PCs running Windows 7 trial set to turn cranky

Microsoft has finally planned to stop all the systems which are running trial version of Windows 7. Microsoft on March 1st released that the users will lose control over their computers. At every 2 hours the PCs will start shutting down even if you haven’t saved your work. And on June 1st the screens will go black. This is the first time Microsoft is going to take tough measure to stop piracy of their main product Windows 7. According to a report there are more than 1 million pirated and trail copies of windows 7 running all over the world.

All the released candidates were trial versions by Microsoft. There are some proprietary software vendors who supply beta or trial versions for a limited period which gets shut down after that. Microsoft Office software version even locks the users’ files after few trials so all the data created during the trial period will become unstable. But then risk of losing control over your PC is main risk. Open source and non profit IT bodies have started lobbying for open source software is harder for government systems. They have fear in mind that during any crisis large corporations will be able to control private networks. Legally the users said the right to control their PCs will have to be looked into the terms and conditions before getting it installed. This loss of control is cited as an unhealthy trade practice for government systems. TimerNuke which is a new software package, counts the remaining beta test period of Windows 7.

Even if Microsoft has released this news, crackers are wasting no time to generate fake serial numbers for Windows 7. In the race of good and evil, let’s see who wins?

100 days of windows 7

Microsoft latest operating system has completed 100 days and it is the good time to review the product. Windows 7 started its inning with a great boom. Microsoft reported that windows 7 sales are almost 5 times the sales of windows vista. Microsoft was very excited about this product and windows 7 resulted into a great product.

There have been over million installations of windows 7, but no major issue has been reported. The very few issues which came were due to old hardware and were not due to windows 7. Windows 7 is facing some issues when it comes to peripheral devices like scanners with SCSI ports. However, we cannot blame Microsoft completely for this as device makers sometimes make a bad design. The devices inside the CPU are working fine with windows 7.

Regarding security, Microsoft has learned a lot from their previous failure from windows vista. They have tried their best to make windows 7 a secure operating system. There are no major vulnerabilities found in the operating system and even hackers are finding loop holes in third party applications. Windows 7 is secure and safe operating system and free from vulnerabilities. Microsoft has also ensured data security with BitLocker encryption. However, it is available only in windows 7 ultimate and enterprise, which means you need to pay extra bucks for data security .

There is always scope for improvement and same is the case with windows 7. Microsoft still needs to do a lot of work regarding to account authentication. Microsoft is still using their one admin authentication which sometimes unnecessarily gives high level permissions to vulnerable applications. Let’s wait what Microsoft has for us in their service pack release. I hope they will clear the limitations and make Windows 7 their best ever operating system.

Windows 7 security

Windows 7 is wonderful operating system with lot of features. It offers wide scale multitasking with ease of security. Microsoft has worked a lot on security of windows 7 and it has lot of security features. Below are some of them:

• User account control (UAC) is one of the notable features of the Windows 7. By default the low risk administrative actions are less frequently prompted. But admins can modify the prompt sensitivity with the help of a slide bar.
• In Windows 7 the BitLocker Drive Encryption technology ensures that the documents, passwords, and other data are safe. When you turn on your BitLocker all the files saved on that drive is automatically encrypted.
• Application Compatibility Toolkit is provided by the Microsoft so that it’s easier to troubleshoot and resolve compatible issues. You have to enter in XP mode to avail free downloadable and licensed virtual copy of Windows XP service pack 3. When you install applications in XP mode they seem to be like stand alone apps in Windows 7. After that you can place them as regular desktop icons on the host desktop. It’s not much noticeable that the apps are running in virtual mode. You can run internet explorer 6 alongside internet explorer 8 on the same desktop. Before installing XP mode you must download and install Windows Virtual PC which is the new Windows 7 virtualization product.
• In windows 7 the AppLocker allows the users to define the application execution rules and exception based upon the file attributes such as path, publishers, product name, file name etc. using active directory user can assign policies to computers, users, security groups etc. you cant open or run files that are not allowed specifically.
• The action center in the control panel makes sure that your firewall is on, the antivirus software is up to date or not, and if your computer is set to install updates automatically.

Windows 7 hack – GodMode

Windows 7 comes up with lot of features and utilities. This Windows hack better known as GodMode is a built in feature in Windows 7 that allow you to access all Windows utilities in one spot. This built in feature hasn’t been yet advertised. To access this feature you just need to create a new folder and name it as
GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

This will help open it up and you get access to the display options, backup or recovery, power management and many more options. This is very helpful for those users who forget where to access the defragmenter or the device manager. And if you are lucky you will find any other useful utility you never knew existed.

It’s been quite a few years that Microsoft has tinkered with its Control Panel. Other hacks for windows 7 are easy and well know. If you want to get Windows vista style taskbar in your Windows 7 you just have to right click on the taskbar and select properties dialog. Then select the small icons checkboxes. When taskbar is full select combine which will give you same functionality as vista.
You can easily unlock the hidden themes of the Windows 7 themes. Open the Explorer and go to C: \Windows\winsxs and then press *. Theme into the search field or else use * on the number block. This will lead you to click me prompt. You can double click on the themes to install them.

To enable the quick launch bar in Windows 7 right click on the task bar and then select toolbars and go to new toolbar from menu. Then copy paste the following address in the address bar.
%SystemDrive%Users%username%AppDataRoamingMicrosoftInternet Explorer

Then click to navigate to the folder and then you can see the Quick Launch folder so select it to enable.

Dropbox

Dropbox is the most useful web application for the PC user with multiple PC’s or Mac’s as it allows for easy access to shared files. Dropbox also provides a very  powerful solution (“computing in the cloud) for the traveler who relies upon files transmitting to customers or coworkers on the fly. The user will see a green checkbox on each file that has been updated and in the process of syncing; two arrows on a blue background indicate the work being done. Any file that you drop into your Dropbox folder automatically uploads to the remote Dropbox servers and you can access it from your account using a web browser. Dropbox will also keep  the previous version of an updated file if needed.

Simply register a free account, download Dropbox to each computer and choose where you would like it to reside (Desktop, Documents, etc) and you’re good to go.

The service is  free for the first 2 GBytes of memory and you can increase this by inviting people to join Dropbox with 50GB and 100GB options available for a monthly fee. Dropbox uses Amazon’s S3 storage system to store the files and SoftLayer Technologies for its backend infrastructure.