Windows Tips and Tricks for Mac Users
————————————-
by Kevin van Haaren kevin @ vanhaaren.net

FROM:
TidBITS#826/17-Apr-06

http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-826.html
ftp://ftp.tidbits.com/issues/2006/TidBITS#826_17-Apr-06.etx

—–
It has been possible to run Windows in virtual machines on Macs
for many years. However, with the recent switch to Intel chips
and the beta releases of Apple’s Boot Camp and Parallels
Workstation for Mac OS X, interest among Mac users in running
Windows has expanded significantly. This article is intended
to help new – and perhaps even long-time – users of Windows with
a few tips I’ve learned over the years of suffering at the help
desk of a Windows-using corporation.

http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08494
http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/
http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=08495
http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/mac/


**Licensing and Activation** — If you own an old Windows PC and
hope you can move that computer’s Windows license to your shiny
new Boot Camp-enabled Macintosh, or even a virtual machine,
you may be out of luck.

OEM (original equipment manufacturer) versions of Windows XP,
such as those that came with a system, have different end-user
licensing agreements (EULAs) than the retail versions of XP.
Many of these EULAs do not allow transfer to a different system.

To complicate matters, Windows XP has a mandatory activation
process where the installation must be “approved” by Microsoft
within 30 days of installation. If you install an OEM version
of Windows XP on a Macintosh, the activation may not work.

http://www.gripe2ed.com/scoop/story/2005/10/11/030/82390

Retail versions of Windows XP do allow transfers to new
systems, although you will still need to run through the
mandatory activation and may need to spend some time on the
phone with Microsoft explaining what you are doing. You can
view the EULAs for Microsoft’s products at the Web site below.

http://www.microsoft.com/legal/useterms/

**Installation** — I have only three tips for installing Windows
XP, and Mac users who are not used to the evils of the Windows
world should pay particular attention to them.

* Do not connect your computer to the network until you
have Service Pack 2 installed.

* Use a strong password.

* Install remaining patches once connected to the network.

For a Boot Camp installation, leave your network cable
disconnected. For a virtual machine installation, you should be
able to disable the virtual network card manually in the machine
settings (Virtual PC does this, I’m not sure about other products
such as Parallels Workstation). If in doubt, disconnect the
network cable from your computer.

Windows XP is notorious for being infected immediately after a new
installation, before the user has time to install system patches.
Windows XP Service Pack 1 installations have been reported
compromised in as little as 4 minutes after being placed on
a standard DSL connection.

http://www.avantgarde.com/xxxxttln.pdf

If your Windows XP installation CD does not include Service
Pack 2, use your Mac to download the standalone Service Pack 2
installer (a 266 MB download). You can use this to install SP2
prior to connecting to the network. If you use a slow dial-up
connection, Microsoft will mail you a CD for free.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=
049c9dbe-3b8e-4f30-8245-9e368d3cdb5a&DisplayLang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/

Once you have installed Service Pack 2, be sure to visit
Microsoft’s Windows Update to download the patches released
after Service Pack 2. You may have to reboot and reconnect to
Windows Update several times to ensure you have all the patches.
Windows Update requires Internet Explorer.

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/

If you will be doing numerous Windows XP installations, to many
machines or just repeated installs on your own, you may wish to
build a custom install CD with patches already included on it.
The nLiteOS and Bart’s PE Builder are popular tools for building
specialized Windows XP boot CDs.

http://www.nliteos.com/
http://www.nu2.nu/bootablecd/

**Additional Security** – Always leave a firewall turned on,
whether that’s the built-in Windows one or third party software.
This is a good idea even if you’re computer is behind a hardware
NAT firewall. The Windows firewall acts more like Little Snitch on
the Mac, informing you of each program that attempts to access the
network. This is good for finding spyware that was installed with
a downloaded application. Two popular third party firewalls are
Zone Alarm and Kerio Personal Firewall. Both offer feature limited
free versions as well as paid versions with more features.

http://www.sunbelt-software.com/Kerio.cfm
http://www.zonelabs.com/

Microsoft’s Malicious Software Removal Tool should have been
installed as part of the Windows Update during installation.
This tool is not a replacement for a full-featured anti-virus
package, but it can be helpful in removing hard-to-purge malware.
It is updated once a month.

http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/

**Anti-Virus** — Speaking of viruses, you definitely want
to install an anti-virus package. With the thousands of
Windows viruses in existence, anti-virus software is a mandatory
requirement for all Windows XP installations. I am not personally
fond of the packages produced by big name vendors such as Symantec
and McAfee; however, if you work for a corporation that licenses
one of these products, home use versions are frequently available
for little or no cost. I prefer Grisoft’s AVG product; home users
can get it for free.

http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/global/
http://www.mcafee.com/
http://www.grisoft.com/
http://free.grisoft.com/

**Spyware Removal** — Be sure to install spyware detection and
removal software. Most anti-virus products and firewalls do not
block spyware installations. Some spyware is maliciously installed
via deceiving Web pages, but quite a bit comes bundled with free
applications. Unlike the Mac world where most free applications
are just that, in the Windows world free programs are frequently
ad-supported software: they download ads from the Internet and
display them to you. There is nothing wrong with this business
model (Eudora has offered an ad sponsored version for a long time
and never been accused of being spyware), but unfortunately some
adware vendors install ad software that:

* Is not removed when its host software is uninstalled
* Hijacks your Web browser
* Can cause crashes due to bugs
* Displays ads all the time
* Tracks the Internet sites you visit

This type of abusive software can be difficult to remove.
Two popular tools for removing spyware are LavaSoft’s Ad-Aware
and Safer Networking’s Spybot Search & Destroy. The Personal
edition of Ad-Aware is free of charge to home users. Spybot
Search & Destroy is free for all. You may wish to install both
products and keep them updated. Frequently one application will
catch something the other won’t.

http://www.lavasoft.de/
http://www.safer-networking.org/

Also, be wary of other malware removal tools. Some are actually
spyware installers rather than uninstallers.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Spyware/?p=802
http://www.spywarewarrior.com/rogue_anti-spyware.htm

**Alternate Web Browsers** — Internet Explorer is one of
the biggest security holes in Windows XP. I highly recommend
installing an alternate browser. Firefox is probably the
most popular Windows browser after Internet Explorer. Opera,
a popular browser on the Mac, is also available on Windows.

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/
http://www.opera.com/

**Other Utilities** — So far, most of my suggestions have been
about protecting and securing your new Windows installation.
What follows are utilities I’ve found useful in actually
accomplishing tasks in Windows. Although a ton of free utilities
are available for Windows, many of them can be completely useless,
or worse, buggy or infected with spyware. Finding software you
trust can be tricky. Be sure to dig around for suggestions from
other Windows users.

* Working with Zip Files: Like Mac OS X, Windows XP includes
built-in functionality for working with Zip files. However,
if you need extended features like disk spanning you might want
to look at some of the other Zip programs available. StuffIt is
also available for Windows and can expand StuffIt archives created
on the Mac (resource forks are skipped, but if the file is usable
on Windows, like Word documents, the resource forks are probably
unnecessary anyway).

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;306531
http://www.winzip.com/
http://zipcentral.iscool.net/
http://www.stuffit.com/

* Media Players: Windows XP comes with Windows Media Player by
default. QuickTime is also available, but unfortunately Apple
decided to make the default installation of QuickTime include
iTunes. If you already use iTunes on your Mac, you may not want
it running in Windows XP on the same Mac. If you dig around you
can find a QuickTime-only installer from Apple.

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone.html

Other popular media players include Nullsoft’s WinAmp for audio
files and VideoLAN’s VLC for video media. Note that Windows XP
does not include a DVD player by default.

http://www.winamp.com/
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Google includes the Google Video Player in its Google Pack
software collection. The Google Video Player is required for
watching videos purchased from Google Video.

http://pack.google.com/product_info.html?video

* Working with Photos: Also included in the Google Pack collection
is Picasa, a free utility similar to iPhoto.

http://picasa.google.com/

* Working with PDF: Like the Mac, the free Acrobat Reader
is available for reading PDFs on Windows. However several
alternatives are available for both creating PDFs and reviewing
and editing PDFs. The University of Wisconsin has made several
PostScript and PDF handling utilities available under the GNU
Public License. These utilities can be used for viewing, printing,
and creating PostScript and PDF files. CutePDF offers a free
PDF Writer tool for creating PDFs.

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/
http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

**Brave New World** — Thousands of Mac users are undoubtedly
experimenting with Windows XP via Boot Camp and Parallels
Workstation right now, but we all need to remember that Windows XP
isn’t just Mac OS X with a different look and feel. In particular,
it’s essential to maintain good security practices at all times,
something that’s not second nature to many Mac users. I hope these
hard-won tips will ease your initial explorations into Windows XP,
and that you’ll be able to make the most of the additional
flexibility of running Windows while being able to stick with
the familiar face of Mac OS X for everything else.

—–
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