.::REALITYRECALL::.

Windows 7 officially launches today, but we’ve been testing, tweaking, customizing, fixing, and writing about this OS for a year now. We present here a guide to everything we’ve learned about the OS, from first install to final settings change.

Whether you’ve played around with Windows 7 during its beta or release candidate versions, launch day is finally here, and Windows 7 is finally ready for widespread, public consumption. This guide will take you straight through from system requirements and upgrading your PC to highlighting Windows 7’s best new features to helping you hit the ground running with all of the awesome tweaks Windows 7 has in store for you.

System Requirements

According to Microsoft:

• 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Buying, installing, and upgrading

• Figure Out Which Windows 7 Edition Has the Features You Need: Not everybody needs Windows 7 Ultimate, but what if there’s a certain feature you must have when you grab your upgrade this Thursday? CNET breaks down each Windows 7 edition feature by feature in a handy chart.
• Prep Your PC for Windows 7: When Windows 7 drops this Thursday, you can either spend many, many hours watching a progress bar, or you can boot into a clean, speedy system with that new-OS smell. Let’s get your system set up for a proper Windows 7 upgrade.
• Get Windows 7 Home Premium for $30 With a College Email Address: If you’re a U.S. college student, or at least having a working .edu email address, you don’t have to pay $120 to upgrade Vista to Windows 7. You can get the Home Premium upgrade for just $30.
• Run Windows 7 for 120 Days Without Activation: The command line code (slmgr -rearm) that could be entered at the end of three different 30-day periods to give Vista 120 days without activation works just the same in Windows 7.

Our take on Windows 7

• Top 10 Things to Look Forward to in Windows 7: Windows 7 isn’t a dramatic overhaul of its predecessor Windows Vista, but it does fix several sore spots and add a few welcome features.
• Windows 7’s Best Underhyped Features: It’s these less sexy, but very useful features, that make me think the more I use Windows 7, the less chance I’ll ever use Vista or XP again.
• Windows 7 Versus Mac OS X Leopard: The Feature-by-Feature Showdown: Oh, I know: the Mac versus PC debate is so played out. Perhaps, but dumb commercials aside, if you’re deciding between buying a Mac or a PC in the coming months, it helps to know what you’re getting from one or the other.

New features

• Windows 7 Tells You Why You Can’t Touch That File: Windows 7 doesn’t just give you a wagging finger (and pretend-useful “Try Again” button) when you want to move or delete a file that’s in use. It actually tells you which application is using the file.
• Windows 7 Lets You Customize Your Logon Background: Expert Windows hacker Rafael Rivera finds a change in the latest build of Windows 7—you can finally customize the log-on screen natively.
• Windows 7 Transfers Your Wireless Settings Easily: To transfer the settings for yourself, head into the Network and Sharing Center, click on Manage Wireless Networks, and then in the properties for your wireless network you’ll find the link to open the wizard that will copy all your settings onto a flash drive.
• How to Burn ISOs in Windows 7: Burning that ISO to a disc is as simple as: 1. Double-click the ISO file (or right-click and select Burn disc image); 2. Click Burn.
• Play Your iPod Through Your Windows 7 PC’s Speakers: You can play an external audio device through your computer’s speakers without any extra software using a simple configuration setting.
• Windows 7 Makes UAC Less Annoying Than Vista: The biggest change in Windows 7 is the new User Account Control "slider" setting, where you can choose your own balance between annoyance and security—but behind the scenes, Microsoft reduced the amount of actions that will prompt you.
• Netflix Update Comes to Windows 7 Media Center, Looks Excellent: Starting this week, Microsoft is rolling out an upgraded Watch Instantly interface to Windows 7 Media Center for users looking to get their streaming TV and movie fix on their upgraded PCs.
• Setup File and Printer Sharing From XP to Windows 7: This guide walks you through the process of enabling network discovery, sharing your folders and printers, and accessing your shared resources from either Windows 7 or XP.
• IE8 Can Proactively Close Crashing Tabs in Windows 7: The copy of IE8 found only in (Windows 7) has a “timer” that monitors new tabs as they open. If they aren’t responsive within a relatively short amount of time, the browser will pop up and tell you this, possibly with a reason why, and ask whether you want to wait or kill the tab before it causes further problems.
• Windows 7 Lets You Finally Uninstall Internet Explorer (Kinda): … It won't completely uninstall—only the executable is actually removed. Still, being able to finally banish IE proper from your system is a pretty good start for folks who really don't like IE.
• Windows 7 Will Let You Uninstall Most Built-In Apps: You can turn almost every built-in application on or off, including Windows Search, Gadgets, and even Media Player.

The Taskbar

• Aero Peek: Peek supercharges Windows’ taskbar thumbnail previews, and lets you view, close, and switch between multiple windows by just hovering over the taskbar thumbnail, as well as pin programs to the taskbar permanently.
• Pin Individual Folders to the Windows 7 Taskbar: Windows 7’s taskbar lets you pin any running program to the taskbar for easy future access, but it treats folders like second-class sub-items of the Explorer icon. Create a fake “program” to pin individual folder shortcuts to your taskbar.
• Middle-Click to Close Applications from Windows 7’s Taskbar: In Windows 7, middle-clicking a taskbar button opens a new program instance. The easy solution for closing an app? Middle-click its preview window.
• Hold Shift While Dragging to Windows 7 Taskbar to Open Files: All you have to do is hold down the Shift key while dragging a file to an icon on the taskbar, and the tooltip will change to say “Open with” instead of pinning to the taskbar.
• Pin Any Item to the Windows 7 Taskbar: We already showed you how to pin specific folders, and this is just a slightly tweaked application of that method.
• Put a Recycle Bin Shortcut on the Windows 7 Taskbar: Once you are finished, you'll have a separate recycle icon on the taskbar—useful for quick access to deleted files without having to hunt down an icon on your desktop.
• Get a Functional Recycle Bin on Windows 7’s Taskbar: TechSpot's solution—creating a Quick Launch taskbar, removing its text and title, then bringing the desktop Recycle Bin icon into it—covers all the bases, and lets you place your Recycle Bin pretty much wherever you'd like on the taskbar.

Jump lists

• 
• Master Windows 7 Jump Lists to Boost Your Win7 Productivity: For those of you that haven’t yet tried out Windows 7, when you right-click on a taskbar button in Windows 7, a menu slides out with recent documents and application tasks. Here’s a rundown of our favorite Jump List boosters.
• Winfox Adds Jump Lists to Firefox on Windows 7: Jump Lists are one of the best new features in Windows 7, and since Firefox still doesn’t take advantage of them, a small utility called Winfox adds the feature for you.
• Win7shell Adds Windows 7 Jump List Support to Winamp: Once you’ve downloaded, installed the plugin, and pinned Winamp to the taskbar, the Jump List should immediately start tracking your recently played media files.

Built-in Applications

• Set Up and Use XP Mode in Windows 7: Windows 7's new XP Mode lets you seamlessly run virtualized applications alongside your regular Windows 7 applications—so your outdated software will continue to work.
• Calculator: While mathletes, scientists, coders, and statisticians will appreciate Windows 7’s built-in calculator’s programmer, statistics, and scientific modes, everyday people will love figuring out things like hourly wages and mortgage payments without a spreadsheet.
• PowerShell: (A) souped-up command line and scripting GUI that frees you, finally, from the limits of DOS batch scripts.
• Windows 7 Media Center’s Music Player Is Hot Hot Hot: Good news for music lovers excited for Windows 7: The new and improved music interface in Windows 7 Media Center is overflowing with eye candy and usability.
• Windows 7’s WordPad Opens Word 2007 DOCX Files: … The ribbon-style WordPad in Windows 2007 opens Word 2007 files, the .docx kind, pretty handily, albeit with some formatting loss.
• Backup and Restore Center: For the average user with both media and crucial file needs, Windows 7’s default backup features look promising.
• Windows 7 Guest Mode Creates Bomb-Proof Accounts: In the simplest terms, Guest Mode takes a snapshot of how a PC was working before the kid, friend, coffeeshop customer, or whoever else is using the Guest Mode account logs on. That user can’t do much to alter the system, and whatever they can do, like dropping files on the desktop, is discarded when they log off.
• Windows 7 Calibration and ClearType Tools Fine-Tune Your Displays: Windows 7’s color calibration and ClearType tools might be good enough for non-graphic-designers to stick with.

Themes, wallpapers, and login screens

• Windows 7 Beta’s Many Free and Legit Themes: Microsoft is offering 20 fresh themes (in Windows 7). Here’s a closer look.
• Grab Every Region’s Windows 7 Wallpapers in One Download: Microsoft allowed Windows Vista Magazine to bundle up every wallpaper from Windows 7’s regional releases and, boy, we’re glad they did. One file brings a lot of new looks to any desktop, Windows 7 or otherwise.
• Secret Registry Hack Customizes Windows 7 Logon “Button Set”: Rafael Rivera, the same expert Windows hacker that figured out how to customize your Windows 7 logon background, finds another hack that changes the UI to look better with darker background images.
• Microsoft Releases More Free Windows 7 Theme Downloads: The full-fledged themes are specific downloads for Windows 7 users, but anyone can grab the wallpapers from Windows 7’s Personalization Gallery for their system.

Mouse and Keyboard Shortcuts

• The Best New Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts: Windows 7 has more cool new shortcuts than you can shake a stick at.
• Aero Shake: When you want to focus on the task at hand on a desktop cluttered with windows, just grab the window bar of the app you want to work in and shake it back and forth to clear away the rest. Another shake will restore the background apps to their former state. You can also drag and drop a window to the edge of the screen to maximize it, and click on its top bar again to restore its previous size.
• Snap windows to half screen size: … Dragging a window to the top of the screen maximizes it. Following that, if you drag a window all the way to the left or the right of the screen, Windows 7 will display a glass overlay on the desktop. Let go of the mouse button and it will snap the window onto that overlay, which is half the screen's size—a handy helper for widescreen monitor owners.
• Maximize Windows Vertically with a Double-Click in Windows 7: Reader John points out that you can simply move your mouse to the top of a window until the pointer switches to the resize icon, and then double-click your mouse to instantly maximize the window to fill all the available vertical space.
• Shift and Right-Click to Expand Windows 7’s Send To Menu: Just as with Vista, holding down the Shift key while right-clicking in Windows 7 gives you a fuller range of options.
• Activate Windows 7 Jumplists with the Left Mouse Button: You don't have to right-click on the taskbar buttons to activate Windows 7's Jumplists—you can hold the left mouse button and drag upwards.
• Windows 7 Creates New Folders With a Hotkey: To create a new folder, simply press Ctrl+Shift+N with an explorer window open and the folder will instantly show up, ready to be renamed to something more useful.

Tweaks, fixes, and customizations

• The Best Windows Tweaks that Still Work in Windows 7: The final version of Windows 7 is being released this week to the general public, and after you get your hands on it the first thing you’ll need to know is: Do all my tweaks still work?
• Customize or Disable Windows 7’s Action Center: Windows 7’s Action Center does a great job of compressing all of Windows’ update/alert/whatever notifications into one icon, but it takes some tweaking to make it show what you want, or disable it entirely.
• Add text to the Windows 7 taskbar buttons: Just right-click the taskbar, select Properties, then change the Taskbar buttons drop-down from “Always combine, hide labels” to “Never combine.”
• Set Default Printers Based on Network in Windows 7: Windows 7 sports a great new feature that allows you to set default printers based on what network your computer is connected to, perfect for folks who carry laptops from network to network.
• Get Quick Access to Windows 7’s Jump Lists From the Keyboard: When we showed you how to master Windows 7’s new Jump Lists feature, there was one extremely useful tip that we left out: you can also access them from your keyboard.
• Create and Share Custom Themes in Windows 7: Microsoft’s Engineering Windows 7 weblog details how to create, save, and share your own custom Windows 7 themes, complete with wallpaper, window color, and sounds.
• Get the Old "Show Desktop" Back in Windows 7—Kinda: The short version: Create a folder, place a “Show Desktop.scf” file in there (either your standard Google-found kind or the script available at the bottom link), then right-click your taskbar to create a “New Toolbar” that points to that folder. Turn off the text and titles on that new toolbar, change the icons to large size, and then put your new one-button toolbar where you’d like.
• Hidden Windows 7 Tool Troubleshoots Sleep Mode Problems: The report lists all of the devices that are causing problems with sleep mode, explains the different power saving modes your computer supports, and even gives you detailed information on your battery—invaluable information when your system takes forever to go in and out of sleep mode.
• Disable the New Libraries Feature on Windows 7: Simply download, extract, and double-click on the provided registry hack file, then restart your computer and you’ll see that the Libraries are completely gone. There’s also an uninstall registry script provided just in case.

Third-party helpers

• Logon Changer Customizes the Windows 7 Login Screen: Tiny system customizing utility Logon Changer for Windows 7 swaps out the logon screen wallpaper easily. Using the utility is simple—just select a new wallpaper, test it, and you are done.
• Xdn Tweaker Updates to Tweak Windows 7: If you want your system to remember or not remember how you sort certain folders, edit what’s accessible through the right-click menu, or de-hook Windows Media Player from all the files it tries to glom onto, Xdn does those things for Windows 7.
• Glass CMD Enables Aero Transparency for the Command Prompt: Glass CMD for Vista forces command prompt windows to use Aero’s glass transparency effect.
• Gmail Notifier Plus Adds Email Alerts to the Windows 7 Taskbar: Gmail Notifier Plus displays your unread email count right in the Windows 7 taskbar, including popup message previews and Jump Lists integration.
• Switch Power Management Plans With a Hotkey: Once you've created the shortcut, you can assign a hotkey in the properties dialog—even better, put the shortcut in a location to be indexed by Launchy or the Vista start menu search, or even add it to your AutoHotkey automation script.
• CSMenu Brings the Classic Start Menu Back to Windows 7: Application launcher CSMenu makes up for the lack of a classic start menu option in Windows 7 by creating a menu that looks and works just like the ancient Windows 2000 menu did.
• Ultimate Windows Tweaker Updates, Improves Windows 7 Support: Ultimate Windows Tweaker adds new features to an already excellent tool for tweaking all of the hidden Windows settings you normally can’t access.
• VistaSwitcher is an Absolutely Awesome Alt-Tab Replacement: It’s a little difficult to showcase how well this thing works with just a screenshot, but you can see the partially transparent Alt-Tab switcher window, complete with a massive preview window and the window titles easily readable.
• Windows 7 Recovery Discs Gets Your System Out of Tight Spots: Boot your system from NeoSmart’s CD, and you’ll get a stripped-down Windows system with a window offering startup file repair, Restore Point returns, recovery from a whole-cloth image, memory testing, and a command prompt for those dire moments when only frantically Google-d terminal instructions can save you.
• Hulu Desktop Integration Brings Hulu to Windows 7 Media Center: Free application Hulu Desktop Integration brings Hulu’s remote-friendly desktop app to your Windows Media Center.

---

We hope you found at least one link in that rather large list that helps you get settled into your new OS. Did we miss anything? Got a favorite tip or link you feel Windows 7 newcomers should consider? Share it in the comments.

Windows 7 already has a good batch of stylish themes and eye-pleasing wallpaper, and now Redmond has opened up its vaults and released new themes and wallpapers, some of them with sponsored partners.

Gearheads and greasemonkeys (the kind that aren’t into custom JavaScript/CSS tweaking) will probably dig the sponsored themes crafted by Ferrari, Ducati, Infiniti, and Porsche. Those looking to spruce up their desktop with frames from around the world can grab international themes from more countries than originally included in Windows 7’s Release Candidate packages.

The full-fledged themes are specific downloads for Windows 7 users, but anyone can grab the wallpapers from Windows 7’s Personalization Gallery for their system. Got another source for your newly-installed system’s theme? Tell us about it in the comments.

Ruh roh. A senior tech manager at a “top tier PC maker” has come out with some entirely unofficial and equally ominous thoughts on what he (or she) sees as the tough road to proliferation for SuperSpeed USB. Pointing out that the new interconnect “won’t get real traction until it gets integrated in the chip sets,” the source opines that Intel won’t be offering motherboard integration before 2011 — an assertion Intel has declined to comment on. AMD and NVIDIA have been vocal critics of what they see as purposeful delays by the Pentium maker, and if this latest scuttlebutt is accurate, their wild finger-pointing will have been at least somewhat vindicated. Although Intel did release the 3.0 controller spec eventually, this wouldn’t be the first (or probably last) time when it has been seen to drag its feet where doing so is in its interest (eh hem, Light Peak). For our money, plenty of people who’ve been waiting for the new standard to show up in machines before pulling the trigger on an upgrade will be disappointed by such news, especially as 3.0 devices are just beginning to ship.

[Thanks, Jacob]

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Peripherals

USB 3.0 held back by lack of Intel chipset support? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Have you ever wished you had an extra Hard Disk to store files, share, or set aside as an encrypted vault? One of the new features in Windows 7 is the ability to create Virtual Hard Disks and we’ll show you how.

Create a Virtual Drive 

This process creates virtual disks in the .VHD format where the minimum size is 3MB. To begin, Right-click on My Computer and select to Manage. Alternately you can type diskmgmt.msc into the Start search box and enter.

The Computer Management screen opens click on Disk Management then Action and Create VHD.

Browse to the directory you want the disk to reside, choose the size you want it to be, and select dynamic or a fixed. If you want the disk to expand in size as you add files to it, then pick Dynamically expanding. Check Fixed size if you want a specific size and for it to stay that way.

 

In Disk Management you will see the virtual drive listed as unallocated space.

To begin using it you’ll need to Right-click and select Initialize Disk.

 

In the initialize disk box just keep MBR selected and hit OK.

Create a Volume

Now it is time to create a volume by Right-clicking the unallocated space and select New Simple Volume.

The New Simple Volume Wizard starts up and it’s just a matter of completing it.

Choose the amount of space you want to use for the volume.

Assign it a dive letter that is not currently being used.

Format the new volume as NTFS, FAT32, or FAT. Check if you want a quick format and file compression.

The wizard is complete, click on Finish.

If you have AutoPlay enabled it should pop up for you to open up your new virtual hard disk.

It will be listed with the other disks in Disk Management.

Of course you will also see it listen under My Computer.

This is a cool new feature that will let you use the disk as you would any type of real disk. You can encrypt it, share it out to other systems, store files to it…however you would use an extra disk connected to your system.

This is a cool new feature in Windows 7 that will add extra functionality and options to your current system. There are several ways you can use your VHD including making it bootable. If you have used your geek imagination and have come up with unique ways to use a VHD, leave a comment to tell us about it.

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On the eve of the Windows 7 launch, we’ve been doing some reminiscing, but it hit us: There have been way more than six uniquely named prior versions of Windows. So how does Microsoft count?

1, 2, and 3: These were the original DOS-based Windows that started it all. Windows 3.1 is the first version I remember (and even that only vaguely).

4: Windows 4.0 includes Windows 95, 98, ME and NT 4.0.

5: Windows 2000 and all the flavors of Windows XP.

6: The oft-maligned Windows Vista (and Windows Server 2008).

And that brings us to Windows 7. What a long, strange trip it’s been. [Wikipedia]

Big telecom companies such as Bell and Rogers can interfere with internet traffic only as a last resort, the CRTC says. Instead, they should use “economic measures” to combat congestion.

Well, hello there! Those Dell MID rumors we’ve been hearing have finally received vindication in the form of a nice, picture-heavy leak courtesy of some industrious folks in Vietnam. What we know as of now is that there’s an 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen display (with multitouch zooming), WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G WWAN connectivity, all riding atop an Android 2.0 (aka, Donut Eclair) install. A dual-LED flash 5 megapixel camera adorns the back, and there’s a 1,300mAh battery to power all that goodness. See pics below and a video awaits after the break, where an old friend of ours plays with the jumbo smartphone.

[Via SlashGear; Thanks, Nicky N.]

Continue reading Dell Streak is a 5-inch Android 2.0 MID, packs 3G and WiFi (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Dell Streak is a 5-inch Android 2.0 MID, packs 3G and WiFi (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Opinion: There’s been a steady flood of news about the emergence of solid state drive (SSD) systems in mainstream products. Samsung has a 64GB miniSATA SSD about half the size of a business card; Dell offers its Adamo XPS notebook with a 256GB SSD; Teradata delivers a data warehouse appliance packed with SSD storage, and IBM has begun to use SSDs in its storage area network systems.

Plus-three with three points.

It appears that Flames captain Jarome Iginla is in the process of snapping out of his early-season doldrums.

His boss certainly thinks so.

"He’s an effective player when he’s skating and when he’s shooting," said coach Brent Sutter. "He’s getting into those areas and tonight he got into those areas to get quality shots."

Iginla’s goal — his 412th, if you’re keeping track — was vintage.

Buzzing down the right wing, scorching a shot past a helpless netminder.

"That goal, it’s a two-on-one, he goes hard down the wing and makes a great shot," said Sutter. "He did a lot of little things tonight that were very effective. You guys get caught up in goals, goals, goals, but to me, it’s playing a well-rounded game and it’s scoring chances. Tonight was probably the most scoring chances Jarome’s had in a game. He shot the puck and he got into those areas to want the puck and he was involved in the game.

"I look at shots and quality scoring chances he had, and it was definitely his best game."

While he was at it, Sutter chucked around a little more praise.

* To Craig Conroy, for helping kill off the five-on-three (late in the second, early in the third).

"Big draw right off the bat and then there was a battle just inside the zone," said Sutter. "Connie did a great job of getting pucks out of the zone. It was a big kill. A one-goal game at the time, 4-3. I certainly wasn’t happy with the penalties. But the P.K. did a good job at that point in time."

* To Dion Phaneuf, for scoring (and for helping wake up a team in danger of nodding off after 21-plus minutes of shotlessness).

"He got his feet moving," said Sutter. "At the time, when he was coming out of the zone, I thought he was going to head-man the puck because he had a couple guys ahead of him, but he kept going with a full head of speed. It backed their defencemen off. He was able to get a really good scoring opportunity, quality scoring chance between the top of the circle and the blue line. And when Dion has a full head of steam like that with his shot, it gives you an opportunity to score on something like that."

Microsoft added Netflix support to Vista’s Media Center back in May, and starting today they’re rolling out an upgraded Watch Instantly interface to Windows 7 Media Center for users looking to get their streaming TV and movie fix on their upgraded PCs.

Gadget weblog Engadget spotted the update this afternoon, and while the improvement hasn’t added support for Media Center extenders (like the Xbox 360) or HD streaming (bummer), it’s a great feature if you’ve turned your Windows PC into a media center powerhouse.

The Netflix update should become available to your Windows 7 Media Center automatically, but if it doesn't, Engadget says you go to Tasks -> Settings -> General -> Automatic Download Options to manually start the update. In the meantime, you can check out more pics of it in action over at Engadget.

If you’ve been using Netflix on your Media Center PC since it became available earlier this year, let’s hear how it’s been working for you in the comments.

Hold onto your phasers: a new rocket, designed jointly by NASA, Ad Astra, and Canadian firm Nautel, could potentially slash trip times to Mars to as little as 39 days. And yep, it uses ion propulsion–just like Star Trek taught us.

Ion propulsion, via the new plasma-based VASIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket) engine, is now close to the point where it could be tested on a flight to the moon, according to Canada.com. The rocket works by turning electrical power into thrust in order to harness solar energy.

The 39 day time compares to six months using current rocket technology. Actually, a round-trip ticket to Mars would take far longer than even six months. Since Mars and Earth only pass close to each other every two years, engineers assume a crew would go one way, wait a year, and then fly back the next time the planets passed each other by, according to the report.

The ion drive would enable astronauts to shoot there and back during a single close approach. (Image credit: Ad Astra) (Via Slashdot)

Facebook definitely allows you to easily communicate with others, but if you’re not careful, certain information you would like to remain private can be exposed. Here we take a look at locking down your profile, and how to avoid other annoyances.

Privatize Your Profile

Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with friends, family and other contacts online. It’s also a great place to spread personal information, pictures, and other data to everyone if you don’t use the proper settings. The first thing you want to do is change default settings under the Privacy Settings.

Take the time to go through each of the privacy sections and make the appropriate choices for your profile.

Go through each section to adjust who can see your information. Of course showing it to everyone will be the least private.

Make sure to go through the settings for both Basic and Contact information.

If you choose a custom setting you can select who sees it and even block out specific users (like your crazy ex).

Control what information is on your wall, and what posts to your friend’s wall.

Control what other people can see about you in searches.

If there are certain users you don’t want to be able to contact you then you can put them in the block list.

Avoid Quizzes and Other Snooping Apps

You might be enticed to take the multitude of quizzes and games on Facebook because you’re bored or other friends have recommended them. They can however, be aggressive data miners. So when you’re taking a quiz to find out “Who is your Celebrity Twin” the developers of those quizzes are gathering your personal data.

  

It’s not a secret that your information is being shared through Facebook applications. If you go into the Applications overview under Privacy settings, it states how apps interact with your data. Here are a few of the items in the privacy statement.

“When you authorize an application, it will be able to access any information associated with your account that it requires to work.”

“When a friend of yours visits an application or authorizes it, the information that the application can access includes your friend’s friend list and information about the people on that list.”

“If you interact with an application that has been restricted to users of a certain age and/or country without explicitly authorizing the application, the application might be able to infer your approximate birth date or location because you were able to access the application.”

Under the Privacy section and Application Settings you can control what types of information can be seen through apps. If you don’t want anything shared select that option at the bottom.

With Facebook being a central hub of social activity, you might have co-workers, supervisors, or the head boss as a contact. If you are playing games on company time, make sure you don’t get busted on Facebook. Under the same apps privacy page we were at above, scroll down a bit further and check the box under Beacon Websites. A Beacon Site where you play a game needs to be an affiliate of Facebook, but if you aren’t sure, you might want to check this box to be safe.

Block Facebook Annoyingness

If you’re sick of seeing messages every time a friend takes a quiz or makes a move in Mafia Wars, make sure and check out The Geek’s article on how to Block Those irritating Facebook Quiz & Application Messages.

 

Conclusion

Facebook can be a lot of fun and is a great place to keep in touch with others, but by default it shares a lot of information that you might want to remain private. These steps should help you out in protecting your privacy, and avoiding potentially embarrassing or awkward situations.

Facebook Privacy Policy

More About Beacon Sites

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Windows 7 is going to be released this week, and it’s a huge upgrade from previous versions of Windows. The big question for us geeks, however, is “Will all of my favorite tweaks still work?”

This list is not comprehensive by any means—if you have a favorite tweak that you like to use, leave us a comment and we’ll see about adding it to the list.

Add Defrag to the Right-Click Menu

Want to be able to quickly defrag a drive whenever you want? You can use a little hack to add the Defragment option to the context menu for each drive. It’ll open up the command prompt, and start the defrag process.

Add Defragment to the Right-Click Menu for a Drive

Create Shortcuts to Lock the Screen, Shutdown, Restart

It doesn’t matter where Microsoft puts the shutdown buttons, people seem to still want to have another way to do it. The good news is that all the same shortcuts that worked in previous versions of Windows will still work in Windows 7.

Create a Shortcut for Locking Your Computer Screen in Windows 7 or Vista

Create Shutdown / Restart / Lock Icons in Windows 7 or Vista

Create a Shortcut to Toggle the Desktop Icons

Sure, you can easily head into the desktop context menu to toggle the icons on or off, but it’s a lot simpler to use a hotkey, or stick an icon into the Quick Launch (which you can get back on Windows 7 with a little trick). This how-to teaches you how to use a little utility that toggles the icons for you.

Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Turn the Desktop Icons On or Off

Disable Aero (to Speed Up Some Video Games)

If all you do is use your computer for gaming, you might not even care about using Aero. Personally, I don’t know why you’d want to run Windows 7 or Vista without Aero—but if that’s what you want, it’s easy enough to do.

Disable Aero on Windows 7 or Vista

Mount an ISO

So this one isn’t so much a tweak as an additional piece of software—but if you do a lot of geeky stuff on your PC, you’re going to need to be able to mount an ISO image. My favorite tool, by far, is VirtualCloneDrive—it’s just the simplest possible utility that you can get. All you need to do is double-click on an ISO to mount it.

Mount an ISO image in Windows 7 or Vista

Disable those Stupid Gadgets

Windows 7 moves the gadgets onto the desktop, instead of having them on a sidebar like Vista did—but the net effect is the same: it’s all pointless! You can easily disable them in Windows 7, just like you could in Windows Vista.

Disable Sidebar / Desktop Gadgets on Windows 7

Enable Mapping to Hidden Shares

If you did much networking on previous versions of Windows, you probably know about the C$ share that gives you access to the whole drive. Sadly, those shares don’t work since Vista, at least by default. There’s a simple tweak that you can do that will re-enable them for business, however.

Enable Mapping to \\Hostname\C$ Share on Windows 7 or Vista

Make Windows Log On Automatically

If you are the only one that is using your machine at your house, logging on can really be a drag. Thankfully every version of Windows since forever has let you do a simple tweak to make it automatically log on for you. Just make sure your door is locked.

Make Windows 7 or Vista Log On Automatically

Use Compatibility Mode

Does your favorite XP application have problems working in Windows 7? You can often make them work anyway by using Compatibility mode to trick the application into thinking it’s running on a previous version of Windows. Tip: This really helps when you’re trying to get a video game working.

Using Windows 7 or Vista Compatibility Mode

Add Any Folder To Your Taskbar

Every version of Windows has allowed you to pin folders to the taskbar, and you can still use this same trick in Windows 7. You can make them use only icons, show text or not, or even use this trick to add the Quick Launch folder back to Windows 7. 

Add “My Computer” to Your Windows 7 / Vista Taskbar

Add “Take Ownership” to the Context Menu

This has to be one of the most useful tweaks for the serious geek tweaker—you can easily give yourself permissions to any file by using this registry hack, which adds a “Take Ownership” item to the menu. Once you’ve taken ownership of a file, you can then easily delete it, rename it, etc.

Add “Take Ownership” to Explorer Right-Click Menu in Win 7 or Vista

Add Copy/Move to the Context Menu

This remains one of the most consistently popular tweaks for Windows, version after version. You can just do a simple registry hack to add the “Copy To folder” and “Move To folder” option to the context menu.

 

Add Copy To / Move To on Windows 7 or Vista Right-Click Menu

Disable Shortcut Icon Arrows

The Vista Shortcut Overlay Remover still works just fine in Windows 7, and gets rid of those unsightly shortcut arrows that you really don’t need most of the time. There’s lots of other hacks you can use, but this one works really well, and never leaves you with those “black boxes” on your icons.

  

Disable Shortcut Icon Arrow Overlay in Windows 7 or Vista 

Disable the Caps Lock Key

I’ve never used the Caps Lock key for anything, ever. If you are like me, you probably haven’t either, and it’s a lot easier to get rid of it. You can use a registry hack to get rid of it, or you can map any key to any key using an easy freeware utility.

Disable Caps Lock Key in Windows 7 or Vista 

Map Any Key to Any Key on Windows 7 / XP / Vista

Stop Windows Update from Automatically Restarting Your PC

I really hate the automatic reboot “feature” built into Windows Update. In fact, while I was writing this article, it kicked in and rebooted me (I forgot to apply this tweak on my new laptop). You can always temporarily disable the automatic reboot, but there’s a registry hack that will prevent it from happening in the first place.

Prevent Windows Update from Forcibly Rebooting Your Computer

Stop Losing the Sleep/Shutdown Button to Windows Update

Have you ever quickly clicked the shutdown button, only to find out that Windows started installing updates and will take forever to shut down? You can tell Windows to stop hijacking your shutdown button with another registry hack.

 

Stop Windows Update from Hijacking the Sleep Button

Enable Remote Desktop

If you are using the Pro, Ultimate, or Business versions of Windows, you can use Remote Desktop. It’s by far the best way to connect to another Windows PC, especially since Windows Vista or Windows 7 allow you to do Aero through the session.

Turn on Remote Desktop in Windows 7 or Vista

Disable Sticky / Filter Keys Dialogs

Have you ever been doing something, like playing a game, and had that obnoxious Sticky Keys dialog pop up? You answer No and it goes away… and then shows up again the next day. Here’s how to make it go away for good.

Disable the Irritating Sticky / Filter Keys Popup Dialogs

Disable Windows Explorer Click Sounds

The Windows Explorer click sounds are enough to drive you crazy after a while. You’d think that the configuration option to turn them off would be a checkbox saying “Stop Annoying Me”, but that’s just not the case.

Turn Off Windows Explorer Click Sounds in Windows 7 or Vista

Disable User Account Control’s Annoying Prompts

This is the one area where Windows 7 makes it so much easier to get rid of those annoying prompts—just drag the slider adjust your UAC settings. If you don’t want to disable UAC, you can always create shortcuts that bypass the UAC prompts with a simple task scheduler trick.

 

Disable User Account Control (UAC) the Easy Way on Win 7 or Vista

So what are your favorite Windows tweaks? You can leave your comments here, or join in the discussion over at Lifehacker.

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The CRTC is issuing two key internet rulings this week – one on net neutrality and the other on metered internet usage.

Early rumors of a BlackBerry-branded watchphone/smartwatch/wrist messenger/Bluetooth bracelet seemed a little far-fetched—RIM is all about business, and watchphones are pure, distilled gadget novelty. Nonetheless, here we stand, gazing upon the the BlackBerry companion watch. Here’s what we know.

According to CrackBerry:

• It was designed “specifically for BlackBerry from the ground up,” by a “new BlackBerry-dedicated accessory company,” and could be branded as the “inPulse.” This sounds suspiciously like BlackBerry wanting a watchphone, and outsourcing the design and manufacturing expertise.

• It’s got a large (but hopefully not too large) OLED screen, with a high enough resolution to display text clearly

• Its primary purpose is to display messages from a paired BlackBerry, meaning it’s strictly an accessory device like Sony Ericsson’s pieces, not a standalone watchphone like the LG GD910.

This is an early glimpse in all senses—Crackberry describes the shots rather wonderfully as "actual renderings of the real deal"—meaning that there's no info on tech specs, nor indication as to how much this thing might cost, whether it'll carry BlackBerry branding, or when we could expect it to actually ship. The announcement, though, is expected "soon," whatever that means. [Crackberry]

We’ve highlighted gobs of tools for turning your computer into a security camera, but if you’re interested in building out a serious, multi-camera home surveillance system complete with wireless cameras, weblog MakeUseOf details how to do so.

The author uses an app called Active Webcam that’s packed with features, and while it’s not a free application, the trial version adds a small nag window to the corner of your webcam streams that the author thinks is completely tolerable for the price. Here’s what you’ll get when you’re done:

I'm going to describe how you can set up a system of security webcams that will alert you to even the slightest intrusion into the space the camera is monitoring. We're going to create a remote surveillance system that could monitor your home, your camp, your apartment — or all of the above, all at the same time. In essence you can create a giant personal surveillance network without limitations.

If you’ve gone down the DIY route for putting together a home surveillance system using your PC, let’s hear how you did it in the comments.

Windows 7: If you run into a boot-up error with Windows 7 and don’t have a recovery disc handy, you’re usually in for some manic fiddling, or you’re just out of luck. NeoSmart’s recovery discs, however, can set things right.

Download NeoSmart's recovery discs for 32- and 64-bit systems, burn them to CD, and pop them into any system that claims it's unable to find the files needed to boot or is otherwise corrupted. These discs contain the same system recovery tools as a full Windows 7 disc, which are also given out by nice PC makers—and sold as an expensive accessory by skimpy Windows pre-installers.

Boot your system from NeoSmart’s CD, and you’ll get a stripped-down Windows system with a window offering startup file repair, Restore Point returns, recovery from a whole-cloth image, memory testing, and a command prompt for those dire moments when only frantically Google-d terminal instructions can save you.

These Windows 7 System Recovery Discs are a free download via BitTorrent from NeoSmart; alternately, hit the CyberNet link to grab a copy directly from file-hosting site MediaFire.