If you’ve got some applications that rely on IE6 (like the British government) and you need to go Windows 7 (EVERYONE NEEDS to go Windows 7! ) and IE6 compatibility is slowing you down or bloating your deployment project costs, or if it’s a show stopper, then this papers got great advice.  It covers solutions like:

• MED-V which is part of MDOP
• XP mode (which no longer needs a processor capable of virtualisation)
• Terminal Servcies

And it weighs up the pros and cons of each, the licensing considerations, system requirements and just about anything you can think of.  I’m currently building a list of essential reading and learning for desktop deployment and this just made the list.

If you can think of any other creative ways of doing it, let me know.

Get the whitepaper: Solutions for Virtualising Internet Explorer

Today I went to grab a copy of the Windows 7 resource kit that I reserved from the learning center to read on holiday.  It has since been used as a dumbell, a door stop and has as a booster to help a colleague feel taller.  It might be heavier than my baggage allowance.  Still it’s a good resource…who out there considers it invaluable…I do!

I’ll actually be reading and reviewing the new Step By Step book for Outlook 2010 on hols.

I’ve been using Windows 7 for almost 18 months now and the little things still make me very happy.  That’s an important thing to remember because people love this OS for it’s simplicity, deploying it will make them feel better.  I love the way the folder icons tell you what’s going on.

In the example above the first tolder has nothing in it, the second files, the third sub folders.  I can see it at a glance and it makes me happy.

USER Account Control… but I’m an ADMIN! by Paul Adams

Lots of people are looking at how they should go about deploying Windows 7 in their organisation, a few I’ve seen first hand are struggling to understand how to migrate.  One of the major steps in planning your deployment is probably to build a proof of concept to see just how easy it is and just what the pitfalls are in your organisation.  Have you thought about your application compatibility, are you making the most of things by deploying Office at the same time?

Our Springboard Series resources around Building a Proof of Concept came up in meeting the other day and there really is some great stuff in there.

I’ll be back looking at some of the fun around various aspects of a deployment soon, but if you want a specific question answered then post a comment and I’ll try – or if you want to keep your identity secret because you work for a criminal mastermind in his secret-but-very-expensive volcanic layer filled with retro furniture then drop me an email using the form.

Very handy little guide form Lifehacker here on how to get the best out of an SSD.  I’ve just ordered one for my “demo beast” laptop and it should help my VMs fly…interesting ideas around hibernation in this guide…not something I’d thought of but very useful.  Should be quite nippy on an SSD.

How to Take Full Advantage of Your Solid-State Drive

[image from flickr.com and kawanet]

I thought the black version was good, but now I’m all about the white version.  I’ll be getting me one these, it;s stunning and will look super in our all white office!

The Arc Keyboard: White | The Office Stylist.

All I need now is a nice WiFi photo frame with HD res…

Frankly I want to try one now….

Firstly let me say, I’m usually a giant fan Logitech’s products they have superb build quality and excellent performance, I love my Harmony Remote and Squeezebox and the webcams are really well designed.  Second I never really post negative opinions but if I’m not writing about it there’s probably a reason.

This post is about something that goes against both of the above.

On the left is a survey screen that appeared on my PC today, I’ve just installed some Logitech software for video conferencing – which I won’t be talking about.  On the left is a very deceptive survey screen; I’ve highlighted why.

You see that red outline, it’s around a button that’s “active” i.e. you can click it but Logitech have taken the step of making the text gray to convince you to click “Take Survey”.  This is underhand it’s bad UI design and, Mr Glenn Rodgers, Director Customer Experience, I feel ashamed FOR YOU that you’re name is on this.

This is a bad customer experience.  It’s poor, unprincipled UI design designed to deceive the user, no designed to deceive your customer into giving you information.

http://simon-may.com/windows-7/windows-7-rc-has-15-days-left/

I’ve already got my RTM key ready to go, but don’t have time for a rebuild before the end of the month so you can follow here to see what happens….

-- Simon May

Essentially the tool allows you to reboot and then set the PC to go into hibernate immediately or go to sleep immediately after the reboot.  The result, a fast start up when you next come to your PC.  The best of both worlds.

What does this mean for you, if you are running the RC.  Basically you need to backup and rebuild your PC running the RTM version.  There is no direct upgrade route, essentially this is the same process as if you are on XP moving to Windows 7.

[EDIT: a few people have contact me now about what's specifically going to happen, this article explains all...

But the skinny is:

Effective February 15, 2010, the expiration notification process begins:

• Windows 7 RC users receive an expiration notification in the task bar one time per day.
• Windows 7 RC users are presented with the Notification Wizard one time every four hours and then one time every hour.

Effective March 1, 2010, Windows 7 RC enters the next phase of expiration:

• Expiration notifications in the task bar continue.
• Computers that are running Windows 7 RC restart every two hours.

  Important When the computer restarts, your work will not be saved.

Effective June 1, 2010, Windows 7 RC expires:

• Windows starts to a black desktop.
• Windows 7 RC users are presented with a Windows Activation screen. The screen states that the Windows that you are running is not genuine.

]

So basically, it’s really annoying!

Use the Windows Easy Transfer to transfer all your stuff and make the process as pain free as you possibly can.  Just hit start and type “transfer” into the search box.  Back everything up to a USB key or hard disk and then on your shiny Windows 7 RTM install do the same, but select restore.

15 days and counting, almost 14 and a half now…

Computers that are running Windows 7 RC restart every two hours.

Anyone else doing that?

Head over to istartedsomething to watch the vid

Anyone else doing that?

Head over to istartedsomething to watch the vid

If you have Windows Update turned on the you’ll get it automatically.  If you don’t download it below and read all about it.

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-002 – Critical: Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 978207.

Take my advice, turn on Windows Update.  Get Anti-Virus, Anti-Malware and Anti-Phising protections and LEARN enough about security and identity theft to be able to explain why it’s needed.  Just like you can explain why you need a lock on your house.  Also if you have an alternative browser installed then make sure that too is set to get automatic updates.

Just like Media Center it’s works brilliantly with the Media Center remote and it’s fully touch enabled.  Super cool.  Developer folks, this is what you can do.

Seesmic Look is designed to be far more consumer friendly than any other Twitter client.  I looks stunning and it focuses on getting Twitter content in front of your eyes.  You can get it here

–Simon May

Just like IE there are security flaws in other browsers, spending less than 2 minutes Googleing (actually I Binged it) I found the graph from a 2006 article by Ars Technica, proving this is no new thing, to the left that shows a comparison of vulnerabilities, interesting hey?

What matters here is that you have a security infrastructure on your PC that works for you to protect you.  You want it to:

• Speak only when spoken to, unless it’s life threatening
• Adapt or at least keep itself up to date
• Protect your identity, i.e. stop you falling foul of phishing scams and the like
• Be light weight on your PC, you don’t want it getting in your way
• Tell you if you’re about to do something unsafe, just before you do it, but not stop you.  It’s your decision

Great software exists, some of it free from the likes of AVG, Microsoft, Norton and tons of others.  So go find some right now.

Here’s the big one though, the thing you need to do, especially if you’re a parent (actually even if your the child you can do this) get educated.  Let me say it again if you missed it.

GET EDUCATED ABOUT ONLINE THREATS

It’s the most adaptive technology out their, your brain.  By learning about online threats you’ll develop a “spider sense” for scams and won’t fall foul of them.  The software will help you too, so much so that it’s the one thing you need to have on every PC.

But get Educated.

Parents, you need to be talking with your kids about what they should and shouldn’t share online, where they should go and who with.

Kid’s, you can do the same with your parents.  You’ll love doing it.  Sit them down and tell them why they shouldn’t store their online banking password in their favourites.

This theme’s available in some parts of the world but if you’re addicted to Fido Dido’s (80’s much?) favorite drink then you might be up for this one. It’s actually a really nice theme presented in lime green.  I have to say the desktop to the left is my fave with the icy 7.

Get it here: Nothing but 7up Theme for Windows 7 | Windows 7 hacker

I’m also moving my random mumblings to items.simon-may.com to keep the main blog focused on exploring technology, as always it’s the single source for all my syndicated content but no longer diluted with randomness.

So could this be the best PMP (personal media player) ever.  I think it could.

I can imagine being able to sync a whole bunch of media content to it (Mesh anyone?) and then be able to access everything on the go, or even using Internet Streaming from within Windows Media Player.  What’s more the screen size looks good enough to watch a movie on if you were in the back of the car (ala cheapo DVD player attached to the back of the drivers headrest) or on a plane.

I’m going to be keeping an eye on slate PCs for exactly that reason, rather than being great eBook readers, which the undoubtedly will be, they’ll be great portable media devices.  The key thing is going to be battery life here so we’ll have to see what other vendors put out in this space.

What do you think, do you see a slate becoming a great PMP?  Did anyone love the original Media Center PMPs? 

Here’s the teaser video:

To enable your God Mode do this:

Windows 7 Suspend/Resume control

This project on Codeplex provides a really handy and flexible way to control what happens when your PC suspends and resumes.  Really handy if you run a HTPC.  Perhaps you have a device driver that needs a kick when you resume or maybe you need to have  a drive that needs a remap.  This is the tool.

New Windows 7 Themes

Microsoft have added some new themes to the personalization site that you can access by right clicking the desktop and selecting Personalize then selecting the Get more themes online link.  Once there you’ll find new themes for dog and cat lovers, mountain climbers and twinkle wishers.  Oh and a nice Avatar theme.

Jumplist-Launcher

If you’ve got every app on your PC pinned to your Windows 7 task bar then you might like this little pearl.  Jumplist-Launcher lets you create a stack of icons on one and create a handy jump list launcher from it.  Very useful if you’re running short on space, or want to group some like icons.  I’ve done it with my browsers (Chrome is my browser de-jour).

Wallpaper Juggler

I’m a massive fan of Interfacelift.com for wallpapers and this app will run very quietly and change your wallpaper a regular as clockwork.

That’s it for this year, hope you have a great New Year!

The arc mouse is a dream for mobile people since it collapses to less than half it’s size and it even has a very clever little magnet to hold the USB dongle-wireless-transmitter-thing.  The surface of both the mouse and the dongle-wireless-transmitter-thing are slightly rubberised and franky they feel wonderful as a result.

I’ve only got one criticism, the little back button is a bit too little…sure I’ll get used to it.

Installation is super easy, no drivers are required.  To get even more from it though grab the software for it from Microsoft which gives you access to extra features, like putting Flip3D on a middle mouse click.  Works perfectly with Window 7.

Until then I thought I’d take a moment to update my press quotations page with most of my comments from 2009 and also to highlight this excellent tool for managing Windows 7 libraries, http://zornsoftware.talsit.info/?p=3.  It even lets you change the icons with a couple of clicks and to add network locations.  Great stuff.

Paint.net has been around for a while, but it’s just entered version 3.5 final and it now looks lickably good!  This application is my image editing and drawing tool of choice, most of the graphics here have been created or tidied with it and frankly folks it’s the best image editor you can get for this price.  Free!  Seriously this is competition for Photoshop and that’s saying quite a lot!  Read the blog and get the latest version.

GMail backup a serious recommendation here folks, if you are 100% reliant on your web based email, make a backup!  My book explains a load of ways to do it, but this is new and worth a mention if you’re a Gmail user.  This tool will take a local copy to your PC of everthing in your Gmail account, great if something odd should happen to your account!  Get Gmail Backup here.

Windows Live SkyDrive gives you 25gb of free storage in the cloud but SkyDrive Explorer adds extra functionality by making it seem like the drive is local to your PC.  That makes it possible to do a whole load more with it, the fantastic application is also free and available here.

Close All Windows is a simple appication that does what it says on the tin.  One click and all your open apps close down, which can be really handy if you’ve got loads running but need to get out of them all in a hurry.  In Winodws 7 pin the shortcut to the start menu for fastest results.  Download from here.

[I’ve found and tried these tools over the past week from a variety of sources including various people on Twitter, AddictiveTips and Ghacks]

I’m referring to this as the Toast with (gooey) honey version.  It’s nice, I think you’ll like it too.

At the top of this post is said GUI with toasts, it’s really clear to see what’s happening and Paul’s lost none of the simplicity.  The tools easier to work with now too.  There’s a wrench icon that lets you set the location of your recorded TV, that WTV Watcher will watch, and that’s about all there is to it.

The extra new feature is also handy, there’s now an installer with auto update.

So here are the new steps to getting it working, all 5 steps

1. Install the tool from here
2. Set your Recorded TV folder by clicking the wrench
3. Move the desktop shortcut to your Start > All Programs > Startup folder
4. Install Lifextender
5. Configure Lifextender as per the next image.

It’s possible to do the conversion your network and if you’ve got a fast network it can be quicker if your main Media Center isn’t a massive multi core system

A couple of days ago I posted Microsoft’s video on listening to their customers and it got me thinking…so I created this.

In this short (and very simple) video I take you through how to fire some music about your home using the Play To features of Windows 7.  I’m expecting to make this a short series so I hope you enjoy this one and look forward to the next.

Along with my other current favourite, Symantec, it was one of three products to do exceptionally well however the other products that got the top award aren’t free.

I’m using Microsoft Security Essentials across my kit right now and I love it, for all these reasons here and this is how to check files super quickly.  It’s time for the other free antivirus vendors to step up!

One of the biggest themes with both the development and with the marketing of Windows 7 is the emphasis on talking to us.  Microsoft’s customers.  It seems to be going down a storm, and lets face it Windows 7 rocks!  This video, found coutesy of @stevecla, shows that Microsoft’s extended this stance to it’s customer support.

Check out the video, a super cool paper-moved-about-with-fingers affair that looks as simple as they intend Windows to be.

If you need help try Microsoft Answers, or my book.

What Paul’s done is created a little tool that requires no installation (but we will do a little bit to make it even easier!) that watches your recorded TV folder for new WTV files, when it spots one it uses Windows 7’s built in WTV to DVRMS conversion (which is rapid) to convert the program to DVR-MS.  Very cool, nothing sexy, but brilliantly useful.

Okay, Okay, I know there are people screaming, but DVRMSToolbox does that and ShowAnalyzer can remove commercials without the need to convert them.  Personally I don’t get on with the former, I know it’s really well loved and super tool and if you want all singing all dancing its the best choice.  I however struggle with it, I’m simple like that.  Second ShowAnalyzer costs money, which again is well deserved because it’s an excellent application and lots of work’s gone into it, but not everyone can convince the Mrs that it’s required.

So here we go, get rid of commercials in Windows 7 recorded TV…

1. Get the tool from the project on Codeplex
2. Unzip it to your Recorded TV folder
3. Run WTVWatcherConsole.exe then copy it to the Startup group on the Start Menu
4. Download and install Lifextender (it’s a dead project, but still my favourite for this stuff)
5. Once Lifextender has started up (it’ll be a blue orb in the notification area) right click the orb and select Options… the tick Automated Library Scanning and Automatically scan when new files are detected, click save and your done.  Kick things off right away though by starting WTVWatcherConsole.exe

That really is it, files converted and commercials removed with no hassle.  Oh and it’s all free!  Oh yeah, and thanks to superbar goodness and using the built in converter you get a progress bar for conversions!

What Paul’s done is created a little tool that requires no installation (but we will do a little bit to make it even easier!) that watches your recorded TV folder for new WTV files, when it spots one it uses Windows 7’s built in WTV to DVRMS conversion (which is rapid) to convert the program to DVR-MS.  Very cool, nothing sexy, but brilliantly useful.

Okay, Okay, I know there are people screaming, but DVRMSToolbox does that and ShowAnalyzer can remove commercials without the need to convert them.  Personally I don’t get on with the former, I know it’s really well loved and super tool and if you want all singing all dancing its the best choice.  I however struggle with it, I’m simple like that.  Second ShowAnalyzer costs money, which again is well deserved because it’s an excellent application and lots of work’s gone into it, but not everyone can convince the Mrs that it’s required.

So here we go, get rid of commercials in Windows 7 recorded TV…

1. Get the tool from the project on Codeplex
2. Unzip it to your Recorded TV folder
3. Run WTVWatcherConsole.exe then copy it to the Startup group on the Start Menu
4. Download and install Lifextender (it’s a dead project, but still my favourite for this stuff)
5. Once Lifextender has started up (it’ll be a blue orb in the notification area) right click the orb and select Options… the tick Automated Library Scanning and Automatically scan when new files are detected, click save and your done.  Kick things off right away though by starting WTVWatcherConsole.exe

That really is it, files converted and commercials removed with no hassle.  Oh and it’s all free!  Oh yeah, and thanks to superbar goodness and using the built in converter you get a progress bar for conversions!

+ space

Well now you can thanks to codeplex project Taskbar Meters.  Download and extract the Zip and run TaskbarCpuMeter.exe or TaskbarMemoryMeter.exe depending on which you want to watch and this is what you’ll get  a nice clean, always available view of usage.  Very handy.

Even better it’s possible to customize the thresholds for it going yellow and red for high and scary-high CPU and memory usage!  This app also has jump list access to Resource Monitor (for serious resource watching) and to Task Manager.

Task manager can also be used for something like this.  Once it’s running it’ll show a CPU chart in the notification area, the fastest way to start Task manager is with SHIFT + CTRL + ESC

[via Download Squad]

What’s the best thing in Windows 7 for an IT Pro

That was actually a really simple question to answer.  I’m all about customer focus in my day job.  Making their life easier is the thing that gets me going and when we can’t do that we have to workout what the problem is for them as quickly as possible.  That’s why I love the Problem Steps Recorder.

The Problem steps recorder is a great tool that lets anyone capture what they’re doing and package it as a file that can be replayed by any else, they don’t even have to be using Windows 7.  That means that an IT Pro can then take that, see exactly what’s causing the problem and provide a solution. 

The other alternative is often to take a remote control session.  That’s an interactive process though and it’s just not that convenient for the person with the problem.

Start the tool by typing problem steps into the Start menu search, and record the steps to recreate the problem.  It’s genius that this tools there, and it’ll make IT Pros everywhere very happy when they start to support Windows 7.

If of course you’re reading this thinking “I’m not an IT Pro, why do I care, well you’ll probably get use out of it helping your friends and family.  My book covers using the tool and helping people in more depth.

It’s emerged that Microsoft has actually removed this stuff from the PCs their selling in their Stores, if you can’t get to the store lets look at what you need to do.

There are times however when it’s really useful though, like on my HP TX2, the added software makes the finger print reader work for example.  You’re probably wondering how you can tell the good, from the bad and the ugly.  The simplest thing I’ve found is to run something like the excellent PCDecrapifier that will, er, “decrapify” your new PC automatically, saving you making many tough choices.

be sure to keep the original install for the software you remove, if it does power something special like a finger print reader you can always add it back if you loose functionality.  The most common places to find this are in folder on the c: drive called “SWApps” or something similar (the name will depend on the manufacturer) or on the companies web site.

Lets take a look then at how decrapifier cleans up your PC.  Their site lists the tons of stuff that it can uninstall for you.

First off go get it from http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/download and run the install.  The install is not the usual Next, Next, Next affair

That said, it’s Next, Next, Next through three screens

.

Now you need to specify if you’re using a new PC or if you’ve had it a while, PCDecrapifier is good for both

One of the coolest features is that you can back out of everything you’re about to do with a system restore point, create one now at the push of a button

Now you need to check this list and if you’ve installed any full versions of your applications and they appear here be sure to untick them in the PCDecrapifier, or it might just cost you a bit of time.   Click next and it’s bye bye bloat!

This is the last chance to get stuff off the PC, this screen shows everything installed, even if it’s not on the capacious list of bloatware.  If you don’t want it, ditch it here.

And you’re done, you can send some feedback to the developers!

Now what, have a look at what you should install on that new Windows 7 PC!

1. Microsoft Security Essentials – Fantastic, free, antivirus and malware protection from Microsoft, make it your first install.  Instructions here.
2. Windows Live Essentials – Live Mail, Live Messenger, Live Photo Gallery, Live Movie Maker and Live Writer help you round out your PC and get stuff done.
3. Spotify – Free streaming music, with just a few adds
4. Live Mesh – it lets you sync stuff between multiple PCs, if you don’t like live Mesh then go for Dropbox.
5. An alternative browser – Internet Explorer 8 is actually really good for most people, but the first time you try to access the Internet you’ll be asked to choose a browser.  Firefox is very popular.
6. iTunes – you’ve probably got an iPod, so you’ll need the software, however if you don’t want the bloat of iTunes then go for CopyTrans
7. Themes to customize your PC, just the way you like it.

*Note you’ll need a DVD-R/RW for this

Step 1 – Select File > Library > Back Up to Disk…

Step 2 – Tell iTunes what to backup and click Back UP!

This will backup all your settings, iPhone apps and other iTunesy stuff!

Right click the clock next to the notification area and select Adjust date/time

Next you’ll want to select the Additional Clocks tab (1 in the screen shot) then select which other time zones you want to display, there’s a maximum of two.  Finally click OK.

You’ll notice that the clock doesn’t change, so you might think it’s not worked but you’d be wrong…

Now just hover over the clock next to the notification area and voila! Now you always know what time it is!

For hundreds more great tips, check out my book.

If you aren’t a student but know one, then get recommending it, this is only available for a couple of weeks…

Details of the offer are here, or should be: http://www.microsoft.com/uk/windows/studentoffer/default.aspx

1. Right click the file
2. Select Scan with Microsoft Security Essentials… the file will be scanned faster than a fast thing.

• Go to http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/ and click the big Download Now icon
• Select your location and which version of Windows you have
• Download and run or just Run the setup file, you’ll be prompted to allow the install by User Account Control in most cases
• Read and accept the Ts&Cs by clicking Next and I accept

• MSE can ONLY be installed on a legal version of Windows (yet another reason to stay legal kids) so you next have to accept validation by clicking Validate you will be told if your version passes.  Click the Install button to begin, it’s very quick under 2 minutes for me.

• Finally you’ll have option of scanning your machine, I recommend you do!

• Now that MSE is installed it will download updates, this for me took around 3 minutes on a 10mbit connection and once complete a scan will start, the time the scan takes will vary according to what you have on your PC, the more stuff the longer it’ll take.

The end.  That’s all their is to installing it, and whilst that scan is running you’ll notice that you can use your PC and you can play with settings in MSE if you’d like.

We’ll forget the Free for a moment, although it is, but look at why MSE is a great consumer Anti-Virus product based on the other three key words, we’ll come back to Free.

Simple for me means that every interaction with MSE is understandable and it’s obvious how to do everything.  There are just 4 tabs to MSE:

• Home – shows at a glance what the current status is, Red = Bad, Amber = it’s a while since you scanned, and Green = good.  From this tab you can perform scans of the PC to check it’s ok.
• Update – Obviously lets you manually get updates to combat the latest viri and spy ware
• History – Tells you what’s been detected and when
• Settings – Allows you to change when scans are run, what happens when a virus is found, any particular file types or processes to exclude – if they keep giving false positives – and the like.

Easy should really be “easy going” I hate it when Anti-Virus gets in the way, with pop-ups telling me that updates are 2 seconds out of date or consuming all my computers resources whilst I’m trying to do that.  In my experience MSE doesn’t do that, instead in the Settings > Default Actions tab it’s possible to control what it does when malware is found.

Reliable means that it gets updates automatically with no fuss, which MSE does of course and that those updates are useful, well that’s a given as Microsoft’s Forefront product for businesses is built on the same technology.

Back to Free, MSE is free, and that’s important because I don’t want to spend money on something that I don’t (and shouldn’t need to) care about.  Anti-Virus adds no value to my computer use, it’s protection, perhaps if I did lots of dodgy stuff and went to lots of dodgy sites I’d feel different, but I like free a lot!

Foot notes:

Right now the website isn’t showing the final product, microsoft.com/security_essentials/ , but it will do later today.

Also worth mentioning is the free tool to help you get out of trouble if , Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool can help you get rid of spyware and you can findout how to use it on Page 276 of The Rough Guide to Windows 7.

1. Insert the device or media and the AutoPlay popup will appear, at the bottom is the magic option View more AutoPlay options in Control Panel.  Select this.
2. Next you’ll be given the same option for every type of media you can play on your machine and for all the devices that you currently have attached.  Change this to Take no action from Ask me every time (1 in the screenshot below) to make Windows 7 ignore the device from the point of view of doing something automatic with it.  (iTunes will still start with your iPod because it’s not actually Windows that makes that decision, there’s a program running in the background that watches for your iPod).  Click the Save button to save and activate the setting, and you can test it by disconnecting your device and adding it again. If you do the same thing with the memory card for your camera every time you insert it you can also change the option to Import pictures and video using Windows to automatically bring everything into your Pictures library.

clubhouse,
how-to,
Windows 7

The answer from AnandTech is that yes, it does, and quite dramatically as the image below shows.  Also look what’s right at the top of the performance list for a change, IE8!  This I’m thinking is yet another reason that Windows 7 performs so well in battery tests, and I wonder if they did any benchmarking against mobile performance whilst IE8 was in dev, like the engineering team did with Windows 7.

For the full analysis read AnandTech’s post, but what’s interesting is Flash usage plays a major part in battery usage.

Overall, it’s good to see Apple doing this – incidentally the new Chrome builds have too – but I do think they could have done better.  I wish the Zune software worked with my iPhone.

For those who don’t know there was a good chance we wouldn’t see this in Europe as Microsoft was due to pull IE8 out lock stock and barrel from Windows 7, which would have killed the upgrade routes.  This whole thing boils down to Opera (and a bunch of other browser makers) complaints about Microsoft’s unfair advantages to the EU.

If you’ve preordered the Windows 7 E version (E for Europe) then you’ll be getting the full Windows 7 package along with IE8.  In fact it’s not just the UK that gets the full version Ireland, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden do too.

[via: The Windows Blog]

From the release:

The mini-laptop also comes with an HDMI port for HD video out, a front facing camera for video calling, integrated Bluetooth and an easily accessible SD card reader. Other premium features include the 10-inch glass HD ready display and integrated A-GPS which, working with the Ovi Maps gadget, can pinpoint your position in seconds and open up access for a truly personal maps experience. The Nokia Booklet 3G also brings a number of other rich Ovi experiences to life, whether its access and playback of millions of tracks through the Nokia Music Store, or using Ovi Suite to sync seamlessly from your Nokia smartphone, to your mini-laptop, to the cloud.

That’s a pretty sweet set of specs for a netbook and that HDMI out makes it good as a portable Media Center (although not with Windows 7 Starter).

If you want the full version of Windows 7 for the price of an upgrade, then get it now.  It’s just £63.99 for Windows 7 Home Premium right now at Amazon.

Brilliant 1080p (full HD) output quality, live previews of effects and Windows 7 jump lists are some of the new features since it’s exited Beta.

This has been everywhere today but Redmond Pie has a great roundup.  Get the software here and some videos to play with if you don’t have any of your own.

[via the inimitable Steve Clayton]

So what do you need to do to have your desktop update itself every day.  It’s quite simple.

1. Start notepad, to do that click the Start button and type notepad  
2. Copy the following text after these instructions into the window and click File > Save As.. and call the file bing.theme , save it to your Documents library.
3. Open your Documents library and double click bing.theme then from the popup select Download attachments.  Now every day your theme will change.

This tip has been everywhere, but it originally came from Long Zheng from www.istartedsomething.com & makeuseof.com .

[Theme]
DisplayName=Bing
[Slideshow]
Interval=1800000
Shuffle=1
RssFeed=http://feeds.feedburner.com/bingimages
[Control Panel\Desktop]
TileWallpaper=0
WallpaperStyle=0
Pattern=
[Control Panel\Cursors]
AppStarting=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_working.ani
Arrow=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_arrow.cur
Crosshair=
Hand=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_link.cur
Help=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_helpsel.cur
IBeam=
No=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_unavail.cur
NWPen=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_pen.cur
SizeAll=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_move.cur
SizeNESW=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_nesw.cur
SizeNS=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_ns.cur
SizeNWSE=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_nwse.cur
SizeWE=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_ew.cur
UpArrow=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_up.cur
Wait=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_busy.ani
DefaultValue=Windows Aero
Link=
[VisualStyles]
Path=%SystemRoot%\resources\themes\Aero\Aero.msstyles
ColorStyle=NormalColor
Size=NormalSize
ColorizationColor=0X6B74B8FC
Transparency=1
[MasterThemeSelector]
MTSM=DABJDKT

DLNA have just announced that in the last 3 months 400 TVs have been certified compliant bringing the number to 699 in total.  400 in 3 months!!  That means that soon every new TV will be able to stream from your Windows 7 PC.  Fantastic.

I love this quote, which helps to show the scope of DLNA and what it means:

No longer are consumers relegated to experiencing their digital media on just one device or in only one room. DLNA Certified products allow consumers to easily enjoy, manage and share photos, video and music across devices, regardless of manufacturer. With more than 5,000 DLNA Certified devices worldwide, and a tremendous growth in the number of DLNA Certified television models, consumers can continue to evolve their digital home with the utmost confidence, knowing that their DLNA Certified televisions can access digital content from other DLNA Certified devices throughout their home.

The full press release is here

There are lots of Windows 7 versions available, they’ve just gone live for download for the IT Pro’s and Developers who subscribe to Technet and MSDN, but which version do you need?  This is the simple guide:

Home Premium: Most home users will want this, you get all the media features (like Media Center).  It’s the sweet spot, most consumers will want this.

Professional:  Most small businesses will be going for this option, it’s also good for home users who fall into the “enthusiast” category – that is if you like to play.  You can join a business network (a Domain or Active Directory) with this.

Ultimate: If you want EVERYTHING including the ability to encrypt USB drives to keep them secure.

Enterprise: If you’re a big business you’ll want this.

Home Basic: This version is lower priced, but misses out on most of the media features and other cooler stuff.

Starter: You might get this if you buy a net book, otherwise you won’t be likely to come across it.  It’s the most basic version suitable for low powered PCs.

Also worth noting is that any network device that support media playback, like TVs and network speakers with the logo will be fully DLNA compliant too so there’s a good chance they’ll work with other components of your DLNA setup.  Logoed devices will also appear in Device Stage so you’ll only have to go to one place to configure your devices.

Build a play list

The first thing you need to do is build a playlist in Windows Media Player, so drag the files into the right hand pane of WMP after making sure the Play tab is active.  If you really like it then enter a name, it doesn’t matter if you don’t want to save it, you don’t have to.

PlayTo the play list

Next just go the top of the pane and click the PlayTo drop down, it’s highlighted in the picture to the left of this text, and select the device you want to play it to.  If your devices have names that mean nothing you can change them easily by following the instructions in the Beyond the basics post.  That’s it your play list should start to play on the target device and a window should pop up for you to control the playback.

Posted by Simon May, follow me on Twitter or if you like email me

clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, windows7, how-to, PlayTo, media player, challenge-windows 7

[Edit: You shouldn’t need to make these changes, network streaming uses a newer version of IP (IPv6) and something called Toredo tunnelling to enable remote streaming.  You will need what’s described next if anyone providing the connection back to the home PC is blocking IPv6 for some reason as IPv4 is used as a backup method of connection]

The first thing to bear in mind is that Windows 7 makes use of a feature of most modern routers called uPnP (or universal plug and play) that allows other devices on the network to make changes to the configuration of the router.  In this case Windows 7 attempts to open a couple of ports automatically to allow the remote PC to connect to the PC in your home to stream the media.  Some people prefer to turn off uPnP because of security fears.  In that case you’ll have to manually open the correct ports on your router.

1. First we need to workout which ports to setup, so launch Windows Media Player and select Stream > Allow Internet access to home media… then select Diagnose connections then select the link for Port forwarding information and make a note of the port numbers.  In my case they are 44505 and 10245.
2. Open up the web configuration interface of your router, normally (http://192.168.0.1)
3. Find the option for “Port mapping” or NAT and add two ports
4. Add two “rules” to open 44505 and to map it to the name of your Windows 7 PC that holds the media and also add a rule to map port 443 to port 10245.

Hopefully, if you are having problems that’s one reason out the way as to why.

Posted by Simon May, follow me on Twitter or if you like email me

It’s a two part puzzle though, two Windows 7 PCs need to be linked together to enable streaming.  When you are outside the home this makes it nice and secure to share media, don’t forget there’s a good chance you’ll want to do this over a public network.

Enabling Internet Streaming

As with all the rest of these posts the most strait forward way to configure the streaming options is to use Windows Media Player, so launch it and click the Stream button to access the setting.  To turn on Internet streaming select Allow Internet access to home media… and a popup will appear with more options on it.

There’s a very important requirement to secure access to your media over the internet and it all revolves around a clever feature called Linked IDs.  A linked ID links the login on your PC with a Windows Live ID, so your PC knows that any Linked IDs are also you, and it forms the basis of access over the internet to your media.  Linked IDs can also be used when sharing media in a HomeGroup in Windows 7.

Click Link an online ID and a window will pop up where the details of the IDs to link are set, this can also be done through Control Panel. The first thing that’s needed is to setup the links to an Online ID provider, like Windows Live, click Add an online ID provider to start off.

Your favorite browser will fire up and go to a list of available providers, right now Windows Live is the only one, but it’s possible for others to become providers – so you could end up using your Facebook account.  On this page select Windows Live and a download page will appear for the Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant.  Download the version for your type of installation, either 64 or 32 bit and run it, once it’s installed a new provider will be added to the Link Online IDs page.

Now you can actually link your IDs together, so select the Link online ID link under WindowsLiveID and enter your Windows Live ID details (username and password).  Once the ID has been verified you’ll be taken back to the Link Online IDs page but now it will display the linked ID.  Click OK.

Next you’ll need to go back to Windows Media Player and the Internet Home Media Access dialogue will be up still, select Allow Internet access to home media to confirm that’s what you want to do.  Since it’s a security thing UAC will pop up asking for confirmation.

Enabling Internet Streaming on the PC that you want to stream to

The second part of the puzzle is to link a second PC to enable the streaming, again it’s simple but not very obvious what to do.

On the second PC do exactly the same thing as above (how did you not guess that ???) and now on your second PC you’ll see that the first PC is listed under Other libraries and the two are linked together.  In fact both PCs are linked as pears, both is capable of both streaming and receiving media.

Posted by Simon May, follow me on Twitter or if you like email me

So assuming you have two PCs that are running Windows 7 one will be the streaming media server (or DMS) and one will be the DMR.  To enable what’s necessary to have one of the Windows 7 PCs act as a DMR have a look at this previous post, this post will first look at how to enable the DMR role on a Windows 7 PC and then, how to send media to it.

Enabling the DMR role

The most simple way to enable any streaming media functionality in Windows 7 is to use Windows Media Player to turn it on.  Launch it and click the Stream button to find the options which appear as a drop down.  Then select Allow remote control of my Player… a popup message will appear to allow you to confirm, select the option to Allow remote control on this network. 

If you ever want to disable the functionality just do the same thing and select Do not allow remote control on this network to turn it off.

Once the Windows Media Player has been setup to be remote controllable whenever it’s running it will be possible for someone else on the network to send media to the PC and that media will play.

*Note: The DMR role is only available if Windows Media Player is running, which actually gives you more control over when media can be sent to your PC.

Playing something

The next step is to actually get something playing, again it’s really easy to do.  Within Windows Media Player select what you want to play, and right click it, then from the popup menu select Play to then select the device to send the media to.  This is why it’s a good idea to have the devices named well, I covered that in this post.

It’s not just within Windows Media Player that you can select content to “Play to” it’s also possible to play content directly from Windows Explorer, just do exactly the same as you would in Windows Media Player.

The next installment in this series will show you how to stream media over the Internet using Windows 7 and then we’ll come back to Play To with a post on using Play To to stream a play list

Posted by Simon May, follow me on Twitter or if you like email me

clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, windows7, how-to, PlayTo, media player, challenge-windows 7

Access to all of the features in this post is gained easiest through Windows Media Player.  Click the Stream button and select More streaming options… to open up access to the Media Streaming Options page of Control Panel, which is the central hub of configuration for media streaming.

Changing the name of the library

One of the most simple things that you can do, but one that actually adds a tremendous amount of usability is to give the library a meaningful name.  It might sound rather simple, but when you have a few PCs in different rooms in the home it makes a real difference.  The best way to use this is to name the library after where the PC is or after who’s PC it is, for example my office PC is called “Study”, my living room is “Lounge” and my kitchen is “Kitchen” whilst my laptop is “Si”.

This really comes into it’s own with the PlayTo features, which allow remote control of media devices, where it becomes really handy to know where the media will play, for example PlayTo > Kitchen.

Controlling what individual devices can play

It’s possible to control exactly what can be played by each device on the network from the server and in this way you can place some limitations on what those remote devices can see.  For example you can prevent your kids PCs having access to an music on your PC that might have adult lyrics.  These settings are available on a per device basis and also the defaults can be changed (it’s the defaults that apply to new devices).  It’s also possible to restrict the available content to only media that you like, based on ratings.

It’s also possible to completely block the access that a device is allowed to the library by changing the Allowed drop down to Blocked.

Preventing (or enabling) Standby

Imagine the scenario, you’re enjoying your favorite aria (or death metal, whatever floats your boat) then … silence … it all stops, how annoying would that be.  Well it could quite possibly happen if the PC isn’t set to stay out of standby.  To control the power options select Choose power options, (then its time to surface the feature for controlling power)  Change when the computer sleeps then Change advanced power settings then scroll down to Multimedia Settings then When sharing Media and expand the option (phew you made it!)  From here we decide when the computer can sleep if it’s sharing media and there are 3 options:

• Allow the computer to sleep – does what it says, which could stop streaming mid (er) stream.
• Prevent idling to sleep – stops the PC from being able to sleep, your media will continue but the PC will use plenty of power
• Allow the computer to enter Away mode – puts the PC into a special state when it’s idle turning off the monitor to save as much power as it can.  This is probably the best option.

Selecting either the the last two makes sure your media keeps streaming.

Ok so that’s that’s some of the less basic and less obvious configuration explored, next up we’ll be looking at using PlayTo and how cool that feature is.

Posted by Simon May, follow me on Twitter or if you like email me

Windows 7 as a media server

To turn on the media server component launch Windows Media Player, click the Stream button and select Automatically allow devices to play my media…

A confirmation screen will pop up, to which you’ll need to select the first option to Automatically allow computers and media devices

 Once it’s turned on all the media that’s in the library on your PC will be available for any other network media aware devices on the network to use.  Those other devices include other Windows PCs (including Vista and XP machines and Windows 7 PCs) and any devices that are DLNA certified and capable of taking on that Digital Media Player role.  Have a look here for my list of devices that can do that.

From another Windows PC if you go to Windows Media Player (it’s best to use WMP 11) then look in the left hand panel then you should see the PC that’s library you’ve just shared listed under Other libraries.  Now you can play that media from the second PC without having to first move it over your network!  So if you have a house with lots of computers all around the house, and you enable the server it doesn’t matter which PC your music or video is on, you’ll be able to watch it anywhere.

One of the best features you get using Windows 7 as a media server is that it acts as something called a “transcoder” which overcomes one of the worst and most troublesome issues with digital media.  No not DRM, but formatting and encoding.  Media files can be formatted and encoded in lots of different ways, and typically the device where you want to play the media back has to be able to translate that media encoding using a codec – it’s kind of like a phrase book for a foreign language – and if it doesn’t have the codec it won’t be able to understand the file.  Windows 7 sorts this out by asking the device that’s receiving the file what it understands, then Windows 7 sends the file in that format, it acts just like a translator meaning you can throw the phrase book away!  Obviously the Windows 7 machine acting as a server needs to know what to do with the file, so it needs the codec.

If you ever want to turn media streaming off then just do the above, but select Do not automatically allow computers and media devices from the confirmation pop up window.

There are some more advanced settings too that you might like to adjust, and they’re available from Stream > More streaming options…  The options here allow for more advanced control over what’s streamed, where it’s streamed to and a couple of other nuggets…but I think that’s another post…

Posted by Simon May, follow me on Twitter or if you like email me

This post is the first of a 6 part series on Streaming Media in Windows 7, here’s the topic list (they will be linked up as they are published).

1. This post, the introduction
2. Windows 7 as a media server
3. Beyond the basics
4. PlayTo
5. Streaming your media over the internet
6. PlayTo with playlists

For those who haven’t explored the network media features of Windows it’s basically a frame work that allows pictures, video and music to be played around your network, without the files having to be moved first – it’s something called streaming.  In streaming one device on the networks hosts the media file while another device can be responsible for playing the media.  There are loads of advantages to streaming, but three of the big ones are:

• No need to move media in advance of wanting to play it.
• No need to have media in the correct format for the device where you want to play it.
• You stay in control, all media can be held in one place, there’s no need to have it spread out on different devices to be able to use it (but you can if you want).

Network media in Windows 7 has a few components to it, but Windows is able to undertake a number of roles in a streaming network.  The main roles are as a Digital Media Server – meaning it hosts the media, Digital Media Player – meaning it can select and play media from a server, Digital Media Renderer – meaning it can have media sent to it and be remotely controlled, and finally it can be a Digital Media Controller – which means it can be a remote control.

Posted by Simon May, follow me on Twitter or if you like email me

So with the above requirements in mind I went looking for a multi core laptop with loads of RAM and a good “bang for my buck”.  I don’t play lots of games on Windows but I do need to be able to multi task well to use those virtual machines and entertainment of another kind, the ability to use Windows Media Center really wel,l was right up there on my list of requirements.  One thing that bugs me about most entertainment laptops is there massive size, since I didn’t (and still don’t) intend on getting rid of the Gateway laptop, I wanted something pretty small – I though about a netbook initially, but the power just isn’t there.

With Windows 7 just around the corner I wanted a device that I’d be sure could take advantage of everything it has to offer, and from a hardware point of view that meant that I wanted to be able to use multi-touch.  This was actually a far more important factor for me than any of the above and it narrowed the field immediately.

So to recap, lots of RAM, fast processors, small, multi-touch…not too much to ask for.

So a little research under my hat and it was time to hit the shops, well not the shops but the online stores.  The device that started to come out on top every single time was one of the variants of HP’s TX2 entertainment laptops.  It could have been built according the spec above.  Around the same time, Ian got a TX2 in to review, and it looked like just what I wanted….so I grabbed it!  Engadget named it “Tablet PC of the Year” so I new I was onto a good thing.

I’ve got to say that since I’ve owned it I’ve been totally blown away by it.  As soon as I got it I installed the Windows 7 Beta on it, and found the drivers for the Touch screen and got it going, the multi-touch experience in Windows 7 has to be seen, or rather touched, to be believed.  I really love being able to navigate a web page by touching it, zooming in, scrolling going back and forth is super simple and really intuitive.

It’s really quick too and I’ve have 3 virtual machines running at the same time doing all sorts.  The fact that it has a little Media Center remote built in is something that really floats my bloat, although I need to change the IR ID (it keeps firing up Media Center in the office when I’m watching TV in the lounge!) also it came with two batteries and that means a total battery life of about 6 hours!

So what’s the point of this, none really I just love this PC and want to talk about it a bit,  and with Windows 7 going to RC very soon I’m sure some folks are going to go looking for a PC that gives them a great Windows 7 and Windows Vista experience.

Posted by Simon May, follow me on Twitter or if you like email me