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Microsoft Round-Up

October Announcements

Without question, Microsoft® is the largest software company in the world. Commanding a 97% share of the desktop operating system market, everyone who uses a computer is impacted by the company's actions. This round-up presents a number of different Microsoft related topics with practical recommendations to save business owners time and money.

Advisory: Turn Off Automatic Updates

We've debated back and forth this same topic: should one turn on automatic Windows® software updates? Our last recommendation was to be judicious with automatic updates: download them, but only install updates that are at least a month old or so. We're changing that recommendation to turn automatic updates off completely.

Why? A customer's copy of Office® 2000 failed recently: Word would not start. Removing Office, deleting the directory in Program Files, and then reinstalling did NOT fix the problem. Also, only Word® broke: not Excel® nor PowerPoint®.

The reason? Microsoft has a published policy that they stop supporting software seven years after its publication date. We believe, but have no proof, that Microsoft has stopped testing automatic updates against Office 2000 because of this policy. Since many customers still find Office 2000 useful (and see below for some comments on Office 2007), we cannot recommend a software update policy where the possibility of breaking some working function is greater then the possibility that something will fail in the absence of an update.

Microsoft has also been lax in publishing service packs, which are fully tested packages of updates, for Windows® XP. While Windows 2000 had four service packs, XP has had only two. We believe that "slipstream" updates, or publishing updates one at a time without a baseline revision, is at best a poor software engineering practice. Thus it's now time to turn automatic updates off.

What do we do in-house? Here is our own internal policy:

• Roll out the computer with XP and Service Pack 2.
• Apply the first Windows Update. This installs Windows Genuine Advantage and the Windows Installer 3.1.
• Turn off automatic updates.
• Turn off administrative mode for all but expert users.
• Use FireFox, Mozilla, or SeaMonkey instead of Internet Explorer.
• Use IE 7 when necessary and stop using IE 6 completely.
• Always use a hardware firewall.

Our track record is two years of continued operation of an XP system without an operating system reinstall when the above policies are followed. When we last installed a system and included all updates, the system was stable for three weeks.

Advisory: More Reasons to Say No to Vista®

Our previous advisory on Vista was do not upgrade due to draconian digital rights management enforcement policies. But here are some reactions from customers who have updgraded:

• Vista takes double the memory and processor of XP. To get the equivalent performance from a single core, one gigabyte XP system, one will need two cores and two gigs in Vista.
• Vista is picky about hardware drivers. If a driver is not certified by Microsoft, it will not be loaded by Vista. This is a serious problem with printers and computers upgraded from XP.
• Vista is picky about digital rights. An ordinary DVD that plays just fine under XP plays at half quality under Vista. Media content must be Vista certified to play at full quality.

Interestingly enough, Microsoft will continue to sell XP at retail for six months longer then the original cut-off date: this has been extended from January to June, 2008. And it's still possible to buy a computer with XP installed: contact us for details.

Advisory: Office 2007 Learning Curve is Steep

Thinking about upgrading to Office 2007? Here are some things to be aware of:

• The menu system has completely changed. We've heard comments like it took a 2003 expert half an hour to figure out how to print a Word file. Be prepared to spend two to four hours following on-line tutorials before feeling comfortable in 2007.
• The file format is different for Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. This is the first major change since Office 97. Remember to save files in the older format for exchanging with people who use the older verions.

Since the learning curve for 2007 is so steep, now might be a good time to switch to OpenOffice. It's an open source, meaning free, office suite that behaves more like Office 2003 then Office 2007 does.

Questions?

Just contact us with any comments, concerns, or questions about items contained in this document. Or IT issues in general. Or call us at the telephone number below.

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