Are you interested in upgrading you computer from Windows XP or Windows Vista?

Take a look at the pages at the right before you do.  ———->

These upgrade tips will help to make sure you have a good experience.

        

Software updates submitted by “Popcorn” Eddie B

Ad-Aware 2010 v8.1
Adobe Reader 9.2
Adobe Acrobat 8.1.7
AVG 9.0.664
Foxit Reader 3.1.2.1013
Google Desktop 5.9.909.8267
MyDefrag 4.2.2
QuickTime Alternative 3.0.0
Skype 4.1.0.179
WinPatrol 17.0.2010.0.0

        

Submitted by our young friend, Davey Barry.

With Windows 7 coming out in less than a month, people are looking forward to the post-Vista era. Those who have Beta versions are already looking for new features in 7. But frankly, features won’t appear magically. As people go through their lives on 7, they will stumble upon very useful and cool features on 7.

Some features are Aero Shake, which lets people clear a cluttered desktop by shaking one window, and Aero Peek, which allows people to see through their windows to their desktop and gadgets. There is also Snap, which allows someone to drag a specific window to the top of the screen to maximize it, or drag to one side and compare it with another window.

Windows 7 has a changed toolbar at the bottom. Instead of bars, like in every previous operating system, now there are just icons.  When the cursor is moved over the icon all of the files that are opened under that system are displayed. Also, any program can be pinned to the Toolbar. When someone clicks and quickly drags up on a desired program, it will give a list of recent files from that program. This is a time-saver, but people shouldn’t get too excited about it. It’s tempting to pin every known program there is on the Toolbar, but that would just defeat the purpose. Only pin the programs used most often; such as Word, Internet Explorer, etc.

But fear not, there are programs that don’t remind people of work.  Customizing themes has become easier, and much more creative. When creating a theme and a background, the computer gives possible color themes for the Toolbar and windows border. There are endless color themes to choose from – from a favorite team color or a certain mood.  It’s just fun to play with this.

Another new program, HomeGroup, lets the user hook up the computer with not only the internet, but the other computers in the Group. This Group, which includes a unique password, allows a family to share photos, video, music, documents, and more without e-mailing. This is definitely a nice feature for families as well as school group projects and work places.  However the majority of people that don’t have the need for a HomeGroup could find this useless.

The Windows Media Center allows a computer to act like a DVR. This program can record shows and movies on the computer.  It allows the user to watch shows anywhere in the house or anywhere there is an internet connection. This makes it especially easy to watch favorite shows even when traveling. This eliminates the need for another TV in the house. Now kids don’t need to ask for a TV in their room, they can watch their favorite shows and movies anytime. However, it is difficult and takes a while to set up the internet TV and DVR.

Windows 7 has an improved parental control feature.  Parents will like this feature because they don’t need to look over their kids’ shoulder as they use the internet or play computer games.  Not only can parents see what their children are doing, but they can track the number of hours they spend on the computer, and limit it.  In addition, parents can block out certain games, TV shows and movies based on their rating.  However this seems like Microsoft is fighting a lost cause by making a simple parental control feature much more elaborate and complex than it needs to be.

In previous versions of Windows the alerts about security and updates became a nuisance to users.  Windows 7 is fully customizable to the frequency of alerts and messages popping up.  It also has the capability to show only specific types of alerts and updates. The old Tray on the taskbar on the right was always ballooning with icons and words. Now all alerts and updates go to a small box that appears only when clicked on the Tray. People may take this granted and not allow the computer to post any alerts which could lead to an unsafe computer.

Windows Vista’s completely new layout allowed for easier and more effective way to search for lost files.  However it was sometimes inconsistent and could only search one specific folder at time. The new search feature allows for search by date (also by range), size, and location. It can also save the search results for another time and preview what the file will look like before it is opened. It can search emails, music, pictures, and videos too. Windows 7’s new search feature will find a file no matter where it is. I think this feature is a very small but very useful and effective improvement. I don’t believe anyone could say anything negative about this feature as I’m sure anyone that has 7 is bound to use this at some point.

With Windows 7 came Internet Explorer 8 which came with a new feature called Web Slices.  This allows users to save a web site on the internet tool bar where it is easily accessible rather than navigating through favorites.  This is especially useful for sports scores and weather reports.  For example, when following a favorite sports team on a particular website, there is no need to keep the tab open.  Instead this link can be put on a Web Slice and the direct link will be placed on the internet tool bar, and opened whenever a score update is needed.  Like Windows 7’s search feature this is a small but effective improvement to Explorer 8.

Unlike Windows Vista, Windows 7 gives complete control over editing photos downloaded from a digital camera.  This means no more going to websites or camera shops to get photos fixed. This can fix the red eye, adjust the brightness, and crop the photo all from a computer.

People might say Windows 7 isn’t any better than Vista.  I believe it is better – but it doesn’t include the lights, bells and whistles that people expect in a new release. Windows 7 cleans up most of the imperfections in Vista. Windows 7 is a great operating system.  Not every improvement in technology has to be earth shattering.  It won’t be something that everyone is talking about like the new iPhone, but it will certainly be a welcome improvement to all Windows users.