Thankfully the solution is quite simple:

Click your windows logo on the task bar and in the search field type “Live Messenger”, then right click on the program “Windows Live Messenger” and select the properties option.

Windows 7 - Live Messenger Properties

Once the window pops up select the compatibility tab, and tick the box to run in compatibility mode with Windows Vista.

Windows 7 - Compatibility

click Apply, and thats it! Restart Windows Live Messenger and it should then appear right where it belongs, in the bottom right. However if your like me and you want it to appear there all the time without being hidden, you need to click the arrow next to the icons followed by the customize text

Windows 7 - Icon Customize

A window should popup where you can find Windows Live Messenger and in the drop down next to it select “Show icon and notifications”. This will ensure that it is permanently in view.

Windows 7 - Show icon and notifications

This technique can also be applied to any other favourite applications you which you want to be able to access straight away.

Facebook

To start with, select the privacy options from the main menu:

Facebook Privacy Settings

This takes you to your privacy “hub” where you can control all the aspects of your profile. From here there are four choices to control the different aspects of your account:

Facebook Privacy Hub

1. The settings for your profile can be selected here including who can view which parts of your profile i.e. Basic Info, Personal Info and most importantly, who can see your wall or post on it. This means you won’t have to worry about accepting your family as friends on Facebook only for them to view everything your friends post on your wall. To stop specific people from viewing your wall, click the “Wall Posts”, “customise…” option and you can add names via the “Except these people” field.

2. Search privacy is extremely important, as it controls whether people can find you or not, and just how much they can view about you. We recommend that you untick the profile picture, send a message link and pages i am a fan of. The final tickbox is completly optional, it sets whether or not you show up in a public search.

Your public search listing is a version of your search result that is available to people who search for you even when they are not logged in to Facebook.
Any content you make available in your public search listing may be available on search engines or on public Facebook pages. For more information, refer to the Facebook Privacy Policy.

Facebook Search Privacy

3. News feeds and walls gives you the chance to tweak what actions of yours get displayed in various news feeds updates. This includes actions such as commenting on other peoples posts, or photos and events like updating your profile. This can help control the exposure of your actions when interacting with your friends on Facebook.

4. The final section is less of a settings, and more of a statement regarding application privacy. In essence, it states that as long as you have not explicitly given permission to an application, by adding it to your “my applications”, it will not be able to access any of your personal information. Facebook will always prompt you before you allow access to any of your personal information, the image below shows what it looks like:

Facebook Application Allow Access

Most applications abide by Facebook’s terms and conditions regarding how they handle your personal data when given access, however some rogue applications may be less trustworthy so always be careful when giving access to your personal information.

There appears to be a very grey area as to whether its legal to watch TV on your laptop and we recommend you consult with the TV Licensing company if you have any specific questions regarding your TV License, however  were going to try to break down some common situations:

Watching TV using a USB TV-Tuner on your laptop

- Plugged in to mains – Requires TV License

- On battery & your parents have a TV License – Doesn’t Require a License

While this may sound ludicrous that simply unplugging your laptop means you don’t require a license, it is more of a loophole, for more details see the info below:

• You only use TV receiving equipment that is powered by its internal batteries; and
• You have not installed it (e.g. connected it to an aerial or plugged it into the mains) to receive TV; and
• Your permanent address (non term-time) is your parents’ home; and
• Your parents have a valid TV Licence for their home

[ From TV Licensing ]

Our recommendation would be purchase a TV License if you plan on using a TV Tuner with your laptop or computer as relying on a loophole may not be sufficient.

Watching BBC iPlayer over the Internet

At the time of writing, it is currently legal to watch on-demand shows without a TV License. However, it does not cover live events, i.e. watching a show at the same time it is broadcast on TV, or a live sporting fixture. While this is a small nuisance, pubs are usually a better place to watch the Rugby than BBC iPlayer anyway!

For further information regarding BBC iPlayer and TV Licenses, check out the BBC iPlayer FAQ

Windows 7 Control Panel

Once that is selected, you will be presented with a list of options relating to hardware, select the “Change default settings for media or devices”

Windows 7 Control Panel - AutoPlay

Finally, scroll down to find your iPhone as a device, and select the option “Take no action”

Windows 7 - iPhone "Take no Action"

Thats it! Windows 7 will no longer ask you what to do each time, of course you can do the same thing with any other devices windows needs actions for, or even set a different default action such as opening in windows explorer.

Windows 7 is the latest operating system from Microsoft, and has set about to revolutionise the way you work with your computer. In reality this may be a little far-fetched, but it has definitly brought about some improvements from the previous versions of Windows.

Three major versions will be released in the UK, these are:

• Windows 7 Home Premium
• Windows 7 Professional
• Windows 7 Ultimate

Windows 7 Comparison Chart (click for bigger picture)

Although Windows 7 Ultimate has the most “features”, there are very few students which will require the extra software that Microsoft are trying to bundle in with this more expensive version. This really just leaves Windows 7 Professional and Home Premium of which the Professional version has the most extras. Thankfully Students can make the most of this with Microsofts Student Deal – Ultimate Steal where you can buy both Windows 7 Home Premium and Windows 7 Professional for just £30*.

Even though at this price Windows 7 is a bargain, is it really worth the hassle to upgrade from Windows XP or Vista to this new operating system?

Through our trial with Windows 7 RC, we can safely say its a huge improvement over Windows Vista, and if your currently running that and looking to upgrade, we recommend you take part in Microsofts student deal and make the most of Windows 7 increased speed and compatibility. However if your lucky enough to be running Windows XP then there is no real rush to moving over as there is no real improvement other than the looks.

Summary

With Microsofts Student deals, its hard not to say no to upgrading to Windows 7, but if you do, make sure to get the Professional edition and not the Home Premium as theres no difference in cost and a load of extra features. However if you already have Windows XP and its running smooth, there is no rush to upgrade as theres very little in terms of performance benefits.

There are a few options when talking about Office Packages, the most well known one being Microsoft Office, but in particular this time the Home & Student Edition 2007.

In this package, you have access to the following pieces of software;

Microsoft Word 2007

Microsoft Excel 2007

Microsoft PowerPoint 2007

Microsoft OneNote 2007

The next package is OpenOffice, a free package available from OpenOffice.org.

“OpenOffice.org 3 is the leading open-source office software suite for word processing,spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and more.
It is available in many languages and works on all common computers.”
– – (Quoted directly from the OpenOffice website)

The following programmes are available to you within in this package;

Writer  Calc Impress Draw Base

And the final package we will be looking at is an completely online alternative, Google Docs.

The tools of the trade that Google Docs has on offer are;

Document
Presentation
Spreadsheet
Form

Well, that is three options available, Retail, Free & Online. So which one is best? Each product has its plus and minus points. Firstly, the pricing.

As Microsoft Office is a Retail package, you do have to purchase it. The great news is that Students are eligible for better pricing and there are some great deals around for the Home & Student versions.

OpenOffice is completely free and is “Open Source”. With this being Open Source, it means hundreds of people contribute to the package rather than just one company doing all of the work.

Google Docs is also completely free, the difference being is you do not need to install any software on your computer to use. It is all online and all information is stored on Google’s servers.

A quick comparison would be useful then;

Microsoft PowerPoint is used to create powerful presentations with some great effects. This is an extremely useful tool for present your projects.

OpenOffice.org

OpenOffice Writer:

OpenOffice Writer is one of the most popular Open Source Word alternatives available. It has all of the same functions of Microsoft Word, is able to edit and save to Word format’s, like .doc / .docx for example.
The difference is, it doesn’t look quite as professional, and the menu’s aren’t quite as polished as in Word.

They have done a brilliant job at making sure all of the most popular functions are available to you straight away. The only let down with Writer, is that you must remember to save it as a “Word Document”, otherwise most people will have problems opening the default OpenOffice format in the Microsoft Packages.

OpenOffice Calc:

OpenOffice Calc is your Open Source Excel alternative. Again, the programme has been created to look very much the same and perform the same. The blank spreadsheet upon opening works the same with Lettering across the top and your numbered rows down the side.

You can even create the Charts from the data just like in the other programmes, format the cells and change the colours.

OpenOffice Impress

OpenOffice Impress is here in place of PowerPoint.

The layout of the software is very similar to PowerPoint, with your slides on the left, layout options on the right and formatting options above.
It is able to import information from Excel files and from it’s own Calc programme.

OpenOffice Draw:

OpenOffice Draw is the Microsoft Paint alternative which does not come with the Microsoft Office package, although it is already pre-installed on all Windows Machines. So is OpenOffice trying to catch up here?

Draw has gone a couple of steps further than Microsoft’s Paint. The ability to add multiple pages to your sketches is a brilliant idea, although people who would require this level of editing would probably be using a more professional package such as Photoshop. (Keep an eye out for our Graphics Package Editorial).

In Draw you can also use Manipulation options, rotate your images and change dimensions, so all in all, much more powerful than its Paint rival.

OpenOffice Base:

The Microsoft Access Rival. Unfortunately you do not get the Access Database software in the Student Edition of Microsoft Office.

The fact that OpenOffice includes a Database creation software with the rest of their package is brilliant, even better considering it’s completely free of charge!
You can expect to see the usual database layout here, with a set of cells in the main view, much like Excel and Calc. But with a few more powerful tools, giving you the ability to create very intricate databases.

Google Docs

And finally, up for the quick review, is Google’s very own online service “Google Docs”. As this service is 100% online, there is no software to install, and you don’t have to launch the programmes. They are all available from the drop down box in the top left.

Document:

The Google Doc’s editor is very simple and plain in design, very much like most Google products. Clean, clear and simple to use.
Upon first glance of the editor, you notice the completely lack of options available to you straight away. The basic options are there such as text formatting and alignment, and a few more options can be found in the menus.

Not really much to work with, and we would suggest only using Google Docs as an ‘on the fly’ editor if you were not at your computer and had neither Office or OpenOffice installed.It does however come with a very handy “Share” options, which will allow you to share your docs with anyone in your group.

Presentation:

Again, this is very clean and clear and very simple to use. You could easily pick it up in a couple of minutes.
We were pleasantly surprised to see that the slide access was still down the left, and there are some brilliant options for creating some great presentations for your projects.

You don’t have access to some of the Gliding and fading effects as with Microsoft PowerPoint and OpenOffice Impress, but all in all a very useful tool if you need to create a quick and simple presentation.

Spreadsheet:

Keeping with the Google Style, clean, clear and easy to use. Straight away you can tell that this is a great alternative to the other two spreadsheet programmes on offer. Google have not cut back on the functionality of this one.
You still have the ability to add multiple sheets, do complex cell sums and link data from sheet to sheet. Works exactly the same as the other two.

Form:

The last piece of the Google Docs arsenal is Form. 

Something both previous packages have completely overlooked, is the ability to create and edit Forms.
This is a brilliant addition to the Google Docs tools.

With plenty of theme options to choose from, you can have the entire group filling out questionnaires that have been easy to put together and look great in no time at all, and it won’t cost you a penny!

Well, that is all 3 Programmes with a short overview with each product they have to offer to students. But which is the best one for students? With each having the plus and minus points, it’s obvious why it’s so hard to choose.

Microsoft Office 2007 – Home & Student: Brilliantly put together, well rounded, good looking package that is stuffed full of features. It’s a retail package, which means once you have paid for it, it’s yours. You have the disc in case you have to re-install the software. Microsoft have been doing this for years, and it is obvious to see they are know what they are doing.

OpenOffice.org: Open office has some brilliant features, it doesn’t look as nice, and hides its options away within menu’s rather than displaying them on an easy to see Ribbon Menu such as Microsoft Office with colourful icons.
But you can’t expect everything for a package that is completely free. For what it’s worth, OpenOffice is a number 1 competitor to Microsoft Office.

Google Docs: Really useful if you are on the train or bus back to University, or maybe on your way home. As long as you have an Internet Connection. Which isn’t always available on public transport unless you are in business class. Doesn’t have quite as many features but is very easy to use, very quick to load and gain, completely free of charge. We would not recommend using Google Docs as your primary package for creating and editing your work.

Our Verdict

If you are on a very tight budget, then we would recommend using OpenOffice, it’s completely free although you do have to download it from their site.

If you can afford to go with Microsoft Office 2007 then that would be perfect. It looks good, it’s easy to learn and use, It is THE standard for most people and would save you the trouble of making sure you saved your Dissertation in the correct format. You wouldn’t want to loose marks because the tutor couldn’t read your work would you?

Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 is used as a digital notebook that provides a simple way to keep track of your notes and information for your classes. The software uses a great search utility so you can find the notes you need for your lesson, when you need them.

I would like to welcome you to the all new Student Tech Tips site.
As a quick overview, we will be here to give you completely unbiased and unedited opinions on…

all of the latest techno gadgets, hardware, software, laptops and various other things that could confuse most people.

So if you want to find out which Laptop would be best to write your Dissertation on, or even playing a sneaky game at the back of the room, then keep your eyes peeled for new content that will be appearing daily!

So once again, from the team. Welcome to Student Tech Tips.com.

If you have any suggestions then please contact us, we would love to hear from you.