Windows 7 overtakes Windows XP on PC Pro

Monday, March 14th, 2011

Here’s something that’s crept up on us at PC Pro towers: Windows 7 has overtaken Windows XP as the operating system most used by visitors to our website (click graph to enlarge).

The graph above runs from January 2008 until the end of last month – Windows 7 actually surpassed XP for the first time in December, we just hadn’t noticed it before (we’ve been busy, OK?).

The growth of Windows 7 has been quite extraordinary. In a little over 18 months, it’s gone from nowhere to the most used operating system. Compare that to Windows Vista, which didn’t even come close to toppling Windows XP, never getting any higher than 27% of the PC Pro audience.

(more…)

The best netbook OS: XP, Windows 7 or Ubuntu?

Wednesday, November 17th, 2010

With the arrival last month of Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition, it’s time to revisit a familiar question: which operating system is best for a netbook? Linux-based systems may seem well-suited to lightweight devices (the original Asus Eee PC ran Xandros Linux), but there are advantages to the familiar interface and applications of Windows.

Indeed, if you buy a netbook today it will probably come with Windows 7 Starter, while older models are likely to be running Windows XP. Still, it’s easy to move from either to Ubuntu Netbook Edition, and of course it’s free. If you want to upgrade an older netbook to Windows 7 you’ll have to shell out £65 for the Home Premium edition, as Starter isn’t sold separately.

Each of these four operating systems has its attractions, but the key question is how each one performs on low-powered netbook hardware. To find the answer, I’ve spent the past few days installing them all – Windows XP Home, Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Premium and Ubuntu 10.10 Netbook Edition, with all available updates – on an Asus Eee PC 1008HA, and timing a series of typical netbook tasks to discover which OS makes the most of lightweight hardware. (more…)

How to clean up CCleaner

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

No, ‘Piriform’ isn’t the name of a rare virus. Piriform is the team behind CCleaner (renamed from ‘CrapCleaner’ so that american schools could use it…) – just about the nicest, tightest, cleanest and most frequently recommended system tidyer-upper.

It’s so well regarded that some of the less well-written printer drivers suggest that you run it to clear up their mess when in the midst of a version upgrade. It’s also the proud holder of PC Pro’s Software of the Year 2008 award.

I am blogging this because Piriform commits a couple of very minor sins in the setup of the utility. One is that it tries to sneak the Yahoo toolbar in on you, unless you know to always untick the check-box; the other is that it’s king of the ultra-tiny version update. Only Winamp is worse, in my experience – hardly a week goes by without a new release, during which a moment’s inattention will land you back with the toolbar.

This may seem obsessive but I can’t be the only person who has seen people browsing on netbooks with upwards of six toolbars in Internet Explorer, and left with a browser window able to show about ten lines of text.

Anyway, Piriform has released a major update to CCleaner. It’s now on 2.22 and there’s support for cleaning out the Google Chrome cache and the Sun Java cache; just these two tricks alone are worth the clicks to get it.

Grassed up by the Wi-Fi?

Friday, May 16th, 2008

I’ve been testing mobile broadband dongles all this week, so have been spending more time than is otherwise healthy delving around my wireless network settings (I know, the glamorous life I lead)

Yesterday, I came across a box that I had only given a cursory glance to before: the Preferred Networks settings, which can be found by clicking on Change Advanced Settings from your list of available wireless networks in Windows XP.

Stored in here was a list of all the wireless networks I’d hooked on to since I’ve had my laptop. The Wi-Fi hotspot at McCarran airport in Las Vegas used when I covered CES in January (OK, we do get a bit of glamour), the Pro Labs connection, the guest network at Microsoft’s offices. Anyone who rifled through my laptop would have a pretty good idea of where I’ve been for the past year. And what if a suspicious spouse stumbled across it and found a Wi-Fi hotspot at a hotel he/she didn’t remember you mentioning before?

How long before Windows is responsible for the first Wi-Fi divorce? I’ll give it six months.