Soft District

Opening Control Panel and using the Add/Remove Programs applet to remove software from your computer is something really easy, but many computer users moving from Windows XP to Vista are shocked by the lack of this applet in the later operating system. Obviously, Microsoft didn't remove this tool, but due to the changes that took place in the Control Panel, it's a bit harder to find now, so please allow me to show you the way...

- Press the Start Orb, then click on Control Panel to open it.


- In the Control Panel, locate the Programs applet, and click on it.

- Once the new window opens, watch the first item - Programs and Features.

- To open the uninstaller, click on Uninstall a program.- In the list of installed programs, select the one that you want to remove, and click Uninstall.


- Follow the instructions on screen, depending on the program you're uninstalling.This is it, but watch the Programs and Features area carefully, because this is where you'll return to turn off various Windows features or to view installed updates, so try to remember it!

After a long string of delays, Apple's latest operating system, known as "Leopard", is only a few hours away from the official launch. There are a lot of people that expect it to become a "Vista killer", but that's what remains to be seen. Anyway, before talking about the close future, I think we should take a look into the past, first, so let's have a short history lesson, shall we?


In Apple's history, there are two different ages to talk about, when it comes to the operating systems built into their computers. The first one starts with the first OS that shipped with the first Macintosh, back in 1984, and lasts until 2001, when the last "Classic" Mac OS was released. The last period started in 2000, with the release of Mac OS X, and continues with the release that's going to occur in just a few hours...The "Classic" Era: 1984 - 1999As you can see in the screenshot below, the first Mac OS looked pretty advanced for a period when most people using computers were using only the command line. Even more, the classic Mac OS doesn't have any command line at all.

While its ease of use was the most important strong point, Mac OS was also heavily criticized for its limited memory management capabilities, cooperative multitasking and various conflicts among its own extensions.The file system used by Mac OS was first the Macintosh File System (MFS), later replaced by the Hierarchical File System(HFS).During its "classic era", Mac OS moved from 1-bit black and white grapohics to color, Apple's Color QuickDraw improved drawing routines laying the foundation of one of the most advanced graphical user interfaces of its time. A last thing that I will mention before moving on to Mac OS X is that way back in 1989, Apple's 32-bit QuickDraw was able to handle 16M color graphics, two years before Microsoft launched Windows 3.0!

The Mac OS X Era: 1999 - present day

Based on a core with roots in the UNIX world, known as Darwin, Mac OS X was first released in 1999, when Mac OS X Server 1.0 has seen the light of day, and all its versions got "names from the jungle", as I like to call them, from Cheetah and Puma, to Tiger and Leopard. It would be really interesting to see how are they going to call the next release...maybe "Lion"?

Since all eyes are on Leopard now, it's enough to mention that Mac OS X achieved the unique performance of increasing its speed with each new release, on the same hardware, while other operating systems require more and more resources (it's enough to mention Windows here, and most Linux distros also need more and more resources as time goes by, but that depends a lot on the desktop manager used).

One of the most notorious features of Mac OS X, when talking about the eye candy, is the Aqua theme, with soft edges, translucent colors and pinstripes, just like the hardware design of firs iMacs, but this is on the outside...

...on the inside, pre-emptive multitasking and memory protection improved the system's ability to simultaneously run a bunch of programs, without the fear that these applications would corrupt each other or suffer a serious performance hit, as it happens when using cooperative multitasking.

Now, let's move on and talk about what should we expect to become officially available in a couple of hours...

Prepare for the Leopard!

With over 300 new features, one of the first things that jumps up in Leopard is the new desktop, with a very nice 3D-dock that introduces a new feature called "stacks", which is practically a hierarchy of items that opens up when you click an icon from the dock.

I won't tell you anything else now about the new features, because we'll talk a lot about them in the coming days. Now, I hardly wait to see what happens and I expect to see the first impressions of the users, as they start using the new system from Apple.Available on one disc, Leopard supports both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs, being priced at $129, a single pack. Since the price doesn't look bad at all, all we need to see is how the world will react to the new Finder and all the other goodies available in the system.There are less than 3 hours remaining, and the clock is ticking... If you are really in a hurry, you can check the guided tour available on Apple's site, here. In the meantime, I'll do the same, and prepare to get back with the latest updates on the subject tomorrow, so stay tuned!

As soon as you start using Windows Vista, it's impossible not to see how many confirmations are required to perform even the most basic operations, like creating a new folder. Anyway, there's no need to worry - this is not a bug, it's a feature!

User Account Control, or simply UAC, is a new technology that was introduced by Microsoft in Vista for the first time. While its purpose is to improve the security of the operating system, for most people, the only noticeable effect is a headache, after having to go through no less than 4 confirmations for creating a folder, over and over again.

Since I just setup Vista on my new computer and I don't want to lose my patience, one of the first things I will do to customize my shiny, 3D, transparent Windows is to disable UAC. Because I am sure a lot of people also need this information, as I was saying earlier, I will share this with you... so here we go:

- Tap the Windows key+R to bring up the Run menu, and type in "msconfig". Press OK, and then "Continue".


- Open the Tools tab, and locate the option called "Disable UAC". To sort the items alphabetically, press on the "Tool Name" tab.

- Select the "Disable UAC" line and press the "Launch" button.- A command window like the one below should appear, since the task is accomplished in an instant, so simply close this window.
- Close the configuration utility, and reboot the computer so that the changes are applied.

That's it, you have successfully disabled User Account Control! To enable this feature again, simply open the configuration utility and look for the option called "Enable UAC"...