For those of you who have upgraded to Windows 7 and are looking for some shortcuts which were not previously available in Windows XP, check out this quick post: The Best Windows 7 Shortcuts. These shortcuts were derived from a huge list of shortcuts available in Windows.

I do not yet have Windows 7 so I cannot test them, however I can see the quick closing of programs from the dock window and new folder creation shortcut being very useful.

If you are the only person who uses a Windows 7 computer, one thing you can do is have your login information saved so you are automatically logged in when your machine boots up. To accomplish this, I am partial to the the Sysinternals Autologon tool (because it support any version XP and later), however you can configure this directly in Windows 7 as well.

While you can do this on any machine, due to the obvious security implications here, I would only suggest you do this on desktop machines where you trust everyone who has access to the machine. Yes, physical hardware access does trump any software security you have any place, but still you should be careful with using this.

If you are a student looking for an economical way to upgrade to Windows 7, through this special offer you can purchase an upgrade for $30.

The requirements for this offer are as follows:

• You qualify if you have a valid .EDU e-mail OR an e-mail address through one of the educational institutions listed here.
• You are enrolled in coursework, current proof or enrollment may be required in the United States.

This offer is good through January 3, 2010. Needless to say, this is a fantastic deal so take advantage of it if you can.

Now that Windows 7 is released, you early adopters may be interested in exactly how to migrate your existing install to Windows 7. If this is the case, check out this Microsoft article: Step-by-Step: Windows 7 Upgrade and Migration.

The article walks you through all the scenarios:

• Windows XP to Windows 7
• Windows Vista to Windows 7
• Old XP/Vista computer to a new computer running Windows 7

Personally, whenever I am installing an OS, I just wipe my existing installation and install it new. In my experience, an upgrade typically leaves stuff behind and I prefer my OS installation not be inhibited by any “pre-existing conditions” so there are no problems down the road.

For some reason the hibernate function is not enabled in either Windows Vista or Windows 7 by default (even if your BIOS supports it). On top this, enabling this power saving feature isn’t as simple as marking a check box.

If you want to make use of this rather nice function then here is how to do it in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

I find this feature especially useful on laptops because it essentially allows you to snapshot your current session and resume from exactly where you left off. Additionally, the bootup time from hibernation is usually much faster than a cold boot.

LogMeIn is by far one of the best remote PC services there is. I use it personally to connect to my PC when away from home. However when I initially tried to use it on my Windows 7 PC using the standard Windows account, I kept getting an "invalid password" notice – even though I knew the account credentials were correct.

It turns out what you need to do is add in the computer name in the login field followed by a slash and then the user name.

Here’s how it works:

First you have to know what the computer name is. This is done by going to:

• Control Panel
• System and Security (green link)
• System (green link)

Under Computer name, domain and workgroup settings, your computer name will be listed there. We’ll say for the sake of example your computer name is home.

For the Windows account, we’ll say your username is JohnDoe and password is ExamplePass123.

When logging into your PC on remote via LogMeIn, you login like this:

User name field: home/JohnDoe
Password field: ExamplePass123

From there you should be able to login with no problems whatsoever.

To note: When connecting to a Windows XP box via LogMeIn, you don’t need to add in the computer-name-slash in the user name field. You only need to do this for Windows 7 (and assumedly Vista as well) PCs.

When Windows Vista was initially released by Microsoft, a handy tool was made available which could scan your computer to determine if it is capable of running the then new OS. Well, now that Windows 7 is on the way, Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor has been made available:

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor scans your PC’s system, programs and devices to check if it’s able to run Windows 7. After a few minutes, the report will let you know if your PC meets the system requirements, if there are any known compatibility issues with your programs and devices, and will also provide guidance on your upgrade options to Windows 7.

Note this program is still in beta, but if you are planning to upgrade your current computer to Windows 7, you might want to give it a try to make sure your system can handle it.

Linux people in particular like the Telnet protocol because it allows easy command line interface access to PCs on a home network or small-biz setup. However if you have a Win 7 PC on your network, go to a prompt and type "telnet", the infamous "telnet is not recognized as an internal or external command.." shows up.

Is the telnet.exe program gone from Windows 7? No. You can easily put it back. Here’s how it’s done.

Step 1. Go to Control Panel, then Programs (big green link)

Step 2. Click Turn Windows Features on or off (blue link)

Step 3. Check the box for Telnet Client

…and that’s it.

You will have the telnet.exe program available from the command prompt again.

On the PCMech LIVE show last night a question came in that asked where the setting is to adjust the space System Restore uses in Windows 7.

This actually took quite a bit of digging to find it. And to note, this is different compared to Vista’s location.

Step 1.

Start "ball", Control Panel

Step 2.

System and Security (left side green link)

Step 3.

System (right side green link)

Step 4.

System Protection (left side link)

Step 5.

System Protection (tab)

Step 6.

Configure (click configure button, see previous screen shot)

On this screen is the familiar slider where we can set the amount space Windows 7 uses for System Restore.

Faster ways to get there

Fast way:

• Start "ball"
• Right click Computer
• Left click Properties from the small menu that appears
• Click System Protection on left
• Click System Protection tab
• Click Configure button

Faster way:

• Start "ball"
• Type system in the "Search programs and files" field
• Click System under Control Panel, like this:
  
• Click System Protection on left
• Click System Protection tab
• Click Configure button

Fastest way:

• Win-key + Pause-Break key (keystroke)
• Click System Protection on left
• Click System Protection tab
• Click Configure button

(Note before starting: This should also for work Windows Vista the exact same way.)

The way in which Windows 7 shows the date and time in the taskbar is like this:

However you can make it look like this:

Or this:

Or any number of other ways by modifying the short date format in Calendar settings.

To access this setting, you can get to it in several different ways.

Method 1 (the very long way):

1. Control Panel
2. System and Security
3. Clock, Language and Region
4. Date and Time
5. Change Date and Time (link)
6. Change Date and Time (button)
7. Change calendar settings

Method 2 (the much shorter way):

1. Right-click the clock in the taskbar.
2. Adjust date/time
3. Change date and time (button)
4. Change calendar settings

The Windows 7 date display in the taskbar does follow the short date format when adjusting the calendar settings.

Once you customize the short date, click Apply, then look to the taskbar date display to see if it’s to your liking. If not, change it around until you find something that suits you and click Apply again. When you find what you like, click OK.

I can’t tell you how happy I am that the date displays in whatever way I wish in Windows 7 without having to "raise" the taskbar just to see it.

Final notes:

If you choose to specifically use small icons in the bar, the taskbar will only show the time like XP did when "one tier" high.

If you mess up the way the time/date is displayed for whatever reason, note the Reset button in the screen shot above. This will restore the default appearance if you need to start over again.

For those wondering, I am running the 32-bit edition of Windows 7. I did this primarily for application compatibility above all else.

The first response from those who are familiar with 64-bit environments are quick to say, "But you can run 32-bit apps in a 64-bit environment easily."

That’s not always the case.

Running certain 32-bit apps in 64-bit environments can present itself to be a problem no matter what OS you use. For example, many Mac people use Photoshop. All new Macs are 64-bit. But Adobe does not have a 64-bit edition for the Mac. Photoshop still runs fine but doesn’t take full advantage of the 64-bit environment. It also ticked off Mac users something fierce that Photoshop 64-bit will be for Windows first. And if I were a Mac user that would perturb me quite a bit as well.

Per conversations I’ve had with a few folks running Windows Vista or 7 64-bit, two particular types of platforms have exhibited some quirks, also both from Adobe.

The first one is Adobe AIR. It would appear AIR doesn’t "play nice" in 64-bit world except for Linux currently. But on Windows 64-bit, AIR is something which may or may not work. So if you wanted to run AIR apps like Twhirl or TweetDeck on Vista 64 or Win 7 64, it might not even be possible presently.

Did you get Adobe AIR running on Windows Vista or 7 64-bit along with your favorite AIR apps? Let us know in the comments.

The second is a biggie, Adobe Flash. Some I’ve conversed with say Flash runs fine on 64-bit while others say it’s "tolerable" at best.

Did you get Adobe Flash running on your 64-bit Windows Vista or 7? Let us know in the comments on this one too as many would love to hear your experience.

Most people could live without AIR, but as for Flash, there are tons of web sites that simply require it. And going without Flash would be trying on the nerves to many.

Since I installed Windows 7 I’ve been loading in a bunch of apps. Some run the same as they did in XP with no noticeable improvement in speed or stability, while others appear to run much better. Here’s a few:

Mozilla Firefox

Since the introduction of version 3, the best way I can describe FF is that it "bottoms out" on XP too often.

Even with something as simple as launching the browser "cold" after system startup, it would pause for seemingly no reason. And bear in mind I use only use three add-ons that don’t tax the browser whatsoever.

And then there’s the FF’s memory-munching tendencies. On XP, the longer the browser is open, the more you see this.

On Windows 7, these issues are gone. It starts fast with the same add-ons and I can keep it open as long as I want.

OpenOffice Writer

This is a a beast-sized app and takes a while to get going on XP. And once running I would periodically see screen drawing issues where things would not land in proper places, forcing me to maximize/restore to reset it.

OO Writer still takes a bit to launch on 7 but is notably faster. And I don’t encounter any of those wonky screen draw issues either.

QuickTime

If you said, "I hate QuickTime", I can totally understand why. On XP this app has never run right. The only time people run and install QuickTime is so they can play MOV files.

Windows Media Player does have native support to play MOV files in 7, so you don’t have to install it now. But I need it because I have a Pro license for additional export abilities to other formats.

QuickTime in Windows 7 runs a whole lot better in every way. It launches better, the menus look more proper and is more stable all around.

Skype

Whenever I used Skype in XP it was a crapshoot as to whether it would work correctly or not. Most of the time it would work without complaint, but other times certain features just wouldn’t work whereas you had to restart the app over and over again.

To note, with this particular app there are only two types of experiences concerning running it on XP. It will either run fine without complaint or it will be problematic routinely. I was of the latter.

Skype in 7 breathed in a whole new life to this app. Now I can say it runs fine without complaint.

Other apps?

Out of the apps I’ve installed so far, there hasn’t been any instance where it ran worse than I did on XP. If there were, I definitely would have mentioned it, no question.

Lastly, I want to note two things:

Windows 7 will not make a bad program suddenly wonderful. If an app was written with haphazardly written code, has memory leaks and so on, 7 obviously won’t magically fix that.

Windows is well known for having strong legacy support. But if your app is ancient and didn’t work on XP, it won’t work in Windows 7 either.

In my quest to find something to gripe about concerning Windows 7, I found one so far. It’s a nitpick to be sure, but it counts.

On the command line, NETSTAT is an important tool because it displays what’s going on network-wise with Windows. It’s also a very good for detecting spyware with the -b flag.

NETSTAT alone works, but when you run netstat -b, this happens:

"The requested operation requires elevation"? What does that mean?

This was a good opportunity to see if the Help section of Windows 7 would actually help me or not. I clicked the Windows "ball" then Help and Support, typed in elevation, and the first result was Command Prompt: frequently asked questions, with one of those results being, "How do I run a command with elevated privileges?"

It states:

Ah, okay. Let’s see if this works:

When running the prompt "as Administrator", I get to run NETSTAT with the -b flag like I wanted to. I also learned that for quick access to run as Admin, the right click is what you want to do.

Having to do this is nothing new to me because in Linux there are times I have to "sudo" things to do the same stuff. However in Windows this may prove to be annoying to some.

Increased security such as this in an OS (especially Windows) is a not a bad thing. Slightly annoying, yes, but not bad.

What surprised me most, said very honestly, is that Windows Help was actually helpful. Imagine that.

Well, I did it. I installed Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit edition; this is now my primary operating system. I figured the only way to truly do this right was to "go native".

There’s something in 7 called the Windows Experience Index. This is a scorecard of sorts that gives you information on your hardware and how well the OS will perform.

At present the help section of the OS (which, believe it or not, is actually helpful), describes the WEI as:

The Windows Experience Index measures the capability of your computer’s hardware and software configuration and expresses this measurement as a number called a base score. A higher base score generally means that your computer will perform better and faster than a computer with a lower base score, especially when performing more advanced and resource-intensive tasks.

More detail in this screen shot:

(click to enlarge)

My computer box was given a score of 3.3, seen here:

(click to enlarge)

Further detail was given to me by clicking "View and print detailed performance and system information", seen here:

(click to enlarge)

From what I understand, anything over a 2 is somewhat decent because that’s supposedly slightly above average. My system is 32-bit, it is a Core 2 Duo (meaning not quad-core or octo-core) and only runs 2GB RAM (which I could upgrade to 4GB for the chump change price of $20).

What I like about the WEI is that the information that matters is given to you in plain English up front. In addition, the scan of your system to get this information doesn’t make you sit and wait for 5 minutes while the OS combs thru the system. If I remember correctly it took only a few seconds.

Aside from all that, this is my personal scorecard for what I believe most people would be interested in knowing:

Did anything not work (hardware)?

All my hardware works. The only thing I had to download was Windows 7 specific drivers from Microsoft for my IntelliMouse which adds a few extra features – and bear in mind that was optional and not required.

The two hardware items that surprised me the most as working with absolutely no issues were the aforementioned mouse and my nVidia video card. I had heard rumors aplenty that Vista had issues with that brand, but encountered zero problems with mine.

Did anything not work (software)?

Out of all my applications, only one didn’t work. It was older video editing software that doesn’t have a Vista release, so I can’t even blame 7 for it. Otherwise, everything worked.

Is Windows 7 slower than Windows XP?

On my system it isn’t. Surprisingly enough it’s actually faster – and bear in mind I’m running the Ultimate Edition.

Applications install faster and run faster/smoother. A good example of this is Mozilla Firefox. Typical wonky issues with FF under Windows XP (e.g. pausing for no reason, crashing) are completely gone in 7.

For whatever way 7 threads applications, it certainly does them right.

Was there a huge learning curve?

No, and solely for the reason that if I had a problem finding things I would do in XP, I just use the search function from the start menu and find it.

For example, I couldn’t immediately locate Add/Remove Programs. So I clicked the Windows "ball" (the start button replacement), clicked in the search field, typed "remove" and ta-da, there it was.

Like this:

Does any part of 7 look unfinished?

Not that I could find so far. In Vista it was all too easy to find things that were rough around the edges, so to speak.

Is Windows 7 difficult to use?

It isn’t easy to give a straight answer on this because it depends on computer experience and familiarity with the Windows environment.

Most people will be upgrading from 2000 or XP to 7. And if that’s you (and it most likely is), you won’t have any issues using 7. Yes, things have been changed around but not so much in a way where it’s frustrating. Personally I did not encounter any frustration using 7 whatsoever. As mentioned above, the reason I was able to get around easily is because of the built-in search so I could find stuff quickly.

Final notes for now

In all seriousness, I am trying to find something to complain about with 7. I really want to yap and gripe about this. But I have no yaps or gripes – and trust me, if I did you’d see it here.

Said honestly it is weird using a Windows OS that actually, dare I say, works right for a change. But a good kind of weird, obviously.

More will be coming on Windows 7 soon once I get myself more familiarized with the OS.

Windows 7 can do 64-bit gaming and do it quite well. But can it do it super-large style? Watch and find out.