Technology is sometimes straight-forward. Sometimes, however, it befuddles you and doesn’t do what you want. Here’s are some articles about some useful things to know, in advance:
- The 7-10 Split. You’re on Windows 7. You’re not sure if you want to move to Windows 10. First, you should know that some updates from Microsoft can bork your Windows 7 installation, especially if you have an ASUS motherboard. Assuming you survive that, next comes the update question: Move to Windows 10 or not. Here’s one way to lock in that free upgrade, and still stay on Windows 7. Of course, it involves moving to Windows 10 and then backing it out. Of course, you might not have a choice. It appears that Microsoft is forcing people to move to Windows 10 by scheduling the updates without telling them. Forewarded is forearmed. Watch closely to see how to avoid it. Further, the article confirms why Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 so hard, and why it is free. The answer: It is that old adage: if you get it for free, you are not the customer, you are the product. From the article: “When Microsoft created Windows 10, it tied in numerous monitoring and data collection tools. The operating system is capable of gathering your search history, web usage, Windows Store usage, details of what applications you use, voice recordings, emails, geographic information and just about anything else that is on your PC. This information is gathered in part for improving Windows-based services, but it is also used for market research and advertising purposes. Because each user on Windows 10 increases the amount of advertising information available to Microsoft, which in turn enables Microsoft to earn more revenue from selling this data, it is not surprising that Microsoft wants everyone to use its new OS.” In a related note, Microsoft is adding more ads to the Windows 10 Start screen that you can’t remove.
- Booting from USB. If you get hit by malware, you might need to boot from a USB drive. The problem is: it’s not always that easy. Here’s how to boot from a USB drive. It is not as easy as it was in the old days, when you could boot from a floppy (or in some cases, a CD). Today’s PCs come with a lot of protection—which is good—but it can get in the way. Somewhere in your BIOS setup screen, you’ll almost certainly find a Secure Boot option. If you can’t boot from a flash drive, turn it off. UEFI can also be a problem. Finally, most of today’s PCs boot immediately from the internal hard drive or SSD, without looking for bootable external media first. You have to do something special to make them look, and what you have to do depends on your PC.
- When “Buy Now” Isn’t. When you go to Amazon or iTunes and click “Buy Now”, I bet you think you’re actually buying something. That’s what most people think. The problem is: “Buy Now” sometimes doesn’t buy anything at all. As a recent study shows, when it came to physical goods, the shoppers pretty much knew exactly what they thought they were getting. But when it came to digital goods, there was a violent mismatch between what the customers thought they were buying (something they could resell, lend, or give away) and what the small print said they were getting (an extremely limited copyright license that required them to use their media in conjunction with special restrictive players that prohibited all these activities). In short: people are buying things because they have mistaken beliefs about what they’re getting, and if they knew better, they wouldn’t buy those things on those terms.
