Microsoft also did a fabulous job of including the “history” to Windows 7.  They touched on what the motives are behind this new OS, how many engineers, testers and beta users they included and what feedback they took from the testers and how they changed their original product to conform to what the people wanted.  For those of you who’ve never seen a piece of software change shape before (…and boy do they change…) it will be an interesting experience to understand how rigorous and large of a processes the finalizing of a product takes!

Microsoft held the event this year at Skylight Studios and opened the doors at 10:00AM.  The Attendee and Registration line were already built up around 9:30 with many MVP’s, Media Head’s and Company Directors chatting it up about the excitement to see what Microsoft information will be released in just a couple hours!

The inside of the studio was beautiful with a wide variety of lighting to keep a lot of “Windows” colors over the artwork and walls.

Different press and media members were walking around for interviews with Microsoft Employees as well as other MVP’s and attendees for pre-launch information about what they expect Windows 7 to become and how much of an impact it will make on the computing world.

Once we got into the main room, it was clear to see that Microsoft was ready to make a big impact and wanted to impress their members.  They came out with massive projector screens as well as sharp LCD monitors and TV’s to wow the audience.

With a surprise guest of Kylie (the lovable 4 year old who told the world that “she was a PC”) introduced Steve Ballmer who went right into the facts and numbers on what it took to create Windows 7.  Steve made sure he rewarded Kylie of her performance with a small pink netbook!

The shocking facts were that over 3,000 Engineers, 50,000 partners and 8 million customers (who provided the beta testing) were part in making the Windows 7 OS successful.  The shocking number of the 8 million testers can be placed against an astonishing fact that there are only 10 million OS X USERS world wide…so 80% of that number just TESTED the beta version of Windows 7.

Ballmer was quick to touch upon the response and feedback Microsoft received from its testers.  Each engineer would take the emotional and technical feedback they got for improving the software and posted it on a global wall where all employees could try and tackle the suggestions that were made.

I think Microsoft did a great job out of the gates with the presentation.  Not only was I impressed at their techy feel at the event, I thought they did an even better job at first making sure they introduced this software as a “software of the people.”  Its always crucial to make the customers know they have been listened too, especially coming off a lower approval from Windows Vista.

For those of you who bought Windows 7 already, let us know what you think.  I’d love to hear your initial thoughts on the new OS.  Next week, I’ll touch more upon the features they described, what’s new and the new technology that is being designed and released for Windows 7!

I can’t stress enough how important it is to have an Anti-Virus on your computer at ALL times, especially if you are on multiple networks where you are not familiar with their security.  I’m a bit puzzled how you could manage to use a computer that is unprotected and highly suggest you look into something more permanent for your machine.  An infection can occur in the blink of an eye and you should have something that has the ability to warn and protect you.

As for online scanning, there are many options out there, but I have a list of some of the best.  Online scanning does not replace a good anti-virus but they can be useful as a “second opinion” or a scan on the go in your case.

I’ve compiled a list of the top 6 online virus scans that I recommend.  They are in no specific order and should not replace a stable and installed version of an Anti-Virus.

Kasperksy and ESET offer products in the Anti-Virus area which I do like as permanent choices.  The last of the scanners is an individual file scanner.  If you are file sharing on these networks, it can be highly useful to scan the files online first before you open and run them on your own work machine.

Kasperksy and NOD32 are some of the best Anti-Viruses out there along with SuperAntiSpyware for the best combination of protection.  For your specific situation, I could not be more adamant in saying you need it.make it your next purchase before it’s too late!

Windows 7 is very similar to Windows Vista; you’ve heard correctly.  A lot of the features and look feel like you are still in Vista until you notice the taskbar or the new Aero features.etc.  However, you have also heard correctly where there are some standard differences between the two operating systems when it comes to the desktop.  There have been some removed standard features in Windows 7 but never fear, there are great replacement options instead!

Windows 7 no longer offers the Classic Start Menu.  To be honest, I never felt that classic menu was helpful in moving our tech era forward.  It was too Windows 98/XP for me and I actually liked the omission of this feature.

Windows Sidebar has vanished.  Rather having all the widgets in an outlined box, you are free to move your widgets anywhere on your desktop or keep them in a straight line on the right side of the screen.  Once again, I commend this addition because it was always ugly to see a faded outline on the screen or not be able to move your widgets to some other part of the desktop depending on your configuration (not all desktops look the same!).

Windows Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Calendar, and Mail have been removed as standard features in Windows 7.  If you still would like to use these programs, navigate to Windows Download Live and select any of the products download link.  It will contain all the installation files for any of these programs rather then asking you to download each individual file separately.

Windows 7 does have a unique desktop experience not similar to its predecessor Vista.  While the desktop backgrounds might be the same, the taskbar, sidebar, and standard programs are no longer installed to clutter up your machine.  I really like the changes made as I feel they clean up the desktop more and for most users who do not choose to run any of the Windows Programs, it gives them a chance to have a clean slate to install another default program without the hassle of removing the old Windows version.

There’s no denying the success Twitter has had in the recent year as its grown astronomically in its users and readers.  Many of our readers and users on this forum use the website as a status update or even as a “messaging” service from time to time.  For those of you who “tweet” and would like to share a file with your audience there are many means for doing so but there’s one that I particularly found to be the best.

TweetaFile.com is one of the easiest ways to share a file over Twitter.  As it states, really the only thing that sets a batch email or announcement apart from Twitter is the ability to share files and now that gap is slowly closing.  TweetaFile is very easy to use, utilizing your Twitter login name and password to login so you do not have to create a seperate registration!

I really like the integration that TweetaFile has to offer.  The more registrations I have to make for a given website or purpose, the more annoyed I get.  The website is very simple in its layout but one of lifes cardinal lessons states: KISS (keep it simple *silly*).

As you said in your post, I highly advise against posting any material that could have a copy write on it or has been obtained through illegal means.  If the source or use of the material is in question, I suggest you do not try and share it.  Any illegal file sharing is strictly prohibited so do not involve yourself in the scheme!

When anyone remotely can access your computer at any time, you don’t have a firewall. It seems time after time; I am lurking around malware removal forums here at WhatTheTech or GeeksToGo, to find that a lot of users are missing a firewall. Even basic firewall protection is better than nothing.

I was on my XP test box a few weeks ago, and turned off the firewall and started browsing bad websites, and started downloading neutral programs. By the time I was done with that, I had acquired such a mess, as nine Trojans, and 4 spyware programs. One of the Trojans was a downloader of malware. My machine was not shot, as I was able to remove/delete all of the threats. A normal user cannot do this, and needs the assistance of malware experts who can help remove it.

After I had removed the malware, I restarted my computer to find it back to normal. It was fine, and running smoothly. I turned on Comodo Firewall, and again browsed bad websites, and downloaded bad programs. First of all, the bad programs would not start, because Comodo had a lock on them. Whenever I went to double-click on one, an error popped up, and said: “you do not have sufficient privileges to start this program.” The title-bar was labeled as “Comodo Internet Security.” The firewall event log had over 20 events of just those ten minutes of browsing bad websites. 20 events of threats trying to enter my system, I knew Comodo protected me.

Although hardware firewalls are much better, software firewalls are what I am talking about today.
We will start with the tested best of the best. Tallemu Online Armor. The personal edition is just as good as the Pro. Features boasted include keylogger protection, autoruns management, mail and web filter, anti-spyware, and HOSTS and DNS checker. The only reason why Online Armor did not score a 100% on the tests is because they were not able to stop viruses from executing via internet query.

Then, Comodo Firewall is the next impressive piece in software firewall technology. Its technology is much different than most firewalls. It boasts its features as Defense+ HIPS protection – which alerts you when an application is not on the list of good applications, Defense+ is also considered Anti-spyware, highly extended firewall policy. Although they offer antivirus protection, the firewall policy stops viruses in their tracks. The only reason that Comodo did not score a 100% was because of the inability to stop bots from being queried on a machine.

The last one I will review is ZoneAlarm. ZoneAlarm boasts full stealth mode, protection from hijackers, OS file protection, MD5 (program key) spoof protection, rootkit detection, and dynamic inbound/outbound protection with hyper threat checking.

What all three of these have in common is they deal with threats. They all have a specific protection that is different than each other. Tallemu Online Armor, and Comodo firewall both had anti-spyware protection, but ZoneAlarm did not. ZoneAlarm has rootkit detection, whereas Tallemu and Comodo do not. Firewalls are one of your best Operating System Defense Weapons. You can be secure from most online threats by using a firewall. The three reviewed above, are the most protective and the highest rated. All three protect from severe threats, and all three passed rigorous testing on blocking threats.

It is a Mini Tower Case that can accept mATX and ATX size motherboards. It features a 120mm rear case fan – complete with a 3-speed controller – and also comes with a high efficiency Antec EarthWatts 380W Power Supply. I’m a big fan of the EarthWatts range of power supplies; they are solid, reliable performers with the “80 Plus” efficiency certification. The case also impressed me with its solid build quality and attention to detail – no sharp edges inside, and the main front panel is extended slightly from the case. This allows for airflow to enter the case around the whole front panel. As the case is something that many users have to look at, I’d rate the aesthetics Very High. It has a subtle-yet-quality look to it. Anyone looking to build or order a new computer would be wise to consider this case and power supply combo. It is suitable for a home or office system, or perhaps a light gamer. As the power supply is 380W, it would be best avoided if you are looking to build a high-powered gaming or multimedia system, but for the average user, you really can’t go wrong. Cheers Troy

There has not been a problem in site yet, as testing it is sure a breeze. Most beta products are always said to be buggy, and users should be careful. Windows 7 beta/RC is not like any other beta product. Non-Microsoft product users are talking and saying an improvement is happening on the Microsoft side, and it is thought that Microsoft knows what they are doing. Windows 7 is set to run on virtually any machine with the correct specs. Definitely having a 1 GHz processor and 1 GB RAM is probably the best idea. Windows 7 for netbooks is sure thought of. As Microsoft thinks that netbooks should not get stuck running an old operating system; Windows XP, they should definitely have something better. Windows 7 Starter is now being changed to take away the 3-application limit. The Starter Edition is said to be best suited for netbooks. The security of Windows 7 is so good that it has a built in action center. This action center is able to notify you of security issues, hardware issues, system and performance issues, available Windows Updates, and much more. This replaces the Windows Security Center. Best of all, users see what they want to see in the action center. Overall, Windows 7 users will have very little to complain about, which makes it a big hit to all of the Geeks communities.

In the comments, we were challenged to review Registry Booster 2 [affiliate]. We already had an evaluation copy, so we decided to check it out.

The Windows registry is a central store for all system settings and options. It contains the information for all installed hardware, software, users, preferences, OS updates, etc. The registry is core to the operation of Windows. Invalid registry entries can cause system errors, crashes, and even refusal to boot.

Registry cleaners promise to clean up the entries left behind by uninstalled programs, remove errors in registry settings, and by doing so improve the performance and stability of a system. From the Registry Booster 2 website:

Have you noticed that the longer you have your computer, the slower it runs and the more it crashes? Often this phenomenon is caused by problems in the registry that accrue over time. Installing and uninstalling programs leave behind fragments – stray files, orphaned startup tasks, corrupted drivers. Over time the registry starts to get bogged down and conflicts emerge. Left unchecked, your system will become increasingly unstable, run more slowly and crash more frequently.

We decided to run tests using two different systems: a Windows Vista 32-bit desktop system with an Intel Core duo processor and 4GB of Ram; and a Windows XP Pro notebook with a Pentium mobile CPU and 1 GB of RAM.

First up is the Windows Vista desktop. This system is a test box that sees a lot of abuse. It’s seen MANY hardware changes, operating system changes, and had dozens of programs installed and uninstalled. If any system can benefit from a registry cleaner, it should be this one. We’ll be measuring boot time, shutdown time, and the time it takes to load Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Microsoft Word. Before making any modifications to the registry you should always backup. Registry Booster 2 has a registry backup feature. In addition to running this backup, we used ERUNT and created a System Restore point.

Registry Booster 2 has a nice looking, clean interface, and is simple to use:

After scanning, it reports 847 problems/errors found:

It took less than a minute to perform its cleaning:

Repair complete:

There’s also an option to defrag, which we did:

Registry Booster reported it found 847 errors, and repaired 835. Did it make any difference?

Windows Vista makes it easy to measure boot and shutdown times. Open the control panel, then Administrative tools, and finally the Event Viewer. In the Event Viewer tree select Applications and Services Logs, then Microsoft, Windows, Diagnostic-Performance, and Operational. Here we can find the boot and shutdown durations measured in milliseconds:

The system was booted five times. The high and the low times were tossed out, and the remaining three averaged. The results are shown below:

Boot time improved from an average of 73.517 seconds to 65.133 seconds, an improvement of 12.9%, or more than 8 seconds.

Even more impressive were the results noticed loading Photoshop. Load time improved from an average of 11.5 seconds, to 9 seconds. That’s a 27.8% improvement, or 3.5 seconds faster.

Microsoft Word showed some improvement, but since it loads on average in less than 5 seconds, it wasn’t significant. It was measured to start about .5 seconds faster.

Application loading times were measured with a plain old stop watch. The program was started five times. Again the high and lows were tossed out, and the remaining three times averaged. It should be noted the program start times were all measured after a system boot. With sufficient memory, Windows Vista will load programs significantly faster after they’ve been started once. There was no change in shutdown time.

Being skeptical of registry cleaners, we were surprised with the results. There was no denying the significant improvement in boot time, and loading time of some programs. Let’s see how the other system performs.

Next we tested the Windows XP notebook. This system hasn’t seen as much use. It hasn’t seen any changes to hardware and few changes to software. It doesn’t seem like such an obvious choice for a registry cleaner, and offers a good contrast to the first test system.

To measure boot times on Windows XP notebook we installed Microsoft bootvis. After each boot it provides a report including total boot time. We used the same method of booting five times, throwing out the high and low, and averaging the remaining three. Before Registry Booster the average boot time was 71.5 seconds. After Registry Booster it was 62.5 seconds.

Even though this system has seen far fewer changes over the life of the system, it still saw boot times improve by an impressive 14.4%, or 9 seconds. Unfortunately, we didn’t have Photoshop installed on this system. Microsoft Word was installed, and again saw just a minimal improvement of about .5 seconds. There was again no change in shutdown time.

Other Registry Booster 2 claims of reducing crashes, and improved system stability are more difficult, if not impossible to test. Neither of these systems were suffering from any crashes or stability problems. We debated introducing some errors into the registry to see if they were fixed, but decided it would be far from a real-world test, and opted against it. We did run each system for a couple of weeks after running Registry Booster. Neither system exhibited any new errors or crashes, which has been a problem reported with some other registry cleaners.

We began this test skeptical of registry cleaners in general. Computer support forums such as ours often have topics from people that have had bad experiences. However, if your expectations are realistic, we would have no problem recommending Uniblue’s Registry Booster 2. It’s easy to use, has a nice interface, and takes only a few minutes. It will provide improvements in boot times, and application loading times. It will not be able to cure every system crash, or stability issue. Maybe most importantly, it doesn’t create any new problems. If you’re in the market for a registry cleaner, Registry Booster 2 is a good choice. Click here to download, and run a free scan.

Please comment and share your experiences with Registry Booster, or other registry cleaners.

The Sprint Touch is widely rumored to be available from Sprint November 4th for $249, after $100 mail-in rebate.

The original HTC Touch met with mixed reviews. Most complaints involved sluggish performance, and lack of a full-screen keyboard. Like the iPhone, the Touch lacks a physical keyboard. Sprint seems to have met both of these concerns head-on. The processor speed has been doubled from 200mhz to 400mhz, and they’ve included new full-screen keyboards that can be used without a stylus.

I gotta say, I was blown away by this phone. The form-factor is simple amazing. At 4.0″ x 2.4″ x 0.6″ and weighing just 4 ounces. It’s roughly the same size as a Motorola Razr (with the clamshell closed). Other than GPS, they’ve managed to squeeze everything I want into a very pocketable phone. There’s a large and bright 2.8″ touch screen with 320×240 resolution, a 2 megapixel camera, stereo bluetooth, EVDO, microSD expansion, voice dialing, Windows Mobile 6 with Outlook Mobile, Office Mobile, and Windows Live.

I think the major complaint regarding this phone is going to be that it’s not an iPhone. Yes, the iPhone is terrific, however it’s not perfect for everyone. For example, I live in an area without AT&T coverage, and can’t even purchase it. A tremendous amount of third party software is also readily available for Windows Mobile. The next complaint will be the lack of a physical keyboard. However, a keyboard requires a trade-off in size, and I think they made the right choice. If you’re a heavy texter, or send a lot of email, consider the Mogul.

I’ve carried a smart phone for a couple of years. A Verizon XV6700. It had Windows Mobile 5.0, and a slide-out keyboard. However, the keyboard was almost impossible to use with one hand, and the size made it too large to carry as a primary phone. So, I carried a smaller cell phone every day, and relegated the smart phone for use when traveling. The Sprint Touch should allow me to carry only one phone again.

I use my smart phone primarily to read email (IMAP), and browse the Internet. I mostly reply to emails using my desktop, and I don’t text very often. I was able to use the full screen keyboard using my fingertips, while not resorting to the built-in stylus or tips of my thumbnails. The screen required more pressure than I would have liked, but I think you’d quickly become accustomed to it. The TouchFLO interface is a unique twist on the Windows Mobile interface and works intuitively. However, Windows Mobile was not designed to be a touch operating system, and it can use improvement.

I didn’t get a chance to test the phone features, but Mike said the Sprint network offered better coverage than T-Mobile in New York City, and that the signal and voice quality were excellent.

If you are considering the Sprint Touch, you should also consider Sprint’s SERO plan. SERO is a heavily discounted plan for friends and family of Sprint employees, available to anyone.

Update: Just announced, Touch Cruise, or the Touch with GPS and TomTom software! Let’s hope Sprint picks it up.