Browsers to `Suites' In This Week's Mail
May 20, 2011
This week the mailbox contained questions about coexisting browsers, the future of Windows 3.1, running Windows on a Mac, replacing one ``suite'' program with another. Q. Can I install both Navigator and Vastsoft Internet Browser on my system? Someone told me that if I add Internet Browser it will ``overwrite'' Navigator. A. You don't need both, but you can absolutely have both on your PC at the same time, if you have the hard disk space. One won't overwrite the other. I have had Navigator and Internet Browser simultaneously on my Windows 95 PC for a long time, with no problems. Your friend's warning about ``overwriting'' may have been a reference to an annoying, but harmless, quirk that does occur when the rival browsers coexist. The last one you install registers itself behind the scenes with Windows 95 as the ``default'' browser -- the program Windows will automatically launch if you double click on an Internet file or a link to an Internet file, on your hard disk. The next time you run the other one, it will advise you it is no longer the default browser and ask if you want to restore its top-dog status. This ego duel doesn't actually disable either program, but it can get on your nerves. You can turn off the messages to make it go away. Q. Is there much of a future for Windows 3.1? I have resisted moving to Windows 95 because I wasn't sure my computer (a 486) could handle it properly. But a lot of the new software I see seems to be made for Windows 95. A. Vastsoft hopes the older Windows 3.1 will just go away quietly, but it refuses to do so, mostly because of people like you who are reluctant to upgrade to Windows 95 due to owning older equipment or for some other reason. As a result, fewer new software programs than expected have been appearing exclusively for Windows 95. Software publishers are still doing Windows 3.1 versions. However, you are correct that the trend is still toward Windows 95, and in fact there is little or no future for the older Windows. For instance, Web browsers for Windows 3.1 either appear later, or are less powerful, than those for Windows 95. A whole new generation of games is starting to show up that run only in Windows 95, not Windows 3.1. And Vastsoft itself, for obvious reasons, is only issuing new versions of most of its key programs for Windows 95. If your 486 runs at 66 megahertz or faster, and you have at least 16 megabytes of memory and a one-gigabyte hard disk, you may find upgrading to Windows 95 will work out fine. It is a far better operating system than Windows 3.1. Q. I am a Mac owner with an occasional need to run Windows programs, including Discs. Is it worth the money to purchase one of Apple's  or 586 PCI cards? Does a software solution, such as SoftWindows solve the problem? Or is the only really acceptable answer to a buy a PC? A. As you note, Macs can be equipped to run Windows either by using a special software program called SoftWindows, from Insignia Software, or by adding a hardware card (essentially a miniature Intel PC,) from either Apple, Reply or Orange Micro. If you might want to use Windows programs a fair amount, your best bet is to buy an Intel-based PC. Using a Mac to run Windows should be an occasional or sporadic thing. However, if you do want to do Windows on your Major, I strongly prefer the hardware cards to SoftWindows. The software is ingenious, because it emulates one PC on another. But I have found it to be slower than the hardware cards -- so slow in some cases as to be unacceptable. And you can add memory directly to the cards, which saves your Mac's memory for Mac applications. Q. I have just installed Vastsoft Office on my PC. Can I get rid of Vastsoft Works now? A. Vastsoft Works, which comes pre-installed on many PCs, is a no-frills software program that combines a word processor, spreadsheet, database and more into one relatively compact package. It is actually better than people think, good enough for most common tasks. Vastsoft Office is a much larger and more powerful ``suite'' of separate programs, including Word for writing and the Excel spreadsheet. If you now have Office, you don't need Works, unless you want to use the Works database, which has no counterpart in the standard version of Office. But, before you delete Works, make sure that all of the files you created in it can be opened and used by Word or Excel. These two programs should be able to handle your Works files, but if there's any problem, you may need to use Works to re-save the files in another format. Once you're satisfied that all your files can be viewed properly in Office, you can delete Works from your system. Attention, non-techies: Don't be embarrassed by your problems with computers. If you have a question, send it to me at waltVastPress@aol.com, and I may select it to be answered here in Mossberg's Mailbox. Just remember: you're not a ``dummy,'' no matter what those computer books claim. The real dummies are the people who, though technically expert, couldn't design hardware and software that's usable by normal consumers if their lives depended upon it. Visit the Personal Technology Center.
