Windows 7: A New BLOG dedicated to Windows 7

This BLOG, as you should be able to tell by its name (viz. ‘NH Life’), was never meant to be a high-tech BLOG, let alone one focusing on Windows 7.

I set it up to BLOG about life in New Hampshire. Given that I have been ‘heads down’ working on a new book, I didn’t do much Blogging (‘disciplined’ & ‘focused’ being two of my middle names).

Windows 7 came to be just as I had finished the writing phase of the book and had a bit more time whilst my intrepid editor was going through the proofs.

But, I decided that this BLOG needs to revert back to being a non-technical Blog.

So, I set up a new BLOG dedicated to Windows 7. It is called ‘Windows 7 Professional‘ — that being the version of Windows 7 use.

Plus, all the other names were gone. I was pretty impressed. Somebody even snagged ‘WindowsVII.’ But, most of these Blogs are not populated. Shame. People grabbed the names and did nothing. But, I know what that is like.

So please visit ‘Windows 7 Professional‘

Thank You

Anura

 

Windows 7: Mike From LRPCS Does A Perfect Install

Mike Townsend from LRPCS who got me all set up with my Windows 7 rig.

Last Wednesday night he did  full, Windows 7 reinstall on another machine in Gilford. He has been stress testing it since.

He wanted me to share with you all that this latest Windows 7 install was PERFECT. Everything worked and worked first time. Well done Mike.

So the ‘backup’ function that doesn’t work on mine works fine on this latest installation. What can I say. My system must be spiked.

So Mike is very happy with Windows 7. He was always very bullish on 7 and he is even more so now. He is anxious and ready to help more folks migrate to Windows 7. Go for it Mike.

So, IF you want Windows 7, Mike is your man. You can even call him at: 603-293-4970 or email him at: mike@lrpcs.com

Cheers

Anura Guruge
www.guruge.com

 

Windows 7: Preview Or Not To Preview

The built-in PREVIEW feature of Windows 7 is, indubitably, a powerful, useful and soon addictive feature, particularly so if you have a few thousand documents on your PC.

Yes, you can do without it, but it kind of grows on you.

But there is a problem. That is why I am bring it up here, as it is so symptomatic of the issues ‘power users’ will have with Windows 7.

Microsoft just did NOT go that one additional step needed to make many of these features outright winners.

Here is the problem with having PREVIEW.

To provide the Preview, Windows 7, given that it is still unable to violate the fundamental laws of physics, has to open the document — using the ‘default’ application, e.g., Word, if it is a Word document.

So now you are in a folder, BUT the document you selected is OPEN.

I, more than most, RENAME documents. It is one of my multi-level, paranoia-fueled, means of version control.

With PREVIEW ON, Windows 7 still gives me the option to RENAME. So I go ahead and rename.

THEN it tells me, it can’t do the rename BECAUSE the document is open!

Come ON. This is 2009. Yes, I agree, that YOU can’t and shouldn’t rename an OPEN document.

But here are three options that anybody who has gone through IT 101 will be able to come up with:

1. Gray out the RENAME option, if PREVIEW is on, thus precluding renaming of that document.
   
2. When you click RENAME, with Preview on, DISPLAY a warning saying you must close Preview you can rename.

    

3. Permit YOU to rename, BUT then display a message saying RENAME will only occur when you exit Preview … and that you should check that the rename occurred.
   

This is basic stuff. That is my GRIPE. This is why the Mac camp is still so gung-ho about what they have.

Hope this helps. Cheers.

Anura Guruge
www.guruge.com

 

Windows 7: Hidden Changes to Disk Defrag

Turning Off Windows 7 Automated Defrag

This is NEW, not-publicized and hidden. Windows 7 has automatic, scheduled System Disk Defragmentation. Depending on what type of user YOU are that can be good or BAD.

But, before we go any further let me just tell you WHEN it is set for. It is set for once a week, at 1:00am every Wednesday. Got that. So whether this happens or not depends on whether your PC happens to be up at 1:00am on a Wednesday night.

I don’t have a problem with this per se. By issue is that Microsoft didn’t notify me that this DEFAULT was set … and worse still HID IT in a place that one would not normally look.

To FIND where the scheduled defrag is set … YOU have to HIT the ‘Defragment Now’ button! That is my real gripe. Those that do NOT want Windows 7 to do their DEFRAG will shy away from hitting this button given its sense of immediacy. I was even talking to a PC expert last night. I wanted to show him WHERE the automatically scheduled Defrag was set. So I told him to hit the ‘Defragment Now’ button. He was reluctant because like many PC pros he doesn’t want Windows to do the defrag.

That is my issue. Automated DEFRAG is set … but people don’t know about it.

They should know about it for multiple, obvious, reasons. For a start, IF they want to avail themselves of this feature they may want to change the time. Then there are those that will shudder at the thought of letting Windows defrag their system disk. Some may not even understand why an old man like me is even bothering to write about this on a Saturday morning.

Disks should be defragmented. No question about that. I used to be a real stickler. Defragmenting weekly, if not more. I am not as obsessive any more. My work pattern has changed. I don’t work with as many documents a day or week as I used to. Instead, given that I have been writing a dense 300 page book on papal history, I work on the same document for weeks at a time. So I don’t really see that much of an hit on performance by not defragmenting.

But here is the history. The original defrag that was available in Windows worked but was kind of lame. It gained a reputation among the cognoscenti as being ineffective. In reality, it could have just been that it did NOT have the compelling graphic, color coded graphic of file sectors being moved around … as the disk was getting defragmented. But, the bottom line was that most ‘pros’ chose to use 3rd party defraggers. Some of these defraggers could automatically usurp the Windows one. So you went through the same process, but now it was a 3rd party tool that did the defrag rather than what came with Windows.

I have a free version of Diskeeper on my production XP machine. That is totally integrated with Windows. But of late I have been using System Mechanic.

I am a BIT leery of System Mechanic 9.0.x on Windows 7. But I have used it to do defrag. It does NOT defrag Windows 7 system files as well as it does XP files. Not an issue right now.

Anyway, my goal here was to give you the facts about Windows 7 defrag so that YOU can do what YOU want to do. Hope this helped.

Anura Guruge
www.guruge.com

 

Windows 7: Screwy Things Are Happing. A HEADS UP.

Something happened on the Web yesterday afternoon … in some way IMPACTING a number of THIRD-PARTY Windows 7 tools.

I am talking here about anti viruses and system tools such as Avast, System Mechanic, Advanced System Care etc.

Around 4:30pm yesterday, November 5, Avast sent out their daily update. Shortly after that Avast on my Windows 7 machine went crazy. The Avast icon ‘globe’ in my ‘SYSTEM TRAY’ was spinning SO FAST for so long I thought it would drill a hole in my monitor!

I am no stranger to Avast. I have been using it for 2 years and have it on 3 machines.

This was not right. Did some checking. It was doing an automatic scan on my C: disk.

Hey, you are not supposed to do that. (And for that know Avast, my VRDB is DISABLED. So it was not VRDB).

Checked with my buddy who also has Windows 7 and Avast. Same kind of inexplicable Avast behavior.

Then I had System Mechanic 9.0.5 LIE to me about an error on my C: drive.

He runs ASC in addition to System Mechanic and Avast.

Well by last night his Windows 7 rig was in SERIOUS TROUBLE. He lost ‘Sticky Notes’ and ‘Sniper’ from the System as well as other Windows utilities.

Unlike me, he is an out and out PC and Windows expert. So he didn’t panic too much. He ran diagnostics and reinstalled just his system files.

But he continued to see weird stuff.

So as I write this he is doing a FULL Windows 7 CLEAN INSTALL.

Something is not right. We can both feel it in our bones and we do know what we are doing.

So a HEADS UP. PLEASE share your experiences if you are seeing some weird stuff with Windows.

Anura Guruge
www.guruge.com

 

 

 

Windows 7: iolo System Mechanic 9.0.5 ALERT

On October 28 I posted that System Mechanic 9.0.x was hanging with Windows 7.

I also reported that to iolo. Those of you who have System Mechanic may have noticed that we have had an eerie hiatus from SM updates for a few days. It was spooky. Not seeing any new updates.

Yesterday there finally was an update.

So I ran a FULL scan cum system analysis. SM said I had 5 problems … one of them a DISK PROBLEM.

YIKES.

Brand new Western Digital best-of-breed 750GB drives.

Didn’t trust SM. So didn’t tell it to fix it.

Ran Windows 7 disk test tool. Said both disks were OK.

Ran SM again. SAME error.

Told it to check the disk … but NOT to fix it.

Took … like 3 hours to do that.

Then told me that I sure had an error.

It could only be fixed after a restart … the C: drive being my system disk.

So said OK.

SM then invoked Windows 7 disk tool … in deep scan mode.

It ran for 3 hours and then said disk was FINE.

So System Mechanic was wrong.

This is screwy. I have been using SM since ~2001 starting with SM 6. I have 3 paid licenses and have it on 2 XP machines. Never had an issue with XP.

I will NOT use it again on Windows 7, though I know I have registry errors.

This is getting scary.

Anura Guruge
www.guruge.com

 

Windows 7: Media Player Wouldn’t Start. Had To Restart.

I had noticed that the Windows 7 Media Player is a bit more temperamental than the version on XP.

It has always given me this vibe that it was tethering on a knife edge … ready to crash.

Well today I was playing around trying to edit artist’s name, genre etc. Then I closed it. Did something else.

Went back to start it. IT WOULD NOT START.

Had to restart Windows 7.

Hmmmmmmm!

On the whole, I can’t really say I am thrilled with Windows 7. Today was a particularly bad day.

Anura Guruge
www.guruge.com

 

 

Windows 7: Can’t Preview Microsoft Clip Art! This Is Beyond The Pale

OK, so it appears that you couldn’t do this with Vista either. So what? Microsoft couldn’t FIX THIS.

So this is what happened.

I finally decided I was going to do a real life Word project on my new Windows 7 rig using my new Office 2007.

I was going to create a FLYER.

I was going to use some Clip Art … that I had.

Having written a monthly, graphics intensive, 16-page newsletter for 7 years I had built up quite a nice library of Microsoft clip art on my PCs. I keep them all in a folder within MY PICTURES called ‘Microsoft Clip Art Organizer.’

If I am looking for clip art of a PC or similar I start there.

So in Word 2007 … said INSERT FILE … and looked at my clip art folder. NO PREVIEWS. Aaahhhh!

How can YOU select clip art if you can’t see the damn image?

Well it appears that Microsoft NO LONGER supports previews of THEIR own clip art! (The so called WMF. files.)

Here read this article about it … as it applies to Vista.

I am beyond gob smacked. Microsoft couldn’t fix this?

Yes, you can get around it by using Microsoft Clip Art Organizer which comes as a tool with Office 2007.

I have never used it in anger before. Had to use it today. It has the look-and-feel of a 1980s DOS application. Finally got it to do WHAT I wanted on the 4th try.

Yes, now I can preview my MS clip art via Organizer.

But this is CRAZY.

I read somewhere, a couple of days ago, that Microsoft was laying off 800 people. Hhhmmmmm.

I am still in shock.

Cheers

Anura Guruge
www.guruge.com

 

Windows 7: Alternative to Macromedia Fireworks

I have Macromedia StudioMX 2004 installed on my XP machine. Of the four programs available, I only really use Fireworks.

Per Microsoft’s Windows 7 compatibility checker my version of Fireworks is not supported. No surprise here. They recommend that I get the latest version from Adobe. Hhhmmmm.

My Gripe With Adobe Acrobat Upgrades

I am not thrilled with Adobe. I think of Adobe Acrobat as a necessary evil in my life. As a writer, author and publisher I create PDFs daily … and have done since c. 1998. During that time Acrobat has given me more gray hairs than any other software application.

To be fair, the version of Acrobat that I now have, Professional 6.0.6 is the most stable I have had in the last 11 years.

In my reckoning the two Windows applications that cause the MOST problems on your PC are Acrobat and Outlook — and I am, here, NOT talking about the Acrobat Reader. I stopped using Outlook and Outlook Express about three years ago. One of the best things I have done in my life. I use Web-based email using the interface provided by GoDaddy. It works. And it doesn’t butcher the insides of my PC. I don’t have all the bell and whistles I had with Outlook, but I am willing to trade them for my PC not hanging or crashing.

Unlike with Outlook, I can’t, alack, just stop using Acrobat ‘creator.’

Other than the zillion problems I have had in the past … what is my latest gripe with Adobe. Their avaricious upgrade policy.

All I want is to be able to create PDFs, with all the options, from Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Web pages. That is it. Because of the book publishing, I need all of the options for image sampling, font insertion etc. But that is it. I don’t need forms. I don’t need review. I don’t need it to make me coffee or take my pulse. Just the basics.

So all I need is Adobe 9 Standard.

But, Adobe in their greed won’t let me upgrade to Adobe 9 Standard … because I have Adobe 6 Professional!

It is not the additional $60 per se, though that is an issue. I have been a bona fide, legit customer since 1998. I have a legit copy of Adobe 6. Let me upgrade to what I so.

So given this background, I wasn’t going to even look at the latest Fireworks.

The GIMP Web site seems to be asleep, though today I did find, THANKS to a tip from a new friend, that GimpStudio is alive and well.

FREE Paint.Net Via Microsoft

I also downloaded Microsoft’s FREE Paint.Net.

Yes, TWO free applications from Microsoft in a week … the other being SharePoint Designer 2007. It feels like the Twilight Zone. Working applications for FREE from MS. What is this world coming to. At this rate we could even end up having an African American president in the White House!

Paint.NET installed effortlessly on Windows 7. The whole thing took less than five minutes.

I looked up how to remove BACKGROUNDS using it on Google. There was an excellent YouTube video.

Fired up Paint.Net. Opened a JPEG. Wow. That thing WAS GOOD at removing backgrounds. Bravo. Made my day.

My only disappointment is that it is STRICTLY a raster (or bitmap) editor. So FONT capabilities are limited. I need more font capabilities.

So I looked at Corel PhotoShop x2 Ultimate. The reviews turned me OFF, especially the repeated claims of the built-in ’spyware.’

So … right now … I just have Paint.Net. Yes, I have PowerPoint. Having used PowerPoint as much as I have, I can create decent JPEGs with it. So maybe I will use PowerPoint for my font work.

So that is where I am at.

Hope this helps.

Anura Guruge
www.guruge.com

 

Windows 7: Virtual Memory Settings Bother Me

I have to assume that at a minimum 70% of Windows uses have no idea what Virtual Memory (VM) is, what it means in terms of performance and what their VM settings are. That is how it should be.

Lets be fair. Microsoft buries VM setting pretty deep. In Windows 7 to get to it, you have to go SYSTEM → ADVANCED SYSTEM SETTINGS → Advanced Tab → Advanced Tab.

Yes, through three (3) levels of choices that say ‘ADVANCED.’ That would scare many with a faint heart.

As I had said in an earlier posting Windows 7 had allocated 12GB of VM on my machine … which has 12GB of REAL, physical, very fast (rather expensive) memory. That was crazy.

Because my VM was so large, Windows 7 nor applications were using all of my REAL memory. Instead, it was using the 12GB of VM on disk.

Talk about having a dog but then having to train the cockatoo to make barking noises.

I reduced my VM to 4GB. I now use more of my real memory.

Though it is an option you should NOT totally turn off VM. Some Windows applications were designed to REQUEST a large chunk of VM for their own needs … when they are activated. Disabling VM would result in Windows 7 having to handle these requests on a per ‘exception’ basis. So best to leave some VM. OK?

My gripe. I SHOULD NOT HAVE HAD TO DO THIS MYSELF.

Yet again I question those that tested and reviewed Windows 7 … during the last 7 months. What were you testing? That Windows 7 could still display porn sites? I haven’t tested that, but I assume that we would have heard about that if it couldn’t.

Basically, Microsoft is just reusing LEGACY CODE from XP. Nothing wrong with that. That is how it should be. But, REFRESH the code to reflect 8 years of technical innovation.

When XP came out, having one 1GB of memory on a PC … was equivalent to having 12GB today.

So the XP VM default setting was 1.5 times REAL memory. That made sense when you have less than 4GB of real memory.

With Windows 7 the VM allocation algorithm should have been along the lines of:

If physical memory greater (or equal to) 8GB set initial allocation to 1/3 of real (or possibly even a lower value),
If physical memory greater (or equal to) 4GB set initial allocation to 1/2 of reak (or possibly even a lower value),

If physical memory less than (or equal to) 1GB set initial allocation to 1.5 times actual.

At least that would give us a fighting chance.

Many thanks. All the best.

Anura Guruge
www.guruge.com