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/

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This article explains how to make a USB jump drive bootable for the purpose of doing Windows installations.

Introduction – Why You Need a Bootable USB Drive

The most popular option for installing an operating system is by way of an optical disk i.e. DVD/CD-ROM USB. But what does one do when trying to install an operating system to a computer, such as a Notebook, that doesn’t have an optical drive? In this article we explain how to make a USB drive bootable.

Making a USB jump drive bootable allows for another option to get a computer booted, which can be quite handy for carrying around installation files and other useful data in a convenient package. Here are some situations where having a bootable USD jump drive can be useful when you want to:

* Protect your installation CD’s from the wear and tear of regular use.
* Have a full OS installation on the jump drive. This allows you to boot your computer from a clean installation if you are in a bind.
* Install an OS on a computer that doesn’t have an optical drive.
* Take advantage of the better transfer speed that USB jump drives have, as compared to optical drives.
* Create a system recovery disk.

What ’s Needed to Make a USB Drive Bootable

Before continuing you will need the following:

*  A USB jump drive Make a bootable USB drive
* A BIOS that supports USB boot-up
* A special utility to make the jump drive bootable.

If you intend to make your USB drive bootable, the BIOS need to support USB boot-up. To do so you will need to enter the BIOS and modify the boot sequence according to your preference. Usually this involves moving the USB drive up in the boot sequence and placing it before the hard drive. If all goes well, the computer should search the USB drive for boot instructions before the primary hard drive, if the computer doesn’t find a bootable USB drive, the comp/tools/Copying System Files to Make Bootableuter should continue the boot sequence without any problem.

Making a USB drive bootable can be done manually, but copying all the files and completing the steps in the correct sequence lends itself to making mistakes. Therefore, it is better to use a special USB boot utility such as WinToFlash to automate the process.

Transferring the Windows Installation Files and Making the USB Drive Bootable

1. Download the WinToFlash Utility and extract the zip files
2. Plug the Jump drive into a USB port
3. Launch the WinToFlash utility and specify the path to the windows files and also the path to the USB jump drive
4. Click next to start the file copy process.

When the process is complete the jump drive should be bootable and contain the Windows installations files.

Summary

Making a USB drive bootable is a convenient way to carry around a working OS, installation files or a system recovery disk. While making a USB drive bootable can be done manually, it is better to use a special utility such as WinToFlash to complete the process without an error.

source: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/73013.aspx

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Want to set up the simplest wireless home network for your mixed Vista, XP, and Windows 7 computers? Want a network without a “boss” computer or cumbersome passwords that works even if some of the computers are not online and the simple rule for those that are connected is “share and share alike?”

Setting Up a Wireless Network with Windows 7

The objective of this article is to set up a simplified home network using a mix of a Vista desktop PC, a laptop running Windows 7 beta, and a laptop running Windows XP. Defining features of this network will be the lack of network passwords for local connections (both wirelessly or wired) and no single “boss” computer. Devices on the network will act as peers – no computer will rely on another computer to be present on the network – in order to reach the Internet, but it won’t be an ad-hoc network. File and folder sharing, of course, will depend on other computers being present, but we’ll look at specifying what folders we’ll share with others and these we will share and share alike.

Router Configurations

The most boss-like object in the network is the wireless router. For our purposes, we’ll presuppose that each computer can connect to the router. In our test network, the Vista desktop computer has the wired connection to the router and was used to set the router up. It’s very important that the router is not left at defaults and is set up properly because the security of the simplified network is based on the router and on having both a strong network password and an encrypted connection. By strong password, we mean a mix of letters and numbers that can’t be guessed or easily “cracked” by brute force. Your router setup program may suggest a pseudo-random password based on the encryption you selected. This is very safe to use. By encryption, we mean Wi-Fi Protected Access, or WPA-PSK. The “PSK” part stands for “pre-shared key,” which is that secure password.

Since setup varies and you’ll need to use the documentation for your router to perform it, we’ll only briefly touch further on this. You want to set it to broadcast your network name or service set identifier (SSID). You’ll want to make sure that each computer on the network can reach the Internet. A somewhat common problem you may encounter is that a PC can connect wirelessly to the router and seems to be passing some data when you view “Status” for the device, but the web browser can’t reach any web pages.

This can mean that the computer was set up by default for wireless networking (with Microsoft networks, of course), but not for Internet access. It is, however, easy to fix.

Instructions for Windows XP

Windows XP: Start → Connect To → Show All Connections. Select the “Wireless Network Connection” by right-clicking it and selecting “Properties.” Under the General tab, in the main window, you’ll see “This connection uses the following items.” Scroll down to see if “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)” is in the list. If it is not, click the “Install” button and then “Protocol.” You’ll see “Internet Protocol TCP/IP” in the list and can highlight it and click OK to add it. (If you see “Microsoft TCP/IP version 6” in the list, it’s fine to add it as well.) Back in the Properties dialog, scroll down and find “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)” in the list. Highlight it and then click the “Properties” button. “Obtain an IP address automatically” and “Obtain DNS server address automatically” should both be checked. Click OK to close the dialog, and then, for best results, reboot your PC. When it restarts, connect to the network, and you should able to browse the web.

Vista: Start → Network → Network and Sharing Center (or Start → Control Panel → Network and Sharing Center) → Manage Network Connections. Right click “Wireless Network Connection” and proceed as described above for Windows XP.

Windows 7: Start → Control Panel →View Network Status and Tasks → Change Adapter Settings → Wireless Network Connections. Right-click Properties, and then the steps are the same as in Vista and Windows XP.

In each case, remember to do the same steps (enable automatic IP and DNS) for Internet Protocol version 6 as well before saving and rebooting.

Hopefully, at this point, all the computers will be able to connect to the router and access the Internet. We are ready to start setting up the network.

Setting Up the Simplified Network

There are only a couple of rules to follow here. The computers on the network must each have unique names and must belong to the same “workgroup.” “WORKGROUP,” in fact, is often the default name assigned by Windows. However, we want to use a more unique group name of our own. This is very useful if you’ve had previous networks running on some of the computers. A different group name tells Windows to release some of its preconceived notions about the network setup, and this is an important part of creating the simplified network.

To change the computer name and group name in Windows XP, right-click “My Computer” and select “Properties.” In the “Computer Name” tab, click the “Change” button. Enter a unique computer name, if the computer does not already have one, and then enter the new workgroup name. When you click OK, Windows will welcome you to the group and advise you to reboot the PC.

To change the computer name and group name in Vista and Windows 7, right-click “Computer” and select “Properties.” Expand the dialog downward if necessary and find “Computer name:” At far right, click “Change settings.” In the System Properties dialog under “Computer name,” click the “Change” button. Enter your unique computer network name (or keep the old one, as long as it’s unique), enter the same group name you used previously, and leave “Domain” blank. Click OK, and Windows will welcome you to the group and ask for a restart.

And that’s it – the basics of setting up our network. At this point, all the computers are in the same workgroup and will recognize each other. Each will be able to connect to the router and surf the net. Each will be able to access already-existing shared and “public” folders on other devices on the network. Now it’s time for some refinements.

Setting Up Shared Folders

That’s the next consideration – what do we want to share with each computer on the network? Remember that this is share and share alike. We’re not going to get into password-protected folders or go crazy with permissions or settings.

Sharing Folders in Windows 7

Vista and Windows 7 allow some fine-tuning of what is shared, but note here that Windows 7 has a concept of “Homegroup” that is not shared with XP, and only partially shared with Vista. To demonstrate this, connect your Windows 7 PC to the new network. Go to start → Control Panel → “Choose homegroup and sharing options.” It will inform you that you are not currently connected to your homegroup. That is correct. The PC is connected to the group you created, so nothing in this dialog applies. (Windows 7 actually automates homegroup setup – but only to other Windows 7 computers. Since we have a mixed network, we don’t want to use this feature.)

So instead, go to Start → View network status and tasks. This will open the Network and Sharing Center page. On the left, click “Change advanced sharing settings.”

On the next page, you’ll see several options. Remember again that the brunt of security in our simplified home network is the router network password, so we don’t want to get too fancy on this settings page. “Network discovery” should be turned on, as should “file and printer sharing.” You’ll need to decide how your “Public” folder is handled, but note that this is public only in the sense that is open to others on your network, not to the big, bad Internet. If you want other users on the network to be able to place files in your public folder, then you need to select “Turn on sharing so anyone with network access can open, change, and create files.”

Next, do you have MP3s or iTunes music on the Windows 7 PC that you want to share on the network? If so, click “Media sharing” and then select “Turn on media sharing.” You probably don’t want to select “Prevent my PC from sleeping…” if this is a notebook. Since our network acts like an ad-hoc or peer-to-peer network, even though it’s really not, other users and devices will learn that what is shared may come and go.

Then select “Turn off password protected sharing.” Under “Windows HomeGroup connections,” select “Use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computers.” This effectively turns off Windows 7’s automatic handling of the network settings.

Click “Save changes” when you’re finished.

At this point, other users will be able to access the shared media on the Windows 7 machine.

But attempting to access the PC itself will produce an error message because no folders in Windows 7 have actually been given sharing permissions yet. (This is actually a side effect of turning off password protected sharing, but no worries. This, too, is easy to fix.)

Let’s set up sharing on the Public folder. Double-click “Computer” and navigate to Local Disk (C:) → Users. Right-click the Public folder and select Share with → Specific people… Under “Type a name,” enter “Everyone.” Everyone is the magic word that makes a Public folder available to other computers on the network who are not running Windows 7. Then click “Add.” Everyone will then appear in the list. Do you want other users to be able to put files in your Public folder? If so, you will need to give Everyone “Write” permission. Click the down-arrow beside “Write” and choose “Read/Write.” Then click “Share.”

You should do the same for any other folders that you want to share from the Windows 7 computer. (Remember that media sharing is already enabled.)

There are two other things to note at this point. One is that I recommend that you reboot the computer and allow it to restart and reestablish network communications before you try to access files and folders on the Windows 7 PC. The other is that the details of setting this up may change before the final release of Windows 7. If you’re not seeing the same steps and labels, check with Windows Help to see what’s changed.

And this is what success looks like. Here’s the view from the Vista desktop when Start → Network is selected and the Windows 7 computer’s icon is clicked.

By the way, to get “Network” on the Windows 7 Start Menu, right-click the Windows Start button and select Properties → Customize. Scroll down and check “Network” and click OK twice.

Sharing Folders in Vista

Setting up shared folders in Vista is easier than setting up shared folders in a workgroup for Windows 7. Most of what you need is in Start → Control Panel → Network and Sharing Center. You’ll notice that under “Network discovery,” it says “Custom.” This is the result of our having set up the workgroup. You shouldn’t need to change this.

File sharing, Public folder sharing, Printer sharing, and Media sharing should all be turned on.

Password protected sharing should be turned off.

At the bottom of the page are useful links that offer to show you all the files and folders that the Vista PC is sharing, as well as a list of shared network folders on the PC, which is where the printer will show up if you chose to share it.

What about sharing individual folders? Let’s step through an example.

I wished to share a folder called “BrightHub” on my Vista desktop with all other devices in my workgroup on the network. I right-clicked the folder and selected “Properties.” Under the “Sharing” tab, I clicked “Advanced Sharing” and checked “Share this Folder.” I changed the number of simultaneous users to three (including the desktop in the count), and then I clicked “Permissions.”

In the “Permissions for BrightHub” dialog, I saw the magic “Everyone” user and checked “Full Control” under “Allow.” Then I clicked OK twice.

At this point, I took note of the Network Path. It was “\\PC2007\BrightHub” and that was where I would look for it from other computers on the network.

And that’s it for sharing folders and files on the Vista desktop. It’s time to bring the XP Pro notebook into the network.

Sharing Folders in Windows XP

Windows XP was originally touted as having “Simple File Sharing,” and that’s still true. If you haven’t upgraded to Windows XP Service Pack 3 or previously networked the XP computer with a Vista PC, you’ll need to download and install the “Linked Layer Topology Discovery Responder” that lets Vista computers “see” XP boxes and include them in the network map under Start → Networks. Although not strictly required for networking, it certainly makes a convenient point to open folders from in Vista and Windows 7.

You can find out if LLTD is running on your Windows XP PC by going to Start → Control Panel → Network Connections. Look at the list of items used by the Wireless Network Connection. If you see “Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder,” you’re good to go.

If you don’t, you have two choices. You can upgrade to Service Pack 3 using Windows Update, or you can install the older version of LLTD.

If you find that LLTD is installed and still cannot connect to the workgroup, the next thing to look at is your firewall. This will vary based on which firewall you’re using, of course, but if you are using the default Windows Firewall, check to see if file and printer sharing is allowed. Go to Start → Control Panel → Windows Firewall. Then click the “Exceptions” tab. Do you see “File and printer sharing” in the list, and is it checked? If it’s not there, click “Add Program” and select it. Make sure it’s checked before clicking OK. Then try connecting again.

Hopefully, your XP box is on the network by this point and visible in Start → Network in Vista and Windows 7. Now let’s set up one or more folders to share on the network.

As an example, let’s set the iTunes folder on the Windows XP laptop to be shared with the other computers. Click Start and select “My Music.” Right-click the iTunes icon, and select “Sharing and Security…” Un-check “Make this folder private” if it’s selected, and then check “Share this folder on the network.” Since we don’t need other family members modifying our music files, leave “Allow network users to change my files” un-checked. Then click OK.

And here’s the folder from the XP machine showing up on the Vista machine.

A Final Bit of Fine Tuning

Vista and Windows 7 have the option of connecting as soon as the notebook moves into range of a wireless network. This is very handy if the machine travels with you. Of course, you don’t leave the Wi-Fi radio on all the time on a laptop, but Vista and Windows 7 are both smart enough to automatically check and see if you’re at home when you turn on Wi-Fi.

To enable this, in both Vista and Windows 7, go to Start → Network and click on “Network and Sharing Center.” On the left, click on “Manage wireless networks.” This will give you a list of the wireless networks that Windows knows about. The networks are shown in the order in which Windows tries to connect. You can drag a network up or down in the list. To make your laptop connect automatically, right-click the network name and select “Properties.” Check “Connect automatically when the network is in range” and then click OK.

Conclusion

And there you have it – the simplest home network you can create in a mixed environment of Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Windows 7 computers. Specified folders on each device are shared and shared alike, and the folders shared are determined by you.

It’s perfectly safe to shut down all the computers in the network because there’s no “boss” computer that has to act as the gateway. There are no passwords (other than that of the wireless modem) to distribute and possibly misplace. Security is even good because the router has a strong, un-guessable password that acts as a network password for the users, too. Even communications flying through the ether are secure because we specified strong encryption.

This is by no means anything that approaches enterprise-level security, but IT security is based on keeping people out of what they shouldn’t access. Our simplified network is all about giving all the users access to the folders that need to be shared, and shared alike.

source: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/26291.aspx

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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/

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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How to set up a RAID array, what performance you can expect from it, and oh ya… a quick explanation of what ‘RAID’ actually means.

RAID is an acronym for “Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks”. This describes a configuration for multiple hard drives which provide fault tolerance and improved data access times. RAID was traditionally only found in the domain of servers, but inexpensive IDE/SATA RAID solutions now mean many desktop computers can benefit from the same data redundancy, and performance increases for applications like video editing. With the right number of identical hard drives, consumers with motherboards that support IDE/SATA RAID can choose from RAID 0, RAID 1, and sometimes even RAID 0+1.

It’s an unfortunate fact that hard disk drives are rather slow at storing and retrieving data. Sure they are faster than CDs, linear backup tapes and other removable media, but compared to actual computer memory, they lag behind massively. The mechanical nature of Hard Disk Drive (HDD) technology will always hold it back when compared to a purely electronic storage devices such as a stick of RAM or a Solid State Drive (SSD). The thing is, our reliance on hard drives has if anything increased over the years, while the technology they are based on has changed little.

Modern software requires ever-increasing amounts of disk space and free memory, leading to constant hard drive access both to retrieve data from the program directory and to store data in the ‘virtual memory’ space that Windows puts aside on the hard drive.

Hard drives are faster in terms of transferring data than they used to be, mainly do to increases in the speed of the interface (the IDE and Serial ATA controllers) between the drive and the rest of the computer. Over the course of the last few years, the standard has gone from 33MB/s through 100MB/s and 133MB/s, and now reaches 150MB/s and 300MB/s with Serial ATA and SATA II drives.

The problem remains that the speed that the controller transfers data can’t cover up the real limitation of hard drives, the fact that due to their mechanical nature they can only retrieve and send data to the controller at a certain speed. Improvements in controller technology may make you think the drives are retrieving data faster mechanically, but they are not. Not appreciably faster any ways.

So the fact that controller technology is moving forward while the drive technology behind it is essentially static means that sooner or later, a point is going to come where there is no benefit to increasing controller speed, as the drive cannot mechanically read data fast enough to justify it.

Most IDE drives are available at speeds of 5400 and 7200 RPM, which indicates how fast the hard disk platters inside the drive are spinning. Serial ATA drives are typically paced at 7200RPM. This ultimately dictates how fast the drive can retrieve and store information.

Since the read/write heads of the drive can move back and forth along the surface of the disk platters, the faster the platter rotates, the quicker the head can reach different sections of the disk; somewhat like like a record player (but not exactly).

There are even 10,000 RPM SATA/IDE drives available, generally aimed at business applications or performance users. Using SCSI (Small Computer Systems Interface) controllers, an alternative to IDE and SATA, allows for faster transfer rates, but this hardware is considerably more expensive because it is engineered for greater usage demands in servers. These faster drives also require considerable care, as they generate a significant amount of heat, and if not properly mounted may end up damaging themselves in the long term because of this.

The fact that hard drives are limited by the speed that they can send data is not a new issue. Big Business computing has been wrestling with the storage space and cost vs. speed question since hard drives have been around, as well as problems with the reliability of the drives.

RAID Terminology Explained

Hard disks are mechanical devices with moving parts, and as such will break down eventually, compromising any data stored on them that is not backed up. One technology that was developed to deal with this pair of issues is RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks).

The idea is to use multiple hard disks in the same system to provide both increased performance (by dividing up data so multiple disks can process different parts of it at the same time) and increased reliability by writing the same information to multiple disks at once.

This technology filtered down to the enthusiast level a while ago, and has become a common feature on many motherboards, as well as an integral part of operating systems from Windows 2000 & XP professional to Vista Ultimate.

In this PCSTATS Beginners Guide, we will explore how the different implementations of RAID technology function, and how you can make your own RAID setup using a hardware RAID controller, or the software RAID function built into Windows XP Professional.

What is RAID?

RAID, or Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks, is a technology that uses multiple hard drives to increase the speed of data transfer to and from hard disk storage, and also to provide instant data backup and fault tolerance for any information you might store on a hard drive.

The hard drives are joined in an array (a single logical drive, as far as the operating system is concerned) and all disks share the data written to them in some form. There are several different implementations, or ‘levels’ of RAID, ranging from RAID 0 to RAID 53.

The common factor that all RAID levels share is the use of a hardware or software RAID controller that intercepts data intended for storage on the logical hard drive. “Logical” being the hard drive space that the operating system sees as a drive letter, C:\ for example.

This data is then either duplicated by the controller for storage on multiple drives in the array at once (‘mirroring’), or broken down into smaller chunks which are then divided between the available drives in the RAID array (’striping’). The terminology that is going to be important to understand from here on in is:

RAID array: A group of hard drives linked together as a single logical drive. Must be connected to one or more hardware RAID controllers, or be attached normally to a computer using a RAID capable operating system, such as Windows XP Professional.

Striping: A procedure in which data sent to a RAID array is broken down and portions of it written to each drive in the array. This can dramatically speed up hard drive access when the data is read back, since each drive can transfer part of the data simultaneously.

Mirroring: A procedure in which data sent to a RAID array is duplicated and written onto two or more drives at once.

By breaking down the data and sharing it amongst two or more drives, higher performance can be achieved, especially when reading data back, as each drive can transfer its portion of the required data simultaneously. Of course, striping data on two or more drives actually reduces reliability, since if a single drive in the array fails, all data is lost as each physical hard disk only contains a fragment of the data which is useless without the rest. To combat this problem, a third RAID technology is used called Parity.

Parity and Common types of RAID

In the majority of RAID implementations, a whole drive, or an area of one or more of the drives in the array is dedicated to storing parity information. Essentially, each time a bit of information (a digital 1 or 0) is written to every drive in a striped RAID array, an additional parity bit is generated and stored. The value of this bit is based on whether the total of the bits written to the striped drives is odd or even.

For example, take a three disk RAID array, in which two drives are striped together to hold data, and the third drive is dedicated to storing the parity information. Each time a bit of data is written to each of the data drives, an additional parity bit is written to the parity drive. For argument’s sake, let’s say that if the value of the two data bits is even (0 and 0 or 1 and 1) then the value of the parity bit would be 0, and if the value of the two bits is odd (0/1, 1/0) then a 1 would be written.

In this way, if one of the data drives fails, a new drive can be added and by comparing the information present on the surviving data drive with the corresponding parity information from the parity drive, the missing information can be written onto the replacement drive a bit at a time.

If any given bit from the parity drive has a value of 1, then we can see (from the values we laid out above) that the total value of the corresponding data bits must be odd. So by looking at the bit value from the surviving drive, we can determine if the value that needs to be written to the replacement drive should be a ‘1′ or a ‘0.’

RAID technology began as a method to provide additional data security to business servers, and many of the RAID levels are still almost exclusively used in the business domain, due to the cost of the required hardware. Since the lower levels of RAID are easily implemented on modern computers and need only a pair of drives and a RAID-capable drive controller (hardware) or operating system (software), RAID 0 and RAID 1 implementations have become common in the high end desktop/PC enthusiast market.

RAID 0 is used to gain additional performance from conventional drives by pairing them up, while RAID 1 provides a very simple and effective form of backup by duplicating or ‘mirroring’ all data on a second drive.

Some common Types of RAID

Most Hardware RAID controllers intended for the enthusiast or small business markets support only three levels of RAID; RAID 0, 1 and 0+1. These are the only levels of RAID that do not require the use of parity, as this feature adds greatly to the complexity and expense of the controller.

RAID 0 uses multiple hard drives to stripe data over one large logical drive. While there are physically two drives, the computer logically sees just one. The RAID 0 configuration is typically used when there are data-intensive applications because it offers the fastest data access, though no redundancy.

Generally speaking, software RAID will not support parity, limiting it to the above three levels of RAID. This is the case with Windows XP Pro.

Raid 0: Striped array without fault tolerance

RAID 0 is the most common ‘enthusiast’ implementation, and the main reason why hardware RAID controllers have found their way onto desktop motherboards from the back corridors of server rooms and IT departments. The attraction is that RAID 0 can essentially combine two hard drives into one using striping, and greatly increase the speed that the drives transfer data.

RAID 0 requires a minimum of two physical drives, but has the advantage of not requiring a parity drive or using space for parity on any of the disks in the array, allowing their full capacity to be used for data.

Of course, this has one obvious disadvantage. There is no fault tolerance. Period.

In fact, technically the reliability of the logical drive created by this form of RAID array is halved for each physical drive present, since if any drive fails, all the data is lost…

This is not as big a deal as it may sound, since modern drives generally last at least 2-5 years of constant use, and the performance gains make RAID 0 an excellent choice as the operating system and software drive for your computer. Crucial data is best backed up elsewhere however, like on a RAID 1 configuration for instance.

RAID 1 and RAID 0+1 Explained

RAID 1: Mirrored Disk Array A mirrored disk array is composed of a set of two physical hard drives, each of which contains a full copy of all data sent to the logical drive that represents the array. This has a couple of advantages; first of all, any data stored on a RAID 1 array is completely and automatically backed up, and in the event of the failure of one drive, the other can be substituted without a hitch. Secondly, data can be read from both drives simultaneously, increasing the speed of data retrieval.

Fault tolerance is the cornerstone of RAID 1. In this configuration, two identical physical drives are used, with one drive mirroring the information on the other. A RAID 1 configuration is ideal for data redundancy, though storage is more costly as only 1/2 the total drive space of both hard drives is available.

Data writes take just as long as usual however. In the event one of the drives in the array fails, a new drive can be added, the array rebuilt, and the RAID controller will duplicate the information onto the new blank drive.

The disadvantage of RAID 1 is that unlike striping, a mirrored array can use only half of its total free space for storage, since one disk is an exact duplicate of the other.

RAID 0+1 Striped array with mirroring

This RAID level combines the best features of RAID 0 and 1. It requires a minimum of four physical drives to implement, so it is not cheap. Essentially, two pairs of striped drives are mirrored together to provide fault tolerance. The mirroring provides the fault tolerance, though if any drive is lost, it must be immediately replaced and the array rebuilt, since it cannot handle the loss of more than one drive.

RAID 0+1 does retain the inherent disadvantage of mirroring, however; effective disk space is halved since two of the four drives are exact duplicates of the other pair. Many other implementations of RAID exist, nearly all sharing one common factor: The expense and complexity of the hardware controllers required to implement them.

Intended for business use, these levels of RAID use the parity system as explained above to provide varying levels of fault tolerance. RAID solutions at this level generally come as an add-in controller card or a dedicated storage rack and are intended to work hand-in-hand with hot-swappable hard drive mountings. With this setup, any failed drives can be swapped out for new ones on the fly, and the missing data quickly restored by using the parity data.

Many setups will perform this operation automatically while still maintaining close to normal operation.

Hardware or software RAID?

What is better, hardware or software RAID? Good question.

It really depends on your means and expectations. Software RAID setups through an operating system are inherently lower in performance than hardware RAID controllers, due to the lack of dedicated hardware. They also are, in the case of Windows XP Pro at least, much easier to set up and much more flexible in terms of disk use than a hardware based system.

A second factor to consider is whether you want your operating system disk to be part of the RAID array you create? A major limitation of the WinXP RAID implementation is that the operating system must be installed before a RAID array can be created. This means that if you would like to stripe your operating system disk for increased loading speed, you are out of luck unless you go with a hardware RAID controller.

So to cut it short, if you want the maximum benefit out of creating a striped drive, or need to create a RAID 1 mirror for backups, invest in a motherboard with an on board RAID controller or a PCI add-on controller card. If you want to experiment with striped drives for speed, go with the software solution provided by Windows as it is easier and cheaper.

Setting up a hardware RAID array

In the ’select volume type’ Window, select ’striped.’

Add all disks you wish to use, then decide on the amount of space on both disks you wish to use for the striped volume you are about to create. If you wish, you use only part of each disk for the stripe, leaving the rest free for other uses.

Choose a drive letter or folder to use, and the method of formatting, and you are done. The striped array will format and be ready for use.

How to set up hardware RAID:

For this section, we used a Highpoint HPT 372 ATA/133 RAID controller built into an Epox EP-8K5A2+ motherboard. The drives we used to test our RAID configuration were a pair of Seagate Barracuda ATA 5 7200RPM 120GB hard disks. We also set up a second hardware RAID configuration on a Promise 20276 ATA/133 RAID controller built into an MSI KT3 Ultra2 motherboard, attached to the same pair of 17GB drives used in the software RAID setup above. These two controllers are typical of hardware RAID solutions found on modern motherboards and add-in PCI cards.

We wanted to include instructions for both Highpoint and Promise controllers, as these two companies dominate the home desktop and enthusiast market for RAID controllers. Most RAID setup functions are standard, so if you do not have the same exact controller, these instructions should still translate well.

The following instructions assume two identical blank hard disks. It also assumes that you have correctly installed the Windows drivers for your RAID controller. We used the most recent BIOS versions for both controllers, and we recommend that you obtain these from the manufacturer’s website if you have not done so already.

Configuring Promise RAID

Note that for the purposes of hardware RAID 0 (striping) it is strongly recommended that you use two disks of the exact same model. For mirror (RAID 1) setups, this is not so essential, but the two drives should be of the same capacity.

Attach the drives to the RAID controller, one drive per channel, set as master for the best performance, and boot the computer. Note that while you can attach both drives to a single IDE port on your RAID controller, you will tend to get better performance with a pair of drives if you plug one into each port during startup, the RAID controller drive detection and setup screen will appear. With SATA hard drives, only one drive per port is supported, so this isn’t an issue.

Press or other key combination as instructed to enter RAID setup.

For Promise RAID controllers

From the main menu, press ‘1′ to enter Auto Setup. From here, you can choose either a RAID 0 or 1 configuration, referred to in this case as either ‘performance’ or ’security.’ Note the separate drive configurations in the screen shots.

Choose and accept the desired RAID type. If you select a stripe (RAID 0) array, no further configuration is necessary. Accept the change and reboot.

If you elect to setup a RAID 1 (mirror) configuration, you must then choose whether you wish to simply create a mirror array (if you have two blank disks and want them to be exact copies when adding data in the future), or create the array and then copy the contents of one disk to the other (if you have a data drive and you wish to create a mirror copy of it for redundancy).

If you elect to mirror and copy data, you will be asked to choose a source drive for the data.

BE CAREFUL. Choosing the wrong drive here can be disastrous, so ensure that you know which drive is which. Paying attention to which port you plugged each drive into should help here, as they will be labeled on the motherboard or card. Once you have created the array, reboot.

Configuring Highpoint RAID controllers

From the main menu, choose ‘create RAID’. Press ENTER on the first menu item, ‘array mode’ and choose either RAID 0 or RAID 1.

The second item, ’select disk drives’ lets you specify which drives are included in the array, and if you are using a mirror, lets you choose which drive will be the master in the array. Press ENTER to begin, then press ENTER again to select each drive.

If you are creating a mirror, the first drive you choose will be the master drive and the second will be the mirrored drive. Once you have chosen both, you will be asked whether you wish to duplicate the master drive to the mirror drive now, or simply create the mirror without copying data. Assuming you are using two blank drives, choose the latter option.

For the third item ‘block size’ accept the default value.

Press ENTER on the fourth item ’start creation process’ to create your array. Once you are back to the main menu, press ESC to exit. Your system will reboot.

Initializing and installing (both controllers)

Once Windows loads back up, go to the disk management window. You should be prompted to initialize a new disk. You must do this before Windows XP can access your RAID array. Once you have initialized it, you can right click on the new disk in the disk management lower pane to create a new volume on it and format it in the normal way. You can now use your new RAID volume just like any other drive on your system. As far as windows is concerned, the two disks in your array are one.

Using a hardware RAID array as your system drive

Unlike software RAID arrays, it is actually possible to install Windows or other operating systems onto a hardware array. In the case of Windows, this requires that you have the necessary drivers for your RAID controller on a floppy disk. All hardware controllers should come with this disk; it’s the only time you will ever see a driver on a floppy disk these days!

Note that you must have already set up your RAID array through the controller before you attempt to install Windows. Right at the start of the automatic install process for Windows 2000 or XP, as soon as the blue screen appears, you will see a prompt at the bottom of the screen asking you to “Press F6 if you need to install a third party SCSI or RAID driver…”Press F6. Nothing will visibly happen, but after the installation files are copied from the CD, you will see an extra screen for the loading of storage device drivers.

Press ‘S’ to ’specify an additional device.’ You will be prompted to “Please insert the disk labeled Manufacturer-supplied hardware support disk into Drive A:”

Do so and hit enter. After reading the disk, the correct driver for your controller should be shown on screen. Select it and press enter, then enter again to confirm the choice. Windows will then continue to install as normal. And I bet you thought it would be difficult didn’t you? Next up, tests to show you just what RAID can do in the performance corner.

RAID Test

HD Tach is a physical performance hard drive test for Windows 95/98/ME and Windows NT/2000. In Windows 9X/ME it uses a special kernel mode VXD to get maximum accuracy by bypassing the file system.

A similar mechanism is used in Windows NT/2000/XP. HD Tach reads from areas all over the hard drive and reports an average speed.

It also logs the read speeds to a text file that you can load into a spreadsheet and graph to visually read the results of the test.

It can only ’see’ hardware RAID arrays and not Windows created software RAID arrays.

RAID Test conclusions:

Both hardware and software RAID 0 should offer a significant increase in overall hard disk performance to any system. The tradeoff between the two is in expense (if your system does not have a hardware RAID controller built in) vs. the slightly increased load on the CPU that software RAID imposes.

Not a huge difference, but it’s there. Overall though, either implementation will serve you well.

source: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=830&page=1

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