You may be able to run Windows 7 on your current PC. Here’s how to find out.

Download and run the Upgrade Advisor

In general, if your PC can run Windows Vista, it can run Windows 7. But if you’re not running Windows Vista, or are just not sure if your system is ready to run Windows 7, there’s a quick way to do a simple check.

Just download, install, and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta. You’ll get a report telling you if your PC can run Windows 7 and if there are any known compatibility issues. If an issue can be resolved, you’ll get suggestions for next steps. For example, it may let you know that you need an updated driver for your printer and where to get it

Before you begin

Before you begin

Before you run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta, be sure to plug in any USB devices or other devices such as printers, external hard drives, or scanners that are regularly used with the PC you’re evaluating.

Download Link

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=1b544e90-7659-4bd9-9e51-2497c146af15

With Windows 7 Microsoft introduces a system maintenance tool. You are curious what it is doing, right?

It checks for:
– Broken shortcuts
– Unused desktop icons
Update:
– Troubleshooting history / Error reports taking up disk space
– System Timecorrection
– Disk Volume errors
 

And also collects system information:

Random Info: I took both screens with the new Windows 7 snipping tool, which will increase your productivity a lot. What I don’t like about it is the red border and it saves the file extension in uppercase-letters if you do not type them in.

Anyway, I think Microsoft should deliver all the tools we know from TuneUpUtilites. I do not want to buy additional software to do all the tweaks that are hidden in the registry.

They should include:

– Optimize performance / disable certain graphic elements

– Registry cleaner

– Cookie / Temp cleaner

– Clear History / Favorites / etc

– Advanced Defrag

What else would you like in there  if you could change the system maintenance tool ?

Update:

This is the latest system maintenance tool:

The BitLocker feature was introduced in Windows Vista and allowed you to encrypt the content of your hard drive.  Now in Windows 7 they offer BitLocker To Go which allows you to encrypt portable USB flash drives.

First open up My Computer and Right-click on the flash drive you want to encrypt and select Turn on BitLocker.

After BitLocker initialized the flash drive you will need to enter in a password to unlock the drive.  You can also set up a Smartcard which are usually used in a work environment so talk to you IT staff.

Next you will be prompted to store the recovery key which is used in the event you lose your password or smartcard.  If you store it as a file make sure that it is not on the same drive that you’re encrypting.  

After the key has been saved as a file or printed you will see a confirmation message.

Finally you will be ready to start encrypting the drive so just click the Start Encrypting button.

While it is encrypting there will be a progress screen displayed.

A successful encryption of the USB flash drive. notice that the drive icon will change to show its encrypted with BitLocker.

Notice that the drive icon will change to show its encrypted with BitLocker where the gold lock indicates it is locked up and the gray lock is displayed after you have unlocked it.

Right-click on that icon to bring up options to manage BitLocker encryption.

The next time you plug in the drive to a Windows 7 machine you will be prompted to enter the password to gain access to the drive.  You can also always have it unlocked on specific machines in the future.

You can also use the encrypted drive in Vista and XP.  Here we will look at how it looks in XP, when you plug it in you will be prompted for the password to launch BitLocker To Go Reader (the utility is installed automatically on the drive by Windows 7).

BitLocker To Go Reader is a Windows Explorer type navigation utility for showing the content of the drive.

With a BitLocker encrypted drive you will only be able to read and copy files.  If you need to add files or change them you will need to use a Windows 7 machine.

This is a great way to easily make sure sensitive data on your USB flash drive is safe.  Right now anyone who has Windows 7 RC1 Ultimate can use this feature.

One of the interesting new features in Windows 7 is the way you can grab a window by the title bar and “shake” it back and forth to minimize everything else. It’s a fun feature, but just in case you want to disable it we’ve got the solution for you.

Disable Aero Shake Manual Registry Hack

Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then navigate down to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

Once you are there, right-click on the Windows key and create a new key called Explorer.

Now right-click on the right-hand side, create a new 32-bit DWORD with the following settings:

• Name: NoWindowMinimizingShortcuts
• Value: 1

Once you’ve created this, you should log off and back on for the change to take effect.

Downloadable Registry Hack

Simply download, extract, and double-click on DisableAeroShake.reg to enter the information into the registry. To re-enable use the other file.

Download DisableAeroShake registry hack

Yeh you cant see it once you click on battery icon on task bar.

click on battery icon  and select “more power options” 

click on Down arrow next  to category “Show Additional Plans” there you will get the “High Performance” power plan

Looks like there is a 70 menu items limit in windows 7 Rc1

move programs from

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
to a another subfolder&  keep less than 70 programs @ root level.