Tip: MRT, Disk Cleanup and Windows 7

The joy, if one could call it that at times, about using a new Operating System is that you find out the most fascinating quirks and faults the longer you use the software. I’ve been using Windows 7 Ultimate on my trusty dusty Dell XPS 400, now more than four years old, for the main 7 testing rig since the retail copies were released to the public in October 2009. And in all that time I’ve been very happy with 7.

Like all versions of Windows before it, however, I’ve started to notice some slowdown and lag in all the typical areas generally associated with Windows. And to that end I broke out the usual skill set to combat the tarnish on my shiny new OS. I found out that some tools work a little differently though. More on that in a second. . .

Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool

The first tip I wanted to share actually works in XP, Vista and 7. I found it on an older Security Now podcast, promptly forgot about it and recently unearthed it again in a file marked “Stuff I should really get back to one day’. Last Saturday, a year and a half later, was the faithful day where I used the options in the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool.

Options you say? There are no options to that tool right? Well there are but you have to know how to get at them. A word of advice though before I list how to get to the tool. I would make sure you have a recent System Restore point ready to go in case something goes wrong. And, this is most important, you may want to run this overnight as it takes up lots of resources on older systems. A 160 GB drive took more than three hours to scan. Not something you may want to do before an approaching deadline.

To get to the tool do the following..

Bring up the Run command. Either perform the keystroke Windows Key plus the letter R or, if you have it active, select it from your Start menu.

Next, type in “MRT.EXE” without the quotation marks. Hit ENTER.

If you are using Windows Vista or 7, expect a User Account Control [or UAC] box. After the UAC, you should get a wizard informing you about the tool with links on learning more. After you select Next, the box with the options should appear. Options for Quick Scan, Full Scan and Custom Scan are available as radial buttons. A Quick Scan is what Windows already does from time to time. A Full Scan is the option I warned you about that could take hours. A Custom Scan allows you to target a specific folder, say Outlook emails, for a detailed scan in a particular area. Selecting your option and choosing the Next button will begin the scan.

The scan has a progress bar, that moves ever so slowly in Full Scan mode, and below it text will race by with the up to the second status on names of files being scanned. There is also an ominous “Number of files infected” line below the changing list of scanned file names. The line below that tells you when the scan began and the line below that tells you how long the tool has been scanning. This is follow by the Cancel button.

After the scan is complete, you will be offered a box with items found to have malicious behavior. You can select items via a checkbox control and each checkbox lists the area where the item was found. If you do have items listed in this box, and you have selected them for removal, clicking Next will begin the tool’s ability to delete these infected files.

Do you need to use this tool? No. Does this tool replace other solutions like Spybot and others? No. But like those other options, this tool is free and it comes in Windows already. And, the most important part of all, it is constantly being updated on a regular basis through Windows Update by Microsoft. So, I guess, it can’t hurt to look eh? You don’t have to delete anything if you aren’t sure and that is the beauty of this free tool.

Putting the “More” back into your Disk Cleanup options

Some options in Windows 7 are hidden in plain sight. Take the ability to delete the System Restore Points for example. In XP and Vista you can find the button to delete these older files right from Disk Cleanup via the “More Options” tab. Except in 7 there isn’t a “More Options” tab right? Actually there is one. Here is how to get to that tab.

Run the Disk Cleanup tool as normal.

In Disk Cleanup, tab over to the button labeled “Cleanup System Files”.

Hit ENTER on this button. The Disk Cleanup Utility will run again, however, this time it will give you the ability to use the “More Options” tab.

Deleting older System Restore Points helped out my system performance a great deal. For starters, I got back 20 gigs of space. All my points since October took up that much room. . . at default levels for System Restore mind you. I also noticed my hard drive thrash less, defrags took a bit less time to complete and a few other slow downs were now diminished as well.

If you have been running Vista or 7 for a long time now, these tips may help you get that desired boost back in your system. Both are free and both are already in Windows. A great combo meal that loses weight rather than gaining pounds in the drive through.

Blind Bargains Awards And My concession Speech

Ahem, is this thing on?..  I would like to thank everyone for coming here today and braving the cold weather to celebrate what was a tightly contested race. But, at the end of the month, we failed to gain enough support to cross the finish line as the winner of the Best Blindness Related Blog.

I say to you gentle readers and followers of the site, no tears. For you did not let this blog down. No, I your humble and semi prolific author have let you down. And for that .. um.. well okay it couldn’t be helped.

The wealth of stuff that happened between June of 2009 and the end of that year was simply astounding. the fall of Vista and the rise of Windows 7. the moves by Apple with Snow Leopard and the iPhone. Why you can barely swing a NFB straight cane and not hit a pile of new talking MP3 players these days right?

and then there was the note takers. So many options between the Braille Sense Plus, the Icon and the new Apex. Plus the Video Magnifiers started to fall out of the trees man. Ruby, Sense View Light, Versa, the Pebble and about a dozen others all from China.

At no time in my 30 plus years of using Assistive Technology have I been this overwhelmed at the non dearth of choices coming on the market for us who are Blind and Visually Impaired.

This cornucopia of tech occupied a whole lot of my offline life, which, as you know, directly impacts the time I have to blog. So if I’m not writing, in a way,  that is a very good thing. A good thing indeed.

Getting back to the tons’o’stuff thing for a moment, another great story of 2009 was the emergence of my fellow pundits. Amateur podcasters and bloggers went mainstream in a big way in 2009. And so did the fragmentation of information. There is a huge vast newly formed Echo Chamber that has grown from the mailing lists into dozens of RSS feeds. And that too is a win win for the community.

Therefore, I don’t see this lack of a statue, do we get a statuette, er. um.. as a defeat. As the fact that I don’t have to write about everything and anything is a blessing. Oh right. Less about me then. Uh.. maybe next year? Hmm.. Thanks for coming and there is an ice cream cake in the shape of the Apple logo in the corner. And no, I wasn't the one that took a bite out of it. That is the way the logo looks normally. Honest!

End of speech.

All kidding aside, I am again thrilled to be nominated for the award. and, as I have said before, I’m a bit on the guilty side of things in that I could have done more to deserve the nomination.

I am always knocked out by how many people do read these ramblings, even after a prolonged offline forced absence. Over the last 5 years I’ve been able to say “Ranger1138” in a crowded room and for some strange reason people listen. Or throw their PAC Mates at me. It is such a strange world.

I want to acknowledge the other nominees and the winner of the category now, because I’m a fan of all of them.

The winner, as it should be really, is the team of writers at Fred’s Head. I’ve always liked how they post things on just about every part of the spectrum of living with Blindness and Low Vision. Life skills tips, tech tips, Service Animal suggestions and non related Blindness things as well. You name it, they’ve pretty much talked about it over the years. My hat is off to them and congratulations on the winning of this year’s award.

http://www.fredshead.info/

Sometimes I think I’ve said too much on TRS. Sometimes I think I may have overstepped my bounds and maybe, alright for sure, offended one of my dear friends in the AT Industry.  And then I read the Serotek Blog. It is at that moment I realize that I’m a monk who has taken a vow of silence. Mike Calvo’s impressions on matters is always compelling even if you don’t agree with his views on every post. But in every life some rain must fall, which at times means Mike can be a monsoon when he is fired up. Just go back to the Intel Reader post from November if you want to know more.

http://serotek.com/blog

I’ve saved the best for last. I salute you Ms. Roberts. You’re passionate and strong arguments on a wide range of topics have been a pleasure to read throughout 2009. I’ve been following all the ups and downs while pulling for you the entire way like a sled dog in Alaska. One day I hope to be able to play a board game with you offline and discuss the weight of the world. Good job and all the best to you in 2010.

http://www.blindgal.com/

I also know that this mutual admiration society thing may sound a little tiring at this stage, however, I want to thank JJ and the crew at Blind Bargains for their organizing of this year’s awards. JJ and BB have really outdone themselves in the last year to become a serious contender for our fingers, ears and attention in the universe of AT. And I admire the zeal, and energy too, at which they have put into their efforts in 2009.

http://www.blindbargains.com/

Two more posts on a look back at 2009 and then I’ll stop reminiscing about the past and get back to the future. Or find a way to make a DeLorean tell me with a DecTalk when I’ve hit 88.8 miles per hour. “DeLorean is reminiscing ”   

Windows 7: Black Viper And God Mode

My trusty main testing box is a Dell XPS 400 from 2006. It displays problems like no other computer I have ever owned. Not that this is a bad thing mind you. For testing, and work on beta programs, it has been a wonderful source of annoyance and joy in that it seems to attract bugs like a Roach Motel. So for what I do for a living, the system works well.

But every now and then I wonder if my Windows Experience could be improved by implementing a few tweaks here and there. Sure you can do the old MSCONFIG path, however, that doesn’t always get to the meat of the matter. No, for that you need something like the old Tweak UI. Problem is that there is no Tweak UI for Windows . Plus I’m not always a big fan of the Windows Power Toys stuff.

I’ve traditionally used Black Viper’s recommendations as my first line of defense against unneeded services in Windows. His latest offerings on the subject doesn’t suggest a lot of changes though. Guess that means MS really did slim down 7 eh? To find his list of recommendations hit the link below.

http://www.blackviper.com/Windows_7/servicecfg.htm

A lot has been made about the recently posted info on “God Mode” for 7. It honestly doesn’t offer anything new as to the way you can bend Windows 7 to your will. It does, however, offer a nice list of easy to find settings. It is super helpful if you don’t know where that particular control happens to reside within the  myriad of options and menus of 7. To learn how to get to this neat list click on the link.

http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2010/01/04/windows-7-god-mode.aspx

Tip: Flash Player Settings Manager

The world of trouble shooting your computer is very complicated once you move to the realm of web stuff. The Internet is no longer just a series of static pages anymore as now you can run full on 3D games through your browser of choice. Programs like System Access from Serotek are real computer applications that can be delivered to you via the net. Streaming video, like content from Hulu, is becoming more popular with first run television series finding a home there for those people who may have not recorded their favorite shows when they aired on the TV networks. But did you know that the Flash Media Player had settings? I mean real nuts and bolts settings? Well it does and the only way you can access these settings is through the web.

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager.html

This site will inform you about how much space Flash cookies can take up. It also will allow you to block third party cookies as well as give you some control on how your browser interacts with Flash based content. Now you may be thinking to yourself that you don’t watch YouTube or other web content like that. Where this comes in for general web surfers is in places like your bank or other financial sites. Flash is used by a lot of web sites beyond movies and videos. And more often these days Flash can be used as one level of identifying you as a user of your computer. So having Flash cookies be tracked may not be what you want if you are very security conscious.

The site I list above isn’t very Assistive Technology friendly, however, you should read the accompanying texts on the page in order to know what kinds of controls are available with Flash Media. And remember that Flash will update every so often. So you may need a friend to go back over these settings with you when this happens. Lastly, if you use multiple browsers, these settings aren’t always globally set. Which means you may have to do this for each web browser you use.

Random Goodness: CAPTCHA, Vista Email And $199

Today on my morning tour of the web I found a good story, a tip and a humorous bit of fluff that you can use to make fun of your friends who stood in line for that phone.. you know the one they can’t use on a 3G network because they don’t have a 3G network near them? Yeah that phone.

Computerworld Article On CAPTCHA: This article chronicles the rise and fall of CAPTCHA’s use on the interwebs. I think, as I said to some in the Computer Science Division at the NFB Convention, that multi level user authentication will be the next area of concern for those of us who are in I.T. fields. Especially when companies like Adobe talk about its use in accessing documents and other content that we already have some issues wth now. Anyway, here is the Computerworld link..

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;489635775;fp;;fpid;

Vista Mail Client: This week’s Super Site for Windows tip talks about using a web based email client as a default for Vista. It uses some third party programs, however, for some out there I think this may just be what the Doctor ordered. At least until Windows Live Mesh is official. That will be very interesting indeed.

http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2008/07/14/windows-vista-tip-of-the-week-using-gmail-or-yahoo-mail-as-your-default-email-handler.aspx

$199.. Yeah Right: Sometimes the internet gives you something funny to laugh at when you least expect it to do so. This social commentary on the iPhone was just that kind of thing for me. Take a look..

http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Get-Broke-by-Buying-an-iPhone-29134947

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.

Web Stuff: IE8, IE7 And Windows XP SP3

IE8: Even if you are an Apple, Linux or non Microsoft fanboy you have to admit that even when MS tries to get it right someone out there will say they got it wrong. Take this Standards thingy with IE8. To make things easier the plan was to let it render IE7 as a default because the cry from the net would be herendous for those who would have to go back and make their work all IE8 friendly. So what happened? The cry went up from the net that MS wasn't going through with Standards Compliance after all. There goes that I guess. Well I hope they like recoding because as the Rolling Stones have told me in so many TV commercials for luxury cars "You can't always get what you want". Learn more about IE8 Beta 2 at the link below.

http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3749991/Microsoft+Pushes+Devs+With+Wider+IE8+Beta.htm

IE7: Thinking about waiting on Internet Explorer 8? It looks like you may be just fine with IE7 on XP according to Ars Technica.

http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/06/01/ie7-outperforms-everything-on-xp-and-leopard-in-ria-tests

Windows XP Service Pack 3: How about ignoring both IE7 and IE8. No not Firefox. I'm talking IE6. Here is an email I recently received from Jim.

"Hay Ranger,
Normally I don't go asking somebody questions about everything and
anything, I go look for it, but in this particular case I wondered if
it might be a lot more efficient if you happen to know the answer?
Can one install win XP service pack 3 without it resulting in IE 7
being installed? Currently I still use JAWS 7 on this machine and I
know I could upgrade to JAWS 7.1 and have IE 7 support to whatever
degree it is with that version, but I don't want to deal with that and
losing my current IE custom security settings and having to get use to
/ put up with stuff... I know, maybe I should do it anyway, but in
any case do you know if it is possible not to?
 
Jim"

Thank you for your question Jim. I'm sure you are not alone on this one. And here is your answer straight from the Microsoft overview for Windows XP SP3.

Quote: Microsoft is not adding significant functionality from newer versions of Windows, such as Windows Vista, to Windows XP through XP SP3. For instance, Windows XP SP3 does not include Windows Internet Explorer 7, although Windows XP SP3 does include updates to both Internet Explorer 6 and Internet Explorer 7, and it will update whichever version is installed on the computer. For more information about Internet Explorer 7, visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/default.mspx.

You can find that info and more at the following Google translated PDF to HTML link below.

http://209.85.215.104/search?q=cache:Nu3LfQ4CoVoJ:download.microsoft.com/download/6/8/7/687484ed-8174-496d-8db9-f02b40c12982/Overview%2520of%2520Windows%2520XP%2520Service%2520Pack%25203.pdf+windows+xp+service+pack+3+internet+explorer+7&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

And here is the link to the stand alone installer for XP SP3.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5b33b5a8-5e76-401f-be08-1e1555d4f3d4&displaylang=en

Vista Ultimate Extras Updated.. No Really.. Honest!

One of the many promises made to those of us who bought into the Ultimate Edition of Vista was the pledge that we wouldn't have to buy Plus! for Vista. In the end I had to go with Ultimate for work reasons because I needed to be familiar with both tiers of Home and Professional. The *Extras* were just that. I wasn't going crazy over "Texas Hold'em Poker" and I don't think I have even spent more than a passing glance at Bit Locker Drive Encryption. And the big selling point of Dream Scene content for AERO Glass wasn't a big deal for me either as almost all Blindness AT turns Glass off and you end up in the Vista Basic Desktop.

None the less we all like the appearance of things that are free even though we paid for them up front. Today I was flabbergasted to see that I had some updates available through Windows Update .. in the Ultimate Extras portion of the box. My heartbeat quickened, my palms grew sweaty and I leaned into my 5.1 speaker system to hear my speech with better clarity upon the reading of these new and unexpected additions. And the first thing I heard was .. Dream Scene Content Pack 3. Ha'za! More visual stuff for Glass.

I sunk back in my chair and arrowed down. I heard "Windows Vista Ultimate Sound Schemes". My head shot up. New sounds? Really? And they are an Ultimate Extra? Well now that is a welcome surprise. There were 34 more downloads available and I already knew those to be the long awaited, and delayed, updates to the multi language packs. Quick tip, save hard drive space and hide these things if you don't need them. They take forever to download and they are pretty hefty in size.

So by now you must be thinking why so long a post on Sound Schemes right? I mean are they that much better than what comes in the box? Oddly enough .. Yes.

There are two new schemes to be had. Windows Ultimate Extra Sound Scheme Glass and Pearl. both have the same sound cues as heard in your defaults for Vista. Same names in most cases and everything. But these end up being like a remix of your favorite song rather than a brand new album of music. The new age softer sounds of Vista continue onwards in these new schemes. And I imagine it will be hard for some with hearing limitations to notice or recognize any differences. For me, however, I kind of like the new less obtrusive UAC prompt. Moreover, some of these new sounds are way more "quiet mode" or headphone friendly in their defused tones. While this isn't a reinvention of the wheel, it was unexpected and free. Okay sort of free..

I didn't see anything on the Vista Team blog about these updates. In fact the only real hard evidence I could find on the schemes came from this blog listed below.

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20080401/leaked-new-ultimate-extras-sound-scheme/

Reading that makes me want to make King Crimson and Star Wars jokes. To avoid you all that torment I'll just say that you gotta miss those days where you played all those Musica and Robotiz schemes eh? Guilty as charged on this side of the screen for sure. And to end this post we go out on the Classic Windows 95 hit.. you all know it as the Shutdown sound... T'da!

Quick News: Apple Software Update, Vista Data Harvesting And More

Apple Software Update: I don't use iTunes and I use Nero or other players for my Quick Time files. The main reason for why I do this doesn't come from my anti Apple misgivings. It actually started several years ago when Apple Software Update started to update things I had never installed. Like Quick Time updating iTunes when all I had loaded on that system was QT. This practice of avoidance continued on to Adobe when they started to make it difficult to avoid the other toolbars that would install and load by default if you didn't tab through everything..  and I mean everything to find the "no thank you" buttons, checkboxes or other controls. So I thought this blog post from the Windows Super Site was interesting as Apple is still bundling the company's other software more or less.

http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2008/04/20/apple-lofts-middle-finger-at-pc-users-pc-users-thank-apple-for-acknowledging-them.aspx

A side note if you will. I was asked offline why I refer to the Super Site so much. Two reasons really. One, Paul's DE'man when it comes to tracking down Microsoft legend and lore. And two, he often mentions keystrokes or describes things non visually in his materials. If you listen to the Windows Weekly podcasts Paul will occasionally mention his son who is Deaf. Paul also has brought the need for iTunes to have more closed captioning in the past. And it is rare to find anyone with this big of a net presence discuss Disabled rights.  

Vista Data Harvesting: To be fair, and to continue my trend for one snarky Vista article for every snarky Apple article I like to link to now a days,  I am not a big fan of the need for Microsoft to archive everything on the computer. I'm not so paranoid that I want ultimate control of both sides of the firewall as I rarely do anything to warrant the need for NSA like security. But at times I find it is hard to know what is really needed by Vista and what is not. The article below is way too FUD ridden for my taste, however, it does mention a lot of these services and what they are used for within Vista.   

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Forget-about-the-WGA-20-Windows-Vista-Features-and-Services-Harvest-User-Data-for-Microsoft-58752.shtml

Also, if you are into this sort of thing, a couple of weeks ago the Fred's head Companion posted an article on Windows Registry tools and tweaks. I generally don't use these methods to manipulate Windows. And I can't use them on boxes that I use for beta testing as you have to simulate the "out of the box" experience in that kind of thing. But I have used a site for testing services and configurations in the past. Black Viper's tweaks are pretty spiffy and I use them to trim down non testing machines. Only once did I screw up royally by disabling a service that my Screen Magnifier was tied to at the time. A trip to Safe Mode and me rubbing my nose across the old 19 inch CRT monitor got me back on the straight and narrow. Therefore, as BV says in the link below, only use the "safe" configuration to start with on your path to the Vista Health Spa. Your Vista could be pounds lighter in minutes.

Black Viper Vista Tweaks

http://www.blackviper.com/WinVista/servicecfg.htm

Notetaker Of The Future!: Forget that Omni, K Reader Mobile or Braille Sense Plus. I want someone to add speech to this thing right here. Hee hee...

http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2008/04/20/is-that-windows-mobile-on-your-wristwatch

Ranger says in his best superhero voice "This sounds like a job for.. Code Factory!".

Vista Tip: Shift + Right Click/App Key = Hidden Options

I am catching up on podcasts during the Holiday Break. But one of the few podcasts that always gets bumped to the front of the pack is Windows Weekly at TWIT. Recently Leo and Paul added Vista Tips as a weekly feature. Some of them I have already posted under the label "Tips". This one, however, is one I didn't know about at all.

In Windows Explorer or in general folders you can hold down the Shift Key when Application Key/Right Clicking to find two new options in the list of the context menu. Doing this tip in various areas of Vista will bring you a host of different choices. In the Start Menu you can do this to see options like "Run as Administrator" and "Add to Quick Launch". Another example can be found when you place your focus on a text file in Documents you will see that a new option called "Copy As Path" is available. Can't remember those long path names? Now you can just copy them into a file for later use. Another option that can come up if you place your focus on say a folder is "Open Command Window Here". You can imagine how useful this can be for Networking. Not to mention the reminder that some way some how DOS is always with us.

To hear this particular podcast where the tip came from hit the link below.

http://twit.tv/ww44

Some Thoughts On Hardware Upgrades And New System Recommendations

A bit of a warning on this article. I had a hour to kill between work and home tonight. And I thought I would put some answers down to the same questions I get over and over again. I thought if I put the answers here I could just send them out via link or email when the next poor soul came to me with the same question. And that question you might ask is.. "I want to upgrade [blank] or buy a new computer from [blank]. What should I look for?".

I have been thinking a lot about hardware, upgrades and all the things involved in a decision “to buy or not to buy”. And I think that’s where the new poll question came from this month. With the holidays fast approaching I know the real deals will start appearing in all the Sunday ads and sales circulars. So here are some things to keep in mind when considering an upgrade or new system purchase all together.

Upgrades..
Anyone who has read this blog for a while knows my feelings on this subject. But for old times sake let’s go over it again for any newcomers. If you are thinking about upgrading your computer to run Vista and you bought it before January 2006 I have only one word of advice for you….. Don’t! Yes, Vista will run on older hardware. Yes, the compatibility of older programs is working better than most online media claims. And Yes, we as Blind users can ignore all that stuff about graphics and Flip 3D and all that jazz. The problem is that older hardware really struggles with Vista and unless you like trolling around on the Internet looking for drivers, fixes, forums and tech support info you are just better off staying right where you are at currently.

If your system is post Jan 2006 don’t think your life is any easier under Vista’s rein. I have a Creative X-Fi Music and a NVIDIA 7 series card. My life has been just peachy looking for drivers almost weekly for both. And my system was built in April 2006. Believe me I love Vista and I won’t go back but the trip to get here wasn’t fun. In some spots back in March during my big battle between Creative, SAPI 4 and SAPI 5 I almost broke several inanimate objects. Newer hardware that came on line in the last few months is better designed to take advantage of Vista’s requirements. The path of least resistance won’t be found in just a straight upgrade though.

If you do decide to go it the upgrade route here is what I recommend for both Screen Magnifiers and Screen Readers. Also this applies to both desktop and laptops purchases where applicable for the type of system you want.

• 2 GHz Processor or AMD Equivalent
• 2 GB of RAM
• Dedicated Video Card with No Less Than 128 MB of RAM
• Dedicated Sound CARD! Not a Chip! If You Can Get One
• 80 GB or Higher Hard Drive

Okay my real rule is 2 + 2 + 200. That’s 2 GHz or higher, 2 GB of RAM and a 200 GB hard drive if your system will support all that of course. The same thing almost applies to a new system as well. However on new computers I have a few other things I am looking for..

New Computers..

• 2.4 GHz Dual Core or Core 2 Duo or AMD Equivalent
• 1066 MHz or Higher Front Side Bus or FSB for Short
• At Least 2 GB of RAM with Possible Upgrade to DDR3 RAM
• 256 MB or Higher Dedicated Video Card
• Dedicated Sound Card
• 200 GB or Higher Hard Drive

Now I know what you are saying and it does sound like a lot at first. If you do decide to move on up to Vista it will be a far better ride if you can swing most of these items in your configuration. And most newer systems have a good bit of these recommendations on board already. Where this would work against you would be if you considered one of those “all in the box” deals you see in some ads or on store shelves at your big box retailers.

Many of these packages are not Assistive Technology friendly due to their lower system specs. Plus a lot of these systems are made from older parts which may or may not see good or even fare Vista driver support. There are some exceptions, however, it's rare to find a good deal in these situations when buying the "all in one box". An example of this would be the inability for you to upgrade these low cost units with more RAM or another video card. I've seen times where the power supply is too weak to handle the new suped up video card or that the motherboard doesn't allow you to go past 1 GB of RAM due to it's lack of extra memory slots. What you end up with is a system that can only take you so far before you end up haveing to replace that one with another that has the features you needed on the previous computer.

Let’s drill down to why I am recommending all this stuff..

Processor:
If you go Vista, and now with XP getting a little longer life span no one says you have to, you need to have a faster multi threaded processor. True no Assistive Technology takes advantage of Dual Cores at the present time. In the future.. okay in like a year.. that will change with other Non AT products. Many Microsoft products are going multi-core. Several Virus Protection Venders are heading that way as well. Everything changes in the next hardware generation and you want to be ready.

Front Side Bus:
This is just as important a feature, if not more so, as RAM. The FSB is the part of the system that ships data to and from the various parts of the computer. You could have a huge amount of RAM on board with an ultra fast chip but you could find yourself moving slowly if the pipes aren’t wide enough to let all that fast moving data through freely. The FSB is the size of the pipeline for your data. A higher number is a good thing. Just remember that lower than 800 MHz is not advisable for newer or older systems, in my humble opinion of course, running Vista. If you like to have more than three windows open at one time with several other programs running in your Systray then you want a higher number on the FSB and a good bit of RAM.

RAM..
2 GB? Yup. 3 would be even better but 4 is overkill in any 32 bit based version of Windows. RAM is where most of the heavy lifting is done with Vista. No matter how hard you try you will always have something running in the background with Vista. Power Management, indexing of files or waiting for the Sidebar to update. It’s all running all the time. Even when your computer is in Sleep Vista has something hanging out in RAM to make your return to an awakened computer faster than in XP. Plus everything you run on a computer takes up a little piece of RAM. This is even more true when you have integrated video and sound. More on that below.

Video Card..
So you Screen Reader users must be laughing at me for this one. Well sadly you aren’t immune from having to run higher video cards in Vista. See all of Windows, visual or not, relies upon Direct X or Direct Draw. The Internet, the look of MS Word, Win Amp or whatever you run has a Graphic User Interface with need for a graphics display driver. Even without using that AErO Glass stuff with Assistive Technology active on your system you still end up using video RAM for all tasks in Vista. If you scrimp on your video card Vista will just take what it needs from your available 2 GB of RAM. That means if you have a card with 64 meg on board but the card allows for it to share 64 MB or more of memory.. you lose that 64 MB from what you have out of the 2 GB pool. A pool that can see almost 500 MB used by Vista alone. Now toss in 60 MB for your AT software, another 40 MB or so for Virus Protection and 25 for Firefox and so on and so on.. You can see that the 2 GB pie of RAM gets eaten up quickly by all the hungry hungry hippos on your new computer system. Having a dedicated video card saves you some problems with resources. Especially in longer sessions with a laptop. Whew.. you don’t want to be on a plane with all of that plus a few RAM clearing reboots on a low battery to boot let me tell ya.

Sound Card..
It’s the same deal as the Video Card. However I have seen with some laptops that Screen Readers just don’t do that well with some on board sound card solutions. I have met some out there who are using headphones with a built in sound chip, like those from Plantronics, who say that their speech is far more clean and easier to understand via the chip in the headphones. The big thing here is that you will notice more static or clicks running through your audio if you stay with an on board solution for your audio needs. Dedicated audio devices, and I stress this one, CAN! but not always aid you with speech. This gets a bit tricky because some speech synths work better than others. Via Voice has caused me problems and a few others seem to dislike my Sound Blaster X-Fi all together. Like I said above it took me awhile to learn that my audio card hates being in Vista Basic. Which is a shame as just about any AT product short of System Access puts you in Vista Basic Desktop as per the mirror Driver. oopss. . I got a little off course. To repeat.. Dedicated good or USB Headphones with their own sound chip better for some laptop users.

Hard Drives..
You plan on doing a bunch of those Audible, NLS or other E Books? How about podcasts? Or video in high def? Yeah.. you need either a big drive or a series of little ones you can dump those files off to because them files get awfully big awfully quick. We are talking about 600 MB for 1 hour of low grade high definition video. Or a few GB for 320k or Lossless MP3 files. And burning all that on disc takes more money and time. Nope.. go with a bigger drive and ask for an external back up drive for Xmas. Always back up for safety.

Well I hope these words help you out when considering upgrades or a new system. I am sure I will end up expounding more on this subject again eventually. Feel free to disagree in the comments section if you think I am off my rocker though. After all the first key to learning Vista and Office 2007, or so Microsoft tells me in their demonstrations, is "Experience". Your mileage will always very..

Vista Tip: How To Get The Juice Podcatcher To Work In Vista

On last week's Main Menu Live there was a discussion on which Podcatchers were suitable in today's world for AT programs. Like Darryl I too came back to Juice for all my podcast needs. The problem is that Juice is not officially supported in Vista. What I came up with were some steps you can take that will allow you to install Juice in Vista. I go one extra step than others out there and for me this seems to be the magic bullet for making the program more stable for my needs. One warning though.. If you have already tried to install Juice under Vista these steps may not change your Juice's current status. You may have to remove Juice entirely from your system in order for this to work. Also if you have tried to install Juice with Vista's Shadowcopy enabled this tends to make the steps not work either as Vista returns them into the active registry under a reboot. My best results came with doing this method on a clean drive or one that had never seen Juice before.

So first thing is first. We need a copy of Juice. You can locate the Windows version at the link below. Download the .exe into a file you can easily find.

http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=juicereceiver&filename=Juice22Setup.exe&use_mirror=superb-west

Now that you have the file on your drive you want to browse to it and do the following steps..

1. Find the file in your folders and Application Key or right click on the file then go to "Properties".
2. Next, find the Compatibility tab up at the top of the box. It's right next to General which is where you are now.
3. Tabbing once will place focus into a check box for running this program in Compatibility Mode. If this box is not already checked then do so now as we need this to make these steps work.
4. Tab once into the combo box and select the "Windows XP Service Pack 2" option.
5. Tab out of that box and look for another check box entitled "Run this program as an Administrator". Place a check mark in this box.
6. Go down and click OK.
7. Next you want to go ahead and install Juice as you normally would under Windows XP. You may or may not have to restart your system depending on a number of outside factors.
8. Now here is where things go a bit more like what others have suggested on other blogs. You want to go to "Computer" and then to the drive where your version of Windows Vista resides.
9. From there browse down to Program Files then to the Juice file folder.
   Once inside that folder look for the "juice.exe" and right click/Application Key that file. Go to "Properties".
10. This will sound very familiar but go back to the Compatibility tab, select the check box for running the program in Compatibility mode, tab into the combo box and choose Windows XP Service Pack 2, select the "Run as an Administrator" option and then click OK.
11. We are not done yet. We want to now run Juice from the desktop shortcut or from the Programs Menu. Hopefully if all went well you won't see any User Account Control boxes if we did all are steps right. Don't be concerned though if you do see one as this isn't a sign that things didn't work.
12. Once inside the Program we have to do one big thing. Go up to File and then go to Prefrences.
    In Prefrences you need to go down to the area that asks you where to download your podcasts to on your system. Click Browse and choose your Downloads or Documents folder. Just about any other folder will work. You just don't want the default option. Once done choose OK. When you close Juice for the first time after all these steps it is not uncommon to get a log error. You haven't broken anything and the program should work just fine the next time you run Juice.

It took a few tries on a few poor unfortunate unsuspecting computer systems before I found a method that works more often than not. Feel free to put a comment below if you have a different way of making this work or if these steps lead you astray.

Vista Tip: Driven To Insanity

This one may seem more like a no brainer, however, if you are one of the bold and daring who performed a Vista upgrade on an older computer this one may have slipped your mind. Vista drivers for older hardware were just plain awful in the beginning of the Vista public beta cycle. And sadly that status continued during the first few months of Vista's release at the start of 07. Now things seem to be firming up fast and if you don't check for the latest driver upgrades on hardware and software for Vista you may be losing out on better performance.

For example I have a Dell XPS 400 series computer. Dell has finally posted their first updates to the system's video and audio drivers. While these were a welcome sight indeed it was the update to my networking card that was the key to unlocking real system nirvana. This new driver actually had me taking back some of the nasty things I had said about Road Runner as my downloads are much much faster now with the latest Vista driver.

Hardware is not the only component you should be on the look out for when out surfing the interwebs. Nero has updated it's self a ton and other programs that you may use all the time might also have new Vista updates to deal with all those new drivers we talked about earlier.

You may want to add a driver roundup to your monthly maintenance schedule as drivers for NVIDIA and Creative Labs tend to update at least once a month. Older X Fi cards saw an update to the Creative Suite of audio programs too which require you to download an ISO or go through and find the individual programs through the support site. And I have a notepad file on hand with lists of version numbers when I do this each month. Sometimes the only way to tell if an update is ready for me to use is to look at the release date as the numbering system for some companies defies all logic.

Just remember, as if I don't say this enough, to set your Restore Points before playing around with new drivers. With Vista you don't have to worry as often about killing your Assistive Technology as Vista's mirror drivers don't usually eat it for breakfast, however, this isn't a hard and fast rule to go by. Hence the call for Restore Points again.

Vista Tip: It's Not Easy Being Green And Power Plan Balanced

Ironically I had this in draft form prior to the Live Earth festival but seeing that reminded me to post this tip. So I guess this makes me a little less eco friendly.

One way to speed up your Vista system is to tweak it's Power settings. Now before even considering this you need to be sure of two things. One thing is have your restore points set in case you forget what you have done and the second is avoid messing with Power settings if you are using a Vista based laptop. Most laptop makers preset these settings to extend battery life or keep down the heat output of a system. so jacking with these settings is ill advised for laptops.

But those of you who like to peek under the hood or want to scale back some of those dips in performance that can happen in longer Vista sessions may want to play with the steps below.

1. Access the Start Button now called the Start Orb in Vista
2. Go to Control Panel
3. Choose the System and Maintanence link
4. Now select the Power Options link
5. Find the radial buttons in the middle of this page.
6. Change the option from "Balanced" to "High Performance"
7. Tab once if you want to modify the settings of High Performance, otherwise, close this window

Remember that you only want to play with these settings when you reach a point where you know your Vista install forwards and backwards. That point is generally about 2 weeks to a month down the road. Vista is always adding or subtracting items, resources and services/programs it does or doesn't need. Like Linux the Vista OS can scale up or down to meet the needs of the user or the network. So when you make little changes you might not notice their effect at first. But this tweak is very noticable if you have been using the Balanced Power Plan for awhile.

Vista Corner: WMP 11, Any Time Upgrade And Readyboost

Along with the changes, labels and links on my list of things to do around here I can also add [or really subtract] these stories that have been sitting on my USB drive for weeks.

WMP 11: There is a nifty little problem with Media Player 11 with some High Def audio devices. Namely WMP will eat memory or lose handles on files. Not cool you say? I agree since I do have one of these more advanced cards. The link below has a link to the hotfix or some steps for a work around. Be weary of the instructions though. The last step says to look for an "Enhancements" tab. I found the control actually under the "Advanced" tab instead. As usual your mileage may vary.

http://www.windows-now.com/blogs/kmkenney/archive/2007/05/24/workaround-for-kb-933245-lsm-exe-handle-leak.aspx

Any Time Upgrade: We had a lot of questions on this in our Vista trainings. That awesome stie that is the Windows Super Site has a wonderful description of the process needed to complete the upgrade from one version of Vista to another.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_ff_anytime_upgrade.asp

Readyboost: One of the new features of Vista is Readyboost. This process allows you to use a USB Thumdrive as virtual memory. The idea is that the drive will give you a boost to your overall performance. I have to say on laptop systems this does actually help... a bit. But on desktops you would be hard pressed to notice a real difference. I am sure as Front Side Bus speeds get faster and USB drives match that speed things will be vastly improved. But for now check out this article with benchmark tests on how the technology performs.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,131742/article.html

Tip: If you have disabled Auto Play in Vista you can get to the options for Readyboost by going to Computer>the USB drive>Properties>Readyboost tab. From there you can also adjust your size of the Readyboost file. Just remember that this is a physical file that sits on your drive. It can be seen in Windows XP but not used in XP. And if you gave up a big part of your drive for Readyboost you will have to delete the Readyboost file to get that space back. In most cases Vista remembers the hardware signature of your USB drive and it will put the Readyboost file back without asking. I found this out the hard way when I was swapping files from XP to Vista systems.

Quick News: Windows XP SP3, Multicores Will Rule The World And Firefox Hacks I Used 5 Years Ago

This vacation thing is cool. I really need to take one more often. I have caught up on so many things. This blog being one of them of course. My sad sad humble apologies to all for having to be kind of under the radar for a while. But enough about that let's look at some news.

Windows XP SP3: Paul on the Windows Weekly Podcast, via twit.tv, mentioned that the once set for 2008 Service Pack may now be coming out sooner than previously thought. If you thought Server 2008 [once known as Longhorn Server], Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Home Server was just too much for Q4 of 2007 well then be even more perplexed because Paul says that is exactly when XP SP3 is set for release. Seems that the networking additions to the kernel will trickle down to XP users as well making interoperability a *snap*. hold back the loads of applause please. So be prepared to burn backups and carry patches on USB drives this Holiday Season gang.

Vista's Standard User Interface: Speaking of Paul's wonderful site and podcasts.. The Super Site for Windows has a really nice and detailed look at the UI used in Vista Basic. I have assisted in a few Vista trainings in the last two months and this description would have been helpful in explaining the options with AERO Glass and the like. Oh and one of our attendees told me that Paul's book "Vista Secrets" is already scanned in at Bookshare.org. Well worth the read for anyone thinking or already using Vista I tell you. Here's the link to the Vista Standard UI article.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_ff_std_ux.asp

Multicores: Imagine a world where you have computers with 64 cores running in a 64 bit operating system with 2 TB of RAM? It's going to happen and it could happen with Vista or the next version of Windows. This Ars Technica article discusses some of the futuretech already built into Windows.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070529-microsoft-exec-next-version-of-windows-to-be-fundamentally-redesigned.html

Firefox: I have been using tweaks to about.cfg for a long time. But many new comers to Firefox don't know about simple and easy to do mods to FF that should be a basic tool on the Geek utility belt. This Computerworld article compiles a good number of these classic tweaks and it's one worth bookmarking.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9020880

Vista Tip: D.E.P.

So I am on vacqation all of this week and part of last week as well. Do I sit around and not do anything with the computer? Do I ignore the three betas I am still working on at the moment? Do I actually catch up on podcasts? Or better yet do I actually post something relevent on my poor neglected blog? Well one of those questions got answered in the negative. I will leave it to your imagination as to which one.

Looks like I can kind of take a breath and write up some stuff on Vista. I have been running an upgraded copy of Vista since it's day of official release. And before that, as you already know, I was using Vista in beta since this time last year. I have kept kind of mum on my thoughts and impressions of the final product because..

A. You have already heard a lot of my thoughts already over the last two years.And more importantly ..
B. Others who do a really good job at explaining the Assistive Tech side of things would smoke me in details and effort if I tried to emulate their awesome work.

This blog after all is kind of a off shoot of my day job. And others out there who train for a living really should be the ones you look to for the best advice on how to learn this new operating system. But what I do well on in my little corner of the net is tweaks and tips. So today I will let you in on one that can really mess up some Assistive Technology programs, and some legacy ones as well, in Vista.

DEP, or Data Execution Prevention, is a neat little technology that helps prevent you from having Buffer Overruns. This happens a lot with messy code, disc image creation, burning media or even converting media to other file types. But it's really popular in the Virus and Worm infection communities. To keep things simple let's just say that Buffer Overruns are bad and we will keep it at that.

Newer computers have a hardware solution on them to prevent DEP. And Vista turns this on kinda in an initial install. You can, or your virus protection software might, turn this on "high" by default. However most of the time I have only seen this in the midway activated state.

The problem is that some Assistive Technologies out there utilize the buffer in odd ways in order to make their products work. What you may find out is that your programs either run slow or not at all if DEP is set to look for the buffer overflow all the time. For security sake it's better to have this on High but it can drive you crazy with the performance hit. It's hard to say which programs get the brunt of this tech as each system running Vista is like a snowflake. No two systems are the same is what I am inferring here. So experiment with this hardware before you come to a conclusion as to if you do or do not want this functionality on all the time or not.

Here's how to get to the DEP controls..

1. Go to Control Panel>System And Maintenance>System
2. Use the links on the left side of this page to get to the "Advanced System Settings" panel. Be aware that you will encounter a UAC prompt.
3. Your focus should default to the button we want. If not what you want to select is the button named "Performance" under the Advanced tab in this box.
4. Now you are sitting inside the Visual Performance tab in this box. Go up to the tabs and move over to the "Data Execution Prevention" tab.
5. You should see radial buttons with choices for setting your DEP level. You may even be set at the default position of "run only with essential programs". You can select the option for DEP to run all the time and select OK until you are back at the System and Maintenance panel.

If your computer supports DEP then you will see these options. If not you may have to go into your BIOS and turn it support on manually then boot back into Vista and follow the above steps again. Older systems do not support DEP and you don't have to worry about any of this until you buy a newer computer.

The three cornerstones to knowing Vista are experience, behavior and discovery. And that really applies here as you will need to note all three before and after turning on DEP. You may find that this is a cool thing or again you might find that your AT product of choice hates it with a passion. But either way this is a new addition to Vista and you should experiment with this technology to see if it is right for your security needs.

To learn much more about what DEP is and what can it do for you I suggest either downloading the "Security Now" episode 78 podcast or read the transcript if you just want to skim the information.

Podcast download site for episode 78 featuring Hardware DEP
http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm

Transcript of podcast link
http://www.grc.com/sn/SN-078.htm

More Vista Tips Links

I want to thank Joseph for leaving this one in the comments section of my last Vista tips post.

http://itsvista.com/topic/tips/

The Super Site For Windows has another installment in their reader submitted Tips Section.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_tips6.asp

And Extreme Tech has a Speed Up guide for Vista on line. Be aware that the curve on this particular article goes from novice to registry/services hacs mid way through.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,2110595,00.asp

Tons Of Windows Vista Tips At The Windows Super Site

I have told a lot of venders about the tips that have been appearing over at the Super Site for Windows. And I place the link to the first of five pages of tips here so the people I am talking to on the floor can find it easier.

Since you are lucky and you don't have to hear me prattle on in person let me just give you a sample of a few tips that will entice you to read the link below.

Using the Windows Key plus a number key in the number row will quick launch any program in your Quick Launch bar. The program that launches is tied to it's position in the menu. So if you have Windows Media Player in the fourth slot on the menu Windows Key plus 4 will launch the player.

Holding Control with Alt or Windows Key plus Tab will lock the Task Switching pane on screen. This is like a sticky key of sorts. If you need to hear long descriptions of multiple window or file names you can trigger this and just tab around without having to hold multiple keys down to keep focus in the Task Switching tool.

Check out these tips and more here.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_it_tips.asp

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.