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.

        

Courtesy of “Popcorn” Eddie B

        

Earlier this week I got an e-mail from a listener who got tricked into buying a copy of the antivirus NOD32  from a bogus sales site and was probably ripped off $85 in doing so.

The way this happened was, he was interested in purchasing NOD32 and did a search on Google for the antivirus program.  He found several site listings claiming to be official site.  Upon choosing one and making the purchase, he discovered that there were additional fees for three years of support.  Thinking that this was correct.  He went ahead and made the purchase, only to discover that he was redirected to a site that tried to sell him Other products as well.

When the gentleman contacted the company and request a refund he was told he would have to fill out a form and submit it, which he did, and wait for somebody to contact him, which did not happen.

He then called his bank to see about canceling the charge and was told that the charge was still pending and he had to wait until it was complete before he could dispute it.

There are two issues that people need to be aware of when they are buying online.

First, either buy online from known reputable companies, i.e. Amazon, Borders, Best Buy, etc., or do some research and attempt to buy from the manufacturers website.

The second issue, has to do with how you pay for your online purchase.  In this case listener was confused because he used a visa debit card from his bank and he requested to dispute the charge.  He thought just because it had a Visa logo on it that was a Visa protected credit card.

Please make note of this, most debit cards are issued by your bank and either have the visa or MasterCard logo on them.  These are not credit cards!  They are debit cards with a direct connection to your checking account.  And, they do not carry the same protections  that a real credit card have.  For instance, the company that you gave your debit card number two now has a direct connection to your checking account and can withdraw everything that’s in it without your knowledge.  And, you cannot dispute the charge on a debit card and get your money back.

If you’re going to purchase online, the best advice I can give is to obtain a real credit card, which means you have to apply for it and be approved for it, with a small credit limit, say $300-$500.  By doing so you get to protection of Visa and MasterCard in case of a dispute, and the maximum that could be charged is the maximum credit limit available on the card.

Phishing scams, socially engineered e-mails, had bogus websites will do everything in their power to obtain your credit information so that they can access your hard-earned money without your knowledge.

Oh, one more thing, don’t ever use your checking account numbers to make a purchase online either.  That is just as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than using a debit card.

When this listener asked me what my advice was I suggested that he call his bank and cancel the card immediately and ask for a new one to be issued.  By doing so he would stop any charges to his debit card that might be fraudulent.  The inconvenience of reestablishing any auto payments you have set up on the debit card might take a few minutes of your time, but it’s much safer canceling the card to protect your money than risking losing it.