Well let the fun begin. UPS dropped off my Windows 7 Party Pack today and not a moment sooner. My patience was almost at an end as while I have been using the RC Version the final release was my goal. At $320 retail value for the Windows 7 I am grateful to have become on of the Party Hosts on House Party.

Just so you know I have been running the Win 7 RC for a of couple months now with not one issue. I have now done a clean install using my new Win 7 from the party pack. I am running a dual core system AMD with simply 4gb RAM and 8800GT and my Windows Experience score is 5.7 because of my processor Athlon 5000 Black edition.

Remember you can find my personally created themes and more Windows 7 information on Where’s My Drink, just search for what you are looking for i.e. gadgets.

The official release of Windows 7 starts October 22, 2009.

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By now you have probably taken advantage of Window’s newest version Windows 7. As you explore the inner workings, enoying the new found speed, why not add some personalization and fun to your desktop? You may be familiar with desktop gadgets as a prior Windows user especially prior Vista users. With the advent of Windows 7 64-bit & 32-bit you can run them better, faster & with more choices than before. Lets get to it shall we.

The Official Windows 7 64-bit & 32-bit Gadget Gallery

As of this article there are over 3309 choices of gadgets all with the ability to use Windows 7 automatic install feature. Right click on your Windows 7 desktop and you will see the Gadgets option.

Yahoo Widgets

While not a Windows sponsored site Yahoo Widgets is chock full of over 5,685 different new gadgets for your desktop. You will use Yahoo! Widgets 4.5 to install these gadgets. Many of the widgets are very highly customizable so exploring & trying these out should keep you busy for a while.

You have installed it and if not what are you waiting for? Windows 7 32-bit & 64-bit is out for you to try free so get with the program. Now it is time to take control and start personalizing your desktop.

In this post I want to share some free themes for Windows 7 made by yours truly. Remember you can use the personalization features in Windows 7 32-bit & 64-bit to change any icons, cursors, sounds etc. to make your theme the way you want. Remember to drop a comment if you need help and don’t forget to bookmark as more themes will be added. A Digg, Stumble or Reddit Up would be great if you enjoy these themes.

Aqueduct (68)	Arrival (214)	Beachy (92)
Cigar (68)	Cityscape (107)	Desolation (101)
Glass Gears (65)	One Scoop (76)	Roma (54)
Sea Painting (70)	Shrine (55)	Twilight (142)

So you have a favorite widget or video up on your blog that you & your visitors enjoy. Wouldn’t you like that widget on your Windows 7 desktop? Well now you can using the freeware program Amnesty™ Generator. This little 5.1mb gem easily converts millions of web widgets, games and videos found on blogs or social networks into gadgets for your Windows 7 desktop.

Converted web widgets work just like any other Windows 7 gadgets including customization & opacity. Now you can place Google gadgets, New York Times widgets, YouTube videos and more onto your desktop.
Copy and paste the HTML code for a web widget directly into the Generator and generate a new gadget with the click of a button.

1. Create gadgets without any coding experience
2. Auto-fill feature does the work for you
3. Inline step-by-step instructions included
4. Supports Flash widgets, games and video
5. Convert widgets from sites like Google Gadgets, SpringWidgets, Widgetbox, Yourminis & more

It’s freeware so what are you waiting for, give Amnesty™ Generator a try.

Direct Link To download Amnesty™ Generator Version 1.5

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1First go grab the new Peer Guardian 2 RC1 Test file.
pg2-rc1-test2.exe

Note: This is not the final version of RC1, it is an initial testing release only but hey it worked great for me.

2Download Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider aka DSEO.

This free program will override the Windows 7 driver signing process. This is a perfectly safe program, research it if you need assurance.

3Install DSEO and enable TEST MODE and reboot your computer. Notice the “Test Mode” in the bottom right of your desktop…

4Once rebooted, you need to install PG2 but DO NOT launch it. Open the PG2 install folder, (C:\Program Files\PeerGuardian2), and look for “pgfilter.sys”. This is the unsigned driver that you will sign using DSEO’s sign file option. Type the path for pgfilter.sys which should be (C:\Program Files\PeerGuardian2\pgfilter.sys), and press OK.

5Now copy & paste the following code in the run box. In Windows 7 the run box is found via START>ALL PROGRAMS>ACESSORIES>RUN.

bcdedit /set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS

6Your done! Remember you may need to Run As Administrator PG2, just right click on it’s icon in start menu. As always remember to retweet, Digg, Reddit, Stumble or whatever you do if you found this helpful.

I know it sounds weird but I got pictures to back it up. The computer beside mine at work had a problem with it’s power supply and/or motherboard. When the new sealed power supply unit was opened and installed the fan would not run. After uninstalling I got a shock when I looked in the unit and saw a mummified lizard staring back at me.

But wait, there’s more. Showing various people at work and receiving oohs & ahhs, and one eek, I took the power supply home and took the pictures you see here. I decided to get a shot of the lizard out of the power supply. Once I unscrewed the units side another lizard fell literally into my lap.

Once I got the fan out, I hate rubber screws, I put the big lizard to the side on a piece of paper. While going to dispose of the power supply a last little lizard fell out which you see in the pictures. Pretty wild I would say, thought it was interesting so hope you enjoyed the story and pictures. Anyone else ever find anything weird inside computer components?

This post is about the wearable Sixth Sense device. Think if everyone was using one of these puppies what an easier life it would be. SixthSense won the 2009 INVENTION AWARD by Popular Science so you know its not a gag item.

Made up from standard parts most of us already have, it would cost about $300 -$350 otherwise to purchase the items needed to make it. Just take a look and see what you think. While your at 5min.com check out the Microsoft 2019 Vision video.

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When you have multiple operating systems installed on your computer, you will have to pick an OS to boot into each time you turn on your computer. Learn how to eliminate the screen altogether or reduce the amount of time the computer gives you before it picks the default operating system to boot into.

Why would you want to do this?

Saves time if you’re mostly booting into one operating system. For example, I have a multi-boot setup consisting of XP & Windows 7. Most of the time, I use Windows 7 but I still want to keep my XP OS until I install the retail Windows 7.

How-To:

1) Open the Start Menu, right click on Computer, and select Properties

2) Select Advanced System Settings from the sidebar

3) Click on Settings under Startup and Recovery

4) If you want to skip the boot selection screen completely, uncheck the box beside Time to display list of operating systems

If you just want to decrease the amount of time it takes for the boot selection screen to stay open, just change the number of seconds in the box beside.

There you have it simple & quick. Enjoy!

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Being the inherently lazy person I am, I looked ages for a way to own & run a self updating website while doing little to preferably no work. Trying and then discarding ideas such as nanorobots, small monkeys & god forbid, paying someone.

My idea was simple, create a domain then create a website that would self populate articles & information with no input needed once started and at a bare minimum investment. What I wanted was a site with genuine content and NO SPAM that would generate a visitor base and revenue to pay for itself.

I searched for almost a year for a way to accomplish my goal with no success. Perhaps some of you have found a way to do what I want but if so you are not sharing the information with us. I will share what I finally found that worked for me and hope it works for you too.

Behold my creation which is not a spam or ad site. It is a self maintained self updating site that has information I for one find interesting on Windows 7.

Window’s 7 Studio

Window’s 7 Studio was chosen to be the subject of this experiment because I wanted a place to gather interesting information on Window’s 7 and share my themes. The website has a full fledged forum, updates and posts articles daily, uses Wordpress and the atahualpa theme. The plugin that makes this all work is WP-o-Matic. Using the tools mentioned above WP-o-Matic worked right off the bat. I tweaked the atahualpa theme with preferences and images that satisfied me.

Now I will wait and watch to see if my creation will continue to be self sufficient and gather visitors. Go check it out and I am as always open to advice or criticism.

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Please visit Window’s 7 Studio and see what you think. As I am trying out a newer, faster theme the graphics have been the last of my concerns but will be addressed shortly.

Thanks
Scott

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