Sunday, January 24, 2010

How Important Is A Wireless Network?

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Linksys by Cisco WUSB600N Dual-Band Wireless-N USB Network AdapterHaving a wireless network opens up many possibilities.


Wireless networks provide an inexpensive and easy way to share a single Internet connection among several computers. This means you only need one modem, and you can add additional computers to the network just by plugging in a wireless card and turning them on. The new machines are connected to the Internet immediately.

Some Good Reasons For Having A Wireless Connection

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802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide, Second EditionHaving a wireless network opens up many possibilities,
they provide an inexpensive and easy way to share a single Internet connection among several computers. This means you only need one modem, and you can add additional computers to the network just by plugging in a wireless card and turning them on. The new machines are connected to the Internet immediately.

A wireless network also lets you access files and printers from anywhere in your home. It allows you to synchronize files you have on your laptop with your home computer, and you can easily send files between computers as well. Using a wireless network to transfer files is faster than sending them via e-mail or burning them to a CD! Because printers connected to one of the computers on a network are shared by all the computers on that network, you can write documents anywhere in your home, press the print button, and collect the printed files from a printer that is connected to another computer.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Work Faster with New Hotkey Keyboard Shortcuts in Windows 7

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Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium UpgradeWindows 7 includes some handy new shortcut key combinations that allow you to navigate and manage the Windows workspace more efficiently. Here are 10 new Windows 7 shortcuts that will help you speed up your workflow (“Win” means the Windows Key):
Win+Home: Clear all but the active window
Win+Space: All windows become transparent so you can see through to the desktop
Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window
Win+Down arrow: Minimize the active window or restore the window if it's maximized
Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the active window to each side of the monitor
Win+Shift+Left/Right arrows: If you've got dual monitors, this will move the active window to the adjacent monitor
Win+T: Shift focus to and scroll through items on the taskbar
Win+P: Adjust presentation settings for your display
Win+(+/-): Zoom in/out
Shift+Click a taskbar item: Open a new instance of that particular application

Burn a Disc Image from an ISO or IMG file in Windows 7

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Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium UpgradeWindows 7 introduces a built-in ability to burn discs directly from ISO and IMG files (this used to require a third-party tool). To burn a disc using an ISO or IMG file, simply do the following:

•Place a blank unformatted CD or DVD into your CD/DVD drive.
•Right click on the ISO or IMG file you want to use to burn a disc.
•Click Burn disc image.
•Next to Disc burner, click on the drop down arrow and select the CD/DVD drive with the blank disc you want to burn to.
•Check the Verify disc after burning option if you want Windows to verify the disc image after burning the disc. Leave this option unchecked if you want to skip the verification. Note that you should skip verification if you are in a hurry, as this process requires additional time.
•When it finishes burning the disc image to disc, click the Close button.
The DVD (or CD) is now ready to be used without your ever having to find, install, and use a third-party tool.

Pin Files, Folders, and Favorites to the Taskbar in Windows 7

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Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium UpgradeIf you often open particular files, Web pages, or folder locations, you can give yourself easier access to these commonly used resources by “pinning” them to the Taskbar.

Applications can be pinned to the Taskbar, similar to how you could place your favorite applications on the Quick Launch toolbar.

With Windows 7 beta 1, when you drag a file onto the Taskbar, you are given the option to pin the file to its associated application. So if you drag a Word document onto the Taskbar, you get the option to “Pin to Word”.

Shake Windows off Your Desktop

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Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade
This is a simple, but cool new feature. If you have too much clutter on your desktop and want to minimize everything but the application you’re working in, you can “shake” all the other Windows off your desktop. Shake simply minimizes all the windows leaving only the top window available.
To clear the desktop:
1. Left click and hold on the Title Bar of the window you only want to show on the desktop.
2. Shake the window a bit by quickly dragging it left and right.
3. When the desktop clears, drop.

To restore the desktop:

1. Left click and hold on the Title Bar of the same window.
2. Shake the window a bit by quickly dragging it left and right.
3. When the minimized windows return to the desktop, drop (release the left click) the window.

10 Reasons to Love Windows 7

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Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium UpgradeUnless you've been stuck on a desert island for the last six months, you know that the big buzz is the impending release of Windows 7 and its partner, Windows Server 2008 R2.

Now, I'm a guy who hates change in the desktop. I always turn on the classic view and still run Windows XP on my laptop. I don't like having to re-learn where things are and how to do common tasks.

But with Windows 7, it was love at first byte. I've been running Windows 7 since March, and I can't wait for the official release next month. Of course, there are a few drawbacks to the new operating system, and I even have my doubts about some its most touted features. So, here are my top 10 reasons why you should move to Windows 7 -- and a few notes of caution.

Shrink and Simplify OS Images with Dynamic Driver Provisioning

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Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate UpgradeWith Dynamic Driver Provisioning in Windows 7, IT professionals can reduce the size of their images and reduce the number of images they maintain. And IT pros don’t need to update images when they introduce new hardware into their environment. By storing drivers centrally on deployment servers, separate from images, IT professional can install drivers dynamically or assign sets of drivers based on information contained in the BIOS.

If they choose to install drivers dynamically, Windows 7 enumerates Plug and Play devices during installation. Then, it chooses drivers based on the Plug and Play IDs of the actual devices on the PC.

Reducing the number of drivers on individual PCs reduces the number of potential driver conflicts. This ultimately streamlines installation and setup times, as well as improves the reliability of the PC.
For more of Dynamic Driver Provisioning, check out the Deployment Image Servicing and Management screencast available on the Free Computer Guide site.

Easier Troubleshooting Support with Problem Step Recorder

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Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium UpgradeTroubleshooting errors for a remote user can be very difficult since you can’t actually see what’s happening on the remote system. Often it comes down to a user saying he didn’t click a button, open a program, close a program, or so on. The new Problem Steps Recorder (PSR.exe) allows you to see exactly what’s going on, documenting every action that takes place on the system experiencing problems.

The Problem Steps Recorder tool is a simple screen capture utility that grabs screenshots whenever a mouse move or click is made and documents all the data into a zipped MHTML report page that can be sent off directly to the help desk. Every step of the user’s actions is logged complete with a screenshot with the item highlighted, and it even allows the user to provide commentary on specific details.

To launch the Problem Steps Recorder, just go to START and type PSR.exe and your off and running

New User State Migration Toolkit (USMT) Features for Windows 7

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Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade
Hard-Link Migration Store: The new hard-link migration store is for use in computer-refresh scenarios only. Hard-link migration stores are stored locally on the computer that is being refreshed and can migrate user accounts, files, and settings in less time using megabytes of disk space instead of gigabytes.

Running ScanState on Offline Windows Images:

You can run the ScanState command in Microsoft Windows PE. In addition, USMT now supports migration from previous installations of Windows contained in Windows.old directories. The offline directory can be a Windows directory when you run the ScanState command in Windows PE or Windows.old when you run the ScanState command in Windows .

Prepare and Service Windows Images Using the New DISM Tool

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Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium UpgradeDeployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM.exe) is a new command line tool that you can use to service a Windows image or prepare a Windows PE image. The DISM tool replaces the Package Manager (pkgmgr.exe), PEimg, and Intlcfg tools used with Windows Vista. DISM consolidates the functionality found in those three tools, as well as delivers new functionality to improve the experience of offline servicing.

Tips RSS Feed

Subscribe to the TechNet Magazine Tips RSS feed. DISM can be used to service Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows Server 2008. When used with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, you get the added functionality.

Encrypt Removable USB Drives with BitLocker To Go on Windows 7

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Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium UpgradeWindows 7 BitLocker has been enhanced to provide a better experience for end users. Without having to navigate the Control Panel or configure any difficult settings, users can easily protect USB removable storage devices.
The option is available by simply right-clicking on a drive in Windows Explorer to enable BitLocker protection.

With BitLocker To Go, you can encrypt removable storage devices, such USB flash drives. All you need to do is right-click on the drive you want to protect, select the “Turn on BitLocker” menu option, and follow the basic wizard.

Use Windows 7 to Manage Windows Server 2008 R2 Servers

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You can easily manage your Windows 2008 R2 servers from a PC running Windows 7 beta 1. But first you’ll need to download the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) for Windows 7, which you can get here.

Tips RSS Feed

Subscribe to the Free Computer Guide RSS feed. Here’s an overview of the tools you’ll get in this download:

Server Administration Tools
•Server Manager

Role Administration Tools
•Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) Tools
•Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) Tools
•Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS) Tools
•DHCP Server Tools
•DNS Server Tools
•File Services Tools
•Hyper-V Tools
•Terminal Services Tools

Feature Administration Tools
•BitLocker Password Recovery Viewer
•Failover Clustering Tools
•Group Policy Management Tools
•Network Load Balancing Tools
•SMTP Server Tools
•Storage Explorer Tools
•Storage Manager for SANs Tools
•Windows System Resource Manager Tools

Turn Off Security Messages and Other System Notifications in Windows 7

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Microsoft Windows 7 Professional UpgradeWindows Vista is constantly giving me security alerts that I don’t want to see. For instance, I intentionally have Automatic Updates and the Windows Firewall disabled on one of my systems, and every day Windows Vista finds it necessary to bring this to my attention. Fortunately, Windows 7 gives you more control over the Security Messages and other Notifications that you may or may not want to receive.

For starters, you can configure how notifications are handled on the Taskbar—choosing to hide certain types of notifications, such as Action Center messages, Network messages, Windows Update Automatic Updates messages, and so on.

Install Windows 7 Alongside Windows Vista for a Dual Boot System

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Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium UpgradeIt’s always a bit tricky to beta test a new operating system. Most of us don’t have an abundance of extra hardware just sitting around, and it can be both time consuming and risky to rebuild your production machine with a pre-release version of the next OS.

But with Windows 7, it’s pretty easy to beta test on the machine you’ve already got. Hard drives have gotten much larger and much less expensive, and if you’re running Windows Vista, you already have built-in functionality to help you create a separate partition for testing.
 

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