Microsoft provides a hotfix to re-establish Internet and wireless connections lost by XP SP3 update

June 27, 2008. - Microsoft has made a hotfix available for the loss of Internet and wireless network connections reported in mid-May by users who installed the Windows XP SP3 update. The bug empties the Windows Device Driver and deletes network connections. Most of the affected computers use Symantec security software.

Microsoft has not yet begun providing Windows XP SP3 as an automatic update via Windows Update. PCs that have particular security software installed could be prevented from receiving the update in the same way as Microsoft has prevented systems with certain AMD processors from receiving SP3 in order not to install a bug that causes an endless reboot problem.

Click here! to read an article on the endless reboot problem.

Click here! to download the hotfix for the Internet/wireless network bug from Microsoft's site.

Chrome, Google's new web browser, also runs web-based software

September 2, 2008. - A beta (test) version of Google's new open-source browser, Chrome, was made available as a download today. Several industry observers have seen the new browser more as a weapon aimed at killing Microsoft's Windows operating system than as a challenge to the major web browsers. In short, as an attempt by Google to take the running of software applications to the Internet instead of using an operating system to run them. If software applications can be run from the web, a free operating system, such as Linux, can run the computer, and the paid-for Windows that increases its hardware requirements relentlessly with each new incarnation, will be history.

According to Google, Chrome has a new JavaScript engine (not to be confused with the Java Platform that runs web applications) that can power web applications better and faster than other browsers. Google Gears, which provides offline access to and local storage for web applications, is included as part of the new browser. However, if you visit a site that requires the Java Platform to run an application, the message "No plugin available to display this content" appears instead of the content. A plugin may be available, but I was unable to find any way to install Java.

The Chrome beta can be downloaded from http://www.google.com/chrome.

Google sees new browser displacing desktop software -

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0232438620080903

The following link provides continuously updated coverage of Chrome.

Continuing coverage: Google's Chrome browser -

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?...

Which to buy - a 32-bit or 64-bit PC?

There is now so much choice in the components installed in a desktop or laptop pc, it can be so confusing to buyers that they just make a choice on purely on price or the advice of vendors - advice that more often than not is provided by people who don't know what they are talking about.

To add to the confusion, you can have a 32-bit system or a 64-bit system. The PC's processor can be a 32-bit processor or a 64-bit processor, and the operating system, which is usually a version of Windows can be a 32-bit or a 64-bit version.

All of the latest processors from the two major manufacturers - AMD and Intel - are 64-bit and will run a 32-bit or a 64-bit operating system (Windows, Linux, Apple OS X). Note that a 32-bit processor cannot run 64-bit software, so it must use a 32-bit operating system.

If you're the average user whose computing needs don't require more than 3.2GB of RAM memory, the limit of a 32-bit operating system, that choice will do just fine. It is compatible with almost all software applications, and compatible hardware device drivers are easily available.

64-bit operating systems will one day be the norm as 32-bit systems are now. However, you should only choose a 64-bit system if the programs you plan to use in the future require a 64-bit system, or more than 3.2GB of RAM memory (i.e., you use 3D-rendering software, intense graphics, etc.). Otherwise, there are currently more drawbacks to running a 64-bit system than there are advantages. The non-availability of 64-bit device drivers for peripherals such as printers, routers, scanners etc., is the major drawback. A 64-bit operating system cannot use 32-bit device drivers, they must all be 64-bit. Note well that although a 64-bit processor can run both 32-bit and 64-bit software, a 64-bit operating system can only run 64-bit software, so your old 32-bit applications will have to be upgraded to their 64-bit versions.

The typical computer user is unlikely to notice any gain in performance from a 64-bit system. Visit the Using Windows Vista for more information on the 64-bit versions of Windows Vista. Only Windows XP Professional Edition has a 64-bit version; Windows XP Home Edition is only available in a 32-bit version.

More information on the 64-bit versions of Windows XP/Vista is provided further down this page.

Office suites/free deskop publishing software

Most PC users use an office suite. Therefore, they would like to have one preinstalled on a new PC. However, not many new PC s come with the most popular office suite, MS Office, preinstalled unless it is chosen as an optional extra that is paid for. It is done that way in order to keep the cost of PCs as low as possible as the best way of selling them. If you need an office suite and don't want to pay for it, you can use the excellent OpenOffice suite from http://www.openoffice.org/ that has a wordprocessor, spreadsheet, database and presentational application.

If you are a home user, Office 2007 Home & Student Edition, which contains Word (wordprocessor), Excel (spreadsheet), Powerpoint (presentational program) and OneNote (an application for organising notes and important information), is currently (May 2008) available from amazon.co.uk for only £79 (click the link to go to its page). Any home user or student can buy a copy and it comes with three licences, enabling it to be installed on three PCs. It requires product activation, so any PC you install it on should be online. If you are not online, you will have to phone Microsoft for an activation code. If the software is not activated, after 30 days it can only be used to go online for activation.

Here are two free desktop publishing applications:

Scribus Open Source Desktop Publishing - http://www.scribus.net/

Serif PagePlus -

http://www.freeserifsoftware.com/software/PagePlus/default.asp

To locate reviews of office suites or desktop publishing software, you can enter those words in the Google search box at the top of this page (with its Web radio button enabled).

Intel's new Socket LGA1366 Core i7 quad-core processors due out later this month

November 5, 2008. - The latest quad-core processor chip from Intel, code-named Nehalem and officially named Core i7, is aimed at high-end desktop PCs for power users and PC gamers. Unlike the Core2 Quad quad-core processors, which are really two dual-core processors connected together, the new processors, like all of AMD's quad-core processors, have four individual cores connected together.

The new processors feature a turbo mode that is not like the turbo mode button found on computers during the 1980s. The turbo mode of Core i7 processors works automatically and results in increased single-core performance when all of the cores are not in use, achieving higher single-core performance.

Instead of the Front Side Bus (FSB) that PCs have been using for decades, the new processors use the new QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) technology to communicate with the motherboard's Northbridge chip.

For the first time, Intel has integrated the memory controller into the processor, which AMD processors have had for several years. Because the new processors have a new socket (Socket LGA1366), use DDR3 RAM memory, and use an integrated memory controller and other new technology, the motherboards that run Core 2 processors are not compatible with the motherboards that run Core i7 processors and vice versa. A processor cooler is included with the retail boxed product.

When Intel launches the range of Core i7 processors officially later this month, several PC manufacturers will begin shipping desktop PCs that run them. The company has been making the new processors available to hardware vendors and websites since September. Test reports are very favourable, describing the performance as blazingly, blindingly and blisteringly fast. However, there is next to no information available on the new processors on Intel's website. That should change after the official release.

Eight-core Core i7 processors and two-core and four-core models for laptop/notebook PCs are expected to be made available in the second half of 2009. Three Core i7 models are to be released initially - the Core i7 920 (2.66 GHz), the Core i7 940 (2.93GHz), and the Core i7 965 Extreme (3.20 GHz).

Intel's new Socket LGA1366 Core i7 quad core desktop PC processors are now available

November 18, 2008. - Intel has released three of its new Socket LGA1366 quad-core processors. Here is a good review:

Intel Core i7 - http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/233892/intel-core-i7.html

And here is the information on the new processors on Intel's website:

Intel® Core™ i7 Processor -

http://www.intel.com/products/processor/corei7/...

The major motherboard manufacturers have brought out motherboards that support the new Intel desktop PC processors.

Asus - http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=179

MSI - http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php...

Gigabyte - http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/...

User manuals are available from all three of those manufacturers, so you can download copies and have a look at what is on offer. The manuals are usually in the form of PDF documents that require a PDF reader, such as the free Foxit Reader.

Intel's new Core i7 quad-core processors - update

December 5, 2008. - Intel has released three of its new Socket LGA1366 quad-core Core i7 processors.

The new processors, which are built using the latest 45nm fabrication process, differ in several significant ways from Intel's Core 2 Duo dual-core and Core 2 Quad quad-core processors. The traditional frontside bus that links the processor to the RAM memory on the motherboard has been replaced by the new QuickPath interface - a memory controller built into the processor, which operates in a similar way to the HyperTransport memory controller that has been built into AMD processors for several years. Unfortunately, QuickPath only supports the latest DDR3 RAM memory, so you won't be able to reuse any DDR2 memory that you may have. Moreover, the DDR3 memory can be run in triple-channel mode instead of the dual-channel mode that AMD's processors support. This means that instead of using two memory modules in conjunction, as is the case with dual-channel mode, three modules of the same capacity and type can be run from the controller at the same time in order to increase performance. For this reason, Socket 1366 motherboards have six memory slots so that two sets of three modules can be run in triple-channel mode.

As with the Core 2 Quad range of processors, all of the Core i7 processors have four processor cores (in effect four processors housed in a single unit), which makes running multiple applications easy, because each application can have its own core processing it. Moreover, all of the Core i7 processors also use Hyper-Threading Technology that was introduced by Intel's Pentium 4 processors. Using it, each core can process two threads of information at the same time, in effect adding four virtual cores, which boosts performance significantly, but does not double it.

All of the Core i7 processors have 256KB of Level 2 (L2) cache for each core, which share 8MB of Level 3 (L3) cache.

Despite using the same 45nm fabrication process as the latest Core 2 Quad processors, the new Core i7 quad-core processors have a higher power requirement (130W) compared to that of the Core 2 Quad processors (95W), which means that a bigger heatsink-and- fan unit is required to keep the processor cool, which, in turn, means a noisier PC.

Computer Shopper reviewed the Core i7 920, which runs at 2.66GHz, in issue 251. It was only give a a two-star rating due to the high cost of DDR3 memory and the motherboards that run them, plus the fact that the prototype system Computer Shopper used had a lower benchmark performance than an equivalent Core 2 Quad Q9550 processor. The advice given was not to rush out and buy Core i7 until finalised motherboards and updated drivers can be used to put them to the test.