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The Rife Report May 2009 |
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Win7 RC Released; Vista SP2; Norton Utilities v14 What is your reaction to Redmond's Internet Explorer 8 push? If you gave it a whirl (perhaps made it your browser of choice), when it became available as a manual download on March 16th, then you have a fair idea of what Internet Explorer 8 is all about. If you are a dedicated user of Firefox or other browser, you don't give a hoot. But to the majority of users who stick with Microsoft's browser and have yet to install Internet Explorer 8, it is decision time. Now that the Windows Update push has begun - do you stay with version 7 or move on? Of course, keeping in mind that Internet Explorer 8 is the default browser in Windows 7, the next Microsoft OS, due sooner than you think.  Update's "push" doesn't mean Internet Explorer 8 will auto-install. The Microsoft team is emphatic: "Internet Explorer 8 will NOT automatically install. Users must opt-in to install Internet Explorer 8. Users will see a Welcome screen that offers choices: Ask later, install now, or don't install." You get little detail from Windows Update, just that Internet Explorer 8 is "Important." But this is a big change in the browser you've become accustomed to using. Microsoft talks of security, performance, speed and ease of use in its first major browser update since 2006, when Internet Explorer 7 was released.
The latest browsers support multiple tabs. That is a noticeable upgrade in Internet Explorer 8. If you work with a lot of these open, you'll like Internet Explorer 8's tab groups concept. For example: if you open several new tabs from links on a search page, the parent tab and each new tab gains a distinctive colour. When you're finished and want to close everything quickly - merely right-click a tab and choose: Close This Tab Group. It is also comforting to know that Internet Explorer 8 contains each web app in its own tab, so if one site crashes, it just crashes the tab instead of bringing down the entire browser with it. On the business of speed, Microsoft says: "Internet Explorer 8 displays pages more quickly than Internet Explorer 7." I found no real difference in the way pages loaded, although, oddly Internet Explorer 8 did somehow feel quicker, if that is fair comment. Computerworld's Preston Gralla, in his review says; Internet Explorer 8 "makes browsing and searching much easier, has productivity-boosting features, is safer, and provides an overall superior experience." 
Another new feature is SmartScreen protections (malware site blocking), for site hacks that use cross-site scripting or click-jacking to steal your passwords or other data, and a domain highlighting feature that can help you identify a phishing site. Microsoft says SmartScreen filtering expands on Internet Explorer 7's anti-phishing filter with a blacklist compiled from third-party partners, along with user submissions. No blacklist can block every bad site, but every little bit helps. Get the facts on features and benefits of Internet Explorer 8 at this Microsoft site. A detailed article by Nomita Paul of the Internet Explorer test team on customizing Internet Explorer 8 to suit you, appears with good pictures on the Internet Explorer 8 blog. The Internet Explorer 8 home page is here. As Microsoft promised, Office 2007 Service Pack 2 became available for manual download on April 28th. The software giant says it intends to start "pushing" Office 2007 Service Pack 2 by way of Automatic Update in about 3 months. A likely date is July 28th. Although it seems an innocent, if large, update - be careful before installing - there may be problems. Make an image backup of your system BEFORE proceeding. Service Pack 2 includes the usual security, performance and reliability fixes, but is tuned to update Outlook and SharePoint Server. It supports more file formats, such as PDF and ODF, and Microsoft adds: "(Service Pack 2) Users should notice the improved performance and stability of Outlook." To which the Washington Post's respected tech writer Rob Perago wrote bluntly that Outlook in Service Pack 2 remains "an ungainly, corpulent fusion of e-mail client, address book, calendar, to-do list and memo pad. There's no Ribbon to simplify things here, no blissfully streamlined Options interface to help you bring the program to heel. Instead, Outlook 2007 looks even more cluttered than before with yet another settings window to consult and a "To-Do Bar" jammed into the right side of its window. 
"For most home users, Outlook 2007's only useful changes may be the automated setup of new e-mail accounts and the overdue (and woefully awkward) support for RSS feeds and for online calendars published by sites such as Google." Somewhat more kindly, but still critical is Scott M. Fulton, III of Betanews, who writes: "Now all Office users will have the option to load and save OpenDocument files, with Service Pack 2 of Office 2007. In something of a surprise - contrary to what many at Microsoft led us to believe - upon installing Service Pack 2 on our test systems, we immediately located an option for saving files in ODF by default. That means you don't have to "Save As" and export to ODF if you don't ever want to use Microsoft's OOXML or Office 2003 "compatibility mode;" you can at least try to use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint as substitutes for OpenOffice. "For example, after changing our default format to ODF, we tried saving a simple Word file that had nothing more than a single sentence of placeholder text, nothing else. Immediately we saw the first security warning, Document1 may contain features that are not compatible with this format. Do you want to continue to save in this format? " The check box at the bottom of the dialogue suggested to us that we would see such a dialogue each and every time, unless and until we checked "Don't show this message again." Fulton adds pointedly: "That's Microsoft's little way of saying, don't blame us if your documents don't turn out 100% the way you expect them to." So, if you're an Office 2007 user (I still prefer WordPerfect in its X4 format), go to Windows Update for the 290 MB download. If you don't want to use Windows Update (or it's not showing there yet), you can also download it from this Microsoft site. 
Fulton adds: "Amid other enhancements in Service Pack 2: Long-time testers will recall how the new charting object model created for Excel 2007, failed to make the cut for Word and PowerPoint 2007, and then failed the cut again for Service Pack 1. Finally, Service Pack 2 bridges that gap, so the charting functionality for the main three applications is now evened out." First tests by Computerworld's Mike Horowitz, showed a different story: "on Service Pack 2 showed word-processing files looked okay, with only the occasional misaligned graphic or indent. But OpenOffice spreadsheets opened in Excel came out scrambled -- formulas vanished from cells, replaced by the last number OpenOffice had calculated in those spots." Just another reason NOT to be an early adopter and before updating, make a image backup - that way you can revert easily back to just where you were, no hassle. For more help, there's actually an official Facebook group online site staffed by Office writers and editors. If you have a question about any of the Office programs or a tip to share, join the discussion. It's free at this site. Can you believe it? On April 30th, Microsoft made the Windows 7 Release Candidate available to testers with subscriptions to MSDN, TechBeta and TechNet. But history does a repeat - just as happened with the Beta in January, the flood of requests for the download overwhelmed the Microsoft technical infrastructure. ZDNet's Ed Bott found out that an SQL server database glitch was the problem behind the meltdown. Bott reported that Microsoft fixed the problem after a couple of hours. The server database had reached excessive fragmentation levels caused by the tremendous surge of queries.
The official announcement BEFORE the crash was: "Today Microsoft Corp. has reached a significant milestone with the Release Candidate (RC) of the highly anticipated Windows 7 operating system, now available for download to MSDN and TechNet subscribers here. Broader public availability began May 5rd. Get Win7 RC by selecting your language and either 32 or 64 bit version and then downloading the product key and the 2.36 GB iso file (that you burn to a CD for use) from this Microsoft site. You are warned by Microsoft that the "RC will expire on June 1, 2010." If you don't clean out the RC, then: "starting on March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Windows will notify you two weeks before the bi-hourly shutdowns start. To avoid interruption, you'll need to rebuild your test machine using a valid version of Windows before the software expires. You'll need to rebuild your test PC to replace the OS and reinstall all your programs and data." In other words DO NOT put the Win 7 RC on your primary home machine - it is strictly for testing and experimental use! 
Neowin.net's Tom Warren has gathered detailed information of what has changed in Win7's RC from what was in the beta at this site and Computerworld's Preston Gralla, has an in depth review of Win7 RC1 here. It appears that this is the one and only RC that Microsoft plans to make public before it releases Windows 7 to manufacturing. So there's things to keep in mind if you're testing the RC. Microsoft says it is a good idea to do a clean install (and not install on top of the beta) for best results (which, of course, gives the company better feedback on the RC). Visible differences between the January Beta and the RC seem few. Most are bug fixes and performance issues. Vista Service Pack 2 Complete, But Stays Under Wraps Microsoft announced April 28th, that it had completed work on Vista Service Pack 2, shifting the product to what it calls the RTM or release-to-manufacturing stage. However they also said it probably will be months before we, the users, get our hands on the upgrade to the operating system.  Microsoft only said: "Windows Vista Service Pack 2 RTM is available only to OEMs at this time," adding in an entry posted to the Windows Vista blog that: "We expect Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 to be publicly available in Q2 2009." From previous experience that would place a general public release before the end of June. Early this year, Feb. 3rd to be precise, Symantec released version 14 of Norton Utilities for Windows XP/Vista. Peter Norton published the first version of what was then The Norton Utilities for DOS, back in 1981. Peter Norton's company was sold to Symantec in 1990, but his name remains a "brand" for Symantec's range of utility and security software. I used and liked it for my IBM PC and for Windows 95 and 98. It included Norton SpeedDisk, Norton Optimization Wizard, Norton Disk Doctor, Norton WinDoctor, Norton System Doctor, and Norton System Check. The product was included with Norton SystemWorks from 2003 to 2007 and was not available separately until this year's version 14 - a newly designed utility with much of the old features enhanced for current OS. I was a fan for those early years and liked it in SystemWorks, though perhaps not as much.
Besides its own tools, it provides shortcuts into Vista and XP ( i.e. - Restore Center) making use of some Windows tools. Priced at $ 49.99 US, it can be activated on 3 separate computers. My only problem is that I've found - during the Norton Utilities hiatus - programs such as Diskeeper 2009 (which does a much better job of disk fragmentation and does it behind-the-scenes with no attention on my part). Then there is the great free disk cleanup utility CCleaner and shareware such as JVPower Tools (a registry cleaner plus) - each of which I truly respect. Has Norton Utilities been too long in limbo? Am I overwhelmed by the sheer number of tools it has available? I'm still using v14 - giving it a break, as it were. I may change my lukewarm reception, but I've yet to be convinced it does more or makes life easier, than what tools I already have. For full details on Norton Utilities v14, including videos, check this site. |
Perhaps you are concerned that many web sites built for Internet Explorer 7 may not yet be updated, may not run properly with Internet Explorer 8. Fear not . . . Internet Explorer 8 has a Compatibility View to trick a site into believing you're running Internet Explorer 7.
The revived standalone program, running on XP and Vista (32/64-bit), now includes Registry Defragmenter, Registry Cleaners, Disk Cleaner, Disk Defragmenter, Startup Manager, Service Manager, Restore Center, System Optimizer, Process Viewer, and Performance Test.