Many people have the misfortune to use PCs that are
years past their sell-by date, and waste far more time than they
are worth. However, most PCs can be improved with a few simple
changes.
First, upgrade the memory. Having run Windows XP in 128Mbytes, I
now think it is crazy not to have 1Gbyte. Cost? About £85. If you
can find £165, XP flies in 2Gbyte. The extra responsiveness really
does make a difference.
We used to joke that IBM stood for Install Bigger Memories, and
it is a lesson that has survived at least 40 years.
Second, get a bigger screen. There is plenty of research to show
that information workers are more productive if they have more
workspace, and LCDs now mean almost everyone has enough room for at
least a 19-inch screen.
There are plenty of options for less than £200, although you
might want to pay £250 for an ultra-sharp model.
Some users have already moved to 24-inch or even 30-inch LCDs,
while others think it is better and/or cheaper to have two or even
three 20-inch screens instead. It all depends the type of work
employees are doing.
Third, add more storage, particularly for e-mail. The biggest
aggravation in some offices is created by pressure to reduce
storage space, and it is a terrible drain on productivity. Hard
drive space costs about 40p or less per gigabyte.
It really does not make sense to have people spend half a day
saving 10p worth of disc space, no matter how badly they are paid -
apart from the fact that random e-mail deletions mess up your audit
trail.
I have already seen one generation of IT managers lose their
users: we just went out and bought our own PCs. Some of the current
generation of IT managers are also losing their users because now
they are defecting to Googlemail and other online applications
which are free.
Fourth, upgrade the browser to one that offers page zoom, such
as Internet Explorer 7, Opera, or Firefox with an extension.
Most web pages seem to be designed by people who are between 12
and 25 years old, which means many people over 40 will find them
hard to read. Many web pages use tiny text that is often printed on
confusing backgrounds.
Clicking the bottom right corner of IE7 lets you blow the whole
page up to a legible size. Unfortunately it does not actually blow
up the designer.
Fifth and last, install some kind of desktop search utility.
Most people waste huge amounts of time trying to find files, and
desktop search makes it simpler.
Windows Vista is a useful upgrade from this point of view, but
Yahoo's X1 is a free download for the more technically aware, and
Google Desktop Search is a killer application for millions.
Maybe these tips do not apply, but we have all had the same
fundamental problems for decades: cannot find stuff, cannot see
stuff, cannot read stuff, cannot keep stuff. They are all
productivity killers, so there is a real payback if you can improve
them.
Jack Schofield is computer editor at The Guardian
Jack Schofield's blog
Hybrids give sluggish PCs the boot
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