256GB USB Flash Drive from Kingston

Kingston has introduced new DataTraveler 310 USB Flash Drive with a massive 256GB capacity. This device is better than the 256GB DataTraveler 300, thanks to DataTraveler 310's faster data transfer speeds. This USB Flash Drive is available in India for Rs. 48,380 and is backed by a warranty of five years.
New Kingston DataTraveler 310 can hold up to 54 DVD worth data in its 256GB capacity. It offers read speeds of 25MB/s and write speeds of 12MB/s. While the DT 300 offered read speeds of 20MB/s and write speeds of 10MB/s. Kingston DataTraveler 310's dimensions are - 2.90-inch x 0.87-inch x 0.63-inch (73.70mm x 22.20mm x 16.10mm). This Flash Drive also features Password Traveler software. Using that software, consumers can create and access a password-protected privacy zone.
DataTraveler 310 is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X 10.3 or higher and OSes with Linux Kernel 2.6.1 or above. However, the Password Traveler software works only in Windows platform (Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000).

As mentioned earlier, this new DT 310 also supports Windows ReadyBoost feature. Windows Vista and Windows 7 Essential make use of Flash memory based mass storage system as drive for disk cache and thus can be used as additional memory.
This pricey USB Flash Drive is meant for those who're always on the move and need to take large, critical data on a tiny device. It's a miniature alternative to portable HDD drive in terms of size. (story Link)

MS Announces Volume Discounts for Win 7

Microsoft announced volume discounts on Windows 7 for its business customers at its Worldwide Partner Conference in New Orleans on Monday.
As of Sept. 1, business customers will be able to order Windows 7 through Microsoft's software licensing partners.  Microsoft will also offer customers up to a 15 percent discount to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional.

Specifically, Microsoft will give a 15 percent discount on the Windows Vista-to-Windows 7 Professional upgrade to its Volume Licensing partners, who will have the choice to pass along the discount to corporate customers. The discount, according to a Microsoft spokeswoman, refers to the Volume Licensing price Microsoft previously charged to upgrade from either Windows XP Professional or Windows Vista Business to Windows 7 Professional -- a price Microsoft hasn't previously disclosed. The additional discount will represent 15 percent off of that price, she said. (Upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7 Professional costs $199.99 via retail.)
Specifically, Microsoft will offer discounts of between 15 and 35 percent, based on the volume and geographic region, Bill Veghte, senior vice president of Windows Business, told attendees at the Partner Conference, in a keynote address that Microsoft posted to the Web.

To determine whether customers are ready to deploy Windows 7, Microsoft is providing Solution Accelerators, automated tools to scan and remotely upgrade a network to Windows 7. A related tool, Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0, will help consumers scan the network and determine if the hardware is compatible with both Windows 7 and Windows Server, or if an upgrade is required. (story Link)

Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview

Microsoft today released a "technical preview" release of Microsoft Office 2010, the next version of the world's most widely used application suite. The beta is available to anyone who preregistered with Microsoft for a chance to download and test it. After running it for a few days of intense testing, I'm impatient for the final release.

As far as I can tell, this should be the smoothest upgrade for Office in many years. If you're used to Office 2007, you'll need no help using Office 2010. Old features remain where they were, although some are now displayed on spacious menus with lots of explanatory text instead of the cramped menus of 2007. In fact, the new features are slotted in so smoothly that it may take you a few moments to realize that they're new.

You'll see major changes in the new version if your company also updates to SharePoint Server 2010. Office 2010 is packed with features that let SharePoint users edit and manage each other's files either through an internal connection to a SharePoint server or remotely through a Web browser or smartphone. Microsoft's obvious goal is to persuade corporations to pay for Microsoft's collaboration tools instead of using those from Google or any other cloud-based service. Microsoft's look technically dazzling, but it's an open question whether Microsoft can convince companies to lock themselves into a high-priced proprietary offering in a time of economic uncertainty.

One other innovation is that Office 2010 will be the first version of the suite available in both 32- and 64-bit versions. We haven't received the 64-bit version yet, but we'll report on its performance on a 64-bit version of Windows as soon as we can.

Digging into Office 2010

If you haven't registered for the preview, the suite can be found on software-piracy sites—but Microsoft warns that many of these bootleg copies are infected with malware. If you're curious about the new version, don't risk compromising your Windows system. Just wait for the public beta that's slated for later this year. Otherwise, you can wait until the final code is released. Office 2010 won't ship in final form until sometime in 2010—Microsoft is tight-lipped about the exact date. Meanwhile, here's my initial take on what you can expect.

System requirements for Office 2010 are essentially the same as for Office 2007: Windows XP SP3 (the older SP2 won't cut it), Vista, or Windows 7. Any hardware that can run Office 2007 can also run Office 2010.

The first thing you'll notice is a lack of big, obvious changes to notice. Office 2007 introduced the ribbon interface for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook's message editor. Office 2010 extends the ribbon throughout the suite, adding it to Publisher, OneNote, and Outlook's main menu—and introduces a customization feature that lets you add your own tab and remove some (but not all) items on the default ribbon.

Office 2007 introduced the pearl-like Office Button menu that worked like an enhanced version of the traditional File menu. Office 2010 replaces that button with a small, rectangular icon that opens a spacious "Backstage" page of fully explained options for saving, printing, and managing files, making it easier to plumb the depths of Office's enormous feature set. The Backstage view is essentially a single menu for accessing features that apply to the whole of a document, such as printing, saving, and sharing; the main editing screen is used for accessing all the actual data that's visible in the document. On the ribbon, a tiny up-arrow icon reminds you that you can temporarily turn off the ribbon by clicking that button—and you can, of course, still toggle the ribbon on and off with the little-known Ctrl-F1 keystroke introduced in Office 2007.

A new Print menu is especially impressive, with options like page orientation (portrait or landscape) and one- or two-sided printing instantly accessible instead of buried deep in the Windows Print dialog. PDF output is finally built in from the start, and doesn't require a special download as it does in Office 2007. The suite also includes the open-source Open Document Format as one of its default formats. (story Link)

after one Year Microsoft Will End Support For Windows XP SP2

One year from today Microsoft will retire support for Windows XP Service Pack 2. Windows XP is not being retired, but support for Service Pack 2 is. It may be the case, and in fact I would guess it would be the case, that from them on you will have to have Service Pack 3 in order get support, including patches to subsequently disclosed vulnerabilities.

It has been policy in the past for Microsoft to retire support for service packs. You can no longer get updates for XP with no service packs (what they call SP0) or with SP1. You must have SP2 in order to get updates. After Patch Tuesday, July 13, 2010 you will have to have SP3 installed in order to get updates for Windows XP. And in fact, if a vulnerability is found in SP2 that is not in SP3, it will not be patched.

And we have reached the end of the line for Windows XP service packs: After SP3 no new service packs are planned. Microsoft will not end support for Windows XP itself for almost 4 years more. That is scheduled for Patch Tuesday, April 8, 2014.

Given that SP3 was released in May 2008, this would mean 6 years of updates since the last service pack, which adds up to quite a mess. Deploying a new system under such circumstances requires a large update process. By then we should be on to Windows 8 or 9, but the determination among many of you to keep your XP systems forever seems strong. (story Link)

Microsoft's Next Patch Tuesday Could Be Big

Next Tuesday, July 13, Microsoft will issue 6 security bulletins and updates to fix the vulnerabilities described in them. Among these will be a DirectShow vulnerability disclosed in May and, possibly, the zero-day vulnerability that hit the Internet this week.

Three of the bulletins affect Microsoft Windows and all are critical on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The first, for now designated "Windows 1" is rated critical on every shipping Windows platform and must be a doozy. The second appears to be for the DirectX flaws mentioned above, and affects Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. The last affects only Windows XP (critical) and Windows Server 2003 (Moderate).

The other 3 vulnerabilities have the less-urgent rating of Important: vulnerability in Publisher 2007, one in ISA (Internet Security and Acceleration) Server 2006, and one in several current versions of Virtual PC and Virtual server.

A Microsoft blog on the update advance notification indicates that they believe they will be able to get an update of sufficient quality for the zero-day DirectX attack in time for Tuesday, but they aren't making promises at this point. In the meantime they recommend using the kill-bit workaround, a link to which they include in their blog.

The usual monthly update will also be put out for the Malicious Software Removal Tool and the Windows Mail Junk Filter. There will be a non-security update to Vista that should fix intermittent failures experienced by users that have a Bluetooth radio connected to a USB 2.0 hub. (story Link)

12 things need to know before installing Windows 7

Today’s the big day. Windows 7 RC will finally be publicly released by Microsoft. Remember, Microsoft has said that it will provide an unlimited number of downloads this time, but they will only be providing it until June 30th. Beta keys will still work with the RC and you can download the RC from microsoft here.

But before you download and install Windows 7 RC, here are 12 very important things you should know beforehand:

12. You’re probably not going to get it on May 5th

As we saw with the public release of Windows 7 Beta, Microsoft’s servers crumbled from the traffic generated to their site. The same happened with the Technet/MSDN subscriber-only release of the RC. They even sent an email out with this phrase bolded:

So you don’t need rush to make sure you get your copy. When you’re ready to download the RC, it’ll be waiting for you.

Still think Microsoft is going to try their best to keep their servers up tomorrow? If you’re fast enough, you might be able to access the download. If not, luckily you have some alternatives:

• Wait a day or two until the server errors are over. You have until June 30th to download the RC.
• Download the image from P2P networks. Make sure your image contains the right hashes before installing.

11. What the changes are:

Everyone always asks what the changes are. Microsoft has listed 64 changes from the Beta RC here, here, and here. If you want the short version, here’s a quick list of the most significant changes:

• Improved Taskbar: Can now fit 24-39% more icons depending on your resolution, opened apps stand out more, smaller jumplists, and items that need your attention now blink faster.
• UAC vulnerability fix: Every time the level of UAC is changed, you will be prompted for confirmation.
• Stream your music library over the Internet in Windows Media Player: This feature would be great if easier to use. To access it, go to Library in WMP and click on Stream in the breadcrumb. It is a lengthy process but the instructions given should get you where you want.
• Turn Windows features on or off: Yes you can finally “uninstall” IE8 or other “unnecessary” Windows features. Read about it here
  
• Improved Driver Support: Didn’t download the beta because of all those hardware incompatibility stories you’ve heard? It’s still not perfect in the RC but a lot has improved since the Beta. It’s worth a try.
• Insane wallpapers, new themes and sound schemes: If you love customization, Windows 7 RC will satisfy your tastes. There are a lot more goodies added for you to customize to your liking in the RC.

10. You DON’T have to burn a DVD or create a bootable flash disk to install Windows 7

Most users won’t have to burn a single DVD to install Windows 7 RC. You’d have to burn a DVD if you want to install a 64-bit edition of Windows 7 and you’re running a 32-bit edition of Windows or vice versa

Since Windows Vista, you can now install Windows even after already booting up into your OS. After you have downloaded the .iso image file, instead of burning it, simply download an archiver program such as WinRAR, extract the contents to a folder, and run Setup. And yes, you can install Windows 7 on the same volume as your existing OS.

Bonus Tip: If you want to install now and backup later, choose Custom Installation instead of Upgrade Installation during the setup wizard. Windows will store all the contents of your C Drive in a folder named Windows.old once Windows 7 is installed.

9. Upgrade installs from the Beta won’t work

Microsoft has stated that they’d prefer users to either do a clean install or do an upgrade install from Vista to help them evaluate how they can support the most real world scenarios possible. Unless you’re running Windows Vista or Windows 7 Build 7077, you won’t be able to perform an upgrade install. To help with Microsoft’s testing process, I would recommend testers to help MS out on this one and go for a clean install or Vista upgrade.

8. How to do a build-to-build upgrade installation anyway

Microsoft realized not too many users would be happy if they made everything impossible so they have provided a workaround for users to still perform an upgrade installation for Windows 7 Beta. The workaround is very simple. Simply extract the image, browse to the sources folder, and open cversion.ini. Then edit the MinClient value to 7000.

7. How to create a separate partition for your Windows

7 Beta installation:

Running Windows 7 Setup in Windows XP or Vista will not allow you to access the Disk Management options during the setup wizard. Instead, you would have to do this manually.If you plan to resize partitions, I highly advise you to backup your files.

If you are running Windows Vista or 7, open up your Start Menu, type Disk Management and push Enter. Right click any area of Unallocated Space and create a New Simple Volume. From there, complete the wizard to create your new volume. Once created, make sure that it is a Primary Partition. Now you’re all set and good to go with the installation.

If you are running Windows XP or you’re having problems dealing with parititions in Windows Vista, you can download the EASEUS Partition Manager. EPM is only compatible with Windows XP and Vista. The process for creating a new partition with EPM is the exact same as above, except that you must select to create a Primary partition as shown below:

6. You can run Windows 7 under VMWare or Virtual PC instead of doing a full-fledged install

If you just want to briefly check out the RC, you may want to consider the option. However, you won’t be able to fully take advantage of all the features of a full installation such as the Aero Interface. Also keep in mind that Virtual environments are incapable of running hardware intensive apps such as games.

In Layman’s terms, running Windows 7 under a virtual environment is like running an Operating System (OS) inside an OS, so you don’t have to worry about putting your actual computer at risk. You can start by downloading Virtual PC here for free. For further instructions please check out the tutorial here. (The tutorial is for running XP in Vista, but works for Windows 7 too. Just select Windows Vista at the OS Menu. When your mouse is in the Virtual PC area, press Right-Alt to drag your mouse back onto the screen of your current OS.)

5. How to properly burn an ISO to your DVD

If you still want to burn the image onto a DVD, make sure it is done properly. I know a few people that actually just took the ISO file and burned the exact file directly onto the DVD. That’s not the way to do it. The DVD should show the ISO image’s contents (not just one .ISO file) once you have burned it. I recommend using ImgBurn, which is a free and easy tool for burning ISOs.

Your DVD contents should look this after you've burned it

4. Don’t take out those driver CDs yet…

Windows 7 contains updated hardware drivers so chances are you won’t need to install a single driver if your hardware isn’t as old as Zeus. Once you’ve got Windows 7 installed and running, perform a Windows Update and Windows should download the necessary drivers.

If you run into any incompatibility problems, then you may want to install the Vista driver instead. You can find it on the manufacturer’s website. Once you’ve downloaded the driver, if you run into compatibility problems, you may have to run the setup file in Vista compatibility mode for it to work. Consult this guide for more help if needed. (full Story)

Windows 7 - XP Mode Screenshots

Windows XP Mode (XPM) allows you to run your Windows XP apps in a virtual environment alongside your Windows 7 apps in the same desktop. It was designed by Microsoft to ease the transition from XP to Windows 7, particularly for small businesses that are reliant on their legacy apps.

Here is a quick screenshot tour from getting Windows XP Mode ready to publishing apps directly into Windows 7. You can click on screenshots for full size view.

Here are the files that are part of the package. The KB Update must be first installed, since it installs Virtual PC into Windows 7. After a reboot, running the VirtualWindowsXP Package will automatically install XP onto a VHD and run it in Virtual PC

Running the VirtualWindowsXP package will first prompt you to enter a password. You "must" enter a password now to properly enable integration features, or else you'd have to do it manually from Control Panel later on. It'd also be a good idea to check the "Remember Credentials" box because you get prompted very often later on if you don't.

The EULA you probably won't read

After clicking next a few times, just wait 15 minutes and you're all set. The setup is completely automatic.

Clicking Continue will insert a CD image into XP and allow you to install the tools necessary for the integration features.

It will then install a Driver in your Virtual OS and your Host OS. Setup process doesn't take too long

Let’s take a look at how to publish apps over to Windows 7:

First, you have to create a shortcut of the app you want to transfer over

Right Click the Start menu and select Open All users

Once you're in the All Users folder, open Programs, and drag the corresponding shortcut. Wait for a bit (the screen will flicker), and your app is published!

A new folder is now added into the Start menu under Windows Virtual PC with all your Virtual apps stored inside

When you launch your virtual app, you have to shut down the Virtual PC window. However, the Virtual PC process will still run in the background

Initializing virtual environment again. This usually takes 1-2 minutes. Good thing is after you've initialized the environment, opening apps open just as fast as any other app

Who knew we'd live to see IE6 running right beside IE8 in the same desktop.

(full story)

Windows 7 Adoption rate to be faster than XP’s

A few days ago, we wrote an article about the bright future Windows 7 Adoption has ahead, contrary to many other news sites claiming the same survey results show that IT admins are wary of Windows 7 and prefer to use XP. Ed Bott at ZDNet agrees with me and was able to find further evidence to back his claim that “Windows 7 is on track to be Microsoft’s most successful business OS release ever.”

When the results were shown in pie charts and bar graphs, many were misled that Windows 7 Enterprise Adoption would be another miss for Microsoft.

Perhaps this chart showing the same results in a different format will surprise a few of you:

According to the results of the KACE survey, more than 80% of IT Pros plan to upgrade to Windows 7 by 36 months, which is phenomenal compared to the 30-40% adoption rate of XP. A similar study was also conducted by an investment bank that focuses on technology, called Pacific Crest Securities. 80 IT decision makers working at enterprises of over 1000 employees were surveyed. The results show a much brighter future for Windows 7 Enterprise adoption than the KACE results:

• 50% plan to upgrade to Windows 7 as soon as it is available
• 46% expect to start the upgrade before the end of 2009, within months of Windows 7’s release
• 55% of respondents expect to do system-wide upgrades, rather than upgrading as new PCs are purchased.

It’s also worth noting that 96% of the surveyees like Windows 7 compared to the 88% satisfaction rate of the same group in January. Most of us tend to forget that most businessess need to spend at least a year to test for compatibility and work on implementing a good migration strategy. Ed Bott has also written an analytical post on the history of Windows adoption rates that is worth reading for those interested. (Story Link)

Duel Systems DuelAdapter—Double Your Connection Pleasure

That slot on the side of your fancy new notebook may look like a standard PC Card connector, but chances are you got stuck with an ExpressCard slot instead: a replacement technology which is incompatible with PC Cards and for which precious few peripherals exist. If you've got old PC Card hardware which you don't want to upgrade, the Duel Systems DuelAdapter provides a lifeline. The device has an ExpressCard on one end and a PC Card dock on the other, connected by a hefty, foot-long cable. Install drivers and you've got a way to use nearly any old PC Card on your laptop. We tried it with a Cingular WWAN card, PC Card hard drive, and Microdrive adapter and had no problems. Just try to ignore the unfortunate homophone in the name.  —Christopher Null

WIRED Practically plug-and-play, can swap cards in and out without reboots. Works on Windows XP and Mac machines. Broad support even for notoriously "difficult" PC Cards, like WWAN adapters.

TIRED No-frills design; a status light on the unit would have been nice. Extremely old PC Cards probably won't work with it. No Vista support yet. A little bulky at 5.8 ounces and a bit awkward to try and fit in a messenger bag. $119, duel-systems.com (Story Link)

More Windows 7 RC details revealed

Just a day after Paul Thurott revealed Windows XP Mode for Windows 7, he comes back with additional details where he’s pretty sure “most of this is all new info.” Here are the details:

AAC/H.264/MPEG-2 support will not be provided to Windows 7 Home Basic and Starter customers. That functionality will only go out to Home Premium, Professional, and Enterprise/Ultimate users. But it looks like there will be add-ons made available (free or paid, it’s not clear) to users of low-end Windows 7 versions.

Maximum RAM. All 32-bit versions of Windows 7 “support” 4 GB of RAM, of course. But if you go 64-bit, you can add up to 8 GB in Home Basic and Starter, 16 GB in Home Premium, and 192 GB in Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate.

Windows Media Player Remote Media Experience (RME) is not available in Windows 7 Home Basic or Starter. However, all versions can share media over a home network.

All Windows 7 SKUs support 20 simultaneous SMB connections. This works out to 10 users, apparently.

XP Mode (formerly Virtual PC). As we first revealed yesterday, only Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate are licensed to install XP Mode.

There aren’t any surprises here but the details are good to know. Do you think the limitations are a good move by Microsoft? Let us know in the comments. (Story Link)

Key for Switch to Apple – 07

1. Should I buy a Mac-Intel PC now or wait until the new systems running the new OS X 10.5 (code named Leopard) arrive?
There's no particular need to wait because Tiger will work just fine. If you decide you want Leopard later on you have to buy.

2. Can I run Windows and Mac OS simultaneously toggling between the two?
The short answer is no. Boot Camp, Apple's downloadable application (in beta now but expected to come standard with Leopard), lets you switch between OSs but you have to reboot with each switch. You can run both OSs simultaneously with a utility, like Parallels Workstation.

3. Can I play my favorite Windows games, like Doom3, on a Mac? What other games can I play?
You'll be happy to hear that you can play your favorite Windows games on the new Mac-Intel systems, even against other Windows users. Keep in mind though that the 3D performance is directly affected by which graphics GPU you're using. And in a Mac-Intel, the highest end graphics card is the mid-range ATI Mobility Radeon X1600, which isn't as fast as the nVidia GeForce Go 7900GTX graphics system now available in systems like our Editor's Choice, Dell XPS M1710.

4. At home, I have two Windows PCs networked via WiFi. How difficult will it be to add the Mac-Intel into the mix? Will I be able to share files between my Windows PCs and my Mac-Intel whether it's running Windows OS or Mac OS?
Setting up your new Mac-Intel machine onto your PC network is easy. The Mac OS includes built-in support for Windows Sharing, which allows Macs to access files on your other Windows PCs. However, you need to enable this file-sharing option in OS X yourself since it's not a default factory setting. Enable File Sharing in Windows XP to view your Mac files.

Third party solutions are also available, like DAVE by Thursby software, which makes identifying Microsoft networks and sharing hard drives even easier in OS X.

5. Can I still use my old printer/scanner/wireless router or do I need to invest in a device?
First, check the Apple site or your peripheral manufacturer's site and see if they have Macintosh support and download the software for that specific model. Your wireless router will work with both Macs and Windows PCs without any additional software installations.

6. I do a great deal of work in Photoshop, and heard it runs slower on a Mac-Intel computer. Is this true?
Right now, yes that is true. The Universal Binary version of Adobe Photoshop CS2 is expected to address this disparity but will not be available until sometime in 2007. If you work primarily with OS X and rely heavily on Photoshop, you will notice a slow down. In that case, it might make more sense for you to wait until the next revision comes out. For a list of all the universal binary applications, check out (http://guide.apple.com/universal/).

7. Will I be able to see my IE bookmarks in both Mac OS and Windows OS?
Bookmarks are not synchronized between the Mac OS and Windows OS. You will have to import your bookmarks into the Mac OS and update them accordingly.

8. Does it slow the computer down to have both OS's open?
Technically, you cannot have both OS's open simultaneously. You can use Virtualization software like Parallels which is a PC emulator program that runs within OS X. Doing this though will place extra strain on your Mac's resources.

9. Is the Mac surround sound interface compatible with consumer electronic devices such as home theater receivers? I have a nice 5.1 living room speaker set up already.
The included optical out port on the iMac, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro gives you surround sound capability and easily connects to home theater stereos provided you have an Optical Mini Jack To TosLink Cable.

10. Can I boot Mac OS X on a PC?
No. Mac OS X is not available for Windows-based PCs. (story Link)

Key for Switch to Apple – 06

MAC APPS

I won't attempt to give you much information here about specific applications that come with your Mac, but there are a few things worth mentioning:

Preview is the application that, by default, will open your PDF files (along with image files). You can generally use it instead of Adobe Reader; you'll find that it opens much faster than Adobe Reader does (what doesn't?). And unlike Adobe Reader, it permits light editing of PDFs—you can delete or resequence pages in the right-hand sidebar. It's also nice for generating a quick slideshow: In the Finder, highlight a bunch of image files, then double-click on any of them. They'll all open simultaneously in Preview, with a sidebar of thumbnails on the right that will let you quickly scroll through them.

Disk Utility (in the folder \Applications\Utilities) is what you'll use to format flash drives and external hard disks. For highest speed and best compatibility with the Mac, choose Erase, and Volume Format, Mac OS Extended (Journaled). If you need the backup device to readable by a Windows PC, choose MS-DOS format (performance won't be as good). By the way, Disk Utility also lets you make your own DMG files—use the menu option File | New | Disk Image from Folder. What's really nice about this is, you can encrypt your .dmg file; this is great for storing sensitive data.

Well, that just about scratches the surface. Mac aficionados will note with displeasure that I haven't said a word about Time Machine, Dashboard widgets, Spaces, Automator, or any of several thousand other things you're probably going to like. Watch this space. (story Link)

Key for Switch to Apple – 05

MISCELLANEOUS WINDOWS-TO-MAC ISSUES

Here are some questions that come up quite a bit, in my experience. They're a bit hodgepodge, but you can't argue with experience.

Command and control. Often enough, if you used a Control-key combo in Windows, Command plus the same other key will work in OS X. For example, Ctrl-x, -c, and -v to cut, copy, and paste a selection becomes Cmd-x, -c, and -v. Cmd-a selects all, whether you're in Finder or an application.

Know what you're closing. Ctrl-w to close a window in Windows is Cmd-w to close a window on the Mac. Quitting an open application requires not just closing its windows but actually telling it to quit—that's Cmd-q from the keyboard, or a right-click-accessible mouse command from the application's Dock icon.

Jump around. Alt-Tab to switch among open windows is Cmd-Tab on the Mac. Actually, Cmd-Tab switches among open applications. Use Cmd-~ to switch among open windows in a particular application. But once you get used to the Exposé feature, you might not care about this anyway.

Erase bidirectionally. Most Mac users seem to use the Delete key exclusively. It's in the same spot on a Mac keyboard that the Backspace occupies on non-Mac keyboards, and it deletes characters backward from the cursor, just like a Backspace key. But Windows users are used to having a Delete key that deletes forward as well. If you miss your Windows-type Delete key, use Fn-Delete on a Mac to delete forward.

All-stop. If you're old enough to remember when the Break key on a PC did something, you'll want to know about Cmd-period on a Mac. In many applications, it cancels whatever is in the midst of happening. Try that or the Escape key before you try what's next.

Quit it. Ctrl-Alt-Delete on a Windows PC (to bring up the Task Manager when something seems to be frozen) is Cmd-Option-Escape on a Mac: It will bring up a list of running applications so that you can force a frozen one to quit. You can also get there by choosing Force Quit from the main Apple menu.

Monitor activity. The full functionality of Task Manager on a Windows PC is found in Activity Monitor on a Mac; that's in the folder \Applications\Utilities. It's worth dragging that one to the Dock for quick access. If your Mac slows down, or if loud fan activity suggest that something is overwhelming its processor, Activity Manager will show you every currently running process and allow you to force-quit the culprit.

Create aliases. What Windows calls a shortcut, Mac calls an alias. You can make one by control-clicking on the icon for a file or folder, then choosing Make Alias—or simply by pressing Cmd-l (that's a lowercase L). Unlike a Windows shortcut, a Mac alias knows the actual identity of the target file, not just its location (the Mac assigns a unique ID number to each file); therefore, you can move the target file around, or even rename it, and the alias will still work.

Grab a screen. There's no Print Screen button for screen captures, but there is this abstruse keyboard shortcut: Cmd-Ctrl-Shift-4 (you'll get used to it). Once you press that, you can trace any area of the screen for capture to the clipboard; then you can paste it into, say, a document or photo-editing software. If you don't bother to press the Control key, the screenshot will be saved to your desktop as a file instead. If you press 3 rather than 4, you'll automatically capture the whole screen. And if you're in no mood for any such finger contortions, you can use the Grab application in your Utilities folder.

Clean up drive-image detritus. Unlike a Windows PC, your Mac won't offer to remove the unused icons on your desktop, so let me tell you about one type of file that might begin to accumulate there needlessly: the DMG file. If you download applications from the Web, a lot of them will download in the form of .dmg files (disk-image files). When you double-click on the DMG icon, it opens in the form of a virtual disk—a temporary folder that your Mac treats like a newly inserted disc or flash drive. If you want to keep the contents of the virtual disk, you have to drag them to another folder (such as your Applications folder or your desktop); doing so will copy them. The virtual disk can then be "ejected"—just drag it to the trash or press the Eject icon that appears next to the drive in a Finder window to do that. But you'll still have the DMG file that spawned the virtual disk. You don't need it anymore—go ahead and drag it to the trash, too.

Get info. On a Windows PC, you can get system information from various selections on the Start menu—information such as how much memory your computer has, or what kinds of hardware are built into it. To get this information on a Mac, select About This Mac from the Apple menu. The window that immediately pops up will tell you which version of OS X you're running, among other things. Then press More Info to open the System Profiler utility, which will glut you with details.

Type worldly. There's a world of hidden characters and symbols behind the Option key. For example, press Option-e and any vowel you type next will have an acute accent. Press Option-u and any vowel you type next will have an umlaut. Press Option-4 (the dollar-sign key) and you'll get ¢. The results for any of these will differ if you also hold down the Shift key. To learn more about keyboard combinations and diacritical marks, see Apple's guide.

For laptops only: Don't be dim. Have you noticed that when you're running on battery power, the display keeps dimming every few minutes? Yeah, that's annoying. Turn it off in Apple | System Preferences | Energy Saver, under Options, where you can uncheck Automatically reduce the brightness....

Come on and zoom. There's a keyboard shortcut for zooming the whole screen. First, press Cmd-Option-8 to toggle it on (you'll never need to do that again). Now press Cmd-Option-= to zoom. Press Cmd-Option-minus to pull back out. (story Link)

Key for Switch to Apple - 04

SAVING, PRINTING, FINDING

Here are some more handy tips for getting around & using Mac OS X and the applications on it.

Uncover options. By default, the Print and Save dialogs for most applications are pretty sparse-looking. That's deceptive. See the downward-pointing triangle in the blue box? Click on it to display a lot of options that are otherwise hidden/

PDF it. While you're in the Print dialog, note the inconspicuous button marked PDF. Clicking on it will give you a drop-down menu that includes Save as PDF. What this means is that anything you can print, you can convert to a PDF instead of printing. No more printing and losing online receipts.

Search with Spotlight. This hard drive search tool needs an article all its own, so I won't try to do more than tell you what it is. Your Mac maintains a Spotlight index that includes not just filenames, but also every word within each file, and Spotlight will fetch results accordingly. Click on the magnifying glass in the top right-hand corner and enter a word to begin. Spotlight is also the engine that drives the little search bar you'll find at the top of any Finder window. When you perform a Spotlight search that way, your results will be displayed with the option of limiting them to the current folder, and with the option of searching file contents or only filenames. We'll go further into depth about Spotlight's capabilities in a future article.

If you're accustomed to using Google Desktop on a Windows PC, you know that it does something Spotlight can't: It displays your results with snippets of the surrounding text, just like a regular Google search does. You can download a Mac version of Google Desktop to gain this feature, but I've found that doing so slows things down a bit, perhaps because Spotlight and Google Desktop are both continuously indexing your files. A nice alternative is to download the freeware application SpotInside, which uses Spotlight's index but displays results in context with snippets of text, Google-style.

Manage windows with Exposé. Exposé is another feature that can save you a lot of time. One key will sweep aside all open windows to reveal your Desktop (until you press the key again); another key will push all your open windows out of each other's way so that you can choose among them by hovering the pointer over them; a third key will do the same, but only for windows in the front-most application. Which key does which function will depend on your Mac, and you can change it under Apple | System Preferences | Exposé and Spaces.

Change every shortcut. Well, that might be going a bit far. But you really can change and create all kinds of keyboard shortcuts. Under Apple | System Preferences | Keyboard, you can create a keyboard shortcut for any preexisting menu item. This can be done system-wide or for individual applications. Users of Microsoft Office for Mac should note that the Office apps have their own applets for accomplishing this. (story Link)

Key for Switch to Apple - 03

ORGANIZATION

To make the most of your Mac, you should know a few things about how its hard disk is organized. Double-click on the drive's icon in the upper right-hand corner of the desktop, and let's look at what's there.

Applications. This folder is equivalent to the Program Files folder on a Windows PC. In the Finder, you can always go straight to your Applications folder by pressing Cmd-A (that's a capital A—Cmd-Shift-a) or by choosing Go | Applications from the menu bar. While we're here, let me tell you something nice about applications on a Mac: They're usually self-contained, meaning that you can simply drag and drop an application to a new location and it will run—there's no Windows-like Registry into which it can spread its tentacles, so you usually don't need a special installer program. Obviously, you will never exploit this knowledge to copy programs illegally. Similarly, simply deleting the application's icon tends to neatly uninstall the program.

Library. This is where the system and various applications store information that they need—things such as fonts and Internet plug-ins (applications that your Web browser runs automatically so that it can play video files and display PDFs). Until you've learned a lot more, keep out!

System. This is, as you'd expect, where the operating system lives. Again, keep out.

Users. Okay, now we're home: Users is the equivalent of the Documents and Settings folder on a Windows XP PC. Each person with an account on your Mac will have a folder under Users; that folder is called your home directory. This is the folder you want to back up; it's what makes your Mac yours. Double-click on it and here are some things you'll see:

Desktop, Documents, and Downloads. No tricks here. The Desktop is your desktop, Documents is the default for saving documents, and Downloads is where Safari will default to saving anything you download.

Likewise, Movies, Music, and Pictures are just what they sound like. The Music folder probably contains your iTunes music files (unless you've told iTunes not to store music there). It also contains a file called "iTunes Library," which doesn't actually contain any music—it's just a database of the songs that your copy of iTunes knows about.

Library. This is your library rather than the system's. One thing you'll find here is your bookmarks: If you use Safari, they're in a folder called Safari under the filename Bookmarks.plist. Firefox users will need to drill down through the Application Support folder (or search for a file called bookmarks). You'll also find a Library folder called Preferences, which is where your applications will generally store any preference settings you make. Peek in the Preferences folder and you'll see that most of the preference files have the extension .plist, which stands for "property list." There are third-party utilities you can use to edit these files directly, but you'll probably never need to.

The important thing is to know where they are so you can copy them to another Mac if you copy one of your applications to another Mac. Also, if one of your applications starts crashing or freezing, try deleting its preference file—it may have become corrupted. The next time you run the application, a new preference file (set back to the application's defaults) will be created automatically. Note the naming scheme for the preference files: For the sake of organization, they're named like Web sites in reverse, so, for example, your preference file for Photoshop (whose vendor is Adobe) is com.adobe.Photoshop.plist.

Public contains a folder called Drop Box, where other users on your Mac can drop files for you without being able to see what else is in the folder.

Sites is where you might want to store local files for any Web sites you create. Up to you.

That's the lay of the land to begin with. Presumably, you'll be creating lots of new folders in your home directory. And the quickest way to do so is by navigating where you want to go, then pressing Cmd-N (that's a capital N) to make a new folder. (story Link)

Key for Switch to Apple - 02

FINDER TIPS AND TRICKS

Here are few more things that should improve your relationship with the Finder:

No regrets. Cmd-z will undo whatever you just did in the Finder.

Move on up. Cmd-UpArrow will go take you to the folder one level up from the one you're currently in—that's called the "enclosing folder" or the "parent directory."

You are here. This one's beautiful: Cmd-clicking directly on the name of the folder (at the top of its window) will give you a navigable drop-down display of its path—meaning that you'll see what folder it's in, and what folder that's in, and so on, and you can click on any of the folder names to navigate directly there.

Better still, this trick also works for most documents: If you're working on a Word document and you have no idea what folder it's actually in, just Cmd-click on the document's name at the top of its window, and you'll be immediately oriented.

If you liked the Windows option of always displaying your path (the Address bar) as you navigated through folders, you can have the Finder do the same: Find the option under View; check Show Path Bar. For me, the most efficient way to use the Finder is to keep everything in List view (so that you can always see dates and file sizes) while keeping the Path Bar displayed at the bottom so that you can, say, move a file up to its enclosing folder.

Universal preview. The Quick Look feature lets you take, well, a quick look at the contents of a large number of files without bothering to open the applications associated with them. Just select the files' icons—as many files as you like—then press the spacebar. There may be a delay of a few seconds, but then you'll see the contents of the first selected file, and you can use the arrow keys to navigate among the rest. The Finder will even invoke little players for audio and video files.

Rename freely. Try renaming a file while it's open. Why? Because you can. The title bar of its window will update accordingly.

THE DOCK

The Dock—that cartoonish thing at the bottom of your display—does several valuable things and is pretty customizable. The Dock functions something like an amalgamation of Windows' Quick Launch bar and the taskbar.

Icons to the left. To the left of its vertical separator bar, the Dock displays icons for any applications you might want to launch quickly (with a single click). Don't settle for what Apple put there. If there's something you don't plan to use on the Dock, pull it up and out; it will vanish in a puff of animated smoke. Populate the Dock by dragging in icons for frequently used applications from the Applications folder. Drag them left or right to arrange them; and note the little marker under each application that's currently open.

Icons to the right. To the right of the vertical separator bar, you'll see icons for any windows you've minimized (as well as the garbage). By the way, you don't have to hit that tiny yellow button to minimize a window. Go to Apple | System Preferences | Appearance, and choose Minimize when double-clicking a window title bar. Now you can be a lot less precise with your pointer when you want to minimize a window. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Cmd-m.

Set dock preference. Preferences for the Dock are available on the Apple menu. You can make it stand on its hind legs on the left-hand or right-hand side of your screen rather than lazing along the bottom; you can make it hide itself when you're not using it; you can make it stop animatedly arching its back when you run the pointer over it. There are third-party utilities that will tweak the Dock's appearance further, but such tools can stop working when Apple provides system updates—something that doesn't typically happen with Windows updates, and a good thing to keep in mind.

Find the Dock's special powers. Do a lot of Ctrl-clicking (or right-clicking) in the Dock. You'll get options such as closing an application without bothering to bring its open windows to the front, or aborting the launch of an application that you hadn't meant to open. (story Link)

Key for Switch to Apple - 01

Macs are elegant; Macs are powerful; Macs are, for the time being, remarkably safe from infection. But when people tell you that Macs are "intuitive," you're well within your rights to sneer. In my ten years of using Macs, I've found them no more intuitive than Windows PCs, perhaps even a little less so. If you're a recent or prospective switcher, you might avoid some trial and error by dipping into the following grab bag of factoids and advice.

FILE MANAGEMENT

Just like Windows, Mac OS X organizes information as files within directories. Beyond that, there are differences that may take a few seconds to puzzle out, and some that will be more frustrating—it largely depends on your computing style. If you like to use the keyboard more than the mouse or trackpad, and if you like to customize everything possible, these tips should save you a fair bit of time and annoyance.

Right-click. You probably already know that life with Windows is made easier by right-clicking wherever possible to view the context menu. Contextual options are just the ticket to learning more about what you can do in any particular situation. On a Mac, right-click is Ctrl-click. Depending on which Mac hardware you're using, you can also configure your mouse or trackpad to respond to actual right-clicking (you'll find that option under Apple | System Preferences). Whichever way you do it, do it constantly and you'll never stop learning.

Find the Finder. The Finder—Apple's rough equivalent of Windows Explorer—is what lets you navigate files and folders on your Mac. (People have strong opinions on the relative merits of the two interfaces; I'll keep mine to myself and just mention a few differences.) You'll know you're in the Finder, as opposed to another application, because the word Finder will appear on the top left corner of the screen. After that, pressing Cmd-n (don't press Shift to make it a capital or it'll be a different command) will open a folder-navigation window. If you prefer, you can do this in one step by clicking on the little blue smiley at the far-left side of the Dock. Just like Windows Explorer, Finder is always open, even if there's no Finder window open. As you navigate through the window (say, by double-clicking on a folder to show its contents), you're using the Finder. You're also using the Finder when you perform basic housekeeping functions such as dragging a file from one folder to another.

Open files in various ways. As in Windows, you can double-click on a file or application icon to open it. If you're slow of mouse-thumb, other options are to press Cmd-o or Cmd-DownArrow. Just don't expect to open a file by pressing Enter! In Windows this opens a file; in OS X, it lets you edit the filename.

Customize the Finder view. You can set preferences in the Finder, but—in a prime example of what isn't intuitive about a Mac—most of these preferences are not in the Finder's Preferences menu. Instead, they're hidden under the View | Show View Options menu—and the options here will differ in accordance with how you're currently displaying files (as icons, as a list, or in columns). Take some time to explore the settings here; they can make a big difference in your everyday interactions with the Mac.

Choose your sidebar. One thing I recommend, for convenience, is to customize what appears in the left-hand sidebar of folder-navigation windows. You can do some of this under Finder | Preferences | Sidebar, and you can also drag elements (such as folder icons) directly into the sidebar, or pull them off. This is a good way to make your commonly used folders more quickly available to you.

Display extensions. Another thing I recommend, for the sake of avoiding surprises or confusion, is to go into Finder | Preferences and check Show all file extensions.

Understand a key difference: extensions. Speaking of file extensions, Macs do use them the same way Windows PCs do—to determine which application should open a file—but this is a relatively recent development, and it continues to coexist with the Mac's older way of doing things: Some files are stored with a property called creator, which, if present, can override the effect of the filename extension. You'll probably never need to view or change a file's creator (though there are third-party utilities that let you do so); I mention this mostly so that you'll know why your Mac can sometimes open a file whose name has no extension. The Save dialogs in some Mac applications will give you the choice to use extensions or not. Definitely use extensions if you plan to send files to your Windows-using friends. Your Mac might know that MyWordFile should open in Word, but Windows won't—the file needs to be called MyWordFile.doc.

Customize file associations. And speaking of determining which application opens a file, there are at least two ways you can customize that.

1. To open a file with a particular application just once, Ctrl-click on the file's icon and choose Open with….

2. To make a choice that your Mac will remember, Get Info on the file (select the file, then press Cmd-i), go into the window that will pop up, and set the Open with option. You'll have the option of applying your choice to all such files (for example, you can choose to have every JPEG open with Photoshop instead of Preview).

3. Here's a quick-and-dirty third way that will never occur to the average Windows user: Just change the extension. For example, a plain-text file that ends in .txt will normally open in the Mac's TextEdit utility, but if you change its extension to .doc, it will open in Word.

Change icons. Now that you know how to "get info" on a file or folder (Cmd-i), you also know how to change its icon. Just drag and drop (or paste) an image onto the icon that appears in the upper left-hand corner of its Get Info window. The image should be approximately 128 by 128 pixels. (story Link)

AutoRun patch a long time coming for XP users

Nearly 18 months after it was discovered, Microsoft has finally fixed a hole in the AutoRun function of older Windows versions that allowed viruses to spread via external storage devices.
While it's good to know Microsoft is finally listening to the complaints of the Windows community, the company's delay in applying important patches put our systems at risk unnecessarily.
The old saying about the squeaky wheel getting the grease applies to the manner in which Microsoft prioritizes its product fixes. The more noise customers make, the more likely the problems will be rectified. Most recently, the Conficker worm has been spreading across networks, often entering systems via USB flash drives and other removable media. Shamefully, Microsoft could have — and should have — prevented this massive infection from happening in the first place.
In October 2007, Nick Brown documented in his blog how viruses and worms were entering his network via USB memory sticks. The next month, WS associate editor Scott Dunn explained in a Top Story on Nov. 8, 2007, the fact that Microsoft's suggested settings to disable AutoRun weren't effective. He described the so-called @SYS trick, which allows you to truly disable AutoRun, preventing infected devices from launching their attacks.
Fast-forward to one year ago. Will Dormann and US-CERT (the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team) published information on Mar. 20, 2008, confirming that Microsoft's AutoRun advice didn't block threats. The same @SYS workaround that Scott documented was supported by US-CERT in its alert.
In July 2008, Microsoft released security bulletin MS08-038. The patch in this bulletin made it possible for users to control AutoRun properly, but only on Windows Vista and Server 2008.

XP, Win 2K, Server 2003 users left in the lurch

So what happened to the equivalent patch for Windows 2000, XP, and Server 2003? In May 2008, Microsoft had in fact released a patch for these systems, which is described in Knowledge Base article 953252. However, as described in a Jan. 22, 2009, Computerworld article, US-CERT found that the fix for XP/2000/2003 had to be applied manually. Furthermore, Microsoft was not making the patch available automatically via any Windows Update service.
It wasn't until Feb. 24 of this year that Microsoft distributed this patch via Windows Update to XP, 2000, and 2003. This is described in the company's security advisory 967940.
Many home and business PC users rarely deploy patches that aren't available through Windows Update, Microsoft Update, or WSUS (Windows Software Update Services). Add to this the confusing and conflicting information about the AutoRun patch, and it's no wonder the Conficker worm, which exploits AutoRun functionality, made the inroads that it did.
You may be wondering why it took Microsoft so long to distribute for XP/2000/2003 users the fix that permits AutoRun to be properly disabled. One clue may be found in the file versions listed in KB article 967715. The Windows Server 2003 files are dated Feb. 10, 2009. Typically, Microsoft doesn't release a fix for one platform if it's still developing a fix for another platform. This is done to avoid putting one set of customers at risk while protecting others.
That's usually a valid reason to wait before distributing patches. But when you open up the files described in the earlier KB article 953252, you find that all the files in that hotfix date back to mid-2008.
Why did it take an admonition from CERT to convince Microsoft to add this vital fix to Automatic Updates for those versions of Windows? To make things even more confusing, the way Microsoft released the XP/2000/2003 fix at the end of February caused many people to think it was an out-of-cycle security patch.
If this patch had been pushed to all Windows users sooner, much of Conficker's pain might have been avoided.
Microsoft's Feb. 6 TechNet alert makes the problem clear. Among other things, the Conficker worm uses the AutoPlay feature (which is related to but separate from AutoRun) to infect PCs via USB drives and other portable storage devices. This vulnerability occurs even if the systems have installed the update described in Microsoft security bulletin MS08-067. Therefore, the TechNet article recommends disabling AutoRun, saying:

• "Disable the AutoPlay feature through the Registry or using Group Policies, as discussed in Microsoft Knowledge Base article 953252. Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 customers must deploy the update associated with Microsoft Knowledge Base article 953252 to be able to successfully disable the AutoRun feature. Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 customers must deploy the security update associated with Microsoft security bulletin MS08-038 to be able to successfully disable the AutoRun feature."

(What's the difference between AutoRun and AutoPlay? AutoPlay associates multimedia file types with specific applications, while AutoRun executes autorun.inf files found on various drives. For more on the distinctions between AutoRun and AutoPlay, see Microsoft's help article on the subject.)
For home users, I'm not yet ready to pull the fire alarm and tell everyone to disable AutoRun. But I do urge you to be very leery of plugging USB flash drives into your system if you're unsure whether they've been used on other computers. Large organizations, however, should consider disabling AutoRun on their networked PCs, considering how hard it's been to stomp out the Conficker worm and others.

How to apply the patches and control AutoRun

If you followed the instructions in Scott's 2007 article to block AutoRun by adding a Registry key, you should remove the key before applying the Microsoft AutoRun patch to prevent any possible interaction. Take the following steps for complete protection:

• Step 1. Remove the @SYS line from the Registry, if you added it. In Windows XP, click Start, Run. (In Vista, click Start.) Type regedit and press Enter. In the left pane, navigate to and select the following key:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ IniFileMapping \ Autorun.inf
  Press the Del key to remove the key. Close the Registry Editor.
• Step 2. Install the patch described in KB article 953252 (for Vista and Windows Server 2008) or 967715 (for XP, 2000, and Server 2003).
• Step 3. For security reasons, it's strongly recommended you disable AutoRun for all devices. In non-Home versions of XP and Vista, use the Group Policy Editor. In XP, click Start, Run. (In Vista, click Start.) Type gpedit.msc and press Enter. In the left pane, under Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates.
  In XP Professional, select System in the right pane under Administrative Templates, right-click Turn off Autoplay in the right pane, and choose Properties. Click Enabled, select All drives in the "Turn off Autoplay" box, click OK, and close the Group Policy Editor.
  In Vista Business and higher, expand Windows Components and select AutoPlay Policies. In the right pane, double-click Turn off Autoplay, click Enabled, choose All drives in the drop-down menu next to "Turn off Autoplay on," click OK, and close the Group Policy Editor.
  To disable AutoRun in the Home versions of XP and Vista — which don't have the Group Policy Editor — use the Registry Editor. In XP, click Start, Run. (In Vista, click Start.) Type regedit and press Enter. Navigate to and select the following key:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer
  In the right pane, double-click NoDriveTypeAutoRun, enter 0xFF in the "Value data" field, make sure Hexadecimal is selected under Base, click OK, and exit the Registry Editor.
• Step 4. If you ever need to re-enable AutoRun for a certain system, open the Group Policy Editor (on non-Home versions of Windows) or the Registry Editor (Home versions). Then follow the instructions in KB article 967715 (for XP, 2000, and Server 2003) or 953252 (for Vista and Windows Server 2008) to return AutoRun to its default state or customize its settings. AutoRun can be configured, for instance, to work differently for CD-ROMs than for other media.

Once you've disabled AutoRun, you'll have to use Windows Explorer to access data files on the USB memory devices and optical media you insert in your system. If you load a disc that contains audio or video, you may want to open your favorite media player to run the content. However, this is a small price to pay for the security edge you gain by disabling AutoRun.

by: Susan Bradley  (with thanks)

Windows XP to compete with Win 7 in netbook market

Microsoft will continue to offer Windows XP for netbooks even after it starts selling Windows 7 for the inexpensive subnotebooks, a company executive has revealed.

Neil Holloway, Microsoft International's vice president of business strategy, told ZDNet UK on Thursday that the company expected Windows 7 to be more popular than XP. However, Microsoft will ultimately decide which operating system it will offer for netbooks depending on customer preference, he said.

"Let's see what the market does," Holloway said at Microsoft's Growth and Innovation Day in Brussels. "As we introduce Windows 7 for netbooks, the availability of XP will be less and less. I think, on this one, the market will decide on Windows 7."

The unanticipated success of the netbook market over the past year-and-a-half has forced Microsoft to repeatedly postpone the retirement of Windows XP, mainly because its newer Vista operating system was too processor-hungry to run on the devices.

Holloway's comments suggest that Microsoft will delay the demise of XP even longer. That will effectively bring the ageing operating system into competition with the upcoming Windows 7 Starter Edition, which is aimed explicitly at netbooks and is expected to arrive around the end of 2009 or beginning of 2010.

Although Windows 7 is built on the same underlying architecture as Windows Vista, Microsoft has repeatedly stated that the upcoming operating system is more lightweight than Vista and therefore more suited to netbook use.

Last month, Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer said people who buy a netbook with the Starter Edition of Windows 7 will be offered the opportunity to trade up to a more fully featured version of that operating system. Holloway confirmed that this would happen.

"You could have a low-end [Windows 7] netbook or a high-end netbook," Holloway said. "The question is, do you have reduced Windows 7, or the next level up, with more functionality?"

Holloway compared it to the situation with Vista: people will be able to select the version of Windows 7 that suits them, in the same way they can choose the Home Basic edition of Vista rather than the Ultimate edition, depending on their computing need. He added, however, that the offer of a choice of versions of Windows 7 will depend on the outcome of Microsoft's licensing negotiations with netbook manufacturers. (story Link)

What's Going On?: A One-Stop Spot for Vital System Stats

Windows comes packaged with many tools to find details about the current state of your system. There's Task Manager for discovering the processes that are using your CPU, Resource Monitor for investigating your disk activity, and Explorer for showing the total usage of all your drives. Wouldn't it be useful to have these stats all together in one handy, attractive application?

What's Going On? is a system utility that gives you a one-stop spot for all your system's vital stats. In one window you can find out:

• Which processes are accessing your hard drive

• Which processes are consuming the most CPU resources

• How full your hard drives are

• The last time your computer was booted and how long it's been running

• The last time your computer was shut down

• Your external IP address

• Total CPU usage and CPU usage per processor

• The percentage or actual amount of physical or virtual memory used

• The state of your Internet connection by pinging a remote server

When you launch the program for the first time you'll see a window like this:

By default the following measures are displayed:

Uptime — how long your system has been running

Boot time — the date and time your system was last started

External IP — the IP address that other computers around the world see you as

CPU Usage — the percentage of CPU usage being used by all your CPUs

CPU Usage Per Processor — the percentage of CPU usage for each processor. For example, a dual-core processor would display two readings

Physical Memory % Usage — the percentage of physical memory currently being used

Virtual Memory % Usage — the percentage of virtual memory currently being used

Top CPU Consuming Processes — displays the two processes that are using the most CPU resources. This can be altered to display up to 10 processes

Drive Usage — shows all of your hard drives and how much space is being used on each one. The bar graph is color coded: Green means plenty of space, yellow means that a drive is filling up, and red means that it's close to capacity.

Top Disk Consuming Processes — displays the top two processes accessing the hard drives the most. This can be altered to display up to 10 processes. (full Story)