Posts tagged Windows 7
My newest toy : Samsung R517
Nov 15th
I bought my Desktop PC from Lucknow to Delhi as I am more avid fan of a desktop then laptop, so now I needed a computer for my home in Lucknow, something my dad & sisters can easily use.
Few days ago, I went to Nehru Place to buy a laptop with my friend, he was eying netbooks which all had Intel Atom CPU & were available for Rs 20,000 approx. However, he wanted to run Windows 7 on it & doubted the power of Intel Atom with Intel GMA 500 onboard graphics which is default on all the Netbooks out there. He wasn’t wrong, Intel Atom doesn’t have sufficient power to give a good Windows 7 experience.
Then we saw something which we really like & found totally worth them money. We found Samsung R517 Laptop for just Rs 25,000 which comes with FreeDOS. The reason it is available for this cost is due to the exclusion of an Operating system which reduces the cost. I bought this laptop for my family today.
By looking at the laptop, you can easily confuse it with Lenovo ThinkPad R series laptops. Even I was confused when I saw it for the first time. Samsung has tried to go with a no-frills, no-jazzy look with this laptop. Its a simple, plain laptop which has enough potential & power as primary laptop for my family who uses a computer ones in a while only & there tasks constitutes of browsing, Microsoft Office, chatting, watching movies, music etc but the most important thing to note here is that they don’t use the computer everyday. There, it opens ones or twice a week only.
Keeping this in mind, I decided to buy this laptop for my home too as I did not want to spend a lot of money & wanted something which can support Windows 7 Home premium easily & can be used for the next 3 years without even touching.
The laptop configuration is as follows :
Intel Pentium dual core T4200 running at 2 GHz with 800 MHz FSB
15.6” glossy screen with a resolution of 1376X768px
2 GB DDR2 800 MHz RAM
250 GB 5400 RPM Samsung SATA2 Hard disk
Intel GMA X4500 onboard graphics
Realtek 5.1 channel HD audio with SRS
.3 MP Webcam which is sufficient enough for Video chats
rest as usual, like Wi-Fi, etc. One thing to note that there is no Onboard Bluetooth. I wonder why Samsung decided to exclude it. I bought a generic Bluetooth dongle with it for Rs 150. The display as you see is glossy, something we designers do not prefer but for home use its good, videos look awesome on it, specially HD Videos. The laptop was handling 1080p video just fine
For full configuration, check Samsung’s Product page for R517
The right hand side of laptop has only the DVD writer while the left hand side contains 3 USB Port, one Wired LAN port, Micro SD card reader, Audio & Mic ports & one VGA Port to attach external monitor.
Like I said, simple yet effective package. There isn’t what people won’t need & it is sufficient for most people as far as hardware peripherals are concerned.
I decided to install Windows 7 home premium & decided not to install pirated software as long as not required. I was surprised to see that we can make a fully working Windows system without paying anything for the software. Here is what I used :
1) Browser : Internet Explorer 8 is given in Windows 7 by default but I decided to install Google Chrome official version with extensions like Adsweep, flashblock & smoothscroll just because it is faster then IE 8 overall. Also, Chrome integrated with Windows even better then Firefox. Firefox would have been too alien for them as IE 8 or Google Chrome are good enough out of the box while Firefox needs a lot of extensions to make it work good.
2) I decided to use Free Download Manager which easily integrates with both IE 8 & Chrome. It automatically takes over Chrome’s downloader using a Netscape compatible dll.
3) Chatting : Personally, I have moved to Digsby, but my sister still prefers to use individual messenger clients because they provide better features like PhotoShare of Yahoo messenger. I install what we all are used to using, latest version of Google talk, Yahoo messenger, Skype & Windows Live Messenger.
4) Office suite : Though I could have given them OpenOffice, but just because I had a license spare & my sister is more familiar with Office 2007, I gave her Office 2007 Student edition as she only needs Excel & Word.
5) E-Mail : Well, she is better off using Web mail clients considering the huge space in GBs that they allow today.
6) Windows Live Suite & applications : This is something worth noticing. With Windows 7, Microsoft has tightened the integration between Windows Live apps & Windows. Frankly speaking, everything is already given which is just a download away. I installed Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Photo Gallery & Windows Movie Maker which is enough for the way they use & manage videos & images. Considering I also have a Sony CyberShot digicam which I will be giving at home, Windows Live Photo Gallery fulfils the requirements completely. All they do is copy the image, crop out the unwanted areas & mail to whoever is concerned.
7) For image editing, I decided to stick with Paint. Usually, there isn’t much editing they will need, except for resizing, cropping etc which paint is good enough to do because with Windows 7, Microsoft made Paint a half decent editor with basic features which are usually used like resizing, cropping.
8 ) For security, I decided to stick with a properly configured Windows Firewall, Windows defender & Microsoft Security essentials antivirus. These 3 integrate beautifully in Windows 7 & they run like “Set it & forget it “. Besides, its free & sufficient enough. I also turned on UAC.
9) I am an old fan of Yahoo! Widgets, so I installed this instead of using Windows Gadgets.
10) InfraRecorder for CD Burning. Though I taught my sister to burn Data CD & DVD using Windows 7′s inbuilt Disk Burning utility but this comes in handy when burning other type of CDs like mp3 or picture CD.
11) Peazip for archiving. Its a simple & free no frills Archiving utility. Right click & select “extract” for ZIP, RAR etc or right click & select “Add to Zip”.
12) Inbuilt Microsoft Remote desktop for fixing the computer if needed over the internet between home & Delhi
13) Windows 7 codec pack by Shard007. One pack for everything.
Sticking to only the default configuration helps. Things are tightly integrated & now all they have to do, is to open the laptop & use it without worrying about anything.
Well, I don’t know all about using habits of my family, so I will be updating this post as required.
Microsoft’s debugging tools for Internet Explorer
Sep 3rd
Most of the web designer & developers are using some sort of tool like IE tester or a separate machine running IE 6 or IE 7 to check for compatibility errors with these browsers. Also, historically it’s been hard to debug for IE 6 & 7 as we do not have something like Firebug for Internet Explorer.
Some of us already know about the web developer toolbar for Internet Explorer, but today Microsoft released a new visual debugging tool for Internet Explorer called Expression Web SuperPreview for Internet Explorer (Microsoft, please hire someone to come up with short names for your product). Its like IE tester but from Microsoft, means it has the native real engine of IE 6 & IE 7 not something emulated which some people think IETester has. (Its wrong though, IETester has the same DLL as IE 6).
The difference between IETester & SuperPreview is that in IE Tester you cannot debug or see which HTML element is affected & which part of the CSS is giving problem but in SuperPreview you can see the web page in IE 6 as well as IE7/8 side by side so it is easy to know which part is getting affected & then you can easily target that element. Like in the current screenshot, I am checking the rendered HTML in IE 6 & IE 8 side by side. If there is some anomaly in IE 6 but not in IE 8 then I know which HTML element or CSS is breaking.
However, this isn’t all that we require. This indeed is a great effort from Microsoft to move the existing web pages from IE 6 to IE 8 but it would have been better if we can get the functionality of IE Developer toolbar in SuperPreview. Now, that is indeed available in expression web 3.0 but that is a paid software, what if we just want to test & see what’s broken & fix is quickly.
Windows 7 : How Microsoft won the world with Vista
Jul 31st
Few days ago Microsoft announced that Windows 7 has gone RTM & select beta testers; TechNet & MSDN subscribers will get it as soon as August 6th. Apple few months ago in WWDC said Windows 7 is just same old technology as Windows Vista which is bad but even though Snow Leopard is same old technology as Leopard like what Microsoft did, its good…. well, here is the thing Apple, Microsoft played a gamble with Windows Vista & now they have won it.
Windows XP was using Windows NT technology when it was released but to move Windows in 21st century & to make a good foundation for future version of Windows, Microsoft needed a new technology, new architecture for Windows while still maintaining backward compatibility with Windows XP era application. Microsoft played a gamble with Windows Vista due to which they released many new technologies, architecture etc. which did break backward compatibility but it in a way paved the path for Windows 7.
If it was Windows 7 with which MS was releasing new technologies then Windows 7 would have had the fate like that of Vista. With Vista Microsoft gave us developers new API like WPF, WCF, WWF, DirectX 10, X-Audio etc. which wasn’t liked much when Vista released as the low end hardware at that time was not capable enough to run Vista, it was Windows XP centric.
64bit Computing & Hardware
Microsoft increased awareness about 64bit computing with Vista 64bit edition, people also started upgrading to more than 3 GB RAM for which 64bit computing is required & today after 3 years, all CPUs in the market are 64bit capable, they can run 64bit version of Windows which brings more stability, more RAM support & ability to do more work at ones. This just increases the efficiency of our current hardware. All the hardware purchased in the last 2 years need no upgrade to run Windows 7. It is highly optimized form of Vista & Microsoft won the gamble that today most of the PCs in the world have more than enough power to run Windows 7 without any upgrade which is essential considering the current economic crisis all over the world.
DirectX 10 & GPGPU
Microsoft re-created a large part of DirectX with DirectX 10 & released WDDM Driver model which bought much more stability even to the third party drivers which are the biggest reason of Windows BSODs. Microsoft also gave developers the ability to use the graphics card to use as a GPGPU which can assist CPU in tasks because a GPU is also like a big CPU but only for graphics. This wasn’t possible with DirectX 9 so the large re-write & no compatibility with Windows XP did make some people mad at Microsoft but Microsoft wasn’t thinking about short term gains, they had long term gains in mind. Now 3 years later, today, GPGPU is a common term. AMD & nVidia have their support in the form of CUDA & Stream API. Almost all new games use DirectX 10 which also makes them easy to port to XBOX 360, doubling the market reach. Again, a gamble MS played by not providing support for Windows XP but it won the gamble today with Windows 7 as now even onboard graphics support DirectX 10 hence GPGPU capability & enhanced stability.
Hardware Industry
With Vista & Aero, Microsoft forced GPU manufacturers to support DirectX 9 at the bare minimum in there onboard graphics too. Now, nVidia & ATI are the big dogs in GPU industry but enterprise & casual users don’t usually buy separate graphics card, they rely on onboard video which was arcane in form of Intel Extreme Graphics. For the first time in years, Intel started providing Intel GMA 950 with full DirectX 9 support, which had sufficient power to run Windows Vista & Aero but wasn’t enough to play games though this isn’t what Microsoft was aiming. If you are an avid gamer, you will sure buy a separate graphics card but if you are a casual user then Onboard graphics will also suffice. nVidia & then ATI (now AMD) also started giving powerful onboard graphics & 3 years later, today, even the low-end onboard graphics found in motherboards is enough to run full 1080p HD Videos, Aero & even casual gaming.
HD Audio
With X-Audio, Microsoft broke the monopoly of Creative & it’s EAX from the Sound Industry. Now HD Audio which was created in alliance with Intel & Microsoft rules the consumer PC industry & only some high end users & audiophiles buy Creative’s Sound cards as Onboard HD Audio provides better Value for money, features & stability instead of Creative. There is no point in buying another sound card when the onboard APU is enough to provide 32bit, multi-channel audio while Creative X-Fi is still 24bit. Since X-Audio is all in software, it can do wonders. Never doubt the power of software :-p
New API
Microsoft introduced WPF for Application development instead of GDI+. WPF is all C# managed code based due to which there are low memory leaks, large audience as .Net CLR is also available as open source & it is also supported on Linux with Mono, etc. When Vista came the 3rd party developers had a choice, either support the arcane Windows XP model of software development or slowly switch to C# & WPF. Many of the companies did this & after 3 years, a large market is there with .net based application for Windows Vista. Not only the 3rd party developers got certification for Vista, but they were also exposed to new technologies only available to Vista. They used the technology & 3 years later… many applications are using the new technologies provided by Vista so when Windows 7 is coming, the devs don’t have to do anything much. Their application is already Windows 7 compatible since a long time. Microsoft made developers update their code for Vista, it gave them 3 years to do it & with Windows 7, everything is already ready at launch.
Internet Explorer
Microsoft was lacking behind in terms of web technology support with Internet Explorer & they are also facing a silly lawsuit by E.C. & Opera. Well, Microsoft just listened to the customers & made IE 8 with much better support for current CSS & HTML technologies & a multi-process engine which later on even Google Chrome copied, followed by Firefox. If you hate a product due to lack of features, you won’t use it. But if all the flaws are fixed & it does what you want it to do the way you want it to do… will you still not use it or will you still act like a Firefox or Safari Fan boy. Internet Explorer 9 is going to be completely new HTML engine based with full support for HTML 5 if HTML 5 gets standardized before IE 9 is released but judging by the situation today, IE 8 will be able to hold for a long time as HTML 5 is not coming anytime soon. Though I myself wish it comes quickly.
Windows Live Services
Microsoft also changed their application bundling model with Windows 7. Windows 7 no longer comes with Windows Mail or Calendar, cos it doesn’t need to as Microsoft already develops them in form of Windows Live. Now, if a user doesn’t want to use Windows Mail, it’s not there at all. He can very well use Thunderbird or something else or install Windows Live Essential pack to get all those apps he might be missing. Now, no one can sue Microsoft by saying it is a Monopoly & since Windows Mail is inbuilt, no one uses XYZ E-Mail client. Consumers have a choice, either use whatever you want… or if you are unaware.. There is a link in Welcome center of Windows 7 informing them about Windows Live services.
Security
All those people who say Windows get virus, well… it’s been 3 years I am using my PC without any antivirus suite & there is no problem so far. I don’t even use Windows defender, but then again… not everyone is a power user so for them, Microsoft is releasing “Codename Morrow”, a free anti-virus suite from Microsoft which will sure come under Windows Live brand when released. Like I said previously, if you hate a product due to lack of features then you won’t use it. But if all the flaws are fixed & it does what you want it to do the way you want it to do… will you still not use it or will you still act like a Fan boy.
Microsoft also faced some stiff completion, Lies & Lawsuits but one thing I like about Steve Ballmer’s administration is that now Microsoft is listening to what people are saying. If it wasn’t for this, Windows 7 wouldn’t get this much overhaul in performance, UI & UX.
One of the biggest reason of Apple users making fun of Windows users is that Apple has a better UI. Well, guess what…. the Superbar One ups the Dock in every way. Windows navigation with Superbar is so better than even Apple copied Dock expose from Window’s Aero Peak. Apple even copied GPGPU in form of OpenCL but no one will blame them… it’s just cool hating Microsoft even if you don’t have a reason to hate.
In my workplace we use Windows, Mac & Linux. All the people who use the OS know how to use it so they are comfortable with it, we have no reason to hate the other OS cos we know at the end of the day, whatever gets your work done is the best thing.
Mojave experiment proved that many people hated Vista, didn’t like it just cos someone told them this. How can you hate something when you have never tried it? Sure with Vista Microsoft gave a new UI for explorer etc. but 3 years later, that UI is common & people using Windows 7 won’t be feeling new. They have been using & working on similar environment since 3 years. That Vista’s UI is now old & generic.
Windows 7 is what Windows Vista should have been but it’s a wrong saying. If it wasn’t for Windows Vista & its success/failure… Windows 7 would not exist in such a successful form as it is today.
Polishing Chrome for shine
Mar 30th
Google released there own browser few months ago which was the first product in ages to come out of the famous Beta tag of Google within 2 months of release so as to appeal to the OEMs. Despite of Google’s stupidity of saying “Windows 7 users should be asked to select there default browser on each startup”, Google Chrome still is making noise in the browser market & is touted as the next best thing after Sliced bread.
Google Chrome is based on Webkit Rendering engine which was created by Apple which Apple copied from KDE’s KHTML engine. Webkit has gained so much momentum that people forgot about KHTML & now use Webkit only for there browser development. Webkit is also powering the mobile browser of iPhone & Symbian S60 OS.
Google added there own faster Javscript Engine called V8 to it which sparked the era in all the browsers to provide faster Javascript performance as most of Web 2.0 is based on JavaScript. Even in the company where I work we have stopped using Flash in favor of Javascript & ASP.net. Even the banner ads we create are made using JS. Its just better & works everywhere, even on mobile phones as JS is better then Flash when it comes to resource usage.
Firefox is the regarded as the best browser out there due to its Open Source structure, Extensions & 3rd party Extensions support. Firefox has indeed managed to crack the market share of Internet Explorer but now we have Chrome in the block which is eating the market share of Firefox. Firefox looks kind of ugly on Windows & its not a native windows browser, instead it tries to shove XUL all over. The good part of Chrome is that it is made with Windows in mind & so far follows many Microsoft recommended ways of creating an application for Windows platform.
I used Google Chrome for 3 days as my primary browser & I am already missing many features. Although Google Chrome is really fast to execute & open pages, it still lacks features which I need.
So far this is my take of Google Chrome.
1. No Extensions support. Although it is being said that Google is planning to support extension support to Chrome.
2. No Ad blocking support. Google is a company which makes lots of money through AdSence so obviously they would want there browser to show all the Ads. I was however able to find a good ad blocker for Google Chrome called Ad sweep which is like Adblock for Firefox but will work with many browsers.
3. After some searching on Google I was also able to find some tutorials to use Google Chrome as Power users
4. My 3rd party plug-in don’t work, yet. What I miss the most is AI Roboform, Orbit Downloader, Microsoft File transfer manager, something like Configuration Mania for Firefox & something to block or unblock Adobe Flash. Rest all is already there & the UI of Google Chrome is already simple & minimal.
5. I like the Omni bar. One bar for address & search. However, in Firefox if I write something in the AwesomeBar & press enter, I am automatically redirected to the website which is most relevant. When I write gxsaurav in Firefox awesomebar I am redirected here but in Chrome it opens a Google Search Page. This I don’t like.
6. Google Chrome is the browser I have given to my Sister & dad to work on there user profile in my Shared PC. They like it as it is very easy to use.
7. Its wrong for Google to install Chome in the user folder instead of Program Files in Windows. On Windows Vista Chrome is installed in
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
After installation just copy all the files from this folder to your program files Folder after creating a folder named Google Chrome. Copy all the files from the version # number folder to the root folder & then use Google Chrome.
Google Chrome has a long way to go. It does looks promising & the fact that Google is advertising Chrome like anything, it can indeed create a serious dent to even Firefox. Now, I am just hoping for 3rd party developers to release plug-in for chrome soon.
Update : You can run Google Chrome as a portable standalone application now, thanks to Devrexster.
Setting up a Cyber Cafe PC
Feb 9th
Few days ago I had a mail from a reader of my blog, asking me tips on how to maintain & manage a Cyber Cafe PC. He saw my Lowest cost PC article & it made me think that I didn’t write an accompanying article for the software part. I guess it’s time. This guide is made keeping in mind not to use Pirated software.
1) Use Windows Vista home basic which is sufficient. If you have expertise in Linux then use that instead, however, in that case this blog post is irrelevant. Users won’t miss Aero, Flip3D etc in a Cyber Cafe PC which they come to use for 1 or 2 hours only.
2) Make sure you have UAC enabled & install all the latest updates & service packs.
3) Make a new “Standard user”. Using parental control, disable all application except for some which a cyber cafe will need. The biggest headache in a Cyber Cafe is when users change the settings & install applications at there own. By doing this the user will not be able to install application or make critical system changes.
5) Firefox is a good browser but it is also a geeky browser. For a Power User Firefox is a dream come true but in a Cyber Cafe its better either to use Internet Explorer 8 or Google Chrome. You can customize Google Chrome by following a guide I wrote. I prefer Chrome in Cyber Cafe more then IE 8 because Chrome is faster overall compared to IE 8 & has a simple & easy to use Interface. Frequently used sites are shown automatically & you can add some sites like Orkut, Facebook etc in the Bookmarks bar for easy access. These are the sites people come to visit the most in a cyber cafe.
6) On the desktop use an application like RocketDock & place shortcuts for IE, Firefox, Yahoo Messenger, Google talk, Windows Live Messenger, AIM, ICQ & Windows Media Player. These are all the applications people come in a cyber cafe to use anyway.
7) Install Vista Codec Pack, Quicktime Alternative & Real Alternative in Windows so that all the files play in WMP automatically. Do not install multiple media players, WMP is enough.
People come to use Cyber Cafe PCs sometime to do there office or project work, Install Openoffice 3 which is sufficient for such needs of a cyber cafe.
9) People download all sorts of stuff in a cyber cafe. Using Group policy you can setup the Nodes in such a way that the browser will download only to a particular folder. Since parental control is on, users will not be able to install a new application. If they need something, they should inform the administrator who will do it for them as required.
10) Install jZip which is enough for all archiving needs of customers. All customers will do is either make or extract a zip file, jZip is enough.
11) Give headphones + mic. They don’t cost much anyway & no audiophile comes to a cyber cafe expecting Bose Quality Audio. There are many cheap but good alternatives like Intex or Frontech. This is good for people who voice chat.
12) I recommend installing a webcam. Frontech Webcams are available for as low as Rs 500 & they do the work fine for communication.
13) Install a free Antivirus is all the Nodes. AVG Free 8.0 is good. Also install Windows Defender or Super Anti Spyware to do a full system scan once a week.
14) Disable all USB Ports from BIOS & set a BIOS Password. No pen drive should be allowed in Nodes. If the user wants to copy something then he should go to the admin who will copy the files from his PC to the nodes over LAN. This will save from the headache of those Nasty virus which propagates through Flash Drives. This will also prevent kids from downloading big files in a cyber cafe & taking them in a pen drive secretly.
15) Make a folder named “Download“ in D:\ drive of each node which should be shared over LAN. All files go to this folder only whether they are downloaded or copied over LAN. Nothing goes beyond this folder. A user usually doesn’t come to a cyber cafe to permanently save his files so suppose if he has to work in a Spreadsheet then he can simply download it to this folder, work on it & save it back to his E-Mail etc.
16) Inform users about free services using Simple Printed Banner Ads in cyber cafe with big letters about these rules etc. Tell them that they can use Rapidshare or Windows Live Skydrive to share big files over the internet if they are unable to mail so big files. Or tell them about Microsoft Office Live & Google Docs to share there documents online.
17) Users are using Bluetooth based phones a lot & they like to mail there pictures or upload there videos to others. A Bluetooth adapter costs Rs 150 only these days so install one in the Admin PC. I have seen users coming with there Mobile phone to a Cyber Cafe because they want to mail there pics to there parents.
18) Install a good Color printer & a monochrome laser printer. Users need all kind of text prints so Laser printer reduces the cost a lot. Setup variable cost of colored prints. It isn’t justified charging Rs 20 for a print with 80% text & 20 color in form of some logo etc. Stop overcharging the customer.
19) Pay attention to the space. No one likes to sit in a small cabin where there is barely enough space to stretch your legs. The LCD Monitor should be at a distance from the user & the keyboard & mouse should also be at a proper distance. I don’t recommend using a CRT Monitor due to its size. A 17” LG LCD Monitor costs Rs 7,000 & will live for a long time.
20) Make sure you are updating Windows regularly.
21) You can use Squid to accelerate Web access. I haven’t used it though.
This article was written in a hurry so I may have missed some points, You can add them in the comments section & I will include it in the article.
