Pensacola Computer Help Technoblog

Microsoft recently announced the return of the Windows 7 family pack for the 1 year birthday of Windows 7 – this is a 3 license package of Windows 7 Home Premium for $149.99 (usually one license is $99), and Dell is currently offering this with a $10 discount. For those people who have been thinking about upgrading to Windows 7, if you have a compatible computer, now is the time to take advantage of this low price! Take advantage of the Dell deal by clicking here: Dell Windows 7 Family Pack Offer

Of course, there are a few things to do before making the switch. First you need to make sure your computer is compatible with Windows 7 – almost all computers that have Vista installed on them can be upgraded, and some that have XP are compatible (although XP systems will need to do a fresh install of Windows 7). You can get the free Windows 7 upgrade advisor from Microsoft which will tell you if your computer hardware and software is compatible with Windows 7

Windows 7 is Microsoft’s latest operating system and is much improved over Windows Vista and XP. It contains features to help make your computer more productive, more secure, and easire to use. For more information on Windows 7, visit the Microsoft Windows 7 info page

Here in Pensacola, if you are thinking about taking the upgrade plunge, visit Pensacola Computers website for help and support. We are experienced in all aspects of Windows 7 upgrades for home and business users. Whether you want to upgrade your current system, do a fresh installation, or even get a new computer with Windows 7 preinstalled, PensacolaComputers.com can help. ALso check out our great Windows 7 video tutorials.

If you have been thinking about upgrading to Windows 7, but have been holding off due to the cost of the software, there is some good news from Microsoft. Beginning October 3, 2010 for a limited time (no end date announced), Microsoft will offer the Family pack upgrade for $149.99 – this includes three upgrade licenses for Windows 7 Home Premium. At $50 a license, this is a great deal. In order to be able to qualify for the upgrade, your computer must currently be running Windows XP or Windows Vista and be able to handle the hardware requirements for Windows 7.

To find out if your computer hardware/software is compatible with Windows 7, you can run the Windows Upgrade Advisor. Most systems that run Windows Vista should be able to upgrade to Windows 7 fairly easily. Windows XP users will need to ensure that there are adequate drivers for their hardware, and will have to do a clean install of Windows 7 (upgrading directly from Windows XP and keeping programs and settings is not supported). Windows Vista users can do an in place upgrade to keep their programs, files and settings, however it is generally better to do a clean install to elimate potential conflicts.

Windows 7 was released in October of 2009 and is a great operating system which offers many new and improved features that make using your computer easier and allows you to be more productive.

If you have questions about upgrading, or need some help with the upgrade process, contact Pensacola Computers. Offering computer service, repair and training for Windows 7 and other software, Pensacola Computers is ready to answer any of your Windows 7 or other Computer questions. Visit them on the web at http://pensacolacomputers.com

Pensacola Computers Presents – Windows 7 Quick Tips – part II
Here we show you how to use the new Library Folders in Windows 7. A great way to organize your files and folders to save time and find things easily. This is a new feature that is included in all versions of Windows 7, and a great time saver!

Brought to you in 720P HD – for best results, watch in full screen mode

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You can also watch this directly on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX8QvPIdZfE

Windows 7 has been out for a few months now, and most all new PC’s being sold include it. Here in Pensacola, the major retailers all have computers with Windows 7 pre-installed (beware of some of them trying to sell you the ‘added’ services like creating a backup disk for 30 bucks – anyone can do this easily themselves!)

Windows 7 brings a host of new features to the desktop and many people are unaware how to use all of them. Fear not, Microsoft has a great set of webpages that outline the new features of Windows 7, and include a number of how-to videos to help you get the most out of working with Windows 7. They also have a great help section to help with issues such as upgrades from Windows Vista, and making older programs run in Windows 7.

Here are some helpful links to get you started with Windows 7:

 For general help and troubleshooting – http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/help

Getting started with Windows 7 – http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/help/getting-started

A great collection of Windows 7 how-to videos – http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/help/videos

Install/reinstall/unistall tips for Windows –  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/help/install-reinstall-uninstall

Windows 7 features – http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features

Windows 7 downloads Themes, Backgrounds, and Gadgets – http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/personalize

Microsoft has a killer deal for college students with a valid edu email address – Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional for only $29.99 at http://win741.com This deal ends at 11:59 PM on January 4th, so you better hurry up!!

You can choose either Home Premium or Professional (you might as well get PRO as it has everything in Home Premium plus some extra’s like being able to join a domain). You can also choose either 32 or 64 bit versions – if you have more than 2 GB of RAM, 64 bit is probably the best way to go. You can also do an upgrade or a fresh install – I highly recommend getting the .iso version rather than the .exe version as you can easily burn the .iso version to a DVD for a clean install, whereas the .exe version can only be used to do an upgrade from within an existing version of Windows (the .iso can also be used this way).

Microsoft is also offering Office 2007 Ultimate to students for $59.99 through their ultimate steal promotion: http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-us/default.aspx - better hurry for this one too!

Black Friday sales are everywhere with supposed incredible deals on computers – but are they really that incredible? While some prices advertised may seem like the best you’ve ever seen, be careful! Many of the computers that are being offered are year old models (or even older in some cases) with old technology that will barely run the software they have on them. Just because a computer comes with Windows 7 doesn’t mean that it is a new computer model – case in point: I saw a computer advertised at a large retailer for Black Friday that offered wireless b/g (but no wireless n), 10/100 Ethernet (many new systems offer 10/100/1000), and a AMD processor that was released 2 years ago – and the price on the system wasn’t that good anyhow.

There are also many of the ‘netbooks’ being advertised at $199 – $299, and while some of these are ok deals, many people don’t realize that these netbooks are designed for basic internet and single running applications (multi-tasking will often slow them to a crawl). While netbooks are great for on the go and portability, they are by no means media or gaming type computers, nor are they made to handle the demands of heavy duty business applications. In addition, most of the real cheap ones come with Windows XP (which lets face it is on it’s way out as it is a 9 year old operating sytem that is reaching the end of it’s lifetime).

After looking at many of this years Black Friday ads for computers, I would have to say that for the most part it looks as if the retailers and manufacturers are offering the best deals on mostly junk that they are trying to clear out of their inventories. In the end it is probably better to shop the regular sales and stick to the mid-range prices where you will find the best deals – you can often find an $800 computer in the $450-$500 range. Just take your time and do a bit of research before buying – if the deal looks too good to be true – it usually is.

This year in Pensacola, you will find your best computer deals at places like Office Depot and Best Buy – just remember to take anything the salespeople there tell you will big grain of salt (you are better off to do your research first, and then just getting what you have pre-decided on). Remember to NOT let them sell you any garbage security software (most anything they will try to sell you is overpriced and not that good), and beware of the sold called value added services like charging you extra money to ‘optimize’ your system, or to create a recovery disk (both things that you can easily do yourself). Also beware of those ‘extended’ warranty plans that usually require you to bring your computer to them to get fixed (which often will take quite a bit of time, as if it is anything serious they usually send the computer out anyhow).

The best shopping experience can be had by good preparation – for some useful info about computer buying and systems, check out the Computer Guide at PensacolaComputers.com: http://pensacolacomputers.com/guides.htm

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer announced at this years CES the release of Windows 7 Beta 1 to both official beta testers and the general public. For those who are technically inclined, you can get a free copy (it will run until August) here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-download.aspx . As a Beta, it is expected to have some bugs, however from what I have seen so far, most of these are minor annoyance bugs and Windows 7 seems to be less demanding on hardware than Windows Vista, and also seem pretty zippy.

Windows 7 comes with a number of pretty cool new features, including a newly designed taskbar with a very cool implementation of live windows previews and switching. It also comes with a reworked Windows Explorer which now has true Library folders (a Library folder is actually a collection of folders so that you can access all of a certain type of file from multiple locations). Library folders can be especially useful when you have things like Music scattered in differernt folders (and even on different hard drives).

A number of things have been redesigned for better access and simplicity, and there are some noteable improvements especially in the Network area. In my own intitial tests (I have installed this on 4 systems so far), all of my hardware was properly identified by Windows Setup (Microsoft says that if you are currently running Vista, you should have no problems). The setup even installed drivers for my printer, TV Tuner card, and Bluetooth!

A Beta is not something to try if you don’t have a fair level of technical experience though – things like being able to burn an iso file to a DVD, knowing how to do a system backup, and willingness to suffer through some inevitable bugs. However, that being said, Windows 7 has been a joy for me to use, and I have been quite impressed with how well it runs, especially being just a Beta. I will be posting some screenshots soon as well as a more in-depth review of some of its cool new features in the days to come.

I was reading and interesting article about someone who already hates the new Windows 7 because they are a die-hard XP fan: If you love Windows XP, you’ll hate Windows 7 . In the article, someone who has tested the new Windows 7 Beta tells about what they hate. Thankfully the author of the article goes on to point out why the things that are hated are in fact some of the greatest improvements in Windows. One of these being how the new Search feature works. This is one of the most misunderstood and often unused features in Windows Vista, and every time I show someone how it really works, they are amazed. A lot of Vista’s problems are due to a couple of factors, the main one being that when Vista was first released, there just weren’t enough hardware drivers for it, and as a result a lot of older hardware just wouldn’t work – and this pissed people off. Of course, this led to Vista getting slammed in the press, and what followed was a huge number of people hating Vista without ever really trying it.

Hopefully Windows 7 will not suffer the same fate. While I personally love Vista and have been using it well before it was officially released, I am looking forward to some of the new and improved features in Windows 7. The nice thing about Windows 7 is that it should easily run on hardware that is running Vista now, and in fact it may very well run on some older hardware that doens’t run Vista very well.

While XP was ok when it first came out (although if you were there, you will remember how people screamed that their Windows 98 hardware and software had so many problems trying to run on XP), XP is old, it was never designed for the applications and rich media internet that we experience today. Nor was it designed to deal with the numerous security threats that are out there today. While Microsoft is still issuing security patches for it, it just isn’t as secure as it needs to be, especially if you do anything on the internet. There is also the fact that as time goes on, there will be less and less manufacturers that will release XP drivers for new hardware, as well as less new software that will be supported on it.

I am currently one of the limited number of official Beta Testers for Windows 7, and as the testing progresses I will be writing up some of my opinions (limited somewhat by my Beta Tester agreement with Microsoft). What I can tell you now is that Windows 7 looks to be a great operating system, and for those who have held off moving to Vista from XP, when it is released I will probably highly recommend it to all those people who haven’t upgraded yet.

Microsoft recently released a pre-beta version of the next version of Windows (named Windows 7) to a select group of developers, and I must say that so far it is looking pretty good, especially considering it’s pre-beta state. While Vista has certainly had its share of people who ‘say’ they don’t like it (mostly because of trying to run old software or hardware etc), Windows 7 aims to take some of the annoyances from Vista and make it more user friendly.

Starting with a less intrusive version of user access controls (those annoying pop-ups in Vista, that actually help protect your computer), and moving to better file management, an improved back-up program, and a host of other interface improvements, Windows 7 is looking like it will be the Vista that Microsoft hoped for originally.

Although a final release date has not been set, we can probably expect to see Windows 7 hit the market sometime late next year – stay tuned for more information as we dig into the new Windows 7