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People are forever asking us ‘What’s new about Windows 7 Professional?’  Here’s a few of our favourite Windows 7 Professional features!

Windows 7 Professional is easier to use, more reliable, more secure and faster than Windows XP.  Windows XP is nearly a decade old, with limited support for new hardware and software.  On the other hand, Windows 7 Professional has been specifically designed to meet the growing demands of modern technology users with more sophisticated networking, mobility, entertainment, data protection, and compatibility features.  And with Windows XP Mode, you get the compatibility of Windows XP in Windows 7 Professional! Be aware though, to use XP Mode you need the right processor!

Below is a 6 step method to creating a strong, good quality, easy to remember password!  Our method is easy to remember, just think the ‘S and 5 C’s’ method!

1. Sentence – Think of a personal sentence of phrase that you find really easy to remember, e.g. I have three pet rabbits and two budgerigars.  This is known as a pass phrase.
2. Compatibility – Some systems, whether it be on the computer or online, may not allow spaces in your password.  If the system you’re using does allow for spaces use the pass phrase from step one and move to step 4.  If not then move to step3.
3. Conversion – If the system doesn’t allow for spaces convert the phrase.  For example, take all the first letters from your pass phrase to make a word, e.g. ‘I have three pet rabbits and two budgerigars’ changes to ‘ihtpratb’.
4. Complicate things – Make the password harder to guess by varying between upper and lower case letters and throw in the odd number too.  For example, your pass phrase could change from this  ‘I have three pet rabbits and two budgerigars’ to ‘I hAvE 3 pEt RaBbItS aNd 2 BuDgErIgArS’ or your converted pass phrase could change from this ‘ihtpratb’ to ‘Ih3PrA2b’.
5. Characters – Now try to replace any words, letters or numbers with symbols and alternative characters.  For example, your pass phrase could start as ‘I hAvE 3 pEt RaBbItS aNd 2 BuDgErIgArS’ and change to ‘! h@v£ 3 p£t R@BbIt$ & 2 BuDgEr!g@r$’ or your converted pass phrase could start as ‘Ih3PrA2b’ and change to ‘!h3Pr&2b’.
6. Check – Finally, check the strength of your password using the Windows Password Checker.  The stronger the better!

We came across a problem today that we have come across before, but each time forget the solution, so…time to document it!

Scenario – new machine to add to the WHS network. Shoved the connector disc in and follow it through, but after entering the password we get the message “Can’t find the windows home server” try this…and non of the suggestions work. Sound familiar?

The cause is a simple one when you think about it like we did…we have had the WHS running for a few months now, and as with all Microsoft products there have been updates both to the server and the connector software!

The software that came on the disc no longer works and therefore you have to use the stuff on the server…so do this on the machine you are trying to connect to your home server

• Start and Run
• \servernamesoftwareHome Server Connector Software
• Double click the ‘setup.exe’ file
• The connector installation process will run and you will get connected!

Easy once you know how (if you remember!)

You don’t have to have all these snazzy photo programs to print a decent photo on your PC.  Vista have a great tool which is easy to use and comes preinstalled on your machine.  Here’s how to use it…

1. To Start click on the Vista Start Orb and select Pictures
   
2. Click once on the photo you wish to print.  If you wish to print multiple photos hold down ‘CTRL’ on your keyboard whilst clicking on the photos you want to print.  Then click print at the top of the window.  (Click on the image to make it larger)
   
3. A window will then appear.  You will than have a few decisions to make…
   • First of all select your printer, paper size and print quality from the drop down.
   • You can also choose how you wish the photos to be laid out on your paper by browsing the options on the right hand side (please note, if the options aren’t there it is because the paper size you have selected has no options to choose from).
   • If you want to print more than one copy of each picture you can by changing the number in the box.
   • The ‘fit picture to frame’ stretches your photos so they fill up the entire space that you have given to each photo, but beware in some cases an edge of the photo maybe cut off by selecting this option.
   • If you click options you are taken to ‘print preferences’, colour management etc.
     (Click on the image to make it larger)

   

4. When you’re happy with all your choices click print!

Any questions?

My first impressions then of Windows 7 are very good.  It is much like Vista but it almost seems like a more intelligent operating system, if there can be such a thing.  Things that we have always wondered why we can’t make them more easy have been made easy.

There are a lot of graphic and layout changes; albeit often small they are still there.

The only problems I have encountered so far is that IE8 crashes from time to time (no change there) and also when viewing the Games folder one the start menu it tends to hesitate before loading the logos for the games.  Nothing huge and I am sure in the final release this will be fixed.  For a beta version I think it is very nearly complete!  Maybe that is why Microsoft has said that they won’t be releasing a beta 2!  So bring on the RC1 version.

For noobs this is a review of what you are likely to use and notice, for power users you will want to go a bit further…but then you will have probably downloaded Windows 7 yourselves.

If they don’t do anything stupid in the RC1 and/or final release then I will be putting this on a few machines in the office when it is released for sure!

See Also:
Windows 7 Beta – First Glance
Nice and Simple – Windows 7 Features

Today we have a few simple but very nice features of Windows 7, starting with the show desktop…where is it…it is no longer part of the QuickLaunch that people are used to but now instead it is on the far right of the taskbar where there is a small rectangle…click this and it takes you to the desktop, or alternatively hover over it and it shows you the desktop until you move away and then it takes you back to the program you were using.  Very nice touch!

Wireless Networks – In Vista I always found the connect to a network icon down by the clock a bit annoying, sometimes it would bring things straight up, other times it wouldn’t.  In Windows 7 you click it and immediately get a list of available networks along with the one you may be connected to.  From here you can easily connect to another one.  Nothing revolutionary, just something that worked made to work better!

Icons – Again this nice and simple touch is related to the task bar, the little icons that appear you install so many applications these days are now grouped in one area.  All you have to do to view them is click the arrow and a box appears with them in, see the image on the right to see what I mean.

Tile Windows – If you’re anything like me then you will often want to have two windows open at one time and be able to see some or all of them.  Commonly I use this for transferring files from one folder to another.  Arranging the windows like shown in the picture below can take time and if you are not used to using the mouse to do this it could be a fiddly process.  Now all you do is drag the windows to the left and then the right respectively and they align themselves as shown in that picture..nice and easy!

And on a similar note, if you drag a window that is not fully maximised to the top of the screen and let go…it maximises it!

Windows 7 really has been designed to make mundane tasks so much easier, it’s great!

See Also:

Windows 7 Beta – First Glance

It is almost unbelievable that Microsoft are bringing out a new version of Windows when Vista was only released two years ago…but I suppose it is only in Beta.  But we have it here to test and have been playing with it for some time.

First impressions are that it is very Vista-like!  But we are fans of Vista here so that is a good thing.  The install went very quickly and smoothly on a fairly basic Dell Optiplex 360 Intel Core 2 Duo machine.

So here is the desktop….

As you can see, it has the Vista Sidebar with the clock at the top, and the big Vista style icons.  The most noticeable change here is the taskbar at the bottom.  The quick launch icons have got bigger!  And the open applications are just the program icon which is nice.

One note about the Sidebar, this is actually no longer just a Sidebar because the gadgets that you can choose to have there can actually be positioned anywhere on the screen.

If you hover over one of the icons on the taskbar that is representing an open application you get a preview of what is open, see image below….

And then you just click on the one you want to work with.  Easy.

Also, if you right click on one of the icons on the quick launch/taskbar you get a menu specific to that application, rather then the good old standard right click menu.  So for example you might get recent documents if you right click on the word icon that is down there or shortcuts to desktop, pictures, music, videos etc if you right click on the documents folder.

The main aim here I believe is to make things more accessible for users, ways to quickly get where we want rather than having to wait for windows to load before we can get to pictures etc.

Another nice, yet simple feature I would like to bring to your attention is a change to the start menu,

You will notice that in the top picture that programs such as Word and Paint have arrows next to them, if you were to hover over the program for long enough or click the arrow and you get….yes you’ve guessed it, a list of recent documents (see  bottom image of the two above).  Now that is a feature we really like!

That’s it for the first glance, coming up soon will be some nice simple features of Windows 7 Beta!  Keep an eye out for that one.

See Also:
Windows 7 Beta

At the end of last year we mentioned that we would be writing a range of posts about Microsoft’s Windows Home Server and I thought that a good place to start would be recommending some books.

There are two that we suggest you start with, your experience with networks and servers will depend on which one will suit you best.

The first is “Windows Home Server User Guide”, this will allow you to setup the server and get client machines connected with shared files, printers and more.  If you are new to networking and/or servers then this is the book to start with.  It talks you through the basics to get you fully functioning Windows Home Server easily and relatively quick.

The second is “Windows Home Server Unleashed”, this again goes through the basics but it goes a lot further as well.  If you are familiar with networking and have some server experience then we would say this is the one to go for.  It takes you through doing a lot more than the first book….but then it is probably 4 times the size!

So there we go, that is the first step, get the book…oh and the software…if you don’t have the software then download a trial.

More Windows Home Server posts coming throughout 2009!!

We like to be on the ‘cutting edge’ when it comes to Microsoft Software..so I think we must have been one of the first to download the Windows 7 Beta when it was made available last week!

So far we haven’t done much with it other than

• Install it on a Dell Optiplex 360 with no problems, it was very quick to install and installed all the drivers automatically so that was a nice surprise!
• Downloaded and installed AVG Trial which again works so it is good to know there will be Anti-Virus protection out there as soon as Windows 7 is released!
• Connected the machine to a Windows Home Server…again a breeze!

So there have been no problems as yet. As it is a beta I do expect them but let’s see what happens.

First Impressions are that Windows 7 is very quick. It is obviously a build on Vista but there are some nice touches that make working on a computer faster and easier   We’ll keep you posted but if you have had the chance to play with it share you findings

Cheers. Graham.