Microsoft has officially announced it will be releasing FIVE versions of Windows 7:  Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Home Premium, Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows 7 Ultimate, and only Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional will be sold in retail.  Apparently this is to remove confusion caused by all the versions of Windows Vista.  They’ll be selling Home Premium to basic users, and Professional to businesses.

Microsoft, I think  the confusion came from having a billion versions of an operating system, and you’re doing it again?!  *Smacks forehead*

To top it off, the Windows 7 beta that 2.5 million or more of us are testing is Ultimate – but will only be offered as an upgrade.  This means we’ll be forced to buy Home Premium or Professional, and then pay even more for “Ultimate.”

Windows 7 Ultimate beta 7000 is nice, so why don’t you just sell what you’ve been having us beta test – and leave it at that!

Microsoft: this is blatant stupidity, and it’s moves like this that are going to make more and more people convert to OS X and become a “Mac.”

Firstly, Firefox is simple.  Many ISP (internet service providers) like AT&T/SBC, Comcast, and others love to give you a new browser that is full of complicated tools, toolbars, and features that crowd up the screen and ultimately make your web browsing experience cluttered, slow, and enjoyable.  Firefox is sleek and simple and has all that you need to browse the internet.  It’s simplicity calls for a faster, more enjoyable experience online which could cause anyone to make it their default browser.

Secondly, Firefox is safe.  Firefox has a built-in pop-up blocker and security tools which, much unlike IExplorer 7, are easy to customize and even disable.  It lets you know when you may be entering a malicious site that could infect your PC with viruses, spyware, and/or adware.  IE7 tends to block WANTED popup windows that you click on, which is an annoyance if you need to access that webpage – Firefox simply adds a new tab with it’s built in tab-browsing for links that lead to a needed/wanted popup.  This will save space on your taskbar.

Thirdly, Forefox has useful features.  Alongside tabbed browsing, Firefox reads websites the way they should be read.  This is great for web developers who need cross-browser testing utilities.  It has a “safe-mode” that removes any and all add-ons, and has a “No Page Style” option that removes all CSS and some other scripts.  This is great for security purposes.

If this isn’t enough, Firefox is customizable.  I love customizing the way things look on my computer, and knowing that Firefox has this feature makes it a winner in my opinion.  You can download themes at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:2 to have a totally custom webrowser.  On top of changing the look, there are other “add-ons” that you can download at https://addons.mozilla.org/  There are add ons that are useful for anyone and everyone.  Just go there and see what they have to offer!

Another great thing is that Firefox is Free…enough said.

Now there is alot more to Firefox that I just don’t have all the time to write about.  If you want to read about all that Firefox has to offer, go here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/features/

What Do You Think?
Do you use Firefox?  What do you like/dislike about Firefox?  What is your favorite web browser?  Let me know what you think.  Send me an e-mail at david@funkytower.com, or discuss it with the public by leaving a comment!  I look forward to hearing what you have to say!

Take it easy
David Crandall

There are two things to do.  The first thing is to make sure you don’t have any spyware/adware/malware on your computer.  Get an antivirus/antispyware software and do a full scan.  If you run it, fix all problems, and still cannot get IE7 to work, here’s a solution.

Run a System Restore.  If you’ve done any updates in the past on your Vista machine, there is bound to be a restore point.  When you run your System Restore program, simply pick the most recent restore point, and let System Restore do it’s thing.

Once you start up, your Internet Explorer 7 should be running fine.  It worked for me.

It’s interesting; the System Restore option has come in handy for me.  I don’t typically use antispyware programs because if I ever run into a malicious website and begin to get popups, I simply hit CTRL+ALT+DEL, click the “Processes” tab, end the “iexplorer” process, then run System Restore.  This has always fixed my problems.  Now, I don’t really want to reccomend this for everyone, because I don’t really know how stable a solution this is for given problems, but for many things – system restore has been a big help and has saved alot of headaches for me.

Now, if you don’t want to do the whole system restore thing, get yourself FireFox.  It doesn’t look exactly like Internet Explorer, but it’s close enough to where you won’t have to put much effort into getting used to it.  I mainly use it to test my work with, but sometimes I often forget I’m even using a different web browser.  It’s very comfortable and I would definately reccomend it as an alternative to any version IExplorer.

What Do You Think?
Did this article help you?  Do you have another fix for this problem?  If you do, I want to know!  Send your comments or questions to david@funkytower.com :)  I would love to hear from you

Take it easy,
David