GeekwithEnvy

PC

New HP Computers Not designed for Windows 7

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Looking to buy a new PC? Make sure you get one with the operating system you want, already pre-installed.

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HP support mentions that downgrading your new Windows 8 PC may cause hardware issues and you may ultimately have to return to Windows 8 to get things to work again. Besides having major hardware issues, reverting to Windows 7 could be a time consuming task that will require you to modify the BIOS in order to work with previous versions of Windows.

Here is the response from an HP Administrator when asked about downgrading:

“HP does not recommend downgrading on any HP consumer desktop and notebook products. After October 26, 2012, HP consumer desktop and notebook products will ship only with Windows 8. Windows 7 will not be supported on these new platforms, and no drivers, apps, or Windows 7 content will be available through HP. If users choose to downgrade their HP consumer desktop or notebook system, HP will continue to support the hardware but if there is an issue where HP diagnostics are required OR it is determined that the loaded software or upgrade operating system is causing the issue, HP may suggest returning the system to the original Windows 8 OS that shipped with the computer.”

As a Windows 8 user I don’t feel the urge to downgrade. In most cases I have actually spent very little time using the new tile UI, in fact I spend about 90% of my time on the “old desktop”. I don’t purposely avoid the new UI, it’s just that many of the apps I use are either not designed for Windows 8 or have one too many bugs at this point. Only time will tell if users start to drop Windows 8 and go back with Windows 7, but I don’t see why anyone would. Microsoft will obviously be continuing to patch the new OS to ensure things are running smoothly and there are even a few ways to make Windows 8 look and feel more like previous versions.

 

The Windows 8 Desktop and Moving on From the Mouse

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The desktop computer has been number one in homes around the world until recently. We demand portability and technology has forever changed because of it.  Laptops and tablets have replaced our big box desktop computers and it seems very few are missing them. However, desktop computers are still necessary for many things and are still widely used by businesses and those who just need a little more than what a laptop can offer.magictrackpad_handWEB

For the longest time companies like Microsoft had been trying to emulate the Windows desktop experience on portable handheld devices, which was ok but not ideal for a touch screen. Eventually, things began to change and the mobile OS began to stand out on it’s own.

Apple’s iOS  and the iPhone changed how we thought a mobile OS should work. Mobile operating systems began to be developed and designed primarily around touch input . These changes worked so well that software companies started creating OS software for desktops that integrated many of the UI features of mobile operating systems into the desktop experience, and it worked.

OSX is a great example of how bringing mobile features to a desktop UI can work really well. Many iOS users will likely find it very easy to get into OSX as it has a similar feel to it. Microsoft has done the same with Windows 8, which looks and feels a lot like Windows Phone.

So, we have a touch based UI on the Windows PC and this is where the main disconnect for Windows 8 comes into play. I have mentioned before that Windows 8 overall looks pretty good  and should work very well with any tablet but it feels downright weird to use with a mouse in a desktop environment. One of the features of OSX that I really like is the ability to use gestures on the touchpad and this is exactly what I think Windows 8 needs in order to feel right.

The mouse has long since been a part of our graphical user interface experience and never before have we needed to move away from it, until now. The touchpad with gestures, in most scenarios will make your interaction with Windows 8 on both desktops and laptops much smoother. With the exception of maybe gaming, I can’t see why I would need a mouse when you can have a touchpad that offers everything you need and more.

Windows XP Usage Starting to Drop

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Ever since it’s release Windows XP has dominated the PC landscape and when Windows Vista came around, XP users wouldn’t budge. If you ask most XP users why they haven’t upgraded you’ll get a variety of answers but most will likely point toward XP’s solid track record as a stable well performing operating system that works on older and newer hardware with ease. It really is that simple, it works well, and it works well on most of the hardware out there.

Another point to take into consideration here is that most of the people who have tried to upgrade from XP did so while Windows Vista was around and this left a bad taste in their mouths. With what I would call one of Microsoft’s worst operating system releases, I can understand why you would return to your old friend XP, which even on it’s worst day was better than Vista.

However, with the web becoming more media rich, and with more and more people trying to edit videos and photos taken with their favorite mobile devices, the need for better hardware beckons us. Our 512mb of RAM and our old processors, (yes,people are still using these) just aren’t cutting it and PC users are going out and buying new hardware with Windows 7 pre-installed.  Once consumers get a chance to try Windows 7, most are surprised at how nice the operating system is and how well it works with your new hardware.  Windows 7 has been patched, re-patched and optimized over the years to a point to where it just works and that is exactly what XP users wanted the last time they tried to upgrade.

Let’s not forget forget that consumers are not the only important factor when considering operating systems, there are vendors too. Vendors now have more faith in moving on as well. Take Adobe for example, they have indicated that the next release of Photoshop will not support Windows XP. If we look at some statistics, Wikimedia indicates that 38.58% of OS usage belongs to Windows 7 while XP holds out around 21.75%. Windows Vista holds on to a slim 6.98%.

What turns out to be kind of strange and well, a bit of a problem for Microsoft, is that these users are just now starting to catch on to Windows 7 when Windows 8 is about to make it’s big debut and not just any debut, this is going to be a huge change for Microsoft. We will just have to wait and see what develops and I think it will be interesting to see if people can connect with Windows 8’s primarily touch-based interface.

A Guide To Backing Up Your Digital Life

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In the world of digital data we have tons of pictures, documents, videos, email, financial information and more right at our fingertips, but how many of us back up all of this stuff? Backing Up DataWe are using our computers for just about everything we do in our day to day lives. With the major push to go paperless, many of us no longer write out checks to pay our bills, file paper taxes or even receive bank statements in the mail.

The convenience of having all of this information on our computers is great, but it can all disappear with one virus, power surge, or flood. Whats even more strange is that most of us know we need to back up our data but we choose not to. Perhaps it is because we just don’t know how or maybe just don’t feel like we have the time.

Here are a few great ways to back up your data and the best part is it doesn’t take very long and it’s not very expensive.

External Hard Drive-

External Hard drives are easy to set up and you can get a huge amount of storage space for very little, and to top it off they are portable. For example, you can get a 3TB, yes that’s Terabyte, for around $140. You might even find deals better then this, especially if you can find an online coupon or rebate offer. Many of these drives now utilize the new super fast USB 3.0 standard for quick data transfer.

USB Thumb Drives-

Yep, even these little guys can be of great use when you need to back up data. Thumb drives come in many shapes and sizes and some can hold up to 128GB of data. This option is not necessarily the fastest but in smaller sizes, like the 8GB for example, you can back up all of your spreadsheets or photos in a snap. I think these make a better choice than recordable DVD media since they are less susceptible to physical damage, take up less space, and are relatively cheap.

Recordable DVD-

These are quite useful to use but honestly I think the other methods of backup that I mentioned are far easier to work with. I’m not saying you should never use optical media to back up your data I am just saying there are better options.

Home Server Backup-

If you have multiple computers on a network you can back them up using something like Time Capsule from Apple, which will integrate wirelessly with Time Machine to back up your Apple computers. You can also use Clickfree Wireless backup, which will also back up your files on multiple machines. Both of these options are extremely easy to set up and work really well.

The Cloud-

Yes, it’s the cloud again! Sites like Carbonite and Mozy are super easy to use and offer solid back up protection for about $50 a year, that’s about $5 a month which is not bad for peace of mind.

Dropbox is another popular option for back up synchronization that can be downloaded or used on the web. Dropbox stores files in one folder that can be accessed from any device and it features a relatively easy to use interface.

OK, so we have a few options to choose from when it comes to how we want to back up our data but how do you choose what to back up? This process is not as bad as you might think, just think about what is irreplaceable and what means most to you personally. After you determine what can not be replaced, you can start weeding out things like video game data (excluding saved games), old documents that are no longer important like essays from 6 years ago or old resumes and emails.

Many operating systems come with a back up system of their own that you can use.

MAC

Mac uses Time Machine, which you can get detailed information on how to use here.

Windows

Windows users can use Backup and Restore, instructions on how to use this can be found here.

openSuse

With openSuse you can back up your /home using instructions found here.

Remember, redundancy is key here and try to back up only the things that you consider to be irreplaceable and most important. Using this strategy will keep your file sizes from getting out of control and help speed up the back up process.

 

 

Beginners Guide to PC Building: Getting Started

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Have you been wanting to build your own PC from scratch but not sure where to start? This Beginners guide will help you get started and make sure you prevent major mistakes.bluetintedMicrochipArt

So, if you have done any research up to this point you will probably have noticed the shear amount of combinations there are when it comes to building your own. Selecting the right motherboard and cpu combination, memory, power supply, and case can all seem a bit overwhelming but this process can be simplified with a bit of planning and remember it is also about having fun!

So why build your own PC?

Personally, building a custom PC to me is my version of working on the hot rod in the garage. The customization and tweaking are all part of the process I enjoy. It also gets you closer to the technology and allows you to really appreciate and understand it from a perspective that otherwise might not be so clear. Ultimately, the feeling you get when it all comes together is worth it alone.

Getting Started

The first thing you really should do is decide what you want out of your build by asking some basic questions. What is this build for? gaming,video/photo editing, multiple OS machine, server, media hub. Once you decide the build purpose, you can narrow down your choices a bit. Another Consideration here is budget, how much are you willing to spend? Look around for different retailers and find the best deals. Another important thing to consider here is brick and mortar stores vs online. There are distinct advantages for both here but remember some stores will price match. Also consider the need to return/exchange a product, if a local store can price match go there, why wait a few days to get something exchanged or refunded when you can drive right to the store?

The CPU (AMD or Intel?)

This is the first real fork in the road here and an important decision to make early on because your motherboard selection will only work with one or the other. Both AMD and Intel make great chips, each company offers differing performance for price and ultimately the decision is entirely up to you. I wont try to push you in either direction here as your decision is more about the type of CPU rather than the brand.

CPUs are generally broken down into groups based on the amount of cores, operating frequency (GHz), and Socket. There are other factors to consider as well such as power consumption and cache. Choosing the series of processor should not be difficult but you should put some thought into your decision really think about your computing needs and what your trying to accomplish.

The MotherBoard

After you have chosen your CPU you can select the motherboard you would like to use. There are a few features to consider when choosing a motherboard like how many drives your planing on having and what size of motherboard you want to use. Motherboards come in many form factors, Standard ATX, Micro ATX, Mini ITX, and Nano ITX. The two most common here are Standard and Micro ATX. Check over the specs on the motherboard and make sure it meets your I/O needs (usb ports, Firewire, optical,bluetooth). Think about how many SATA connectors you will need and what speeds they operate at, typically 3Gb/s and 6Gb/s for SATA.
Factor in how much memory can the motherboard support and how many PCIe slots are available and if it supports multiple GPUs what type of multi-GPU support it has (NVIDIA SLI Technology or AMD CrossFireX Technology).

The big thing to take away from choosing a mobo/cpu combo is making sure things are compatable.

*USB 3.0 is becoming more common and is featured on many new motherboards, however many only come with a few 3.0 ports and the rest 2.0, so take note of how many you need and how many are included.

The Case

Some Considerations-

-Size-

The wonderful home for all of these components needs to be large enough to support all of the of the hardware you plan to install inside it. This may sound like a no brainer but I know that many people have later on realized that they wanted the latest and greatest graphics card only to find they dont have enough room, and some may have even gone to great lengths to make it fit ie.(dremel tool). So make sure you you give your self enough room to work with for what you need and what you may want in the future.

-Air flow-

Make sure the case you choose has adequate airflow design that makes sense. Believe me, you would think that this would be considered more when manufacturers make these cases, just trust me here when I say not all cases are created with intelligent airflow design.

-Management and other Features-

Most cases will have nice features like drive bays that you can simply slide and lock into place and wire management areas to keep your wires from becoming a rats nest. Check to see where headphone jacks and USB ports are located.

Power Supply

The Power Supply you choose should have all the nessesary power connectors you need. Remember each drive you install needs power, each graphics card you install needs its own power connector. Wattage will be determined by the amount of devices needing power and if you plan on installing a graphics card you will see a minimum requirement for wattage right from the GPU manufacturer.

*It is better to have a little more power then barely enough, you don’t want to stress your system and its components.

*Newer drives use SATA power connections, older drives use Molex connectors.

Memory

The type of memory or system RAM you install will depend on what is compatable with the processor you chose. Check the memory guidelines for the processor you choose. Once you find the right type of RAM, choose how much you want to install.

*If you are running a 32-bit version of Windows then you can only utilize up to 4GB of RAM, anything over this amount will not be recognized by your system. To gain access to memory capacity larger than 4GB you will need a 64-bit version of Windows.

Graphics

If you’re planning on gaming or doing other demanding video tasks then you will want to get a high end graphics card capable of handling lots of video data at once. The brand you go with is less important unlesss you are planning on using multiple graphics cards at once, in this situation need to make sure your motherboard supports the technology you’re trying to use. SLI and Crossfire are the two major communication protocols used in Nvidia and AMD graphics cards. Basically, it is the technology that allows multiple video cards to work together.

Storage and Media

Choose how much hard drive space you will need and what type of optical media you want to use. Plan on watching movies? Grab a blu-ray drive, preferably one that also burns blu-ray discs.

Another popular choice for storage are solid state drives or SSDs. SSDs are much much faster than standard hard drives and cointain no moving parts, so they are silent when running. This is a great performance boost in any system but it comes at a price. Many SSDs sell for about $1.00 per gigabyte, which is much more expensive then the old hard drive.

Wrap Up

This should hopefully help guide you through the first part of your pc building experience. I will be adding more parts to this guide in the future. You can really get into the details of each of these components more on your own as you learn more about the hardware that powers our computing experiences these days.