Tag : 7

It’s official! Windows 7 will RTM during the last 2 weeks of July

<Category: Windows> 5 Comments

Windows 7 RTM

On the Microsoft Partner Network website, it says

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Microsoft Security Essentials Beta to be available for download today

<Category: Microsoft> 9 Comments

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Microsoft Security Essentials will send your personal information back to Microsoft

<Category: Microsoft> 3 Comments

Microsoft has recently released a free anti-virus solution that proves out to be better than almost all paid solutions available for consumers out there. We did a detailed review of the AV earlier and you can read it at the link given in the post. But during extended usage, we came across the following. Turns out that it’s true, there’s no such thing as a free meal. The Microsoft SpyNet membership is a part of Microsoft Security Essentials ( Read Review), which you can’t disable or walk out off, and has 2 types — Basic and Advanced. Both of them have one thing in common though, which says

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Boxee for Windows is the ultimate streaming Media Center

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Use XP’s theme for Windows Live Messenger in Vista/7

<Category: Windows, Windows Live> Only 1 comment

Windows Live Messenger with AERO off

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Microsoft going the Steam distribution way for games

<Category: Microsoft, Windows> 5 Comments

Ars Technica has an interesting story on Microsoft from GDC 2009. Microsoft made announcements for updates to Games for Windows and new anti-piracy measures. Microsoft announced ‘DRM-less’ games which would come with anti-piracy protection but wouldn’t be called DRM. According to Drew Johnston, product unit manager for Windows Gaming Platform:

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Network Utilization Gadget for Windows Vista and 7

<Category: Windows, Windows 7, Windows Vista> 4 Comments

Network Utilization

Call it the best feature or worst of Windows Vista, but the Sidebar is undeniably very useful. I find it more useful than OS X’s Dashboard or Yahoo Widgets to an extent. Although, it’s a fact that the sidebar takes a lot of memory in Vista and slows down the boot so it’s better kept disabled at startup. In 7, the sidebar is integrated into the shell, and no longer as a separate application. Also, it seems to run faster and doesn’t slow down boot.

One gadget I’ve always liked since I started using Vista has been Network Utilization meter. It’s a nifty little gadget that beats all its competitors by a long mile due to its features and ease of use. It’s so useful that it should be available in the default gadgets for Windows 7. The network utilization gadget does exactly what it says. It shows you how much transfer speed you are getting from your network, whether it’s Ethernet, Wireless or Bluetooth. It’s great to have the current transfer speed of your network or Internet connection at your fingertipsNetwork Utilization Alternate View, and it can also be used to shut up those ‘innocent’ ISP support dudes who just load up Google or Yahoo and claim your Internet is working fine, when it’s not.

This gadget includes both bar and line graphs, with different interval choices, as well as a bar view that shows on double clicking the gadget. The update interval/refresh rate of the gadget can be changed through the options as well. I personally keep mine at 0.5 seconds which is the minimum it offers, 10 seconds being the maximum. The Scale can be changed from 56kbps to an STM-1 connection and all different types in between. If you’ve got multiple network adapters, you can manually select the currently active one too. If you click on the resize button, it can also double up to its size. Even that option is configurable as you can change the size from 50% to 200% of its original size.

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