-
I love mechanical keyboards.
Here’s a few opinions based on my research on the subject and my personal experience. There might be something better out there, but it is a good start for someone who doesn’t want to go to the trouble of researching the subject and wants a great keyboard.
Those with Cherry MX brown keys have a great feel and are good for a mix of gaming and typing while being not too loud. They are a bit like Cherry MX blue but quiet.
I actually love the loud clicky sound of the Cherry MX blue keys, which is best for typing according to many. I would rate those as the most satisfying in terms of feel.
I just bought one keyboard with Cherry MX red keys. Those are linear, not bumpy, faster keys, apparently better for gaming, but more prone to errors while typing. They seem to be the best mix between speed and not accidentally triggering a key during gaming. There are other keys like black or silver, but none seemed to be actually worth it vs red. I wanted to try the red to see the different feel and see if I can actually type faster without making more errors. Some people do. I think I prefer the feel of the brown and blue, though, even if red might be faster for typing if you are good at avoiding errors. Maybe I just need to get used to the feel.
As for other brands of keys than Cherry, I didn’t research them because I did most of my research a while ago and what was good is still good, although there might be some better keys now. Durability is a more important factor for me and I know Cherry MX keys are durable. Some high performance keys might not be as durable.
N-key rollover means how many keys you can press at the same time. I indirectly learned what it was by playing World of Warcraft a long time ago and being unable to play properly because I had too many keys to press at the same time and a lot of keyboards are limited to registering not that many keys pressed at the same time. Full N-key rollover might be a desirable feature for you. Sometimes it might only be available on the PS/2 connector if the keyboard supports both PS/2 and only supports 6 keys on USB. Check carefully.
As for looks, I strongly prefer a very neutral, no frills, professional looking keyboard with no RGB lights and no gaming look. I don’t need programmable keys or media keys and I want 3 lights to know if numlock, caps and scroll are activated, all of this at a reasonable price.
I got a Rosewill RK-9000 v2 in the past the fit that bill. It was a great price for a good quality keyboard with full n-key rollover on PS/2, although the caps are ABS and not PBT. ABS keycaps can become shiny and get erased faster than the double shot PBT keys, which are textured and more durable. My keycaps are shiny in many places, but I still can see all the letters very well. Unfortunately, Rosewill now seem to only make more gamer looks keyboards, although maybe the RGB can be turned off.
My last purchase is the new Filco Majestouch 3 which has PBT keys, full N-key rollover on USB, wired (I didn’t take the bluetooth version). It is an upgrade to the Rosewill at a reasonable price and fits all my criterias above.
Those two keyboards are full-size keyboards. Many people now and ergonomics specialists will say to get a smaller keyboard (tenkeyless) so your mouse is closer to you and it strains your wrist less because it stays straighter to your body. I am of the school of thought that you should avoid using your mouse as much as possible while working (learn those keyboard shortcuts, you will work so much faster) and I use the numpad a lot, so my choices of keyboard are full-size ones. If you game a lot or use your mouse a lot, you might be better served with a tenkeyless keyboard.
While we are on the subject of keyboard, I might add a comment about mouses. I researched mouses after being mad spending money on gaming mouses for first person shooters that stopped working after 6 months because they double-click when you click once. I found out most recommended gaming mouses have “performance” switches that don’t last and start double-clicking even if they brag about a high number of clicks. So I bought inexpensive Steelseries Rival 3 and 5 for gaming that doesn’t have these keys and they still work perfect after more than 2 years.
Last, I only buy wired products. They cost less and they, at least when I researched a while ago, offered better performance for time-sensitive gaming. You might have good reasons to avoid wires so the models I suggested here might not be for you, but I hope it gives you a better idea what to get. The Filco has a bluetooth version.
1 user thanked author for this post.
-
Some registry tweaks I do. For Office 2016, change the 16.0 to the appropriate number for another version.
; Deactivates the ability to sign in in Office 2016. To reactivate, just set the value to 0
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\SignIn]
“SignInOptions”=dword:00000003; From 2 to 0 to deactivates external files access and sharepoint integration
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Internet]
“UseOnlineContent”=dword:00000000; deactivate the start screen for all Office apps
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\General]
“DisableBootToOfficeStart”=dword:00000001; deactivate the annoying animations
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Graphics]
“DisableAnimations”=dword:00000001; prevents always asking to save even if you didn’t change anything when you open a file from an older version of Office
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel\Options]
“FullCalcOnLoadOldFile”=dword:00000001 -
-
“If you want to take advantage of the best and brightest ideas coming out of Microsoft’s Windows team, that means Windows 11.”
The problem is they are far outweighed by the worst and dumbest ideas that reduces my productivity and implies the need to use third party tools to tame a bit of them. I also absolutely refuse to endorse their requirement to use a Microsoft Account on the Home version.
In addition, none of the improvements you mentioned are really compelling to me and I am sure I am not alone feeling that way.
Indirectly presenting staying on 10 as a risky move in terms of security doesn’t seem reasonable. 10 is supported right now and you can always upgrade later before support ends unless Microsoft change their mind about the free upgrade, but I would think they would announce it before. 11 might have better security features you did not talk about, but are they usable for Home versions users and are they useful for them that much in real life right now?
They should focus on adding or refining useful tools instead of deprecating them : imaging, partitioning, easier way to save and copy all settings for small businesses, easy low-privilege sandboxed browsing with any browser, etc.
I say stay on 10, and upgrade at the last minute when support ends to send the message to Microsoft that their ideas are not good.
6 users thanked author for this post.
-
-
Thanks, Will. However, you didn’t talk much about the new Ipad, which seems to be a nice improvement over the previous model, just by glancing at it. Having the new bigger screen without the button and large bezels is not a small thing.
Wi-Fi 6, USB-C, A14 processor (not that useful of an upgrade maybe for the target market but we’ll take it), a better rear camera not many people will care for.
Now, it would be interesting to have a comparison of features between this one and the Air now that the screen isn’t as much different than before. I bet the regular Ipad will continue to be the tablet of choice for most people, even more, except that it is pricier so maybe less attractive to the budget consumer that was happy with the lower price and would not pay more for the new extras even if they are nice improvements. But what’s the alternative?
1 user thanked author for this post.
-
As someone who have been close to the action in our not so small business managing Iphones without MDM, I can bring an opinion that might be of interest to some here.
We use Itunes on Windows a lot for backing up. I am not a cloud person. Evolution will likely make dinosaurs like me disappear, but for now, it still works fine for us that way. Itunes worked very well for backups. You just put a password with the Itunes backup in Itunes so it includes your passwords in the backup as well. It is a simple process then whenever you plug your phone, it backs it up.
Using the Microsoft store version of Itunes has brought issues, so maybe that is what some are experiencing, because it is pushed and you might not have noticed you changed versions. In our case, it couldn’t synchronize to Outlook anymore. The solution was to click around the suggested update to use the traditional desktop version of Itunes.
The problem with Itunes backup is the rare occasion it doesn’t work when it is time to restore. So I suggest having more than one backup in case one doesn’t work. One could argue this is enough to not rely on Itunes for backups, but in my experience, I had restore issues once in a while with pretty much all backup software I used when you bring some volume because it seems statistics ends up catching up on you, be it for PCs or something else. I think I also saw an iCloud backup issue once helping someone, so maybe Itunes isn’t the only solution that isn’t perfect anyway.
Although I still back up using Itunes, last refresh of devices, I used the OTA method to copy the old phones on the new ones. I must say this: it is true that upgrading a fleet of Iphones for a small or medium business that manually manages everything is a relatively painless experience, nothing like upgrading to new PCs. It feels as if it almost perfectly works like it should have worked all along: you upgrade the hardware, but the software is almost all moved from the older device to the new one, then you just wipe the old one and give it to someone you love so it starts a new life. No need to manually install the new PC, change all the dumb settings that Microsoft puts by default and then copy your stuff. It is almost as transparent as it can get. Hear this Microsoft: I still keep my PCs as long as I can, but we change our phones every 3 years because battery gets less good with usage and the process is so easy I don’t mind us putting a few hours once every 3 years to have everybody have the new hardware, but no new software to learn because we already use it. It makes Apple sell more phones. It just works. Get it?
It is true you need to be careful before wiping that some apps don’t transfer their data. Google Authenticator, you need to use your old phone to export the data it contains to the new one once you copied your old phone on the new one, but it is painless. If you don’t use iCloud like me, you might have to reenter some info in some apps, but for the most part, I found it just works. I suggest not wiping your old phone too fast and checking all apps after the update to the new phone to make sure everything works.
Now a few things to keep in mind. The OTA upgrade needs your new phone to be on a version of IOS that is equal or more recent than the one your are upgrading from. The quality of your wifi connection matters, plus maybe how busy Apple servers are. It doesn’t work great in my experience if you try to copy your old phone to your new one if it isn’t already up to date. It will try to update, but then it might hang or not work when trying to update the new phone to the latest IOS prior once the copying has started. The solution is get your new phone out of the box, set it as a new phone, upgrade it to the latest IOS version, wipe it as a new phone than start the process of copying your old phone to the new one.
Never leaves your wifi while upgrading. I thought the fact that the two phones were close to one another and maybe using bluetooth made it so I could leave and let the update finish in my car. Not. It will just stop and do weird things and you will have to restart from scratch.
The process can be painfully slow. You should do it when you have plenty of time to leave your phone unused for a while and do something else without stressing about what is going on. Sometimes, it is quite fast, sometimes it takes a few hours, but it doesn’t require you and the result is still great: you have the same phone you had with a much more powerful hardware once it is finished if you let it complete.
I’m pretty satisfied with Apple’s way of doing things. It is not perfect, but they keep going in the right direction. I also love that they don’t force the new IOS anymore, but allow you to continue receiving security updates on the older version until things stabilizes. This is perfect for me. I always wait until the latest IOS is the only version offered to update to it. I experienced much less upgrade pain issues since Apple has started doing this. Reliability is up a lot because of that. Iphones issues are not a subject I talk about much anymore. Apple also sends security updates to older devices unable to run the latest version. That’s great.
Now if they could just be a little bit more transparent about the fact that an older device is secured well enough or not and send a notification when they stop patching them enough to keep them at around the same level of security than newer devices, that would be best. Right now, we don’t know if they only patch the most critical security issues or not on devices running much older IOS versions. There is just still a bit too much unknown about how safe are older devices running an older IOS version and whether this version is still patched or not and how much.
2 users thanked author for this post.
-
A quick googling of it brings up https://www.ghacks.net/2022/08/21/windows-11-version-22h2-taskbar-changes/, and according to this link, it is not likely to satisfy critics and certainly not me.
The lack of an ability to use quicklaunch like previous versions of Windows is quite bad. I never liked the Windows 7 launcher who hinders productivity vs the way Vista and before were working. I think Microsoft should simply offer a choice between the old more productive Vista way and the later maybe cute but inefficient Mac like way.
Having taskbar icons displayed as text at the bottom when opened is also very important for me for quick selection and I think it wasn’t possible with Windows 11 when I tried it a few minutes before replacing it with 10 on a new PC.
Also, can taskbar open windows be not combined at the bottom?
The changes seem again gimmicky and an insult to the intelligence of users, like when they pretended they fixed the Start Menu on Windows 8 while not really fixing it.
2 users thanked author for this post.
-
-
Thunderbird is great to manage emails. I love it and have been using it at work for years. The quick filter is awesome. I literally have more than a million emails on it and it handles them flawlessly and fast.
The problem with Thunderbird is its calendar and contacts synchronization. We lost so much time trying to make it work. It sucks and when it seems to work, then you discover weird issues, like doubling your invites or other.
Instead of changing the UI, the devs should really focus on making it work well with Google Calendar and other popular solution to become a real professional alternative to Outlook.
For all others who doesn’t need this synchronization, I highly recommend it.
3 users thanked author for this post.
-
-
Maybe the answer is yes and no? A user software on Windows can do everything a user can do, so unless you prevent running of any unapproved code, you could end up with malware that does pretty bad things even if it doesn’t run with administrative privilege.
What is most precious on a PC, the OS portion or the user files? Sure, the OS portion might allow a deeper infestation but for some, when all their files have been encrypted or if they have been spied on and their passwords stolen, the OS might not have that much value left and you would reinstall from scratch or restore everything from a backup anyway.
Don’t get me wrong, UAC was a great first step by having less software running with admin rights, but if you let any code run in user mode, you still have an open door. I think that was the point Simon made.
Enterprise tools like Applocker can prevent this, but it is not available on lower editions of Windows. You could use SRP or something like the hardened mode of Avast (which I found pretty useful for some scenarios when configured properly) to prevent unknown code from running.
Again, and I will sound like Susan because I think she is right on this, SMBs and home users get the short end of the stick with security as if it wasn’t important. A locked down ecosystem like IOS with a store that vets bad apps a bit can help, especially if you add a MDM that can prevent installation of unapproved apps. In that sense, Windows security is very old school compared to contemporary OSes where security is much stronger by design, especially considering that most people run only the same few apps. When I think about a standard Office PC with not much else than Office and Windows, it doesn’t make much sense to let anybody install whatever they want if you care a lot about security.
And I still don’t understand why with so many great features Windows could develop aside from centering the start menu button, they don’t make it very easy to be able to run any browser in low-integrity mode where it can’t write anywhere except the download folder.
Last, it was pretty depressing to read the very knowledgeable Mr.Brian here a while ago reporting that user code software could patiently wait to hijack an elevation prompt to get administrative rights by using special techniques, so it reduces the usefulness of UAC which has apparently never been presented in an official technical way as a way to truly run with limited rights like with the root/user distinction on Unix/Linux. Still, there is no denying that it improves security by the fact that it blocks some dumb code and force software to be less demanding in terms of access. Any progress is still progress.
2 users thanked author for this post.
-
-
-
To be honest, I am so used to right-clicking, I was only looking at the options from the context menu. I already knew it had disappeared after having read about it and I was just appalled to see it with my own eyes. It never occurred to me there could have a workaround on that right screen that I didn’t even see, being focused on the context menu that popped. In any case, it isn’t intuitive for someone used to the other way. But I am not that particular about things, so now that I know about this, you can remove that deal breaker from the list. Thanks to you.
Funny I read people complain about that a couple of times, but never saw your tip.
1 user thanked author for this post.
Author
