Late breaking news...

Daylight Savings Time Changes:

Effective this year, our legislators have changed the effective dates for the beginning and end of daylight savings time. It will end a month later and begin a month sooner. Unfortunately, they forgot to tell your computer. So anything that depends on knowing the exact time, such as meeting schedules and secure logins, may be off an hour for a month starting March 11.

You can manually adjust your time, or take the automatic route of applying the MS update to your systems. Detailed information from MS can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/dst2007.

If it all sounds too confusing, drop us a line at info@psipc.com and we'll have a tech get you squared away.

If you read their hype, Microsoft (MS) would have you believe they have just saved the world by introducing Vista. Their world, yes. Your world, probably not. Here's the straight skinny.

Cost: Vista is priced very similarly to Windows XP. No news here. In an attempt to get the PC support community to buy into their scheme, MS is predicting that for every dollar a user spends on Vista, they will spend another $18 on associated expenses, such as new or upgraded computers, printers or scanners; software; installations, customization, training, and troubleshooting. Assuming you'll spend $200 on Vista, it makes you think, doesn't it?

PC Power (and $$$) Required: MS claims Vista will run on any PC built in the last 3 years. Yes, but (and MS has a BIG BUT:). When Vista installs, it measures the capabilities of the PC and then installs itself in one of 5 versions. Only the #5 version does everything MS advertises, and is also the most expensive. You'll need a new or almost new PC to run Vista they way they make it look in their ads. The minimum is a dual-core processor; 1 GB of RAM (2 is better); DVD drive (Vista only comes on DVD, not on CD); and a 256 MB, Direct X9, WMMD driver, video card. English translation: get ready to spend some real bucks upgrading or replacing your PC. We used to be able to build a good XP Professional PC for $699. The equivalent Vista Business PC is now $899 from us, or over $1,000 from Dell.

Your old stuff: We usually keep a fairly current inventory of equipment on our office and lab network. MS makes a tool available to see what stuff attached to your PC will work and what will not, and I will have to replace 50% of my printers (no Vista drivers) and at least 5 programs on my PC, including Quick Books, which is my personal lifeblood. Unfortunately, the version of Quick Books that will run in Vista will not be available until sometime in 2008, according to Intuit! You can get a copy of the MS Upgrade Advisor here and see how much damage you'll be doing to yourself before you even buy the beast.

Why would you want Vista? You have to - MS is a monopoly. Other than that, I don't know why. I was pretty happy with XP. According to MS, Vista’s new features are enhanced security, a new search capability, and a nifty new 3D user interface called Aero. Read on...

Security: As far as we can tell, MS has done 3 things regarding security.
First, they added hard drive encryption, just in case you work for the Los Alamos lab and lose your laptop. However it's only available on the Business Ultimate Edition and requires a special hardware chip on your motherboard to implement - sorry.
Next, they added an outbound filter to their XP firewall, so all the spy ware their leaky software allows to install itself will have to ask your permission before it lets your personal information go back out again. Of course, the question is likely to be worded in such a way that you will have no idea of what to answer. Wouldn't it be better just to avoid spy ware in the first place?
Finally, there are very strict rules about what user and program has permission to do what. This is why Quick Books will not run. Unless the program was written to adhere strictly to MS guidelines, it will not work. In the past, we could run a program under the administrator’s user ID and get past this type of problem, but not anymore.

Search: This is actually a pretty good feature. As we add more and more files and e-mails to our PCs, it gets tougher to find them again later on. MS has added a "search engine" (like Google) to Vista. It will continually build "indexes" of what's on your PC so that it can find things for you when you ask for them. It actually works quite well, and is a good feature of Vista. On the down side, it continually searches your hard drive, so you may have to cool your heels when you want the PC to do anything else. Also, Google Desktop provides the same feature under XP, and can be downloaded for free.

3D "Aero": Now, instead of having to look at your programs in those boring, old fashioned 2D windows, Vista will turn each one into an isometric projection and put one behind the other. You can tab between them and they roll through each one much like a Rolodex file. It looks neat, but it isn't very helpful. It will really help video card sales, though, as most of the existing cards on the market can't hack it, and show everything the old way even though you are running Vista

What to do when buying PCs: Until March 15, 2007, MS will allow us to sell you a PC with XP Pro or Media Center on it and give you a coupon to get a Vista Business or Home Upgrade DVD from MS. After that, we will probably be able to get valid XP CDs that are left over in the distribution system, but there will be no upgrade offer. If this is a major problem for you, stay tuned. MS will have to come up with a work-around for those users who cannot get upgraded software in time.

If you have any questions about this, or any other business PC issue, please feel free to e-mail me at info@psipc.com. If you want to unsubscribe from this newsletter, just use this same address and put "unsubscribe" in the subject line. You can also use this address to change your e-mail address or to sign up a friend, or call me directly at 724 935-0300 x702.

See you next month,

President, PSI