Vista - Where did the Send to Go?

Having spent a few minutes trying to add an item to the send to option in Vista I thought it might be an interesting point to pass on. Easy to do in XP but not so easy to find in Vista.

Here is what you need to do

1. Click win-key+R to Bring up your Run box if it not at the bottom of your start menu
2. then simply paste in following and and hit return or click ENTER:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo

3. You can then add your shortcut into the dialogue box that opens or drag a shortcut to it.

There is another way to it but lets keep things simple. If the above does not work for you drop me a not and I will send you the alternatives

Password Protection

You would think in this day and age that security would be a topic on every bodies minds when it comes to protecting their valuable data and credentials online. Most of tend to protect ourselves against the well publicized threats of Virus and spy ware and install software to ensure we are safe. Hands up those of you who have a password that uses a name of a pet or a loved one... come on you know who you are fess up!

Well OK I am assuming by the silence its a large number. Some sites will now not accept passwords unless they are of a certain strength.. this means it has to meat certain standards and you would do well to look at this as a guideline even if these are not enforced by the site.

The guidelines can vary a little but will normally be something like:
- at least 8 characters in length
- contain at least 1 number
- contain upper and lower case letters
- contain 1 special character, such as: ! & * % $ @ # +
- be changed at least once a year
- be different for each site you use

this may seem a bit of a hassle but if you want to be protected then you must follow these guidelines. Of course the downside of this is it is more difficult to remember the growing list of passwords.

A Question of Phishing

When you first run IE7 you may be faced with the question of enabling the Phishing filter. This is just a short explanation of what you are doing when you say yes.

The Phishing Filter helps protect you by verifying every site you visit against a database of phishing websites. While this is great for helping you feel more secure online, but the downside is that it is terrible for performance. Every page request has to wait for a response from the phishing database before it appears in your browser so of course this carries a penalty on loading times and if your connection speed is not too fast this can be a critical point. By disabling this setting you can drastically increase the speed of IE7, but be aware that you of course compromise your security. Most savvy users will know a rogue site when they see one so do not need this filter but for the Novices out there it can prevent problem sites loading to your PC. If you want to disable it at a later point you can do so from your Toolbar using TOOLS - PHISHING FILTER - TURN ON/OFF AUTOMATIC PHISHING FILTER.

What Browser Should I Use ?

Like most things computing there is not really a very simple answer to this as there is quite a choice out there and depending on your browsing habits one might be more suitable than another.

Some time ago Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7. There has been a fairly major update to its predecessor and it has some fairly nice features including a revised interface, tabbed browsing, improved printing features, and a phishing filter. Not to be left on the shelf the other browser companies have been very busy too and have produced revisions to their own products with similar or better features. Quite a few people migrated away from IE6 in the search of a better experience and found it in browsers like Opera and FireFox.

Unfortunately instead of just offering Internet Explorer 7 as an optional download, they are pushing it to customers via the Automatic Windows Update. Which means you may wake up one day soon, after leaving your computer on, and have a brand new browser replacing Internet Explorer 6.0. For many this may not be a problem but for those of us who like to make our own decisions this is very annoying.

For my own choice I use IE7 and FireFox 2.03 but these days mostly FireFox. My partner uses Opera for most browsing but occasionally has to resort to IE7 as there are occasionally rendering problems with some IE optimised sites.

Other options you might want to look at are Maxthon and Avant although the latter has a slightly annoying habit of releasing an update every second or third day which I find a worry.

There are many more out there and at some point I have tried most of them but to be honest they rarely last more than a few days as inevitably I come up against problems with crashes, sites not loading etc.

At the moment in order of preference I would use FireFox then IE7 followed by Opera all solid platforms that will give you a good surfing experience.

Internet Speed Test

A concern to many people is that they pay for an 4 or 8 meg connection but what is the actual speed that they get. Sadly the results can vary so rapidly from one site to another so it can be difficult to judge. sites such as http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ can offer you a speed test but depending on the server that you connect to even these results can vary quite dramatically. It is however worth trying them as it will at least give you some idea. If having run the tests all results give you a 1 meg or less connection and you are paying for an 8 meg... then you may have some concerns to think about. There are other sites that you could try just do a search in Google for "Internet connection speed test" to find them out. If you want to see if your download speeds are high look to Microsoft.com for a download.... anything at all just to see how it moves. These servers tend to be very quick so you have a better chance than from a normal download server.

Vista or Stick

With the recent release of Windows Vista, you might be tempted upgrade to the latest and possibly one of their best to date. There are different trends of thought on this. Some prefer to wait until the release of the first service pack to ensure a more stable version is available whilst others jump in with both feet. I think for the novices out there it is best to wait for the service pack as you may spend time trying to resolve issues that are beyond you but if you have a good working knowledge why not consider a dual boot system and have the best of both worlds.

An important Step before you rush out to buy a copy, make sure you take a look at the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. This page has a tool which you can download and use to analyze your system to see if it is capable of running Vista. But it can only be used as a guide and you might want to consider some additional homework such as what type of Software you wish to run etc.

Clean Boot - Cold Boot

There are certain terms that some of us in Industry take for granted and expect them to be common knowledge hence when you make the call for technical support you may be asked to “cold boot” your PC when running their onscreen lists for troubleshooting. This basically means you completely turn off your PC in order to allow the memory contents to be completely flushed out of the system. They may not ask you to unplug your PC but I have found in the past this is a wise addition resolving problems as certain components can hold a charge and your problem may not clear unless you follow a certain course of events. These Are:

1. Shut down the PC.Unplug the power cord from the wall or turn off at the switch.
2. Wait at least 15 - 20 seconds.
3. Plug the power cord back in or turn on at the switch.Power on the PC.
   

This should set your PC to a Clear state.

Zone Alarm - Firewall

Zone Alarm

High on the list of "must haves" is a good firewall. Now XP made some good steps in improving this aspect of their OS but it was still a VERY long way from being perfect. I had a slight tearing of loyalties on this one as I am quite an AVG fan but as far as the firewall aspect goes I think that Zone Alarm will take a lot of beating. Once again, you may note a theme here, Zone Alarm offers a FREE version for you to upgrade later or simply stay with the free. I love these companies that do this they have real confidence in their products and I am sure you will agree if you give them a try.

Who needs Advice?

There are many websites out there offering advice and help for PC's but I would like to think I could offer you something a little different. For one thing its FREE that has to be a bit different. If you have a question you would like me to help you out with please contact me. I will try to keep all my posts user friendly and as jargon free as possible. There will be hints and tips posted on a regular basis and I will add to the A to Z as time permits.