Realtek maintains up to date drivers for their various Ethernet LAN interface chips commonly found integrated on many computer motherboards. Version 6.111 of their driver supports the following chips:

RTL8100B(L), RTL8100C(L), RTL8101L, RTL8139C(L), RTL8139C(L)+, RTL8139D(L), RTL8100(L) RTL8130, RTL8139B(L)

The driver supports Windows 7 32bit and 64bit versions

You can download the driver here.

Realtek maintains up to date drivers for their various Ethernet LAN interface chips commonly found integrated on many computer motherboards. Version 6.227 of their driver supports the following chips:

RTL8100B(L), RTL8100C(L), RTL8101L, RTL8139C(L), RTL8139C(L)+, RTL8139D(L), RTL8100(L) RTL8130, RTL8139B(L)

The driver supports Windows Vista, 32bit and 64bit,  and Windows Server 2008, 32bit and 64bit versions.

You can download the driver here.

Optimizing system performance used to be about defragmenting every so often and limiting the number of applications you’re running. Unfortunately, today’s modern PC needs a whole host of support applications doing their own thing in the background in order to maintain a usable system.

TuneUp Utilities 2010 attempts to corral your PC and whip it into shape with its extensive suite of tools designed around improving performance. Does it succeed? We’ll be taking a look at how the software goes about doing its thing and its benefit to you as a user.
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Its been a long time coming. As of October 22nd you could pick up your very own copy of the polished good stuff. Microsoft’s Windows 7 has promised to make your computing usage a kinder, gentler experience and it has the shiny icons to prove it. But with the “dark cloud” Vista hung over the Windows brand can they get their house back in order?

We’ll be taking a look at Windows 7 and how it handles the day to day rigors of PC usage. Its changes are many but no matter how you use your computer there are improvements to be found for all users.
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Microsoft had a lot riding on their Windows 7 operating system, after all people weren’t exactly flocking to Windows Vista and XP has been getting long in the tooth as far as features were concerned. Their efforts seem to have done good but does all of the added newfangled-ness cause performance issues to pop up?

AnandTech does their usual thorough testing and pits Windows 7 against XP and Vista in a veritable feast of software performance evaluations and benchmarks showing you how 7 handles the most common application tasks undertaken by PC users. There’s a lot of info to digest here:

For Windows 7, Windows has been put on a diet in order to perform better on those machines. The most noticeable changes here are that Windows 7 eats less RAM and hard drive space out of the box than a comparable version of Vista did. There have also been some underlying tweaks to SuperFetch (it’s less aggressive on startup) and the kernel to improve responsiveness.

The tweaks are certainly there as can bee seen by the OS’ ability to eek out more performance from the same hardware.

If you were wondering when the latest, monthly, ATI Catalyst drivers would be released well you had a bit of a wait this month as AMD chose to push them out on Microsoft’s Windows 7 launch date. In the latest 9.10 driver set you can expect quite a few performance improvements and bug fixes as well as support for the newest ATI Radeon HD 5870 and 5850 graphics cards. Unfortunately Radeon HD 5770 and 5750 support didn’t make it in but those cards should see support shortly in the form of a hotfixed driver.

If you’re running a Radeon graphics card earlier than the Radeon HD 2400 series you’ll have to grab the company’s legacy drivers as earlier generations of their graphics chips have been moved to legacy support status.

Here are some quick links to AMD’s download pages:

ATI Catalyst 9.10 Video Drivers for Windows 7
ATI Catalyst 9.10 Video Drivers for Windows 7 64-bit
ATI Catalyst 9.10 Video Drivers for Windows Vista
ATI Catalyst 9.10 Video Drivers for Windows Vista 64-bit
ATI Catalyst 9.10 Video Drivers for Windows XP
ATI Catalyst 9.10 Video Drivers for Windows XP 64-bit

C-Media’s lineup of audio chips can be found in a wide array of add-on sound cards and integrated into many computing products. The company maintains up to date drivers for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 operating systems.

Their drivers support the following chipsets:

CMI8768, CMI8768+, CMI8770, CMI8787

You can download the latest drivers below:

C-Media CMI8768 Windows 7, Vista, XP Audio Drivers
C-Media CMI8768+ Windows Vista, XP Audio Drivers
C-Media CMI8770 Windows 7, Vista, XP Audio Drivers
C-Media CMI8787 Windows 7, Vista, XP Audio Drivers

Ralink makes a wide array of wireless products used in both mobile and desktop environments. The company maintains up to date drivers for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 which support the following chipsets:

RT2870, RT2770, RT307X, RT2070, RT3572, RT2860, RT2760, RT2890, RT2790, RT306X, RT309X, RT35X2, RT257x, RT2671, RT520x, RT256x, RT266x, RT2500, RT2500USB

Thankfully they supply the drivers for all to freely download, unlike other wireless chip manufacturers. Here’s the direct link to their download page:

Ralink Wireless Drivers for Windows

There’s nothing quite as scary as a new operating system roll out for businesses especially when they’ve invested quite a bit of time and money in acquiring licenses for Windows XP applications. Fortunately for them, and us, Windows 7’s XP Mode will smooth things over.

The Windows Blog brings word that XP Mode has hit RTM status and will be available to download for Windows 7 Professional, an higher, users meaning your XP applications will run in a nice virtualized environment that should make things go smoothly.

You’ll be able to grab your own copy of the software when Windows 7 launches October 22nd.

Source: Windows 7 Team Blog

When netbooks were introduced they saw a number of restrictions if they wanted to run the Windows XP operating system which, given Vista’s hefty requirements, was the only usable Windows choice. This time around they’ve eased up.

Microsoft is allowing netbook manufacturers to preload whatever version of the Windows 7 OS they’re content with no matter the machine’s specs. Of course you won’t likely find a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate on a bargain basement netbook so they’re somewhat safe on the hardware requirements front.

Good news for those fearing hardware requirements that would stop their shiny new netbook from running the best version of Windows 7.

Source: TG Daily