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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2006-01-09

A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware, 
Software, and Time Online

Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!

1) New Year, New PC?

It's a new year, and for many of us, that means new hardware. But buying a PC today is complicated somewhat by two major factors--- hardware standards that are changing; and the scheduled release of Microsoft's "Vista" operating system. Make the wrong choice, and you may find your new PC dead-ended and obsolete much sooner than it should have been. But make the right hardware choices today, and your new PC will remain useful for years to come, letting you ride out the coming changes with aplomb.

In a new (free) column posted today at http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=175801892 , we'll look at 10 major factors to consider in making a PC purchase this year. For example, consider how OS Changes will affect your hardware:

In 2006, we'll have three major variables at play: Windows "Vista" http://langa.com/u/ag.htm --- the successor to XP--- is slated to roll out towards the end of the year. Linux continues to make inroads as a full-fledged alternative to Windows. And Apple is beginning to migrate the Mac to a standard, Intel-based PC platform. Any or all of these could affect your choice of hardware.

Of course, any standard PC you buy today most likely will ship with XP either installed or offered as the default choice. In fact, XP will remain for sale up to the launch of Vista. But XP is already five years old, and full or "mainstream" support for XP is currently scheduled to end on Dec 31st 2006, meaning that warranty claims and non-charge support will end. Also, for the most part, no major new features will be added to XP after that date, except for security patches.

After Dec 31 2006, XP Pro will enter what Microsoft calls the "extended" support phase, which runs until Dec 31 2011: During that time, Microsoft will continue to offer security updates for download; and will keep self-help resources available for free via the Knowledgebase and other Microsoft.Com sites; but tech support will be available only for a fee. In effect, XP Pro will go into a stable maintenance period, with little or no new features added.

And note that the above is specific to XP Pro. XP Home currently has no planned "extended support" phase. Instead, it is scheduled to become unsupported as of Dec 31 2006.

Microsoft has juggled the lifecycle schedules of its products many times before and no doubt will do so again. In fact, as I write this, many of the official lifecycle information pages at Microsoft.Com are offline, presumably for updating. But the following pages are working as I write this, and may help if you have questions about Microsoft's product lifecycles:

Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy FAQ:
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy

Support Lifecycle Index (all MS products):
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeselectindex

XP Pro:
http://support.microsoft.com/common/international.aspx?rdpath=dm;en-us;lifecycle&p1=3223

No matter what the final lifecycle dates are, the fact is that XP is getting along in age. Therefore, it'd be wise to spec any new PCs you buy now so they'll be able to work with XP's successors or alternatives.

In the article at
http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=175801892 , we'll walk through the specs for Vista, and also look at the alternatives such as Linux and the new PC-based Mac OS; all of which can affect your choice of hardware today.

Then, we'll look at PCs subsystem by subsystem, giving recommendations for CPU and memory, graphics and video, system architecture and bus types, hard drives/mass storage, removable media, external ports, networking, display and even factors such as noise and energy use.

When we're done, you'll have the information you need to make the right hardware choices today, so that no matter what OSes come into vogue, and no matter what hardware standards may evolve to, your new PC will remain useful for years to come!

Click on over to
http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=175801892 ! See you there!

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Glad you found it useful, Charles. The Plus! Archives are indeed offered
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2) Real World Vs Tech Ideals

Hi Fred, I've used Netscape browsers for many years as part of the Communicator package.  A couple of years ago I started using the Netscape 6 browser but eventually found that I was having a lot of trouble with web sites that would freeze up the browser or just flat out not load all of the site's pages.  I kept finding web sites that referred to some item that was supposed to be on the page but I couldn't see it.  I'd contact the web master and mostly they would tell me I was blind.  I finally found out about the fact that many sites are designed as "I.E. compatible" but not "Netscape compatible."  When I'd revisit the same sites using I.E. they would work fine.  I recently tried to get away from that problem by using Firefox instead of Netscape.  It was so similar to Netscape that it "felt comfortable."  Now I'm finding that many of the sites that wouldn't work with Netscape also won't work with Firefox.  Have you found this to be true also?  Any suggestions you'd care to make or am I going to just have to bite the bullet and switch to I.E. full time? Thanks for the newsletters, Doug Morris

We touched on this briefly in the last issue--- it is indeed a messy situation.

You see, there are two kinds of standards: "True" standards, which are officially endorsed by a recognized authority or standards body; and de facto or market standards.

To use a non-inflammatory example: scientific weights and measures are true standards. A meter, a kilogram, a degree of temperature, a second, etc., all have precise definitions that can be reproduced anywhere in the world with the same results. (Well, OK: the kilo is a special case because it's still based on a physical artifact residing in Paris [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilogram ]; but functionally, you get the point.)

Market standards are different. Take clothing or shoe or hat sizes, for example: A size 11 man's shoe in the US is around a size 45 in Europe, or a size 10.5 in the UK. A woman's dress size 10 in the US is around a 42 in Italy; but in Scandinavia, France and Germany it's about a 38; or maybe a 40 in Spain and Portugal; or a 12 in the UK.... Those are market standards, and they're as imprecise as they are varied: Two neighboring manufacturers may even produce items that are nominally the same size, but that actually fit quite differently.

Despite the deep flaws of market measures, anyone wanting to sell into a given market has to acknowledge the local custom. An Italian dress maker, for example, had better label its size 42 dresses as "Size 10" if it wants to sell them in the US, and vice versa.

Getting back to web browsers, there are those who want to take the scientific approach, and have rigidly-defined, universally-agreed-on standards--- true standards--- for how web pages are written and displayed.

It's a noble sentiment. But in the real world, it's also almost an impossible one to implement because of the wild and woolly, very non-standard ways that web pages, browsers, and tools evolved over the years. There are hundreds of millions--- perhaps billions--- of web pages in existence, but some attempts to produce "standard" browsers ignore this inconvenient fact.

What do you gain with a web browser that's 100% compliant with current standards, but that breaks millions of existing web pages? Yes, technically speaking, it's the web pages that are at fault, but come on: You can't ignore reality and pretend that all those pages don't exist or don't matter. Market standards are important, too.

It gets worse because there's the fundamental question of "which standard?" Web standards don't sit still; they evolve rapidly, and come in many flavors and variants and versions and implementations, all of which can be claimed to be true "standards." This is one of the reasons why two "standards compliant" browsers may render a given page differently. While the supporters of each brand of browser may claim that their way of doing it is the right way--- the One True Way--- it's not that simple. And I again ask: If a browser is so fussy about the way it interprets code that ordinary, mainstream web pages may not display well, what have you really gained through standards compliance?

I understand the desire for technical purity that drives many arguments about browsers and web standards, but to me the bottom line is: Does it work in the real world? What's the point in a browser that only works well in limited circumstances, or only on a fraction of the web's pages?

None of this is a defense of Internet Explorer. The current IE browser is aging; Microsoft hasn't done much with it in the last couple years, and it is no longer current with the latest official standards. There is a new version of IE being tested now, and we'll have to see how well it does, when it ships.

But even now, IE remains a potent market standard; it ships on 90% of the world's PCs! Any browser claiming standards compliance, but that can't properly render a page that works fine on the browser that comes with 90% of the world's PCs, is severely limiting itself. Technical purity is a good thing, but so is real-world usefulness.

Successful products need to work in the flawed, real world we inhabit. And if they can't, I don't think there's much reason to use 'em.

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3) Outstanding Free Tool

Hi Fred, You have discussed VMware before. All the way back to 1999. I thought your readers might like to know that there is now a free VMware Player (currently in public beta). From the site: "VMware Player is free software that enables PC users to easily run any virtual machine on a Windows or Linux PC. VMware Player runs virtual machines created by VMware Workstation, GSX Server or ESX Server and also supports Microsoft virtual machines and Symantec LiveState Recovery disk formats." You can also download and run a "preconfigured" VM such as Linux distributions and a wide variety of guest operating systems. VMware Player (beta) http://www.vmware.com/.  ---Calvin

It's that last part that's so interesting--- that you can download and run preconfigured virtual machines:

Fred,  In the past you've mentioned virtual machines and VMWare specifically, so I was wondering if you are aware of their new free offering. It is called VMWare Player. The Player can run any previously configured virtual machine and they offer a few on their website.  One is called the Browser Appliance and offers users a safe way of browsing the internet within a virtual machine using the Firefox web browser. VMWare Player has versions for both the Windows and Linux operating system. They also offer a few versions of Linux virtual machines which can be run on Windows for people who are thinking of moving to Linux. You can check it out at http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/ . ---Rich Jenkins

The "community-built virtual machines" are, in essence, a complete, fully-set-up PC, emulated entirely in software, that runs inside your current operating system:

The VMware community continues to create downloadable virtual machines that run in VMware Workstation and the free VMware Player. Three new virtual machines contain the OpenACS web application toolkit, the IPCop firewall, and the Sguil network analyst console. Other new virtual machines contain distributions of Kubuntu, Debian, Fedora Core 4 and 5, FreeBSD, and KDE 3.5 on SUSE....

The downloadable virtual PCs are available at http://www.vmware.com/vmtn/vm/

You can download and use these virtual machines just as if they were a normal, stand-alone PC.

The one thing you can't do with the VM "player" is change the virtual machine settings itself. For that, you need a full-functional copy of the commercial software http://www.vmware.com/products/player/comparison.html . Or, a copy of a competing tool, like Microsoft's "Virtual PC." ( http://www.google.com/search?as_q=vpc&as_sitesearch=langa.com )

This ability to distribute fully set-up and configured OSes will make software testing (of things like Linux) even easier and better than the "Live CD" versions that have been popular in recent years.

Very, very cool!

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4) "Services.Msc" Tip

Fred: Reference "AntiVirus Causes Partitioning Problems" ( http://www.langalist.com/plus/newsletters/2006/2006-01-05plus.asp ):
 
Whenever I had a problem with Norton Anti-Virus/Norton System Works interfering with what I wanted to do, I simply went into "Services" [type "services.msc" without the quotes on the Start/Run box] and disabled everything named or associated with Symantec, and  Norton. That shut it all down and I then could accomplish the task I set out to do. When I finished, I reversed the disabling and everything was back to normal. This same procedure works with other programs that interfere.
 
Taking your advice, I am eliminating these multitasking, controlling programs and switching to less invasive, but just as effective, programs that run when I want them to, and do what I want them to do. I dislike having multiple programs all trying to get automatic updates at the same time, or at inconvenient times. As a result my computer runs much better. I love NOD32 ( http://www.google.com/search?as_q=nod32&as_sitesearch=langa.com ) and BootItNG ( http://www.google.com/search?as_q=bootit&as_sitesearch=langa.com ) ---took awhile but I got the hang of it.
 
Most people say "Thanks" for a great newsletter at the beginning of their message to you. When I bought my first computer in November 1997, I immediately subscribed to your free Langalist, then subscribed to the Plus Edition when it started. 95% of what I know now about computers has come from you. The other 5% from 15 other newsletters I also subscribe to. Thanks, Al Brashear

The "Microsoft Management Console" (MMC) is one of the lesser-known elements of Windows 2K and XP; items with the "msc" extension open inside the Management Console, and may be altered from there. The MMC is a very powerful way to access and control a huge array of system features and functions.

More info: Search on "mmc" in Windows' Start/Help function; or see "Step-by-Step Guide to the Microsoft Management Consol" at
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=Management+Console+MMC ; or
http://www.google.com/search?&q=Management+Console+MMC

Good tip, Al, and thanks for the kind words.

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5) Where the Heck Is It Stored?

Hi Fred, I have enjoyed being a plus edition subscriber for sometime now. This may seem trivial, but it has been driving me crazy. On my old 98se system I used to be able to remove individual URLs from the address bar without clearing all of them out. I have had an XP Home based PC for the last 3 years and after a Google search found the following;

Click on Start, then Run
Type: Regedit
Navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Typed URLs
Then delete all of the keys you no longer want to see....

When I follow this I end up with one icon with ab in the icon. Next to it is (default) type reg_sz....

There is no list. I have mis-typed URLs and others that I would like to remove without having to re-enter all keepers. Also, I do not know if there is a problem with the browser, but the address bar used to bubble sort, moving the selected URL to the top and all the others down one. That feature no longer appears to be working it is static.

Is there something in my IE (SBC-Yahoo) setup that needs to be activated to enable editing URLs? I am running IE6.
 
Thanks for a great news letter. I have followed many of your helpful hints which have saved the bacon more than once. ---Bill

The "typed URLs" trick usually works, but let me broaden this to a more general answer: You can find *anything* in the Registry by using Regedit's search function--- you don't have to know where something is or what it's called beforehand: For the search term, just type in some unique portion of the URL (or other thing) you're looking for. If it's in the Registry, the search function will find it for you. Note that there may be multiple instances of any given item stored in several places in the Registry--- search multiple times until the search returns no hits.

Of course, this is one of those times where I have to restate what I hope is obvious by now: Make a backup before you make *any* system-level change to your PC, so you can get things back the way they were if your repair doesn't work the way you wanted.

BTW: If what you seek isn't in the Registry, it may be stored in some other file on your hard drive. Do a full search for all files (including hidden and system files), using some unique portion of the thing you're looking for as the search term. If it's in a file, that search should turn it up.

There are some things that can't be found this way: Data stored in encrypted form, and in some kinds of compression, for example, may not turn up. But most things can be found this way, even if you have no idea where they might be stored. They're in the system *somewhere,* and searching the Registry and/or the full contents of the hard drive will usually turn it up.

See also #9, below, for related info.

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6) New Year, New Month, New Chances

It's a new month, and right now your chances are the best they'll ever be!

To have a shot at winning one of three FREE ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTIONS to the LangaList Plus! edition I give away each month, just use the following link to recommend the LangaList. (If your name is drawn and you're already a Plus! subscriber, your current subscription will be extended by a full year.)

Check out the details at http://langa.com/recommend.htm . Thanks for recommending the LangaList--- and good luck!

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7) Free Guide For Using Older Apps In Newer OSes

Hi, Fred, Happy New Year, and Thanks again for an excellent newsletter.

Re "Ancient Software On A New OS" ( http://langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-01-05.htm#5 ), I've noted many issues (and some solutions!) at http://www.kennedysoftware.ie/oldapps.htm. Much of the content leans to the technical side, so apologies for that. I think you may have referenced this page some time ago, but, hopefully, a reminder is timely.  - Mike

Thanks, Mike. Nice to have all that info in one handy place!

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8) More Reader Sites!

Do you have a home page or website? (It doesn't matter what size.) Please click over to http://langa.com/code.htm , and maybe you can join the hundreds and hundreds of LangaList readers who have "Loaded the Code!" (If you've already "Loaded The Code" and are wondering if your site will appear here or on the Langa.Com web site, please see http://langa.com/link.txt )

Speaking of which: Here's another eclectic sample of reader sites--- some professional, some very personal:

View A Randomly-Chosen Reader Site From Among All Listed
http://langa.com/randomlink.htm

Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://langa.com/readersites.htm

Women2women
http://www.women2women.com/

African minerals
https://www.mineralblessings.com/index.html?newitems.html

Isreali Electrical Info
http://www.megavolt.co.il/

Titanic Metasites
http://www.allsitecafe.com/titanic.html

Resume software for recruiters
http://www.recruiter.ca/recruiter/

Nick's Computer Security
http://malwareremoval.com/plog/index.php?blogId=3

Farr Family
http://www.combehay.blogspot.com/

Birding in Wales
http://www.mdkinc.com/mccbird/index.html

THS Alumni Association,  Thermopolis, WY
http://www.thermopolis.org/ths72/home.htm

Family Twigs
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~familytwigs/index.html

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9) Digging Out The Last Vestiges...

These questions are conceptually related to #5, above, but with a different slant: They're about removing the final traces of software that doesn't perform a full uninstall--- software that leaves pieces behind that may remain active and in the way!

Fred I just got a new computer and it is loaded with Aol stuff. My problem is I have deleted (I thought) all of the Aol stuff out of it. But on deeper digging I have found it in almost ever file. I want this out but can't seem to find a way to delete it all. Your help would be very much appreciated if you know of a way to get rid of all of it. Thanks for your help. Bob Yeater

Fred, A note of thanks, and a recommendation. My Norton Systemworks 2002 finally reached the end of its supported life for the antivirus definitions, and I was finding the speed penalty at least seemed to be getting worse. Remembering your house call article, I set about scrubbing Norton out of my computer.  The first thing I found was that the uninstall routines did not work.  In order to remove it all, I had to resort to the removal program in JV16, the Windows Install Cleanup Tool, and even my faithful WIN98SE boot disk to remove a few files and directories which WINXP would not lot me touch. Norton did not die easily. However, my boot and shutdown times are one third what they were, and the system now has some spring in its step.  I am still fiddling with the NOD32 antivirus program, but it looks like a keeper. The recommendation is for another registry cleaner, Regseeker, which can be found at:  http://www.hoverdesk.net/freeware.htm  It is a very powerful program, and the latest upgrade separates out things which are clearly safe to remove, and things which require caution.... Perhaps not for beginners, but highly useful.  It also has a few other rather routine functions, but registry cleaning is its forte. Thanks! ---Alan

A manual search of the Registry and entire disk (as described in item #5) usually can find all or *most* traces of software that doesn't want to fully uninstall.

But you may have to search under many names and variations to get them all, because some  pieces of the offending software may have a name that's different from the main application or utility you're trying to remove. An infamous example: removing Norton Antivirus may not remove the separate, but related, Liveupdate and "Symevent" files. If you search only for "antivirus," you won't get the other stuff.

But multiple searches using different approaches can dig up most everything. (Not to beat up on Symantec, but using that example again: search for symantec, norton, antivirus, liveupdate, symevent, etc.) And, as Alan says, good registry cleaning software ( http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=171203805 )
can help find what's left afterwards, a also fix any secondary problems that result from the brute-force deletion of files or settings earlier!

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10, 11, 12, 13) Plus! Edition Highlights:

Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten items above, plus about 40% more content including:

• "Hidden" File Problems
     (make sure you see everything...)
• First-Hand Experience In Avoiding Censors
     (reader from central Asia speaks out)
• OEM Vs Retail Windows
     (what are the differences? which is better?)
• New Laptop Screen Looks Awful
     (what to do for non-eye-straining performance)

The Plus! edition is only pennies per issue, and comes with a MONEY BACK GUARANTEE from Fred. You can't lose!

Check out the details: http://langa.com/plus.htm

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14) Just For Grins

My brother-in-law, John, sends this along:
http://www.deadtroll.com/index2.html?/video/ossuckscable.html~content

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(Give a gift subscription to the LangaList Plus edition!
Click <a href= " http://langa.com/plus_gift.htm ">here</a>)

The LangaList is published about 72 times a year, or about 6 times a month. See you next issue, 2006-01-12!

Best,

Fred
( Editor@Langa.Com )

Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win a prize!)

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