Clinton here, with some more juicy, very juicy thoughts in and around Windows 7.

“God Mode” in Windows 7

 Question: Suddenly I’m hearing a lot about some kind of “God Mode” in Windows 7.
  I know what that means in games, but I can’t make sense out of it as a Windows thing. Is it real? Is it good for anything?

Answer: The correct name for this feature is “All Tasks.” Apparently, one of the Windows 7 beta editions made this feature visible to users, but Microsoft later pulled it back into the shadows.  The “All Tasks” folder lists over 250 settings from various Control Panel applets and system settings dialogs in a tree-structured list, organized by the application associated with each setting.

To enable this All Tasks feature on your Windows 7 workstation, simply create a new folder on your desktop and name it God Mode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}, Opening this folder displays that lengthy list of settings.

The great thing about this list is the substantial collection of keywords associated with each setting.
You can search on a keyword like “menu” or a phrase like “bring back” and thereby trim the list to show only settings that relate in some way.
This is a lot easier than guessing which Control Panel applet or settings dialog controls the feature you’re looking for!

Have a great day!

Clinton Garbutt – Desktop Productivity Specialist
MCP, MCDST, MCTS, MCITP

Data#3
Australia’s Integrator of the Year

Hi there,

Clinton here, with some more juicy, very juicy thoughts in and around Windows 7.

RTM Enterprise edition is so fresh! This is really such a great time and era for change.
All companies out there should embrace this solid, reliable and fast operating system with both hands and feet. Bear hug time!

As a specialist, I’m fully aware of old habits and daily quirks users carry with them to work. You get those users who like to fill their desktops full of icons and attachments.
Ordered chaos they say….”I know where my files are…ok!”

Or users who have shortcuts stored inside a desktop folder. Others prefer to stack there links a mile high on their start menus.
Whatever the flavour of person, Windows 7 has understood and realised your funny ways. And hey that’s all good – coz it’s you!

So touching on one of the personalisation features that users enjoy:

Ok so to kick things off, studies have been conducted around the environment of screen resolution settings. These environments are almost the first ports of
call for users who prefer to read their content close up. In fact some studies have revealed that over 55% of users set their resolutions to a lower setting even if their
system is capable of higher outputs.

This quote comes from Engineering Windows 7 site, published September 13, 2008:

We don’t have a way of knowing for sure why users adjust their screen resolution down, but many of the
comments we’ve seen match our hypothesis that a lot of people do this to because they have difficulty reading default text on high resolutions
displays.  With that said, some users probably stumble into this configuration by accident; for example due to a mismatched display driver or an
application that changed the resolution for some reason but did not change it back.

So with all this revelation about screens and resolutions what are you using? Well it’s very likely that you’re using a high dot per inch (DPI) type display. If you
are still working on Windows XP, or Windows Vista you’re also not getting the best resolutions and settings out of your monitor.
Do you always squint to read text and then quickly change to a lower resolution to accommodate? Stop this!

With Windows 7, you will not have to worry about this issue. Building on top of the improvements already made to support high DPIs in Windows Vista, Windows 7 is set to make
changing DPIs as intuitive and as “safe” as changing resolutions.Just to take it one step further, Windows 7 will even choose the most appropriate or recommended DPI for you when you install 

 Make the text on your screen larger or smaller

You can make the text and other items, such as icons, on your screen easier to see by making them larger. You can do this without changing the screen resolution
of your monitor or laptop screen. This enables you to increase or decrease the size of text and other items on your screen while keeping your monitor or laptop set to its optimal resolution.

1. Right-Click on your desktop
2. Select the option, Screen Resolution.
3. Select the link, Make text and other items larger or smaller.
   
4. Choose one of the following:
   • Smaller – 100% (default). This keeps text and other items at normal size.
   • Medium – 125%. This sets text and other items to 125% of normal size.
   • Larger – 150%. This sets text and other items to 150% of normal size. This
     option appears only if your monitor supports a resolution of at least
     1200 x 900 pixels.
     
5. Click Apply.

To see the change, close all of your programs and then log off of Windows. This change will take effect the next time you log

Have a great day!

Clinton Garbutt – Desktop Productivity Specialist
MCP, MCDST, MCTS, MCITP

Data^#3
Australia’s Integrator of the Year 

I trust you are now rolling with Windows 7 RC (Release Candidate).

Clinton here with some more juicy, very juicy thoughts in around the Windows 7 RC (Release Candidate).
We are edging so much closer now to the boxed release of Windows 7. Exciting times.
However the RTM code is now out and ready to be used by vendors and manufacturers alike.

When it comes to building OEM platforms there can be a lot of issues around features noit switching on or off, drivers not driving and software incompatibilities.
That’s why in this topic I thought we would tackle the issue of troubleshooting.

The troubleshooting platform in Windows 7 is central totally amazing and breathtaking platform. When you consider the strain it will potentially take from your support desk.
You will again like many fall head over heels in bliss towards getting Windows 7 deployed through your organization.

In the main categories you have:

·         Programs

·         Hardware and Sound

·         Network and Internet

·         Appearance and Personalization

·         System and Security

So under these main categories you can pick subtopics relating. You will find this feature in the Control Panel > Troubleshooting or open the Action Center flag icon on the taskbar.
This is very good place to start when you’ve hit a problem and before you go on a wild Google chase. One of the features that caught my eye was the Programs category.

This category you will locate your naughty application which may take a little bit of disk browsing if it’s not displaying under the list.
You select the potential issues and which version of Windows it previously it use to work on. Now let the system find updates and resolution as to why it wont load or run in Windows 7. 

Finally, I must say Windows 7 is doing well for me and the support aspect that I face day in and day out.
And if you haven’t got Windows 7 installed, what are you waiting for? GO NOW and download the 32bit or 64bit version (for Dual Core CPU’s).

Go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

Have a great day! J

Clinton Garbutt – Desktop Productivity Specialist
MCP, MCDST, MCTS, MCITP

DATA#3
Australia’s Integrator of the Year 

Clinton here, with another juicy, very juicy moment in our build-up to Windows 7.

Ok so, I was thinking as I always do, back to when navigating through the avenues and byways of features within Windows XP and Vista was character building.

And, a feature that was always contentious was the ability to connect to projectors.

Oh the bliss, depending on the driver and the time of day, that your system would miraculously connect and synchronize to the projector with the perfect resolution.
In other words, a match made in cyber heaven! Granted this one is for laptop users primarily.

To get things working, you have to do something like this: 

1.        Connect one end of the video cable to the projector unit.

2.        Connect the 15-pin connector of the cable to the PC.

3.        Turn on projector.

4.        Turn on PC.

5.        If the image from the screen does not show on the screen, Press the FN – “function” key and normally F7 or F8 until the image on the laptop screen shows on the projected screen.

6.        Connect the USB cable and install driver software as needed to make remote control functions work.

7.        Show your presentation on the Screen.

In Windows XP, open the Display icon in the Control Panel and then click the Settings tab. If you ran into any trouble, you could visit the configuration settings to make sure your hardware is working properly.

In Windows Vista, open Personalization in the Control Panel and then click Display Settings. Here you will be able either to configure projector settings, and use it to setup a second display or to display what is currently being shown on your computer. If you were using a laptop and it was connected to a docking station, it would also cause problems with the projector trying to verify it properly.

Therefore, you would need to disconnect the laptop from the dock before reconnecting the projector. For best results, you would need to have both the computer and projector turned off before making the connection between the two. Hectic!

In Windows 7, you now have the following feature:

Press Windows key + P = Presentation Display Mode menu. From this feature display to can alleviate the stress of dealing with obscure OEM display Drivers. This is especially useful for notebook users trying to connect to an external projector. So the quick and easy function of this shortcut key, Windows+P, displays a popup menu.

This menu offers the following features:

·         Onscreen ONLY

·         Duplicate or Clone the image to BOTH onscreen AND LCD/Projector

·         Extend the image to BOTH onscreen AND LCD/Projector

·         Extend to LCD/Projector ONLY

To action: Use your keyboard arrows to navigate through > Click Enter to activate.

Note:
To activate this feature by typing displayswitch.exe in the search programs and files text box. In other circumstances when you require more control over volume, screen brightness etc…simply click Windows+X, to bring up the Windows Mobility Center feature.
This feature existed in Windows Vista too.

So now, if you use a laptop, Windows+X can quickly make those hiddent settings available such as speaker volume, wireless network connection status, and display brightness. In addition, all of these settings are in one location, you now save time and don’t have to rummage around in the taskbar with icons, right-clicking to find settings.

Horrible!

Again, this is awesome when you need to quickly adjust laptop settings in different places—such as traveling from your desk to a meeting, or going from home to the airport.

GO NOW and download the 32bit or 64bit version (for Dual Core CPU’s).

Go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

Have a great day! J

Clinton Garbutt – Desktop Productivity Specialist
MCP, MCDST, MCTS, MCITP

DATA#3
Australia’s Integrator of the Year 

Tick tock, tick tock, the seconds are flying by as we count down to the launch of Windows 7.

Quoted from Computerworld, June 2, 2009: “Microsoft will put Windows 7 on store shelves and computer makers will have systems ready to sell with Vista’s successor on Oct. 22, the company confirmed today. Microsoft will also offer discounted or free upgrades to Windows 7 to users who buy PCs in the months leading up to the operating system’s launch in a program dubbed “Windows Upgrade Option,” a company spokeswoman said Tuesday. “

Clinton here, with some more juicy oh so juicy thoughts in and around Windows 7.

Ok so, I was thinking that perhaps once you have the Windows 7 RC installed on an older PC arrangement there must be an improvement in the speed and movement within the OS to open applications and multitasking.
And at this point, I can say, YES! The OS makes good use of system resources. Things such as memory or drive space, CPU calculations and GPU processing. However, if you’re like me when it comes to making a machine work harder, then this post will interest you.
It is all about boosting and grinding out that lost speed and processing power hidden away from the general default system configurations.

The little extra tweaks that will push your PC further:

Hardware Boost Item 1:

From a hardware perspective, and the only significant upgrade that by far is the easiest item financially to push onto an older machine, is to see how much extra memory you can slot onto that motherboard.

Dropping those 1Gig chips perhaps and upgrading them to 2Gig chips or trying to fill all slots will improve things alot.
This may seem obvious, but remember the basics of computer engineering – Random Access Memory (RAM) provides space for your computer to read and write data to be accessed by the CPU (central processing unit). If you add more RAM to your computer, you reduce the number of times your CPU must read data from your hard disk. This usually enables your computer to work considerably faster, as RAM is many times faster than a hard disk.

WARNING:
If your PC is old, then finding RAM for it might be a tad hard, and also the sliding cost scale turns dramatically upwards. Why?

Because older memory models chipsets are harder to find and support and so they become like little pieces of gold sitting in your friendly village PC shops through-away bin. Hunt them down and install.

Hardware Boost Item 2:

Update the pc’s hardware drivers – Windows 7 does a good job of informing you that certain devices are not running on the latest drivers. Now in my previous post, How to get your company ready for Windows 7, I mentioned there a significant tool that will help you understand what devices drivers and hardware are lacking newer software drivers and incompatibilities with Windows 7. This tool, The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor will inform you and help to alleviate 95% of all device issues in the lead up to your Windows 7 installation.

If there are STILL devices and BIOS issues after your Windows 7 installation then, first port of call is to contact vendors, visit support download sites or move some hardware items around to accommodate the issues.

From the software perspective now, there are heaps of things that you can do in Windows 7 to run faster:

Software Boost Item 1:

Start-up Devices and Programs – Go through all of your start-up programs and disable or remove the ones you do not want to start when Windows 7 activates. This will be easier task as you will be setting these start-up features per program on install. When building your SOE image these features will need to be confirmed before imaging takes place across a network.

This by the way is a critical boost for your network uses as some may have older machines together those with newer models – thus creating a variance in speeds on start-up. Moreover, it sets a standard to measure performance across the network.

Software Boost Item 2:

So now, when you’re inside the OS. You can optimize performance by changing how menus and windows appear. The most common visual effects to uncheck are:

·         Glass Transparency Effect – You can disable it without disabling Aero.

·         Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing

·         Animations in the taskbar and Start Menu

·         Fade or slide menus into view

·         Fade or slide ToolTips into view

·         Fade out menu items after clicking

·         Show shadows under windows

·         Slide open combo boxes

Software Boost Item 3:

Turn System Restore off to save hard drive space. Moreover, once this is disabled, this feature won’t run in the background creating restore points. Obviously, the downside to this is, you don’t have a fall back-point to utilise if you installed some dodge software, incompatible service pack, hotfix or device update.

Software Boost Item 4:

In the background now, behind all the bells and whistles of the OS front-end are very needed processes called Services.  These processes run in the background using part of your computer’s resources. You can check on the Microsoft site to see what services can be comfortably switched off for the time.

Software Boost Item 5:

Now these items are your generic spring clean tools – and should never be forgotten or underestimated.

·         Running Disk Cleanup – Remove unnecessary files on your hard disk to free up disk space and help your computer run faster.

·         Running defragmentation – fragmentation is a phenomenon in which storage space is used inefficiently, reducing storage capacity and in most cases performance.

·         Scheduled Runs – By default, the Disk Defragmenter is scheduled to run in the background automatically in Windows 7. You can set the timer to run when the system is not in use, or turn it off and run it manually.

Software Boost Item 6:

System Power Management – The power plan maximizes system performance and responsiveness. However, the downside for laptop users is you will notice that your battery will not last as long when using this plan.

GO NOW and download the 32bit or 64bit version (for Dual Core CPU’s).

Go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

Have a great day! J

Clinton Garbutt – Desktop Productivity Specialist
MCP, MCDST, MCTS, MCITP

DATA#3
Australia’s Integrator of the Year 

Clinton here, bring you more juicy, very juicy thoughts in Windows 7 land.

Windows 7 Launch Dates Confirmed:
So dates are being confirmed from Microsoft that the 22 October 2009  is the launch for Windows 7 - to be in stores. And the kiwis will have the first store launches as the sun rises over New Zealand. There is also rumours that Microsoft will only be doing low key launches for the new OS this time. But I can’t see this happening - this is a HOT product!  Exciting times…

However, some retailers are already jumping on the bandwagon to do some early promotions of the product that includes free upgrades for those who purchase Vista based computers on or after the June 26^th.
Lesson 101 – How to make money off something that is not there yet – Sell it early and throw in a perk!

Oh well, I guess that’s how the marketing world spins. Speaking of spinning, the launch date, according to Microsoft, to release the RTM version to Partners is not too far off. 2^nd half of July 2009 it will be made available to Microsoft Partners. This is to build your gorgeous customized, vanilla flavored, what everyone will have on his or her desktops, SOE, for your business.

Anyway, back to the present.

So, when a new version of Windows is released, people either upgrade their existing PC’s or purchase a new PC one. The new system will for the most part have the latest version of Windows already pre-installed.

Now, if you want to upgrade your system you are often challenged with question of whether your PC can actually run a newer version of Windows OS.
Fortunately, Microsoft has taken ALL the guess work out of this issue and provided you, as it has been so with other new for new OS’s,  a special little gizmo application.

It’s called an Upgrade Advisor.
And with Windows 7 coming out soon, you can download the – Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor tool, to see how your PC is posed in its performance / readiness for Windows 7.

I would like to add to this picture, Windows 7 IS a significant OS that has been rebuilt, refined and tuned TO CATER for older, less apparant systems.
And thats the beauty of this OS…it will, on just about any older classed system run without few or any glitches. But hey, dont tke my word for it – USE this tool to prove it. You’ll be shocked!

Currently there is a beta version of the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor available. Click here to download it.
The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor is a free tool that you can download to examine your PC’s processor, memory, storage, and graphics capabilities. The tool will also identify known compatibility issues with installed software and devices. On completion, a results page is displayed where the findings are clearly laid out and marked. The tool will clearly provide you with guidance on how to resolve known issues if at all possible.

Note:
If you are a Windows XP user – you will be required to do a clean install of the Windows 7 RC and the RTM version. And only PCs with Windows Vista can be upgraded to Windows 7.
However, I would recommend doing fresh from the ground up clean install.

After running the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor on my Vista Enterprise OS system, I confirmed these results:   

The Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor tool measures  your PCs ability to upgrade smoothly to Windows 7. This is based on the following: 

• 1 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1GB RAM (32-bit) / 2GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16GB available disk space (32-bit) / 20GB (64-bit)
• DirectX® 9 graphics processor with WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) 1.0 or higher driver

Also, make sure you have plugged in any USB devices or other devices such as printers, external hard drives, or scanners that are regularly used with the PC BEFORE you run this tool. The extra devices are ALSO scanned and checked as part of the scan.  

Finally what else can be said but the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor is easy enough for anyone to use and quick too. Took me about 5mins to complete the scan and review the results…

GO NOW and download the 32bit or 64bit version (for Dual Core CPU’s).

Go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

Have a great day! J

Clinton Garbutt – Desktop Productivity Specialist
MCP, MCDST, MCTS, MCITP

DATA#3
Australia’s Integrator of the Year 

I trust Windows 7 RC 7100 (Release Candidate) is installed on your PC now.
Heard a rumor that version RC 7200 would be coming through at some stage…not sure how true though. Will wait on the mothership to drop that payload.

So hey, Clinton here again with some more juicy, very juicy thoughts in the Windows 7 world.

Man, there is a lot of exciting things going on in this product. And it’s only a few months to go before we get to see boxed editions on the shelves. Nice!

So today, I was looking at some newly modified applications we ALL use day-in and day-out. And this one caught my eye…

This application has been around for millennia – It’s the Calculator. Windows 7 has introduced a completely revamped Calculator > run Calc.exe.

It arrives with 4 FRUITY flavoured built-in modes: 

·         Standard

·         Scientific

·         Programmer

·         Statistics

The best feature of this calculator is the Template functions.  These I reckon, are the best features I have ever seen integrated in a basic standard application. Simplicity at its best!

Things such as:

·         Unit conversion

·         gas mileage,

·         Wage calculations

·         Mortgage and lease repayments

The days template does it for me … so X number of days minus etc etc…no more quick calculations in an Excel spreadsheet with a dates formula.
Go on,  be nostalgic! Head back to your favorite Maths class at school and retry a trigonometric calculation on the calc…Or, if that was a bad experience for you, then perhaps change your Windows 7 themes to a nice yellow sunny day – Now stay in that Happy Place…

In addition, if you don’t have Windows 7 installed, what are you waiting for? 

GO NOW and download the 32bit or 64bit version (for Dual Core CPU’s).

Go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

Have a great day! J

Clinton Garbutt – Desktop Productivity Specialist
MCP, MCDST, MCTS, MCITP

DATA#3
Australia’s Integrator of the Year 

I trust you are having oodles of fun with Windows 7 RC (Release Candidate). And confidence in this product is building by the pica-second.

Clinton here, squeezing some more juicy, very juicy Windows 7 RC thoughts into your “I’m a PC” mug.

So here’s a classic everyday irritation – you know when you can’t find a writing instrument in your ordered chaos pile representing a desk. Well, this is YOUR day that a fresh and innovative application comes and sticks itself cleanly and unobtrusively on your forehead.

Yes my friends, I am talking about Windows 7’s feature application, Sticky Notes. WOOHOO!

If you’re a Outlook 2007 worker bee, the Notes section can very be fruitful when busy – But what happens when outlook isn’t open. You don’t want to open it either in case you scare yourself with the number of inbox items. And all you dramatically want to do is to take quick note – without hassles. That’s when you need this tool.

Or when you’re on the phone and you have no pen or pad in view. You know that the pen and pad are there….somewhere…and the number or message is rolling out of the receiver at high speed with no repeats. That’s when you need this tool.  

For me, I use this tool daily to record IP addresses, phone numbers, messages and reminders. And it’s in my line of view just behind my windows. Aero Peek makes this feature work like crazy too. This feature also becomes HOT when working with touch screen…but that’s for another time.

So what is the buzz with this fantastic tool? Well it includes:

·           Font support

·           Copy and Paste support

·           Note colour support

·           Resize note support

·           Bullet and Number List Support

Sticky Notes is super useful, but it can look a tad insipid. So to juice things up, you can format the text by making it bold or underlined, larger or smaller in size. You can also use various types of lists such as bullets or numbers.

To create a sticky note, do the following: 

1. Select the Start button,

2. Select All Programs > Open Accessories.

3. Select Sticky Notes. – or type, sticky into the search programs and files field.

4. Highlight the text you need to format and use these keyboard commands to edit:
 

·         Bold: CTRL+B

·         Italics: CTRL+I

·         Underline: CTRL+U

·         Strikethrough: CTRL+T

·         Increase size of text: CTRL+SHIFT+>

·         Decrease size of text: CTRL+SHIFT+<

·         Bullet list: CTRL+SHIFT+L (once)

·         Numbered list: CTRL+SHIFT+L (twice)

·         Lettered list (a,b,c,etc.): CTRL+SHIFT+L (three times)

·         Lettered list (A,B,C,etc.): CTRL+SHIFT+L (four times)

·         Roman numeral list (i,ii,iii,iv, etc.): CTRL+SHIFT+L (five times)

·         Roman numeral list (I,II,III,IV etc.): CTRL+SHIFT+L (six times)

So what are you waiting for? GO and download the 32 bit or 64 bit version (for Dual Core CPU’s) of Windows 7 TODAY.

Go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

Have a great day!

Clinton Garbutt – Desktop Productivity Specialist
MCP, MCDST, MCTS, MCITP

DATA#3
Australia’s Integrator of the Year 

Clinton here, with yet another exhilarating topic in the land of Windows 7. This time we are looking at support and troubleshooting.

Ok so, my day involves a stack of remote desktop support. And if it were not for this tool in my tool belt, I would be seriously stressing with hardware book-ins. In fact, it is my first tool I turn to for remote connectivity apart from Remote Desktop Connection and that is Windows Remote Assistant – run MSRA.

What is Windows Remote Assistant?

Windows Remote Assistant was originally brought to the public with Microsoft XP.
What this tool does is it enables a user/technician or sys admin to temporarily control a computer over a network or the Internet to resolve issues. Awesome!

History Lesson 101

Remote Assistant is an adaptable, fast and simple tool that has been a part of the Windows platform for some time now. And at one stage, apart from another tool that I will mention shortly, was available to businesses to provide functionality and support for desktop users, local and external.

With the release of Windows XP, Microsoft launched two (2) sets of technologies in the Remote Access arena.

·         Remote Desktop

·         Remote Assistance

Remote Desktop focusing on business use and integration with Microsoft technologies such as Terminal Services for providing so-called Dumb Terminal access.
A Dumb Terminal provides access to resources managed through a centralized server accessed through a client computer with a Display, keyboard and mouse. It is an administrator forcible accessing a remote device without the user needing to be present.

Windows Remote Assistance is focussed somewhat towards the home user, although it is still useful in business scenarios.

What can Windows Remote Assistant do?

Remote Assistance enables me to a do a number of things:

·         It enables me to share my Windows 7 Desktop with users

·         It enables me to share control of computer peripherals: Mouse and Keyboard

·         It enables me to perform Peer to Peer connection without a relay server…HOT!

Therefore, Remote Assistance works equally as well with two computers over a LAN or over the Internet (WAN). The main draw card for this feature as you can imagine is it alleviates the inconvenience for me to personally visit the affected computer. As this tool enables me to diagnose and often repair problems. Sssweet!

Easy Connect

Also to make things even better Windows 7 introduces a new feature called Easy Connect. This simplifies the process of connecting to another PC remotely with only a password, no file needed. When a connection is established between both computers, contact files are exchanged which creates a trust relationship. This further simplifies future connections that are made without the need for a password.

Advanced Connection for help desk

This is how I connect to users within my network – follow me: 

 1.      Select the Start button; enter assistance into the search programs and files field.

 2.      Select the Windows Remote Assistance link from the list.

 3.      Select option two; Help someone who has invited you.

 4.      Select the Advanced connection option for help desk link.

 5.      Enter a computer name or an IP Address into the field.

 6.      Click Next.

Note:
The history list is now longer for future use – just in case you forget a million IP addresses.

So things have really improved in Windows 7. Small and sinple things like this feature have made a massive difference in my day-to-day workings. Enjoy the experience!   

Clinton Garbutt – Desktop Productivity Specialist
MCP, MCDST, MCTS, MCITP

DATA#3
Australia’s Integrator of the Year  

Clinton here, with some more spurring thoughts on the forth coming OS, Windows 7.
I have asked this question before, in a previous post, but the impact of the question cover a vast land of thought.

Question:  Why should I upgrade my business to Windows 7 rather than stay with Windows XP or Vista?

Ok, so here’s a reality check, if a good portion of your current desktop users are still running XP, then you should seriously look at moving up to Windows 7, because, Microsoft ended mainstream support for XP on April 14 2008. No ways? – Yeah seriously!

Critical security updates ONLY will be provided at no cost for XP licensed users up to the year 2014.  Furthermore, if you need additional / extended support for XP because moving is not an option just yet for you, then you will need to pay for that as a paid contract customer with Microsoft.

Ok but hear me out,   the most important reason why you SHOULD consider moving forward with Windows 7 from XP is security. There is more internet crime, hacking and brute force attacks on networks than ever before.

Both Vista and Windows 7 provide way better security than XP. A feature that springs to mind right away is the User Account Control (UAC).  User Account Control (UAC) is a technology and security infrastructure introduced with Vista.

How does it work?

It works by improving the levels of security a user can have when working on a workstation, and it limits the application software to standard user privilege levels until your friendly system administrator gives the authorization to increase those privilege levels for the specific application.

So now, only applications that the user can trust get higher privileges. The ripple effect rolls from here into the Malware arena.
Malware is an application. So it doesn’t get privileges to run in order to compromise your Vista/WIN7 operating system, because the UAC controls the access.

In other words, a user account may have administrator privileges assigned to it, but applications that the user activates does not. So privileges for applications, unless approved beforehand will not run.

And here is the Cherry on the Cake – To reduce the possibility of lower-privilege applications communicating with higher-privilege ones,  Windows 7 includes another technology called , User Interface Privilege Isolation… ooh!
This is used in together with UAC to divide these processes from each other so that more control is achieved over applications.

What are some of the items triggering a UAC prompt?

Operating system commands or actions that require administrator rights (a UAC trigger) are marked with the security shield symbol. Ding!

Tasks that require administrator privileges will trigger a UAC prompt (if UAC is enabled) are marked by a 4-color security shield symbol.

 Here are tasks that will prompt for administrator authorisation:

• Changes to system-wide settings or to files in %SystemRoot% or %ProgramFiles%
• Installing and uninstalling applications
• Installing device drivers
• Installing ActiveX controls
• Changing settings for Windows Firewall
• Changing UAC settings
• Configuring Windows Update
• Adding or removing user accounts
• Changing a user’s account type
• Configuring Parental Controls
• Running Task Scheduler
• Restoring backed-up system files
• Viewing or changing another user’s folders and files.

So what are you waiting for? Don’t let your guard down across the enterprise network! Boost your security and stay on top by installing Windows 7. See how it runs…! There is MORE coming up…but for now I’m playing in Windows 7 land!

So what are you waiting for? GO and download the 32 bit or 64 bit version (for Dual Core CPU’s) of Windows 7 TODAY.

Go to: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

Have a great day!

Clinton Garbutt – Desktop Productivity Specialist
MCP, MCDST, MCTS, MCITP

DATA#3
Australia’s Integrator of the Year