Wednesday 26 May 2010

Task3 (P3) Plan An Upgrade And Installation

  1. Select Install Ubuntu and press Enter. The Welcome window appears.
  2. From the taskbar, choose your preferred language. Click Forward. The Prepare disk space window appears.
  3. If you want to install Ubuntu over your entire hard drive, and then Select Guided – use entire disk and select the hard drive that you want to install Ubuntu. Click Forward.

4. In the what is your name field, enter your name.

5. In the ‘what name do you want to use to log in’ field, enter a login name.

6. In the Choose a password to keep your account safe field, enter a password in both text boxes.

7. In the ‘what is the name of your computer’ field, enter a name to identify your computer.

8. If you are the only user and wish to avoid the login screen, check Log in automatically (optional).

9. Click Forward. The Ready to install window appears.

10. Verify that the language, layout, location, and personal information are correct and click Install. The installation wizard begins.

11. When the installation wizard finishes, the installation complete window appears.

Click Restart now to restart your computer. Ubuntu is now installed.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GraphicalInstall

Wednesday 12 May 2010

Assignment

Assignment


Task1 P1
There are many different reasons for people wanting to upgrade their system. I will now give a few reasons to why someone may want to upgrade or install an existing or new system:



  • People could be having problems with their current systems so may want an upgrade. This could be the OS is starting to respond slowly or might not have some of the functions that newer systems have and the user may want this.

  • Users may want new functions on some packages like excel or word so therefore this will push them to upgrade. One of these functions they may want is; they might want to see two programs side by side and this can only be done on windows 7 so any other OS will need to be upgraded to be able to this.

  • Some users may have purchased new hardware that may require an upgraded OS. Some users may have purchased a new computer or latop which is top-of-the-range and thhey may have xp but the user may want the latest OS as they have the latest computer/laptop and this is why they may require the upgrade.

Why does software need installed or upgraded?


Users may want to upgrade their system or install a new system because there may be problems with their current system such as;


The users could just have limited functions on their current system and they may need or want new additional functions and that may require a system upgrade or installing a new system. due to the lack of functionality of the current system.


Another reason may be that if a user purchases some new hardware for their computer but it is not compatible with the existing software that is currently on their system and they may need to upgrade their software package or maybe even have to install new software for the new hardware to work correctly without any bugs or problems.



Task2


Potential risks when installing or upgrading software



A big risk of installing or upgrading software, in a business, would be the loss of service during the period that the users take to upgrade or install the new software. Depending on the business it could prove extremely costly or it could be very frustrating. Another risk when users decide to install or upgrade their software would be incompatibility issues. This can be very frustrating especially if the new software is expensive. If a user buys software and tries to install it or upgrade it may not work, depending on the type of software, or even the user’s computer.


Preparing for a software installation or upgrade



To prepare for an installation or an upgrade all users must plan ahead to make sure that their installation or upgrade can go ahead as planned without any interruptions or hiccups along the way while it is in the middle of installing or upgrading. To plan the best possible way users should get the materials needed such as software disk, back up everything on the computer to be on the safe side.




Task6 describe product registration procedures



When a piece of software is bought by users, they all have to enter a product registration key before they can use the software. This is a security measure to make sure that no copies of the software can be made as this would lose the company business and money. Open source software, which is free to download and distribute, does not have a product registration key as it is free software, but there has been a few incidents by where ‘hackers’ download illegal versions of original software products sold by genuine manufacturers, and they then run a product key generator and they then gain a registration key that works but this comes at a cost. The cost is that if an innocent user goes into a shop to purchase the same piece of software that the ‘hacker’ downloaded, when the user then goes to enter the product registration key it does not allow them to install the piece of software as ‘it has already been used’ even though the user has just purchased the piece of software brand new not opened or installed. This is a big problem but the product registration key now must be registered and when it is registered the company who made it knows that it is genuine or fake and they can then take the appropriate level of action.



Tuesday 16 March 2010

Chrome O/S & Ubuntu

Chrome O/S
 
Google have recently released their own operating system called Chrome O/S. it was based and designed on the linux system and it was mainly created for people who spend most or all of their time on the internet on their computer and don't need or useany programs. Design goals for Google Chrome OS's user interface include using minimal screen space by combining applications and standard Web pages into a single tab strip, rather than separating the two. Designers are considering a reduced window management scheme that would operate only in full-screen mode. Secondary tasks would be handled with "panels": floating windows that dock to the bottom of the screen for tasks like chat and music players. Split screens are also under consideration for viewing two pieces of content side-by-side. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_OS

Ubuntu
 
This is a operating system based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. It is distributed as free and open source software with additional proprietary software available. Ubuntu provides an up-to-date, stable operating system for users, with a strong focus on usability and ease of installation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_(operating_system)

O/S For South West College & My Recommendations

O/S For South West College & My Recommendations


What is An O/S???(Operating System)

An operating system is basically a large program to run applications/programs on a computer. An operating system is the most important piece of software in a computer.
It runs software and hardware. Operating systems are designed to deal with almost anything and everything like displaying the keys from a keyboard when they are hit, onto the computer screen.
They also manage files on computer hard drives and control hardware from printers, scanners and the clicks from the mouse.

Windows 7

With Windows 7 uers can see all of the windows that they have open by viewing them in thumbnail pictures. Windows have also added an extra feature
which is very helpful, and it is called 'snap'. This allows users to put two windows side by side and can view both of them while working on one of the windows
without it disappearing/minimizing. Windows 7 also has a new and improved security protection which is the safest one that they have developed yet.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is open source software. this means that it is absolutely free. It is almost identical to Microsoft Office, but it has the joy of being free.
It also updates itself automatically even when we forget to update or while working it will update itself so maintenance for it almost doesn't exist as it basically maintains itself.

Chorme O/S

Google have launched their very own Operating System. This OS has been specially designed for people who do not use program like word or excel.
Instead, it is soley built fo people who spend all of their time, on the computer, on the internet browsing on things like youtube, facebook, bbay, etc.
When the computer is switched on, the chrome OS boots up almost instantly, so there is o waiting around for boot sequences to commence and then load up all of the computer settings and data. But it is not advisable to get this OS if yo want it to do work on the computer and use Microsoft Office or Open Office.


Recommendation

I would recommend that the SouthWest College should get the Windows 7 OS as it is the most suited to the needs of The College. it is basically a huge upgrade to the current XP OS which they have installed and if they upgraded to Windows 7 then it would take less training for users to get used to it and it also has the almost the exact same programs (obviously with new and improved programs and functions added) as the XP OS

Wednesday 24 February 2010

Ubuntu & Dban

Ubuntu & Dban
 
Ubuntu
This is an operating system built by a worldwide team of expert developers. It contains all the applications you need: a web browser, office suite, media apps, instant messaging and much more. Ubuntu is an open-source alternative to Windows and Office.

  • Ubuntu will always be free of charge, along with its regular enterprise releases and security updates
  • Ubuntu comes with full commercial support from Canonical and hundreds of companies from across the world
  • Ubuntu provides the best translations and accessibility features that the free software community has to offer
  • Ubuntu core applications are all free and open source. We want you to use free and open source software, improve it and pass it on.
 
 
Dban
Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot disk that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction.

Ubuntu User Guide


Ubuntu User Guide
 
Ubuntu offers a range of free software and one of the pieces of software that we had to look at was the music player. The default music player for Ubuntu is Sound Juicer. This application allows the user to play music and rip CD's, but it requires an application called Serpentine to burn CD's. But there is a solution to this, I have researched on the internet and I found that there is a great application that does all of the above in this one application which is called Banshee. This allows users to play your music and videos, access podcasts and video podcasts. Sync your iPod, and other devices. So it is almost an exact replica of iTunes for Ubuntu. Below is a screenshot of the Banshee Music Player

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Tuesday 2 February 2010

Setting Up Surround Sound

Question

You have set up a Dolby surround sound and the speakers are not working correctly



Solution

Go into your Sound manager to ensure that you have selected the Dolby 5.1 as audio output



Ensure that all of the Dolby leads are inserted in the correct input onto the back of the PC, or just enable EAX in the audio settings and select stereo



Get correct Drivers for the motherboard on the machine or soundcarddsc02528hj6.jpg

Wednesday 20 January 2010

Building My Own PC

The PC that I am buiding is going to mainly used for gaming, so therefore I need to find out what specifications I need in order to create a good gaming PC. below is a link to the PC that I have chosen the specifications I wanted to make it the way I would like it.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/?u=15259

Tuesday 19 January 2010

Intel ATOM Versus the ARM Cortex-A9

Below is a link to a website which compares these two processors and there is also a video showing both processors working beside eachother to view the performance differences

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222200621

Creating An Image Of Your Hard Drive

If you accidentally destroy your RAID driver (which will lock you out of Windows, and your computer) you are almost forced to find a solution to stop this before you do it. Windows doesn’t provide any applications for this solution. They may have a system restore function but it’s no good if your restore driver has been destroyed. But there is a solution to this, what is needed is a free application that creates an image of a Windows installation, and after some research i found that Drive Image XML is the perfect solution for this as it’s free and can duplicate your hard drive. All you need to do is to download the application run it and choose the Backup Option.

Wednesday 13 January 2010

How To Restore My PC Factory Settings

My Packard Bell PC does not have the SmartRestore function that most of the newer models have so i can't use that as it is not installed. So i have to start-up my computer and then i have to press the F10 key when the Packard Bell logo appears and this will give me the step-by-step guide on how to restore the computer back to its factory settings.