The solution is to use virtualisation tools and on any modern PC this becomes relatively simple (depending on the tools you use).  In my monthly free webcast for February I’m taking a beginner’s look at virtualisation, examining what it is and the different tools available, and looking at how you can use it on your PC to help you keep running older software and how you can have multiple operating systems running side by side.

With a PC bought in the last couple of years you can run multiple operating systems side by side with little or no performance loss overall, as modern processors are very efficient at handling the extra OS calls virtualisation produces, and the amount of memory in modern PCs is more than enough for even demanding tasks.

The webcast takes place online at 10AM PT San Francisco | 6pm – London | 1pm – New York | Fri, Feb  3rd at 5am – Sydney | Fri, Feb  3rd at 3am – Tokyo | Fri, Feb  3rd at 2am – Beijing | 11:30pm – Mumbai on Thursday 2nd February.  It’s completely free and if you can’t make it live you can watch it recorded afterwards provided you have registered before it begins.  You can register for this webcast here.

A couple of examples of this are a printer driver that fails silently, and you won’t notice until the next time you go to print something, or a networking component fails taking down a Homegroup or Internet Access.  Fortunately Windows does include a handy wizard utility to alert you when something happens silently in the background, and you access it in the Event Viewer.

The first step is to find the original error.  This isn’t actually as difficult as it sounds as events are all clearly labelled with plain English explanations.  The details will include the name of the driver, application or service which has stopped working and it’s normally not too difficult to find what you’re looking for as you can further drill down by the appropriate date and time.  There will never be too many errors and warnings on your system which again makes it easier to find the specific error event you are looking for.

Once you have found the appropriate error, double click to open it and all instances of the error will be shown.  Here is where we we attach a task to this event to let us know when it occurs next.  Why might we want to do this?  It could be that the error is caused by a conflict with another piece of software or hardware, or that some other force external to the failed component is causing the problem.  Attaching a task and alerting the user to the error can help you to diagnose the problem because, especially if it’s happening regularly you ought to be able to see a pattern.

In the right hand panel of the Event Viewer for a specific event you will see the option to Attach [a] Task to This Event and this is what you should click.  There are several things you can do, for instance run a program.  You could have a PowerShell or other script to report on the error.  Windows contains the command line WEVTUTIL which can be used to export the details of events from the Event Viewer as a text file, and you can read more about how you can use this command here.

You can also send an email, but note that this will only work if you have an email client such as Microsoft Outlook installed and configured.  What we want to do though is alert the user with a message.

The wizard really coiuldn’t be simpler and will allow you to set the title and content of a dialog message box.  For instance you might set the title as “Component Failure Alert!” and the message as “Please stop what you’re doing and phone IT, a component has failed and we need to know exactly what was happening and what you were doing on your computer the instant this message appeared.”

In short, attaching tasks to the event viewer can be incredibly useful, especially if you use Command or PowerShell scripts to automatically report on the problem, and the email system to then send the file on to someone.  It a great way for an IT department to be able to detect, diagnose and find a solution to the problem without the end user having to be too involved in the process, and given that tasks can be exported and installed on multiple machines quite simply this is a Windows feature that I’m surprised isn’t used much more often.

Fortunately though there is an alternative and it’s in every version of the operating system (XP, Vista and Windows 7).  This is called “Safe Boot” and you can find it in the MSConfig panel.  To open this type msconfig into the Start Menu search box in Vista or Windows 7, or run msconfig from the run option in XP.

Under the Boot tab in the MSConfig window you’ll see the Safe Boot option as a tick box.  Turning this on will make Windows use the Safe Boot option every time thereafter.  When you want to stop using Safe Boot and return to starting Windows normally you’ll need to return to the MSConfig panel and untick this option.  There are also several other options here including Minimal Boot, which will take you into the full Safe Mode, but the standard option will normally be enough for most people.

The Safe Boot screen, as you can see here is a half-way house between the full Windows desktop and Safe Mode.  What you will find though is that most of your hardware drivers will be installed and working though your startup software will still be disabled.

So when might you want to use Safe Boot?  Occasionally you will encounter a problem in Windows that you will need to go into Safe Mode to repair.  As I mentioned earlier however Safe Mode won’t allow you to perform some Windows tasks, and this is where the Safe Boot mode is useful.  You may also suspect that your problems aren’t being caused by a hardware driver, but by software instead.  This diagnostic mode enables you to have a full Windows desktop where nothing loads at startup and where you can run and check programs individually to see what effect they are having on your system.

As I have already mentioned Safe Mode is extremely limiting, not just in the very low screen resolution that it gives you.  If you need to run full diagnostics on your copy of Windows, to see what’s going on under the hood, or if you need to test individual software packages in a safe environment where they will be able to run properly then Windows Safe Boot is the way to do it.

Remember though that you will need to turn off Safe Boot when you are done, or else Windows will start permanently in this mode.  I have found this to be a very useful diagnostic tool in Windows and it’s extremely underused because, frankly, many people simply do not know that it exists.  Hopefully you will find it useful too.

But the technology market is different, and in the last three years we’ve seen it take on a whole new dimension where Windows is no longer the obvious operating system choice, and where comparisons are increasingly being made with IBM.  On tablets, a market that Microsoft invented back around 2003 they’re going to have a real fight on their hands, and in computing generally it’s no longer clear what devices and form factors we’ll be using in even five or ten years time.  What is obvious however is that the traditional desktop PC is well and truly on its way out.  Lastly new operating systems such as iOS, Android and WebOS have blown away the notion that people will resist a learning curve on new devices.  So what would the world be like if Microsoft stopped making Windows desktop and server products?

First of all it’s not very likely, Microsoft would probably drop Windows products last of all with their expensive research and development centres and other products such as Xbox falling by the wayside first, so there’s no need to worry in the short term.  Windows 8 is a big gamble though and if it fails then Microsoft will either have to backtrack with Windows 9, pull an immensely impressive rabbit out of their hat or face the consequences of poor decision-making.

There has already been talk that Google would like to bring Android to the desktop.  HP said the same of WebOS, which they are still developing or at least maintaining, and could put extra resources back into quickly.  Ubuntu Linux is now at least as friendly as Windows XP was, only the lack of big name software for the platform is holding it back now and Apple’s OS X is becoming more like iOS with every release.  So it’s already clear that there’s plenty of choice.

We might also expect an open-source upstart operating system to appear too and it might even be a reinvigorated WebOS.  Companies such as the Mozilla Foundation might see an opportunity as their Firefox browser begins to fade in popularity, and this is just one of several places where a new operating system might emerge.

In the business space, some of the GNU/Linux companies including Red Hat, might jump in with versions that will run Windows programs on the desktop.  This isn’t new and has already been done with operating systems such as Lindows (later renamed Linspire).  This product still exists today and could prove popular with businesses if Windows 8 and Windows 9 fail to deliver the working experience that they need.

Again it’s very unlikely that Microsoft will cease development of Windows in the next twenty years at least.  If they’d have done it even five years ago there would have been almost no alternatives to choose from.  Should they do it now though businesses and consumers would probably just shrug their shoulders and quietly move on to the next big thing.

Fundamentally the “Send to Kindle” software adds a “Send to Kindle” option to the Windows context menu in Explorer when you right-click on one or multiple files (I know, that’s what I thought too!)  At its most basic this is just what it does.  There are few other features however that make it a little more useful than a way to get files and eBooks onto your device a second or two more quickly than normal.

One of these is that the Kindle doesn’t need to be physically connected to your PC when you do it.  The files will be synchronised with your Kindle Cloud and downloaded the next time the Kindle is on with WiFi activated.  This means that if you don’t have your Kindle handy when you realise there’s a useful file you’d like on it, this isn’t a barrier.

The other way it is useful is with a “Print to Kindle” option that will allow you to send pretty much anything and everything to your Kindle through the Windows print manager.  This latter feature will be genuinely useful for many people though, oddly, Amazon don’t make a fuss of either this or the wireless sync and you have do some digging on their website to find them out.

By default the Send to plug-in supports .DOC, .DOCX, .TXT, .RTF, .JPEG, .JPG, GIF, .PNG, .BMP and .PDF files though the printing option will extend this considerably.  Printed documents are sent as PDF files.

You can download the Send to Kindle software from the Amazon website for Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 and the Kindle apps for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch are also supported.  Amazon say that support for other devices and for the Mac will be coming soon.

Kinect for the Windows operating system has been officially announced during that keynote, which will be available from February 1 on. Retail sites like Amazon are already accepting preorders, with the price tag set to $249.99, which is about $100 more than Xbox 360 users have to pay. A recent blog post on the Kinect for Windows blog reveals details about the difference in pricing.

The ability to sell Kinect for Xbox 360 at its current price point is in large part subsidized by consumers buying a number of Kinect games, subscribing to Xbox LIVE, and making other transactions associated with the Xbox 360 ecosystem. In addition, the Kinect for Xbox 360 was built for and tested with the Xbox 360 console only, which is why it is not licensed for general commercial use, supported or under warranty when used on any other platform.

No subsidizing, no license for commercial use and no support or warranty are the core reasons for the price difference between Kinect for Windows and Microsoft’s Xbox. Microsoft will offer “special academic pricing” later this year.

Kinect for Windows will only run on computers running the Windows 7 or Windows 8 operating systems, and on Windows embedded-based devices. Microsoft will not charge license fees for the SDK or runtime, which will be available for free (and likely included with the Kinect for Windows hardware).

Developers who are currently using the beta SDK with the Xbox Kinect unit may continue to do so until June 16, 2016. New projects, non-commercial and commercial alike, are not permitted to use the unit. They “require the fully tested and supported Kinect for Windows hardware and software platform”.

Kinect for Windows ships with a small USB cable to connect the device to PCs and supported devices. A new firmware for the Windows unit enables the so called near mode which allows the sensors to pick up movement as near as 50 centimeters in front of the device.

Verdict

If you are asking me, I’d say that Kinect for Windows will take a backseat in the beginning. The product certainly has its appeal for developers. End users on the other hand cannot really do a lot with the unit straight from the start. The product seems to ship without games or applications, and if you add the price tag and need for installation of the SDK software to it you end up with an unattractive bundle for now. This may change in the future when apps or conversions becomes available.

What’s your take on Kinect for Windows?

This fault was present in the beta of Live Mesh and was never rectified for reasons I can’t figure out as, frankly it’s a big one, especially if you’re using a computer with an SSD on which space comes at an expensive premium.  In the example here, taken from one of my own computers you can see that Live Mesh, after a complete sync has finished, is taking up a huge 12.2Gb of space.

It’s not difficult to rectify this problem though you’ll have to access a system folder in Windows.

1. First of all in Windows Explorer press the Organize button
2. Select Folder and Search Options from the menu that appears
3. In the dialog that appears click on the View tab
4. Change the Hidden Files and Folders option to Show Hidden Files, Folders and Drives
5. Make sure the Hide Protected Operating System Files (Recommended) box is unticked

Now Open your Windows drive on your computer and navigate to the following folder…

Users > YouUserName > AppData > Local > Microsoft > Windows Live Mesh

The temporary files (identifiable by the .tmp suffix) are stored by Live Mesh in the  Assembler folder and are usually found at the bottom of the file list.  If you select all these files, right click on them and select their Properties you may find that they are using up a considerable amount of space.  On my computer they were using up 10.8Gb on my 80Gb SSD and these files wre neither needed nor were they doing anything.

It is perfectly safe once your sync is complete to delete all of these files.  They won’t interfere with the operation of Live Mesh as they’re no longer required.  I went looking as the space was need to install a new game and clearly 11Gb of wasted space is something you want to reclaim.

If you have software such as the excellent CCleaner installed on your PC you may find that it cleans out these files, but again, depending on how your system is configured it may not.  Thus I find it’s always a good idea to manually drill down to the Live Mesh folder once in a while to see if there are any temporary files there taking up space.  You can even want to put a shortcut to this folder somewhere.

Once you have completed this task you’ll want to go back into the Folder and Search Options in Windows Explorer and re-hide system and other files.  This will prevent any more being accidentally deleted.

If you are having real trouble with Live Mesh, which can happen and can prevent the system syncing files at all, you can delete the entire contents of the Windows Live Mesh folder.  This will reset everything, though you won’t need to set the computer up on the Live Mesh system again, and assuming your syncing is up to date it doesn’t take very long to rebuild itself.  Just remember to check for those dreaded temporary files again afterwards.

NOTE: If you do delete the entire contents of this folder to reset Live Mesh and find that it then tells oyu it’s re-sending or receiving thousands or even tens of thousands of files, it’s actually not.  Don’t worry, it’ll only take about twenty minutes or so to sort itself out and report that it’s completely up to date.

In Windows Vista and Windows 7 the new Resource Monitor is able to give you real-time information about just about everything going on inside your copy of Windows.  You can access it by typing the word resource into the Start Menu search box.

The Resource Monitor itself is split into different tabs and panels.  The tabs along the top will give you an Overview of your PC’s and Windows operations, but there are also tabs to give you detailed and in-depth information on your CPU, Memory, Disk and Network.

Each tab is split into collapsible panels that give you detailed information.  Where it comes in especially useful is in the following scenarios.

Scenario A – Your PC suddenly slows down at random moments and you can’t check why.  You have a look in the Task Manager but can’t see what it is that is chewing your processor cycles or memory.  Leaving the Resource Monitor open will give you much more detailed information than you will find the Task manager, including real-time graphs of exactly what’s going on.

Scenario B – Your network connection is slow and you don’t know why?  Using the Resource Manager you can see exactly what is using your network connection and how much bandwidth it’s using, not just overall, but split across your different connections and separating out Internet and local network traffic.

Overall I can’t recommend the Resource Monitor highly enough for helping diagnose and repair problems with slowdowns and bottlenecks on Windows PCs.  The Resource Monitor is very easy to use and understand and give you details of exactly what program or process is eating away at your valuable computer resources.

Then there are the problems associated with getting, and staying, online.  Once you’re there and connected there are inevitable breaks in your connection.  These are commonly unrelated to your own hardware and operating system but it doesn’t make them any less irritating.

Finally you have have issues with accessing other computers, devices and network shares on your home or office network, and anybody who has tried to get Windows 7′s HomeGroup feature to work reliably will know what I mean.  You might be pleased to hear then I’m running a completely free live webcast next Thursday November 3rd on the subject of Troubleshooting Network Issues in Windows 7.  It’s almost too big a subject to squeeze into an hour, but I’ll cover the most common problems and how to get and keep yourself online for both the Internet and your network.  You can pre-register for the webcast here.

The webcast will be followed by a Q&A and starts at 10 PT, San Francisco | 5pm – London* | 1pm – New York | Fri, Nov  4th at 5am – Sydney | Fri, Nov  4th at 3am – Tokyo | Fri, Nov  4th at 2am – Beijing | 11:30pm – Mumbai.  *IMPORTANT NOTE British Summer Time is ending this weekend and the clocks don’t go back in the USA for another week.  I’m not sure when the clocks go back in other countries but the times listed here (except for the UK time which is now correct) are summer times.  Check back on the day but I’ll make sure the website is updated in the next few days.

Anyway it really is a lot to squeeze into an hour so I wanted to share with you here some of my top networking tips, the first one of which you might find a bit odd.

Tip #1 – When Windows Won’t Start

This is by far one of my favourites as it involves PCs that just won’t start.  If you find that your PC hangs at the loading Windows screen and simply refuses to go any further unplug your network cable.  This problem can occur if your BIOS is set to allow network booting.  Simply unplugging the network cable will immediately allow Windows to continue booting.

Tip #2 – Turn it Off and on Again

You’d be surprised how many networking problems can be fixed by simply switching off your router and turning it on again.  This is especially true if you encounter the all-too common problem when networking and Internet works fine for all computers connected via a physical network cable but WiFi goes down completely.

Tip #3 – Change Your USB Socket

This is a very common one when a PC is moved from one place to another, such as when you move house.  You put the computer back together, plug your Wi-Fi USB dongle back in and suddenly discover that you can’t get online.  This is caused by a driver problem and can be simply fixed by unplugging the USB dongle and plugging it into the socket it was plugged into before.

Tip #4 – Delete Your WiFi Network

If your WiFi network is causing problems that include showing up as an unidentified network that you suddenly now can’t connect to, your settings for that WiFi network have become corrupt.  Go into the Network and Sharing Centre (accessed from the network icon on the Windows 7 Taskbar, or through the Control Panel) and click on Manage Wireless Networks.  Find the network that’s causing problems and delete it from your computer.  Now you can reconnect to it and build a new network profile that should work fine.

Tip #5 – Change the Channel

There are multiple channels that WiFi routers can be set to but some are set to either a specific channel or to fully automatic.  If you really arehaving trouble with your WiFi try loggin into your router’s administration settings and changing the channel.  Problems can commonly be caused if you have a neighbour also using the same network channel as you are.

What are your top networking tips?

Former Skype CEO Tony Bates is the first president of Microsoft’s Skype division reporting directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Skype offices and employees will stay in their original locations, so no change there either.

Skype users will be glad to hear that the products offered by Skype will remain as they are for the time being. Microsoft has plans however to integrate the technologies of the voice over IP software into other Microsoft products to increase Skype’s range and profits.

Microsoft has set up a Skype portal on the microsoft.com domain which currently redirects all links to the official Skype website.

How will Microsoft manage to get a return on their investment? It is likely that we will see integration of Skype into core Microsoft products. Possibilities include Microsoft Windows, Office, Xbox Live and the web products like Hotmail and Windows Live in general.

The goal to reach 1 billion users daily would mean that Microsoft would have to integrate Skype into nearly every Microsoft product available. Even then it is a very ambitious goal.

Skype recently struck a deal with Facebook to integrate the company’s video calling technologies into the social networking site to allow Facebook users to make video calls on the site. Microsoft could be thinking of similar options for their online products.

Probably the most interesting question at this point in time is if Microsoft will integrate Skype into the upcoming Windows 8 operating system. Doing so would boost the market reach of Skype significantly. Considering that Windows 8 will be optimized for tablets it could very well give Microsoft a much needed boost in that market.

What’s your take on the Microsoft Skype acquisition? Will we see Skype integrated in all Microsoft products in the next twelve or so months?

Users who visit the Windows Live Gallery page are now redirected to a Looking for gadgets page that states that the “Windows Live Gallery has been retired” in order “to focus support on the much richer set of opportunities available for the newest version of Windows”.

The informational page furthermore states that Microsoft “is no longer supporting development or uploading of new Gadgets”. Some desktop gadgets are still available for download as part of the Windows Personalization Gallery, but no where near as much as before.

It may come as a surprise that Microsoft decided to retire the Windows Live Gallery before the official release of the Windows 8 operating system. While it may make sense to get the majority of developers to develop with Windows 8 compatibility in mind, it means at the same time that Vista and Windows 7 users have less options when it comes to downloading and adding gadgets to their operating system.

The Redmond company wants developers to switch from developing gadgets for Windows to developing Metro-style apps for the upcoming Windows 8 operating system.

Windows Developer Preview allows you to leverage your existing skills and code assets so you can create great experiences for your customers. Gadget and web developers can now use their HTML5 and CSS3 skills to build native Windows apps. .NET Developers can use XAML, C#, and Visual Basic to build beautiful Metro-style apps. Game developers can use the power of DirectX 11.1 to build amazing, immersive gaming experiences. Driver developers benefit from increased productivity with the new, integrated Visual Studio development environment.

Not all developers on the other hand will have enough resources to build apps for an operating system that has not yet been released. It is also unclear how well Windows 8 will do, considering the controversial move to the Metro user interface.

Microsoft’s move to shut down the Windows Live Gallery is on the other hand not the immediate end for existing and future gadgets. Developers and companies on the other hand will have to find hosting for their gadgets if they did rely on the gallery up to this point to host and promote their gadgets.

Microsoft on the looking for gadgets page suggests to use the companies own CodePlex project hosting service as a new home for Windows gadgets.

What’s your take on the retiring of the Windows Live Gallery?

You will need to download the Windows 8 Developer ISO disk image and burn it to a DVD or put it on a USB device. Here is the link for the ISO: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/home/. You can save it in the Downloads folder until later in the tutorial where we will demonstrate how to create the disk image and boot it.

Create a hard drive partition of at least 20GB. Open the disk management console in Windows 7 by going to the start menu and typing in “run” and press Enter. Type “diskmgmt.msc” in the Open field and click OK.

This opens the console. To create a new partition, right-click on a Healthy Logical Drive and select Shrink Volume. Enter the amount of space for the partition in MB. So, enter 20000. This will actually give you 19.53 GB and therefore you may want to allocate 21-30GB for the partition to ensure functionality. On the PC used in this demonstration, entering 20000MB worked out fine in the end. It is your call.

You can see from the screenshot below that a new partition exists for the Windows 8 Developer Preview. Now it must be formatted and given a name.

Right-click the empty partition and choose “New Simple Volume”. The Wizard will launch and you will be prompted to enter the amount of unallocated space to use. Use the original default to avoid wasting any space. You will be asked to assign a drive letter. Do so and click Next. The following window will present and the only thing you have to do is enter the Volume label, or name of the partition. Click Next.

This will format the partition and you are now ready to install Windows 8 Developer Preview.

You should have downloaded the copy of the Windows 8 Preview by now. You will have to burn the ISO disk image to a DVD or USB device. Right-click the ISO disk image and select “Burn to Disk” and choose the disk for burning. Restart your computer and configure to boot from the appropriate source as the primary boot option in the BIOS. When booting from a DVD, you should see “press any key to boot from CD or DVD”. Press any key immediately. It will take just a moment, but the installation will begin.

Simply follow all of the steps to install. Accept the license agreement and choose custom installation. Select the appropriate partition created earlier or you will erase all data on other hard drives and partitions. It may take some time for the installation to complete. This is normal. Wait patiently. It is worth it.
The installation will commence and you will be asked to name the PC. After this, you will be prompted to choose express settings or custom settings. You can log into the computer using a Windows Live ID or create a local account.
Restart the computer after logging on so that the default returns to Windows 7. Reconfigure the BIOS and the next time you log on, you have the option between the two operating systems.

There it is! Now you are ready to preview Windows 8 without virtualization. Explore and have fun.

So how do you back up the drivers in your Windows installation and how can you use these?  In all versions of Windows the drivers are stored in the C:\Windows\System32 folder in the sub-folders Drivers, DriverStore and if your installation has one, DRVSTORE.  These folders contain all the hardware drivers for your operating system.  In the folder location, C represents the drive on which you have Windows installed, this may be a different letter on your system.

You can simply copy these folders out to seperate storage (DO NOT MOVE THEM) such as an external USB drive or Pen Drive.  When time comes to reinstall the drivers you can copy the folders back.

Now there are a couple of ways to reinstall the drivers.  The easiest way is to simply restart the PC when the driver folders have been copied back to see if Windows automatically detects drivers for uninstalled hardware.  This is possible, but won’t be the case for all your hardware.

To install drivers for the missing hardware you need to open the Device Manager.  You can do this by typing Device Manager into the search box in the Start Menu.  You will see all your uninstalled drivers highlighted with a small yellow warning triangle icon.  You need to Right-Click on each one and select Update Driver.  Because the correct drivers are already in the drivers folders on your computer, telling Windows to find the drivers automatically should always install the correct one.  You may however, in some cases, have to tell the Device Manager which folder to look for.  You can either point it directly to one of the two drivers folders, or just at the System32 folder; making sure you tick the box “include subfolders”.

There is an important caveat with this.  The drivers for 64 bit (x64) and 32 bit (x86) versions of Windows are usually different.  This means that if you copy x86 drivers into an x64 copy of Windows; or vice-versa, they will not install.  Windows will recognise them as being incorrect.  You cannot use this method therefore when migrating your system from the 32-bit version of Windows to the 64-bit version when, for example, adding more memory to your PC.

You CAN use this method to migrate drivers between Windows Vista and Windows 7 (and back again) as both operating system share the same driver model, but again not between x86 and x64 builds.  You CAN’T use this to migrate Windows XP drivers to Vista or Windows 7 however as Windows XP uses an older driver model and the hardware drivers for XP are not compatible with the newer versions of Windows.

You can use third party software to remove metadata, like the previously reviewed Microsoft Word Metadata Scrubber or the JPEG and PNG Metadata Stripper.

Microsoft has added options to remove metadata from a number of files natively into the Windows operating system. There are basically two options available.

Remove Properties From Individual Files

The first option is to right-click a file, for instance a Word document, and select properties from the context menu. You then need to switch to the Details tab to see all the documents properties lined up.

You can click on the remove Properties and Personal Information link at the bottom of the window, or click in a specific field to remove, edit or add values. You could remove information about the author, comments or the subject from a document before sending it to a third party, or to add those information before you do.

This works well for single documents, not so much if you have to edit the file properties of several documents or files at once. Before we discuss that I’d like to point out that there is another option available. When you select a document in Windows Explorer you see some of its properties which you can edit right in the toolbar there without opening the properties.

Remove File Properties from multiple files

The following option is not working on all systems. I have yet to find an explanation for this. It does not work at all on my 64-bit Windows 7 Professional system for instance. Select multiple files in Windows Explorer, for instance some png, jpg, doc or pdf files.

Switch to Organize in the toolbar below the menubar and select the Remove Properties option from there.

Please note that Windows will create copies of the original files with removed properties. The idea here is to clean a number of files from sensitive information before sending them to a third party.

This post here contains a list of some of the best Windows 8 tips and tricks that I discovered in my feed reader. I review each tip in a few links and link back to the site that posted the tip originally.

Windows 8 Tips

Before I start I’d like to recommend Windows 8 News, a partner site that covers everything there is to know about the new Microsoft operating system. Lets start with the tips collection.

Change the Apps rows number in Windows 8 Metro

The Metro UI start page displays apps in three, four or five rows depending on the screen resolution of the monitor. There is no option to change the number of rows in the settings. A Registry key determines the row count that is shown on that start screen. While it is not possible to increase it, users can decrease the number of rows easily.

The Into Windows site explains how this is done.

Use the shortcut combination Windows-r to open the run dialog box. Enter regedit.exe in there and hit the enter key. This opens the Windows Registry Editor. Navigate to the Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\Grid and locate the parameter Layout_MaximumRowCount there on the right side. If the key does not exist create it by right-clicking there and selecting New > Dword (32) from the context menu.

Please note that you can only reduce the number of rows from 5 to either 4 or 3, and from 4 to 3. There is no known option to increase the number of rows beyond the default value for the screen resolution used, or to decrease it to less than three rows.

You need to log off and on again or restart the computer before the changes become visible in the operating system.

Turn on the File History feature

File History is a new feature of the Windows 8 operating system that saves file copies which can be restored at a later time in case the original files have been damaged, deleted or corrupted.

File History is disabled by default. You can access the settings of the feature in the Windows Control Panel. The easiest way to get there is to click on Control Panel in the Metro Interface and select More Settings there to open the standard Control Panel with all options. There you click on System and Security, and then File History there.

Please note that you need an external storage device like an external hard drive or USB key to turn the feature on.

File History will copy files from the libraries, desktop, contacts and favorites to the external storage device. It is possible to exclude folders from the feature, and configure advanced settings like the copy creation frequency or file retention.

Additional information are available at to The Pc.

Run Internet Explorer 10 in 64-bit mode

If you do not want to run Internet Explorer 10 in 32-bit mode on Windows 8, you can run the 64-bit version instead. Addictive Tips explains how to configure Internet Explorer 10 to run in 64-bit mode.

You need to make a change to a setting in the Internet Options. That’s different from how it is handled under Vista or Windows 7.

Click on Control Panel > More Settings > Network and Internet > Internet Options to open the configuration menu. Switch to the Security tab and check the “Enable 64-bit Mode (requires restarting Internet Explorer)” there. Please note that you need to have installed the 64-bit version of Windows 7 for the option to become available.

Enable Power Options That are by default unavailable

Some power options are not enabled by default under Windows 8. This includes for instance the popular Hibernation system state. Instant Fundas explains how to enable those missing power options again.

The Control Panel needs to be opened again (by clicking on Control Panel in the Metro Start screen and selecting More Settings). Enter power options in the search there and select “change what the power buttons do” from the search results.

Select Change settings that are currently unavailable and scroll down to the very bottom. There you see the new “Show Hibernate” option that is not enabled. Click in the box to enable it and select Save changes afterwards.

The Metro power button is now listing Hibernate next to the other options (you reach the power button by moving your mouse cursor to the lower left side of the screen and selecting Settings from the options there).

Add Shutdown, Restart, Sleep, Hibernate Tiles under Start

It is not the most comfortable option to reach the Power button this way. A superior option has been discovered by Nirmal TV. The blog post explains how you can add system state tiles to the Start page to change the system state more comfortably.

The process is a bit lengthy and requires quite some juggling around. Users who are missing an option to quickly change the system state can use the tip to add those tiles directly to the interface.

Change the Windows 8 Metro Background Start Color

The next tip has been posted at the Addictive Tips blog. Please note that it requires core system file editing. Make sure you backup files that need to be edited before making changes to them. The results can look like this:

Lets hope Microsoft will add an easier way of changing the green background color in the final version of Windows 8.

Enable Safe Mode In Windows 8

Safe Boot is a troubleshooting mode of the Windows operating system. It is disabled by default so that the F8 key does not reveal the option to start Safe Boot during system boot.

Blogs Dna has the answer for users who want Safe Boot enabled under Windows 8.

Enter cmd in the Metro Start window, right-click the Command Prompt result, select Advanced from the options at the bottom and then Run as administrator. You can alternatively hold down Ctrl-Shift before clicking on the Command Prompt entry to start it. This triggers an UAC prompt which you need to accept.

Type the following command in the command window: bcdedit /enum /v

Locate the GUID identifier of the Windows 8 Developer Preview and copy it. Use the command

Bcdedit /copy {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx} /d “Windows Developer Preview – Safe Boot”

where {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx} is the GUID identifier. Type msconfig and select the entry under the Boot tab. Check Safe Boot in boot options and Make all boot settings permanent.

The Safe Boot entry will be displayed during system boot.

There are fundamental differences though. The Metro UI version of Internet Explorer is plugin free, which means that you won’t be able to access Flash, Silverlight or Java contents using that browser. Microsoft concentrates fully on HTML5, which is a bold move.

The desktop Internet Explorer 10 on the other hand will continue to support browser plugins and other standards and other browser extensions.

Our approach in Windows 8 starts with one great HTML5 browsing engine that powers two different experiences. The single engine provides strong support for web standards, hardware-accelerated performance, security, privacy, and more. Then, we built two experiences on top of that engine: a new Metro style experience as well as a more traditional, current-generation desktop browser with tabs and relatively minimal “chrome.”

Microsoft notes that “the Metro style browser in the current Windows Developer Preview is for developers, not consumers” which means that it is likely that it will get optimized and fine tuned before the RTM version of the operating system is released.

The two “experiences” share data between each other. This includes the browsing history, typed addresses, favorites and settings among other things.

Here is how Internet Explorer 10 looks under the Metro UI.

The user interface has been reduced to a bare minimum. All you see is a bar at the bottom to enter a web address and perform other actions like reloading the page or opening a previously visited website. The remaining user interface elements auto hide once the user begins interacting with the website. The controls include an option to view the current page in the desktop browser, which can be handy to access websites that rely on plugins.

Microsoft has created a short demonstration video which you can see below.

Offering two versions of Internet Explorer on the same operating system feels redundant on first glance. I can see tablet users working with the Metro UI version of IE10 as it seems easy to use and work with, but even they will run into many websites that do not work properly because of missing plugin support. Think of all the Flash gaming sites for instance, they won’t go away in the next year or so.

And what about Windows users who would like to use the full version of Internet Explorer in the Metro UI? Is there a way to do that?

It is impossible to answer all questions that we have at this point in time. Windows 8 is a work in progress. I do hope that Microsoft will offer ways to customize the operating system to please all users.

You can read more about Internet Explorer 10 in its current form on the Building Windows 8 blog.

I have downloaded and installed Windows 8 on my Acer laptop which is powered by an Intel U500 1.4 GHz cpu and four Gigabytes of RAM.

In this article I’m going to concentrate on five aspects or things of Windows 8 that I really like. In another article later today, I will write about five things that I do not like.

Lower Memory Footprint

Microsoft has reduced the memory footprint of the operating system significantly. The developer preview of Windows 8 as it was released yesterday sits at about 281 Megabyte and 29 processes after start and idle. Windows 7 on the other hand today with service pack 1 installed sits at 404 Megabytes and 32 processes. Older and underpowered hardware like my Acer laptop benefit the most from this. ARM systems will benefit from this as well considerably.

Faster Boot Times

I tested the boot time on my laptop after installing Windows 8 and have to say that it is speedy. I would not say it is super fast, but definitely faster than the time it takes to boot for my Windows 7 desktop cpu that is powered by one of the fastest SSD drives on the market. I’m certain that Windows 8 on that desktop cpu would almost feel like instant on, and that it would probably take longer for the BIOS to post than for the operating system to load.

Windows Explorer

I do not use the ribbon interface at all, and I have to thank Microsoft for giving me the option to minimize the ribbon and use the Quick Access Bar instead. I have not really found a way to customize that bar on the other hand. There seem to be six functions available only: New Folder, Properties, Rename, Undo, Redo, Delete.

The new file copy dialog is excellent. It can be used to see realtime data and to pause and resume copy jobs.

Refreshing, Resetting Windows 8

Microsoft has integrated a refresh and reset option into Windows 8. Refresh basically restores the PC’s settings without touching the user’s files, personalizations and apps that have been installed from Windows Store.

Reset on the other hand has been designed to remove all personalizations from the PC. This basically returns the operating system to the state right after installation. All personalizations and files will be removed.

Refresh and Reset are part of the Windows Control Panel. They can be used by loading the full Control Panel on the Windows desktop and selecting Review your computer’s status under System and Security.

Windows Live Cloud

Windows 8 users can create local account or use a Windows Live account to log into the operating system. If they use their Live account they benefit from synchronization features, for instance by having access to all their metro-style apps on all PCs that they log in. The operating system will synchronize personalization features so that the desktop looks the same on every PC the user logs in.

I have to admit that I played around with the operating system for about an hour until now. This basically means that there may be more features lurking around that I have not discovered yet. Plus, the developer preview does not contain all the features of the final Windows 8 version.

Have you had a chance to play around with Windows 8? If so, what is your impression?

Up until now Microsoft has revealed that they will improve the file management basics of the operating system, improve Windows Explorer with a new ribbon user interface, add ISO and VHD mounting and switch to a new Metro style desktop interface.

Especially the ribbon interface of Windows Explorer and the Metro UI have received criticism both in the form of comments on the official blog but also on Twitter and third party sites that reported about the changes.

Steven Sinofsky acknowledges that Microsoft knew that those two topics would receive criticism, especially from readers of the blog and followers on Twitter, and not so much from average users.

When you look at the comment count, you will notice that the Windows Explorer announcement post received more than 1100 comments, which is double the size of the article with the second largest amount of comments.

The post addresses the criticism without going into much detail.

Without repeating the first post, I would add that we do believe we have taken into account many of the criticisms we were certain would surface. We chose the ribbon mechanism, and to those that find that a flawed choice, there isn’t much we can do other than disagree.

It is obviously difficulty to argue about new user interfaces but simply stating that Microsoft disagrees with the critics is not going to help “sell” the new interface. It is clear however that Microsoft is intent to go forward with the change, even though Mr. Sinofsky mentioned that Microsoft continues to refine the commands, settings and graphics.

One thing is sure though, Windows Explorer will ship with a ribbon interface.

Metro style, which has not received quite as many comments, will have a much bigger impact than Windows Explorer. Users will boot into Metro style, and it is not clear yet if they can opt-out of it to load the standard desktop right instead on Windows start.

Users who do not want to use Windows Explorer can download and install file management tool alternatives. With Metro UI, that does not seem to be possible.

Metro for Microsoft is a “reimagining of Windows”. A phrase that is used several times on the blog. It is not as simply as saying that Metro is the successor of Windows Aero, as it appears to be more than that for Microsoft.

For Windows 8, Metro style means a new type of app—an app that learns from and improves upon the current (and most popular) platform.

Microsoft is “fairly certain” that users will warm up to Metro once they are able to use it.

That diversity allows us to say with confidence that going from Metro style to the desktop will be harmonious—as harmonious as switching apps or sites is today. It will take orchestration at the top level to make moving seamless—that’s why you see things like switching between apps, snapping apps, or even using ALT+TAB between apps, and the desktop itself, all mechanisms that just work.

You can see Metro in action here:

What Microsoft fails to address, and likely for a reason, is how Metro and the standard desktop operations will play together on a day to day basis. While it seems possible to add program shortcuts, and maybe even files or folders to one of the Metro widgets on the screen, it looks as if it is more complicated to access folders and files that are not. How fast can you access programs that are not linked directly, and is that approach faster than using the standard start menu? How well do windows integrate into Metro? If I open a window, will it be shown in front of Metro? Will I use Alt-Tab to switch between windows? Without a taskbar visible, that seems to be one of the options remaining.

Many questions are left unanswered at this point in development. We might get some answers from the Build conference later this month, as Microsoft intents to reveal a lot about Windows 8 there.

I personally do not think it is all as bad as some users paint it. I only do hope that Microsoft adds the right level of customization to the operating system to please all kinds of users.

Click on your start menu and type the words “ease of use” into the search box, and then press return. You will find a section called Ease of Access Center. In this area scroll all the way down to the bottom and find a section called “Make it easier to focus on Tasks”. Click on this you’ll be taken a new screen. Go to the bottom of this screen and find the section called “Make it easier to manage windows”. Uncheck the box that prevents windows from being automatically arranged when moved to the edge. This will give you a small increase in performance.

Please note that you cannot move windows to the edge of the screen anymore to automatically arrange them afterwards.

Now go to your start menu again and type, “turn off features” into the search box. This will give you a search result called “Turn Windows features on or off”. Click on this and this will take you to an area that will enable or disable certain windows features. Disable anything you don’t need, such as games. It’s really up to you what you need and don’t need, so go down the list and decide what you use. If unsure, leave it enabled. Chances are you’ll find a few things to turn off, and that will free up resources in Windows.

Go back to your search from the start menu and type “uac”. This will enable you to change user account control settings. There will be a sliding bar that controls how often you are notified about changes to your computer. If you’re not worried about messages and are happy to let your computer manage itself, slide the bar all the way to “never notify”. This means you’ll get fewer messages, it will be less annoying, and you’ll boost your performance slightly.

Now go to your start menu and right-click on “Computer”. You’ll get a sub-menu where you can then click on “manage”. In here, click on “services and applications”, and then on “services”. In services you have a number of different things, which can be turned on and off automatically on startup. Most things in here should be left alone, but one feature called “windows search” can take up a lot of resources. This is the indexing feature of windows. You can double click on this and choose “disabled” from the drop down list. This will help improve your computer’s performance, because Windows won’t be indexing every file from now on. Of course, you can always turn it back on again if you wish later.

These are just a few things you can do to help boost your computer’s performance with very little effort.

Update:

In response to the comments regarding 4 ways to increase performance

The article above was written with enhancing performance in mind. It offers a few suggestions on how, by freeing up resources and turning off unwanted Windows 7 features, small gains in performance can be achieved.

Naturally, different people use their computers in different ways, and some users have varying levels of technical expertise. It’s always advised that if you are unsure about changing settings then you should leave well enough alone. This is no “one size fits all” when it comes to settings customization. You should enable or disable services and features dependent on what you feel is right for you. For example, turning off indexing will certainly increase performance – but if you need indexing, don’t turn it off.

Many experienced users don’t need some of the features mentioned above and can safely disable them, and that’s why they are specifically mentioned. Disabling services and turning off unused features will always increase performance, however little that performance gain may be. You may decide that some of these gains are undetectable on very fast computers.

In addition, many users have third-party security software that renders certain security features of Windows 7 redundant, so in those cases some of these tips will still be relevant

Update 2: Disabling UAC is something that only experienced users should do, as it can impact the system’s security.

Mounting ISO images can have lots of advantages. For one, you may not need to burn an ISO to DVD if you have downloaded it from the Internet to play media or install software. Another benefit are holiday tours with your laptop. Instead of having to take your precious DVD movies or Blu-Ray movies with you, you can create ISO images instead and store them on the hard drive.

If you ever had the pleasure of going on holiday with children, you might know how media can look like on the return home (if you ever find it again that is).

Windows 7 came with capabilities to burn iso images to disc, but it lacked the ability to mount iso images natively. A recent blog post at the Building Windows 8 blog highlights that Microsoft will support iso mounting under Windows 8 natively.

ISO images are mounted either with a double-click in the new Windows Explorer or by selecting the Mount option from the actions menu.

The ISO image then becomes available as a new drive on the operating system. All of its files are then accessible directly in Windows. This behavior is similar to that of third party ISO mounting tools like ISODisk, WinCDEmu or Virtual Clone Drive.

The very same mounting options are available for virtual hard drive files as well, with the difference that they appear as hard drives and not optical drives in Windows Explorer.

Here is a video that demonstrates both the ISO and VHD mounting capabilities of Windows 8.

ISO is definitely the most used formats when it comes to virtual disk image formats. Third party tools still offer some advantages like additional disk format support that Windows 8 still does not support. (via Windows 8 To Have Native ISO Support).