Continue reading »]]> An annual study released by The American Customer Satisfaction Index showed a 4% increase in how people feel about their computers, with the overall satisfaction of PC’s averaging 78%.

“Nearly all brands showed increases in satisfaction and no manufacturer declined,” said Claes Fornell, director of the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan.

What are the factors behind US computer buyers being happier than ever? “Lower prices, better service, and an emphasis on new, smaller systems and a variety of portable PCs helped drive the improvement.” The cultural shift to Apple computers has also contributed its share. Apple has dominated the competition in the satisfaction index for seven years now, and this year was no exception with an 86% satisfaction rating.

Another major reason for the increase is customer satisfaction with Microsof’t latest OS. And if you haven’t made the switch, there are few excuses not to upgrade to Windows 7. It certainly makes up for the pain and suffering many endured with its last release, Windows Vista.

Still using Windows XP or Windows Vista and considering making the upgrade to Windows 7? Dell is making the switch easier than ever with their new Windows 7 Readiness Assessment. The assessment scans your hard drive to make sure your current PC can handle Windows 7. It will also scope out other software programs you may have installed and let you know which ones are not compatible. Finally, the assessment will help you create a migration plan and present you with all the resources to make the switch as smooth as possible. If you find that your PC is ready, and are considering upgrading your business to Windows 7, visit SoftwareMedia.com for even more savings. Save with Windows 7 liscensing for business, or for SOHO and personal use check out retail editions.

So, is your PC ready for Windows 7?

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Continue reading »]]> With the release of Windows 7, there are many different options to upgrade. In typical Microsoft fashion, there is some complexity to upgrading to Windows 7. This blog will explain the difference between “upgrade eligibility” and “upgrade paths”, and let you know your options based on which version you are currently running.

Upgrade Eligibility:

You are eligible to purchase an upgrade to any version of Windows 7 if you own any previous version of Windows starting with XP or later. Windows 98, 2000, and ME don’t qualify you to purchase an upgrade. If the PC you want to install Windows 7 on has a version of Windows older than XP, you will need to purchase a full retail or OEM version of Windows 7.

Upgrade Paths:

An Upgrade Path is a scenario where you can install Windows 7 without needing to back up your files. For example, if you are currently running Windows Vista Home Premium, and you want to go to Windows 7 Ultimate, you would be able to insert the Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade disk while running Vista, it would then “convert” your Vista operating system to Windows 7 Ultimate; However, if you are currently running Vista Home Premium and you want to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional, you would have to back up your files and perform what’s called a “clean install” by rebooting your system from the disk and re-installing the operating system from scratch. You can only perform an upgrade path from the following versions of Vista to the corresponding versions of Windows 7:

Supported Upgrade Paths

Note: If you are upgrading from any version of Windows XP you will have to perform a clean install. There are no supported Upgrade Paths from Windows XP.

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Continue reading »]]> Windows 7 is being met with largely positive performance reviews — and after the PC profanity that was Windows Vista, it had better be. The bloated Windows Vista, laden with clunky features and poor compatibility, was universally decried, and many users retreated back into the much more solid edifice of Windows XP. With its rapidly approaching release, we will see if 7 will redeem Windows.

PC World’s report was mixed, saying that while 7 had improved performance over Vista in most areas, it lagged behind it in a few, and was not that much faster. Overall though it is a much more efficient and compatible OS, and the PC community is in universal agreement is that Windows 7 is the true successor to XP (Vista slipping forever into the collective computerworld unconscious). Microsoft has taken a minimalist approach to the new OS interface, and is offering very reasonably priced upgrades to 7, completely opposite of Vista.

But the real threat for Microsoft, is, once again, Google, with its plans to release its own operating system in 2010, Google Chrome OS. It will be fast. It will be web-focused. And most incredibly, it will completely free.  ”It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be,” Google says. If Windows 7 doesn’t deliver, the burial rites of Vista may be only a prophetic sign of the times as to the ultimate end of the Age of Windows, and the coming Reign of Google. It should be interesting to watch.

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Continue reading »]]> I just found these stunning HD backgrounds and wallpapers for Windows.

I was reading some older posts, and came across Kevin’s post about High Def Wallpapers at Vistaknowledge.com.

So I spent my morning here at work oggling — their new ones are seriously amazing. Here are a few I especially liked.

Just go here to Vista Knowledge’s HD Wallpaper page, click on the title of the pictures you like, and click the download link under the image. Then right click the image, and choose “Set as Desktop Background.”

Those are only my first two. Read the rest of the entry to see the others.

My god. It’s nearly lunch time.

(We can tweet you posts like this)

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Continue reading »]]> In a message posted to a forum on the MSDN site about 2 weeks ago, one of Microsoft’s programming writers said that “A Windows 7 interoperability pack, known as the Windows 7 Client Platform Update, is to be released alongside Windows 7 in October of this year.” This update will be made available as a “Recommended Update” on the Microsoft Download Center and will support all versions of Vista, including the entry-level Basic and Starter editions. The “Ribbon” interface is a wide, ribbon-like display at the top of a window that replaces traditional drop-down menus and toolbars that have been the norm for Windows applications for decades. This update would allow Vista users to take advantage of the ribbon-menu in applications that have been written to support it. Windows 7 applications that have taken advantage of the ribbon interface include the re-designed Paint and Wordpad programs. One good example of the Ribbon Interface is Office 2007′s “Fluent user interface”, which so many people had a hard time adapting to. You can see this interface in action at Microsoft’s Website.

Many people have expressed concern about the switch from traditional drop-down menus to the Ribbon interface. What do you think of the new Ribbon interface that may become the new norm for Windows applications?

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Continue reading »]]> Starting today, major PC manufacturers will be offering a promotion with new PC’s that allows you to upgrade to Windows 7 at a later date for free. To help boost computer sales right now, Microsoft is offering this promotion to users that purchase a new computer installed with Windows Vista. Their hope is that people will not put off buying a new computer in order to wait for the release of Windows 7 on October 22nd.

Participation in this program varies between different manufacturers. Check out this Microsoft page for the complete list of participating manufacturers. That link also contains the complete FAQ on the Windows 7 free upgrade, if you have any questions.

Also starting today, Microsoft is opening up a heavily discounted pre-order program for Windows 7. To reward loyal customers, Microsoft if selling a pre-order of Windows 7 Home Premium for $49.99 and Windows 7 Professional for $99.99. This is 50% off the standard upgrade price. To pre-order your copy right now, check out the Miscrosoft Store.

Microsoft also announced the estimated retail prices for Windows 7 yesterday. The upgrade prices are as follows:

• Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade): $119.99
• Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade): $199.99
• Windows 7 Ultimate (Upgrade): $219.99

The full retail boxed version prices are as follows:

• Windows 7 Home Premium (Full): $199.99
• Windows 7 Professional (Full): $299.99
• Windows 7 Ultimate (Full): $319.99

Al of these products will start shipping on October 22nd.

I really like these aggressive pricing techniques from Microsoft. Let’s hope everyone will upgrade to Windows 7 right away, and we can finally put Vista behind us. Check out the Windows Team Blog for even more information.

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Continue reading »]]> If you spend a lot of time using processor draining video or photo editing workflows with Adobe CS4, you’ve probably thought about upgrading your computer hardware. If you are considering buying a new PC, you should definitely think about installing 64-bit Vista. All Adobe CS4 applications can be optimized on a 64-bit system, giving you the maximum performance possible.

Unfortunately, not many people have spent time using a 64-bit operating system…well unless you have a Mac running OS X Leopard. All newer Macs come standard with a native 64-bit OS, but that’s another story. So, if you use a PC, chances are you are still using a 32-bit version of XP or Vista. If you already have CS4 and are experiencing slowdowns when switching between different applications in your workflow, or you have to render your projects overnight, 64-bit Vista is for you.

The main difference between a Windows 32 and 64-bit system is the usage of RAM. With a 32-bit system, you top out at 4GB. Once Vista is up and running, you actually only have between 2 and 3GB of RAM to work with. This is simply not enough to do any HD video editing in Premiere Pro or open very large files in Photoshop. With a 64-bit Vista system, you can add memory up to 32 GB, or more!

You may have heard that only Photoshop CS4 offers native 64-bit support for Windows Vista. Well, you heard right. However, all of the other CS4 applications like Premiere Pro CS4 and After Effects CS4 were optimized for 64-bit operating systems, allowing them to take advantage of systems with RAM to spare.

Now, upgrading to 64-bit Vista won’t magically make your programs run twice as fast. However, you will notice dramatic differences in speed in labor intensive operations like video rendering and switching between Lightroom and Photoshop. Speed tests by Adobe have shown up to a 200% speed increase in Premiere Pro running on 64-bit Vista with 16GB of RAM, over a 32-bit system with only 4GB of RAM. Not too shabby.

This is all well and good, but how do you get started? First, you need to buy or build a computer with 64-bit Vista in mind. This means spending some extra money on 16 or 32GB of RAM, but with the price of memory at an all-time low, you should be able to buy 16GB for well under $500. You also need to make sure your hard disk(s) are fast enough to keep up. Ideally you want a hard disk that can sustain a data rate up to 20MB per second and spin at 7200 rpms or greater. You can use a RAID array with a couple disks for the best possible performance. When installing Vista 64, you need to make sure it is upgraded to SP1. You will also need to download the latest 64-bit drivers for all of your hardware.

Now that your 64-bit Vista system is up and running, you need to make some adjustments to Adobe CS4 to ensure all of your applications are taking advantage of all that RAM.

-In Premiere Pro CS4, you need to adjust the size of the paging file to twice the amount of installed RAM. So, if you are running 16GB of RAM, you need to allocate 32GB of hard disk space for the paging file. You also need to upgrade to the latest version of Premiere Pro, which ensures it will recognize more than 4GB of RAM.

-In After Effects CS4, go under Preferences – Memory & Multiprocessing to adjust the amount of memory per core.

-All other CS4 applications should take advantage of the extra memory automatically.

Adobe is currently working on designing all Creative Suite applications to work out of the box in a 64-bit environment. However, this will not be a reality until the release of CS5. Also, Microsoft is pushing 64-bit systems even more with their next release of Windows 7 this fall. Eventually, all PC’s will be running a 64-bit operating system, but why not be ahead of the curve right now?

For further reading and additional info, check out these links:

Adobe CS4 Production Premium 64-bit White Paper

Photoshop, Lightroom, and Adobe’s 64-bit Roadmap

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Continue reading »]]> I just ran across a website containing hundreds of free, amazing HD desktop backgrounds for Windows Vista (or any other operating system).  Wallpaper Abyss features all kinds of tweaks and themes for Windows Vista, but I really like their HD desktop background images. They feature a new, high-res wallpaper image every single day, so your desktop will always be fresh.

Just click on the title of the post, click on the download link, and then right click on the large image to “Set as Desktop Background”. That’s it….you are now styling a custom background. Here are a few of my favorites. Just click on these images to get to the high-res versions. Enjoy!

Here are some more of our personal favorites:

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Continue reading »]]> According to AppleInsider, Microsoft has granted HP the right to downgrade the operating system installed on new computers to Windows XP for another year. Currently, HP allows purchasers of new PC’s to downgrade their OS from Windows Vista to the eight-year-old Windows XP. However, this right was set to expire in July as Microsoft transitions to the new Windows 7 release.

With this new extension, HP will be able to offer its customers the option of Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP on new computers (once Windows 7 is released). This extension will last through April 30, 2010.

Since many Windows users were extremely reluctant to upgrade to Vista when buying a new computer, offering a Windows XP OEM alternative was essential for hardware manufacturers. These “downgrades” basically transferred the Vista user license to XP Professional at no charge, with the option of upgrading to Vista for free in the future. This is how the Windows 7 downgrade program will work as well.

Will users remain skeptical of the Windows 7 ugrade? The buzz around the internet is saying Windows 7 will receive a much more favorable response than Vista did, possibly making these downgrades obsolete. Maybe once Windows 7 is released it will finally be time to say goodbye to Windows XP (and Vista).

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Continue reading »]]> As a follow-up to the article I wrote last week, the Texas state Senate has approved a budget rider that prevents government agencies from using Windows Vista. If a state department still wants to implement Vista, they have to get approval from a state legislative budget board.

This is a major PR blow to Microsoft, who has tried to boost Vista’s image in the past year through extensive marketing and PR efforts of their own. Microsoft also has over 1,500 employees in Texas, and has expressed its concern over this legislation.

So what do you think? Is the state of Texas out of line in banning a specific piece of software in its agencies? Should decisions like this be left up to the IT professionals instead of a state legislative board?

Maybe Texas just has high hopes for Windows 7 and doesn’t want to deal with multiple upgrades…

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