Posts Tagged ‘Windows 7’

I love the snipping tool. If you have never used it and you take screen shots often, you may find it extremely useful. Previously, I used MS Paint for all of my screen shot needs. Well, after using both for a recent article, I noticed an inconsistency between the two. Check it out:

MS Paint:

 

Snipping Tool:

Do you see the difference? The inconsistency lies in the suggested text case for the file type. The difference in .png and .PNG makes all the difference in the world if you’re saving an image for the web. Linking Windows8.png and Windows8.PNG are completely different from one another; even though the names are the same, even so much as one character having the incorrect case will break your hyperlink. Now, while it’s true I could just manually save my image by typing the file name and the extension into the save box, the fact that the defaults differ for these two programs seems like a minor oversight with consistency. In fact, if I worked at Microsoft, I would probably push for a certain level of consistency across all Windows applications where things like this are concerned.

I love both of these applications and I won’t use them any less with this in mind, but after having noticed it, I looked back at my images folder for my site and I see just how inconsistent my image names are – undoubtedly based on which one of these applications I saved them with and then going back to link to the image based on how it resides on my server. Sure, that’s an oversight on my behalf, but I had no idea my behaviors had developed into that. Now I’m aware of it and, thus, the reason for this post. Not a big deal or anything, but when I run into these little quirks, I feel compelled to see if anyone else out there even cares. My last observation like this had to do with WinSAT. I wonder if they will ever fix that…

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

I took the time to write up a little review of Windows 7 on Amazon.com a couple of days ago. I tried to make it approachable for users of all operating systems since I have nothing against anyone for what they choose to use (I honestly hate the OS wars, but I don’t mind getting down into the trenches if I have to, mwah ha ha). Anyway, here’s an excerpt from the beginning of my review:

Let me preface this review with my qualifications so that you may understand the extent I’ve gone to with operating systems to end up proudly claiming, “I’m a PC.”

 

I use Linux (RedHat) at work, I’ve tried Ubuntu and Lycoris long before it, I’ve tried Debian and Slackware and however many other flavors of *nix in the past just to say I tried them. I’ve messed with BeOS (Zeta development was an exciting time), I’ve played with Mac OS X on numerous occasions (beautiful OS), and I’ve tried countless obscure operating systems that I doubt even 1% of those reading this would know about (and trust me; there’s a reason for you not knowing about them, lol). Why have I messed with them all? Because I enjoy operating systems and I find them to be amazing achievements. There’s no denying that Mac OS X is a beautiful OS that performs quite well within the structured hardware environment Apple has created. Linux is hella useful on an enterprise level (though Windows Server is easily comparable these days) and even home flavors of Linux have become quite nice (Ubuntu)! The fact of the matter is that I’m partial to Windows through my experiences with having tried just about every flavor of every OS out there over the past 10 years or so. I used to collect beta versions of operating systems (not just Windows, but others as well), so I’ve not only tried the final products, but I’ve also gained appreciation for them by seeing them and playing with them through their development cycles. Where Windows is concerned, at one point or another, I’ve instally just about every build of every version currently out there (and trust me, there are TONS of builds – alpha and beta bits from every version of Windows, including obscure bits like Windows Neptune). I’ve ridden the roller coaster through the highs (Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, and now 7) and lows (Windows ME, Windows Vista’s initial release) and I couldn’t be happier that I’ve stuck it out.

 

Enter Windows 7.

Check it out and rate it however you feel it should be if you’re a member of Amazon! It’s nice to see that Windows 7 actually has so many positive reviews, I think. There was a 1-star, “review” (I say, “review” because too many people think that Amazon is simply a forum for them to get up on their soapbox) there that I guess the, “reviewer” decided to nix once I left a comment questioning the integrity of his opinion. He basically felt like Windows should be cheaper than it is for people like him who want to run Windows on a second partition just to, “use occasionally.” Somehow he felt that in all his marketing genius, that would help Windows’ market share… you know, if Microsoft brought down the price of their OS simply so people who wanted to use it, “occasionally” could do so. Since when did an OPERATING SYSTEM (sit there for a second and think about just what an operating system is and does) become something to be purchased and used occasionally!? There is software out there that provides very specific functionality (albeit, very well) that costs WAAAAY more than the operating systems that run them! Windows 7, too expensive? Hardly. But I digress…

Link: Windows 7 Review on Amazon

UPDATE: 7 of 7 people approve my review of Windows 7! (Dorky, I know… lol)

-Stephen
Microsoft Kitchen

Man, Windows 7 really is the talk of the town today. With it being the official launch of Windows 7, there are all kinds of deals and promotions going on. I’ve seen deals on Windows 7 on Newegg, Buy.com, many of the sites that list deals all in one place, people giving away copies of Windows 7 for helping promote it and all kinds of other stuff. This, though, is one of the, “other stuff” that was too good not to post:

Is there anyone out there who can actually get one of these and take pictures? This is absolutely hysterical!

Source: Windows 7 Whopper

UPDATE: Thanks to Leith Blade in the comments below for posting this video, where you can see this burger in action:

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

First in Italian, then in English and now in Korean! Adding to my shiny collection of Windows Server roadmaps with Windows 8 appearing on them, I stumbled across a Microsoft presentation in Korean that shows exactly the same data as seen on this roadmap and this roadmap. It’s a hideous port of a Powerpoint presentation to PDF on the behalf of the site I found it on, but, hey… it is what it is. Check it out:

There’s not much more to say that I haven’t already said in the previous two roadmap posts I linked to above other than to reiterate that this timeline appears to be pretty solidified, company-wide. And yes, I’m champing at the bit for Windows 8 anything and that will never be more evident than with my next Windows 8 post coming up. =)

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

Windows 7: Done. On to the next.

I’m interested in seeing what all of you want to see happen in Windows 8. Myself? There are only 2 things I would personally like to see changed (and before Windows 8, preferably):

Folder Views: I can’t vent my frustration enough about Windows automatically selecting views for me, even when I tell it that I want to view ALL of my folders a certain way. ARGH, SO FRUSTRATING!

Desktop Click + Shift + Click Select: Why on this green earth would Microsoft let you click and drag to select items on your desktop, control + click to select any number of items randomly, but automatically select whole rows of items for you if you click on an item, hold shift, then click on another item even 1 item up in the same column? Truly baffling.

About a month ago, I posted my opinion of Windows 7 up to this point and those were my only two gripes. Feel free to check out the comments of others to see if you experience their issues as well. Anyway, nothing major here. I know Windows 7 still hasn’t officially been released, but I just thought I’d throw something out there to see if any of you guys and gals who are already well-seasoned Windows 7 users had some thoughts for what you would like to see happen in Windows 8!

[rant] Oh, and to the anti-Windows Mac/Linux users. Let me go ahead and get your irrelavant prattle out of the way so that you don’t waste your time or ours: Windows needs to do what Linux can already do graphically, it needs to be impenetrable and it needs to be free. Also, Windows needs to make its users feel like they matter in life and are cooler than everyone else and Microsoft needs to stop being the big, bad bulley in the marketplace. Yadda, yadda, yadda. I think that about sums it up for the folks who – even if Microsoft catered to their laundry list of issues – wouldn’t use Windows even if hell froze over. So why do they even complain in the first place? It makes you wonder… [/rant]

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

I tweeted… twittered… twitted… whatever the heck you call it; anyway, I basically posted on Twitter the other day my loathing of the stupid, “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” commercials. That day (about 3 or 4 days ago, actually) I saw TWO of those commercials that I had never seen before and I couldn’t help but shake my head and think to myself one thing:

Just how the hell would Apple market their OS if it weren’t for Windows!?

Yeah, now THERE’S a novel concept! I mean, just how big of a niche is Apple appealing to with the whole, “ohhh, every PC has bad viruses and they’re going to eat all your datas?” It can’t possibly be THAT many! Oops… maybe I’ve just stumbled onto something there.

It seems that for all of their, “Mac users are, “up here” and everyone else is just, “down there”,” they don’t really give a good reason to use their product. Not once does one (or do I, at least) get the impression from those commercials to get a Mac other than for the purpose of, “not getting millions of viruses.” You know, if I’m going to buy something, I don’t want FUD marketing techniques to sell it to me. Granted, if someone wanted to, they could go pull up Apple’s website to see what a Mac is really supposed to be about but doesn’t that defeat the purpose? How is someone going to look it up if they don’t have a computer to begin with? Oh, that’s right… chances are, everyone already has a computer with Windows on it. Once again, just where would Steve Jobs’ OS be without good ol’ Bill G’s already dominating the market?

Okay, so let’s say I don’t have a computer at home, so all I have to go by are Apple’s commercials. Okay, I want to go check out a Mac. Is there an Apple store close by? Let’s have a look in the phone book to call and see. Oh, well looky there! There’s only ONE in my state and it’s 3 frickin’ hours away! That’s alright, let me see if any other retailers near by sell Macs. (Once again, back to the phone book) Okay, there are. Let’s go to the store and check them out!

*Microsoft’s commercials kick in here* and I do indeed find something more powerful and just as good-looking and usable in a PC… and for considerably less, to boot! It’s really simple in my head: You walk into a store where you can compare the two and a PC sells itself! If it works great in the store, it’s going to work great at home unless you’re like Rafael Rivera and visit naughty sites all the time (he’s exemplary of what, “InPrivate” mode was built into IE8 for, har har!).

Anyway, maybe Apple’s OS is great and beats the pants off of Windows… but I’m not going to go and actively seek it out when I have absolutely no reason to due to the problems I DO NOT have with, “millions of viruses” and the gazillion random crashes I DO NOT have! No, Apple’s going to have to sell their product to me directly… or at least give me SOME reason to look into it! Until then, I’m pretty sure that most users like me will remain quite content with their status of being a PC. Yes, all of us low-life PC users will sit down here and look up the nostrils of the snooty Mac users (not all of them, because I know some good people who use a Mac because they like it and not just to be cool) and laugh at them because we can’t figure out just why the heck they think they’re all so cool.

Oh, and I’m not ditching Apple’s OS by any means. I’m a huge fan of people using what they like and what works for them, but as a content Windows user, it baffles me that I’ve been watching these stupid Apple commercials attempt to beat the same message over and over and over and over into peoples’ heads for, what… 2 years now? Something like that? *Pssst!* Hey, Apple! Try appealing to those willing to give your product a try, should they find it to be discernible enough from what they currently use to do as such! Oh, what’s that? There’s really nothing that’s that much greater about your OS? Shame. I guess one of these days, I’ll get even so much as ONE of those, “millions of viruses” that plague Windows and I’ll go running to adopt your invincible OS!

And just to drive the point home, Apple did a FINE job selling their iPod Touch to me via their commercials. I couldn’t keep watching that Crash Bandikoot racing game much longer without having it for myself… along with all the MP3′s I frequently listen to and all the other awesome apps! So, Apple knows how to do it… they just can’t if the product doesn’t sell itself via its own means. To me, this is even more proof that Apple’s OS just couldn’t stand on its own two feet if it weren’t relying on bashing Windows at every turn.

But who am I kidding? I’m just preaching to the choir here. Oh well. Thanks for reading my rant anyway (if you made it this far). =)

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

It’s no secret that I love Windows 7. As I’ve been thinking about exactly why I love it so much more than Windows Vista, I’ve come to the conclusion that Windows Vista needed to happen for Windows 7 to be what it is and what it will be: The perfect step up from Windows XP.

I’ve been able to sell Windows 7 to many of my friends and followers by painting it in a light which seems befitting enough to grab their attention and pique their interests: Windows 7 is the encompassment of the performance of Windows XP combined with the aesthetics of Windows Vista. After all, at this point, Windows Vista has – for the most part – ended up being a solid OS. Not that it wasn’t before, but it’s in this where I find that Windows Vista just had to happen.

Between the version checking issues, the driver issues, the new user experience (not just the user interface, but how one goes about using the OS) learning curve, the continuation of ironing out the kinks of migrating to 64-bit client, UAC, and the overall headaches and hatred for Vista that ensued – yes, the OS to follow XP was destined for damnation. It makes me think that even IF Microsoft had completed Windows Longhorn as it was pre-reset, many of the issues that plagued Vista would have plagued Longhorn just the same. After all, most of what Microsoft was aiming to achieve in Longhorn did find its way into Vista in some form or fashion (those of us on the forefront of hacking those builds to death know just about more than anyone else all the things that didn’t, though), so even IF the Longhorn vision had been carried through to completion, it would have more than likely met the same fate as that which it gave birth to in Windows Vista.

Even being a Microsoft enthusiast, it still took me until early this year to switch to Vista because I just didn’t like the new user experience. I didn’t feel like it flowed, many of the little ways I used XP that I, personally, found the most productive had been removed, and I honestly read more into the anti-Vista hype than I should have. Once I finally received a copy to review for another website, I took the leap and was pleasantly surprised! Sure, there were some small issues I needed to figure out and get past, but those didn’t last long. Regardless, I entered the Vista game at a point well-past the majority of the issues Windows haters and Windows enthusiasts alike were experiencing with drivers, etc., so my shift to Windows 7 wasn’t too bad where usability was concerned.

I don’t know about you, but there’s been a driver for damn-near everything I’ve thrown at Windows 7 so far and whatever I *have* had to install driver-wise, it has either just worked or using compatibility mode just works. It just works. That’s one thing I did have an issue with in Vista – compatibility mode. Oh, and UAC? Brilliant now. It never gets in the way (most importantly, when I’ve told it not to… and it didn’t take an act of congress to make it happen). Although there are some minor gripes that I do have with Windows 7, I think it’s exactly what *should* have followed XP, but would have never been due to the lessons that still would have needed to be learned.

Now, this isn’t to say that Windows Vista was just an all-out horrible OS, because it wasn’t! There was plenty of innovation that went under the hood into Windows Vista and it all went into Windows 7. Of course, Windows 7 got the best of it and improved upon it, but there is PLENTY of Windows Vista in Windows 7… and that’s a good thing. Leave it to Apple, though, and they’ll tell you that Windows 7, “is just another Windows Vista” simply because it utilizes much of the same code… annnnd because Apple apparently doesn’t have enough going for its OS to market it properly, so instead, they take cheap shots at Windows to sell their product (hehe).

Taking all of the aforementioned into consideration, I posit that Windows Vista HAD to happen to ensure what will be the success of Windows 7 and everything that actually makes Vista a good OS. Yes, I’m going to step out on that limb and be so brave as to call Windows 7 a success a little over a month prior to its official launch date. For all of the businesses who decided they would wait until Windows 7 to upgrade from XP, well… Windows 7 is here and it’s exactly what you wanted Vista to be (and so much more). While XP users will still have a bit of a learning curve with Windows 7′s usability, it’s filled with the performance from XP and the looks of Vista to make it an enjoyable experience; not an arduous one.

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

I was super-excited today when I got home to see my fresh new GPU awaiting me in front of my door (check out the size of this freakin’ thing). Before you could say, “why the heck hasn’t Microsoft hired Rafael Rivera yet,” I slapped that puppy in my mobo, fired it up, installed the drivers and went to run WinSAT to acquire my new WEI rating (5.9 because of my hard drives… booo, everything else is at least 7.2).

If you’re never run WinSAT via command line, there are a number of ways you can run the tool. The way I chose to run it was: winsat formal -restart clean

Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember the command, so I pulled up WinSAT’s help information by running: winsat /?

When I did that, I was presented with what I consider to be a massive failure:

It looks like someone copied the text out of Wordpad or something and compiling the application incorrectly formatted the open/close quotes that should be around, “forgethistory”. Also, doing a Google search (and a Bing one, for posture), there were no results for, “winsat winast” (I didn’t have those in quotes when I searched), so I’m not sure Microsoft is aware of this yet. Because of that, it’s obvious that *nobody* leverages WinSAT via command line but me… soooo, I guess that makes me the ultimate nerd, huh? lol. That, and I suppose this post makes me a, “grammar nazi” to boot, huh? Oh well.

Hey, I don’t have Vista installed on any of my machines any longer, so do any of you want to check and see if this issue is present in it as well? In a command line window, just run: winsat /?

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

First, for those of you who have no idea what the heck, “OM NOM NOM” means, here you go:

Om nom nom: The sound made when someone eats ravenously; made famous by Cookie Monster from Sesame Street. See exhibit A.

Exhibit A.

Now that you know, here’s how to make Windows 7 taste OM NOM NOM (click the pic for a full-res version):

Talk about a… FROSTED look for AERO’s glass border, huh!? *cough, cough* Oh, and I believe the text is in Russian (which I can’t read), so if you’re a Russian viewer of my blog, feel free to translate for us!

Now, if you’re baffled as to how the heck a cake was made with such a pristine-looking image, there’s a way to take a picture and transpose it to edible art, essentially. Cake makers use such methods to produce results like what you see here. Anyway, this sure has been a pointless post… but at least you know how an image like that can be put on a cake now (if you didn’t already)! For a more meaningful post, make sure to catch my Bing cashback article. If you shop online and enjoy saving money at every corner, it’s not an article to be missed!

Oh, and see? You thought exhibit A had nothing to do with this post beyond, “om nom nom.” Everyone loves cake! Especially a Windows 7 cake.

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

In celebration of the completion of Windows 7 (and with the anticipation of Microsoft making Windows 8 a 64-bit-only release), I decided it was time for me to upgrade my desktop from the (now) low-end 32-bit system I currently have to a 64-bit powerhouse… and all for under $1000. I set out to build something that would last for quite a while to come. Likewise, I needed it to be a powerhouse not just for the sake of it being a powerhouse, but for good reason: I have some pretty processor- and memory-intensive hobbies. While I’ve always been satisfied to run my favorite games on their low settings, I decided to shoot for the stars and build something that would run Crysis on high (maybe even the unlockable, “very high”). Likewise, I do a lot of audio recording and mixing. With lots of plug-ins loaded in my DAW, just my drum kit plug-in alone is a RAM hog (loading samples into RAM is how it accesses them so quickly).

So, before setting out to do this, I needed to justify it. I don’t like spending exorbitant amounts of money without first justifying it. And contrary to how this post might make it seem, I’m not Mr. Moneybags, I assure you. Stephen’s fun money has been spent for the next month. lol. Anyway, with that out of the way, I decided to hit up newegg. After spending a number of days doing price-comparisons and figuring up just how much I wanted this puppy to be capable of, I’ve ended up with a system consisting of the following (click the items to see them on newegg):

Case: Cooler Master RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ABS ATX Mid Tower
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX AMD
CPU: x64 AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D (I bought two to = 8GB)
GPU: EVGA 512-P3-N973-TR GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported (I bought 2 to configure SLI)
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Green WD6400AACS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s (I bought two to = 1.2TB space, no RAID configuration)
Power Supply: APEVIA ATX-AQ700W-BK 700W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready
HDD SATA Cables: OKGEAR 18″ SATA II Cable Model GC18ATASM12 (Needed since the HDD’s are OEM; typically means they don’t come with cables)

The grand total for all of the above is: $883.87

Excellent! I came in well-under budget and I’m fairly confident I’ve set out to accomplish what I wanted to accomplish in terms of power and longevity. That price includes a coupon (EMCLWMW32) that took an additional $20 off the 2 hard drives and the power supply was half-price due to it being one of neweggs, “Shell Shocker” deals today. Bear in mind, I already have a 24″ monitor and I will be reusing my Lightscribe DVD-RW drive, as well as my 5.1 surround sound speaker setup and my X-Fi audio card. Without having those already, the price would have been substantially more, but if you’re looking to accomplish the same thing I set out to, go fill your cart with the aforementioned 8 items, change your quantities, apply the coupon (if it’s not outdated by the time you read this post), and you should be good to go!

And for the sake of mentioning it, though I think I’ll rarely utilize the quad-core capabilities of this processor, I figure it will bode well for down the road and definitely for the rare times it’s needed. Likewise, 64-bit is the future no matter which way you slice it, so if Microsoft does decide to make Windows 8 an x64-only release, I should be golden. Hopefully, all I’ll have to upgrade for a while are my graphics cards… and hopefully, not for a while to come (I’ll be satisfied if I can run Crysis 2 on at least medium settings, lol).

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com