Windows 7 News

Windows 7 Codecs is a codec pack for Windows 7 that installs all the necessary components for all audio and video playback. Windows 7 Logo What is a codec? A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The term codec is short for compression/decompression; and thus a codec is an algorithm or special computer program that reduces the number of bytes consumed by large files

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Recently, I wrote an article about my must-have programs for Windows 7. In doing so, I realized just how much I use my office applications and how often they are overlooked as essential applications in Windows. I believe that I have personally integrated my productivity applications so much that I have failed to see how much I lean on them. Essentially, they have become almost as important as Windows itself. Without word processors and spreadsheet programs my job would nearly be impossible and so I decided to do a review of the productivity suites that most users are considering

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Windows 7 is, hands down, one of Microsoft’s best launched OSes, by which I mean, it’s the first Windows version that I have ever felt comfortable recommending to people on its release date. Both Windows XP and Windows Vista had numerous documented security and/or performance issues when initially released, and while subsequent patches eventually made both of these versions perfectly usable, it took a few months (if not years) for them to get there. These XP and Vista milestones were normally delivered via service packs, giant Microsoft patch roll-ups that bring more substantial OS tweaks than normal run-of-the-mill patches. It is generally accepted that XP’s Service Pack 2 helped fix many of that system’s security issues, while most of Vista’s performance problems were cleared up by Service Pack 1

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Microsoft could see a two-pronged attack in 2010 hitting both ends of their consumer market for Windows 7.  It’s no secret that Google will be launching into the netbook / low end market by the end of the year with Chrome OS, but there’s been fervent speculation about a forthcoming Tablet computer from Apple, frankly the only company who can revolutionise this market and make “the next big thing every year since 2002” sexy at last. As if industry watchers know that Santa delivered a very special package to Steve Jobs on Christmas day, Apple shares have risen by more than 11% in the last three weeks, and received an additional 1% push yesterday. This is fuelling speculation that the big announcement will come on January 26th at San Francisco’s Buena Centre which they have booked for a “major product announcement”.

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Back in September my grandfather called me because he wanted to let me know that his HP laptop has just been pronounced dead and that he was in the market for a new laptop. A friend of his, who does his computer troubleshooting since I live on the other end of the country, suggested that he should buy an HP. This friend of his went to HP’s website and put together a laptop package for his computing needs (word processing, heavy Powerpoint, web browsing, picture editing, creating posters and cards via Print Shop ). All of this was done before consulting me, which is normally no big deal

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In August, Microsoft began an investigation into IIS (Internet Information Services) after claims of a vulnerability involving the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) in IIS version 6. At the time, the Redmond giant reported that they were not yet aware of any existing attacks exploiting the flaw; however, code was posted on Milw0rm the 31st of August that reportedly exploits the flaw on any fully patched version of Win2K running IIS 5 with FTP enabled. It didn’t take long for Microsoft to report attacks on vulnerable servers, with the first official notice released on the 4th of September. The company then said that it was working on a security update to fix the problem, but said in the meantime that users should disable various sections of the FTP protocol to help secure vulnerable systems, with US-CERT (U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team) suggesting that anonymous access also be disabled

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The Power Plan Assistant for Windows 7 is a small application designed to help the user switch between any power plans available on the PC, including custom plans and all three built-in plans (including “High Performance” which is hidden on the standard system icon) while also adding entirely new capabilities, such as instantly turning off the display upon request. The icon also easily shows which power plan is currently in use by changing the icon in accordance to the active power plan, as seen in the screenshots above. The icon will automatically update itself regardless of where the plan was changed, whether it be in the default system icon, control panel, or via the power plan assistant. Switch the power plans automatically: to ‘Power Saver’ (to preventively save the energy if the battery level goes low), to ‘High Performance’ (on plugging in) and to ‘Balanced’ (on plugging out). As shown on the screenshot above, every Power Plan Assistant’s setting is user-configurable, i.e.

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Earlier this week Palm announced version 1.3.5 of WebOS , the operating system on the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi smartphones. The update doesn’t include any new applications or utilities, but it does make some significant changes to the operating system that users have been clamoring for, including the ability to use all of the storage capacity of the phone for app downloads, improved battery life, and changes to the Palm App Catalog that make it easier for users to download new apps and updates.

Audit Mode is a feature of Windows 7 (and Windows Vista) that will allow you to install and uninstall applications and drivers and make system changes without creating a user account or entering any computer information. Using Windows’ built-in Administrator account, you can install and uninstall programs, updates and drivers. When you’re finished you can repackage the OS using a program called Sysprep , which will delete the temporary Administrator account and display the Out of Box Experience (OOBE) setup wizard with which Windows users should by now be familiar. Audit Mode is a tool that is useful only in specific circumstances, but it is very valuable to some – for example, maybe you’ve bought or built a new computer for a friend or family member, and you want to uninstall crapware or update some drivers while allowing the machine to keep that new-computer smell.

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Looking to advocate that you’re an avid Windows 7 user? Then this theme is just for you. The I’m A Windows 7 PC  theme lets you show off to all your friends that you are the proud user of a PC running a copy of Windows 7.

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