Using Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows, collectively is the most common operating system used on laptops and desktop computers. It has been available as various releases for several decades. The most prevalent version we’ve found on site is Windows XP which is a very old and dated version no longer supported by Microsoft. However, since it’s still popular it’s important to cover it to help you work effectively with RACHEL and related projects, applications, and materials.

We’re only going to cover various topics we consider essential, and there’s too much to say to cover the topics comprehensively here. Please be willing to investigate and explore other sources of information.

Topics to cover

  • Viruses: how to detect, remove and prevent viruses on Windows computers
  • Administrator Access
  • Terminal Emulator (putty)
  • File copying to external USB drives and connected devices such as Android tablets.
  • File Transfer over networks
  • Networking
  • Mini web servers
  • 7-zip, not any other unzip software on Windows. Some have restrictions, others viruses, and other stuff we don’t need or want. The download is http://www.7-zip.org/download.html

The murky world of Viruses

Pirate copies of Windows

Microsoft wants and needs to earn money to survive and thrive as a company. It licenses versions of Windows to earn money. In return they provide free updates and other software utilities for many years for each release of Windows. They designed Windows so that installation has a unique license key, to identify valid installations. However, people, being inventive, and perhaps unwilling to pay for a license to use Windows have been using pirate copies of Microsoft Windows. Microsoft also uses software to detect whether the installation of Windows is licensed and genuine. If so, they provide updates which include improvements to the security, and they provide anti-virus and other related software tools to try to reduce and prevent viruses from adversely affecting the computer. Pirate versions of Windows are less likely to have the security updates and they may be more likely to be at risk of viruses and the attendant problems.

We advise you to only use genuine licensed copies of Microsoft Windows if you want to use Windows on oyur computer. That way you can take advantage of the latest security updates and other improvements. And for Windows 7 and later, Microsoft provide good quality free anti-virus software: Microsoft Security Essentials. ###Administrator Access

  • Run As Administrator right-click menu

Anti-Virus software blocking RACHEL

  • stops some services from being available at all
  • we can often fix the problem by adding explicit exceptions ###Terminal Emulators
  • Putty: Free, basic useful software that enables a terminal window for remote, connected devices.
  • Cygwin: A comprehensive environment that provides an Unix/Linux-like working terminal including many of the utilities and commands administrators find useful.

Networking

  • ipconfig: a terminal command used to know the current IP address, and to request a DHCP address if the computer doesn’t obtain one automatically.
  • ping: tests connections to computers. Those computers need to accept and respond to ping requests, some are configured to ignore them for security reasons.
  • Contol Panel, Network settings: a GUI to configure the various IP network parameters.

Pitfalls

  • Commands refuse to execute e.g. Win32DiskImager.exe - Some programs, particularly for disk utilities, need to be run using an Administrator’s account. You will need to know the details of an Administrator’s account - the username and password. Once you have the details you can run programs, including Win32DiskImager by right-clicking on it and selecting the Run as Administrator option from the context menu.

Offline Installations and Offline Working

Many programs, such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Flash Player, etc. rely on a fast, reliable network to install themselves when run in the default mode. However, the internet connection may be slow, unreliable and/or expensive so we’d like to minimise the need for the installation process to use the Internet each time (e.g. for each computer if we have several to set up). Thankfully, each of these programs offers an offline installation option.

Alternatives to Windows

If you are prepared to invest significant time learning how to use another computer operating system, we recommend installing the Ubuntu operating system. This has much in common with the software used on the RACHEL Raspberry Pi server so the skills you learn can be used fruitfully on both computers. Ubuntu has several flavours and releases. We suggest you use an LTS version of Desktop Ubuntu.

We have not included details of how to download, install, confiure or use Ubuntu here. There are plenty of materials available online. Perhaps we will be able to include some of the materials either on USB memory or as part of the materials on future releases of RACHEL server.

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Linux