It was exactly 12 years ago that sadly for many and joyfully for others, Microsoft announced that it had no plans to continue using Clippy.

Some of you might be wondering 'Who the heck is Clippy ?'

Clippy is the little impersonated paper clip who used to help (or sometimes annoy) you when using Microsoft Word both for PC and MAC from 1997 to late 2003 ! Although Microsoft gave you the ability to change the office assistant to other characters such as HoverBot, Will and Mother Nature, Clippy remains the most famous one !

Clippy was abolished after the feature drew a strongly negative response from many users and even Microsoft employees.

The above picture shows the Microsoft staff in 1978, just 3 years after the company was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in the U.S. state of New Mexico.

In fact Microsoft was born exactly 38 years ago on the 4th of April 1975 after Paul Allen showed Bill Gates an issue of 'Popular Electronics' that inspired both Allen and Gates to develop an implementation of the programming language BASIC for the system.

Nowadays Microsoft has come a long way from 1975 to become one of the largest companies in the world with an estimated $41 billion in assets ! It is also the owner of networking giant 'Skype', search engine 'Bing' and gaming console 'Xbox' although it is mostly known for it's operating system 'Windows'.

BARCELONA, Spain — Feb. 29, 2012 —Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview — the next milestone of the Windows operating system. This latest preview will be made available for download starting today at http://preview.windows.com. The Windows 8 Consumer Preview offers a more robust experience for testing the world’s most popular operating system and is available to the widest range of people yet following the initial release of the Windows 8 Developer Preview late last year. The Developer Preview received more than 3 million downloads.

“With Windows 8, we reimagined the different ways people interact with their PC and how to make everything feel like a natural extension of the device, whether using a Windows 8 tablet, laptop or all-in-one,” said Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft. “The Windows 8 Consumer Preview brings a no-compromises approach to using your PC.”

At a Windows 8 Consumer Preview event in Barcelona that was attended by partners from Europe and around the world, the company shared some key new updates in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview:

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview will be available worldwide for download in English, French, German, Japanese and simplified Chinese languages. More information about Windows 8 and how to download the Consumer Preview is available at http://preview.windows.com or http://windowsteamblog.com.

User would have unique desktop accessible from any machine; company would sell "Desktop as a Service"

  (Source: Microsoft via Charon via ZDnet)

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's comment that Windows 8 was his company's most risky endeavor sparked much curiosity.  Little is currently known about the upcoming operating system.  So why is Windows 8 such a high risk proposition for Microsoft?

The answer to that may have come in a newly surfaced slide deck from the Microsoft architectural summit held in London in early April 2010.  In the deck Microsoft describes how Windows 8 (referred in the deck as "Windows NEXT") will be the company's first OS to throw the user deep into the world of virtualization.

With a traditional OS, maintenance burden is on the user or their hired help.  The company writes in the presentation, "[Customers today] see application compatibility issues, they see DLL hell, they see an inability to manage efficiently, they see high costs associated with maintenance and upgrades, they see a relatively short lifespan…..This cannot continue. Customers are increasingly refusing to let this continue."

Microsoft's answer is to deploy "native VHD" (virtual hard disk) capabilities with Windows 8 and change its sales model from OS as a service to "desktop as a service" (DaaS).  The slides indicate that under Windows 8, user apps and data will be "treated as cached entities and synchronized with an appstore and 'user state store'".

The approach has definite advantages.  Microsoft could remotely fight malware and fix compatibility issues as they occurred, rather than trying to update OS installations after trouble occurs.  And if a user lost their laptop, they wouldn't lose access to their installed programs and data.

The company writes, "[T]he desktop should not be associated with the device. [T]he desktop can be thought of as a portal which surfaces the users apps, data, user state and authorization and access."

The new virtualization technology is founded on Microsoft's existing virtualization portfolio -- Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI); application virtualization (App-V, MED-V, Remote Apps, Terminal Server); OS virtualization (Remote Desktop, Terminal Services, VDI); data virtualization (folder redirection and synch); hardware virtualization (Hyper-V); and various System Center management offerings.

This would be a huge change for Microsoft, and it would put the company's direction in line with Google's plans for its upcoming netbook/tablet Chrome operating system.  But its also a huge risk as virtualization is something utterly unfamiliar to most customers.

As many are speculating, Microsoft may partially back off fully virtualizing all its commercial Windows 8 offerings.  With a launch in "2012+" scheduled, beta builds are widely expected to come in 2011.  These builds should reveal whether the ambitious DaaS redesign persisted.  And if Microsoft indeed goes ahead with this concept, the reaction it gets from the beta may play a role in just how deep Microsoft jumps into the virtualization waters.

It's astounding that until this moment, three years after the iPhone, the biggest software company in the world basically didn't compete in mobile. Windows Phone 7Series is more than the Microsoft smartphone we've been waiting for. Everything's different now.

Today, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft is publicly previewing Windows Phone 7 for the first time. The brand new, totally fresh operating system will appear in phones this year, but not until the holidays. All of the major wireless carriers and every likely hardware maker are backing it, and they'd be stupid not to. It's awesome. We've got a serious hands on for you to check out, but here is everything that you need to know:

The name—Windows Phone 7 Series—is a mouthful, and unfortunately, the epitome of Microsoft's worst naming instincts, belying the simple fact that it's the most groundbreaking phone since the iPhone. It's the phone Microsoft should've made three years ago. In the same way that the Windows 7 desktop OS was nearly everything people hoped it would be, Windows Phone 7 is almost everything anyone could've dreamed of in a phone, let alone a Microsoft phone. It changes everything. Why? Now that Microsoft has filled in its gaping chasm of suck with a meaningful phone effort, the three most significant companies in desktop computing—Apple, Google and Microsoft—now stand to occupy the same positions in mobile. Phones are officially computers that happen to fit in your pocket.

Windows Phone 7 is also something completely new for Microsoft: A total break from the past. Windows Mobile isn't just dead, the body's been dumped, buried and paved over by a rainbow brick road.

The Interface

It's different. The face of Windows Phone 7 is not a rectangular grid of thumbnail-sized glossy-looking icons, arranged in a pattern of 4x4 or so, like basically every other phone. No, instead, an oversized set of bright, superflat squares fill the screen. The pop of the primary colors and exaggerated flatness produces a kind of cutting-edge crispness that feels both incredibly modern and playful. Text is big, and beautiful. The result is a feat no phone has performed before: Making the iPhone's interface feel staid.

If you want to know what it feels like, the Zune HD provides a taste: Interface elements that run off the screen; beautiful, oversized text and graphics; flipping, panning, scrolling, zooming from screen to screen; broken hearts. Some people might think it's gratuitous, but I think it feels natural and just…fun. There's an incredible sense of joie de vivre that's just not in any other phone. It makes you wish that this was aesthetic direction all of Microsoft was going in. Another, sorta similar interface, in terms of data presentation, is this Android Slidescreen app, which gives you a bunch of info up top.

Windows Phone 7 is connected in the same sense as Palm's webOS and Android, with live, real-time data seamlessly integrated, though it's even smoother and more natural. Live tiles on the Start screen, which you can totally customize, are updated dynamically with fresh content, like weather, or if you've pinned a person to your Start screen, their latest status updates and photos.

The meat of the phone is organized around a set of hubs: People, Pictures, Games, Music + Video, Marketplace, and Office. They're kind of like uber-applications, in a sense. Massive panoramas with multiple screens that are each kind of like individual apps. People, for instance, isn't just your contacts, but it's also where social networking happens, with a real-time stream of updates pulled in from like Facebook and Windows Live. (No Twitter support announced yet, it appears—a kind of serious deficiency, but one we're sure will be remedied by ship date.)

As another example, Music + Video is essentially the entirety of Zune HD's software, tucked inside of Windows Phone 7.

A piece of interface that's shockingly not there: A desktop syncing app. If anyone would be expected to tie their phone to a desktop, you'd think it'd be Microsoft, but they're actually moving forward here. All of your contacts and info sync over the air. The only thing you'll be syncing through your computer is music and videos, which is mercifully done via the Zune desktop client.

Hello, Connected World

The People hub might be the best social networking implementation yet on a phone: It's a single place to see all of your friends' status updates from multiple services in a single stream, and to update your own Facebook and Windows Live status. Needs. Twitter support. Badly. But you have neat things going on, like the aforementioned Live tiles—if you really like someone or want to stalk them hardcore, you can make them a tile on your Start screen, which will update in realtime with whatever they're posting, and pull down their photos from whatever service. There's also your very own profile page, where you can scan your current social state and post updates to multiple services simultaneously.

All of your contacts are synced and backed up over-the-air, Android and webOS style, and can be pulled from multiple sources, like Windows Live, Exchange, etc. Makes certain other phones seem a little antiquated with their out-of-the-box Contacts situation.

Holy Crap! The Zune Phone!

Microsoft's vision of Zune is finally clear with Windows Phone 7. It's an app, just like iPod is on the iPhone, though the Zune Marketplace is integrated with it into the music + video hub, not separated into its own little application. It's just like the Zune HD, so you can check out our review of that to see what it's like. But you get third-party stuff like Pandora, too, built-in here. Oh, and worth mentioning, there will be an FM radio in every phone (more on that in a bit).

Pictures is a little different though, and gets its very own hub. That's because it's intensely connected—you can share photos and video with social networks straight from the hub, and via the cloud, they're kept in sync with your PC and web galleries. The latest photos your friends post also show up here. Of course, you get around with multitouch zoom and zip-zip scrolling stuff.

Xbox, on a Phone

I'll admit, I very nearly needed to change my pants when I saw the Xbox tile on the phone for the first time. Obviously, you're not going to be playing Halo 3 on your smartphone (at least not this year), but yes, Xbox Live on a phone! It's tied to your Live profile, and there are achievements and gamer points for the games you can play on your phone, which will be tied to games back on your Xbox 360.

If Microsoft's got an ace-in-hole with Windows Phone 7, it's Xbox Live. Gamers have talked about a portable Xbox for years—this is the most logical way to do it. The N-Gage was ahead of its time. (Okay, and it sucked.) The DS and PSP are the past. The iPhone showed us that the future of mobile gaming was going to be on your phone, and now that just got a lot more interesting. The potential's there, and hopefully the games will be plentiful and awesome enough to meet it.

Browser and Email

Yes, the browser is Internet Exploder. And yes, the rumor's true: It won't be as fast as Mobile Safari. Not to start. But it's not bad! Hey, least it's got multitouch powers right out of the box. Naturally, you've got multiple browser windows, and you can pin web pages to the Start screen, like any other decent mobile browser.

The Outlook email app makes me question how people read email on a BlackBerry. It is stunning. I never thought I'd call a mail app "stunning," but, well, it kind of is. It's the best looking mobile mail app around. Text is huge. Gorgeous. Ultrareadable. Of course, it's got Exchange support too.

Apps, Office and Marketplace

Remember what I said earlier about Windows Mobile being dead? So are all the apps. They won't work on WP7. Sorry Windows Mobile developers, it's for the best. Deep down, we all knew a clean break was the only way Windows Phone wasn't going to suck total balls.

Apps will have some standardized interface elements, like the app bar on the bottom for common commands. But here's a question: Will they multitask? Um, that depends on your definition of multitasking! When we asked Joe Belfiore, the guy running Windows Phone, he alluded to live tiles and feeds as some ofthe ways that third-parties will be able to "bring value to the user, even when their apps aren't running." Which sounds to us like a big ol' "shnope," but we'll see more next month at Microsoft's developer event MIX.

The Marketplace is where you'll buy apps. Since we've got like 6 months 'til Windows Phone 7 launches and people should be excited to develop for it, hopefully there'll be plenty of stuff to buy there on day one.

Naturally, Bing and Bing Maps are built into the phone as the default search and maps services. They're nice, smartly contextual, and very location-oriented. Bing's also used for universal search on the phone, via a dedicated Bing button. (There is no search but Bing search, BTW.) Bing Maps is multitouchable, with pinch-to-zoom. It's rich, with built-in listings with reviews and clever ways of searching for stuff. And yeah, Office! It's connected to that cloud thing, for OTA syncing and such. Business people should be happy.

Hardware and Partnahs

Another way the old Windows Mobile is dead is how Microsoft's handling partners and hardware situation. With Windows Mobile, a phonemaker handed Microsoft their monies, and Microsoft tossed them a software kit, and that was that. Which is why a lot of Windows Mobile phones felt and ran like crap. And why it took HTC like two years to produce the HD2, the most genuinely usable rendition of Windows Mobile ever.

Microsoft's not building their own phones, but they're going to be picky, to say the least, with Windows Phone 7. Ballmer phrases it as "taking more accountability" for people's experiences. There's a strict set of minimum hardware requirements: a capacitive, multitouchable screen with at least four points of touch; accelerometer; 5-megapixel camera; FM radio; and the like. There are serious benchmarks that have to be met. And only chosen OEMs get to build the phones now, not like before, when anybody with $20 could get a license. The OEMs that Microsoft's announcing they're working with at launch are: Qualcomm, LG, Samsung, Garmin Asus, HTC, HP, Dell, Sony Ericsson, and Toshiba. AT&T's their "premiere partner" in the US (dammit). (Take note people! Premiere does not mean exclusive!)

Every phone will have a Bing (search) button and a Start button. Custom skins, like the minor miracles HTC worked, are now banned. The message to hardware makers is clear: It's a Windows Phone, you're just putting it together. Basically, phonemakers get to decide the shape of the phone, and whether or not there's a keyboard.

One other word on hardware, in a manner of speaking. Hardware it won't work with? Macs. Which is kind of stupid to us—a lot of the people Microsoft wants to use Windows Phone 7, like college students, have been going Mac in droves. You wanna lure them back Microsoft? Let them use your phone with any OS.

The Big Picture

Windows Phone 7 Series is, from what we've seen, exactly what Microsoft's phone should be. It's actually good. It brings together a bunch of different Microsoft services—Zune, Xbox, Bing—in a way that actually makes sense and just works. But there's a real, lingering question: Are they too late? The first Windows Phone 7 Series…phone—goddamn that is a stupid name—won't hit until the end of this year. That's more than three years after the iPhone, two years after Android, hell, even a year after Palm, the industry's sickly but persistent dwarf.

History is on Microsoft's side here—we know what happened the last time Apple had a massive head start. Microsoft is, if nothing else, incredibly patient. Remember the first Xbox? Back when it was crazy that Microsoft was getting into videogames? It's cost them about a billion dollars and taken nearly 10 years, but now, with Xbox Live, Project Natal and their massive software ecosystem, they arguably have the most impressive gaming console you can buy. That was a pet project. Now, mobile is the future of computing. What do you think Microsoft will sink into that?

The mobile picture is now officially a three-way dance: Apple, Google, and Microsoft. The same people who dominate desktop computing. Everybody else is screwed. Former Palm CEO Ed Colligan famously said a few years ago: "PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in." That's preciselywhat's just happened. Phones are the new PCs. PC guys are the new phone guys.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 has finally become the world's most-used browser, according to Net Applications' figures based on monitoring website usage. IE8 has taken over from IE6, which has been hit by the decline in the use of Windows XP.

In January 2010, NetApps reckons IE8 had 22.31% of the market, with IE6 on 20.07%. Firefox 3.5 took third place with 17.01%, ahead of IE7 (14.58%), Firefox 3.0 (5.29%), Google Chrome (3.92%) and Apple Safari (3.55%). Actually, IE8's lead is even larger if its 3% market share in "compatibility mode" is counted.

IE6 has maintained its user base because it shipped with what has been by far the world's most popular operating system, Windows XP. However, XP is now in decline. According to NetApps, XP's market share fell from 75.02% in March 2009 to 66.31% in January 2010. IE6's decline is very similar to XP's decline. It appears that the most effective strategy for those who want to be rid of IE6 would be to encourage Windows XP users to upgrade to Windows 7.

Windows XP, launched in 2001, still had two-thirds of the market in January 2010, ahead of Windows Vista (17.39%), Windows 7 (7.51%), Mac OS X 10.5 (2.36%), Mac OS X 10.6 (1.79%) and Linux (1/02%).

A STUDY by the German web analytics firm Webmasterpro.de claims that a huge 21 per cent of German PCs run the Openoffice.org suite or other open source office productivity applications.

Apparently the company tapped in to a huge sample of over one million German Internet users and its magic Flash Counter Statistics Service spat out thefollowing numbers. The largest group, 72 per cent of users stuck with Microsoft Office, 21.5 per cent chose a variant of Openoffice.org (including Sun's Staroffice, IBM's Lotus Symphony and other derivatives), 2.7 per cent preferred Corel's WordPerfect Office, 1.4 per cent used Apple's Iwork, 0.3 per cent selected Softmaker Office and 0.03 per cent chose Koffice, while 17.1 per cent didn't have any office applications suite installed at all.

The method used in the survey was a pretty nifty idea. The counter checked which fonts were installed on each user's PC, from which it could then identify the types of office suites being used.

We know that the Germans have a healthy respect for IT. They have a one of the best and most versatile IT publishing markets on the planet but 21 per cent is a staggering statistic.

A quick check of Wiki stats only found references to other European counties deploying Openoffice.org for public sector and small business workloads.

“We don’t know how to build a $500 computer that’s not a piece of junk.”

“Netbooks aren’t better at anything.”

Those two quotes are both from Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The first was during an earnings call in late 2008 when Jobs fielded a question about why Apple wasn’t cutting prices amid the rising success of netbooks. The second came on Wednesday as Jobs was unveiling the iPad.

Apple has made it clear all along that they had no plans to build a netbook. And true to their word, they haven’t. But that doesn’t mean that Apple didn’t feel there was a need for a device that resided in between a full laptop and a mobile phone — in fact, that’s squarely where Apple is positioning the iPad. With it, they feel that they’ve created a $500 (for the baseline version) device that is superior to every netbook out there.

Meanwhile, Google has decided to target the market in between the laptop and the mobile phone as well. But whereas Apple is anti-netbook, Google is very pro-netbook — they just want to make them better. That’s the reason behind Google’s Chrome OS, as Google clearly laid out during its unveiling event late last year.

And so yes, we once again have Google and Apple on a collision course.

Now, it remains to be seen if people who buy an iPad will do so instead of buying a netbook. At first, I’m not so sure that will be the case. But it stands to reason that eventually, this will happen. And as Jobs’ comments on stage on Wednesday made abundantly clear, that’s Apple’s idea too. In their eyes, you shouldn’t buy a cheap, underpowered PC, you should buy an iPad, their anti-netbook.

Google, which plans to release its first Chrome OS-based netbooks in time for the holiday season next year, can’t like that plan too much. They have promised that netbooks that run Chrome OS will be better than current netbooks because they’re dictating certain minimum requirements (such as big keyboards) to manufacturing partners. But Chrome OS netbooks won’t be able to match the sex appeal of the iPad’s multi-touch screen. However, what they can offer is a familiar experience (much more like a traditional laptop then an iPad), and that will be appealing to a lot of people.

And what’s interesting is that for either of the two to be massive hits, they both will need consumers to continue to feel comfortable moving away from traditional software applications such as Microsoft Office. But their plans to get consumers to do that are very different. Google wants everyone to move towards doing everything on their apps in the cloud. Apple, as they made clear with their overly-long iWork for iPad demo on Wednesday, wants everyone to move towards using iPhone OS-based apps.

And that’s why this battle coming at the end of this year will be interesting to watch. Both Apple and Google are very popular with consumers, but their offerings are very different — while aiming for the same market. And as two companies that were once as close as could be, it’s also fascinating to watch the tension and awkwardness as they now compete in an ever-growing number of areas.

If this market between laptops and smartphones proves big enough, perhaps the two frenemies can once again find a common ground and band together to defeat their common enemy: Microsoft. But the obvious strategy for this used to be that Google would attack Microsoft from the bottom with its Chrome OS netbooks, while Apple attacked from the top with their premium computers, leaving Microsoft squeezed in the middle. With the iPad now clearly aimed at netbooks thanks to its pricing and Apple’s positioning, everything is different.

Computers have been in use for more than forty years now but there has been no respite from computer errors. In fact, with the advent of the Internet, computers have become more susceptible to problems caused by malicious software and online criminals.

The problem is further compounded by the increasingly large number of software applications that we install on our computers.

The only way to minimize the agony and losses caused by computer problems is by taking the responsibility of combating this menace on your own.

This task involves adopting a two step strategy – learning to protect your computer from computer errors and learning to repair common errors yourselves.

Despite the common notion, it is not difficult to do this. This article will show you how you can prevent and solve one such frequently occurring category of errors – DLL errors.

The majority of DLL errors are caused by missing DLL files. Listed below are common examples of missing DLL error messages:

• File mfc80u.dll not found
• Could not locate file msvcr80.dll
• Unable to start this application – an important component npptools.dll is missing. Reinstalling the application may fix the error

A DLL may go missing on your system due to following reasons:

• Deletion of the DLL by mistake.
• Removal of the DLL during uninstallation of any program/application.
• Overwriting of required DLL file by an incompatible or outdated file.
• Malware infection.

Steps to Fix Missing DLL errors

Step 1

If the missing DLL error appears due to accidental removal of DLL file, then first check the contents of the Recycle Bin. If you find the file there, restore it to fix the DLL error.

In case you deleted the DLL by mistake and have also emptied the contents of the Recycle Bin, you may take help of a free file recovery program to get back the missing DLL. If you are sure that you have not deleted the DLL file, move to the next step.

Step 2

DLLs may go missing during uninstallation of a program or application. If you receive a missing DLL error message soon after you have uninstalled an application, reinstall the removed program to correct the error. When you install a program, all the files that are required by the program are installed on your PC.

Step 3

If the above two reasons are not the cause behind the missing DLL error then you need to get a copy of the missing DLL from an external source. You can either download the missing DLL from a legitimate DLL download website or procure it from a computer with same configuration as your system. It is important to save the DLL file to its original location to prevent any future complications.

Step 4

If the error appears soon after you install a program, it is quite likely that the required DLL file is overwritten by an incorrect version. In this case, try to look for an update for a program. If you find one, then installing this update may resolve the error. Otherwise, uninstall this new program and perform system restore to rollback system settings and files to the time when the PC for free from errors.

Step 5

Use updated antivirus and antispyware tools to perform a thorough full system scan and get rid of any malicious data resident on your system.

Tips to Prevent DLL Errors From Occurring

Follow the do’s and don’ts mentioned below to keep your system free from DLL errors:

• Do not delete a shared DLL during uninstallation of any program/application.
• Do not overwrite a current version of DLL with an older version while installing a new program/application.
• Keep your operating system, software and drivers up-do-date with the latest security releases.
• Install a reliable antivirus and antispyware tool on your system.
• Maintain an error-free and compact Windows registry.

DLL errors if ignored can develop into serious problems. Take steps to fix as well as prevent future occurrences so that you can enjoy error-free computing for a long time.

Microsoft has embarked on the second phase of revamping their online application store, the Windows Marketplace for Mobile and part of the strategy involves allowing customers to shop around using their desktop computers. Owners of WM smartphones can now access the online store from any computer, buy all applications they feel up to and install them on their handsets later, when the phone Windows Marketplace client has been started.

The second phase of the Windows Marketplace for Mobile overhaul includes deployment of full support for Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 smartphones, but it seems we will have to wait a bit more until we finally get there, since the feature has not been implemented yet. Still, if you feel like taking a look at the online store using your computer, it´s available here.

The launch of Windows 7 in October did nothing to stop an increase in Mac share online, the latest data from Net Applications shows. Although the Microsoft OS was on sale for nine days last month, Windows' combined share of Internet traffic actually dropped to 92.52 percent while Mac OS X profited directly, reaching a new high of 5.27 percent. Windows 7 did gain share and represents 2.15 percent, but its gain was more than offset by a full percentage point of Windows users abandoning Windows XP, in many cases opting for the Mac or other platforms.

Operating Systems Market Share

Web Browsers Market Share

OK, so after eight yeaars and a lot of grumbling -- Vista, anyone? -- Microsoft has finally released a new operating system that people seem excited about.

Windows 7, which went on sale Thursday, promises a smoother user experience, multi-touchscreen capability and more seamless networking with other computers.

Early reviews have been good.

"We think it's a far superior product to the previous Microsoftoperating systems," says Vishal Dhar, co-founder of iYogi, a tech services company. "It's got a more intuitive interface."

Great. But it is right for you? Which version of the software best fits your needs? And are there tricks to installing Windows 7 and navigating its new features?

We anticipate seven of the most common questions about Windows 7 and offer some advice:

Will my aging computer run Windows 7? 

Maybe. If your PC can run the much-maligned Windows Vista, it can probably run Windows 7. Check your computer's specs: To install Windows 7, you'll need at least a 1 gigahertz or faster 32-bit (x86) processor, plus at least 2 GB of RAM and at least 16 GB of available hard disk space.

Yes, that sounds like a foreign language to most people. If you're not sure what all that means, try downloading a free Microsoft tool called a Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, which will scan your PC, report any potential problems and offer ways to fix them.

Is upgrading to Windows 7 worth it? 

That depends on your budget and how you use your computer. The software will cost you from $120 to $220, depending on which version you buy. If you're broke and you're happy with your Vista or Windows XP system, then there's probably no rush.

But keep in mind that Windows XP is eight-year-old software, and that it will eventually stop running new applications. Newer operating systems also offer better security against hackers. You'll need to upgrade someday.

Depending on how old your computer is, you may be better off buying a new laptop or PC, preloaded with Windows 7, instead of trying to refresh your aging machine. Retailers such as Best Buy and Dell.com are offering Windows 7-loaded laptops for as low as $499.

Which version of Windows 7 should I buy? 

Most casual computer users will probably be satisfied with the Home Premium edition ($119.99), which includes most of the basic features you'll need. That includes Home Group, which makes it easier to share music, video and documents -- a common printer, too -- between Windows 7-enabled computers in a home.

Small business owners and people who work from home may opt for the Professional edition ($199.99), which supports all the Home Premium features while automatically backing up all your data to a networked hard drive.

If you guard corporate secrets or work for the CIA, you'll want theUltimate edition ($219.99). It comes with BitLocker encryption, which prevents thieves from accessing your files if your laptop is stolen.

How tricky is Windows 7 to install? 

If you're upgrading from Vista, it's supposed to be a breeze: Insert the disc, and it does the rest. "It's the easiest upgrade I've ever seen," says J. Peter Bruzzese, who writes about tech for InfoWorld. "All of my settings carried over."

Upgrading from Windows XP is more complicated. Users will need to back up their files, format their hard drive, install Windows 7 and then reinstall browsers, reimport bookmarks and so on. Microsoft has a wizard called Easy Transfer that uses a USB cable to help you transfer files and settings.

It's not officially recommended, but Bruzzese says XP users also can install a borrowed copy of Vista, then upgrade easily from there to Windows 7.

What if I need help? 

If you don't have a tech-savvy friend, nephew or neighbor, try Microsoft's online Windows 7 Solution Center, which will walk you through the installation process.

You may also want to consider hiring a tech-support service such asiYogi, whose technicians connect to your computer remotely to diagnose problems, help you install Windows 7 and show you how to migrate your old applications onto your new system. Services start at about $30.

Will Windows 7 run my old XP programs? 

Most likely. Heeding complaints about Vista's compatibility problems, Microsoft is introducing

something called XP Mode, which creates a virtual, or "shadow" Windows XP operating system running inside Windows 7.

Once XP Mode is running, it fools your older apps into thinking they're on Windows XP. Here you'll find an XP start menu and all your familiar XP features -- all of which should work as they did before. XP Mode is only available in the higher-priced Professional and Ultimate editions, though.

Does Windows 7 have any cool new bells and whistles? 

• Well, it's got trippier desktop wallpaper, for one. Microsoft has replaced much of its blandly pretty nature shots with colorful psychedelic images.

• A Library feature allows you to gather files -- documents, photos and video -- from different places on your computer and group them together in new folders by topic, such as "beach house," or "Grandpa Fred."

• A new feature called AeroPeek displays outlines of your open windows behind the window you're working in. A related feature, AeroSnap, allows you to move, shrink and enlarge windows on your screen so that you can see several at once.

• Finally, Windows 7 needs less processing power than previous Windows versions, meaning that in theory, you should be able to work faster and in more windows at the same time. In other words, it's built for today's warp-speed, multi-tasking lifestyle.

KLIKK is offering a FREE 1 HOUR orientation course.  Send an e-mail to info@klikk.com.mt

Anyone interested?

Microsoft designed Windows 7 to simplify the things you do every day, work the way you want, and make some exciting new things possible. Want examples? Here are 10 good reasons to buy Windows 7.

Get quicker access to all of your stuff—use Pin and Jump Lists to keep the programs and files you use the most right at your fingertips.

Manage open windows easier—resize and arrange windows simply by dragging their borders to the edge of your screen.

Quickly find what you’re looking for—use Windows Search to find a specific file, program, or e-mail in a few seconds.

Share files and printers among multiple PCs—from one Windows 7-based PC to another, you can share files, music, photos, and even printersacross your home network.

Stay entertained effortlessly—with Windows Media Center you get one place to enjoy your photos and music, watch and record live TV, and watch free Internet TV.

 

Easily create and share movies—create great looking movies and slideshows and share them on YouTube in minutes.

Connect to networks easily—view and connect to any available wireless network in as few as three clicks.

Do more and wait less—improvements that can accelerate sleep and resume and make your PC more responsive help you get more done.

Touch and tap rather than point and click—Windows 7 makes PCs with touch screenseasier and more intuitive to use.

Manage devices more easily—manage printers, cameras, music players, and other devices from a single, consistent, place.

 

One more thing... Would you rather switch now or keep your current Operating System?