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Issue #144: May 2, 2010

Q: I just purchased a new computer with Windows 7 Home premium, can I upgrade to Windows 7 professional.  The reason my Seagate 250gb Free Agent is incompatible and my dell A964 all-in-one printer is noncompatible.  I saw Microsoft has an upgrade for $89.99 home premium to professional, will this work. 

– Dave B.
Fort Walton Beach, Fla

A: Starting with Vista, Microsoft instituted an “Anytime Upgrade” program that allows you to do exactly what the name implies, Dave, and upgrade your Windows any time you like.  However, I don’t believe upgrading from one version of Windows 7 to another is going to solve your compatibility problems.  The higher levels of Windows don’t offer more compatibility, they offer more features.  Before you do any upgrading, be sure and understand what you’re buying.  You can get a breakdown of the differences in the versions at store.microsoft.com/Windows7/Compare.  You should also check in with your devices’ manufacturers for availability of updated drivers.  New ones come out all the time, and the more people who ask for a specific one, the more likely the company is to make it a priority.  There’s also good old Google.  Try searching for “Dell A964 driver win7” for example.  I did, and found many links to discussion forums that indicate that new drivers may already be available.  Good luck!

Q: While wintering in Destin I read your ‘It’s Geek to Me’ column on regular basis and found your advice very informative.  Recently, just before we left Destin for Ontario, Canada you dealt with a question on how to totally remove all McAfee files from a computer, unfortunately I can’t find that article and I am now facing the same situation as the reader who contacted you for help.  You mentioned a cleaning program, or website that would look after removal of pesky McAfee’s left over files. I believe it to have been a BINARY file. What’s a ‘binary’ file anyway? 

– Joe S.
Ontario, Canada

A: Well, looks like It’s Geek to Me has gone international!  Thanks for being a fan, Joe.  I’ve had several requests to re-print the McAfee removal instructions, so it would be my pleasure.  The name of the file is MCPR.exe, but you can download it directly by simply entering tinyurl.com/mzk9z into your browser.  Just download and execute the file, and it will wipe out all traces of several McAfee products.

As for the other part of your question, the term binary is used when talking about files to differentiate human-readable files (such as ASCII text files) from files that are encoded in a non-readable form, such as .exe files.  The non-human-readable files are referred to as binary, so yes, the McAfee product remover file would be considered a binary file.  Actually, all computer data is binary, which simply means it is comprised of 1’s and 0’s.  So technically, all files are binary, since no matter what they contain, at their core, they really are nothing but patterns of 1’s and 0’s.  Really though, the term is only meaningful to engineers.  Most consumers really wouldn’t care if a file is binary or not.

I’d like to remind everybody that if you miss something in the column, or need to find something in a back issue, such as the link that Joe asked about above, all prior issues of It’s Geek to Me are always available on the website of the Northwest Florida Daily News.  Go to [redacted – link no longer maintained]. The link to the archives is at the bottom of the page.


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