Now, it appears, you’ll no longer need to do that.  A post by Ed Bott of ZDNet seems to indicate that there’s language in the Licenses folder of Windows 7 Home Premium that “Qualified Family Pack Users” will be able to install the latest Windows offering on up to three computers in their household.  So now you won’t need to buy additional licenses to upgrade the whole house to Windows 7 when it’s released on October 23rd.

This is something that Apple users have always lauded over the heads of those using Windows, but no longer. 

Of course, there’s now the question of what, exactly, is a “Qualified Family Pack User”?  Thankfully, though, Microsoft provides a URL to check out whether or not you qualify: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?Linkid=141399 (which, at least for now, goes to the Windows 7 home page on Microsoft’s site).

Most likely it will mean that the machines must be in the same household, and that it will not be available to business users.  But isn’t that really what the definition of a ‘Family Pack’ is anyway? 

Regardless, though, it now means that purchasing a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium will allow you to upgrade a number of PC’s in the house rather than having to buy one physical copy, and then additional licenses from Microsoft.

It’s a day that many thought would never come, but it now appears to be here.

It’s about time.

That’s right – on Firefox users.

During a recent Windows Update push, one of the things that got installed was a service pack for the .NET Framework.  If you regularly update your Windows machine, or allow Microsoft to do so automatically, you most likely got this service pack.  However, there’s one thing that Microsoft didn’t tell you was going to be installed along with it: a Firefox extension called the Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.0 which adds a functionality called ClickOnce, which “allows web sites to easily and quietly install software on your PC without your knowledge” according to Brian Krebs of the Washington Post, who found out about the extension and wrote a post about it here.

In other words, it has the potential to open up some security holes that were previously only experienced by Internet Explorer users.  But just wait, it gets even better.

If you think that you’ll just remove the extension, you’re out of luck.  See, Microsoft has disabled the Uninstall option if you check your Firefox addon list.  To put it bluntly, you’ve got it, and you ain’t getting rid of it.  At least not easily.  Microsoft admitted that the way to remove the extension was to modify your Registry.  Something that’s annoying at best, and risky at worst, simply due to the fact that poking around the Registry without knowing what you’re doing can brick your machine.  And reinstalls are never fun.  However, there is an easier fix below.

Which begs a couple of questions, which Krebs also asked. 

Why didn’t Microsoft tell users that this was going to be installed on their machine?  Microsoft is hardly in a position to look at a competing browser and figure that they know *just* the way to make it better.  What was the secrecy for?

And more importantly: What else have you installed on my machine that I don’t know about, Microsoft?  Nothing, you say?  Hmmm….why don’t I believe you?

Anyway, there’s a fix for this issue, detailed by Brad Abrams, a coder at Microsoft.  He posts a link to a site on microsoft.com that will allow you to uninstall the extension without modifying your Registry.

I think that Microsoft has done a fair bit over the last few years to try and win users’ trust back by being more upfront about things than they have been in the past, but this sure is a step back to the bad-old-days.

Next time, Microsoft, be more open about what you’re going to do to my browser, okay?  Especially if it’s NOT Internet Explorer that I’m using.  It’s MY decision on how I want my browsing experience to turn out – not yours to decide for me.

Update: As I was going through my RSS reader I found that Brian Krebs had posted another article regarding this issue, including how to fix it without modifying the Registry.  Similar to the Abrams article, but maybe a little easier to follow for the average reader.

It’s safe to say that if your PC is already running Vista, particularly if it came with Vista pre-installed when you purchased it, that you’re safe.  Windows 7 won’t be a problem for you, and will in fact probably be a smart thing to do.  Vista-capable machines will run Windows 7 much more efficiently than they will Vista.

But this post isn’t really for all of those Vista users.  You might have a slightly older machine still running XP and are wondering if you should just bite the bullet and buy a new box with Windows 7 on it when it’s released, or if you can simply upgrade.  That’s what the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta application is for.  Download this app from Microsoft, and after it’s had a chance to scan your machine, it’ll let you know what might need to be upgraded before you upgrade to Windows 7.

One thing to remember is to plug in all of the hardware that you’re planning to use with the machine after you upgrade it to Windows 7.  Don’t be particularly surprised if it reports that you’ll need to visit the manufacturer’s website to download the latest drivers for many of your devices. 

When I ran the test it let me know that I’d need to upgrade the drivers for my network card prior to using Windows 7.  Definitely a good thing to know, considering that it’d be pretty tough to go online to download the newest drivers when the device itself won’t be functioning.  Other than that, it recommended running a full backup, and upgrading a few applications.  The Aero glass graphics system isn’t going to work on my current machine, but there’s not much I can do about that until I get a new machine, seeing as how standard PCI graphics cards aren’t really being manufactured anymore.

The other thing I’ll need to do is upgrade the RAM on my machine to a minimum of 2GB (Microsoft only mentioned that I’d need 1GB, but why stop at the bare minimum when you don’t have to.  And besides, like hard drive space, there’s NO such thing as “too much”.

By the way, the recommended upgrade path to Windows 7 is to back up all critical data and do a completely clean install.  While this might be a pain for some, it’s really probably the best path, because, after all, your machine is going to perform much better after a completely clean install.  And when you’ve got a new operating system to put through it’s paces, you really don’t want to have to deal with the hangover of your previous OS to slow things down.  Even if you’re currently using Vista, it would be better to back up and wipe everything and start fresh.  It should also be noted that if you’re using Windows 2000, you’re not going to be able to buy the upgrade version of Windows 7.  You’ll need to buy the full version and definitely do a clean install.

If you’re teetering on the edge of buying a new machine, or holding on for another year or two, upgrading might be the best option.  However, if you’re a die hard who wants to see if Windows 7 will run on your machine, this is the application that will let you know how the experience might go.

Microsoft has confirmed that the newest version of Windows should be available by the holiday season, but Thurrott has speculated that it could be as early as September when the new OS goes on sale to the public.  While this would obviously miss the back-to-school season, it would get Windows 7 on the shelves in time for Christmas. 

If it’s ready now, as has been speculated, it might be more in Microsoft’s interest to get it out before September, but seeing as how we’re already into May, that might be pushing things a little fast.  Always best to plan for unexpected things to pop up, especially this close to a release date.

Of course, the release of a new offering from Microsoft is going to beg the question – what happens to both Vista and XP?  Only time will tell, regardless of what Microsoft might announce at any time prior to the release of Windows 7.  But no matter what the fate of the older operating systems might be, there will be some who won’t be happy about it. 

First of all, Microsoft has announced that IE8’s default configuration will be compliant with current web design standards.  For those who may have only ever used IE, as opposed to Firefox, if you’ve ever come across a website that just didn’t look right, it may be due to the fact that the site was designed to conform to strict web standards, which Microsoft chose to ignore.  Admittedly, Firefox isn’t perfect in this regard, either, but they’re closer to adhering to the standards than Redmond was.

With IE8, though, that’s all changed.  The default rendering engine in the browser will now be the standards-compliant mode.  There’s also the IE7 engine, and a rendering engine that will be more effective on older websites.  If designers want to force an IE8 client to use the IE7 rendering engine, they’ll need to add a tag to the code for their website.  The end user won’t have to do a thing, and when they move on to an IE8 compliant site, the browser will switch back to its default rendering engine.

Users of Firefox version 3 will know about the ‘AwesomeBar’, the address bar that makes suggestions as you enter an address into it.  If you’re not a fan of the feature (like myself), you’ll know that it can be disabled in Firefox, and, I’m pleased to announce, also can be disabled in IE8.  I’ll write that up for another post.

If you ever open a number of tabs from a number of different sites figuring that you’ll just work your way through them, it can sometimes be confusing knowing just how you to got to each particular site.  With IE8, though, it’ll colourize your new tabs based on the site that they came from, so links you open in a new tab from WIndowsNotes.com will be coloured differently than those from Google.  Not earth-shattering, but I can see uses for it.

Also, there’s a feature that Microsoft is calling InPrivate browsing, which will essentially make the browser forget that it was ever on a particular site.  Considering that the Smart Address Bar is going to catalogue everything that you visit, this can cut down on the number of ‘one-off’ visits to sites influencing what shows up in the Smart Address Bar in the future.

I did give IE8 a bit of a spin, and found that it occasionally failed to load images from pages that rendered just fine in Firefox.  It wasn’t something that I tested extensively, but it was something that I noticed.

I’m going to try and use it almost exclusively for about a week and I’ll report back on what I find.

Firefox released the third version of its browser awhile back, and more than 8 million people downloaded the new version.  What do these people know about this browser that you don’t?  Keep reading, and I’ll show you.

The Firefox browser draws its roots from Netscape Navigator, which at one time was as dominant a browser as Internet Explorer is today.  But eventually the developers of Navigator decided that they wanted to do something else with the beast, and they laid the plans for what would eventually come to be known as Firefox.

So why should you download Firefox and try it out?  Have you ever been reading a website in IE that just looked like it was designed poorly?  Maybe the graphics don’t quite line up, or things just look a little…off?  Chances are, that page would load properly in Firefox.  Microsoft has taken a few liberties with the web design standards and tweaked them so that IE doesn’t always follow the standard.  That’s why you get funny looking pages.

Firefox follows the CSS (web design) guidelines much more closely, and, consequently, you’ll get better looking pages in Firefox.  But what really sets it apart from IE, is the ability to customize it however you want.

While Firefox there are literally thousands of different themes available for Firefox, you’d be best to probably stick with the original, or maybe try one or two to see how you like them.  Chances are, though, that you’ll come back to the original.  But where the customization really shines is in your ability to install add-ons to the browser, to make it work the way that you need it to.

Without a doubt, one of the very best add-ons available for Firefox would have to be AdBlock Plus.  What this plugin will do is block as much advertising as it can from each page that you browse.  And if the odd advertisement slips through, you can tell it to block it, and you’ll never see that ad again on that site.

I have literally visited some websites while using another computer and asked the user when so-and-so site put advertising on their site, only to be told that it’s always been there.  I didn’t know about it because I’d NEVER seen ads on the site.  Give it a try.  You’ll be amazed at the results.

If you like keeping an eye on the weather, give ForecastFox a try.  It’ll display 3 day forecasts for all major metropolitan centers, and some pretty out of the way places as well, in your choice of format (imperial or metric).

As with the themes, add-ons number in the thousands, with some being must=haves that will just generally make your browsing experience better, while some are very niche-oriented (in 2006, for example, I installed an add-on that showed me live scores from the FIFA World Cup.  I’m hoping that there’s another one written for 2010 tournament in South Africa).

If anyone would like a list of recommened extensions, leave a comment below and I’ll do what I can to forward you a list of add-ons that would be suited for your needs.

Regardless, though, you owe it to yourself to give Firefox 3 a try.  We’d love to hear your thoughts if you do, too.

If you use Google’s Gmail, though, there’s a way you might be able to find out.

Now, this method isn’t foolproof, but if you want to find out if someone sold your email address, this can help you point the finger in the right direction.

For example, when I signed up for the iTunes Music Store, I provided an email address of myaddress+itunes@gmail.com, for my login address.   This will still be delivered to myaddress@gmail.com, and the plus-sign with the additional information behind it helps me to filter my mail to see if it’s been sold.

I created a filter in Gmail that basically says, anything with the +itunes designation in it should have an ‘iTunes’ label put on it, and put in a special folder.  If I ever get an email at that address that’s not from Apple, then I know that they either gave or sold my address to someone for the purposes of spamming, because the ONLY place that has ever seen that email address is the login server at the iTunes Music Store.

(For the record, I’m not accusing Apple of selling my address, because every email I’ve ever received at myaddress+itunes@gmail.com has been a receipt for a purchase at the iTunes Music Store).

As I mentioned above, though, it’s not foolproof – but not for the reason that you think.  Some websites won’t allow you to enter an email address with a plus-sign in it, but there’s a way around that as well, although it won’t show you who sold your address if you use this method at more than one site.

In addition to myaddress@gmail.com, mail sent to myaddress@googlemail.com will also show up in your inbox.  So, if you get email sent to that address and it shows up from someone you never gave the address to, there’s your smoking gun.

Just another reason why you might want to consider switching to Gmail.

It doesn’t need to be like that.  Ever gone into a computer retailer only to be told that the only way to fix your PC is to buy a new one?  We’re here to show you that that isn’t always the case.

I’ve been using computers since the early 80s, and PCs specifically since the early 90s.  Along the way I’ve been a service technician for large computer retailers, worked for governments and schools, and done private PC support.  Plus I contribute to a couple of tech support email lists when I get the spare time.  I’m also an MCSE, and A+ hardware certified.

I don’t get frustrated with PCs or their users.  What frustrates me is the mis-information that gets passed on by “experts” who’ve “been using computers for a long time.”  Here’s the truth: You don’t need to run six different anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-malware, etc. cleaners to keep your system running as well as it can.  I started using PCs in 1993.  I’ve contracted about 3 virus infections in that time.  I scan my machine for spyware or adware about once every six months or so.  And it finds very little, if any, bad stuff on my PC.

And I’m going to show you how you can keep your XP or Vista machine running as well as it possibly can.  I tend not to go off on a rant about things, but if I’m going to, I’ll let you know at the start of the post.  I do have a tendency to point out when someone is wrong about something, but try to do so in a constructive way.

So if you’ve been having issues with your Windows machine, then you’re in the right place.

XP issues.  Vista issues.  Here are the answers.