Back in the 1990s, I always lamented the dual Windows offerings, which at the time were Windows 95/98 for home users and Windows NT/2000 for business users. Later, when Windows XP was released, it still had two flavors, with Home and Professional editions available. I was at least pleased that both of them fell under the umbrella of a single product, XP. Fast-forward many more years, and Windows Vista came in four versions: Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate. I think this confusing lineup has been partly to blame for Vista’s slow acceptance, though that is only one small aspect of what people have not liked about Vista.

Microsoft has apparently not learned any lessons from their past decisions, and seem content to confuse their customers all the more. They are charging forward with six editions of Windows 7. Really? This is completely asinine to say the least. Upgrading from any of the four different Vista releases to any one of the six new Windows 7 releases is sure to be a complete nightmare. I am really fed up with the state of Windows today. I believe that at this point, adding even more editions of Windows to the already absurd lineup is a monumental mistake. It gives the public a perception that the new Windows is going to be even more bloated and confusing than the last one.

In 2006, I bailed on the Windows world and became an overnight Mac user. As such, I can confidently say that I use the one and only Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system. Every other Mac user has the same installation and feature set that I have on my Mac. As Steve Jobs once said, mocking Microsoft, “Everybody gets the ‘Ultimate’ edition.” Microsoft should do likewise, with one single Windows 7 product to debut on the market. Then again, I suppose that would be too easy on the end user, which is something that Microsoft has not shown much interest in over the years.

I reviewed three possibilities for my approach. First, I’m a Mac user and looked into the FileVault encryption that is built into OSX. That solution is very easy, but it wants to encrypt my whole account user folder. In that scenario, logging into the OS decrypts all of the data. I worry that may slow down my computer, and that isn’t what I was going for in the first place.

Second, I researched the popular PGP encryption solutions. Their products all appear to go above and beyond my needs. PGP adds email and instant message encryption to their desktop offering. I don’t need any of that, and PGP’s products are all pretty costly for my taste, ringing in at $99. I’ve heard good things about PGP overall, but I am not looking to spend that kind of money on my project.

Third, and my favorite solution, is a free open-source application called TrueCrypt. TrueCrypt is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux! It’s free and easy to use. You create an encrypted volume that is stored as a single file on your computer. That file can have any file extension you want, or none at all. You can hide it anywhere you like, and the program won’t memorize locations if you ask it not to. Opening the contents of your volume is achieved by mounting the volume, which allows you to use it with a drive letter of its own. Dismounting the volume encrypts all of the data again. I’ve had a wonderful experience using this program. One downside for me is that I wish the program was faster at dismounting my volume, though speed will most certainly vary depending on your system. On my Windows PC, dismounting was nearly instant.

TrueCrypt was definitely the way to go for my needs. The program can also encrypt an entire drive as well. It does exactly what I want it to, with ease. It’s fast, secure, and completely free!

First clean up your registry with the Wise Registry Cleaner. Be sure to get the free version, not a trial of the pro version. This program will remove old registry entries that point to things that no longer exist, etc. On my installation of XP, the Wise cleaner found hundreds of useless entries that were fattening my Registry.

Second, you can actually defragment your Registry and remove wasted and unused space, which can possibly help the computer to be more responsive, though probably minimally. There is a tool that can do this for you in seconds. For this job, use the freeware app Auslogics Registry Defrag.

In reality, I don’t know how often I’ll need to use a program such as this, but Handbrake works incredibly well, and doesn’t cost a cent.

Fortunately, there is a way to turn if off for good. In Windows, go to the Control Panel and choose Regional and Language Options. Click the Languages tab and click the button labeled Details. From there, in the Advanced tab, check the box labeled Turn off advanced text services. Now you can enjoy using your computer without this completely ridiculous process that Microsoft should not launch by default with Office in the first place.

I primarily downloaded Google Desktop for the Sidebar widgets. Luckily, my laptop has a widescreen, so the size of the Sidebar without hiding isn’t too space consuming. The Sidebar is slick and shows the local weather conditions, email snippets, a news feed, a notepad, a picture, custom rss feeds, and a Google search box. I am using Gmail for my email already, so setting up the email section was easy. Bear in mind that Gmail is not required. When it comes to the picture, I was at first concerned it may be a waste of time, but it does look really good sitting in the sidebar. I don’t have many pictures stored on this laptop, but I easily added a photo feed from my Flickr page. It works perfectly and pictures are streamed directly to my desktop. The RSS section is also cool. I dabble in some RSS feeds here and there, both in my browser and also online on Google Reader. I rarely think to check any of them. Now with RSS built-in to the Sidebar, I can add my favorite feeds, such as Netflix New Releases and they will appear automatically.

The desktop search portion of Google Desktop is the main purpose of the program. It automatically indexes emails, chats, photos, web history, and more in a variety of different file formats. I haven’t put this feature to the test so far since I only installed the application this morning. I have made good use of Spotlight on my Mac, so I have begun to see the benefits of such an application. I’m sure to make good use of this program.

I think Google Desktop is a winner for the Windows desktop. If the Sidebar does become too cumbersome, which I do not expect, I can enable the auto-hide feature to tuck it away when I am not using it. For now, I want it to be in full-view, so I can read my RSS feeds and see my photos stream in. I am very happy. If you are a Google user and already make good use of a Gmail account, you’ll be sure to love Google Desktop.

Second Life is more sophisticated than There. Not only are the graphics better, the application itself is a lot more grown up. It loads and responds quickly, despite its very advanced features. A plethora of options are available, detailing every aspect of your Second Life experience. The interface and controls are less cartoonish than There’s offering. The software feels tighter, more responsive, and runs smoother with less system resources. At least that is my experience. Controlling the software’s use of resources, graphics detail, and networking are all easy to change in the preferences. Updates come out regularly, some of which are optional, and some of which are required in order to log in. I have had the application crash once (on my Mac). This was unsettling, but the program generated an error report which was immediately sent to the creators to help identify software bugs.

Second Life uses Linden dollars, which are purchased using real life money. There are ways to earn Linden dollars, but that is beyond the scope of this post. To date, I have not had any need for any currency. In contrast to There, where you have to pay a one-time membership fee to utilize advanced features (such as voice, setting landmarks, etc.), with Second Life, most of this is available at no cost. You can customize your head, body, and clothing in stunning detail. There is no need to purchase anything unless you want to acquire some new items and fabrics beyond your original set. You can buy and sell land, and rent space for online business. Why anyone would need to do any of that is beyond me. For example, I have read you can rent an apartment and things like that. I do not understand what that is for. Why would one need a residence when you can do anywhere you want? Not to mention that a lot of the space in Second Life is deserted.

Flying is incredible in Second Life. There is no need to buy a jetpack or take out a machine. Simply tapping the Home key on your keyboard makes you soar up into the air, where you can then fly around Superman-style. Flying around is my favorite aspect of the entire Second Life experience. Everyone can do this in an instant. I love it! It far surpasses the way you have to get around in There. Your avatar flies around fast, but often travels more quickly than the graphics are able to fill in around you. It is not uncommon to be flying through the air, only to smack into a wall that hasn’t yet loaded. While that can be frustrating, it just comes with the territory.

As with There, this 3D world leans heavily on your Internet connection, as all graphics, sounds, communications, and worldly details must be transferred to your computer as you travel. No matter how powerful your PC or connection, you’ll never experience the same performance as you would playing a 3D game that is installed locally. That is just the way it is. You can help matters by turning off music or video streaming, or limiting their bandwidth.

There are a lot of places to go in Second Life, and many things to see. The landscape is ever expanding and changing. A few major companies are setting up virtual shops in Second Life. Dell is one of these companies. I went to their online store. You can sit down at a workstation and customize a PC to purchase in the real world. While this is really, really cool, I have doubts that I’d purchase a product this way. It simply isn’t as informative or reliable as a traditional two dimensional web page. Still, I applaud the effort by Dell and others.

I think Second Life is the best 3D virtual world available today. If you are interested, try this one out. Chatting, traveling, teleporting, and gesturing are all much easier than what There has to offer, in my opinion. And you can enjoy yourself without spending a single cent. Still, the fun wears off after a while. Besides exploring and occasionally chatting with strangers, I am not sure what you are supposed to do. After the initial trials, it is fun now and again, but unless there are more users logged in and more events, you’ll find yourself bored sooner or later. It will be interesting to see how the new “3D Internet” (as I have heard it called) will pan out in the future. Second Life already has a great foundation for this already in place. People all over the world are scheduling meetings and training classes using it. While this type of thing has a niche market, I doubt that the average computer user will want to interact with the world in this way. Time will tell.

So far, I have really enjoyed version 7. The best thing so far the new version is that it doesn’t slow down my Windows boot time as much as previous versions seemed to. Setting up my home network traffic was made a little easier this time, too. Overall, ZA hasn’t been as much of a nuisance as it used to be. I don’t know how much of all this is attributed to new features and how much of is my part of my imagination.

After trying other free firewalls such as Kerio and Comodo, I realize that ZoneAlarm has a lot to offer. Kerio stopped offering a free personal firewall program, so I quit using that long ago. I thought Comodo would be cool after reading a good review in a PC publication. It turns out, I was less than thrilled. ZoneAlarm, on the other hand, has always kept on a steady course by continuing to improve a great product while still offering it to the world for free. I am quite pleased with their product this time around.

After I recently upgraded my desktop machine to IE7, I actually tried using it for a night. In fact, I am using it right now as I write post to my blog, something I never normally do. I have to say I am fairly impressed with it. IE6 had become a dinosaur years ago. The new version can render pages much more quickly than its ancient predecessor. Tabbed browsing has finally arrived to IE, although a few years late in the game. Security is supposed to be tighter than the swiss cheese that plagued IE6. Time will tell on the security situation. One thing I do like about version 7 is how it behaves in full-screen mode. When you enter this mode, the browser window literally consumes the whole screen. The live web page reaches all the way up to the highest pixel. Impressive.

A long time ago, before Firefox, I used an overlay program for IE (now called Maxthon) to add tabs and a better interface. What Microsoft has now finally built into IE7 looks to me to be better than what the overlay program once was. The clean, uncluttered interface and overall polish of IE7 certainly deserves a nod. If you like using IE and haven’t yet upgraded, you should do so, and not look back.

A year ago, I figured my laptop was more at risk than my desktop machine, so I bought Norton AV 2006 and installed it on there. It is a fine application and it has done a great job of protecting me during the past year. It is a solid, reliable protector. A few annoyances ate away at my nerves, though. The worst of them, it would complain when I have my Windows Automatic Updates setting set to notify only. Personally, I don’t want it set to fully automatic. Norton complained by telling me that items needed my attention. Another annoyance was Norton going through a quick scan of hot areas on the drive upon every boot of the system. It would take two minutes after seeing the desktop on boot before Norton gave the okay that it was running properly. While this is an added level of protection for the paranoid, I could not find a way to turn it off. A month ago, I started receiving warnings that my subscription was about to expire and that I’d need to pay $20 to renew the virus signature updates for another year. I did not want to do this.

After viewing the processes running on my machine in the Windows Task Manager, I was stunned at the number of programs running to prop up Norton. I looked them all up online and their maker is Symantec. Keep in mind that I only have the standalone Anti-Virus, not the full-blown Internet Security Suite. It should not take six or so processes to fulfill my anti-virus programs needs. I know the program runs background updates and another client to protect the Norton core files, but all told it is just sucking too much life out of the computer.

AVG has come a long way. It doesn’t use as many system resources to function as Norton does. For some odd reason, in AVG, you can set the scheduler to check the drive for viruses every day, but there is no other option for the frequency. It is every day or not at all. To that, I say not at all. I will do it when I feel like it.

After you install the free AVG, click the system tray icon and go to the AVG Control Center. From there, click the Email Scanner line and choose Properties. In the properties window, click Configure. In this window, uncheck the boxes to Certify Mail. The certification is a little attachment to your messages saying the message is virus-free. It is really annoying. Turn it off!

You can find the free AVG AntiVirus here: free.grisoft.com.

A while back, I used to use Kerio Personal Firewall, until they pulled the plug on the free version. Now, I have been using Comodo for over a week and I am very happy with this program. I did have a little trouble understanding how to set up trusted areas for my home network, but once I figured it out, it made sense. You only have to put in an IP address that you trust (or a range of addresses). For example, entering 192.168.1.101 (or whatever the local IP is of the another computer you are accessing) gives you free-flowing access to share files back and forth on your network to that machine. Be sure to set it on both computers if you install Comodo on each of them.

The Windows Firewall, which is included in XP SP2, only protects your inbound traffic. While that is the largest threat, you are technically safer using a two-way firewall. You shouldn’t have to spend money for that. Thanks to Comodo, you don’t have to. And you don’t have to put up with ZoneAlarm. That’s music to my ears.

Editpad Lite is the free version of Editpad and it is wonderful. The main reason that I downloaded this a year ago is that it can find and replace text across multiple files. This is extremely handy. I used it to work on the files for this blog, actually. For example: I can download all of the PHP files from my online WordPress folder and open them all at once in Editpad. Files load in convenient tabs, such as they do in Firefox. Simply pull up the search feature (CTRL-F) and find/replace any text you wish. in the current tab, or across all the open files. The Windows Notepad can’t do this, or even have more than one file open at a time. Even more, Editpad conveniently colors HTML code, has a slew of options and features, and so much more. I don’t use the majority of its features. The example above is reason enough for me. I recommend it for everyone. It is far and away better than the basic notepad you are probably using now.

Note: I changed the preferences on my Editpad to disable the tray icon. This keeps it from running in the background. Also, I like to check the option to keep the registry clean and store user settings in an .ini file.

Today, the .zip file format is still the most popular. Since Microsoft finally included a zip extractor in Windows XP, the need for Winzip further diminished. However, you still need a standalone utility to create these files. Luckily, WinRAR creates archives in both .rar and .zip file formats! Granted, I think it is a little slower on the compression speed than other comparable programs. That is no matter because the compression rates for typical .rar files are outstanding, especially if you max it out and use the “best” setting. You’ll soon find that creating .zip files isn’t so great after all.

WinRAR is the first program that I install on my computer after I install Windows (and updates). In fact, I use it as my backup program, too. In doing so, I save a profile of my backup archive and reuse it every time. WinRAR compresses the My Documents folder and puts the archive on my second hard drive. For this scenario, a .zip file format is not an option if the final file is greater than 2 GB in size.

I recommend WinRAR to everyone as their standard compressor of choice. The program’s integration in the Windows Explorer is so handy that you’ll feel lost without it. I have used this program for a long time, since the version 2.x series, and it has never let me down. The latest version as of this writing is v3.62. The program is not free, but if you use it past the evaluation period, you do not lose functionality.

I do like Thunderbird and I have been satisfied over the past year since I started using it. Recently, I have been feeling impatient with it. Creating new messages seems to take an extra second or two when drawing the composition window. The program feels slow. The awesome Firefox browser is sleek and super fast. Thunderbird doesn’t share its snappiness. Also, despite always upgrading to the newest version, Thunderbird still has a few glitches that bother me. A few examples:

1. When I am looking at messages in the preview pane and click the down arrow to display all of the recipients for that message, a bunch of extra space is left over, pushing the message body too far down.
2. After switching message folders, the message text of the last message previewed still shows on the lower half of the screen. Why am I still seeing that message when I am now in a different mailbox?
3. The command to empty the trash folder is listed under the File menu. But emptying the junk mail folder is found under the Tools menu. Why? And emptying the junk folder simply moves them to the trash folder.

After having to do a total system reinstall recently, I decided to install my copy of Outlook 2003. This time, I started a new file from scratch. I set up my calendar, contacts, messages, accounts, etc. I remember how much loved the “Outlook Today” page with my to-do list in the corner. The reading pane is very cool and the junk mail filter works great. I also love how the messages are automatically sorted by Today, Yesterday, Last Week, etc. The 2003 version of Outlook is so much better than the previous versions. If you want to use Outlook and don’t have the 2003 version, then you probably shouldn’t bother, since you’ll be missing out on the coolest features.

Now for some negative. One big dissatisfaction that I have with Outlook is that pictures attached to a message are not previewed in the message window. This annoys me. If they are embedded photos, then you will see them inline, but not if they are attached. There should be an option for this. Another annoyance is the strict security limitations that Microsoft has placed on what file extensions will be allowed in your incoming email. It is worth the time to go in and edit the Windows registry to change this behavior. You’ll have to look that up yourself, as I won’t go into that here.

If you use Outlook Express (heaven forbid!) then you’d be much better off using Thunderbird. But if you have Outlook 2003, you are doing yourself a disservice if you are not actually using this program. I found myself very surprised at how fast the program runs on my slow computer and how instant its actions are. I can’t understand why a program as mammoth as Outlook can run faster and use less memory on my computer than a program as basic as Thunderbird? Granted, the sheer size of my mailbox files may contribute to Thunderbird’s hesitation. I adore the open-source movement and I honestly hate to concede anything to the Microsoft monopoly, but Outlook is unbeatable.

Enter Trillian. It is a free, polished, and intuitive chat program used to access virtually all of the different chat mediums from a single window. There are no advertisements or extra junk installed on your system. There is a also Pro version available for paying users that has more advanced features. I use the Basic version. I used to use this program a long time ago, and back then, it did have a few rough edges. Since that time, it has really grown up and become very slick and polished. The version I am using now is v3.1.

One thing that I like is that the program uses plug-ins for each of the chat networks. You can choose not to install ones that you don’t plan to use. Best of all, even while connected to all three chat services that I frequent (AOL, Yahoo, and MSN), the program uses approximately 14 MB of RAM. You can’t even run a single one of the native chat applications with that little memory. I’d like to add that I rarely connect to MSN because I do not like it.

If you are using any of the chat services to do video chat, or even just audio, you will probably be better off using the real native program for that. But for everything else, don’t waste your time or space installing any of the instant messaging beasts. Trillian is all you need.

As far as I know, Trillian it is for Windows only. If you use Linux, then Gaim is obviously your best bet. But if you are running Windows, you’ll find Trillian to be much more modern and polished than Gaim. At the time of this writing, Gaim version 2.0 has not been yet been finalized. It seems like it has been ages since the last release came out. Therefore, I am basing my comparison on the current version of Gaim, which is 1.50.

Personally, I think it is helpful to back up all of your personal stuff and reformat and reinstall Windows every year. I think this is a good idea. At least every 18 months or so. You’d be amazed at how often device drivers are updated as well as all of your software. Every so often, I’ll save my documents to my second hard drive, then reformat my hard drive and reinstall Windows from scratch. This gives you a reason to download the latest versions of all your software and drivers. I find that the computer, at least for a while, runs faster than it used to.

This whole post feels a bit random, but I’ll add another tip. Another good idea is that if you have two hard drives in your PC, have Windows save the memory swap file on the other disk, away from the OS installation. This supposedly speeds things up when it has to read and write from it and load other data. Just my $.02.

I bought a copy of Microsoft Money off of eBay back in 2005, and after using it for about two months, decided to ditch it. For starters, the program immediately synced my banking data between my home computer and the online MSN Money site, without any warning. This is for convenience, Microsoft says, so couples can both access their data from any Internet-connected PC. I did not like the idea of my personal information going anywhere but right on the hard drive I am using. I was able to disable that feature. Other than that glaring issue, I just didn’t like how the program operated. It was a lot of little inconveniences that added up to make me long for Quicken again.

I had used Quicken in years past, and was always pleased with it, though some older versions had kind of a Windows 3.1 feel to them. This isn’t the case now, and in fact, PC Magazine just gave the new 2007 version its Editor’s Choice award. The interface has been upgraded and it is a winner, from what I read. For now, I am still using the version that I have.

So anyway, if feel like you need this kind of software, which most people do (or should!), then use Quicken and not Microsoft Money. As for open-source, there is a free banking program called GnuCash, but it isn’t up to the Quicken standard that I have come to expect. I have tried it on Linux and it was quite poor. There is a Mac version of Quicken, but I unfortunately don’t have a Mac, so I can’t comment on that.

Some have suggested yearly service packs, regardless of their content, that come out at the same time each year. I support this idea. I think that automatic updates have made Microsoft lazy about making service packs. Even if each of these is no more than a collection of updates that you have applied already, it would make installs and reinstalls easier, and provide some small piece of mind for users.