This post goes directly to Microsoft: ?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!  What are you thinking?!

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.”

Windows Vista looks cool – alot cooler than XP.  It’s sleek design is probably what attracts users the most.  I have to say, it is very pretty – but, I like things to be exactly how I want them.  I like to pick and choose my colors, and even the design and shape of my taskbar and start menu.  I like custom cursors, sounds, icons, backgrounds, etc.  I like everything on my computer to represent me and who I am, and I like to do it in style.  If you want custom EVERYTHING, like me, and you have Windows XP or Windows Vista, I have something to show you.

It’s a company called Stardock.  These people have come up with possibly the most wonderful programs I have ever used.  Using their products, you can change virtually anything on your XP/Vista machine.  Allow me to show you a few that I thoroughly enjoy.

(more…)

It’s true – to stay safe on the internet, it is always good to have protection from malware, adware, and spyware.  These are annoying, and, quite often, dangerous.  So what do we do to stay protected?  We get programs like SpyBot Search & Destroy, or protection from McAfee and Norton.  We do a scan, the program finds  some problems, you go through the process, and at the end – it shows a few things that couldn’t be fixed, but can be removed.  It warns us that removing that file could potentially make some programs on the computer run improperly.  Without thinking, we delete those files.  The next thing we know, we’re booting up to nothing but a mouse cursor and a black screen.  What happened?  If you’re a Windows user, and this has happened to you – you should read this.

(more…)