PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

The main meeting for May featured Brian Lewis – expert extraordinaire – direct from Microsoft giving everyone a great pitch on “What’s New at Microsoft”.  The group was extra attentive to what is in the “works” – and the good word is that over the next few years internet and computers will undergo a great change.  Thanks for the great presentation Brian.

It seems as though the show of support from those attending this meeting that most everyone is quite comfortable with Joe and Ray – and with some minor adjustments we should continue at the helm for the next several years.  Age seems to know no difference.  The final – will of course – be decided at the June elections.

Some of the membership has asked for the document on maintenance that I promised to put on the website.  I am still waiting for Jim Jaeschke to place a link on the site for me to use.  I have not forgotten the request.

Brent began a two month session on Open Office in the Saturday Sig – and as usual well received.  This is a very interesting competitor to Microsoft Office and it is free.  Not a bad deal.

Roger VanBoxtel submitted a review on Microsoft Live One Care

 Take a good read as it is well done”

Review of Windows Live OneCare for Windows Vista

Reviewed by Roger Van Boxtel, SEWWUG (Southeastern Wisconsin Windows User Group) member

I have been a very satisfied user of Microsoft’s Windows Live OneCare. My previous computer with the XP operating system worked very well with OneCare.

In order to install OneCare, the first thing was to open the package containing the software. I found the packaging very difficult to get open. I even tried to open it with pliers. Once I discovered and removed both tape seals, the package opened easily. After I inserted the program disk in my C drive, the installation process did not start automatically. The User Account Control (UAC) asserted itself. A dialog box displayed “A program needs your permission to continue. If you started this program, continue.” True to its roots, and in the interest of security, Vista was not going to allow a program to be installed without positive confirmation from me, the user. After I “allowed” the installation to start, Vista went online to check for any updates. This on line check was completed in no time at all.

During the next phase “Windows Live OneCare will guide you through the installation process”, the User Agreement was displayed. The rest of the installation process was very easy and went quickly on a broadband connection. OneCare, during this time, also scanned for any incomplete programs on my computer. Once completed, my computer was restarted in order to finalize the installation.

After the restart, there were three steps to complete. First, I had to sign. To do so, I needed a Windows Live ID (or an MSN Hotmail or Microsoft Passport Network account). I have always had difficulty logging into the Microsoft Passport system. It does not follow regular login convention and has always been confusing to me. Since I was unable to dig up my user ID and password, I started over and established a brand new Windows Live ID account. As an aside, home.live.com is one of the next best things out there designed to compete with Google’s Desktop.

The next step was to “Associate this PC with a Subscription”. In this step, I had to enter the 25 digit Product Key. This enables OneCare to run on up to three PCs on a home network.

The last step was to setup OneCare by choosing what I wanted it to do. Interestingly, it did not offer to perform automatic backups as I was using another program for backups.

Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) has been available for download from Microsoft and should have self installed by now for any Vista PC which was previously activated for Windows Update. However, if there was an out of date driver on a Vista PC, Service Pack 1 would not install until the driver problem was corrected. I was wondering why SP1 had not yet installed on my PC. Lo and behold, whether by coincidence or the good graces of OneCare, SP1 was on my PC after the installation of OneCare.

What can Microsoft Windows Live OneCare do for you? It has numerous benefits and features, a few of which I will mention. I find the Tune-up Checklist and its reports especially useful. OneCare will remove unnecessary files. In my case, it removed 3 MB. It defragments all hard disks to include any on a USB connection. It scans for viruses and other potentially unwanted software. It did this for all my hard drives. It checks for files needing backup. OneCare was “wise” enough to ignore this choice because I have a PC manufacturer backup system on my PC. Very importantly, OneCare checked for needed security updates from Microsoft.    

HAPPY COMPUTING

Visitors Have Viewed This Page Since 10/8/06