During the course of this type of conversation, the agent is fully aware that this question usually results in an even slower process of finding the root cause of why the pc is not working to the customer’s satisfaction. The use of this unintentional oxymoron to describe their problem, is quite common but the answer to the question, however, is not. 

In general, most computer repair technicians would be fairly confident that they can resolve the matter without too much difficulty. The real choice though is whether to; 

  A:\ Troubleshoot and repair the problem

The PC could be slow because;

• Erroneous startup items in windows.
• Corrupt software or windows files.
• Virus or Spyware related.
• Disk errors or fragmentation.
• A failed windows update or patch.
• Faulty RAM
• And so on……

Or B:\ Backup the data and Reinstall Windows

I prefer to only take this route as a last resort as it is a huge inconvenience (to both parties) to have to reinstall windows! It’s always painful to have to reinstall windows on your computer, especially if you rely on several business applications that require database restores and license activations, etc. This doesn’t include the sometimes impossible Google search for windows device drivers on the web.  However, you may have already wasted several hours trying to find a reason why this computer is at a crawl (see Option A) and you may now have to face the prospect that the only way to get this working properly is to set it back to its original configuration.

Some computer repair companies will only ever take this route, since Option A is a time risk i.e. you may fix the problem but there’s no guarantee so you may as well skip A, and reinstall the operating system anyway. With Option B, you at least know from experience that the repair will take x amount of time to repair. In a lot of cases, they rarely even backup the customer’s data before the format. This is plain laziness and the only reason you should ever be told that your data is gone, is when the hard drive on your computer is completely 100% broken beyond any hope of repair.

Anyway, when the time has come and you’ve tried just about everything, there is no cowardice in admitting defeat and reinstalling Windows from scratch. Even I.T Technicians will tell you that they have often reformatted their own computers just to ‘start over’ and if they haven’t, then they are either very lucky to have never been faced with this situation, much smarter than most, or just plain lying..

Like most, when I heard the next version of internet explorer (IE8) was around the corner, I thought northing of trying out the beta version. Especially since it was in Beta 2! The new version of IE has a host of new & interesting features.

They consist of;
 

InPrivate Browsing

Internet Explorer 8 can disable adding any of the websites you visit to your Browsing History, should you choose to enable this option..

Accelerators

Accelerators allow you to complete your everyday browsing activities more quickly and even discover new services. You can start mapping, translating, emailing, and more in just a few mouse clicks.  

Web Slices

Keep up with changes to the sites you use most. Add a Web Slice and you won’t have to go back to the same website again and again for updates on news, stock quotes, online auctions, weather, or even sports scores.

Search suggestions

Search smarter with detailed suggestions from your favourite search providers and browsing history. See visual previews and get suggested content topics while you type in the enhanced Instant Search Box.

SmartScreen Filter

New security features help to protect you against deceptive and malicious websites which can compromise your data, privacy, and identity

Compatibility View

Internet Explorer 8′s built-in Compatibility View button enables you to display websites that were designed for older browsers. Simply press the Compatibility View button if you see display problems on a website like misaligned text, images, or text boxes. It’s located next to the Refresh button on the Address Bar.

As great as IE 8 will be, I have learned to never install any beta software on a machine I intend to work on. Patience is definitely a virtue! The browser would consistently crash, network connectivity was intermittent and some websites would not display correctly (despite the compatibility view add-in).

In the end I had to remove the software and go back to Internet Explorer 7. I have absolutely no doubt that Microsoft will iron out the problems during the beta testing but I have learned to forget about seeing it first, and to learn from other peoples mistakes, not my own.

Traditionally, to add more RAM, you must first decide how much you need and more importantly which type. You can’t just walk into PC World and pick some off the shelf and expect it to work. There’s DDR, DIMM, SDRAM & SO-DIMM to name just a few.

RAM has become quite cheap lately but the work involved can often feel unnecessary, especially if you are not quite ready to spend money on a computer you are likely replace in the next 12-18 months anyway.

Microsoft have revealed a new alternative to upgrading your RAM and it’s called “Windows ReadyBoost”

It’s quite simple to use actually. With Vista, all you need to do is to connect a USB powered Hard Drive or a removable memory device such as memory card to your pc. For most people, they can use their existing backup drive. When this device is first inserted into your USB port, Windows Vista checks to see if its performance is fast enough to work with Windows ReadyBoost. If so, you will be prompted to use this device to speed up your system performance.

You can then choose to allocate part of the USB drive’s memory to speed up performance and use the remainder to store files, backup, etc.

This is a much welcome alternative from Microsoft to hardware RAM, but I wouldn’t advise it as a long-term solution.  However, it may be worthwhile if today’s budget is already stretched..

So it’s not so simple, or is it? Let’s face it, XP is a safe bet. It’s been around for a while, it’s reliable (for the most part), proven, and pretty much every bit of software out there works on it.    

My personal venture into Vistaland was with great reluctance. I wasn’t buying a new computer so an upgrade was on the cards. The first thing to do is check how much RAM your computer has. Click on Start, then Run, and type winver and click ok. If you are running anything less than 2gb, forget about it. As a test I installed Vista on a machine running 512mb RAM and let’s just say I got sick of putting the kettle on.

So if this means that your budget has suddenly been affected I’d recommend holding off until you need a new computer and then make that decision (If it’s still available).After adding the 2GB more of RAM to the computer, it was a world of a difference and I was genuinely impressed with Vistaland. The upgrade was complete but the transfer had only just begun.

Most software products that had to be reinstalled surprisingly worked from the original CD and others were easily downloaded from the manufacturer’s website. Overall, upgrading or swapping over to a new computer is never easy; it’s never straightforward and should never be taken lightly.

Advice: If you are a business user, check that all the software products running on your computer are vista compatible. Your IT department will typically take care of this. For the home user, the same applies but make sure you backup everything before you upgrade. Vista is clever! It moves most important files to a ‘windows.old’ directory for safekeeping. But there are other folders or data that can be lost. For example, if you use ROS, or business online banking you’ll need to backup your certificates. Check everything once, then again and then a fifth time!

Do we all have to get busy upgrading or get busy being left behind? The main point however is not whether you like Vista or Not. The truth is; Regardless of whether you like it or not, we are all stuck with it!

 To help choose which version of Vista you need: Click Here  To help choose which version of xp you need: Click Here   

Microsoft recommended XP minimum requirements-

• PC with 300 megahertz or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233 MHz minimum required (single or dual processor system);* Intel Pentium/Celeron family, or AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended
• 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)
• 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available hard disk space
• Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher-resolution video adapter and monitor 

Microsoft recommended Vista minimum requirements (as hard as it is to believe) ·                    

• 800 MHz processor and 512 MB of system memory
  I recommend to double the processor and quadruple the system memory
• 20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space                   
• Support for Super VGA graphics