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

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

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…

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.

Of course, there are a few limitations – no CD/DVD drive for one (no way they could fit one in that size case but an external USB DVDR/W drive will only cost you around $75 anyway) and as it has 1Gb RAM and 80Gb hard drive, it isn’t up to running Vista (why would you want too?) – it comes with Windows XP Home Edition included. But for an easy to use, very compact computer solution like an internet PC on the kitchen bench for example (the whole kit & kaboodle could even be put on a monitor wall mount), an eeBox might suit you perfectly. Hook one up to your stereo system and you have a great way to play your MP3’s too. The applications are only limited by your imagination really.

The eeBox comes with ASUS software called ‘ExpressGate’ that is a Linux-based rapid startup suite of programs that let you browse the internet among other things without starting into Windows at all. XP starts up reasonably quickly anyway, but if you need to check that Qantas flight right NOW it will save you a bit of time!

This website has a very good in depth review of it, with many more photos etc. Have a wander over there and check it out and if you are interested in getting one, let me know.

My price for one is $590 and as mentioned that includes XP Home as well. If you need a wireless keyboard/mouse set, just add $70. See the menu on the left for monitor pricing.

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…

‘No problem’ I thought – I’ll just give OfficeWorks a quick call and ask what to do next. The helpful chap there said that I would have to contact W.D, either from the website or the 1800 number he gave me. I wasn’t too happy about that – after all, usually the retailer you purchase from handles the warranty procedure – but he was insistent that I needed an ‘RMA’ number before they could assist me. Of course, the phone number ended up in India or Singapore and their staff were always ‘on another call’, so I left a message after waiting for 15 minutes on hold.

After a week with no call back from them, I tried the online solution and got an RMA number – BUT I would have to send the whole thing to Singapore at my expense of course and they wouldn’t guarantee any of my data would be there when it came back (if it ever would) – not a solution for me as there was stuff on it that I didn’t have anywhere else. It’s the backup drive, why would I!!

Back to OfficeWorks I went again and was told that the model wasn’t sold by them anymore. They don’t have spare power units and even if W.D say to them ‘replace it’ – I would then be up for the difference between this one and a newer (but bigger capacity) drive. They gave me a number where I could send the old one to get the data backed up off it (he didn’t know if I would be charged for this) and so at this point I said ‘bugger it – I’ll sort it out myself’.

And this is the problem with external drives – if the power brick dies you can’t access your drive easily yourself to get the stuff off it!

As a computer tech, it wasn’t a problem for me as I simply bought an empty external hard drive box, opened the WD one, ripped the drive out, fitted it into the new box and I was back in business again in 10 minutes – but the average consumer wouldn’t know this would they?

So, the moral of the story is this: before buying a ‘cheap’ external drive just check what the warranty terms actually are – how much work (and expense) you have to go to to get it repaired or replaced if it dies under warranty. I’d also ask if the same situation applies under the ‘extended warranty’ they often try and con you into paying more for as well.

So – if anyone has an external hard drive that they suspect the power brick has died on – contact me as I can help you. A new external hard drive box like the one to the right (with a standard, easily available power brick that even Dick Smith could replace) will only set you back $30-$40 and your otherwise useless drive can be of use to you again! On the other hand, if you don’t have one already, I can include a new drive with one as well – as of April ‘09 hard drive prices are: 500Gb – $130, 1Tb – $210.

So all up, one that you know will be supported by me during the warranty period (and after) may cost you a little more than a cheap one – but what price peace of mind?

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.

1. Change The Admin Password
The default password for most wireless kits is ADMIN. If you haven’t changed this password then change it as soon as you can. It is surprising the amount of wireless networks that are hacked into or accessed by a third party because the ADMIN password is still ADMIN. Especially as manufacturers manuals can be downloaded from the Internet with their admin password.

2. Disable or Change the SSID
The Service Set Identifier [SSID] is a code that wireless hardware sends out to identify itself to other devices. By default the SSID is normally the manufacturer’s name. The SSID is only required when devices are first synchronizing with each other, so the best option is to disable the SSID broadcast once your network connection is established.

By disabling SSID broadcast you will make it much harder for an intruder because they will have to start guessing the SSID code. Most wireless gateway devices offer the option to disable SSID broadcast, however some may require a firmware upgrade, and some devices do not offer that option at all.

If you cannot change the SSID or do not want to disable it, then the SSID should be changed to a unique phrase that is hard to guess. Using non-dictionary words as well as numbers and special characters for the new SSID will make it much more for your wireless network to be accessed by hackers.

3. Use 128-bit WEP Encryption
Wireless Equivalent Privacy [WEP] is the security standard and offers the option of either 64 or 128 bit encryption. It also includes additional encryption using the Initialization Vector (IV), which is a series of random bits added in front of a message before it is encrypted. 64-bit encryption is easier to hack into than 128 bit. You may need to update the firmware on your wireless device to be able to use 128-bit encryption.

By using encryption, if the wireless device and computer do not contain the encryption key, then no exchange of data will take place. Enabling 128-bit encryption will discourage people not permitted to access your network and make your network more secure. The casual hacker will normally move onto an easier target if they find encryption is enabled.

4. Turn off DHCP
Most wireless devices have Dynamic Host Control Protocol [DHCP] enabled. This allows a new host on your network to introduce itself and request an IP address so it can then connect and use your wireless connection. All very convenient for a legitimate user, but for an trespasser onto your wireless network, that’s like putting a ‘come steal from me sign’ outside your open and unlocked front door.

While it may be a pin to the legitimate user to your wireless network, it’s a necessary one due to the amount of damage that can be done if left turned on. By using static IP addresses you will create another hurdle for the unwanted prowler wanting to steal your bandwidth and probably more.

5. Enable MAC Address Filtering
Each computer network adaptor has a unique address built in called the MAC address. Most wireless devices allow MAC address filtering. By creating a MAC address list of permitted network adaptors [that are attached to a computer], you are creating a guest-list so to speak. If a computer with a MAC address on the list, they will not be permitted to access the wireless network.

Mac addresses can be spoofed by a very technical minded knowledgeable individual, however by using MAC address filtering you will deter all but the most determined hacker.

If you are unsure about how to proceed with any of the above please read the manual that came with your wireless hardware. There normally is a wizard or step-by-step walk through that will help you.

I hope the five above tips will come in handy and enable you to use your wireless network without the threat of an unwanted intruder.

For free common sense computer tips and advice that will protect and speed up your computer visit http://www.john-french.net

For an extended version of this article please visit http://www.john-french.net

John French has been breaking, repairing and building computers for over 15 years. He has expertise in computer security and maintaining a healthy computer. Fighting computer infections and keeping a healthy and speedy computer is of priority importance.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_French

Additional info added by Andy: Great article, but I suggest that for better security, use WPA2 encryption rather than WEP. Most modern wireless routers and laptops can use this.

If your system is like mine at the moment – long periods spent waiting for things to happen and the odd frustrating ‘glitch’ that you somehow just live with. In my case, Windows XP has been installed for a couple of years now and as I frequently install and uninstall software – often to test it out – I know the registry has grown like Topsy and there’s a lot of ‘junk’ in the works.

It’s overdue for a fresh reinstall or in my case, a reload of the XP image that I created after the reinstall and the majority of programs I use had been loaded on. I can easily take it back to July 2007 or whenever I last re-imaged the system – I just need to ensure I’ve backed up everything I need before I do it!

I am doing this kind of work more and more these days – backing up customer’s systems and reinstalling Windows and restoring applications etc. after serious malware infections mainly. It can be a tedious (and costly) exercise, but it doesn’t have to be if you have a little technical ability and are prepared to put some time and thought into the process.

Here’s some tips to get you started in the process – sure, I may be doing myself out of a job, but there doesn’t seem to be a shortage of this kind of work, even from more ‘tech-savy’ customers. I think they just can’t spare the time to do it. Fair enough!

What you will need -

1. A way to backup your documents, files and photos to. An external hard drive is the easiest method to use. A good size external drive will cost you around $100-$150.
2. The set of CDs that came with the PC – either a ’system recovery’ set or the Windows CD plus driver and application disks for all the software you need to reinstall after the procedure.

How to do it -
1. Backup everything you require (including your email, address book etc – under XP this is contained in the ‘Documents and Settings’ folder for the various user accounts if there is more than one.
2. Put the recovery CD or your Windows CD into the drive and ‘boot’ from that – you may need to press F9 or a similar key to choose to start from the CD rather than the hard drive – and follow the procedure to reinstall Windows. Choose the option to install a fresh copy rather than repair and I choose the ‘fast format’ method as it takes far less time to complete on the large hard drives that are common nowadays.
3. After the reinstallation of Windows you will need to install all the hardware drivers from the CDs you have (unless you have a recovery disk set that does this for you).
4. If you have any Service Pack CDs (XP currently has 2 available, SP2 and SP3) I suggest you use these to update Windows rather than wait for hours while Windows Update downloads all the patches and updates (not to mention the amount of broadband data you will use!).
5. Finally, reinstall the printer and applications from the CDs you have and restore the backup data. Import the email and address book etc as well.

Now, I have made it sound relatively simple and it isn’t too hard, but it takes time and if you don’t have the necessary drivers and application CDs it can certainly be a lot harder than that – so this is where a good PC tech is worth his weight in gold! It might cost you $120-$150 but the process is a lot less painful.

Operating System (first number is the number of unique visitors using the O.S) -

• 2623: Windows XP (77%)
  
• 288: Windows 2000 (8.4%)
  
• 157: Mac OS X (4.6%)
  
• 149: Windows Vista (4.4%)
  
• 64: Linux i686 (1.9%)
  
• 44: Windows 98 (1.3%)
  
• 43: Windows NT (1.3%)
  
• 21: OpenBSD (0.6%)
  
• 16: Windows NT 4.0 (0.35%)

Interesting statistics hey? Especially when you consider that visitors running Vista are less than those running MacOS (Apples)… So much for the latest version of Windows taking the world ‘by storm’. Hmmm spin-doctors, gotta love em!

Browser used to visit the site -

• 1922: Internet Explorer 6.0 (57%)
  
• 455: Mozilla Firefox 3.x (13.5%)
  
• 367: Internet Explorer 7.0 (10.9%)
  
• 360: Netscape 4.0 (10.6%)
  
• 116: Safari (3.4%)
  
• 65: Mozilla Firefox 1.x, 2.x (1.9%)
  
• 53: Opera 9.52 (1.6%)
  
• 37: MSIE 5.0 (1.1%)

It’s disturbing the huge numbers of people still using IE6.0 – this browser is the most insecure, outdated one on the planet and should definitely not be used. Modern websites don’t display properly in it either.

by Andy Turner
Coastal Computers & Design

More families these days are deciding to buy a budget end computer to replace an aging system rather than spending more to get a higher spec model. In itself this is a good idea as the lower end models these days are more than capable of performing the majority of tasks expected of a modern PC – with the exception of high end gaming and video editing work.

Unfortunately, the options commonly available are limited at the moment due to the fact that the vast majority of ‘PCs’ – as opposed to Apples – come with one of the Vista versions. In my opinion, I have yet to see a budget PC running Vista Home Basic (which is all these systems can be expected to run) that performs nearly as well as a similar spec system running Windows XP. I have serviced some Vista computers over the past year that run so slowly as to be virtually unusable.  Many customers tell me that they are so sick of waiting for something to happen on their new shiny PC – that promised so much in the showroom – that the whole computing experience is just so frustrating that they don’t know why they bother using it at all. A memory upgrade, a new video card and removing the ’security suites’ and other junk that comes preinstalled on them provides some improvement but on the whole Vista is a major disappointment.

Netbooks are becoming very popular but you won’t see Vista on one of these – it’s one area that manufacturers have managed to get Microsoft to agree to continue providing XP – it was either that or leave the market wide open to Linux to exploit.

Now, hope is on the horizon for PC users in the form of the upcoming ‘Windows 7′ which looks to be a very impressive operating system. Seems that Microsoft has listened to the criticism and finally seen that the speed of Vista on lower spec systems is not satisfactory and the crippling security features just aren’t impressing end users at all.

* Windows 7 Preview running on a netbook *

Unfortunately though, late 2009 or sometime in 2010 is the expected release date of the new system – so what to do until then if you need a new PC but can’t afford a higher end model? Buy a computer with Windows XP! There are still some retailers (like me) that have access to XP and a modern Celeron computer with 2Gb RAM and a decent sized hard drive won’t break the bank and they run beautifully with XP – Home or Professional versions (I prefer the Pro myself but Home is satisfactory for most users).