How and Why (first reason) to use Safe Mode

News Flash! Sometimes things go wrong with computers. Yesterday we discussed how to invoke Windows' Safe Mode. Safe Mode is one of the tools you can use to diagnose and repair Windows' problems. Our first problem (and its fix)is things going wrong after you added / changed hardware or changed a "driver." Note: you'll have to print these instructions because they will not be available on-screen while you perform these steps.

1. How: There are two ways to get where you need to be for out first possible fix:
   
   • If you have NOT added the safe boot option to your startup menu
     • At the right moment, press the F8 key. Be alert: your window of opportunity is small
     • If you miss that opportunity, Windows will start normally.
     • You should let Windows finish its startup process.
     • Then re-boot and try again.
     • Keep trying until you get it right.
     Now you know why I recommend adding the Safe Mode option to Windows.
   • If you have added the safe boot option to your startup menu
     • Start the computer.
     • When the Options menu appears,rather than selecting an operating system, press the F8 key
   
   Either method will open the Safe Mode Options Menu.
   
   The first thing to try when using Safe Mode to recover from a system problem is invoking the Last Known Good Configuration option.At the Safe Mode Options Menu,
   
   
   • Use the arrow keys to highlight Last Known Good Configuration
   • press the ENTER key. NOTE: NUM LOCK must be off before the arrow keys on the numeric keypad will function.
   • Follow the screen prompts. When instructed,
   • reboot the system
   • test to see if the original problem is fixed.


2. WHY: Choosing Last Known Good Configuration provides a way to recover from problems such as a newly added driver that may be incorrect for your hardware. It does not solve problems caused by corrupted or missing drivers or files.

   You should use the Last Known Good Configuration as soon as you discover a problem which occurred right after you changed a driver or added/changed hardware.

Tomorrow: More ways to use Safe Mode.

Recover From Windows Problems (Add Safe Mode To The Boot Menu)

News Flash! Sometimes things go wrong with computers. One of the tools you can use to diagnose and repair some problems is Windows' Safe Mode. To use Safe Mode, restart the computer. During the start up you have a brief moment in which you can press the F8 key. Pressing F8 allows you to use Safe Mode. Catching the correct moment is a challenge. However, you can force Windows to present a menu from which you can select Safe Mode. Hint: print these instructions - they are not available while you are performing the listed tasks.

1. Right-click My Computer
2. Left-click Properties.
3. Left-click the Advanced tab.
   Under Startup and Recovery,
4. Left-click the Settings button.
5. Left-click Edit.
   The boot.ini file will open in Notepad. In the boot.ini file,
6. Copy the line that reads as follows:
   multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect.
7. Paste the line you just copied after the original one.
8. Change the second line - the one you just pasted -
   from “Microsoft Windows XP Professional”
   to “Windows XP Safe Mode” or something similar (the exact text of this step is not important).
9. At the end of this line add the following: /safeboot:minimal /sos /bootlog.
10. Save the boot.ini file
    • Left-click File.
    • Left-click Save.
    • Left-click OK.
    • Left-click OK.
11. Restart your computer.

Safe Mode should be available at the boot menu.

Tomorrow: How and Why to use Safe Mode

MicroSoft Vista, Part 2

Microsoft Vista is an operating system for personal computers. It usually is found installed on new personal computers.

For openers, let's discuss the concept of an "operating system." Simply put, the operating system is your computer's traffic cop. It directs all of the odds and ends that go on inside your computer.

All computers have an operating system - even your cell phones, your car's computer, your high-tech "IP" telephones, your "TIVO" (a TV's Video Recorder - VCR - on steroids).

If the operating system (OS) is good, you never know that it is there. It just does its job quietly, while it turns your keystrokes and mouse clicks into documents, screen images, internet 'activity', music, and the like. Good operating systems include

• Apple's Macintosh
• newer versions of Linux
• Windows XP, although it took a couple of years of patching before XP became a fairly good OS.
  

Windows Vista is still rough around the edges - and all the way through. Many industry pundits (and I) doubt that it will ever become a polished, well-running, unintrusive OS.

Technically speaking, Microsoft has stopped selling Windows XP and requires that all new PCs built by Microsoft Partners have MS Vista pre-installed. Oddly, even though XP is not longer being sold for installation on new computers, XP still outsells Vista. Go figure.

Why is that?

• Performance. Vista is overweight. It's bloated. It uses much more memory than XP or Linux. It requires a faster processor than those OSs.
• Quality. Vista is buggy.
• Usability. There are some computer components that will not work with Vista. There are MANY programs that will not work with Vista.
  

Some of those vendors - MicroSoft Partners - will thumb their noses at MicroSoft and will build you a less-expensive (but equally good or even better) PC with XP installed or with Linux installed.

They can 'install' XP because the Vista license allows you to 'downgrade' to XP. I challenge the use of the term 'downgrade,' but that's my personal problem. In any case, if you follow my advice, you'll insist that any new computer that you buy will have Windows XP - or Linux - or both - installed.

As PC operating systems go, Windows XP is a good choice. Most of the bugs have been worked out, and there is considerable available hardware and software that play nicely with XP.

It's a good time to consider Linux as an OS on any computer, new or used. Granted, Linux is not Windows, and not all Windows software will run on a Linux computer. But

1. Most Linux installations include software called "Wine". Wine is a product that is designed to enable you to run Windows software in a Linux environment. Not all WIndows programs will run under Linux/Wine, but 6500 Windows programs do....
2. Every day new Linux programs are released... programs that perform the same functions as MicroSoft-compatible programs - and usually faster than MicroSoft-compatible software,
   
3. These days, most people use computers for Internet browsing, e-mail, simple text operations such as writing letters (you know, those old-fashioned documents that required envelopes and stamps - and used complete words and complete sentences), preparing term papers, playing music, playing videos, and homework. Linux excels at all of those tasks.

Another option for running alternative operating systems is the "virtual machine." To use a virtual machine

1. take any computer running any of the Big 4 OSs: Vista, XP. Mac, Linux
2. install virtual machine software (all 4 have free VM software available)
3. use the VM software to create and install "Virtual XP", or "Virtual Vista", or "Virtual Linux" (Mac OS is different)

The virtual OS becomes a second operating system that can run simultaneously with the original OS and can share the computer's hardware resources: memory, disk drives, network, audio/video circuitry, and so on. You can switch between those 2 (or more) OSs on-the-fly without losing any data - or even with out 'losing your place' in what you were doing before the switch.

The point of all of this is that you don't have to buy a computer with an expensive, poorly written operating system (that would be Vista). You have alternatives.

Hm-m-m-m

"Amateurs built the ark ...professionals built the Titanic.
Now let's talk about Linux and Windows."