Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit for System Builders Review

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(More customer reviews)This version of Windows Vista is the OEM version, which means that it does not come with a box or a manual, just a "Quick Install" guide. This is the FULL version of Vista but another thing that it is lacking is support from Microsoft. Because this version is intended for (as the title suggests) system builders, whoever that may be, they are the people who are supposed to provide the End User Support not Microsoft. It does, however, still include Windows Update so there do not think that you will not be getting updates from Microsoft, because you do. But if you are building a computer for your grandmother, and she BSOD's Vista, its up to you to fix it; Not Microsoft. Another difference between this version and the full 400 $ version is that this version only comes with the 32 Bit version of Windows Vista, but the full version comes with both the 32 and 64 Bit versions. So if you are pretty technology Savvy and you do not need Microsoft's support and you know what type of processor (64 or 32 bit) then the OEM version is the version for you.

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Microsoft Windows Vista Business 64-bit for System Builders Review

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(More customer reviews)Although I love the UI, it did slow down my routine as I adapted to the new layout and menus and such. This was expected (somewhat) and was not the root of the problem, though.
The reason for the 3 star rating is the fact that all my 32 bit apps that I was looking forward to getting a perfoemance boost from due to the 64 bit processor I am running, ultimately were absolutely sluggish when it came to menu navigation and usability within the apps themselves.
Menu navigation was sluggish and showed unusual latency while navigating within Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, Dreamweaver, Flash, Illustrator, etc. Windows itself was snappy, but interpolation of the 32-bit apps in the 64-bit OS was absolutely sluggish. Rendering times in After Effects, and compression times in Sorenson Squeeze, seemed fast enough, but hard to compare, as I was coming from a single core P4.
Also very much worth mentioning...aside from the occasional unsupported driver (which I expected)...after typing in my password and logging in OK, the touch of any key on the keyboard would immediately lock up the system. (It took me hours to narrow this glitch down to the Event Log Service!). Finally disabled the Event Log service and viola', keystrokes allowed. (odd, but worth mentioning).
My son also experienced Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) several times while playing both Stalker and Oblivion.
Also noteworthy for those with an interest in specific platform related info, I am running the OS on a ASUS Formula Maximus mobo, an Intel 2.4 Ghz Quad Core CPU, 4 Gigs of Corsair Dominator DDR2 RAM, and an EVGA Nvidia 8800 GTS w/640 MB DDR3 on board.
Suffice it to say, after paying full price for Vista and installing apps all week, I turned right around and overnighted XP Pro (32-bit version) on week 2, reformatted everything and am happily using XP Pro with no worries or glitches of any kind. ALL apps are BLAZING FAST, both navigationally and in their rendering perfomance. (Games have not BSOD'd since going back to XP either).
If you rely on your Workstation for a living, or expect high-end, production-class workstation performance, stick with XP for the next couple of years until Vista has been battle tested and proven, and apps have had a chance to port over to 64-bit.
(Anybody want to buy an original copy of Vista...cheap? Only used once!)
;~D


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Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate UPGRADE Limited Numbered Signature Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)Do your homework on hardware compatibility. While you may be able to run Microsoft's analysis tool during install which is supposed to alert you to any problems with existing hardware ... it does NOT work in all cases.
Good luck !

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Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade - Old Version Review

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(More customer reviews)Wow, I don't even know where to begin. Here's the horrifying details (so far)...
1. Installation. I heard the rumors about long installations. I can't tell you how long mine took because it finished sometime after I went to bed, about six hours after I had started.
2. Internet. This one almost brought me to tears. Vista kept setting up two network connections, one to my wireless network, and one to a mysterious "unidentified network." The troubleshooter told me Vista had two active connections and that was causing the problem. Simple right? Disable the "unidentified network" connection. Poof, there went my wireless with it. Enable my wireless, back comes the mystery network. I actually knocked out wireless to my entire house at one point in this circle of doom. Finally, as a stab in the dark, I manually disabled all network adapters on my machine except the wireless adapter. And that's why I'm able to write this review now...
3. Incompatibility. I knew there would be problems. Norton Ghost was good as gone, but I knew that. Then my antivirus turned out to be a no go. A few other applications would surely need upgrades. But ITUNES??? Come on! I could also list the games that used to run but no more, but this review is already getting long enough.
4. Hiding my stuff. I no longer own my My Music folder. I mean, Vista security TELLS me I'm the owner, but "permission is denied." I found a workaround on Microsoft's website "...sometimes you may lose access to your My Music folder during the upgrade." Oh that's lovely. By digging into the deep hidden folders per their instructions I found my music, and copied it to the desktop. At one point the file copy dialog box said "Moving files, 44,519 days remaining." I wish I was making that up. Fortunately Vista was over-estimating that a little.
5. New Features that don't work. I paid the extra dough and bought the premium version of Vista. The aero look is very cool. For about 3 minutes. Then I get a message saying "The desktop manager has stopped working." And I'm back to Vista Basic. That extra $50 may not have been money well spent.
6. The new Media Player won't play my newly rescued songs. It tells me it thinks many of my songs are on the I: drive. (I don't have an I: drive)
7. Things can get awful slow. My machine is four months old. It's dual-core, 2 Gig of memory, dual graphics cards, top of the line mobo. Under XP it flew. It wasn't broke. So I upgraded to Vista, you know, to break it.
Okay, that's enough. You get the idea. I had a few small XP gripes so I thought I'd try Vista. Bad mistake. Big ugly bad mistake. Vista may be great someday, but for me it's been 72 hours of hell.
At least I can uninstall, can't I... I can't? D'OH!!!
(And yes, I used the Vista Upgrade Advisor)

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Windows Vista Home Premium makes finding information, staying connected, and interacting with your PC easier and more secure. Using, organizing, and sharing photos, video, TV programs, and music becomes a part of your everyday life. With Windows Vista Home Premium, balancing your checkbook, doing homework, watching a movie, listening to music, or playing a game is a better and more enjoyable experience.

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Microsoft Windows Vista Business FULL VERSION Review

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(More customer reviews)Windows Vista is clearly better than Windows XP in a hundred little ways, from the search boxes to the sidebar. The new and improved Vista features are listed all over the place, so I won't go into the details. I will say, however, that they do make an improvement in everyday computer use.
On the other hand, Vista suffers a thousand little flaws. For one thing, iTunes isn't compatible yet. Then, NVidia doesn't have decent drivers yet. Firefox doesn't work with the Windows Media plugin yet. For some strange reason, whenever I save a file in Microsoft Visual Studio, I get impossible-to-delete temporary files in my working folder. Some piece of incompatible software is creating them. Is it Windows Live OneCare? Visual Studio? Tortoise SVN? Who knows? Oh, and did I mention that Vista crashes whenever it tries to come out of sleep mode? I could list more problems, but you get the picture. Vista is not really stable.
My advice is this: If you are building a new system, go ahead and install Vista. You will have a bumpy road, but it's better than buying XP now and upgrading later. Otherwise, wait about six months for Microsoft and the other software companies to get their act together. You have been warned.

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Windows Vista Business is the primary edition of Windows Vista for business desktop and mobile PCs. Windows Vista Business helps keep PCs running smoothly and securely, with less reliance on dedicated IT support. For larger organizations, Windows Vista Business provides dramatic new infrastructure improvements, enabling IT staff to spend more time adding strategic value to the business. Windows Vista Business also offers powerful new ways to organize, find, and share information, while helping people stay better connected in the office and on the road.

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Apple Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.6 (Mac DVD) Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm a convert from the Redmond tribe, but the conversion has been painless and actually quite enjoyable. Like many, I use Windows machines on the job, but come home to an iMac at the end of the day.
Mac OS X Tiger goes about its business with a quiet composure that barely hints at all the magic happening behind the Aqua user interface. The blocky Apple System font has been replaced with eye-pleasing Lucida Grande Sans Serif. Window control buttons use color to convey their meaning: Red for close, yellow for minimize, and green for zoom (similar to Windows maximize).
In place of the Windows Start Menu and Taskbar, OS X Tiger provides the Dock, a zoom-able home for frequently used applications. Drag an icon from the Application folder to the Dock, and then click it to open it. A small triangle appears below each active application. You can right-click a Dock icon for a list of application windows or select Quit and shut down all of the windows at once, leaving the icon in the Dock for the next time you need it. And yes, I said "right-click," one of the ways OS X Tiger makes Windows users feel right at home.
For the first hour or so of operation, OS X might seem a bit sluggish, especially if you've dumped a folder full of files on your Mac. It just means Spotlight is at work indexing the hard drive, all the way down to the name "Hephaestus" in that fantasy novel you originally wrote in Microsoft Word for Windows on your old PC. If you can't remember where you saved a document or its filename, just type a word that appears within it and Spotlight will display every file containing your search term. Change the dragon's name from "Hephaestus" to "Fafnir" and Spotlight knows about it by the time you've saved it.
Other helpful technologies include the Dashboard. Click the Dashboard icon in the Dock and an assortment of mini-applications called widgets zoom into view. You can check the current temperature and see a 7-day forecast on AccuWeather's widget. Add up a quick list of numbers with the calculator widget. You can even add widgets to track your investments. When you're finished, the widgets disappear and your desktop is exactly as you left it.
If your Mac has a dedicated video card with a programmable graphics processor, Quartz Extreme and Core Image take over the graphics-intensive tasks and use gaming-grade technology for everyday effects like resizing, scrolling and moving windows. The result is faster, rock-solid performance. Listen to your MP3 collection in iTunes while Mail downloads messages as you organize and enhance pictures from your trip to Lake Tahoe in iPhoto. OS X Tiger keeps things moving along without audible or visible stutters. Based on UNIX, Tiger recovers from rare application freeze-ups without a reboot, leaving everything else intact.
If all that hard work has left your desktop a shambles of open applications, Expose' will shrink every open application until they all fit on the screen. Mouse over each shrunken app and its name appears in big type. Click on the one you want and it zooms to screen size. You can also see only the windows of a single application. Expose' will even push everything aside to let you click on something on the desktop.
For home and small business users, Mac OS X provides greater safety from the perils of a connected life. OS X Tiger turns up its nose at ActiveX and other potentially troublesome Windows technologies. Macintosh viruses are rare, so if you don't open suspicious files and unsolicited email attachments, you can get along without anti-virus software. It's also more difficult for a website to plant adware and spyware on your Mac. OS X Tiger is smart enough to know when you're connected to the Internet through a router and shuts off both its software firewall and file sharing. You can enable only those services you need while optimizing system performance.
If you use your Mac every day (and who doesn't?), Apple recommends that you put it to sleep instead of shutting down when you're finished. Even a Tiger needs some sleep to keep at its best. Shut down your Mac only if you're going to move it or if you're going on vacation.

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Simply put, Apple Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.6 will change the way you use a computer. Breakthrough search technology, stunning graphics and media, unparalleled connectivity, an intuitive user interface and a virtual toolbox chock full of cleverly integrated features -- all atop a rock-solid UNIX foundation -- give you the most innovative, stable and compatible desktop operating system on the planet. Period.Dashboard: Get Info in a DashThe new Dashboard hosts nifty mini-applications called widgets that appear instantly and keep you up to date with timely information from the Internet. View stocks, check weather forecasts, track flights, convert currency and units of measure, even look up businesses in the phone book. Similar to Exposè, the Dashboard zooms across your desktop at the click of a function key. Your favorite widgets appear with up-to-the-second information, then disappear just as easily, so you can get back to what you were doing. Dashboard is home to widgets: mini-applications that let you perform common tasks and provide you with fast access to information. With a single click, Dashboard appears, complete with widgets that bring you a world of information -- real-time weather, stock tickers, flight information and more -- instantly. Dashboard lets you play, pause, skip forward and backward through songs in your iTunes music library using a simplified controller. You can view weather conditions around the world or check temperatures, expected highs and lows, and a six-day forecasts of cities around the world. A translator widget lets you translate words and phrases instantly between English, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Russian. And you can use Dashboard to search the phone directory by name or category to display the phone numbers and addresses for publicly listed U.S. businesses in your area. And best of all, Dashboard disappears just as easily as it appears, so you can get back to what you were doing. Tiger includes a suite of widgets to get you started, and you can add more anytime. With so many widgets at your disposal, the Widget Bar comes in handy. Click the plus sign and Dashboard launches a Widget Bar displaying every available widget. Drag widgets from the Bar to the Dashboard and watch as they appear with a cool ripple effect. Once you have your widgets where you want them, just close the Widget Bar with a single click.Spotlight: Find Anything, FastTiger introduces Spotlight, the lightning-fast search technology that illuminates every corner of your Mac, displaying results as fast as you type. Search everything on your system: Files, emails, contacts, images, movies, calendars and applications appear instantly. Just as you find songs on iTunes by name, artist or album, Spotlight results take you way beyond mere filename and location: they include all the metadata inside files, including the kind of content, the author, edit history, format, size and many more details. Spotlight for Mac OS X Tiger lets you blaze through your files and applications and see results as soon as you type the very first letter. That's because Spotlight indexes files on your computer transparently and in the background, so you never experience lag times or slowdowns. And when you make a change, such as adding a new file, receiving an email or entering a new contact, Spotlight updates its index automatically, so search results are always up-to-the-moment accurate. When you search via Spotlight, you're actually accessing a comprehensive, constantly updated index that sees all the metadata inside supported files -- the "what, when and who" of every piece of information saved on your Mac. Most documents, including Microsoft Word documents, Photoshop images and emails, already contain rich metadata. And because Spotlight indexes content as well, your search results include what appears inside a file or document, not just its title. You can also use descriptive words to get amazingly targeted results, even across thousands of files. For example, to find everything from a colleague, type the person's name. Spotlight returns documents she authored or edited, images she emailed, messages she wrote (and messages you sent to her) and her contact information. You see results in sorted categories for easy browsing, picking and clicking.Tiger: Your Communications CenterTiger turns your Mac into a communications hub. Safari RSS for Tiger features built-in RSS feed detection and display. Mail and Address Book incorporate Spotlight technology to help you organize your contacts and correspondence. And iChat AV lets you video conference, audio chat or send instant messages with friends and colleagues. Add a .mac account and make the most of Tiger connectivity with iDisk storage, a mac.com email address, your own home page and powerful syncing capability.Works Well with OthersMac OS X Tiger boasts better compatibility than any other desktop operating system in the world. You can share files with Windows users, connect to any network and communicate automatically with other Macs using Bonjour technology. And thanks to its solid UNIX foundation, Tiger offers a powerful security architecture that protects your data from prying eyes. Experience Mac OS X Tiger for yourself, and see how it changes the way you work, play, search and share on a Mac. Can't find what you need? Spotlight makes fruitless searches a thing of the past. Think you can't write an automated script? Try Automator and think again. Want to share media with friends and family? Tiger's integrated features make it simple. In fact, Tiger offers a feature for every reason you use a computer and then some.

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Star Wars: Empire at War Review

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(More customer reviews)I was surprised at how well this Mac version of the PC game performed (Intel only). Very engaging with good space and land battles (really two different games). One of the strongest points is the free-form campaign game, which gives the game some pretty serious re-playability over time.
Considering how few "strategy" type games there are for the Mac still (comparatively), this is a good addition to your library if you like the RTS genre.
Tech Note: I am running a MacBook with 2GB RAM, and it seems to run smoothly in the low-mid graphic range.

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Microsoft Windows Vista Business UPGRADE Review

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(More customer reviews)I've just finished upgrading to Vista Business using the Upgrade DVD. During the upgrade from Windows XP pro, the upgrade failed. Because of the timing of the upgrade process, I was left with a non working machine. Every attempt I made to fix the broken upgrade failed as well. As I saw it, the only way to fix this was to install an clean version of the OS to get back to my data. Unfortunately I was wrong (I'll get to that later.) During the clean install, when I entered my product key I was informed that the key was only for upgrades, not clean installs. But, at this point, what could I do, the upgrade failed and my machine was dead. There was an option to not enter the product key at this point, and re-enter it after the OS was running. SO... I continued with the install. After that the install went quite smooth, Vista is up and running on my machine right now as I right this warning message. It looks cool, there are a few issues such as my bluetooth wireless drivers aren't available yet, but I knew about that in advance when I ran the upgrade adviser. BUT now for the BIG issue. When I attempted to use my valid product key to activate Windows Vista, I was informed that my KEY wasn't valid because I did a clean install. After spending 2 hours arguing with MS tech support, they basically told me this... I had to do a clean install of XP and then attempt to do the UPGRADE again!!! WTF!!! They expect me to spend another 8 hours (after I've already spend 5 hours to this point) putting XP back on just to ATTEMPT the upgrade again (which might fail again!??!!?) OR my other option is to spend $299 for the Full install version to avoid the 8 hours of wasted time. This is complete bull! I've been working with MS products for a very long time and every "upgrade" product in the past allowed you to do a clean install if you provided a valid key of a previous product during the clean install process. This product isn't ready for you! Please save yourself time and energy fixing issues that MS should have had worked out. DO NOT buy the UPGRADE DVD, because you are risking $200 on a possible upgrade failure, then will have to spend a lot more time OR another $300 to get another product key.


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Windows Vista Business is the primary edition of Windows Vista for business desktop and mobile PCs. Windows Vista Business helps keep PCs running smoothly and securely, with less reliance on dedicated IT support. For larger organizations, Windows Vista Business provides dramatic new infrastructure improvements, enabling IT staff to spend more time adding strategic value to the business. Windows Vista Business also offers powerful new ways to organize, find, and share information, while helping people stay better connected in the office and on the road.

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iolo System Mechanic 7 Professional - 3 PCs Review

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(More customer reviews)It's good at finding bugs in the registry, spyware, and other nasties.
The trouble is, cleaning seems to rip out other applications' settings (such as PhotoImpact 11) and requiring a reinstall (or repair install) of those applications.
I also did a disk scan and it claimed there were problems requiring a chkdsk (I use WinXP w/SP2). A full disk scan revealed NO problems at all. Reassuring as I've been getting freaked out, but annoying because I can't find any other causes. AND this is on a newly formatted PC as well.
As v7 is a new release, wait for a product update or bug fix. Once the wrinkles are ironed out, I think this will be a good product. Right now it's overzealous and also has a tendency to find menace behind every shadow.
02/09/07 update: They have released a patch since my original review. Having installed it, it's been working MUCH better; and no applications (esp. PhotoImpact 11!) have had to be repaired or re-installed on a daily basis. And it fully recognized Trend Micro PC-Cillin firewall/antivirus. If anything, running the detection wizard keeps finding ONE security vulnerability, which it claims it fixes, but an immediate re-scan still shows the vulnerability. It doesn't say any detail information, so I can't manually repair it. However, all the other programs are gone and it does a competent job at cleaning up garbage and compressing the registry, and I've put my system through the paces (reluctantly, reformatting is a nightmare...)

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Five award-winning products in one authoritative solution including System Mechanic 7, iolo AntiVirus, iolo Personal Firewall, Search and Recover 4, and DriveScrubber 3.everything you need to keep your PC safe, fast, and error-free.Fix problems, boost performance, eliminate crashes, defend against spyware, viruses, and hacker threats, and much more.Use one centralized system dashboard to automatically perform all vital PC maintenance.Protects and repairs up to 3 PCs for one year!

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Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Review

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(More customer reviews)I'll admit, I've been running Windows 7 for six months now: the preproduction version of it and have just upgraded to the gold code. So I have quite a bit of experience with the operating system. Let's get to the nitty gritty:
Should you upgrade from Windows Vista? YES! I mean it - upgrade today.
Windows 7 is quite simply faster, more stable, boots faster, goes to sleep faster, comes back from sleep faster, manages your files better and on top of that it's beautiful to look at and easy to use. Even the preproduction version of Windows 7 was better than my Vista with SP2.
Should you upgrade from Windows XP? Maybe, but for different reasons.
XP is a good operating system and if you don't need to add new hardware or software, XP is good. However, XP is old as an operating system. Also chances are that if you're running XP, you might not meet the minimum requirements for Windows 7 - check the compatibility site at Microsoft to see if your system will support Windows 7. That said, Windows 7 is light years ahead of Windows XP in terms of functionality, ease of use, etc - to me it's worth buying a new system.
64 bit or 32 bit?
If you don't know what I'm talking about, that's ok skip this section. If you have a core2 duo or core 2 quad or a multi cpu machine, go with the 64 bit OS, it handles memory and the CPUs much better. If you have a single core CPU, one CPU or run special programs that require 32bit, then stick with 32 bit for now.
BEFORE INSTALLATION:
I recommend you have:
-a core 2 duo or core 2 quad machine
-4gig of RAM (That's about $50 in today's market)
-good hard drive with (200 gig - it doesn't need that much but that's another $50)
-back up your files to a USB drive like Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive WDME5000TN (Midnight Black)
-check to make sure your computer is compatible with Windows 7
INSTALLATION:
Installation was very straight forward. You put in the CD and reboot your machine. You might have to enter your bios and enable the "boot from CD" option. Once the machine reboots a nice screen comes up to guide you through the installation. You have the option to upgrade your PC or do a clean installation. I did an upgrade and it brought in all of my files and settings from my windows Vista system. It worked great.
The upgrade did take about 2 hours for me so definitely consider.
I noticed that early on in the installation the operating system went out to Microsoft's site to look for the latest and greatest updates, so I think this should help Microsoft respond quickly to any hiccups with compatibility.
WHAT DOESN'T WORK:
The driver from my old HP Inkjet printer for 2001 doesn't work on Windows 7 so there are some things that will not transition. I had to use a generic HP driver which doesn't give me the quality that I got from an injet - so overall, I'm up and running with that printer but I'm degraded on the inkjet front. That said, I recently upgraded to a HP CP2025DN Color LaserJet Printer that I love so no real loss there. I'll likely pick up a cheap inkjet for the occasional photo that I might need to print. Everything else upgraded.
BENEFITS
-faster boot time
-faster go to sleep
-faster wakeup
-faster about 20% to 30% faster at running applications than my Vista - seriously (but those are my results without any benchmarks or anything like that, just seeing how fast Adobe Illustrator loads, and how fast all the applications respond)
-joining wireless networks is much easier
-the interface is just plain beautiful
-my wallpapers are now a slideshow that can be set to change every few minutes (I'm not stuck with the same picture)
-Gadgets - these are wonderful little small applications that you can drag onto your desktop. I have a weather gadget and a calendar gadget on my desktop that tell me
-Better taskbar management - hovering over the taskbar icons shows me mini windows of what's running
-Better file management - I can organize my files into Libraries that are sortable not only by type but by folder or other data. It's great! I can browse through my presentations or illustrator files!
-Windows Media appears to be smoother which I love.
-You get some virus protection and firewall with Windows 7 but consider something more comprehensive like McAfee Total Protection 3User 2010. Yes, it'll make your computer run a bit slower but
CONS:
- Some older programs might not work and some drivers might not be available like my inkjet driver.
- Other than that, there aren't too many drawbacks to Windows 7 - it's a great OS.
WHICH VERSION SHOULD I GET?
I got the ultimate version because I have clients who ask, "is your hard drive encrypted?" -- I wanted to be able to say yes and have sensitive data encrypted one of my computer volumes - Bitlocker is only available in the Ultimate version. Ultimate also includes Multilanguage support.
If you're a home user that doesn't do a lot of networking, you might consider just the home premium edition. If you're using a laptop and connect to networks at work, you might want the Professional version of the operating system to help you with domain joining. Also Windows Professional gives you the option to run applications in XP mode so if you have old applications you can use that nifty feature. I already have 1 application running in XP mode - it's nifty to run an old application.
NOTE:
The box contains both the 32 bit and 64 bit OS.
OVERALL:
It's very hard to write a comprehensive review on an entire operating system so I didn't even try - I'm sure magazines will devote entire articles to the operating system and several books will come out. My goal here is just to give everyone a glimpse of what I've found to date with this new OS. I do hope this has helped you in making a decision.
Hats off to Microsoft on Windows 7. It's more of a refined Windows Vista than an entirely new operating system but it was needed. Thank you.


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Windows 7 Home Premium makes it easy to create a home network and share all of your favorite photos, videos, and music. You can even watch, pause, rewind, and record TV (a broadcast TV tuner may be required). Get the best entertainment experience with Windows 7 Home Premium. Do you use your PC for work, run Windows XP programs, or require enhanced security? Consider Windows 7 Professional.

The best entertainment experience on your PC
Easiest Windows to use ever
Simplify your PC with new navigation features like Aero Shake, Jump Lists, and Snap.
Customize Windows to look and feel the way you like by changing themes and taskbar programs.
Setting up a home network and connecting to printers and devices is easier than ever.
Windows 7 Home Premium supports the latest hardware and software.

It's faster
Designed to make your PC sleep and resume quicker.
Takes full advantage of 64-bit PC hardware and memory.
Connecting to wireless networks is fast and easy.

Best PC entertainment experience
Watch, pause, rewind, and record TV with Windows Media Center.
Blu-ray read/write support for data files.
Includes integrated video and Dolby audio codecs.

Simplifies Everyday Tasks
Simple to use
Preview Manage lots of open programs, documents, and browser windows easily with thumbnail and full-screen previews of open windows.
Pin Open files and get around your PC faster with the improved taskbar. You can easily pin programs you use often to the taskbar and launch them in just one click.
Jump Lists Open files you use regularly in just two clicks with Jump Lists on the improved taskbar and Start menu.
Snap Windows 7 has simple new ways to manage open windows. For example, with Snap you can arrange two windows side-by-side just by dragging them to opposite sides of your screen.
Peek and Shake Windows 7 lets you peek behind open windows to get a quick look at your desktop.
Windows SearchInstantly locate and open virtually any file on your PC, from documents to emails to songs, right from the Start menu, with Windows Search.
Easy to connect
Wireless setup With Windows 7, setting up wireless connections is easier with consistent, one-click connections to available networks, whether those networks are based on Wi-Fi, mobile broadband, dial-up, or corporate VPN.
HomeGroup Connect Windows 7 PCs on a home network in just four clicks and easily get to the photos, music, and files on each one--even share printers--with HomeGroup.
Easy to browse the web
Internet Explorer 8Visual search helps you quickly find the information you want by adding visual cues and previews to search results from top search providers including Live Search, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Amazon, and others.
Internet Explorer 8 Use Web slices to conveniently keep up with changes on frequently updated websites, like eBay auctions or traffic sites, directly from the IE8 toolbar.
Easy to communicate and share
Windows Live Photo Gallery Windows Live Photo Gallery makes share your photos to your favorite photo site easy.
Windows Live Mail Windows Live Mail makes managing multiple email accounts easy.
Windows Live Family Safety Keep your child safeby managing what sites they can visit and who they can send/receive emails and im communications from.
Note: Windows Live components need to be downloaded separately.
Works The Way You Want
Faster and More Reliable Windows 7 will help your PC sleep and resume more quickly. It is designed to respond to commands more quickly and will help your PC to be more reliable.
Fewer clicks and less interruptions
Makes New Things Possible
Media on your terms
Windows Media CenterTurn your PC into a TV with Windows Media Center.
Windows Media Center Watch shows for free when and where you want with Internet TV.
DirectX 11 DirectX 11 technology delivers breathtaking game graphics so real, it's unreal.
New ways to engage
Windows Touch Windows Touch makes PCs with touch screens easier and more intuitive to use.
Media on your terms
Windows Media Player More and more consumer electronics, from TVs to digital photo frames, can be connected to home networks. With Play To in Windows 7, you'll be able to easily send music, photos, videos from your PC to a networked device throughout your home.
You can enjoy the photos, music, and videos on your home PC when you're away from home with remote media streaming.
Work anywhere
Location Aware PrintingWindows 7 will automatically pick the right printer for you when you move from home to work networks.

Work anywhere with less effort.
Instantly locate virtually any file, email, or document on your PC just by typing a word or two.
Get around your PC faster with the improved taskbar.
Open programs you use regularly in one click and files you use regularly in just two.
Manage lots of open programs, documents, and browser windows easily with thumbnail and full-screen previews of open windows.
Manage multiple email accounts, including Hotmail, Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo! Mail Plus, all in one place with one simple program.
Get to the files, photos, and music on any PC with Windows 7 in the house from any other.
Print to any printer in the house from any PC with Windows 7 in the house.


Safeguard your hard work.
Windows Internet Explorer 8 helps keep your PC safer from malware and you safer from fraudulent websites designed to fool you into divulging private information.

Choose the Windows 7 Edition That Is Best For You

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Windows 7 Home Premium

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System Mechanic Professional - Up to 3 PCs Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I purchased version 7 Pro in early May '08, because of the special pricing and because it had a three PC license. I installed it on my primary machine - a Dell desktop running Windows Vista. It installed fine but I noticed the virus database was marked as outdated. I tried to do an update, and went through the motions - the program indicating that it had updated, but afterward still indicated that the database was over 400 days old (how do you get that outdated on a fresh install)!
I contacted Iolo and they told me to uninstall and re-install, which I attempted. This created another problem. I had a prior version of the included Search and Recover 4.0 already installed on my system, so I did not install this component. I was unable to re-install the SM Pro as long as this program was there. The problem was that I couldn't uninstall S&R using the uninstall on my machine.
I have been in constant contact with tech support but they have only sent links to FAQ's that I have already read. I even got a link for a free upgrade to version 8 but it wouldn't install either. I finally found a means to do a "clean uninstall" via registry editing. This also did not remove the iolo services from my machine. I found a tool from Microsoft to disable these two services. I now had a "clean" machine. I installed SM 8 Pro with no problems - until I tried to run it. None of the applications would work - they needed the ioloSystemService running. I click on the "start service" link under the advanced button of the service tab of task manager, but neither service will start (the other is called "ioloFileInfoList").
I have been continually contacting Iolo tech support with my findings and was upgraded on June 25th to their "senior tech staff". Since then I have not heard from tech support, even though I have continued sending information, requested support, opened new cases, etc. - no word from them.
As part of my experimentation, I installed version 7 on my laptop (running XP) and don't seem to be experiencing any issues. However, my laptop is a backup machine that I rarely use, so it is not a good indicator of how well the program runs.
All in all, I cannot recommend this program. It has definite issues under Vista, it is almost impossible to remove all vestiges of the program once installed, and their tech support is abysmal. I gave Iolo notice that if I don't get any more than an automated response to my last support request, I will be demanding a full refund. The program had great reviews, but if it doesn't work, then it's worthless.

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