I get asked this all the time, and most recently yesterday afternoon while working on a client’s computer.

So, here are my current recommendations:

Currently Running XP: No, unless you want to spend more money for the newest thing. Windows XP does not transfer to Windows 7 easily. There are 3 ways to upgrade it, all are considered costly and may cause Windows 7 to run slower, or you’ll be missing some things. It’s best that you wait until you either buy a new computer or you start running into issues where programs just don’t like to run anymore. At that time, you can make an informed decision on the hardware you’re using. Prices of computers and laptops are going down every day.

Currently Running Vista: Yes. The upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 is relatively painless. Protocol16 has done many upgrades for clients and we report a high success in our upgrades (actually, no failed upgrades yet).

Currently Running a NetBook: This is one of those hard decisions. Windows 7 will run on Netbooks, but it might be very slow, depending on the exact model you’re running. We’d need to know the model and a few other details to discuss it.

As always, if you have any questions and are anywhere near Portland, we’ll be more than happy to talk with you.
Justin

PS: We have some REALLY big news coming soon…

With the release of Windows 7, Protocol16 is offering to upgrade your computer to Windows 7 for $19.95, instead of the full price of our labor for a reinstall. Windows installs typically cost $99 and they’re the only flat-rate work we do!

Get Windows 7 Installed or Upgraded for just $19.95, plus the cost of the license!

Here are the requirements to get this special pricing:

-The upgrade & install pricing is offered as a pick-up only service. Your computer will be returned as quickly as possible, as long as we don’t run into weird issues – we expect to hold your computer for 1 day or less. Microsoft has stated that the larger your user profile is, the more amount of time is needed. No offense, but we don’t think anyone wants a tech in their house for hours on end…

-A Windows 7 license must be purchased with your upgrade. Windows 7 license costs are as follows:

Windows 7 Home Premium New Install: $199.99
Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade:  $119.99

Windows 7 Professional New Install: $299.99
Windows 7 Professional Upgrade: $199.99

Windows 7 Ultimate New Install: $319.99
Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade: $219.99

-Protocol16 will present a terms and conditions statement to the customer at the time of pickup. The customer must agree to the statement and sign, or no pickup will be offered.

NOTES: “New Install” means that you will lose all data on your hard drive. Protocol16 utilizes full retail versions of Windows 7 instead of OEM options for various reasons, to include the ability to transfer the license later. All pricing for Windows 7 is set at the required Microsoft pricing point. Not valid with any other coupons or discounts.

We’ve seen this same deal listed from $39.95 to $180, depending on your location and who you choose! If you would like to take advantage of this offer, give us a call and setup your pickup appointment.
Justin

Barely 13 hours into the Windows 7 bonanza, Protocol16 ran into it’s first Windows 7 upgrade problem.

Our customer had Vista Home Premium, 32-Bit and they were attempting to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate, 32-bit. Windows 7 would appear to install then the computer would restart normally. Windows 7 would appear to load and then…restart. As it restarted, the Vista screen came back (this is called a Rollback). Our customer was a more experienced individual and was stumped.

The only “error” that would pop-up for the customer was that the installation had failed and the computer had been rolled back – with an OK button.

In the logs, the upgrade installation complained about Symantec Endpoint Protection and Network Access Control being installed. We also noticed setup log complaints of a SoundMax driver on the computer (the Driver is the software that allows Windows to talk to the hardware). We removed the sound card driver and the Symantec software and restarted the install of Windows. Windows 7 magically came to life with no complaints.

Windows 7 will complain about most Antivirus software packages because they place locks, checks & balances and other “features” on the operating system. This can cause your antivirus to literally think that it’s being attacked while Windows is upgrading.

On another note: BACKUP YOUR DATA BEFORE ATTEMPTING AN UPGRADE! On one of our test computers, we ran through the upgrade process a few weeks ago and, while it “upgraded”, Windows 7 no longer kept a record of the installed programs, the network settings, etc…

We always recommend following the guidelines the installer sets for you. Unfortunately, there are times where other issues unrelated to the actual install due to how other software acts on the computer… For those times, we’re here for you.
Justin

So, it seems the big news in Portland right now is that Windows 7 is coming on Oct. 22. Yes, that’s very true, but there are some important things many of you need to know.

XP to Windows 7 = No-go
Microsoft has decided that Windows XP CANNOT be upgraded to Windows 7. I cannot stress this information enough. I really don’t want to see a lot of businesses and people needing to spend huge amounts of money on Windows 7 upgrades. Right now, the “easiest” way to “upgrade” is to use the Windows Migration Tool to copy your info before you install. (Note: Laplink has also decided to help out, for a fee.) Again, Windows XP going to Windows 7 must be a clean install – this means the hard drive is erased, but there are products you can purchase to help the upgrade.

Windows 7 Is Better
Windows 7 is considered, by many, to be Vista but with Service Pack 3. While mostly true, there are a lot of differences. The first thing most people will notice is that Windows 7 looks different. There’s no more green “Start” button, no more Circle start button – just a standard menu. A lot of people things it looks a lot like the Apple OS X menu.

Windows 7, at least in my personal experience, is actually faster as well. I’ve been testing it on a home laptop and have found it pretty speedy for startups and waking up from sleep. So far, we’ve noticed one issue with it, but it’s due to Toshiba not releasing the software for the problem.

Drivers
One thing that really helps in Windows 7 is that Microsoft has defaulted to the manufacturer for drivers. Drivers are the software that allows Windows to interact with your hardware. A driver would allow Windows to see your Webcam – without that driver, Windows doesn’t know how to work with it.Some people would call this a translation file to allow the two software pieces to talk with each other.

Older versions of Windows required you to visit the manufacturer and update your own drivers. This happened with Windows XP and all versions before it. Windows Vista allowed users to download new drivers from Microsoft’s generic driver repository. If Windows recognized your mouse as a standard mouse, it would update the driver for you. That’s all great, until you have a fancy mouse with 8 buttons… One day, it just goes back to a standard mouse again. Companies have done things to help guard against this, but it still can cause problems. It really causes problems with the component that controls your monitor: the graphics card.

Well, Windows 7 is doing something new. If you have hardware, Windows will see it and interact with it, but will only use the generic driver until your hardware manufacturer releases their version of that driver. Case in point: my wife’s laptop has a fingerprint reader. Originally, we couldn’t find the drivers for it (this is completely because Windows 7 isn’t officially released yet). Well, one day, Windows popped up and said “I found a driver for X device!” When I clicked on it, I figured it would be a generic driver – nope. Windows 7 redirected me directly to Toshiba’s website were I could download the driver directly from them. On top of this, I found other drivers that I needed as well that had just been released. Now, we’re waiting on one last driver that allows us to utilize the touch pad (mouse pad) to it’s fullest extent.

Performance
This is one of the most unique things for Windows 7. Windows 7 is one of the first Operating Systems (OS) that has been released that does not require a more powerful computer. If you remember, when you upgraded from Windows 95 or 98 to XP, you pretty much needed to purchase a new computer, or at least upgrade it. Well, not so with Windows 7.

Windows 7, technically speaking, is a toned down version of Windows Vista. It’s been cleaned up, run through an optimization process then given a few more bug fixes. When Microsoft did this, it actually caused Windows 7 to typically perform better than Vista. This means that if you’re running XP or Vista and your computer is basically speedy enough for you, you can keep on using it with Windows 7.

If you have any other questions about Windows 7 and what is going to happen with your computer, please let us know.
Justin

It’s no secret that we’re a mobile computer repair company in Portland. We drive all over and see a lot of stuff, but when we’re done with a customer and on the way back to the office, we sometimes stop in to computer shops long the way. While in those shops, we do a few things that includes seeing how our customer service stacks up against the shops as well as check pricing to ensure that we remain competitive and are not overcharging – it’s called Secret Shopping.

Well, I personally got to do a “secret shopper” trip with my wife and we were not impressed. While I waited for 5 minutes to even be acknowledged at one computer shop, all while standing 5 feet in front of the shop owner, I got to listen to a personal conversation – not a professional one. My wife decided to look a display that included a touch screen computer and as well as a Netbook (we like Netbooks here at Protocol16). The display failed to work  and the Netbook was dead as well with Windows errors. Yikes…

When it was finally my turn to talk, I asked how much they were charging for a memory upgrade for a laptop – a service we do at customer locations. Now, I didn’t act like a geek, I honestly acted like a lot of our customers that know just enough to tell someone what they want.

Sadly, the markup the shop was charging was a heck of a lot more than we do and I was told that I needed to let go of my laptop for an entire day so that they could upgrade it. And in the end, they’d only charge me $10 as labor, to perform the upgrade. That’s crazy because we charge much less, even if we were to charge for a 15 minute block of time. The thing is, for this specific service, we don’t charge our time if that’s all you want – just parts since we take your laptop, turn it over and install the hardware and start windows up to make sure everything’s peachy. This type of upgrade literally takes about 3 minutes to do everything, including start Windows all the way up to see if it’s seeing all the memory.

I’ll be honest, when I find out people are taking advantage of others, I get upset. My poor wife had to listen to me complain while we drove all the way back to the office. I understand markup for a boutique computer shop, but not that much for 1 customer, especially after making me wait 5 minutes just to talk.

In this secret shopping experience, I think we’ll keep our rates where they are.
Justin

One of the most common questions people ask Protocol16 is how to speed up a computer. Whether you’re in Beaverton, Portland or out in Wilsonville, our answer is the same: “It could be several things”.

The first few things that come to mind are:

• How full is your hard drive? Do you have a little box popping up saying that you’re out of space? If so, that could be your problem right there. Microsoft has a tool called “Disk Defrag” that works over your hard drive to speed it up. It basically rearranges the files in a more efficient manner so things work “better”. With Windows XP, you’ll need to run this every once in awhile – we recommend at least once a month. With Windows Vista, as long as you have about 15% drive space available, sit back and relax as Vista runs through the defragment by itself.
• Viruses and Spyware -These stinkers can cause all sorts of problems. These are basically programs that run without you knowing, all while eating up memory. Imagine opening 30 Internet Explorer windows all at once, your computer would slow down. While spyware and viruses are usually no where near as big as Internet Explorer, it’s the same concept. Having all that running in the background can eat up system resources. Also, depending on what type of spyware you have, you could be contributing to a spam operation or worse.Protocol16 recommends Spybot Search & Destroy for getting around Spyware. It’s quick, efficient and not as large as some of the other programs out there. It will also go over your system settings and “immunize” it so that certain vulnerabilities are closed before they happen. It’s free as well.For viruses and home users, we recommend AVG Antivirus, since it’s free for home users. For business users, antivirus solutions really depend on the size of your network and what you’re protecting. Unfortunately, even for small home busineses, most companies charge for business usage. If your home computer doubles as your business computer, you’re skirting the line of home use as well. It’s best to talk to a professional that can recommend a solution that fits your environment.
• Memory – Many people think that memory is hard drive space. Unfortunately, this is not true. Memory is basically a short term bank of storage that your computer uses when you open a program. Think of memory as a “fuel adative”, in the car world. There’s octane added before you pump, but you can go out and buy better gas or an octane booster, all increasing the performance of your car. Back in the computer world, imagine what can happen if you just double or triple the size of that storage area? Believe it or not, with most computers, you can do this quickly and easily. Some of the lower end laptops and desktops these days come with 1 Gigabyte of memory. Most computers can take 2-4GB of total storage without a problem! Why sit using only half or a quarter of the possible “octane”? Memory upgrades are very simple too, shut down the computer, install the chips and start back up – you’ll instantly see the difference in speed.

Those are the main things you can do to speed up your computer. The other options are, restart it once in awhile and not open so many programs at once

And again, if you have any questions, please feel free to give us a call at 503-524-9047, we’re more than happy to help out.
Justin

I’ve seen this question posted on several websites as well as several blog posts. On top of this, I’ve also been asked this on a normal basis, especially since getting back to Portland and working on computer repair.

While Vista had it’s fair share of problems when it first came out, it’s perfectly acceptable for an Operating System now. After Service Pack 1 came out, Vista really started to shine. Now that XP is just over just under 8 years old, it’s time to let it go. Vista was the basis of Windows Server 2008 and, in the business world, that product is Rockin’. On top of that, SP2 has been released for Vista as well. Windows 7 is considered “Vista SP3″ and even Server 2008 R2 is using the Windows 7 code.

Some people are saying that you should wait until Windows 7 comes out – I’m one of them. Unfortunately, this has a downfall. There is no XP to Windows 7 upgrade. That means, if you don’t upgrade to Vista, you cannot upgrade to Windows 7, you’ll need to do a full install. Fortunately, Microsoft is offering a free upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 at the moment.

“But Windows 7 Requires a Key Management Server!” (Minimum of 25 Vista Installations Req’d, only in a business environment)
Yes and no. Windows 7 can use your internet connection to activate, but when you have many computers reactivating and downloading Windows Updates, you’ll change your setup to point to a server to save bandwidth. This is standard practice in any environment that has a decent amount of computers.

In the end, only you can decide which way you should go. Personally, I would rather have a clean install of any operating system than an upgrade. There are too many odd things that can get carried around with a series of upgrades. A good spring cleaning is good once in awhile.

If you have any questions about Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008, please don’t hesitate to call. I even personally have an MCITP (a big certification that Microsoft offers) for Server 2008.
Justin