Making Windows InhabitableAround the town of Pleasanton, CA, my customers don't know me as the graphics guy or the presentations guru. I'm just the computer guy. I help the residents here with new computer purchases, local area network installation, spyware eradication, and general wart removal. |
| Most of my customers share a common trait which I am generally unable to address: They take Windows for granted and accept it the way it is. Usually they call me in to fix a particular problem or address a specific emergency. Rarely are they interested in what I have to say about “well care,” if you will, and I don't blame them. Nonetheless, the irony here is that this could be the ounce of prevention that amounts to a pound of cure. Here are some of my favorite ounces... Get a better file managerWindows Explorer and My Computer have been inadequate for browsing a hard drive's contents since the day that they debuted. In some ways, they have only gotten worse, as their media edition qualities — like showing photos or videos in a filmreel or as a slide show — give new users the impression that a picture is some special type of file that requires special handling. Meanwhile, any file manipulation beyond the most basic, like multi-file copying, moving, or renaming, is tedious and difficult to perform. Therefore, most less-than-advanced users are intimidated by simple file management chores. The solution: get a better file manager, and the one that we have been using and recommending for many years is the Total Commander, written by Christian Ghisler and available at his personal website: Figure One shows the clean lines of Commander’s interface, the most notable quality being the ever-present dual-pane display. With a couple of keystrokes or mouse drags, you can send files from one location to another with ease. You really get a sense of what your hard drive looks like and what each folder contains when you use a program that doesn't try to do things cute. Cute is not conducive to learning good file management... Fire Norton Anti-Virus and McAfeeMost new computers come with a 30-day free trial of either one of the two most well-known Internet security programs. I, however, am among a growing list of consultants who no longer recommend their use. Both programs, while capable of their chief task, impose too high a cost on the user. They are resource hogs, are slow to load, and cause too much confusion whenever they need to be updated or maintained. I sometimes wonder if the viruses they are protecting us against would be any worse. I'm not thrilled with the prospect of having clients manage and maintain separate firewall, anti-virus, and anti-spyware applications, so I'm gratified that there is a suite of applications that I can recommend: the Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite from Zone Labs. Zone Alarm loads faster and does not act like a bull in your digital china shop like the other two can. It is much more proactive about securing your PCs from inbound and outbound threats, and as a result is in your face a lot at first, asking you if it is acceptable for, say, Adobe Acrobat to be accessing the Internet. As you train it, its warnings become much more benign. I consider this to be a friendly intrusion, because you know that the program is looking out for you. After about two or three days of regular use, Zone Alarm is trained to the point where it will only prompt you once or twice daily about activities that it considers to be potentially suspicious. Figure Two shows its interface, with the various services it provides neatly spelled out for you. Remove the FlotsamToday's new computers have more, how shall we say this...crap on them than ever before. If you buy a new HP desktop today, there are no less than 36 utilities and applications from all of its friends and partners, all installed and sitting in active memory. Some of them are legitimately useful software, like Sonic's DVD-burning app or Roxio's media album organizer. Some of them are just useless junk. And in all cases, if you do not ever expect to use them, they just hog resources and get in your way. Some of these programs are easily identified and removed; many aren't. For this task, we recommend you pick up a copy of Magic Utilities from MagicTweak. This program shows you: all software installed on your computer, all software designed to launch each time you boot, and all processes running in memory. Figure Three shows the value of this nice utility, as we wondered about a program we couldn't recognize, DVDFab Decrypter. The Program Info dialog box told us the version number, how it was installed, who makes it, and what their web address is. Now we can make an informed choice about whether to keep or remove it. The company also develops and distributes Magic Tweak, a nice program for configuring Windows. Both are available as trial downloads. Change your KeystrokesWithout a doubt, the most important utility I own for day-to-day comfort is PC Magazine's TradeKeys utility. With it, I can reassign the keys on my keyboard, thereby allowing the Ctrl key to be next to my left pinky where God inended for it to be, Delete to be to the right of Space instead of at the top-right of the keyboard, and Windows keys to be where I want, rather than wherever the manufacturer decreed. Once you create the definitions, TradeKeys writes them to the Registry and gets out of the way. It does not have to remain resident in memory and you only need to invoke it to edit or create new definitions. You can find out more at PCMag's utility section requires a membership, although anyone can buy a single app for $5.97. We spring for the $20 annual fee and are usually glad we did, as there are other good offerings from conscientious developers. • We have plenty of others, but would rather hear from you. Tell us about your favorite Windows utilities or techniques and we'll showcase them in future editorial. Use the Contact button at the top of this page... |