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.NET Framework is part of both Vista and Windows 7, and you would think that the patches for those two would be better than XP.

In this case, though, based on Susan Bradley’s experiences, I would hold off on applying 951847, even on Vista machines.

I don’t know if Microsoft will ever fix the mess that .NET patching has become. For now, it seems the only reasonably approach is to avoid the patches. And pray that Windows 7 does it better…

Brian –

Not to worry. We’re all dummies around here.

There’s a lengthy fix for the problem you describe, waaaay down at the bottom of the Knowledge Base article 967715.

It sounds like some antimalware programs may get in the way. You might be able to accomplish the same thing with less hassle by disabling your antivirus program before applying 967715 for the umpteenth time.

Now that would be an innovation worth crowing about. The Win7 Windows Easy Transfer Wizard isn’t nearly as good as Alohabob. And since there’s no direct upgrade path from XP to Windows 7, it’d make a lot of sense to distribute (sell?) a tool to make moving from XP to Win7 easier.

Alohabob just kinda disappeared after Microsoft bought it, what, four years ago?

When you download and install KB 890830 “patches”, Windows Update downloads and runs the Malicious Software Removal Tool. If you go through Windows Update (or Microsoft Update), MSRT has already been run.

RK –

My advice to JS is “If you haven’t been following along here, and you haven’t applied patches (such as Windows XP Service Pack 3) for a long time, get patched up.”

That’s true in general: anybody who hasn’t been applying patches for months or years should take the plunge, apply all available patches, and do it now. The chances of getting bitten by a bad patch are far outweighed by the chances of getting infected, particularly for patches that have been hanging around for a long time.

As for the writing style… I’m proud to be a dummy. I try to make my writing clear – and NOT boring. Sorry, but that’s how I’ve always been.

Reo –

I always apply Windows Defender, Junk Mail Filter, and Malicious Software Removal Tool updates.

Microsoft hasn’t screwed any of those up to any significant degree. So far, anyway.

Not to worry. Add or Remove Programs is painless. Usually.

If you get stuck, click Start, All Programs, AVG Free, Uninstall AVG Free.

One or the other should work.

I think the iTunes store still has some DRM stuff, but not much.

Wish I could take credit for Steve’s change of heart (HA!), but I was just one voice among many. Once the marketplace wised up, they couldn’t get away with pulling the same old stuff.

If you ripped your CDs into MP3 format – look for instructions in all of my books – you’re home free. They’ll transfer onto any kind of player.

Nope. Ain’t broke, don’t fix. You should only worry if some applications stop working.

The XPS Viewer download is here, but unless you really need it, I wouldn’t bother. Microsoft is trying to take over the PDF realm and I don’t see any reason at all to use XPS.

Gideon –

It’s Windows Vista All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies.

J –

In my experience, any of the modern dual core processors will work fine with Windows 7. At this point – until the driver situation improves – I recommend that you get 3 GB of memory and run the 32-bit version of Win7. With the hard drive, bigger is better, but I wouldn’t worry about the speed.

That leaves the video card. There are no easy answers, if you have to specify one from scratch. Take a look at this discussion, for some pointers.

There’s an easy way to check.

Every laptop sold these days has Windows Vista installed. Go into Vista’s Windows Experience Index and see what it says. Looking at individual components doesn’t make nearly as much sense as comparing the overall performance numbers, and WEI is a good, unbiased way to do that. It ain’t perfect – but it’s still useful.

On a laptop, the primary concern will be video. (Come to think of it, on a desktop, the primary concern will be video, too.) Make sure the first video score is 3 or higher. The higher you can drive that number, the better. (The second video number is also important if your freshman plays heavy-duty games.)

Windows 7’s WEI calculation method is a little different from Vista’s, but they’re close enough that the numbers from Vista should speak volumes for Windows 7.

I don’t know if it works in all cases. Interesting question.

Sure. Big betas – “betas” in the sense of distributing software before all design decisions have been made – are counterproductive. If you have 100,000 people submitting product ideas, it takes an army to sift through them all.