AdventuresInWindows7

Scott Dallas, a friend of mine in the states, recently pointed out the secret “God Mode” feature in Windows 7.

God Mode is pretty much just an uber control panel, listing pretty much any option you can think of. Amazingly, it’s dead easy to access once you know how… (continue reading…)

Microsoft have made User Account Control (UAC) much more palletable in Windows 7.

As many of you recall, UAC was probably the one feature “killer” feature in Vista. Killer in that it actually killed Vista. People hated it, nobody could work it out, and most people went against Microsoft’s advice and disabled it entirely.

Well the bad news is that UAC returns in Windows 7. The good news is that it’s much easier to tame using the User Account Control Settings window…

And here’s how… (continue reading…)

Well, we knew it wouldn’t be long, but we have to admit it’s sooner than we suspected. Most computer manufacturs are now shipping various versions of Windows 7 with new machines.

This probably has a lot to do with the generally accepted hatred of Windows Vista. Right from the off, Vista was derided as the worst OS Microsoft ever produced. So naturally, they want to get everyone shipping 7 as fast as possible.

From a couple of weeks before launch, we were being offered free upgrades, but now… everything is in full swing, and you’ll pretty much have to ask for Vista if you don’t want Windows 7. Although quite why you’d want to is anybody’s guess…!

It’s finally here!

Today sees the official launch of Windows 7. It’s been a long wait, but well worth it. We no longer have to endure Windows Vista if we want sexy glass effects and an OS that’s closer to the 21st century than the 20th.

Windows 7 is available in 4 versions…

• Home Basic
• Home Premium
• Professional
• Ultimate

Of course all versions are available un upgrade and full versions, and for both 32-bit and 64-bit processors.

I’d definently recommend upgrading from Vista, and if you’re machine is capable, from XP too.

For more details and prices please see Amazon UK or Amazon US.

With the release of Windows 7 RTM yesterday, and it’s subsequent installation here at AdventuresInTech, we thought we’d celebrate with a new theme here on AdventuresInWindows7!

That and the fact that the previous theme causes some issues in IE7. Boo hiss!

So, what do you think? Let us know in the comments!

If you’re one of the lucky people who have access to the RTM through MSDN, you may be thinking about upgrading your Windows 7 installation from the Release Candidate (RC) to the Release To Manufacture (RTM) version.

You’d think this would be easy? Sadly… Microsoft have prevented such upgrades.

I’m not really sure why they’ve made it so difficult for people who have been testing the RC to then upgrade to the final product, but luckily for us there is a way round it.

The HowTo Geek has posted this article which explains the process you have to go through to perform the upgrade. It’s reasonably simple, and anyone who has been running the RC is probably geeky enough to do what’s required.

It begs the question though… what’s going to happen when it goes on sale and people can’t upgrade from the RC?

My friend Chris Ward recently pointed me at a number of blog posts indicating a bug in the recently released RTM version of Windows 7.

Don’t panic, it’s not the apocalypse! But it could prove rather embarrassing for Microsoft.

The bug, which is effectively a memory leak, resides in CHKDSK – the hard drive integrity checker that’s shipped with Windows (and DOS) for years.

Apparently, when you use the command chkdsk [DRIVE:] /r (where [DRIVE:] is a hard drive letter), if that drive is not the Primary hard drive, memory usage jumps to 90+ plus! With that level of memory usage, a PC is at best likely to become unresponsive, and at worst freeze althogether.

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Today sees the release of Windows 7 RTM (Release To Manufacture) on Microsoft’s MSDN website.

This means that anyone who is a registered MSDN or Technet Subscriber (uber-geeks, basically), can now download the versions of Windows 7 that will be in the shops come October 23rd.

As we speak, I am downloading Windows 7 Ultimate for installation on my laptop and 2 desktop PCs, and I will of course be reporting any changes since the Release Candidate.

Windows 7 is here – now this show can really get on the road…

The technology rumour mill has kicked into action again with talk that Microsoft has set a release date for the Windows 7 PC operating system, the successor to the ill-received Windows Vista.

The release date is being rumoured as October 15th, but as far as I know, this hasn’t been officially announced. That said, it looks like a good candidate given that Microsoft previously stated they would be releasing the new OS in the 4th Quarter of 09.

Here at AdventuresInWindows7 , we are already running the Release Candidate on some of our machines, and will be ramping our coverage in the lead up to launch and beyond.

If you haven’t downloaded the Release Candidate yet, you can do so here . But remember, it is an unsupported release that will expire on June 30th.

So the big question is “what’s it like?”. Well, here’s the desktop…

As you can see, it’s quite different!

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