Windows 7 in action: A smarter way to manage windows

Over the past few months, I’ve snapped hundreds of screenshots of the Windows 7 interface, for use in galleries here at ZDNet (like this one and this one) and in Windows 7 Inside Out. But static screenshots don’t do justice to some of the nuances of actually using a feature. So when ZDNet’s crack video production team offered to help me to produce some screencasts, I jumped at the chance.

You’ve no doubt heard about Aero Snap and Aero Shake. Here’s a chance to see these features in action. (Hint: Click the Full Screen button, in the lower right corner, just to the right of the Menu button, to see the most detail.)

I actually remember the first time I saw this feature demonstrated for me. I was immediately impressed with the idea that simple mouse gestures could make window management so much easier. That’s especially important these days, when 20- and 24-inch monitors are commonplace.

In fact, after using Windows 7 for nearly a full year, I have to confess that I’m spoiled by this feature more than any other. When I use a computer running another operating system—Windows Vista, XP, or even OS X—I really miss the ability to maximize and minimize a window with a flick of the mouse or to snap a window into position on the side of the screen.

This is the first of four Windows 7 demos that I’ve done in this series. Look for the next one next week at this time.

Microsoft Windows Users and iYogi Predict a Surge in Tech Support for Windows 7 Upgrades

Survey Shows That Nearly Half of Consumers Think Upgrading to a New Operating System Will Require Technical Assistance

New York, NY (PRWEB) September 16, 2009 -- iYogi, the on-demand tech services company with a unique global delivery model, announced today the results of a consumer poll regarding support concerns and predictions for the upcoming launch of the new Microsoft Windows 7 operating system. Based on responses from more than 1,000 Windows XP and Windows Vista users, 52 percent think that moving to a new operating system and moving their data is a hassle, suggesting some real frustrations on the near horizon. Nearly half (47 percent) think upgrading to Microsoft Windows 7 may require a call to technical support - potentially causing a huge backlog of support needs, as up to 40 million copies of Windows 7 are expected to be sold in 2009, according to IDC.

"We predict that more than 40 percent of XP users will generate support calls and inquiries globally this year and even more in 2010 as mass adoption kicks in and people face the prospect of dealing with an entirely new interface," said Vishal Dhar, President Marketing & Co-founder of iYogi. "We estimate twice as many support calls for current Windows XP users than Windows Vista users, since Microsoft Windows XP users will require a 'clean' install including migrating applications, settings and drivers--a potentially arduous, time-intensive task."

Additional survey findings reveal:

58 percent of users think they will or may upgrade to Windows 7, an encouraging number considering some of the backlash surrounding Vista

Only 39 percent of users are aware that Windows 7 is launching soon, suggesting an increased flurry of help questions in the coming months as more people become aware of the upgrade options

iYogi has more has more than 90,000 annual subscribers and provides thousands of single incident sessions every day on a 24/7 basis. Its Global Delivery Platform delivers on the highest customer satisfaction benchmarks in the industry and gets smarter with every customer interaction, building a powerful knowledge base that provides unique customer insights on predictive needs to tech support.

ABOUT IYOGI
iYogi is a global on-demand services company that provides personalized computer support for consumers and small businesses in United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. iYogi's unique model, including proprietary technology iMantra and highly qualified technicians, is designed to eliminate computer-related stress and keep millions of digitally dependent consumers and small businesses always protected and productive. Only iYogi -- with its proven global expertise delivery model, intelligent customer insight systems, easy-to-use self-help tools and automated PC optimization and computer support services - offers users a simple yet comprehensive path to digital serenity. iYogi has perfected the remote technical support model to overcome the current limitations of in-store, on-site, or call center services to become the fastest growing provider of support in the industry. Major resellers and technology companies are increasingly turning to iYogi to improve customer satisfaction, reduce return rates, and deliver a compelling new-value added offering to customers. For more information on iYogi and a detailed list of technologies supported, visit: www.iyogi.net.

How to Optimize Your Windows Vista

Run a Virus Check

The moment you notice your PC is running slowly, the first thing to do is to check it for viruses and spy-wares. Viruses have a way of slowing down a computer and makes it run slower than it used to.

Defragmentation can be defined as a process that helps reduce the amount of fragmentation in a file system. Fragmentation makes your hard disk do more work than necessary and this can slow down your computer. A Disk Defragmenter is what you need.

A Disk Defragmenter reorganizes fragmented data and place them close together, so that your hard disk can have more space and perform better. Disk Defragmenter can be found on your windows vista help by going to the ”Start icon” of your computer, click on ”All Programs”, open ”Accessories” , then ”System Tools” and finally click on ”Disk Defragmenter”.

Boost your Computer Memory

Use Windows Ready Boost to boost your computer memory. The Windows Ready Boost enables you to use the storage space on detachable devices, such as flash drives, to increase the speed of your computer. This is a preferable way of increasing your PC memory, than opening the computer hardware.

Uninstall software and programs you never use

Do you know that most of the limited trial editions versions of programs you find in your computer when you bought it can slow your computer down? These trials software use up valuable disk space and memory, so if you do not intend to upgrade to a full version of the program or software, it is advisable to uninstall it from your computer to save you more disk space, memory and even processing power.

Clean up your hard disk

If you want to help your computer run faster, you can also remove unimportant files on your hard disk and empty the Recycling Bin by using the Disk Cleanup. Here is a step-by-step instructions on how to do this.

1. First begin by clicking the ”Start icon”, click on ”All Programs”, then ”Accessories”, open ”System Tools”, and then click on ”Disk Cleanup”.

2. You have the option to choose if you want to clean up your personal files only or all the files in the computer.

3. In the Disk Cleanup Options dialog box If the Drive Selection box comes up, choose the hard disk drive that you want to clean up, and then click on ”OK”.

4. Select the Disk Cleanup tab, and click on boxes of the files you want to remove, then click on ”OK”.

5. Finally click on ”Delete files” to confirm total removal of the unwanted files.

Reduce Start-up programs

When you put on your computer, you notice that some programs loads automatically at start-up, these programs take up disk space and waste memory and also slows down the loading power of your PC. Most of these programs are designed by Software manufacturers to load automatically when Windows starts, some of them even run in the background where you can’t see them, and are only designated by their icons on the notification area on the task-bar of your computer screen. So to help your windows vista PC work faster and be more efficient, delete the ones you don’t use often.

Four Reasons to Love Windows Vista

New graphics system
Windows Vista includes a new graphics system for computer support of Aero. Microsoft has done with vector graphics icons and thumbnails in Windows Explorer. Here you see the real images of the photos in a folder in Windows Vista. Image enhancements include the ability to preview your open tasks along the taskbar DVD playback more stable, and the ability to browse a lot of open tasks using the Tab key plus the Windows key.

Built-in search
Included in all editions of Windows Vista operating system support is the integrated search function and labeling. This allows you to create virtual folders content search. Say you're doing a report on mountains; any file that is keyword-enabled to include "mountains" will be grouped into a virtual folder without physically dragging that file to a new location. The downside is that older files (such as upgrading your system from Windows XP or imported data from an earlier version of Windows) will have to be retroactively met tagged be searchable.

New file system
Although the ambitious new WinFS file system was scrapped from the beginning, Microsoft signs on his future within the functionality of Windows Vista. Gone are the backslashes and directory tree structure. Now you can save your favorite searches in virtual format to create ad hoc collections without dragging and dropping files. You can also make public files to share with others.

Gadgets
Perhaps the first feature you'll notice is the new sidebar on the desktop and the three Gadgets default, the Microsoft version of Apple's Widgets. The default gadgets display the current time, photos of the library, and any Internet Explorer 7, RSS subscription, with the option to add more gadgets to meet your needs.

Does Windows 7 give worse battery life on netbooks?

Reports are coming in about netbooks suffering from diminished battery life when running Windows 7. The story broke with an article in the US Laptop magazine than claimed Windows 7 lopped 3 hours of a Toshiba NB2O5 netbook, compared to when it was running Windows XP. With Windows XP, the NB2O5 lasted for nine hours 24 minutes away from the mains, while with Windows 7, it ran for six hours 15 minutes.

Similar results have been reported by other sources, too — more details after the cut.
Netbook user forums have already seen complaints about the battery life of netbooks running the public beta and release candidate of Windows 7, as these sample threads from EeeUser, the Acer Aspire User Forum and MSIWind.net show. Tom’s Hardware also experienced reduced netbook battery life in its Windows 7 tests.

Windows 7 runs surprisingly well on the Intel Atom processor used in most netbooks, so these battery life results are a little disappointing for anyone looking to install Microsoft’s latest operating system once it goes on sale on 22 October.

It’s important to note, however, that these battery life issues could simply be the result of insufficiently optimised drivers, although the EeeUser thread does make specific mention of the ASUS Super Hybrid Engine power source-optimiser utility being installed and running with Windows 7.

We suspect netbook battery life will be improved by the time OEMs start shipping models with Windows 7 pre-installed. If you rely upon your netbook’s battery, it’s probably worth postponing an upgrade to Windows 7 until Windows 7-specific drivers and utilities are available for your model. Let us know in the comments if you’ve already installed Windows 7 on your netbook and aren’t getting quite the same battery life as Windows XP.

10 Important Computer Failures and Reason

Symptoms:

• “Fatal error: the system has become unstable or is busy”

• Blue Screen of Death.
• Fatal Exception Error. (RAM)
• Parity error messages. (RAM)
• RAM lock up and freeze the computer’s display. (BIOS)
• Fatal OE exceptions and VXD errors. (Video Card)
• Computer can not start.(Power supply problem) system files missing.
• Computer loop on BIOS.(Power supply problem) system files missing.
• Blank screen.(Overheating)
• Black screen of Death.(Overheating)

Cause of problem:

1. Hardware conflict

The number one reason why Windows crashes is hardware conflict. If there are a lot of devices, or if the hardware are not installed properly, when the user tries to use both devices at the same time, a crash can happen.

Sometimes mismatch driver also can make your device can function properly.

Troubleshoot:

• Go to ‘Device Manager‘ to check if all your device functional properly and all the driver for the device is install.
• Make sure your computer drive is up-to-date.

2. Bad Random-Access Memory(RAM)

RAM problems might bring on a fatal error message that indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometimes it may mean a part is damaged and will need replacing. But a fatal error caused by RAM might be caused by a mismatch of chips or mismatch speed of RAM.

Troubleshoot:

• Enter the BIOS settings and increase the wait state of the RAM.
• Rearrange the RAM chips on the motherboard, or take some of them out.(Do not to touch the gold connections, as they can be easily damaged.)

3. BIOS settings

A common way to access these settings is to press the F2 or delete button during the first few seconds of a boot-up. Usually BIOS problem is come up, if you change something in the BIOS and the computer becomes more unstable.

Troubleshoot:

• Write down on a piece of paper all the BIOS settings that appear on the screen. That way, you will know what settings to revert to.
• Restore BIOS setting to default.

4. Hard disk drives

After a few weeks, the information on a hard disk drive starts to become fragmented. Hard disks will slow down and crash if they are too full.

Troubleshoot:

• Defragment the hard disk every week or so, to prevent the disk from causing a screen freeze. (Use Windows Disk Defragment or any defragment application such as Diskeeper.)
• Empty the Recycle Bin every week to free more space.
• Scanned your hard disk every week for errors or bad sectors.

5. Video card

Troubleshoot:

• Take a look at the color settings in ‘Display Setting‘. For most desktops, high colour 16-bit depth is adequate.
• Make sure it does not have a hardware conflict. Check it in ‘Device Manager‘
• Look up your video card’s manufacturer on the internet and search for the most recent drivers for it.

6. Viruses

Some viruses erase the boot sector of a hard drive, making it impossible to start. Viruses also can ‘eat’ all your files in your hard drives including system files.

Troubleshoot:

• Install and update antivirus in your computer.
• Install also spyware application such as Spyware Doctor.

7. Printers

The action of sending a document to print creates a bigger file, often called a postscript file.

Printers have only a small amount of memory, called a buffer. This can be easily overloaded. Printing a document also uses a considerable amount of CPU power. This will also slow down the computer’s performance.

Troubleshoot:
A good way to clear the buffer is to unplug the printer for ten seconds. Booting up from a powerless state, also called a cold boot, will restore the printer’s default settings and you may be able to carry on and get printer support.

8. Software

A common cause of computer crash is faulty or badly-installed software. Incompatible software also cause of this problem. For example, you install Bitdefender and Kaspersky antivirus in a computer.

Troubleshoot:

• Use application like Your Uninstaller to uninstall this software.
• Make sure you have remove all the software before install a new software. To be safe, restart your computer after uninstall or remove a software.
• Use registry cleaner like Registry Booster to remove obsolete entries.
• Entering Safe Mode(Press F4 when Windows Start). Restore your computer to previous restore point.

9. Overheating

Central processing units (CPUs) are usually equipped with fans to keep them cool. If the fan fails or fills with dust it may start to overheat and generate a particular kind of error called a kernel error. This is a common problem in chips that have been overclocked to operate at higher speeds than they are supposed to.

Troubleshoot:

• Install bigger and faster fan on the CPU.
• Install more fan to make air flow move faster.
• Clean your fan.
• For laptop user, dont put your laptop at your bed. Make sure your laptop have good air flow.

10. Power supply problems

Sometime computer crash because data lost in your computer. Computer is not properly shutdown may be the cause of the computer problems.

Troubleshoot:

• Buying a uninterrupted power supply (UPS). This will give you a clean power supply when there is electricity, and it will give you a few minutes to perform a controlled shutdown in case of a power cut.

Microsoft SBS Wizard Troubleshooting

Yesterday i have resolved my 4th SBS Wizard related difficulty this year. The symptoms are the same on both SBS 2003 and SBS 2008 – when attempting to use the Wizards to create a user or computer, the wizard works all the way until the last step and then fails with an error.

The trouble in all 4 cases this year has been because someone treated an SBS server like a Windows Standard Server. And the reality is that while it is based upon standard server, it really is not. There have been major tweaks and adjustments to permit it to work the way it does. Among them is various restrictions on changes to Active Directory. Basically, unless you understand exactly how the SBS Wizards leverage Active Directory, it is best not to do anything through the standard Active Director Users and Computers console. The Wizards require that users, computer and other data are placed in very specific Organization Units, with very specific names. Renaming OUs or moving users into a more “logical” place will prevent the wizards from working properly.

The people who get themselves into too much trouble are often IT consultants who think they know better – but really don’t. The reason is that a newbie administrator will actually read the documentation that comes with SBS and/or pickup a great reference book, which all say the same thing — use the wizards for absolutely everything, don’t make any changes to Active Directory outside of a wizard. The only exception being would be documentation which specifically takes SBS into account. A Microsoft Technet page will specifically call out that it works with SBS; if it just mentions Standard Server, beware! Remember that SBS is made for oranizations of 69 users or less, and in these environments, rarely will you need a complex OU scheme.

In all four cases this year, it has been because someone has renamed or deleted the default SBS OUs which are created automatically. A quick rename of the OUs back to what they were origionally named, will resolve your problems. That’s it, no big changes, registry adjustments, etc. Simply put the OUs back to where they were automatically created and you should be all set.