First, you will need to look at the hardware for the computer. You should make sure that your hard drive has plenty of extra storage capacity and you should consider upgrading the RAM in the computer. This random access memory upgrade will help with the processing speed of your computer and will help the computer locate new information quicker as it pulls from various sources in the storage.

You should also look to upgrade your processor. The processor, which is housed within the motherboard, determines the entire speed of the computer. You could easily swap out your processor for a much more effective one which would greatly boost the performance of your Windows based computer.

Second, you will need to clear your computer of all bugs that are slowing it down. This is done by downloading cleaning software which will scan your computer for any viruses or bots and erase them. When you surf the internet you many time unknowingly invite programs into your computer that will mooch off of the processing speed of your computer to monitor your actions online and offline. These bots are very dangerous because they can steal your personal identifiable information and they can also slow down the performance of your Windows based computer.

Finally, if you want to boost the performance of your computer you could download a program that will over clock the performance of your processor. You can do this one of two ways. The program that you download will analyze the speed at which your computer currently runs and it will give you an estimate of how much you could increase this speed by running it through this program.

You could also log into the motherboard programming yourself and tell the processor to run at a faster speed if you know how to read code and understand the programming language. Be careful though, because this could potentially damage your processor and could cause a lot more harm than good if not done properly.

source: http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Boost-a-Windows-Computer&id=5746059

Internet is believed to have ventured into the computer world in the year 1991. Since then it is continuously flourishing at an exponential rate. The key factor pushing the growth and success of the internet is the easy availability of web hosting providers.

In the earlier days, web hosting was definitely a costly affair and was restricted to huge organizations, multinational companies, and business firms. Today, everyone can create their own website for their personal use. During that time there were only a few providers of web hosting but now the numbers have increased tremendously. The market is growing with high level of competition amongst the web hosting service providers.

When searching for a web hosting service provider, the most important thing to consider is the type of operating system on which the server runs. Here are some of the key operating systems to choose from:

Linux

Linux is one of the most popular operating systems because of its cheap availability and easy installation. The system was developed by a young student, Linus Torvalds, at the University of Helsinki in Finland. It is an updated version of the Unix system with a wider range of functions and applications. The technological advanced Linux is compatible to a wide variety of computer hardware and applications.

Macintosh

Macintosh hosting servers are very uncommon and are not of much significance in the computer world as per the requirements of the present day youth. It is one of the oldest operating system and is hardly found on the present day computers. The system was first developed and marketed by Apple Inc on January 24, 1984.

Unix

Unix is quite similar to Linux but is comparatively expensive than the Linux. Computer users don’t prefer using Unix because it is specific to a certain range of computer hardware and has limited applications. The system was first developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs. The operating system is still used on many computers but its value and significance has drastically reduced after the introduction of Linux.

Windows

Windows is an extremely popular operating system that was first introduced on November 20, 1985 by Microsoft. It is a series of operating systems and graphical user interfaces that supports variety of computer applications. Over the period of time, Microsoft Windows have gained dominance on the world’s computer market and is believed to enjoy about 90% of the market share.

source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Know-the-Different-Computer-Operating-Systems&id=5680757

The Windows Operating System has been a big part of our life, but everything will have its end and sometimes you should repair them to use it very well again. This post discusses some useful windows tweaks and tips that will be a very big help for your PC.

We will explain some of the Windows tweaks and tips ranging from what beginners should know up to more advanced tips. There are different areas of tweaks and tips, and the first one is composed of tips that can be used in the present interface of Windows. The second one is a collection of registry tweaks. The performance of a computer may vary on how the user of the unit will interact with it; certain problems may rise up and will eventually create a big problem with your pc.

If you want to achieve great performance from your computer:

* You can save hard drive spaces by reducing systems restore or shutting it off. Disable services that aren’t needed in your PC,
* Increase the graphic performance of your desktop and Defragging your hard drive.

Those tips can usually be a great help for a greater PC performance. For the tweaks and tips for your windows you could do the following:

* Enable the clear type.
* Creating a keyboard shortcut will also do.
* Transferring or having a back up of your email manually without using outlook express could also be a very big help.

If you are experiencing security, recovery and privacy malfunctions the following tweaks and tips will help:

* Apply a password to an administrator account in your windows home.
* Using the Windows fire wall is also a big yes for the users it helps you detect and at the same time block certain viruses that will harm your PC.

If you want to customize your windows, there are plenty of tweaks and tips available:

* Adding my computer shortcut gives you the access to your files in a much easy way.
* Create a screen saver from your folder or any other destinations from your PC.
* Resize and enlarge the quick launch bars for you to be more comfortable with your PC’s settings.
* Disabling your cleanup wizard from your desktop will create a more attractive and accessible windows.

Tweaks and tips for registry is also a brilliant way to enhance performance of your computer:

* Backing up or restoring the windows registry is one of them.
* The windows data should be kept in the main memory will give you the allowance and disk space you need for performance enhancements.
* Getting rid of the balloon tips of windows will also give your computer a peace of mind; change the thumbnail sizes of pictures for a cleaner look in your folders.

These are just some of the useful windows tweaks and tips for windows, taking good care of your computer is indeed a very meticulous thing, but if you follow these tweaks and tips, I am sure that your Windows performance will be as good as any computer can get.

source: http://www.pctechbytes.com/windows-7/windows-tweaks-and-tips-2

The entity known as Windows has finally finished installing and now you’re faced with the daunting task of getting your system ready for gaming. This process obviously involves installing the latest drivers for your devices and your favorite games, but why stop there? A proper gaming system can really benefit from a few simple tweaks to really push the performance as high as it can go. And as an added bonus the system will be more stable and secure for it.

I’ve actually just reinstalled Windows 7 myself and have been going about the fresh installation trying to optimize it any way I can for the better part of the day. This left me with a few interesting techniques to get a much better performing system than on a plain fresh Windows installation and I’ll be sharing those with you in this guide.

Take a peak below and uncover six methods you might not have tried yet to improve your (non-)gaming performance!

Run Windows Update

The Windows Update tool runs automatically after installing Windows and should be spamming your screen with alerts, but just in case you’re not able to find it: it’s listed both in the Start menu under Programs and as an icon in your taskbar. It’s vital to install the important updates listed, but it’s also worth looking into the optional updates which often provide further security and performance enhancements.

Indeed, these Windows updates not only ensure a more secure system, but some also improve the performance, especially for Windows Vista users.

Defragment your drives

After installing all of your applications, drivers, games and updates it’s important to defragment each of your drives. Nearly everything that you’ve installed will be heavily fragmented at this point which results in a severe performance penalty as it takes longer for your system to access the required files to run any applications or games. Defragmentation takes care of all of that.

Windows comes with its own decent defragmentation tool, which can be accessed by going to Computer and right clicking on the drive (C, D, E, etc.) that you want to defragment. Go to the Extra tab, press Defragment Now and wait for it to finish. Then repeat this process for each of your other partitions until they’re all defragmented.

There are also 3rd-party defragmentation tools that tend to provide better results and extra features. I prefer to use the free tool Auslogics Disk Defrag, which can also defragment all partitions simultaneously.

Defragmenting after installing new games and major game updates is also a good practice. Anything new that you install on your system will invariably be fragmented to some degree and as your hard disk fills up this becomes an increasingly troubling problem. It’s entirely possible to have defragmentation be the only difference between a game being unplayable and it running smoothly.

Improving graphics performance/quality

The system you’ve assembled may have one of the best graphics cards on the market, but that’s not much good when the video card drivers are bottlenecking your graphics quality and performance by default. So it’s important to get into those driver settings and change things around to best suit your desires. Now I don’t actually have an ATi/AMD card at the moment so I’ll be covering this from a NVIDIA perspective. The basic idea is the same for ATi/AMD’s graphics cards however.

NVIDIA driver settings can be accessed by right-clicking the desktop and selecting NVIDIA control panel. There are two settings under 3D Settings that you’ll definitely want to change in order to boost your system’s performance. Power management mode should be set to performance so as to keep maximal graphics performance at all time. Similarly, you’ll probably want to set Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration to single display performance mode, because multiple display mode is only useful if you hook the system up to multiple screens.

Should you have a high powered beast of a video card, then you’ll also want to mess with the other 3D Settings. Set Anisotropic Filtering to 16x, Antialiasing Mode to override application settings and Antialiasing Setting to 4x or 8x. Also set Transparency to Supersampling, Ambient Occlusion to Quality and Texture Filtering to High Quality. Now the graphics of your games will look a lot better at the cost of a severe drop in performance. Antialiasing is the worst offender here so should performance become an issue then just set that back to application controlled and you should be fine.

Optimizing Energy Management

This is only an issue on notebooks, so if you’re setting up a desktop PC then you might as well skip on to the next point on the list.

If you’re going to be playing games on your notebook then you probably have a gaming notebook that’s hooked up to the grid at all times. In that case it’s vital to change the default energy management settings, because they severely restrict performance and can even disable crucial system components. So I’ll guide you through the process of setting this up so that your laptop can perform at its optimal capacity.

Right click on the battery icon in your taskbar and select energy management, then open the drop-down menu and select high-performance. Change its settings and ignore the first few settings that pop up. Head into advanced setting instead, because that’s where things get interesting.

It’s vital to disable both Selective USB Interruption (USB Settings) and Link State Power Management (PCI Express). The rest you can setup however you please although I recommend to increase the hard disk shutdown timer to something a little more reasonable like 60 minutes. At its default setting it would cut off any hard disk activity 20 minutes in, which includes any downloads, like Steam games, you may have running while you’re away from your notebook.

Shut down unnecessary services

There are many system services that are automatically activated, but aren’t really needed for anything by a majority of users. If you’re a gamer or simply interested in getting the best performance possible out of your system, then you’ll want to disable as many such services as possible for the best boot times and lowest possible Windows footprint on your system resources.

These services can be accessed by typing services.msc in the search box and pressing enter. It’s possible to disable services in the list by right clicking on the intended service, opening the properties window and setting the service to disabled.

* Bluetooth Support Service. Only required if you have any bluetooth devices, such as a smartphone, communicating with your PC, utterly useless in any other situation.
* Distributed Link Tracking Client. This service keeps files and folders hosted on other PCs but linked to on your PC up-to-date. Only useful if you use such network shortcuts, which means you’ll probably just want to disable it.
* Parental Controls. If you have no need to control the activity of children on your system (e.g.: you don’t have any) then you should disable this service.
* Remote Access/Remote Desktop services. These are only useful if you intend to have your PC active at home and connect to it from someplace else. If not then they’re a security risk and best disabled.
* Remote Registry. A huge security risk and not something anyone is likely to every use so disable this straight away!
* Tablet PC Input Service. This is used to connect tablet input devices to your system, which is something only designers use. Required if you have a tablet, useless otherwise.
* Windows Media Center services. These services are only useful if you use Windows Media Center, which is highly unlikely, especially if you’re a gamer.
* Windows Media Player Network Sharing. This is only useful if you want to share media you’re watching in Windows Media Player over the network. Of course no one actually does this and Windows Media Player sucks, so you might as well disable this.
* Windows Search. This is a service that indexes the files on your computer for faster searching. It’s still possible to use search with this service disabled, it just takes – a lot – longer. The key point to note here is that it is a major system hog and the search function is something that you’re liable to use only sparingly.

Turn off Windows Firewall

Windows Firewall is a nice touch if you don’t have an alternative software firewall installation or a hardware firewall in your router, but both cases are highly unlikely nowadays. Windows Firewall isn’t quite the most secure software firewall available, but it is one of the most annoying to get properly configured with its incessant warning the moment you try to go online in any game. Disabling this is only a good idea if you have some other form of firewall to protect your system, because it does leave your internet ports wide open.

If you have a hardware firewall in your router or some other software firewall then you should disable Windows Firewall by going to the Control Panel and into System and Security. The Windows Firewall option leads you to a panel which allows you to disable the service. This will improve system boot times and your multiplayer gaming experience.

source: http://gamedrone.net/2010/07/14/6-tweaks-to-optimize-a-fresh-windows-installation/

The backup utilities in previous versions of Windows have been less than spectacular resulting in a nice market for third party applications.  Today we take a look at the Backup and Restore feature in Windows 7  that may be their best backup tool yet.

Set the Backup

To set up a backup in Windows 7 open up Computer right-click on your local drive and select Properties.  Then click on the Tools tab and click the Back up now button.

In the Back up or restore your files window click the link to set up a backup.

Windows will search for a suitable drive to store the backup or you can also choose a location on your network.  If you backup to a network location you might need the password to the share.

You can have Windows choose what to backup or you can choose the files and directories.  Because I like more user control for this tutorial I am choosing what to backup but it’s completely up to you.

Note:  If you let Windows choose it will not backup Program Files, anything formatted with the FAT file system, files in the Recycle Bin, or any temp files that are 1GB or more.

Select the files and folder to include in the backup.  Also notice you can select the option to create an image of your local drive.

Now review the backup job and make sure everything looks correct.

Here you can also schedule the days and times the backup occurs.

Save the backup settings and kick off your first backup and while it runs you can monitor the progress.

Click the View Details button to see exactly what is being backup during the process.

When the backup is complete you will see the two backup files and image folder if you created one.  I backed up 20GB of data and it took around 15 minutes including the system image which came to 11GB.

Double click on the backup file and can restore files or manage the size of the backups folder.

Restore Files from Backup

If you need to go back and restore a file from a backup click on Restore my files in the Backup and Restore Center.

Now you can browse or search the most recent backup for a file or folder your missing.

Next you can restore them back to the original location or choose a different spot then click Restore.

Progress of the restoration will vary depending on the size of the data and location it’s restoring from.

Manage Backup Size

Sometimes you may need to recover some disk space and Windows 7 allows you to manage the size of your backups.  In the Backup and Restore section click on the Manage Space link.

Your given a summary of the backup location and what is taking up space from the backup.

Click on the View backups button to check the different dated backups where you can delete older ones if needed.

You can also change how windows retains older system images.

Backing up data is one of the most important but overlooked tasks for a computer user.  If you have another backup app you might not consider letting Windows do it, but overall, the new backup and restore utility in Windows 7 is much better than previous versions.

source: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/1838/using-backup-and-restore-in-windows-7/

Without an operating system – Mac OS X, say, or Windows XP – a computer is just a dumb box of chips, and even the most exciting application will have no environment in which to run. And, it’s easy to forget that you have a choice of which OS you run.

In fact, as a Mac user, you’re uniquely positioned because an Intel Mac is the only computer in the world that can legally run all three major operating systems, Mac OS, Windows and Linux. Indeed, you can, if you like, load all three on the same computer and pick which one you want to load when you switch your Mac on.

Even given that you have the choice, though, why would you ever want to install a different OS? Mac OS X, after all, is phenomenally good, and is, we think, the best OS for most people.

There are a few reasons, and it depends on what alternative OS you’re thinking of installing. Stick a copy of Windows XP, Vista or (though its support is currently limited) Windows 7 onto an Intel Mac using the Boot Camp utility included with Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6, and, boom, you’ve got a PC. It’s a very nice PC, and you can always scurry back to Mac OS X if it all gets too much.

But there’s essentially zero difference between a Mac running Windows and a Dell running Windows. If you are forced to use Windows-only apps or services as part of your work, for example, add a copy of Windows to your Mac, and you’ve transformed it into a PC for 100% compatibility with your colleagues.

Remember too that, with Snow Leopard, you can read from the Mac partition of your hard disk too.

Opting for Linux

But what about Linux? Why would you want to install that OS, (unfairly) perceived as being difficult and nerdy, onto your lovely Mac?

We asked Paul Hudson, the editor of our sister title Linux Format. “The most common reason for people running Linux on their Mac,” he said “is simply because they can get a bang up-to-date operating system running just fine on 400MHz PowerPC chips. Linux supports every major computer architecture in the world, you can even use a G3 if you really want to, but make sure you have at least 256MB of RAM.

“Other folks use it because they want a bit more power on their desktop: it’s straightforward to set up, comes with tens of thousands of programs that are completely free to use, and is pretty much bulletproof in terms of security. But my favourite reason is simply for the fun of dabbling around – I like to break things and fix them again, and, while Linux does make it hard to shoot yourself in the foot, when you do you’ll take your whole leg off.”

As Hudson says, these days Linux is fairly easy to use as your primary operating system. It’s not quite as robust as OS X when it comes to certain Mac hardware, but to be fair it’s almost impossible for any operating system designed to run on more than a small range of computers to be as stable.

Breathe new life into an old machine

Otherwise, Linux is excellent. Don’t discount, either, its astonishing abilities to breathe new life into old hardware. If your old G4 is still chugging along with Mac OS 9, wiping the slate clean and installing a nice friendly, modern version of Linux will introduce you to a whole new world, with free, powerful software that’s regularly updated.

Even simply being able to use a standards-compliant browser such as Firefox 3 rather than Internet Explorer for Mac is a boon when, today, so much of our lives are or can be carried out online.

Of course, you could put Linux on a brand-new Mac Pro if you like, and indeed, as apart from doing it just for the fun of it, many people run Linux as their primary OS because they applaud the ethos behind the open source movement.

It’s not just a whimsical delight in getting software that’s free and which has been built by thousands of volunteers all over the world, but a passionate dedication to the idea that data ought not to be locked away in proprietary formats or hamstrung by DRM.

There are, however, many versions of Linux. They’re known as ‘distros’, short for distributions, and you have to decide which to install. We asked Hudson for advice.

“This really depends on what you consider an ‘old’ Mac to be,” he said. “Let me put it like this: if the words ‘old world’ mean nothing to you, go for Ubuntu; it runs on G3, G4 and G5 (or Intel) CPUs. Ubuntu is by far the most popular Linux distribution, and with good reason: it’s easy to use, well polished, and has an active community offering help at ubuntuforums.org.

“Long-term Mac users who have hardware better suited to museums should look at Debian. If you’re an advanced user with an Intel Mac, give OpenSUSE a try: it’s a ‘full-fat’ distro, which comes on a DVD and installs pretty much all of it to your hard drive. If you want to try lots of text editors to find one that suits, OpenSUSE is a good place to start.”

A learning curve

Even with the simplest of distros there will be a learning curve, though it’s much shallower than it was a few years ago. For example, warns Hudson:

“Mac users are quite familiar with downloading .dmg files from the web then dropping programs into their Applications directory. Linux doesn’t do things like that, because we have a natural distrust of getting files from random websites. Instead, you’ll find your distro uses a package manager, which is where you select the software you want and it downloads and installs it for you from a trusted source. To remove the program, use the package manager again.”

Modern Linux distros support common Wi-Fi chipsets, so you may find that Wi-Fi works on your freshly installed Linux box right away. If not, you might have to download some drivers. The good news: distros such as Ubuntu can automatically identify and download appropriate drivers. The bad? They need a network connection to do this.

If you have another Mac, though, remember that you can share a wireless connection over Ethernet from the Sharing pane of System Preferences, so you could connect it to your new Linux-powered Mac to pipe some internet connectivity in over Ethernet just long enough to get Wi-Fi enabled.

In our G4 example , once we’d hooked up the Ethernet lifeline, all we had to do was go to the Hardware Drivers utility from System > Administration for the drivers to be detected.

If, however, you’re merely curious rather than ready to take the plunge, you could install Linux as a virtual machine within VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop.

Ultimately, we’re happiest when using a Mac as Jobs intended: running Mac OS X. But there are good reasons why you might want to try something different, especially if you’ve got an old PowerPC Mac hidden in a cupboard somewhere.

Make your Mac a jack of all trades with OS 9, OS X and Linux

As an example of what you could do to give an old Mac a new lease of life, we’re going to take a Power Mac G4 and make it triple-boot with Mac OS 9, Mac OS X and the Linux distro Ubuntu.

If you want to make Linux your sole operating system, it’s much simpler than the finicky process we’re detailing here; you’d miss steps two and three completely, then when installing Ubuntu you’d tell it to use the entire disk.

This process, of course, wipes the information from the Mac’s hard disk, so make sure you copy off any data you want to keep before beginning.

If you have an existing OS X install, you could clone it off to a FireWire hard disk, then, once the internal hard disk is partitioned, clone it back to the OS X partition. It should come as no surprise to learn that this is advanced stuff, and to fit all the instructions into the space we have, we’ve had to gloss over a few things, and assume a high level of competency.

Go carefully. You might notice, incidentally, that our test machine has a second internal hard disk – ignore it as we’re not using it in this example.

Get to grips with Ubuntu

1. Download Ubuntu

On any Mac or PC, download the ISO file (a virtual disc image) of the Ubuntu live installer from here. We’ve opted for 9.04 as 9.10 has issues with burning.

Step 01

Open Disk Utility, click the Burn icon, select the downloaded ISO then pop in a CD-R and let it burn.

02. Partition the hard disk

Boot your Mac from your Tiger install CD. Launch Disk Utility, select the internal hard disk, then click the Partition tab.

Step 02

Create three partitions; one Mac OS Extended for OS X, another for OS 9, and define the rest as Free Space. Create them as different sizes (this will be useful later) and note the size of each.

03. Install OS 9 and X

Once the partition has completed, restart the Mac and, as it cycles, pop out the Tiger disc and insert the Mac OS 9 install CD.

Step 03

Let it boot, then install OS 9 onto the Mac OS 9 partition you created previously. Complete the OS 9 setup.

Once you’re done, install Mac OS X onto the separate OS X partition.

04. Install Ubuntu

Restart your Mac again, inserting the Ubuntu installer and holding c to boot from it. Allow Ubuntu to load, then double-click the Install icon on the desktop.

Step 04

When you’re asked where you want to install Ubuntu, pick the second option. Use the largest continuous free space; the graphics show you what will happen.

05. Set boot preferences

After the installation has completed, restart the Mac back into Ubuntu, go to the Applications menu, then pick Terminal from the Accessories menu. Type:

sudo mac-fdisk -l

Use your notes of partition sizes to identify which partitions Mac OS X and Mac OS 9 are installed on.

Step 05

The partition name will be something like /dev/hda10 and /dev/hda12.

Now type:

sudo cp /etc/yaboot.conf /etc/yaboot.conf.backup

to make a backup of the file we’re about to edit. Then type:

sudo nano /etc/yaboot.conf

The installer will have identified the Mac OS X installation, so go to a line that says something like macosx=/dev/hda10 and, under that, type:

macos=/dev/hda12

or whatever the number was that you noted. To make Mac OS X default, on a new line under the one you’ve just written, type:

defaultos=macosx

then press CTRL+x to exit and save.

Press Y when asked if you want to save, then return to confirm the file name. In the Terminal, type:

sudo ybin -v

Once the process has completed, you can restart from Ubuntu, and Mac OS X will boot.

source: http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/apple/how-to-run-almost-any-os-on-your-mac-674027

It seems Microsoft has finally lived up to all of the expectations. With the release of Windows 7, most of the Vista issues have been address and even improved. It is going to be a more secure operating system, much slicker in appearance, and should be much faster. But, let’s not get carried away too fast. This is a Microsoft operating system, and even with this new and improved version, there will be a Windows 7 blue screen of death.

And, you know, I really don’t blame Microsoft for this. This is the operating system used in like 95% of all desktop computers. So with that in mind, new programmers and software writers will be releasing software that works with Windows. Not all of this software is compatible with the items already on your computer. It is just the nature of the game. Since some items are not compatible, you are going to have computer errors. The thing is how do we fix them?

Some of the computer errors we have all seen, and will still be seeing are computers locking up, automatic restarts, getting a black screen, computers running extremely slow, and the last one we hope to never see is the blue screen of death.

The reasons these errors occur is due to a conflict in the registry files. This causes certain programs to use the wrong registry files, or just now be able to find the file they need. There is really one way to fix this. It is done by using a registry repair software.

A software like this will scan your registry files, and determine the causes of the issues you are having. It will then fix these issue and return your computer back to normal. This process takes about 5 – 10 minutes to run. I would think that is a small amount of time to get rid of a headache that can last for a while.

So, before you get too frustrated by that first Windows 7 blue screen of death, try a registry repair software first. It should be able to remove your problem and get you all fixed up.

source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Windows-7-Blue-Screen-of-Death&id=3161725

Smooth out Windows 7 quirks with these quick fixes

We like Windows 7: it’s faster than Vista, makes better use of your system resources, is packed with interesting features, and looks great, too.

But that doesn’t mean it’s perfect, of course. If you’ve moved to Windows 7 recently then you might have noticed various upgrade problems, interface issues and features that seem to have disappeared entirely, among many other complications with the new system.

Don’t despair, though – while these problems can be really frustrating, answers are beginning to appear. We’ve uncovered some of the best and most effective solutions around, so follow our guide and your Windows 7 installation will soon be back on track.

1. Vista upgrade hangs at 62%

Windows 7 can start causing problems before it’s even installed, as many people report their upgrade hangs forever at 62%. Which is annoying.

Reboot, and your PC should roll back to Windows Vista. You can then open the setup log file \$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther\setupact.log to view what happened. Microsoft say this is usually caused because the Iphlpsvc service has stopped responding, and just adding an environment variable to ignore it will fix the problem. Point your browser at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/975253 for the fix.

If this doesn’t help (or your upgrade hangs at something other than 62%) then browse the setup log for other clues. And you might also try to boot and install from the Windows 7 disc, if possible, as that reduces the chance of any conflict with your existing Vista (or XP) setup.

2. DVD drive not found

In some cases your DVD drive may not be found by Windows 7, even if it’s visible in the BIOS and using the standard driver.

The standard solution here is to run REGEDIT, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\, then delete both UpperFilters and LowerFilters in the right-hand pane (UpperFilters.bak and LowerFilters.bak entries can be ignored).

No change? Resetting the drive letter has worked for some. Click Start, type Disk Management and choose the “Create and format hard disk partitions” link. If your optical drive is visible here then right-click it, select Change Drive Letter and Paths, click Change and choose a new letter. If the drive is now visible in Explorer, then repeat the process to change the drive letter back; if it’s still not visible, reboot and it should appear.

3. Aero isn’t running

If Windows 7 isn’t looking its best – transparency has been turned off, say – then the Aero theme may not have been fully enabled on your system. Click Start, type Aero, choose the “Find and fix problems with transparency and other visual effects” link, and click Next to launch the Aero troubleshooting wizard. It’ll try to identify and resolve and problems. And if it doesn’t, then install the latest driver for your graphics hardware. That could be all your system needs.

Some Aero features may be disabled in the Registry, though. For example, if Aero Peek (the ability to make open windows transparent to display your desktop underneath) doesn’t work for you, then launch REGEDIT, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM and make sure EnableAeroPeek is set to 1, rather than 0.

4. Aero Snap irritations

Windows 7′s new ability to move and resize windows, all in one movement, can be a genuine productivity boost. But if you find windows moving around when you don’t expect it then Aero Snap is more of an annoyance than anything else, though at least it’s one you can disable in just a few seconds.

Launch Control Panel, click Ease of Access, and select either “Change how your mouse works” or “Change how your keyboard works”. Then browse down to the “Make it easier to manage windows” section, check “Prevent windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge of the screen”, click OK, and program windows now won’t go anywhere unless you specifically command it.

5. iPhone won’t sync in Windows 7

Irritated iPhone users are beginning to report major difficulties in getting their iPhone to sync with Windows 7 systems. Particularly 64-bit Windows 7 systems, based around the P55 chipset. The iPhone is usually (though not always) recognised, but iTunes then complains that it can’t connect to the unit because of an “unknown error”, usually (though again, not always) 0xE8000065.

Disabling USB power management appears to be one solution. Click Start, type DEVMGMT.MSC and press [Enter] to launch Device Manager, then click View > Devices By Type. Expand the Universal Serial Bus controllers section of the tree, right-click each USB Root Hub entry in turn, select Properties > Power Management, and clear “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”.

Reboot your PC after this tweak and try again. This works for some, but if you’re out of luck then check the Apple Discussions thread for other ideas.

6. Windows 7 themes change your custom icons

Windows 7 has some spectacular new themes – there’s a great selection at the Microsoft site – but installing them can have one annoying side-effect. If you’ve previously changed a system icon like Computer or the Recycle Bin then that could disappear, replaced by the equivalent icon from the theme pack.

To prevent this, right-click an empty part of the desktop, select Personalize > Change Desktop Icons, clear the “Allow themes to change desktop icons” box and click OK. Your icons will now be preserved, and the only way to change them will be manually, from the same Desktop Icons dialogue.

7. Taskbar problems

We like the new Windows 7 taskbar, but many people seem less than impressed with the new approach to taskbar buttons, finding it difficult to tell at a glance whether an icon is a running application or a pinned shortcut. If this sounds like you then there’s an easy way to restore more standard taskbar buttons, though – right-click the taskbar, select Properties, and set Taskbar Buttons to “Never combine” or “Combine when taskbar is full”.

You can even restore the old Quick Launch toolbar in just a few clicks. Simply right-click the taskbar, click Toolbars > New Toolbar, type %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch in the folder box and click Select Folder. The Quick Launch toolbar should then reappear, and you can move and resize it to suit your needs.

8. Missing Explorer folders

Click Start > Computer in Windows 7 and you’ll find system folders like Control Panel and the Recycle Bin are no longer displayed in the left-hand Explore pane. This seems like a backward step to us, but there’s a quick solution. Click Tools > Folder Options, check “Show all folders”, click OK and all your top-level system folders will reappear.

9. Missing applets

Windows 7 installs quickly and takes up less hard drive space than you might expect, but in part that’s down to cheating – Mail, Movie Maker, Photo Gallery and other applets are no longer bundled with a standard Windows installation. Instead you must download the programs you need from the Windows Live Essentials site.

Installing Live Essentials will also get you potentially unnecessary extras, though, like an ActiveX control to help in uploading files to Windows Live SkyDrive. And the Windows Live Sign-In Assistant, which can be useful if you want to switch between multiple Windows Live accounts. If you have only one Windows Live account, and no plans to use Live SkyDrive, then these can safely be removed from the Control Panel Uninstall A Program applet.

10. Too many minidumps

By default Windows 7 now keeps the last 50 minidump files (memory images saved when your PC crashes). If you’re keen on using dump files to troubleshoot crashes then this is good news, but if you’ve no interest in that kind of advanced debugging then minidumps are just a waste of your valuable hard drive space. In which case you should run REGEDIT, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl, and set MiniDumpsCount to 1. Windows will only now keep the last dump file and you’ll free up a little hard drive space.

11. HP Multifunction Printer problems

If you’ve an HP multifunction printer with its “Full Feature Software solution” or “Basic Driver solution” installed then, after upgrading to Windows 7, you may find the printer stops working. Press the buttons on the front of the printer and nothing will happen; launch the software manually and you’ll see reports that it can’t connect to your hardware.

The problem is that a few files and Registry entries have been lost in the migration to Windows Vista, and even reinstalling the original HP software won’t help. Fortunately there’s a new version of HP Solution Center that should get everything working again, though, and you can find out more about it at the HP support site.

12. Hidden extensions

Explorer’s default settings in Windows 7 hide file extensions, as well as system files and folders.

To fix this, launch Explorer and click Tools > Folder Options > View.

Clear the “Hide extensions for known file types” to show file extensions, reducing the likelihood that you’ll accidentally double-click on virus.txt.exe in future.

And as long as there are no novice users on your system who might go poking around in Explorer, we’d also choose to “Show hidden files and folders” as well as clear the “Hide protected operating system files” box. It’s often important to see these files when you’re troubleshooting, or following problem-solving instructions from someone else.

13. DVD audio issues

Windows 7 runs well even on old notebooks, say reviewers, and in general they’re right. But we have seen reports of problems, for example with DVD audio, where movie sound is either completely unintelligible or doesn’t appear at all.

Should anything similar happen to you then head off to Control Panel, click Hardware and Sound > Sound, right-click your current default playback device (it’ll have a green tick displayed) and select Properties.

Then click Advanced, clear any settings in the Exclusive Mode box and click OK. You’ve now ensured that older or badly-behaved drivers can’t take complete control of the speakers any more, and this alone will often be enough to get your system working again. (But if it doesn’t, installing new audio drivers is your next best option.)

14. Windows Live MovieMaker

For some bizarre reason Windows Live MovieMaker won’t let you import network files by default. Okay, so they’ll be large and may monopolise network traffic for a while, but shouldn’t that be your choice?

Anyway, a quick Registry tweak will solve this annoying problem. Simply run REGEDIT, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows Live\Movie Maker, add a DWORD value called AllowNetworkFiles and set it to 1: job done.

15. XP Mode doesn’t work

If you’ve ancient software that won’t work under Windows 7 then in theory you can use XP Mode, a virtual machine with an installation of Windows XP that should be more successful. In practice, however, it doesn’t always work out that way.

Problem 1 is XP Mode requires hardware support from the CPU. The Microsoft Hardware-Assisted Virtualization Detection Tool can check your system to see if it’s compatible.

Problem 2 is the feature must be enabled in the BIOS. Microsoft has some instructions, but essentially you just need to browse your BIOS setup program looking for an AMD-V, Intel VT or VIA VT virtualisation setting and ensure it’s turned on.

Unfortunately problem number 3 is that some laptop manufacturers have previously disabled this setting for “security” reasons. Sony Vaios had the feature turned off for a while, for instance, prompting some to recommend ways in which you can edit their firmware to restore the setting, although Sony seems to have restored it recently. If hardware virtualisation is turned off on your system then check with the manufacturer – a BIOS upgrade may fix the problem.

And if all else fails, just use a package like VirtualBox that doesn’t insist on hardware support. You will need to provide a licenced copy of XP (or whatever other version you want to use) to install on it, though.

16. Add Windows Media Center to AutoPlay options

Windows 7 includes Media Center, but for some strange reason you can’t choose it as an AutoPlay handler. The only standard program that can be launched to play DVD-Video discs, say, is Media Player, which seems an odd limitation.

Fortunately there’s no fundamental change that’s preventing this from working, it’s just that Windows 7 doesn’t contain the required Registry entries. If you’ve a Windows Vista PC to hand then you could export these yourself: just go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\AutoplayHandlers and save all the keys and values beginning with EHome.

Windows expert Ramesh Srinivasan has done the hard work already, though, so it’s probably easier to download the .REG file from him. Take a look at Srinivasan’s Winhelponline to find out more.

17. Missing crash dump files

Impressive though Windows 7 is, it’ll crash sometimes, and if you’ve installed diagnostic software like the Windows debugging tools then you’ll want the crash dump file to hand for further investigations. And yet in some situations you’ll find the memory.dmp file never appears. So what’s going on?

First, click Start, right-click Computer and select Properties > Advanced System Settings > Startup and Recovery Settings. Make sure that “Write debugging information” is set to something other than “none”, and that “Dump file” is the default “%SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP”.

If that’s all correct then check your free hard drive space. If your system isn’t on a domain, and has less than 25GB free, then Windows 7 will no longer keep a crash dump file. If you’d like to change that, launch REGEDIT, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl, create a new DWORD value called AlwaysKeepMemoryDump, set it to 1, and in future the crash dump file will always be preserved.

18. Can’t disable hibernation

Windows 7 doesn’t make it easy to turn off hibernation, annoying if you never use it as you’ll permanently have a “hiberfil.sys” file taking up a sizeable portion of your hard drive. To rectify this situation, launch REGEDIT, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power, and set HibernateEnabled to zero.

19. Poor video quality

The new Windows 7 power plan settings affect more of your software than ever before. If you notice video playback quality seems poor, for instance, then click Start, type Power Options and click the Power Options link. Click Change Plan Settings for your currently selected plan, click Change Advanced Settings, expand the Multimedia Settings section and make sure “Playing video” is set to “Optimise performance”.

Alternatively, if you often play video on a laptop, then change the new setting to “Optimise performance” and you may see an improvement in battery life.

20. Where’s Software Explorer?

If you’ve ever played with Windows Defender on Vista then you’ll have probably noticed the Software Explorer feature, a very useful way to find out and control exactly what’s launched on your PC when Windows starts. So it’s a little annoying to see this has disappeared in the latest version, leaving you with only the aging MSCONFIG to control your startup programs.

We’d recommend you download and use Autoruns, then, instead. It’s rather more technical than Software Explorer, but nothing else provides quite as much useful detail on the add-ons and extensions you’ll be loading when Windows, Explorer and your browser are launched.

21. Explorer navigation

The Windows 7 version of Explorer has partly disconnected its two panes, so if you’re double-clicking your way down a complex set of folders in the right-hand pane, the left hand tree won’t always expand to follow you.

This may improve performance a little, but it also means that you won’t always be able to see the complete folder structure unless you expand it manually, which on balance seems a bad idea. If you agree then click Organize > Folder and Search Options, check “Automatically expand to current folder”, and click OK to restore normal operations.

22. Windows Live Messenger and the system tray

Close Windows Live Messenger on Windows 7 and it’ll display its icon on the taskbar, chewing up useful application space, rather than in the system tray where many believe it belongs.

Fortunately there’s a very quick fix: right-click the shortcut to Windows Live Messenger, click Properties > Compatibility, check “Run this program in compatibility mode for” and choose “Windows XP (Service Pack 3)” from the list. Close Messenger and its icon should now appear in the system tray, just as you’d expect.

source: http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/22-common-windows-7-problems-solved-655655

The stuff that makes the upgrade worthwhile

From Windows 3.1 to Windows Vista, the Windows operating system has taken many giant leaps. And while Vista received a lukewarm reception from some users, Windows 7 is likely to be remembered for addressing those criticisms.

In fact, there aren’t many changes to the overall look of Windows 7 when compared to Windows Vista. Instead, Microsoft seems to have paid attention to the feedback it received and created an OS that is not only stable, but also very capable.

So what is new in Windows 7? Here are 18 cool things Windows 7 does that Vista doesn’t.

1. Shake ‘em away

Ever had 10 Notepad, two Powerpoint and 50 Outlook windows open? Want to minimise all of them except the most important one? In Windows 7, you can grab the top of the window and shake it about to scare away all of the other open windows. Simple.

2. Jumplists

Jumplists are a new feature that give you the option to view a list of recently accessed files by application, even when the application isn’t open, by right-clicking on the application’s icon in the taskbar. It also allows you to quickly access a favourite playlist without opening your media player. Jumplists can also be found integrated into the Start Menu.

3. A step forward in previewing

In Vista, hovering over a minimised window on the taskbar would provide a preview of the window. In Windows 7, a similar preview pops up which also gives the option to close a window (within the preview), along with a full-size ‘peek’. You can also press Win + T to scroll along previews in the taskbar.

4. Snap into place

Simply drag your window to the left or right edge of the desktop to snap and resize the window to one half of the screen. Drag the window to the top to maximise it. A pretty neat idea made neater by the use of the keyboard shortcuts (Win + respective arrow keys). No longer do you have to frustratingly position the mouse at the edge of the window to resize it.

5. XP Mode

This time, you do not have to slap your head that same way when Vista would not run an XP application. For those XP applications that do not work under Windows 7, you can download XP Mode free from the Microsoft website and run XP applications in an emulated XP environment in Windows 7. Imagine Parallels on Mac OS X without the need to fish out money on an extra OS.

6. An easier and quicker way to adjust multiple displays

Do you constantly connect your computer to different external monitors or projectors, especially at work? Try Win + P, and duplicating or extending your display to the other monitor takes just a second. Win + P presents you with an Alt + Tab style menu, which is ideal if you give a lot of presentations at work on your laptop.

7. A personalised Stage for your device

With the new ‘Device and Printers’ button on the Start Menu, devices which are connected to your computer can have their own Stage. This Device Stage presents supported devices with a photo-realistic render and a link to the vendor’s website, along with other updates and useful information (such as firmware updates and manuals).

8. (Almost) eliminate the notification area!

What, I can even get rid of the clock and volume icons? Yes. Click the arrow that gives access to the overflow icons in the notification area and click ‘customise’. Select each icon and click ‘hide icon and notifications’ to remove it. Clean.

9. Problem Steps Recorder

The ‘Problem Steps Recorder’ lets you record a particular problem you are having with your PC so you can send it to someone who may be able to help. Click ‘Record’, and a screenshot is taken with every mouse click, allowing comments to be added in between if required. These screenshots (and comments, if any) are placed in a well-formatted HTML document that is placed inside a zipped folder on your desktop – ideal to be attached to an email.

10. A brand new Magnifier tool

If you are, or someone you know, is visually impaired, then the Windows 7 Magnifier provides two options for providing a bigger display. One of which is using the traditional dock (which took up a lot of the screen) and the other being a rectangular lens that is stuck to the cursor (meaning there is no loss of workspace).

11. A new way to preview your music files

Opening and listening to an MP3 is a lot more snappier with Windows 7 due to its new smaller preview player, presenting you with album art, basic music functionality and a link to the full-blown Windows Media Player. This is an obvious attempt to mimic the preview feature of Mac OS X, but it is very well executed.

12. Homegroup Networking

In Vista (or, frankly, any Windows OS), creating a shared folder over a network at home could be a bit of a pain. In Windows 7, using the ‘Homegroup’ wizard, check the default folders you would like to share. This will give you a passcode that will have to be entered in another computer on the same network to share the files. Sounds too good to be true? There is a catch: only a Windows 7 computer can join a Homegroup.

13. Stream Music directly to another computer

If you do create a Homegroup, Windows Media Player allows you to stream music directly to another computer. So, instead of listening to music through your measly laptop speakers, you can wirelessly stream to the 7.1 Surround Sound Speakers of your PC in your living room, without stepping away from your laptop. Sweet.

14. Action Center

The Action Center is the new Security Center for Windows 7, along with other notifications such as updates and access to the improved troubleshooting and recovery using restore point facilities. Basically, it is everything windows usually annoys you with, rolled into one place with one icon in the notification bar. If you find the alerts irritating, you can check out this tip to make the Windows 7 Action Center less annoying.

15. Pin just about anything to the new Windows Taskbar

Imagine a blank Mac OS X Dock with the start menu, the notifications bar and the improved ‘Show Desktop’ button added to it. Drag just about anything on to it and the associated application will place itself on the translucent taskbar, with an option to open the file in the Jumplist.

16. Improved Touch Navigation

Windows 7 has much improved touch navigation. The larger taskbar with squarer icons makes it a lot easier to navigate with your fingers, and Macbook-like multi-touch gestures on various applications could change the way you interact with windows. Subtle enhancements such as a larger Start Menu appearing when Touchscreen hardware is detected also help.

17. Native ISO Burner

There are those times when you inevitably have to burn an ISO file (such as when you have to copy a downloaded Windows 7 beta or RC) to a DVD. With Windows 7 you do not need to download third-party software (some of which are pretty confusing to use). Double-clicking on an ISO file will take you to a window that allows you to change the disc burner drive. Click ‘Burn’. After a while, your disc is ready. Simple.

18. Native calibration tools

If you tend to hook up your computer to an HDTV or care about getting the highest quality from your monitor, then the in-built basic and easy-to-use calibration tools built into Windows 7 will please you.

source: http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/pc/18-cool-things-windows-7-does-that-vista-doesn-t-628892

How would you feel if someone pulled the power cable out of your Mac (or PC) right now, without warning? If there was a power failure this is effectively what would happen, and you could lose data or your entire computer as a result. Guard yourself against such an event with a UPS device.

The facts

An uninterruptible power supply, or UPS for short, is, in a nutshell, a heavy-duty mains-charged battery unit that sits between your Mac and the regular power sockets. These devices are designed to provide enough electricity during a power cut to keep connected equipment going for a little while, normally providing five or ten minutes of power for a few devices; long enough to save work in progress and shut down gracefully.

Most people think of these as something you’d need only if you lived where power cuts were a common occurrence. However, even in the middle of a busy city your power could fail for any number of reasons, from a simple blown fuse to roadworks problems, lightning strikes (they do happen), and so on. If the power fails your Mac will go down without warning. Not only will you not have a chance to save your work, the OS won’t have performed a graceful shutdown; you may need to run disk repair tools as a result. If you’re unlucky your computer could suffer expensive hardware damage as well. Wherever you live, if you use computers, a UPS is well worth considering.

Another benefit you’ll get from a UPS device are ‘line conditioning’ features. Generally referred to as automatic voltage regulation, these tame fluctuations in your mains power. Although you would expect your incoming electricity supply to give you an unvarying 240v current (or whatever is standard for your part of the world), it will actually fluctuate from time to time. You may have noticed your lights dim for half a second once in a while; that’s a crude visual symptom of the effects of ‘dirty’, unregulated power. This can cause stress to sensitive electronic equipment. Although it is generally soaked up by the poswer supply units within your IT equipment, it will still take its toll on those components at least, and can lead to crashes and freezes. Automatic voltage regulation curcuits are designed to take such spikes and troughs in their stride and pass a tamed result on to connected equipment.

When choosing a UPS device, make sure that you pick one which will be able to handle the demands of everything you want protected. UPS suppliers will normally help you work out what level of device you need, but if not you can work it out yourself with some simple maths. Next to the power socket on Macs, PCs and virtually all other IT equipment you’ll find the item’s amps rating. Multiply that by the mains voltage and you’ve got the VA rating; volts x amps = VA. (VA is also commonly called watts, although an electrician will point out that there’s a difference between the two.) If necessary, divide the VA figure by the UPS device’s capacity and you’ll have the length of time its battery can maintain those items on its own; VA / capacity = uptime. If you prefer, a UPS capacity calculator can be found at CSGNetwork.com.

When looking through catalogues don’t go by a manufacturer’s quoted maximum battery running time; that will be calculated with the minimum load rather than a realistic one of the device under full load. Make sure you get a unit which has 25% or more VA capacity than your existing needs. This will ensure you get a bit more than the minimum amount of time when running from the battery, and it also gives you scope for using slightly higher-rated equipment in the future without risking the UPS failing to keep you running in a crisis.

Remember, having a UPS doesn’t mean you can keep working even if the mains power fails. These devices are meant to provide enough time to sort things out, not to let you carry on with your work as if nothing’s happened. Only use a UPS for items which really must be kept alive for a short time if the power fails. Anything which pulls a lot of power shouldn’t be connected via one of these unless absolutely necessary. Your monitor is a logical choice, as are any external hard drives. Other devices are less necessary; for example, scanners don’t need the UPS treatment. Laser printers will stress a UPS’s throughput quite heavily, especially when first turned on. Remember, if there’s a power failure your main concern should be in saving your work and shutting down gracefully, not in making a few prints. If you’d like to have your laser printer protected from fluctuations in mains power then by all means connect it to the surge-protection sockets. These flatten out power spikes, causing less stress to the electronics and providing protection against lighting strike pulses. Just don’t hook it up to the battery-backed sockets or you’ll shorten the life of the UPS itself.

When there’s a power failure your UPS device will start beeping to let you know that it, or rather your computer, is running on battery power. Most units will offer extra connections to your Mac or PC via USB or Ethernet, and can, in conjunction with bundled software, automate the process of shutting it down. This is ideal for unattended servers, but it can also be useful if you happen to be away from your Mac when the power fails. Some UPS devices come with Windows-only software and PC-specific serial connections, but there are utilities for OS X that can work with these, even if a USB-to-serial adaptor is used. Aside from this, any UPS hardware will work with Macs as well as PCs, as it simply provides temporary power when needed.

Maintenance

The battery in a UPS device will last for some years, but you should test it out every now and then, say once every year or so, to ensure it is still up to the task. If in doubt, contact the manufacturer and see whether they recommend a replacement battery. You should also test out your setup once you’ve installed everything – either with your Mac and no important work open or with something more immune to outages, such as a lamp – to make sure that it will actually do the job when asked.

source: http://www.thesmallest.com/lessonettes/ups-indepth.html