10 Things Windows 7 Must Do To Succeed - Business Center - PC World

I recently attended a briefing where Microsoft explained some of the new features in Windows 7 to reviewers from different publications. At the end of the meeting, the MS folks asked the half-dozen of us present what it will take for the new OS to be a success.

"Injecting about three trillion dollars into the economy to end this recession," was my initial response. It's hard to imagine any new OS will be a success, especially with business customers, until the economy improves. What we are already using works just fine, thank you. It will have to see us through.

So, let's fast forward in the economic cycle to the inevitable uptick, when investing in business computing becomes easier. Here are 10 things Windows 7 will have to do.

1. Windows 7 should not be positioned in relation to Windows Vista, which is nonexistent in most businesses. Windows 7 needs to be related back to Windows XP, to which I think it is the legitimate successor.

2. I don't see Windows 7 as Vista SP2 or Vista Lite or anything like this. Windows 7 looks like a new OS to me and deserves to be treated as such. (Readers: Give Windows 7 a chance, OK?)

3. Windows 7 needs to run just fine on hardware the runs Windows XP just fine today. My sense, playing with Windows 7, is this is possible. Vista grabbed an early reputation as a resource hog. Windows 7 must avoid this.

4. Because Windows 7 cannot upgrade an existing Windows XP installation, Microsoft needs to provide easy transition tools. A copy of Windows 7 and a flash drive or small stack of DVDs needs to move all my data and my applications and my settings to the new OS. This may mean Microsoft needs to send an applications disc with Windows 7.

5. Just for emphasis: If I have to reinstall my applications, Windows 7 will not be a welcome upgrade.

6. If Microsoft does not or cannot accomplish the previous items, then it should not promote Windows 7 as an upgrade and offer it on new hardware only. This will avoid one of the major factors in Vista's failure: It's inability to run well on what people already owned.

7. Fortunately, the Windows 7 user experience is not wildly different from XP the way Vista is. This will make it easier for companies (or households) to have a mix of Windows XP and Windows 7.

8. I like what I have seen of Windows 7, but have yet to hear Microsoft offer a good reason besides "a wide range of improvements" for me to upgrade. If it comes only on new hardware, that's fine. And, yes, some people will then decide they like the new OS and upgrade older machines as a result. But, if Microsoft hopes to sell an upgrade it needs to look at how Apple sells its upgrades.

9. Speaking of which: Apple sells features and applications that are included with the OS as major upgrade benefits. If Microsoft included more significant applications with the OS, maybe it could make them as important as the iApps are to Apple customers. Apple manages to charge its best customers up to $300-a-year for upgrades of some sort.

10. I think we have solved the problem of linking Windows 7 too closely to the release of Office 14 now that the timing between two seems clearly offset. Delays, economic or technical, should not bring the two releases back together. At least, not until its clear from seeing the software that one won't drag down the other.

I won't say those are the "top 10" things Microsoft needs to do to make Windows 7 a success. My experience with the OS is too limited for me to feel I've considered all the angles, but these suggestions are a good place for Redmond to start.



10 Things Windows 7 Must Do To Succeed - Business Center - PC World
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Microsoft Vista voted tech world's top "Fiasco": Scientific American Blog

It's official, Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system gets the prize for being the most overhyped, underperforming information and communication technology (ICT) project. Windows Vista garnered 5,222 of 6,043 votes (86 percent) entered via the Web to snag top honors in the first-ever Fiasco Awards announced in Barcelona, Spain, today, beating out other contenders, including Google's Lively virtual world, the One Laptop per Child computer (developed by the Nicholas Negroponte-chaired One Laptop Per Child Association, Inc.) and Second Life. Second prize went to SAGA, the oft-malfunctioning administration and academic management system developed by Spain's Catalan Education Department for public school teachers in Catalonia.

Vista was announced in July 2005 and hit the market in January 2007 after a mega PR blitz by Microsoft, which promised it would be a slick, secure successor to the company's popular Windows XP operating system. Vista came with an eye-catching graphical user interface, and Microsoft positioned the operating system's Windows Media Center software as a tool that would make the PC the new hub of home entertainment systems. What Microsoft made less clear was that many customers couldn't run Vista without upgrading their PCs.

What's more, the Fiasco Awards Web site points out, the new operating system was complicated to navigate and had compatibility problems with many programs and hardware drivers, leading many people to just stick with Windows XP. Vista was such a dismal failure that many PC makers even recommended that consumers steer clear of it.

The company's recent introduction of Windows 7—Vista's successor after only two years—indicates that even Microsoft views Vista with disappointment, according to the awards organizers. The lesson, they said: more testing should be done to check reliability and performance before rolling out major product-marketing campaigns.

The purpose of the Fiasco awards is to "promote critical spirit and a positive attitude towards failure, which is a necessary stage in the road to success," say the award's organizers, who are identified on the Web site only as a "group of people linked to the ICT (information and communication technology) sector." The site  notes that Thomas Edison made more than 1,000 attempts before inventing the light bulb, "so he learned how not to do it in more than 1,000 different ways."

Other finalists: Second Life (the virtual world's Web software must be downloaded on one's PC, which excludes people who don't own their own computers), One Laptop per Child (a plan hatched by the developed world to bring computers to the developing world at $100 a pop, only they it ended up costing nearly twice that), and Google Lively (a virtual world that relied more on the company's brand than on any interesting features to compete with Second Life; it was put out of its misery at the end of 2008, after just five months of operation).
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How to enable or disable the Task Manager | Windows Vista for Beginners

In one of our previous articles I presented to you the Task Manager tool. I talked about its features and how to use it to handle your computer better. In this article I will show you how to give or block user access to this powerful tool. All you have to do is to download a small archive and run the appropriate file, depending on your needs. It is as easy as that.

How to enable the Task Manager

If you can't open the Task Manager, it might be for various reasons: it might be restricted by another user with administrator permissions, you might have a virus, etc. When disabled, if you right click on the taskbar, you will see the Task Manager grayed out like in the screenshot below.

Task Manager

To enable the Task Manager, download the file attached at the bottom of this article and extract it. In the archive you will find a file called 'Taskmgr_Enabler.reg'. Double click on it. Then, Windows Vista will prompt you about your decision to add the data contained in the file to the registry.

Task Manager

After you have clicked on the Yes button, Windows Vista will tell you if the data was added to the registry or not.

Task Manager

Now, the Task Manager is enabled again.



How to disable the Task Manager

If, for some reason, you want to disable the Task Manager, download the archive below and run the 'Taskmgr_Disabler.reg' file. You will receive the same prompts as above.

NOTE: If you followed the above steps to enable this tool and the Task Manager still doesn't work, then you might have a virus. The virus may have blocked your access to the Task Manager and other similar tools that might help you to find, close and delete that virus. To get rid of the virus, scan your computer with your antivirus or use a different antivirus than the one you currently had installed. Chances are, if the installed antivirus didn't detect your virus when it got on your computer, it won't detect it when you will scan to find that virus.

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Bluetooth Keyboard Paired with Hacked iPhone

iPhone expert Ralf Ackermann who had used an external bluetooth module to pair a standard keyboard to the iPhone is at it again.

He has managed to get Apple's Bluetooth keyboard (can be any Bluetooth keyboard) to pair with a hacked iPhone without any external Bluetooth module.

Ackermann's wrote on his blog:

"Feels like getting closer to the “mainstreaming” goal - it uses hardware that comes of the shelf (unfortunately you still need to have access to a jailbroken phone), uses a packaged application, does not expose bits and pieces to the end user, just works with all the applications that use the standard on-screen keyboard"


Ackermann has used the Bluetooth stack developed by the researchers at ETH Zurich.

You can watch the demo video of the external Bluetooth keyboard paired with a jailbroken iPhone:

When we had written about Ralf Ackermann's earlier feat of using an external bluetooth approach to pair a keyboard to the iPhone, it had resulted in an interesting discussion among iPhone Hacks readers.

At that time, we had mentioned that if you are a long time iPhone user who is used to its virtual keyboard, you might find the need of a physical keyboard unnecessary which some agreed (though we surprisingly were in the minority).

TC Rhino, one of our readers had pointed out that we did not get the point of a bluetooth keyboard. He wrote:

"It amazes me that people don't get the point of the external bluetooth keyboard on the iPhone. The touch keyboard is great for on the go, quick notes, etc, but is not optimal for longer documents, blog posts, email, etc. Neither is a Blackberry/G1/Windows Mobile physical keyboard.

The point is to have a way to enter lots of information comfortably. Years ago, I had a keyboard that plugged into the dock connector on my iPaq. It folded up into a nice hard-sided package about the size of a large deck of cards and slipped into a pocket. Best form factor for writing emails and long notes on a plane that I ever found, better than a laptop, more versatile than today's netbooks."

There were a majority of users who agreed with Rhino and loved the idea of an external keyboard. Rhino made a valid point, it really depends on your requirement. The ability to connect a physical keyboard can be quite useful if you want to use your iPhone to write blog posts, long emails etc.

Unfortunately, Ackermann hasn't provided a release date on when it will be available to iPhone users. We will keep you posted if we hear of any updates, so stay tuned here at iPhone Hacks.

So what you think about an external keyboard for the iPhone? Please let us know your take in the comments.

Startup Delayer

How to delay the applications that launch at startup

Once you have cleaned the list of startup applications, you might want to try a Startup Delayer. This is a very cool free tool which allows you to delay the remaining applications running at startup.

Startup Delayer

Except drivers, hardware related applications and security suites, you won't need most applications to start immediately. With Startup Delayer you can delay them up to 24 hours. To learn more about how to use it, check out their Help and Support page.

System Configuration Utility

How to remove programs from running at startup

The best way is from the configuration menus of the application you want to stop running at startup. To do this, double click on its system tray icon or launch it using its shortcut. Then, search for the Preferences, Options, Settings or Configuration menus. For example, Preferences is generally found under the Edit menu, while Options under Tools. However, there are exceptions to this rule.

Once you found the configuration menus of the application, search for options such as 'Start [application name] on system/computer startup', 'Launch [application name] on Windows startup'. When found, uncheck those options and click OK or Apply.

Warning: be careful with configuration options such as 'Always show tray icon' or anything related to showing the tray icon. By unchecking these settings you won't stop the application from running at startup. You will only hide its tray icon. The application will continue to run at each Windows startup.

uTorrent Preferences

Another method is to use the System Configuration Utility and disable them from there. To learn how to do this, check our tutorial called How to configure your startup programs.

Streamline your Startup Applications & Improve Windows Performance

Streamline your Startup Applications & Improve Windows Performance | Windows Vista for Beginners
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