“Microsoft has indicated in their blog that the next release of Windows 7 will not be a Beta 2 but a release candidate, indicating that they’re pretty close and they want people to start testing the release, especially because all the features are done.” Read more information here…

I have estimated that we could have it on the July/Aug timeframe, which raises the question of: Is it possible to have the full product by late September or October? – Coincidentally, with the back to school season.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed…

Windows 7 is fast, stable and far more reliable than we’d expect from a first public beta.

And while it doesn’t include major new features, take the time to explore and you’ll find lots of useful changes that will make a real difference in how you use your PC.

Like any version of Windows there are various tips, tweaks and hacks you can perform to get your PC working the way you want it.

Here’s our first guide on how to get the most from your Windows 7 installation.

1. Protect your MP3 files
Along with many good new features, the Windows 7 beta also includes a nasty bug. Its version of Windows Media Player 12 will automatically add missing metadata, including album art, and this can overwrite the first few seconds of the file. Oops. Installing an update may fix this (see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/961367) but it would be a very good idea to back up your MP3 files, too.

2. Right-click everything
At first glance Windows 7 bears a striking resemblance to Vista, but there’s an easy way to begin spotting the differences – just right-click things.

Right-click an empty part of the desktop, for instance, and you’ll find a menu entry to set your screen resolution. No need to go browsing through the display settings any more.

Right-click the Explorer icon on the taskbar for speedy access to common system folders: Documents, Pictures, the Windows folder, and more.

And if you don’t plan on using Internet Explorer then you probably won’t want its icon permanently displayed on the taskbar. Right-click the icon, select “Unpin this program from the taskbar”, then go install Firefox, instead.

3. Fix the taskbar
The new Windows 7 taskbar acts as one big quick launch toolbar that can hold whatever program shortcuts you like (just right-click one and select Pin To Taskbar). And that’s fine, except it does consume a little more screen real estate than we’d like. Shrink it to a more manageable size by right-clicking the Start orb, then Properties > Taskbar > Use small icons.

If you’ve no problem with the taskbar size, but find the way it combines icons to be confusing, then right-click the Start orb, click Properties > Taskbar and set “Taskbar buttons” to “Combine when taskbar is full” for a more familiar XP and Vista-style look.

4. Keyboard shortcuts
Windows 7 supports several useful new keyboard shortcuts.

Alt+P
Display/ hide the Explorer preview pane

Windows Logo+G
Display gadgets in front of other windows

Windows Logo++ (plus key)
Zoom in, where appropriate

Windows Logo+- (minus key)
Zoom out, where appropriate

Windows Logo+Up
Maximise the current window

Windows Logo+Down
Minimise the current window

Windows Logo+Left
Snap to the left hand side of the screen

Windows Logo+Right
Snap to the right hand side of the screen

Windows Logo+Home
Minimise/ restore everything except the current window

5. Customise UAC
Windows Vista’s User Account Control was a good idea in practice, but poor implementation put many people off – it raised far too many alerts. Fortunately Windows 7 displays less warnings by default, and lets you further fine-tune UAC to suit your preferred balance between security and a pop-up free life (Start > Control Panel > Change User Account Control Settings).

6. Display your drives
Click Computer in Windows 7 and you might see a strange lack of drives, but don’t panic, it’s just Microsoft trying to be helpful: drives like memory card readers are no longer displayed if they’re empty. We think it’s an improvement, but if you disagree then launch Explorer, click Tools > Folder Options > View and clear “Hide empty drives in the computer folder” to get your empty drives back.

7. Burn images
Windows 7 finally introduces a feature that other operating systems have had for years – the ability to burn ISO images to CDs or DVDs. And it couldn’t be much easier to use. Just double-click the ISO image, choose the drive with the blank disc, click Burn and watch as your disc is created.

8. Speedy video access
Want faster access to your Videos folder? Windows 7 now lets you add it to the Start menu. Just right-click the Start orb, click Properties > Start Menu > Customize, and set the Videos option to “Display as a link”. If you’ve a TV tuner that works with Windows 7 then you’ll appreciate the new option to display the Recorded TV folder on the Start menu, too.

9. Run web searches
The Windows 7 search tool can now be easily extended to search online resources, just as long as someone creates an appropriate search connector. To add Flickr support, say, visit I Started Something [http://www.istartedsomething.com/flickrsearch], click Download the Connector, choose the Open option and watch as it’s downloaded (the file is tiny, it’ll only take a moment). A “Flickr Search” option will be added to your Searches folder, and you’ll be able to search images from your desktop.

10. Explore everywhere
Launch Paint or Wordpad and you’ll immediately spot the new Office-style ribbon interface, a real improvement in what were very dated applets. But other improvements are a little less obvious. At first glance the Windows calculator looks much the same, for instance, but the Mode menu leads to powerful new Statistics and Programmer views. And if you’re clueless about bitwise manipulation, then try the Options menu instead. This offers many different unit conversions (length, weight, volume and more), date calculations (how many days between two dates?), and spreadsheet-type templates to help you calculate vehicle mileage, mortgage rates and more. Be sure to explore every menu option in Calculator and all the other Windows applets to ensure you don’t miss anything important.

Source: Techradar.com

Tags: Windows7 Beta, Microsoft, Windows 7 Tips

The much-anticipated successor to Windows Vista is available now as a download from Microsft’s official site and is not just for tech-heads to use. In fact, Ballmer enthused: “I encourage you all to download it!”

The actual full version of Windows 7 should be hitting shelves everywhere January 2010.

Ballmer commented in his keynote about Windows 7′s R&D, saying: “We are on track to deliver the best version of Windows ever, and working hard to get it right and to get it ready.”

To download, Windows 7 Beta, point your browser to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/.

Apparently you won’t even have to wait until January to get your hands on the Windows 7 Beta release. That’s right, there’s already been an ISO file leaked to several torrent trackers.

The ISO appears to contain the Windows 7 M1 build (7000) highlighted by Paul Thurrott on SuperSite. So far the new build seems to perform slightly better than 6801, and memory usage has been improved. A number of previously hidden features – like the iconized task bar – are also now active.

Before comments start asking why there’s no link to the file, it’s because this is something that we’re not supposed to have yet. If you want to get your hands on it, check your favorite torrent search site. Also keep in mind that this is a leak, and there’s always the possibility that the ISO has been tampered with.

Source: Downloadsquad.com

Tags: Windows7 beta, Microsoft, Windows 7, Win 7

Microsoft’s Windows 7 announcement earlier today was followed up by an extensive demo of the new features during the PDC keynote, and since then even more info about the new OS has flooded out, so we thought we’d try to wrap up some of the more important bits here for you. Microsoft seems to have done an impressive job at this early pre-beta stage, folding in next-gen interface ideas like multitouch into the same OS that apparently runs fine on a 1GHz netbook with 1GB of RAM, but we’ll see how development goes — there’s still a ways to go. Some notes:

* Obviously, the big news is the new taskbar, which forgoes text for icons and has new “jump lists” of app controls and options you can access with a right-click. You can select playlists in Media Player, for example. Super cool: when you scrub over the icons, all the other app windows go transparent so you can “peek” at the windows you’re pointing at.
* Gadgets now appear on the desktop — the sidebar has been killed. That makes more sense for all those laptop owners out there with limited screen space, and you can still see gadgets anytime by peeking at the desktop, rendering all other windows transparent.
* Window resizing and management now happens semi-automatically: dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes it, pulling it down restores; dragging a window to the edges auto-resizes it to 50% for quick tiling. Nifty.
* The system tray now only displays what you explicitly say it should — everything else is hidden, and the controls have been streamlined.
* User Account Control settings are now much more fine-grained — you can set them by app and by level of access.
* They demoed multitouch features on an HP TouchSmart PC — it was pretty cool, although the usual nagging “what is this good for / that’ll get old fast” concerns weren’t really addressed. The Start menu gets 25 percent bigger when using touch to make it easier to handle, and apps will all get scroll support automatically. There’s also a giant on-screen predictive keyboard. Again — could be amazing, but we won’t know until it’s out in the wild.
* We’ve always known Microsoft intends Windows 7 to run on netbooks, and we got a small taste during the PDC keynote: Windows SVP Steve Sinofsky held up his “personal” laptop running Windows 7, an unnamed 1GHz netbook with 1GB of RAM that looked a lot like an Eee PC, and said that it still had about half its memory free after boot. (We’re guessing it was running a VIA Nano, since most Atoms run at 1.6GHz.)
* At the other end of the scale, Windows 7 supports machines with up to 256 CPUs.
* Multiple-monitor management is much-improved, as is setting up projectors — it’s a hotkey away. Remote Desktop now works with multiple monitors as well.
* Media Center has been tweaked as well — it looks a lot more like the Zune interface. There’s also a new Mini Guide when watching video, and a new Music Wall album artwork screensaver that kicks in when you’re playing music.
* Devs got a pre-beta today; a “pretty good” feature complete beta is due early next year. No word at all on when it’ll be released to market apart from that “three years from Vista” date we’ve known forever.

That’s just the good bits — hit the read links for piles of more info and screenshots, and we’ll keep our eyes out for anything else interesting. Exciting times!

Read – Keynote videos on the PDC site
Read – Technologizer Windows 7 hands-on
Read – Ars Technica Windows 7 interface walkthrough
Read – Laptop Windows 7 hands-on
Read – Windows 7 Media Center revealed

Source: Engadget.com

Tags: Windows7, Microsoft, touchsmart, PDC, Windows 7 beta