Technology Metro

Windows Vista is the newest edition of Microsoft operating system released. I have read a lot about Windows Vista but I haven’t personally used it. I still use Windows XP and I am comfortable with it. If I were to upgrade to Windows Vista, I will surely need to upgrade my hardware which would cost me a lot of cash. I am more than satisfied with Windows XP and I don’t have any intentions of upgrading to Windows Vista any time soon, unless it is absolutely necessary. Windows Vista takes up too much RAM and too much processing power and if I were to upgrade to Windows Vista now, I would surely have to upgrade RAM or use ReadyBoost feature which is not that great to tell you the truth as a flash memory is much slower than a RAM.

For a new users, they would definitely need a lot of vista help as lot of things are different in a Windows Vista Operating system if you compare it with Windows XP excluding the obvious one (Visual look). The minimum RAM requirement for Windows Vista is 1GB but you will need atleast 2GB of actual ram for a Windows Vista to perform up to par. Well you can find a lot of useful information about Windows Vista on this vista forum. Did you know Windows Vista was actually known as Windows LongHorn when it was in the development state!!

For a person who has just upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista, this Windows vista forum might be a helpful place to look for information and/or converse with other people who also use Windows Vista. There are lots of version of Windows Vista and it can be quite expensive to upgrade. To be accurate there are five versions of Windows Vista.

• Windows Vista Ultimate
• Windows Vista Home Premium
• Windows Vista Home Basic
• Windows Vista Business and
• Windows Vista Enterprise

Windows Vista Ultimate edition has it all so if you want a full Vista experience from both media and business world, you should choose Windows Vista Ultimate.

Not a lot of people know about ReadyBoost, well I didn’t know about it till now. I use the Windows XP operating system and ReadyBoost is only available on Windows Vista OS. ReadyBoost is quite a useful feature, you can speed up your system by using the Ready Boost feature on Windows Vista. Usually people install more RAM to increase their PC’s speed but it can be a bit of a hassle to install new RAM. RAM is costly and there might be another problem while upgrading your RAM - there might not be any more RAM expansion slots left to install it in.

Ready Boost is the cheapest way to increase performance on Windows Vista. Windows XP used the hard drive as additional RAM or “Virtual Memory” when all of the actual RAM is used up, this can really affect the performance of a PC. The system becomes sluggish as it takes time to read/write data on a Hard drive compared to RAM. Virtual Memory function is still available on Windows Vista but Microsoft has added a new feature called Windows ReadyBoost which uses Flash memory as RAM. Flash memory is a lot faster than hard drives whilst transferring data so using Flash memory makes a lot of sense. People who use Windows Vista can easily boost their system performance without having to install a RAM in the motherboard. Using the Windows Vista ReadyBoost feature is really easy, just plug-in flash memory via a USB port and go to the properties of the flash memory you just plugged in on “My Computer” and tweak the ReadyBoost settings there (You can even use a SD Card if you have a memory card reader). Allocate as much space as you like on your flash drive and apply the settings. That’s it, you have just increased the performance of your system with the new ReadyBoost feature. I still have no plans of upgrading to Windows Vista any time soon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReadyBoost

I don’t know much about Windows Live OneCare 2.0 as I haven’t used it but it seemed like a good deal so I decided to post it. Amazon are selling a Windows Live OneCare 2.0 package for $30 and there is a $30 mail-in rebate offer, so you will be getting the Windows Live OneCare 2.0 package for free after rebates. Here is a direct link to Windows Live OneCare 2.0 at Amazon. Don’t forget to look at the $30 Mail-in rebate, print this pdf file and fill in the information and mail it to the address in it after purchasing Windows Live OneCare 2.0 at Amazon for $30. You will have to mail the rebate offer in before 45 days of purchase to be able to get your $30 back.

Windows Live OneCare 2.0 is great for protecting your computer against hacking attacks, virus, spyware, malware threats. A Windows Live OneCare includes

• Antivirus & antispyware
• Online ID protection
• Firewall
• Multi-PC management
• Printer sharing
• Backup and restore

There is a 90 days free trial offer at Microsoft’s official Windows Live OneCare, so you might want to try that out before ordering one from Amazon. Windows Live OneCare 2.0 software package will work on both Windows XP and Windows Vista operating system so no worries there. Windows Live OneCare 2.0 is out of stock right now but it will be still available to order and Windows Live OneCare 2.0 will be in stock on February 3 anyways. The shipping will be free of cost and will be taken care of my Amazon. Your Windows Live OneCare 2.0 package via Super Saver Shipping.

Microsoft is launching a promotional event to showcase their new software. The first of the series of events will take place in Los Angeles, California on 27th of February. To attend this Microsoft event, you can register online for free and it doesn’t take that long to register. Registrations are still open for the first show that will take place in Los Angeles and it is free to register. Every person who attends this Microsoft event will get a free copy of Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008. So if you are interested in getting a free copy of these softwares, go ahead and register for the upcoming Microsoft event.

At this event, you can test drive all these three systems for yourself, talk to the software experts who were involved in making all these softwares and have a Q&A session with them. At the end of the show you will be handed Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 edition softwares for free.

Product giveaway kit good only for attendees of 2008 Launch Wave event, events that are targeted towards IT professionals. Limit one launch giveaway kit per person. All kits must be claimed at the event. This offer is non-transferrable and expires on May 22, 2008 while supplies last. Offer is not redeemable for cash.

To be eligible to attend this Microsoft Software launch even, you need to be at least 18 years old. Other than than, there is no restrictions. Remember, this even will start on February 20th 2008.

Microsoft introduced a new default document format in their new Microsoft Office and Word applications. Instead of saving documents as doc they are now saved as docx files by default which leads to some confusion by users of an older version of Word, Office or Office equivalent programs like Open Office.

A post at the Internet site Ghacks explains how to open docx files if you run an older version of Microsoft Office, Word, Open Office and even different operating systems like Linux or Mac.

Microsoft Office and Word users have the easiest way of adding support for docx files. They simply download a compatibility pack from Microsoft which adds support for docx documents.

All others can use online converters or special plugins that add compatibility which is unfortunately slightly more complex and depends on the current operating system and software.