Windows XP is still the top operating system with a market share between 51% (Statcounter) and 57% (Hitslink). That’s a comfortable lead as it is still twice as much as the market share of Windows 7 which the services see between 24% and 19%.

A closer look at the past year reveals tendencies. Windows XP loses between 1% and 2% market share per month, while Windows gains about the same amount each month.

Windows Vista, the successor of Windows XP and predecessor of Windows 7, dropped as well from a market share between 22% and 17% to between 16% and 12%.

Windows 7 managed to surpass the highest market share of Windows Vista in one year’s time, and it is likely that recent trends will continue. Windows XP and Vista will continue to lose market share to Windows 7. Linux and Mac OS did not really change in that time. Only Statcounter sees a 1% increase of Mac OS.

Lets take a look at the browser market share as well. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is the browser with the highest market share. Statcounter recorded a drop below 50% to 48% in November while Hitslink sees the browser at 58% in November 2010 followed by Mozilla firefox with a market share between 22% and 31%, Google Chrome between 9% and 13%, Safari between 4% and 5% and the Opera browser at 2%.

Firefox does not seem to be able to get any more market share, as it is showing a constant share in the last twelve months. The only two browsers showing movement at all are Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (downwards) and Google Chrome (upwards).

The gadget displays several important parameters by default after installation, including the current memory usage, the used, free and total space of all hard drives, the cpu load of every core, cpu usage and clock. Several graphs display the values in addition to numeric representations.

Some users may want to increase the size of the gadget’s display to make it better readable, which can be helpful especially on larger displays. A click on the settings button allows that and a lot more. The size of the gadget window can be resized to every available size. The value is set as a percentage of the default value. But that’s not the only setting and option available in the eight tabs.

From useful double-click actions to spawn the Windows task manager, to changing the display of graphs, color schemes and interface elements, and enabling additional hardware parameters like core temperatures, users who delve into the options find a lot of useful settings.

It is furthermore possible to hide specific information from the System Monitor II interface which is helpful if space is of the essence or if those values are not necessarily needed.

System Monitor II is a great gadget for Vista and Windows 7. Mainly because it combines the most important hardware information in one highly configurable interface, and because its option to launch the task manager with a double-click. That’s really helpful to check a peaking value in the task manager.

The gadget is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. The project page is available at the developer’s website.

Microsoft explains the issue the following way:

When you upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7, the upgrade process does not check the current version of Internet Explorer. Windows then installs Internet Explorer 8 from the Windows 7 installation source.

Microsoft acknowledges the issue in a Knowledge Base article on Microsoft.com but does not offer a solution for the problem. The resolution they do offer in the support article is to install Internet Explorer 9 Beta after the upgrade to Windows 7.

It is not likely that many Windows users are affected by the issue considering that Internet Explorer 9 is only compatible with Windows Vista SP2 and Windows 7. And those that are affected by the issue do not lose any data in the process. Favorites and settings should still be there and the re-installation of Internet Explorer 9 should fix the problem once and for all.

Still, if you are running Windows Vista Service Pack 2 and plan to test Internet Explorer 9 and upgrade to Windows 7 you should start with the upgrade of the operating system first before installing Internet Explorer 9.

A total of five different Virtual PC images are offered, to give the web developer options to test websites in the following constellations:

• Internet Explorer 6 running on Windows XP SP3
• Internet Explorer 7 running on Windows XP SP3
• Internet Explorer 8 running on Windows XP SP3
• Internet Explorer 7 running on Windows Vista SP2
• Internet Explorer 8 running on Windows Vista SP2

The images are available as separate downloads from Microsoft Download. The Windows XP images have a size between 490 and 580 Megabytes, the Windows Vista images between 1990 and 2100 Megabytes. A version of Windows Virtual PC is required to run the virtual operating systems on the computer.

The XP and Vista images have different expiration dates:

Windows XP Images
These images were last updated on October 13, 2010, and expire on January 11, 2011.

IE6-on-XPSP3.exe contains a Windows XP SP3 with IE6 VHD file. Expires January 11, 2011
IE7-on-XPSP3.exe contains a Windows XP SP3 with IE7 VHD file. Expires January 11, 2011
IE8-on-XPSP3.exe contains a Windows XP SP3 with IE8 VHD file. Expires January 11, 2011

Windows Vista
Due to the size of the Vista VHD, it is split across several files, you’ll need to download all files for that version of the Internet Explorer and uncompress them to the same directory to unpack the VHD file. This VHD only has SP1, and should be updated to ensure it has the latest service packs and security updates.

IE7-VIS1.exe+IE7-VIS2.rar+IE7-VIS3.rar contain a Vista Image with IE7 VHD file. Expires 90 days after first run.
IE8-VIS1.exe+IE8-VIS2.rar+IE8-VIS3.rar+IE8-VIS4.rar contain a Vista Image with IE8 VHD file. Expires 90 days after first run.

The virtual PC images are created by double-clicking the files to create the VHD file. They then need to be loaded as a new VPC image in Virtual PC.

All five different Virtual PC images are available for download at Microsoft Download. Web developers find another option to Use Multiple Internet Explorer Versions Simultaneously in a previous guide that we have published.

Users of Windows Vista Business, Ultimate or Enterprise, and Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate or Enterprise, can enable Internet search in the Group Policy Editor. The editor can be launched by entering gpedit.msc in the Windows Start Menu search form, or by pressing Windows-R, typing gpedit.msc and hitting enter.

internet search start menu

The location Local Computer Policy > User Configuration > Start Menu and Taskbar contains the preference “Add Search Internet link to Start Menu”. A double-click opens the configuration window, where the preference can be enabled. This enables Internet Search in the start menu.

search internet

The Start Menu does not look different than before. The changes become obvious during searches only.

start menu search

A Search the Internet link has been added to the results page which leads to a search in the default web browser.

The option to enable Internet search in the start menu in editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7 that do not offer access to the Group Policy Editor is not available. The only somewhat comparable option is to add the address toolbar to the Windows Taskbar. But that option can only open website urls, and not searches.

Is there another option? Let us know in the comments.

I made the decision to install all updates, and new software to make the transition for the family member as easy as possible. Starting with Windows Updates, I ran into the problem that the Service Pack 2 installation would not complete.

The notebook was running an OEM copy of Vista, licensed to Toshiba. Research on the Internet revealed many users who had troubles installing Vista SP2 on OEM notebooks and desktop PCs.

The main suggestion in most of the “how to fix service pack 2 installation problems” guides, articles and forum posts was to run the System Update Readiness Tool for Vista.

This tool is being offered because an inconsistency was found in the Windows servicing store which may prevent the successful installation of future updates, service packs, and software. This tool checks your computer for such inconsistencies and tries to resolve issues if found. This update is provided to you and licensed under the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 License Terms.

It seemed to fix the issue for many users, but not all. Fingers crossed, I downloaded the software from Microsoft Download and began the installation.

It took about 15 minutes for the tool to analyse the system, and install a single hotfix. I tried the installation of the Service Pack 2 via Windows Update again after that and lo and behold, it installed without errors this time.

This may help other users who are in a similar situation, even though I doubt it that this many Vista PCs are still running Service Pack 1 or no service pack at all.

Did you ever run into troubles installing a service pack in Windows? Let us know about it and how you fixed the issue.

StatCounter, the W3Schools OS platform statistics and NetMarketShare have recorded a steady rise of Windows 7 ever since its introduction in October 2009.

Overall numbers differ because of the different data sets used in the calculation of the operating system market share.

Statcounter for instance recorded a Windows 7 market share of 19.86%, while NetMarketshare one of 14.46% and W3Schools of 19.8%. Vista’s market share respectively has been calculated to be 19.18%, 14.34% and 11.7%.

statcounter

netmarketshare

w3schools

It took Windows 7 less than a year to surpass Windows Vista, an operating system with a two and a half year head start. That’s not as surprising as it may sounds though, as Microsoft seems to be selling More Than 7 Copies Of Windows 7 A Second, resulting in more than 150 million Windows 7 copies sold in June 2010.

What may be surprising to some users is the steady decline of the Windows XP operating system, and the more or less stable market share of Windows Vista.

According to StatCounter, Windows XP dropped from an all-time high market share of 69.95% in July 2009 to 54.13% in August 2010. Netmarketshare saw a drop from 71.51% in September 2009 to 61.87% in July 2010, W3Schools a drop from 65.3% in October 2009 to 54.6% in June 2010.

Vista on the other hand did not drop that much. StatCounter recorded the market share of the Os with 22.71% in June 2009, and 19.18% in August 2010.

Netmarketshare similarly saw a drop from 18.62% in September 2009 to 14.34% in July 2010, while W3schools saw a drop from 18.6% to 11.7% in that period.

Windows XP is losing between 1-2% every month, while Windows 7 is gaining the same percentage in the same period. It will still be interesting to see if Windows 7 can keep up the momentum. Many experts believe that the market share will increase faster with the release of the first Windows 7 service pack, which is expected to be released in the beginning of 2011.

Windows XP is losing more absolute market share than Windows Vista. It is likely that Windows XP users who have waited a long time to migrate to another operating system pick Windows 7, Windows Vista users on the other hand sit on a relatively new operating system and computer, and are less likely the migrate yet.

StatCounter stats for individual continents show interesting trends as well.
Windows XP has dropped to 36% in July, while both Vista and Windows 7 gained market share and sit at 28% and 22%. Stats are similar in Europe, with Vista again in front of Windows 7 market share wise. Windows XP dropped to 46% over the last 12 months, Vista increased its market share to 24% and Windows 7 its to 22%.

The two continents where adoption rates are not as steep are Africa and Asia. Windows XP has a market share of over 70% in both continents.

Oh, and just for the laughs, Mac OS has a market share of 100% in Antarctica, at least for now.. [source: Statcounter, W3Schools, NetMarketShare]

The issue is caused by Wi-fi hotspots that make use of wireless access points or routers that do not support the power saving protocol of the 802.11 standard. What happens is the following. When the 821.11 wireless network adapter enters sleep state it indicates this to the wireless access point by setting this power save option in its packets that are send to the wireless AP. A wireless access point supporting the power saving protocol would notice the packets, and would begin to buffer packets that are destined for the network adapter of the mobile PC. Packets are send when the radio of the client network adapter turns on.

This behavior enables the wireless network adapter to use less power and to wake up periodically at the correct time to receive network traffic from the AP.

A wireless network adapter that does not support the power saving feature will not recognize the intention of saving power, and continue sending packets to the client adapter. Packets that reach the client adapter in turned off state are lost, and this causes the mobile connectivity issues.

Microsoft suggests three workarounds / fixes to repair the connectivity issues:

Method 1: Connect the mobile PC to a power source

When you plug the mobile PC into a power source, Windows Vista or Windows 7 switches the wireless network adapter power setting in the default power plan from the Medium Power Save setting to the Maximum Performance setting. This turns off the 802.11 power save mode.

Method 2: Modify the default power saving power plan

Modify the default on-battery power setting for the wireless network adapter. Configure the wireless network adapter to use the Maximum Performance setting when Windows Vista or Windows 7 is configured to use the Balanced power plan or the Power saver power plan. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, type Power Options in the Start Search box, and then click Power Options in the Programs list.
If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue.
2. Click Change plan settings under the power plan that is selected. For example, if the Balanced option is selected, click Change plan settings under Balanced.
3. Click Change advanced power settings.
4. In the Power Options dialog box, expand Wireless Adapter Settings, and then expand Power Saving Mode.
5. In the list that appears next to On battery, click Maximum Performance, and then click OK.

Method 3: Use the “High performance” power plan

If the computer is running on a power plan other than the High performance power plan when you connect to a wireless network, manually change the power plan to High performance. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, type Power Options in the Start Search box, and then click Power Options in the Programs list.
If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue.
Note You can also right-click the battery icon in the notification area to access the Power Options command.
2. Click High performance.

More information are available at the official Microsoft Knowledgebase article.

The Internet search engines and message boards are full with questions about the folder, many users want to know if it is safe to delete the Winsxs folder, if it needs to be included in operating system backups or why it has such an enormous size compared to other Windows folders.

winsxs

It is important to take a look back in time. Back in Windows 9x, the operating system had troubles with dynamic link libraries, more precisely with different versions of the same dll. There was simply no way to store multiple versions of a dll, which led to incompatibilities and other problems.

Then in Windows ME, Microsoft began to include options to store multiple dll versions using the same name in the operating system. It was not until Windows Vista that this technology was turned into what Vista and Windows 7 users are experiencing today.

If you open the folder in Windows Explorer you will notice a huge folder list, with each folder containing at least one file, but often multiple files. Folders that begin with the same name host different versions of the same dll, there are sometimes five or more folders that host different versions of the same dynamic link library.

winsxs folder

Winsxs, stands for Windows Side by Side, referring to the concept of hosting the same files in different versions in the operating system.

The backup folder is usually the largest folder in the Winsxs folder, followed by the naturallanguage6 folder and Manifests.

A Technet blog post by Jeff Hugh explains the move from an INF described OS to componentization in Windows Vista.

All of the components in the operating system are found in the WinSxS folder – in fact we call this location the component store. Each component has a unique name that includes the version, language, and processor architecture that it was built for. The WinSxS folder is the only location that the component is found on the system, all other instances of the files that you see on the system are “projected” by hard linking from the component store. Let me repeat that last point – there is only one instance (or full data copy) of each version of each file in the OS, and that instance is located in the WinSxS folder. So looked at from that perspective, the WinSxS folder is really the entirety of the whole OS, referred to as a “flat” in down-level operating systems. This also accounts for why you will no longer be prompted for media when running operations such as System File Checker (SFC), or when installing additional features and roles.

Jeff’s post gives an answer to the question if it is safe to delete files in the winsxs folder, in short: It is not.

The only option to reduce the file size of that folder safely is to remove software from the operating system that is not needed anymore, but even that won’t drop the file size considerably.

The only way to safely reduce the size of the WinSxS folder is to reduce the set of possible actions that the system can take – the easiest way to do that is to remove the packages that installed the components in the first place. This can be done by uninstalling superseded versions of packages that are on your system. Service Pack 1 contains a binary called VSP1CLN.EXE, a tool that will make the Service Pack package permanent (not removable) on your system, and remove the RTM versions of all superseded components. This can only be done because by making the Service Pack permanent we can guarantee that we won’t ever need the RTM versions.

It is best to leave the folder alone. Windows Vista users may be able to reduce the size of the Winsxs folder by running a third party application WinsxsLite

WinsxsLite is meant as a tool to help reduce the size of winsxs in Vista.
.
WinsxsLite is split into two phases.
The first phase searches the Program Files and Windows folders for files,
that are exactly identical to files in the winsxs folder.
.
The second phase replaces all the old versions of each file in winsxs,
with hardlinks to the highest version file.
So, it will still seem like there’s, say, 16 different versions of a
particular file, but in reality, there’s only one data object pointed to
by 16 directory entries.
Additionally, unused localized files can be eliminated, by replacing them
with hardlinks to the corresponding files in other languages.
.
Note: Both phases are optional.
.
Note: If Vista SP1 is installed, make sure vsp1cln.exe has been run.

It is highly advised to create a system backup before running WinsxsLite, considering that the software makes irreversible changes to the Windows system partition that can only be undone by a backup.

The latest version of the program is always available at the Google Code project website. The site links to a Rapidshare download location, we have taken the liberty to upload the latest file to our servers as well. You can download the 20K tool below: WinsxsLite1.86

Please note that it is only compatible with Windows Vista, and not Windows 7.

Windows Vista users with the Service Pack installed can furthermore run the VSP1CLN command-line tool to remove files that are not longer needed after the service pack has been installed. Please note that these files are needed for uninstalling the SP in Vista.

Do you have additional tips on reducing the size of the Winsxs folder? Let us know about them in the comments.

The memory usage of the buffers can be increased from an elevated command line prompt or the Windows Registry.

It in theory speeds up situations with many file operations, useful in every situation with an increased amount of read write operations.

Changing the setting with increase the paged and non-paged memory usage of the buffers which indicates that this tweak should only be used if enough spare system memory is available on the PC.

Microsoft TechNet offers the following description of the memoryusage value:

Configures the internal cache levels of NTFS paged pool and NTFS non-paged pool memory. Set to 1 or 2. When set to 1 (the default), NTFS uses the default amount of paged pool memory. When set to 2, NTFS increases the size of its lookaside lists and memory thresholds. A lookaside list is a pool of fixed-size kernel memory buffers that the kernel and device drivers create as private memory caches for file system operations, such as reading a file.

Increasing Memory Usage via the command line

An elevated command prompt is required for this operation. Click start, then All Programs, locate Accessories, right-click Command Prompt in the listing and select to Run As Administrator.

elevated command prompt

Issue the following command to increase the limit of paged pool memory:

fsutil behavior set memoryusage 2

fsutil memoryusage

Windows will return the new value in the same command prompt.

Windows users who would like to restore the old setting can issue the following command instead:

fsutil behavior set memoryusage 1

Increasing Memory Usage via the Windows Registry:

Open the Windows Registry Editor by either clicking on Start again and typing in regedit in the run box or by pressing Windows-R and typing in regedit in the opening run dialog window.

Navigate to the following Registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM \CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

Locate the entry NtfsMemoryUsage in the right window. Three possible values can be set:

• Not Set: 0
• Default: 1
• Increased: 2

registry memory usage

A restart of the computer system is required before the change will take effect, regardless whether it has been applied to the Registry or the command line.

It is probably a good idea to test the system in real-life situations after the restart to see if the speed gains are noticeable and verify that it continues to run stable.

This setting should be available in all Windows NT based systems. We have verified that it is available in Windows Vista, Windows 7 and the Windows Server line. Would be nice if Windows XP users could see if it is also available in that operating system.

(inspiration for this article taken from WebTlk)

The icon size can be changed in Windows Explorer as well. The View menu contains opens to change the icon size of the selected folder.

Most users do not know that there is an easier option to change the icon size, at least in Windows Vista and Windows 7. Pressing the Ctrl key and scrolling up or down with the mouse wheel changes the icon size of the active folder on the desktop or in Windows Explorer instantly.

This only works if the desktop or Windows Explorer are selected. The easiest option is to left-click on a blank spot on the desktop or in Windows Explorer before pressing Ctrl and using the mouse wheel.

The changes are saved by Windows and independent from each other. It is for instance possible to increase the icon size on the computer desktop while leaving all other icon sizes at their default value.

Have additional handy tips to share? Post yours in the comments.

Windows 7 started with a market share of 2.15% in October and managed to gain more than 10% in the following seven months. Windows Vista at the same time declined from 18% to 15% while Windows XP dropped from 70% to 62% in that time period.

Windows 7 will surpass Windows Vista if current trends continue in less than three months time.

But Windows Vista is not Microsoft’s prime target in the market share race. Windows XP is still going strong with its market share of 62.5%. It would take more than two years, assuming current trends continue, before Windows 7 would surpass Windows XP as the operating system with the biggest market share.

It has to be noted that usage share statistics depend on the tracking methods used. The operating system statistics over at W3c paint a different picture as they see Windows 7 in the lead over Vista by about 6%.

Current releases of Windows Live will continue to be supported on XP and the web based services of Windows Live Wave 4 will also be supported. Only the desktop applications won’t be supported anymore.

Windows XP is nearly 10 years old and simply doesn’t provide the same level of platform support for graphics, and we recognized early in our work on Wave 4 that we could do much more in our software on a modern graphics platform. As a result our new version of Essentials will require the new graphics platform and controls that are only available on Windows 7 or Windows Vista and therefore will only run on these platforms.

Windows Live Wave 4 is on the other hand not the only Microsoft software that will not be made available for Windows XP. Microsoft’s upcoming Internet browser Internet Explorer 9 will also lack Windows XP support.

Windows XP users on the other hand have many solid alternatives at hand that they can use without difficulties. But so do Windows 98 users.

Windows XP is currently dominating the operating system market with a market share of about 60% followed by Vista with roughly 16% and Windows 7 with 10%. The trend on the other hand shows a decline of about 10% in the last ten months.

Microsoft addressed the issue shortly after reports began to appear and revealed that the issues were linked to the patch MS10-015. The company did however mention at this time that it was not clear yet if the patch was the cause for the problems.

While that has not been ruled out completely the most likely cause for the BSOD after installing the updates is malware that is active on the affected computer systems.

Patrick W. Barnes found that malware was the cause of the BSOD. He first linked the infection to the Microsoft patch mentioned above by installing and uninstalling it with the help of the Windows Recovery Console.

Once the update is applied and the system rebooted, Windows will bluescreen at boot. When booted to Safe Mode, the system will freeze. Removing the update from the Windows Recovery Console or using live media will get the system booting again, at least until the update is reapplied.

He then discovered that the computer system was infected with the TDSS rootkit which infects the atapi.sys file in the operating system. The rootkit is very hard to spot and some security suites have failed until today to discover it and repair the system.

Cleaning TDSS from the computer system resulted in the computer system booting normally even after applying the security patch issued by Microsoft.

I have found that the root cause is an infection of %System32\drivers\atapi.sys, and that replacing this file with a clean version will get the system booting normally.

Microsoft’s Jerry Bryant has since then confirmed in a Twitter message that malware is one cause and that removing the malware will make the system boot normally. He did not want to rule out other causes at that time though.

Kaspersky has created a software called TDSS Killer which we reviewed a month ago that can be used to clean the affected operating system from the TDSS rootkit.

Patrick posted repair instructions in his blog post and mentioned the atapi.sys infection may not be the only cause of the blue screen.

An atapi.sys infection may not be the only cause of this blue screen. While it does seem to be the most common cause, other infected drivers or drivers that make incorrect references to the updated kernel bits may also cause blue screens after this update is applied. Make sure you scan any computer with up-to-date antivirus software that can detect rootkits and check for updated drivers for your computer before applying this update.

Windows users who are experiencing the blue screen of death after installing the patch should scan their computer system with an antivirus software that can detect rootkits.

To be precise: Windows Aero is not available in Windows Vista Home Basic and Windows 7 Starter and only partially enabled in Windows 7 Home Basic.

But there is another problem that users can encounter when trying to get Windows Aero to work. Microsoft has build in a hardware check that performs a check of the operating system before enabling Aero. It will block Aero from being executed iIf the operating system fails that check. This can usually be attributed to not meeting one or multiple of the minimum hardware requirements to run Aero.

Aero Enabler has been created by the developer to enable Windows Aero in Windows Vista and Windows 7. It’s primary purpose is to enable Aero in Windows Vista Home Basic and Windows 7 Home Basic. It will only be enabled if the computer system passes the hardware check to ensure that the system will run stable even with Aero enabled.

The minimum requirements to run Windows Aero are:

• 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 GB of system memory
• DirectX 9 compatible graphics processor with a Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver, Pixel shader 2.0 in hardware, and a minimum of 128 MB of Video RAM
• 40 GB hard drive with 15 GB free space

The software comes with a switch to disable the hardware check which only makes sense if the hardware check failed although the hardware should be capable of running Windows Aero. Enabling Aero on a computer system that does not meet the requirements could result in all kinds of problems including performance and stability issues.

Windows 7 Home Basic and Windows Vista Home Basic users who want to give Aero Enabler a try can download the software at the developer’s website.. (via Techie Buzz)

The standard way of dealing with file access rights is to change them so that files can be edited in Windows. This is done by right-clicking the file or folder, selecting properties from the context menu that is appearing and switching to the Security tab in the window that opens afterwards.

This window displays a list of user names and groups and their file access rights. Setting the file permissions this way is a lengthy process that becomes more than a nuisance if it has to be done for a lot of files and folders.

Take Ownership is a portable software program for Windows Vista and Windows 7 that can add an entry to take ownership of the selected file or folder to the context menu of Windows Explorer.

Changing ownership of a file or folder basically gives the new owner full file access rights so that the files can be modified. It is possible to change file ownership in the Properties menu as well but this requires quite a few clicks before the changes can be made.

Take Ownership simplifies that process making it extremely easy to change the owner of a file or folder.

The program will display a small window upon execution that can be used to install the shell extension so that the Take Ownership context menu entry appears in Windows Explorer. The application will automatically switch the install to an uninstall button after installation which can be used to uninstall the shell extension again.

The software program is mostly helpful for users who encounter file access rights errors regularly in their operating system. Take Ownership can be downloaded directly from the developer’s website.

The only way to overcome this restriction temporarily is to press F8 during system boot.But this would have to be done on every boot which can become quite a nuisance.

Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider is another option. The software program makes use of a developer test option in both operating systems to load drivers which would otherwise be rejected by the operating system.

These drivers still have to be signed but not digitally which means that the operating system will accept the signatures that are provided by the software.

This option does come at a price though as it is required to disable UAC, the User Account Control, to run the program in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

How to use the program:

So how do I use it?
First and foremost; you are using this software at your own risk, we do not take responsibility for any damages to your system, but we do not believe it can harm anyone anyway. Secondly, User Account Control (UAC) must be disabled in-order to use this tool as well.

1. Go ahead download and launch the application from the link below. Inside its main menu, press on the “Enable Test Mode” button and follow the instructions on the screen. This will enable TESTSIGNING mode, which allows unverified system files to be loaded.

2. Now all you have to do is to add the unverified signature to the required system files. To do so press on the “Sign a System File” button from the main menu, and enter specific filename including full path. For example: if ATITool64.sys from C:\Windows\System32\drivers refuses to load due to driver signature enforcement, you should type: “C:\Windows\System32\drivers\ATITool64.sys”, and if you would like to sign more than a single file, just repeat this procedure until you’re done, and finally reboot.

After you enabled Test Mode and added signatures to the required system files, they should bypass Windows’s driver signature enforcement and load without any issues.

Is it worth disabling UAC for it? This has to be answered by everyone individually. Windows Vista and Windows 7 users who want to give the software program a try can download Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider from the developer’s website.

Windows 7 shipped with DirectX 11 and Microsoft promised to deliver the new version of DirectX to Windows Vista users as well. Microsoft kept their promise and Windows Vista users are now able to download a so called platform upgrade for their operating system which adds DirectX 11 to it.

The easiest way to obtain the update is from Windows Update. The platform update will not only update DirectX but add a series of other improvements to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008:

• Windows Graphics, Imaging, and XPS Library – The Windows Graphics, Imaging, and XPS Library enables developers to take advantage of the advancements in modern graphics technologies for gaming, multimedia, imaging, and printing applications
• Windows Automation API – The Windows Automation API enables accessibility tools and test automations to access the Windows user interface in a consistent way across operating system versions.
• Windows Portable Devices Platform (Vista only) – The Windows Portable Devices Platform supplies the infrastructure to standardize data transfers between an application and a portable device, such as a mobile phone, a digital camera, or a portable media player.
• Windows Ribbon and Animation Manager Library – The Windows Ribbon and Animation Manager Library contains the following features:Windows Ribbon API, a command framework that enables developers to quickly and easily create rich ribbon experiences in their applications and Windows Animation Manager API, an animation framework for managing the scheduling and execution of user interface element animations

Additional information are available at the Microsoft Knowledgebase.

Windows Vista will have been restored on the computer but the Boot Configuration Database (BCD) store has not edited to restore Windows Vista as the default booting operating system.

The computer will continue to boot to the Windows 7 Setup and then fail until the BCD database has been restored to its previous state.

To resolve these issues, select Windows Vista instead of the default Windows 7 setup when you see the boot entry menu and then follow the steps listed below.

1. Insert the Windows Vista Media into the drive and exit the Windows Vista Setup when its launched

2. Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, and then right-click the Command Prompt icon, and then click Run as Administrator.

3. Type the following command at a command prompt and press ENTER

Drive:\boot\Bootsect.exe /NT60 All
Note: In this command, Drive is the drive where the Windows Vista installation media is located.

4. Restart your computer

This will simply make Windows Vista the default booting operating system. The Windows 7 upgrade issue itself is currently under investigation by Microsoft. An alternative would be to perform a clean install (see Clean Install Windows 7 With Windows 7 Upgrades) and use the Windows Easy Transfer tool to transfer user settings and files to the new operating system. (Thanks Dante for sending in the news)

Carroll is a small software program that offers a solution to this problem. The software is installed for all users allowing each to set their own screen resolution in the operating system. The computer program will display a list of available screen resolutions to the user upon startup. Selecting a screen resolution and clicking on the link “Change screen resolution and restore with every logon” will assign that screen resolution to the user. This will also be the screen resolution of all other users unless they specify a different screen resolution in the program.

This can be easily done as Carroll is installed for all users. Carroll needs to be autostarted with Windows if a custom screen resolution has been specified by a user. It will basically switch to the custom screen resolution upon startup.

Carroll is a small Windows software program that is available at the developer’s website.