Archive for the ‘Software Reviews’ Category
Saturday, July 26th, 2008
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What do you know about Windows 7? There isn’t a whole lot out about it yet, other than a few details spreading like wildfire around the net, but visually it looks great from the limited screen caps. Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates have been marketing it pretty heavily, however their message is still that Vista is the greatest Operating System out. There are definitely arguments about that.
I am curious to know what you know about Windows 7! Let me know. I am going to be writing a full post about it soon and would like to hear some feedback about the new OS that will replace the horrendous Vista.
Tags: Bill Gates, Microsoft, Mojave, Operating System, Steve Ballmer, Vista, Windows, Windows 7
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Monday, July 7th, 2008
Arguably the most popular free anti-virus solution, AVG is trying to solidify its rain at the top with AVG Anti-Virus 8.0. How does AVG compete with popular paid for solutions such as Trend Micro or Norton? Well many people already know about the problems with Norton being a resource hog. With Norton 360, Symantec claims to have solved this issue but through my own personal experience, I would disagree. Before I see any true benefits from Norton, I have to have a minimum of 1GB of RAM in an XP machine and 2GB of RAM in a Vista PC. And lets be honest, the majority of folks these days don’t have that. The average I see daily in an XP machine is 512MB and 1GB in a Vista machine. So you do the math.
As for Trend Micro Anti-Virus or Internet Security, I actually like both. They don’t utilize much RAM at all. I don’t see any effect on my system when running scans. Scan wise, i would not say its the absolute best, but if you keep the updates running and the scans automatic then you should not have any problems. I personally recommend either of these products.
Now to AVG. Here is what I personally know about AVG. I am a PC Tech supervisor and deal with 20-30 computers daily. More than half of the clients I deal with use AVG and bring them in with viruses. The defense they always give me is, “it’s free”. And I respond with, “so were the viruses”. How much is your data worth? Remember you get what you pay for. I don’t want you to think I am completely against AVG, they have improved drastically over the last few years. I just have not seen a reasonable amount of improvement to warrant download.
On the good side, AVG 8.0 is easy to understand and work with. They do provide free support at any time which can’t be said about other companies. If you are responsible with your web surfing ventures you may not have any problems.
What do you think about it?
Tags: Antispyware, Antivirus, AVG, AVG Anti-virus, AVG Anti-Virus 8.0, Norton, Norton 360, Trend Micro, Webroot
Posted in Software Reviews | 2 Comments »
Monday, March 31st, 2008
Network Magic is a program that I have been using for about 2 years now. I absolutely love this program. It makes networking simple for your home of small-business. Its simply point and click networking. You can view a network map that shows every pc, router, switch, hub, printer…etc that is connected either wired or wireless. It also gives you the IP address, MAC address, Subnet Mask, CPU type, and RAM amount of each PC on your network.
If you are not tech savvy enough to lock down (secure) your network, Network Magic will walk you through doing it. Its very simple. If someone from outside of your network attempts to connect, the program will prompt you and allow you the option to “track as an intruder” which will kick their IP and prevent them from accessing anything on your network.
The program also alerts you when any PC on your network needs updates. It will monitor your security software as well. Want to share folders across your network? You can do that with a few clicks as well. And for those gamers out there who have their console(s) hooked to their network, they will show up on the network map. You can name each device on the network creating an easy-to-understand environment.
Network Magic makes managing your network very easy. For business owners, there is no better solution to maintaining your network and network devices. Why pay someone high dollars to do it when for a small amount of money you can achieve the same results on your own. I live by this program and would not recommend or use anything else.
Tags: Cisco, CPU Type, hub, IP Address, MAC address, Network Magic, Point and Click, printer, Pure Networks, RAM, Router, sharing, subnet mask, switch, Wireless Security
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Monday, July 9th, 2007
There are a lot of people out there asking why their systems will not recognized more RAM. Their motherboards support up to 4 or even 8GB or RAM and yet, Vista only shows a little over 3GB. Why? Well the answer is simple, Microsoft doesn’t like you. Ha Ha, no just kidding, Vista 32-bit will never use a full 4GB of RAM due the memory IO reservations, which control how the onboard memory for your installed devices, like graphics cards, use your system memory. According to Microsoft, the 32-bit version of Vista is limited to 3.12GB of total memory. Thanks Microsoft.
So if you are in the market to build a PC, buy a system or upgrade your PC, keep in mind that Windows Vista 32-bit will only support 3.12GB of RAM, so don’t waste your money on upgrades.
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Sunday, June 17th, 2007
This could be an arguable post, but I recently discovered that most of the top name security apps out there do not support the 64-bit version of Windows Vista. The only brand that I have found that 64-bit Vista supports is Trend Micro Internet Security 2007 and Trend Micro Anti-Virus 2007. TMAV 07 would install from the disc with no problem, but TMIS 07 I had to go to the Trend Micro support site to obtain the 64-bit installer. I was trying to use Webroot Spysweeper together with Trend Micro AV but was unable to install Webroot. Have any feedback around this topic? Post it on the forums at CybersForum.
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Sunday, April 22nd, 2007
One of the most frequently asked questions I get on a daily basis is, can you roll Vista Back to XP?! Through a lot of research and requests, I have determined this; If you want to take advantage of the most current hardware components, while using Windows XP, buy a computer with XP on it. Yea there are still some out there. Thats the easiest way to do so.
I recently tried to actually do this on an HP Laptop and everything went successfully until I tried loading the last 2 drivers. Both of which were related to nVidia MCP51 chip. I was unable to find this anywhere. I called HP, they told me it wasn’t available for XP. I called Microsoft, they said, call HP. I called nVidia, they didn’t answer. So I decided to call every major vendor out there, and there, HP, Sony, nVidia, ATI, Intel, Microsoft, Gateway and even ACER(who is having their own problems at this point). The only one that could tell me anything about this situation was Sony. They told me that a solution for this problem was being worked out and they would be releasing the drivers to allow you to roll your Windows Vista computer back to XP in a few months. Thank you Sony.
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