Robert Stinnett » Windows 7 http://www.robertstinnett.com In case of accidental reading, flush eyes with warm water for 5 minutes. Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:03:08 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 My Review of Windows 7: Up and Running http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/26/my-review-of-windows-7-up-and-running/ http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/26/my-review-of-windows-7-up-and-running/#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:52:08 +0000 Robert Stinnett http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/26/my-review-of-windows-7-up-and-running/

Originally submitted at O’Reilly

This compact book offers the quickest path for Windows XP and Vista users to get started with Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system. With Windows 7: Up and Running, you get the essential information you need to upgrade or install the system and configure it to fit your activities, along…


A Great Primer for Mom, Dad & Friends

By Robert Stinnett from Boonville, MO on 10/26/2009

 

4out of 5

Pros: Helpful examples, Concise, Easy to understand

Best Uses: Novice, Beginner, Intermediate

Describe Yourself: Sys Admin, Developer

Nowadays almost everyone from grandma to the kid who lives next door is online and has a computer. The digital age has meant that many of us know the basics of how to use a computer, get online and do basic tasks — but for many users they learn a particular way of doing things, and when software (or the OS) changes they find themselves scratching their heads wondering where things went and how they got changed. In this handy primer guide the author has done a fairly good job of helping get casual end-users up to speed on Windows 7.

The book walks you through many of the features that have changed and introduces you to some of the new functionality of the OS (for example, Libraries in Windows 7). It also walks users through common “gothcas” and things to be aware of (for example, why all sites don’t support the use of Web Slices in IE8). Sidebars and a generous library of pictures help to call the reader’s attention to specific items.

I was a little dissapointed in the Installation Chapter of the book, and thus took away one star. Though the author covers netbooks and dual-booting, the issue of upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 is never covered. So let me cover it right here: ALWAYS DO A FRESH, CLEAN INSTALL — NEVER DO AN IN PLACE UPGRADE! Given the brevity of of the chapter on installation, and the main focus of the book, I feel this chapter could even be taken out without taking away from the book.

This book would make an excellent gift for mom and dad, or that friend who just bought a new computer with Windows 7 on it. It’s a good primer for getting started with Windows 7 and making the jump to help keep your digital life a bit more organized and productive!

]]> http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/26/my-review-of-windows-7-up-and-running/feed/ 4 Exploring Windows 7 – Devices and Printers http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/24/exploring-windows-7-devices-and-printers/ http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/24/exploring-windows-7-devices-and-printers/#comments Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:58:37 +0000 Robert Stinnett http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/24/exploring-windows-7-devices-and-printers/ Windows 7 makes managing and configuring your digital assets easier with a newly designed Devices and Printers dashboard that easily lets you configure, test, setup and even classify your devices.  Instead of having to navigate through several menus with many complex actions like in previous versions of Windows, in Windows 7 its all under one roof so its point, click and done!

Exploring Windows 7 – Devices and Printers Video Tutorial

]]> http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/24/exploring-windows-7-devices-and-printers/feed/ 0 The Geeky Side of Windows 7 – Math Input Panel http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/23/the-geeky-side-of-windows-7-math-input-panel/ http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/23/the-geeky-side-of-windows-7-math-input-panel/#comments Sat, 24 Oct 2009 03:03:28 +0000 Robert Stinnett http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/23/the-geeky-side-of-windows-7-math-input-panel/ I keep finding all sorts of little tools buried in Windows 7 that keep making my digital life a bit easier.  One tool that I found has the potential to make math & science students jump for joy – the math input panel tool.  This tool, which works great with a tablet PC, lets you freehand mathematical and scientific equations and have them converted into readable text so they can be inserted into documents such as Word or OneNote.

In this video I walk you through an example of how the tool works while I talk a little bit more about the geeky side of Windows 7!

Exploring the Geeky Side of Windows 7 – Math Input Panel

]]> http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/23/the-geeky-side-of-windows-7-math-input-panel/feed/ 0 Windows 7 in 77 Seconds – Disk Defragmentation http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/12/windows-7-in-77-seconds-disk-defragmentation/ http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/12/windows-7-in-77-seconds-disk-defragmentation/#comments Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:00:00 +0000 Robert Stinnett http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/12/windows-7-in-77-seconds-disk-defragmentation/ Some of the improvements in Windows 7 aren’t apparent without digging around a bit.  One of the improvements is in the disk defragmenter.  The interface has been redesigned and by default defragmentation jobs are scheduled weekly at 1:00 AM on new installs.  Defragmentation helps keep your files in order and can greatly improve your performance, especially on large drives.

One of the cool features in Windows 7 is that it is smart enough to know not to defragment solid-state or USB drives to help preserve their life.  A lot of people are unaware that solid-state drives (like that USB stick you store your files on) have a limited number of read/write cycles to them!

It’s just one more way Windows 7 is helping make your digital life a little bit easier.

Windows 7 in 77 Seconds – Disk Defragmentation

 

]]> http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/12/windows-7-in-77-seconds-disk-defragmentation/feed/ 0 Windows 7 in 77 Seconds – Snipping Tool http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/07/windows-7-in-77-seconds-snipping-tool/ http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/07/windows-7-in-77-seconds-snipping-tool/#comments Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:12:00 +0000 Robert Stinnett http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/07/windows-7-in-77-seconds-snipping-tool/ One of the things I do a lot is send “snippets” of my screen to others to show them things I am talking about, or to capture images that I use for some of the websites I maintain, or even in this blog posting (hint:  the image to your right in a snippet from the Microsoft Windows 7 homepage).  Up until now you had to rely on third-party tool to perform such a function, or use the old shift+PrintScreen trick that resulted in a huge capture of everything on the screen.  In Windows 7 your digital life gets a whole lot simpler with the introduction of the Snipping Tool. 

This guy has been around since the Vista days, but in Windows 7 it is now installed by default in Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate.  It’s a great way to help communicate with your friends, family and co-workers visually – share as little or as much as you want!

I have no doubt this little tool will soon find itself amongst those “can’t live without” tools that you use everyday!

Windows 7 in 77 Seconds – Snipping Tool

]]> http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/07/windows-7-in-77-seconds-snipping-tool/feed/ 0 Windows 7 in 77 Seconds – Burning ISO Images http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/05/windows-7-in-77-seconds-burning-iso-images/ http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/05/windows-7-in-77-seconds-burning-iso-images/#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:23:22 +0000 Robert Stinnett http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/05/windows-7-in-77-seconds-burning-iso-images/ Previous versions of Windows made burning ISO files a chore.  You either had to purchase a third party app that could cost over $100 that was filled with bloatware you didn’t need, or you could try and find a freeware utility that might or might not work and more often than not produced more bad discs than good ones.

With Windows 7 Microsoft has made it easier to keep your digital life in order by including a built-in ISO burner that lets you easily right click on an ISO file and burn it to CD or DVD.  Now only if they would let us view the contents of an ISO file without having to burn it first!

Windows 7 in 77 Seconds – Burning ISO Images

]]> http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/05/windows-7-in-77-seconds-burning-iso-images/feed/ 0 Windows 7 in 77 Seconds – Pinning http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/03/windows-7-in-77-seconds-pinning/ http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/03/windows-7-in-77-seconds-pinning/#comments Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:44:09 +0000 Robert Stinnett http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/03/windows-7-in-77-seconds-pinning/ Windows 7 continues to help make your digital life a bit easier by helping you keep things organized and easily accesible.  In the new pinning feature, which replaces the quick launch feature of previous versions of Windows, you can now organize  your favorite and often-used programs on your task bar or in your start menu.  However its not just a favorite list, but thanks to context-sensitive menus built into your applications you can now easily access settings, documents and favorites for those programs with a click of a mouse.

In this video I walk you through this feature and show you how it makes my digital life just a bit easier.

Windows 7 in 77 Seconds – Pinning

]]> http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/03/windows-7-in-77-seconds-pinning/feed/ 0 Windows 7 in 77 Seconds – Start Menu Searching http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/01/windows-7-in-77-seconds-start-menu-searching/ http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/01/windows-7-in-77-seconds-start-menu-searching/#comments Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:07:31 +0000 Robert Stinnett http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/01/windows-7-in-77-seconds-start-menu-searching/ Windows 7 has expanded the power of the Search feature in the Start Menu to help make your life easier, even when you aren’t sure what you are looking for!  No more hunting around for files or applications.  Windows 7 allows you to index not only documents, videos, music and more – but it also lets you integrate your e-mail and even web searches.  In this Windows 7 in 77 Seconds video I walk you through some of the cool new features of the Windows 7 Start Menu search feature.

Windows 7 in 77 Seconds – Start Menu Searching

 

]]> http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/10/01/windows-7-in-77-seconds-start-menu-searching/feed/ 1 Windows 7 in 77 Seconds – Desktop Slideshow http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/09/30/windows-7-in-77-seconds-desktop-slideshow/ http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/09/30/windows-7-in-77-seconds-desktop-slideshow/#comments Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:08:15 +0000 Robert Stinnett http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/09/30/windows-7-in-77-seconds-desktop-slideshow/ Wouldn’t it be cool to have a slideshow of your favorite pictures as your Windows background?  Well thanks to the new Aero themes in Windows 7 you don’t have to wait any more – it’s a reality!  You can create your own slideshow using pictures of your choice and have Windows 7 rotate through them as you go about your daily work.  Here’s a tip, though, if you are using a high resolution monitor (as most of us are nowadays) be sure to use pictures that haven’t been shrunk down or resized – I found I got the best visual quality when I used pictures straight from my digital camera that hadn’t been resized at all.

Stay tuned for more Windows 7 in 77 seconds tips as we countdown to the launch of Windows 7 on October 22nd!

Windows 7 in 77 Seconds – Desktop Slideshow

]]> http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/09/30/windows-7-in-77-seconds-desktop-slideshow/feed/ 2 Windows 7 in 77 Seconds http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/09/29/windows-7-in-77-seconds/ http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/09/29/windows-7-in-77-seconds/#comments Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:09:48 +0000 Robert Stinnett http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/09/29/windows-7-in-77-seconds/ Windows 7 hits the shelves on October 22nd and Microsoft has been busy creating a number of promotions to help celebrate its launch.  In fact, I even managed to score some loot in the #WinWin7 contests taking place over on Twitter (follow @MSWindows for more info).

It’s all this buzz about Windows 7 that got me thinking – what could I do that would be a cool twist on the whole “7” thing and then it hit me – short, 77 second training videos for Windows 7!  There are so many cool little features that are hiding in Windows 7 that short little videos are all it takes to get users going “Oooh, Ahhh” and wanting to try it for themselves.

So tonight, live on this very blog (well, not technically live) I present the first in a series of Windows 7 in 77 Seconds training videos – Window Resizing.

Windows 7 in 77 Seconds – Window Resizing

 

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, Windows 7, how-to, desktop, aero
]]> http://www.robertstinnett.com/2009/09/29/windows-7-in-77-seconds/feed/ 0