Using Windows

Microsoft: Windows 7 on track for holiday availability

chaks — Mon, 11 May 2009 22:51:04 +0000

Microsoft has announced in Tech-Ed North America 2009 that the company is anticipating the next version of its client operating system, Windows 7, will be available to customers in time for the holiday shopping season. Windows Server 2008 R2 Release Candidate (RC) will also be released to market in the same timeframe as Windows 7.

“Microsoft is committed to ensuring that IT professionals and developers continue to have the platform and technologies to drive maximum value and business results. Getting the most out of IT investments is even more important in today’s economy. With early RC testing and extensive partner feedback we’ve received, Windows 7 is tracking well for holiday availability.”

For more information, visit: Microsoft Presspass

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Registration opens for Office 2010 Technical Preview Program

chaks — Mon, 11 May 2009 22:21:10 +0000

Microsoft has announced in Tech-Ed North America 2009, that the invitation-only Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview program will be available in July 2009. The registrations are open now, for those who are interested in trying out the Technical Preview Program when it is released in July. Also a new official blog is launched for Office 2010.

You can register for the Office 2010 Technical Preview Program here to enter the waiting list for the Technical Preview invite. The invitees will be notified in early to mid July.

Preliminary system requirements for Office 2010:

Office 2010 will be available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
Office 2010 will run on Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
The hardware which is capable of running Office 2010, will support Office 2010.

The Microsoft Office 2010 wave of products, which will include Word 2010, Excel 2010, Outlook 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010, Communicator 2010, Access 2010, InfoPath 2010 and Publisher 2010 boosts productivity by giving users a familiar experience across the PC, phone and browser. For IT professionals, Office 2010 will offer more choice and flexibility in how they buy and manage their IT assets, helping them reduce costs. For developers, it will provide a platform for building innovative, connected Office-related applications with greater ease.

For more information visit : Microsoft Presspass, Office2010themovie trailer, Office 2010 blog, Tech-Ed North America 2009.

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Change your Windows 7 logon screen background with Tweaks Logon Changer

chaks — Sun, 10 May 2009 02:05:23 +0000

LogonStudio enables Windows XP and Windows Vista users to create, change and apply new logon screen backgrounds. Even though LogonStudio works for Windows 7, it is still not recommended to use LogonStudio to personalize Windows 7 logon screen background.

Tweaks.com Logon Changer

Tweaks.com Logon Changer for Windows 7 allows Windows 7 users to change the Windows 7 logon screen background with just few clicks!

Change the Logon Screen Background

To change the logon screen background, click the ‘Change Logon Screen‘ button and choose a new background image for the logon screen.

Logon Changer automatically resizes the image and file size to fit the Windows 7 logon screen background requirements by displaying a message to the user.

Testing the new logon screen

To test the new logon screen applied, just click the ‘Test‘ button.

This will lock the computer and display the newly applied logon screen. Enter your password to return back to the desktop.

Below is a new logon screen applied to Windows 7.

Reverting back

You can easily revert back to the default Windows 7 logon screen by clicking the ‘Revert to Default Logon Screen‘ button.

Download Tweaks.com Logon Changer

Visit Tweaks.com website to downlaod Tweaks.com Logon Changer for Windows 7.

The Logon Changer is compatible with Windows 7 Beta and Windows 7 RC releases.

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, windows 7, challenge windows 7, challenge response, tips, logon screen

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Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta

chaks — Sun, 10 May 2009 01:14:50 +0000

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor scans your PC for various factors and known compatibility issues to see if its ready for Windows 7.

After checking, the Upgrade Advisor produces a report which will let you know if your PC meets the system requirements and if there are any known devices and program compatibility issues.

You can also save this Upgrade Advisor report instead of running the tool again.

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor also works in Windows 7 systems and lets you know whether there are any issues upgrading to a higher edition of Windows 7. Below is a screenshot of the Upgrade Advisor run in Windows 7.

Upgrade Advisor Download

Click here to download Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. Below are the system requirements to run the upgrade advisor.

Supported Operating Systems: Windows 7; Windows Vista; Windows XP Service Pack 2

.NET 2.0 Framework or higher if running on Windows XP

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, windows 7, challenge windows 7, challenge response, windows 7 upgrade

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IE8 - Sign into multiple sessions

chaks — Fri, 08 May 2009 22:03:28 +0000

IE8 has already surprised users with many new features like InPrivate browsing mode, Accelerators, Web Slices etc., Adding to this list is the ‘New Session’ feature. This enables IE8 to open a new session which uses entirely different set of session cookies.

You can open a new session of IE8 from the File Menu as shown below in the screenshot.

(If you cannot see the menu bar, press Alt inside your browser)

For example, if you open your mail account, say Gmail, in a browser - the browser stores the logged in details (as cookies) for that session. When you open another tab or another window and browse to Gmail, the browser will automatically log into your Gmail account. This is because the session cookies are shared. But with the ‘New Session’ option in IE8, you will be able to log into two different Gmail accounts now as the session cookies are not shared between tabs or browser windows.

Below is a screenshot showing the ‘New Session’ feature in action

Below is a screenshot showing multiple Windows Live Hotmail sessions opened

In the coming weeks we will go through the other features of IE8 in detail.

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A peek into Windows 7 Action Center

chaks — Fri, 08 May 2009 11:09:47 +0000

In Windows Vista, the ‘Security Center‘ provided information to the users about various system security messages such as - Firewall protection, Malware protection, Windows updates, UAC and Internet Security Settings and also the option to troubleshoot some of the security problems.

The Security Center informs users regarding various system messages in the form of alerts (balloon pop-ups) from the taskbar notification area. Sometimes, there were too many notifications which were annoying and distracting users from their usual work.

Windows 7 Action Center

The Security Center from Windows Vista is revamped to a more useful Action Center in Windows 7. Action Center is the central place where users can get information about various system messages as well as monitor system’s health status. The messages are also archived for viewing them later. Action Center also provides the troubleshooting options to find and fix problems in the system.

Notifications

The Action Center notifies users when there are important messages so that users can take appropriate action. The message notifications convey exactly what the users need to know, nothing more, nothing less.

The above screenshot shows the Action Center notification area icon and the fly-out menu.

The Action Center icon (white flag) in the system tray shows the number of messages in Action Center that needs attention and their level of importance. It also has a fly-out menu which on a left click on your mouse, lists the 4 most recent notifications. You can click on a message then to find and fix that issue.

Action Center messages are put in 2 important categories:

Normal - Normal messages appear in the Action Center control panel

Important - Important messages send a notification balloon as well as appearing in the Action Center.

The messages are marked important only if the security of the system or data is at risk.

Users can turn off the messages/notifications (if they want to) in the ‘Action Center Settings‘ which provides options to customize the notifications.

Archived Messages

Whenever a problem occurs, the messages which carry the problem details are reported to Microsoft, checked for a solution and archived automatically. This is the default behaviour, but it can be easily changed in the Problem Report Settings in the Action Center Settings window

And below is a screenshot showing the problem reporting options

To view the archived messages, just click on the View archived messages in the Action Center

This opens the message center where the archived messages can be seen

To view a solution on a problem, just right click and choose to View solution

This shows the possible fix that can applied for the problem

Security

The Security section handles the Virus protection, Windows Firewall, Windows Update, UAC and other security settings similar to the Security Center in Windows Vista. The status of each of the security item is listed along with the action/solution needed.

Maintenance

The Maintenance section handles system backup, compatibility issues, Windows Updates and troubleshooting options for system maintenance as shown below

And moreover you can see your system’s performance too from Action Center.

Action Center in Windows 7 is certainly a big improvement over Windows Vista’s Security Center. The ability to customize the messages/notifications, glance through the system health, find and fix issues makes Action Center the only place to look if you want to know what is happening with your System.

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Windows 7 Taskbar features - Jump Lists Personalization

chaks — Tue, 05 May 2009 12:41:28 +0000

Jump Lists are quite useful when it comes to ‘quick access’ to items and destinations. When used effectively, Jump Lists can save a lot of time.

You can currently personalize two aspects of Jump Lists:

Disable recent items, and

Choose the number of recent items to display.

Jump Lists options are available in the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties.

Disable Recent Items

Right click on the taskbar and select Properties to open the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties window.

In the Start Menu properties tab, uncheck the option to display ‘Store and display recently opened items in the Start Menu and the taskbar‘.

This will disable the recent items being listed in the Jump Lists. You will still have access to the pinned items in the Jump Lists.

Number of Recent Items in Jump Lists

In the Start Menu properties tab, click Customize button.

Now choose the number of recent items to display in your Jump Lists.

Below is a video demonstrating Jump Lists personalization options

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

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Windows 7 Release Candidate now available for public download

chaks — Tue, 05 May 2009 03:36:12 +0000

Microsoft has released the Release Candidate version of Windows 7 to the general public now. If you are not one of those MSDN/TechNet subscribers, then you can download the Windows 7 RC from today. The download will be available at least through July and unlike the beta, Microsoft is not limiting with the downloads and product keys!

Thank you for testing the Windows 7 Beta. You’re playing an important role in helping deliver the best version of Windows yet. Now, we hope you’ll join us for the next part of the Windows 7 journey, testing the Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC).

How to download Windows 7 RC

1.Visit the Windows 7 RC download page.

2.Choose your language.

3.Choose a 32-bit or 64-bit version of the RC. To see if your computer can run a 64-bit version of Windows, in Performance Information and Tools (Start>Control Panel>Performance Information and Tools) click View and print details and then look under 64-bit capable. For more information that might help with your decision, see 32-bit and 64-bit Windows: Frequently asked questions.

4.Get a Windows 7 RC product key. (You can use the RC for 30 days without a product key, then you’ll need it for activation.)

The same Beta product keys will work for this release candidate.

5.Download the Windows 7 RC.

Visit here to download Windows 7 RC

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Windows 7 Taskbar features - Jump List

chaks — Mon, 04 May 2009 11:35:29 +0000

Windows 7 taskbar provides many quick and easy ways to access your applications or files or programs that you frequently use. One such way is making use of Jump Lists

What are Jump Lists?

Jump Lists provide an easy and quick access to items used by an application. You can also consider it as a ‘mini start menu’ for the application.

To access an application’s Jump List, simply right click on the application icon on the taskbar or push the application icon upwards on the taskbar

Jump List Categories

Below is a snapshot of Internet Explorer 8 Jump List

As you can see in the above snapshot, a Jump List is categorized into:

Tasks

Common actions performed in applications

Frequent

Frequent items or destinations used in applications (populated automatically)

Pinned

Similar to bookmarks. Pin items or destinations for quick access

Below is another snapshot of Windows Live Messenger’s Jump List

You can see that the application just uses the Tasks, and access to each task is just a click away!

For the ‘out of the box’ Windows applications like Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, Windows Live Messenger etc., Microsoft has already integrated Jump Lists into its applications. But for third party applications like Firefox, Google Chrome etc., - you get the default Jump List which is just with the Tasks category, like shown in the the snapshot below

Pin Items to Jump List

If you want to pin one of your frequently visited item in your Jump List, simply click the Pin button as shown in the snapshot below

Once pinned, that item goes to the Pinned category

Unpin Items from Jump List

If you want to unpin an item from the Pinned category, simply click on the Pin button as shown in the snapshot below

Jump Lists for your Applications (developer focussed)

You, as a developer of your application can integrate Jump List into your applications. You can consume the Windows 7 Taskbar and Libraries Sample Library to integrate Jump Lists in your applications

The JumpListManager class provides an abstraction of the application’s jump list, including facilities to manipulate custom destinations, user tasks, the Recent and Frequent lists, and items removed by the user

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Windows 7 Taskbar features - Pin, Unpin and Open With

chaks — Mon, 04 May 2009 08:24:32 +0000

With the new Windows 7 taskbar, you can now ‘pin’ and ‘unpin’ applications or files from the taskbar. This is similar to ‘Add to Quicklaunch’ in the earlier versions of Windows, but with better functionality.

Pin to Taskbar

You can pin an application to the taskbar in two ways:

Drag and drop the application to the taskbar, or,

Right click the application and select ‘Pin to Taskbar’

Once pinned, you can see the application in the taskbar

Unpin from Taskbar

If you want to unpin an application from the taskbar, right click on the application and select ‘Unpin this program from Taskbar’

Pin a file to the Taskbar

Unlike applications, files cannot be directly pinned to the taskbar. If you pin a file to the taskbar, it gets pinned to its default application’s Jump List that it is set to ‘open with’

Taskbar ‘open with’

But if you do want to open the file with another application(other than the default application it is set), you can do so by dragging the file and holding Shift key & dropping it to that application you want to open with

Below is a video demonstrating the taskbar features discussed above

This video was embedded using the YouTuber plugin by Roy Tanck. Adobe Flash Player is required to view the video.

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Minimum RAM required to run Windows 7

chaks — Sun, 03 May 2009 10:02:13 +0000

Microsoft has set 1GB for 32bit and 2GB for 64bit as the minimum RAM required to run Windows 7. We already saw Windows 7 performing well in a netbook with 1GB RAM.

But how far can you go in testing the minimum RAM required to run Windows 7?

It appears that the smallest amount of physical memory required to run is as small as 196MB!

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Windows XP Mode in Windows 7

chaks — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:35:30 +0000

Starting from today, Microsoft has announced the availability of Windows XP Mode Beta for Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate and Enterprise customers. With the help of Windows XP mode, business customers will be able to run Windows XP applications in a virtual environment, right from their Windows 7 desktop.

Microsoft emphasizes that Windows XP mode will be of more use to business customers who want to upgrade to Windows 7 from Windows XP

Windows XP Mode provides an easier and simpler way to virtualize Windows XP in Windows 7. MSDN and TechNet subscribers can download from today, and will be broadly available from May 5 to general public along with Windows 7 RC.

System Requirements

Below are the system requirements for running Windows XP Mode

Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate

Intel-VT or AMD-V enabled in the CPU

Minimum 2GB RAM

15GB of additional space

Windows XP Mode is only available for Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate editions

Installation

Installation was pretty simple and self explanatory which guided through installing Windows XP. Windows XP mode comes with an already available Windows XP virtual environment, so setting it up doesnt take much time at all.

Below are the installation screenshots

Once your virtual Windows XP environment is created, you are ready to work with your favorite Windows XP applications!

(Click to enlarge)

You can install applications as you would normally, in Windows XP and they appear on your Windows 7 Start Menu!

If you start the virtual XP application when your virtual machine is running, you get prompted to close your virutal machine before opening the application

Below is your virtual Windows XP application running in Windows 7

Virtual XP Settings

You can access the virtual XP settings from the menu

Below is the settings window

Some settings cannot be changed if the virtual machine is running

USB Device Settings

You can also attach your USB devices to your virtual XP environment

To summarize, Windows XP mode is quite useful to business customers, especially for those who still use Windows XP only compatible applications and want to have a safe upgrade path to Windows 7.

For normal desktop users, it is very rare to enter a such a scenario where they need to run Windows XP only compatible applications. In many cases, the user shall make use of the Windows 7 Application Compatibility Mode to run applications that were working in earlier versions of Windows.

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Mark Your calendar for Windows 7 Beta and RC expiration dates

chaks — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:53:55 +0000

Microsoft has confirmed to ComputerWorld today that Windows 7 RC will not expire until June 1, 2010. June 1, 2010 is set as the expiry date for Windows 7 RC giving more time for testers to run through and report the bugs in the OS. The release candidates of Windows Vista were made available for a maximum of 8 months till June 1, 2007 from the time of release. The official home page of Windows 7 from Microsoft confirms that Windows 7 RC will be available for download till the end of July.

Windows 7 RC Expiry Date: June 1, 2010

Windows 7 Beta expires on August 1, 2009 and for those who are running Windows 7 Beta, Windows will notify when the expiration process begins and 2 weeks later the PC will shut down for every two hours starting from July 1, 2009. The RC will expire June 1, 2010, and the bi-hourly shutdowns will begin on March 1, 2010.

Windows 7 Beta Expiry Date: August 1, 2009

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Windows 7 RC and other releases

chaks — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:23:41 +0000

Today is a BIG day for Microsoft!

The BIG news is - Windows 7 RC is now available for download to MSDN/TechNet subscribers!

But it isn’t just Windows 7 RC that got released! Below are the other stuffs that are made available for download to MSDN/TechNet subscribers along with Windows 7 RC

Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 RTM

Windows Server 2008 R2 RC

Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 RC

Windows Automated Installation Kit for Windows 7 RC

Windows Driver Kit for Windows 7 RC

Windows Software Development Kit for Windows 7 RC

Windows 7 RC Language Pack

Windows XP Mode Beta

Windows Virtual PC Beta

If you are an ardent Windows XP user, then you should sure checkout the Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC

Windows XP Mode is specifically designed to help small businesses move to Windows 7. Windows XP Mode provides you with the flexibility to run many older productivity applications on a Windows 7 based PC.

You can find the release notes for Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC here

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Windows 7 Release Candidate Update for New Zealand users

chaks — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 23:36:35 +0000

From this blog post:

As per the Windows Team Blog, the RC is on track for April 30th for download by MSDN and TechNet subscribers. Broader, public availability will begin on May 5th - these are the US dates, so for NZ expect May 1 for MSDN/TechNet downloads and May 6 for broad availability.

Yes, we Kiwis have to wait one day more to get the Release Candidate!

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Windows 7 and netbooks in a nutshell

chaks — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:34:04 +0000

Over the last two weeks, Using Windows had been testing Windows 7 in netbook, especially with the Windows 7 Starter and Windows 7 Home Premium Editions. The idea was to see how easy it was to use Windows 7 in low profile netbooks. Even though Windows Vista (minimum physical memory requirement starts from 2 GB of RAM) is the latest desktop operating system with new features like Aero Desktop and advanced security, Windows XP is still considered as the most viable operating system and is installed in many netbooks. Due to the various demands for the low cost netbooks, Microsoft built a netbook specific version of Windows XP.

With Windows 7, Microsoft might have got it right, with low footprint which enables the OS to perform well in low profile netbooks. Still in beta (RC available from May 5), Windows 7 is quick, responsive and caters the needs of a netbook user. Installation was a breeze with USB thumb drive and the desktop was presented with a 20 to 25 seconds boot time. Windows 7 identified all of the devices and installed the necessary drivers for the same. There was no need to download drivers manually from the netbook vendor’s website.

Choosing the right edition

With various Windows 7 editions - Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate - there isn’t a netbook specific version that you can choose to install in your netbook. But the beauty is that all Windows 7 editions perform equally well in netbooks. Windows 7 Starter and Windows 7 Home Premium were put to test and they both performed equally well, except for the version limitations like the ‘3 app limit’ in the Starter edition.

One thing to note is that the low cost netbooks are not meant for high profile usage like Laptops or Desktop PCs rather they are ‘on the go’ devices which you can use to browse, chat, blog while you travel etc., Using it wisely will help to get the best out of the netbooks and Windows 7 does exactly the same!

Application Compatibility

Windows being the familiar platform, it is easy to find applications and they aren’t different than installing and using them in normal Desktop PCs.

Below are some applications that you can use with your netbook and will prove to be productive:

Windows Live Messenger

Windows Live Writer

Windows Live Mail

Microsoft Office 2007

twhirl (if you are twitter fan)

Skype

Mozilla Firefox

Google Chrome

Out of the box applications like Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player are quite useful to browse and listen to music ‘on the go’. But if you dont like them, you can very well uninstall and use your favorite alternatives.

With various limitations in the Windows 7 Starter Edition, and Home Basic to be made available only in emerging markets, Windows 7 Home Premium becomes the obvious and best choice for netbooks!

If you had missed our Windows 7 and netbook series, follow the links below:

Windows 7 Starter Edition and netbook - Part 1

Windows 7 Starter Edition and netbook - Part 2

Windows 7 Starter Edition and netbook - Part 3

Windows 7 Home Premium Edition and netbook

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Windows 7 to be released as early as July

chaks — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:22:16 +0000

Reuters is reporting that Windows 7 could be out as early as July!

The company has still not said when the finished version would begin to be installed on PCs or available to buy in shops, but the company’s chief financial officer said on Thursday it could be as early as July

Microsoft has been reluctant so far in discussing regarding the Windows 7 release dates and this latest info has taken everyone by surprise! If this info is indeed true, we would be seeing Windows 7 RTM in the next 3 or 4 months!

Microsoft last week announced the availability of Windows 7 RC download on April 30th for MSDN/TechNet subscribers and May 5th for the general public.

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Windows 7 Home Premium Edition and netbook

chaks — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 12:12:33 +0000

After playing with Windows 7 Starter Edition, I decided to upgrade my netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium Edition. I couldn’t choose to upgrade as I did not have an upgrade key. So, I decided to dual boot. I installed Windows 7 Home Premium and had no problems dual booting with Starter Edition.

Home Premium Desktop

It was a welcoming change to see the fresh blue ‘betta fish’ again when compared with the grey color ‘betta fish’ wallpaper in Starter Edition, but this time I was able to change and personalize my desktop with themes, wallpapers etc.,

No more ‘3 app limit’

It was again a welcoming change to open more than 3 applications! No more ‘3 app limit’ as in the Starter Edition.

Performance

I went ahead and opened as many applications as possible to test how well my netbook behaved.

The above snapshot shows the system performance, with the following applications running.

Windows Media Player playing a movie

ESET NOD32 anti virus scanning the netbook

Defragmentation being analyzed

Windows Update

Magnifier

Gadgets

Windows Picture Viewer

And still I did not have any major problems viewing thumbnail previews or switch between applications, although there was a little delay to switch to another application.

Bitlocker To Go

The Bitlocker To Go experience was the same as in the Starter Edition.

You don’t have the option to turn on Bitlocker encryption but only to read/write encrypted drives in the Home Premium Edition.

Windows Media Player

I had no problems playing videos or music with Windows Media Player and was able to access my home media using the ‘Allow Internet access to home media feature’ in the Home Premium edition easily with few clicks!

HomeGroup

I was able to create as well as join HomeGroup in the Home Premium edition.

But I chose to connect to my already available HomeGroup than creating another one.

To summarize, Home Premium Edition in my netbook delivered a near to Windows desktop experience and was a refreshing change from Starter Edition. Windows 7 Home Premium Edition with Aero Desktop is one step ahead of the Starter Edition and worth installing in your netbook!

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chaks — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 13:10:22 +0000

Windows Media Player

I found the Windows Media Player in the Starter Edition to be quite good. I was able to play mp4 files too without any problems.

One feature that I noted, not present in the Windows Media Player in the Starter Edition is - Allow Internet Access to home media - It makes sense that since I am going to be travelling or using netbook outside my home network, this feature works better in other editions than in the Starter Edition.

You cannot set up the Internet access to home media option in Windows Media Player, but still you can automatically allow devices to play your media.

Sound Schemes

Even though there is no option to change your desktop wallpaper or the Windows 7 theme, you still have the option to change your Sound Schemes in Starter Edition. I think this is the only customization option available in terms of Desktop Personalization in Windows 7 Starter Edition!

You can choose between different Sound Schemes available in Windows 7 Starter Edition

Windows Features

Below is the full list of Windows Features that you can Turn On/Off.

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chaks — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 11:11:43 +0000

Bitlocker To Go

I run Windows 7 Ultimate in my office and home PC, whereas my netbook is running Windows 7 Starter Edition. Having tried the BitLocker To Go functionality in Windows 7 ultimate Edition successfully, I thought it would be a good idea to test my encrypted USB thumb drive in my netbook too. I wanted to see what were the limits of the new Bitlocker To Go feature in the Starter Edition.

As soon as I plugged-in the encrypted thumb drive, I got a Bitlocker pop-up window asking for the password to unlock the drive.

I was able to access my thumb drive after entering the password. But I found one very useful feature disabled in the above Bitlocker window. Yes, you cannot choose to automatically unlock your thumb drive on your computer in the Starter Edition. I had to type my password whenever I plugged-in my thumb drive.

And to add more, you don’t have the option to turn on Bitlocker encryption but only to read/write encrypted drives in the Starter Edition.

But I was happy that I was able to open and copy files to my thumb drive. This is not much worse because if I had Windows XP running in my netbook, I would be able to only read my encrypted thumb drive.

You don’t have the option to turn on Bitlocker encryption but only to read/write encrypted drives in the Starter Edition.

For more information on how to use the Bitlocker To Go feature, read my guide on Safeguarding portable drives using ‘Bitlocker To Go’

HomeGroup

HomeGroup - another new feature in Windows 7 which is very much useful if you have multiple Windows 7 PCs/laptops/netbooks connected to your home network. HomeGroup makes it easier to share your documents, pictures and music with other computers connected to the same home network. Well, why wouldn’t I not use this feature in my netbook then!

As I had my HomeGroup already set up, the only thing I had to do was to join the netbook to my HomeGroup.

I was able to see that a HomeGroup is available to join in my Network and Sharing Center applet.

I was able to join to my HomeGroup and access my home desktop without any problems.

But there is a downside to it:

You cannot create a HomeGroup in the Starter Edition, but only join to an already available HomeGroup

clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, windows7, challenge-windows 7, netbooks

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Windows 7 Starter Edition and netbook - Part 1

chaks — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 06:07:18 +0000

There has been a lot written and discussed about Windows 7 Starter Edition - which is nothing but an usual Windows 7 edition with much limited functionality.

I gave a test drive of Windows 7 Starter Edition in my Acer Aspire One netbook. You can see my netbook configuration in the screenshot below:

Windows 7 rated my netbook with an Windows Experience Index of 2.1, which I think is pretty good.

Starter Desktop

The Windows 7 Starter Edition desktop has a different wallpaper when compared to other editions.

You are left with the ‘betta fish’ and nothing else with the Windows 7 Starter desktop as there is no option to change your desktop wallpaper or Windows 7 themes.

The ‘3 app limit’

Windows 7 Starter Edition is much criticized for the the ‘3 app limit‘ which limits users from running only 3 applications at a time.

As I use my netbook ‘on the go’, mostly I keep a browser, twhirl (for tweets) running all the time. Below is a snapshot of my desktop.

You can see that I am running - Internet Explorer, Windows Live Messenger, twhirl and Desktop Gadgets.

I have already reached my ‘3 app limit’ by opening - Internet Explorer, Windows Live Messenger and twhirl.

When I opened Microsoft Word, I immediately got this popup telling me that my maximum programs limit has been reached.

But at the same time, I was able to open multiple tabs/instances of Internet Explorer and mutiple instances of twhirl. Windows 7 did not stop me from doing that.

How does this ‘3 app limit’ work? - Windows 7 counts individual applications for the ‘3 app limit’ and not multiple instances of that application.

There are some exclusions though, like:

Anti-virus programs

Windows Explorer

Basic Windows System Tools like,

Task Manager

Control Panel

Command Prompt

Desktop Gadgets

Though this is excluded, you won’t be able to run Gadgets once you have reached the maximum programs limit. So, if you want to use Gadgets, it is better to open the Gadgets initially before opening any other application(s)

Did this ‘3 app limit’ stop me from using my applications? - As I use my netbook mostly for browsing and tweets when i’m travelling and for few other stuffs in my Office, I did not often fall into this ‘3 app limit’, which really surprised me. But there were times when I had to close one application in order to open another application.

Performance

I found the netbook to be very responsive and quick. I had no trouble using any of the applications I installed. Below is the snapshot showing Task Manager with the maximum applications limit reached.

In the next post, I will take you through the BitLocker To Go and HomeGroup experience with Windows 7 Starter Edition.

clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, windows7, challenge-windows 7, netbooks

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Its Official - Windows 7 RC download from May 5th

chaks — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:23:01 +0000

Microsoft has announced the availability of Windows 7 RC download on April 30th for MSDN/TechNet subscribers and May 5th for the general public.

I

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Upgrading Windows 7 beta and pre-RC builds to RC build

chaks — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 21:45:04 +0000

Microsoft recommends for a clean installation of the Windows 7 RC than upgrading from previous builds

E7 team earlier blogged that it wouldn’t be possible to upgrade the Windows 7 beta and pre-RC builds to RC. And yes, that is still true!

I was not able to upgrade my Windows 7 build 7068 to Windows 7 RC build 7100

As the E7 team suggested, I went ahead to change the minimum client version number required to upgrade and found something interesting. The minimum client version required to upgrade was not 7100 as told by the E7 team earlier, but it was 7077, the build which was considered to be the Windows 7 RC-Escrow build.

This change from 7100 to 7077 as the minimum client version indeed confirms that the build 7077 should have been the Windows 7 RC-Escrow build!

Once I changed the minimum client version to my build, which was build 7068, I was able to upgrade to RC!

Follow the steps below to change the minimum client version (from E7 blog post):

Download the ISO as you did previously and burn the ISO to a DVD.

Copy the whole image to a storage location you wish to run the upgrade from (a bootable flash drive or a directory on any partition on the machine running the pre-release build).

Browse to the sources directory.

Open the file cversion.ini in a text editor like Notepad.

Modify the MinClient build number to a value lower than the down-level build. For example, change 7100 to 7000 (pictured below).

Save the file in place with the same name.

Run setup like you would normally from this modified copy of the image and the version check will be bypassed

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Web IM in Hotmail reaches more users

chaks — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 09:38:54 +0000

Users from Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, and USA can now enjoy ‘Instant Messaging’ their friends from inside Windows Live Hotmail account. Windows Live Team has announced that Instant Messaging in Windows Live Hotmail will reach more users in this phase of roll-out.

Web Messenger option in Hotmail

Set your IM status

Contact Options

IM Window

If you have more than one Windows Live ID, you can sign in to web Messenger and regular Messenger at the same time, with different IDs.

Sign into your Windows Live Hotmail account now and stay connected with your friends via IM!

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Microsoft hiring developers for Windows 8

chaks — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 23:21:10 +0000

Neoseeker has come across a job listing in Microsoft Careers site which calls for skills focused on the Server side development of Windows 8.

From the Microsoft job posting,

“For the upcoming version of Windows, new critical features are being worked on including cluster support and support for one way replication. The core engine is also being reworked to provide dramatic performance improvements. We will also soon be starting major improvements for Windows 8 where we will be including innovative features which will revolutionize file access in branch offices.”

Not to mention that the above features are already being introduced in Windows Server 2008 R2. In early March, Soni Meinke, a Senior Program Manager in the Windows Server group in an interview with Channel 9 revealed that the next version of Windows OS is already in its planning stage and her work being engaging with various customers and partners, she is already discussing the plan and strategy around them.

“I have been very involved in an effort around some early planning Win 8. It’s been largely focused on establishing a customer tour where we basically go on-site to customers and really drill into their broad cross-Windows server future needs. Not specifically looking at just the Win 8 time frame, but just post-Win 7 and beyond. We’ve done that with the hope of getting these engagements and voice of the customer throughout the product lifecycle and driving that early on into the planning process for Win 8″

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UAC in Windows 7 will nag users 29% less often

chaks — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:52:52 +0000

Microsoft has promised that one of the most hated features of Windows Vista, User Account Control (UAC ) will be seen a third less often by Windows 7 users. Paul Cooke, director of Windows 7 client enterprise security claimed that Windows 7 users would face UAC significantly less often than people running Vista:

“From our beta and internal testing, we expect a 29% decrease in UAC prompts compared to Windows Vista. The new “slider bar” will let users fine tune the intensity of the security feature. We’ve reduced 16 different points of prompting.”

UAC was the new feature introduced in Windows Vista to help prevent malware and spyware from installing or making changes to your computer without permission. UAC does this by asking you for permission or an administrator? password before performing actions that could potentially affect your computer’s operation or that change settings that affect other users.

Even before the launch of Windows Vista, Microsoft had to reduce the number of UAC prompts as many users were annoyed by frequent UAC prompts which allowed them nothing to do, except dealing with the UAC dialog boxes. Due to user “click fatigue”, Microsoft has further scaled back the prompts in Windows 7.

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Behind the scenes with Windows 7

chaks — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 09:42:13 +0000

Each and every feature in Windows 7 has a story behind it, how the new idea/change was framed by Microsoft based on numerous Windows surveys and user feedbacks worldwide. Yahoo Tech reports how some of these features in Windows 7 evolved:

User decides the left-to-right order of icons in the task bar.

Back story: Users often launched a series of programs, closing them and immediately reopening some. They wanted their programs to appear in the same order on the task bar every time.

Right-click on a task bar icon and get a ‘jump list’, - A menu of important or frequently used options for the program.

Back story: Users explore their right-click options more frequently.

Show Windows side by side.

Back story:� Users were trying to give themselves a side-by-side view of documents for easy comparison.

Libraries, or virtual folders that have shortcuts to files that are actually stored in many different places on a hard drive or home network (duplicate files).

Back story: Users usually don’t organize photos, music and other files in the dedicated folders, Microsoft had set up.

Aero-Shake - Shaking an open window with the mouse to minimize all the other windows into taskbar.

Back story: Microsoft’s research showed that people often had six or even 10 windows open at once and had trouble� in focusing on a single window when it is needed.

Show Desktop option - Moving mouse to the bottom-right corner to make all windows transparent and then clicking the mouse to minimize all the windows.

Back story: For ease of access and to allow people to confidently explore the system.

Larson-Green, Microsoft’s head of Windows Experience said in an interview,

“We want to reduce the amount of thinking about the software that they have to do, so that they can concentrate all their thinking on the task they’re trying to get done. The primary things that help you create a good user experience are empathy, and being able to put yourself in the place of people who are using the products, User interface is customer service for the computer.”

Centralized planning, devising of precise methods to get user feedback and lots of surveys have helped Larson-Green’s team design Windows 7 better than Windows Vista.

Microsoft’s marketing team will survey vigorously to decide whether Windows 7 is a success and Larson-Green’s measure will be based on user comments in Best Buy and the comments posted by bloggers.

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Windows 7 RC to be released on May 5, 2009

chaks — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:45:37 +0000

A page on the Microsoft Partner website had an entry yesterday which revealed the Windows 7 RC date as May 5, 2009. The page announced that MSDN and Technet subscribers will be able to download the RC right away and others (may be public) starting from May 5, 2009.

However, Ars has got the news that the Windows 7 RC is available for download now only to OEM partners like Dell and not to every other MSDN/Technet subscriber:

“Currently the Windows 7 RC has not been avaiable through the TechNet subscription yet, only the Microsoft OEM partners such as Dell, Siemens are taking part in the RC’s this period of test.”

If you are trying to have a look at the Microsoft Partner website now for the Windows 7 RC release date, you will not be able to find any information there, as the entry has been removed from the website.� A similar page appeared in the Microsoft Technet website, recently hinting the RC release in May.

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Explore the Problem Steps Recorder

chaks — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 23:02:52 +0000

Problem Steps Recoder (PSR) allows users to record the problems they face in their system and e-mail the recorded reports to help desk or to friends & family or to someone who can assist them to solve the problem by reproducing the steps. PSR can also be used in creating useful step-by-step tutorials for your friends and family, like the one below which shows how to change your user account picture in Windows 7:

PSR will record each and every step a user takes and records the entire operation with screenshots along with a detailed documentation of the steps the user goes through. The recorded information is saved as a MHTML file and packed in a ZIP file which can be emailed for assistance.

You can launch PSR either from control panel under the ‘Troubleshooting’ menu or by searching for psr.exe from the start menu.

You can start and stop the PSR by clicking the ‘Start Record’ and ‘Stop Record’ buttons.

You can add your own comments by highlighting a particular area of the screen as shown below in addition to the documentation added by PSR while recording. Mouse clicks done by the user are highlighted too.

You will be prompted to save the recorded file as a Zip file at the end of recording. Now the zip file can be sent via email to anyone for further assistance.

To view the recorded session, open the zip file you saved, and double click on the compiled HTML file stored in the Zip file. You will be able to view the recorded session in a browser either step by step or view the steps as a slideshow. Do not expect a video of the recorded session.

You can also choose to record the problem in Administrative mode by choosing to bypass UAC, so that you can record the problems you face with applications running in Administrative mode.

By default PSR can record only 25 screenshots. But you can change the limit you want (3 digits maximum). Also you can change the location where you want to save the recorded file and choose whether you want to include screenshots or not while recording.

PSR won’t record anything as you type from your keyboard, but will just store the action as ‘user typed in keyboard’ in the recorded file. It takes screenshots only when you give some mouse input such as a click or a drag and not just a mouse move.

Although PSR is not a complete full-fledged server application like ObserveIT which can be used to record and index user activities in all windows sessions in an enterprise and replay them, it is simply a remarkable tool to help serve the purpose of a common Windows user, to help solving problems in their system.

You can also watch the video demonstration of Problem Steps Recorder below:

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, windows 7, challenge-windows 7, problem steps recorder

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Microsoft backtracks, Office 2010 will have a public beta

chaks — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 04:48:18 +0000

Microsoft said yesterday that it had no plans to offer a beta publicly later this year after the Technical Preview Program in Q3, 2009 which is to be offered to invite-only users. Now Microsoft has backtracked the statement and promised today that it would provide ‘atleast a public beta’ to Office 2010.

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed that

“This development cycle for Office is no different than years past; technical preview is usually invite-only, but still goes out to hundreds of thousands of people, and there is a public beta cycle where millions can download and try Office.”

Microsoft delivered two public betas for Office 2007,� it also let users try and download the preview from within their browsers.

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