Still Using Windows XP?

Why? Ok, I guess I know the answer that most of you will give:

"It's stable."
"All my drivers are available."
"Windows XP has been around for so long, I trust it."

Ok, while those are valid and honest answers....the first two answers apply to Windows 7 also. The third will eventually apply, but why not take a leap of faith? The worst that can happen is that you put Windows XP back on your system and go back to a boring PC experience. Or you can get up to the 21 century by upgrading to Windows 7. Let me explain to you why I think it is a great idea to upgrade your PC to Windows 7, even if it is almost 3 yrs old or older.

I experienced a flawless Windows 7 upgrade back in February of this year. And when I mean flawless, I mean nothing went wrong, nothing was missing. Everything just worked. Now, I did do an upgrade from Windows Vista, but even if you have Windows XP, you can still install Windows 7, you would just need to back up your data first and then install a fresh copy because there is no upgrade path from XP to Windows 7. I applaud Microsoft for this decision.....it would be like upgrading from a bike with training wheels to dirt bike....they are not the same.

Anyway...since February, my Windows 7 PC has not crashed, bluescreened or locked up at all. I can not say that for when it was Vista. And even though Vista did not crash as much as XP did and still does for people, it was extremely slow and a huge memory hog. Windows 7 is not like that, at least for me. My 3 yr old PC feels like I just purchased it from Dell again.....6 months later....still feels like that.

Look, I know not everyone will be able to upgrade to a new OS without buying some more RAM or maybe a new video card but most likely it will still come out cheaper to do a custom upgrade than to purchase a brand new PC or laptop right now. Check out some prices and see if it will benefit you.

Flawless Windows 7 upgrade

A couple of days ago I decided to upgrade my 3 year old Dell PC runnning Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional. I know what some of you are thinking, why upgrade to Windows 7 on a 3 year old PC, right? Well, there are two good reasons. One, I have a free copy authorized by my college and secondly, I need to learn as much as possible about Windows 7 so I can stay current with the times.

Now for the flawless upgrade information.....I inserted the Windows 7 DVD and ran setup. About 1 hour later, I had what feels like a brand new PC. Windows 7 is definitely faster than Windows Vista.....and all of my programs work perfectly. Infact, my Madden 2008 PC game runs twice as fast and the graphics are enhanced even with my current nVidia GeForce 8400 GS video card. The game ran OK under Vista but sometimes it would lock up on me.

So there you have it...at least one success story of a successful upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7. have you upgraded to Windows 7 yet?

Windows 7 for $30

I just came across a website that has partnered with Microsoft to sell Windows 7 for only $29.99. Only requirements is that you be currently enrolled in an approved list of colleges or universities. Microsoft will verify that you are a student so I suggest not trying to sneak your way in to purchasing Windows 7 for only $30. Make sure your PC can handle Windows 7 before deciding to purchase it.

Purchase Windows 7 for $30

Bluescreen error? Use this tool to view details.

Sorry for the long break in posting. I've been very busy in the past few weeks. Mostly moving into my very first home! Well, back to business, I have had some interesting computer problems at work lately so I will be posting the computer troubleshooting steps I took to fix them.

In the meantime...checkout the cool tool that was posted on Technibble this week. Bluescreens happen, period....there is no way to not get one if you are using any Microsoft Windows flavor. From windows 95 to Windows 7, bluescreens happen. The below listed tool may help figure out what caused the bluescreen which might help you troubleshoot the issue further to resolve the problem.

Check out the article here: BlueScreenView

PC Maintenance tip of the week: Defrag PC

Is it time to defrag your PC? Overtime, files get fragmented due to copying & moving files around, deleting files or installing applications on the hard drive. For example, let's say you had lots of music on the hard drive but decided to delete it. Now, all of the space where the music was is empty and ready for more files to be stored. Problem is that depending on how big the next program or file you attempt to install is, it may just not "fit" into the empty space vacated by the previous music files. Windows may have to find the next available space to finish the install of the program or file. This is what causes the fragmentation of the hard drive, which can cause the PC to respond slower because it has to work harder to find all of the files related to the program or application you are trying to access.

Solution: Defrag PC on a regular basis if you do alot of moving, copying or deleting of files or programs. On Windows XP, you can schedule a defrag or start one manually. Windows Vista attempts to automatically defrag when the PC is idle (but it is also scheduled to defrag as well by default).

Windows 7: Build 7048 is here

Windows 7, build 7048, which incorporates many noticeable changes since the previous versions especially when compared to the public beta build 7000 has already been leaked online. I honestly think Microsoft "lets" this happen on purpose so they can get beta testers trying it out faster.

Build 7048 was said by some sources to be the Release Candidate build, which is currently scheduled for sometime in April. So we could possibly be seeing the Release Candidate for Windows 7 if you can get your hands on one but you will have to get it from one of the popular torrents.

Perhaps the most notable change of all is the ability to uninstall and exclude Windows staples such as Windows Media Player, Windows Media Center, Windows DVD Maker, Windows Search, Handwriting Recognition, Windows Gadget Platform, Fax and Scan, XPS Viewer, and yes, Internet Explorer 8. Without Internet Explorer 8 installed, users will have to install some other browser for any hopes of accessing the World Wide Web.

Even so, build 7048 looks to be as close to a Release Candidate as Microsoft can get. Any more changes and they'll have to change the name again. What are your thoughts about this release?

Download Windows 7 Beta

Just wanted to write a quick post about the new Windows 7 Public Beta that is available from Microsoft beginning today at 12pm (PST). Of course, there are traffic load issues at the download site, but luckily, here at work, we have an MSDN subscription where I've previously downloaded Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. I am exciting about continuing to play with Windows 7 on an old laptop and also in my Microsoft Virtual PC lab.

Be sure to visit the Windows 7 website beginning at 3pm EST (12pm PST) if you would like to be one of the 2.5 million people to get the Windows 7 beta.

Are you going to download Windows 7? Leave me a comment...

Testing Windows 7

Today, I installed the pre-release copy of Microsoft Windows 7. Instead of totally screwing up my own PC, I decided to attempt the install on a Microsoft Virtual PC lab. By the way, this is what Virtual PC is supposed to be used for.....testing beta software. At least that is what I use it for.

A couple of things to know if you decide to try out Windows 7:

1) You must already have a copy of Windows Vista SP1 installed in order to upgrade to the pre-release version of Windows 7.

2) If you have an actual DVD in ISO format, that would be best. But for those of you who "obtained" a copy like I did....with a setup file and the rest of the files just in folders on the DVD. I had to copy the entire contents of the DVD to the desktop first and then run setup.exe from there.

3) Supposedly, you will need the Windows Vista RC1 key or Vista beta key from last year if you wish to activate Windows 7. I personally do not care to do this, I just wanted to see how it works and how it looks. There are ways around activation....but I do not recommend doing it since its against Microsoft TOS.

After the installation was finished....Windows 7 looks almost exactly like Windows Vista. It did seem to load faster than Vista but I was running it on Virtual PC which makes all versions of operating systems faster. I will follow up with another post about Windows 7 and its features sometime this week.

Read more about Windows 7 here: Windows 7 news