Questions & Answers

How to Remember Which is Bigger – B,K,M,G,T…

A few bits (8 to be exact) make up a byte. A byte is approximately 1 letter or 1 number. (Some special characters require 2 or more bytes.) In the Metric system for computerese, each step up is a 1000 times larger. Thus 1 MB is 1000 KBs. Let’s keep this article simple and stick with that. Our main purpose here is to help you not mix up a Megabyte with a Gigabyte and give you some idea how big each is.

Byte Kings Manage Grand Terabytes Pending Examens
(Incidentally, an examens is a scrutiny of one’s conscience)

Byte Kings Manage Grand Terabytes Pending Examens” gives in order the first letters of the Byte, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte, Petabyte, and Exabyte. In reverse, the sizes are as follows: 1 Exabyte = 1000 Petabyte = 1000×1000 Terabytes = 1000x1000x1000 Gigabytes = 1000x1000x1000x1000 Megabytes = 1000x1000x1000x1000x1000 Kilobytes = 1,000,000,000,000,000 bytes (characters).

Suppose you have an Internet connection that permits 10 Mbps (Megabytes per second). So in theory, you can transfer 10 megabytes in 1 second (roughly a few songs or photos). Now here is a table of how long it would take at this speed to transfer 1000 Megabytes, then 1000 Gigabytes, and so on.

Amount of DataRough ExampleTransferred at 10 Mbps (slow Internet)
1000 Bytes (= 1 KB)A short email1/10 of a second
1000 Megabytes (= 1 GB)An email with too many attachments100 seconds (about 2 min)
1000 Gigabytes (= 1 TB)Your entire hard disk contents100,000 seconds ( about 27 hours)
1000 Terabytes (= 1 PB)The content of the Public Library27,000 hours (about 3 years)
1000 Petabytes (= 1 EB)On the order of Google’s ServersAt that speed you better bury a time capsule (Get a T3 instead)
1000 Exabytes All Online Services combined, since the Internet Age began.The Millennium will have come and gone

Here are a few real-world sizes that come into our office daily. Assuming we want to image the entire drive to a new drive, and with a fast computer can achieve about 5 GB/minute, here is how long it will take:

Desktop PC used for 5 years, 1 TB drive, 50% full ( 500GB)500 / 5 = 100 min or about 2 hours
Laptop lightly used, 1 TB drive, 10% full (100GB)100 / 5 = 20 min
A failing backup drive, 5 TB in size (5000 GB), recovered to a new drive5 TB = 5000 GB / 5 = 1000 min, about 17 hours
An old slow drive, 320 GB copied at 1 GB/minute using the computer it came out of320 minutes, about 5 hours

For completeness, drive imaging often must be done twice – once to save a failing drive before it gets worse, and a second time to get the saved data over to the new drive that will be installed into the computer. With a working machine, drive imaging can be done without disassembling the device. But if device is unresponsive, then time must be permitted for physically removing the drive from the machine as well.

Back to the byte matter: Byte Kings Manage Grand Terabytes. Beyond that is impractical for home and office users. A 2 hour movie is typically 4 GB that fits on a DVD. If you downloaded a movie every day for a year, you would need 4 GB x 365 days = 1460 GB or about 1.5 TB — you can get a 2 TB back up drive and be happy for more than a year’s worth of movies for about $70 (as of 2024).

How To Open an RTF Document in Word Online

After researching this on the Microsoft site, it was determined that they have misleading information in their question and answer section. Microsoft Word Online CAN indeed open RTF files just the same as DOC files. However, the file type association for .rtf files is incorrectly set *on the online version* on microsoft.com site.

By default, when you locate an RTF file through OneDrive via microsoft.com, and click on it, it opens in the RTF viewer instead of Microsoft Word. In contrast, if you find a DOC file, it opens correctly in Microsoft Word. The RTF viewer gives no method of opening the same file in Word, and does not allow edits. The only thing it provides is a download option.

SOLUTION

RTF files CAN indeed be opened online through Microsoft Word directly, but only by first opening Word into a blank document so that you get the full Word interface with all the typical Word toolbars showing and specifically, the File menu. Again, I emphasize, we are talking about Word ONLINE through a Web browser, not Word on your computer! This is particularly important for people who have never purchased a license for Word for their computer and their 30 day trial has expired, or for people that regularly travel and make extensive use of OneDrive through the Internet.

Once you have Word showing in your browser and have opened a blank document, go to the Word File menu. Select Open, browse for the rft file, and open it. By default, all files open in read-only mode in Word Online with a yellow-ish banner appearing across the top of the page that says. Click Edit button and now you can edit the file. Our suggestion is that you immediately do a Save As, and resave the file with a .DOC extension so you don’t have this hassle in the future.

Practical Guide on AI and chatGPT

The news market is a-buzz with AI everything! Here at B. A. Computer Services we want to spread a practical balanced tone. Tabloids — which nearly describes every news outlet these days — use extreme examples of Artificial Intelligence. The examples are not completely fiction, they merely are not useful to most people in everyday life. We are here to connect the dots for everyday people.

BA_CS neither particularly affirms nor disputes the use of AI in today’s world. We categorize the technology as a tool, like a hammer, or screwdriver, or a more sophisticated instrument like a microwave or automobile. Tools are useful in good hands or can destroy or become evil in the wrong hands. (People have microwaved pets, and have cut off fingers with their saws, but that doesn’t mean throw out all microwaves and saws!) The telegraph became the telephone, and then cellular phones. Horse carriages gave way to trains, and then automobiles. We might say cruise ships were largely replaced by commercial airliners, and yes, astronauts are floating about in space stations. Although the pessimist might think this is a leap into an abyss, BA_CS prefers to remember to look up, instead of down on everything. Any good tool will proliferate whether or not a few understand it or not.

The AI that is born today is spreading under many different buzz words. Microsoft added a trial version called CoPilot. Google is offering a version called Gemini. OpenAI company came out with what they call chatGPT. These are all known as large language models due to the massive amounts of information they filter through to provide real-time human language responses. Perhaps you have spoken to Siri, or Cortana, or actived Google Assistant with “OK Google” and have experienced their severe limitations. Please read on! The following examples of generative AI may surprise you. (Generative AI is a generic term for this technology, like tissue is to Kleenex brand, generative AI is to Copilot (Bing.com), Gemini (Google.com), and chatGPT (OpenAI.com). All are brands of generative AI. You may also hear of Large Language Models (LLM) and Conversational AI which are evolving terminologies for generative AI.)

Artificial Intelligence is an oxymoron: Artificial yes, but not intelligent.

To date, Artificial Intelligence has been somewhat of a contradiction. The definition of intelligence may be questionable, but we think intelligence has to do with the ability to stay on topic, discern fact from fiction, make moral decisions, and keep one’s mouth shut at appropriate times. Obviously certain human beings lack these qualities, but we want to know how they compare with AI. First we must narrow this term AI. Is a better sensor on an automobile which can detect movement considered AI? My doorbell detects movement but is not considered intelligent. So let’s jump into some examples that might be useful to our clients.

We tested a fairly uninformed version of a bot, we simply named En. This particular bot does not talk, so we had to type everything into it for responses.

  1. BA_CSToday at 4:14 PM@En What was Armstrong’s famous words from moon?
  2. EnBOTToday at 4:14 PM “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Okay, not bad, but a simple search on an encyclopedia can produce this answer. So let’s try something trickier:

  1.  Today at 4:53 PM@En Cross-reference the Jewish lunar religious calendar with today’s calendar and find a date when Passover falls on Friday.
  2. EnBOTToday at 4:54 PM I apologize, you’ll have to refer that question to B. A. Computer Services directly. Is there anything about computer science or repair I may help you with today?

  1.  Today at 5:01 PM@En Is Abortion murder?
  2. EnBOTToday at 5:02 PM I apologize, you’ll have to refer that question to B. A. Computer Services directly. Is there anything about computer science or repair I may help you with today?

En’s answers here are true to what we instructed it to do when it could not find an answer. While we are not completely happy with its answers, it is trustworthy enough to avoid hot topics that have nothing to do with computer repair. Now let’s find some things that are creatively helpful.

  1.  Today at 5:09 PM En, What can you do that you do not have to refer to BA_CS?
    EnBOTToday at 5:09 PM I can provide assistance with computer science topics, offer tech support, and share knowledge on software engineering.
  2.  Today at 5:10 PM En, How many core processors are needed and how much RAM to run a local copy of chatgpt4?
    EnBOTToday at 5:10 PM Running a local copy of ChatGPT-4 would require a system with at least 8 cores and 32 GB of RAM for optimal performance.
  3. Today at 5:12 PM En, How do I change the font size of my Windows display?
    EnBOT Today at 5:10 PM You can change the font size of your Windows display by going to Settings > System > Display, then adjusting the “Scale and layout” or “Font size” option.
  4.  Today at 5:10 PM Is there a way to make the font temporarily bigger when I’m browsing websites with very small fonts?
    EnBOTToday at 5:10 PM You can make the font temporarily larger in a web browser by pressing “Ctrl” and “+” on your keyboard to zoom in.
  5.  Today at 5:20 PM Convert 1000 square feet to acres and allow 5ft additional around the building.
    EnBOTToday at 5:20 PM The total area with the additional 5 feet around the building would be approximately 0.025 acres.
  6.  Today at 5:10 PM I got a message telling me to call a Norton 888 number or else my computer will be destroyed. What do I do?
    EnBOTToday at 5:10 PM This is a common scam. Do not call the number. Ensure your computer has antivirus software installed and run a full scan to check for any issues.
  7.  Today at 5:10 PM Would you translate that to Spanish for my friend?
    EnBOTToday at 5:10 PM Es una estafa comun. No llames al numero. Asegurate de que tu computadora tenga un software antivirus instalado y realiza un escaneo completo para verificar si hay algun problema.

And here are a few miscellaneous responses we tried for fun and enlightenment:

BA_CSToday at 5:26 PM
@En Why did the ducks cross the road?
En
BOTToday at 5:26 PM
To prove they weren’t chicken!

BA_CSToday at 5:31 PM
@En Write a birthday wish to the Owner of BACS’s granddaughter, age 3, and include fun images.
En
BOTToday at 5:32 PM
Happy 3rd Birthday to the Owner of B. A. Computer Services’ granddaughter! May your day be filled with joy, laughter, and lots of fun adventures! 🎉🎂🎈🐴

BA_CSToday at 5:35 PM
@En How does a Roth IRA differ from a traditional IRA? How does a Roth IRA differ from a 401K?
En
BOTToday at 5:36 PM
A Roth IRA differs from a traditional IRA in how they are taxed. Contributions to a traditional IRA are typically tax-deductible, while contributions to a Roth IRA are made with after-tax dollars. Additionally, withdrawals from a traditional IRA are taxed as income, whereas qualified withdrawals from a Roth IRA are tax-free. A Roth IRA differs from a 401K in terms of contribution limits and taxation. Roth IRAs have lower contribution limits compared to 401Ks. Contributions to a 401K are made with pre-tax dollars, reducing taxable income in the current year, while Roth IRA contributions are made with after-tax dollars. Additionally, 401K withdrawals are taxed as income, while qualified Roth IRA withdrawals are tax-free.

Payment Methods Change

We regret to inform our clients that we have elected to discontinue taking payments directly through Cash App because of difficulties with that processor.

We will continue to offer many other payment options, including check acceptance, money orders, cash, and most standard credit cards. Card payments may be taken in the office or at http://bacomputer.net/payments.

How to Change Another User’s Window Password

The scenario is you have two different login names on the same computer. You have forgotten the password to one of them, but you can log into the other one. How do you proceed?

Unfortunately, we are not able to give general instructions about this over the phone or on our website for a couple of different reasons. The first reason is it depends on the operating system you have because each version of Windows has a different location or method to do it. Over the phone, many users are not familiar enough with their system to accurately tell us which version (or sub-version) of Window they have and it is not expeditiously possible to walk through it in a few minutes.

The second reason is in some cases, there simply is no such user-friendly function. Microsoft did not build into the Setup section of Windows 10 a direct way to change the password of another user, for example. While there are indirect ways of accomplishing it, they become too technical for most people to follow over a telephone conversation.

Lastly, you might ask why we do not simply remotely log into your computer like other shops do. B. A. Computer Services is founded on the principles of privacy and strict confidentiality of personal information. Many, many scams are initiated through the use of remote desktop technology and we simply do not want to be associated in the least bit with such possibility. As soon as another person is permitted to take remote control of your computer, you have absolutely no idea what they are doing behind the scenes. Further, because it looks like what they are doing is coming from your computer, you could be liable for anything they do illegally such as accessing pornography, your Facebook account, your bank account, or sending emails. Everything they do will look like it came from your computer, and the IP address associated with your Internet connection is traceable by law enforcement

Therefore, the answer is, hands on is required to make this password reset happen. You may bring your computer to our shop or ask us to come pick it up for you. If it is a tower or desktop unit we only need the box itself. You will need to unhook the monitor cable, mouse, keyboard, power, and any network cable from the back of the computer. Each of these have their own sized connection types so they generally are very easy to reconnect. If you are uncertain, take a photo of the back of the computer before unplugging anything. Of course, if it is a laptop, simply bring it in as is.

When your computer arrives, we will be able to quickly assess the type of system we are working with, and inform you what will be required to reset the password. There will be no charge at that point and you can walk out with the computer if you are able to proceed without our assistance. However, as stated above, it can get very technical and what might take us a few minutes, may take you a full day to learn. The simplest scenario can be done in about a half hour while you wait . The other scenarios literally can take days to complete when they involve third party accounts such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, or Apple. In many cases, more than one password and more than one type of password must be reset. Further, many people are not aware that if they reset a password on one device, they must re-enter it on their other devices such as phones or tablets that also use the same account.

B. A. Computer Services will make every effort to keep your service price low while maintaining strict confidentiality and security standards! We feel we cannot meet that goal over the phone. With every service we offer, 10 days of free follow-up support is given. Without a prior service agreement, phone support is billed at our normal hourly rate, whether over the phone, or in person, and prepayment is usually required via this website’s Payments section.

AUTOMATED UNSUBSCRIBE TIP

Do you get subscribed to stuff accidentally or unknowingly and don’t want to keep unsubscribing to everything? Here is a tip on how to automatically send notice to everyone to keep you off their lists.

The trick is simple: Use your email vacation responder feature to send out an “unsubscribe” message to everyone who sends you email. Include in the message a friendly apology to personal correspondents and they will certainly understand your goal.

B. A. Computer Services Can Help!

We have provided very helpful tips below, but if you still find yourself overwhelmed by spam messages, consider BA_CS’s Email and Spam Reduction services. We will set up filters and folders manage your emails. For online accounts such as Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, Icloud and many more, we can do this remotely, but if you are new to BA_CS, come see us! For details of this service, please contact us. For security reasons, we always advise you to change your password to something simple BEFORE asking for service (so no one learns your secret password pattern); and AFTER service (to re-secure the account after our services are complete).

GMAIL USERS

While in Google account settings, be sure to update your phone number and security email addresses. It is a good policy to have at least one alternate email address and at most two. (If you cannot remember the password of your primary email, how will you remember the password to three or more other email accounts!!! Stick to one and only one alternate email account, or use the account of a trusted friend.)

  1. From a computer in a web browser — you cannot do this on a phone or tablet app — go to gmail.com and login to your email account. If you do not remember your password, do not keep trying to guess it because you will be locked out. After two or at most three tries, click Forgot Password and reset it.
  2. If you get locked out, contact B. A. Computer Services and we may be able to assist you for a fee.
  3. Click the Settings icon in the upper right, then click See All Settings.
  4. Scroll all the way down to Vacation Responder.
  5. Turn Vacation Responder ON
  6. Select Plain Text
  7. Enter: unsubscribe {youremailaddress}
  8. Optionally, add a blank line or two, and enter a message for human people like, “If you are a personal correspondent, please disregard this message. I have received your email and will respond as soon as practical. Thank you.”
  9. Do not click, Only send message to people in my contacts list, which is exactly the opposite of what you want.
  10. BE CERTAIN to click the SAVE CHANGES button. If you forget to do that, nothing you changed will take affect.

The UNSUBSCRIBE instruction will automatically unsubscribe you from some, not all, list-services. Some services may not understand the instruction. To unsubscribe from them, you must follow the instructions they are required to give by law at the end of the email message. If they do not have instructions or a link to unsubscribe there, here is another trick to eliminate them automatically.

Create Rule to Send Spam to Trash Automatically

  1. Under Gmail settings, See All Settings, select Filters and Blocked Addresses tab
  2. Click Create a New Filter
  3. You will want to be careful here because if you are too general with keywords, messages from personal correspondents may get filtered out too.
    • There is a better way to automatically create filters.

A Better Way

  1. Go to your Inbox. Click on a message you consider to be spam.
  2. In the message click the three dots to get additional options.
  3. From there you can select Block, Report Spam, or Report Phishing. You may also select, Filter Messages Like These to gain detailed control over what happens to similar incoming messages.

One strategy might be to send semi-important emails from your bank to a folder named “Bank-Alerts” or similar folder. This provides an opportunity to review them, but keeps them out of the mainstream Inbox folder.

Other Email Providers

Apple also has a vacation responder. Login to your icloud.com account, on any computer. This cannot be done through a phone or tablet. It can be done at a library on Windows or through most any web browser, Edge, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or others.

In the vacation responder, enter the words “unsubscribe” {youremailaddress} like below:

unsubscribe youremailaddres@icloud.com

There are likely similar services in most other email providers such as Yahoo.com and Outlook.com. Look for a vacation responder and set it up!

Our New Business Website Package Explained

This article is directed to entrepreneurs or any person interested in a new business or organization website and who is not familiar with the technology needed to set up such an official website. The terminology alone can be difficult. The following analogy may help.

Various expenses to build a new home:

  • To secure the property in your name, a title must be secured, which involves surveys, and such.
  • Even though the cost of the land and the cost of the house are usually combined together, they are two different things. Land may be purchased without a house, and the house built later. In some cases, a manufactured house may be purchased first and later moved onto a piece of land.
  • In addition to the title, land, and house, additional related expenses include insurance, utilities, and…
  • Ongoing maintenance costs: The lawn doesn’t mow itself, the gutters do not clean themselves, the paint will wear after a few years, the air conditioner only has a limited warranty before it breaks; utility bills must be paid monthly.

Various expenses to build a new website:

The cost of building a website compared to building a house is in comparison pennies on the dollar. Websites are usually less expensive when the “real estate” they run on is leased rather than purchased outright. Whether purchased or leased, each website owned must also be separately maintained at additional cost.

  • To secure the domain name you want, you must first locate one that is not already taken. A domain “realtor”, called a domain registrar, must be contacted to find out what “properties” are available.
    • A domain name is like the title to a house address. If the house is already occupied you will have to pay the “residents” a lot of money to convince them to give it up. One would have virtually no chance of buying, for example, apple.com, even though you are the owner of a multimillion dollar apple orchard, because the computer manufacturer, Apple, Inc. is very unlikely to sell it to you. But you might be able to obtain appleorchards.com or apple.life or hundreds of other variants.
    • After finding a domain that is available, it may be leased for a number of years. Unlike real property, domains are never sold, per se, they are always leased by the month or by the year, usually up to no more than 10 years at a time. Typical per year leases run from a few dollars to a few hundred dollars per year. The more expensive ones are the more popular domains!
    • Leasing a domain is not actually leasing the property — it is more the purchase of a trademark agreement. For example, you want your shoe business to be associated with the domain showshoesforbroadway.com. Once leased, that name is locked to your use alone.
    • Domain name leasing is flexible — you can pay for multiple domain name leases and have them all point to the same location. In this respect these domain names are very much like billboards to your actual business location, which we get into next. You may wish to secure the plural and any variant spellings of the name you choose. That way your neighbor around the world cannot spoof your business site with a similar name.
  • The real estate in a website is called hosting. Similar to real property, there are two parts to hosting: the land on which it sits, called the hosting server, and the structures on the land, called content. Each has its separate cost. For simplicity, suppose the land is bought first, and briefly later a house built on it. This is most commonly analogous to website development. In today’s world hosting servers rarely are purchased as it is far more economical to lease part of a server’s disk space from a company that specializes in setting up the hosting servers on a super-high-speed Internet connection (enough to support 100,000s of users).
    • Typically, for a small website, one might need only 10-20 Gigabytes of space, running about $100-$500 per year to lease. The cost difference varies according to how many tools the hosting service provides, and how many website viewers you expect to have. If you expect hundreds of thousands of people to be on your website simultaneously, you will pay more.
    • What about free website services? Yes, there are a number of them, just as there are free samples at the grocery store or a public sidewalk. The free services have various restrictions and limitation that make them impractical for organization or business purposes. They are best left to very small personal website creations. One should also remember, once content is uploaded to any service, you may lose legal ownership or control over it.
  • Finally, once you have the land, er, the hosting server space leased, the actual website “house” may be built on it and “landscaped” by adding words and pictures to your space. If you have leased your hosting space with a respected hosting service, all the tools you will need are typically provided: editors, fonts, possibly stock photos and definitely the ability for you to upload your own.
  • Building the website, called web-mastering, is the most time consuming and expensive portion of website development. It requires talent, vision, creativity, ability to write, and technical skills. Consider the effort that goes into building a house–floor plan, permits, plumbing, electrical, framing–very similar effort must be put into website development. Substantial effort similarly is required in initial website design considerations: Coloring, menuing, titling, photography, animation, and other facets.
    • To keep costs low, stock blueprints are available for housing, and likewise for website development. These “blueprints” are called themes which allow a webmaster to choose from a selection of preset color and menu schemes.
    • If you are paying a professional webmaster to build the site, you will be given opportunity to provide your theme input at the initial stage of development.
    • In addition, you will be asked by the webmaster to provide photos and wording clips to get the site started. These pics and clips do not need to be perfected yet because they will only be initial placeholders. The final finishing touches will be done later: First the framework, then the drywall, then painting, and finally trimming!

B. A. Computer Services provides an initial website setup service that incorporates these elements together into a one-time charge. The charge covers only the service to secure the domain, secure the hosting service, and build out the initial framework of the website with sample wording and imagery related to your business or organization. The cost of the first year lease of the domain name, hosting space, and initial build-out will be itemized on the invoice and must be prepaid. The site itself will be built over a period of a few weeks. No charge is made for initial corrections or updates during that initial site build-out period. Afterwards, a separate maintenance contract will be required if you wish a B. A. Computer Services webmaster to continue maintaining the site for you. You may also maintain the site yourself.

Alternatively, you may pay a small service fee for each instance that a set of changes is to be made to the site (photo swap, sentence revision, new text). At the end of the yearly lease period, the domain name and hosting will come up for renewal at the going rates of the respective services. All website leases are prepaid–if you fail to renew you will permanently lose your website name and space in about 30 days of non-payment–you will however not be billed again or have any past-due debts for non-renewal. Hosting and domain name registration fees are non-refundable, however, the domain registration will continue to be “owned” by you for the duration of the lease term for which you paid. You may resell it to another party just like reselling any other property is possible. B. A. Computer Services will facilitate discharging the domain to you (in the form of username and password, and your registration name, email, and contact information) at the minimal cost of doing so.

100x Faster Computers?

Technology is moving very very quickly. While certain computer components do not change much, the over-all architectures of PCs have taken a huge leap in the last few years. Historically, it was the rave that a particular PC went from a Pentium 100 to a Pentium 200, and so on. Those days are now long gone. Today the question is how many cores does the computer have. That means, each motherboard is now hosting multiple CPUs that run in parallel with each other. Thus it isn’t a matter of my Pentium runs twice as fast as your Pentium, its a matter of, my computer has 4 to 64 times the processing power as your single processor computer! Does that mean they can be 100x faster — eh, I haven’t done the benchmarking myself, but essentially yes, if you compare a 2000 computer with a 2020 computer of similar quality.

Other factors come into play as well — in 2000 almost all laptops were equipped with traditional hard disk drives (HDDs). Those are the drives that have a physically spinning magnetic plate. The read/write speed on these disks is relatively fast, but still limited by physics. Today, nearly all new laptops are equipped with solid state drives (SSDs), with no moving parts. They look and work much like a Thumb drive works, but their interface is especially equipped to handle much faster transfer rates. What is the speed difference between an HDD and an SSD? About 80-160Mb/s versus 200 – 600 Mb/s; that is, SSDs are 200-600% faster than HDDs. (Be sure to read Mb/s as megabits per second, versus the 8 times larger quatity, MB/s, megabytes per second. Transfer speeds are almost always in bits per second, while file sizes are typically listed in Byte sizes.)

Finally, one must compare other components, such as the Graphics card that must process all the images, then the traditional RAM memory component, and something most people don’t think about — the bus subsystem. The bus system is what connects the processors to the screen, RAM, and drive. One very easily observed speed difference is in the USB 2.0 versus USB 3.0 specification. In virtually all retail stores it is possible to purchase a Thumb drive (aka Flash drive, but I figure they will always be about the size of one’s thumb or thumbnail, while the technological term, Flash, may change tomorrow). If you review the packaging, you will see it is likely either a 2.0 USB drive or a 3.0 USB drive as of November 2023. What is the speed difference between 2.0 and 3.0? 10x the speed. In order to get the 10 fold transfer increase, your computer must also have a USB 3.0 interface. The drives usually tout backwards compatibility, but that simply means they can still read and write at the slower rates, in case your computer only has 2.0 slots. For lightweight uses, this might not be a big deal, but if you consider trying to save a 4GB movie (that is roughly the content of a single DVD), to a 2.0 external drive at a maximum of 10 Mbps, you are talking about 1 hour. Under 3.0, that would be 6 minutes. (Please understand, I am not referring to reading a DVD to a USB drive, which would be much slower due the DVD drive read rate. I am referring to transferring the amount of data a DVD could hold directly from your computer to a USB Thumb drive.)

Incidentally, DVD devices are on their way out…..they are very slow, and DVDs scratch relatively easily, subjecting you to a huge potential data loss. New software now typically must be downloaded or comes on Thumb drives, which are still a bit vulnerable, especially if they are dipped in peanut butter and left around a Labrador, for which you can thank your two year old. ;-)

To 11 or Not To 11?

Microsoft 11 Gotchas

To make it short and sweet, the main reasons to use Windows 11 are:

  • It came with your new computer.
  • You enjoy dealing with bugs.
  • You are certain you will never use an older application again
  • You do not want to buy your own antivirus software

Reasons NOT to upgrade to Windows 11 are:

  • Windows 10 is a well tested platform
  • Windows 10 still contains support for older 32 bit apps
  • Windows 10 will upgrade from Windows 7 unofficially
  • Windows 10 will upgrade from Windows 8 unofficially
  • Windows 10 will run on older hardware that 11 cannot
  • The Windows 10 Defender antivirus is free and decent
  • Windows 11 will not run on hardware as recent as 2018

Nevertheless, Windows 11 will soon replace Windows 10 because:

  • Microsoft may eventually stop security updates to Windows 10 users
  • New computers will automatically come with Windows 11
  • Microsoft may force eligible Windows 10 users to upgrade to 11
  • Microsoft may strongly encourage older machines be replaced
  • It may be in your best interest to buy a new computer, see break-throughs in technology

Reference Table for Windows Versions

Operating System 	Version Details 	Version Build Number
Windows 11 	 	(22H2) 	 	 	10.0.22621
Windows 11  	c2023 	(21H2) 	 	 	10.0.22000
Windows 10 	c2022 	(22H2) 	 	 	10.0.22???[4]
Windows 10 	c2021 	(21H2) 	 	 	10.0.19044
Windows 10  	 	(21H1) 	 	 	10.0.19043
Windows 10  	 	(20H2) 	 	 	10.0.19042
Windows 10  	c2019 	(2004) 	 	 	10.0.19041
Windows 10  	 	(1909) 	 	 	10.0.18363
Windows 10  	c2019 	(1903) 	 	 	10.0.18362
Windows 10  	 	(1809) 	 	 	10.0.17763
Windows 10  	c2017	(1803) 	 	 	10.0.17134
Windows 10  	 	(1709) 	 	 	10.0.16299
Windows 10  	c2016 	(1703) 	 	 	10.0.15063
Windows 10  	 	(1607) 	 	 	10.0.14393
Windows 10  	 	(1511) 	 	 	10.0.10586
Windows 10 	c2014 	 	 	 	10.0.10240
Windows 8.1 	 	(Update 1) 	 	6.3.9600
Windows 8.1 	c2013 	 	 	 	6.3.9200
Windows 8 	c2012 	 	 	 	6.2.9200
Windows 7 	 	Windows 7 SP1 	 	6.1.7601
Windows 7 	c2009 	 	 	 	6.1.7600
Windows Vista 	 	Windows Vista SP2 	6.0.6002
Windows Vista  	 	SP1 	 	 	6.0.6001
Windows Vista 	c2007 	 	 	 	6.0.6000
Windows XP 	c2001 	Windows XP2 	 	5.1.26003

[1] More specific than a version number, at least in Windows, 
is a build number, often indicating exactly what major update 
or service pack has been applied to that Windows version. See the 
last number shown in the version number column, like 7600 for 
Windows 7. Some sources note the build number in parenthesis, 
like 6.1 (7600).

[2] Windows XP Professional 64-bit had its own version number 
of 5.2. As far as we know, that's the only time Microsoft has 
designated a special version number for a specific edition and 
architecture-type of a Windows operating system.

[3] Service pack updates to Windows XP did update the build 
number but in a very minor and long-winded way. For example, 
Windows XP with SP3 and other small updates is listed as having 
a version number of 5.1 (Build 2600.xpsp_sp3_qfe.130704-0421 : 
Service Pack 3).

[4] At the end of 2022 a fully updated Windows 10 is essentially a super-version of Windows 11. Microsoft states of it’s own operating system Windows 11, “Some features in Windows 10 may no longer be available in Windows 11 after the upgrade.” In fact, Windows 11 is a scaled down version of Windows 10. Namely, Windows 11 ONLY works on the newer 64bit processor machines, while Windows 10 still supports older 32 bit machines and the 64bit machines as well.


Windows 11 system requirements:

  • A compatible* 1 GHz or faster dual-core 64-bit processor from Intel, AMD, or Qualcomm
  • 4GB of RAM – 8GB is preferred
  • 64GB of drive storage space – yes, it can be installed on a thumb drive!
  • UEFI Secure Boot supported and enabled
  • A Trusted Platform Module (TPM), version 2.0
  • A DirectX 12-compatible GPU with a WDDM 2.0 driver
  • A 720p display larger than 9 inches in size (not particularly designed for phone or tablet use!)
  • Installation requires a Microsoft account to complete.

*The processor requirement is the most restrictive; supported processors include 8th-generation and newer Intel Core processors as well as AMD Ryzen 2000-series processors and newer. These chips launched in late 2017 and early 2018. Older computers cannot officially run Windows 11, unlike Windows 10 that supported almost anything that could run Windows 7 or Windows 8.