86% of Enthusiasts Like Windows 7

Since the opening of Windows 7 Info (W7Info.com), users have taken part in voting on the Windows 7 Articles blog. The title of the poll is “Rate Windows 7″ with the options of rating it “5 - Amazing, 4 - Good, 3 - Okay, 2 - Bad, 1 - Poor.” I’d like to point out the results of the poll thus far as 351 enthusiasts have cast their votes on our blog.

We first published our results after January and 75% of Windows Enthusiasts liked Windows 7. Since then, the results have been even more favorable for the new operating system. An 86% approval rating is high praise indeed from a critical market of PC users who torched Windows Vista, Microsoft’s last OS release. And, the ratings seem to be gradually getting better… from 75% to 86% in a matter of a month and a half.

We encourage users to take part in our poll, simply scroll down on the sidebar and cast your vote. Or vote here:

Rate Windows 7

• 5 - Amazing
• 4 - Good
• 3 - Okay
• 2 - Bad
• 1 - Poor

View Results

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Our results as of 3/19/2009 at 1:23 AM:

Amazing - 201 votes (57%)
Good - 102 votes (29%)
Okay - 30 votes (9%)
Bad - 5 votes (1%)
Poor - 13 votes (4%)

Compare this to our post-January poll results:

Amazing - 31 votes (38%)
Good - 29 votes (36%)
Okay - 11 votes (14%)
Bad - 3 votes (4%)
Poor - 7 votes (9%)

Windows 7 Release Candidate Update

Microsoft has updated its scheduling for the release of the Windows 7 Release Candidate. In the fourth week of April (19-25) of 2009, Microsoft plans to release internal RC-escrow builds (not the same as the public RC) to a smaller group of testers. Then, in the last week of May, Microsoft plans to make a public Release Candidate available.

In other news, the Microsoft Office 14 Beta is expecting a July release. A second beta version will be available in November. And then Office is planned to be released in early March of 2010.

27 Changes in the Windows 7 RC

Nearly a month ago in February, Chaitanya Sareen published an article on the Engineering Windows 7 blog detailing thirty six of the main changes in the Windows 7 RC. Now, the Engineering team has posted another set of 27 changes made in the release candidate at the Engineering Blog.

The blog post, entitled “A few more changes from Beta to RC…” goes over twenty seven changes that showcase the new operating system’s improvement over the past months. Here’s a short-version of the blog’s list with pictures:

Desktop Experience

List View of running windows appears on hover and supports close

• Improved taskbar thumbnail overflow
• Control Panel Jump List

Control Panel Jump list

• PowerShell Jump List
• Remote Desktop Jump List
• Applying taskbar settings fix

Touch

• Multi-touch zoom in Windows Explorer

Windows Explorer/Libraries

• Invert Selection
• Going up? - folder hierarchy fix
• Finding music by artist
• New folder is always available
• Right-click in Windows Explorer
• Content view for search results
• Intelligent re-indexing after application installation

Performance

• Trimming sound schemes to help performance

Device Stage

• Baseline Device Stage experience
• Devices and Printers enhancement

Device Stage - Windows 7

Devices and Printers

• Unified experience for removing devices
• Hardware properties
• Improved eject experience
• USB device reliability on resume
• FireWire camera support

Device Installation

• Add Legacy Hardware functionality restored
• Increased responsiveness of Add Printer Wizard

System

• Partition size reduction
• Reserved System Partition naming
• Dual Boot partition drive letter assignment
• Pagefile reduction

Network

• Improved driver support

Backup and Restore in Windows 7

One of the easily unnoticed new Windows 7 add-ons is the improved Backup and Restore feature. In Windows Vista, the Backup and Restore feature allowed users to backup an image to their hard disk or their DVD-drive. One could only backup files to a network location.

This leaves the user with a problem. For many, it does not make sense to backup to a hard drive in which the operating system is installed. They may want to reformat and then restore the backup. And, if they choose to back up to DVD’s… they might get stuck with having to use a billion DVD’s to fit the backup.

Allowing users to backup images to network locations, Windows 7 enables users to more easily use the backup and restore feature.

Also, as pointed out by ZDNet’s Ed Bott, in Windows 7, a new “Let me choose” option has been added to allow users to set up their own backup system.

Fix Gadgets Problem in Windows 7

If a Windows 7 user disables User Account Control, the built-in gadgets in Windows Explorer no longer work. To fix this problem, you can open up the Registry Editor. Open it up by pressing the start button and typing “regedit” into the search and pressing enter.

Navigate to the folder: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Sidebar\Setting”

Create a new DWORD value called “AllowElevatedProcess” and set its value to “1″.

Windows 7's Registry Editor

The problem should be completely fixed now.

Fix Google Chrome in 64-Bit Windows 7

Many users who’ve installed the 64-bit version of the Windows 7 Beta build 7000 are experiencing difficulties with Google’s new browser: Chrome. Users with this problem will see a blank page instead of the default homepage on load. If the user attempts to visit a website, they will see an error message: “Aw, Snap! Something went wrong while displaying this webpage. To continue, press Reload or go to another page.” See the picture below.

Users who try to navigate to a website while running Google's Chrome on Windows 7 7000 64-Bit will see this "Aw, Snap!" error message.

To fix this problem:

1. Go to Start. Find “Google Chrome” in the Programs list.
2. Right click the Chrome icon labeled “Google Chrome” and go to Properties.
3. Modify the “Target” field in the Shortcut tab. Add the line: “--in-process-plugins” to the back of your address.


Modify the "Target" field in the Shortcut tab to look like this.

4. You will need to modify the “Target” of any Google Chrome shortcut on your computer for each shortcut to work.
5. All done! Enjoy Chrome!

72 Hotkeys in Microsoft’s Windows 7

In Windows 7, about 25 new important hotkeys have been added. This list includes 72 of the most necessary hotkeys to know for your Windows 7 system.

Hotkey/Combination	Action
+ Up	Maximize
+ Down	Minimize, Restore
+ Left	Snap to Left
+ Right	Snap to Right
+ Shift + Left	Jump to left monitor
+ Shift + Right	Jump to right monitor
+ D	Show Desktop, Restore all windows
+ G	Bring gadgets to the front
+ F	Open the search window
+ R	Open the “run” box
+ E	Open Windows Explorer
+ M	Show Desktop
+ Shift + M	Restore Windows after Show Desktop
+ L	Lock the computer
+ Pause	Open the System Properties Window
+ T	Rotate through applications on the taskbar
+ U	Open the Ease of Access Center
+ P	Alternate display options box (projectors, screens)
+ X	Open the Mobility Center
+ #	Opens a new instance of an application in the # slot on the taskbar
+ Space	Aero Peek at the desktop
+ Shift + T	Rotates through applications on the taskbar backwards
+ Plus	Zoom in
+ Minus	Zoom out
+ Tab	Open Flip3D: press tab again to rotate through windows
Shift + Click on task icon	Opens a new instance of the application
Middle click on task icon	Opens a new instance of the application
Ctrl + Shift + Click on task icon	Opens a new instance as Administrator
Shift + Right-click on task icon	Show window menu (Minimize, Restore, Move, Size, Task Manager, Exit)
Shift + Right-click on grouped icon	Show window menu, actions apply to all instances in group
Ctrl + click on grouped icon	Rotate between windows/tabs in group
F1	Help
F3	Search/Find
F11	Fullscreen view
Hold right Shift for 8 seconds	Turn Filter Keys On/Off
Left Alt + Left Shift + Print Screen	Turn High Contrast On/Off
Shift x 5	Turn Sticky Keys On/Off
Hold NUM LOCK for 5 seconds	Turn Toggle Keys On/Off
Ctrl + C	Copy
Ctrl + X	Cut
Ctrl + V	Paste
Ctrl + Z	Undo
Ctrl + Y	Redo
Shift + Delete	Delete the selected item without moving it to the Recycle Bin
F2	Rename the selected item
Ctrl + Right	Move the cursor to the beginning of the next word
Ctrl + Left	Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous word
Ctrl + Up	Move the cursor to the beginning of the previous paragraph
Ctrl + Down	Move the cursor to the beginning of the next paragraph
Ctrl + Shift with an arrow key	Select a block of text
Ctrl + A	Select All
Alt + Enter	Opens the Properties window for the selected item
Alt + F4	Close/Exit
Alt + Spacebar	Open the shortcut menu for the active window
Ctrl + F4	Close the active document (in programs that allow you to have multiple documents open simultaneously)
Alt + Tab	Switch between open items
Ctrl + Mouse scroll wheel	Change the size of icons on the desktop
F6	Cycle through screen elements in a window or on the desktop
F4	Display the Address bar list in Windows Explorer
Shift + F10	Display the shortcut menu for the selected item
Ctrl + Esc	Open the Start menu
F10	Activate the menu bar in the active program
F5	Refresh the active window
Esc	Cancel the current task
Alt + Up	View the containing folder in Windows Explorer
Ctrl + Shift + Esc	Opens the Task Manager
Shift when you insert a CD	Prevents the CD from automatically playing
	Opens the Start menu
Ctrl + + F	Search for computers if you are on a network
Ctrl + N	Opens a new window
End	Display the bottom of the window
Home	Display the top of the window

If any seem to be missing from the list, feel free to leave them in a comment and they will be added to the list.

Get the Windows 7025 Quick Launch

Windows 7 Beta (7000) users can add the Quick Launch toolbar, as seen in the Build 7025 screenshots, to their taskbar by following these instructions.

1. Open up your Windows desktop
2. Right click the taskbar
3. Mouseover “Toolbars”
4. Click “New Toolbar…”
5. Copy: %userprofile%AppDataRoamingMicrosoftInternet ExplorerQuick Launch into the “Folder” field
6. Select that folder
7. Now, dragging the Quick Launch bar can be a bit difficult. Make sure to unlock your taskbar (Right click on tasbar, click “Lock the taskbar” if it is locked). Instead of dragging the Quick Launch toolbar to the left of the pinned items, try dragging the pinned items bar (with the dotted lines to the left of the pinned items) to the right of the Quick Launch.
8. Before unlocking, you can right click it to modify the settings.

• Disabling “Show Text” and “Show Title” will make it more like the XP, Vista classic Quick Launch bar.
• Mousing over “View” and clicking “Large icons” will make the icons look more like the pinned icons.

Tweaking the “Send To” Menu in Windows 7

There is a whole range of hidden menus and shortcuts in Windows 7. One that may go unnoticed is the secret “right click” with “shift” technique that allows users to see a host of different menu options when right-clicking a file or folder.

So, here we have our normal right click menu:

As shown here, a normal right click brings up these options

But, if you press “SHIFT” before right-clicking, you see an extended right-click menu. This extended menu includes extra options: “Open in New Process” and extra Send To options.

But, if you press "SHIFT" before right clicking, you can see extra options.

Here, you can see quite a few extra Send To options have been unhidden with the SHIFT right-click.

Extra Send-To Options in Windows 7

And, if you want to customize your Send To menu, you can simply navigate to this in your location bar:
shell:sendto
Then just create shortcuts to your desired locations.

Originally posted by How To Geek, I just thought it was so brilliant that I added it here!

Enable DreamScene in Windows 7

When Windows Vista was released a couple of years ago, one of the coolest new features was the ability to add videos as a desktop background. The feature, called DreamScene, was certainly a “dream” of many PC users who had been anticipating moving wallpapers for years. But, DreamScene in Windows Vista was more of a failure than a success. DreamScene never quite caught on as well as Microsoft had hoped.

Still, DreamScene captured the hearts of thousands of PC users. And those users will be saddened to know that Microsoft has stripped the feature from Vista’s predecessor, Windows 7. DreamScene has been replaced by the simpler Desktop Slideshow feature

But, no worries! The feature is easily addable in Windows 7 through a simple program that modifies your registry and copies over the necessary files to enable DreamScene.

To enable DreamScene in Windows 7, do the following:

Warning! To use DreamScene, you must have Windows Aero enabled.

1. Download Windows7-DreamScene.exe
2. Run “Windows7-DreamScene.exe” as “Administrator”



3. The installer will automatically copy the necessary files on to your computer and change your registry.
4. It will automatically install DreamScene and restart Explorer
5. DreamScene will be working immediately after the install.
6. Right-click any WMV or MPG video to set it as your DreamScene desktop background video.



7. Your wallpaper is now a working video!

Everything works the same as in Windows Vista, except for the Control Panel >> Personalize menu does not show the DreamScene videos as options in Windows 7.
DreamScene tips:

• Smaller files work better, the smaller the video, the less lag time in the playback.
• Right click your desktop to “Pause” or “Play” your DreamScene wallpaper video.
• Try wallpaper videos with sound/audio.

Best Internet Browsers on Windows 7

Although roughly 44.8% of computer users are using various versions of Internet Explorer and 45.5% of computer users are using Mozilla Firefox, there is still a tense competition for the creation of the best internet browser. In this article, we will review some of the basics of the best internet browsers out there for your Windows 7 machine. We will grade browsers on a few different categories.

Browser Version	Tag Name
Internet Explorer Release Candidate 1 (8.0.7022.0)	Internet Explorer 8
Safari 4 Public Beta (528.16)	Safari
Chrome 1.0.154.48	Chrome
Opera 10.00 alpha	Opera
Firefox 3.1b2	Firefox

Speed

In this speed test, we determined the fastest browsers on Windows 7, based off of our average start up times, page load times, Javascript assessment times, and CSS benchmark times. The results are shown below and are to be taken with a grain of salt. Margins of error were relatively high for these tests. Update: I have included some more reliable tests from Lifehacker and CNET in the results.

CSS:

Winner: Opera
Loser: Internet Explorer 8

Javascript:

Winner: Safari
Loser: Internet Explorer 8

Startup Time:

Winner: Chrome
Loser: Firefox

Page Load Time:

Winner: Safari
Loser: Chrome

Usability

Safari:

Safari 4 is a huge step up in usability from the rather disappointing Safari 3. The new “Top Sites” feature steals from Opera’s original use of the Speed Dial and Google’s perfection of the utility in Chrome. Although Safari does not include labels for the top sites like Chrome, Safari’s Top Sites feature is far better. The “Edit” button allows for customization of the sites, where they show up, and other options. You can choose how many sites you’ll see.

In addition, Safari’s new design allows for greater usability with more screenspace since the tabs are a part of the windows’s title bar like in Google Chrome. Smart move.

Safari's Top Sites feature is an excellent addition.

The new History with “Cover Flow” is a better way to look through your past files. Safari 4’s version of middle click was a stroke of pure genius. Apple’s implementation of built-in RSS is excellent.

Unfortunately, Safari fails to have an add-on/plugin system as good as Firefox’s. And, the address bar in Safari is so eight years ago. Firefox’s address bar is fifty times better and Chrome’s is twenty five times better.

Firefox:

Firefox is no match for Google Chrome’s ease of use. But, Firefox is highly customizable and has the best address bar of any browser out there. The Firefox address bar allows you to type “go wi” or something like that and navigate quickly to your Google News search for “Windows 7.” In addition, typing ‘Windows 7′ into the bar and pressing enter will automatically send you to the Windows 7 homepage on Microsoft.com. Brilliant. The address bar makes Firefox.

In addition, almost any feature on any browser can be added to Firefox with Firefox Add-Ons. The Firefox Add-Ons system is a comprehensive database of endless amounts of tweaks for your browser. Using the Speed Dial add-on, I effectively added Chrome/Opera/Safari’s top sites feature to Firefox. And using themes, I made Firefox look almost as good as Safari 4 and Chrome.

Internet Explorer 8:

Internet Explorer is still one of the harder browsers to use. The new “Web Slices” feature is difficult to understand for first timers and the Compatibility View is just plain terrible. Users do not wish to see a screwed up version of the Web and then click “Compatibility View” to make it right. Pretty sure the users are just looking for the web to be displayed correctly like it does in Firefox or Chrome.

The Accelerators feature isn’t a bad addition. It is nice to be able to right click and address and map it immediately. Although, I’m not really a fan of that popup blue icon that keeps spawning when you highlight something.

The address bar is pretty good. It beats Safari’s hands down.

Google Chrome:

Google Chrome is one of the most exciting new browsers out there. Its deployment of the “Omni-bar” instead of the address bar-search bar combo is a stroke of genius. Unfortunately, the omni-bar isn’t as smart as Firefox’s address bar. The top sites feature as the homepage is brilliant as well. Putting the tabs on the title bar allows for more screen real estate, and Google Chrome just looks good in Windows 7’s aero interface. Overall, a solid browser. The ability of each Google Chrome tab to run in a separate process also improves your chances of recovering from any sort of crash.

Appearance

Firefox:

Firefox isn’t one of the best looking browsers. The grey bars look is a little outdated. But, the fact that you can add-on themes in Firefox saves the day for the Mozilla browser. Adding the “Glasser” theme for Firefox in Windows 7 with the aero interface enabled makes Firefox look pretty good.

Firefox using "Glasser" in Windows 7

Google Chrome:

Google Chrome really revolutionized the way browsers look. Everything is very simple. It looks good. The light blue is maybe a poor choice, but the incorporation of the glass in the aero interface is spot on. The top sites feature adds some bling to the pages.

Safari:

Safari 4 is the best looking browser I have ever seen. It takes the Google Chrome simplicity to a new level and allows for a wonderful amount of screen real estate by placing the beautiful glass tabs at the top of the window. The “Create a new tab” button at the top right looks brilliant with the shadow of the tabs. In addition, the 3D top sites feature is extremely flashy and Cover Flow for your History is eye-catching as well as useful. I wish every browser looked this good.

Internet Explorer 8:

Internet Explorer 8 is not appealing. It does incorporate well into the glass of the aero interface, but that is about it. The tabs bar looks flat and the whole “light blue” thing is way out of style.

Overall

Overall, the best browser, in my opinion, for your Windows 7 machine is Mozilla Firefox. The incredible address bar surpasses any positive features of the other browsers. Add-ons and themes can get you all the things from Safari, Chrome, and IE anyways. Safari wins for appearance, Google Chrome for potential, and Firefox overall.