Windows Vista Laptop Survival Guide

Here is my collection of utilities and "must have" programs in order to keep a newbie's Windows Vista laptop in good shape. I am writing this from my experience with several laptops, including my own Vista machine. I have put my money where my mouth is, having purchased a Toshiba laptop from the Laptop Center in Israel, for a friend who is moving to Israel from South Africa. Since I can no longer provide her with computer support, this is what I have arranged for her machine.

The first item to install is the Norton User Account Control utility, in order to deal with those annoying UAC popups that plague Vista users. It doesn't make them go away, but it can remember what applications you agree to run, and so not bother you every time you use it. Say goodbye to the Microsoft User Annoyance Control ;-) 1,180,672 bytes. Reason*: when you are setting up the machine, you can disable the UAC messages that pop up regularly, so they don't bother the user any more.
Next, install CCleaner. This utility can keep your system clean and tidy, find registry problems, and assist in disabling all those weird utilities that load when Windows starts. When installing, make sure you unselect the Yahoo toolbar, as shown above. 3,247,736 bytes. Reason*: you can set up the defaults once, and then show the user how to "Run CCleaner" from time to time, or just set it to run automatically.
I have mentioned the Vista Battery Saver utility before, and it really seems to be making a difference to the lifespan of my laptop batteries, in addition to saving power. Battery life is extended by using less power, even when your laptop is running off mains. 965,120 bytes. Reason*: set it up to save power, and then tell the user not to play with the settings.
Hard Drive temperature is also very important, and HDTune monitors the temperature of your hard drive, and warns you if the drive temperature is getting near danger levels. In order to use it, you need to set it to start up when you log on, which is explained here. Use the free version 2.55 (642,632 bytes). Reason*: once it's set to run, tell the user what to do if the hard drive gets too hot.
SpinRite is not a utility you install. You buy it, download it (196,608 bytes) and create a boot CD from the .iso image it creates. If you don't have software to do this, use the free CDBurnerXP utility (3,158,425 bytes). Once you have the bootable CD, boot up from it and run SpinRite in "Maintenance Mode" every 4 months or so. It's the best US$89 you'll ever spend. While refreshing the magnetic signal on the drive, it also recovers data from any unreadable sectors, and warns the drive of any impending data loss. Most people only use it when they have already lost data, but SpinRite is best at preventing data loss and warning you about a drive that is about to fail. There is no trial version, so they offer an unconditional money-back guarantee. When Penny's HP laptop blocked all low-level access to her drive, they offered to refund me. I refused, because I use the product on other drives. Download size is tiny. Reason*: Once the boot disk has been made, show the user what to do once every 4 months. If they forget (they probably will) then at least the disk is available for data recovery when required.



If your PC came with the Adobe Reader preinstalled, the best thing to do is uninstall it. After all, do you really want 145MB of insecure bloatware on your machine? Then, download the Foxit Reader instead. It's a 3,738,880 byte download (compared to 26,739,584 bytes for Adobe Reader 9.1) and it loads really fast when you want to open a PDF file. Remember to go to Edit->Preferences->JavaScript and DISABLE Javascript to protect your machine from viruses and other malware. Reason*: Once it's installed and Javascript is turned off, the user doesn't have to do anything special to view PDF files more securely than the Adobe Reader.
The PlaySound utility isn't going to save the world, or your laptop. But it is a way of reminding you to slow down a bit, and give your PC a chance to get organised. Select the option of installing a startup shortcut, and you'll get the progress bar shown here whenever you log on. It encourages you to wait while your laptop software settles down. 1,736,704 bytes. Reason*: While the PC starts up it needs the user to leave it alone. You can get weird error conditions if you try to rush the machine. Rather wait for it to stabilize before trying to use it.

You also need a good antivirus program, and I can think of nothing better than the ESET NOD32 Antivirus package. It is fast, lightweight, has a good updating mechanism, and it works. I've had hassles with other antivirus programs, but not this one. If you want to get rid of spam, then you may consider upgrading to their ESET Smart Security program instead, or just purchase a license for SpamFighter. I used SpamFighter for a year before the ESET Smart Security product came out, and it gave me a good feeling nuking spam from my inbox, knowing that it was learning about the spam and blocking it from other inboxes as well. Reason*: install the antivirus and it gets on with the job. No user intervention required, unless a message appears.

Finally, you need a defrag program to keep your laptop hard drive properly organised. If you need a freebie, then use a combination of UltraDefrag for a boot time defrag, and JkDefrag 3.36 for the screen saver defrag. But you'll need to configure it properly. Rather splash out US$19.95 and get Puran Defrag 6. It's effective, simple to use, and has all the options you need. 2,428,928 bytes. While PerfectDisk may have won all the awards, and I haven't tested all the defrag programs yet, PuranDefrag is installed on my laptop and Penny's, and it is doing a great job. It is set up to do a boot-time defrag every Sunday morning, and it does a simple file defrag every 6 hours when the machine is in use, should this be required. Reason*: Set up the automatic defrag and let the user get on with more important things.

*I have supplied reasons why these products are newbie-safe. There are plenty of power utilities for power users, but I wouldn't install these on machines where the user barely knows how to use Word or a browser. There is such a thing as feature-overload ;-) and "No User Intervention Required" is always helpful.

Interim Benchmark Results

It has taken 3 weeks to arrive at these results, partly because of the time it takes to run the tests, and partly because of interruptions. Nonetheless, in the interests of full disclosure, I figured it would be best to publish the raw benchmark results before testing any of the defrag programs.
I have cycled through 3 different systems: Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista Home Basic 32-bit, and Windows Home Basic 64-bit. I have omitted the hIOmon results because I am still learning how to use this amazing software, and also I'm not sure what exactly to measure. The results of the fragmented systems are to be found in PDF printouts of an Excel spreadsheet:

• Windows XP 32-bit
• Windows Vista 32-bit
• Windows Vista 64-bit

Click on the links to see the PDF files, or right-click to save them. As soon as the disk image backup is completed, I will start testing PerfectDisk 10 Professional. Stand by for results in the next few weeks. You can find the current status of the tests by looking at the "current status" message in the left margin of this blog. I update it as the status changes.
Update 9 June 2009: I have included the reboot time for Vista 64, and will add in the other times as they become available.

Windows is Fragile

This is for the sceptics out there who claim that you don't need to defragment your Windows system from time to time. Windows is a consumer operating system, and was never designed to be secure or bulletproof: it requires maintenance, such as cleaning out deleted files, defragmentation, and so on.
While I was recalibrating my Vista 32-bit system, one of the benchmarks failed. The PC is only 6 months old, and has never been defragmented. While I installed the numerous programs and security updates, I did not empty the recycle bin, and I disabled the automatic defrag. The result is a sluggish machine that behaves badly; i.e. your typical home PC.
The "Stress Test" pictured above randomly reads and writes 435,101 records to an Access97 data file. After 4 hours of doing this, Access decided that it didn't recognise its own database format anymore. Hardly surprising really. The file is badly fragmented and in desperate need of a repair and compact as well. I will try again to get a result, but with the system in such bad shape it's pure chance that I'll get one or not.

Another MTN Disaster

MTN is my useless cell phone company. They are "celebrating" 15 years of being in business by running a money-making competition that costs R7.50 per SMS message to enter. It's a ripoff, and there is even a Facebook group to warn people about the scheme, called "MTN is for Dumb People".
What really annoys me is that I have been trying to get MTN to stop sending me marketing messages since 2006, all to no avail. I have tried emails, SMS messages, complaints to HelloPeter, calls to the Company Secretary, and just about everything else I can think of. Still, they insist on telling me about this competition via SMS.
Don't they understand that they are breaking the law? Are they that stupid, or just plain incompetent? According to the message, you can call 173 to get you name removed. This is wrong. They will tell you to send the word "STOP" to 30915, and ignore your request to have your name removed.
Update Friday: If you go to http://www.mtn15.mobi/web/optOut.asp and supply your number to opt out, they send a "code" to your phone. My code reads "TEST MSG", which doesn't work. DUH!
Update 2: After perusing their PAIA details I called 011-912-3216 and left a message for the Company Secretary. Mr A Sithole called back, and promised to look into the matter. I have forwarded copies of previous correspondence to him.
Update Saturday 7pm: Yet another SMS came through, this time from +27839301015, without any information about how to stop further messages.
Update 4th July: 2 more messages, from 083-930-1015. If you dial this number you are told it is incorrect. It belongs to MTN.
Update 5th July: 3 more messages, from 083-930-1015. A call to 173 didn't help. They gave me the number belonging to a private subscriber instead of the competitions number.

Why there is no iTunes for movies

I listened to Why there is no iTunes for movies by Farhad Manjoo on the Slate Magazine podcast with a wry smile: there is no iTunes for music or audio books in South Africa either, let alone movies.
As it turns out, the reason why there is such a dismal collection of downloadable movies online has nothing to do with the technology required, and everything to do with the lawyers. Not the ones suing the Pirate Bay (what a bunch of grandstanding fools) but the ones who draw up the distribution contracts for movies.

"When I called people in the industry this week, I found that many in the movie business understand that online distribution is the future of media. But everything in Hollywood is governed by a byzantine set of contractual relationships between many different kinds of companies—studios, distributors, cable channels, telecom companies, and others. The best way to understand it is to trace what you might call the life cycle of a Hollywood movie, as Starz network spokesman Eric Becker put it to me. We all understand the first couple of steps in this life cycle—first a movie hits theaters and then, a few months later, it comes out on DVD. Around the same time, it also comes out on pay-per-view, available on demand on cable systems, hotel rooms, airplanes, and other devices. Apple's rental store operates under these pay-per-view rules, most of which put a 24-hour limit on movies. The restriction might have made sense back in the days when most people were getting on-demand movies in hotel rooms and the studios didn't want the next night's guest piggybacking on rentals. It doesn't make much sense when you're getting the movie on your MacBook. But many of the contracts were written years ago, and they don't reflect the current technology.
"A movie will stay in the pay-per-view market for just a few months; after that, it goes to the premium channels, which get a 15- to 18-month exclusive window in which to show the film. That's why you can't get older titles through Apple's rental plan—once a movie goes to HBO, Apple loses the right to rent it. (Apple has a much wider range of titles available for sale at $15 each; for-sale movies fall under completely different contracts with studios.) Between them, Starz and HBO have contracts to broadcast about 80 percent of major-studio movies made in America today. Their rights extend for seven years or more. After a movie is broadcast on Starz, it makes a tour of ad-supported networks (like USA, TNT, or one of the big-three broadcast networks) and then goes back to Starz for a second run. Only after that—about a decade after the movie came out in theaters—does it enter its "library" phase, the period when companies like Netflix are allowed to license it for streaming. For most Hollywood releases, then, Netflix essentially gets last dibs on a movie, which explains why many of its films are so stale.
"Couldn't the studios just sign new deals that would give them the right to build an online service? Well, maybe—but their current deals are worth billions, and a new plan would mean sacrificing certain profits for an uncertain future. Understandably, many are unwilling to take that leap."

Instead, they are throwing away millions by giving money to the MPAA and the RIAA to chase after "profits" that they are too stupid to make for themselves. The same applies to Audiobook publishers who refuse to sell me their books because I have the "wrong" address. I guess if I made my address c/o thepiratebay.org they still wouldn't sell me their books. They need to read or listen to "Content" by Cory Doctorow to change their minds before they lose their jobs. Frankly, I couldn't give a damn if they lose their jobs. Perhaps then the authors would get a better deal.

Young Politicians in the Making

This is what happens when you realise you said something extremely stupid and you don't have the balls to apologise. If Floyd clarifies what he means then there is a nice lawsuit coming his way, so of course he'll duck and dive. ANCYL should stand for ANC Yahoo League, except that the search engine would be offended.

The 2009 Defrag Shootout: which program to test first?

Now that everything is ready to start testing, which program should I test first? I want to alternate between commercial products and free/open source products, so my alphabetical commercial list looks like this:

• Advanced Defrag
  
• Defrag Express
• Diskeeper
• MST Defrag
  
• O&O Defrag
• Paragon Total Defrag
• PerfectDisk
• PuranDefrag
• TuneUp Utilities 2009
  
• UltimateDefrag
• Vopt

The alphabetical free list looks like this:

• Auslogics Disk Defrag
• Defraggler
• DiskTune
• IOBit SmartDefrag
• JkDefrag
• Microsoft Windows Disk Defragmenter
  
• MyDefrag
• Quicksys DiskDefrag
• UltraDefrag

Are there any others that need to be added, and will anyone complain if I deviate from an alphabetical order? Please leave comments.

Fishy Desktop Wallpaper

Recognise this desktop wallpaper? The fish on the left is part of the Acanthuridae family, and is probably Zebrasoma scopas (Two-tone Surgeonfish). The one on the right is from the Chaetodontidae family, Chelmon rostratus (Beaked Butterflyfish).
The bad news is that the colours on this picture have been "adjusted" to look prettier. The surgeonfish isn't that orange; closer to the picture above.
It's difficult to identify these Batfish exactly, because of the camera angle. But they are from the Ephippidae family, and they don't appear to have been been doctored.
You can find information about these fish and a gazillion others at the FishWise web site: www.fishwise.co.za, run by Dennis Polack, who is an underwater photographer and fish database expert. He has compiled an extensive database 96000 known species of fish, and has accumulated 32000 photographs as well. He is in the process of publishing all of this information on the web. Check it out!
Speaking of desktops, I found a free utility that changes the desktop wallpaper without having to get Vista Ultimate or some other bloatware. It's called "Fun Desktop Wallpaper Changer" and it works. It's only 81kb, and you can set it to run when you reboot, getting a new desktop wallpaper randomly chosen from folders.