Windows vs Linux - The Auotmated System Restore feature.

About a week ago, I installed VMware on my Windows7. I did this to run Windows7 and Linux simultaneously as required in the NetTech Course-curriculum. However, when I installed VMware a Dangerous virus program disguising itself as an Anti-Virus program got installed. I had the VMware Setup in a pen-drive which was circulated among 3-4 colleagues before I used to setup on my system. Hence I am not sure where the virus came from!

It changed my Desktop Image; blocked all my programs and flashed a message - 'Your system has been attacked by viruses and trojans, please upgrade the anti-virus software'. I was surprised because I never installed an anti-virus since I first installed Windows7. The anti-virus program had blocked all other programs. I couldn't run any program and the anti-virus software took me to a webpage asking for my VISA-card credentials to get rid of the viruses found by the self proclaimed anti-virus program.

Since I was not able to run any program - I couldn't use task manager nor msconfig. So I restarted the system in Safe Mode. As expected the Virus (or the anti-virus software) didn't attack me this time. I used msconfig to check out all non-Microsoft services but when I restarted the system again, I found that the problem persisted! It was then that the System Restore feature in the Advanced Boot Options of Windows came to my rescue. I simply went back to a previous stage.

I clicked the following  pics of the whole process (which was very painless and user-friendly):

I was glad to see the message after the process was completed which read - "System restore completed successfully. The system has been restored to 08-02-2011. Your documents have not been affected." I was glad to see this message, since I had moved a lot of files after installing VMware.

As for the anti-virus program and its cousin viruses, trojan and spyware - they were all gone! Now, I was able to run all the programs; and all this happened without any authentic ANTI-VIRUS program. I was reminded of the times when I used to format my system every now and then for such petty issues.

I installed licensed Windows7(from my MSDN Visual Studio Premium Subscription) on my new Laptop in June 2009. Since then I have never installed an anti-virus program nor have I formatted my system. I use multi-boot with the following Operating Systems:

• Windows7 Ultimate Edition
• Windows7 Ultimate N Edition
• Windows Web Server 2008
• Windows Server 2008

For sometime I also had Linux Distros - Ubuntu, Granular, and Fedora. making it a total of 7 Operating Systems.

You know what's ironical? People still say -

• Windows in not secure!
• There's no recovery tool and system rollback for Windows!

Windows vs Linux - Almost everything you do in linux you can do equally efficiently in Windows.

With all due respect to  Linux, Linux Distros, Google, Open Source Communities, Open Source Lovers and Developers, Linux User Groups and NetTech team, I would like to say that Windows indeed is a wonderful Operating System and when it comes to GUI and approach to user comfort its much better than Linux, as it makes almost everything a cake walk for an average user.

I have heard people talking about Linux and compare it with Windows. I regularly hear these statements:

1. Its Command Prompt that makes Linux special. 
2. If you can work with linux you can work with any OS.
3. Linux is smart since its case sensitive when it comes to commands and directory/file names.
4. One can do 'this' with/in Linux but not with/in Windows.
5. Windows is for dumb users
6. Windows is Dumb!
7. etc etc

Well, let me ask you a few questions:

1. In this era of advanced User Interface Design do you really want to work all time with command prompt? I agree its fancy sometimes, but all times?
2. This is the time of surface technology, LCDs and touch-screens you still want to sit and type commands instead of using the advanced GUI features?
3. Do you really know Windows well - when you put up claims that 'This can't be done in/with Windows'?
4. Do you not understand that Windows and Linux are simply two different ideologies?
5. If everything is same on Linux and Windows would you not complain that Windows has copied from Linux?
6. Does an average user care about how exactly the command works? Just like these days we use IDEs (Integrated Development Environment) instead of the command line compilers and debuggers, what's wrong in using a full featured GUI provided by Windows?
7. Would you say that people should begin everything from scratch - lets say for example websites instead of using templates and/or tools like Wordpress?

I have observed that people who make these statements are (most often):

• People who do not have much idea about windows. 
• People who do not like to pay for software and/or Operating System.
• People who just want to promote Linux(for their own benefit) and the best way to do that it so criticize windows.
• People who feel more comfortable with command prompt and traditional computing facilities and are either afraid or reluctant to explore the new world.

So my dear friends let me make it very clear that Almost everything you do in linux you can do equally efficiently in Windows!

I've decided to post a series of blog-posts on the same. Stay tuned and you'll see for yourself how things can be done, how windows have made everything look so simple and how beautiful windows really is!