Good Advice from Windows Advisor (windowsadvisor.co.uk)

Member Name: derek-a

Product:	windowsadvisor.co.uk
Date:	03/11/05 (2960 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Save a fortune on fixing software problems and speed up computer

Disadvantages: ...

Several months ago I had an e-mail inviting me to look at a website called, Window Advisor UK for “100% Windows, 0% Stress”.

Well I must have been in a laid-back mood that day, because I rarely click on links I receive in emails making such claims. But click I did and I read promises of whether I was running Windows 98, Me, 2000 or XP, I would receive brilliants tips and advice that couldn’t be found in any other manual or handbook.

I would learn how to get rid of errors, protect my machine from viruses, learn about functions in Word, get rid of computer errors and ban computer freezing. All this for a special offer price of £14.97, and this was inclusive postage and packing. But better still, I could receive this without an up-front payment as a 6-week trial. I could then either send it back and owe nothing, or pay my £14.97 and keep it. Ah, but it didn’t end there. With the 632 paged manual came 5 CD ROMs containing programs and tools to enhance the performance of Windows.

When a company is willing to send products without being pre-paid, they are obviously confident in their product. So with my hardened scepticism softened a little, I sent for it.

The manual arrived a few days after ordering it and came in the form of a ring binder containing A5 printed pages and a CD in a plastic case with holes in that also fitted onto the large rings. The idea of the ring binder is that the optional future updates can be added as needed. Flicking through the pages I notices that all articles are written in plain English with lots of explanatory diagrams and icons in the margin indicating whether you are reading… “introduction”, “Maker Overview(of current products)”, “Tip”, “Caution (when making alterations)”, “Decision Making (to pencil in if to make/not make tests)” and “Summary (to mark important points at a glance)”. The entire manual is tabbed and indexed in alphabetical order like a large filofax. Remember those?

On first browsing through the manual I came across John Marshall who teaches in a College of Further Education. He is a writer you come across a lot in the Windows Advisor manual. His first subject was The Device Manager giving easy-to-read instructions on how to deal with all software that controls all your hardware in this program. At first glance, it all looked very complicated, but as I read, I began to get a greater understanding of how to check that all the hardware components connected inside and outside my computer were working properly and if not, how to remedy the situation.

Later in the manual, John has a large section headed, “Error Free Writing with Microsoft Word”. Included in this is how to set up and cure problems with auto-correct, hyphenation, thesaurus and grammar checking, which is useful for those just starting out using Word.

John also has several articles solely on Windows XP where he explains the differences between the versions of XP, and advice on whether to go for an upgrade or new installation after testing hardware compatibility (minimum recommended RAM, CPU and hard disk space), NTSF versus FAT file system and what installation problems you may come up against. Lots of other things are covered like Windows XP in practice and how to set it all up for optimum performance.

Then there are articles written by Dave Howell, an IT expert in computers since the early 80s. Dave talked about DLL files in Windows 98, what they are and how they are used. Briefly they are Dynamic Link Libraries and they either link two programs together or one can stand as a program in its own right. DLLs are added to a computer every time you install a new program and from what I can understand in reading Dave Howell’s article, they can later become redundant and will need “cleaning” from time to time. But seeing that I run Windows XP, I read this article just out of interest and to be able to refer to if any of my friends (many still run Windows 98) may need my assistance, as happens quite frequently. I keep telling them that I am no whiz kid on computers, but they still keep coming back for me. Oh well, I’ve not destroyed anybody’s machine yet!

Later Dave talks about the bugbear of most PC owners. What to do if your PC doesn’t start up. Again it’s all explained in easy-to-follow language and can save you a fortune in engineers’ costs. He tells you how to diagnose and rectify start-up problems, what BIOS errors mean, drive boot problems and how to check and cure faulty components in your system. How if necessary to start up in Safe Mode, using MSCONFIG and Device Manager. This covers all Windows platforms from 98 through to XP. One particularly useful item I found here was stopping all the unwanted programs loading on start-up using MSCONFIG. This shortened the time I had to wait for everything to load when starting up my PC.

When installing and uninstalling software, much of the registry on a PC gets altered with files being added. After a while, as the hard drive becomes cluttered with these files, it can slow down considerably. Dave describes how to first of all back up the registry, uninstall programs cleanly via the registry, and how to manually install software on your computer to ensure you are only getting what you want on your machine. To help with this he also explains how to create a personal log on your computer and then a program installation log so that you can compare the two logs and know exactly what has been installed and changed on your computer.

If you run Windows Me, you may get problems with your kernel. So what the blazes is the kernel? Nothing to do with southern fried chicken…

This was something I had seen many times when I was having problems with my old system, but had no idea what it was. It is an essential file and it appears that if this file become corrupt, there may be start-up problems, but to fix it, you don’t need to panic. You just need your original windows installation CD and Dave’s article on “Kernal Messages in Window 98 and Me” in the manual to sort out the problem.

Apparently the Windows operating system was designed to be stable. Hmmm. Well, Dave says it can be. It is because each system is unique that problems arise and in this article we are again taken through tweaks in the Device Manager and the Control Panel and into the Troubleshooting tab in the System Properties facility.

Want to know about your mother-board? What it does and in what ways you can upgrade it? This article is packed with information about mother-boards and what’s on them and what plugs into where. After reading through this, I think I feel I could build a computer from the ground up.

RAM is Random Access Memory – that is the temporary memory where a program is stored whilst you are using it. I could be wrong, but the way I understand it is that sometimes the RAM holds information of a program you have opened and then closed, so that it speedily opens up, should you need it again during a session on your computer. However, there are drawbacks to this that if you don’t have enough RAM your computer can slow down considerably. Dave Howell to the rescue again with an article on handling RAM “bottlenecks” and how to tune your computer RAM for optimum performance. There are tools on the free CD to assist with this and Dave talks you through how to use them. Also instruction in given on how to carry out regular defragging of the hard drive and deletion of temporary files.

Carl Fuller, an expert in dealing with hardware issues, writes about solving driver problems in all Windows platforms from 98 through to XP. He explains things like why it is good practice to use up-to-date drivers for your hardware and when to stay with the old ones as there are pros and cons for doing both. Installation of plug and play devices, installation via device manager, how to identify and solve driver problems, the use of MSCONFIG, where to find drivers on the internet, trouble shooting an lots more. His articles are so well written that most newcomers to the world of computer technology can easily understand. In fact reading these articles made my hardware much less of a mystery than it was before.

Carl follows this with a lengthy article on “Error Codes in the Device Manager” which deals with Windows 98, Me, 2000 and XP. He lists 33 codes that might pop up on a computer screen from time to time. For instance, <<Code 1: This device is not configured correctly. Click on Open Drive to start the driver. If the problem recurs, consult the relevant hardware documentation.>> I am sure that most of us have seen messages pop-up similar to this on our PCs. Carl describes ways to remedy each of the codes using the Device Manager. He then goes on to deal with “Exception Error Codes in Windows 98” explaining what they mean and how to remedy them.

In another article, Carl explains that with the launch of each new version of Windows, all new faults and bugs present in previous versions are sorted out. But you don’t have to fork out on the latest version to fix the faults, there are many software tools that can be used to do this and he mentions several of them that can be downloaded from the Internet and others that are included on the free CD. Tools for system tests, such as Dr. Hardware and PC-Config; other tools to test hard drive, speed tests and other optimisation tools, are some of what I have used and found very effective.

Another article then that gets into hard drive configuration and maintenance and tools that can be used, BIOS configuration and problems and getting into analysing and fixing start-up problems using flow-charts - covering all platform of Windows since 98.

So far I have outlined just a few of the articles found in the manual. There are many more, too numerous to describe here. And if you get stuck with anything, further help can be obtained from the Windows Advisor website – you get a password to enter the “members only section” in your package.

What’s on the Free CD?

The CD opens with the first page that advises you how you can access all of the 5 free gifts. Subject headings are followed by a start button that when you can click on takes you to the Welcome Page that is headed, “5 Windows CD on only 1 CD ROM plus 67 extra free powerful software tools”.
What follows is an outline of what’s available on the CD. For me to list every single program and explain what it does, would keep you reading for hours and this review is already getting fairly long, so here’s a summary.

1. Windows Power: Tweak and tune your system.
2. The Complete Windows Toolkit: Containing 25 tools for windows to help diagnose software faults and repair your PC, increase PC performance and much more.
3. Virus Prevention Commando: To safeguard your PC from snoopers, malicious emails etc.
4. The DLL spring cleaner: Cleaning out unwanted DLL files: these are files that run in the background and can often become redundant and hog up your computer resources.
5. Internet Essentials: Everything you need to speed up your computer on the internet.

On this page there is also a submenu that runs down the side as you would find
on a website. Listed here is…

Editorial software: containing tools and programs that are recommended by many of the articles in the manual.

Essentials: Tools of the trade that are programs such as WinZip, Internet Explorer, Acrobat reader, Real player, Paintshop Pro and more.

Tools and utilities: Tools for diagnosing software problems, time saving software, backup software, firewalls etc.

Many of the programs are available to install directly from the CD, but there are some that requires a download from the Internet and a few that are available for a trial period and if found useful would then have to be paid for.

At regular intervals after I purchased the package, it was explained that I would automatically receive updates (i.e. more articles and information) through the post that I could add to the ring binder under their appropriate headings, but I was under no obligation to keep any of these and could simply return them if I didn’t want them.

So far I have received one update for which the purchase price was a total of £16.34. I decided I would keep this one as it had yet another CD packed with more free tools, and lots valuable information, some of which was about accessing and tweaking the registry. It came with an updated index and could all be fitted in the appropriate headings in the ringbinder manual.

In summary, I have got to say that the information I have received so far with Windows Advisor is very helpful and I would be hard pushed to find it by searching on line and, when I looked at computer department in local books stores, I was shocked to see prices of up to £60 to get any worthwhile information about computer software and hardware repairs. And furthermore, courses with the local university, were in excess of £100.

So, if you want to learn more about your computer and the way it works and check out this information for free, go for Windows Advisor…

Summary: Improve the running of your computer, learn how to get rid of errors and lots more..