Computer Tech INFOblog

Why is Windows 7 Amazing?

Windows 7 Highlights

- New Taskbar: To fully discover the awesome-ness of the new taskbar, you need to use it firsthand to understand it completely. A cool trick is minimizing/maximizing everything. You can now do this by clicking on a small block on the taskbar right next to the clock! You can also drag files around! It’s definitely more similar OSX’s taskbar.

taskbar

- Windows XP Mode: Run Windows XP SP3 completely inside of W7 on a virtual machine. The integration is amazing! Although it does have a few requirements and requires and additional download.

- Problem Step Recorder: A simple application that records steps you take, and compiles them into an MHTML document. The document can be opened in any web browser, and shows pictures and has a brief description of each step the user takes. And the best part is the user only has to hit “record” and “stop” when they are finished!

- Beautiful Wallpapers: Although most of the internets are going crazy over some of the new and more interesting wallpapers, Microsoft actually included quite a few amazing landscape wallpapers. (sample1, sample2, sample3)

file-explorer

- Windows Explorer: The new Windows Explorer tab is my favorite addition to W7. It adds a “Libraries” section to your computer’s explorer! It comes with a Documents, Music, Picture, and Videos “Library” by default. What you do is add a shortcut to all of the folders you want in each section. For example: instead of navigating to “C:\Users\Nate\Downloads\Torrents\Finished Torrents” every time you want to open a file in “Finished Torrents” you can just add that folder to your “Documents” library and have it at your fingertips! And if you click+hold and drag up on the quick launch icon, it will have “Frequent” folders! Amazing!

- Sticky Notes: I actually use them. They are an actual program, so you don’t have to worry about using them as a gadgets like in Vista.

- Windows Media Player: You can finally play DVD’s on your computer without additional software/drivers! After a fresh install of W7 I just popped a DVD in the tray, and it took me through the commercials and straight to the DVD menu. An also much improved file compatablity. And even better: PC to PC streaming!

- Aero: In W7, Microsoft takes Aero to a new level. Dragging maximized windows on multiple screen desktops is now very easy. Not only is it easy – it’s fun! A cool trick is to “shake” a window, and it will minimize the rest! Leaving only the one you “shake” open.

- Calculator: The New Calculator can do much more than the previous version. Not only does it look nicer, but you can do conversions, statistics, date calculations, and much more!

- System Performance: My computer has more available memory! There are less processes in the Task Manager, and programs take less system memory! It requires less power to run! Which means longer battery life on laptops!

- Paint: In W7, Paint looks wonderful! They did a great job making it user friendly and a bit more powerful. Take a look!

- Windows Media Center: W7 comes with Windows Media Center pre-installed! It looks beautiful and works perfectly!

- Blu-ray: W7 supports Blu-ray out of the box! Now you can read and write without additional software!

- Multiple Displays: Not only does the Aero Maximized window display hopping help users with dual screens, but you can now easily switch outputs just by pressing [Windows Key] + P. This is extremely helpful for presentations.

- Internet Explorer 8: IE8 is included with W7. While many people hate IE, it is an extremely stable and rounded web browser. It follows chrome in tabs having separate processes, and follows FireFox by having add-ons. It’s actually quick too!

- Networking: HomeGroup is basically a way to connect all of the computers in your house, so you can easily share files, video, and devices (printers) with little or no setup!

- User Account Control (UAC): W7 finally gives the user some control! No need to hack your system to hide those pesky popups before you install or run anything! UAC has 4 settings ranging from strict to (basically) off! It much less annoying than in Vista.

- Program Compatibility: I have personally installed more than 25 programs onto my system in the past 48 hours, and everything works equivalent or better than Vista!

- Personalization: The new Personalization Center in the Control Panel has more options. You can now choose from over 20 radiant colors, a few more Dual-Screen compatible screen savers, rotating desktop background (you can set on an auto-rotate with a time limit, or just right click on your desktop to change!), and over 15 different sound themes! Everything from pleasant notifications to annoying beeps! Read More..

Go to the next level of multi-core performance with Intel Core i7, because Intel Core i7 processors deliver an incredible breakthrough in quad-core performance and feature the latest innovations in processor technologies:

Intel® Turbo Boost technology maximizes speed for demanding applications, dynamically accelerating performance to match your workload—more performance when you need it the most².

Intel® Hyper-Threading technology enables highly threaded applications to get more work done in parallel. With 8 threads available to the operating system, multi-tasking becomes even easier³.

Intel® Smart Cache provides a higher-performance, more efficient cache subsystem. Optimized for industry leading multi-threaded games.

Intel® QuickPath Interconnect is designed for increased bandwidth and low latency. It can achieve data transfer speeds as high as 25.6 GB/sec with the Extreme Edition processor.

Integrated memory controller enables three channels of DDR3 1066 MHz memory, resulting in up to 25.6 GB/sec memory bandwidth. This memory controller's lower latency and higher memory bandwidth delivers amazing performance for data-intensive applications.

Intel® HD Boost significantly improves a broad range of multimedia and compute-intensive applications. The 128-bit SSE instructions are issued at a throughput rate of one per clock cycle, allowing a new level of processing efficiency with SSE4 optimized applications. Read More..

Microsoft will officially retire Windows XP SP2 on July 13. After that date, although it will continue to provide security updates for XP SP3, it will stop issuing patches for the older SP2.

Companies have stepped up their efforts to migrate machines to XP SP3 in the last 11 months -- the rate of adoption of the newest service pack during that period was roughly double that of SP3's first 14 months of availability -- but even now, just weeks before SP2 will slide off support, half of the Windows XP systems still run the older edition, according to Qualys.

Microsoft started warning customers of XP SP2's looming retirement last February, and has been repeating that warning every month in its Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) blog on Patch Tuesday, the regularly-scheduled second-Tuesday-of-the-month security update release day. But not every user reads the MSRC blog.

Windows XP SP3 will exit all support in April 2014; to receive vulnerability fixes, users must update to that service pack by July.

By Qualys' numbers, Windows XP accounts for approximately 80% of all enterprise PCs, a considerably higher share than estimated by Web metrics companies such as NetApplications, which pegged XP's share in April at 63.4%. NetApplications, however, calculates usage share globally -- Qualys' is predominantly U.S. -- and factors in consumers as well as businesses.

Microsoft has made some minor concessions on Windows XP SP2 support. Last month, it said it would take calls from customers running outdated service packs, such as SP2. Previously, it turned those people away.

Instead, Microsoft's support staff will answer questions about old service packs, fill out support tickets and provide what the company's head of support called "limited troubleshooting."

The new support for obsolete service packs isn't free, however. Companies or customers without an in-place Microsoft support plan will be billed on a per-incident rate. A consumer contacting Microsoft support via chat or e-mail, for example, is charged $49, while telephone-based support costs $59.

Windows XP SP3 can be downloaded from the Microsoft site, or obtained from XP SP2 PCs via the Windows Update service. Read More..

today, i wish i could find the way to manage my several gmail account, because i felt wasting time when i want to check the email from my several gmail account, i must check one by one, i want to check and monitor at same time.

so, i browse the internet using google, and i found usefull program that i want, gmail notifier. With gmail notifier, i could monitor several gmail account, and the best part of this program, is the sound when the email come to my gmail account. try it, if you want to manage your several gmail account.. Read More..