But the great news here is that for any student currently enrolled in a Tertiary institution such as a University or TAFE, you may be able to get an upgrade version of Windows 7 Home Premium for – wait for it – $49.95.

To take advantage of this – obviously awesome deal, you do have to purchase through the online Microsoft Store and you must have an eligible email which contains edu.au. Now while I am the first to yell out the benefits of using a Mac, I understand that there is a place in the market for Windows 7. In fact I have even been using it (while not extensively) since it came out as a beta release and to be completely honest this is a very worthwhile upgrade. If you are still using XP, what on earth are you waiting for get out there and get yourself windows 7.

So if you have a PC or even currently use a Mac and occasionally use Windows with boot camp I really feel it is worth the $’s to head over to the website and put your order in. The added bonus here if you are a student is that you can also get a copy of Office 2007 Home and Student for $79 when you get Windows 7. Together this adds up to less that a retail priced copy of Home Premium…this really is a no-brainer!

So if you want to take advantage of this offer head over to: http://www.microsoft.com/australia/windows/offers/windows-7-student-upgrade.aspx

I’m sure that by now you have all had the moment where you’re anti virus program spits out at you that you have a virus or some sort of infection on you’re system, now letting the anti-virus deal with it is all well and good, but adding this malicious software removal tool could save you a lot of pain.

My suggestion would be to let you’re anti-virus do it’s job and attempt to delete the infection, but after this is done add in another step. Due to the fact that virus authors are becoming more and more switched on to ways to exploit your system it makes it harder and harder to actually get a virus off your system.

The next step that I’m speaking of is to run the Malicious Software Removal Tool. Now for all Windows users this is actually something that is sitting right there on your computer, in fact Microsoft updates this on the 2nd Tuesday of every month (the same way it does with software updates). To find this program, go to your start menu. There is a ‘run’ selection, press on this. In the window that pops up search for ‘MRT’. This will launch a program, one this has loaded it will prompt you with a few selections – these are ‘quick scan’, ‘full scan’ and ‘custom scan’. For the purpose of locating and removing malicious software you will want to do a full scan. Note that this may take several hours depending on the size and speed of you’re computer.

This will locate and hopefully remove any malicious software that is on you’re computer, and may in fact save you from the need to do a complete system re-store. Now what if you can’t find this on you’re system, well the MRT is available from Microsoft’s website for download, follow the few quick prompts. This is a fairly small download and is under 9Mb in size so there really isn’t any excuse for not using it.

Well I hope that this helps out in determining if you’re anti-virus really is doing its job, while giving you a little extra piece of mind in knowing that you’re system is safe!

Email

First and easiest is syncing your email. To do this you’re email provider needs to support what is called IMAP, generally they will tell you to set up your email programs with POP3. The difference here is that POP3 is a system which downloads what is on your email server and stores a copy on your local system – this is excellent if you only use one computer. But throw in your mobile phone and your laptop on top of your desktop computer and you will be getting the same email showing as unread multiple times, and if you delete it on one computer it will still be on the other devices same with your sent emails – frustrating!!.

The beauty of using IMAP based email is that every-time your computer or mobile phone is told to check your mail it will only show you what is currently on the email systems server, so think of it this way: somebody sends you an email > it goes to your email providers central computer > your computer or phone checks to see if there is any mail > it pulls down a copy of this and shows you your mail > all the time keeping a message on the emails providers computers. If you make a change such as delete or move it to another folder the action is mimicked on the email systems server. Therefore the next time one of your other devices checks for new mail it will see exactly what is on the email server and refresh all of your devices.

Setting up an IMAP email is hard to document because every internet/email service provider is set up a different way therefore there isn’t one set way to do this, generally speaking by navigating through your suppliers support pages and by using google to search you will generally be able to find a way to set this up. If your primary email is done through a service like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo etc this makes it easier because by nature these are already an IMAP way of managing your email just navigate to their websites and they will give you details on how to set this up for your email program.

Files

Mobile Me provides a service called iDisk, which is like your own portion of disk space on Apples servers. This means it appears as a local disk on your computers however it can be accessed by any computer you give access to or via the web. The nice thing about this is that if you work between multiple computers you know just what it is like to go out one day and have forgotten to copy the file across. My solution to this was to use a service called Dropbox. I have blogged about this previously so won’t go into too much depth, but for free with this service you get 2GB worth of space which I find is adequate for files and some pictures. You can pay for a larger disk space if you want to. This service provides the same function that I mentioned earlier about providing an online central place to store files, but the beauty of dropbox is that whatever you put in your dropbox folder on one computer is automatically synced up to the dropbox server and back down to any other computer that you have installed dropbox on!

Calendar

Another great feature of Mobile Me is the ability to synchronize your calendars across different machines and you’re iPhones, Mobile Me does a really great job of this by pushing any changes made up to their servers and back down to your other devices to be updated. There is one great way to achieve this for free and this is with Google Calendar.

Once you have a google account you have full access to this feature for free, the process is fairly simple however I won’t discuss it here for the fact that it is so in-depth, however if this interests you check out the links posted below to find out how to set this up. Below are the links to platforms and programs it is available with:

• Click here for links to set up Calendar
• Works with Mozilla Sunbird
• Apple iCal & iPhone
• Microsoft Outlook
• Windows Mobile
• Blackberry

Contacts

Google really provides so many great services at no charge and due to the nature of how your contacts with Google are managed – that is in the ‘cloud’, it allows them to offer this free synchronizing services for contacts as well. So like with the Calendar when you add or update a contact on your computer or phone, it will update this on every device enabled to do so. Again the explanation of how to do this is to in depth for me to cover here but if you would like to enable this as well check out the link here > Google Sync Services

Well Apple have addressed this as well! Now in Australia we don’t have the saturation of Apple Stores that they do in America, but they truly are the best way to buy your mac. You get your own personal shopper to help you choose your preferred machine, if you need an Apple Genius will give you free training to get you up and running on your new computer and they will even help you migrate all of your data from your old machine (windows or mac) to your new computer. The stores always have a host of free workshops that you can attend as well that cover all different areas from basics of using your computer to getting the best out of photos, movies etc. Not to mention that they do have a very good reputation for helping out their customers if something goes wrong i.e hard drive crash, machine faults etc. There have been many stories of customers with computers out of warranty going in with a failed hard drive and having it replaced at no extra charge while they wait in the store. Now that I’m not sure would apply all the time but the point is it does happen.

If you don’t have the luxury of going to a store you can order online or over the phone or go to one of the many resellers – not always as knowledgeable but usually have a pretty good idea. With every computer you get a full year Apple Car (thats like their warranty) if you have any hardware issues and complementary 90 days free tech support. I have used this several times and the tech support is great! They are not condescending in any way and more than happy to help get your issues sorted. If you feel that you need further phone support than you can purchase additional Apple Care, definetely worth it if you are one to often call tech support.

I do feel that they look after their customers well and go beyond what is normally expected in retail – and really isn’t that the kind of service we all expect. Especially when paying a premium price in the first place? My belief is that if a company can provide continued good customer service, they will keep my business far longer than a company who doesn’t give two hoots about me.

So this concludes the series, I hope that these posts have been of some help without me coming across as too much of an Apple ‘Fanboy’ (the name they give to people who are fanatical about macs) but the reason I have posted this is because I believe there are just too many people out there who are too frustrated with the experience they get from their PC’s that they don’t use them to the full ability. I’m passionate about this because we made the change and haven’t looked back since – those photos sitting on your hard drive, you will do things with them on a mac. Have home videos that you never got of the tapes and haven’t looked at them since? I promise you will finally do something awesome with them on a mac!

A little clip you might enjoy

When it comes time to look at purchasing your new computer you will undoubtedly think about how much you want to spend. Now before you look at the price tags on the Mac compared to the PC cousins in the stores there are a few things that you really should be aware of. It is no secret and Apple don’t pretend to hide the fact that they have a premium product with a premium price tag, in fact Microsoft advertising frequently reminds us of this. Here are a few reasons why I believe it really is worth spending the extra $’s.

1. Software: Yeah fair enough, you can get a PC at a nice price, but what you fail to realize is just how much you will then need to spend on software to do what you want. One of the benefits of Mac’s is that they come bundled with a stack of preloaded software. The iLife suite of programs is the best example of this and it includes iPhoto, iWeb, iDVD, iMovie & Garageband. To get movie editing software even equivalent to iMovie on a windows system you would be spending in the range of $200 up, and that’s one program! This all comes bundled with your computer, you also have the choice to pay about $100 and get a fairly full featured lineup of Word Processing, Spreadsheet & Presentation software. That price tag really beats microsoft’s Office price! By the time you spend what you need to on your PC you would have spent enough to buy a Mac anyway!

2. System Longevity: We all know that the computer and Technology industry progresses at an astounding speed, and no matter what computer you buy it will become outdated quicker than you would like. Traditionally speaking if you purchase a windows system, once Microsoft release a new version of their operating system if you want to get it you would have to upgrade your system for a faster meatier one. Windows 7 will be an exception to this rule as it actually has lower system requirements than Vista, however with the Windows 7 price tag – you’re going to wait until you purchase a computer with it already installed anyway. Mac’s just keep trucking! A great example of this is Melissah’s mums computer is an Apple eMac. These were built between 2002-2006, I would put its age at probably 2004 ish. Now admittedly it is slower than our much newer system (of course) but it has kept up and doesn’t suffer any of the problems that a PC of a similar age would be suffering. Also on this point, Apple prices new operating systems at incredibly reasonable prices, the next one to be released in September will be priced at about A$50, that is if you already have the most recent OS, but standard pricing is about A$130, that sure beats Window’s $700 OS in my books any day!

So I really feel that the benefits of spending a little on your system initially will reward you in the long term with lower operating costs in terms of upgrading your OS when that time comes as well as running the appropriate software you need.

I will start by saying that if you are a gamer and a serious one – you will undoubtedly be better off with a Windows machine. If you are the person that your family and friends come to when they have an issue with their computer then chances are that you have a pretty good knowledge of computers while also having the patience to troubleshoot when things go wrong. If you are this person then switching to a Mac may not suit you but wouldn’t be out of the question

I believe that the typical home user should be able to use their computer without having to worry about having to worry about knowing what a system registry / .dll file / driver is: they should have the ability to use their computer with ease and without frustration and know that when they open a program it is going to do what they want – the first time. It is for these people especially that I would suggest a Mac.

The thought of buying a computer can be daunting enough without even thinking about going to a system that you haven’t had any experience with – this I know – while I consider myself pretty technically savvy we had just had enough of our PC’s, they were giving us all kinds of trouble. Being the impulsive type of people we are, drove all the way to Brisabane (Toowoomba didn’t have anywhere selling Mac’s at the time) and purchases an iMac our first Apple product other than an iPod. We were walking back to the car with our new computer in hand and all I could think amongst the excitement was ‘Oh my God what have we done!! We don’t know the first thing about Mac’s and this could’ve been a very expensive mistake that we have just made’. It turns out that within the two years of our initial iMac purchase we were so thrilled with our new system that we had purchased another two laptops, our little Apple famliy.

So hopefully over the next couple of days as I post my 5 reasons for choosing a Mac over Windows, this may lessen your hesitance to buy a Mac and help you understand why I truly believe they are a better choice for the General home user.

You may enjoy these ‘Get a Mac’ ads from the Apple Website > click here