Posts Tagged ‘Windows 7’
Windows 7 features like ISO image burning, Windows Search, and the great new Windows 7 Calculator are a big part of the new OS. Here’s how you can get them–or features just as good–on your current Vista or XP system.
Vista received well-deserved criticism for bringing few noteworthy new features in its train when it arrived to take over from Windows XP. In contrast, Windows 7 offers plenty of new stuff to like. Fortunately, you can add many of these features to your Vista or XP machine by using downloads and Web services.
Media Streaming
What it is: Windows Vista can already stream music, videos, and other content between networked PCs in your house, but Windows 7 goes a step farther: It makes your media available over the Internet. By taking advantage of that option, you can watch a recorded TV show at a friend’s house, say, or stream your mammoth music library to your storage-strapped netbook.
How to get it: The new OS’s media-sharing system has at least one major drawback: It requires Windows 7 to be running at both ends. Third-party alternatives, on the other hand, usually have no problem with different versions of Windows–or even with different platforms (Mac and Linux). Simplify Media, for example, can stream music files saved in various formats from your desktop music library (or from any friends whom you care to invite) to any other PC. An associated iPhone app (Simplify Music 2.0) handles streaming on the run. Both the software and the service are free.
Another possibility is Orb, which streams music, videos, photos, and–if your PC has a TV tuner–live or recorded TV shows. Using Orb can even help you share documents.
ISO Burning
What it is: An ISO image is a single file that contains the archived contents of a CD or DVD. Windows 7 enables you to burn ISO images to optical media, so you can crank out your own bootable discs. (Microsoft distributed the Windows 7 Release Candidate as an ISO file, which users had to burn to a DVD for installation on their PCs. Ironically, anyone working on a Windows XP or Vista system needed to use third-party software to handle the job.)
How to get it: Several free utilities can burn ISO images from Windows XP or Vista PCs (and with more options than you’ll get in Windows 7). I’m partial to ISO Recorder, but you may also want to try Active ISO Burner orIsoBuster.
Improved Windows Paint
What it is: Windows’ ancient, bare-bones graphics program, Paint, finally gets a thorough remodeling in Windows 7, complete with a jazzy new Ribbon interface (very similar to the one that people either love or hate in Office 2007), additional brush and shape choices, and various small but meaningful tweaks.
How to get it: Though you can’t obtain Windows 7 Paint in Vista or XP, several similar Vista- and XP-compatible programs are even better. Regular PC World readers have seen us talk frequently of the open-source GIMPand the freeware Paint.Net, two Photoshop-caliber image editors. Either of these apps can run circles around Win 7′s Paint, and neither will cost you a dime.
Is Windows 7 necessary? Yes, because some of its improved features simply aren’t available for Vista or XP. Here are five reasons you’ll eventually want to step up to Windows 7.
Other parts of this story package are dedicated to explaining how to replicate Windows 7 features on a Vista or XP machine–and we offer so many suggestions that you may be starting to think that perhaps there’s no compelling reason to upgrade to Windows 7 after all. If so, you should think again. Though Vista and XP users can enjoy some of the new operating system’s goodies, either directly or by proxy, various highly desirable features are available only in the genuine article. Here are five that will require you to roll a 7.
Device Stage: Whereas Vista barely seems to recognize the presence of cameras, phones, printers, and other external devices, Windows 7′s Device Stage treats them like royalty. The operating system devotes a slick-looking status window to each device, so you can browse files, manage media, and perform other device-specific tasks.
HomeGroup: At long last, Microsoft promises to take the pain and frustration out of home networking for users of its operating system. Set up a HomeGroup, and then add PCs and other devices–and without further ado you can share files, printers, and the like. Why did it take seven versions of Windows to get this right?
Jump Lists: Like souped-up Recent Documents menus, Jump Lists provide quick access to application-specific documents and/or tasks. For example, you can right-click the Internet Explorer taskbar icon and choose from a list of frequently visited Web sites or from a list of available tasks (such as New Tab and InPrivate). Once you get started using Jump Lists, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without them.
Libraries: Most of us have documents, music, pictures, and video scattered across multiple folders on our PCs. Libraries are special folders in Windows 7 that catalog these items under a single roof, regardless of where you actually store them on your hard drive. And best of all, Libraries are easy to share within your HomeGroup.
One-click Wi-Fi:Unlike Windows Vista, Windows 7 makes choosing a wireless network to connect to simple and convenient: Click the system-tray icon, and choose from the resulting list of available hotspots. Granted, you can find third-party connection managers for Vista, but nothing this streamlined and unobtrusive.
Some PC vendors and sellers will begin a coupon program on June 26 to entitle people who buy premium versions ofMicrosoft Windows Vista to upgrade to the new Windows 7 operating systemwhen it arrives later this year, but the upgrade offers may not be free. Offers will vary by vendor and retailer.
Three Taiwanese PC makers plan to provide a coupon for a free Windows 7 upgrade to anyone who buys a new desktop or laptop PC loaded with Vista Home Premium, Vista Ultimate or Vista Business between June 26 and the time Windows 7 launches globally on Oct. 22, according to executives from the companies. They requested not to be named in this story for fear of harming their business relationship with Microsoft, because the software giant has not yet announced the timing of its Windows Upgrade Option (WUO) program.
PC vendors will have to pay between US$9 and US$15 per PC to include an upgrade coupon with a new computer, said an executive at one Taiwanese PC maker. People will use information on the coupon to download a copy of Windows 7 from a Microsoft Web site once the software is on sale, he said, and Microsoft will also send the holder a copy of the operating system on a disc.
Another executive said the upgrade coupons will be good from June 26 through Jan. 31, 2010 and are meant to encourage people to buy new PCs ahead of the Oct. 22 launch date for Windows 7.
PC makers fear consumers and businesses may put off buying a new desktop or laptop until Windows 7 formally launches in October, causing a downturn for PC sales this summer. The upgrade program is aimed at keeping PC sales steady over the time.
Microsoft has not announced a date for when its Windows Upgrade Option program will begin, said Amelia Agrawal, director of public relations at Microsoft Asia Pacific, in Singapore. However, she pointed out that the upgrade offers will vary by PC manufacturer and retailer.
A Taiwanese executive also said he feared the upgrade program will hurt sales of netbooks because they come with Windows XP instead of Vista. Netbooks are among the hottest sellers this year for PC makers due to their small size, long battery life and low-cost. But XP users will not be offered an upgrade coupon.
Information from the Taiwanese executives matched most of the information in a memo from U.S. electronics retailer Best Buy, leaked last week.
Several companies in Taiwan plan to offer Windows 7 upgrade programs, including Acer, Asustek Computer, Gigabyte Technology, Micro-Star International (MSI), and Shuttle.
Hewlett-Packard will participate in the Windows Upgrade Option program but won’t disclose details until Microsoft formally announces the start date, said Ann Finnie, public relations manager in HP’s personal systems group, in an e-mail.
Chinese PC maker Tsinghua Tongfang will not offer upgrade coupons since few of its machines offer eligible versions of Windows Vista, a company representative said. She said she did not know the launch date of the program.
Microsoft will limit sales of some editions of Windows 7 to systems with screens no larger than 10.2 inches running a low-powered single-core processor running no faster than 2GHz, TechARP.com said last week.
TechARP.com, a Malaysian site that has leaked information provided to computer makers by Microsoft in the past, reported that the company will restrict Windows 7 Starter, Windows 7 Starter for Small Notebook PC and Windows 7 Basic for Small Notebook PC to configurations that strictly define the netbook category.
Although Microsoft has detailed six Windows 7 versions it will ship later this year, including the entry-level Windows 7 Starter, it has said nothing about any edition dubbed as being for a “Small Notebook PC.” However, company executives at times have talked about a special Windows 7 SKU for netbooks.
According to TechARP, Microsoft will sell the three editions only to OEMs for use on netbooks that have a 10.2-in. or smaller screen, no more than 1GB of memory, a hard disk drive of 250GB or less (or a solid-state drive no larger than 64GB) and a single-core processor no faster than 2GHz.
The processor must also be a power miser. To qualify for one of the Windows 7 editions, netbooks must use “single core processors that do not exceed 2 GHz frequency, and have a CPU thermal design power that is less than or equal to 15W, not including the graphics and chipset,” TechARP said.
The requirements are similar to those Microsoft imposed on computer makers last year when it decided to extend Windows XP Home licensing to netbooks, which were called “ultra-low-cost PCs” (ULCPCs). At the time, Microsoft allowed larger screens — up to 12.1 inches — limited graphics to DirectX 9 or less, and didn’t specify the power rating of the processor.
Microsoft will ship Windows 7 later this year, but it has not set prices or a launch date.
Good news, netbook users: There’s a reasonably easy way to install the Windows 7 Release Candidate, even if you don’t have an external DVD drive.
As you may recall from yesterday, Windows 7 gets downloaded as an ISO file and then extracted to a DVD for installation. But netbooks lack DVD drives, meaning you need to find a workaround.
My preferred method is installing Windows 7 from an external hard drive. You need one with about 5GB of free space. The process, which takes a little less than an hour, goes like this:
1. Download the Windows 7 Release Candidate (32-bit) from Microsoft.
2. Connect your external hard drive to your PC (not your netbook). Ideally it should be empty, as it’s going to get littered with Windows 7 installer files, but that’s not crucial. You just need to make sure it has at least 5GB of available space.
3. In Vista: Click Start, type computer management, then press Enter. In XP: Head to the Control Panel, open Administrative Tools, and then open Computer Management.
4. Click Disk Management, then find your external hard drive in the list on the right (in the upper pane). Right-click the drive and choose Mark Partition as Active. Approve whatever warnings Windows issues.
5. Now you need to extract the Windows 7 ISO file to your drive. I used the trial version of Undisker for this, but any number of utilities will do the job (including Nero, MagicISO, WinZip, etc.). If you go with Undisker, click File, Open, navigate to the folder containing your ISO, then open it. Click Image, Extract To, then navigate to the root folder of your external hard drive. Click Extract and wait a few minutes for the process to finish.
6. Safely remove your external drive, then plug it into your netbook and power up. It may be necessary to venture into the BIOS to change the boot order so that USB drives are detected first, but many netbooks let you bring up a boot menu by hitting a function key. On my Acer Aspire One, for instance, a tap of F12 during the POST screen lets me choose my desired boot drive.
7. Assuming the USB drive boots correctly, the Windows 7 installer should start right up. Follow all the prompts and you’re on your way.
I should note at this point that unless you’ve created a partition on your netbook’s hard drive, installing Windows 7 will overwrite whatever OS is currently in place. (If anyone needs any partition-creation tutelage, let me know and I’ll devote a future post to it!)
This process worked like a charm on the Aspire One, which, incidentally can now boot Windows XP, Windows 7 Release Candidate, or Xandros Presto. I feel mad with OS power.