I’ve been using Windows in all it’s flavours since the days of Windows 2.0. Not a wonderful piece of software I think everyone around in those days will agree, but it started the whole ‘gui’ thing off – at least for PC users!

The Windows registry first made it’s appearance with Windows 3.1 and it was intended to tidy up the profusion of .ini files that had previously been used to store configuration settings for programs running under Windows.

Registry cleaners are software utilities whose usual purpose is to remove redundant or unwanted items from the Windows registry. These redundant items are often left behind after uninstalling software, either by using their own (and sometimes faulty) uninstalltion programs or by simply deleting program directories – which is definitely NOT recommended!

The necessity and usefulness of registry cleaners is a controversial topic, with experts not agreeing on their benefit. The problem is further clouded by the fact that malware and ’scareware’ is often associated with utilities of this type. Scareware is the kind of thing that you see in online advertising (I never seem to see it as my ‘BS filter’ is always turned on!) and in bogus antivirus and antispyware junk that web surfers often accidentally end up with on their computers. A quick Google of ‘registry cleaner’ will find thousands upon thousands of companies pushing their products and also ‘reviews’ – usually written by avid supporters (or the companies themselves) who extol the virtues of the products. The Google Ads below are a testament to this!

Do I use them? I have, once or twice to clean out software ‘remnants’ from customer’s systems who weren’t prepared (or able) to have their computer’s operating system reinstalled.

Did they work? One time it did, the other time it didn’t – but the key thing to remember is this. I would strongly recommend that unless you know exactly what you are doing when a registry cleaner advises you to delete registry entries – that you leave them alone!

I can’t see myself ever using one on my own system even though I install and uninstall a lot of software – but I am careful how I do this. ALWAYS use the uninstall tool provided with most modern programs or use the Add/Remove control panel applet. Never, never just delete program folders – that’s a recipe for disaster, believe me!

The potential to render your system inoperable is very real when you delve into the Windows registry and poorly written cleaner software is likely to cause more harm than good.

If your computer is running really slowly AND you have made a backup of everything you need from it AND you are prepared and able to reinstall Windows, I’d say to give one a try. But, make sure that you carefully read every unbiased review of the one you choose first.

I haven’t looked into the multitude of ones out there – I simply don’t have the time to do so and I doubt that I’ll be likely to need to use one in the foreseeable future, especially now that there is a new Windows version coming out in a couple of months!

The cost of RAM used to be so high that any way we could avoid having to pay hundreds to upgrade our systems was worth trying. I dug out an old pricelist from 1999 and a 64Mb SDRAM module retailed then at $190! New computers were (and are still) sold brand new with insufficient memory installed – early XP computers were commonly sold with 128Mb and we used to bag Microsoft for their appallingly slow operating system and most of us stayed with Windows 98.

The good news is that RAM is very reasonably priced at the moment – BUT – remember that older types of RAM are usually always more expensive than newer types. For example, a 1Gb DDR1 module is more than twice the price of a 1Gb DDR2 module, so my advice is to find out what type of memory your system uses and upgrade it sooner rather than later!

Here are my considered RAM requirements for the various operating systems we use today. I’ve indicated ‘real world’ quantities as well as minimum requirements too.

XP Home or Pro
Absolute Minimum – 512Mb
R.W Minimum – 1Gb
Heavy use – 2Gb

Vista Home Basic
Absolute Minimum – 2Gb
R.W Minimum – 3Gb
Heavy use – 4Gb*

Vista Home Premium and higher (32bit)
Absolute Minimum – 3Gb
R.W Minimum – 4Gb
Heavy use – 4Gb*

Vista (64bit versions)
Absolute Minimum – 4Gb
R.W Minimum – 6Gb
Heavy use – 8Gb*

*Vista 32 bit can only use up to 4Gb and the amount reported may be less.

Windows 7
Who knows? but I’d expect these requirements if pre-release versions are a guide.
Absolute Minimum – 1Gb
R.W Minimum – 2Gb
Heavy use – 4Gb

RAM pricing does vary as I’ve mentioned above here’s a guide to current pricing (June 2009):
Latest type is at the top

2Gb DDR3 (desktops) retails around the $100-$120 mark
2Gb DDR3 (notebooks) retails around the $100-$120 mark

1Gb DDR1 (desktops) retails around the $80-$90 mark
1Gb DDR2 (desktops) retails around the $40-$50 mark

1Gb DDR1 (notebook) retails around the $110-$130 mark
1Gb DDR2 (notebook) retails around the $60-$70 mark

Older SDRAM is becoming harder to come by, but stocks are still around if you look.
512Mb SDRAM (desktops) retails around the $70-$90 mark
512Mb SDRAM (notebooks) retails around the $90-$180 mark

I’ve written in the past about what I think of the so-called broadband deals offered by the major players in the market, but a reminder now and again doesn’t go astray – if only so I can avoid the frustrating exercise of trying to help people who are not happy with their internet access arrangements.

Here’s the unbiased facts about the deals offered by Bigpond and my opinions about them. Other Telcos and ISP’s have similar deals/plans of course, but Bigpond is the one I come into contact with nearly every week and I know more about them, so I’ll concentrate on their deals in this article. I believe I have got their current plan details right, but check yourself on their website to be sure – see the links at the bottom of this article. Of course, at The ‘Heads we can’t get ADSL2+ – Telstra haven’t provided the upgraded equipment for our area and it’s unlikely they will for the foreseeable future, so we are stuck with plain old ADSL1. This article applies to plans providing that service only.

Edit 26th June: Have you received the ‘Now Everyone Can Be Online At The Same Time’ Bigpond mailout? This is very, very deceptive advertising. Nowhere in the ad or online – unless you look carefully into the plan details for the $59.95 Liberty  12Gb Plan – does it tell you that the speed of this connection is 256k download / 64k upload speed. The ad shows 6 people online at the same time on this plan – do you realise that each of them will have an experience worse than dialup on this setup? Work it out yourself – 256 divided by 6 is 42k – a dialup connection usually manages 45-48k download speed! Technically they are correct – 6 users can be online at the same time – but in reality, they can’t do a lot besides yelling at each other ‘why is this so damn slow!!’. It’s would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious – Bigpond/Telstra know that anyone who signs up with this deal will have to upgrade to the $69.95 1500/256 or the $89.95 ADSL2+ (not at the ‘Heads) plans to be able to use the internet AND you have to have your home phone with them to get those prices too.

1. Broadband speed:
Firstly, in my opinion their ‘Fast’ 256/64k plan is not broadband – sure it’s faster than dialup, in the same way a tractor is faster than walking, but would you buy one for your family car? The absolute minimum I’d consider to be broadband is 512/128k, but tell someone in the UK that and they’d roll on the floor laughing at you …

2. ‘Free’ download data limits:
Sure, the $29.95 a month 200Mb plan might suit someone who checks their email a few times a week and very occasionally uses Google to find an online business or something. But that’s all you can do with 200Mb. Just updating your anti-virus program and keeping Windows up to date (which you must do) can very often use up 100Mb a month and let’s face it – a dozen photos attached to an email from Auntie Ruth – who has no idea how to resize the pictures from her digital camera – can easily soak up what you have leftover. Then you really start to pay through the nose. See point 3.

3. Excess data charges:
Signup for a Bigpond broadband deal at $29.95 a month and you will be paying excess data charges if you exceed the 200Mb monthly data included. These charges are 15c per Mb. Doesn’t sound much does it? But this is a fact - go over your 200Mb by double your allowance again – say an extra 400Mb, which a teenager watching YouTube videos could easily do in one evening’s ‘entertainment’ – and you will be paying at least sixty dollars on top of your usual monthly internet bill.

4. ‘Half price’ or ‘free’ deals:
Find me one of these that don’t have strings attached and I’ll kiss the cat (yuck). The usual string is an extended contract – in Bigpond’s case, 24 months – so if you are unhappy you either have to pay the fees to quit the contract early or change to another Bigpond plan – all more expensive of course. Sure, you can upgrade and their next plan is a faster speed plan but with only 400Mb for $20 a month more or an ‘unlimited’ (actually ’shaped’ after 12Gb) plain old 256/64 plan for $59.95 a month.

But what if I want real broadband and a decent amount of data? (say, 1500/256 speed and 1-2Gb a month) - “sure’”, they say,“our Liberty 12Gb Plan is the one you want, only $79.95 a month if you don’t have your phone with us”. Well yippee. I could also go and throw my wallet in the river once a month too…

But wait, there’s more. Bigpond (and probably some too others by now, I haven’t checked for a while) charge you not only for the data you download (emails, webpages, updates etc are all downloaded data) – but also for what you send. While this may only be around 10% of downloads, it still adds up – and the vast majority of other providers don’t charge a cent for uploads.

So, in summary, and as you may have gathered, I don’t like companies who, in my opinion, are not upfront about what you are getting for your money. I would have absolutely no problem with any of them if they carefully explained to every customer what their deals are. I am the first to admit that some of their offerings are fine for very, very limited internet use – say, an elderly lady that just wants to keep in touch with relatives. Some of them are also fine for families that go through a lot of data a month and aren’t fussed about the speed of the connection – they are certainly not cheap by comparison with hundreds of other companies – but fine otherwise. After all, the convenience of getting ‘barely broadband’ that’s charged on the same bill as your phone is a big plus I’d be happy to pay $30 a month more for… hmm.

But the reality is that they don’t do this. I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve assisted who tell me (and I’ve no reason to doubt them) that they were told by the sales person they spoke to lines similar to these (and these are not any particular company):
‘Honestly, 200Mb (or 70Mb in the case of one outfit) is plenty a month even for a family’. — nope it’s not
‘Oh yes, with our 256k plans you can use a webcam to send live video of yourself’ – no, you can’t
‘Our plans are among the cheapest and give excellent value for money’ — no, they aren’t!

If Bigpond just offered a $40 per month plan (even a 256/64 one) that gave you 2Gb (2000Mb) a month and still charged you for the excess data, I’d happily advise people to go with them. That’s quite reasonable – it’s by no means cheap – but it’s reasonable. They’d retain their existing customers and probably get many more – but they don’t. Why? Well, I don’t know but if I was to hazard a guess, I’d say the excess data charges are the key.
They know that most users just cough up the odd $10-$20 a month now and then and don’t give it a thought. The end result is that they reap a fee of around $100-$120 per gigabyte for providing basic internet access. Sorry, but that just isn’t fair. $5-$10 per gigabyte is the going rate from many internet providers. And that’s a fact.

Like anything, you must investigate these deals for yourself to find out if they are suitable for you. If you can’t, call a friend or relative for advice or ask a professional for help. The last person to ask is the one who calls you out of the blue at dinner time and attempts to sign you up on the spot. Would you ask a used car salesman for his opinion as to whether his cars or his services are good value? Well maybe you would, but I can’t help you if so!

I’m happy to offer unbiased assistance to you. I don’t have any ‘arrangements’ with my internet provider to promote them or anyone else but I have done the spade work myself and continue to monitor the various companies and their plans (I’m always looking for the best value myself of course!).

There are many internet companies out there. Some haven’t been around long enough for me to give an opinion about while some have been in the market for years. Some have (or had – things change rapidly in this field) excellent customer service and most can provide a good product at reasonable cost.

The bottom line is this : the most you should have to pay for fast (ie: over 1500k download speed) broadband with fair free monthly download data amounts (more than 1-2Gb per month with no excess data charges, just ’shaped’ or speed-capped if you go over the limit) little, if any fixed term contracts, no bundling with a phone contract deals and helpful customer assistance is $50-$55 a month.

In fact, I pay just $49.95 for all the above and a lot more free data than that, and many other people do the same – so, please shop around!

Links that may help:

Broadband Choice

Broadband choice Bigpond plan summary

Bigpond Plans/Offers page

APC Mag’s story ‘It’s Official: Bigpond is too expensive’ (written in 2007 and nothing much has changed since then!)

Gamer hit with $6000 Bigpond bill

If you are interested in what the new Windows will look like, here are some screenshots I have taken from a test system running a ‘release candidate’ of Windows 7. The system was originally running Win 7 with 512Mb of RAM to see how it would perform, not surprisingly it was a little sluggish but after adding another 512Mb it was transformed. So it appears that (and let’s hope Microsoft doesn’t cripple the final version of the software we can actually buy) this latest version might just restore my faith in Windows!

By the way, the test system used is an elderly Compaq that is running a Celeron 2.6Ghz with 1Gb RAM and a 128Mb video card – try running Vista Home Premium on that…

I have a supplier now for the Asus eeBox. What the heck’s an eeBox I hear you say? Just a very clever idea that may not appeal to everyone, but if you want a very compact computer that can do the basics without fuss, it might be worth considering.

The eeBox is a complete PC around the size of a couple of DVD cases and it can even be stuck on the back of a monitor if you like so there’s nothing visible!

Just add monitor, keyboard & mouse (wireless probably best) and away you go! It has ‘802.11N’ wireless built in, so if you have a wireless router available it will connect to the net through that, or you can use an Ethernet cable.

I’ve been telling customers for years about external USB hard drives and what great things they are to keep your essential files backed up. I still have the same opinion, but I thought I’d pass on my experiences of one of my own drives as a bit of a warning.

I bought this particular drive from OfficeWorks, but I would have had the same experience with the vast majority of retailers with the possible exception of specialist computer stores. I had bought a Western Digital 640Gb external drive at a good price (they were on special at the time) and all went fine for the first nine months until one morning I noticed that the drives weren’t appearing in My Computer and a quick check revealed that the ‘power brick’ had died completely. It was running from a surge-protected power strip so I knew it wasn’t a power spike issue. A quick Google search revealed that the model I had was very prone to this problem. The newer ones aren’t of course…

The convenience of connecting two or more computer in your home or office has increased, especially with the cost of home or small office kits decreasing. Unfortunately there are people out there who want to use your wireless Internet for free or use it to hack into your computer.

There are now many websites devoted to ‘Wardriving’, which involves people searching for exposed wireless networks and sharing this information via websites of via their social network.

If you have set up your wireless network straight from the box and have not changed any of the default settings, then there is a huge chance that you are supplying somebody else free Internet access or being hacked into. A wireless network will never be as secure as a cabled network. By following the seven steps below then you will stand a much better chance of protecting your home network.