Tag: WINDOWS7

Now that Windows 8 images have begun leaking out, it's only a matter of time until developers start releasing mods for Windows 7 which mimic upcoming features. Over at Into Windows, they've spotted one such mod already. In the earliest Windows 8 images, we saw Windows Live integration on the taskbar. In the far right corner, there's a user tile displayed. If you'd like to do the same on ...

If you used Windows XP for a long time (who didn't?), one of the biggest changes when moving to Windows 7 or Vista was the massively-altered Explorer. While the new Explorer introduces some useful new features, it also removed just as many -- which is where Classic Shell comes in! We've covered Classic Shell before, but here's the crib note: Classic Shell restores almost every Windows ...

We've been looking at some pretty cool Kinect and Windows interactions for a while now, but we were hoping that the release of an official SDK would lead to even more coolness. Evoluce has stepped up, and is now offering Win&I -- a full-featured gesture control system for Windows 7. The company claims that a range of up to four meters is supported, which should be perfect for just ...

Microsoft has shared some news about the state of its most and least loved Web browsers -- Internet Explorer 9 and 6, respectively. Even with IE9 only recently exiting beta, Microsoft reports that 3.6% of Windows 7 users are now running the new browser (no mention of Vista... what's with that?). The post also reveals that the adoption rate is almost five times what IE8 garnered in the early ...

Microsoft has announced that people who use both Hotmail and Internet Explorer 9 are now able to see a desktop notification of how many messages have arrived since they last checked their Inbox. Unlike Chrome's desktop notifications, these won't be pop-up bubbles. In fact, the pinned Hotmail icon will simply change to display a number next to it -- that shows how many messages have arrived ...

Nir Sofer (of NirSoft) makes loads of useful little Windows utilities. One of our favorites, Volumouse, has a new beta available and it offers some nice improvements over its predecessor. To start, Volumouse beta 2 adds support for Windows Vista and Windows 7 per-application volume settings. There's also a new "send hotkeys" feature which lets you use the mouse wheel to fire off custom ...

Dubbed his "hackiest hack ever," the same Mozilla developer who brought us the the 20-line Firefox start-up speed hack has now released an add-on that works even better! Start Faster, which requires Firefox 4 and only works on Windows Vista and 7 at the moment, installs a service that speeds up the loading of Firefox's gorillaesque DLL libaries. The service runs with Administrator privileges, ...

If you've ever wanted to see, in 10 short minutes, the evolution of simple, glorious MS-DOS Shell and Windows 1, to the lofty, shiny, 3D peaks of Windows 7, with every version (except Windows Me) in between, now's your chance. With the title 'Chain of Fools,' the video (embedded after the break) chronicles one man's attempt to upgrade Windows from one version to the next, from Windows 1 to ...

Windows Embedded Compact 7 has hit RTM and is now available for download. Win EC7 is Microsoft's version of Windows that's aimed at the embedded market, but the multi-touch OS has been heralded by some as Microsoft's other tablet platform. The Win EC7 'Evaluation Edition' 180-day trial is available here, and comes packing 'everything you need to build a broad range of small footprint devices.' ...

Ubuntu's new Unity interface already drew some raised eyebrows because of its looks, which are arguably similar to the Windows 7 taskbar. Now, the Ask Ubuntu site has posted a list of Unity keyboard shortcuts -- and those take a cue from Windows 7 as well. The super key, which typically refers to the Windows key on most standard keyboards, invokes the Unity Launcher -- on Windows, this ...

Yesterday, Apple released the developer preview of Mac OS X Lion, the first major update to OS X since August 2009. Two major things have uprooted the computing world since then: the launch of Windows 7 in October 2009, and the iPad in 2010. It's no surprise, then, that OS X Lion looks like the lovechild of Windows 7 and iOS. White box-thumping purists will claim, somehow, that this is ...

Pinning programs, folders, and even frequently used documents to your Windows 7 taskbar can be a real time-saver. Certain folders, however, aren't so easy to add -- especially if you want them right on the taskbar and not buried in the Explorer jump list. Windows 7 Taskbar Items Pinner makes pinning everything from your downloads folder to the control panel to network connections as easy ...

Now that the Windows 7 SP1 download is available to the general public and it's also being pushed via Windows Update, we thought we'd check to see how smooth the upgrade process has been for you. It wasn't all unicorns and double rainbows here in the Download Squad bunker. One laptop refused to progress beyond 66% complete, even after several retries and reboots. Another workstation was left ...

We heard it was coming, and as foretold, Windows 7 SP1 was released yesterday for download via Windows Update or direct from Microsoft. Appearing in beta form last year, it's not the smallest of updates, weighing in at up to just under 2GB in size for the full dual disc image, but SP1 brings with it a slew of patches, fixes, and updates, all rolled into one neat and tidy package. While Windows ...

MakeUseOf has just published yet another excellent guide, this time on the topic of keeping your Windows installation lean, mean and fighting fit. It's available as a free download (PDF), or online (Scribd). The guide is impressively comprehensive -- it covers everything from partitioning your hard drive to installing more RAM -- but some Download Squad readers will probably find it a bit too ...