This program doesn’t really do anything new that Windows itself doesn’t do already … but it does provide a simpler means to select which programs will be blocked.
Microsoft has improved the firewall in the Windows 7 operating system, and while that is a good thing, the firewall is still nowhere near as feature complete or comfortable to configure than its third party counterparts. The blocking of programs is for instance overly complicated.
Every time one updates an operating system, the next step is always a codec-Easter-egg-hunt.
When you cannot play a media file on your system, it is usually because a codec that is missing to play that file on the operating system. You have got a few options to resolve the situation. You can switch the media player to one that is shipping with its own set of codecs that it uses to play back those media files.
Here’s a useful Windows security tool that many of us probably didn’t even know that we already had …
If you use a laptop for work, or it you carry important or sensitive data with you then it should be encrypted. Put simply the repercussions of not using encryption are far too serious to imagine with substantial fines being probably the least significant to a loss of customer and market confidence being the worst.
Just in case you’re not exactly thrilled by the pre-release reviews of Windows 8 …
Windows 8 is unique in that it is the first version of Microsoft’s mighty operating system that faces serious and stiff competition from its rivals. For the first time there are not just one but a great many serious contenders for the role of your desktop OS. So with so many people wary about the changes that Microsoft are bringing forth I thought I’d take a look at the alternatives, see how they might fit with your Windows world, and examine just how realistic a switch away from Windows this year can actually be.
I know a lot of people who are still using XP; it looks like they’ve now got a little less than three years to move on to another operating system …
It seems like just a short while ago that I was writing about how Windows XP had just 1,000 days of support left but now that number is down to under 800! Microsoft reminded us of this on the weekend with a blog post encouraging companies to migrate to Windows 7 as soon as possible saying “It takes 18-24 months to plan for and deploy a new operating system.”
Here’s a helpful overview and some useful tips regarding Windows 7’s Library feature …
The Libraries feature in Windows 7 provides an easy interface to manage multiple file locations from a single location. Four default libraries are displayed in Windows Explorer: Documents, Music, Pictures, and Video. Many users only utilize one or two of the libraries. You can easily remove any of these libraries from the Navigation Pane and also restore them at a later time if you need to. The libraries can also be collapsed to have them available but also cleared temporarily. This is a simple task that may be useful for those just starting out with Windows 7.
Personally, I’d rather tweak Windows 8 to make it look like Windows XP … I guess I prefer the square/simple layout of XP over the puffy, rounded transparent feel of the newer versions of Windows.
Windows 8 will be released soon, perhaps not soon enough. No big news there except that if you are a Windows fan, you probably want Windows 8 now. Windows 7 is fantastic and you may not want to let go. What do you do? It is time to tweak your Windows 7 operating system to give it features similar to Windows 8. This sounds fun, does it not? Windows 8 is tile-based and for those who like tiles, this is a beautiful thing. This article details some tools to give the tile format to Windows 7. Set a restore point and get ready to start tweaking.
Here’s a helpful summary of Windows 7 Shortcut Keys. There are a lot of these that are already pretty familiar, but there are also plenty of shortcuts that I’ve never seen before too …
There’s been a lot of talk recently about use use of shortcut keys in Windows 8, primarily because 90+% of the people who will be using that OS for the next few year won’t have access to a touch screen. What this has brought home though is just how many people still reply on the old shortcut keys, and I’m not just talking about Ctrl+X/C/V here. With this in mind I thought I’d publish here the definitive list of all Windows 7 shortcut keys as taken from my Microsoft Press book, Troubleshooting Windows 7 Inside Out.
Here’s a neat trick … which you might want to consider using before running that program that eliminates allegedly obsolete drivers.
The hardware driver support in Windows 7 is just fantastic, especially with consumer hardware with more and more companies submitting their drivers for official certification from Microsoft than ever before. This not only means driver support on the Windows 7 installation DVD, but also through Windows Update. You can still find computers however for which the driver support is lacking, my own laptop, the Dell M6600 is a great example of this where the drivers for the graphics (both internal Intel and nVidia), USB3, biometrics, touch-panel, Wi-Fi, Ethernet and SD Card reader are not installed automatically by Windows, nor by Windows Update. Each one requires a driver download from the Dell website (which is annoying!)
