e-Vents

[ Tuesday ]

Buy A Car...Hire A Mechanic

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What if you went down to your local automobile dealer to buy a car, and you were warned "You know, you're going to need to hire a full-time mechanic to keep it running properly." Or, when you bought a television set, a washing machine, a refrigerator, or any other appliance, and you were told to hire a full-time repairman to keep it/them operating.

Yet, when you bought your first personal computer for the office, or for home use, were you aware of how much time would be required to properly maintain it? Probably not. And who foots the bill for all of this? You do ! Or your company does...

Even a standalone computer, not connected to the internet or any other network requires maintenance. Try installing a new software program and see if it runs without any conflicts with other programs. Or install a new graphics or sound card and see what happens. Maybe the driver will need to be updated as soon as you take it out of the box. Networked computers require considerably more effort.

I spent the better part of one day recently installing updates for Microsoft Windows and their Internet Explorer browser. It was for all of the PCs on my network. There was no group fix...start the installation on one, then go to the next one and download the updates. After a few minutes, go back and see why one machine is prompting me to continue, then go to the next one and wait for the same prompt. Then on to the next machine. The units each required ten(10) updates.

In a medium-sized company, a network administrator is needed, or at least a technician on call 24/7 to keep the 'office automation' equipment running properly. And it doesn't matter if the company is a financial institution, a bakery, a building contractor, or a real estate office. All of them need to have someone who maintains the computer network.

To some degree that is understandable. If you were operating an assembly plant, you would need mechanics to keep the mechanical equipment running. But in a small office or home environment, you should not need to devote so much time to a personal computer. Again, imagine the scenario of buying a car, tv, refrigerator, etc.

I would suggest to home users running Windows XP to forget about the patches and updates that appear almost daily from Microsoft. Wait for a major 'service pack' release, and then download and install it while you are away for a week's vacation. When you return, it should be finished. Or do this...

Turn off the 'auto update' notification feature. Get your PC running the way you like it, then go to 'Restore' and input a manual restore point. Then, surf away on the internet, and if you pick up something, restore your PC to the earlier time that it worked properly. (I would recommend installing Ad-Aware (free) to delete all of the junk picked up along the way). And maybe look for a new operating system...

MM [16:29]