techETA » Windows 7

Microsoft Releases Windows 7 SP1 Beta

Pedro Hernandez — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:17:29 +0000

Tablets aren’t the only stars of WDC 2010. Today, Microsoft released the first public beta of Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 (it’s a consolidated release). Although Microsoft warns that only IT pros need apply, it’s not preventing anyone with the “right qualifications” to grab the update after a brief registration process on the official Windows 7 SP1 download page over at TechNet. (I don’t have to spell it out for you, do I?)

What does the service pack have in store? According to OS maker, Windows 7 users will simply get a streamlined package of updates that have been released since the operating system launched with maybe a tweak or two thrown in. Windows Server 2008 users, on the other hand, have RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory, a Hyper-V virtualization-boosting tech, to look forward to.

via BetaNews

Windows Live Essentials to get some user friendly updates

Rafael Hernandez — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 19:00:55 +0000

Microsoft’s Windows 7 removed quite a few of the applications people have come to rely on and bundled it under the company’s Windows Live Essentials banner in order to better promote, and update, their home-user centric programs.

The company is planning to improve and extend their products with an emphasis on easily publishing your photos and movies to “the Cloud” (aka Youtube, Flickr, anything not on your physical PC). They’re also working on advanced features for Windows Live Photo Gallery and Movie Maker which should impress the casual shutterbugs out there.

Source: Inside Windows Live

Windows 7 XP Mode no longer requires Virtualization hardware extensions

Rafael Hernandez — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 01:36:47 +0000

Microsoft’s Windows 7 added a whole host of new technologies which are designed to modernize the Windows operating system lineup which also included some Virtualization technology that would help older XP based software run smoothly on the new OS. Unfortunately at launch their “XP Mode” required hardware virtualization support in order to run.

No longer.

A blog post on the company’s Windows Blog notes that Windows XP Mode no longer requires a processor with hardware Virtualization extensions meaning a whole host of budget processors will be able to run the mode. Of course the hardware support will undoubtedly make the XP Mode run much quicker but it’s a nice move none-the-less.

Source: The Windows Blog

Windows 7 SP1 Detailed…sort of

Rafael Hernandez — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 03:15:00 +0000

Businesses dare not deploy a whole new operating system until they know the bulk of their hardware and software will run, in a stable fashion, on the fancy newly update OS…thus the wait until at least Service Pack 1 rolls around.

Microsoft has deemed that line of thinking silly so they’ll be rolling out a Service Pack for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2…sometime. A Service Pack in name only it’d appear as the company has no plans to make any major additions to the operating systems and will simply be packing together already released patches into a simple to deploy installer.

As of yet there’s no known released date, hope you weren’t expecting anything ground breaking.

Source: Computerworld

Windows 7 Reworking Its Copy Protection

Rafael Hernandez — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:05:40 +0000

Being a popular new operating system means that there are those that would circumvent protections in the OS so as to make it seem legitimate. There are those that willingly take that risk in order to save themselves some cash, then there are those that are suckered into a new system preloaded with a counterfeit install.

Whatever the case may be Microsoft is ramping up their anti-piracy efforts with Windows 7 with their upcoming Windows Activation Technologies Update for Windows 7…update which will try to patch 70 or so activation loopholes and, seemingly, make the installations seem not so genuine.

The update is set to be released in a few days but it’s unknown as to when they’ll require it to be a mandatory install.

Source: The Windows Blog

Atheros Wireless Ethernet Adapter Windows 7, Vista Driver Version 7.7.0.331

Rafael Hernandez — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 21:59:29 +0000

Atheros’ many wireless chipsets, which happen to be found in numerous wireless adapters and provide WiFi connectivity for varied notebook designs, are well supported by the company.

Their version 7.7.0.331 driver supports Windows 7 and Windows Vista 32bit and 64bit versions.

You can download the driver here.

Realtek PCI Express Ethernet LAN Windows 7 Driver Version 7.009

Rafael Hernandez — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 16:41:49 +0000

Realtek maintains up to date drivers for their various Ethernet LAN interface chips commonly found integrated on many computer motherboards. Version 7.009 of their driver supports the following PCI Express chips:

RTL8111B, RTL8168B, RTL8111, RTL8168, RTL8111C, RTL8111CP, RTL8111D(L), RTL8168C, RTL8111DP, RTL8111E, RTL8105E

The driver supports Windows 7 32bit and 64bit versions.

You can download the driver here.

Realtek PCI Ethernet LAN Windows 7 Driver Version 6.111

Rafael Hernandez — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:27:57 +0000

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.

2009 Holiday Gift Buying Guide – The Enthusiast

Rafael Hernandez — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 05:57:22 +0000

Ah the holidays. Getting the right gift for that special someone is tricky, getting one for your computer/gadget fiend family member is a maddening experience. Sure you could go the gift card route but that doesn’t exactly give you that certain sense of satisfaction when you see their face light up once they open a finely wrapped gift.

We’ve created a bit of a shopping list containing some of this year’s hottest computer gear and gadgets you may just want to keep in mind should you be buying for the technology purist.

Intel X25-M Solid State Drive

Storage drives haven’t been much of an exciting segment for the enthusiast computer user, the biggest kick they could get out of a hard drive was running some form of RAID 0 which, from a performance standpoint, is speedier but it gets a little dicey should one drive fail on you as you’ll be losing all of your data.

Solid State Drives changed the landscape by making use of flash memory chips all working in tandem to provide extremely fast access to the data stored on them. If you’re looking to improve your computer enthusiast’s system responsiveness and lower their wait time for programs, games, and operating system to load up there is no better upgrade out there today.

As far as speed is concerned there is no faster consumer level drive than Intel’s X25-M lineup. You’ll find the storage sizes aren’t exactly in the Terabyte level but its speed more than makes up for any size downfalls.

Intel X25-M 80GB Mainstream Solid State Drive $257
Intel X25-M 160GB Mainstream Solid State Drive $486

Microsoft Windows 7 Operating System

Its been talked about and tested so long you’d of thought it was released quite a while ago but last month’s launch of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system brought users a thoroughly modern version of Windows that takes full advantage of today’s hardware and offers a better overall fit and polish anyone would enjoy.

Performance improvements, DirectX 11, and built-in support for tons of hardware make it a must have for the enthusiast who loves their computing almost as much as their friends and family…almost.

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade $200
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade $110
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Family Pack $290

Synology Disk Station Network Attached Storage

Looking at different methods for simplifying life usually leads to some rather expensive solutions but, if they do the trick, the cost of entry is usually worth it. Take for instance sharing files over a network. Being the media loving fiend your gift receiver is why would you put them through the trouble of serving files from their home computer when a dedicated machine would suffice?

A Network Attached Storage solution would do the trick allowing him (or her) to backup from and serve files to any other computer or media player, such as an Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, on the network all from an energy efficient appliance. A sensible investment that minimizes the constant folder sharing/portable drive shuffle.

Synology Disk Station DS209 2-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage $310
Synology Disk Station DS409 4-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage $450

Intel Core i7 860 Processor

The Intel Core i7 lineup has been the fastest processor choice for a year now with enough advanced features and speed to crunch through the most demanding of applications. Unfortunately the platform’s cost of entry made it a steep jump for many users, even those that always feel the need for speed.

Intel’s socket LGA1156 simplified things a bit bringing the cost of entry down but, more importantly, bringing along even more advanced features which makes things interesting for the gamers out there with its integrated PCI Express controller that eeks out some performance gains.

The Intel Core i7 860 represents the best mix of speed and features to help convince your gift recipient to put their current computer out to pasture.

Intel Core i7 860 2.80 GHz Processor $290

Microsoft Zune HD

Personal media players have come a long way in the past few years but, amazingly enough, there are still ways to wow those gadget fiends that have literally seen it all. Microsoft’s Zune HD caught many off-guard with its OLED touch screen goodness.

If that’s not enough to convince you well the all flash memory gadget sports HD Radio reception for CD quality sound to go along with its sleek looks and game support meanwhile the optional monthly fee Zune Pass service lets you access tons of songs and gives you ten free tracks each month you keep the service active. A bargain!

Microsoft Zune HD 16 GB Video MP3 Player $198
Microsoft Zune HD 32 GB Video MP3 Player $289

CyberpowerPC GX1219 Desktop Gaming PC

For those on your shopping list that have been exceptionally good there’s always the extravagant gift to lavish your love on them with, that or show them that you expect the same good cheer from them all year round.

A custom built screamer of a Gaming PC would light up anyone’s eyes and takes the burden off planning yet another upgrade cycle from your loved one. Of course you’ll want top of the line components so it can survive those brutal gaming sessions and provide the best experience possible.

CyberpowerPC GX1219 Desktop Gaming PC $2000

Of course the holidays are all about spending time with friends and family so even if you can’t swing anything extravagant this year we’re sure everyone will just be happy to be around each other…as long as the WiFi works.

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Review

Rafael Hernandez — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:10:50 +0000

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.

Face it, Windows XP is long in the tooth. Sure it’ll run on most hardware made in the past ten years and it’s been tested and refined and patched enough times where things are running quite smoothly — thank you very much — but the fact is it just won’t cut it moving forward.

Microsoft’s initial attempt at weening people off of XP, Windows Vista, was seen as a flop by the general public. Its SuperFetch feature tended to hit hard drives a bit much leading to overall system slowness while UAC’s constant pestering made computing something of a chore. Sure you could disable those features, even minimize their impact, but you can’t expect most users to dig through documentation to find the fixes to their woes.

So Vista’s reputation wasn’t completely deserved but such features weren’t exactly implemented in the best way possible.

Ah what a welcoming introduction to the Windows 7 experience. Microsoft has taken considerable effort in order to make sure you have a fine selection of wallpapers to go along with your shiny new operating system… But that’s not what you’re interested in now is it?

Windows 7 is based heavily on Windows Vista but there are enough changes where you can consider it a fresh take on the Windows platform. The company went back under the hood and made countless numbers of tweaks which will improve on system performance and integration with the peripherals you use every day.

How did they figure out what and where to tweak? Well Windows 7 had one of the largest Beta testing programs for any Windows operating system to date. Over 8 million beta testers used the OS so the company had plenty of feedback from automated sources and actual requests from users.

Listening to customers? Absurd!

Getting started with the operating system is a breeze. Windows 7 packs in an insane selection of drivers for peripherals so you can get your PC up and running without the usual driver hunting that occurred with Windows XP and Vista. Thankfully hardware manufacturers also seem much more willing to create stable software for their products from the start so Vista’s nightmare driver scenario hasn’t been repeated.

As far as choosing the 32-bit versus 64-bit versions you’re better off going for the 64-bit version, unless you’re running an early Intel Atom processor which might not support it. Your computer will be able to support much more than the 4GB RAM limit 32-bit Windows 7 is limited to and a number of applications enjoy a performance boost with the move which we’ll explore in a future article.

The Aero user interface has received a few new tricks most notably the snap function which allows you to drag a program to the edge of your screen and the OS will automatically resize the application to take up a portion of the screen or enlarge it fully. It’s a handy feature that makes resizing windows less of a chore.

(Xvid support out of the box is quite nice)

Windows 7 comes bundled with Media Player 12 which can handle many more file formats than before so that codec downloading ritual on a fresh install is a thing of the past. Windows Media Center also benefits from a bit of tweaking with support for the HomeGroup file sharing feature and general responsiveness improvements.

New to the Windows lineup is the Device Stage which allows you to interact with your cell phone/smart phone, digital camera, and any other device that would otherwise require drivers and separate applications. It all depends on hardware vendor support, but it’s a single interface from which you can sync files and change settings on your gadgets which cuts down on the amazing amount of applications you’ll need to keep your gear up to date.

The added features are great perks to owning Windows 7 but you’ll no-doubt notices a few applications haven’t made it into the default OS install. Applications like Outlook Express, Messenger, and Movie Maker were rolled into the company’s Windows Live Essentials pack which makes for a more streamline install and keeps users up to date.

Seeing as how Vista presented a bit of a performance issue for many users, the tweaks Microsoft implemented in Windows 7 is what will make or break the OS. SuperFetch on 7 has been toned down a notch and should keep the disk thrashing to a minimum leading to a quicker system startup.

DirectX 11 is a key feature that will have gamers, and well everyone else, excited over the prospects of improved GPU performance and memory management while its DirectCompute functionality will extend a graphics chip’s powerful processing capability to tasks like graphics manipulation and video transcoding.

Power management has also been revamped with automatic display dimming and smarter resource usage. Unused ports are powered down and services that aren’t needed won’t be enabled. While it might not sound like much small power savings here and there add up over the long run leading to longer battery life on laptops and desktops that soak up less energy overall which is quite the benefit in a business office full of PCs.

Going a little green was never easier.

So the myriad of performance tweaks, including the ones aimed at HyperThreading capable processors (Intel Core i7), amount to seeking speed here and there for overall system performance. The outright speed gains aren’t going to be jumping out at you but the way Windows 7 handles multiple applications simultaneously, be it web browsing and multimedia viewing to office applications and image manipulation, is an impressive feat. Apps co-exist nicely and using the OS is a much smoother experience compared to previous versions.

Our test system as follows:

AMD Turion 64 X2 TL60 2.0GHz
2GB Memory
Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS

Test Software:

Windows XP Sp3 32-bit
Windows Vista SP2 32-bit
Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit

CrystalDiskMark 2.2
Maxon CINEBENCH R10

Windows 7 manages to pull off quite a feat on hard drive performance besting Windows XP and Vista by 7-10% in sequential read/write and random read/write performance under CrystalDiskMark. When handling a large number of files, or even large files in general, the speed boost is much appreciated.

As far as CPU performance is concerned 7 does a good a job as Vista and XP when it comes to offering up full access to CPU time when an application calls for it. Maxon’s CINEBENCH R10 renders a complex 3D scene that pegs CPU usage which, aside from XP’s lower single-core CB performance, evens out the playing field. As for less demanding applications Vista’s habit of spiking CPU usage can lead to lower system performance.

System power usage was also measure with a trusty Kill A Watt. Windows 7 comes in with the lower overall system power usage idling at a comfortable 32Watts, while XP manages a respectable 35Watt idle rating, and Vista would seemingly take third place with a close 37Watt reading but it consistenly spiked to 50Watts which will do a number on laptop battery life. Power usage was pretty much even across the board with the system’s processor pegged at 100% CPU usage. Windows 7′s overall efficiency and features like auto-dimming displays should mean considerable battery life and energy savings.

On the system timing front Windows 7 manages to eek out a few wins here and there when it comes to resuming from hibernation and system shutdowns, a distinct improvement over Vista’s performance. Its system start up time from a restart or cold boot does lag behind a bit which could be due to network access attempts at boot but, whatever the case, it lags XP by a decent chunk of time on our testbed.

Conclusion

In testing, Windows 7 has proven itself to be the most robust operating system from Microsoft to date. The only real bloat to be found is its massive assortment of drivers that conveniently supports a wide swath of hardware, meaning your PC is pretty much up and running once it’s installed. It’s not-so-stringent media playback means you can get around to enjoying your videos out of the box with fewer hassles.

Microsoft’s nips and tucks have lead to a slick looking Windows OS with less of the hitching and much better responsiveness on its own end. Rogue applications are better corralled by Windows 7 which should make for a more stable environment for your PC as a whole.

If you have a multi-core PC with 2GB of memory it’s, in our opinion, a highly recommended upgrade. If you own an older PC you may just want to upgrade to a new PC featuring the OS. In either case, XP will be but a distant memory soon enough.

Pros:

Responsive OS helps you to get things done quicker
Windows Media Player 12 supports Xvid, MOV files, and more out of the box for a better multimedia experience out of the box
DirectX 11/DirectCompute will change the way graphics cards are used…for the better
Impressive amount of built-in driver support means you’re up and running quicker

Cons:

A small learning curve if you’re moving straight from XP

Disclaimer: Windows 7 Ultimate was furnished by Microsoft.