Windows 007

I was told it was a bad idea to try to load something as heavy as Windows 7 on my acer netbook, afterall it only had a gig of Ram, an 8.9 inch screen and a 160 gig hard drive. But then again, that’s more horsepower than many laptops out there-plus I don’t like listening to techs who play it safe.  So off I went!

Here’s the play by play:

I used a full blown version of Windows 7 Ultimate, the highest version available. So yes, I have media center ont here also and it runs fine.

First, since there is no optical drive on the netbook, I had to move the ISO file for windows 7 to a usb stick. It was a 16gb stick so size was not a problem at all. I configured the stick to be bootable so it would look and act just like an optical drive during installation. I did try it without the boot option and had an epic fail-so you will need to do this.

Second, the install was flawless, and I mean flawless. Every driver was onboard, everything was recognized, everything worked the first time. More over, the graphics are much more crisp. My camera, microphone, wireless card-yes, everything that comes on the Acer ZG5 worked!

I did a couple things to play it safe, like copying the directories provided on the Acer-Windows XP installation, just in case I needed a driver or some specilaized program to access the 3G chip that can be inserted in the back.

Unexpected benefits: Much better graphics, way longer battery life with the power saver option enabled and very quick stand-by and recover modes. I litterally hit the power button and it comes to life in 1 second, ready to go. I hit it again and sleeps without issue. That’s about a s 2 second process before the screen is dark and you hear the hard drive and fan shut off.

Glitches: I had to use the standard mouse controls as the ones for Windows 7 and the touchpad kept locking up. I also have occasional lag on the wireless connection to WiFi-I figure in a month or two there will be a more modern driver and this will go away. Mine has the Atheros card.

Do I recommend this to others with Acer Netbooks-absolutely! I also recommend tricking your system even more with a 9 cell battery, which can be bought affordably on E-bay for about 40 bucks.

Why the big battery? How about 10-15 hours of life out of your netbook? That’s what I average during the day. I’m in and out of it, as it sits on my desk, accompanies me to lunch, gets used by my kids to watch youtube in the car, etc. The power saver mode that comes with Windows 7 really keeps the system available when you need it and quite dormant when you don’t.

Instructions for making a USB flash drive “bootable” are below. I tried several ways and this one was the most reliable-although not simple, method.

1.Plug in your USB Flash Drive
2.Open a command prompt as administrator (Right click on Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt and select “Run as administrator”
3.Find the drive number of your USB Drive by typing the following into the Command Prompt window:
diskpart
list disk
The number of your USB drive will listed. You’ll need this for the next step.  I’ll assume that the USB flash drive is disk 1.
4.Format the drive by typing the next instructions into the same window. Replace the number “1” with the number of your disk below.
select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=NTFS
assign
exit
When that is done you’ll have a formatted USB flash drive ready to be made bootable.
Step 2: Make the Drive Bootable
Next we’ll use the bootsect utility that comes on the Vista or Windows 7 disk to make the flash drive bootable.  In the same command window that you were using in Step 1:

1.Insert your Windows Vista / 7 DVD into your drive.
2.Change directory to the DVD’s boot directory where bootsect lives:
d:
cd d:\boot
3.Use bootsect to set the USB as a bootable NTFS drive prepared for a Vista/7 image. I’m assuming that your USB flash drive has been labeled disk G:\ by the computer:
bootsect /nt60 g:
4.You can now close the command prompt window, we’re done here.
Step 3: Copy the installation DVD to the USB drive
The easiest way is to use Windows explorer to copy all of the files on your DVD on to the formatted flash drive.  After you’ve copied all of the files the disk you are ready to go.

Step 4: Set your BIOS to boot from USB
This is where you’re on your own since every computer is different. Most BIOS’s allow you to hit a key at boot and select a boot option.

Windows 7, the new operating system from computer software giant Microsoft, won’t be landing on store shelves until late October, but hackers already have cracked its copy-protection scheme and released it into the wild.

Just a week after the final version was released to computer manufacturers to be installed on new systems, the activation system was cracked, allowing users to unlock Windows 7 Ultimate without restrictions.

According to a Computerworld.com story, a copy of the software may have been leaked to a Chinese Web site before it spread to other English-language sites.

From there, the copy has gone on to bittorrent file-trading sites where anyone can download the full, retail copy.

One caveat to using the pirated version, however, is that it also requires users to also hack their own computer BIOS, a computer’s system setup that is programmed into the hardware and a process that is not easy for the casual.

Windows 7, which has been labeled as more of a cleaned-up version of its current OS, Windows Vista, has been getting rave reviews from users who have been tinkering with the beta version. The operating system will be released to the public Oct. 22.

Original article:  http://www.sltrib.com/technology/ci_12983741

Come October 22, 2009 Microsoft will launch Windows 7 worldwide, with markets around the globe scheduled to get tailored releases of the operating system. Because of antimonopoly regulations in Europe and the position of the European Antitrust Commission that the Windows – IE bundle is illegal, Microsoft will ship the E SKUs of Windows 7 in addition to the traditional N flavors for all European markets. E will be a mark for Windows 7 stripped of Internet Explorer 8, and although additional alternatives were being considered Microsoft opted to ship a browser-less platform in order to meet the October launch deadline. This offer is valid for the EU members as well as for Croatia and Switzerland. In this context, the Redmond company has published a webpage designed to guide users through installing the Windows 7 E editions.

“Windows 7 launches in the UK on the 22nd October and the main version sold within the UK will be the “E version.” This includes Windows 7 E Home Premium, Windows 7 E Professional, Windows 7 E Ultimate and Windows 7 E Starter editions. This version of Windows 7 (along with the N version) will not include a browser (for example: it will not come with Internet Explorer 8). We recommend therefore you have an Internet browser from Microsoft or from another software manufacturer saved onto a CD/DVD or another medium before you install Windows 7,” Microsoft explained.

As the company stated before, European users won’t be able to upgrade from a previous release of Windows, not even Windows Vista to Windows 7 E. The only way to get Windows 7 E on a computer is to perform a clean install.

“As you need to perform a custom (clean) install, you need to generate backup copies of all personal data including documents, pictures, music and videos, this is independent of whether Windows Vista, Windows XP, or another operating system is installed on your PC. You can save your files to a USB, external hard drive or to an online storage device such as Windows Live SkyDrive,” the software giant added.

Users will need to take the necessary measures to ensure that they have a browser available after performing a clean install of Windows 7. The best way is of course to save the binaries downloaded from Microsoft, Mozilla, Google or Opera. “Go to your preferred browser of choice and instead of running the application, save it to your preferred storage device whether that is a DVD, USB or an external storage device, have that handy for when you install Windows 7 as this will be needed for you to be able to get onto the Internet,” Microsoft advised.

The remaining Windows 7 flavor for Europe, namely the N releases, will not feature Internet Explorer 8 or any browser for that matter either, just as the E SKUs. However, neither will the N editions of Windows 7 include Windows Media Player and associated technologies.

“As a result, you will need to separately install a media player in order to play or create audio CDs, media files, or personal videos; organize media library content; create playlists; transfer media to portable media players; share photos on a home network; or perform other media player–related tasks,” Microsoft explained. “Computer manufacturers may pre-install third party media players on computers running Windows 7 N. Consumers may also separately install media players, either from Microsoft or a third party.”

Here are the actual steps necessary to install Windows 7 E:

Step One: Back up your files and personal data;
Step Two: Save your preferred browser;
Step Three: Install Windows 7;
Step Four: Re-install your browser;
Step Five: Re-install all your personal data.

Original Article: http://news.softpedia.com/news/How-to-Install-Windows-7-E-plus-IE8-or-Another-Browser-116820.shtml

Microsoft on Thursday unveiled pricing information for Windows 7, and announced that its upgrade option program will kick off on Friday.

The company balso said it would offer discounted upgrade pre-orders for a limited time.

Starting Friday, consumers who purchase a PC with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate at participating retailers will get a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it becomes available. The offer will run until Jan. 31, 2010.

For those waiting until the October 22 release date, a Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade will cost $119.99 and the full package will retail for $199.99.

The Windows 7 Professional upgrade will cost $199.99 and the full system will be $299.99. For Windows 7 Ultimate, the upgrade version will retail for $219.99 and the full version will set you back $319.99.

Microsoft said these prices are about 10 percent less than what they charged for Vista – the Home Premium upgrade version of which retailed for $129.99 at launch.

For Windows enthusiasts who are planning ahead, Microsoft is running a promotion that will offer a more than 50 percent discount on the premium and professional upgrade versions of the operating system.

From June 26 to July 11, consumers in the U.S. can pre-order the Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade for $49.99 and the Windows 7 Professional upgrade for $99.99. The offer will be available online via retailers like, Amazon.com, or the Microsoft Store.

The offer also applies to consumers in Canada from June 26 to July 11, in Japan from June 26 to July 5, and in the U.K., France, and Germany from July 15 to August 14. Prices will vary by region, however.

Users with an XP system can perform a clean installation using the upgrade version of Windows 7. Windows Vista users can do the same thing or perform an in-place upgrade, which maintains all the data, files, and applications on their Vista machine, a Microsoft spokesman said.

OEMs will start shipping Windows 7 machines on October 22. At launch, the OS will be available in 14 languages: English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Chinese (Hong Kong).

The remaining languages will be added on October 31.

In early 2007, deeply discounted OEM versions of Vista started showing up on e-tailers like Newegg.com. Microsoft also offered a Vista Family Pack, which allowed the purchase of up to two copies of Vista Home Premium for $49.99, provided that a customer buy Windows Vista Ultimate at full price, through retail.

A Windows 7 Family Pack is still under discussion, according to a Microsoft spokesman. As for cheap OEM versions of the OS, the spokesman said that since Newegg is primarily for systems builders, Microsoft does not consider that the retail sale of OEM licensed copies.

“It’s possible that something similar would emerge, but it wouldn’t be something Microsoft would encourage for broad use,” he said.

Microsoft also released packaging details for Windows 7 this week, photos of which are available on Appscout.com.

Original Article: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2349290,00.asp

Microsoft has decided that European copies of Windows 7 will be shipped without Internet Explorer in its bundling. This announcement follows the EU’s antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s dominant position in the market place.

Microsoft has announced that it will ship a special version of Vista’s successor in Europe, titled Windows 7 E, without Internet Explorer 8. The browser-less version, a reaction to an antitrust investigation by the EU into whether Microsoft is abusing its dominant position with Windows and Internet Explorer, will be distributed in all member nations of the European Economic Area as well as Croatia and Switzerland.

Windows 7 E is reminiscent of media-player-free Windows XP N and Windows Vista N, which Microsoft offered in Europe also in response to an EU antitrust investigation. Unlike the N versions, which proved to be very unsuccessful—as Europeans simply purchased the full retail versions and OEMs refused to include them on their systems—Microsoft is not planning to offer a version of Windows 7 in Europe that includes IE8. This means that none of the versions of Windows 7 sold in Europe will include a Microsoft’s browser.

As first reported by CNET and confirmed by Microsoft, OEMs will have the option to add the browser back in, ship another browser, or ship multiple browsers. “The E versions of Windows 7 will include all the features and functionality of Windows 7 in the rest of the world, other than browsing with Internet Explorer,” Microsoft notes. “Computer manufacturers will be able to add any browser they want to their Windows 7 machines, including Internet Explorer, so European consumers who purchase new PCs will be able to access the Internet without any problem. Consumers will also be able to add any Web browser to their PCs, to supplement or replace the browsers preinstalled by their computer manufacturer.”

Microsoft notes that the decision affects both OEM and Retail versions of Windows 7 products. While OEMs will have access to a free “IE8 pack” that allows them to add the browser back in, consumers who purchase retail copies will not have a browser that they can use to download a browser. Therefore, Microsoft will offer IE8 via CD, FTP, and retail channels. It looks like Mozilla, Opera, Google, and Apple will have to do the same if they want European Windows 7 adopters to have access to their browsers.

Microsoft does not currently have plans to remove Internet Explorer from any versions of Windows XP or Windows Vista, nor from the Windows XP mode add-on for Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate.

Recently, the EU has been asking companies what they saw as the best way to remedy the browser-bundling situation, and was even considering a way to get Microsoft to bundle third-party browsers with the operating system, forcing users to choose which browsers to download and install as well as which to set as the default. Microsoft wasn’t so keen on the idea of distributing third-party browsers, so it has apparently taken the matter into its own hands and decided to remove IE8 altogether, knowing that the EU already approved of the N editions.

This isn’t what the software giant originally wanted to do, as it had previously argued in its legal filings with the EU that the browser was an integral part of the operating system. With the release of the Windows 7 Release Candidate, Microsoft has made it possible to remove IE8 (the beta did not allow this), along with many other Windows components. [W]e’re committed to launching Windows 7 on time in Europe, so we need to address the legal realities in Europe, including the risk of large fines,” says Microsoft. “We believe that this new approach, while not our first choice, is the best path forward given the ongoing legal case in Europe.”

The European Commission is of two minds on Microsoft’s move, pleased by the possibility of OEMs being able to offer multiple browsers, but disappointed that Microsoft itself is not providing consumers with the choice. “As for retail sales, which amount to less than 5 percent of total sales, the Commission had suggested to Microsoft that consumers be provided with a choice of Web browsers,” the EC said in a statement. “Instead Microsoft has apparently decided to supply retail consumers with a version of Windows without a Web browser at all. Rather than more choice, Microsoft seems to have chosen to provide less.”

The timing of this decision is quite ironic: the browser space has never been as competitive as it is now. Furthermore, rivals continue to chip away at Internet Explorer’s market share month after month. Still, third-party browser makers like Opera, Mozilla, and Google have been pushing the EU for tough sanctions against Microsoft. Unless the EU has objections to Microsoft’s decision, it looks like new Windows 7 PCs sold in the EU will be IE-free.

Original Article: http://uk.webhostdir.com/news/showNews.aspx?ID=33229

Microsoft is trying to make it easier to sway users of Windows XP onto the latest version of its operating system.

For some time now, the company has been quietly building a “Windows XP mode” that uses virtualization to allow Windows 7 to easily run applications designed for Windows XP. According to sources familiar with the product, the application compatibility mode is built on the Virtual PC technology that Microsoft acquired in 2003, when it scooped up the assets of Connectix.

By adding the compatibility mode, Microsoft is aiming to address one of the key shortcomings of Windows Vista: its compatibility issues with software designed for Windows XP and earlier versions of the operating system.

Details of the Windows XP mode, previously known as Virtual Windows XP, were first published earlier Friday by the Windows SuperSite blog.

The technology has not been part of the beta version of Windows 7 or previously disclosed by Microsoft, but is expected to be released alongside the upcoming release candidate version. Microsoft said on Friday that it will release it to developers next week and publicly starting May 5.

According to the SuperSite report, written by bloggers Paul Thurrott and Rafael Rivera, the XP mode won’t come in the box with Windows 7, but will be made available as a free download for those who buy the professional, enterprise, or “ultimate” versions of Windows 7. The site also has some screenshots of the mode in action.

There had been rumors of a secret user interface, but until Friday, no mention of the XP mode.

Update: Late on Friday, Microsoft confirmed XP Mode in a blog posting.

“Windows XP Mode is specifically designed to help small businesses move to Windows 7,” Microsoft’s Scott Woodgate said in the blog. “Windows XP Mode provides you with the flexibility to run many older productivity applications on a Windows 7 based PC.”

According to the post, “all you need to do is to install suitable applications directly in Windows XP Mode which is a virtual Windows XP environment running under Windows Virtual PC. The applications will be published to the Windows 7 desktop and then you can run them directly from Windows 7.”

Microsoft said it “will be soon releasing the beta of Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC for Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate.”

Original article: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10227533-56.html

There certainly has been a lot of discussion about Windows 7 in the last few weeks. A lot of folks want to know when they can get their hands on the official RC, when we are going to RTM, and what I had for breakfast.

I’m pleased to share that the RC is on track for April 30th for  download by MSDN and TechNet subscribers. Broader, public availability will begin on May 5th.

On behalf of everyone here, I would to thank all of our beta testers for helping us get to this point. You guys have been busy. At the peak of the feedback cycle, we were receiving a “Send Feedback” report every 15 seconds for an entire week. Since then, the engineering team has been busy analyzing the feedback, fixing bugs, and working hard to improve the overall experience. Many of your suggestions helped us refine the new and improved taskbar, the behavior of Aero Peek, Touch, Windows Media Player, and much more. In case you have missed the previous E7 blog entry outlining some of these changes in detail, you can read about them here and here.

Original article: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/04/24/windows-7-release-candidate-update.aspx

Microsoft will release its anticipated Windows 7 to a broader audience Thursday when the “release candidate” version of the operating system goes public, the company confirmed Friday.

New versions of operating systems hit several key milestones along the road from conception to shelves. The release candidate is one of the final steps before the operating system is sent to computer makers and becomes available to everyone.

Currently, Windows 7 is in beta and only available to a couple million users.

“We’re pretty excited to hit another milestone,” Windows Business Group Director Mark Croft said Friday.

Microsoft confirmed that its release candidate would go live Thursday via a post on the Windows Team Blog.

Many of the changes between Windows Vista, the current operating system on the market, and Windows 7 are in the background and are the result of extensive research and development, Croft said.

Though Windows Vista offered many features not offered by previous operating systems, it suffered a very public backlash because of intrusive control features and software and hardware incompatibilities. In fact, downgrading to XP got more buzz than upgrading to Vista.

Windows 7 is designed to be faster at booting up and shutting down and to communicate better with hardware to preserve battery life.

Windows 7 will represent the first new operating system that will not require any equipment upgrades — any PC that can run Windows Vista can run Windows 7.

Many of the Windows 7 design features are meant to accommodate the changing ways people compute. For example, the evolution of the smart phone is driving innovation for touch screens.

Thus, Windows 7 supports touch screens even though they are not as widely adopted on PCs as they are on mobile phones.

Microsoft recommends Windows 7 users install Windows Live Essentials, which is designed to communicate with popular Web sites, such as Facebook and Flickr, making it easier to synchronize contacts, publish photos and monitor the goings on of friends. Many of those features are already available with Windows Live, which is a downloadable suite of free applications that act as an aggregater of sorts for e-mail, movies, messenger and photos.

“Facebook wasn’t on anybody’s to-do list when we designed Vista,” Croft said.

The new operating system also eases communication among other devices, such as mobile phones, televisions and speaker systems. That’s because the typical home in the developed world is becoming more connected.

The operating system also carries all-new features for business customers, such as a feature called “direct access,” which eliminates the need for the virtual private network as we know it.

People are computing all over the place — wanting to communicate instantly and access their work and home files from everywhere. Also, the popularity of the desktop has waned as computer users increasingly buy laptops.

“We really have seen a steady but unrelenting shift to notebook adoption,” Croft said. “That trend has been a big thing.”

During a Windows 7 demo at the Microsoft campus in Redmond on Friday, Croft displayed the ease of networking home computers with the new operating system.

Original Article: http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/167324.asp?source=mypi

The number of households with more than two PCs has surpassed 50 percent, he said, and yet many people don’t even bother to file share among computers. Croft admits that he doesn’t even do so among his own home computers.

For example, if a user has a file on the den computer, but the bedroom computer is hooked up to the printer, the user will e-mail the file to himself from the den. Then, he’ll go upstairs and access the e-mail and print the document.

That’s because networking the computers to talk to each other is such a hassle. But with Windows 7, it takes four clicks for computers to recognize each other on a home network, and swap files seamlessly.

The catch? All the computers have to be running Windows 7.

The release candidate of Windows 7 will go live April 30 to Microsoft’s developer network and TechNet subscribers. Public availability will begin May 5.

The final version of Windows 7 is expected to launch sometime in the company’s 2010 fiscal year, which starts in July.

Microsoft has confirmed that it will artificially limit the number of simultaneous applications that users will be able to run on the Starter Edition of Windows 7 to just three. Windows 7 Starter Edition is positioned as the affordable edition of its new Windows 7 operating system, and is meant for low-cost netbooks.

The low cost of netbooks means that Microsoft is limited in how much it can charge for Windows 7 on these devices. Indeed, a recent report from the Wall Street Journal indicates that Microsoft currently makes $15 per netbook with Windows XP installed. On the other hand, the company makes $50 to $60 per system that runs on Windows Vista.

With more than half of its operating income in the last quarter coming from selling the Windows operating system, this is a clear move by Microsoft to protect its margins

Original article: http://www.fiercemobileit.com/story/microsoft-offer-crippled-version-windows-7-netbooks/2009-04-22

Researchers have discovered another feature of the Conficker worm that provides an additional clue about the intent of the creators–the worm installs malware that masquerades as antivirus software, Trend Micro said on Friday.

The worm, which has infected millions of Windows-based computers on the Internet, is downloading a program called Spyware Protect 2009 and displaying warning messages saying that the computer is infected and offering to clean it up for $49.95, according to the Trend Micro blog.

If you see this pop-up message, chances are your computer is infected with Conficker. The latest feature of the widespread worm is that it installs fake antivirus software on infected machines.

(Credit: Trend Micro)

The infection alerts repeatedly appear and experts are worried that people may be clicking on them and paying for the software just to be rid of the annoying messages, thereby handing thieves their credit card information.

The fake antivirus program also attempts to install a Trojan downloader that is programmed to download new versions of Spyware Protect 2009, according to Kasperky Lab’s blog. However, the domain the Trojan downloader was being accessed from has been shut down, the blog said.

The fake antivirus feature further bolsters the speculation that the motivation behind the worm is to make money and not a desire to disrupt computer or network operations.

Researchers were still analyzing new component code of the worm that began being spread via peer-to-peer and being downloaded off domains that host the Waledec worm on Wednesday but were finding the task difficult because the instructions are encrypted.

The worm spreads via a hole in Windows that Microsoft patched in October, as well as through removable storage devices and network shares with weak passwords. The worm disables security software and blocks access to security Web sites.

Despite all the news the worm has made, many computers still remain unpatched, Sophos said. Of the number of people who have used Sophos’ free endpoint assessment test to check the security risk of a network since the beginning of the year, 11 percent did not have the Microsoft patch installed, according to Graham Cluley’s blog at Sophos.

For the month of March, 10 percent of all of the people who used the Sophos assessment tool were missing the patch, he said. The company did not divulge exactly how many people had used the tool and Cluley said the statistics cannot be extrapolated to represent the number of unpatched systems on the Internet.

In an indication of infection rates, IBM’s Internet Security Systems group released statistics that show that the number of unique IPs infected with Conficker.C is increasing slightly.

Based on infections seen through monitoring devices in its IBM ISS’ Managed Security Services, the number has grown from just over 64,000 on April 2 to more than 71,000 on April 8, according to the unit’s Frequency X blog.

“We’ve seen around 11 percent more unique IPs in the past few days in comparison to a week ago,” the blog said, also adding that the number doesn’t necessarily indicate the scope of worldwide Conficker infection.

Nearly 60 percent of the infections monitored by IBM ISS are in Asia, followed by 18 percent each in Europe and South America, and 4 percent in North America, the statistics show. By country, China leads with 16.6 percent, followed by Brazil at 10.8 percent, Russia at 10.2 percent and Korea at 4.6 percent, according to ISS.

To check if your computer is infected you can use this Conficker Eye Chart or this site at the University of Bonn. There is also a Conficker removal guide on CNET’s Download.com site.

Orignial Article from: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10217386-83.html