Failure configuring Windows updates reverting changes...

At 2pm I started tidying up a new Windows 8 laptop that I had bought for a friend in the village. After getting rid of a few trial programs that manufacturers insist of including, presumably in the hope that they'll get some commission when people forget that their trial has ended and the payments have started to kick in, I got Windows update under way.

It's now nearly 9pm. For several hours, and by several I mean at least five, possibly six, I was staring at a screen which told me first that x out of 96 updates were being downloaded and then installed. That was reasonably bearable at first but when the next ominous message appeared I felt a chill in the air.

Failure configuring Windows updates reverting changes. Do not switch off.

That's scary. Especially as there was little help from Microsoft on their site which suggested that it might take up to 30 minutes! I read quite a few other posts from people who had had similar problems and it seems that when you have a really really large number of updates then there's an awful lot to download and install and things can go wrong. The sensible suggestions were, if you could ever get back to a normal screen, to pick and choose essential updates only and do them a few at a time. Indeed there may well have been loads in those 96 I was doing that weren't necessary at all. Unfortunately, unless you're prepared to bite the bullet and do what you're not told and switch off there's no way back to a normal screen. So I decided to leave it to it for a while. One chap on a forum post had said that his had taken 4 hours and all had been well at the end so I decided that I would leave it all night if need be and see what had happened in the morning, assuming that some power settings hadn't chipped in and turned the damn thing off anyway!

So it was with some relief that after the five or six hours the display changed and finally I was back with a start screen and what seemed a working laptop!

If you're starting off on something similar then be patient, and hope. You may also be able to download all the updates but be selective in what you actually install if you feel happy taking control of what is normally automatic. As soon as you can, install Windows 8.1 which has significant improvements. You try turning 8 off or switching from those full screen applications! It's all pretty much trial and error but 8.1 adds a bit more control.

Blue Screen Of Death prompts me to change

I have finally made the move to Windows 8. Well, I am about to; the machine is ordered and will be on its way in a couple of weeks. Several things made me go for the change. Seeing the good old Blue Screen Of Death was one!

I honestly can't remember when I saw that last on one of my own machines. It really must be very many years ago and I am not sure I have ever seen it on this desktop which has been going well since 2008. No idea what that particular message means but obviously something isn't as it should be, or wasn't last week.

That alone wouldn't have made me change, though. The machine had been shutting itself down from time to time but since I changed a web site so that it didn't need to process so many hundreds of images each time I changed something that hasn't happened more than once or twice.

It's probably several little things that have made me make the move now. My keyboard is not good and can be a bit of a nightmare to type on. I bought one with backlit keys which was great in many ways when my desk was positioned in shadow in quite a dark part of a room. After a while the key graphics wore away so many were just a blue blur and my son bought me a new one. That was nice but some keys are very sticky, sort of scruntchy and usually the A doesn't appear unless I make a specific effort to check and hit it hard. That has been quite a drag and almost every piece of text has had lots of errors, massively increasing the time it has taken to perform many tasks. It is also now located in a bright place and the back lighting is simply not needed. In fact, the key graphics are now very difficult to read! So I need a new keyboard. Not exactly the best of reasons for a new system but it did contribute.

I managed to make XP read my new XD card in a new camera some time ago but it has never wanted to delete images from the card so, after copying, I have had to run through them on the camera itself and delete through a quite laborious process involving each being selected individually. As I take photographs almost every day that has been a big drag. However, I don't know if Windows 8 will change that so it's more a hope than a reason!

It does take an age to get going. That is a good reason to change. I have tried all sorts of cleaning, removing stuff but all to little avail. I switch it on in the morning and then go and make breakfast. Even then some programmes take a good time to load. That's been getting increasingly annoying and I am sincerely hoping Windows 8 will transform that part of my life. The morning wait was OK but not the minutes' wait while something decided to start up.

Quite a big reason is Google Photos' refusal to edit my images in XP. That's annoying so, amusingly in a way, Google have sort of promoted a Microsoft product there.

Although Microsoft Security Essentials does continue to protect from viruses and is, presumably, updating virus definitions every day, that ruddy red castle icon and the messages every morning that I am at risk did get annoying. I had installed Avast but probably didn't need to and that is always suggesting this or that in an effort to wean me off the free version. All in all a bit tiresome. And you do tend to feel just a little bit more vulnerable, even if there is no real reason for that.

So that lot all adds up to time to change. Desktops are very cheap and, I guess, going out of fashion but a box on the floor is fine for me. I have a tablet and Chromebook for wandering around with. I've ordered a system from Mesh, who have given me equipment that has stood the test of time and my and my children's pretty intense activities since the late 1990s. I am sticking with an AMD processor, a quad core A8 this time with a 2GB Radeon graphics card to give me some future-proofing as I'm likely to use this to watch tv and films. Apart from Windows 8 Pro and 8GB RAM the computer itself isn't that much different but I won't be nagged about upgrades and I have a feeling it will be a lot quicker! The cost is almost exactly the same as 2008. Fascinating, and that includes a 24" monitor. That will be nice but, with a 1920 resolution compared to my current 1440 I have a feeling I shall need my glasses even more and sites will look tiny!

I am also intrigued to see how few programmes I will need to install compared to six years ago. 

 

Admittedly, the full list does have some duplications but it looks a lot tidier after all the green deletions of things I am not going to need. I used to experiment a lot with alternative software and, in particular, Office and web design tools. Now, Google Documents handle all my day-to-day 'Office' requirements and Serif's WebPlus my site editing. I have several sites, though, for which I'll need Dreamweaver so it'll be interesting to find out if my ancient MX version will still function! If not, then I may be firing up an old machine again for that as there's no way I'll spend as much as a system on the latest Adobe software. In fact, I am looking seriously hard at Wix and others. Maybe even I'll give Google Sites another chance. My lovely CSS code sites were interesting to develop and have some advantages over the somewhat ponderous Serif product but the future is code that is written by the program not me.

Looking at what I need more closely,

Media programs

Total Recorder

Winamp

Spotify

VLC

Amazon Cloud Player

Skype

Design programs

Irfanview

Picasa

Serif DrawPlus

Serif Photo Plus

Serif WebPlus

JAlbum

Utilities

CCleaner

Nuance PDF Reader

7 Zip

Prey

G Drive

Greenshot

G+ Auto back-up

Tom Tom

Sony 

No doubt there'll be games and some other odd bits and pieces but that is a significantly shorter list than the one I would have made six years ago.

One matter troubling me slightly is how I can transfer the huge amount of photos and music I have accumulated. Need to give some thought to that. I used a little cable six years ago which worked a treat but I have a feeling it might not work with Windows 8.

I shall write again with progress on the move. As almost everyone else in the world will have moved ages ago this may not be the most vital of articles but I just want to store all this for the record. In years to come we'll look back and grin. Or grimace.

XP and from one scary message to another

OK. I admit it. I am still using Windows XP on a desktop. There, it's out now. I am so bad / lazy / unconcerned / old-fashioned / stupid [delete as appropriate to fit whichever news article you read]. Microsoft's support for the operating system stopped yesterday. I now get a warning when it starts and the Microsoft Security Essentials flag icon in my tray has turned red. Add to that a mass of articles and it is difficult to ignore the fact that XP is no longer 'supported'.

So, all credit to Microsoft in a sense for a massive increase in their name being mentioned everywhere. It is quite remarkable just how many people have stuck with Windows XP over the years. Vista really did not appeal and the press were critical at the time, Windows 7 initially seemed like a slightly fresher version of Vista (although it was a considerable improvement) but didn't seem that big a deal when XP was still managing fine and, having used both a lot over the years, I genuinely didn't see much difference in performance and decent protection kept systems running and free from nasty bugs etc. The years passed and Windows 8 definitely didn't appeal visually. I have had lots of clients, friends and colleagues call me up to ask for help with quite simple things with Windows 8 where, basically, they couldn't figure out what to do whereas they had been quite adept in earlier versions. That put me off upgrading too. I would have liked the more efficient system and anything that's faster and more secure is welcome but the interface had no appeal whatsoever and I dreaded the thought of being a beginner again!

So here I am. Still running XP on my desktop, which I use daily for all sorts of stuff. I do have Windows 7 on an ancient laptop but that is so slow and clunky in many ways that it's not a pleasant to use at all and it hasn't moved for many months. The main alternative machine is a Chromebook. That's is brilliant but I still need quite a few bits of software for drawing and web design that I can't do on the Chromebook. There are apps and they're improving all the time but I would struggle without my Serif, Dreamweaver and one or two other bits of software.

I will have to take the plunge into the Windows 8 ocean soon and have been looking at some new kit but, in the meantime, I thought I should do something about the dire warnings of imminent disaster. Microsoft do say that they'll keep updating the virus stuff in Security Essentials for another twelve months but that doesn't stop the flag being red or the warnings bout the 'system' not being updated. I think that means that if there is another hole discovered in the operating system code that allows people to wander around inside your files and steal data then Microsoft will not be fixing it. I understand that. It's fair enough. You buy an old car and accept that it may not do everything it should. Once the guarantee's up, you're on your own, even if they made a mistake when manufacturing it. You do get the feeling though that Microsoft are not so bothered and might not put much of an effort into protecting us old XP folk. They may update virus definitions or they may leave them for a while. Who knows? There may be more income-generating things to do. Now, I'm sure they won't deliberately put my files at risk but I don't feel comfortable and that damned red flag keeps reminding me of the fact.

So, as an interim solution for my nerves if nothing else, I downloaded Avast! a free anti virus programme that I remember using years ago. There are a few alternatives out there. AVG gets good reviews too as do some others. As with many free programmes, though, you need to be alert. Attempting to download from one quite reputable news site, I find a screen where I have to choose some add-on on the way. I cancelled that and went direct to Avast!'s own site. That was better and avoided the extra programmes. On the way you may need to untick some browser extensions or add-ons but there's nothing significant to worry about. I am not at all sure this will give me any more security at all, just more system resources being used up and an occasional scary message from some woman coming through the speakers, but I feel a bit better.

Now, back to deciding between a Shuttle and traditional desktop...

Short cuts and help with Windows 8

PCAdvisor have published a great list of helpful short cuts and ways to make Windows 8 do what you want it to. I'm adding them here because I just know I'll need quick access to many of them before long!

And, by the way, Windows 8 Pro is - at the time of writing - available for download from the Microsoft site for just £24.99 so don't get fooled by salesmen telling you it's worth more to justify a silly price tag for kit where it's already installed on a device.

First, some commands which all use the Windows key which is normally located on the bottom row of the keyboard somewhere. On mine it's to the right of the Alt Gr button (which you've probably never used!)

Press (Windows) to enter the tiled Start screen.

(Windows) + M 

minimizes everything that's showing on the desktop.

(Windows) + E 

opens Explorer for quick access to folders.

On the Start screen, press (Windows) + D 

to instantly get to the desktop.

(Windows) + Tab 

opens a list of currently running programs.

(Windows) + Print Screen 

takes a screenshot and saves it in a Screenshots folder nested in your Pictures folder. 

To take a screenshot on a Windows 8 tablet, simultaneously press the Windows button and the volume-down button on the tablet chassis.

(Windows) + Q 

opens a global search menu. Type what you're looking for and where you would like to look.

(Windows) + W 

opens a search in your system settings to quickly locate and change system properties.

(Windows) + F 

opens a file and folder search.

(Windows) + Pause 

opens the system properties page to show you a quick rundown of your specs.

(Windows) + "," (that's the comma sign!) 

makes all current windows transparent, giving you a peek at the desktop as long as you hold down (Windows).

(Windows) + "." (the period) 

snaps a window to the right or left side (toggling each time you press ".").

(Windows) + R 

prompts the Run commanduseful for quickly launching apps and other routines with a command prompt.

(Windows) + X 

opens the Quick Access Menu, exposing system functionality such as the Command Prompt, Disk Management, File Explorer, Run, and more. It's perfect for people who Start Menu. Alternately, you can right-click on the bottom right corner of the screen to spawn the Quick Access Menu.

(Windows) + I 

opens the settings menu, giving you quick access to the Control Panel, Personalization, and your Power button, among other features.

(Windows) + O 

locks orientation on devices with an accelerometer.

Zoom in tight

The Start Screen is full of nice, big, chunky tiles that represent all your apps. The tiles are easy to see in small groups, but what if you have hundreds of apps installed? Most will be hidden from view, unless you want to do a lot of scrolling. Enter the new semantic zoom feature. If youre using a touch display, simply squeeze the Start screen with two fingers to receive a birds eye view of your entire screen contents. And the feature is also available to mouse and keyboard users: Simply hold down the Ctrl button, and use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out.

Categorize your apps

Your Start screen can become a cluttered mess if you collect too many apps and other elements that have been pinned to the screen as tiles, so take advantage of built-in organization tools that let you divide everything into labeled groups.

First, drag all the tiles you want to assign to a single group to the far right-hand side of your Start screen in vacant territory; the OS should sequester the tiles together. Once you're satisfied with your assembly, use semantic zoom (described above) to get a bird's eye view of your desktop. Now right-click the group (or simply drag down on it) and select the "Name group" option on the left of the bar that appears below. Type in the name and enjoy your newly organized Start screen!

Close an application

Closing an app sounds simple enough, but you'll quickly notice that close buttons are hard to find in Windows 8. That's because Microsoft encourages us to run apps in the background where they'll take up minimal resources, but still be accessible at any time.

Nonetheless, if you insist on being rebellious, you can close an app by dragging it with your mouse or finger from the top of the screen all the way down to the bottom. As you drag, the app will miminize into a thumbnail, and when you reach the bottom it will disappear from view. Alternately, you can still close apps via Alt+F4 and through the task manager.

Centralized, contextual search

The Search function located on the Charms bar is packed with power, letting you search the directories of not only your Windows 8 machine, but also the greater Windows ecosystem. Simply choose the bucket of data you want to sift throughit could be all your installed apps, your system settings, your files, your mail messages, or even an external service like the Windows Store or Bing Mapsand then type in a keyword and hit Enter. The Search function will then return the results, perfectly contextualized for the database youve addressed

Oh, and how's this for cool: You don't even need to hit the Charms bar to access Search. From the Start screen, simply start typing, and you'll be quickly whisked to the text-entry field for search queries. Try it. It works!

Adjusting privacy settings

A lot of apps tap into very personal information by default. Indeed, your pictures, location and name are libreally woven throughout the system, and like many users you may not be comfortable trusting your machine with that much sensitive data. To adjust the settings, press (Windows) + I, and go to Change PC Settings. Select the Privacy option and personalize the settings for your personal data there.

Adjust SmartScreen settings

SmartScreen warns you before running an unrecognized app or file from the Internet. While it's helpful to be aware of a file's source, constant warnings can also get a little annoying. By default, you need an administrator's permission, but this can easily be adjusted to just a warning or no indication at all. Using the magic search function described above, type "security" at the Start screen and find the "Check security status" in the Settings tab. From this area, you can adjust various security settings, including the Windows SmartScreen.

Quick Access Menu

Right-clicking on the lower left of the screenwhether youre in the Windows 8 Start screen or in the desktopwill bring up the Quick Access Menu, which enables a direct line to many key system management chores, including Disk Management, Task Manager, Device Manager and Control Panel.

Use Windows 8 apps and your desktop simultaneously

Because the Windows 8 experience is split between new Windows 8 Store apps and old-school desktop apps, the operating system is prone to some strange behaviors. Case in point: When running a multi-monitor set-up, Windows 8 apps will consume your main screen, leaving your secondary screen running the desktop. This arrangement would seem to allow full-screen multitasking among both types of appsa modern app on the left side, a desktop app on the right sidebut this isnt the case. Indeed, as soon as you begin using the desktop on your secondary screen, the new-style Windows 8 app disappears, and your primary screen begins running the desktop.

But heres a workaround. On your primary screen, use the new Windows 8 split-screen snapping function to run the desktop and a new Windows 8 Store app together. The desktop can take up the left-hand sliver, while the Windows 8 app consumes the majority of the screen. Now use your second display for a full desktop view. In this arrangement, you can fully multi-task between new-style apps and desktop apps, and both windows will be large enough to be useful.

Startup items are now on task manager

You no longer have to run the MSCONFIG program to change startup items. Startup items now show up in a tab on Task Manager. Simply hit Ctrl+Alt+Del and select Task Manager. Click the "More details" tab at the bottom and find the Startup tab at the top.

Share and share alike

Windows 8 is Microsofts first social media-aware PC operating system. Using the Share button located on the Charms bar, you can pick any number of elements from your Windows 8 Store appssay, a location from your Maps app, a news story from the Finance app, or a even a contact from your People appand then distribute that item to friends via other Windows 8 programs.

Perhaps most conveniently, you can quickly sharing a photo via email or Twitter, or to your own SkyDrive or Windows Phone. The Share button is contextual, and the more you use it, the more youll discover which apps share with each other, and which dont. (Hint: None of your desktop apps offer sharing opportunities through the Charms menu.)

Create a picture password

Using a picture password is a fun way keep your device secure while not having to remember a complex password. To enable it, press (Windows) + I to get to the settings charm. Click "Change PC settings" at the bottom right, and go to the Users tab. Under "Sign-in options" will be the "Create a picture password" button. This will give you the option to choose any picture, and then define three gestures anywhere on the image. Your gestures can be circles, swipes and clicks.

For example, to set a picture password for the image above, you could click on the highest palm tree, draw a circle around the island, and then swipe down from the lens flare in the upper right. Just beware: The direction of each gesture matters! After confirming it a couple times, your picture password will be set.

Boot to the desktop without an app

One of biggest complaints about Windows 8 is that it boots straight to the Start screenan annoyance for many committed desktop users. The Start8 utility helps you avoid this indignity (among other cool features), but you can actually boot straight to the desktop without installing anything extra.

Go to the start screen and type in "schedule" to search for Schedule Task in Settings. Click on Task Scheduler Library to the left, and select Create Task. Name your task something like "Boot to desktop." Now select the Triggers tab, choose New and use the drop-down box to select to start the task "At log on." Click OK and go to the Actions tab, choose New and enter "explorer" for the Program/Script value.

Hit OK, save the task and restart to test it out!

Log in without a username or password

To speed up the log in process, you may want to disable the username and password log in screen. This can be done by opening the run windowwhich you can do by hitting (Windows) + Rand typing in "netplwiz" to access the User Accounts dialogue. Un-check the box near the top that says "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer." Click OK and enter the user name and password one last time to confirm your choice, and you are all set for easy access to your system.

Refresh your PC

If your system is feeling a little sluggish, it may be time for a refresh. In the past we would have to find our copy of Windows 7, back up all of our data and perform a fresh install to enjoy that back-to-factory-fresh feeling. But now Windows 8 allows you to perform a fresh install from within Windows without losing any data.

In order to perform the refresh, go to Settings and click the Change PC Settings tab near the bottom. Select the General tab and find the "Refresh your PC without affecting your files" section near the middle (you may also select "Remove everything and reinstall Windows" to get the true factory settings treatment). Select "Get started" and press "Refresh." After a few minutes the PC will restart and you will have a fresh copy of Windows 8.

Start in Safe Mode

Safe Mode is a great way to get into your system when something won't allow you to start up normally. Troubleshooting becomes a breeze when corrupted drivers and files aren't loaded that prevents a system from functioning. It used to be as easy at pressing F8 when the system starts up, but doing so with Windows 8 will take you to the Automatic Repair mode. The trick to getting back to good old fashioned Safe Mode? Hold down the Shift key and press F8 while booting up.

This takes you to the Recovery mode. Select "advanced options," then "troubleshoot," then the "advanced options" again (there are a lot of advanced options). Select "Windows Startup Settings" and finally the "Restart" button. This will reboot the computer and give you the option to boot into Safe Mode.

If you need to get into Safe Mode from within Windows, open the dialogue box ((Windows) + R) and type "msconfig" (no quote marks). Select the "Boot" tab and check the "Safe boot" box. The system will continually boot into Safe Mode until you go back and uncheck the box.

Turning Live Tiles on and off

When looking at the plethora of tiles on your Start screen, the view can get stagnant, despite all the pretty colors.This is where Live Tiles come in. They offer real-time data right on your Start screen, and you don't need to open any apps. For example, the Weather tile will show you the current conditions, and Mail will show you the subject of the latest message you've received.

You can customize which apps are live and which aren't by right-clicking on the tiles. A settings bar on the bottom will pop up with an option to turn the Live Tile on or off. Simply select the preferred option, and you're all set. Note, however, that not all apps have a live, real-time data streaming option.

Windows games folder

Currently, the games folder used in Windows 7 isnt present in Windows 8. Fear not, if you install any current-generation PC game that would regularly save to this folder, it's automatically created. For a quick way to find it, right-click on the game icon on the Start screen and choose Open file location at the bottom.

Family safety

Want to avoid some nasty surprises on your credit card? Create a separate, standard account on the device for your kids (Family Safety can't be applied to an administrator account). You can activate Family Safety by going to the Control Panel, User Accounts and Family Safety and selecting the account you would like to apply it to. From these settings you can get reports on the accounts activity, set a level of web filtering, set time limits and enforce Windows Store, game and app restrictions.

Shut down with one click

Windows 8 hides the Power button in the Settings menu, forcing a multi-step process just to shut down one's PC. But thanks to a crafty shortcut trick, you can pin a Shutdown button right to the bottom of your desktop. Here's how.

Create a shortcut on your desktop (right -click, go to New, then Shortcut). Enter "shutdown /s /t 0" (with no quotes, and, yes, that a zero not an "O") as the location of the item, and hit next. Now name the shortcut (prefereably "Shutdown") and hit Finish.

Right-click the shortcut and navigate to Properties. Choose "Change Icon" in the Shortcut tab, and OK out the warning box. Choose an icon of your choice from the list. In the screenhot above, you'll see we chose a Power button.

Right-click the shortcut again and select "Pin to Start." You can place the icon on your Start screen wherever is convenient. Hitting it will instantly shut down your computer.

Read more: 

Grateful acknowledgments to the original article authors Jon Phillips, Alex Cocilova, Loyd Case | PC World | 2 November 12

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga. Very cool but you just know it'll be expensive!

Lenovo's promo video for their great-looking IdeaPad Yoga range coming our way 'soon'. The 13" screen Yoga 13 will be the one to go for unless you're willing to take a chance on whether your favourite applications will run on Windows 8RT with the Yoga 11. The Lynx K3011 has the most boring name but seems to be the only model that splits so that it can be just a tablet, rather than folding or twisting to achieve the same thing. Battery life looks very impressive at >11 hours too, with a 11.6" screen, possibly second choice and all look very good ways to resolve the laptop-or-tablet debate.

The blurb specifies Windows 8 Pro for the 13, Windows 8RT for the 11 and Windows 8 for the Lynx. I just have this feeling that they're not going to be at all cheap. There's that video to pay for too. That girl looks so much like someone I used to know, not that that's got anything to do with the product, although it will make me want to find out more. 

Time For A New Desktop, Laptop Or Tablet? First thoughts.

Once upon a time if you wanted a computer you really had just two choices: something big with lots of parts and cables or something portable. A desktop or a laptop. That made decisions fairly easy. Now, life is much more confusing.

There are still desktops and laptops but we now have notebooks, netbooks, ultrabooks and tablets or pads.

As if that wasn't enough, most of us would have only to choose between a Windows or Mac operating system and that was pretty easy - you tended to be a big fan of one of the other or there was a clear case of which best suited what you wanted to do with it and price was quite a significant factor too.

Now we have Windows and Apple's IOS but Google have now properly entered the game with Android.

Some mobile phones, or smartphones as they're better termed now, are almost big enough to be considered as a computing device option for some too but that could really get complicated with Blackberry and others in the mix.

So, with a desktop that is beginning to look and feel a bit slow and a laptop that is noisy, gets hot enough to heat the room and is unbearable on a lap for long and with little more than an hour's unplugged use, it's time to get some new kit. But what? This is a simple run through of what I've found so far. The gamers and those to whom money's no object out there will not approve of my choices, I know, but this may be helpful to those who may have been getting as confused as I have by terminology and the huge range of prices.

A desktop still has many attractions. I tend to switch one on in the morning and it runs all day, being the main workhorse that runs all the programmes I need and where all my files, especially photos and documents are stored. I am increasingly storing documents on-line with Google Drive and working copies of photos on Picasa albums on-line but it will be a long time, if ever, before everything is stored there and, even if it's just for back-up, I can see I'll need a huge local hard drive of some sort that, for a while yet, a desktop provides.

There are nice quiet systems available now which are almost unnoticeable, not that my 4 year old one is at all noisy. My son's, which had a graphics card and power supply upgrade is a lot noisier though so he'd appreciate a newer, quieter box of some sort or size.

Windows 8 would still be the only choice for me as I tend to experiment with software and the things I use regularly, like web design software, design and photo editing software and even Office-type software, albeit to a lesser extent, need Windows and I would have to replace everything if I were to switch to a Mac. With a desktop I can hang on to the decent 19" screen and other ancillaries for a while which all work fine. I would really miss the lit keyboard keys at night so definitely want to avoid losing that. To get the most out of Windows 8 reports say that a touch screen is needed so, in due course, I may have to change the screen but initial prices are likely to be high and, actually at the moment, I can't imagine myself stretching out across the desk to wipe across the screen anyway. I like the screen at quite a distance away and I'll be quite happy to stick with the keyboard and mouse for some time yet which I am sure will be more efficient for much of my more detailed work. The swipe and drag screens are brilliant on phones and clearly suit tablets but I just don't see it being much use with a desktop and I'm sure new types of mouse movements and even good old keyboard commands will do for a while yet.

Something else a desktop will do well is act as an entertainment centre. I already have a decent set of speakers so it would also function well as my CD/DVD/mp3 player and even a radio, TV and video player quite adequately.

The key requirements are a fast processor - at least Intel i5 or AMD equivalent, a graphics card that can cope with most normal requirements (I'm not too worried about the really intense games, just as long as videos and the occasional game my son will play are reasonable), at least 4GB of RAM and a simple DVD player / burner would be useful.

A decent unit from Mesh would cost under £500 for that sort of spec so that's looking good.

Just as I was writing this I discovered while looking for something else an article on PC Advisor's Stateside site where they manage to do all this for under $500 but, of course, they can build it themselves which I can't!

For those that can, though, here's the actual components that PC Advisor (in the US) used to make their own:

Processor: AMD A8-3870K 3.0GHz Quad-Core Desktop APU - $108.99
Graphics: XFX Radeon HD 6570 1GB Graphics Card - $44.99 (after a $15.99 mail-in rebate) Motherboard: ASRock A75M-ITX Socket FM1 Mini ITX Motherboard - $89.00
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory - $46.99
Storage: Seagate Momentus XT 500GB 7200 RPM Solid State Hybrid Drive - $79.99
Case: BitFenix Prodigy Mini-Tower - $79.00
Power Supply: Corsair Builder Series CX430 430W Power Supply - $24.99 (after a $20 mail-in rebate) Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD Burner - $16.99

[ Here's a link to the PC Advisor article ]
I like the sound, or lack of sound, of the new solid state drives and the idea of liquid cooling but these features are still quite expensive additions. The only thing I would like to change is the size of the flaming units. I had a lovely Shuttle about 8 years ago and iCubes offer some interesting devices which look neat and small. You can configure your own and I managed to get something with an i5 processor, a decent graphics card and 4G RAM in a new Shuttle or iCube box for about the same price as the Mesh desktop that met my requirements. That included a 64GB SSD drive which ought to help speed things along and keep the noise down too. That's not a lot of space but maybe I can figure out a way to utilise my old hard drives or spend a bit more if I can't so that's not a big problem for the benefit of the better appearance and space saving.

So for the main unit that's on all day and would do the most work, this Shuttle might have the edge.

Now, for something portable. I have been quite envious of colleagues whipping out their tablets (usually iPads) at meetings so I wondered whether there'd be anything in that line that would do what I needed.

If you need something to carry around, and to work with rather than just use on-line applications, then it will, again, need to be a Windows 8 piece of equipment. An iPad or Android tablet simply won't run any software I want to use so, attractive though devices are, they would seem to be luxury extras rather than essential tools at the moment. I need also to beware Windows 8 RT which I understand to be rather different to Windows 8 so the new Windows Surface devices don't look to be contenders either.

Something that does look attractive is the new Lenovo Yoga which looks like a laptop but the screen can slide to make it a still very thin tablet. But it looks expensive. Similarly the ASUS Transformer which has just come out, is beautifully made, with a screen that actually detaches as a 'real' tablet or locks in to work like a laptop. That's expensive too and is an Android machine so rules itself out on both counts if needed to run local programmes.

Looks like I'll have to give up on the tablet front then.

So, for the portable option, it's either a laptop, notebook, netbook or ultrabook. It may be a good idea sort these out once and for all. As far as I can gather, laptop = notebook so let's stick with laptop for now. A netbook would appear to be a small laptop, screens of up to 10" or maybe 11". They seem to be almost all Windows - one or two 7 inch running Andoid from makers I've never heard of - with a fair bit of choice but not as much as for ultrabooks. Now, ultrabook is a marketing term for a laptop that has been built to a specification set by Intel, in order to ensure a high-quality user experience. The requirements change as new chips are released and, for Ivy Bridge systems, currently include fast startup, a maximum thickness that varies according the screen size, and a battery life of at least 5 hours. So they're laptops without DVD drives made really thin and, ostensibly, with higher end processors, presumably Intel.
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Netbooks are lovely little things and could cope with day-to-day software. You'd need to use a portable DVD drive to install stuff. Most come with Intel Atom or AMD's equivalent lower end processors and integrated graphics which are OK these days but not exactly brilliant, although they'll do for most purposes. They are so small, though, that they're far more likely to be used just for checking things on the net for which an Android machine or tablet will be just as good and, with all the free apps available, offers more flexibility in terms of what you can make it do for you on-line.

I'm not too bothered about how thick or thin the device is so it looks like a fairly boring sounding, standard-size, laptop will be the answer at the end of the day, despite all the wonderful new gadgets that are coming along. One with normal Windows 8 should be fine for a few more years. 

There are ASUS laptops with i5 processors, 6GB of RAM and all the features you'd need for about £400, including better cooling and sensitivity control that prevents the trackpad working when you accidentally brush it with a palm. Something like that would seem to make sense, provided you weren't using it all day long.

This is still a bit disappointing, though. I had hoped I might find something that didn't need to be clumsily opened up and which took a while to get going while my colleagues were busy slipping out their tablets and showing each other this or that before I'd even found the start button which, of course, doesn't exist any more. In fact, I am wondering whether I can get away with hanging on to my lap burning device for some time until someone does produce a tablet at a price I can manage that does let me work on some local design software like Serif or play music without an internet connection.

That seems to mean no laptop after all. Wait and see what happens with tablets.

It does seem that most of the tablets are very much 'luxury items' by which I mean they're not exactly needed for anything. That doesn't mean I don't want one - just that I don't really need one. My Xperia phone provides a fast and smart-looking browsing experience and will play movies and whatever else I might need it to do while lying around on the sofa, in bed or in the car. So, if I do persuade myself that I ought to have one I would be inclined to ignore most of the reviews that compare them to laptops in some shape, form or another and instead just get something that has a nice display that works. Android would, I think, be essential at least until Windows populate their apps store and possibly afterwards too, with the attraction of ever-improving free operating system upgrades.

I am very tempted by a Nexus 7, though. Just £190. Even though I don't need it. I would be able to join the 'have a look at this' club.

And put some of the £300 saved towards making a really good Shuttle or iCube perhaps.