....but I should add that these driveways around here are actually built on the roof of our 1,200-car garages, and it gets rather wet down in there lately, with all the cracks that have developed over the 35 years or so that this place has been here. It was built in the early to mid-1970s, and I first lived here in 1980 or 81, just after my second marriage became history. Which probably explains why I never bought one of these units - but I've often wished since then that I had. It would be all mine by now, and I'd be saving money. Anyway, this guy and his big noisy truck got my attention this afternoon, as I was downloading a copy of Windows 7 64-bit from Microsoft's website - just in case I get tired of the Vista on this newest PC.Speaking of which, for anyone who would like to - those free trial downloads of the Release Candidate of Windows 7 Ultimate are still available until the 20th of this month - so get it while you can. These will be good until late spring of 2010, so you'll have several months to
use the latest and greatest, before Microsoft switches them off on us, and we have to get the retail versions instead.
Also speaking of Vista, just a reminder for Monsieur Beep and his computering wife, and all you others with Vista - some 3rd-party freebies you'll find really handy are:- the Image Resizer 2.0 for Vista, which goes into your right-click drop-down menus and lets you easily do batch resizing (or one at a time) of your photos, which usually come from the camera as huge files. This little tool is a copy of the XP PowerToy Image Resizer, except this newest version has now been re-written in CC+ so it works in versions for both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows. I have it on here in 64-bit form, and it works great. Another handy program, especially if you're downloading an ISO Image of Windows 7, or whatever, is ImgBurn, the free image-burning program. It's compact, easy to use, and works like a charm on ISO image files, and for turning your other files into ISOs if you like. And in case you do re-partition a big hard-drive into two smaller partitions, perhaps for a dual-booting arrangement, then Easeus Partition Master is a must. It's also a freebie, and you can do a lot of neat things with it. Like re-sizing the various partitions on a hard-drive, or creating new ones, and the instructions explain how.
Now that I can compare Vista to Windows 7, nose to nose, and program to program, there really is a difference, and it's Windows 7 out in front, with Vista against the rail away back. Just like I've been saying since January.... and Thank God those youngsters in Redmond have been listening to us old farts and our suggestions - we're finally getting all this together, and it's really kicking ass!
I really appreciate your suggestions concerning Win 7 in particular and computering in general.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, and have a good start into the brandnew week. Please enjoy every second of it.
Thanks for the good wishes, and same to you.
ReplyDeleteI'm learning the joys and sorrows of using a 64-bit system, as opposed to the more common 32-bit or x86 ones.
It's a bit like running a Mac - not everything you'd like to use on it will work on that system. And it uses a lot more RAM for the same jobs, and there doesn't seem to be any big advantage to that.
It's supposed to make it more efficient, but I can't see any great difference. The other rig with the quad-core processor and the 32-bit (x86) system uses less RAM while working, and works faster than this one. But some of that is because it's using Win-7 instead of Vista. Vista is built with a dynamic and automatic control of its TCP-IP "RWIN" and other performance limits, and it is
slower than either a well-tuned XP rig or one using Win-7, because those aren't being choked by that
dynamic regulating system. You won't hear that from Microsoft, but that's how it works out in real life.