Sharing in a HomeGroup

In addition to sharing out individual folders, as was possible in previous versions of Windows, HomeGroup also shares out Explorer Libraries

• Explorer libraries aggregate multiple locations on a physical file system, and present them in a logical view.
• Each scope of a library is backed by an network share
• This allows multiple SMB shares to be aggregated into one library location
• Each library is published to the network

Users can browse either shared Explorer libraries or shared folders when browsing a HomeGroup computer, which is exposed in a dedicated node in Explorer labeled as HomeGroup. In the sample screenshot below, we see a user browsing their HomeGroup from a computer named Jeremy-laptop and logged in with the user account Jeremy.

From this screenshot we can see several things:

• Even though HomeGroup is primarily a network technology, it exists as a separate node from the Network node in the Explorer navigation pane.
• The list of computers under the HomeGroup node shows the user that that shared folders and libraries belong to.
• While logged into the local computer (with the computer name Jeremy-laptop) we see that the HomeGroup list in the navigation pane shows both local entries and remote entries. Every user that shares out folders or libraries on the HomeGroup gets a unique entry in the HomeGroup, even if they are on the same computer.
• While viewing the HomeGroup computer we see that the user Jeremy on Jeremy-PC has both libraries (which are a collection of folders) and unique file folders shared out to the HomeGroup. They are all combined into the same view.

Browsing Media in a HomeGroup

Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center are both capable of browsing and consuming media that is shared on the HomeGroup. Windows Media Player will show other HomeGroup PCs under Other Libraries. These other libraries contain the same contents as the explorer library scopes. These scopes are also accessible through compatible UPnP media playback devices like the Xbox 360 and the Roku Soundbridge.

Media Center will show other HomeGroup PCs under the Shared tab.

• Media Center uses the WMP Media Sharing Service for Music, Video and Pictures.
• Recorded TV is enabled by directly accessing the network share \\\public\recorded TV.
• Media Center can play back recorded TV that is not DRM protected from another HomeGroup PC or make a copy for playback while travelling.

Sharing printers in a HomeGroup

When a user shares their printer in the HomeGroup Control Panel, all USB-connected printers that are installed on that local PC are automatically shared:

• If the printer has drivers certified by WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Lab), the printer will be silently installed on all HomeGroup PCs.
• If the printer does not drivers that have been certified , the printer will display a notification, and also show UI in the HomeGroup control panel, asking the user to elevate to install the printer driver.
  • This notification will only show once in the tray and always show in the control panel until the user has acted on it

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Several programs and features built-in with Windows, like Internet Information Services, must be turned on before they can be used. A variety of other features are turned on by default, but can be turned off if they are not used.

To turn off a feature in earlier versions of Windows, it had to be uninstalled completely from the computer.
In Windows 7, the features remain stored on the hard disk so its easy to be turned back on when needed.

If you turn off a feature in Windows 7, you really does not uninstall the feature, and it also does not reduce the amount of hard disk space used by Windows features.

Follow the steps below to turn Windows features "On" or "Off":

* Click the Start button, go to Control Panel, select Programs, and then click Turn Windows features On or Off. If prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, just type the password or provide confirmation.

*To turn a Windows feature on, select the check box next to the feature. To turn a Windows feature off, clear the check box. Hit OK.


Certain Windows features are grouped together in folders, and some folders include subfolders with extra features. If a check box is partly checked or is dimmed, then a few of the items inside the folder are turned on and some are turned off. To check the contents of the folder, just double-click it.

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DELL has recently launched the "Windows 7 Free and Easy Upgrade from Vista" program on select platforms. This promotion will enable Dell to be at par with their retail partners by letting customers purchasing a Dell PC starting October 5, 2009, to have Windows 7 installed on their PC by October 22. Below is Dell’s recent announcement:



Let Dell do the heavy lifting and upgrade your new PC to Windows 7 for you.

For those customers who are waiting for Windows 7 to arrive, Dell has a deal for you. Dell is expanding their upgrade program with a new option - the Windows 7 Free and Easy Upgrade program - which takes the hassle out of upgrading a PC to Windows 7 because Dell will do it for you. Now customers can purchase popular PCs like the Inspiron 15 or 17 laptop, Studio 15 laptop, Inspiron 546 or Studio desktop and Dell will install Windows 7 Premium on it before shipping.

As the program name implies, there are no additional charges associated with this. Dell’s goal is to make it as easy as possible for customers to order a new PC powered by Windows 7 and get on with the daily business, and around Oct. 22, or soon after the new PC will arrive. Of course for those customers who prefer a do-it-yourself, Dell is still offering the Windows 7 Technical Upgrade program, in which a customer buys a qualifying PC with Vista Home Premium, Vista Business Pro or Vista Ultimate, and registers for the Windows 7 upgrade kit, which then ships within a few weeks of October 22.

Dell is looking forward to the customer’s feedback on this new option in our upgrade program, and depending on customer response, Dell will investigate adding additional PC models as well as expanding it on a global basis. Go to http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/windows-7-easy-upgrade?&s=dhs.
For more details, head over to the Direct to Dell blog: http://en.community.dell.com/blogs/direct2dell/.

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As smartphones increased fame outside of the business world, a division formed among devices created for consumers (lifestyle smartphones) and those created for enterprise deployments (professional smartphones). Professional devices become more integrable into bigger systems and now provide more in the productivity department whereas lifestyle devices accommodate more to the individual's tastes as well as provide more in terms of entertainment.



Though Microsoft has plenty of consumer smartphones running Windows Mobile, the operating system has found itself on the far end of "Professional," struggling to appeal to consumers enamored with touch-based operating systems. So Microsoft has worked to make Windows Mobile 6.5 and future versions much more "finger friendly," without sacrificing their professional capabilities.

For the meantime, SPB Software has developed its own interface for earlier versions of Windows Mobile that does that very thing. At present, the company has released the most recent update to its SPB Mobile Shell, an interface for Windows Mobile Professional that has layouts for both lifestyle as well as professional users which can run either simultaneously or individually.

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Microsoft officially launched its own antivirus tool today after their Beta launch last June.

After the Redmond-based company pushed out a beta of Microsoft Security Essentials last June, enabling the software to be available to users in the United States, Israel (English only), People's Republic of China (Simplified Chinese only) and Brazil (Brazilian Portuguese only), Microsoft president for Server and Tools division Bob Muglia announced that the tool will be available for everyone today.

Previously known as Morro, Microsoft Security Essentials aims to provide basic protection from various types of malicious software, including viruses, spyware, trojans, and even rootkits. After today's launch of Microsoft Security Essentials, Microsoft will then completely discontinue OneCare, the company’s current security software that was released three years ago.

Even with Microsoft's offer of a free security suite that requires no registration, trial or renewal may sound like something that would threaten competitors, it seems like major rivals are completely unaffected by the product. Even when the Beta was launched, neither Symantec nor McAfee showed any sign of worry.

Symantec's Consumer division president, Janice Chaffin, explained that Morro is mainly a stripped down version of OneCare. "A full Internet security suite is what consumers require today to stay fully protected," she told Reuters when news of the software came out last summer. McAfee confirmed that it remained confident in its ability to compete with "anyone who might enter the marketplace."

You can download MSE by visiting the download page here and be sure to let me know what you think.

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Windows 7 and Vista have a built-in functionality in Disk Management to shrink and/or expand partitions. You no longer need any 3rd-party utilities.

To enable this utility, just open up Control Panel and type in partition into the search box. You’ll immediately see this link show up:



Shrink a Partition

To shrink a partition, right-click on the partition that you want to shrink, under the Disk Management screen and choose “Shrink Volume” from the menu.


Under the Shrink dialog, you’ll need to enter the amount you want to shrink the partition by, NOT the new size. For instance, if you need to shrink your 50GB partition by around 10GB so that it will now be around 40GB, just enter 10000 into the box:


Extend a Partition

To extend a partition, just right-click on the partition that you need to extend under Disk Management screen and choose “Extend Volume” from the menu.


On this screen, you can now specify the amount that you need to increase the partition by. In this example, we’re going to extend it back to around 50GB size.

Please note that the extend partition feature only works with contiguous space.

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Perhaps, one of the most annoying thing when you set-up a wireless network is having to remember the pass key (security key) and typing it perfectly correct so you can connect your laptop or netbook to it. Just imagine if you need 2 or more of your portables to connect to a wireless network. Well, Windows 7 may have a pretty convenient solution to this. You can now easily export your wireless settings from one computer to another.

Backing up the wireless networks settings from Windows 7 is easy, and the settings can also be saved to a USB drive. Moreover, you can import the settings on laptops & netbooks running Windows XP, Windows Vista and/or Windows 7.

Saving Your Wireless Network Settings

Open the Network and Sharing Center first. To do this, simply click on the wireless network symbol from the taskbar and choose ‘Open Network and Sharing Center’. Another way to do this is go to Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network and Sharing Center.


Click the ‘Manage wireless networks’ link on the left side of the Network and Sharing Center window.


You will see a list with all wireless networks to which you have connected in previously under the Manage Wireless Networks window. Just double-click on those you prefer.


You will now see a window with all its properties. To save them on a flash drive: Click on the bottom link that says ‘Copy this network profile to a USD flash drive’.


The Copy Network Settings wizard will now begin. Next, insert the USB flash drive and wait until it is detected. The Next button now is no longer grayed out.


It will only take a few seconds to complete the copying process. Just hit on Close when finished.


If you will check your USB flash drive, you will now see a setupSNK.exe file and a SMRTNTKY folder. Don’t delete those files from the memory stick.


Importing Your Wireless Network Settings

Plug in the USB flash drive to the laptop where you need to import the settings and run the setupSNK.exe file. Click on Yes when the Wireless Network Setup Wizard launches.


The settings will now be imported and will complete in a few seconds. Click OK when you get the notification below. You can now start using the wireless network.


This process is very helpful for both public and hidden wireless networks. Instead of typing long and complicated authentication keys, it is much easier to plug in an USB memory stick and just run a setup file. If you have other useful techniques like this one, please don’t hesitate to share them by providing comments here.

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Windows Vista’s new indexing service has been the subject of a lot of complaints because it appears to kick in at strange times and thrash your hard drive. Is there anything that we can do to speed this up?

There are actually two options: You can trim down the amount of files that Windows Search is indexing and/or you can disable it entirely if you don’t use the search.


Trimming Down Indexing Locations

The most excellent way to trim down the amount of processor time used by the indexing service is by trimming down the amount of files being indexed. For example, if you don’t regularly search through your C: drive, you don’t really need to be indexing it.

I personally like the search function for Outlook and the Start Menu, but that’s the only places I’m concerned about indexing.

Try typing “Indexing” (without the quotations) into the Control Panel Search or the Start Menu search box and you will see an item called Indexing Options.


You can see here the existing list of locations that are being indexed. For example, I only index the Start Menu and my Outlook. If you need to modify or remove locations, just use the Modify button.


What you need to do to remove a location from being indexed is to uncheck the box. You might need to click the Show All Locations button to also see some of the default locations.


If you need to remove the Start Menu indexing, you would need to click on Start Menu in the summary list at the bottom. This will automatically navigate to the item in the tree.


The Start Menu indexing doesn’t really take much processing time so I really wouldn’t bother removing that.

Disable Indexing Completely

If you prefer to completely disable the indexing service, disable it entirely by just turning off the service.

To do this, just go to Control Panel and open-up Services or another way to do this is by typing services.msc into the Start Menu search box. Look for “Windows Search” in the list of services and just double-click on it to open.


Now change the Startup type of the service to Disabled and then click the Stop button to stop the service.


Windows Search service is now completely disabled.

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Perhaps the most frustrating and aggravating things about troubleshooting random BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) errors is that the computer reboots before you even have a chance to take note of the error messages so you can google them up later. I can still remember watching a friend trying his luck so he could snap a picture of the error with his camera before the PC rebooted.

Instead of doing that, we just need to turn off the automatic reboot option and force the BSOD or the blue screen to stay there.
Right-click on the Computer icon and select Properties. If you’re a Windows Vista user, you will be taken to the System Properties screen. Click on Advanced system settings.


The Advanced tab should already be chosen. Click the Settings button under “Startup and Recovery”.


Now uncheck the option for Automatically restart under the System failure section.


The next time you get a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death), you’ll be able to see it and write down the error message. Just manually reboot the computer after you’re done writing down the BSOD error.

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Windows Vista has a built-in support for Serial ATA (SATA) hard drives however, it does not automatically enable the advanced write caching features. You can actually speed-up your PC by enabling this mode from Device Manager.

To go quickly to Device Manager, just type “device” into the Start Menu search box. Or another way for accessing it is typing “devmgmt.msc” from the command line.

Open up the Disk drives section of the tree by clicking on the plus (+) sign next to it. Right-click on your hard drive and choose Properties.



Choose the Policies tab. You should be able to see this dialog:


Click on the checkbox for Enable advanced performance and you are done!

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Windows 7 offers location to specific Aero themes based on the language and location you chose during installation. Here, I’ll show you how to access other hidden themes from different countries.

When you begin the Windows 7 installation, the first thing you need to do is choose a language, time and currency format. This is how Windows determines what themes you are being presented with by default.



Since I’m in the US, I’m presented with location-specific themes from the United States with beautiful sceneries from Oregon, Idaho, Maine, etc as my desktop backgrounds.


For you to be able to access other international themes just copy and paste the following path into the search box and hit Enter.

C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT


Inside the MCT folder, you will discover additional themes for Australia, Canada, Great Britain, the Philippines and South Africa.


You can just grab the Wallpapers.


Or go to the Theme folder; double click on the thumbnail to add it.


You can see here that I added all of them and now they will be available under the My Themes section every time I want to change them around.


This is a smart little trick that will enable you to customize Windows 7 with hidden themes already available. Further, if you want to get more themes, just go straight to the Microsoft site.

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You can now get Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system for 120 days without activating it with a paid-for license. Yes, that’s right – 120 days, instead of 30 days.

Microsoft confirmed that PC users could now initiate a reset command up to three times, hence adding 90 days further to the default 30-day grace period for activating the operating system with Microsoft. This came out after numerous rumors were published on the Web, including one article by Computerworld.

The extension can be done by calling up the “rearm” control that will automatically reset the countdown timer back to 30 days. The steps below will show you how it’s done:

1. Open up command line by clicking on Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt (right-click and hit on Run As Administrator) – or for faster access, use the shortcut keys by pressing the Windows Key + R and typing “cmd”;

2. Enter in slmgr –rearm (only the bold letters) at the command line;
3. Restart your Windows 7.

The same procedure was also available for Windows Vista. Microsoft has confirmed that extending the grace period does not violate the Windows 7 End User License Agreement (EULA). For more details on the extension procedure, and some cautions, check out www.windowssecrets.com.

The process of product activation has been around for quite some, it started with Windows XP and later, Windows Vista. Starting 2008, if a computer was not legally activated with a license key code, it would fall down into a “reduced functionality” mode after 30 days, consequently resulting with the OS falling into a black background and flashing relentless reminders to the user to activate the product.

Retail versions of the new Microsoft OS go on sale in October of 2009.

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Definitely, one of the most annoying features of Windows Vista was the UAC (User Account Control) pop-up asking permission for almost everything. Well, Microsoft decided to let become more manageable in Windows 7. Let's take a look at how to manage it or even completely disabling it.

The main function of UAC is to inform the user when a program makes changes that require administrator rights or permissions. It is supposedly a security feature that will block malicious software from making key system changes without the user's permission.



Go to Start \ Getting Started \ Change UAC settings to manage UAC notification settings.


The default setting is set to notify you when programs try to make changes to the computer; which surprisingly already is a less annoying setting that Windows Vista was. You can now adjust the level to what you are most comfortable with. To completely turn it off, slide the lever down to Never notify.


The best setting if you're hesitant to turn it off is to just have it notify you without completely dimming the desktop and basically stopping everything you're doing just to address it.


If you turn UAC off and you are logged in as Administrator, it will no longer bother you at all. However, standard users will not be able to make any changes that require Administrator rights.


You will definitely like the idea that you can adjust UAC settings easier in Windows 7 than in Windows Vista if you're a power user who likes to make a lot of tweaks to your system.

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There will always be that time when you may encounter some problems or get stuck with something you don't exactly have a clue what it's all about while using your new Windows 7 operating system. It's always pretty convenient if you have a friend or colleague whom you can ask help from. I'll show you how to use Windows Remote Assistance to have someone you trust to help you with your concern remotely by allowing him/her to connect to your computer to help you troubleshoot the problem.

Windows Remote Assistance actually started out with Windows XP and it was also included in the Help and Support section. It was then already a stand-alone application in Windows Vista. Below is a simple demonstration of the Easy Connect feature of Windows 7.

Request Help
In order to request support on your Windows 7 computer, type “troubleshooting” into the search box and press Enter to bring up the Control Panel view. Click on “Get Help From A Friend”.


Then hit on Invite someone to help you


You can now save an invitation file as an attachment or you can automatically send it using your default email program. If the other computer is also a Windows 7 computer, the simplest method is to Use Easy Connect so the other user will just need the generated password.


Remote Assistance will open up with the Password you will give to the person you’re requesting help from in order from them to connect to your computer.



Accept Invitation to Help
The helper computer needs to access Remote Assistance and click the link to offer assistance. In here, download the Invitation attachment and double click to launch <Remote Assistance.


After the invitation is sent then just double click on it to start Remote Assistance.


Once Remote Assistance open ups, you will be prompted to key in the password given by the machine that needs help.


You will now have a remote view of their machine and you can now start diagnosing the problem. The controls at the top will allow you to gain control of the computer, change view settings and chat with the user.


You can also access XP computers for support as well but they will need to send an invite to the Windows 7 computer.


Miscellaneous Info
Another way to launch Remote Assistance is through Start \ All Programs \ Maintenance \ Windows Remote Assistance. This also works on Vista.


To start establishing a session, you need to approve the helper’s connection.


When the person helping you is requesting to take control of your machine, you will get a confirmation to approve control. You will notice that the graphics settings will switched automatically to lower quality making it easier on system and network resources.



During the Remote Assistance session, you can chat with each other which certainly comes conveniently if talking on the phone is not possible.


As the person getting help, you can also change different sharing settings.


A list of computers that you have done remote sessions with will also be stored for easier access in the future.


This should help you with doing Remote Assistance sessions to help out your family and friends. Though this is aimed for the home user, it can definitely be used in a small business setting.

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