Windows Tools, Help & Guides

Update: I’m giving away my copy of this book, completely free to one lucky comment author. See below for more details.

The winner of the book is announced.

Andy Rathbone started geeking around with computers in 1985 when he bought a 26-pound portable CP/M Kaypro 2X. Like other nerds of the day, he soon began playing with null-modem adapters, dialing computer bulletin boards, and working part-time at Radio Shack.

He wrote articles for various techie publications before moving to computer books in 1992. He’s written the Windows for Dummies series, Upgrading and Fixing PCs for Dummies, TiVo for Dummies, PCs: The Missing Manual, and many other computer books.

Today, he has more than 15 million copies of his books in print, and they’ve been translated into more than 30 languages. You can reach Andy at his Web site, www.andyrathbone.com.

In this article, I interview Andy and find out about his new book Windows 7 for Dummies and share my thoughts on it after reading it myself.

Read the rest of this entry »

MSherwood is a Windows Forums moderator and runs a blog over at MyWindowsPC. In this interview, you’ll get to know him better and learn about some of the things he likes to do.

Who is MSherwood? What does he like to do outside the world of computers?
Well, computers only take up a small portion of my time. When I’m not on a computer, I’m at work in investment operations, plugging away at my information systems degree, or spending time on one of several hobbies, which include:

• Spending time with my wife
• Playing Golf
• Playing/watching baseball, or any other sport for that matter
• Taking care of living things, especially my freshwater aquarium and bonsai

What is your favorite quote and why?

“You can always become better”
-Tiger Woods

First of all, I love Tiger Woods. I love the way he plays the game, I love how competitive he is, and I love how he shows in this quote that even if you are the best in the world at something, you can become even better if you have the desire. I hope that someday I can be the Tiger Woods of something.

If you were a superhero, what powers would you have?
Wow. The ability to give myself any other superpower? Does that qualify? Seriously though, I would probably want to fly. I’ve always had a fascination with airplanes and flight, and it would be pretty cool to fly sans the plane part.

What encourages you to help people on Windows Forums?
The sheer frustration we can at sometimes face with computers. For those of us who grew to adulthood without the internet for the most part, when you face a problem and have limited resources and contacts it becomes very difficult to find a solution. Now that everyone can be connected we have the best minds on the job and usually find a solution within a much shorter timespan. When I grew up there was no help and it was all trial-and-error. I think that is where all the gurus come from.

Do you have any plans to start a website?
You betcha. I have very limited experience with HTML and Javascript but after I get my blog going steadily on MyWindowsPC I will probably convert that over to my own website. I want to focus on new software and developments from the Microsoft community mixed with reviews and tutorials on how to get the most out of Windows and Windows Mobile (my new baby), among other things. Right now there are so many forums that cover these areas but not one place where you can go to get the information on all of them. I want to bring all of that together. I may even branch out to security and other things depending on where my knowledge takes me the next couple of years. It will be a lot like Mintywhite but focusing on things outside of Windows as well.

Where do you see your website in five years?
Well, hopefully I’ll be doing a preview on Windows 9, Windows Mobile 8, Office 16, and creating a community of techies that help each other get the most out of all these things. If I’m only a fraction as popular as Mintywhite I’ll count myself lucky.

You’ve tested Windows 7 extensively, do you think this OS will replace XP in the near future?
Definitely yes, for a couple reasons:

• Microsoft wants it to. It’s cutting support, stopping patches, and really pushing enterprises towards 7. XP will die the death this time.
• In my opinion, it blows XP away. I’ve been using 7 exclusively since the Beta launch and the performance and eye candy just can’t be matched. And that was a beta. Everyone gripes, “Oh, but XP is so stable and works on older machines” and that’s true. But 7 is stable, and one day your old hardware won’t cut it anymore. And even Vista is stable, to a certain extent. I’ve used them all, and 7 is the best by far. It optimizes new and old hardware to its fullest extent and offers the easiest OS to use from Microsoft… ever. So although XP may still be stable like an old trusty pickup, I’d rather drive the Ferrari.

What is your number one Windows tip?
Never give up. If you don’t like the way something works, chances are it can be changed. If something isn’t working, chances are there’s a fairly easy solution. Computers are excellent tools and they’ll do whatever we want them to if we know how to order it around. So keep at it, ask for a little help, and in no time you will be enjoying your PC to a fuller extent than you ever have before.

Thanks MSherwood! Good luck with your new blog and everything you love to do. Thanks for your help!

James Fisher is a Microsoft MVP in the Windows Desktop Experience category. James is a member of Windows Forums and runs his own site, which is named Windows Talk.

In this interview, we get to know a little about James and his website. James is exemplary of what a true community contributor can bring to help others.

James, what do you do for a living?

I am a medical radiation technologist (or, X-Ray Tech). I perform general radiography, bone mineral density tests, and I have just started the course for MRI (Magnetic resonance imaging).

What hobbies do you have? How do you make time for them?

My hobbies are more like ‘pastimes’: reading (especially history), listening to music, watching football, maintaining my blog. I try to do some reading everyday, even if it is only for 30 minutes before bed. Reading is my greatest joy.

What’s your favorite thing that begins with the letter S?

My Stereo!

Whom do you look up to and why?

No one person, other than Jesus. Typically, I like those that lead by example. Deeds, not words, so to speak.

If there was one place you could travel to, right now, where would it be and why?

Hawaii. My wife & I celebrated 20 years of marriage there a couple of years ago and it was a wonderful time; a different vista at every turn in the road, on every inter-island flight.

You’ve been a Microsoft MVP since 2003, what motivates you to help others?

It is what gives me my greatest sense of accomplishment; helping others to understand and use their PCs, overcome any glitches and get them up and running again. Sometimes the simplest thing (like a keyboard shortcut, for example) gives others the greatest joy. I once installed a small weather-watching program on an elderly lady’s PC and she thought it was amazing! (The program, not me!)

Please describe your site, Windows Talk, in 10 words or less.

for the average Windows user, non-technical, interesting and easy to understand.

What inspired you to start Windows Talk?

Actually, it was Windows Service Pack 2 for XP started it all. SP2 was such an important SP because it was more of a Operating System ‘refresh’ than a regular service pack, (which is more or less an accumulation of past updates & fixes). I wanted to keep all the Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) articles and SP2 links in one place, so I thought of a webpage where I could just point folks on the forums to. Then, I gradually added pages for my favourite programs, security links, my own articles and reviews of software programs and more. It just grew, but it took a lot of my personal time. I would not asttempt it again on such a large scale. I started the blog just last year (I have never been on the leading edge of technology!), more out of curiosity as well as a quicker way to get information out to users. Web sites require special software (unless you know HTML, which I don’t), blogs on the other hand can be updated from any computer with a ‘Net connection. I am slowly transitioning some of the more relevant info from my old site to the blog.

What separates your site from all the other good Windows-oriented websites out there?

All the other good ones have a zillion hits more than mine! Seriously though, I try to keep my focus on what would appeal to the new to intermediate computer user. I try to keep away from anything too technical, as well as some of the deeper security issues. There are many excellent sites that have a better understanding of these topics than I.

In five years, CBC write an article on Windows Talk. What’s the headline?

“New Brunswick man still relying on Google AdSense Revenue to Support eBay Habit”

What has been your biggest challenge, with regard to your site, thus far?

the biggest challenge is to keep it ‘fresh’ and interesting. I often feel overwhelmed by the computing world; that I can never possibly keep up with all the changes, so I just step away for a few hours or a day, pick up a book and get my perspective back on track. Then, I search for interesting news items and post about them.

What plans do you have for your site this year?

with Windows 7 about to be released, I want to help new users of it to see how it is better than Vista, what they need to know about upgrading, etc. I also would like to update some of the articles from my old site so they are more relevant, since I wrote most of them while using XP.

What is your number one Windows tip?

Backup! reinstalling Windows is not difficult, but you can never get back photographs, emails and documents if you don’t have them saved somewhere other than your PC.

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions James. Readers, please see more of James’ work here.