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Issue #125: December 13, 2009

Q: I’m waiting to buy a new desktop PC until Windows 7 is out because of all the issues I’ve heard about Vista, many at one of your classes.  Have you formed an opinion of Windows 7 relative to Vista?  Also, should I wait until the first service pack is out?

– Thomas T.
Niceville, Fla

A: Shamefully, I must admit to not yet having a lot of hands-on experience with Windows 7, although I do have some interesting stories about it.  I have also gotten a constant stream of feedback from early-adopters, and the reviews I’m hearing are mixed between good and indifferent.  On the good side I’ve heard lots of praise for some of the new features of the GUI, quicker boot times, and such.  On the indifferent side, I’ve heard that it’s too similar to the previous version, except it’s been repackaged and divorced from the (now anathema) “Vista” moniker.  Interestingly enough, I haven’t heard much bad yet.  Apparently there are few or none of the compatibility problems and driver-non-availabilities that plagued Vista.

As for the timing of your purchase, your plan to upgrade through attrition to new hardware is a pretty good one.  The bundle price you’ll get is sure to be lower than even the upgrade price, and you’ll come away with a shiny new system that will probably be screaming fast (at least until the registry gets clogged up).  Regarding waiting for SP1, I’ve never quite understood why people think they get an advantage by waiting to buy the OS until the first Service Pack is released.  It’s not like you’ll have to buy the OS again when it changes, or even pay for the Service Pack.  Anything that’s catastrophically wrong with the new OS has already been tested out of the software.  So if you want it and it’s available, I say go for it. 

Q: Your column on the “Days of DOS” was just what I’ve needed.  But, now I can’t remember enough of the commands.  Alas.  Need the command to list commands. 

– Bernice C.
Fort Walton Beach, Fla

A: You’re going to feel mighty silly when I tell you this, Bernice, but the command to list all the other commands is “Help”.  For any individual command, you can enter the command itself and use the /? command line switch to get specific help on that command.  For example: DIR/?. 

Q: Yesterday Antivir appeared on my computor. It is constantly popping up with various screens saying that suspicious activity is going on.  When I click on the pop-ups they want me to purchase their product.  I’ve tried deleting this program with no success.

– Carl J.
Fort Walton Beach, Fla

It “appeared” eh?  More likely, either someone installed it, or what you have is not really AntiVir, but a PanicWare application that installed as a drive-by download when someone visited an infected website from your computer.  Based on the behavior you describe, I’d guess that it’s the latter.  Avira, the maker of AntiVir offers several tools, including one that will clear several types of virus infection, and one to eradicate all traces of AntiVir.  Visit www.avira.com/en/support/support_downloads.html for these free downloads.


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