• Compact and easy to use
• Windows automation software
• Record all mouse and keyboard events
• Convenient settings interface
• Using recorded files anytime, anywhere

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.

Upgrade Advisor

First, let’s make sure your netbook can support the extra features, such as Aero Glass, in Windows 7 Home Premium.  Most modern netbooks that ship with Windows 7 Starter can run the advanced features in Windows 7 Home Premium, but let’s check just in case.  Download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor (link below), and install as normal.

Once it’s installed, run it and click Start Check.

Make sure you’re connected to the internet before you run the check, or otherwise you may see this error message.  If you see it, click Ok and then connect to the internet and start the check again.

It will now scan all of your programs and hardware to make sure they’re compatible with Windows 7.  Since you’re already running Windows 7 Starter, it will also tell you if your computer will support the features in other editions of Windows 7.

After a few moments, the Upgrade Advisor will show you want it found.  Here we see that our netbook, a Samsung N150, can be upgraded to Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate. We also see that we had one issue, but this was because a driver we had installed was not recognized.  Click “See all system requirements” to see what your netbook can do with the new edition.

This shows you which of the requirements, including support for Windows Aero, your netbook meets.  Here our netbook supports Aero, so we’re ready to go upgrade.

For more, check out our article on how to make sure your computer can run Windows 7 with Upgrade Advisor.

Upgrade with Anytime Upgrade

Now, we’re ready to upgrade our netbook to Windows 7 Home Premium.  Enter “Anytime Upgrade” in the Start menu search,and select Windows Anytime Upgrade.

Windows Anytime Upgrade lets you upgrade using product key you already have or one you purchase during the upgrade process.  And, it installs without any downloads or Windows disks, so it works great even for netbooks without DVD drives.

Anytime Upgrades are cheaper than a standard upgrade, and for a limited time, select retailers in the US are offering Anytime Upgrades to Windows 7 Home Premium for only $49.99 if purchased with a new netbook.  If you already have a netbook running Windows 7 Starter, you can either purchase an Anytime Upgrade package at a retail store or purchase a key online during the upgrade process for $79.95.  Or, if you have a standard Windows 7 product key (full or upgrade), you can use it in Anytime upgrade.  This is especially nice if you can purchase Windows 7 cheaper through your school, university, or office.

Purchase an upgrade online

To purchase an upgrade online, click “Go online to choose the edition of Windows 7 that’s best for you”.

Here you can see a comparison of the features of each edition of Windows 7.  Note that you can upgrade to either Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate.  We chose home Premium because it has most of the features that home users want, including Media Center and Aero Glass effects.  Also note that the price of each upgrade is cheaper than the respective upgrade from Windows XP or Vista.  Click buy under the edition you want.

Enter your billing information, then your payment information.  Once you confirm your purchase, you will directly be taken to the Upgrade screen.  Make sure to save your receipt, as you will need the product key if you ever need to reinstall Windows on your computer.

Upgrade with an existing product key

If you purchased an Anytime Upgrade kit from a retailer, or already have a Full or Upgrade key for another edition of Windows 7, choose “Enter an upgrade key”.

Enter your product key, and click Next.  If you purchased an Anytime Upgrade kit, the product key will be located on the inside of the case on a yellow sticker.

The key will be verified as a valid key, and Anytime Upgrade will automatically choose the correct edition of Windows 7 based on your product key.  Click Next when this is finished.

Continuing the Upgrade process

Whether you entered a key or purchased a key online, the process is the same from here on.  Click “I accept” to accept the license agreement.

Now, you’re ready to install your upgrade.  Make sure to save all open files and close any programs, and then click Upgrade.

The upgrade only takes about 10 minutes in our experience but your mileage may vary.  Any available Microsoft updates, including ones for Office, Security Essentials, and other products, will be installed before the upgrade takes place.

After a couple minutes, your computer will automatically reboot and finish the installation.  It will then reboot once more, and your computer will be ready to use!  Welcome to your new edition of Windows 7!

Here’s a before and after shot of our desktop.  When you do an Anytime Upgrade, all of your programs, files, and settings will be just as they were before you upgraded.  The only change we noticed was that our pinned taskbar icons were slightly rearranged to the default order of Internet Explorer, Explorer, and Media Player.  Here’s a shot of our desktop before the upgrade.  Notice that all of our pinned programs and desktop icons are still there, as well as our taskbar customization (we are using small icons on the taskbar instead of the default large icons).

Before, with the Windows 7 Starter background and the Aero Basic theme:

And after, with Aero Glass and the more colorful default Windows 7 background.

All of the features of Windows 7 Home Premium are now ready to use.  The Aero theme was activate by default, but you can now customize your netbook theme, background, and more with the Personalization pane.  To open it, right-click on your desktop and select Personalize.

You can also now use Windows Media Center, and can play-back DVD movies using an external drive.

One of our favorite tools, the Snipping Tool, is also now available for easy screenshots and clips.

Activating you new edition of Windows 7

You will still need to activate your new edition of Windows 7.  To do this right away, open the start menu, right-click on Computer, and select Properties.

Scroll to the bottom, and click “Activate Windows Now”.

Make sure you’re connected to the internet, and then select “Activate Windows online now”.

Activation may take a few minutes, depending on your internet connection speed.

When it is done, the Activation wizard will let you know that Windows is activated and genuine.  Your upgrade is all finished!

Conclusion

Windows Anytime Upgrade makes it easy, and somewhat cheaper, to upgrade to another edition of Windows 7.  It’s useful for desktop and laptop owners who want to upgrade to Professional or Ultimate, but many more netbook owners will want to upgrade from Starter to Home Premium or another edition.

Links

Download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

Windows Team Blog:

Anytime Upgrade Special with new PC purchase

Information

This will show you how to change the network name and icon in the Network and Sharing Center.

1. Click or right click on the Network icon in the notification area, then click on Open Network and Sharing Center. (See screenshot below)

OR

2. Open the Control Panel (All items view), and click on the Network and Sharing Center icon.


3. Click on the network icon. (See screenshot below)

4. This will open the Set Network Properties window. (See screenshot below)

5. To Change the Network Name -

A) In the Network name field, type the new name you want for your network. (See screenshot above)

6. To Change the Network Icon -

A) Click on the Change button. (See screenshot below step 4)

B) Select a icon, or browse to the location of a icon, for your network and click on OK.

7. Click on OK to apply your settings. (See screenshot below)

8. The Network name and/or icon are now changed. (See screenshot below)

Positioned as companions to either desktop or laptop computers, netbooks are small, light, convenient devices that allow for most of the basic computing functions found in larger systems. One of the most important decisions you will have to make when buying a netbook is whether to buy Windows XP or Windows 7 Starter for your operating system.

Windows XP had a long and fruitful life as the operating system of choice for almost a decade. Although it would seem that with the release of Windows Vista and 7, XP would fade from memory, it remains an excellent choice for netbooks and other applications where a fast, small-footprint O/S is needed.

Alternatively, you could opt for Microsoft’s Windows 7 Starter, essentially a stripped down version of Windows 7 Home Premium specially designed for netbooks and mini laptops. If you are confused about which operating system to choose, read on to learn the pros and cons of using Windows XP or Windows 7 Starter as your netbook’s O/S.

Windows XP Pros

Full Operating System – If you want a full O/S that doesn’t seem to be a watered down solution, XP is the better choice. Without any programs running, XP takes up only about 250MB of RAM vs about 1200MB with Windows 7 Home Premium. If hardware is a concern, XP just may make netbooks a possibility,

Stability – There’s no denying that Windows XP is a stable computing platform. Well, it should be after a decade of service packs, patches, and upgrades. If you are comfortable with XP as a desktop or laptop O/S, it will likely serve you well on a netbook.

Support – Going back to the 10 years of XP thing, no other operating has more support available on the web. If you have a problem, a quick Google search returns thousands of pages ready to help you with free tech support. No such luck for Windows 7 Starter given that it is new and not many people run it as an O/S.

Windows XP Cons

Old – As stated above, Windows XP is about 10 years old even though it enjoyed a long life. Still, if you use your netbook for 3 years, your O/S of choice will be 13 years old when you finally junk it. That fact doesn’t sit well with some netbook buyers.

Limited Future Support – No matter how long its life, even XP’s support will be limited in the future. Although you are covered for old issues, good luck finding support for new ones, especially those that include new hardware.

No 64-bit Option – Although there was a 64-bit edition of Windows XP (x64 edition), no current manufacturer offers it as an O/S for netbooks. Although Windows 7 Starter is also only available as a 32-bit O/S, at least with XP there was a possibility. As the software industry moves on to produce 64-bit versions of its software, you may be left behind no matter which of the two operating systems you choose.

Windows 7 Starter Pros

Latest Operating System – Although a stripped down version, at least Windows 7 Starter is based on the most current O/S from Microsoft. At the very least, you can expect the same kind of support you would expect from a current desktop or laptop O/S.

Streamlined – Although technically stripped down, some people prefer to consider Windows 7 Starter as streamlined for netbooks. Rather than install Home Premium and cut out everything unnecessary in order to deliver a pleasant computing experience, Microsoft has already done the work for you – it’s called Windows 7 Starter.

Anytime Upgrade Available – If you do decide to take the plunge and run Windows 7 Home Premium on your netbook, you can use Windows Anytime Upgrade to make the switch for about $80. At least this way you have the option if you think the investment is worth it.

Windows 7 Starter Cons

Limited Functionality – Let’s be honest, Windows 7 Starter really is a stripped down version of its bigger brothers Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate Edition. Although one thing the software giant got right was to allow you to run as many programs at one time as you want (well, at least as many as your RAM and processor can handle). Previous versions of Starter allowed a maximum of three programs to run simultaneously.

No Aero – If you got used to the Aero Desktop in Vista and 7, you may be in for a shock when you realize that the pretty desktop you have in those operating systems isn’t available in Windows 7 Starter. Don’t look for Aero Glass or Peek in this stripped down O/S because you won’t find them.

Preinstalled Only – Windows 7 Starter is only available preinstalled on a netbook or similar device. If you choose Windows XP, you may not be able to switch to Windows 7 Starter even if you are willing to pay for it. Make your decisions now because you may not be able to change it later.

Conclusion

Although a stripped down version of the other editions of Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 7 Starter is a competent alternative when choosing an O/S for a netbook. Still, Windows XP just may have some more life left in her if you want a full-fledged operating system and want to enjoy the free support available on the web.

If you generally like the features of Windows 7 and don’t mind that it doesn’t quite look or feel like its big brothers, Windows 7 Starter may be a good choice for you. If you want the tried and true stability and usability of an O/S with a long, successful history, Windows XP may be the better choice.

Whatever you choose, think of how you intend to use your netbook and make the decision from that information rather than the list of features each choice offers.

I found a great how to article over on gHacks.net. Its a problem we all run into. You install so many apps on your c: drive that you eventually run dry of space. When that happens… everything sloooowwwwss down and becomes painful. Here’s a guide to get you out of that situation.

The move process itself is easy enough. Just move the files in Windows Explorer, or any other file manager that you may be using, to another hard drive. You can move the folder by pressing shift during the drag and drop operation (if you do not press shift you copy the files).

Most games and applications will not start anymore after they have been moved around. The solution to this is to create symbolic hard links and Windows comes with the tool to do just that. Open a command prompt as an administrator. You find the Command Prompt under Accessories in the Windows Start Menu. Right-click the command prompt and select run as administrator.

The command that we are using to create a so called directory junction is mklink. A directory junction basically tells the operating system to create a mirror in another directory that provides access to all files of the selected directory in the mirror directory again. The files and folders of the mirror directory are however actually only redirected to the destination where they are actually hosted. This essentially means that you can make the game, application or Windows believe that the files and folders are still in their right place even if they are not.

mklink /J "new folder" "folder with the files"

That’s the basic command that we will be using. The /J parameter defines the type of symbolic link that we are creating, in this case a directory junction. The new folder is the mirror folder and the folder with files the folder containing the real files.

mklink /J "C:\program files (x86)\Dragon Age\" "e:\games\Dragon Age"

This creates a directory junction so that the files and folders of e:\games\Dragon Age are accessible by the program and Windows under C:\program files (x86)\Dragon Age\ as well (where they have been initially installed to).

C:\Windows\system32>mklink /J “c:\Program Files (x86)\Dragon Age\” “c:\games\Dragon Age\”
Junction created for c:\Program Files (x86)\Dragon Age\ <<===>> c:\games\DragonAge\

The same principle can be applied to other applications or games. It is for instance possible to move some Steam games or files to another hard drive to free up space on the one Steam is installed. Mklink is available in Windows Vista and Windows 7. I’m not sure about Windows XP right now, would be nice if anyone with XP could let me know in the comments. There are programs like Junction from Sysinternals that can create junctions as well in case that is needed.

Corruption of Windows operating system is a very common issue, which often puts you in the desert of empty disk that is data loss. One of the main reasons for the corruption of Windows operating system is the damage of file system. Once the file system is damaged, Windows cannot boot and you need to repair the operating system. If you do not repair the operating system then you face data loss. Most of the guys do not repair the corrupt operating system rather bear data loss. Reason behind that is lack of the knowledge about the process of repairing the damaged operating system. Today, you acknowledge the process of repairing the corrupt operating system using Windows built in Recovery Console. However, for that you first need to install the Recovery console.

Install Recovery Console
Execute following steps to install Windows XP recovery console:

• Insert the CD of Windows XP in the CD-ROM of your computer.
• Click Start > Run.
• Type d:\i386\winnt32.exe/cmdcons. Here, d is the letter of the CD – ROM drive.
• Click the Yes button to start the installation process.
• Restart your computer.

When you restart your computer system, Microsoft Windows Recovery console appears on Windows start up.
Use Recovery Console
Follow the below mentioned steps for using Windows Recovery console:

1. Switch on your computer system.
2. Press the ‘R’ key when you see the “Welcome to Setup” screen. The Windows Recovery Console starts.
3. In case, you have multi-boot computer then select the operating system for which you want to use the Recovery console.
4. Type the administrator’s password. If no password was assigned to the admin account then simple press the ENTER key.
5. Use required commands for repairing Windows XP and getting lost data. If you do not know that which command should be executed then type help at the command prompt and you will see a list of the commands that can be used for recovering data.
6. After using the Recovery console, type exit on the command prompt to close the Recovery console and restart your computer system.

This way, you can repair the damaged operating system and recover the data stored on computer’s hard disk. However, using the Recovery Console require advance knowledge about its commands. If you do not have good knowledge about the Windows Recovery console then do not use it. Rather use Kernel for NTFS – Recover NTFS Data software, which is self-explaining and simple-to-use software designed for repairing the damaged Windows operating systems. The Recover NTFS Data software can be used to recover data lost from any of the Windows operating system, such as Windows 95, 98, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, and Windows 7.

A new feature in Windows Media Player 12, which is included with Windows 7, is being able to stream media over the web to other Windows 7 computers.  Today we will take a look at how to set it up and what you need to begin.

Note: You will need to perform this process on each computer that you want to use.

What You’ll Need

• Two computers running Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, or Ultimate. The host, or home computer that you will be streaming the media from, cannot be on a public network or part of domain.
• Windows Live ID
• UPnP or Port Forwarding enabled on your home router
• Media files added to your Windows Media Player library

Windows Live ID

Sign up online for a Windows Live ID if you do not already have one. See the link below for a link to Windows Live.

Configuring the Windows 7 Computers

Open Windows Media Player and go to the library section. Click on Stream and then “Allow Internet access to home media.”

The Internet Home Media Access pop up window will prompt you to link your Windows Live ID to a user account. Click “Link an online ID.”

If you haven’t already installed the Windows Live ID Sign-In Assistant, you will be taken to Microsoft’s website and prompted to download it.

Once you have completed the Windows Live download assistant install, you will see Windows Live ID online provider appear in the “Link Online IDs” window. Click on “Link Online ID.”

Next, you’ll be prompted for a Windows Live ID and password. Enter your Windows Live ID and password and click “Sign In.”

A pop up window will notify you that you have successfully allowed Internet access to home media.

Now, you will have to repeat the exact same configuration on the 2nd Windows 7 computer. Once you have completed the same configuration on your 2nd computer, you might also need to configure your home router for port forwarding.

If your router supports UPnP, you may not need to manually forward any ports on your router. So, this would be a good time to test your connection. Go to a nearby hotspot, or perhaps a neighbor’s house, and test to see if you can stream your media. If not, you’ll need to manually forward the ports. You can always choose to forward the ports anyway, just in case.

Note: We tested on a Linksys WRT54GL router, which supports UPnP, and found we still needed to manually forward the ports.

Finding the ports to forward on the router

Open Windows Media Player and make sure you are in Library view. Click on “Stream” on the top menu, and select “Allow Internet access to home media.”

On the “Internet Home Media Access” window, click on “Diagnose connections.”

The “Internet Streaming Diagnostic Tool” will pop up. Click on “Port forwarding information” near the bottom.

On the “Port Forwarding Information” window you will find both the Internal and External Port numbers you will need to forward on your router. The Internal port number should always be 10245. The external number will be different depending on your computer. Microsoft also recommends forwarding port 443.

Configuring the Router

Next, you’ll need to configure Port Forwarding on your home router. We will show you the steps for a Linksys WRT54GL router, however, the steps for port forwarding will vary from router to router.

On the Linksys configuration page, click on the Administration Tab along the top, click the “Applications & Gaming Tab, and then the “Port Range Forward” tab below it.

Under “Application,” type in a name. It can be any name you choose. In both the “Start” and “End” boxes, type the port number. Enter the IP address of your home computer in the IP address column. Click the check box under “Enable.” Do this for both the internal and external port numbers and port 443. When finished, click the “Save Settings” button.

Note: It’s highly recommended that you configure your home computer with a static IP address

When you’re ready to play your media over the Internet, open up Windows Media Player and look for your host computer and username listed under “Other Libraries.” Click on it expand the list to see your media libraries. Choose a library and a file to play.

Now you can enjoy your streaming media over the Internet.

Conclusion

We found media streaming over the Internet to work fairly well. However, we did see a loss of quality with streaming video. Also, Recorded TV .wtv and dvr-ms files did not play at all.

via HowToGeek

One of the neatest new features in Windows 7 Professional and above is XP Mode, but not all machines are capable of running it. Today we show you how to use VMware to run XP Mode on machines without Hardware Virtualization.

How does this work?

Even if your computer doesn’t have hardware virtualization, you can still install XP Mode but just cannot run it as you can’t run Virtual PC.  Enter VMware Player.  This free program lets you create and run virtual machines, whether or not you have hardware virtualization.  And, it can directly import XP Mode so you can use that copy of XP for free.  A couple features are different, but it’s still a great replacement since you otherwise couldn’t use it at all.

Note: XP Mode does not work on Home Versions of Windows 7 and you’ll need VMware Player 3.0

Getting Started

First, download and install XP Mode (link below). There is no need to download Virtual PC if your computer cannot run it, so just download the XP Mode from the link on the left.

Install XP mode; just follow the default prompts as usual.

Now, download and install VMware player.  The download is free, but requires registration.

You may see some prompts about installing drivers; simply approve them.  We didn’t see them on our latest test, but have in the past.  When you are finished installing VMware Player, you will have to restart your computer.

Add XP Mode to VMware Player

Now that your computer is rebooted, run VMware Player.  We can import XP Mode by clicking File, then click “Import Windows XP Mode VM.”

VMware Player will simply start importing your XP Mode.  Converting XP mode to VMware format may take a couple minutes depending on your hardware, so just be patient.

When this is done, you should see a new virtual machine in VMware Player called XP Mode!  Click “Play Virtual Machine” to run XP Mode.

XP will run through it’s first-run setup process.

While it is loading, you may be prompted to install or update VMware Tools.  This is required to integrate XP Mode into your computer, so click Update Tools or Install Tools depending on you situation.

The tools will automatically download and install, though you may have to approve an UAC prompt.

Now you can proceed with your XP setup.  Accept the license agreement,

Choose your locale and keyboard settings

Enter a name for the virtual machine and an administrative password

And enter the correct date, time, and timezone.  It usually gets the correct time and date from your computer itself, but the time zone is often incorrect.

XP will now finalize your changes, and then reboot.

When XP Mode restarts, choose your settings for updates.

Windows may ask to search for drivers.  Simply press cancel, as VMware Tools will contain everything we need.

After a short delay, you should see your XP desktop in VMware Player!

There’s one last thing that needs to be installed – VMware Tools.  This should automatically open in XP Mode; if not, click Start, then My Computer, and finally double-click on the CD drive which should say VMware Tools.

Now, simply run the Tools installer with the Typical setup type, and reboot the XP Mode when it’s finished.

Now VMWare is setup and we’re ready to start integrating it with Windows 7.

Integrate XP Mode in VMware Player with Windows 7

The real advantage of the default XP Mode in Windows 7 is that the XP programs are fully integrated with their Windows 7 counterparts.  You can run them seamlessly with other programs, copy between them, and even open and save files to the same folders.

Let’s set this up in VMware.  Copy and paste from Windows 7 to XP Mode in VMware is activated by default.  To use your XP programs seamlessly with Windows 7, click VM on the top of the VMware window, and click “Enter Unity.”

You can easily access any program or file in XP mode through a dedicated XP Mode Start Menu.  When you hover over your Windows 7 Start button, a new button called “Windows XP Mode” will above it.  Click there to access a full start menu from XP Mode right in Windows 7.

Here is an IE 6 window from XP running side-by-side with IE 8 in Windows 7, thanks to VMware Player!

By default, the virtualized windows will have a border and the VMware logo on their edge.

To remove this logo, click VM in the VMware player window, then settings.  Click on the Options tab, and choose Unity on the left.  Now uncheck the boxes that say “Show borders” and “Show badges.”

Without having the VMWare borders and badges give everything a more authentic XP Mode look and feel.

You can even use removable devices, such as flash drives, in XP Mode in VMware Player.  Whenever you connect a new device to your computer, VMware will remind you that you can add it to XP Mode.

Simply click VM, then Removable Devices.  Select your device name, and click Connect.

Save Files in XP Mode to My Documents in Windows 7

By default, files created in XP Mode in VMware Player will be saved inside the virtual machine.  It’s more convenient if they’re saved directly to the My Documents folder in Windows 7, so let’s change this.  Click VM, then Settings.  Click the Options tab, and then choose Shared Folders on the left.  Now click the bullet for “Always enabled” and check the box for “Map as a network drive in Windows guests.”

Now click Add at the bottom of that window.  This will let us add a shared folder.

Let’s add the My Documents folder from Windows 7.  Click Browse, and then select your My Documents folder.  Click Ok, and then click Next.

Make sure the box is checked that says “Enable this share” and then click Finish.  You can now close the settings window as well.

Back in XP Mode, click Start, then right click on My Documents, and select Properties.

Click Move to find the new My Documents folder.

Find the folder we just shared from Windows 7 by clicking My Computer, then the drive that says “Shared Folders on ‘vmware-host’” or something similar.  Now select the folder we shared, Documents, and click Ok.

Click Ok in the main properties window.  It may offer to copy the files from your old My Documents folder to the new one; choose Yes to make sure you have all of your documents in Windows 7.

Now, whenever you go to save a file in XP Mode, it will automatically save in your My Documents folder on Windows 7.  You can repeat the same process for any folder you wish, such as your My Pictures and My Music folders.

Conclusion

That’s all … now you have your full XP Mode running on your computer without hardware virtualization.  Almost all the same features are there; the only thing you’re missing is the Start Menu integration, but VMware’s menu is the next best thing. In our tests using VMware worked as good or better as actual XP Mode on a machine that supports hardware virtualization. If you’re frustrated that the Windows 7 machine(s) you have don’t support XP Mode, using our VMware method works, and allows you to use it on whatever machine you want.

You might also want to check out our look at XP Mode in Windows 7 if your machine is capable of running it. To find out if your machine can run XP Mode the best tool we have used is Securable which is linked below.

Links And Article Details

Download Windows XP Mode

Download VMware Player 3

Download Securable to Test if your Machine Can Run XP Mode.

This article came from HowToGeek

Here is the official video of the new interface.

In the old days, there was  a plug in for your right click menu that was called Command Prompt Here. It simple meant that if you right-clicked inside a folder or on the desktop and chose this option, then you be at the command prompt but also in the current folder. This was a real time saver because you didn’t have to go hunt down CMD.EXE in the start menu.

In Windows 7, this is built right in. All you have to do is hold down the shift key before you right click and then you have it. Its a very useful thing to know if you use CMD a lot. It’s also worth noting that this opens the command prompt with administrator privileges, which is another bonus.

I had purchased a legitimate copy of Windows 7 Pro through the student offer with my student email address. I had to do a full clean install a couple of weeks ago and today it told me I MUST activate. Every time I tried, it said my key was for an upgrade and not the full version. I scoured the net and found this work around and thought I would share it with you.

You can give this easy guide a try. If it doesn’t work then head to the link at the end of this post and you will find the other two ways of doing this. But they didn’t work for me.

Here are the simple steps:

Clean Install and Activate Windows 7 with MediaBootInstall Registry Hack

1. After booting up, ensure that no Windows Updates pending task which requires a system reboot to finish installing.

   Tip: Normally, an orange-colored shield icon will be displayed next to Shutdown button in the Start Menu Power Button or at notification tray area if a restart is required.

   If reboot is required, restart the computer to allow any pending updates is installed.

2. Run Registry Editor (RegEdit).
3. Navigate to the following registry key:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\OOBE

4. In the right pane, change the value data for MediaBootInstall from 1 to 0. 

   
   

   
   

5. Open an elevated command prompt as administrator.
6. Run the command below to reset Windows 7 activation status:

   slmgr -rearm

   

7. Reboot the computer.
8. Run the Activate Windows utility (accessible from bottom section of Control Panel -> System and Security -> System, or type Activate Windows into Start Search), type in the upgrade product key and activate Windows.

Thanks goes to MyDigitalLife for their help.

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explorer.exe shell:RecycleBinFolder

%SystemRoot%\system32\imageres.dll

__________________

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Preface: This story originally appeared on Lifehacker.com

Lifehacker’s Complete Guide to Windows 7

System Requirements

• 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Buying, installing, and upgrading

• 
• Figure Out Which Windows 7 Edition Has the Features You Need: Not everybody needs Windows 7 Ultimate, but what if there’s a certain feature you must have when you grab your upgrade this Thursday? CNET breaks down each Windows 7 edition feature by feature in a handy chart.
• Prep Your PC for Windows 7: When Windows 7 drops this Thursday, you can either spend many, many hours watching a progress bar, or you can boot into a clean, speedy system with that new-OS smell. Let’s get your system set up for a proper Windows 7 upgrade.
• Get Windows 7 Home Premium for $30 With a College Email Address: If you’re a U.S. college student, or at least having a working .edu email address, you don’t have to pay $120 to upgrade Vista to Windows 7. You can get the Home Premium upgrade for just $30.
• Run Windows 7 for 120 Days Without Activation: The command line code (slmgr -rearm) that could be entered at the end of three different 30-day periods to give Vista 120 days without activation works just the same in Windows 7.

Our take on Windows 7

• Top 10 Things to Look Forward to in Windows 7: Windows 7 isn’t a dramatic overhaul of its predecessor Windows Vista, but it does fix several sore spots and add a few welcome features.
• Windows 7′s Best Underhyped Features: It’s these less sexy, but very useful features, that make me think the more I use Windows 7, the less chance I’ll ever use Vista or XP again.
• Windows 7 Versus Mac OS X Leopard: The Feature-by-Feature Showdown: Oh, I know: the Mac versus PC debate is so played out. Perhaps, but dumb commercials aside, if you’re deciding between buying a Mac or a PC in the coming months, it helps to know what you’re getting from one or the other.

New features

• Windows 7 Tells You Why You Can’t Touch That File: Windows 7 doesn’t just give you a wagging finger (and pretend-useful “Try Again” button) when you want to move or delete a file that’s in use. It actually tells you which application is using the file.
• Windows 7 Lets You Customize Your Logon Background: Expert Windows hacker Rafael Rivera finds a change in the latest build of Windows 7—you can finally customize the log-on screen natively.
• Windows 7 Transfers Your Wireless Settings Easily: To transfer the settings for yourself, head into the Network and Sharing Center, click on Manage Wireless Networks, and then in the properties for your wireless network you’ll find the link to open the wizard that will copy all your settings onto a flash drive.
• How to Burn ISOs in Windows 7: Burning that ISO to a disc is as simple as: 1. Double-click the ISO file (or right-click and select Burn disc image); 2. Click Burn.
• Play Your iPod Through Your Windows 7 PC’s Speakers: You can play an external audio device through your computer’s speakers without any extra software using a simple configuration setting.
• Windows 7 Makes UAC Less Annoying Than Vista: The biggest change in Windows 7 is the new User Account Control “slider” setting, where you can choose your own balance between annoyance and security—but behind the scenes, Microsoft reduced the amount of actions that will prompt you.
• Netflix Update Comes to Windows 7 Media Center, Looks Excellent: Starting this week, Microsoft is rolling out an upgraded Watch Instantly interface to Windows 7 Media Center for users looking to get their streaming TV and movie fix on their upgraded PCs.
• Setup File and Printer Sharing From XP to Windows 7: This guide walks you through the process of enabling network discovery, sharing your folders and printers, and accessing your shared resources from either Windows 7 or XP.
• IE8 Can Proactively Close Crashing Tabs in Windows 7: The copy of IE8 found only in (Windows 7) has a “timer” that monitors new tabs as they open. If they aren’t responsive within a relatively short amount of time, the browser will pop up and tell you this, possibly with a reason why, and ask whether you want to wait or kill the tab before it causes further problems.
• Windows 7 Lets You Finally Uninstall Internet Explorer (Kinda): … It won’t completely uninstall—only the executable is actually removed. Still, being able to finally banish IE proper from your system is a pretty good start for folks who really don’t like IE.
• Windows 7 Will Let You Uninstall Most Built-In Apps: You can turn almost every built-in application on or off, including Windows Search, Gadgets, and even Media Player.

The Taskbar

• Aero Peek: Peek supercharges Windows’ taskbar thumbnail previews, and lets you view, close, and switch between multiple windows by just hovering over the taskbar thumbnail, as well as pin programs to the taskbar permanently.
• Pin Individual Folders to the Windows 7 Taskbar: Windows 7′s taskbar lets you pin any running program to the taskbar for easy future access, but it treats folders like second-class sub-items of the Explorer icon. Create a fake “program” to pin individual folder shortcuts to your taskbar.
• Middle-Click to Close Applications from Windows 7′s Taskbar: In Windows 7, middle-clicking a taskbar button opens a new program instance. The easy solution for closing an app? Middle-click its preview window.
• Hold Shift While Dragging to Windows 7 Taskbar to Open Files: All you have to do is hold down the Shift key while dragging a file to an icon on the taskbar, and the tooltip will change to say “Open with” instead of pinning to the taskbar.
• Pin Any Item to the Windows 7 Taskbar: We already showed you how to pin specific folders, and this is just a slightly tweaked application of that method.
• Put a Recycle Bin Shortcut on the Windows 7 Taskbar: Once you are finished, you’ll have a separate recycle icon on the taskbar—useful for quick access to deleted files without having to hunt down an icon on your desktop.
• Get a Functional Recycle Bin on Windows 7′s Taskbar: TechSpot’s solution—creating a Quick Launch taskbar, removing its text and title, then bringing the desktop Recycle Bin icon into it—covers all the bases, and lets you place your Recycle Bin pretty much wherever you’d like on the taskbar.

Jump lists

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• Master Windows 7 Jump Lists to Boost Your Win7 Productivity: For those of you that haven’t yet tried out Windows 7, when you right-click on a taskbar button in Windows 7, a menu slides out with recent documents and application tasks. Here’s a rundown of our favorite Jump List boosters.
• Winfox Adds Jump Lists to Firefox on Windows 7: Jump Lists are one of the best new features in Windows 7, and since Firefox still doesn’t take advantage of them, a small utility called Winfox adds the feature for you.
• Win7shell Adds Windows 7 Jump List Support to Winamp: Once you’ve downloaded, installed the plugin, and pinned Winamp to the taskbar, the Jump List should immediately start tracking your recently played media files.

Built-in Applications

• Set Up and Use XP Mode in Windows 7: Windows 7′s new XP Mode lets you seamlessly run virtualized applications alongside your regular Windows 7 applications—so your outdated software will continue to work.
• Calculator: While mathletes, scientists, coders, and statisticians will appreciate Windows 7′s built-in calculator’s programmer, statistics, and scientific modes, everyday people will love figuring out things like hourly wages and mortgage payments without a spreadsheet.
• PowerShell: (A) souped-up command line and scripting GUI that frees you, finally, from the limits of DOS batch scripts.
• Windows 7 Media Center’s Music Player Is Hot Hot Hot: Good news for music lovers excited for Windows 7: The new and improved music interface in Windows 7 Media Center is overflowing with eye candy and usability.
• Windows 7′s WordPad Opens Word 2007 DOCX Files: … The ribbon-style WordPad in Windows 2007 opens Word 2007 files, the .docx kind, pretty handily, albeit with some formatting loss.
• Backup and Restore Center: For the average user with both media and crucial file needs, Windows 7′s default backup features look promising.
• Windows 7 Guest Mode Creates Bomb-Proof Accounts: In the simplest terms, Guest Mode takes a snapshot of how a PC was working before the kid, friend, coffeeshop customer, or whoever else is using the Guest Mode account logs on. That user can’t do much to alter the system, and whatever they can do, like dropping files on the desktop, is discarded when they log off.
• Windows 7 Calibration and ClearType Tools Fine-Tune Your Displays: Windows 7′s color calibration and ClearType tools might be good enough for non-graphic-designers to stick with.

Themes, wallpapers, and login screens

• Windows 7 Beta’s Many Free and Legit Themes: Microsoft is offering 20 fresh themes (in Windows 7). Here’s a closer look.
• Grab Every Region’s Windows 7 Wallpapers in One Download: Microsoft allowed Windows Vista Magazine to bundle up every wallpaper from Windows 7′s regional releases and, boy, we’re glad they did. One file brings a lot of new looks to any desktop, Windows 7 or otherwise.
• Secret Registry Hack Customizes Windows 7 Logon “Button Set”: Rafael Rivera, the same expert Windows hacker that figured out how to customize your Windows 7 logon background, finds another hack that changes the UI to look better with darker background images.
• Microsoft Releases More Free Windows 7 Theme Downloads: The full-fledged themes are specific downloads for Windows 7 users, but anyone can grab the wallpapers from Windows 7′s Personalization Gallery for their system.

Mouse and Keyboard Shortcuts

• The Best New Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts: Windows 7 has more cool new shortcuts than you can shake a stick at.
• Aero Shake: When you want to focus on the task at hand on a desktop cluttered with windows, just grab the window bar of the app you want to work in and shake it back and forth to clear away the rest. Another shake will restore the background apps to their former state. You can also drag and drop a window to the edge of the screen to maximize it, and click on its top bar again to restore its previous size.
• Snap windows to half screen size: … Dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes it. Following that, if you drag a window all the way to the left or the right of the screen, Windows 7 will display a glass overlay on the desktop. Let go of the mouse button and it will snap the window onto that overlay, which is half the screen’s size—a handy helper for widescreen monitor owners.
• Maximize Windows Vertically with a Double-Click in Windows 7: Reader John points out that you can simply move your mouse to the top of a window until the pointer switches to the resize icon, and then double-click your mouse to instantly maximize the window to fill all the available vertical space.
• Shift and Right-Click to Expand Windows 7′s Send To Menu: Just as with Vista, holding down the Shift key while right-clicking in Windows 7 gives you a fuller range of options.
• Activate Windows 7 Jumplists with the Left Mouse Button: You don’t have to right-click on the taskbar buttons to activate Windows 7′s Jumplists—you can hold the left mouse button and drag upwards.
• Windows 7 Creates New Folders With a Hotkey: To create a new folder, simply press Ctrl+Shift+N with an explorer window open and the folder will instantly show up, ready to be renamed to something more useful.

Tweaks, fixes, and customizations

• The Best Windows Tweaks that Still Work in Windows 7: The final version of Windows 7 is being released this week to the general public, and after you get your hands on it the first thing you’ll need to know is: Do all my tweaks still work?
• Customize or Disable Windows 7′s Action Center: Windows 7′s Action Center does a great job of compressing all of Windows’ update/alert/whatever notifications into one icon, but it takes some tweaking to make it show what you want, or disable it entirely.
• Add text to the Windows 7 taskbar buttons: Just right-click the taskbar, select Properties, then change the Taskbar buttons drop-down from “Always combine, hide labels” to “Never combine.”
• Set Default Printers Based on Network in Windows 7: Windows 7 sports a great new feature that allows you to set default printers based on what network your computer is connected to, perfect for folks who carry laptops from network to network.
• Get Quick Access to Windows 7′s Jump Lists From the Keyboard: When we showed you how to master Windows 7′s new Jump Lists feature, there was one extremely useful tip that we left out: you can also access them from your keyboard.
• Create and Share Custom Themes in Windows 7: Microsoft’s Engineering Windows 7 weblog details how to create, save, and share your own custom Windows 7 themes, complete with wallpaper, window color, and sounds.
• Get the Old “Show Desktop” Back in Windows 7—Kinda: The short version: Create a folder, place a “Show Desktop.scf” file in there (either your standard Google-found kind or the script available at the bottom link), then right-click your taskbar to create a “New Toolbar” that points to that folder. Turn off the text and titles on that new toolbar, change the icons to large size, and then put your new one-button toolbar where you’d like.
• Hidden Windows 7 Tool Troubleshoots Sleep Mode Problems: The report lists all of the devices that are causing problems with sleep mode, explains the different power saving modes your computer supports, and even gives you detailed information on your battery—invaluable information when your system takes forever to go in and out of sleep mode.
• Disable the New Libraries Feature on Windows 7: Simply download, extract, and double-click on the provided registry hack file, then restart your computer and you’ll see that the Libraries are completely gone. There’s also an uninstall registry script provided just in case.

Third-party helpers

• Logon Changer Customizes the Windows 7 Login Screen: Tiny system customizing utility Logon Changer for Windows 7 swaps out the logon screen wallpaper easily. Using the utility is simple—just select a new wallpaper, test it, and you are done.
• Xdn Tweaker Updates to Tweak Windows 7: If you want your system to remember or not remember how you sort certain folders, edit what’s accessible through the right-click menu, or de-hook Windows Media Player from all the files it tries to glom onto, Xdn does those things for Windows 7.
• Glass CMD Enables Aero Transparency for the Command Prompt: Glass CMD for Vista forces command prompt windows to use Aero’s glass transparency effect.
• Gmail Notifier Plus Adds Email Alerts to the Windows 7 Taskbar: Gmail Notifier Plus displays your unread email count right in the Windows 7 taskbar, including popup message previews and Jump Lists integration.
• Switch Power Management Plans With a Hotkey: Once you’ve created the shortcut, you can assign a hotkey in the properties dialog—even better, put the shortcut in a location to be indexed by Launchy or the Vista start menu search, or even add it to your AutoHotkey automation script.
• CSMenu Brings the Classic Start Menu Back to Windows 7: Application launcher CSMenu makes up for the lack of a classic start menu option in Windows 7 by creating a menu that looks and works just like the ancient Windows 2000 menu did.
• Ultimate Windows Tweaker Updates, Improves Windows 7 Support: Ultimate Windows Tweaker adds new features to an already excellent tool for tweaking all of the hidden Windows settings you normally can’t access.
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• VistaSwitcher is an Absolutely Awesome Alt-Tab Replacement: It’s a little difficult to showcase how well this thing works with just a screenshot, but you can see the partially transparent Alt-Tab switcher window, complete with a massive preview window and the window titles easily readable.
• Windows 7 Recovery Discs Gets Your System Out of Tight Spots: Boot your system from NeoSmart’s CD, and you’ll get a stripped-down Windows system with a window offering startup file repair, Restore Point returns, recovery from a whole-cloth image, memory testing, and a command prompt for those dire moments when only frantically Google-d terminal instructions can save you.
• Hulu Desktop Integration Brings Hulu to Windows 7 Media Center: Free application Hulu Desktop Integration brings Hulu’s remote-friendly desktop app to your Windows Media Center.