tailieunhanh - Laptops All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies- P14

Laptops All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies- P14: Okay, I’ll admit it: I’ve got a strange biography. I’ve been a writer all my life. My first semi-pro job was sports editor of my high school newspaper. (Go Commodores!) After college I was a political reporter for daily newspapers in Ohio and New York (I covered four national nominating conventions and two Presidential campaigns) and a correspondent for The Associated Press. And then, in 1983, I gave in to my inner geek and became the first Executive Editor of PC Magazine, back in the days when most people asked, “What is a PC?”. | 104 Losing Support It isn t a perfect system but it works pretty well for most users. If you have a machine and an operating system that work properly and you don t need each and every new hardware and software advancement you ve no need to change your operating system. And in fact many users see no point in making a radical change like going from Windows XP to Windows Vista the newest operating system requires hardware capabilities that weren t offered when XP was introduced. And as we have already explored most laptops have only limited areas in which their hardware can be upgraded. More to the point Although modern laptops are generally very well put together their useful life is probably somewhere in the range of three to six years. Even if the hardware is in near-perfect shape after that period of time you re eventually going to grow weary of lugging around an obsolete model. If you catch yourself casting envious glances at the machine in the aisle seat of row 24 or across the coffee shop at the table with the Dulce de Leche Latte it s only a matter of time. Microsoft warns and it may well be correct that users who continue working with retired operating systems are at risk of security breaches. However it s also true that the bad guys move on If someone is going to sit down and write a virus he s more likely to attack the latest operating system not one being used by fewer and fewer people every day. Chapter 2 Painting Flames on the Operating System Customizing In This Chapter Choosing the Windows that match your decorum Picking a peck of pretty pixels Pointing with pride 1 . t s called Microsoft Windows but for most accomplished users the goal is to make it your very own My Windows My Computer My Colors My Fonts and My Sounds. Microsoft does a pretty good job of building a soft machine that you can customize adapt rearrange and decorate in nearly infinite versions. Just beneath the surface of Windows XP and Windows Vista as well as older versions of the .