Summary. The standard Apple MacBook Pro 2.4GHz Intel Quad-Core i7 notebook configuration includes 4GB RAM for $2,200 (as of spring 2012). This should be enough memory for the most demanding tasks. However, the computer is extremely slow for many simple tasks even when running only one or two applications. This page offers some suggestions for improving speed and performance. The guidelines below will probably be useful for any brand of computer — desktop or notebook.

Memory Management Apps. There seem to be some memory management issues in Apple OS X Lion 10.7 as indicated by slowness and the reported available memory regularly sinking to only a few hundred megabytes. This happens when running Apple branded software and apps included with the OS, so it doesn’t seem to be a problem with third party software. As a result of these memory management issues, there are now many apps available through the Apple App store for free or 99 cents that will perform the basic task of cleaning up misallocated memory. Here is a short list (from among about two dozen):

• Clean Memory
• FreeMemory Pro (or FreeMemory at no charge)
• MemoryFreer

Memory Upgrade. For an upgrade price of $200 at the time of purchase, the Apple MacBook Pro 2.4GHz Intel Quad-Core i7 notebook can come with 8GB RAM installed rather than 4GB RAM. This is a huge price jump considering that Crucial has an 8GB upgrade for $45 (and you get to keep the original 4GB for sale or use elsewhere).

“I purchased the Apple MacBook Pro 2.4GHz Intel Quad-Core i7 notebook with the standard 4GB RAM and was really disappointed at how slow it was for basic tasks. After upgrading to 8GB RAM, I immediately noticed an improvement in speed. These days, it seems like some low-end computers are configured shipped with the minimum amount of memory required to simply turn on. This reminds me of printers that ship with starter ink kits that can only print a hundred pages.” ~ Greg Johnson

Windows Users. Although the Apple OS and Microsoft Windows OS both have their advantages and disadvantages, their demands on memory and processor speed seem to be about the same. It’s hard to believe that we’ve reached the point where 8GB RAM has become a baseline for a computer to perform fast and responsive, but that seems to be the case. At the time of publishing this article, most low-end Windows computers ship with 6GB RAM and 8GB RAM is considered the preferred amount of memory to have.

Summary. Regardless of whether you use Apple or Microsoft Windows computing platforms, you’ve noticed that hardware and operating systems are marching forward hand-in-hand without much regard for legacy systems or software.

This means that regular costly upgrades are necessary, and sometimes older software is no longer usable. For example, a program written for Windows XP might not work properly with Windows 7.

The declining value or usefulness of a product is referred to as planned obsolescence. In the case of Microsoft, it is strategically institutionalized obsolescence, as is evidenced by their product support lifecycle calendar. Although the operating system still “works” after support has ended, without security updates it’s not safe to use.

There are two remedies for this: (1) Compatibility Mode, or (2) Virtualization.

Compatibility Mode. As new operating systems have been released by Microsoft, they typically come with an ability to run a program in compatibility mode. So, without installing any virtualization, you should be able to right click on a program icon and choose a previous version of Windows as the operating system the program is most compatible with. The steps for doing this are shown in the screen shots below.

1. Right-click on the program icon and then click on Properties as shown below.

2. Click on the Compatibility tab, and from the Compatibility mode drop-down menu, (with the box checked to “Run this program in compatibility mode for:“) choose the operating system you’d like to be compatible with when running the selected program.

Virtual PC. An alternative to using Compatibility mode is to use Microsoft Virtual PC software. The software is available from Microsoft for free and allows you to load a secondary copy of Windows on your computer. This is helpful when you want to test something and don’t know if it would crash your computer. Virtual PC sessions are independent running computers that are easily backed up and restored if they fail. Also, hardware compatibility issues are not a problem because the virtual computer interfaces with the existing OS. Similar software is available for Apple computers to run multiple copies of Windows, such as VMware Fusion.

Summary. Utilizing a Virtual Private Network (VPN) allows users to connect to institutional computing services such as network drives and printers as if they were on location and physically connected to the network. Cisco AnyConnect is a popular VPN solution that’s used by many institutions including the University of Iowa.

Using the University of Iowa as an example, the instructions on this page provide an example of how to use VPN on your personal computer to print to a departmental printer whether you’re on or off-campus. The instructions assume that you’re using Windows 7.

1. Setup the Cisco AnyConnect software by following the instructions provided on the University of Iowa ITS VPN support page that describes how to download, install, and configure the Cisco AnyConnect client from the ITS Software Download site.

Alternatively, you can use the web-based installation method found at http://vpn.uiowa.edu. However, if you do use the web-based method, there may be some confusing error messages and the process might not go as expected. Examples of possible errors are below. You might have success if you make repeated attempts at using the web-based installation.

The warning below provides an ominous message about the security certificate. Most users will be stymied and not go beyond this point.

Brave users will click the Yes button shown above, but then it’s likely that they will get the message shown below stating that the process cannot perform an install.

Eventually, a message like the one below will appear suggesting that you manually install the client by clicking on the link provided. Note that the link provided doesn’t indicate Windows 7 compatibility, but the Cisco AnyConnect client actually is Windows 7 compatible. It’s for these reasons that you may want to make use of the instructions provided on the University of Iowa ITS VPN support page that describes how to download, install, and configure the Cisco AnyConnect client from the ITS Software Download site (instead of using the web-based method).

2. After getting connected to the enterprise network using VPN, then from the Start Menu choose Devices and Printers as seen below.

3. When you click on Devices and Printers, you’ll get a listing like the one below.

4. Right click with your mouse in the area of the address bar to the right of Devices and Printers. This will cause the address bar to be highlighted as shown below.

5. You can now type into the address bar. As you begin to type, the highlighted text will be replaced. Type \\iowaprint03.iowa.uiowa.edu in the address bar as shown below. Alternative print queues can be typed such as iowaprint04 or iowaprint05.

As you can see above, once you type in the name of the print queue, the available printers will show up. In this example, there are 266 printers available. You can scroll down the list to find the appropriate printer that you’d like to print to. For this example, most printers are listed according to departmental code and location.

Summary. Many large businesses and organizations use Microsoft SCCM (System Center Configuration Manager) for imaging their computers and assisting with the administration, management, security, and inventory of computers.

Typically, a bootable CD is created that allows a computer to connect over the network to a central server that provides system images. The image can be applied to the computer, saving many hours during the setup process.

With newer computers, it’s possible to startup from a USB memory stick. Assuming you have an SCCM bootable CD, the following instructions will allow you to make a bootable USB memory stick.

1. Attach an empty USB key to a computer, and then boot it using your SCCM Image Installation CD.
2. When it finishes loading everything, and you’re at the main screen, press the F8 key. This will take you to a command prompt such as X:\sms\bin\i386
3. Enter the following commands (pressing the return key after each one) to prepare the USB key
1. DISKPART
1. This will take you into the DISKPART utility – a command line utility for partitioning and formatting drives.
2. LIST DISK
1. This will help identify the disk number of the USB memory stick. It will normally be listed as DISK 1
3. SELECT DISK 1
1. Presuming the USB drive is DISK 1. If it is another disk drive, then use the appropriate number.
4. CLEAN
5. CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
6. ACTIVE
7. FORMAT FS=FAT32
1. The formatting process can take some time.
8. ASSIGN LETTER=E
9. EXIT
1. This will exit the DISKPART utility and return you to the previous command prompt.
10. XCOPY D:\*.* /S /E /F E:\
1. This will copy the SCCM installation files to the USB drive.
2. The above assumes that your CD is drive letter D and the USB drive is drive letter E (as set in step H above).
4. Once the copy process is done, type Exit and press the return key. This will return you to the SCCM screen.
5. Then cancel from the current screen, and cancel from the previous screen (the Task Sequence Wizard). When asked, “Are you sure you want to cancel?” click the Yes button.
6. This will cause the computer to restart.
7. Remove the CD during restart and test the USB drive by starting the computer to that drive. For Dell computers, you’ll press F12 for the boot menu and choose the USB drive as your boot/startup device.

Summary. It’s sometimes necessary to manually run Windows update in order to get updates to install.

It’s not unusual to discover that a Windows computer set to install updates every night at 3AM has 50 or more updates just sitting in the queue to be installed.

Perhaps there’s some simple answer or fix to this problem, but the prevalence of it happening on so many computers suggests that some aspect of the update automation and ease of use is not designed optimally.

When installing updates, it’s quite common for some updates to require user input before continuing. This is common with Windows Live Essentials 2011 and Internet Explorer 9. A dialog window will be present, but unfortunately, the dialog window is hidden behind the main Windows Update dialog window.

Probably 90% of the time when I’m updating Windows computers, and a dialog box is awaiting input, it’s hidden behind the main Windows Update dialog box. I’m expecting it, so I just keep an eye on the bottom of the screen to see if any other icons are appearing, indicating input is required. I don’t know how Microsoft expects a beginning user to figure this out. It’s really not intuitive. I’m surprised that basic user experience issues like this remain, even in Windows 7, after so much development that’s gone into making Windows a friendly user experience. ~ Greg Johnson

Screen Shots. Below are two screen shots. You can click an image to enlarge it. The first is an example of what you might see when Windows Update is stuck. Notice the Internet Explorer icon has appeared on the bottom of the screen to the right of the Windows Update icon. This is your only indication that a dialog window is awaiting input from you.

Below is a typical frozen Windows Update screen.
(click to enlarge)

Below is the dialog box that was hiding behind the above screen.
(click to enlarge)

Summary. The video below is an example of Microsoft’s attempt to create a humorous advertisement suitable for a viral marketing campaign.

Advertisers are increasingly producing marketing campaigns that offer embedded humor. In this way, people will voluntarily share the ads with friends and colleagues.

Other examples are the Vodafone India series of ads and the Pantene – Deaf Violinist advertisement.

Summary. Users of Symantec (or Norton) antivirus software, such as Endpoint Security or Internet Security suite, on Apple or Windows computers may notice a slowness when trying to perform data intensive tasks, such as system backups. This can also be an issue with McAfee, Trend Micro, and Computer Associates software. Solutions are provided below for Windows and Apple users.

Windows Users. For best performance and security, consider using AVG or Avast available for free at the Download.com CNET website where they are usually found as the top two downloaded programs. You may need help removing your current Symantec / Norton software since it is very much like a virus or malware in that it is difficult to remove. For this reason, Symantec offers a software removal tool (similar to a virus removal tool) to remove their AntiVirus software.  Among Google searches for Symantec, the third most popular search is for the removal tool since many people want to remove Symantec software shortly after it’s installed. If the removal tool doesn’t work, then a manual installation is necessary. This is a very tedious and time consuming mutli-step process, but since it’s so commonly needed, Symantec has provided manual removal instructions on their website that outline the 139 steps required to remove it. Unfortunately, many viruses are immune to Symantec software and are written to not be detected by it (source), so the best virus defense is to use AVG or switch to an Apple computer since there are over 250,000 known viruses for Windows computers but only two for Apple.

Apple Users. There are over 250,000 known viruses for Windows computers but only two for Apple computers, so Apple users will likely have fewer problems with viruses. Even so, it’s helpful to use antivirus software to avoid passing on viruses to less secure Windows users. Although Symantec antivirus for Windows can be problematic, the Apple version seems to work okay. There are other Apple AntiVirus programs such as Avast or ProtectMac, but the Symantec software seems fine. Follow these instructions for installation and configuration.

1. Download. In addition to retail purchase installation from CD, your business or institution may have purchased a license for antivirus software.

For example, University of Iowa students, staff, and faculty can click here for the University of Iowa ITS antivirus download page (requires login). At the bottom of the download page, you’ll find the Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition for Mac. Click on the download button.

2. Install. If you download the software, double click on the downloaded dmg file to expand it. Regardless of how you obtain the software, the installation should be as follows. You will be presented with the following window.

If you need to remove a previous version of Symantec AntiVirus, you can use the Uninstall tool found in the Support folder. When ready to install the new version, double-click the Symantec AntiVirus Installer icon to begin the installation process. This will walk you through the simple installation process and, at the end, require you to logout and then login again to your user account on the Apple computer.

3. Configure. Open System Preferences (found under the Apple menu in the upper left corner of the screen). You will now see two Symantec icons in System Preferences (as shown below).

Click on Symantec Auto-Protect icon to reveal the options. You’ll see the General options first as seen below.

Click on Safe Zones to reveal the following menu.

Click on Everywhere Except In and then click Add to select your backup drive (which needs to be plugged in). Do this for other trusted storage devices such as USB memory sticks and external hard drives used for video production. Any unknown and/or unlisted drives would not be considered safe zones (and would still take a long time to eject after transferring files to them).

At this point, you should be able to backup without any slowness.

There’s only one final setting that you might want to change to make your life easier. It’s described below.

Disable Scan on Mount. By default, the Symantec software will scan every storage device you connect to your computer (such as CDs, memory sticks, hard drives), even if it has completely scanned the device recently and nothing has changed since the last scan. This can be very time consuming. It can be cancelled, but this is an nuisance. Since the antivirus software is actively blocking virus activity anyway, this is a bit unnecessary. For this reason, Symantec offers a simple way to disable this feature.

Using the new Symantec menu that is accessible at the top of your screen, navigate the menu as indicated below to find Disable Scan On Mount (under Symantec AntiVirus). This does not disable the antivirus software, it only disables the knee-jerk action of scanning every storage device plugged into the computer.

Summary. Windows Messenger and the new Windows Live Messenger offer text and video chat  as well as the ability to request remote assistance. This page describes the steps required to make that work.

Apple Version. Note that Apple users wanting Messenger will be redirected to Mactopia where the Mac version is available. However, the remote assistance isn’t offered in the Mac version.

Remote Assistance. Follow these steps to turn on remote assistance using Windows Live Messenger. You must have a working high speed Internet connection for optimal results. Each step below may involve additional steps described on the linked page. Steps 1 through 3 are only required for first time setup. Remote assistance should only be used with support people you trust.

1. Download and install Windows Live Messenger as described on the Windows Live Messenger page. Once completed, it should be found under Start menu > All Programs > Windows Live Essentials.
2. Create a Windows Live account as described on the Windows Live Home page. Provide your Windows Live username to the person who is to be providing you with remote assistance. That person will add you as a contact to their Windows Live Messenger account, and you will be notified by Windows Live Messenger when they have done this. Then you can easily begin a chat session with the person. Once they are added to your contacts (when you confirm their friend request), you will see them listed as either online or offline in Windows Live Messenger.
3. Remote Assistance should be enabled as an exception in your Windows Firewall settings. To do this, go to Start Menu > Control Panel > Firewall Settings > Exceptions and scroll down on the list until you see Remote Assistance to make sure it has a checkmark next to it.
4. Start Windows Live Messenger and login using the Windows Live account username and password from step 2.
5. Once your support person is online, double-click on their name to begin a text chat session.
6. From the chat window, choose Ask for Remote Assistance from the Actions menu. Your support person will confirm the request.
7. You will get a confirmation message indicating that the support person accepted your request. Click Yes when prompted, to let the person view your screen. It may take a few minutes for the remote assistance software to load at both ends.
8. Your support person should click on the Take Control button on their screen to gain control of your mouse and keyboard functions. When they do, you should see a message asking if you want them to share control of the computer. Click Yes.
9. When finished, exit all Windows Live Messenger windows.

Remote Desktop. Another method of allowing remote access to a computer is to turn on Remote Desktop. However, remote desktop presents more of a security vulnerability since it can be accessed even when you are away from the computer.

Summary. With the release of Windows 7, Microsoft has removed some essential software programs and utilities that has previously been included as part of a default installation. These are now bundled as a suite of applications called Windows Live Essentials available for free download and compatible with the Windows Live website.

Included Applications. The following applications are available for download as part of the Windows Live Essentials software bundle:

• Messenger – Used for text, voice, and video communications as well as remote support. Note: Apple will be redirected to Mactopia where the Mac version is available.
• Mail – Get multiple e-mail accounts in one program – Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo! Plus and more. And now Windows Live Mail has a calendar, too. Mail combines the ease of use of Outlook Express, with the speed of Windows Live.
• Writer – Writer makes it easy to share your photos and videos on almost any blog service—Windows Live, WordPress, Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, and many more.
• Photo Gallery – With Photo Gallery, it’s a snap to get your photos and videos from your camera to your PC. Find your favorite photos and share them with friends and family. Make your great photos look even better, and create impressive panoramic photos too.
• Movie Maker – Create movies and slide shows from your photos and videos, and share them with your friends and family. Windows Live Movie Maker is not available for Windows XP or earlier versions of Windows.
• Family Safety – With Family Safety, you decide how your kids experience the Internet. Limit searches, monitor and block or allow websites, and decide who your kids can communicate with in Windows Live Spaces, Messenger, or Hotmail.
• Toolbar – With Windows Live Toolbar, you always have quick access to Windows Live and Bing, no matter where you are on the web.
• SkyDrive – Get 25GB of online storage for free.

Summary. Windows 7 is a significant improvement over previous versions of Windows. However, when upgrading from Microsoft Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7, you’ll soon discover that all of your email messages are missing as a result of the migration. This page explains how to recover your email messages using Mozilla Thunderbird and a special Thunderbird Windows Mail import and export utility available from Nic-Nac-Project.de as a free download. The step-by-step instructions are found at the bottom of this page, following some general information about email clients and why Windows no longer includes one. There is also information about best practices for upgrading to Windows 7. If you’ve not yet upgraded to Windows 7, it would be wise to install Thunderbird first and import your information before the Windows based mail programs are removed. Exporting your address book from Outlook Express or Windows Mail would be a good idea also. More about Windows 7 can be found on Microsoft’s What Is Windows 7 page.

Missing Mail Client Program. Windows 7, like previous releases of Windows, eliminates features that were included in previous versions. For many years, Windows has included email software such as Outlook Express or most recently Windows Mail with Vista as an email client. Windows 7 doesn’t include an email client. This isn’t the first time a software upgrade resulted in lost functionality. Windows 95 included Fax capabilities as part of the installation, but Windows 98 did not. Microsoft Office 2003 lacked utilities and functionality available in previous versions. When Microsoft adds and later removes features from their products, it appears they are making an effort to avoid antitrust action.

Benefits of Email Client Software. Many people use web-based email services such as Google, Hotmail, and Yahoo. The benefit to web-based email services (not using an email client) is that your entire collection of emails are easily accessible from any computer. You don’t need to worry about losing your e-mail if your computer crashes. Also, it’s one less program to install when you upgrade from one computer to another. However, despite the advantages of using only web-based email services, many people choose to use email client programs such as Thunderbird, Outlook, or Apple Mail for the reasons and benefits listed below. It’s also possible to use both systems (client and web-based) simultaneously through IMAP configuration (or POP). Here are some of the advantages to using an email client instead of (or in addition to) your web-based email.

• Archive. Online email services allow some archiving. However, mailboxes can quickly fill-up if messages contain large attachments. Email client software allows you to store many years worth of emails on your computer and quickly search, sort, and export based on a variety of criteria.
• Consolidation. Email clients can help with the consolidation of schedule, contacts, tasks, and other information. Programs such as Outlook help organize schedule, contacts, and emails all in one system. In Apple computers, the Address, Mail, and Calendar programs work together.
• Features. Email client programs typically offer a more diverse set of features and formatting controls, email rules, signatures, and spam filtering.
• Multiple Accounts. Online email services are primarily for accessing email from a single account, though some offer the ability to check other accounts.
• Off-line Access. Online email services require an Internet connection. Perhaps the biggest reason for using an email client is the ability to read and compose email while not connected to the Internet – such as during air flight, riding in a car, or traveling in a remote area.

Windows 7 Upgrade. Assuming you have an existing copy of Windows Vista that is stable and problem free, the best upgrade path to Windows 7 is probably to purchase the $120 Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade DVD. This will retain your programs, settings, and user data.

Windows 7 Clean Installation. If you have several days of free time, there may be a benefit to performing a clean installation of Windows 7. This will required reinstalling and configuring all software programs, as well as drivers for printers and other accessories. For users with only a few data files, who need only Word Processing and Internet access, a clean installation is fairly easy. For users who have numerous programs and hardware devices, and gigabytes of photos, music, and videos, a clean installation will be quite time consuming.

Importing Windows Mail Messages. Below are instructions for importing Windows Mail messages into Thunderbird.

1. Download and configure Mozilla Thunderbird.
2. Download the Nic-Nac-Project import export plug-in for Thunderbird.
3. In Thunderbird, go in Tools > Addons (or Extensions) and click on Install, then pick the xpi file you downloaded and follow the instructions. Restart Thunderbird.
4. Before importing, you’ll need to configure at least one email account in Thunderbird.
5. From the Tools menu find Import / Export Tools. The Import options include the ability to import all the eml files (email message files) from a certain directory, including the subfolders in that directory. Choose to do this, and navigate to Users > Yourname > Application Data > Microsoft > Windows Mail. Or, alternatively, you could probably just click on your user folder and allow the import to search for any email files in your user account. This may result in importing from multiple programs if you had previously used Outlook Express and then later began using Windows Mail.
6. After importing, a folder structure will be added under the Inbox of the Thunderbird account you created. You may need to review the emails that were imported. There may be some email messages with no date, subject, sender, or contents. Delete these or any other messages you don’t need.

Windows Live Essentials Mail. As an alternative to Thunderbird, some users may prefer the free Windows Live Mail email program bundled with Windows Live Essentials from Microsoft.

Document History. This document was originally posted on 20091101su2300. It was revised and republished on 20091120fr0900.