PC Help - Computer Hardware & Software Blog

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Do you sometimes I get weary of online Q&A (Questions and Answers?.Really wish you could call and speak to a human being when having troubles with software, shareware or your computer, printer and so on.

But who can you call?

Ever tried calling Microsoft or HP or whomever? Get tired of waiting on hold for someone who never comes or pushing 1 then listening to the instrucions then pushing the next button on the phone then 10 minutes later getting a recording or a hangup.

What makes the company I work for, U.S. Computer, different is that when a customer calls, we answer, we listen and we help them.

We offer our customers free phone in help (you must live in the Tampa Bay, Floirda area) and we offer vistors and customers online help http://www.uscomputer.net/internet.htm, computer related articles at http://www.uscomputer.net/portal.htm and online drivers http://www.uscomputer.net/drivers.htm, a local area blog for our Clearwater/Largo Pinellas County Store and so on.

So we decided to start this blog and invite you to ask questions and we'll try to answer them and also we ask other visitors to this blog to answer your questions.  It may take a few days for us to answer, cause sometimes our staff gets a bit overloaded with tasks.
 

So please feel free to ask questions here in this blog by posting a comment and just as free to answer questions others have submitted.

 Click Comments (below) to add your questions and comments or  Read articles & news in our free products & services web portal

Computer Shareware Blog

Experiences and comments about shareware, the problems, the benefits.

I use shareware more than I use conventional software. But like regular software shareware has its problems, and can even have problems that don't exist in conventional software.

What is shareware?

 (3) has some features crippled or (4) some combination of 1, 2 and 3.

In addition there may be demo shareware which demonstrates some of the features of the software but demo software is not shareware unless you can add a "key" (you pay for the key) and activate the demo to a full version.

I use shareware more than I use conventional software. But like regular software shareware has its problems, and can even have problems that don't exist in conventional software.

Who writes this stuff?

Instead of being written by some large company, most (but not all) shareware is written by folks just like you and me.
 
In a way thats better because they have a personal interest in pleasing you and making sure you say good things about their product.

Howoever, there are more and more large companies offering "trail" versions of their software, including such giants as Microsoft and Symantec.

How do I get shareware?

You can search on shareware using Google or other or just visit some of the online shareware sites like  SoftSavers.Com (one of our stores which offers daily deals at 50% off), MySharewareStore, download.com and others.
 
Most shareware can be downloaded free but some larger programs may need to be shipped (or are more practical if shipped especially if you have a lower speed internet connection).

The version you download free normally has some restriction as noted above. When you buy it the author will send you a "key" or code to "unlock" the trial version and make it a "full version". In some cases the author will send you or let you download the full version.

Problems with shareware:

Some shareware titles contain ads, adware, spyware and other noxious software. If you are going to use shareware you need to have on your computer working and updated: (1) antivirus (paid versions such as one of the following: Norton Antivirus, PC-Cillin, McCafee, Computer Associates, Panda work best, (2) anti adware/anti spyware/ anti worm software such as Microsoft's free antispyware.

Other problems include the software not being fully windows compliant and causing bugs on your computers performance, the author retiring (giving up and failing to support the product), plus all the ordinary problems you can have with any software such as difficulty removing the software when you want to remove it.

Visit the shareware author's website and see if the author states there is no adware, etc. in the software. See if the software contains proper removal tecnology (see below).

Is shareware as good as commercial software?

Some of it is, some of it is not. Thats why you have to try it before you buy it!

I could ramble on forever but I would like to have readers fill in their experiences... 

Please add your own comments about shareware below!

USC Staff

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Computer Software Blog

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Computer Hardware Blog

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Blog it here!

Computer Driver Blog & Links

Do you know what a "driver" is? It's not just another one of those buzzwords people use to impress you, every computer hardware device in the world has some sort of "driver" associated with it..

Why is that you say?

Well let's say you build a device that prints and call it a printer. The printer has no idea how to communicate or talk to (1) a PC (IBM compatible computer (2) Mac compatible computer or (3) any other computer or (4) network or other device.

A driver is a software routine that handles communications from/to a device and from/to a specific type of computer.

But of course computers themselves need drivers so they can talk to you. We call those drivers "Operating Sytems" and give them labels such as Window, Mac, Unix, etc. Operating Systems are the ultimate main driver of machines we call computers and "Drivers" refers to the smaller device driver software routine that let a device talk to the computer and the comuter talk to the device.

Got all that? Not sure I do.

Sometimes a Driver doesn't work properly and the manufacturer of the device or a third party "updates" the Driver to a newer, usually better and often faster and more efficient, version. So from time to time you may want ot check to be sure you have the lastest version of the Driver.

Or you may buy a device and have no way to get it to talk to your computer.

So you need a driver do you? There are a lot of places on the web that let you download drivers including Microsoft who offer a very large list of drivers to make their Windows operating systems work well with just about any device.

We'd sure like to have you add your comment about your experinces with drivers or links to drivers below....

Read more articles & news in our web portal and add your comments below