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Windows Secrets Newsletter • Issue 168 • 2008-09-25 • Circulation: over 400,000
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Table of contents INTRODUCTION: London readers: meet with me on Sept. 27 TOP STORY: Don't go from XP to Vista unless you go 64-bit INSIDER TRICKS: Converters maximize your video-file options KNOWN ISSUES: Balancing health-data accessibility, security WACKY WEB WEEK: Finally! Your Windows error messages decoded BEST SOFTWARE: Universal IM clients link you to many systems WOODY'S WINDOWS: Now you can get your Wi-Fi on wheels PERIMETER SCAN: Free utility displays all your PC's passwords PERMALINKS: Send these links to your friends and co-workers YOUR SUBSCRIPTION: How to change your address or unsubscribe |
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INTRODUCTION London readers: meet with me on Sept. 27 
By
Brian Livingston
I'm gradually working toward my goal of meeting Windows Secrets readers in every major city of the world. For now, however, I'm slowly picking spots where I have an extra few hours between flights, and on Sept. 27 it'll be London, England. As you may recall, I announced last June a free seminar for readers who live in Hong Kong. A few wags suggested that my next two events would be in Cancún and Ibiza. Well, I've proved them all wrong with my upcoming meeting location — everyone knows there's nothing fun to do in swinging London. The truth is that I'm too chicken to hold a free seminar in a place like New York City or San Francisco, where thousands of subscribers might show up. Until I figure out how to hold a free event in a stadium, I'm trying a few meetings in non-U.S. locations where no one knows me (well, almost no one). Only subscribers to the Windows Secrets e-mail newsletter may register for the London meeting. It isn't possible to register from our Web site, only from a link in the e-mail notice that was sent out, sorry. If you can't attend the discussion in London, don't worry: I'll publish a full report of the event in my Oct. 2 column. I'm mainly interested in getting readers' feedback on ways Windows Secrets can be more interesting and useful to you in the future. I got great ideas from subscribers in Hong Kong, as I reported on June 19. I'm sure my readers in London will have even more to say. If you aren't in London, would you like Windows Secrets to hold a free seminar near you one of these days? Be sure your country and ZIP code or postal code are set correctly in your WS preferences, so we can make plans. Visit your preferences page Thanks for your support! Brian Livingston is editorial director of WindowsSecrets.com and the co-author of Windows Vista Secrets and 10 other books. |
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TOP STORY Don't go from XP to Vista unless you go 64-bit 
By
Stuart J. Johnston
Early indications are that Windows 7 won't be a major upgrade from Vista. But the real choice isn't between Vista and Windows 7; it's between moving to a 64-bit version of Windows now or later. The bottom line is that if you're using XP, there's no point in upgrading to 32-bit Vista. It doesn't make sense to upgrade your operating system without upgrading to 64-bit hardware and software in order to get the most out of both. Allow me to explain. Despite Microsoft's best attempts to keep a lid on the next version of Windows — code-named Windows 7 — details about the new OS's features are slipping out. The early word is that the successor to Vista, which is due to ship in early 2010, won't be much different from Vista Service Pack 1. To date, Microsoft has said only that the next version of Windows will launch within three years after the consumer release of Vista, which debuted officially in January 2007. A recent report by InternetNews.com pegs Microsoft's current schedule as having the OS ready for PC manufacturers in June 2009, substantially earlier than advertised. Microsoft executives have kept mum not only about the when of Windows 7 but also the what: specifically, what features will and won't be in the next release. Significantly more information regarding Windows 7 will be available in late October at the company's Professional Developers Conference (PDC) and in early November at its Windows Hardware Engineering Conference. Late word is that PDC attendees will receive a pre-beta of Windows 7 on a 160GB external USB hard drive. Early testers of the new release indicated recently to All About Microsoft blogger Mary Jo Foley that a public beta of Windows 7 is due around mid-December 2008. Microsoft has said it will sign up beta testers via its Connect site. That would be the right time frame for Microsoft to get the final release to PC makers in time for the 2009 Christmas sales season — a critical mistake Microsoft made with Vista in 2006, say analysts. Windows 7 emphasizes performance, stability Testers of early preview releases indicate that Windows 7 will provide greater stability, reliability, and performance than Vista. The most recent of the three prebeta releases reportedly delivered all three of the promised benefits. One of the three biggest complaints about Vista — or more specifically, the 32-bit version of Vista — is performance. (The other two big Vista problems, application incompatibilities and the lack of device drivers, have been solved over the past year and a half, with a few noteworthy exceptions.) The 32-bit edition of Vista supports only 3GB of memory, a limitation that the 64-bit edition doesn't have. How much memory can 64-bit Vista address? The range is from 8GB for Vista Home Basic to 128GB for the Ultimate, Enterprise, and Business editions. All 32-bit operating systems, not just Vista, have greater memory restrictions than their 64-bit versions. At this point, if you're considering buying new systems, you should be looking at setups that use 64-bit hardware and software. After all, what good are all those lightning-fast processor cores if the system runs low on memory to support them? While there will be a 32-bit edition of Windows 7, the writing is on the wall: the future of desktop computing is 64-bit. "The 64-bit editions support more than 3GB of RAM, which removes the headroom limit that 32-bit editions have," principal anaylst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group told Windows Secrets. Some users echo that sentiment. "I installed a full 64-bit copy of Vista six months after release and it runs great," said a user who goes by the screen name Darkest Daze on one user forum. "I love my Vista 64. I would never go back to XP," said a posting by another user who goes by the screen name Ike_Skelton. While there is a 64-bit release of XP, Microsoft plans to end free support for XP on April 14, 2009, although the company will continue to issue critical bug fixes. After that date, you'll have to pay per incident for support from Microsoft. One big reason why Microsoft should have no problem meeting its shipping deadlines for Windows 7 is that the OS will not be much different from Vista Service Pack 1, which shipped last spring. For instance, screen shots of the latest pre-beta that were briefly posted to the Web last week (until Microsoft's legal department got involved) showed a user interface that is suspiciously like Vista's aero look. Windows components are moving to the cloud As part of Microsoft's broad initiative to evolve its product offerings to embrace its emerging software-plus-services vision, some features and programs that had previously been included with the operating system will become Windows Live services, residing in the cloud while remaining tightly integrated with Windows 7, the company confirmed this week. "Starting with the next release of Windows, Windows Mail, Windows Calendar, Windows Contacts, Windows Photo Gallery, and Windows Movie Maker will no longer be available in the Windows operating system," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement e-mailed to Windows Secrets. Instead, those capabilities will be provided via Windows Live services, the statement continued. Moving those features out of Windows 7 may also help improve performance. "The whole idea is to have Windows Live be a piece on top of the Windows 7 platform," Kip Kniskern, staff writer for Windows Live enthusiast site LiveSide.net, told Windows Secrets. Beyond that, however, he too views Windows 7 as a relatively minor release. "I don't think Windows 7 is much more than Vista SP2," Kniskern added. "The code base isn't much different." One feature that will be new in Windows 7 is support for multi-touch displays, which Microsoft's Surface computer pioneered. Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer demonstrated Windows 7's support for that feature at the Wall Street Journal's D: All Things Digital conference in May. As cool as this feature may appear, it's unlikely to be reason enough for the millions of XP users in the world to postpone their next system upgrade for more than a year. When you're ready for a 64-bit desktop PC, it's ready for you. Stuart Johnston is associate editor of WindowsSecrets.com. He has written about technology for InfoWorld, Computerworld, InformationWeek, and InternetNews.com. |
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EDITOR'S BOOKSHELF
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INSIDER TRICKS Converters maximize your video-file options 
By
Scott Dunn
Video file formats can cause a world of headaches, from compression and bandwidth issues to media players that don't support your format or compressor. Conversion utilities help you solve these problems while making your videos viewable on cell phones, media players, and other devices. Maybe you've tried uploading your family's home movies to a video-hosting site only to discover that the files exceeded the service's size limits or maxed out your Internet connection's bandwidth. Perhaps your company's training video isn't compatible with all media players. Or it could be that you simply want to watch a video on your iPod as you exercising on the treadmill or taking a plane trip. In all of these cases and lots more, a video-converter utility can be just the tool you need. Most such applications support multiple input and output formats, allow you to tweak individual settings within those formats (such as offering a choice of compressor or output dimensions), and let you clip off a designated amount from the beginning and/or end of your videos. (AVS Video Converter is the lone product in this roundup that lacks such video-editing features.) Some video converters let you apply effects, although the kind of effect and the extent of these features vary. For example, AVS Video Converter lets you crop to adjust aspect ratio. MediaCoder takes the feature prize by including that effect plus controls for brightness, contrast, volume, hue, saturation, denoising, and other functions. With Digital Media Converter, you can adjust only your file's brightness, contrast, and volume. To test these and other products, I converted a QuickTime movie to an MPEG-2 file in an attempt to reduce the file's size for easier uploading. I also tried to convert another video to the MPEG-4 format for uploading to my iPhone via iTunes. #1: AVS VIDEO CONVERTER
AVS Video Converter is sold as part of the U.S. $40 AVS Video Tools collection. Other tools included in the package copy files between devices, transfer video from DV and VHS cams, and edit MPEG files without recompressing them. However, I reviewed only the product's video converter. Like Any Video Converter (see below), AVS Video Converter supports deceptively few output formats. In reality, however, you can edit the settings of each program to get more bang for your conversion buck. In my tests, the utility's output was flawless. On the iPhone output test, AVS even tried looking for an attached phone to upload it to after it was done!  Figure 1. AVS Video Converter's file-conversion options are easy to access via the program's main window. The program's trimming feature was sluggish in updating previews. It was hard to tell whether the area I marked was going to be included or deleted in the preview. Be aware that if you're using the trial version of the program, a watermark will appear on your output files. Other than that, the trial version is not restricted in any way. #2: ANY VIDEO CONVERTER
Any Video Converter comes in freeware and Professional versions. If you don't need to RIP DVDs to disk or work with many different file formats (especially sound-file formats), the freeware version may suit you fine. The program's interface is straightforward: buttons across the top highlight the major features and file-conversion steps — Add Video, Encode, and Stop. You use the Profile drop-down on the right to choose an output format. The list of options seems short, but you can tweak the settings for each with the controls that appear below them. In my tests, the MPEG-2 file Any Video Converter created dramatically reduced the size of my test file while maintaining an impressive degree of quality. The MPEG-4 test also succeeded in letting me convert a video for viewing on my phone. The program's trimming (or "output duration") feature is somewhat limited, forcing you to specify cuts at the level of seconds rather than frames or milliseconds. Any Video Converter also has a feature for downloading and converting video from YouTube. Each conversion with the freeware version concludes with a message box telling you what you're missing in the Professional version (mostly more file formats). This is a small price to pay if the rest of the free version's features serve your needs. #3: MEDIA CODER
MediaCoder is the only video converter in this roundup that is open-source. It's also one of the most thorough and full-featured of the programs I reviewed. The program even manages the difficult task of piling in numerous controls and settings without making the interface too complex or busy. One drawback of MediaCoder is that the developers like coding a lot more than they like writing documentation. Consequently, there is no manual or help system to guide you. However, the site does provide a link to a "volunteer user guide" written by a third party. Also, I couldn't find a split-video feature comparable to the ones I found in most of the other programs I tested. In my MPEG-2 tests, MediaCoder seemed to produce compact results in short order. Unfortunately, Windows Media Player couldn't recognize the codec (compressor-decompressor) that MediaCoder used, so I was unable to view the result. Similarly, my MPEG-4 test wouldn't play in QuickTime and wasn't recognized by iTunes, even though I used MediaCoder's built-in settings. MediaCoder is best suited to advanced video users. Still, if the program's default settings and presets don't work with standard media players, what good are they? I had high hopes for this product, but given these results, I can't recommend it. #4: DIGITAL MEDIA CONVERTER
Digital Media Converter is the least attractive of the programs I used, but it does offer some hand-holding to video-converter neophytes, including a Flash-based tutorial. In both of my conversion tests, the program stopped the process to tell me I had to download an additional codec, even though I was attempting to use only settings found in its dialog boxes. At least the app offered to download and start the codec's installer for me. Unlike other video converters, Digital Media Converter demands a lot of free disk space. I was unable to complete my tests because the program wanted me to specify a drive with more space, even though there was nearly 1GB free on my main drive. One nice difference with this program is that, if you click Settings, the Compatibility tab shows you the compressors on your system and gives advice on disabling some to prevent conflicts or solve problems. If only other programs provided such useful information! Digital Media Converter has good documentation, but the program's design needs a little more development. A couple of products didn't make it into my full review process: • eRightSoft's Super © consistently crashed on startup. Even before then, I had my doubts about the product, thanks to the overkill of the promotional hype on the vendor's site. I had to wade through three long pages of text extolling the virtues of this free product before I could find the obscure download link. • Cucusoft's Ultimate Video Converter would hang in limbo each time I asked it to convert a video. I wouldn't recommend any program that had such problems. Scott Dunn is associate editor of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He has been a contributing editor of PC World since 1992 and currently writes for the Here's How section of that magazine. |
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KNOWN ISSUES Balancing health-data accessibility, security 
By
Dennis O'Reilly
Few things are scarier than the thought of your medical history being used against you. Last week's Top Story by associate editor Stuart Johnston pointed out some of the threats posed when new cloud-computing services place private medical records on public networks. There are many benefits to having this information available to health-care professionals via the Internet, particularly in emergencies. However, there's also the serious danger of insurers and other organizations accessing this information and using it against you. Fortunately, we don't need to let this happen. As reader Paul DeLeeuw points out, sealing these records is relatively simple.
Even though the risks Stuart's column described pertain specifically to U.S. residents, our readers outside the states have just as much concern about the sanctity of their medical information's privacy. Reader Graham Wing was one of several readers who pointed this out to us.
In fact, the only country to merit the organization's top (green) rating was Greece. Among the nations joining the U.S. in receiving the lowest (black) privacy rating were the U.K., China, and Russia. Taking note of RoboForm's note feature Scott Dunn's review of password managers in last week's issue stated that his top pick, RoboForm, doesn't allow you to attach custom notes to the items you store in the program. Reader Michael Kairys points out the feature in the password manager that lets you annotate your entries.
The Known Issues column brings you readers' comments on our recent articles. Dennis O'Reilly is technical editor of WindowsSecrets.com. |
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WACKY WEB WEEK Finally! Your Windows error messages decoded
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YOUR SUBSCRIPTION The Windows Secrets Newsletter is published weekly on the 1st through 4th Thursdays of each month, plus occasional news updates. We skip an issue on the 5th Thursday of any month, the week of Thanksgiving, and the last two weeks of August and December. Windows Secrets resulted from the merger of several publications: Brian's Buzz on Windows and Woody's Windows Watch (2004), the LangaList (2006), and the Support Alert Newsletter (2008). Publisher: WindowsSecrets.com LLC, Attn: #120 Editor, 1700 7th Ave., Suite 116, Seattle, WA 98101-1323 USA. Vendors, please send no unsolicited packages to this address (readers' letters are fine). Editorial Director: Brian Livingston. Senior Editor: Ian Richards. Technical Editor: Dennis O'Reilly. Associate Editors: Scott Dunn, Stuart J. Johnston. Program Director: Tony Johnston. Web Developer: Damian Wadley. Editorial Assistant: Katy Chenoweth Abby. Copyeditor: Roberta Scholz. Chief Marketing Officer: Jake Ludington. Contributing Editors: Susan Bradley, Mark Joseph Edwards, Woody Leonhard, Ryan Russell, Scott Spanbauer, Becky Waring. Trademarks: Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The Windows Secrets series of books is published by Wiley Publishing Inc. The Windows Secrets & Support Alert Newsletter, the Windows Secrets Newsletter, Support Alert, WindowsSecrets.com, LangaList, LangaList Plus, WinFind, Security Baseline, Patch Watch, Perimeter Scan, Wacky Web Week, the Logo Design (W, S or road, and Star), and the slogan Everything Microsoft Forgot to Mention all are trademarks and service marks of WindowsSecrets.com LLC. All other marks are the trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: Anyone may subscribe to this newsletter by visiting our free signup page. WE GUARANTEE YOUR PRIVACY: 1. We will never sell, rent, or give away your address to any outside party, ever. 2. We will never send you any unrequested e-mail, besides newsletter updates. 3. All unsubscribe requests are honored immediately, period. Privacy policy HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: To unsubscribe from the Windows Secrets Newsletter,
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