Of course a Mac had to figure somewhere; it’s the new love of the disillusioned former user, who considers Windows 7’s arrival a little too late. Hit the video comments on YouTube for opinions following the classic Windows vs. Mac themes:

• “Idiot. Macs are more expensive for the same hardware”
• “Haha, PCs aren’t as reliable or secure as Macs”
• “Oh yes I totally agree! OS 1 is definitely better than OS 2!” (or vice-versa)
• “Shut up, you don’t know what you’re talking about”
• “Screw them both, I use Linux!”

Thanks for the tip Andry!

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After deleting and repeatedly overwriting his unencrypted copies, the reporter finds himself served with a search warrant, and agents stream into the reporter’s home. One of the government lackeys uses Windows 7’s ability to save previous versions of folders to render the precaution useless:

He located the Documents folder, opened its Properties window, and clicked on the “Previous Versions” tab. Just as he thought, there were five previous versions of the folder – daily “shadow copies” made by the operating system as part of the System Restore mechanism. As these snapshots were prepared silently in the background and stored on a hidden disk volume, few users were aware of them. Agent Trallis was smiling. The good guys from Redmond were going to make his job easy again.

C’mon now Mr. author! I doubt anyone using TrueCrypt would remain unaware of Windows 7’s ability to save old copies of data—a feature that can be disabled by the way. Maybe the reporter in “The Hidden Shadow” was guilty of overconfidence in his counter-intelligence abilities, a narrow-mindedness that’s similar to the outlook of those who think anything Microsoft is necessarily bad.

In any case, this is a great heads-up for anyone using Windows, and with secrets to keep. Make sure to disable those Previous Versions!

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	Version	32-bit		64-bit		Upgrade
		Retail	OEM	Retail	OEM
	Home Premium	$199.99	$99.99	$199.99	$99.99	$119.99
	Professional	$299.99	$134.99	$299.99	$134.99	$199.99
	Ultimate	$319.99	$174.99	$319.99	$174.99	$219.99

Be aware that the significantly cheaper OEM versions carry some caveats.

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Newegg is selling Home Premium for $100, while the retail price is $200. Those looking for the Professional version can get an even greater break as the OEM is $135, compared to $300 for the retail.

Still not good enough? Then you can hand over $175 for the Ultimate SKU, which would cost $320 in stores.

What’s the difference between OEM and retail? Again from Tom’s: “OEM versions of Windows do not come without fancy boxes, manuals, packaging, or even tech support, but they do come with a lower sticker price.” OEM versions are also less versatile, in the sense that they’re basically tied to one motherboard. This means that, if you buy a new computer, you have to buy a new copy; it’s not legally permitted to uninstall the Windows 7 you installed on your old computer, then reinstall it on the new one.

That’s because OEM versions are meant for computer manufacturers, who are expected to provide said the tech support for the customer. And since makers will pre-install Windows 7 into their products, why the fancy boxes and other paraphernalia, right? In exchange for the lower price, Microsoft legally ties OEM copies to only one computer, as detailed above.

So if you’re planning to upgrade to Windows 7, should you buy an OEM copy? If you’re a particularly savvy customer used to diagnosing problems on your own as they crop up, I don’t see why not. Even retail copies are tied to one computer in a certain sense, as you have to uninstall 7 from the old computer before you can use it on the new one, no?

Visit NewEgg.com to pre-order OEM—or retail—versions of Windows 7.

Source

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• Middle click an app on dock – Open a new app instance
• Middle click a thumbnail from dock – Close app instance/tab
• Alt – bring up old-style file menus where they’ve been removed
• Winkey + P – multi-display config quick-switch (press twice to switch)
• Winkey + X – bring up laptop settings control panel
• Winkey + T – dock keyboard mode (use arrow keys)
• Winkey + (shift +) tab – Flip 3D task switcher
• Winkey + left, right, up or down key – manage window position

What are your favorite Windows 7/Vista shortcuts?

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“There is a lot of excitement for Windows 7 in the marketplace today. However, many consumers need a new Windows PC for school, work or home before October 22,” said Brad Brooks, corporate vice president, Windows consumer marketing at Microsoft. “So starting June 26th, any customer who buys a PC from a participating computer maker or retailer with Windows Vista Home Premium, Business or Ultimate will also receive an upgrade to the corresponding version of Window 7 at little or no cost.”

In other words, only Vista Home Basic users are exempted from this program. Micro Center has compiled a list of manufacturers included in the program, with relevant links:

Windows 7 OEM Upgrade Info

Acer
Upgrade Info

Averatec
Upgrade Info

Compaq
Upgrade Info
Support Info

Dell
Upgrade Info
Support Info

eMachines
Upgrade Info

Fujitsu
Upgrade Info

Gateway
Upgrade Info

HP
Upgrade Info
Support Info

Lenovo
Upgrade Info
Support Info

Retail Box Upgrade
Upgrade and Support Info

Sony
Upgrade Info

Toshiba
Upgrade Info

Velocity Micro
Upgrade and Support Info

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Retail

• Home Premium $199.99
• Professional $299.99
• Ultimate $319.99

Upgrade Packages

• Home Premium $119.99
• Professional $199.99
• Ultimate $219.99

Courtesy Wikipedia

In other words, $120, $200, and $220 respectively. Before you get excited about the lower prices (when compared to Vista), remember that only 1% actually buy retail OS copies. The rest download bootleg copies from torrent sites get the OS when they buy a new computer.

Still, it’s great seeing Microsoft slashing their flagship product prices a bit. Maybe we’ll see less people call the company “M$” on online forums.

Some bad news for Windows XP users though: Windows 7 will insist on a clean install, allowing no upgrades. Any Windows 7 upgrade package will work with XP though, checking first if the XP installation is legit before installing itself onto the same partition as XP.

One more thing to keep in mind: upgrading to Windows 7 from a higher edition of Vista will also require a clean install, as in the case of a Vista Ultimate user wanting to install Windows 7 Home Premium.

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But the tech-heads from Anandtech have the proof. With Windows 7, Microsoft overhauled how its OS renders multiple windows and interfaces. Seems the guys at Redmond have finally figured out how to transfer that load more to a PC’s graphics card, while minimizing the burden on the CPU and system memory.

WDDM [Windows Display Driver Model] 1.1 itself is not particularly impressive, but it’s what it allows that is… Microsoft has been able remove the copy of the texture from system memory and operate solely on the contents in video memory. As a result the memory consumption of Windows is immediately reduced, potentially by hundreds of megabytes.

But wait, there’s more!

Microsoft has also introduced some changes to GDI [Graphics Device Interface] that do not require new display drivers. Along with requiring a local copy of window textures, the GDI stack was locked so that only a single GDI application could access it at a time. The GDI stack has been rebuilt so that the lock is more or less removed. Multiple GDI applications can now issue commands to it at the same time, and this is all pushed off to the video card to be its problem.

Even with multiple windows open on my relatively weak XPS M1330 (with 128MB of dedicated video memory), I can quickly switch through apps via the revamped taskbar. What about you?

Read: Running Windows 7 and Vista or XP
Source: Windows 7: Release Candidate 1 Preview
All images courtesy of Microsoft

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Maybe you decided to give Windows 7 a pass when it first came out, not wanting to replace Vista or XP on your PC. But once Windows 7 release candidate 1 (RC1) becomes officially available to the public this May 5, you might want to take advantage of turning your computer into a dual-boot machine. You get to try out Windows 7 for yourself, without giving up the Windows you use for your daily—and crucial—business.

Step 1: Download Windows 7 and Burn it Onto a DVD

You can download Windows 7 RC1 from Microsoft’s website come Tuesday. But a few (mostly developers) already have their own copy; some of them have leaked copies for download via torrents (link also has info on ensuring you get the legit stuff)

Once you have a copy, burn the ISO file onto a DVD. You’ll need a utility like Totally Free Burner to get the job done.

Step 2: Partition Your Hard Drive

Multiple versions of Windows on the same PC need their own partition to work properly. So you’ll need to create a partition to install Windows 7 on. What you need to do depends on your version of Windows.

Windows XP: Download GParted Live CD, burn it on a CD (again, you can use Totally Free Burner to do this), and boot from that disc. Wait for GParted to load, and use it to your full advantage (HowtoForge has instructions on using GParted Live C to partition your hard disk).

Windows Vista: Go to your desktop, hold down the Windows Key, and press R. Type in “diskmgmt.msc” and Press Enter. A list of your hard drives appears; right-click on where you want to install Windows 7 and select “Shrink Volume” (More detailed instructions are found on Lifehacker)

Make sure to partition at least 16GB for your Windows 7 partition!

Step 3: Install Windows 7

Now for the easy part. Install your Windows 7 DVD and boot from it. Note: When the Windows 7 installer asks for installation type, make sure to select Custom. Then choose the partition you created for Windows 7. If you’re not careful, you could end up wiping out your current version of Windows!

Once Windows 7 starts installing, let it work its magic. Sit back and relax, grab a drink, read a book, or of course, stay online through a second desktop or laptop. Just keep your eyes open and provide Windows 7 the info it needs.

Congratulations! Windows 7 should appear as an option on your boot menu whenever you start up your PC. Now you can try out everything for yourself, and see what the relative fuss is all about.

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The title says it all folks. The people over at SlashGear report an Amtek U560 UMPC subjected to Windows 7. This particular U560 ran on a 600Mhz Intel A100 processor, working with only half-a-gig of memory. Yet there were no reports of epic failure, only surprise at W7 granting the U560 an experience index of 1.2 (As a point of comparison, SlashGear reports that “many UMPCs manage a score of 1″). So how does W7 look on the small screen?

The setup wasn’t without its share of problems though. Installing W7 required the use of an external USB DVD Drive, and the WiFi drivers wouldn’t work with the hardware. But Windows did offer an alternative, installing XP and turning the U560 into a dual-boot machine for the sake of wireless connectivity.

(Image via SlashGear)

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