Tame That Monster - WindowWalk Computer Education This issue of our newsletter brings you an update on the next version of the Windows operating system, a virus alert for a product sold at Future Shop, and lots of great info on popular laptops and free software. Happy Reading!

Free workshop for business owners and managers: The Metro Business Association is offering another free Small Business Success workshop, 6:30 - 8:30 pm, Thursday, Feb. 7/08 at the Coastal Inn on Windmill Rd. in Dartmouth. Seating is limited and is filling up fast. To register, call 830-9336 or email mba@mbadartmouth.com.

"Hands-on" QuickBooks workshops start on March 4/08 with our ProAdvisor at DaTang Language School on Spring Garden Rd. in Halifax. Click here for the details.

WindowWalk Computer Education offers on-site courses and hourly training ranging from the basics to advanced "power user" features. We pride ourselves in making your computer education a fully personalized, comfortable, and convenient learning experience.

Visit on the web, send an email , or call 830-9336 to learn more about our effective software training or to give us your comments and suggestions.

Small Business Owners: WindowWalk Computer Education specializes in QuickBooks and Simply Accounting training to help make your and your tax preparer's task easier. Take advantage of our QuickBooks ProAdvisor's 20+ years of small business accounting experience.

Beginners: Our Windows Foundation course gives you all the basics you need to use your computer. Learn about the internet and email with us and raise your comfort level quickly to get you out exploring cyberspace on your own.

We want everyone to have a more comfortable experience with their computer. Call us today for a free consultation or assessment .

WindowWalk Computer Education is proud to serve you as a QuickBooks ProAdvisor and as a member of:

Serving Seniors - Your Resource of Dedicated Professionals
Metro Business Association
Centre for Women in Business

TECH EXPERT

New Windows on the Horizon

A Windows 7 early arrival may mean Vista's early demise

This week has brought more rumblings about the successor to Windows Vista, currently known by its "Windows 7" code name. It's still not clear what information is fact and what is fiction, but there are a few hints that it may arrive earlier than its previously expected date of 2010.

It's certainly not complete vaporware at this point; several sources indicate Microsoft has already shipped an early milestone release of Windows 7 to partners and testers. A user at the Neowin forums claims to have used an early copy and says this:

You can see that Microsoft is aiming to fine tune this release as the case in XP rather than technological advancement as in 2K. Highlights include "network aware", with improved connection tools and detections. It will have the ability to detect which network you're in and switch your settings and devices accordingly; With Live account, you can carry your IE settings and favorites with you; Gadget data caching; New Calculator, Paint, and WordPad using WPF; install to desktop in 10 mins with only 1 reboot; instant streaming; better battery mileage, etc.

To some extent, Microsoft's silence is to be expected. Vista has only been out of the gate for a year, and Server 2008 has yet to drop. Why get customers all riled up about a new OS so far away, especially since Microsoft has such a bad track record at forecasting ship dates? Yet if Windows 7 is truly several years away, it would seem to be in Microsoft's interests to say so. Customers might be more willing to make the switch from XP to Vista if they know that Windows 7 won't ship for four or five more years.

Yet the rumors about Windows 7's delivery are pointing in the opposite direction -- it's supposed to be arriving as early as the second half of 2009. Given Microsoft's track record with delivery dates, a lot of you probably just laughed so hard that coffee came out of your nose; I'm sorry. Even if Microsoft is simply aiming for that date but misses it by a year, its silence makes a lot more sense. If Vista's successor is just around the corner, more companies will stay with XP; that hurts Microsoft in the near term.

Originally posted online Thursday , January 24, 2008 by Dave Methvin.

This article was submitted by Andy Butler of Compatible Computer Services; (902) 420-1212. CCS provides sales and service support for PCs and Restaurant & Retail Point of Sales systems and develops client-specific custom-built business software applications.

SURFIN' SAFARI

Some Useful and Interesting Web Sites

Goodreads	Goodreads combines the nosy fun of snooping through your friends' bookshelves with the antisocial, shut-in joy of not actually having to go to their houses to do so. The site lets you not only keep track of how many Danielle Steel novels you have (it's so embarrassing when you accidentally buy two copies of Sunset in St. Tropez!), but introduces you to other people with similar tastes; a glance over someone's virtual shelf could lead you to the next paperback to take a place on your nightstand.
DaFont	This site does what its name implies: It collects the coolest, freshest fonts you'd ever need. DaFont features almost 7,500 fonts, all uploaded by various users worldwide. Site navigation is straightforward: Simply browse for fonts either by the categories listed at the top of each page, or by searching for a font name. Most of these free fonts are compatible with both Macs and PCs.
World’s Healthiest Foods	This is the site for anyone who's read a quick blurb in a magazine or seen a health segment on the news and thought "Cherries fight XYZ disease? Really?" . The goal of the nonprofit George Mateljan Foundation is to provide up-to-date info on how foods affect our health and can boost energy. Check back weekly for new recipes, a healthy food of the week, and healthy eating tips. And you also get daily menus laying out three smart, nutrient-rich meals.

WHAT DOES IT DO?

Facebook

Facebook is an online social website that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.

All that's needed to join Facebook is a valid email address. To connect with coworkers or classmates, use your school or work email address to register. Once you register, join a regional network to connect with the people in your area.

Facebook is made up of many networks, each based around a company, region, or school. Join the networks that reflect your real-life communities to learn more about the people who work, live, or study around you.

Facebook's platform enables anyone, anywhere, to build complete applications that you can choose to use. The possibilities are endless. Define your experience on Facebook by choosing applications that are useful and relevant to your world.

People can only see the profiles of confirmed friends and the people in their networks. You can use our privacy settings at any time to control who can see what on Facebook.

Learn more and join Facebook

SAY WHAT!?

Sound Like a Computer Wizard

Backup	Backup is the activity of copying files or databases so that they will be preserved in case of equipment failure or other catastrophe. Backup is usually a routine part of the operation of large businesses with mainframes as well as the administrators of smaller business computers. For personal computer users, backup is also necessary but often neglected. The retrieval of files you backed up is called restoring them.
Blu-Ray	Blu-ray is a new optical disc standard based on the use of a blue laser rather than the red laser of DVD players. The standard was developed collaboratively by Hitachi, LG, Matsushita (Panasonic), Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Thomson. Toshiba and NEC are among the companies promoting a competitive optical format, HD-DVD. Blu-ray's storage capacity is enough to store a continuous backup copy of most people's hard drives on a single disc.
Memory Card	A memory card (sometimes called a flash memory card or a storage card) is a small storage medium used to store data such as text, pictures, audio, and video, for use on small, portable or remote computing devices, such as a digital camera. Most of the current products use flash memory, although other technologies are being developed.

HARDWARE HELPER

Top 5 Laptop Computers

Apple MacBook

If you're not afraid to take the Mac OS plunge, it's hard to find a laptop designed with more care and precision than the 13-inch MacBook.

Price: $1,299.00 - $1,499.99

Dell XPS M1530

The latest revision to Dell's flagship line, the XPS M1530 features a redesigned case and some of the highest-end components available, making it arguably the best 15-inch rig on the market today.

Price: $1,249.00

AVADirect D900C

If you're going to stuff a desktop processor into a laptop chassis, you might as well go ahead and stick in SLI graphics, a TV tuner, a subwoofer and a separate number pad.

Price: Sorry, pricing not available

Sony VAIO TZ150N

The Toshiba R500's main ultraportable competition is a little smaller, but also a little heavier. Add in better battery life, and it's literally a toss-up between the two.

Price: $1,739.95 - $2,175.26

Toshiba Portege R500

Probably the best-engineered ultraportable laptop on the market right now, the R500 is ultrathin and ultralight, and it will turn heads wherever you go.

Price: Sorry, pricing not available

To read the full review at CNET, click here.

SOFTWARE SEARCH

Top Free CD Burning Programs

Just about every computer available these days comes with a CD/DVD burner as part of the package. Whether your primary use for this drive is to make mix CDs for the car, backup data, or burn DVD backups for your movies, you need a good program with the right type of features for the job. Though Windows offers some burning features, you're not going to get the options you'll find in a stand alone program.

There are many paid CD and DVD burning programs to choose from and some of the most popular in this category--like Nero and Alcohol 120%--are probably recognizable by most users. The only prohibitive trait about these programs (besides cost) is usually they take up too many system resources and offer superfluous features that you may not need for simple burning. We like these programs and some of the extra features are quite useful, but what if you just want something quick and dirty for burning on the cheap?

CDBurnerXP

CDBurnerXP is a quick and easy solution for burning audio CDs, creating data disks, and has extra features for ripping your audio CDs and finding track info on the Web. A four-paned interface makes it easy to find and then drag-and-drop files to your chosen media and an included audio player helps you make sure you get the tracks you want. A handy dropbox window lets you browse your files using Windows Explorer and quickly drag-and-drop files to your burn list on the fly. Judging from the user reviews, some users had trouble with CDBurnerXP when burning data DVDs, but I was able to use this function without problems. The developer site offers a list of compatible drives if you have any issues.

JetBee

JetBee is another free app for burning CDs, DVDs, BlueRay, and HD-DVDs and offers the option to include these burning commands to your right-click contextual menus in Windows. The two-paned interface is simpler than CDBurnerXP, but good enough for most simple burning projects. This is probably the most bare-bones of the bunch as far as extra features, but if you want a quick-burning program to make backups or audio CDs for free, JetBee does the job nicely. As someone who burns primarily audio CDs, I was a little annoyed I had to drill all the way down from the top level for music files, but this might not be a problem for other users.

BurnAware

BurnAware Free Edition is probably the prettiest in the interface department for this collection and offers a step-by-step procedure for your burning projects. A launch window lets you choose the type of project you want and leads you through the process to completion. Navigating your directories is easy with BurnAware's file management system and adding files is as simple as highlighting them and hitting a button. Though you don't have the option of a floating window like CDBurnerXP, BurnAware offers enough features for most burning projects.

Learn more about useful free software here.

WEB WARY

VIRUS ALERT

Virus found in digital picture frames sold by Best Buy

The company says the Insignia frame NS-DPF10A was infected during the manufacturing process and has been discontinued. Best Buy has pulled the infected frames from retail shelves and retail websites and no additional inventory will be sold.

The company did not explain how the frames became infected in the manufacturing process and has not issued a recall for the frame. The company would not say how many Insignia digital frames were infected or where they were sold

In a January 19th product alert on the Insignia product website, the company said the virus affects Windows operating systems and in a January 23rd update, said it was continuing to investigate the issues and "are connecting with our customers who may have been impacted."

In Canada, Insignia products are sold across Canada in Futureshop and Best Buy stores. Best Buy Canada has informed Digital Home that none of the infected frames were sold through its stores. Digital Home was unable to determine whether any of the frames were sold in FutureShop stores. Futureshop and Best Buy Canada are both owned by Best Buy.

Thanks to Andy Butler of Compatible Computer Services (CCS) for this virus alert.

TIZZIE'S TIPS AND TRICKS

Use Quick Tabs in Internet Explorer 7

When you have multiple web pages open at once, each one is displayed on a separate tab. These tabs make it easy for you to switch between open websites. Quick Tabs provides a miniature visual view (called a thumbnail) of all your open tabs. This makes it easier to find the webpage that you want to view.

Click the Quick Tabs button to the left of the row of tabs. The Quick Tabs button is only displayed when you have more than one webpage open.

Click the thumbnail for the webpage that you want to open.

Click the Close Tab button in the upper-right corner of the thumbnail for the webpage that you want to close.

When you click the arrow next to the Quick Tabs button, a list of all the websites that you have open is displayed. To switch to a different website, click the site name.

Click the Quick Tabs button. Quick Tabs will close and the last webpage that you viewed will be displayed.

Send Tizzie YOUR Question!

Phone: (902) 830-9336
Email: learn@windowwalk.com
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