Peter's Motorcycle BLOG » Windows Vista http://dixonarchive.com/blog Technology and Motorcycles Sun, 08 Jan 2012 12:16:51 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Windows Vista in July 2009 http://dixonarchive.com/blog/2009/windows-vista-in-july-2009/ http://dixonarchive.com/blog/2009/windows-vista-in-july-2009/#comments Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:00:50 +0000 Peel http://dixonarchive.com/blog/?p=1193 It’s been awhile since I posted an update on my main Vista PC!  That’s because since the memory update to 3Gigs and the installation of Vista Service Pack 3 I finally have a computer that actually works properly. Admittedly some of older software and games still don’t work but I use the VM on the mac to run them.

I’ve also been able to use some new feature of Vista including the Gadgets sidebar!  There are now some excellent gadgets you can have run on the sidebar – some very impressive! Check them out here Vista Sidebar Gadgets

My personal favorites you can get from the link above include:

Xirrus Wi-Fi monitor
(Shows an active scan of available and unavailable Wireless Networks!)

All CPU Meter
(Shows CPU usage on all the CPUs in your computer and memory usage)

Wireless Network Meter
(Shows live stats on all the important details of your wireless connection like uploads and downloads, signal strength and activity graph.  Looks good too!)

Wired Network Meter
(Shows live stats on all the important details of your wired internet connection like uploads and downloads, signal strength and activity graph.  Looks good too!)

]]> http://dixonarchive.com/blog/2009/windows-vista-in-july-2009/feed/ 0 The best computer – Introduction http://dixonarchive.com/blog/2009/the-best-computer-introduction/ http://dixonarchive.com/blog/2009/the-best-computer-introduction/#comments Fri, 05 Jun 2009 04:36:46 +0000 Peel http://dixonarchive.com/blog/?p=1080 It’s that time of the year in certain parts of the world that have a end of financial year of 30 June.  From May onwards you’ll start to see retailers offering a variety of specials.  Fortunately I have managed to synchronize all my hardware purchases and software licenses to expire at the start of the new financial and as a result can par take in annual ritual of updating or changing various pieces of software.  Yes tend to buy any new computer hardware at this time of the year!

I current have two Apple Mac computers a Vista PC and a bits and pieces PC accumulated over the years which I regularly use.  The bits and pieces PC is the main PC I use for trialling out new software like freebies and operating systems like Linux basically anything that comes on a magazine’s free DVD or something I found on the internet.

However if you’ve been keeping up with this section of the BLOG you’ll know that I now run VMWare Fusion on the Apple Mac’s to create virtual PCs running windows – or any other OS that I need.  The setup has proven it’s self reliable and flexible.  All the software I’ve installed on the virtual PCs work perfectly or specifically as well as they did on a standard box PC.  So I’ve finally decided that the Vista PC, bits and pieces machine, the the very old Mac Mini will be decommissioned.  That’s a job for Ebay…

The caveat is that games don’t run very well or not at all on the virtual PCs purely because my particular Macbook I have does not have a dedicated Graphics card.  Of course this will be fixed when I get a new Mac with a dedicated graphics card.

So I’m  in the market for a new Apple Mac of decent specification so I can run multiple virtual Windows PCs when required. I figure that a 5 year life span and using free and paid software including anti-virus software I can actually save money?  Apple does not offer real discounts on their computers but retailers often have packages but often not compelling enough – nonetheless I shall see.

I’m a supporter of free software – afterall I make free stuff as well but I also support paying for legitimate software.  Basically if you don’t pay for it the companies go broke and you won’t get new stuff.  So I buy software if its better than free offerings.  I always install the trail version first to make sure it will work so should you.

]]> http://dixonarchive.com/blog/2009/the-best-computer-introduction/feed/ 0 Windows Vista in November 2008 http://dixonarchive.com/blog/2008/windows-vista-in-november-2008/ http://dixonarchive.com/blog/2008/windows-vista-in-november-2008/#comments Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:33:31 +0000 Peel http://dixonarchive.com/blog/?p=228 It has been over 1 year since Vista was released.  Since the upgrade of my main Vista PC with 3Gig of RAM performance is finally acceptable. It finally runs programs at XP speeds.

I still do not understand why so much processing power along with memory is required to run an operating system.  XP which is my benchmark works amazingly well on hardware 1/4 the requirements of Vista’s requirements.

PUSHING more advanced technology done in this way, only a monopoly could achieve that – Vista – it offers nothing new for the masses at significantly higher cost is just weird.  The fact that they got away with Vista is not going to be forgtten.

We have to be thankful for and try alternatives.

]]> http://dixonarchive.com/blog/2008/windows-vista-in-november-2008/feed/ 0