Last month?  Last year?

Never?

If you are like most people, you fall into the last category.  If it aint’ broke, don’t fix it… right?

In case you don’t know what a “driver” is, a hardware driver a small program that sits between your operating system (e.g. Windows XP or Windows Vista) and a specific piece of hardware (e.g. printer, monitor, sound card, hard drive).

A driver interprets hardware signals and converts them into bits of information that your operating system can use, and vice versa.  That is why each piece of hardware you purchase usually has a “driver” disc that you need to install to make the hardware work properly (like that printer you purchased a while back).

Since the driver interprets between the hardware and the operating system, you are likely to have some drivers that will work for Vista, but not XP… or XP, but not Vista.  Which is why that printer probably came with several discs – one for XP, one for Mac… and maybe even one for Vista (if you purchased it within the last couple of years).

Now that we have that out of the way, you can see that drivers play a vital role in whatever computer you are using right now.  If it’s weren’t for these drivers, you wouldn’t be able to see the screen you are currently looking at, or even use the mouse or keyboard to scroll down this page.

Some of the most basic drivers are built into the operating system, so they are installed automatically… but, they are still there.

What does this have to do with you?

Drivers are often taken for granted and forgotten.  Once you install the driver and the hardware works properly, people usually don’t think much about drivers.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret, however.  It’s something that only computer enthusists and gamers know about:

Updating your drivers will often give you a dramatic boost in your computer’s performance.  Often it’s very noticable.

If that weren’t enough, updating your hardware drivers will often remedy a lot of problems too.  Newer, better drivers can help stabilize a flakey computer system when nothing else will.

You see, programs and drivers are written by people.  People, of course, are not perfect.  Therefore, the programs and drivers people write are NOT perfect.  They can slow down a computer if not written well… and cause absolute havoc when written horribly.

But, just like your golf swing and your sudoku skills, these programs can be improved upon.  So, a driver that was installed last year may have had 5 ot 6 complete rewrites since you installed it.  The newer drivers are not installed automatically… not even during a Windows update.

They are not doing you any good sitting out there on the hardware manufacturer’s website.  But, how do you get them installed without having advanced technical skills?

In the past, there weren’t too many choices.  But, here in our Fort Collins computer repair shop, we’ve discovered a program that we have really grown to love.  It’s called RadarSync, available at www.radarsync.com.

Downloading the program is completely painless, installing it is easy… and running the application is a piece of cake.

The program gives you the option to backup your drivers (useful if you are formatting your hard drive and reloading the operating system), or updating the drivers which is the subject of this posting.

Although there are other driver update utilities available on the web (Driver Genius Pro, Carambis Driver Updater), one of the coolest things about RadarSync is that it also checks for outdated programs, too!

For example, my first run of RadarSync on my machine revealed the I had an outdated version of my Mobile Intel 965 Chipset Driver.  But, in addition to that, RadarSync informed me that there was a newer version of 7-Zip available, and a newer version of VLC ready to be downloaded and installed.

It also let me know which of my computer’s applications were okay and needed no updating.

My only gripe about RadarSync 2009 is that you can’t maximize (or even increase the size of) the main window.  Hopefully, they will resolve this small annoyance in the next release of the software, making this application near perfect.

All in all, RadarSync is a great addition to update your outdated drivers and update  your software.  This alone will do a lot to speed up your system, make your system more stable and less prone to crashes.

Download RadarSync from www.radarsync.com.

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that says:

Throw it away? There is no away!

It’s true. It all has to go somewhere. And, wherever it goes, most of our old computers will be there too.

According to the most recent numbers from the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States produces over 2.5 million tons of “electronic waste” per year.

But, what about recycling this electronic waste? Isn’t it reused?

Well, the EPA went on to report that over 82% of this electronic waste goes into landfills, because the cost of recycling is too much (or the owners throw it in with the non-electronic garbage).

The saddest part of all this is the fact that most computers being thrown “away”, aren’t even broken. They are perhaps slow and in need of a tune-up. Or, at the very worst, they may need a single, inexpensive part replaced to make them work like new again.

Typically, a “broken” computer is only suffering from a software problem, such as a virus or spyware infection, registry corruption, or damaged operating system. But, even if the computer is suffering from a legitimate hardware issue, and in need of repair, a skilled computer repair professional can narrow down the problem, remove the afflicted component and keep the working components out of the local landfill.

But, instead of calling a local computer repair business and getting an estimate, many computer owners will get fed up with his or her misbehaving machine and decide to replace it with a new one. What do they do with their old computer? They recycle it, of course, which seems like the environmentally responsible thing to do… but, as noted above, these computers end up in a landfill over 82% of the time.

Not only are these people wasting their own money, but they are putting an even greater burden on the environment. If you stop to think about it, they are also placing an even greater burden on those who will one day choose to clean up our gigantic mess: our children, our children’s children, and countless more generations after we are gone.

Want to know what your next step should be?

Doing your part for help the environment doesn’t mean knowing where the closest computer recycling center is. It’s picking up the phone and calling your local computer repair shop.

When you speak to them, explain the problem your computer is having along with telling them the year that your computer was purchased. Based on this data, a skilled computer repair professional should be able to estimate a cost, and then tell you if your computer is actually worth the cost of computer repair.

In most cases, computer repair is much more affordable than you think. We perform these types of phone estimates for clients in our Fort Collins computer repair shop all the time. It doesn’t hurt to call and ask, right?

In part two, we discussed the value of giving your components some rest on a regular basis.

Today, we will get right down to part three!

Consider the cost of operating a computer 24/7/365.  Even when it’s not in use, a computer is working and using electricity.

The third reason why you should power down your computer at night, is to give yourself a direct savings on your energy bill… and help the environment in the process!

Here is an example of how much money you could be saving by turning off your computer, when you sleep at night:

Using the example of an average 200W computer (and electricity at $0.075 per kWh), NOT turning your computer off at night would cost you about $125 per year.  This is for full-time operation. 

Turning your computer off while you sleep, eat dinner, and watch television might chop that number in half (for the sake of round numbers).  Cutting it down only 12 hours per day would bring the cost down to about $60 per year, saving you about $60 per year, per computer.

If you work 8 hours per day, commute about hour per day, and sleep 8 hours per day, and watch television 1 hour per day, perform other random duties for an hour (shop, eat, clean, read) you might be able to bring your total cost of computer operation down to less than $25 per year.  Saving you $100 per year per computer.

The same can apply to an office, but the difference is that many offices have multiple computers.  By changing one little office habit, you could dramatically reduce your utilities bill, play a major part in reducing your environmental footprint, and help make employees a little happier.

Here’s what I mean…

An office that decides to power off it’s computers at the end of the workday and leaves them powered off the entire weekend could bring their costs down to less than $30 per computer for the year…. a savings of almost $100 per computer, per year!  Imagine now, how happy your office staff would be if you then gave them an additional $100 bonus on their Holiday check.  Talk about boosting morale!

Today, we will cover part 2.

The second reason why you should power down your computer at night, is to give your hard-working internal components a rest.

There are several parts of a computer system that are working constantly:

1. System Processor Fan
2. Video Processor Fan
3. Power Supply Fan
4. Hard Drive

All of these items spin at a rapid rate, some faster than others.  Although all of these items to designed to spin a long time, each one of these items represents a “point of failure” in your computer system.

Since physics has taught us that anything which moves will be subject to friction, and anything subject to friction will suffer some eventual wear, it goes without saying that these parts will not last forever.  To put in more in layman’s terms:  Just because you drive your car slowly and never “burn rubber”, doesn’t mean that you wont eventually wear out a set of new tires.

As for the list of components that I listed above, here is why it’s important for those items to stay functional:

1. The system fan cools down your processor, which is one of the hardest working computer chip in the computer.  The system processor becomes extremely hot, and without a fan to keep it cool, your system will shut down to avoid overheating and starting a fire.

2. The video processor fan is probably the second hardest working computer chips in the system, although not all computers have a dedicated video card or video processor fan.  However, if you do have a video processor with a fan, it must stay in working condition or your computer will become very unstable and unreliable.

3. Not many people give much though to the power supply fan, but it is also essential in keeping the computer is working condition.  Since the computer’s power supply is actually a miniature electrical transformer, converting AC power to DC power, which produces a lot of heat.  If this fan stops working, the entire power supply typically needs to be replaced.

4. Last but certainly not least, when your computer is turned on, the metallic platters that hold all of your important information (photos, documents, e-mail, geneology projects, etc) are spinning away inside your computer.  Not giving your hard drive a periodic rest can be extremely detrimental to any computer user who stores valuable information on their computer, but does not take the time to backup their data… just ask anyone who has lost irreplaceable photos, or important projects such as an autobiography or valuable e-mails.

Turning off your computer when not in use gives all of these components a rest and will prolong the computer’s useful life.

If you have any questions, or would like to schedule an appointment for computer repair and/or IT services in the Fort Collins and Loveland, Colorado areas, please call us today!

I disagree.

The rumor comes from the fact that a circuit is more likely to blow when electricity is first applied, much like a light bulb is more likely to “pop” when you first flip the switch.  This may be true about light bulbs and some other types of circuits, but it’s not exactly the case with computers.

There are more factors involved which also need some consideration.

1. Dust accumulation
2. Component “wear and tear
3. The cost of operation
4. Indirect costs
5. Rebooting helps performance

Over the next week or so, we’ll be exploring these with a little more depth.

Today, we’ll go ahead and tackle the first item on the list:  Dust accumulation

A computer needs a certain amount of air flow to keep it’s components cool.  A byproduct of this continuous cooling process is dust.  Many of the dust particles that get sucked into the computer will become caught on the sharp edges of the internal components and just stay there.

Why is dust bad for your computer?  Here are three reasons:

First of all, dust can clog fans and heat-sinks, which restrict airflow and leads to overheating.

Secondly, dust collects on the circuitry and can cause electrical shorts, which can lead to malfunctions, instability and lost data.

Third, it can insulate hot components, keeping them from cooling off properly- much like a sweater can insulate your body in the winter.

Long story short, turning off your computer at night stops the fans that would otherwise be pulling more dust into your computer.  A computer that is kept on 24/7/365 is going to accumulate far more dust than a computer that’s turned on only half the time.

Our next post (Part Two) will explore why some components undergo a certain amount of “wear and tear” while turned on, and also explain while this can be very bad for both you and your computer.

If you have any questions, or would like to schedule an appointment for computer service in the Fort Collins or Loveland, Colorado area, please give us a call.

Bradley Chapple, IT Consultant & Owner of Aspen Computer Services, Loveland Colorado

If you’re keen to the process of updating drivers, you may have wondered… is there some way I can just easily update my drivers without scavenging the web for all of the latest updates?

Personally, I have 5 different websites to visit about every other month.  I know some of my friends have even more hardware vendors to visit when they are updating their systems.

Maybe you already know where to download the drivers or updates, but hate having to spend the better part of 2 hours every month to keep them up to date.

So do I.

Unfortunately, you can only count on Windows Update for the basics.  It is very limited in scope.

For most drivers, you have to go to the manufacturer’s website and navigate a strange and unfamiliar page.  Sometimes you can only find the drivers by going the site map (if you can find that page).

Finding driver updates on a regular basis is a pain.  So much so that most people just not doing it, and it ends up leading to security issues, slowness, and general system instability.

Then there is the dreaded “Unknown Device” in the device manager… you know the one with the yellow exclamation mark.  How can you find a driver when you don’t even know what to look for?  If that wasn’t enough, throw in a few helpings of a very generic “Base System Device” and a “High Definition Audio Bus” and you have a big ole bubbling pot of unknown driver soup.

WHEN GOOD COMPANIES GET GREEDY

We used to have a paid (monthly) subscription to driveragent.com, but since they started limiting the updates to 10 computers, we no longer use them.

If you ask me, charging a monthly fee and limiting it to 10 computers was a BAD move for driveragent.com.  I’m only one of the MANY clients that’s ditching driveragent.com for friendlier alternatives.  Personally, I fought with paying that $15 every month, feeling that it was bit too steep for the frequency that I used it, but it was a nice thing to keep in my bag of tricks.

But, driveragent.com, like many companies got greedy and now it’s costing them clients.

So began our mighty and noble quest for an alternative to driveragent.com.

We have gone through a few products so far.  A few of them are free.  Some of them have a free version that is very limited in what it can do.  Some of the products we looked at are completely paid.

While looking for a alternative to driveragent.com, we stumbled upon DriverMax from http://www.innovative-sol.com.

When I found DriverMax, I thought, “Now here is a product that looks promising.”  Supposedly, the premise is that you can download drivers and driver updates for your system… and in return, it will make a list of the drivers in your computer and upload them to the web.

A SITE ONLY OSCAR WOULD LOVE

The feeling that I got from the DriverMax Website is that everyone there is overworked and very grumpy.

Their “Help” page was much more defensive than helpful… with lots of “this is not our fault!” and “there is nothing we can do!”… and my favorite, “The problem is on your computer, please don’t contact us about it.”

One of the topics on the help page was about getting a refund from DriverMax.  It states that “DriverMax is a FREE program and was always a FREE program.”  It goes on and on about people who buy a product and then mistake it for DriverMax.  But, what about the PRO version they are selling on http://www.drivermax.com/upgrade.htm?  That product doesn’t seem to be free.  It has the same name, but it’s not free.  Hmmm…

When I downloaded the program I was pleasantly surprised.  For a free program, it looked very polished and nice.  I kept reminding myself of the dangers of judging a book by it’s cover.

AND WE’RE OFF!!!  (TO A ROCKY START)

When I ran DriverMax for the first time, it wanted me to register.

So, I input my desired username, password, e-mail address, etc.

Then, it said that I needed to validate the e-mail address by clicking on the link that I was sent.

I waited… and waited… and waited.  I gave them a good 5 or 6 hours to send me the validation link.  With today’s technology, this process should be instantaneous.  There is a topic on the help page that discusses this problem, and once again they say, “This is not our fault! Please don’t complain to us – instead, complain to your e-mail service provider…”

Well… what if I AM my own e-mail service provider and my Exchange Server is sitting right next to me, and I’ve never had a problem sending or receiving e-mail?  Just for giggles, I checked my spam filter… and then checked it again.  Still nothing.  What now?  Personally, I think that something in their own auto-responder system is messed up, and they either don’t see it, don’t want to fix it, don’t have time to fix it, or all of the above.

Filling out another request was not very intuitive and I had to find the option under DriverMax settings… but, I did that, and then used a different e-mail address (my hotmail account) and that one actually went through.  Weird.

It unfortunately doesn’t get much better.

Although the interface is nice-looking, it’s not very intuitive.  There are options such as “Start the DriverMax Agent”, without much clarification about what that is.

Once we did that, we scanned for updated drivers and tried to download one of them.  We were brought to a DriverMax page and asked if we wanted to continue as a Free DriverMax user, or continue as a DriverMax PRO user.

We obviously chose the Free option, since we hadn’t paid for anything.

Then we were prompted to wait… 30 seconds, actually.

After our 30 seconds were up, we got the beige box at the top of our browser that stated, “To help protect your security, Internet Explorer blocked this site from downloading files to your computer.  Click here for options…”  Typical.  So, we clicked the bar and selected “Download File…” only to be hit with another 30 second countdown!

Remember back in grade school when someone else would get you into trouble, and then YOU were the one that had to stand in the corner, even though you didn’t do anything wrong?  Yep, it sort of feels like that.  This is a typical ploy to sell the PRO version of their software.  It feels more like you are being punished than anything else.  Even if the software is free, this is crossing the line a bit.

If that isn’t enough to get your blood pumping, then this will:  They only allow you to download 2 drivers per day with the free version… something that isn’t very obvious before you actually download and use the product.

THE DRIVER INSTALLATIONS

I went on to download the updates and even tried it out on a couple of  “unknown devices”.  But, it was A LOT OF WORK!  It would have been easier to just go the DELL web site and look for the drivers one by one.   I am looking for a product that will make my life and the life of my clients easier… not more complicated.

The drivers worked very well… but, then again, Innovative Solutions didn’t write the drivers, so they should work.

THE CONCLUSION

The time-wasting 30 second delay was a pathetic attempt to frustrate a user enough to buy the PRO version, and it was the straw the broke MY back with this product.

A better option would have been a 15 day trial, or the ability to download 1 or 2 drivers, but VERY EASILY… thereby selling the ease of use of the product.

Example:  The client download the program, clicks one button and it tells you the drivers that need updates, identifies the “unknown drivers” and then asks you to select just 1 driver to update.  The client selects one driver, and clicks the Download, Install and Reboot button (all just one button).  It does all this, and brings you back to the window.  Then, the window says, “See how easy that was?  You could do this with ALL your drivers if you just register this product for $29.95.”

Wouldn’t THAT sell more product?

So, combined with the non-intuitive nature of this produce, the 30 second to 1 minute delay, and the horribly unfriendly copy on the website, I could never recommend this product.  The only exception is that you are desperate, smart, have a lot of extra time on your hands… oh, and flat broke.

I have heard some okay things about the DriverMax PRO product… so I may try that at some point.  But, unfortunately, I need to get the bad taste out my mouth first.

In the future, we’ll be posting reviews of some other products, such as Driver Genius, RadarSync and a few others.  So far, these are working better than DriverMax, but unfortunately they are aren’t free.  So, it seems that you really do get what you pay for, after all.

Bradley Chapple, IT Consultant & Owner of Aspen Computer Services, Loveland Colorado

So, here I go… attacking another well-known player in the Antivirus market, and this time it’s a favorite among IT golden-boys everywhere.

Today, I’m going to talk about AVG Free.

AVG is one of those companies you just love to like.

First of all, they offer a decent free product.

Second, they are one of the “underdogs” of the antivirus market (not Norton, McAfee, Trend Micro).

Third, they aren’t Symantec, which immediately gives them a couple of points in my book… I mean, who else but Symantec can make a program so messy that they had to create an uninstaller to aid in the removal of their own product [ aka Norton Removal Tool ]???  I won’t even get into the mess that SEP (Symantic Endpoint Protection) creates, even after you have removed it!

Despite the reasons to like AVG Free, I have a number of complaints with it.  Unfortunately, they are major gripes.

The cons of AVG Free:

• AVG Free isn’t that great at detection and removal
• AVG Free, since it carries the name “Antivirus” gives you a false sense of security
• AVG Free doesn’t update automatically
• AVG Free slows down your system… I’m talking about the new version 8.0 and above

The trouble is… I really want to like AVG Free… I really do!

Many of my own home systems had AVG Free installed until very recently.  Of course, I have other forms of protection in place too, that most people do not have – such as a hardware firewall, OpenDNS Filtering, and a few others… but that’s another story for another time.

The fact is, surfing the web these days is dangerous… not just for your computer, but also for your privacy and possibly your very identity.

Web sites have viruses.

Let me repeat that… WEB SITES HAVE VIRUSES.

ANY web site can harbor a virus… not just pornographic web sites.  Not just the sites you go to get cheat codes, game cracks, key generators, and cutesy little widgets to put on your myspace profile.

Viruses can be hiding in banner ads, or infect a website unbeknown to the web site owner.

A story I tell my clients sometimes is the how thousands of innocent web site visitors were affected by a virus that infected many very high profile web sites, such as the Kelly Blue Book web site.  You can read more about that here, at the Washington Post online:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6746-2004Jun25.html

AVG Free is just NOT good enough for today’s Internet threats.  Period.

In addition to not giving you adequate protection, many users don’t know enough about antivirus and antispyware programs to make well-informed decisions on the matter.  They just see the word antivirus, and they think, “Oh yeah, that’s what I need.”  They download it, install it, and then think they are safe from all harm.

If they think they can save some money and get the same protection, but for FREE… what do you think they are going to do?  Of course… they are going to download the free product.

Before you make the decision on whether or not to go with a FREE product to protect your computer, or a $50 or so per year product, consider your choice wisely.  It helps to look at this another way…

If you HAD to go into a dangerous foreign country, who would you choose to be your body guard?

Would you want the paunchy, out of shape, middle-aged guy, who used to work mall security and has a license to carry a concealed weapon?  He’s a friend of a friend, and he’ll work for free.

Or, would you want the six foot two, ex-navy-seal-turned-mercenary who is an expert in hand to hand combat?

In case you are still deciding, you want the second guy.

Trust me.

You want the guy who’s not going to be playing around.  He’s not going to be your buddy or send you flowers.  He’s going to keep his eyes pealed, his ears to the ground, and his knife sharp.  He will to keep you safe… but, he’s NOT going to do it for free.  It took a lot of blood, sweat, tears  and time to acquire and hone these specialized and valuable skills and he expects to be compensated accordingly.

The same can be said for antivirus applications.

Are you really going to get the top-notch product for free?  Not even close.

No… for free, you are going to get the mall cop, and he won’t be armed with anything but pepper spray and a whistle.

Let’s switch gears here, and talk about performance…

When it comes to your computer’s speed, why sacrifice it when you don’t have to?

AVG Free (and even it’s paid version) will slow down a computer a bit.  There are website that talk about how to disable certain web/surf filters in AVG in order to reclaim some of their computing power… but, why would you want to put yourself at even MORE risk by turning off these filters?

So, please, please, please stay away from AVG Free.

The AVG Professional Version may slow down your computer, but at least you get some great protection!

There are a lot of products out there that won’t cost you an arm and a leg.  If you spread the cost out over the course of a year, you are talking about $0.07 to $0.10 per day.

Kaspersky Antivirus, for example costs $59 for a year, but if you purchase two years in advance, the price drops to $36 per year.  Although I think that Kaspersky Internet Security is a bit bloated and expensive, the Antivirus product is sleek, fast, and is very affordable (it’s what I use on the computer I’m on right now).

Same thing goes with Avast Professional Edition.  Avast charges $57 for a two year license.  That is an investment of less than $29 per year.  Very nice, considering how highly rated this product is.  Not only does it blow the doors off of anything by AVG Free, but it’s cheap too!  Quality protection for about $0.07 per day.

Bradley Chapple, IT Consultant & Owner of Aspen Computer Services, Loveland Colorado

Recently, I have been looking for some ways to help make things more efficient, here in my computer repair business.

Most of our clients know that we have a 3 hour cap on a residential single-computer repair or service jobs.

If this is the first you’ve heard of this “3 Hour Cap”… let me explain: It means, if the computer repair or service is being done on just one PC or laptop in a residential environment, we will only charge for 3 hours of labor… no matter how long it takes to repair the computer, remove the virus, repair XP, or solve whatever other glitch or problem the computer has.

The advantage here is that, in the clients’s eyes, labor will never get out of hand. Some of my clients have told me stories about how other computer repair shops would hand them a bill for $700 when the only thing wrong with the computer was a virus infection. Ouch.

There is just one problem with capping jobs to a 3 hour maximum….

MAKING $2.50 PER HOUR IS AWESOME

What a lot our clients do not know is that some of these jobs can take a LONG time.

A few of the more stubborn jobs have taken an entire 24-hour day of concentrated troubleshooting and numerous failed attempts at a resolution.  My techs can tell you some painful computer repair stories that involve DAYS of beating their heads against a stubborn/elusive problem.

On those longer (but capped) computer repair jobs, we aren’t even making enough money to put food on the table, much less stay in business!

Luckily for us, those jobs are few and far between. Our average job only takes about 1 to 2 hours, actually. A tough virus or spyware infection plus a computer clean-up/tune-up might take 2 to 4 hours, but that’s okay. If it goes over 3 hours, we cap it off at 3 hours labor, the client gets back a computer that runs like new, and everyone’s happy.

But, it’s those really tough (and unprofitable) jobs, combined with the 3 hour cap on labor, that has inspired us to seek out new ways of doing things around here…

GETTING BACK TO BASICS

Instead of running a virus scan from the infected machine, we usually yank the drive out and scan it from one of our shop machines.  This typically renders the virus inactive and allows our virus removal software to actually work.  It also allows us to remove locked files from the drive without the virus attempting to defend itself.

Another thing that we are doing more often is checking for a lot of other lower-level problems, such as visually inspecting the systemboard for bulging or burst capacitors, running Memtest, and running a complete health check on the hard drive with HDD Regenerator. These lower-level checks have saved us a lot of time in the long run… even if the computer problem LOOKS like an operating system issue, or a software glitch.

But, our attempt to make our business more efficient also led us to try Reimage, from http://www.reimage.com. Reimage claims to have the ability to check the operating system files, compare those files with an enormous database of Windows XP system files, and then correct what’s missing or corrupted.

Fair enough. That is sort of like using a “sfc /scannow” at the command prompt. But, it also has the ability to check for registry errors and damaged drivers, and fix those too. Hmmm… NOW we’re talking.

How has Reimage been working out for us so far?

NOT AS GOOD AS A HUMAN… BUT I’M STILL IMPRESSED

For the most part, we have found that the majority of problems that Reimage finds and repairs, we can do a little bit better ourselves. Nothing beats the excellent intuition of an experienced technician. After working on computers almost 20 years, those “gut feelings” have gotten pretty accurate when it comes to troubleshooting computer problems.

Example: I had a client’s computer here at our Loveland shop that was causing all sorts of havoc. It would turn on, boot to XP, start loading the system-tray icons and then crash. It would do the same thing in safe mode. I checked memory, hard drive, etc. Not even a full repair installation wouldn’t fix it. Long story short, the answer was a bad power supply. It seems that when the graphics card kicked into hi-res mode, it was pulling a little too much power for that power supply.

I’m not trying to brag. I’m merely noting that this problem looked like an XP problem, or perhaps a driver issue. Reimage would obviously not have been able to fix this particular issue. Tricky troubleshooting jobs like that one will always require that “fuzzy logic” which humans are better-known for.

With that said, Reimage has shown some amazing promise. We used it on a virus-infected machine what was so badly infected that it would not boot. It was throwing up a nasty BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) on every restart – even safe mode. By creating the XP Boot CD, I was able to boot to a workable interface on the infected machine. From there, I was able to connect to the Internet and run the Reimage utility. The program ran, scanned the system, even ran some basic benchmarking, and then rebooted to a working system. Eureka!

IT SPEEDS UP SLOW COMPUTERS, TOO!

Although I haven’t used Reimage to speed up a slow computer (I can do pretty well on that one), Reimage can supposedly do that too… and without having to make an XP Boot CD.

So, if you are curious as to how Reimage works, go to http://www.reimage.com and check it out.

Doing a free scan will tell you a lot about your system:  How much RAM you have, how much you NEED… your hard drive space, the health of your system overall.  It’s actually very informative.

If you read the Reimage website, you’ll start to think that this software can work miracles, but it won’t. Believe me.

But, with that being said, it’s worth a try… and it has a money-back guarantee (like us!), so there is no risk in trying it. It may just save you from having to receive a visit from one of our techs.

Bradley Chapple, IT Consultant & Owner of Aspen Computer Services, Loveland Colorado

Every day advertisers are finding new ways to get into your e-mail Inbox. Most of them want to sell you something.  When doing this door-to-door, it’s called soliciting.  When doing this via e-mail, without a prior relationship with you (or without your permission), it’s called spam.

Why do they do it?

Why do these advertisers send out all of those messages?

They do it because it works.

If after sending out countless unsolicited e-mails, people didn’t buy anything… spammers would have stopped long ago and we would all be living much happier lives.

If advertisements were the only problem, it wouldn’t be quite as bad (although still very annoying).  But, the truth is that some spam messages can transmit viruses, Trojans, Rootkits, Hijackers or Spyware (collectively known as Malware) on to your computer and cause problems.

HOW TO AVOID SPAM MESSAGES IN THE FIRST PLACE

Although there is no way to completely avoid spam, there a few things that you can do to stay off the major spam lists that are floating around on the web.  The best piece of advice I can give you is NEVER EVER, EVER put your e-mail on a web site that will display your full e-mail address on the site.  Signing up for newsletters, or using it to purchase something is fine… but, posting your e-mail address in a way that it continues to be displayed on the page is not okay.

Here are a few tips to help you avoid getting spam in the first place…

• If you have a web site or home page, DON’T put your e-mail address on it… Instead, have your web programmer design a web form that LINKS to your e-mail.
• If you must put your e-mail on your website, use the Hive Enkoder at http://hivelogic.com/enkoder.  The Hive Enkoder will encrypt your e-mail in JaveScript to protect if from e-mail harvesting web bots.
• Don’t put your e-mail address on any of your social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.
• If you post to forums, don’t put your e-mail into the comment.  Blog comments are okay too, as long as you don’t put your e-mail into the comments box.
• If you already get some spam, don’t try to reply to the message.  Some spammers make their living by sending out to random addresses.  If the spammers actually get a reply, you have just verified that they have a live body at that address.
• Also, don’t hit the “unsubscibe” link in the bottom of spam messages.  It does the same thing that replying does.  It gives the spammers more incentive to e-mail you, and sell your address to others who will overwhelm your Inbox with advertisements.

If you already get a lot of spam, there is not much you can do to stop it.  You can, however, filter it.  Filtering e-mail means that you are categorizing the e-mail, much like you would your own post office mail…

“Bill… Bill… Junk Mail… Letter from Aunt Maggie… Bill… Junk Mail…”

Where does the junk mail go?  In the garbage, of course.  The same will apply for e-mail.  You are going to want to toss that spam and keep your Inbox clean!

The only problem is, spammers can be tricky.  Sometimes spam can look like a legitimate e-mail… and then sometimes, a real e-mail can look like spam.  So, you don’t want a spam filter that is goign to just delete anything that it “thinks” is spam.  You are going to want it set off to the side, in another folder… just in case.

Any good spam filter will do this.  Even the built in Outlook spam filter has a very rudimentary detection system that filters spam into another folder, down below your Inbox.  But, the built in spam filter isn’t very good.  It doesn’t detect and remove nearly enough spam messages to be effective.

And, THAT is the hardest part about picking out a spam filtering application.  Finding one that is accurate, without catching too much legitimate e-mail is very challenging.

There are 4 things to look for when picking out the best spam filter for your computer.

What are these 4 things?

• The best spam filter blocks e-mail that is known to be spam – Many companies have already created a list of known spam.  It is usually updated constantly and rapidly.  A good spam filter will use this information to keep your Inbox safe and clean.
• The best spam filter will block “sporn” – All good programs allow you to block a high percentage of spam pornography – called “sporn”.  Some will also filter out “adult” content e-mails or block adult oriented images. Some even have picture analysis and can detect and delete pornographic pictures before you see them.
• The best spam filter allows you to LABEL what you think is spam or not spam – YOU, and not the spam filter, should be the ultimate judge of what is spam and what is not. When you have absolutely no control over what you see and what gets tossed out, you could be missing a very important e-mail from a friend, family member, or co-worker.
• The best spam filter has a self-learning system - Great spam filters will be able to keep the pace with changes in the shady world of spamming. It will be able to adjust its perception of what spam is and is not, and raise or lower the bar when deemed appropriate.

Now that we know what the best spam filters will have, let’s move on to what we recommend here in our office.

Software Recommendations

Personally, I’ve used a lot spam filters.  I still have my very first Hotmail account, so over the course of 13+ years, I’ve gotton onto a lot of spammers’ lists.  That Hotmail Inbox is so overwhelmed with spam, that I HAVE to have something to help weed out the spam.

Because I’ve used a lot of spam filters, I know the best from the mediocre.  And, when I find a good piece of software that excels at what it does, I don’t hesitate to preach about it to anyone who will listen.  This is what I recommend to anyone who is ready to take back their Inboxes…

SPAMFighter

SPAMFighter is the way to go.

It works by using a very unique principle to reduce spam.  SPAMFighter’s claim is that it will reduce spam by over 90%.  This is actually better than what most spam filters actually rate, without getting a lot of good e-mails getting caught in the wide net.

I’ve been using SPAMFighter for years, and 90% is pretty accurate.  Basically, if you get 10 spam messages per day, you might see 1 slip through… maybe two on an off day.  If you get 100 spam messages per day, you will probably see around 10 or so slip through the cracks.

How does it work?

You see, when you download SPAMFighter, you join an online “community” of other SPAMFighter users. You never see these people. You never talk to them.  You don’t even know who they are. But, they help you identify and flag suspected spam messages.

Here’s an example: Say that Larry, Moe, Curly, and YOU were all using SPAMFighter.

If a spammer sends out roughly the same message to 100,000 people, chances are good that Larry, Moe, Curly and you are among that list of 100,000 people.

Larry might get the message and flag it as spam. Moe gets the message second and flags it as spam. Curly gets the message third and flags it as spam. At that point the SPAMFighter system would kick in and say, “OK. These three users of the Spam Fighter community flagged this message as spam, so it must really be spam.” So, when you open your Inbox, you will never see the message, because the SPAMFighter system blocked it, based on other people’s opinions of what is considered spam.

This simple concept behind SPAMFighter is amazing, and very effective. I love it when programmers can find ways to harness the collective intelligence of millions of internet users and utilize it for the common good.  It’s like letting the millions of Internet uses out there be the spam filter, each person contributing a tiny bit of the computing power.

If you want to give it a shot and see if it works for you, they have a fully functional trial of SPAMfighter Pro available for download.  Although the company provides a completely FREE “standard” version, I recommend the SPAMFighter PRO Edition because it provides better protection and doesn’t attach a SPAMfighter advertisement to your outgoing messages (that’s my only gripe with this program).  Besides, $29 is definitely a small price to pay for a cleaner inbox.

They have a Server Exchange Module, too.  I use this on a few of my clients’ Windows Server 2003 boxes.  I haven’t had a chance to test it on Server 2008 yet, but I probably will just any day.

Luke Sinden, IT Consultant, Loveland Colorado

“I need to buy my college student a laptop for the upcoming fall semester. What should I buy?”

A friend of the family asked me that the other day, and the question is a bit more complicated to answer today than it might have been in years past.

For one thing, you have the Apple products to take into consideration. Also consider how people despise Windows Vista, and whether Windows 7 will be legitimately better than Windows XP. But aside from choosing which platform and operating system to choose, you also should consider whether a netbook would be a better choice than a full sized laptop.

So let’s break some of these things down.

As for Windows 7, most of the hardware vendors will provide an upgrade path from Windows Vista. Sure, you’ll have to pay for it, but just about any hardware out today will be fine with the new operating system. In other words, you won’t need to buy an entirely new laptop or upgrade the RAM just to load Windows 7. But the larger question is whether it will be really any better than Vista. A good friend of mine has been running a pre-release version of Windows 7 on his laptop for a while and swears it is better. However, I have also seen it, and there are things I wasn’t so fond of, such as the naming convention for all the folders in My Documents. Microsoft made – in my opinion – a mess of the naming scheme. Moreover, a survey was just published indicating only about 60% of IT departments have any plans on the table to deploy Windows 7 (it’s coming out in October this year). So the answer to this is really convoluted. For most people Windows XP is still a perfectly functional operating system – beloved, even. Vista is kinda sucky, and “7” is not getting rave reviews yet, even if you can get a cheap upgrade.

As for the form factor question, I think netbooks are incredibly convenient. Your college student can throw it in a backpack and run off to class and take notes on the darned thing. How cool is that? The battery life will leave you wanting, and the cramped keyboards are a few of the issues you’ll need to keep in mind, though. And you’ll also probably need to fork out a few extra bucks for an external DVD drive (they will almost certainly be required to install some software for some class with a “progressive” professor who expects them to keep up with the times – sheesh!). But the benefit of a smaller screen is that they’ll be less likely to watch movies on it or play video games on it. They’ll be forced to go to a friend’s dorm room and play on the big screen TV. You can almost hear the complaints now: “How cumbersome my social life is, dad.” *sigh* So, the benefits of a netbook are pretty compelling, if you look at it in just the right light. Another compelling factor: most netbooks still ship with Windows XP. Bear in mind though that Windows 7 will change that, as “7” was designed to run well on netbooks. So hurry, while supplies last…

Finally, as for the Apple Mac question, we should take a moment to consider what a Mac really is. A Mac is an expensive, user-friendly UNIX computer. Without equivocation, a Mac computer is a well designed, stable creature. But that comes at a price. Furthermore, some websites are programmed with certain features that do not work on a Mac, and some programs simply won’t be compatible with the Mac OS. Period. There are hoards of Mac loyalists whose blood pressure just shot up when I mentioned that, and I understand their protestations. You can buy Microsoft Office for Mac (but the equivalent of Outlook, called Entourage, is crap), or you can set the Macbook up as a dual boot to load Windows if you really must (but you have to purchase a license for the Microsoft OS), or you can use a virtual machine (a program to run Windows as if it were an application loaded inside the Mac OS). Those are all fine options for people who are interested in fooling around with technology, or don’t have expectations in terms of productivity. But if you really want a machine that is going to do everything you need for a college degree program, you cannot – I repeat: cannot – guarantee that with a Mac. I love Apple to death and wouldn’t trade my iPhone for free Starbucks for a year. But I do not think productivity should be thrown under the bus for style and trend.

So keep those things in mind when you go to buy your college student a new laptop. Netbooks offer a great price point and you can still buy them with good ol’ Windows XP. But there’s a good likelihood that they’ll be interested in buying a new laptop within the next few years… or upgrading to “7”…Oh, and as for Linux, don’t even think about it unless your student already has considerable experience with Linux.