 2006. They gladly took the extra time given to them by the schedule change. But for us in AT it meant that one thing would have to take the lead in development. And many people had already said that they would be ready day and date with Vista. As a result almost everyone had to play catch up in Office 07. And as my good friend Curtis Chong predicted Office was the bigger product as it wasn't just a "Vista Only" program. The somewhat tired argument of slow Vista adoption can't be applied to Office 07. In fact the Office sales have been staggering and you rarely see anyone in the mainstream media talking about "Save Office 2003" campaigns.

Moving on, I wanted to get the most important part out of the way first.

Quote: One of the things to realize when considering moving to Windows Vista is that it has been five years since the last non network release of a program in the Windows Family. Other than Windows XP Service Pack 2 the program has seen little or no drastic changes to its look and feel. And while that is a great thing for Blind users having that kind of stability for a very long time it also means that more people will be reluctant to change when circumstances dictate to them that they have little choice to do otherwise. Let me say that for the next two years there will be few reasons for most users to drop their current desktops running Windows XP Service pack 2. If you feel comfortable with your computer and your Assistive Technology of choice then do not up root yourself for the sake of having the biggest and newest thing on the market.

It has been almost two years from the day I wrote that. And I still feel the exact same way.

Quote: Now if you are currently running Windows 95, 98, 98 SE, ME or 2000 you will need to consider making the leap to Vista as your software has reached the end of its rope for technical support and security updates. Your Assistive Technology of choice is also following suit as several of the major names in Assistive Technology are planning or already have ended their support for older versions of Windows.

Yup. Good luck finding anything 9x supported these days. Win2k maybe. But 9x?

Quote: If you find yourself being one of the people in the older Windows camp let me make the additional recommendation that you consider a whole new computer system as opposed to traveling down the path of endless upgrades. One thing I have learned during my time with Vista is that the older the hardware is the more painful your experience will be in the long run. Some of Vista's features and advantages over the current generation of computers are strictly based upon new hardware components and subsequent accessories. Upgrading an older system means that you run the risk of not being able to use all the powers of Vista thereby making a purchase of a new computer far more cost effective.

Darn you NVIDIA and Creative for your bad driver support in Vista!

Ahem, this has always been the call of the tried and true Techno Geek/Nerd. However, you often have to say the most common things over and over again for those buyers and non tech types who are new to the cycle. As we approach Windows 7 I will more than likely end up cut, copying and pasting a lot of this material for the next round of talks on the presentation circuit.  

Now this next bit was probably the most accurate thing I said..

Quote: The most common question I get these days is "will it be accessible?” And I have recently learned that the term "accessible" has varied meanings. There is no doubt that eventually all the Assistive Technology Venders in the market today will find their way to making their products work with Windows Vista. If you think about it for a second you will realize that they have no choice in the matter. If older versions of Windows are being phased out for Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Vista then there is only one path left in the marketplace. The bottom line is that there is money to be made in Vista upgrades over the next two years as it will become the industry standard. But for the second time in the last three minutes I have mentioned the cost or money needed to move to such a standard. So technically the programs themselves will be "accessible" but only to a few individuals who can afford these costs. This means there will be a large portion of our population unable to make the leap due to the sheer economics of the matter. A new Digital Divide, if you will allow me the analogy, will be formed as a result of this situation.

Here's what really came to the forefront in the last two years for me. "Accessibility vs. Usability", the consequences of a ATV's  dependence upon a 9 to 15 month whole number release schedule and the real kicker "subscription based sales models" for AT software. Out of those three the most exciting, and beneficial, of the points is the introduction of subscription [or rent to own] AT software. Some may say that this was just a natural and inevitable move for AT to go as non AT was already there or moving to that model. but the pressure of cost with hardware and software also gave rise to the free alternatives that we now see on the net as well.

While I still believe there is a "Digital Divide" of sorts the debate moves for me to the real issue that some will wallow in XP for too long and find themselves even more in shock when Windows 7 arrives. Skipping a version of Office is one thing. Avoiding exposure to a Windows Operating System for the working Blind is another. As XP grows even older it will find its self where Windows 2000 is now. XP Pro is cheaper and easier to implement broadly. When Windows 7 is released it moves the support chain up one level thereby making Vista the cheaper, and only in some cases, option left for some big business. Which means at some point the business environment will cuddle up to Vista because now she is a cheaper date and everyone knows what she likes. I'm gonna stop this one right here but I'll definitely need to come back to this in it's own post.. and with a better way of describing it too. You don't want to know how much I could have gone down that road with long marriage and divorce jokes a plenty.

   In this next portion I am about 50/50.

Quote: The Divide doesn't stop with the issue of money however. Generally a large number of users sit down with their machines and the first thing they do is reset the machine to Windows Classic mode. In Windows Vista this will now take away some options from the desktop environment meaning that those with the hardware, ability and vision will have options open to them that you may not because you opted to go with a more familiar user interface. And for those who will migrate to Office 2007 the change will be jarring as it is the only upcoming Microsoft product that does not have the ability to revert to "Classic Mode". The need for training on these new products will be a paramount concern over the next two years as some of your technology muscles will have to adjust to the new complexities of Office and Windows. This naturally will be based solely on your experience level and it too changes the definition of "accessible" as many users will find not having the ability to use "Classic Mode" a detriment to their ability to use these programs effectively.

I was sort of right about the Classic thing. In Vista not so much. In Office I was dead on in a way.

Dropping to a semi classic Vista isn't awful. And it certainly won't bar you from being kept out of the loop with the majority of your sighted peers. The benefits of staying with a true Vista feel for the UI are notable though. Especially if you have gigs and gigs of data on multiple drives. Vista's indexing and Start Search [that's the search box integrated into the Start Menu by the way] are really helpful and I feel handcuffed in XP without them. The problem is other people aren't reverting back to Classic. so when others give you navigation, or if you have to follow trouble shooting steps from a list, you end up having to know both interfaces anyway. Rather than sit there and try and remember that this one means you do it in Vista and this is the way I have to do it in fo XP.. I'd rather just do it in Vista and take the good with the bad.

Now in Office 07 it is a completely different story. At the time I wrote this thing in 2006 Office was still in beta. Some of what I saw got changed before release. And to make things more complicated the Ribbon is a much bigger obstacle for Screen Magnification users because Screen Reader users really should be able to take the majority of their key commands over with not too much difficulty. Where both classes of users suffer is in the area of Ribbon exploration and the loss of the File Bar. Want to find that template you used in Office all the time and you didn't set it to your Home menu? Well here is a sandwich, a bottle of water and some traveling music. Good Hunting!

The next quote may make you hurt yourself laughing. Strap yourself down for pure marketing speak.

Quote:  Another aspect to ponder is that some users may not see a direct need to upgrade. These users may surf the internet, write the occasional email or generally dislike using the computer all together outside of their workplace. For them the new features involved with Vista and Office may hold little promise as they will not want to spend the time needed to master said features. Their expectations are low because their idea of what the computer is to them is not the same for what the computer is now becoming. In Windows Vista your PC moves from the realm of spreadsheets, document creation and the internet to be something more relevant to today's digital lifestyle. Vista will be your Media Center, your High Definition media creator, your phone, your calendar and much more. Vista will be the portal to managing large amounts of data in real time and it will change the way that sighted individuals’ access that information. So all the marketing of transparent Windows, 3D icons, photorealistic interfaces and an endless array of the modern equivalent to pop up balloon tips holds very little interest to us Blind folk.

If, and this is a mighty big "IF", you buy into an all Microsoft solution then this isn't off the mark at all. What I didn't see coming was the iPhone, Facebook and the Windows Mobile team stumbling so badly that you would think it was a college student on spring break at midnight. Google's move for Cloud computing is in there somewhere and lack of more broadband penetration is tied in that too. But boy did I drink a little too much Kool Aid that day because I put all my eggs in one basket for sure. This Digital Lifestyle thing is real enough. I just underestimated the web's ability to be the web. Still if Google or a Microsoft/Yahoo does end up being the ultimate aggregator..  No Ranger. Step away from the Kool Aid Man.. "Oh Yeah!".

My next few paragraphs go on to talk about how much garbage can be placed on the screen at one time. This part is true. As 800 by 600 goes away desktop geography changes dramatically. And it requires both Screen Mag and Screen Read users to do a ton more in the way of desktop navigation and exploration.

A giant widescreen is a good thing for screen reading as more of a given sentence can be read or displayed evenly [depending on the program's buffer]. Think of it like having 80 Braille cells in a line rather than 40. Naturally that only works if you have something that is mostly text. Web Developers who scale their pages have this amazing dislike of blank areas on a page. What we get, and what I thought would happen, is that information on a given page ends up anywhere and everywhere with some designs that ignore not only Web Standards but logic as well. That Computerworld article I posted a few weeks back is a beautiful, I'm being sarcastic as usual, example of just how things can go wrong on a design. Just imagine how things will go as resolutions grow higher and text gets smaller and people stray further away from the need to prioritize the space on any given page? Ugh.

And then I went on and mention Gadgets in a round about way. While these little guys are cool and useful, most people I come across end up not using Windows Sidebar. In hindsight Microsoft almost pulled a Windows 98 Channel Bar again. Except this time I actually found Sidebar useful and I didn't remove it from my Desktop immediately like I did with the awful bar in 98. Sidebar is just one of those tools that not everyone gets the beauty held within. And some Sidebars aren't written to be all that AT friendly. Still when it works, or when it talks, doing a Windows + G to get the Weather is fantastic. Of course this also assumes you haven't disabled the thing to save memory on your older hardware. If that is the case then I acknowledge your need for freeing RAM and I slowly back away from your keyboard shortcuts.

I understand from friends and early reports that Sidebar plays a bigger role in Windows 7. so I could be vindicated in 2010. For now I am going to put this ultra visual nightmare prediction in the "loss" column though. The embedded video thing, mentioned along with the Sidebar paragraphs, was on target however. 

Keeping things a rollin', I want to praise the AT Industry for this next part..

Quote: As you might have guessed I now invoke that phrase "but that's not all!" again. These tabs are also dynamic and they will change the longer you work in a particular program within Office. Imagine that you are working in a Word document. You have written a few paragraphs and you now want to insert a table. You change your focus to the list of tabs up in that Ribbon thing I just mentioned. You go to the "Insert" tab and you select the table option. Word will now place a "Table" tab up in the row rather than taking you to a dialog box for you to select a table. If you change your focus to the Table tab the list of various table options is now displayed below the Table tab visually from left to right. This and other controls like it are called "galleries". Visually a sighted person can rapidly scroll through these pictures of various tables to select the specific one they desire. Until you become more familiar with this part of Word you will find yourself having to move your focus manually as you pan through the options from left to right. You can use your application key to do just about anything in Office if the idea of using this Ribbon sounds a little off putting. However, the use of the application key [or right click for you mouse users] is strictly context sensitive. In other words you can't get to the options for your table unless your cursor and focus is in or on the table.

Many programs do a great job with Office and specifically Ribbon assistance. Last year I was working with a co-worker on a five day Office 07 overview. We noticed that one of our friends was struggling with their software of choice in the Overview sessions when she was trying to follow along with us as we navigated portions of Word. At lunch I secretly switched her AT program with the newest public beta version of that very same program. A Foldger's Crystals coffee strategy. When we all came back from lunch my friend was amazed. She could not believe how much better the response was and the verbal hints aided her greatly.

The trick was that I left everything at defaults and I kind of trashed her old verbosity settings. The defaults for Office were designed to help rather than slow someone down. During the beta cycles a lot of feedback is given to a program maker on how to make something more "out of the box" friendly because not everyone is going to either have professional AT training or, gulp, crack open a help file or manual. Being forced to test under defaults can actually be a neat and enlightening process. Many times i learn that a lot of thought went into the base configuration and, in a lot of cases, I end up making only minor modifications to the defaults rather than wholesale changes.

What can be really discouraging is to see someone ignore a config wizard or other new features right at the moment of install. Then five minutes later you hear a complaint that the program doesn't do something as desired because the settings the person configured don't port well over to the new version of that product. In the offline world I have a particularly long rant about alternative audible cues, multi focus output, the inability for others to accept change and people who ramp speech to 220. But I digress for now. 

Nothing stinks more than learning a new computer, new operating system, new software and a upgrade for your AT product of choice under some imposed deadline. I know because I have been there a few times. Heck at the beginning of this post I even said I was excited about doing this very same thing next month. However, whenever possible of course, you may really want to take the time to sit down and play with a default scheme when you first install an upgrade. You might be surprised at what you may find.

The look back was way too big for one post. Part 2 will be up soon!

My Old Windows 98/ME Tips And Tricks Presentation From 2001

So I am in deep reflection mode with the recent passing of 2006 and the impending animal known to some as Windows Vista. But before I move on to the future I have to acknowledge my past. I am a creature of habbit. I still write my papers in MLA format, I rarely if ever spellcheck on the web and I tend to add humor in awkward places in these there pros. The funny thing though is that I have written like this for a very very long time.

In 2001 I spoke at the National NFB Convention in Computer Sciences. On the panel was Mr. Warwikc, the W in GW, and the guy who was in charge of making sense of AOL's attempts at Accessibility. And someone from Microsoft's C++ team. I was asked by Curtis Chong to do a piece on the *new* Windows XP operating system. Irony is that XP, like Vista, was shrouded in an AT nightmare of betas or private alpha testing cues. As a consession I offered a "Tips and Tricks" for Windows 98 and ME. The presentation went over big and I saw the electronic copy that was sent out to the NFB mailing list copied verbatum in several places. Now mind you I asked for people to do that on purpose, however, I had no idea back then that it would be done so often. Yeah well the Open Source GPL thing was new to me back then.

Therefore I give you this little ditty from 2001 as a late present. In the coming months those who read this site will be up to their ears in questions about upgrades, version numbers and hardware trouble shooting. This little guide may prove it's self useful again as the original intent was to throw it at those who you felt could figure it out on their own but just needed a nudge in the right direction. Just finding time to do that nudge was the key. For me in 2001 it was just easier to cut, copy and paste this into an email and hope the phone stopped ringing for at least a few hours!

Share and enjoy this tale of old....

Windows Tips and Tricks

By Ranger1138

Table Of Contents

1. Introduction [Example]

2. Fresh Start [System Resources]

3. That Pesky Startup Folder

4. Mix and Match [MSCONFIG]

5. Those Hard To Reach Places [REGEDIT]

6. The Importance Of Good House Keeping And I am Not Talking About The Magazine Scandisk and Defrag]

7. Temporary Housing [Deleting Temp Files]

8. Identity Crisis [System Information]

9. Holes In Your Net [Tools Within Internet Explorer]

10. X Marks the Spot [DXDIAG]

11. Believe It Or Not [System Restore]

12. The Evil That Men Do [TWEAK UI]

~ Introduction

First, let me say “Thank you” for reading this little guide. It’s not much more than rephrased paragraphs, in some cases, from people who are far more adept at technical matters than myself. In fact, almost all of the following can be learned from web searches or from the awesome folks at Tech TV.

The purpose of this short guide is to provide some useful tools to the novices among us as well as be a gentle reminder to those of us who forget these great tips when working late into the night [on a deadline with five cups of coffee].

I apologize right here and now to any advanced users out there who don’t find much in the way of new information in this guide. I was asked to keep it simple for the most part and that means the basics with a twinge of the advanced stuff. There are some links at the end of this document you might find more interesting from an advanced standpoint, however, this document is still a good tool to toss at those people out there you don’t want to re-explain things to when you are called in for free tech support. I.E. Friends and Family Members. That’s how this thing got started for me personally but more on that later.

This guide was created in Word 2000 SR1/2. I have used a basic font with little formatting in order to ease the pain for those of us who use adaptive products. I have also placed a Tilde, ~, next to each item in this guide. That way one can do a Control plus the letter F hotkey in this document for fast searches. There are little phrases next to them as well. These phrases serve as reminders for detailed searches.

Minimum Requirements

Before we get started we need to establish a point of reference. Some of these tools and articles I refer to involve a basic configuration. I would not do some of these things on a system with less than the following specs because it will increase the likelihood of it becoming more unstable. Especially when it comes to the Virtual Memory settings or Windows Swap Files.

If you do not have a system with the following specs then please use caution with any of the advanced tools mentioned at the end of this document. Unless you like your computer’s tech support department or the Spring Fresh feeling that comes from a reinstallation of Windows. Remember, you have been warned.

The minimum requirements recommended are as follows:

1. Processor: 300 MHz or higher [Intel, AMD or whatever]

2. RAM: 64 Megs, however, 128 would be wonderful. Remember that 512 or more is overkill in the Windows 9x family and it will actually slow your computer’s responsiveness down.

3. Video Card: 4 Meg or higher. This is pretty much a given for most machines with a 300 MHz processors, however, I have seen E Machines with 2 Meg cards. If you are not sure of the size of your card consult your equipment manufacturer’s support lines.

4. Sound Card: Sound Blaster compatible. I realize that is too general but it really doesn’t matter much, as far as this guide goes, unless you are running a ton of games on your system. The memory requirement of some sound cards can work against you at times but it’s rare. Also, some adaptive programs can react negatively to non Sound Blaster compatible cards so knowing what you have in your system is a must before you do any troubleshooting.

5. Operating System: Windows 98, 98SE and the ever-popular Windows Millennium. I don’t have anything against 95 but Microsoft does. The new Internet Explorer 6 and Office XP cannot be used with Windows 95. If you are running 95 you might want to think about upgrading soon.

6. Hard Drive: 6 gigabytes or higher. I have done a lot of these tricks with less but it’s dangerous. Remember that Windows loves to keep anything and everything in different files on your system… and it never ever likes to give them up. All those files take up space which effects virtual memory which effects Windows performance which effects you in the middle of the night when you are just trying to go on the net and look up one stupid piece of information but can’t because the system is taking so long. But I digress.

In all honesty, I have done several of the tips in this document with an old NEC Pentium 166 MHz with 32 MB of ram. The results ranged from good to Disaster Movie level proportions. I find that the minimums in the above paragraph are the best way to go for now or until you find that your system’s speed is too low to run common off the shelf software.

~ Fresh Start

One of the biggest problems you will run into when troubleshooting a computer is that it seems to be sluggish and unresponsive. but everything looks normal. This can be a sign of low system resources. The normal running of Windows can deplete system Resources and it’s drivers. The programs you run on a general basis also deplete it.

One way to think of System Resources would be to look at Windows like a big pie. Every time you start your computer a slice of the pie is taken away to feed your Video Card, your Sound Card and the rest of your computer hardware. Another slice is served up to those programs that must start running the second you hear your Windows Start Up noise. These would be programs like your Virus Protection.

Whatever pie you have left is served up to the rest of the programs you run at any given time, so it’s a good idea to take out those program shortcuts that eat away at your resources, but I am getting ahead of myself. Next, let’s see the status of your resources so we know how big of a pie we have available to us before we do anything else.

You can find your System Resources in the System Resources Meter option under the Accessories Folder in the Programs Menu. Don’t panic if it is not there. Sometimes it is not installed in some Windows configurations. We can access the resources from a different area.

To find them without the meter go and press/click on the Start button. From there choose Settings and then the Control Panel. Now look for the Systems icon/option, once there you will see the System Properties box. If you ever had to play with your IRQs or Device Manager then this is a familiar spot. Up at the top you will find several tabs, the one we are on now is the General tab. The one we want is to the far right and it is called the Performance tab. Use your arrow keys to navigate there or if you are a mouse user just click on the tab.

The Performance tab will list your resources in a percentage number. 80% or higher on Startup is desirable, however, the closest you can get to the elusive 95% range is better for you in the long run. This 95% goal cannot be reached by some systems because they may have too many devices that need resources. In other words, don’t worry about the number too much if you have a DVD ROM, CD Burner, IO Mega Zip, Scanner and Printer all hooked up at the same time. 80% is a good number for those of you with that many devices.

Now that we have our benchmark we can now move to the next part of the guide. Hopefully some of these steps will increase that number a bit. Any increase is a plus though because your adaptive software will eat into those resources too and that’s when you have problems. All of your programs and equipment want Windows’s attention right now and this can lead to the System Resources being low and so on. Let’s move on to the next section.

~ That Pesky Startup Folder

The Startup Folder is a file that Windows looks at first before it brings up, or displays, your Desktop. This folder can become full of stuff you don’t use and it can seriously hamper your system resources over time.

To get an idea of how much stuff is in your Startup folder you can do one of two things. You can look or change your focus to the System Tray Icons down by your clock. Or, you can press/click on Start then Programs and scan down the menu to the Startup Folder.

Most likely you will find Real Player, Task Monitor and the dreaded Office Start Up Bar. You might find other programs listed there depending on your system’s configuration.

Now you have to make some choices. What do you actually use every day on your system? Chances are that you don’t use most of these programs. So once you have identified what goes and what stays we will move on to getting rid of the unwanted programs. It should be noted that we wouldn’t be deleting any programs. Just the shortcuts that keep programs running in the background while you do other things on your computer. Again, these little shortcuts pile up after awhile and they tax your system on long sessions so it’s best to have less of them running in the background.

Let’s choose the Office Start Up Bar as our example for the removal process. One simple way of removing this guy is to press/click the Start button and then choose the Settings function. From there choose the Taskbar Option. This will bring up the Taskbar Properties box. If you look up or change your focus to the top of the window you will notice two tabs. One will say General, where you are now, and the other should say Advanced. Choose the Advanced tab. Now we have a box with several buttons on the right side. These buttons are worth exploring, however, the one we want is towards the bottom and it’s also called Advanced.

Once you press/click the advanced button you will have a new window pop up. It will contain two panes. The one on the left should have a closed list of choices. Clicking on the plus sign next to the word “Programs” can open this close list. If you aren’t a mouse user then you will want to highlight “Programs” by tabbing down to it and then you will press the right arrow key to open the tree view of the list. Look for the Startup selection and highlight it. You should now have a list of most of the things you saw from the earlier glance at the Startup Folder in the Programs area in the pane to the right. Don’t be surprised if you don’t see everything in that original list. Some shortcuts, like the Windows “Tip of the Day” are buried deep in the dark inner recesses of the Windows Operating System.

Tab or click your way to the right pane. Highlight one of the selections or our friend the Office Startup Bar and press the Delete key on your keyboard. That’s it! The program shortcut is now residing comfortably in your recycle bin. It’s a good idea to leave it there until you test your system out by restarting your computer. Some times a program has to be in the Startup Folder in order to work correctly. Our friend the Office Startup Bar does not have to be there. He is just there for the “ease of use” feature of MS Office.

Restart your machine and if your are lucky it will come back up faster because it has less to load upon Startup. Go back to the System Resources and compare the numbers. [Hint: If you don’t want to go through the steps we covered above then just use the Windows Shortcut Keys to get there faster. They are the Windows Key plus the Pause Break Key at the top right of the keyboard.]

If you have a system lock up or if you want to undo what we have done then simply go to your Recycle Bin and choose the “Restore” option from the toolbar in the Recycle Bin window.

~ Mix and Match

Another simple way of limiting your System Resources is to play with the Startup File from MSCONFIG. This handy little tool came about in Windows 98 and it is one of my all time favorites.

The easiest way to get to it is to press/click on the Start button and then choose Run. Type MSCONFIG in the edit field and hit OK or Enter. You should see a new box with several choices and tabs up at the top of the box. There is a lot of cool stuff here to play with but for now let’s just tab over to the right until you reach the Startup tab.

At the Startup tab you will find that you have a list of items with check boxes to the left of each item. You will find Task Monitor, Schedule Agent and other long time residents of the Startup Folder. You can uncheck the items you no longer want to come up every time you start Windows or you can just look at the choices for your own reference. I generally don’t use the Task Monitor or Scheduling Agent for anything so those go right out the Window for me.

I have also been known to toss out Speed Racer, haven’t seen that speed up anything really, and some Power Profile choices. Again, it’s personal preference. You don’t want to toss out anything with your adaptive product on it because that would mean it wouldn’t come up automatically any longer. And that would be bad.

Other things I would not uncheck would be anything with a Vshield or Vschwin in it. These are common virus protection files and I would not remove them. I also would be careful with some items if they had an ATI or NVIDIA label. These are common video card files and they can cause you many issues if you remove them. Use your best judgment and read the entire location, that long line to the right of the checkbox, to determine the importance of the file before you change it’s status.

The good thing about this tool is that you can easily uncheck or recheck the programs to your heart’s content without crashing your computer for the most part. The only thing you might notice is that you have a Disabled Items Folder in your Programs Menu now for some of these tools that’s not a bad thing. It’s just a Windows reminder to let you know that these programs are here when you need them.

Once you have chosen the set of checks you want to make restart your computer. Now go back and check the System Resources again and hopefully we have brought that number up a bit. Also, you might notice your system may run a little differently depending on what you have disabled. Remember that you can always go back and recheck those boxes to return to what you had before.

~ Those Hard To Reach Places

Sometimes programs will load themselves into the Startup Folder and they like it there so much that they never want to leave. Even if you ask them to nicely. Well, those programs or their shortcuts can possibly be removed from the registry

The Windows Registry is a very scary place for those who are new to computing. I implore those of you out there to follow these steps very carefully because you can do some serious damage to your Operating System if you remove the wrong things. Also, those of you on a network may not be able to do these steps because your IT staff doesn’t want you going in there. I advise that you look but don’t touch the first time you visit the registry. You can always go back after you have backed up all of your programs/data. Well, if that warning didn’t scare you off then let’s go you brave soul…

You will want to click/press Start and then choose the Run command. From there enter the ominous “regedit” but do it without the quotation marks. You should see a box with several lines, in a tree view format, with plus signs to the left of them. Select the one that says “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE”. After choosing that one you will see another list. You will want to choose Software and then look for the one that says Microsoft. From there look for the selections that say “Windows” and then “Current Version”.

Lastly, look for the Run Folder. Be sure you choose the first Run listed because the others, Run and Run once, do different things. The first Run will place some items in the right pane of this box. If you change your focus to the right you should see the first selection as the Default Values option. DO NOT MESS WITH THIS ONE! In fact, don’t delete anything unless you are feeling confident in your choices of removal.

I used to have to use this tip a lot with early versions of Windows 98. The “Tip of the Day” would not remove it’s self sometimes and this was one of the only ways of getting rid of it from the Startup Folder. You will find in this right pane some familiar programs. Most likely you will see the VSHIELD or other V programs. This is your virus protection program and it’s fine where it is. You might also see an NVIDIA, ATI or Sound Blaster program lines. Those are programs that aid your video and audio hardware. It is not advised to remove them but I have done it before and survived. It’s up to you really. Just keep that old Windows disc on stand by if you did something bad.

~ The Importance of Good House Keeping And I Am Not Talking About The Magazine

Okay, we removed some stuff but more than likely we still have some stuff floating around on the hard drive slowing us down. And as you can tell by now “It’s all about the speed”. Well, speed and performance that is. You can’t have one without the other in computing.

Some simple ways to maintain your system’s stability is the most common ones that people forget to do. Scandisk and Defrag are some of your best friends. I realize that some adaptive programs react negatively to some of the basic tools but you really need to use them from time to time to insure that your system is working as best as it can. Utilize a reader for some of this or set your system up to have audio cues for your tasks if you want to do this on your own.

Let’s check how long it’s been since you last did the basic clean up of your hard drive. Simply go to My Computer and right click/application key the drive or whatever letter your primary hard drive happens to be at the moment. The default is the letter C. You will have a box pop up with the properties of the hard drive. There will be a series of numbers and a pie chart with the amount of free space left to you on this drive. There will also be some tab categories at the top of this box. We want the Tools tab so arrow over to the right or click the Tools tab. Once there you will have two or three sections outlining the last time the system Scandisked, Defragged or backed it’s self up.

Now there are several different schools of thought on when and how often you should do the common tools listed to you here in this box. I can only advise you what I learned when I was in technical support. That is that you should Scandisk and Defrag once a month if you don’t use your computer often. I personally use the thing every day so I have a tendency to do it a bit more.

It’s personal preference but if you are showing more than 60 days I would go ahead and do the steps just to keep things in order. You can tab down to each tool and use the buttons to each one. I suggest doing a “Thorough” Scandisk every so often to maximize your Windows performance. This can be found as a radial button choice on the Scandisk control box. But just like you always here on TV “That’s not all”.

Lots of files take up memory and or space on the hard drive. These can and have been known to cause problems with the basic operations of your computer. These files can be in the form of temporary files that can just hang out forever unless you kick them off the drive. So let us now go evict some old files from their place of residence.

~ Temporary Housing

Two common places where temp files gather are on the primary drive under the route directory (usually the C drive) or in the Internet Explorer Temp File Folder. To take care of the first we can go and press/click on the Start button and then go to the Find/Search option. A sub menu w will open. Choose the Find Files and Folders option, from there type in the first edit field “*.tmp”. Make sure the bottom or the “Look In” drop down menu box states that it is going to look into the primary hard drive. Again, for most of us that is the C drive. Once that is done start your search.

If you have never done this then you might be a bit overwhelmed at the massive number of files you will encounter. I have done some tech support calls where there were easily over 1,000 files. Thanks to 40, 60 and 80 gig hard drives we barely notice these files any more but back in the day of 4 gig drives they were very noticeable.

Select one of the files and click/press the Edit option from your toolbar menu at the top of this box. If you aren’t sure where it is you can always hit the Alt key and move your arrow keys or you can just do the hotkey Control plus the A key simultaneously to Select All of the files instead of the one highlighted. After highlighting all of them you can simply press the Delete key on your keyboard to move them to the Recycle Bin. Hey! They can visit our friend the Office Tool Bar while they are in there.

Once again I urge you not to delete them from the Recycle Bin until you are sure that you don’t need them any longer. Most of these files are fragments of other programs that popped up when you originally installed them. Others could be Microsoft back ups for installation purposes. Restart your computer and if you have errors then go to the Recycle Bin and restore the ones you need and then delete the rest.

~ Identity Crisis

So you don’t have a clue as to the innards of your computer huh? Well, it’s okay because most people don’t know that information either. Device Manager is neat and everything but it doesn’t tell you some of the more intimate details of your system devices I can hear you asking now “Where can I find more info on my system in an easy to understand form?” Relax because I have the tool for you.

Well, it may not be easy to understand but System Information is a great resource on your computer that people forget about all the time. It will show you your IRQ settings, Memory Settings and oh so much more.

To get there simply press/click on Start and then choose Programs. From there go to Accessories. You will find the System Tools mid way on the menu. Open it and scroll down to the System Information Folder.

You will see that familiar two-pane window box again with the list on the left with the words and plus signs next to them. Information on your processor, system bus, memory allocation and other tech stuff can be found here. In fact, you can access some of the tools we have talked about so far from a list here in the Tools option on the Toolbar. Also, this area has a Help file where as the Device Manager has that “What’s this?” option if you right click or use your application key on a selection.

~ Holes In Your Net

The most common of all slow down complaints usually involves the Internet. Your system can actually take longer to do some things depending on how your Internet Explorer is set. For example, Cookies and other Internet Temp Files sit in your cashe or memory. These little files add up after awhile and they slow your computer down or cause pages to open slower. This is partially due to the nature of these files. They were designed to aid web developers tailor web content to meet your needs but they have now become little tattle tales who tell everyone where you have been on the net. A web page and or browser checks these files often and they sit in your memory waiting to be used at any given time. So it’s a good idea to dump them every so often. The only thing is that you may find yourself having to log back into some sites because you have deleted the information they use to tell who you are. Hotmail, news sites and some entertainment sites keep your favorite content ready and they do this by reading the Cookie on your drive. We can avoid deleting files that you want to keep but let’s discuss the full cleaning method first.

You can delete your Internet Temp Files in two ways. The first calls for you to click on My Computer and then choose your primary drive. Again, this may be C but your mileage will vary. Once you have done that look for the Windows Folder. Then choose the Internet Temp Files Folder. You can select all of these files like we did above in the Find Files or Folders tip or you can go through them one by one to look for the ones you want to keep.

The second way can be done in Internet Explorer. When you are in Internet Explorer you can click on the Tools selection from the toolbar or non-mouse users can use the hotkeys Alt plus the letter T. At the bottom of this menu is the Internet Options menu. Choosing this will open a box with several tabs at the top. I advise you to really look around in here if you use the net often to better optimize your web experience, however, for now I suggest you tab or focus on the Temporary Internet Files section. It is in the middle of the box.

Depending on the version of your Internet Explorer you may find either one or more options for the showing or the deleting of temp files. Others may see one specifically for Cookies and one for temp files. Both will work fine.

If you surf the net every day then you might want to do this tip once every 15 days or so just to aid the browser. While you’re here you can also speed up your net by limiting your History Folder to a smaller number of days. 30 days is the default but if you bookmark sites often 30 days may be hurting your download speed. You can delete the contents of your history folder every now and then too. Or, you can set the amount of space you want set aside for Internet Explorer to use on your hard drive. Either or all of these should be considered when troubleshooting any Internet Explorer errors or problems.

For those using cable modems or DSL you might also want to set your Internet Options to load pages as you go to them rather than having the system store them on the hard drive. You can actually load them quicker from your connection rather than wait on the system to find the page and then load it from your hard drive.

If you just don’t want any more Cookies ever then you can tab up to the Advance tab on the right of this box. Choose the No Cookies check box under that tab to avoid them from now on. I do have to say that more and more sites use Cookies in different ways so locking them out may give one a bigger headache then just deleting the darn things on a regular basis. The call is yours on that though.

You might be wondering about the reasons for deleting all of these files and how do they relate to the Internet. The simple explanation is that the more of these files you have on board the computer the more Windows has to juggle at one time with whatever System Resources it has available. Another analogy would be to think of your computer as a runner in a track race with hurtles. Windows/Internet Explorer has to run a race over all of those temp file hurtles to reach the web page you want to access. The more hurtles on the track means

You have to wait longer for the runner to reach the web page, uh, finish line. Make your race shorter by using these tips on a regular maintenance schedule.

~ X Marks the Spot

Another neat but hardly used tool is DXDIAG. This is the Direct X tool that can actually aid some adaptive users. Occasionally you will run into Direct X problems on computer systems that run videogames. You can trouble shoot until you are blue in the face but you can’t seem to find the error. I have used this tool to reset the factory defaults of Direct X or even disable it all together on a temporary basis to see if it is causing the adaptive software problems.

Go and press/click on Start and then choose Run. From there you type in DXDIAG. There are way too many screens here to discuss in this little guide so I suggest you explore on your own. You might actually need the makers of your video card to explain some of these functions depending on the card you are running of course. A NVIDIA card may have completely different options than an ATI so make notes as you go along.

The menus will allow you to change many properties of your video card. Refresh rates for your monitor can sometimes be found here as well. These menus can differ from your Video Card’s Open GL and the other standards used by videogames.

The scary thing that could arise from experimenting with this tool is that you could knock your system into Safe Mode. Safe Mode is a diagnostic form of Windows. It loads the absolute bare bone minimums of the Operating System. That means it loads the Video Card at 640 by 480 resolution with a color pallet of 16 awesome colors. You also have use of the keyboard, mouse, hard drive and floppy disk. You do not have access to most of your other media devices and external devices.

For a speech user this is the ultimate nightmare. There are ways of using adaptive software to read Safe Mode, however, you must use an external sound card/synth to hear anything. Also, some Large Print programs do run in Safe Mode. However their speech components, if they have any bundled within them, will not work either. My best suggestion would be to consult a user group or a local adaptive software trainer to learn how to access Safe Mode with speech.

~ Believe It Or Not

The following section is some recommendations given to me for speeding up the Windows Operating System by others who have A+ Certifications and the like. They claim that these tips work but to be honest I just don’t know. I offer them here in the interest of fairness.

One tip is that you go to the System Properties box and then you go to the Advanced tab [like we did when we wanted to find out our System Resources]. Tab down or click the File System button. In here you will find an option/drop down box for the typical role of this computer. You can change this from Desktop to Server and this is supposed to increase your speed. It has something to do with the way Windows accesses files. I have had it explained to me why this tip actually works by Microsoft Certified Professionals several times but I am still not totally convinced that this has increased my system’s speed. Just consider this one an optional tool/tip.

While you are in this File System box, if you are a Windows ME user, you can tab over to the Troubleshooting tab. There are some check boxes listed there. Uncheck the System Restore feature and Windows will stop running back and forth to save file changes every five minutes. I am joking about the time frame but System Restore can take up memory and System Resources so it’s up to you again as to how you want to play it out. I have found that if your system is using the “Go Back” utility with the System Restore enabled your system speed will drop to a crawl when using word processors. This is because you have two separate programs backing up your key system files every time there is a change or a modification.

Another Windows ME tip for speeding up your web surfing is to disable the Automatic Update feature. If you do this tip then you must remember to go to the Microsoft, and other Software Makers, websites for you to install updates manually. Go to your Control Panel and look for the Automatic Update icon/selection. A box will come up with three options. The default is the first option where Windows will update it’s self every time you go on the web. I have found that this can distract the focus of some adaptive software so you might want to go down to the third choice of the radial buttons offered. This will disable the Automatic Updates feature.

This next one is way out there but I can understand why some people do this tip. Some users disable their screen savers. The reason for this is because Windows is allocating memory to watching the clock in order to turn on your screen saver. These users simply turn off their monitor if they have to leave their systems on for long periods of time. Again, I understand the idea but I don’t know how much memory this saves you. I thought I would mention it anyway.

~ The Evil That Men Do

Okay. This one is an advance tip and I can’t even begin to tell you how much you need to be careful with it. This hidden feature, and now a downloadable program, is the single most devastating tool in the arsenal and it has caused me to reformat once or twice in my research for this document in the past, HOWEVER, it is too cool not to mention here.

The tool is called TWEAK UI and you can find it on your Windows 98 CD by going to Find Files and Folders and “Look In” your CD ROM drive. If you are not using 98 you can go to the following link [http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/PowerToys/Networking/NTTweakUI.asp] to download this program from Microsoft’s web site.

TWEAK UI is a type of Registry Editor. It allows you to do such things as remove Internet Explorer 4.0 from Windows 98. You can remove the “My Computer” Icon from the Desktop. There is even a tab called “Paranoia” which deletes Cookies every time you close Internet Explorer.

Now you have to understand that if you use this tool you do so at your own risk. Microsoft does not support this tool and they will just tell you to reinstall or format your system back to factory defaults. I know because I had to tell people this when I worked in tech support.

I placed this tool in this document not only for it’s coolness aspects but it also has helped me with adapting some computers in the past. Several years ago adaptive software makers were slow to release software updates. Some creative editing of the registry was needed to make their products more accessible with some parts of Windows and or Office. TWEAK UI allowed me to turn off or disable some of these conflicts. It’s a great and powerful tool but you must always be careful when you use the Dark Side of the Force young Jedi.

~ The Last Word

Thank you for reading the, or hopefully at least some, guide. It was originally much greater in length and detail. I was reminded, however, that I would only have 20 minutes for my presentation and that there was such a word in the English language as “Overkill”. Hopefully this guide will help you in some way. Please feel free to pass it along to whomever you feel. The tips listed within can be found in web searches or by the reading of Help Files already on your system.