Windows

Windows 8 Editions

amazon, fb, linkedIn, twitter, Windows, Windows 8 for Seniors

Apr 162012

Windows 8 is the newest version of Microsoft’s operating system. It will ship in two retail versions, a pre-installed not-for-sale-separately version, and a high-end corporate version. It appears that most users will be fine with the basic version.

For Windows 8, Microsoft cuts product lineup to two editions | ZDNet by Ed Bott

For PCs built around x86 and x64 processors, the lineup has been trimmed to two. Yes, you read that right. Windows 8 will ship in two editions:

Windows 8 is the default consumer edition, replacing Windows 7 Home Premium. It includes the ability to switch languages on the fly, a feature that was previously available only in the most expensive Enterprise/Ultimate editions.

Windows 8 Pro is a superset of Windows 8, with the addition of BitLocker encryption and support for Encrypting File System, client Hyper-V virtualization, the ability to boot from a virtual hard disk (VHD), the ability to join a Windows domain, support for group policy, and Remote Desktop host capabilities. That complete package of features is currently available only in Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise.

For Windows 8, Microsoft cuts product lineup to two editions | ZDNet

Windows 8 will come in four flavors – Liliputing

August is OS Month (Win8 in 8/2012?)

amazon, linkedIn, twitter, Windows

Aug 252011

Another Windows 8 tidbit: File management to get an overhaul | ZDNet

[August 24th], by the way, is the 16th anniversary of the launch of Windows 95, for all you granular-tidbit-loving Windows watchers…. And it’s also the 10th anniversary of the release to manufacturing of Windows XP, as my ZDNet colleague Zack Whittaker notes.

Another Windows 8 tidbit: File management to get an overhaul | ZDNet

Linux Turns 20 years Old Today | OMG! Ubuntu!

Today [8/25/2011] is a very special day for Linux, for it is precisely 20 years ago on this very day Linus Torvalds sat down at his computer to share word of his ‘hobby’ operating system to users of Minix – a UNIX Operating System – on the UseNet newsgroup ‘comp.os.minix‘.

Linux Turns 20 years Old Today | OMG! Ubuntu!

Happy 30th Birthday, IBM PC!

amazon, fb, linkedIn, twitter, Windows

Aug 122011

30 Years of PC Operating Systems | PCMag.com

A capital letter, a colon, and an arrow. That’s all you saw when you fired up the first PC’s operating system, DOS 1.0. From those humble beginnings, comes the explosion of colors and sound possible with today’s Windows 7 PCs and the multi-touch gesture input promised for its successor, Windows 8. So much of what we now take for granted was still a glimmer in operating system engineers’ eyes 30 years ago when the PC first entered the scene.

It was on August 12, 1981. Ronald Reagan was in the White House. The Soviet Union was still intact. Prince Charles and Princess Diana were on their honeymoon. But on that day, in the Waldorf Astoria ballroom in New York City, Don Estridge changed the world by announcing the spanking new IBM PC at a cost of $1,565. There were no windows. No mice. No Start Menu. The word "icon" only referred to religious paintings and webs were the sole province of spiders and chatting was only done face-to-face or over the telephone. The IBM PC was basically a typewriter with a monochrome character-based screen. It may not have looked like much, then, but it was the start of a worldwide cultural change.

30 Years of PC Operating Systems | PCMag.com

How to Find and Delete Duplicate Files in Windows With NoDupe

amazon, linkedIn, Windows

Aug 112011

If you think you may have significant duplication of files, read Ashish’s review of NoDupe.

How to Find and Delete Duplicate Files in Windows With NoDupe

What to do about a Problem Receiving Wireless Signal with a USB Adapter

amazon, fb, linkedIn, Windows

Jul 152011

Q: A reader of Windows 7 for Seniors writes that she uses a USB adapter (or dongle) to connect to a wireless network. The signal is strong for a laptop but a desktop PC shows a weaker signal.

A: Get a USB extension cable long enough to let you move the adapter around to see if you can find a stronger signal. (These cables are very useful for easy access to ports that are out of reach.) The PC may be physically interfering with reception or producing a conflicting signal. Microwaves and cordless phones also can interfere with older wireless devices. If your PC has USB ports on the other side of the box or on the monitor, try those ports, first.

If this suggestion doesn’t help, some adapters accept add-on antennas.

Upgrading through every version of Windows

amazon, linkedIn, Windows

Mar 142011

See every Windows upgrade installed in succession. The video is 10 minutes long, but I think that is worth your time. It’s quite entertaining and says a lot about Microsoft’s successful effort to keep old programs running years later. (Not everyone agrees that is a worthwhile effort.)

Andy’s Tech Experiments Blog: Chain of fools : Upgrading through every version of Windows

The whole procedure took 3 days, of which approximately 12 hours was spent doing the actual installing – the rest of the time was spent trying to obtain valid copies of windows.

Andy’s Tech Experiments Blog: Chain of fools : Upgrading through every version of Windows

Happy 25th birthday, Windows!

amazon, Windows

Nov 202010

As noted by Downloadsquad.com, Windows is 25 years old today. (I started working with computers in 1980.)

Happy 25th birthday, Windows! @ Downloadsquad.com

by Lee Mathews (RSS feed) Nov 20th 2010 at 6:30AM

25 years ago today, Microsoft released the very first version of the operating system which now powers around 90% of the personal computers in the world. Even with the sweet analog clock to the word processing might of Write (and truly useful features like running multiple applications and a shared clipboard), Windows 1.0 failed to generate much excitement.
It would take five more years — when version 3.0 launched — for Windows to become a force to be reckoned with on the desktop.

Happy 25th birthday, Windows!

How to Type Spanish Words and Accents By Changing Keyboard Layout

amazon, Windows

Oct 132010

Nice details with screenshots.

How to Type Spanish Words and Accents By Changing Keyboard Layout

So, we’ll talk about changing your keyboard layout to US – International so that you could easily type the above mentioned Spanish characters. And don’t worry this won’t “change” your keyboard. Just a minor change which is reversible.

Here are the steps for Windows 7 and Windows Vista.

How to Type Spanish Words and Accents By Changing Keyboard Layout

Internet Explorer 9: Microsoft’s latest Web browser (beta) [updated 9/23/10]

amazon, beghtml, Windows

Sep 232010

[originally posted Thu 09/16/10; updated 9/23/10]

IE9 is out in beta and should be out in general by the end of the year. I’ve run it a very short time. So far, I’m underwhelmed. (As I am by Google Chrome, although Chrome has been buggy for me.) I’m wed to Firefox because of the Add-ons and Greasemonkey scripts. Some of them are just too useful to give up. (Scripts, especially, because they place fewer demands on the system and they are often hackable.)

The obvious innovation in IE9 is placing the tabs to the right of the address bar – I’ve never seen that. This gives you an extra vertical line of space (as does dropping the status bar, which I prefer to see). However, that also leaves less room for legible tabs. (I’m surprised Microsoft didn’t make this Taskbar-like with icons only.)

[update 9/23/10]

Sebastian Anthony addresses one of my first concerns: the space available for tabs. On the one hand, I should have guessed this address bar is resizable. On the other hand, such hidden features vex most users. (Still, I should have tried.)

This is why you should use Internet Explorer 9

Moving on (I’ve calmed down now), the unified tab-and-address bar area, which has received a lot of flak for being too small for power-users, is resizable! You can simply make the address bar narrower, leaving more space for tabs. More space is also dedicated to tabs on wider displays: screen widths over 1280 pixels (i.e. every power-user) have two thirds of that space reserved for tabs — it’s only on smaller screens that the address bar occupies half the width (and it’s still resizable!)

This is why you should use Internet Explorer 9

[/end update]

Start with this short overview, but note some of these features are common to other browsers and there is no mention nere of what Ed Bott considers the killer feature.

Five things average users will love about Internet Explorer 9

Now that the initial hands-on reports are out and the beta download for Internet Explorer 9 is publicly available, IE loyalists (and those who simply didn’t realize there were other browsers) can finally get a taste of competitive, fast, modern browser. IE9 has a lot of great features which more savvy users know about, understand, and love — like solid HTML5, faster JavaScript engine, and hardware acceleration — but there’s also a lot for the Average Joe to love, too!

Five things average users will love about Internet Explorer 9

In the next article, the How-To-Geek does its usual thorough job with lots of screenshots, ending with a link to the beta. (Big download.)

Internet Explorer 9 Screenshot Tour: It’s Got a Completely New Interface – How-To Geek

Today Microsoft finally released the newest version of Internet Explorer, complete with hardware acceleration, web standards support, and a completely redesigned interface focused on using web sites as applications. Join us for a tour of the features in Internet Explorer 9.

Internet Explorer 9 Screenshot Tour: It’s Got a Completely New Interface – How-To Geek

Ed Bott has a very thorough consideration.

Internet Explorer 9 beta review: Microsoft reinvents the browser | ZDNet

I’ve been using the IE9 beta extensively on multiple PCs, including my primary desktop and notebook computers. Based on that experience, I have some preliminary answers to the questions you’re asking: Is it fast enough? Is it compatible enough? Is it cool enough to win back former IE users who have switched to other browsers, first to Firefox and more recently to Google Chrome? And will this shiny new browser be able to rehabilitate the tarnished Internet Explorer brand?

Internet Explorer 9 beta review: Microsoft reinvents the browser | ZDNet

Pinned taskbar icons are cool. (Not sure yet about sites – site groups, yes!) Jumplists are THE killer feature of Windows 7. (Right-click a taskbar icon or look for fly-out menus on the Start menu.) Smart jumplists improve any application, including IE9. Customizable jumplists would be great. (Yes, pinning to jumplists is great, but we could do more.)

If you decide to uninstall the beta, see Revert Back to IE 8 from Internet Explorer 9 Beta – How-To Geek

Revert Back to IE 8 from Internet Explorer 9 Beta – How-To Geek

Web, Windows

Sep 232010

I’ve seen reports that IE9 interferes with Windows Live Writer and other applications.

Revert Back to IE 8 from Internet Explorer 9 Beta – How-To Geek

If you’ve been trying out the public beta of Internet Explorer 9, you might want to revert back to IE 8 for some reason. Here we look at how to uninstall IE 9 and get IE 8 back.

Revert Back to IE 8 from Internet Explorer 9 Beta – How-To Geek

Long Ago, Win95 was exciting

amazon, Windows

Aug 242010

Here’s a hat tip to Lee Mathews at downloadsquad for honoring the anniversary of the release of Windows 95. I remember that people stood in line at Egghead (long gone) at midnight, here in Albuquerque, for the first copies sold. I happened to pass a huge display at WalMart the next day and picked it up. Win95 was wonderful and changed the game in so many ways. In fact, I wrote a piece on what was new and presented a demo to about 200 people at a local event soon after.

In many ways, Vista should have inspired as much excitement. Vista’s failure was confounding. Win7 is a modest improvement over Vista, which was a huge improvement over XP, which was no big improvement over Win95. Hey, but I was the only person on the planet who liked WinME. (Even I didn’t like Microsoft Bob.)

Happy 15th, Windows 95!

by Lee Mathews (RSS feed) Aug 24th 2010 at 12:00PM

Today marks an important date in Windows history: the release of Windows 95.

Happy 15th, Windows 95!

Fit or Fill Frame?

amazon, Digital Photography, Windows

Jul 252010

I don’t print photos very often. I’m happy keeping them digital. Still, a cheap color inkjet produces some great prints when you want them.

Windows 7 has a built-in Print Pictures function that opens a dialog box full of options. One option in particular gives me pause: [x] Fit picture to frame. Fit – as in make it fit? As in: if the photo is too big for the frame (print area), squeeze it to make it fit? Well, no. See these two examples.

In the first figure, the Fit option is checked, as it is by default. The photo fills the available print space. Only the birds on the left and right hint at a problem.

The second figure shows the full picture because Fit is unchecked. In order to fit the true width of the picture, some print space is left blank above and below.

One might argue the problem is the cropping of this photo, but it is cropped just the way I want it and I think that cropping works particularly well onscreen. And what of panoramas? To me, the problem is the word “fit.”

My advice: When cropping, keep printing in mind if you intend to print the cropped photo. When printing, preview each print with and without this option checked – it makes little difference for photos whose aspect ratio (height to width) is close to the aspect ratio of the print area, but the difference may be significant.

PS: This isn’t just a problem with printing cropped photos. Most film had an aspect ratio of 3:2 (making a 6×4 print). Digital cameras picked up TV’s pre-digital aspect ratio 4:3. Some cameras shoot the HD (from movie) ratio of 16:9. So, getting a photo to look great on a computer screen, on TV, in a digital frame, and in print is, well, a challenge.

How to Upgrade Your Netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium – from the How-To Geek (No, not me! I’m a nerd.)

amazon, Win7 Basics, Windows, Windows 7 for Seniors

Apr 152010

How to Upgrade Your Netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium – How-To Geek

Would you like more features and flash in Windows on your netbook? Here’s how you can easily upgrade your netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium the easy way.

Most new netbooks today ship with Windows 7 Starter, which is the cheapest edition of Windows 7. It is fine for many computing tasks, and will run all your favorite programs great, but it lacks many customization, multimedia, and business features found in higher editions. Here we’ll show you how you can quickly upgrade your netbook to more full-featured edition of Windows 7 using Windows Anytime Upgrade. Also, if you want to upgrade your laptop or desktop to another edition of Windows 7, say Professional, you can follow these same steps to upgrade it, too.

Please note: This is only for computers already running Windows 7. If your netbook is running XP or Vista, you will have to run a traditional upgrade to install Windows 7.

How to Upgrade Your Netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium – How-To Geek

Note that you can Upgrade your netbook to Windows Home 7 Premium for $50 starting 4/4/10 through July 3, 2010.

FixWin Fixes Windows (hence, the name)

Windows, Windows 7 for Seniors

Apr 152010

FixWin screen-shots showing list of Windows fixes | The Windows Club

FixWin is a 529 KB freeware portable application to repair & fix common Windows annoyances & issues. Here are the screen-shots, which also shows the list of fixes for Windows 7 & Vista issues & annoyances.

FixWin screen-shots showing list of Windows fixes | The Windows Club

For XP problems:

Leelu Soft: XP Quick Fix Plus

XP Quick Fix Plus with 40 common Windows XP problems fixes, only 0.58mb, portable, small and fast

Leelu Soft: XP Quick Fix Plus

Microsoft’s official alternative is the Microsoft Fix It Center:

Fix Windows Computer Problems with Microsoft Fix it Center — the How-to-Geek

Fixing computer problems can often be difficult, but Microsoft is aiming to make it as simple as a couple clicks with. Here’s how you can easily fix computer problems with Microsoft’s new Fix it Center Beta.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/15230/fix-windows-computer-problems-with-microsoft-fix-it-center/

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