I was not a Windows fan, being used to Unix/Linux and only using command line interfaces on DOS screens in windows. A few years of administering Windows server systems has bought me round to the view that both environments have positives.

Windows Vista has been getting a lot of bad press, and many companies have held off updating from a stable XP operating system. Now Windows 7 (gone are the snappy names) is now on the horizon, but will this improve the windows desktop experience?

Vista has had troubles, not because it doesn’t work, but because it works too well. What it tried to do was cut out all the ‘patches’ that existed in previous versions of the desktop system. You know the situation, BloggsVideo brings out a new release of driver for it’s new graphics card and the older windows software can deal with the flaky code or bad memory management. Stick this onto Vista which says code MUST work and memory garbage collection must run according to the agreed standards. Suddenly BloggsVideo can’t run on any PC upgraded to Vista.

It is not down to Windows, this is down to BloggsVideo not delivering drivers and code to standard.

So the question is will Windows 7 return to the old days where sub-standard products will be able to run, thus bringing back the bloat code and horrible problems encountered when fault finding - how many times have support staff drop head into hands and wailed the line “It should work now” when it clearly doesn’t. The reason, it should have but something in the interface hasn’t exactly matched, is it the OS or the product?

Having heard the wailings from our other office, not to say the exasperation eminating from my own at times I would have been a lot happier with a tighter more controlled OS. My worry is that we may slip back to the popularist world of bodges and patches that have plagued Windows from the start.

It’s time to be true to yourself Microsoft.

As with all sensible people we thought that we should really put a lot more effort into recycling and energy conservation.

The former is something we have always wanted to do, but local facilities were limited until recently; the latter was brought on by a sense of wanting to save the planet…..and our wallets!

There is quite a lot of information out there regarding these subjects, and we have for many years used energy saving bulbs, dropped thermostats down a degree or two and topped up our insulation, but surely there must be more?

We have recently started switching off modems, routers and the like at the mains - initially as a security measure (‘if you can’t see me you can’t attack me!’) but hadn’t realized they used so much energy when left to run. You only need to feel the amount of heat coming off them to see how much energy they waste. I was also interested to read an article that seemed to suggest that putting a PC into standby mode as soon as you leave it (Start -Turn off computer - Standby) could save up to £30.00 p.a. per PC. This saving is made by powering down the fans, hard disks and dropping the monitor output. The machine is started up again by a mouse click or keyboard entry.

It sounds like a simple way to help planets and wallets – let’s see if it works!

One of the most difficult issues that face many small business customers is support.

First there is the cost of calling an 0870 number, or in some cases 09 numbers with premium rates, and then there is the problem of actually talking to a person (preferably one who can solve the problem!)

I was alerted to the problem when I heard a small explosion in the front office. The source of the explosion proved to be the blogger’s wife, the source of the problem an Epson printer that had spontaneously ground to a halt, mid page, with a frenzy of red flashing error lights. Blogger’s wife had originally connected this onto an office XP machine and, when this blew a motherboard, used plug and play to seamlessly connect to a Vista machine. A quick check revealed no paper jams, no faulty connnections and nothing obvious. The printer drivers were in place so all seemed OK.

Blogger’s wife insisted that such errors were always accompanied by an onscreen message, but this time there were none. Eager to resolve this asap (especially when, faced with the accusatory “you’re the IT wizard, you fix it” look) I logged onto the Epson site for support. There, among the ‘contact us’ details, was a link to a real live operator using instant messaging. Worth a try! I described the problem and a request came back to check the error message in the printer administration module. What module? The one someone (the Family court is still trying to determine domestic liability for this one…) didn’t reinstall onto the Vista machine. The Epson operator posted a link; I downloaded and installed the management interface, and Bob’s your uncle. Up came the error message: No toner. A quick cartridge change later domestic harmony was restored and we were working again. No more than ten minutes the lot, and no telephone charges!

Why can’t more suppliers follow this example? A real human being in instant contact and all the messages posted back and forth are saved to an email so you can see exactly what steps were taken if you ever have the same issue again. Thanks Epson!