A quick way to check the web sites that a computer has been to in the past several weeks (or more) is to view the history on the computer’s browser.  This can be done in either of the two major browsers:  Internet Explorer or Firefox.

Here’s how:  With the browser open, hold down the Ctrl key and then press the “H” key on the keyboard.  This should pull up the browsers history in the left-hand side of the screen.  It will be formatted like folders.  Click the plus sign beside each date range to see the web sites that were visited on those days.

Unfortunately, once the history gets to be a little older, the pages are sometimes grouped together by month… so if you are looking for something specific, you may be to do some digging.

Sometimes, after giving people that advice, and they come back to me and say “But, there is no history.  It only shows where I have been today!”  This makes things more complicated, because it may mean that your child has either learned to erase his or her history after each browser session or has changed the history settings in the browser.

First, check to make sure that the browser is set to record browsing history.

In Firefox, you want to go to Tools – /> Options -> Privacy.  Make sure that “Remember my browsing history for at least xx days” is checked and the number is 90 days.

In Internet Explorer, you want to go to Tools – /> Internet Options -> General Tab -> Browsing History -> Settings.  At the bottom of this little window, ensure that a number greater than 30 is filled in.

Doing this will tell the Internet browser to keep a record of the sites visited.

Unfortunately, there are ways to circumvent these record keeping processes, and some kids (especially teens) are very savvy when it comes to hiding their tracks.  You may actually need something a little more robust.

Some computer professionals recommend Net Nanny, but I do not.  Net Nanny has no option to be secretive, and will always alert the user that it is installed and watching.  Also, I have seen many ways to bypass the Net Nanny’s security and the information to do this is openly posted on the web.  Any computer-savvy teen can look up the instructions to disable Net Nanny.

For anonymous viewing of a computer’s user’s activity, I recommend WebWatcher Computer Monitoring Sofware.  It’s stealthy and virtually undetectable.  The computer user does not know that it is installed.  The software keeps a log of web sites, instant messaging conversations, screen-shots, and other information and sends it to your e-mail Inbox on a scheduled basis.  It’s what parents use to monitor their children’s browsing habits without them knowing that anyone is looking.  It can even be used to monitor employees.

If you need any assistance in setting up a system for monitoring your kids, or if you are a business owner wanting to better monitor your employees, please give us a call.

Note:  If you are a student, but don’t have a university-provided e-mail address, you can provide other acedemic credentials, such as a photocopy of your student ID, a class list, or proof of course payment.

This is an excellent way to get a jump on Microsoft’s new OS without spending a lot of money.  While the rest of the world will be paying $119 for Windows 7, a price-conscience student can save almost $90.  I don’t know about you, but $90 is a lot of money to me… and when you are a college student, it seems like even more.

It’s worth checking out.  Here is the link:  http://www.win741.com

As a rule of thumb, if your computer is currently running Vista, it will run Windows 7 even better.  Although we are advising most people to wait for Microsoft to work the bugs out Windows 7, this student-exclusive offer is too good to pass up.  If you do want to play it safe, you could purchase Windows 7 now, but wait a few months to upgrade your system.  Doing this will allow you to download all of the hotfixes, patches and updates immediately after the Windows 7 installation.

At the time of this writing, we are highly recommending a “clean install” for people ungrading to Windows 7 from Windows Vista or Windows XP.  A “clean install”, in computer-speak, means that you back up your data, format your hard drive, and then install the new operating system.

Why do we recommend a clean install?  From our latest testing on the Microsoft Windows 7 Release Candidate, a clean install produces a faster booting, faster running and much more stable operating system.  This means less waiting, less crashing, and a more enjoyable experience overall.

If you need help backing up your files, formatting the hard drive, or installing your new Windows 7 operating system, give me a call.

But, with that being said, many computers are being sold right now with a Windows 7 upgrade option, which will allow you to upgrade the operating system up to Windows 7 once it becomes available.  That’s all fine and dandy, but it also means that you will potentially have to deal with Vista problems for a couple of months.  Even then, the upgrade probably won’t be a fresh install, and you may be transferring Vista instability over to your new Windows 7 upgrade.

According to our testing with the pre-release versions of Windows 7, performing a clean installation of Windows 7 on a PC was much better than upgrading from Vista to Windows 7.  The “upgraded” Vista to Windows 7 computer has slower overall system performance, slower boot times (by about 20 seconds), and there was instability with some of the hardware (especially fingerprint readers and touch screen LCD monitors).

A word of warning:  I’ve been advising my clients (especially my business clients) to exercise some patience with Windows 7.  Just like any operating system, the early adopters will be guinea pigs.  If system stability is important to you or vital to your earning potential, let the early birds sort out the bugs.  Wait a few months before making the leap.  If you want to be extra cautious, wait for the first Windows 7 service pack to be released before upgrading.

Happy shopping.

One of the hardest things I have to do is explain to people WHY their computer is so slow.

Without some background information about computers, cpus, memory, hard drives, etc… it’s difficult to convey the reasons behind dramatic decreases in performance without a full-blown class on computer basics.

One the most common questions people ask me is on the subject of defragging.

I get a lot of “What is a frag?”, or “Should I defrag?”, or “How often should I defrag my hard drive?”

Well before I get into the whys and hows… let’s start with a good explanation.

I like explanations that you can see in your head.

Let’s start by imagining that your computer is a large office building.

In this office, you have many filing cabinets, in every room, and on every floor.  In these filing cabinets, is where you keep your files.

Now, let’s say that for the sake of speed, everyone puts their documents in whatever filing cabinet is closest to them.  But, to keep track of where things are, they record the locations of the documents in a huge index book.  So whenever someone needs a file, they consult the book, find out where the file is, and then fetch it.

That’s not too bad, right?

It gets even better.

What if they went a step further and put different parts of a single file in different filing cabinets?

Even if they updated the huge book on a continuous basis, it would make things very complicated.

If your boss ever gave you a seemingly simple command, such as, “Please fetch me the file on XYZ, Inc,” you would have a real project ahead of you!  Let’s look at the steps this would take:

1. You would need to run over to the huge index book, find out where all the pieces of the file are located.
2. You would then need to take this information and gather all the pieces – one by one.  Each piece of the file might be in a different floor of the building, so this might take you a while.  There could be thousands of pieces to a single file.
3. You would then reassemble the pieces into something usable.  As stated in the previous step, some files may be separated into thousands of pieces.

Some would say that this is probably the most inefficient office filing system ever.

Well, surprise!  This is almost exactly how your computer stores data on the hard drive, and then retrieves the data when you need a file.

PROBLEMS CAUSED BY FILE FRAGMENTS

The only difference between our office example and your computer is that your computer can grab each piece much faster.  It might only take a high-speed computer a few milliseconds to gather each piece… and maybe a few milliseconds to reassemble the pieces.

But, consider that in a course of using a computer to accomplish a single task (checking your e-mail, for example) the computer is accessing hundreds of files.  All those extra milliseconds add up quickly.  Over time, this can slow a system down considerably… especially on a computer with an already slow hard drive.

If that weren’t bad enough, the extra work your computer’s hard drive does in scavenging for those bits and pieces will shorten it’s life.  Some experts estimate that a severely fragmented hard drive will shorten the life of a computer by 1 to 3 years.  You have backed up lately, right?

Even if this is an exaggeration, file fragmentation can still cause:

• Sluggish performance
• Slow boot
• Slow shutdowns
• Failed CD recording
• Slow or aborted backups
• Corrupted registry
• Freezes, lockups and crashes

Why so many problems?

The hard drive is one of the slowest components in your computer.  It’s the only major component of a computer that has moving parts.  That already makes it the bottleneck of most system operations.  If the system has a sufficient amount of RAM, it probably is THE bottleneck.  Slowing down a hard drive even more will bring a computer down to it’s knees.

It may sound strange, but file fragmentation was once considered an amazing feature.  Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) originally designed this method of organization as a key part of its RSX-11 operating system.  DEC designed this as answer to storage space “challenges”.  Hard drive space was VERY limited back in those days.

THE DEFRAGMENTATION DEBATE STILL RAGES ON

Defragmenting (often called “defragging”) a hard drive is like having a crew of people come into the office over the weekend, and reorganize those little pieces back into consolidated files.  So, when you come in on Monday morning, everything is in order.  When you need a file, all you have to do is consult the newly written index book, go fetch the single file, and use it.  No running all over the building to gather hundreds (or thousands) of pieces.

No reassembling, since it’s all in the same place.

It’s more efficient and fast.  How could it not be?

Despite the evidence in favor of defragmenting, there are still those who believe that it doesn’t do much.  This belief has been perpetuated by some rumors floating around the internet.

There was a rumor once, back when Windows XP was young, that fragmentation of the hard drive would no longer affect the performance of a computer.  Back then, the reasoning behind this myth was that the XP operating system was so efficient in managing and caching data.

Recently, it has been rumored that Microsoft stated that Vista did not need to be defragmented.

BOTH of these statements are FALSE.

Perhaps this belief has kept up isn’t momentum because the impact isn’t always so dramatic.  The difference defragging makes isn’t always night and day.  Sometimes a computer may have other problems, which affect the system in worse ways.  But defragging still makes a difference… especially with badly fragmented drives.  You’ll also see a big difference on slower drives.

Both XP and Vista need defragmenting.  In fact, both XP and Vista come with built-in defragmentation utilities!

Although these defragmentation tools aren’t as efficient or beneficial as some of the 3^rd party utilities, this fact alone should be enough to prove that Microsoft sees the value in defragmenting drives when needed.  Vista actually comes preconfigured with the defragmentation tool scheduled for once per week, showing that Microsoft has taken an even stronger stance on the importance of defragging.

THIRD PARTY TOOLS ARE BETTER

As mentioned above, Windows XP and Vista may have built-in tools for defragging the hard drive, there far better tools available.

The best one that I know of is called Diskeeper 2009 Professional Edition.  They are currently on Diskeeper 2009, but they have been around for a LONG time.  The Diskeeper corporation has essentially mastered the defragmentation process by defragging the hard drive in real time.

Basically, the program runs at a lower priority (in the background) and defrags your computer’s hard drive without affecting performance in any way.  As far as I know, no other program besides Tune-Up Utilities has this feature – especially not the built-in Windows defragmenter.

KEEPING YOUR FILES WITHIN EASY REACH

Here is where Diskeeper really shines.  Not only does Diskeeper reassemble the files on the hard drive, but it also does something better.

To increase performance even more, it monitors which files are accessed the most, and then rearranges those files in such a way that the most often accessed files are placed near each other.  Diskeeper calls this “Intelligent File Access Acceleration Sequencing Technology, or I-FAAST.”

In our office example above, it would be similar to keeping the most commonly needed files closest to your desk.  This decreases the time it takes to retrieve each file, giving your system a subtle but noticeable boost.  Unfortunately, Diskeeper only does this in it’s 2009 Professional Edition… not in it’s 2009 Home Edition.

DECISIONS, DECISIONS…

If you want to keep your hard drive data organized, extend the life of your computer, and make your entire computing experience better… you need to defrag your drive.

You can either do this manually or automatically.  The choice is yours.

If anyone ever gives me that choice, I choose the automatic method.  My life is complicated enough already!  It’s always better when I can simplify my life by getting a little more OFF my plate.

When it comes to automatic defragging, very little beats Diskeeper’s REAL-TIME defragmenting (although Tune-Up Utilities comes close).  What’s better than automatic AND immediate?  Not much could beat that except placing the commonly used files together on the hard for even faster access.  Oh wait, Diskeeper does that too!

Although Diskeeper comes in a 2009 Home Edition, I can’t wholeheartedly recommend it due to the absence of the I-FAAST feature.  The Home Edition also lacks the Frag Shield 2.0 feature, which keeps those critical system files from becoming fragmented.

So, stick with Diskeeper’s 2009 Professional Edition instead.  It’s only $59.95, which is a little more than the Home Edition, but it’s infinitely better.  It will be one of the best investments you can make in the health of your computer’s hard drive.

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.