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Disclaimer I don't recommend Microsoft Windows for technical and philisophical reasons. I find Windows to be a buggy, slow, unreliable operating system and I don't like Microsoft or the corporate domination ethos they represent. Recommendations If you are totally new to computers I recommend you install linux. There are user-friendly distributions like Ubuntu or Linspire that come with a choice of graphical desktops like GNOME or KDE. What you learn can easily be applied to using M$ Windows but you are making an important contribution to breaking the M$ software monopoly. That said, like a lot of people I do use often have to use Windows because it came packaged with the PC I'm using. My pick of the various versions is Windows 2000. It has the user-level security and stability of NT with the user-friendly interface of 95/ 98 and without XP's graphical bloatware, clever-bugger, read-your-mind tip wizards and the nasty spyware that uses your internet connection to tell M$ what you are doing with your computer. Whichever version (95 on) you are using there are a number of ways you can reduce the bugginess and improve the performance and reliability of your Windows PC.  Tidy Filing Keeping your Windows system tidy will make it run faster and more reliably and make it easier to find your files and make system changes like uninstalling programs or making backups. The Explorer: The Windows Explorer is built into all versions of Windows since '95 and is essentially the same program as Internet Explorer. You can open it by right-clicking on the 'Start' button and left-clicking 'explore'. Use it to create and remove folders, move and delete files and delete unneeded 'kruft' from your hard drive. Be careful though - if you don't know what it is leave it alone! Desktop Shortcuts: Anything you keep on your desktop will be loaded into memory during start-up and stay there for the entire time the computer is in use. You should only ever have shortcuts (which are less than 1KB in size) on the desktop. If there is anything else there (program installers, media files and especially programs (usually something.exe) shift it elsewhere in your file system and make a shortcut for the desktop if you need one (right-click on the a blank space on desktop and select 'New'>'Shortcut'). The File 'Tree': The 'root' of your Windows file tree is usually the C: drive. For optimum performance you want to have the minimum number of 'objects' (files or folders) in the C: root directory. - when you download programs from the internet or CD-ROMs, you should place the 'installer' file (usually an .exe or .zip) in a special folder so you can easily find or remove them. I usually make a folder called 'my installers' inside the 'my documents' folder. - when you install programs you should install them into their own folder inside the 'C:/Program Files' folder. - keep your word processing files, music etc either in 'my documents' and the other Windows-created folders or create a well-organised filing system of your own. - remove empty folders and other junk from your hard drive but again KIA TUPATO - BE CAREFUL not to accidentally remove essential system or application files. If you don't know what it is, leave it and use Windows Help, the internet or a friend to find out. System maintenance There are a number of utilities that can help you keep your hard drive clean and tidy. 1) Disk cleanup Automatically removes unneccesary files, including temp files, recycle bin etc 2) Disk defragment Reorders all the data on your hard drive so that Windows can find things more easily. Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter are built into Windows and can be found under Programs/ Accessories/ System Tools. 3) Easycleaner A good freeware program that removes pointless registry entries and unneccesary files, speeding up Windows functioning. 4) Ad-aware and/or Spybot - Search and Destroy and/or Ewido Reliable shareware programs that identify and remove 'spyware' or 'trackware' that sneaks into your computer from the internet, sometimes with other freeware, adware or shareware that you have downloaded. 5) AVG Anti-Virus and/or Avast Anti-Virus Both contain a functional set of virus tools including scanner, cleaner and free virus definition updates. Businesses have to pay but home users and non-profits can use them for free. 6) ZoneAlarm A user-friendly graphical firewall for Windows and an especially good idea if you are using a dial-up internet connection. Although XP is the first Windows to have its own firewall it doesn't have the easy-to-use program control that ZoneAlarm has. Easycleaner, Ad-Aware, AVG and ZoneAlarm are in my experience reliable programs for Windows and can be downloaded free of charge from the internet by home users. Obtaining Software There are 5 main types of software available: Payware: The program's copyright is reserved. You buy it in a shrink-wrapped box from a shop or order over the internet. Freeware: The program's copyright is also reserved but you can download it for free and distribute any many copies as you like to whoever you like. Shareware: Like freeware but a crippled version of the program lacking advanced features. If you 'register' your copy of the program and pay a registration fee you get the full version, sometimes with a guarantee of future updates. Adware: Like freeware or shareware but the free version of the program displays ads while in use. Registering will remove the ad window from the program. Open source/ Free Software: The program's copyright is released. You can download (or distribute) versions free through the internet or buy (or sell) commercial 'distributions'. If you have the skills you can change the code of the program to suit your needs. Downloader Beware! Open source software is safe, as a rule of thumb, because it is made by communities of programmers for their own use as well as public distribution. But there are plenty of unscupulous people trying to make money through the internet, usually through some form of advertising. Before you download and install a program, do a Google search to see if other Windows users have tried it and with what results. Some programs are little more than a flashy excuse to slip 'trackware' into your computer which ties up your internet connection and processor and memory resources sending information about your browsing habits to the company for sale to others. Beware of any program that sounds to good to be true, especially 'download agents', 'file-sharing clients', 'internet speed optimizers' and 'desktop managers'. A principle of open source software is that it should do one thing really well instead of trying to do many things and botching most of them. I recommend using open source software whenever possible. Windows versions of popular open source programs (including the Mozilla web browser and Open Office suite) are available for most functions. If you can't find an open source solution, use a freeware program. If all else fails use a shareware or adware program. In either case use a reliable system-cleaner like Ad-Aware (above) to watch out for 'spyware'. Never - on principle - pay money for software unless it is directly to the person who programmed it. |
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