Phil's Techno Talk » Operating Systems

Google’s Chrome OS – Is it a Windows Slayer?

admin — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:14:41 +0000

Google have announced their intention to release a new operating system, Chrome OS. It will be fast and lightweight, and less liable to virus attacks than Windows. But is it really a replacement for Windows or Mac OS?

Chrome will be based on the Linux kernel, just as Mac Os is, but it’s not going to give you the same functionality as Mac OS or any of the popular versions of Linux. Chrome OS is really very little more than a dedicated browser, so it is targeted at people who do little more than work online. Of course, it will do the usual online tasks such as web surfing, emailing, social networking, Twittering etc., but what else will it do?

The first thing to realise is that all applications that you run must be capable of running within a web browser. This can be fairly limiting, although the number of web-based applications available is increasing all the time. However, performance of web-based applications is usually much lower than their native counterparts.

Serious gaming is not going to be an option. You’re not going to be able to run those super-high-resolution, fast, shoot-’em up action games. Browser applications just haven’t reached that level of capability yet.

And the big killer – Chrome OS is unlikely to be able to run any of the Windows or Mac OS applications you’ve already invested so much money in.

I’m not writing off Chrome OS before it’s released – I’m just making you aware that it will not be a replacement for Windows or Mac OS.

There are plenty of advantages to using Chrome OS though. It will be small and fast. When you switch on your PC, it will take just seconds to boot up, and assuming you have an Internet connection available, you’ll be online as soon as it has finished booting. It will be ideal for wi-fi enabled, sub-notebook computers, especially for use by people on the move.

Another good thing about this announcement is that it will probably spawn a whole new interest in developing good quality, browser-based applications; something that really could do with a shot in the arm.

The best feature of all though, is the price. Just like all the various versions of Linux, Chrome OS will be free to download and install.

But I’ll bet dollars to donuts that Google will still make a lot of money off the back of it. After all, Chrome OS steeers you straight into the web. Where Google lives and thrives.

Is it a Windows slayer? No. Not by a long way. Will it take off? Probably. Especially if Google can cut a deal to pre-load it on some sub-notebook, ultra-portable PCs. They definitely have the financial clout to do that, and they control one of the most popular online advertising networks, so getting it out there is not going to be a difficult task for them.

Windows 7 To Ship In Europe Without Internet Explorer

admin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:25:53 +0000

I suspect this is a move by Microsoft to hit back at the European Commission, who have hit them hard with big fines ($1.4 billion) for being monopolistic etc.

Initially this will be good news to the European Commission – it looks as if Microsoft are removing their browser to give people the choice of downloading and installing an alternative, such as Opera or Firefox.

But did they really think this through? When the European Commission take delivery of their shiny new Windows 7 PCs, they will have no browser with which to download their favourite browser. Of course there’s nothing to stop them from downloading it using another PC, but by complying with the EC’s wishes, Microsoft have cleverly introduced an annoyance that is bound to cause an uproar.

Anyone who upgrades their PC from a previous version of Windows will, of course, have their favourite browser already installed. But new Windows 7 PCs will not have one.

And there’s another twist to this. I just installed Windows XP SP2 on a new hard disk. I fired up Opera to go and download SP3, and it wouldn’t let me. It insisted that I use Internet Explorer to obtain the Service Pack.

I doubt whether that’s going to change with Windows 7.

Fix your Broken Windows PC with System Restore

Phil Rogers — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:17:20 +0000

I am a regular user of the Alexa Toolbar. This toolbar monitors browsing habits and sends information back to Alexa to help them determine the most popular websites. Because of what it does, some people consider the Alexa Toolbar to be spyware. However, it doesn’t do anything malicious, when you install it, you should be aware of what it is doing.

Spyware Doctor, an anti-spyware program decided that the Alexa Toolbar was spyware and removed it from my system. It didn’t do it the friendly way by running the uninstaller provided by Alexa; instead it entered the system Registry directly and went on the rampage, deleting all manner of data that it considered to be connected with the Alexa Toolbar.

Once I realised what had happened, I went back to Alexa and reinstalled their toolbar, but now it no longer worked. After several reinstallations and system restarts, it still wouldn’t work properly. Spyware Doctor had broken my PC.

So What Do You Do When Your PC’s System Files Get Messed Up?

Thankfully, Microsoft have incorporated System Restore into their most recent operating systems (XP and Vista), and I was able to reinstate my system and Registry files to how they were before I installed Spyware Doctor (which has now been banished from my PC).
I then reinstalled the Alexa Toolbar and it works just fine now.

How to use System Restore

Here’s what Microsoft say about System Restore: “System Restore works a lot like the Undo command in Microsoft Word. You can use System Restore to remove any system changes that were made since the last time you remember your computer working correctly. System Restore does not affect your personal data files (such as Microsoft Word documents, browsing history, drawings, favorites, or e-mail) so you won’t lose changes made to these files.“.

If you have System Restore enabled, every day that you use your computer, Windows saves the current state of the system files. This means that you can roll-back to any previous “restore point”. So if you install or run a program that affects the system files and makes the system unstable, you can undo those changes.

Here’s how:

Click Start, and then click Help and Support.
Under Pick a Task, click Undo changes to your computer with System Restore.
Follow the instructions on the wizard:

Select “Restore my computer to an earlier time” and click Next.

A calendar is displayed. Dates are displayed in bold if there is a restore point on that day. Click on a bold date in the calendar, and you will see a list of changes that the restore point incorporates. This includes software installed, Windows updates, and system checkpoints.

When you have found the day when you installed or ran the program that broke your system, choose that day or the one before it. I was fortunate enough to be able to find the day when I installed Spyware Doctor, and then selected the day before that.

Click on Next and you will see a confirmation page for the selected Restore Point.
Read this page. It is important to know what will happen next.

Click Next. Your system will shut down and apply the selected Restore Point to your system files settings.
Don’t worry about any other files that you have on your system, such as emails, Word documents etc. They will be unaffected. System Restore is not a time machine – it can’t save and restore everything that is on your computer to a previous time – only the system files.

When your computer restarts, you will see a message stating whether the restore was successful or not.

If you find that other software that you installed after the time of the Restore Point is no longer properly installed. You will need to re-install it. In some cases, you might even need to go into the Remove Programs control panel and remove the software and then reinstall it.

If it still fails

If your restore made no difference, or made things worse, you can even undo the change and bring the system back to today’s settings using the same System Restore mechanism.

A Final Word

It’s possible to switch off System Restore so that it doesn’t make daily backups of the changes to system files. I thoroughly recommend that you leave it switched on. You never know when it might get you out of a tight spot!

Phil Rogers is a professional software engineer who runs Phil’s Techno Talk.

Successor To Vista On The Cards

Phil Rogers — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:35:08 +0000

Bill Gates has said that Windows 7, the successor to Vista, could be released sometime in “the next year or so”. We guess this means in 2 years because he went on to say that the new version is scheduled for 2010.

Microsoft’s estimated release dates are notoriously optimistic, so it’s certainly unlikely to be within the next year.

Bill Gates did not reveal any details of changes or novel features to the operating system, although he did say that he was “super-enthused about what it will do in lots of ways”.

The Developer Programme for Windows 7 has already been started by Microsoft and there are rumours that an early test version of the new OS, named Milestone-1, has already been given to Microsoft’s biggest customers.

Vista price-cuts on their way

Phil Rogers — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 10:02:59 +0000

Microsoft is planning to cut the price of Vista sold at retail outlets.
They haven’t specified a date for the cuts, but they say that it will affect copies sold in 70 different countries.

A typical price cut for Vista Ultimate (the top-end version) in the USA will be in the region of $80, bringing it down to $319 – a reduction of 20%.

The cuts apply to the retail versions of Vista – bought by people upgrading exisiting operating systems. This accounts for about 10% of Microsoft’s OS sales – the remaining 90% being installed on new PCs.

Microsoft has now sold over 100 million Vista licences, and they are aiming to boost the number of customers who upgrade.

Editor’s Opinion:
Reports show that Vista is not all it’s cracked up to be, and there has been a marked number of new PC buyers insisting that they are installed with XP.
The main problem seems to be performance of Vista. I’ve heard it described as “wading through treacle”, with some applications taking several minutes rather than seconds to load.

The money you save from these price cuts will be used up by the extra RAM you’ll need. To get better-than-XP performance, you’re going to need at least 4Gb of RAM.