How is Windows 7 the 7th version of Windows?

If you think about it Windows 7 is not the 7th version of Windows, or is it.  If you look at Windows at first you start counting from Windows 1.0

Win 1.0, Win 2.0 (286), Win 3.0, Win 3.1 (Win 3.11), Win 95 (4.0), Win 98 (Win 98 SE {4.1}), Win ME (4.9)…   Well that’s 7 already, that does not add up. 

But there is something you have to realise, After Windows ME the old Windows line (DOS Based) was merged into the Professional line (NT)

Since Windows 7 is based on the Professional (NT) line lets look at it. 

Now NT was not based off of the same DOS based code like the earlier versions, instead it is more related to the joint venture that Microsoft and IBM had with OS/2. 

Win NT 3.1, Win NT 3.5 (Win NT 3.5.1), Win NT 4, Win 2000 (NT5), Win XP (5.1), Win Vista (6.0), and Windows 7 (6.1). 

That’s how it adds up to 7, the code is based on that NT line.

Blog update

Hello out there, I just want to let you know what I have in the works,

Windows Vista and 2000 and Windows Virtual PC

Acid test, Webstandards and the best browser

Mobile browsers

Windows 7 Powertoys and Ultimate Extras

Come back soon for some good reading.

Opera Mobile 10 a great Internet Browser for Windows Mobile and S60 (Symbian)

As some of you know I now own a Samsung Omnia II (SCH-i920) running Windows Mobile 6.5.  I have been very happy with this phone and it has been a great replacement to my Samsung Saga (SCH-i770) running Windows Mobile 6.1.  The new version of Pocket Internet Explorer has been a great improvement but I wanted to look into Opera’s offering and I decided to check out Opera Mobile 10. 

Opera Mobile 10 running on Windows Mobile 6.5

They have two types of Opera Mobile 10 one for touch screens and one for non touch screens.  I am using the touch screen one and it is great.  It works just like a browser on a computer and even has Flash support.  Also it will detect what orientation the phone is in and go from vertical to horizontal. 

Opera Mobile 10 in Lanscape showing a Flash video on YouTube

All in all it is a full featured browser with lots of options and support for modern websites.  I feel that this is what Microsoft needs to be shooting for with their next version of Pocket Internet Explorer in Windows Phone 7. 

Opera Mobile 10 showing options and the full Facebook site

If you would like to try Opera Mobile 10 you can get on your phone’s current internet browser and go to m.opera.com or go to http://www.opera.com/mobile/download/ from a computer.

Attention Students, Get Windows 7, Office 2010 for an amazing Deal, This is official from Microsoft

Yes Students that is right, Microsoft is giving you a break, and it’s so good I have to tell you about it.  I have already taken advantage of this.  This is an amazing offer from Microsoft and it is limited. You can get Windows 7 for $30!!! Yes you can order now and upgrade to a real operating system that will get you through college. This is good for Windows 7 Professional.   This offer can end at any time Microsoft seems fit so take advantage. Just go down to where it says other student offers from Microsoft.  You will need a valid .edu email address.  Check it out at http://www.microsoft.com/student/office/en-us/default.aspx

Microsoft Student Offer for Windows 7 Professional

To see if your computer supports the 64-bit version of Windows go to    on the page click on download and then click on run.  No installation is required. Feel free to read the page as there is some good information on there.  I have run SecureAble my self many times and it will not harm a thing and does not contain viruses or spyware.  Below is the screen from my old laptop.  http://www.grc.com/securable.htm

SecureAble tells you the information you need to know before upgrading Windows

You can also get Office 2010 Professional for $80 as well.  You can buy now and get every Office tool you need to succeed.  Microsoft Office is the standard for creating documents.  Again this offer can end at any time so check it out and take advantage of it.  You can check it out at the same website  http://www.microsoft.com/student/office/en-us/default.aspx

Microsoft Student Offer for Office 2010

Hey I say do your self a favor and check these offers out if you are a student.  Get the software you need to do well in school.  And save some money in the process, remember school starts soon so maybe now is the time to update your computer.

Also if your on the go check out the new Office 2010 Web Apps, you can read more here

Microsoft Office 2010 Web Applications, Goodbye Google Docs

Microsoft Office has been the standard in creating office documents and organizing them for many years.  Google did release an online document editing software for free but it lacked many features, did not have good spell check, and ignored many formatting elements of documents you had created in other software.  In short, Google Docs was not very compatible with Microsoft Office; the standard.

With Office 2010, Microsoft has released an online version of Office for Free!  These Office web apps are great for doing quick editing and creating documents on the go or away from home or the office.

There are two ways of accessing the Office web apps, first if you already have a Hotmail email address (or Live, or MSN, or any other Windows Live ID) then you can already access them, just sign in to you email and you will see Windows Live in the upper left hand corner of the webpage.  Just click on that.

Hotmail interface showing Windows Live link in the upper left hand corner

Once you have clicked on that it will take you to the Windows Live home page, from there go to the top of the page and put the mouse pointer on Office and a menu will appear.  (if you click on Office it will take you to the Office Web Apps home page which I will show later)

Windows Live home page showing Office menu

Now you can select a few different options and web apps, such as Word, Excel, Power Point, and One Note, or go to you documents stored in Windows Live Sky Drive. Once you click on an app, you will have to creat a document name, if you want to open an existing document open the one you want from your Sky Drive.   Below is what the Word app looks like

Microsoft Office 2010 Word Web App

You can see the now familiar Tab and Ribbon user interface.  It does not have as many options as the real version of Office but it is great and handy for quick editing or creating that document on the go.

Now if you do not have a Hotmail you can access the Web Apps directly by going to www.office.live.com

Windows Live login for Office Web Apps

You can use an existing Windows Live ID or creat a new one.  Once logged in it will take you directly to the Office Web Apps home page.

Microsoft Office 2010 Web Apps home page

This new tool from Microsoft will no doubt be a big help for those that use Office every day or for people who can not afford Office but need to creat a document.  I know for sure I will be using it a lot going forward.

Also students can take part of the student offer from Microsoft for Office 2010 Professional Academic and Windows 7 Professional, you can read more here

Get a @hotmail.com, @live.com or @msn.com email address

Microsoft Hotmail has been a great web mail provider for many years, but did you know you do not have to have the basic @hotmail.com in fact you can get both @live.com and the rare @msn.com  I will show you how. 

First I must say I have had Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, and Gmail over the years and Hotmail is my favorite.  It is full featured, easy to use, and looks great. 

Now getting an @hotmail.com or @live.com is easy just go Here and sign up normally but when you get down to where you need to type in the Hotmail address you want you will see that to the right is a drop down menu (shown below) that says Hotmail.com, click on it and you will see Live.com instead.  Simply choose the one you want Hotmail or Live and finish the sign up form. 

Hotmail Sign Up showing @Live.com option

But what about @msn.com well that is a different form for some reason go Here instead.  Just fill out the form and you will have an @msn.com email.  It is that easy.  Below is the web page. 

@msn.com Sign Up

I like having an @msn.com address, it looks more professional and is quicker to type and say.  I hope you enjoy having the choice of email addresses to use with Hotmail’s great service.

Part 6 The Best Internet Browser for Windows XP

Ah Windows XP, I still remember seeing it installed on new computers in late 2001 and I wanted a copy for myself, it was just a great OS.  Now in 2010 I would take Windows 7 over it any day, however Windows XP is still being used a lot to this day.  That being said, a 9-year-old operating system in this modern-day of online trouble is just not up to the demands placed on it.  But all is not lost as there are many different Internet Browsers out there that one can use.  Let’s take a look at them.  All of these test will be done in Windows Virtual PC on a computer running an Intel Core i5 661 running at 3.33 Ghz with 4 GB of ram.  All updates to Windows, WVPC, The Internet Browsers, Flash, Silverlight, and Java have been installed.  I have cleared the cache of all browsers with Ccleaner.

1. Firefox 3.6.3  Firefox seemed to load web pages the fastest and since the new version of Internet Explorer will not be available for Windows XP and that new version will support web standards, websites in the future will have some rendering issues in Internet Explorer 8.  Firefox is a great replacement for IE and offers a lot of customization.  you can get it at www.firefox.com

Firefox 3.6.3 in Windows XP

2. Internet Explorer 8.0.6001.18702  While there is a new version of Internet Explorer in the works and it will not be available for Windows XP Version 8 works fine for now.  It has a lot of nice features and is rather fast at loading webpages from my tests.  It seems too that computers running IE 8 are less likely to get viruses and spyware. Even if you decide to use a different browser you should keep IE updated in Windows XP it will help keep you safe as the operating system uses parts of IE.  You can download it at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx

Internet Explorer 8 in Windows XP

3. Apple Safari 5.0 (7533.16)  Apple has done a great job at getting Safari turned around from the dud that version 3 was.  While version 4 finally looked like a normal Windows application version 5 has picked up speed.  I prefer its interface to Google Chrome however Chrome seems a little faster and is a little safer, however those looking for something to replace Internet Explorer I would suggest Safari first.  You can get it at http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

Apple Safari 5 in Windows XP

4. Google Chrome 5.0.375.70  Google Chrome has gotten better with every release.  Version 5 gets some nice speed boosts.  While it is faster and safer than Apple Safari the user interface for Chrome is lacking, looking rather odd in Windows XP.  Still if you want to check it out you can get it here at http://www.google.com/chrome

Google Chrome 5 in Windows XP

5. Opera 10.53  In Windows XP the other browsers leave Opera in the dust, and to make matters worse Opera changed the default user interface and it is not a win in my opinion.  It too looks out-of-place in Windows XP however if you click on the red Opera button in the upper left hand corner and click on Show Menu Bar it will take it back to the older user interface that I like a lot.  The nice thing about Opera is that if you mouse over a tab it will show you a preview of that webpage, something I think other browsers could use.  Oh if you have a mobile phone I would suggest getting their mobile version it is much better than any other mobile browsers out there.  You can get opera at www.opera.com

Opera 10.5 in Windows XP With the New User Interface

Opera 10.5 in Windows XP with the old user interface

It is nice to see that there are still great internet browsers for the aging Windows XP.  I do suggest people start to upgrade to Windows 7 as soon as they can though as Windows 7 has a lot of great features like jump lists and the thumbnail previews in the start menu bar that makes it even easier to browse the internet.

Go back to Part 5 for Windows 7 32bit

Go on to Part 7 for Windows 7 64-Bit

Is 64 Bit Always The Best Way To Go?

With Server 2000 we saw the release of a 64 bit version of that Operating System, and then soon there after a 64 bit version of XP and Server 2003.  These were for the Itanium Processors from Intel.  Later after the introduction of X86-64 instructions from AMD we would see non Itanium 64 bit versions of Windows released (Server 2003 and XP)  Theos early adopters would find hardware support to be buggy however.  It would not be until the release of Windows Vista that 64 Bit Windows would start to gain momentum.  Today we still have the option on installing 32 bit or 64 bit versions of Windows 7, but is 64 Bit always the best way to go?

I asked this question about my old laptop, a Compaq Presario C700 (C712NR)  It had an Intel Core 2 Duo T5850 running at 2.16 Ghz with 2 Gb of Ram.  It came with 32 bit Windows Vista Home Premium and I wanted to upgrade to Windows 7.  After a bit of research I decided to just try installing Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.

Now this computer came with 32 bit Vista and I had also installed 32 bit Windows 7 to test, I had looked at which is faster Vista Vs 7 and XP Vs 7  which you can read here

For those interested here are the numbers for Windows Vista 32 bit on this machine.  The Pass Mark Performance Test got a score of 537.8  this is not bad at all for a laptop.  Below is the Windows Experience Index (in Vista scores range from 1.0 to 5.9)

Windows Exprierence Index from Vista

Now Windows 7 32 bit got a 590.4 out of the same Performance Test.  Below is the Windows Experience Index (in Windows 7 scores range from 1.0 to 7.9)

Windows Experience Index from 7

Now Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit gets results that are not what I expected.  The Pass Mark Performance Test score is a 528 This is slower than both the 32 bit version of Windows 7 and Vista. When you look at the test results Windows 7 64 bit actually does better in some areas but worse in others however this result is in every test category, there is not one category where Windows 7 64 bit does worse in comparison to its 32 bit counter part.    Below is the Windows Experience Index and note that these values are the same as the 32 bit version.

Windows Experience Index on Windows 7 64 Bit

It is odd that the Windows Experience Index is the same but the test results are different.  After using the computer I would suggest the 64 bit version as I felt is was improved over the 32 bit version.  As always your results may very, so in conclusion I would say if you have a slower system with less than 4 Gb of ram stick with 32 bit but if the system is faster and still under 4 Gb or ram go with 64 bit, and always go with 64 bit when you have more than 4 Gb of ram.  At least that is my opinion.

Free tool for Dual Monitors

I recently built a new computer and have dual monitors and I love it, but there were a few things I really wanted that would make this helpful.  I found a free tool to make having dual monitors more fun and productive.  Display Fusion helps a lot for this. 

Fist I don’t like having the same image on both screens, now if you have a very large image Windows will stretch it across both screens but I have two screens, why not to images.  Display Fusion will allow two images to be displayed at the same time. 

Display Fusion configuring two backgrounds

 Second I would like a quick way to send an open window to the other monitor well Display Fusion delivers again.  It adds an extra button just to the Left of the Minimize and Maximize buttons. 

Switch Monitor Button

To enable this feature in Display Fusion click on the Wallpaper Settings button and then click on TitleBar Buttons

Display Fusion Settings

All in all for the Free tool Display Fusion offers it is a great tool.  You can get it for Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and 7, from here at http://www.binaryfortress.com/displayfusion/

If you want to pay for the full version you can get a TaskBar on the second monitor too, I would love to have this however I like to keep it on the cheep.

Fix Microsoft Flight Similuator X Graphic Glitches

If you have spent any time with Microsoft Flight Simulator X you know two things.  One it is just awesome to play and very real.  Two it really taxes a system.  I recently bought a new computer for my Dad who loves this game, and the computer helped a lot but it still had issues with the graphics in turns glitching.  So we bought a nice graphic card, Nvidia Geforce GTS 250.  The video card has a gig of ram.  I thought this would take care of it, nope.  So I got to looking and researching.  Here is the simple way to instantly improve this game.  Instantly and for cheep.  

First If you are looking to buy this game get the Gold Edition, it has the fixes and the Acceleration Expansion pack.  

Second if you want to add some fun to the game then just buy and install the Acceleration Expansion Pack as it has the fixes to the game as well. 

If you do not want to buy anything and just want to update the game here is what to do.  Fist install Service Pack 1 for Microsoft Flight Simulator X you can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/Products/Games/FSInsider/downloads/Pages/FlightSimulatorXServicePack1.aspx 

You Must install Service Pack 1 first (Do not install if you have installed the Acceleration Expansion pack or if you have MFS X Gold) 

Then download and install Service Pack 2 for Microsoft Flight Simulator X from here http://www.microsoft.com/Products/Games/FSInsider/downloads/Pages/FlightSimulatorXServicePack2.aspx 

You must have installed Service Pack 1 first and again (Do not install if you have installed the Acceleration Expansion pack or if you have MFS X Gold) 

Now the game should run better and have some enhancements, especially if you have a Direct X 10 capable graphic card.  

There are other things you can do, once Flight Simulator is open click on Settings and then click on the Customize  button under Display Settings.  

Here you can change the frames per second which will help smooth the video out.  I suggest putting it at 30 as this is about what the human eye can see anyway.  Feel free to move it around and test it for best results.  

Advanced Graphic Settings in Flight Simulator

 

Also there is a PDF document on Microsoft’s site that has some good info check it out here at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=199a2ddd-4be1-493b-96d8-b9c7d395ffe1 

I hope this helps.