Anyways, it seems that even with the release of Windows 7, the platform update Microsoft has done means the old operating system is not going away anytime soon.

The recent update from Microsoft include updates for runtime libraries which handles new technology, it also has improvements to Windows ribbon, animation manager library, windows graphics, imaging, the XPS library, Windows automation API and the updates for the Windows portable devices as well.

You can get your Windows Vista update from the Microsoft support site titled “Description of the Platform Update for Windows Server 2008 and the Platform Update for Windows Vista“.

If you do not have plans of moving to another operating system, Windows 7 perhaps, and are stuck with Windows Vista I would suggest to go to the site and download your platform updates.

Are you sticking with Windows Vista and for how long?

Image from Microsoft Support.

Post from: EveryJoe

Get Your Platform Updates for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008

Consumers who purchase their copy of Windows 7 would also be able to get free software. The list of free software include those that have very low prices or those that are completely free. The list of free softwares are as follows: 

• Nero 9 Reloaded, Free
• Norton Antivirus 2010, Free
• Global Protection 2010, Free
• System Mechanic, Free
• Trend Micro Internet Security Pro, Free
• NTI Shadow 4, Free
• McAfee Internet Security 2010, Free
• NTI Media Maker 8 Suite, Free
• Fireman 3.0, Free
• Bitdefender 2010, Free
• AVG Antivirus & Antispyware, Free
• PC Tune-Up 2.0, Free
• Spysweeper 2010, Free
• Stuffit Deluxe 2009, Free
• Corel Family Pack 2009, Free

Most of these software are security or utility software that you can use right away on your Windows 7 operating system.

Image from MaximumPC.

Post from: EveryJoe

Free Software from Fry’s Electronics at its Windows 7 Midnight Release

My boss was looking for a similar application, but one that would work better with more than two monitors, as well as provide additional window management features that would work with Windows Vista. He found what he was looking for with the SplitMon software.

SplitMon allows you to move application windows from monitor to monitor with the click of a hot key and your number keys or the arrow keys. Giving you even more, SplitMon can also help divide your screen into regions that you can then move and resize your applications into as desired.

In the screenshot above, I’ve moved my browser to fill the bottom half of my screen and Microsoft Outlook to fill the top half. With another few clicks of my keyboard I could have these two applications fill the left and right halfs of the screen instead.

Here’s a rundown of the basic features available with SplitMon

• WinSplit – Split your monitor(s) into 8 sections and put the active window in a particular section using hotkeys
• WinMove – Move windows from Monitor to Monitor easily using the Mouse and/or Keyboard
• WinSpaces – Define positions for groups of windows to be recalled at any time from the tray menu
• WinMem – Save and Restore Window positions using hotkeys
• WinResize – Resize multiple windows that are next to each other at the same time

More than likely you’re running Windows on your machine. Given the name of your operating system, I begin to wonder why this kind of windows management options is available by default. It’s nice to know that SplitMon is filling the gap.

Post from: EveryJoe

Multi-Display and Window Management with SplitMon

When you purchase the IdeaCenter Q110 with Windows Vista,  you would be given a Windows 7 upgrade disc starting on October 22 when the Windows 7 is officially released to the public.

The cheaper IdeaCenter Q110 is priced at $299 USD and is running on SIS Mirage graphics card. The nettop however doesn’t come with a keyboard, or mouse.

If you plan to use Windows 7, which is a better decision, I would suggest to hold off on buying a nettop until the Windows 7 operating system is officially released on October 22.

Image from Lenovo.

Post from: EveryJoe

IdeaCenter Q110 Out in the Market

When I put my computer into Hibernate mode I have my external drive connected to the machine. I’ll then pack everything up and head off to the next client. I take my laptop out my bag first and it begins powering-up. As soon as it resumes from Hibernate I get the messages shown above.

I need to check and see if I don’t get that message if I plug-in the drive first and then open the lid to resume from Hibernate.

What I think would be great in functionality though is to have the system remember the devices that were plugged-in and put them in a temporary status. The operating system would know the device was present and then wait for it to be reconnected before displaying an error message.

Post from: EveryJoe

Fighting with Windows – Delayed Write Failed Messages Again

The netbooks were initially loaded with Linux, then it became powerful and Windows based netbooks were sprouting everywhere. Netbooks started with 4 GB SSD, then jumped up to 8 GB SSD, 16 GB SSD, until conventional hard drives reaching from 80 GB until 160 GB hard drives were installed on these small machines. The memory started with 256 MB, 512 MB, and now  2 GB memory chips are the norm.

Next in line is the monitor, vendors are pushing out touch screen netbooks and the release of Windows 7 is pushing this growth furthermore.

Here comes MSI, who has already confirmed they are working on a touch screen convertible netbook which is based on Intel Pine trail platform. The touch screen netbook is called Wind U 150, and would be the first computers using the Pine Trail platform. The platform would be introduced at CES in January 2010. Although the Wind U150 is believed to be out in the market by the end of 2009.

The chip codenamed “PineView” would have the CPU, GPU and memory controller on the same platform. There is also a second chip codenamed “Tiger Point”. We still don’t know much details about these two chip solution but it definitely sounds promising.

I would be excited to see what Lenovo, HP, Asus are cooking up on the netbooks platform. By 2010, we should be seeing an explosion of powerful, productive and business ready netbooks in the market. I wouldn’t be surprised when companies decided to purchase netbooks instead of expensive laptops. The release of Windows 7 which has an extensive set of features for touch screen technology would seamlessly work hand in hand with these new breed of netbooks.

Would you dig these new set of netbooks?

Image from MSI.

Post from: EveryJoe

Netbooks are Evolving Rapidly with MSI touch screen

The main features are as follows:

1. It improves productivity when pasting repetitive texts

2. Stores a single character to multiple pages of text

3. Store  unlimited number of items

4. Sorting of clips

5. Quick access from the system tray

6. This runs on the following operating system — Windows 95, NT 4.0, 98, ME, NT4.0, 2000, XP, 2003 Server and Vista.

7. etc.

Go ahead and try out Clipboard Magic.

Image from Clipboard Magic.

Post from: EveryJoe

Clipboard Manager: Clipboard Magic

Clipmate has the functionality of remembering all items for both text and graphics and stores them in collections for your later usage. Clipmate is an ideal Windows companion, and could protect you (users) into losing clipboard data. I know I have lost valuable clipboard data numerous of times already and Clipmate should solve this problem.

This software is also powered by an SQL-based search engine to help you quickly find your data and it also features new shortcut abilities.

Go ahead and try this software – Clipmate.

Image from – Clipmate.

Post from: EveryJoe

Clipboard Manager: ClipMate 7

The highlight features of this application are as follows:

WinDirStat is able to read the whole directory tree and then shows it in three useful views:

• The directory list, is similar to the Windows Explorer but is sorted by file/subtree size,
• The treemap, shows the entire content of the directory tree immediately
• The extension list, serves as a legend and presents statistics about the file types.

Go ahead and download the WinDirStat.

Image from WinDirStat.

Post from: EveryJoe

Improve Your Hard disk performance

I was excited on this notion and installed Windows 7 build 70++ back in May and I was disappointed to find out that configuring IIS in order to run server applications threw exception errors. Also, the Daemon I was using threw all sorts of error as well.

Today, Microsoft is about to release Windows 7 RTM and I want to see whether Microsoft has already fixed these problems. I have one resistance though, I just can’t overwrite the previous build and upgrade my operating system to a Windows 7 RTM installation.

How about you, have you tried using Windows 7 already? Are you happy about it?

Image from my Windows 7 computer.

Post from: EveryJoe

Apps that do not install on Windows 7?