The Complete Guide To Windows

Windows 7 “God Mode”

2010-01-27T22:49:00.001-08:00

Have you ever wondered what else lies under the hood of that new Windows 7 laptop you got recently? The clever folks at CNET have found a simple hack that will grant access to all of those options in one easy-to-set-up shortcut.

The aptly named GodMode is a built-in, yet unadvertised feature in Windows 7 that gathers all Windows utilities in one spot. To access it, simply create a new folder and name it:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

And that's it! Open it up and you'll find access to display options, backup/recovery, power management and more. This is a useful trick for those of you that easily forget where to access the defragmenter or the device manager. You may even find a useful utility you didn't know existed.

[Important note: Readers have noted that this tip also works on the 32-bit version of Windows Vista. If you are running the 64-bit version of Windows Vista, do not use this hack. It can cause Windows Explorer to crash. If you've experienced this problem, see these instructions to remove the GodMode folder.]

For quite a few years now, Microsoft has tinkered with its Control Panel in order to provide a robust set of options in an elegant and accessible package. GodMode is certainly not the solution to that problem. By throwing all of the settings into one spot, it's more akin to organized confusion than friendly accessibility. GodMode probably won't work too well for Grandma, but for those of you that get giddy at the thought of tweaking your settings, you might want to get this shortcut up on your desktop.

Get the Windows 7 Taskbar For Windows XP

2009-12-07T06:45:00.000-08:00

If want to get the look and functionality of the Windows 7 Taskbar in Windows XP, then you should give ViGlance a try.

It’s an excellent freeware program that imitates the Windows 7 Taskbar in XP. (As of this posting, it only works on XP, not Vista).

Key features:

* Replace Windows XP button with 7’s start orb.

* Replace old taskbar with superbar

* Adds Windows 7’s grouping feature

* Shows larger taskbar icons

* Adds transition effects

It’s a standalone application that doesn’t take up much of your system resources.

Dual-Booting Windows 7 and Ubuntu

2009-11-30T07:33:00.001-08:00

Thanks to an article from lifehacker.com Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu in Perfect Harmony, we will explore dual-booting Windows 7 and Ubuntu.

Here is the article from lifehacker.

Windows 7 and Ubuntu, despite their opposing missions, can get along like best pals on a single computer. Here's how to set up a dual boot system that lets you enjoy the best of both worlds in perfect harmony.

By default, Windows 7 takes over your boot-up process and wants to be your only OS, and Linux treats Windows like a weekend hobby you keep in a shed somewhere on your hard drive. But I've been dual-booting Ubuntu and some version of Windows 7 for nearly a year, and I've learned a lot about inconveniences, annoyances, and file-sharing necessities, and now I'll walk you through how to set up your systems to achieve a peaceful union of your dual-boot OSes. (Both with Windows 7 already installed, and with a clean system ready for a new dual-OS existence.)

Follow through this guide, and I'll explain how to rebuild a system from the ground up with Windows 7 and Ubuntu, with either a backed-up and cleaned-out hard drive (recommended) or Windows 7 already installed. When we're done, you can work and play in either operating system, quickly and conveniently access your documents, music, pictures, and other files without worry or inconvenience, and boot into either system without having to worry about whether Windows is going to get mad at you. Plus, when Ubuntu 10.04 or Windows 8 come along, you'll find it much easier to install either one without having to start over entirely from scratch.

What you'll need

Windows 7 installation disc: For clean installations, either a full installation copy or an upgrade disc is needed. If you own an upgrade disc but want to start from scratch, there's a way to do a clean install with an upgrade disc, though that's a rather gray-area route. Then again, there's probably not a person on this earth that doesn't have a licensed copy of XP or Vista somewhere in their past.
Ubuntu 9.10 installation image: You can grab an ISO at Ubuntu.com, or hit "Alternative download options" to reveal a (usually very fast) BitTorrent link. You'll want to get the ubuntu-9.10-desktop-i386.iso download for 32-bit systems, or ubuntu-9.10-desktop-amd64.iso.torrent for 64-bit on AMD or Intel systems (despite the name).
Blank CD or empty USB drive: You'll need one of these for burning the Ubuntu ISO, or loading it for USB boot. If you're going the thumb drive route, grab UNetBootin for Windows or Linux, plug in your USB drive, and load it with the downloaded ISO image.
All your data backed up: Even if you're pulling this off with Windows 7 already installed and your media and documents present, you'll want to have a fallback in case things go awry. Which they shouldn't, but, naturally, you never know.
Free time: I'd reckon it takes about 2 hours to pull off two OS installs on a clean system; more if you've got a lot of data to move around.

Setting up your hard drive

If you've got nothing installed on your system, or you've got your data backed up and you're ready to start from scratch, you're in a great position--skip down to the "Partition your system" section. If you've got Windows already installed, you can still make a spot for Ubuntu, though.

(Only) If Windows is already installed: You're going to "shrink" the partition that Windows 7 installed itself on. Before we do that, clean out any really unnecessary applications and data from your system (we like Revo Uninstaller for doing this). Also, open up "Computer" and take note of how much space remains on your main hard drive, presumably labeled "C:". Head to the Start menu, type "disk management" into the search box, and hit Enter.

Windows 7 probably put two partitions on your hard drive: one, about 100 MB in size, holding system restoration data. We don't want to touch it. Right-click on the bigger partition to the right, and choose Shrink Partition.

After a little bit of hard drive activity and a "Please wait" window, you'll get back the size you can shrink your Windows partition by.

If the space Windows offers doesn't jibe with what your Computer view told you was "remaining," you might need to hit Cancel, then head back and defragment your hard drive, and take some of the steps laid out by the How-To Geek. Run the Disk Management tool again and try a Shrink Volume operation again, and free up as much space as you can.

Partition your system: You're aiming to set up a system with three partitions, or sections, to its hard drive: One lean partition for the Windows operating system and applications running from it, another just-big-enough partition for Ubuntu and its own applications, and then a much larger data partition that houses all the data you'll want access to from either one. Documents, music, pictures, application profiles—it all goes in another section I'll call "Storage" for this tutorial.

How do you get there? We're going to use GParted, the Linux-based uber-tool for all things hard drive. You could grab the Live CD if you felt like it, but since you've already downloaded an Ubuntu installer, you can simply boot a "live," no-risk session of Ubuntu from your CD or USB stick and run GParted from there. Once you're inside Ubuntu, head to the System menu in the upper left when you get to a desktop, then choose the Administration menu and GParted under it.

You'll see your system's hard drive and its partitions laid out. You're going to create partitions for Linux and your storage space, but not Windows—we'll let the Windows installation carve out its own recovery partition and operating space. On my own system, I give Windows 15 GB of unallocated space, and Ubuntu another 15 GB of space right after it, with whatever's left kept as storage space. Then again, I've only got a 100 GB hard drive and don't run huge games or applications, so you can probably give your two operating systems a bit more space to grow.

Click on the unallocated space and hit the "New" button at the far left. In the "Free space preceding" section, click and hold the up button, or enter a number of megabytes, to leave space for Windows at the front. When you've got the "space preceding" set, set the actual size of the Ubuntu partition in the "New Size" section, and leave "Free space following" alone. Choose "unformatted" under file system—we'll let Ubuntu do the format itself and hit "Add." Back at the main GParted window, click on the space to the right of your two OS spaces, hit "New" again, and set the file system as "ntfs." Give it a label like "Storage," hit "Add," and at the main GParted window, hit the checkmark button to apply your changes. Once it's done, exit out of GParted and shut down the system from the pull-down menu in the upper-right corner.

If Windows is already installed: If you've shrunk down its partition for free space and booted into a live Ubuntu or GParted, click on the "Unallocated" piece next to the two "ntfs" partitions that represent your Windows 7 installation and system recovery tools. Create a 15(-ish) GB unformatted partition, and give it a label like Ubuntu. If you've got a good deal of space left, format it as "ntfs" and label it something like "Storage." If you can just barely fit the Ubuntu partition, you can just keep your media files in the Windows partition—until you can remedy this with a full wipe-and-install down the line.

Experienced Linux geeks might be wondering where the swap space is going—but don't worry, we'll create one, just not in its own partition.

Installing and configuring Windows

Grab your Windows 7 installation disc—either a full copy or modified upgrade disc, and insert it into your DVD drive. If your system isn't set up to boot from CD or DVD drive, look for the button to press at start-up for "Boot options" or something similar, or hit up your system maker's help guides to learn how to change your boot order in the BIOS settings.

Follow through the Windows 7 installation, being sure to choose "Custom" for the installation method and to point it at that unallocated space we created at the beginning of your hard disk, not the NTFS-formatted media/storage space we made earlier:

Work your way through the Windows 7 installation, all the way until you reach the Windows desktop. Feel free to set up whatever programs or apps you want, but what we really want to do is set up your Storage partition to house your pictures, music, video, and other files, and make your Libraries point to them.

Hit the Start menu, click Computer, and double-click on the hard drive named "Storage" (assuming you named it that earlier). In there, right-click and create new folders (or hit Ctrl+Shift+N) for the files you'll be using with both systems. I usually create folders labeled Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos—I could also see folders for saved games and data files from big software packages. Copy your media files into these folders now, if you'd like, but we've got a bit more tweaking to pull off.

In the left-hand sidebar, you'll see your "Libraries" for documents, music, pictures, and video. At the moment, they point to your Public shared folders and the My Pictures-type folders on your main Windows drive. Click once on any of the Libraries, and at the top of the main panel, you'll see text stating that this library "Includes: 2 locations ...". Click the blue text on "2 locations," then click on each of the folders below and hit "Remove" on the right-hand side. Now hit "Add" and select the corresponding folder on your Storage drive. Do the same for all your music, pictures, videos, and other media folders.

Want to add another library for quick access? Right-click somewhere on the desktop, choose New->Library, and follow the steps.

That's about it for Windows. Now get your Ubuntu CD or USB stick ready and insert it in your system. Ignore whatever auto-play prompts appear, and restart your system.

Installing and configuring Ubuntu

Restart your computer, this time booting from your Ubuntu Live CD or USB boot drive. When your system boots up, choose your language, select "Try Ubuntu without any changes to your computer," and you'll boot into a "live" desktop, run entirely off the CD or USB stick. Once you're booted up, try connecting to the internet from the network icon in the upper-right—it helps during the installation process, ensures your network is working, and gives you something to do (Firefox) while the system installs.

Click the "Install" link on the desktop, and fill out the necessary language/location/keyboard info (most U.S. users can skip through the first 3 screens). When you hit the "Prepare disk space" section, select the "Specify partitions manually" option, then hit Forward. Select the free space that's after your first two Windows partitions with ntfs formats, then hit the "Add" button at bottom. Your partition should already be sized correctly, and the only thing to change is set "/" as a mount point. Here's what your screen should look like:

Click OK, then finish through with the Ubuntu installation. If it catches your Windows 7 installation, it might ask if you want to import settings from inside it—you can, if you'd like, but I usually skip this. Wait for the installation to finish, remove the CD or thumb drive, and reboot your system.

When you start up again, you'll see a list of OS options. The only ones you need concern yourself with are Windows 7 and the top-most Ubuntu line. You can prettify and fix up this screen, change its settings, and modify its order later on. For now, let's head into Ubuntu.

We're going to make the same kind of folder access change we did in Windows. Click up on the "Places" menu, choose "Home Folder," and check out the left-hand sidebar. It's full of links to Documents, Pictures, and the like, but they all point to locations inside your home folder, on the Linux drive that Windows can't read. Click once on any of those folders, then right-click and hit Remove.

You should see your "Storage" partition in the left-hand sidebar, but without that name—more like "100GB filesystem." Double-click it, type in the administrator password you gave when installing, and you'll see your Documents, Music, etc. Click and drag those folders into the space where the other folders were, and now you'll have access to them from the "Places" menu, as well as any file explorer window you have open.

Ubuntu won't "mount," or make available, your Windows 7 and Storage drives on boot-up, however, and we at least want constant access to the Storage drive. To fix that, head to Software Sources in the System->Administration menu. From there go to Applications, then the Ubuntu Software Center at the bottom. Under the "Ubuntu Software" and "Updates" sections, add a check to the un-checked sources, like Restricted, Multiverse, Proposed, and Backports. Hit "Close," and agree to Reload your software sources.

Finally! Head to the Applications menu and pick the Ubuntu Software Center. In there, search for "ntfs-config," and double-click on the NTFS Configuration Tool that's the first result. Install it, then close the Software Center. If you've got the "Storage" or Windows 7 partitions mounted, head to any location in Places and then click the eject icon next to those drives in the left-hand sidebar. Now head to the System->Administration menu and pick the NTFS Configuration Tool.

You'll see a few partitions listed, likely as /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, and the like. If you only want your storage drive, it should be listed as /dev/sda3 or something similar--just not the first or second options. Check the box for "Add," click in the "Mount point" column to give it a name (Storage, perhaps?), and hit "Apply." Check both boxes on the next window to allow read/write access, and hit OK, and you're done. Now the drive with all your stuff is accessible to Windows and Linux at all times.

Adding swap to Ubuntu

"Swap" memory is a section of the hard drive that your system's memory spills over into when it gets full and busy. Until recently, I'd been creating a whole separate partition for it. Recently, though, I've found that swap isn't always necessary on systems with a large amount of memory, and that swap can simply be a file tucked away on your hard drive somewhere.

Follow the Ubuntu help wiki's instructions for adding more swap, but consider changing the location they suggest putting the swap file—/mnt/swap/ for the place your Storage is held—/media/Storage, in my case.

Share Firefox profiles and more

That's about it for this guide to setting up a harmonious Windows and Ubuntu existence, but I recommend you also check out our previous guide to using a single data store when dual-booting. It explains the nitty-gritty of sharing Firefox, Thunderbird, and Pidgin profiles between Linux and Windows for a consistent experience, as well as a few other dual-boot tricks.

You might also want to consider creating virtual machines with VirtualBox for those moments when you're in one OS and need to get at the other. Ubuntu is free to create as many instances as you want, of course, and Windows 7 (Professional and Ultimate) are very friendly with non-activated copies—not that either can't be otherwise activated in cases where it's just a double-use issue.

Windows 7 Tweaks & Tips: Keyboard Shortcuts

2009-11-25T06:18:00.001-08:00

Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts

In Windows 7, there are several sets of time-saving shortcuts that every power user should know.

Alt + P

In Windows Explorer, activate the file preview pane to the right side of the window with this shortcut. This panel is great for previewing your pictures.

Ctrl + + & Ctrl + -

In internet explorer, hitting holding the Ctrl key and +/-, you can zoom in or zoom out of the currant web page.

Windows + + (plus key)

Windows + - (minus key)

Pressing the Windows and plus or minus keys activates the Magnifier, which lets you zoom in on the entire desktop or open a rectangular magnifying lens to zoom in and out of parts of your screen. You can customize the Magnifier options to follow your mouse pointer or keyboard cursor. Keep in mind that so far, the Magnifier only works when Aero desktop is enabled.

Windows + Up

Windows + Down

If a window is not maximized, pressing Windows + Up will fill it to your screen. Windows + Down will minimize that active window. Unfortunately, pressing Windows + Up again while a window is minimized won’t return it to its former state.

Windows + Shift + Up

Similar to the shortcut above, hitting these three keys while a window is active will stretch it vertically to the maximum desktop height. The width of the window will however stay the same. Pressing Windows + Down will restore it to its previous size.

Windows + Left

Windows + Right

One of the new features of Windows 7 is the ability to automatically make a window fill up half of your screen by dragging to the left or right. This pair of shortcuts performs the same function without your mouse. Once a window is fixed to one side of the screen, you can repeat the shortcut to flip it to the other side. This is useful if you’re extending a desktop across multiple monitors, which prevents you from executing this trick with a mouse.

Windows + Home

This shortcut performs a similar function to hovering over a window’s peek menu thumbnail in the Taskbar. The active window will stay on your desktop while every other open application is minimized. Pressing this shortcut again will restore all the other windows.

Windows + E

Windows + P

Manage your multiple-monitor more efficiently with this handy shortcut. Windows + P opens up a small overlay that lets you configure a second display or projector. You can switch from a single monitor to dual-display in either mirror or extend desktop mode.

Windows + Shift + Left

Windows + Shift + Right

If you are using two or more displays, use this shortcut to easily move a window from one screen to the other. The window retains its size and relative position on the new screen, which is useful when working with multiple documents.

Windows + [Number]

Programs (and new instances) pinned to your Taskbar can be launched by hitting Windows and the number corresponding to its placement on the Taskbar. Windows + 1, for example, launches the first application, while Windows + 4 will launch the fourth. This is actually one key-press more than just clicking the icon with your mouse, but it saves your hand the trouble of leaving the comfort of the keyboard.

Windows + T

Like Alt + Tab, Windows + T cycles through your open programs via the Taskbar’s peek menu.

Windows + Space

This combo performs the same function as moving your mouse to the bottom right of the Taskbar. It makes every active window transparent so you can view your desktop. The windows only remain transparent as long as you’re holding down the Windows key.

Ctrl + Shift + Click

Hold down Ctrl and Shift while launching an application from the Taskbar or start menu to launch it with full administrative rights.

Ctrl + Click

Hold down Ctrl while repeatedly clicking a program icon in the Taskbar will toggle between the instances of that application, like multiple Firefox windows (though not browser tabs).

The Secrets to Clean-Installing Windows 7 with Upgrade Media

2009-11-22T07:36:00.001-08:00

Unfortunately, Microsoft is still making it difficult to perform a clean install of Windows 7 using Upgrade media, as it did with Windows Vista. You can’t simply use Upgrade media to do a clean install of Windows 7 on a new or previously formatted PC, but there are workarounds and this time they are easier.

In older versions of Windows, Microsoft would prompt you to insert an install floppy or CD from a previous version, to prove that you qualified for the upgrade version. But with Windows XP, PC makers began being able to drastically change the install CD, (all those extra programs that Dell, HP, and the like, would push onto your desktop that most of us just uninstalled after setup).

With Vista, Microsoft added support for in-place upgrades from Windows XP, but in order to use Upgrade media, you had to perform a double install in order to activate Windows. (The process for how to do this is documented by Paul Thurrott here How to Clean Install Windows Vista with Upgrade Media). Although performing a clean install of Windows 7 using Upgrade media isn’t simple, the following methods are considered legal by Microsoft and should work for most users.

First Let’s Understand What We Are Actually Doing

Performing a clean install--or what Microsoft calls a custom install--is when you boot your PC with Windows 7 Setup media (typically a Setup DVD, but with this version it could also be a specially created, bootable USB memory device containing the Setup bits) with the intention of installing just Windows 7 on the PC. There could be a previous version of Windows (XP or Vista) installed on the PC already. You will either install Windows 7 to a separate partition or will wipe out the previous Windows version during Setup. As always, please be sure to back up any data first. (This guide is intended to help you perform a clean install using Windows 7 Upgrade media. The author is not responsible for lost data. Please, please backup your data first.)

Here’s the problem. While anyone with a valid, licensed copy of Windows XP or Vista qualifies for any Upgrade version of Windows 7, only Vista users can do an in-place upgrade, which is the install type for which Upgrade Media is optimized. If you're an XP user, there's no way to do an in-place upgrade. So you have to perform a migration, which consists of three steps:

1. Backup your crucial data and settings using Windows Easy Transfer (it's on the Windows 7 Setup DVD) and make note of the applications that are installed, because you'll have to manually reinstall them again after the fact.

2. Perform a clean install of Windows 7 using the Upgrade media. I describe this process in this article.

3. Restore your crucial data and settings using Windows Easy Transfer (part of Windows 7) and then reinstall your applications.

There are millions of people out there who will be performing clean installs with Upgrade media. Many people have experienced issues with Windows 7 upgrades, especially those trying to do clean installs with Upgrade media, but if you follow the advice in this article, you will get up and running. You will get a legally activated, legitimate version of Windows 7 installed on your PC.

Note: In all of these methods, you should observe one simple rule. Do not enter your product key during Setup. Instead, you will attempt to activate Windows 7 manually after it is installed. So you can just enter your product key later.

If you have a previous version of Windows (XP or Vista), try launching Windows 7 Setup from that OS first, even if you want to wipe out the previous Windows verison. If you run Windows 7 Setup from your previous OS, Windows 7 will always activate.

If you boot your PC with the Windows 7 Setup DVD, as described below, and there is an existing install of Windows on the first partition, Windows 7 will always activate. If the existing install of Windows is on some other partition, Windows 7 should still activate. There are instances in which this won't work--especially when people really muck around with directory structures and so on, but it should activate.

Windows 7 Setup does its compliance checking before the phase of Setup where you format the disc. (Unlike with Windows Vista.) This means that you can format your existing hard drive, and blow away a previous Windows version, and not worry about activation. If it was there, Windows 7 will still activate.

Recovery partitions don't count. While Windows 7 Setup will look for previous installations of Windows, it will not look for recovery partitions or use them for compliance checking.

While I provide two workarounds for Windows 7 installs that will not activate, Microsoft's preference is that you simply call Microsoft Support instead. The call is free, and they will get you up and running (i.e. activated) very quickly.

Method #1: Boot with the Upgrade Setup Media

Here's what you do. Insert the Windows 7 Upgrade DVD in your PC's optical disc, reboot the computer, boot off the DVD, and then follow the steps to install Windows 7. If you are installing onto a computer that already has another version of Windows, be sure to back everything up first.

After Windows 7 is set up, and you've booted into the desktop, run Windows Update, download any pending updates, reboot as needed, and repeat until there are no more updates. Then, type activate in Start Menu Search to bring up the Activate Windows utility. Type in your product key and attempt to activate Windows.

If it works, you're all set. You're done. Congratulations.

Here's what you do want to see.

If this does not work, either call Microsoft Support and have them provide you with an activation code, or move on to method 2.

Here's what you don't want to see. But don't worry, we can overcome this.

Method 2: Registry Hack

Note: Method 2 is not supported By Microsoft and any time you work with the registry you take a chance at causing complications. If you are new to regedit or simply nervouse about later complications, use Method #3.

Open regedit.exe with Start Menu Search and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/

Change MediaBootInstall from "1" to "0". (Double-click it and then enter 0 in the dialog that appears.)

Close RegEdit.

Open the Start Menu again and type cmd in Start Menu search to display a shortcut to the Command Line utility. Right-click this shortcut and choose "Run as administrator." Handle the UAC prompt.

In the command line window, type: slmgr /rearm

Then tap ENTER and wait for the "Command completed successfully" dialog.

Then, close the command line window and reboot. When Windows 7 reboots, run the Activate Windows utility, type in your product key and activate windows.

If it works, you're all set. You're done. Congratulations.

If this does not work, you can try two different things:

First, ensure there are no pending Windows Updates to install. Some of these can cause this method to fail. Install them and reboot PC. Re-run the command line (with administrative privileges) noted above, reboot again, and re-attempt the activation.

If that does not work, try Method #3.

Method #3: The “Double Install” Method

1. Insert the Windows 7 Setup DVD in the optical drive if it isn't already there and choose Run Setup from the auto-run dialog that appears. Or, if it is already inserted, navigate to the optical drive in Computer and double-click is icon to trigger Setup.

2. At the appropriate stage of Setup, choose Upgrade (and not Custom). Windows 7 will install as before, though you might notice that it takes quite a bit longer this time. Because you're upgrading this time, you won't be prompted to enter your user name or most of the other information that you need to provide during a clean install. Using the user name (and password) you created during the first install, logon to Windows 7.

Now, activation will work. To activate Windows 7 immediately, type activate in Start Menu Search. This brings up the Activate Windows utility. Type in your product key and attempt to activate Windows.

Welcome to the complete, comprehensive guide to Windows. (Part 2)

2009-11-19T07:05:00.001-08:00

Security: UAC Tolerable?

UAC was unarguably the most annoying feature of Windows 7. It’s goal aimed to prevent malicious software from tampering with your PC by endlessly prompting you to approve running applications or changing settings. The experience was so aggravating that most users just turned UAC off. Those who left it active risked falling into the habit of incautiously clicking through every prompt, defeating whatever value UAC might have had.

Win 7 gives you more control over UAC than Vista did. There is now a slider containing four security settings. You can accept the full –blown UAC or choose to disable it. But you can also tell UAC to notify you only when software changes Windows settings, not when you're tweaking them yourself. And you can instruct it not to perform the abrupt screen-dimming effect that Vista's version uses to grab your attention.

If Microsoft had its way, all Windows 7 users would use UAC in full-tilt mode. When you move the slider to adjust the severity of UAC, it advises you not to do so if you routinely install new software or visit unfamiliar sites, and it warns that disabling the dimming effect is “Not recommended.” The intermediate settings should be fine for most users since those settings retain most of UAC's theoretical value without driving users bonkers.

Other than the welcome changes to UAC, Microsoft has made few significant changes to Windows 7’s security system. One meaningful improvement: BitLocker, the drive-encryption tool included only in Windows 7 Ultimate and the corporate-oriented Windows 7 Enterprise, lets you encrypt USB drives and hard disks, courtesy of a feature called BitLocker to Go. It's one of the few good reasons to prefer Win 7 Ultimate to Home Premium or Professional.

Applications: Extra Weight Left Behind

Here's a startling indication of how different an upgrade Windows 7 is: Rather than larding it up with new applications, Microsoft eliminated three nonessential programs: Windows Mail (née Outlook Express), Windows Movie Maker (which premiered in Windows Me), and Windows Photo Gallery. They are still available for users who don't want to give them up at live.windows.com as free Windows Live Essentials downloads.

Still present are the OS’s two applications for consuming video and audio, Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center. Windows Media Player 12 has a revised interface that divides operations into a Library view for media management and a Now Playing view for listening and watching stuff. Minimize the player into the Taskbar, and you get miniplayer controls and a Jump List, both of which let you control background music without having to leave the app you're in. Microsoft has added support for several media types that Media Player 11 didn't support, including AAC audio and H.264 video--the formats it needs to play unprotected music and movies from Apple's iTunes Store.

Media Center--not part of the bargain-basement Windows 7 Starter Edition--remains most useful if you have a PC configured with a TV tuner card and you use your computer to record TV shows à la TiVo. Among its enhancements are a better program guide and support for more tuners.

Windows Vista’s underpowered Backup and Restore Center let users specify particular types of of files to back up (such as ‘Music' and ‘Documents') but not specific files or folders. Though Microsoft corrects that deficiency in Windows 7, it deprives Windows 7 Starter Edition and Home Premium of the ability to back up to a network drive. It also continues the company's long streak of issuing versions of Windows that lack a truly satisfying backup utility.

The new version of Paint has Office 2007's Ribbon toolbar and adds various prefabricated geometric shapes and a few natural-media tools, such as a watercolor brush. But, as in many cases, there are better image editors out there. The impressive and free Paint.net is a much better choice and doesn’t require you to shell out big bucks for a decent image editor.

The nearest thing Windows 7 has to a major new application has the intriguing moniker Windows XP Mode. It's not a way to make Windows 7 look like XP--you can do that with the Windows Classic theme--but rather a way to let it run XP programs that are otherwise incompatible with Win 7. Unfortunately, only Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate offer it, and even then it comes as an optional 350MB download that requires you to have Microsoft's free Virtual PC software installed and that only works on PCs with Intel or AMD virtualization technology enabled in the BIOS.

Once active, XP Mode lets Windows 7 run apps that supposedly aren't compatible by launching them in separate windows that contain a virtualized version of XP. Microsoft clearly means for the mode to serve as a security blanket for business types who rely on ancient, often proprietary programs that may never be rewritten for current OSs.

Device Management: Device Stages

Windows 7 offers you numerous ways to connect your PC to everything from tiny flash drives to hulking networked laser printers--USB, Wi-Fi, ethernet, slots, and more. Devices and Printers, a new section of the Control Panel, represents connected gadgets with the largest icons ever seen in an operating system.

More important, the OS introduces Device Stages--hardware-wrangling dashboards tailored to specific items of hardware, and designed by their manufacturers in collaboration with Microsoft. A Device Stage for a digital camera, for instance, may include a battery gauge, a shortcut to Windows' image-downloading tools, and links to online resources such as manuals, support sites, and the manufacturer's accessory store.

You don't need to rummage through the Control Panel or through Devices and Printers to use a Device Stage--that feature's functionality is integrated into Windows 7's new Taskbar. Plug in a device, and it will show up as a Taskbar icon; right-click that icon, and the Device Stage's content will at once appear as a Jump List-like menu.

Earlier prerelease versions of Win 7 contained a handful of Device Stages, but Microsoft disabled them so that hardware manufacturers could finish up final ones before the OS hit store shelves in October. The feature will be a welcome improvement if device manufacturers hop on the bandwagon--and a major disappointment if they don't.

The Bottom Line: Should You Upgrade To Windows 7?

Since I don’t have access to a touch-capable PC, I haven’t tested Windows 7’s new touch features. All-in-all, Windows 7 is finally a decent replacement to Windows XP.

Here's a rule of thumb that errs on the side of caution: If your PC's specs qualify it to run Vista, get Windows 7; if they aren't, avoid it. Microsoft's official hardware configuration requirements for Windows 7 are nearly identical to those it recommends for Windows Vista: a 1-GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of free disk space, and a DirectX 9-compatible graphics device with a WDDM 1.0 or higher driver. That's for the 32-bit version of Windows 7; the 64-bit version of the OS requires a 64-bit CPU, 2GB of RAM, and 20GB of disk space.

Fear of incompatible hardware and software is another understandable reason to be wary of Windows 7. One unfortunate law of operating-system upgrades--which applies equally to Macs and to Windows PCs--is that they will break some systems and applications, especially at first.

The best way to reduce your odds of running into a show stopping problem with Windows 7 is to bide your time. When the new operating system arrives on October 22, sit back and let the earliest adopters discover the worst snafus. Within a few weeks, Microsoft and other software and hardware companies will have fixed most of them, and your chances of a happy migration to Win 7 will be much higher. If you want to be really conservative, hold off on moving to Win 7 until you're ready to buy a PC that's designed to run it well.

Waiting a bit before making the leap makes sense; waiting forever does not. Microsoft took far too long to come up with a satisfactory replacement for Windows XP. But whether you choose to install Windows 7 on your current systems or get it on the next new PC you buy, you'll find that it's the unassuming, thoroughly practical upgrade you've been waiting for--flaws and all.

Welcome to the complete, comprehensive guide to Windows. (Part 1)

2009-11-16T06:16:00.001-08:00

Hello and welcome to "The Complete Guide To Windows". My name is Geoffrey Conti and I am a certified Microsoft Professional. With the official release of Windows 7 on October 22nd, there is finally some good buzz concerning Windows and Microsoft.
The new OS doesn't try to dazzle you, but instead tries to disappear except for when you need it. Now does that sound like Windows to you? Didn't think so, but the underlyings of Windows 7 do just that and more. Instead of hyped up glitz, we get low key, useful new features. UAC has been sent to obedience school, and bundled applications have been dropped and made available as downloadable extras. Windows 7 attempts to fix annoyances old and new. In comparison, Vista offered a flashy new interface with "Aero", but was ill fated from the beginning. It's compatibility gotchas, and low performance left many people who upgraded regretting the move. And many others just refused to leave Windows XP behind.

Interface: The New Taskbar

The new Taskbar replaces the old small icons and text labels for running apps with larger, unlabeled icons. If you can keep the icons straight, the new design painlessly reduces Taskbar clutter. If you don't like it, you can shrink the icons and/or bring the labels back.

In the past, you could get one-click access to programs by dragging their icons to the Quick Launch toolbar. Windows 7 eliminates Quick Launch and folds its capabilities into the Taskbar. Drag an app's icon from the Start menu or desktop to the Taskbar, and Windows will pin it there, so you can launch the program without rummaging around in the Start menu. You can also organize icons in the Taskbar by moving them to new positions.

To indicate that a particular application on the Taskbar is running, Windows draws a subtle box around its icon--so subtle, in fact, that figuring out whether the app is running can take a moment, especially if its icon sits between two icons for running apps.

In Windows Vista, hovering the mouse pointer over an application's Taskbar icon produces a thumbnail window view known as a Live Preview. But when you have multiple windows open, you see only one preview at a time. Windows 7's version of this feature is slicker and more efficient: Hover the pointer on an icon, and thumbnails of the app's windows glide into position above the Taskbar, so you can quickly find the one you're looking for. (The process would be even simpler if the thumbnails were larger and easier to decipher.)

Also new in Windows 7's Taskbar is a feature called Jump Lists. These menus resemble the context-sensitive ones you get when you right-click within various Windows applications, except that you don't have to be inside an app to use them. Internet Explorer 8's Jump List, for example, lets you open the browser and load a fresh tab, initiate an InPrivate stealth browsing session, or go directly to any of eight frequently visited Web pages. Non-Microsoft apps can offer Jump Lists, too, if their developers follow the guidelines for creating them.

Other Windows 7 interface adjustments are minor, yet so sensible that you may wonder why Windows didn't include them all along. Shove a window into the left or right edge of the screen and it'll expand to fill half of your desktop. Nudge another into the opposite edge of the screen, and it'll expand to occupy the other half. That makes comparing two windows' contents easy. If you nudge a window into the top of the screen, it will maximize to occupy all of the display's real estate.

The extreme right edge of the Taskbar now sports a sort of nub; hover over it, and open windows become transparent, revealing the desktop below. (Microsoft calls this feature Aero Peek.) Click the nub, and the windows scoot out of the way, giving you access to documents or apps that reside on the desktop and duplicating the Show Desktop feature that Quick Launch used to offer.

Getting at your desktop may soon become even more important than it was in the past. That's because Windows 7 does away with the Sidebar, the portion of screen space that Windows Vista reserved for Gadgets such as a photo viewer and a weather applet. Instead of occupying the Sidebar, Gadgets now sit directly on the desktop, where they don't compete with other apps for precious screen real estate.

The New System Tray: In the past, Window's system tray was unarguably the most annoying feature of the OS. It quickly grew with applets that users didn't want in the first place. Many of the uninvited guests employed word balloons and other intrusive methods to alert users to uninteresting facts that appeared at the most inopportune moments.

In Windows 7, software installers, can’t dump applets into the system tray. Applets instead, land in a holding pen that appears only when you click it, a much needed improvement over previous incarnations of the System Tray. Applets in the holding pen can’t show balloon tips unless you permit them too. They can be dragged into, and out of the tray, giving much needed control over the System Tray.

A new area called Action Center—a revamped version of Vista’s Security Center—cues up alerts about security issues, troubleshooting issues, and the like. This keeps the OS from badgering you with constant balloon tips and lets you view them at your convenience.

The Library System: File Management

In Windows 7, employer hasn’t changed as much as the Taskbar and the System Tray. The two new ways to get to your files are Libraries and HomeGroups.

Libraries act like file cabinets, as they let you related folders in one place. The default libraries are Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos, each of which initially directs you to the OS's standard folders for storing the named items--such as My Pictures and Public Pictures.

In order to benefit from Libraries, you have to customize them. Right-click any folder on your hard drive, and you can add it to any Library; for instance, you can transform the Music Library into a collection of all the folders containing MP3s on your system. You can also create your own Libraries, such as one that bundles up all folders that relate to your vacation plans.

The one thing Microsoft left out, was the ability to integrate Libraries with Saved Searches, the Windows feature (introduced in Vista) that lets you create virtual folders based on searches, such as one that finds every .jpg image file on your system. But while Windows 7 lets you add standard folders to a Library, it doesn't support Saved Searches.

HomeGroups, Swee HomeGroups? Closely related to Libraries are HomeGroups, a new feature designed to simplify the notoriously tricky process of networking Windows PCs. Machines that are part of one HomeGroup can selectively grant each other read or read/write access to their Libraries and to the folders they contain, so you can perform such mundane but important tasks as providing your spouse with access to a folderful of tax documents on your computer. HomeGroups can also stream media, enabling you to pipe music or a movie off the desktop in the den onto your notebook in the living room. And they let you share a printer connected to one PC with all the other computers in the HomeGroup, a useful feature if you can't connect the printer directly to the network.

HomeGroups aren't a bad idea, but Windows 7's implementation seems half-baked. HomeGroups are password-protected, but rather than inviting you to specify a password of your choice during initial setup, Windows assigns you one consisting of ten characters of alphanumeric gibberish and instructs you to write it down so you won't forget it. To be fair, passwords made up of random characters provide excellent security, and the only time you need the password is when you first connect a new PC to a HomeGroup. But it's still a tad peculiar that you can't specify a password you'll remember during setup--you can do that only after the fact, in a different part of the OS. More annoying and limiting: HomeGroups won't work unless all of the PCs in question are running Windows 7, a scenario that won't be typical anytime soon. A version that also worked on XP, Vista, and Mac systems would have been cooler.

Federated Search, a new Windows Explorer feature, feels incomplete, too. It uses the OpenSearch standard to give Win 7's search "connectors" for external sources. That capability allows you to search sites such as Flickr and YouTube from within Explorer. Pretty neat--except that Windows 7 doesn't come with any of the connectors you'd need to add these sources, nor with any way of finding them. (They are available on the Web, though. Use a search engine to track them down.)