Windows Vista Parental Controls

Windows Vista Parental Controls allow parents to limit the way kids can use their computers as well as seeing what their children are doing or accessing on their computer.

Before Parental Controls can be used their must be a login account for the child. This login can be created using Control Panel, User Accounts and Add or Remove User accounts.

Once the user account is created you then go to Control Panel, User Accounts and Family Safety and Setup Parental Control. You will be asked for which user you want to setup the control for as shown below.

Once you have chosen the user you will be presented with the screen below.

When you turn on activity reporting for the child you then know when your child was on the computer, what programs and games they were using and what websites they have accessed.

You can also implement the following restrictions;

Time Limits: When the child can use the computer.

Web Restrictions: What type of websites can be accesses, even specific sites.

Application Restrictions: Only allow certain programs to be used.

Game Restrictions: Restrict access to certain games based on their ratings.

The above options when used should help parents to keep their children safe from exposure to unwanted nasties.

Alexa Toolbar making the Internet better

Want to be able to see traffic trends or information for the sites you visit or be able to quickly link to related sites? The Alexa Toolbar allows you to do this and it is completely safe from spyware. Simply by using the toolbar each user contributes information about the web and how it is used.

To get the toolbar click here Alexa Toolbar

You will have an option to “Get Sparky”, choose this and then select install now.

Once installed you will notice a small toolbar toolbar as shown in the picture above.

If the website you are viewing is registered with alexa you will notice a number which is that sites rank ( 1 being the best ).

You will also be able to right click the toolbar and choose traffic details or an overview for the site as well as related sites and links to the site.

Vista Aero and Flip 3D

In earlier posts I listed the main features built into Vista. In the next series of posts I would like to explain some of the main features in detail.

Lets start with Aero and Flip 3D

Windows Aero is the new look and feel you get with Vista Premium, Business, Ultimate and Enteprise.

Now Microsoft will tell you that “Windows Aero is the best-designed, highest-performing Microsoft user interface ever”

Basically I have found that the new interface does look quite flashy, you get transperant windows, live phumbnails and icons and a fancy glassy look to the screen as shown below.

Vista Aero experience

Flip and Flip 3D creates live phumbnail images showing the exact content of any open windows. These windows can then be accessed easily using Alt+Tab (Flip) and Win+Tab keys (Flip 3D). Flip 3D is shown in the image below. This allows you to quickly and easily access running programs if you are a user that regularly has multiple programs open.

Vista Flip 3D

Visit the Microsoft Website for more details

Intelligent Computer Program

Are you a designer or inventor,? imagine being able to draw a scenario on a computer whiteboard and then have that scenario actually play or run to see if it actually works like you expected. Checkout this smart computer program. “The program is from MIT and it’s called Assist Sketch Understanding System and Operation” and it’s pretty neat. Checkout the video.

Video: YouTube

Link to story at Technorati

Reduce bandwidth and storage on your website using Photobucket

This post is a bit of sidetrack from my recent entries.

I have been setting up some websites lately and this post is a test to store images on www.photobucket.com and display them on your website.

The major advantage of doing this would be to reduce the storage and bandwidth usage of your website and therefore save you some money or the need to upgrade your hosting account.

The picture below is of the Wizard”s baby girl Emily. This image is saved using a free account from Photobucket

Steps to setup and use Photobucket with your website.

1. Setup a photobucket account at www.photobucket.com

2. Upload your images to your photobucket account

3. Once the images are stored on photobucket you will have the option to select direct link below each of your photos, this is an absolute reference to the image and can be put into your webpage using img src=”http://etc ( your absolute reference to the link is pasted here).

Give it a go I’m really happy with it.

Now I can get back to the Vista posts I was working on.

Which version of Vista should I get ?

So whats this Vista Basic, Business, Premium, Ultimate thing all about, which version does what??

The versions available are;

Basic, Premium, Business, Ultimate and Enterprise.

Lets have a look at some of the main features included with each version.

Feature	Home Basic	Home Premium	Business	Enterprise	Ultimate
Windows Aero and Flip 3D
Parental Controls
Windows Media Center
Windows Movie Maker	Limited
Windows Movie Maker HD
Windows DVD Maker
Scheduled backup Real-time backup and recovery available on all editions
System image backup and recovery
BitLocker Full Drive Encryption
Encrypting File System (EFS)
Windows ShadowCopy
Join domain
IIS Web Server
Offline files and folder support
Network Projector support
Windows Mobility Center	Partial	Partial
Tablet PC functionality
Touch screen support
Windows SideShow (secondary display support)
Windows Fax and Scan
Simultaneous SMB network connections	5	10	10	10	10
Remote Desktop	Client only	Client only
Support for multiple user interface languages (36 languages total) available
Subsystem for UNIX-Apps
Virtual PC Express
Live Taskbar Thumbnails
Max RAM 64-bit version. 4 GB Max for all 32 bit vers	8 GB	16 GB	128+ GB	128+ GB	128+ GB
Physical CPU support Unlimited core’s are supported in all versions	1	1	2	2	2
Windows Anytime Upgade; to	Premium or Ultimate	Ultimate	Ultimate	Not needed	Not needed

Let me just say there are quite a number of features that are being offered with Vista, however almost all of these features are not available in Vista Basic and therefore I would not recommend that anyone purchase Vista Basic.

Also the Enterprise version is only available to Volume License clients, so this leaves 3 options: Premium, Business or Ultimate.

Now lets look at a price comparison between the Versions.

Approx Current Australian Prices

OEM - Basic $130, Premium $150, Business $215, and Ultimate $285.

Retail -Basic $358, Premium $425, Business $537, Ultimate $695

Approx Current USA Prices

OEM - Basic $99, Premium $119, Business $149, and Ultimate $199.

Retail -Basic $199, Premium $239, Business $299, Ultimate $399

As you can see the price difference between Basic and Premium is next to nothing and as Basic has almost no added features that is why I say don’t ever buy the Basic Version.

As for the 3 other versions this would be my recommendation.

1. If you are a home user on a budget I would recommend Vista Home Premium

2. If you are a home user and money is not an issue and you could use the added features than I would recommend Vista Ultimate

3. If you are a business user I would recommend purchasing Vista Business for the majority of your desktops and only purchase Vista Ultimate for the desktops that specifically require any of it’s added features.

Hope this post has helped with your decision making, my next few posts will discuss some of the features that are listed in the table above as well as the difference between OEM and Retail software.

Do you need to upgrade to Windows Vista

Some people have been asking me “Do I need to get Windows Vista”.

Firstly lets look at the hardware requirements of Vista as taken from Microsoft’s Website.
Click here for Windows Vista Requirements
Basically the above links recommends
For Vista Home Basic you need

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 512 MB RAM
• 20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics and 32 MB of graphics memory
• DVD ROM Drive
• Audio Output
• Internet access (fees may apply)

What the Wizard recommends (Microsoft always recommends a much slower machine than is really required)

• Processor - 2.4GHz ( single core ) or 1.6GHz ( Dual Core )
• Memory - 1GB (Basic), 2GB (Premium/Business/ultimate)
• Hard Disk - 40GB
• Video Card (As per Microsoft) 128MB Video RAM with DirectX Pixcel Shader etc
• DVD ROM
• Audio Output
• And internet access

Basically the hardware requirements listed above will stop a lot of people with PC’s that are more than a few years old from upgrading, and if your existing XP install is doing everything you need than why upgrade.

Summary
If you have an existing PC that has XP and you are happy than don’t upgrade.

If you want to buy a new PC and you choose to get Vista you need to make sure you get at least 1GB RAM for Basic and 2GB RAM for Premium/Business/Ultimate or you are going to be disappointed.

Business Users
If you are a business that has XP installed, I would definitely say leave it alone.

If you are a business that is purchasing new computers I would look at the Vista-XP Downgrade rights, basically this means you purchase a new PC with a Vista License eg. Vista Business, you then have the option to install XP Pro for now, then in the future when you need to have Vista you have a valid license and can install it.

The downgrade rights require that you get media and its valid license key but you would most likely have these if you have existing XP installs

More info on downgrade rights can be found at the link below

Microsoft Downloads Rights

Hope this post has been helpful, my next post will discuss the the different versions of Vista and what they contain.