Operational System Differences – Linux/Windows/Chrome/Mac OS X

No matter whether we have used or not, we must have heard these four operational systems, Linux, Windows, Chrome and Mac OS X. Maybe there are many opinions or deep understanding about them.  So in this passage, I just introduce every operating system simply and make a summarization about differences between operating systems. And express my opinion about how to choose one suitable operational system for oneself.

1st OS: The older operational system – Linux 

Linux is a free operational system with all of functions included in UNIX. Stable performances, high

efficiency and flexibility make it become popular for almost of computer hobbyist to learn, research, and modify computer operating system kernel. And this is why computer users like to use Linux.

But to be more, Linux is just the kernel. It is still difficult for common computer user to install and run it on computer. Because Linux traditional user interface is command interface based on text.  And why it is different to computer hobbyist? There are mainly two reasons.

1. Linux is like free software.

Anyone doesn’t need to pay for it to get its original code and computer user could modify it according to their purpose. Free use and transfer it freely.

2. Linux includes all of functions of UNIX.

So for people who want to learn UNIX or use UNIX, Linux is the best platform.

Therefore, for computer hobbyist, there are still advantages in Linux.

1. Openness.
2. Multi-user and multi-task.
3. Friendly user interface.
4. Device independence.
5. Kinds of Network function.
6. Safe system security.
7. Good portability.

Now see the differences between Linux and Windows/OS X:

1. In development history, Linux is developed from a relatively mature operational system. And Windows is designed newly and independently.
2. In cost, Linux is free. And Windows and OS X have to be paid for.
3. In usability, Windows and OS X are friendlier than Linux for common computer users.

2nd OS: Google special operational system – Chrome OS 

Chrome OS is open operational system based on Linux, designed for netbook. Actually, Chrome OS
is Web operating system. Most of data and files are dealt with on Internet. So how is Chrome OS?

• There is no “User” in Chrome OS. Google account will be used to login into Chrome OS instead of “User”.
• Network is needed when you access Chrome OS. Not like Windows, login Windows with user and do work on Windows computer without network are available.
• Chrome OS looks like a Chrome browser. No data are saved on local computer. All of them are stored in Cloud. And all of system applications are Web applications.
• Because of lack of local file system and desktop, security of Chrome OS is no match for Windows.
• Just about few seconds are needed to boot Chrome OS, but about a minute to boot Windows.
• Less demand in PC computer power if you use Chrome OS.

Even though there are so many advantages in Chrome OS, some questions are still asked usually. For example, Chrome OS couldn’t be used when no network is available? Is Chrome OS free? PC users only install Chrome OS? To respond to these problems, Google also says, they will make progress in Wifi, data encryption, access Google Docs offline. But these would take time to achieve.

So if you want to experience how Chrome OS works, install Chrome browser to experience is a good choice.

3rd OS: Most humanized and comfortable operational system - Mac OS X 

Mac OS X is designed especially for Mac series products. Based on UNIX, it seems to be simple and full of innovation. Mac OS X is friendly-use and it can be handled once people begin to try to use it.

So now see why we choose Mac OS X?

1. System interface is beautiful than any other operational systems.
2. Easy-of-use. Anyone could learn to use Mac OS X instantly. And it is no need to install other third-party software.
3. More safe. Because of no need of downloading third-party software, netbook is not so dangerous.
4. More stable.

Generally, it is not necessary to adjust system programs.

But why it is said Mac OS X is not suitable for general computer user?

• Mac OS X is special operating system only provided by Apple. It is hard to find one and install it.
• Lots of software available for other operational system is not available for OS X, such as games software. So its compatibility is not so good for general computer user.

So we can see the differences between Mac OS X and Windows. Try to understand why Windows is more suitable for common computer users and Mac OS X is not. And there is no doubt that Mac OS X is good operating system actually.

1. Mac OS X runs faster than Windows.
2. Mac OS X is more stable than Windows.
3. Windows is better than OS X in compatibility.
4. Mac OS X is hard to be poisoned than Windows because its fewer users and less chances to get touch with third-party software.
5. It is easier to realize double system in Windows computer than Mac.
6. Mac OS X is more humanized than Windows. But people who use Windows could become computer experts, but not for Mac users.

4th OS: Common operational system –Windows 

Windows is one operational system which is used widely both for persons or corporations. From the above introduction, we could see, its easy-of-use and compatibility are two main reasons. Now let’s see the advantages of Windows:

1. Intuitive and efficient object-oriented graphical user interface

Windows user interface is object-oriented. It works with way “Choose object – Operate object”. For example, we choose document first with keyboard, and then choose “Open” button in right-click menu.  It imitates behaviors in real life, so it is easy to understand, learn and use.

2. Unified and friendly user interface

Most of Windows programs meet standard of Common User Access. All of these programs have the similar appearance, including window, menu and toolbar. As long as user handles one of them, there would be no problem to use others.

3. Rich and device-independent graphics operations

Windows GDI provides rich graphics operations functions. So we can draw different kinds of graphics and different kinds of output devices are supported. 

4. Multi-task

Windows permits user to run different kinds of tasks in the same time. Every program would run in window. Computer user could move these windows to change program running in different time.

Related articles:

• Comprehensive analysis of Windows system activation methods
• Three Major Differences between Windows 8 and Windows 7 – Security/Design/Version
• Configure Windows 7 Security Settings and Deployment
• How to Improve Windows 8 Picture Password Security

Comprehensive Analysis of Windows System Activation Methods

With disappear of Windows XP on PC, Windows 7 and Windows 8 are becoming more and more popular for computer users. Especially with the development of technology and popularity of PC tablet, more and more people have installed Windows 8. But whatever, Windows system activation is still common problem after installation all the time.

In generally, if having purchased Windows full version, just type product key to activate Windows operational system after installation. If not, it is necessary to read this article, because three different kinds of Windows system activation methods are introduced.

• Method 1: Activate Windows with activation tool
• Method 2: Activate Windows with key online
• Method 3: Activate Windows system by phone

Method 1: Activate Windows with activation tool

Windows activation tool is a special way for computer users to activate Windows operational system. Because it is free, and Windows could be used and updated for a long time after activation, and when it becomes unavailable, just need to activate Windows with tool again. So a lot of computer users choose to activate Windows with tool.

How does activation tool work for Windows activation?

Windows activation tool could activate Windows because it makes full use of KMS (Key Management Service). Bypass Windows full version verification with fake KMS server.

Naturally, there are several kinds of tools designed for Windows system activation. For example, Microsoft Toolkit is one of them available for Windows and Office 2013 activation.

Receive detailed introduction about how to download Microsoft Toolkit and activate Windows 8 with it, turn to: How to activate Windows 8 Pro without product key

Such Windows system activation tool could activate Windows 8.1/8/7/Vista and Windows server 2008/2012(R2) too. Moreover, Windows will keep activated for 180-days and receive updates from Microsoft like Windows full version.

Method 2: Activate Windows with key online 

This method would be available when you have purchased Windows system full version and have a product key. After Windows installation, check computer properties first and activate Windows then.

Detailed steps are introduced below:

Step 1: Check computer properties.

•  In Windows 7 and previous Windows systems, right click “Computer” and choose “Properties”.
• But in Windows 8, we should move the mouse to the right upper side of start screen.  Charm bar appears and choose “PC info”. Windows activation status is shown in the bottom of PC information window.

Step 2: Activate Windows with product key.

•  In Windows 7, click “Instantly activate Windows” and “Activate Windows online now”. And then type Windows product key.
• Or in Windows 8, click “View details in Windows Activation” and “Activate with a new key”. Type “Product key” and click “Activate” bottom. 

In few minutes, there will be a message prompting that Windows is activated.

Method 3: Activate Windows by phone 

In order to make Windows activation available without network, Microsoft also provides another way to activate Windows, such as activate Windows by phone. This is one method that most computer users take into use.

But apparently, activate Windows by phone is more complicated than activate Windows online. When we meet the problems below, we should use phone to activate Windows instead.

1. Network is unavailable or there are some activation errors.
2. Hardware has been changed before reinstalling Windows.

Now we take Windows 8 activation by phone as example. The following will introduce two ways to activate Windows 8 by phone.

First way to activate Windows 8 by phone:

1. Press Win + X and menu appears. Click “Command Prompt (Admin)”. Type in command “slmgr.vbs –ipk Product ID”. Press Enter and it will prompt that whether this Product ID has been installed.

2. Install Windows Product ID

If there has been Product ID in your Windows, unload it first with command “slmgr/upk”.

And then access PC info window, a new option “Activate Windows by phone” appears. Click it and choose Language “United States” in new pop-up window.

3. Make a call to activate Windows

If you have chosen “United States” in Language option, suggest you installing Skype to make a free call.

We can see there are 9 groups of number and input box from A to H9 in the page. What we should do now is to send these 9 groups of number to Microsoft service hotline with activation call. And then type 9 new group numbers received from Microsoft in input box. Click “Activate” and wait for few minutes. At last, messages about whether Windows has been activated successfully will be prompted. 

Second way to activate Windows 8 by phone:

1. Press Win + R to open Run dialog, type slui.exe 4, press Enter, and go to next step.

2. Click/tap on the drop down menu, select the nearest location to you for a toll free number to call, then click/tap on Next.

3. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes.

4. Follow the instructions below and phone.

Step 1: Call the toll free activation phone.

Step 2: Enter the ID numbers on your phone keypad when asked to do so over the phone.

Step 3: Enter the confirmation ID numbers given to you over the phone into the "Windows Activation" wizard.

Step 4: When finished, click/tap on Activate.

5. If activation was successful, then all are done.

If activation failed, then you will be told that activation cannot proceed. DO NOT hang up. Wait to be automatically transferred to a Microsoft Activation Team operator that will go through these steps again to help you activate Window 8.

The above are the comprehensive activation methods after Windows first installation. No matter whether you have a key or not, there must be one way available to activate Windows computer effectively.

If this is Windows reinstallation and there is not a product key. The operation is not too different. But if we want to activate Windows online directly, it would be impossible. Even though, because of Windows reinstallation, another chance becomes available. That is find product key with Product Key Finder first before reinstalling Windows. And then activate Windows with product key online.

Related articles:

• Analysis and Comparison of Windows 8/8.1 Activation Methods
• How to Activate Office 2013 without Product Key
• How to Find Windows 8.1 Activation Key
• Windows Server 2012 R2 Activation Key Recovery Finder

How to Make Windows Computer Faster or Perform Better

Question: How to make Windows computer faster or perform better?

Believe that to run Windows faster is the hope of every computer user. It makes work and entertainment smoothly. If you have ever used one computer more than years and have not done any Windows optimization, you could feel how important fast Windows operational system is.

Be positive and optimize Windows system by yourself every once in a while. It is not as difficult as you think.

Answer: There are some general optimization options for Windows operating systems, such as Disk Cleanup, Disk Defragment etc. Even though they are, we should have different and effective Windows optimization for different Windows system according to their system features. 

• Optimize Windows 7 to run faster
• Optimize Windows 8 to run faster

So in the following passage, let’s see the general and basic Windows optimization we could do.

1. Disk Cleanup

Disk Cleanup would delete files in Windows you don’t need. This is the most familiar option we could make our Windows run faster. Click “Start – All Programs”, and find “Accessories – System Tools – Disk Cleanup”. Select the drive you want to clean up and click “OK”. Choose “Delete File” in the pop-up dialog. The selected file would be deleted in Windows.

Tips: This applies to Windows 7. There would be some differences in operation in Windows Vista/8/8.1. 

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/delete-files-using-disk-cleanup#delete-files-using-disk-cleanup=windows-7

 

2. Disk Defragmenter

Disk Defragmenter is to defragment the fragment created during computer use. The main purpose is to free more disk space and improve computer performance and running speed.

The operation of Disk Defragment is similar to Disk Cleanup. When you find “System Tools” in the menu, choose Disk Defragment. And then select the drive you prepare to recombine. Click “OK” and “Analyze disk” button. A dialog would pop up to ask you whether you want to defragment it. Click “OK” to go on. If you have never recombined disk, it would take about several hours, but if you do this often, about ten minutes is enough.

3. iSunshare System Genius 

iSunshare System Genius is the professional Windows system optimizer which enables you to clean up the system junk files and invalid registry entries, manage the startup programs and more. It is compatible with all Windows systems. You can use it to free up space for hard drive and make it run faster than before with the following video tutorial: 

4. Other Windows Optimization Methods

Besides the above two basic Windows optimization options, other small options also are effective for making Windows faster. For example, clear system temporary files, clear Internet temporary documents, and clean boot options to speed up the boot and shutdown could let programs run faster in Windows 8/7.

Articles related to hard disk:

• How to Partition Disk for Windows 8 with Disk Management
• How to Create, Delete or Format Disk Partition in Windows 8 Computer
• Principles of Hard Disk Data/File Storage and Format
• How to Prevent Programs from Opening on Windows Startup

How to Optimize Windows 7 to Run Faster

After you have run Windows 7 for a long time, or you have just installed it on your computer, it is necessary to optimize Windows 7 to make computer run faster. These works would make efforts on your daily life, work and entertainment.

Now let’s discuss how to make Windows 7 run faster on four aspects.

1. Unload System Components
2. Close Useless Services
3. Shut down part of the desktop effects
4. Optimize system startup

1. Unload Windows 7 System Components 

Close unnecessary components, makes your Windows 7 run faster.

There are many components or tools that we rarely use or never use. For example, network service like Windows Media Player, IIS and Telnet are not used often; some built-in games have not ever used. If we are sure they are not useful for us, unloading these system components or tools would let Windows system more relaxed, and Windows system will run faster to some extent. Speed improved from unloading components would not come true by third-party tools.

Because all these tools and components are not found in Control Panel, most of computer users don’t know how to delete them. Actually the method is easy.

First, open Control Panel – Uninstall a program, and choose “Turn Windows features on or off” on the left side of window. Second, a new window “Windows Features” would pop up. A filled box means that only part of the feature is turned on.  If you want to turn a feature on, select its check box. To turn a feature off, clear its check box. Click “OK” button to unload these Windows 7 features. 

Tips: In different versions of Windows 7 operational system, system components are not the same. Table PC, Windows Media Center and Windows DVD Maker only appear in Windows 7 home premium and above versions.

If you want to turn one Windows feature on, open “Windows Features” window again and select its check box, and click “OK” to save Windows changes.

2. Close Windows 7 Useless Services 

In Windows 7, a lot of services are used to support Windows running default. These services will take up lots of resources when they run. So if turn off these services when we don’t need them to run some Windows 7 features, Windows could be optimized reasonably. Windows running speed will surely improve.

Right click “Computer” and select “Manage”, “Computer Management” window appears. Choose Services and Applications – Services, all the services on this computer system would be seen. Double click the services you prepare to close, in the General – Startup type, you could see Win 7 four kinds of startup ways for services, Automatic, Automatic (Delayed Start), Manual and Disabled.

And “Automatic” and “Automatic (Delayed Start)” are the two reasons leading to Windows system startup slowly and disk running right along. Generally, we could set some services “Manual” according to “Description” of them. So the services will not start up when we boot computer.

3. Shut down part of the desktop effects

Besides above system components and services, some desktop effects also take up Windows resources. Especially when computer configuration is low as a whole, Aero Peek and Desk Composition would become a huge drag on system performance.

Right click “Computer” and select Properties – Advanced system settings – Performance – Settings. Clear check box of “Enable desktop composition” and click “OK”. 

Tips: This way will speed up Windows 7 and you still could experience Windows 7 effects at the same time.

4. Optimize Windows 7 system startup

Windows 7 optimization could be made on Windows system startup too. Type in “msconfig” command in Start Menu, and open “System Configuration”.  Click Boot – Advanced options, and select “Number of processors” and “Maximum memory” and set it as optional value maximum. Click “OK” and reboot computer following prompting messages.

 

Except introduction above, lots of Windows default fonts also take up some Windows resources. Deleting some fonts you don’t need is an effective way to make Windows 7 run faster. And at the same time, you would get better experience when using Word, Excel and PPT etc Office software.

More articles about Windows optimization:

• How to optimize Windows 8 to run faster
• How to make Windows computer faster or perform better

Related articles about Windows 7:

• Configure Windows 7 security settings and deployment
• How to reset admin password on PC Windows 7
• How to get Windows 7 reset disk without access