When Windows 8 first arrived I was one of the many people who hated the new interface.  I thought it was overly complicated and so completely different that the average user would find it very difficult.  To use the interface effectively you need to remember that to access anything move the mouse to the top right hand corner of the screen or alternatively use the Windows key to return to the Start screen.  After using it for a while you do get used to it however it is still so completely different from previous versions that a lot of people still hate it.  People just don’t like change.

The lack of the Start button was another issue I didn’t like.  Again after using Windows 8 for a while I will be honest and say I don’t really miss it.  If you pin your most frequently used programs to the ‘Metro’ interface you will have access to them the minute Windows 8 starts.  As for the ‘traditional’ desktop I can say that I am using it less and less due to the fact that any installed programs are automatically attached to the Start screen meaning that I don’t have to go looking for them.  If your programs are attached to the Start screen then what is the point of the desktop? In my opinion Windows 8 doesn’t really need it.

One big plus I only found out this week is that you don’t need to install antivirus onto Windows 8 as it already comes with some installed in the form of Windows Defender.  I didn’t really see the point of Windows Defender in previous versions of Windows as I felt it just got in the way and caused more hassle than it was worth.  In Windows 8 it has the same functionality as Microsoft Security Essentials and seeing Security Essentials is a very good product to start with then surely this is a bonus.

The boot time for Windows 8 is another big plus.  It is very fast at startup and this is very welcome.

I haven’t really begun to explore the inner workings of Windows 8 yet.  For the most part under the hood it is still Windows 7 (Control panel, Computer, Device Manager etc) but the way you access the different menus is completely different.

The big question is would I advise a client to upgrade to Windows 8 or not?

Upgrade to Windows 8 – no.  I am a firm believer that if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it and Windows 7 is definitely not broke.  It is still a really good operating system so if you have it on your system my advice would be keep using it.

What about buying a new system?  This is tricky.  At the moment it is becoming more difficult to buy a system with Windows 7 on it.  I have a lot of clients who use XP and like it because in their eyes it is what they are used too.  A lot of these would find it very difficult to transfer over to Windows 8 without a lot of training so to these I would recommend Windows 7.  As for the rest I would say try Windows 8 but explain to them that the interface is completely different and to approach it with an open mind.  Windows 8 is different but it will grow on you.

About the Author

Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.

For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more.

So what are the advantages of the Surface Pro?

1. Runs the full desktop version of Windows 8 meaning you can run all your usual programs.

2. It comes with Microsoft Office as standard.  This will be a major plus for the business orientated customer.

3. It is very quick thanks to its i5 processor and SSD drive.

4. It can be a tablet when you want it too and a laptop when you don’t.

5. Access to the full Windows Store.  Apps make sense a lot more when using a tablet rather than a desktop or laptop.

6. Touchscreen interface.  Most Windows 8 laptops and Ultrabooks don’t have this yet.  Windows 8 makes more sense with touchscreen rather than a mouse.

And the ‘traditional’ laptop?

1. Most laptops are a lot cheaper than the Surface Pro.

2. You can run Windows 7 on a laptop which a lot of people are more comfortable with.  Windows 8 is a big learning curve.

3. The Surface Pro has a good screen but it can be too small for some.

4. Storage space on the Surface Pro might be an issue.  Even though it comes in 64GB and 128GB versions after you install all the inbuilt apps you only get 29GB free on the 64GB model with 89GB on the 128GB model.  Not exactly loads is it?  On a laptop you get hundreds of GB depending on the model you purchase.

5. The battery life on the Surface is awful.  Apparently in some tests it ran out after 3 1/2 hrs.  Most laptops will exceed this.

6. Actually doing ‘proper work’ on a laptop is much easier.  Typing, printing and so forth is much easier on a laptop than on a tablet.  Yes you can add a keyboard to the surface but it costs extra.

The Surface Pro is a good piece of kit but trying to be a hybrid means Microsoft has had to make compromises in some areas (eg battery life is better on a laptop while the iPad is a better tablet) but this is not the main obstacle it faces.  The price is very steep and it also runs Windows 8 which for a lot of business people is still untested.  A lot of businesses are still in the process of upgrading to Windows 7 and won’t probably upgrade to Windows 8 for a long time (if ever) and this is the main market that Microsoft is aiming for.  As much as I would probably buy a Surface Pro (if I could afford one) I think it is going to struggle.

So what do you think? Are you tempted or will you be sticking with your ‘old’ laptop?

About the Author

Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.

For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more.

Next stop was ebay and I managed to find a new SSD hard drive (16 Gb) for the lovely some of £25 – not to bad.  It arrived the next day and after much rejoicing was fitted.  Now what software to run on it? Initially it had a mighty 8Gb SSD so Windows XP fitted but Windows 7 was a struggle.  Turning to Linux I settled on Lubuntu and it ran smoothly until the hard drive started to fail.  This time around I wanted to see how it would cope with Windows 7 installed so I installed Home Premium first.  With only a 900 Mhz processor under the hood the eepc 701 was never going to be a speed freak but it does run Windows 7 smoothly enough (it is upgraded to 2 Gb RAM) but it is restricted to a resolution of 640 * 480 which is not great.  Due to this limitation I turned back to Linux and currently run it on Linux Mint 13 with the XFCE desktop.  It runs quickly enough for the tasks I need to use it for.

Now why would I go through all this hassle for a netbook which is now 5 years old? A couple of reasons:

1. I hate throwing out old kit.  If I can reuse a piece of computer equipment I will.  The Eeepc 701 still has life in her yet!!

2. Configuring routers and troubleshooting wifi issues.  This is the mainstay for the eeepc 701.  It is great for configuring routers on existing networks and troubleshooting wifi issues. As much as I love my Blackberry Playbook this is one area the netbook trumps it.

3. Sometimes I just want to type.  Surfing the internet on a tablet is great but sometimes I just want to type instead of using a touchscreen keypad.  Yes my Blackberry Playbook has a bluetooth keyboard which is great but it is not the same is it?

4. It is very portable, light and has very good battery life.

Now I could use a laptop but since I don’t own one I would have to go out and spend hundreds of pounds to get one.  The eeepc 701 cost me £25.  No contest is it?

Do you own one of these wonderful little machines?

About the Author

Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.

For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more.

But that seems ages away so why should I worry right know?

True it is still a while away but it is always better to start planning these things early so you don’t end up struggling to make the switch right at the end.  Another thing to think about is will your software run on Windows 7 (or even Windows 8)? Getting systems for employees and training them up on the new operating system is one thing but not having a piece of business critical software running correctly (if at all) is a BIG problem.

If you start thinking about what software you use now, along with slowly upgrading your systems then the cost in terms of training and system outlay can be spread out.

OK so you know what software you currently have and what you will probably need in the future but how do you go about testing it with Windows 7?  You have the following choices.

1. Go out and purchase a system with Windows 7 and install the software on it.  Use the software over a period of time (personally I would say one month) and try to accomplish tasks you would do on a daily basis.  This should give you an idea how the software performs on the new operating system.

2. Install Windows 7 as a virtual machine on your existing system and test the software as described above.  The advantage of this method is that you only have to purchase a copy of Windows 7 and not a complete system.

3. If your software is not able to run on Windows 7 you can try either running it inside a Windows XP virtual machine, running it in XP Compatibility Mode or you may have to purchase a similar piece of software which does run on Windows 7.

Whichever method you chose I would strongly suggest you start thinking about testing your software sooner rather than later.  In doing this any teething issues that you weren’t expecting can quickly be resolved (my printer doesn’t work with Windows 7 — argh!!).

About the Author

Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.

For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more.

“I did a backup last week to an external hard drive so go ahead and wipe it” I was told.  Great I thought as not having to recover files saves a lot of time so I happily wiped the hard drive and reinstalled Windows 7.  Jeff then went to get his external hard drive.  When he returned he plugged it in and it wasn’t recognised. I then plugged it into my netbook (Linux based) and again nothing happened.  Houston we have a problem!!

Unbeknown to Jeff since he had made his last backup the hard drive had been dropped and all of his files could no longer be accessed.  I did suggest sending it off to a lab to try and retrieve the files but when I told him it would cost hundreds he didn’t look very well!! He had made the common mistake of making backups but not checking them.

Now Jeff is a home customer and home customers in my experience hardly ever take backups (never mind checking them) but I also see this happening in the workplace.  A lot of businesses I deal with do some kinds of backups (one backs up to floppy disks!!) but hardly any of them ever check them.  When I do suggest they check them I am usually told there is no need.  Personally I would rather know there is a problem before I need to try and restore your systems from backups that may or may not be corrupt in some form.

So people yes take your backups but for your own sake check them too!!

About the Author

Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.

For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more.

Advantages

1. New touch screen enabled interface looks bang up to date.  If you do a lot of work using a tablet or smartphone then you are going to love the new interface.

2. New features like Windows To Go and Boot speed are nice inclusions.

3. You now have the same interface across multiple platforms (smartphone, tablet and PC).  If you use Microsoft technologies a lot for your daily tasks this could be a huge bonus as the interface will look the same no matter what device you are using.

4. Sync all your data with the cloud.  Windows 8 has been designed with the cloud in mind and Windows 8 makes it very easy to store all your data online.  No more data loss when your hard drive dies (if you use it of course).

5. You can upgrade directly from Windows XP.

Disadvantages

1. There is a steep learning curve.  The interface is completely different so you will have to re-learn how to use the system.  For a lot of users this will prove to much of an inconvenience.

2. Without touch screen the new interface doesn’t really work.  Should work well on a tablet though.

3. Windows 8 will require new hardware to really shine.

The new interface has completely split opinion.  Personally I don’t think it will work very well on a traditional laptop or PC as using a mouse seams ‘wrong’.  Windows 8 has been designed for touch screens and on a system with touch screen technology it should work fine. Saying that you would have to forget most of what you already know about Windows and learn the new interface.  On your Windows XP system with 1 Gb of RAM and a mouse? Um…………………………..

As for business adoption I think Microsoft is going to have problems convincing companies to upgrade to Windows 8.  Companies would have to retrain users and this takes time and money which could be spent elsewhere.

So to conclude if you ‘need’ the latest Windows operating system I would go out and buy a touchscreen enabled laptop or tablet as this will bring out the best of Windows 8.  If you already have a Windows 7 system which is fully functional with no issues I wouldn’t bother upgrading and if you have XP go for Windows 7 instead.

About the Author

Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.

For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more.

Recuva is distributed as freeware (with no support) which can be downloaded off their website.  It works on all versions of Windows and you can purchase the Professional or Business Editions if you require the piece of mind of technical support should you need it. Below I will show you how to use it.

When you start the program you should get the wizard as shown below.

If you click next you will be asked what sort of files you are trying to recover.

Choose your file type and then click next.  On the following page you will be asked for the file location (if known).

Click next. That is all the information that is required right now for Recuva to recover your files.

Once Recuva has finished its scan it will present you with a list of all the files that can be recovered (shown below).  A word here about the colour next to the files.  The colour indicates the chances of recovering the file.  For example green =  excellent, amber = acceptable and red = unlikely.

Choose the file you want to recover and then click on Recover.  Hopefully you should be able to recover your files.  Good luck!!

About the Author

Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.

For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more.

Today I will show you how to check the status of your hard drive.  There are tools built into Windows which will accomplish such tasks (eg chkdsk) however they are useless if you can’t boot into the system to use them.  For situations like this you need SeaTools.

Seatools is a diagnostic program that can be run from a CD and allows you to perform preconfigured tests on your hard drive.  For the purpose of this tutorial I will use SeaTools on a Windows 7 system which is hosted as a virtual machine within Virtualbox.

Ok first thing to do is download a copy of Seatools and burn it to a disk.  Now we shall boot the system with the disk to get the screenshot below.

Accept the license agreement to start the program.  Once started you should get the screenshot below.

Now highlight your hard drive and click on Basic Tests – Short Test.  The short test is usually sufficient to tell if your hard drive is experiencing issues.

Once the test has been carried out Seatools will show the test results on the right hand side under Test Results.

If the Test Result is Passed then you have no issues.  If however the result is Failed then you have a problem.  You can go back and try the Long Test which can sort out any bad sectors etc but in my experience if a hard drive fails the Short Test it needs replacing.

About the Author

Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.

For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more.

Today I will show you how to schedule a task in Windows 7.  This is very handy when you want to schedule tasks that are carried out on a frequent basis.

Ok go to Start – All Programs – Accessories – System Tools – Task Scheduler

Now go to Action – Create Task to bring up the following screenshot.

For the purpose of this tutorial I will schedule Internet Explorer to run at a specified time.

On the General tab enter a Name for your Task and also a Description.  Also choose if you want the task to run when a user is logged in or not.  When completed click OK and then click on Triggers.

On the Triggers tab click New to get the following screenshot.

You can now choose when your task should start.  You get the options of One time, Daily, Weekly or Monthly schedule.  I will pick One time for the purpose of this tutorial.  When you have chosen click OK and then the Actions tab.

On the Actions tab click New to get the screenshot below.

Select Start a Program and then browse for a program to start.  So in this case I have chosen to start Internet Explorer.  When you have chosen click OK.

Now click on the Conditions Tab.  You will be given options for what to do if the machine is on AC power, idle etc.  Browse through all the options and choose what is relevant to you and then click OK.

Finally click on the Settings tab.  Again you are given multiple settings for your task. Review the options and then choose what is necessary for you.  Once you have chosen click OK.

All that is left to do is to check that the task is stored and scheduled to run at the specified time.  Click on Task Scheduler Library to get a list of all scheduled tasks.  In the screenshot below Internet Explorer is scheduled to run once on 13/06/2012 at 17.08.

About the Author

Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.

For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more.

Today I will show you how to customise a Windows 7 ISO before you install it on a system.  This can come in useful if you are installing onto a tiny hard drive (eg netbook) or if you don’t want certain features installed automatically during the installation (eg media center etc).

The first thing to do is get your hands on a Windows 7 ISO and copy all the files into a new folder called Win7 Files (you can change this) on your desktop as shown below.

Next we need to download and install a package called RT Seven Lite.  RT Seven Lite allows you to remove components that you don’t need prior to installation. I was originally planning to use vLite, however vLite is not fully compatible with the new WAIK so by default is not fully compatible with Windows 7.

Time to get customising!! Start RT Seven Lite to get the screenshot below.

We now have to locate the Win7 Files folder so click on Browse and navigate to it.  When the windows installation files have been confirmed RT Seven Lite will then ask you to choose which version of Windows the installation files are for.  Choose your version and click ok.

The image will now be uploaded ready for configuration.  Once loaded we can start configuring so click on Task (top left under Home).

This is where we are given loads of options on what we would like to do with the installation files.  For the purpose of this tutorial we shall choose Components Removal and remove all media files so click Components and then Features Removal.

Tick the box next to Multi-Media and then click apply.  This brings you back to the main page where you need to click commit.  The Multi-Media files will now be removed from the Windows 7 Installation Files.

Now that we have removed the Multi-Media files we need to create a bootable ISO so click on ISO-Bootable.

We need to change the mode to Create Image and then enter a name for the volume (e.g Windows7 Lite etc).  Once done click Make ISO.  Choose a place to save the ISO and then click save.

The new image will now be created.  Burn the ISO to disk using your favourite disk burning software.

About the Author

Hi I am Chris Wakefield the owner of ComTech IT Support. I provide Windows and Linux based IT Support, laptop repairs and computer repairs to both business and personal clients in and around Stirling.

For a list of what I can offer you why not visit my website www.comtech247.net where you will find a list of my services, testimonials, blog and much more.