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1. 4js longer be bootable If you want to keep both versions of Win dows bootable you ll need more than one hard disk or hard disk partition as described in the section Set Up a Dual Boot System on page 26 The end result is effectively the same as installing on an empty hard disk as described in the previous section except that all your old data stays on the drive It s not quite as convenient as WET but it potentially takes less time and you don t have to worry about missing any files because nothing from the old installation is deleted Here s how you do it 1 Boot your PC into the old version of Windows and insert your Windows 7 DVD If your old Windows installation won t start boot off the DVD E as described in the previous section But doing so will permit setup to make changes to your partitions making it possible to delete your primary partition and lose all your data 2 When the Install Windows page appears click Install now 3 If you have a working Internet connection and wish to do so click Go online to get the latest update for installation Or if you prefer click Do not get the latest updates 4 Choose your Windows 7 edition from the list and click Next make sure to pick the one for which you have a valid license key or you ll have to do this all over again Install Windows7 23 3 a 3 N YUM payers 799 5 Accept the license terms and click Next You
2. 1 First install the WAIK as described in the previous section Open the Windows PE Tools Command Prompt from the Start menu and if you re installing the 32 bit edition of Windows 7 type copype cmd x86 c bootcd or if you re installing the 64 bit x64 edition type copype cmd amd64 c bootcd and press Enter The batch file will create the c output folder automati cally 2 Next copy the Windows PE image file like this copy c bootcd winpe wim c bootcd ISO sources boot wim and copy the imagex exe tool as well copy C program files Windows AIK Tools x86 imagex exe C bootcd iso 3 Finally create the ISO disc image by issuing this command oscdimg n bC bootcd etfsboot com C bootcd ISO C bootcd bootcd iso When the ISO file is ready use Windows own Disc Image Burner iso burn exe or a program like ISO Recorder free from hitp isorecorder alexfein man com to burn the ISO to a blank CD Insert the CD and turn on your computer to boot See the section Install Windows on an Empty Hard Disk on page 10 for tips on booting off a CD Create a bootable USB flash drive A flash drive is the modern day floppy so why not use it like one Install Windows7 17 3 a 3 N YUM paveys 799 You ll be wiping the flash drive clean so back up any data on the drive before you continue With the flash drive inserted into a USB port and your Windows setup disc in your DVD drive make note of each of the
3. 26 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 a choice Otherwise you ll see a menu of installed operating systems from which you can choose the OS you wish to use gt a 3 N YUM p HLIS 799 To set up a dual boot system you ll need at least two partitions or two physical drives one for each operating system Install the first OS on any drive you like Then during Windows 7 setup when you see the Where do you want to install Windows page Figure 1 2 shown earlier just select the empty drive and setup will do the rest Vs sS See Chapter 5 for more information on partitions including a K a way to divide your current single partition drive into two WS partitions without having to reformat In most cases the boot manager of the most recently installed operating sys tem is the one that will be used for all your operating systems so the sequence in which you install your operating systems is very important Most of the time you ll need to install older operating systems before newer ones For instance on a PC already running Windows 98 just install 7 on a different drive and voila you ll have a functional dual boot system Some other operating systems such as FreeBSD and Windows E 2000 have boot managers of their own and can therefore be installed either before or after 7 is installed with little addi tional fuss However those operating systems without their own boot managers such as W
4. Professional edi tion or better To keep this from happening and use your entire hard disk for the Windows installation see Prevent extra partitions during setup on page 14 Follow the screens to complete setup If setup crashes along the way or Win dows won t boot after you re done see the section Fix Problems with Win dows Setup on page 25 12 Chapter1 Get Started with Windows 7 Install clean with only an upgrade disc So you thought you d save a little money by purchasing the upgrade version of Windows but now you find yourself in a bit of a jam Your hard disk crashed and without a full backup see Chapter 6 you need to rebuild your system Or perhaps you ve decided against an in place Vista upgrade to avoid passing on two years of accumulated junk to your new operating system Either way you ve undoubtedly discovered that your upgrade disc won t install if it can t find an eligible Windows installation to upgrade In this scenario Microsoft suggests that you install Vista and then install Win dows 7 over it Not bloody likely Instead just follow these steps to get a fresh Windows 7 installation from an upgrade disc 1 Use your Windows 7 disc to boot your PC as described in Install Win dows on an Empty Hard Disk on page 10 2 When setup loads click Install now and proceed normally 3 When prompted for the product key leave the field blank and just click Next
5. Task Scheduler 644 Make a Startup Script 648 A BIOS Settings i c oo ta cceduanetal es eaceneedeainieesin te chawnt 651 Bey TCP IP POMS xi oen as an an a a E n nse suane 663 INDEX 2 5 5 aaa el aed bas bed aeons ate aaa 667 x Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 Get Started with Windows 7 Windows 7 is like a pumpkin handsome and plump on the outside but a big mess on the inside So get out your knife and start carving Now there was a lot in 7 s predecessor Windows Vista that Microsoft got right or almost right But face it Windows 7 exists because of everything that was wrong with Vista First and foremost Windows 7 is faster than Vista and by some accounts faster than XP on the same hardware The staggeringly annoying User Account Control UAC system is still around but is slightly smarter in that it doesn t interrupt you quite as often and more customizable than when it debuted in Vista And beginner level networking is theoretically easier with Homegroups provided everyone in your house condo office commune or wikiup drinks the Kool Aid and upgrades to Windows 7 and doesn t care much about se curity The new taskbar holds icons for open applications and those not yet running side by side much like the dock in Mac OS X which is itself an adaptation of the NeXTstep dock from the 1980s Better yet are the jump lists handy shortcut menus that appear when you right click taskbar icons replacing th
6. again Set Up a Dual Boot System Dual boot or multiboot installations used to be all the rage and even though virtualization discussed in the next section has stolen a lot of their thunder there are still times when having two or more operating systems installed side by side on the same PC can be useful For instance you can have both Windows 7 and Windows XP or Windows 7 and Linux for that matter installed on the same PC and choose which to boot each time you power on the machine Now virtualization does this one better by allowing you to run both platforms simultaneously but it has its limitations Most notably a virtualized Windows won t run nearly as fast as a non virtualized installation if speed matters for every OS you use a dual boot setup is the way to go Also virtualized operating systems don t have full access to your PC s hardware particularly non USB devices while each OS on a multiboot sys tem can use everything for which drivers are available Games are a great ex ample without unfettered communication with your 3D video hardware many games won t run and that rules out virtualization Windows 7 comes with built in support for a multiboot setup called the Win dows Boot Manager which is installed automatically whether you want a dual boot system or not If at the end of the installation Windows 7 is the only operating system on your computer it boots automatically without giving you
7. be pretty easy Aside from some minor changes to the way the registry is handled on 64 bit systems see Chapter 3 most of the changes are skin deep Action Center It s taken too long but Microsoft has finally acknowledged that people hate the barrage of pop ups reminders warnings and confirmation win dows that has been thrown at them all these years But instead of simply eliminating them Microsoft has consolidated them into the Action Cen ter So you now know where to go if you want to be reminded to activate Windows find and install antivirus software that should ve come prein stalled mind you and download a gigabyte of updates to fix all the bugs that have been found so far Device Manager Device Manager devmgmt msc is still present in Windows 7 but there s a new icon based tool in Control Panel called Devices and Printers Right click any device in the Devices and Printers window to access features and tasks specific to that device See Chapter 6 for more information Homegroups The Homegroups feature doesn t replace traditional file and printer shar ing it only augments it and then only when everyone on your network is running Windows 7 See Chapter 7 for details 40 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 Libraries amp improved search At first glance Libraries aren t much different than the specialized folders found in earlier versions of Windows Documents Music Pictures and Videos Although
8. folder in your home folder Now what you may ask Good question Don t waste time looking for instructions or a way to create a new virtual machine here you won t find it Instead just open the Start menu and in the Search box type VPCWizard exe and press Enter When prompted choose a name for the new virtual machine configuration e g Windows XP in a box and click Next Specify how much memory RAM you d like to allocate give it at least 1024 MB 1 GB if you have it to spare and click Next On the next page choose Create a dynamically ex panding virtual hard disk and then click Create 34 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 Back in the Virtual Machines folder you ll see your new Windows XP in a box vmcx file double click it to start your virtual machine When it first starts your virtual PC will attempt a PXE network boot described in Boot Without a Boot Disc on page 15 which will almost certainly fail Next from the Tools drop down select Settings and then highlight DVD Drive in the list on the left Select Access a physical drive and choose the drive letter where your Windows setup disc can be found Or if you re in stalling from an ISO disc image select Open an ISO image and click Browse to locate it Click OK when you re done and then click the Ctrl Alt Del button on the Virtual PC toolbar to restart the virtual machine and boot off the CD At this point you can install Wi
9. ll be asked Which type of installation do you want at which point you can select Upgrade or Custom advanced The Up grade option is only for performing an in place upgrade from Windows Vista try it with an earlier version like XP and setup will display an error and then start over Install Windows7 11 So click Custom advanced to advance to the Where do you want to install Windows page and then click the Drive options link to reveal the partition editor shown in Figure 1 2 See Chapter 5 for more information on partitions and the tools included with Windows to manage them If the hard disk is clean and you want to use the entire hard disk for your installation just click Next to proceed Otherwise use Delete to wipe out any existing partitions as well as the data on them warning there s absolutely no undo here and New to create new partitions on the drive See Chap ter 5 for more on partitions and the reasons you might want more than one Where do you want to install Windows Name Total Size Free Space Type sA Disk 0 Partition 1 100 0 GB 88 3GB System fp Refresh X Delete P Format Load Driver co Extend ji Collecting information 2 Installing Windows Figure 1 2 Click the Drive options link to show these drive preparation and partition editing tools Windows 7 setup creates a 100 MB System Reserved parti E tion when you install on a blank hard disk
10. shortcuts to start new applications side by side Previously shortcuts were confined to tiny annoying dockable toolbars Right click a running task to pin it to the taskbar so it sticks around even after you exit the program Right click a taskbar icon representing a running application in a previ ous version of Windows and you ll see the same boring system menu that appears when you click the top left corner of any open window In Win dows 7 you ll see a customized jump list with a list of open windows if there s more than one as well as frequently used locations folders if it s Windows Explorer or websites if it s Internet Explorer and tasks like opening a new window Migration to Windows7 41 Want to read more You can find this book at oreilly com in print or ebook format It s also available at your favorite book retailer including iTunes the Android Market Amazon and Barnes amp Noble O REILLY Spreading the knowledge of innovators oreilly com SS
11. the cutesy My prefix is absent here it s still used for the folder names like My Pictures But these folders are now accompanied by a background database that improves searches and connects to the Homegroups feature for improved media sharing See Chapter 2 for ways to improve searches and customize your Libraries as well as a way to get rid of the Libraries entry in Windows Explorer if you don t like the clutter 3 a 3 N YUM payeys 799 Nifty window management shortcuts Microsoft has added a bunch of keyboard and mouse shortcuts to improve window management in Windows 7 For instance grab a window title bar and shake vigorously from side to side and Windows will minimize all windows but the one you re holding Or if you re using multiple monitors hold the Windows logo key and the Shift key while pressing the left or right arrows to move the active window to a different screen Without holding Shift one press only docks a window to the side of the active screen you d need three presses to do the same thing For more short cuts see Chapter 2 Sidebar The Vista Sidebar is gone at least on the surface Sidebar gadgets are now simply called Gadgets and they can be placed anywhere on the desktop It s unsettlingly similar to the horrible Active Desktop that was lumped into Windows 98 but greatly improved Taskbar amp Jump Lists The taskbar in Windows 7 now holds icons for running applications and
12. this book use the Group Policy Object Editor gpedit msc to change a few esoteric settings but this tool isn t included in the Home Premium edition If the gpedit msc file isn t on your system you can access most of these settings with the net command line tool provided you open the Command Prompt in administrator mode as explained in Chapter 8 Local Security Policy Editor The Local Security Policy tool secpol msc provides access to advanced settings the useful ones relating mostly to UAC see Control User Ac count Control on page 569 for details and alternatives Offline files and folders Offline Files is a caching feature allowing you to work with files stored on remote network drives even when you re not connected When you re reconnected the files are synchronized invisibly A free alternative for those using Home Premium is Microsoft s own Windows Live Sync formerly FolderShare There s also Microsoft SyncToy and SyncBack Free ware Presentation Mode In the Professional and Ultimate editions you can press the Windows Logo key Winkey and X to quickly disable the screensaver set the vol ume level and change your desktop wallpaper all to make your PC more suitable for hooking up to a projector and giving a PowerPoint ish pre sentation It s worth noting that this feature is only available on laptops through the Windows Mobility Center page in Control Panel and it s disabled by default In other w
13. with the rearm parameter It will take 15 30 seconds to make the change at which point you ll need to restart Windows Prevent extra partitions during setup When you install Windows 7 Professional Ultimate or Enterprise editions on an empty hard disk setup creates an extra hidden 100 MB partition It s used for BitLocker drive encryption see Chapter 8 although BitLocker works fine without it It also holds a copy of the Windows Recovery Environment so you can repair Windows without having to fish out the setup DVD as descri bed in What to Do When Windows Won t Start on page 355 Va S If you re installing on a hard disk that already has partitions ray with data ifyou have the Home Premium edition or you don t 443s mind the extra partition admittedly 100 MB isn t much by today s standards then you can skip these steps Since this is space you can never use for your own data you can use the fol lowing procedure to keep this partition from ever being created 1 On the Where do you want to install Windows page Figure 1 2 par tition screen of Windows 7 Setup click Drive options advanced Delete any existing partitions if applicable and then create a new parti tion to fill the drive See Chapter 5 for more information on partition management 2 When Windows warns you To ensure that all Windows features work correctly Windows might create additional partitions for system
14. 000 and then XP became mainstream For those keeping 6 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 track Windows 9x doesn t count because it was a hybrid OS that ran 32 bit applications on a 16 bit DOS foundation which was one of the reasons it was so terribly unstable 64 bit Windows became a reality in XP but Vista and by extension Windows 7 was Microsoft s first serious attempt to take 64 bit computing mainstream But the question is how mainstream is it When Vista first hit store shelves in 2007 x64 computing was a hobbyist niche barely registering on any radar By the middle of 2008 Microsoft reported that 20 of new PCs connecting to Windows Update mind you that s new PCs not total PCs were using 64 bit Windows Many of those machines were likely sold with 4 GB of RAM or more necessitating Windows x64 to be pre installed But why isn t everyone using x64 While 64 bit x64 Windows can run nearly all 32 bit applications without a problem it s not compatible with 32 bit hardware drivers or 32 bit utilities like Windows Explorer extensions e g context menu add ons This means that you need native signed 64 bit drivers for every device on your PC which only recently have become commonplace In fact for a product to be marked Certified for Windows 7 it must be compatible with both 32 bit and 64 bit editions of the OS Of course you still may have trouble finding support for older hardware but
15. 26 Virtualize Whirled Peas 30 Migration to Windows 7 38 Coming from Windows XP 39 Coming from Windows Vista 40 2 Shell Tweaks shu exee shes Sabet aa ne 43 Customize Windows Explorer 45 Clean Up the Navigation Pane 53 Choose Folder View Defaults 56 Start Explorer with Any Folder 60 Get to the Desktop 63 Quick Access to Control Panel 64 Prune the Start Menu 68 Secrets of Window Management 75 Tweak the Taskbar 75 Keyboard Is My Friend 76 Clean Up the Tray 83 Stretch Out on Multiple Monitors 85 Working with Files and Folders 90 Why It Takes So Long to Copy Files Slicker Ways to Select Files Take Charge of Drag Drop Copy or Move to a Specified Path More Ways to Rename Files Delete In Use Files Zip It Up Customize Drive and Folder Icons Fix Windows Search 3 The Registry 4 25 s8 naa E E aie ss eins es nee pees The Registry Editor The Structure of the Registry The Meat of the Registry Values The Registry on 64 bit Windows Registry Tasks and Tools Search the Registry Search and Replace Registry Data Locate the Registry Key For a Setting Create an Interface for a Registry Setting Export and Import Data with Registry Patches Prevent Changes to a Registry Key Back Up the Registry Edit Another PC s Registry Remotely File Type Associations Anatomy of a File Type Change the Icon for All Files of a Type Customize Context Menus for Files Lock Your File Types Expand the Scope of Your File Types Customize Windows Explo
16. All you need is virtualization software see Table 1 3 and an original installation disc for the operating system you wish to install in a window YUM payeys 799 Table 1 3 Virtualization software comparison chart Microsoft Windows VMware Virtual PC6 0 Virtual PC6 1 Workstation 6 5 VirtualBox Windows 7 as host 0S V V V Windows Vista or XP as host0S V V Runs Windows 7 in a window V V V V Runs Vista or XP in a window V V V V Includes Windows XP for free Yi Supports 64 bit host 0S JV V V Vv Runs 64 bit 0S in a window V V Supports direct file drag drop v V Clipboard sharing V V V V Dynamic desktop resize V V Non network folder sharing V Virtualized windows alongside V V host windows Supports multiple virtual V V processors Supports multiple virtual mon V V itors USBdevicesrecognized by guest V V V system Snapshots V V Record movies V Runs Linux Unix in a window v unofficially unofficially v V Runs Mac 0S X in a window v unofficially Cost Free Free Free 30 day trial Free Available from http microsoft com virtualpc http vmware http www vir com tualbox org w Windows XP Mode is included in the Professional and Ultimate Editions of Windows 7 only see the upcoming sidebar Windows XP Mode on page 33 for details b See the sidebar Virtual Time Machine on page 36 Install Windows7 31 In order to run a 64 bit operating system in a window the host PC must also be running a 64 bit operating s
17. Premium include FreeOTFE and TrueCrypt See Chapter 8 for the skinny on encryption Corporate tools These tools are only available on the Ultimate and Enterprise editions of Windows 7 and are mostly of use to PCs in a corporate environment that uses Windows Server 2008 R2 Anyone who doesn t need to be constantly connected to a central server at a large company to do his or her work will likely be bored to tears by these tools AppLocker allows you to control which users can run certain applications for instance you can restrict a group of less privileged users to only run ning apps by certain publishers like Microsoft You can download AppLocker for free from http www smart x com You can also accom plish this in a much more limited fashion with file permissions discussed in Chapter 8 BranchCache caches files and web content from central servers to improve performance when working on large scale team projects on low bandwidth connections There s no direct replacement at the time of this writing aside from upgrading your Internet connection DirectAccess allows you to connect a Windows 7 PC to a corporate net work running a DirectAccess server If you have a lesser edition of Win 4 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 dows you can still set up a Virtual Private Network VPN connection as explained in Chapter 7 to do something similar albeit with more fuss Group Policy Object Editor Several solutions in
18. Presentation Mode Winkey X v Vv Previous Versions Shadow Copies V V V Remote Desktop Client V Vv Vv Remote Desktop Host V V Subsystem for Unix based Applications V Virtual Hard Disk Booting V Windows Media Center JV Vv Vv Windows Media Player Remote Media Experience V V V Windows XP Mode for Windows Virtual PC V V Editions of Windows7 3 Got Ultimate Edition Envy Got the Home Premium or Professional editions of Windows 7 and are con sidering forking over more cash to Microsoft for a better version Not so fast Here are most of the goodies included with Ultimate but missing in lesser editions and how you can get them for free Back up to a network location See Preventative Maintenance and Data Recovery on page 404 for in formation on using network storage with Windows Backup on the Home Premium edition BitLocker Drive Encryption and the Encrypting File System EFS The NTFS file system used by all editions of Windows 7 supports com pression and encryption for individual files and folders but the encryption feature is made unavailable in the Home Premium edition If you want to encrypt files in Home Premium try SafeHouse Explorer Encryption or Cryptainer LE both free BitLocker included only with the Ultimate and Enterprise editions is a method by which you can encrypt an entire drive as opposed to the aforementioned folder and file level encryption Freeware alternatives for Professional and Home
19. Without the key setup will ask you which edition of 7 you d like to install make sure you choose the edition you actually own 4 When setup is complete you ll be operating in the 30 day evaluation pe riod but you won t be able to activate 7 until you enter your product key To enter the product key open a Command Prompt window in adminis trator mode as explained in the section Control User Account Con trol on page 569 and then type this at the prompt cscript windows system32 slmgr vbs ipkXXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX where XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX is your Windows 7 product key taken from the DVD sleeve or the sticker on your PC case Press Enter to proceed Vs 4 If this doesn t work you may need to temporarily deac aS tivate the UAC feature as described in Chapter 8 and 443s then try again Then reactivate UAC when you re done should you so desire 5 Next activate Windows with this command cscript windows system32 slmgr vbs ato and press Enter To verify that activation was successful type this cscript windows system32 slmgr vbs dlv Install Windows7 13 gt a 3 N YUM paveys 799 6 Type exit or close the Command Prompt window when you re done Vs i SS Using a process known as rearming you can extend the as evaluation period up to two or three times for a total of LO a f 44s 120 days Just execute the slmgr vbs script
20. about such an incompatibility before you begin Of course updating the driver won t help since you d either be installing the driver software on an older version of Windows that will soon be replaced or installing it on the new OS that won t boot Your best bet is to replace the video card and try again Install Windows7 25 Ss a 3 N YUM paveys 7399 Installing on a desktop PC and suspect your video adapter is sabotaging your installation If your motherboard has built in video that you re currently not using because of an add on card just re enable the on board video through the system BIOS if necessary and then remove the troublesome card Orif the on board video is to blame try assigning it more video memory again see Appendix A or replacing it with an add on video card Next if you see an error that says something like failed to open the Windows image file this is an indictment of your DVD drive Setup installs Windows 7 from a single huge hard disk image file and some older drives can t handle files larger than 3 gigabytes in size The solution is to replace the drive or if you re particularly attached to the drive and you re not in a hurry purchase a copy of Windows setup on a stack of CDs which Microsoft calls alternate media and try again Lastly if it s an older disc the culprit might be nothing more than a little dust wipe the disk against your shirt and try
21. al files to an external hard disk USB flash drive or network drive wipe your hard disk and then install Windows 7 To do this pop in your Windows 7 install disc and open Windows Explorer Navigate to the support migwiz folder on the DVD dou ble click migsetup exe and follow the prompts 20 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 What gets transferred By default Windows Easy Transfer grabs most but not all of the stuff in your user account folder c users your user name which includes your desktop your Documents folder your Internet Explorer Favorites and a handful of application saved settings e g iTunes library Firefox bookmarks It also collects most of the stuff in the All Users folder which it calls Shared Items To customize what is saved click the Customize link next to any item in the Choose what to transfer from this computer list and then click Advanced On this Windows Explorer like window shown in Figure 1 4 place a checkmark next to any folder or indi vidual file you want to keep When you re done choosing files Windows Easy Transfer compresses your files into a single mig file which you can save anywhere you like presumably on a removable or network drive Windows Easy Transfer Choose what t h Modify your selections Mue D y n fy DAK 1163 6 7 DAK 1165P DAK 1166JPG 7i 7 DAK ALOE IPG DAK 116996 7 Ye pena 7 DAKAI7LJPG DAKII72JPG OAKJITIJPG T
22. and the 64 bit edition of Windows 7 running on the host PC The same procedure also works if the host is running Vista x64 or XP x64 Start VMWare and from the File menu select New and then Virtual Ma chine or press Ctrl N On the first page of the New Virtual Machine Wizard select Custom advanced and click Next From the Hardware compati bility list select Workstation 6 5 and click Next 36 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 Next specify the location of your installer disc either a physical drive on your PC or an iso image file if applicable and click Next On the Easy Install Information page VMware lets you enter the license key user account name to create and associated password all of which are optional type them in and VMware will pre enter them for a nearly unattended setup When asked to allocate memory you ll need to specify at least 2048 MB 2 GB more is better if you can spare it Whatever you allocate for the virtual machine will be sucked out of your host PC s memory so don t give it every thing you ve got On the Network Type page select Use bridged networking and then click Next What follows is the selection of a SCSI adapter which doesn t matter In fact for some other operating systems you ll need to disable the SCSI support altogether Just like with Microsoft Virtual PC you ll need to set up a virtual hard disk so on the Select a Disk page choose Create a new v
23. and you don t want to ruin a functioning system Or what if upgrading isn t an option and you have to perform a clean install Or what if setup halts halfway through with nothing more than a blue screen to show for your trouble Or worst of all what if setup is completely successful and now all that awaits you is a bloated buggy OS that you need to spend time optimizing and configuring OK that last scenario is what the rest of this book is about Microsoft took a somewhat odd approach with Windows 7 s setup tool Pre viously you could install the latest Windows OS on top of just about any recent version and the installer would perform an upgrade The process was convenient in that anyone could upgrade Windows by simply popping in a disc but the resulting system never worked very well because of all the detritus 8 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 left behind by the previous OS Perhaps this was why everyone hated Vista Microsoft reasoned so we ll just disable the upgrade feature in Windows 7 Or maybe building an installer that actually worked was just too much trouble 3 a 3 N YUM payeys 799 ve i SS Whether yov re allowed to install Windows 7 over an older aS version or you re forced to perform a clean install is unre 4a lated to the special pricing or licensing you may ve gotten when you purchased Windows 7 In other words just because you got an u
24. ave to waste time fishing around for the sticker and typing the excruciating 25 digit key only to have setup laugh at your propensity for typos This is a particularly useful time saver if you re only setting up a temporary installation for software testing or data recovery 10 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 L SMOpUIM YLM p ULIS 199 Install Windows T Windows 7 Install now F What to know before installing Windows Repair your computer Copyright 2009 Microsoft Corporation All rights reserved Figure 1 1 From this page click Install now to begin setup or Repair your computer to use the repair tools explained in Chapter 6 If you complete setup without typing your key make sure you S choose the edition of Windows 7 for which you actually own a license If you choose the wrong edition you won t be able to change it later without reinstalling from scratch When Windows boots it ll operate in a fully functional evaluation mode you can use normally for 30 days If you don t enter a valid product key for the edition you chose during setup in time through the System page in Control Panel Windows goes into a lockdown mode See Install clean with only an upgrade disc on page 13 for a way to extend this evaluation period So if this installation ends up being a keeper don t put this step off lest you risk giving yourself a nice big headache A few pages later you
25. d recent improvements in virtualization software it s easy quick practical and for the most part free The idea is that you can run a second copy of Windows or any other operating system for that matter in a win dow The new OS behaves as though it was installed on its very own PC and even shows up on the network the experience is not unlike remote control software discussed in Chapter 7 except you don t need to buy any more hard ware In most cases you can copy and paste data between the host OS and the OS running in the window the guest and even drag drop files onto the virtualized desktop Va s5 For best performance for your virtualized operating system aS make sure support for virtualization is enabled in your PC s 4 BIOS see Appendix A for details Not sure if your CPU sup ports this Try Securable http www grc com securable htm Also you ll need at least 3 GB of physical RAM 4 or 8 is better and more than enough free hard disk space for a virtual hard disk 20 GB minimum With virtualization you can test Windows 7 right on your Vista or XP desktop before you commit Or if you re already running Windows 7 you can set up 30 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 a virtual Vista or XP desktop to allow you to run older software that isn t yet 7 friendly see Windows XP Mode on page 33 for a special case 3 a 3 N The process itself is quite easy
26. d the installation process will start automatically If your PC doesn t boot off your setup disc you ll need to do one of the following BIOS setup Enter your BIOS setup utility see Appendix A navigate to the Boot sec tion and change the boot device priority or boot sequence so that your DVD drive appears before your hard disk Save your changes and exit BIOS setup when you re finished Boot menu Alternatively some PCs provide a boot menu that lets you choose the boot drive on the fly Look for a message above or below the boot screen right after you power on your PC usually all you do is press the F12 key before the beep don t dawdle select your CD DVD drive from a list and hit Enter When your PC detects a bootable disc you ll usually see this message for three to four seconds Press any key to boot from CD or DVD Press a key on the keyboard and in a few moments setup should load normally and display its Welcome screen See the section Boot Without a Boot Disc on page 15 if you can t boot off the Windows setup disc On the first screen click Next to display the Install Windows screen shown Figure 1 1 From here click Install now to proceed On the next page setup asks for your product key which you can read off the DVD sleeve or the sticker on your PC case Mercifully Microsoft allows you to skip this step leave the field blank click Next and then answer No so you don t h
27. e useless 25 year old system menus found in every preceding version Windows 7 also throws in a bunch of crowd pleasing window management shortcuts like Aero Peek Aero Snap and Aero Shake as well as some nifty features for those using multiple displays But it s not all lollipops and rainbows For starters upgrading from XP or an earlier version of Windows can be a chore if you don t know a few tricks Microsoft made some stupid decisions when it came to security which you ll need to rectify to keep your data safe and your OS malware free Windows Explorer needs tweaking before it ll work reliably and the Search feature is too slow and its results incomplete Windows 7 doesn t provide any convenient tools to associate more than one application with a file type or even customize file icons The backup tool doesn t let you restore individual files from a complete PC backup meaning that you have to back up your data twice in order to get complete protection Sharing files with older PCs non Windows machines and in some cases even Windows 7 PCs can be needlessly frustrating And the list goes on and on Fortunately Windows 7 is pliable UAC can be tamed The Green Ribbon of Death found in Windows Explorer can be dealt with The Backup and Search tools can be reconfigured to be more useful You can hack up the Registry to protect Windows from itself and customize the interface in ways Microsoft never intended And Windows 7 s ne
28. e Start menu and if you re installing the 32 bit edition of Windows 7 type copype cmd x86 c output or if you re installing the 64 bit x64 edition type copype cmd amd64 c output and press Enter The batch file will create the c output folder automatically When the files have been copied issue this command to mount the Windows Preinstallation Environment PE image imagex mountrw C output winpe wim 1 C output mount Next open Windows Explorer and create a subfolder inside of c output named boot Copy all the files from c output mount Windows Boot PXE to the new c output boot folder When that s done unmount the Windows PE image imagex unmount C output mount Back in Windows Explorer copy the boot sdi file from the WAIK installation folder to the c output boot folder If you re installing the 32 bit edition of Windows 7 get boot sdi from C Program Files Windows AIK Tools PETools x86 boot or if you re installing the 64 bit x64 edition get it from C Program Files Windows AIK Tools PETools amd64 boot Return to the command prompt window and copy the winpe wim file to the boot folder and rename it to boot wim like this copy c output winpe wim c output boot boot wim After all that there are a bunch of other tedious commands required to create a Boot Configuration Data BCD file using bcdedit exe the same tool used in Set Up a Dual Boot System on page 26 For a shortcut just download ma
29. ee Tools and Techniques to Improve Your Windows 7 Experience 3 TEC tarn ie Qe Windows 7 Annoyances O REILLY David A Karp O Reilly Ebooks Your bookshelf on your devices iWork 0g Mac OS d E Python jipan Mobi APK PDF ePub When you buy an ebook through oreilly com you get lifetime access to the book and whenever possible we provide it to you in four DRM free file formats PDF epub Kindle compatible mobi and Android apk ebook that you can use on the devices of your choice Our ebook files are fully searchable and you can cut and paste and print them We also alert you when we ve updated the files with corrections and additions Learn more at http oreilly com ebooks You can also purchase O Reilly ebooks through iTunes the Android Marketplace and Amazon com Windows 7 Annoyances by David A Karp Copyright 2010 David A Karp All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Published by O Reilly Media Inc 1005 Gravenstein Highway North Sebastopol CA 95472 O Reilly books may be purchased for educational business or sales promotional use Online editions are also available for most titles hitp my safaribookson line com For more information contact our corporate institutional sales depart ment 800 998 9938 or corporate oreilly com Editors Laurel Ruma and Julie Steele Indexer Lucie Haskins Production Editor Kristen Borg Cover Design
30. eeds to be all because of the junk left behind by the old instal lation Now s your chance to start over with a clean slate take it Which type of installation do you want Upgrade Upgrade to a newer version of Windows and keep your files settings and programs The option to upgrade is only available when an existing version of Windows is running We recommend backing up your files before you proceed Custom advanced Install a new copy of Windows This option does not keep your files settings and programs The option to make changes to disks and partitions is available when you start your computer using the installation disc We recommend backing up your files before you proceed Help me decide 1 Collecting information 2 Installing Windows Figure 1 3 Windows 7 setup gives you these two options when upgrading from Vista but be warned the Upgrade option is for suckers One of the upgrade scenarios that Microsoft doesn t support regardless of the version of Windows you re upgrading is upgrading from 32 bit Windows to 64 bit even from Windows 7 to Windows 7 So if you re consider ing taking the x64 plunge right now is your best chance if you don t want to bother with yet another clean install in a few months See 64 Bit Windows on page 6 for details Microsoft s answer is to use the Windows Easy Transfer WET tool formerly known as the Migration Wizard to copy your person
31. er Karen Montgomery Proofreader Kristen Borg Interior Designer David Futato Illustrator Robert Romano Printing History May 2010 First Edition Nutshell Handbook the Nutshell Handbook logo and the O Reilly logo are regis tered trademarks of O Reilly Media Inc Windows 7 Annoyances the image of a Central American turkey and related trade dress are trademarks of O Reilly Media Inc Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks Where those designations appear in this book and O Reilly Media Inc was aware of a trademark claim the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions or for damages result ing from the use of the information contained herein RepKovetu P This book uses RepKover a durable and flexible lay flat binding ISBN 978 0 596 15762 3 M 1272286876 Table of Contents Preface es yn aa a ENR ti Grains Canes ee ARER xi 1 Get Started with Windows 7 cece ccc ee eee eee eee e een e eee 1 Editions of Windows 7 2 Got Ultimate Edition Envy 4 64 Bit Windows 6 Install Windows 7 8 Install Windows on an Empty Hard Disk 10 Boot Without a Boot Disc 15 Upgrade from a Previous Version of Windows 18 Fix Problems with Windows Setup 25 Set Up a Dual Boot System
32. erprise edition which has more or less the same feature set as Ultimate minus the games and Media Player but with volume licensing for large corporations Open a Command Prompt window cmd exe and type ver at the prompt to see Windows internal version number 2 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 The specific differences between the three primary editions are outlined in Table 1 1 See the next section for ways you can make up the difference if yow re not lucky enough to have the Ultimate edition gt a 3 N YUM paveys 399 Table 1 1 What you get and what you don t with the primary editions of Windows 7 Home Premium Professional Ultimate Aero Glass interface V V V Backup and Restore V V V Backup and Restore Create a system image V v V Backup and Restore Network storage support V V Create a Home Group Vv Vv Vv Corporate tools AppLocker BranchCache DirectAccess V Encryption BitLocker drive encryption V Encryption file and folder encryption EFS Vv Vv Fax and Scan Vv Vv Vv Group Policy Editor gpedit msc Vv Vv Join a corporate network domain V V Local Security Policy Editor secpol msc Vv V Local Users and Groups Manager usrmgr msc VA v V Location Aware Printing vV V Maximum physical memory 64 bit edition 16 GB 192 GB 192 GB Multilingual User Interface Pack V Offline files and folders sync with network folders Vv Vv Pen and Touch Multi Touch V V V Premium Games V V
33. et up a dual boot system with Windows 7 and XP you also may have ownership problems to contend with As explained in Chapter 8 every file and folder on your PC has an owner a user tied to a specific Install Windows7 29 3 a 3 N YUM paveys 7399 account on your PC If for instance you create a file in XP and then attempt to modify it in Windows 7 you may be denied permission until you take ownership as explained in the section Protect Your Files with Encryp tion on page 558 And in regards to protecting your data encryption is also effective at prevent ing an intruder from reading your files by installing a second operating system on your PC Virtualize Whirled Peas A Gedanken experiment also called a thought experiment is a means of testing a hypothesis without actually conducting any physical experiment Maxwell s demon and Schr dinger s cat are both Gedanken experi ments And as luck would have it there s a way to conduct a Gedanken ex periment of sorts with Windows 7 Say you re using Vista or XP and you re considering upgrading or rather transitioning to Windows 7 How do you find out if the new OS works with all your software without actually completing a painful laborious and possi bly one way operating system upgrade Virtualize Virtualization has been around for years but thanks to processor level opti mizations an
34. files click OK 3 At this point you ll see two partitions e Disk 0 Partition 1 System Reserved System e Disk 0 Partition 2 Primary Highlight the Primary partition and then click Delete 4 Next select the System Reserved partition and click Extend Type the maximum size available for the partition and then click Apply 5 Again highlight the newly extended System Reserved partition and click Format 14 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 6 When the format is complete proceed to install Windows on the lone partition See Chapter 5 if you ve already installed Windows and you wish to remove this partition Boot Without a Boot Disc I still have a box of floppy disks in my closet most of which are boot disks for old operating systems Windows Me Windows 95 DOS 6 2 DOS 4 0 etc Not a single one of my PCs still has a floppy drive but each was such a hassle to create or obtain I can t bear to part with them lest someone knock on my door one day with a 25 year old IBM XT that won t start up Suffice it to say it can be a real pain to boot a PC before any operating system is installed Windows 7 comes on a bootable DVD but if you have an older drive that doesn t support bootable DVDs or if you don t have a working optical drive at all what do you do One method is to pull the hard drive from the PC and then use another PC to copy files from the Windows setup disc to a temporary folder on the drive B
35. icone anov hepa S Figure 1 5 The Boot tab of the System Configuration tool provides most of the features of BCDEdit in a much more pleasant interface Here the easy options are truly self evident and the advanced options are at least available On the right you can adjust the Timeout from its default of 30 seconds type 5 here and you ll instantly shave off 25 seconds from your unattended boot time Don t use a value so small that you won t have time to change it lest you set an inoperable installation as the default and have no way to get around it To choose the default OS select it in the list and click Set as default When youre done click OK and then restart Windows to see your new settings Of Operating Systems and Filesystems When setting up a dual boot system for day to day use you ll need to consider the matter of sharing files between your operating systems In order to share files between operating systems both partitions must use filesystems supported by at least one OS For instance if you have a dual boot setup with both Windows 7 and Windows 98 you ll be able to see both drives while you re in 7 but you ll only be able to see the 98 drive while 98 is running Although 7 can read drives formatted with the FAT32 filesystem it can t be installed on one See Chapter 5 for details Now if both your partitions use the NTFS filesystem which is what you d likely get if you s
36. ief roadmap and some tips to help you get up to speed with Windows 7 quickly Coming from Windows XP Disorientation is probably the prevailing sensation among those users coming to Window 7 from XP or earlier versions of Windows Here s where you can find some of the more elusive entities you may have grown accustomed to Add or Remove Programs This is still in Control Panel but now it s called Programs and Features Aero Glass interface Windows 7 features the same see through Glass interface introduced in Vista although the Desktop Window Manager DWM has been im proved in this latest version to be more memory efficient See Chapter 5 if yow re having trouble getting Glass to work Address Bar The path box in Windows Explorer doubles as an address bar so if you want to type a path or copy the current path to the clipboard click just to the right of the text and Explorer will show you a familiar backslash equipped folder path in an editable text field See Chapter 2 for a complete tour of the new Windows Explorer Display Properties Right click an empty area of the desktop and select Screen resolution Or in Control Panel open the Display page and on the left side click Adjust resolution File Types window Sorry you don t get one of these in Windows 7 The best Microsoft could do is the nearly useless Default Programs page in Control Panel If you want to edit your context menus you ll need File Type Doctor expla
37. indows 9x Me will break the Windows 7 boot manager if installed subsequently For an other consideration see the sidebar Of Operating Systems and Filesystems on page 29 Modify the Boot Manager configuration The Windows Boot Manager is responsible for loading Windows 7 and op tionally booting any other operating systems you may have installed The Boot Manager in both Windows XP and 2000 stored its configuration in a tiny easily editable file called boot ini in the root folder of your C drive but in Windows 7 this file is no longer used If you install 7 on an XP system and then open the boot ini file left behind you ll see this message 3Warning Boot ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems Warning Use BCDEDIT exe to modify Windows 7 boot options The BCDEdit bcdedit exe tool that comes with Windows 7 is a command line tool and isn t exactly user friendly Open a Command Prompt window Install Windows7 27 in administrator mode as described in Chapter 8 type bcdedit and press Enter and you ll see output that looks something like this Windows Boot Manager identifier bootmgr device partition C description Windows Boot Manager locale en US inherit globalsettings default default displayorder ntldr default toolsdisplayorder memdiag timeout 3 Windows Legacy OS Loader identifier ntldr device partition C path ntldr description Earlier version of Window
38. ined in Chapter 3 Menus in Windows and Internet Explorer Microsoft took the menus out of both Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer and replaced them with tool ribbons and drop down buttons that do pretty much the same thing But you can always press the Alt key on the keyboard to temporarily show the old familiar menu bars in either application See Chapter 2 if you want to make it permanent in Windows Explorer Migration to Windows7 39 gt a 3 N YUM paveys 799 Network Connections As explained in Chapter 7 the Network Connections window has been subjugated and buried in Windows 7 In Control Panel open the Network and Sharing Center page On the left side click Change adapter settings Start Menu gt Run You can use the Search box at the bottom of the Start menu to run any program just type the filename e g control exe and press Enter System The familiar System Properties window that has been around since Win dows 2000 and the only way to change your PC s name on your network is now buried under the Advanced system settings link on the new Sys tem page in Control Panel Alternatively you can type SystemProper tiesAdvanced exe in the Start menu s Search box and press Enter to open this window And there s more see the next section for some goodies that are unfamiliar even to Vista users Coming from Windows Vista Since Windows 7 is a incremental update to Vista your transition should
39. irtual PC software But rather than running Windows XP in a window thereby confining XP applications to a smaller isolated desktop XP Mode applications run along side Windows 7 applications Windows 7 and the virtualized XP share the same desktop Start menu and even file type associations XP Mode uses a Terminal Services session for its hosted applications via the same protocol RDP as the Remote Desktop feature covered in Chapter 7 The result is a fully functional licensed copy of Windows XP running more or less as a layer on top of Windows 7 not altogether different from the 32 bit layer on 64 bit Windows And this means at least in theory no compati bility problems and thus no barrier to the inevitable upgrade to Windows 7 The big exception here is non USB hardware if you don t have a Windows 7 ready driver for one of your devices the virtualized XP system won t be able to talk to it But what if you have the Home Premium edition of Windows 7 Although you won t have access to Windows XP Mode per se you can install XP in Windows Virtual PC provided you own an XP license and have an XP install disc Or if that s overkill you can try running that cranky application in compatibility mode as described in Chapter 6 Install Windows7 33 Virtual Machine Additions is a sort of link between the guest and host sessions it makes the guest OS aware that it s run ning in a virtualized environme
40. irtual disk and click Next For the virtual disk type select IDE On the Specify Disk Capacity page choose a large Maximum disk size at least 100 GB since you can t easily enlarge it later and make sure the Allocate all disk space now option is not checked Complete the wizard and then click Finish If all is well VMware will auto matically start the virtual machine load the Windows 7 installer and get to work Akin to Microsoft s Virtual Machine Additions described earlier in this section VMware offers VMware Tools which allow you to easily move your mouse pointer in and out of the VMware session window From VMware s VM menu select Install VMware Tools and then follow the prompts to install Virtual Glass Neither Virtual PC nor VMware gives the guest operating system low level access to your PC s hardware This means it can t play with your 3D video card and thus can t display Aero Glass But there is a nifty workaround if you want Glass on your Virtual Windows 7 or Vista use Remote Desktop If your host OS is Windows 7 you re using Windows Virtual PC and you have Aero Glass enabled on the host just fire up Virtual PC and from the Tools menu select Enable Integration Features But what if your host OS is Vista or an earlier version You can do it provided your guest OS is the Professional edition or better On the guest OS open the System page in Control Panel and click the Remote settings link o
41. isn t that always the case when you upgrade the operating system Now native 64 bit software running on 64 bit Windows has been known to run as much as 10 faster which illustrates the other reason apart from memory addressing that people find 64 bits alluring But fully native x64 applications are still rare even Microsoft Office is still natively 32 bits with only a handful of x64 DLLs thrown in to make everything work smoothly on a 64 bit system Va Ss All 64 bit editions of Windows 7 require a 64 bit x64 pro aS cessor both Intel and AMD make x64 CPUs If you re not GIS sure if your PC has an x64 CPU and you re already using Windows 7 or Vista open the Performance Information and Tools page in Control Panel and click the View and print details link available only after you ve run a performance check Otherwise the free Securable utility works on any version of Windows If you haven t yet installed any OS on your PC use the Processor Check for 64 Bit Compatibility tool So ifyou re on the fence about x64 let s make it simple Unless you have fewer than 2 GB of RAM anon x64 processor or some software or hardware prod Editions of Windows7 7 3 a 3 N YUM payers 7399 uct that won t work on 64 bit Windows there s no reason to stick with a 32 bit OS All editions of Windows 7 except Starter are available in both the 32 bit or 64 bit varieties the retail U
42. ith Windows 7 or you may not be able to get at any of your files If you re upgrading from Vista Business edition or better you can use the Complete PC Backup and Restore feature in Control Panel to image the hard disk allowing a full restore to the pre upgrade state or quick restore of individual files from within Windows 7 see Chapter 6 Other editions and versions may require third party backup software 22 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 The Custom advanced installation type shown in Figure 1 3 is a workable choice for upgrading Windows XP and older machines despite the explana tion beneath it In fact the bit that reads This option does not keep your files settings and programs is a flat out lie It really means that it won t migrate your stuff When you perform a Custom installation on say Windows XP setup moves your old Windows Program Files and Documents and Settings folders into a new folder called Windows old so it can install Windows 7 on the drive un hindered Other folders e g c Dave s Personal Stash are left alone None of your data is deleted and provided you have enough free disk space at least 11 GB setup performs what s called a parallel installation where Windows 7 is placed alongside your old operating system va SS A parallel installation isn t the same as a dual boot setup as After installing Windows 7 in this way the old version will no te a y
43. kebcd bat from _http files creativelement com annoyances makebcd bat and run it on your PC When prompted to cut and paste the GUID right click any part of the command prompt window select Mark select the text in curly braces just above the prompt and press Enter to copy the text Right click again select Paste to paste the text and press Enter to continue execution If all goes well you ll only see a series of messages stating that The operation completed successfully The last step is to install Trivial File Transfer Protocol TFTP server software such as Tftp32 free from http tftpd32 jounin net so the target PC can con nect to the working PC to retrieve the boot files Install Tftp32 and start 16 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 tftpd32 exe Click Browse select the c Output folder and click OK to set it as the Current Directory Next choose the DHCP server tab click Help and fill out the fields as instructed In the Boot File field type boot sdi When you re done click the Save button Now that the PXE server is set up you need to enable PXE Network boot in your new PC s BIOS setup screen as explained in Appendix A You ll need the host name or IP address of the PC acting as the PXE server see Chap ter 7 for more on IP addresses general networking tips and troubleshooting Create a bootable CD There are many ways to make a bootable CD but to make a bootable Windows 7 CD follow these steps
44. les with Encryption Control User Account Control Logon and Profile Options Hide the List of User Accounts Log In Automatically Reset a Forgotten Administrator Password Prevent Users from Shutting Down Log In As the Administrator Customize the Welcome Screen Background Set the Mood with a Custom Startup Sound 465 469 475 476 478 482 485 488 496 498 502 509 514 514 519 521 523 524 525 526 527 529 529 531 534 537 540 541 a eae tas 543 544 549 550 558 569 578 578 580 582 583 584 586 588 Table of Contents ix Customize the Default Profile for New Users 590 Rename Your Profile Folder 590 Share Files and Printers 592 Share a Folder 593 Access a Shared Folder Remotely 597 Force a Login Box for a Remote Folder 602 Turn Off Administrative Shares 605 Hide Your PC from the Network Folder 608 Going Homegroups 609 Share a Printer 617 Connect to a Networked Printer or Print Server 619 9 Command Prompt and Automation cceeceeeeeeees 623 Command Prompt 624 DOS Commands 624 Batch Files 628 Quickly Build a Single Use Batch File 629 Variables and the Environment 630 Flow Control 632 Command Line Parameters 632 Conditional Statements 634 Loops 635 Simulating Subroutines 635 Get to the Command Prompt Quickly 636 Windows PowerShell 637 CmdLets and Aliases 638 Pipelines 640 PowerShell Variables 641 PowerShell Scripts 642 Run Scripts Automatically 643 Automate Scripts with the
45. low the prompts When asked what type of instal lation you want select Upgrade and then follow the prompts But if your Windows installation is sufficiently munged you may choose to install fresh without harming your existing installation as described later in this section Before you get started it s a good idea to collect a few things that might be harder to get once you ve begun setup For one put a Windows 7 compatible driver for your network adapter on a USB flash drive or CD just in case Windows doesn t support your hardware and thus won t allow you to download the files you need Also since you re essentially doing a fresh install make sure you have the installers for your most im portant applications And if there s anything you absolutely can t live without use Microsoft s Compatibility Wizard to see if you ll need to put off a Windows 7 upgrade until there s an update for your must have application or device driver Now if you re upgrading from Vista you can technically use the Upgrade feature shown in Figure 1 3 but don t be fooled it s not all it s cracked up to be Sure you won t have to reinstall all your applications although many will Install Windows7 19 gt a 3 N YIM poye s 395 need to be updated anyway to work with Windows 7 and you won t have to do any real prep work but what you ll end up with may be slower and more buggy than it n
46. ltimate edition even includes both 32 bit and 64 bit DVDs right in the box If you have a 32 bit edition other than Ultimate you can get the 64 bit version of your edition in the US call 1 800 360 7561 and assuming your license key checks out you only pay shipping But beware once you convert your license key to work with the 64 bit version you won t be able to use it to reinstall the 32 bit version should you decide to go back Thus you may want to try a virtual install first as described in Virtualize Whirled Peas on page 30 Once you ve got your 64 bit OS installed and functioning it ll look and feel just like its 32 bit x86 counterpart with only a few minor quirks See Chap ter 2 for Windows Explorer considerations on 64 bit Windows Chapter 3 for 64 bit registry issues and Chapter 6 for troubleshooting 64 bit hardware and software Unless otherwise noted all of the solutions in this book apply to both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Windows Install Windows 7 It used to be that installing an operating system was a dreadful experience More specifically it should be said that it was always a dreadful experience Fortunately things have improved to the point where installing Windows 7 is only occasionally dreadful In fact it s usually fairly painless provided you have a relatively new PC a true installation disc and no data you care about on the target drive But what if you re upgrading
47. n Windows Quickly Start Applications Faster Make Your Hardware Perform Get Glass Maximize the Windows Performance Rating Improve Battery Life Manage IRQ Priority Overclock Your Processor Hard Disk A Quick Performance Hack A Defragmentation Crash Course 218 218 219 219 222 224 225 226 227 229 231 232 233 234 235 239 241 245 249 249 252 253 255 255 258 ET 261 262 262 269 270 274 282 283 286 286 292 296 300 300 303 303 304 Table of Contents vii If in Doubt Throw It Out Optimize Virtual Memory and Cache Settings Choose the Right Filesystem Advanced NTFS Settings Transfer Windows to Another Hard Disk Work with Partitions 6 Troubleshooting cee csc ee cence seen eens eeneaeeaees Crashes and Error Messages Viruses Malware and Spyware What to Do When Windows Won t Start Manage Startup Programs Check Your Drive for Errors What to Do When a Program Crashes What to Do When a Program Won t Start What to Do When an Application Won t Uninstall Green Ribbon of Death Blue Screen of Death Dealing with Drivers and Other Tales of Hardware Troubleshooting How to Add Hardware Interpret Device Manager Errors Test for Bad Memory RAM Don t Overlook the Power Supply Fix USB Power Management Issues Fix Printer Problems Preventative Maintenance and Data Recovery Manage Windows Updates Go Back in Time with Restore Points and Shadow Copies Back Up Your Entire System Protect Yo
48. n the left side In the Remote Desktop section select either Install Windows7 37 3 a 3 N YUM paves 399 Allow connections only from computers running Remote Desktop with Network Level Authentication assuming your host OS is either Windows 7 or Vista or Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop for XP and earlier When you re done minimize the Vir tual PC session Then on the host OS start Remote Desktop see Chapter 7 by typing mstsc into the Start menu Search box and pressing Enter Before you connect click Options choose the Display tab and make sure the Colors setting is set to Highest Quality 32 bit Then choose the Experience tab and turn on all the options here or just choose LAN from the drop down list When you re done choose the General tab type the computer name of the virtualized PC into the Computer field and click Connect Type in your login credentials when prompted and then enjoy Glass in a window See Get Glass on page 286 for more on Aero Glass and Control a PC Remotely on page 488 for more on Remote Desktop Migration to Windows 7 Migration isn t just for the birds It s the process you go through to make all of your day to day tasks the ones you re accustomed to doing on Windows Vista or XP function on a new Windows 7 installation If you haven t yet installed Windows 7 one way to determine what will work a
49. nd what won t is to use the free Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor UA UA does nothing more than construct a laundry list of warnings each pointing out a potential problem with products it knows Windows 7 doesn t like In many cases you can remedy such issues by installing free updates from the respective manufacturers But don t expect anything more UA is useless for products not on its compatibility list For instance UA might bring to your attention that your printer antivirus software backup software CD burning software and perhaps your Bluetooth adapter are all unsupported on Windows 7 So this means you ll definitely need new versions of your antivirus and backup software see Chapter 6 and your CD burning software Chapter 4 You ll also need to check with the manufacturers of your printer and Bluetooth adapter to see whether they ve released native Windows 7 drivers in nearly all cases native Vista drivers will do If there aren t yet compatible drivers and you don t want to wait you ll need to replace those devices Beyond that you ll need to actually try any mission critical software or hard ware with Windows 7 to see if it ll work To make sure you ve covered all your 38 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 bases before you commit to the new OS you can either set up a dual boot system or install Windows 7 in a virtualized environment both explained ear lier in this chapter What follows is a br
50. ndows normally when setup is complete you should get something like the setup shown in Figure 1 6 mm Windows XP in a box Windows Virtual PC 5 2 Action y Tools Ctri Alt Del P Internet D My Documents 4 My Recent Documents gt wy E mail Outlook Express a Cal Outlook Express A apres I MSN t My Music a My Computer Windows Media Player E Control Panel 33 Windows Messenger Set Program Access and Defaults TEASERS Ra Printers and Faxes Files and Settings Transfer Wizard Help and Support pP Search Run 9 Your computer might be at risk Antivirus software might not be installed B g OFF o Turn Off Computer Click this balloon to fix this problem All Programs gt Figure 1 6 Run an older operating system in a window to provide absolute compatibility for applications that aren t yet 7 friendly Install Windows 7 35 5 2 nn N YUM pavers 799 Virtual Time Machine One of the advantages of virtualization is that it lets you test applications and in some cases hardware devices in an isolated environment But once you soil that environment with software or drivers it s no longer the clean room it once was Rather than delete the virtual machine and start over there are ways to revert back to earlier stages an undo if you will to save you time and trouble If you re using VMware Workstation just open the VM menu selec
51. nt First and foremost VMA lets you move your mouse in and out of the Virtual PC window freely otherwise it ll get stuck whenever you click in the win dow Without VMA press the right Alt key to release the mouse pointer It also lets you drag drop files directly onto and out of the windowed OS and it even resizes the virtual desktop when you resize the Virtual PC window When Windows 7 first loads open Virtual PC s Action menu and select Install or Update Virtual Machine Additions In a few moments the guest Windows 7 session will detect a new virtual CD and ask if you want to run setup exe Follow the prompts to install the software and then answer Yes to restart Windows Run a virtualized XP in Windows 7 Need to run an application that won t work on anything newer than Windows XP Here s one way to do it in Windows 7 First install Windows Virtual PC 6 1 or later If you re using the Professional Enterprise or Ultimate editions of Windows 7 youcan also install the optional Windows XP Mode software also available at http www microsoft com vir tualpc see the sidebar Windows XP Mode on page 33 for an introduction Otherwise you ll need an original Windows XP install disc and appropriate license code Now Windows Virtual PC doesn t have a central control panel like the one found in earlier versions click the Windows Virtual PC icon in your Start menu and it ll just open the Virtual Machines
52. or My Pictures in XP Music or My Music etc copying each collection of files to the appropriate new location 13 Next comes Application Data which houses the various personalized data files created by Windows and most of your applications By default both the old folder and its new Windows 7 counterpart are hidden but if you show hidden files in Windows Explorer explained in Chapter 2 you ll see them In Windows XP the old files are in C Windows old Documents and Set tings your_user_name Application Data For Vista they re divided in both C Windows old Users your_user_name AppData Roaming and C Windows old Users your_user_name AppData Local 24 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 You don t have to copy all the files in these folders In fact you may prefer to only copy certain branches as you discover you need them that way you won t put anything in your new installation you don t actually need For instance your Mozilla Firefox profile complete with your old book marks cookies and saved passwords from your old Vista installation can be found in C Windows old Users your_user_name AppData Roaming Mozilla Firefox Profiles But inside the Profiles folder is also your Firefox cache which is better left behind In this case you d copy or move everything except the Cache subfolder to CA Users your_user_name AppData Roaming Mozilla Firefox Profiles 14 When you re done leave the Windo
53. ords Presentation Mode is nothing more than a shortcut and one that may indeed duplicate similar features in presentation software you re already using Users of Home Premium can easily accomplish the same thing through more traditional means e g Control Panel See Chapter 2 for more nifty Winkey shortcuts that work for everyone Remote Desktop All editions of Windows 7 can control another PC remotely with Remote Desktop but you ll need the Professional edition or better if you want your PC to be controlled remotely act as the host with Remote Desktop UltraVNC is a free remote control package that works with any version edition of Windows or for that matter Mac OS X Linux and even Ap Editions of Windows7 5 3 a 3 N YUM payeys 799 ple s iPhone See the section Control a PC Remotely on page 488 for details Subsystem for Unix based Applications Also known as Interix this is basically a Unix and POSIX layer that allows you to run Unix software on your Windows 7 PC Don t have the Sub system for Unix based Applications Cygwin does more or less the same thing and is free for all versions of Windows Virtual Hard Disk Booting If you use the Windows Backup tool to create an image of your hard disk as described in Chapter 6 you ll end up with a VHD Virtual Hard Disk file VHD files are also used by Windows Virtual PC see Virtualize Whirled Peas on page 30 In the Ultimate and Enter
54. otal transfer uze Esbmating Seve Cancel Figure 1 4 Microsoft suggests using the Windows Easy Transfer tool to save your personal files before wiping your hard disk clean in preparation for Windows 7 Once your data is safe go ahead and install Windows 7 following the in structions in the previous section When setup asks Where do you want to install Windows see Figure 1 2 shown earlier you can delete the existing partition on your hard disk and then recreate it to ensure a totally clean install Keep in mind that any data not backed up with Windows Easy Transfer will be lost for good if you do so Or just leave the partition intact as described later in this section As soon as Windows 7 is installed and running just con nect the drive and double click the mig file to restore your stuff Install Windows7 21 gt a 3 N YUM payeys 799 So what s wrong with the WET approach For one it doesn t save all your files only those in standard locations like the Documents Music and Pic tures folders plus the ones you explicitly check off Miss something and you might lose it WET also doesn t save registry settings for your installed appli cations e g settings toolbars or any of your custom file types see Chap ter 3 Don t be surprised if you lose your file encryption Chapter 8 and shadow copies Chapter 6 WET also doesn t transfer installed applications but even if it did y
55. ou d have to reinstall them anyway Va sS To move registry data including file types from your old 43 Windows to the new one use registry patches as described aa in Chapter 3 Another problem with WET is that it requires that you move all the data you want to keep which might be sizable to another medium Say you ve got 675 GB of home movies and photos another 60 GB of music and 12 GB of business documents You ll have to wait while WET tries to compress and consolidate all 747 GB of data and then try to find a place to put the resulting 746 GB file Don t have a 750 GB drive handy and don t want to go buy one just for 3 hours use Or maybe you just don t feel comfortable relying on a single piece of hardware and a potentially buggy program to safeguard your data But the biggest problem with WET is that it is largely unnecessary Instead why not do some Drive Reorganizing Yourself or DRY By going DRY you simply take charge of migrating your own data so you can be sure that you ve got everything and that it all ends up where you want it Whether you do a WET or DRY upgrade to Windows 7 it s E an awfully good idea to back up your entire hard disk first That way if there s some catastrophic problem with the upgrade or you decide this PC isn t ready for Windows 7 you can restore the previous Windows installation and all your data in one step But make sure your backup software is compatible w
56. pe a sufficiently large number like 100000 for 100 GB and then click Next Click Finish to close the wizard Va i SS You can change the virtual hardware assigned to your new r s virtual PC at any time unless the virtual machine is running aS or paused by clicking the Settings button in the Virtual PC Console 32 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 When you re returned to the Virtual PC Console window select the new vir tual machine and click Start Immediately a black window will appear and you ll see Virtual PC attempt to boot off the network Since that s not likely to work open the CD menu select Use Physical Drive D or whatever drive letter is assigned to your DVD drive and pop in your Windows 7 disc Or if you re installing off an ISO select Capture ISO Image and select the iso file When you re ready open the Action menu and select Reset to boot off the disc or image 3 a 3 N YUM payers 799 From this point install Windows 7 as described earlier in this chapter Windows XP Mode One of Vista s biggest failings was its incompatibility or rather its perceived incompatibility with a broad range of applications and devices during its early days Microsoft was so concerned that the same thing might happen with Vista s successor that the Professional Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Windows 7 include a free licensed copy of Windows XP for use with the Windows V
57. pgrade version of Windows 7 doesn t mean you can do an in place upgrade over Windows XP So can you do an in place upgrade If you have Windows Vista or a lesser edition of Windows 7 e g Home Premium to Ultimate see Table 1 2 to find out If you have any other operating system then the answer is no Frustrating to be sure but trust me Microsoft is doing you a favor Table 1 2 Allowed Windows 7 in place upgrade paths no checkmark means you must perform a clean install Windows 7 Windows 7 Home Windows 7 Windows 7 Windows 7 Home Basic Premium Professional Enterprise Ultimate Vista Home Basic V V V Vista Home Premium V V Vista Business vA V V Vista Enterprise V Vista Ultimate 4 XP or earlier Furthermore if you want to switch from 32 bit to 64 bit or vice versa you must do a clean install You ll also need to install clean if you re changing the core language installing a hobbled version of Windows 7 e g Windows N Windows KN etc or are upgrading from any beta or release candidate Install Windows7 9 Install Windows on an Empty Hard Disk Use this method to set up Windows on a brand new empty hard disk if your PC already has a Windows installation even if it doesn t support an in place upgrade skip to the section Upgrade from a Previous Version of Win dows on page 18 The Windows 7 installation disc is bootable which means that you can pop it in your drive turn on the computer an
58. prise editions of Windows 7 you can boot your PC off a VHD file without using a virtual environment effectively offering another means of multiple booting If you have a lesser edition of Windows you can do the same thing with multiple hard disk partitions as described in Set Up a Dual Boot Sys tem on page 26 See Chapter 6 for more on virtual hard disks Windows XP Mode See the sidebar Windows XP Mode on page 33 for details on this feature and how you can get basically the same thing in Home Premium 64 Bit Windows More bits gets you access to more memory and more memory means a faster smoother running OS The processor inside your PC communicates with your system memory RAM with numeric addressing Thus the maximum amount of memory a 32 bit processor can address is 2 bytes or 4 gigabytes Newer 64 bit processors not to mention the 64 bit operating systems that run on them can address up to 2 bytes of memory or 17 179 869 184 gigabytes 16 exabytes of RAM 17 million gigabytes may sound like a lot of space now but it won t be long before you ll be taking baby pictures with a 9 exapixel digital camera Na In reality 32 bit Windows can only make use of about 3 GB as of RAM before hitting a wall see Chapter 5 for details we Windows NT released in 1993 was Microsoft s first fully 32 bit operating system But it took eight years before the platform which had since evolved into Windows 2
59. rade on any Windows older than Vista And XP users thought they were unhappy when Vista came out 18 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 This means you ve got some work to do before you can install Windows 7 on a hard disk that already has an earlier version of Windows on it If you don t have anything of value on the drive and don t mind wiping it clean check out Install Windows on an Empty Hard Disk on page 10 for instructions The good news is that there isn t much to do despite what Microsoft would lead you to believe Reinstall Windows 7 You may find yourself in a position where you ll need to reinstall Windows 7 usually in an effort to solve a nasty problem or to repair a damaged instal lation The procedure you choose depends on the state of your computer If Windows won t start see the section What to Do When Windows Won t Start on page 355 In most cases you ll need your original Windows setup disc but you won t need to reinstall If you re able to start Windows and it s working well enough to reliably access your DVD drive but poorly enough that you re considering reinstalling then youll need to decide whether to reinstall upgrade as Microsoft setup puts it or install a clean copy on your PC An in place reinstallation is the easiest way to go and despite the warnings in the previous section probably won t make things any worse Just pop the DVD in your drive and fol
60. re not going to read all that are you 6 When setup asks Which type of installation do you want Figure 1 3 choose Custom advanced 7 On the Where do you want to install Windows page Figure 1 2 click the drive with the previous version usually drive C and click Next Don t delete or reformat any partitions here or you ll lose data with no hope of recovery 8 At this point you ll get a warning about files from a previous installation click OK 9 Go get yourself a nice cup of tea while Windows copies half a million files to your hard disk and reboots a few times 10 When Windows 7 finally loads it s time for the DRY step reorganize the old folders so the new Windows installation can find all your data Fire up Windows Explorer Chapter 2 and navigate to your c Windows old Documents and Settings folder or if upgrading Vista c Windows old Users 11 Next open the subfolder of your user account and then open the Desk top folder Press Ctrl A to select all files and then drag them to your new Desktop folder at the top of the tree Or create a new folder called Old Desktop if you don t want to clutter up your new desktop with all that old junk Va sS If you want to keep the old files in the old locations hold the ny Ctrl key while dragging and dropping see Chapter 2 for sub 44a tleties to copy the files instead of moving them 12 Repeat the previous step for Pictures
61. rer s New Menu Fix Internet Shortcuts 4 Video Audio and Media cccccceccccvcceccceceeees Get Videos to Play Install the FLV Flash Video Codec Repair Broken and Incomplete Videos Fix Other Playback Problems Simplify Your Media Players Rewind or Fast Forward Stubborn Video Control Video Buffering Download Online Video Clips The Trouble with Webcams 91 96 99 100 104 107 109 111 119 120 123 125 130 132 132 136 137 143 149 154 157 164 166 169 172 175 184 186 187 191 195 195 199 201 202 206 208 208 209 216 vi Table of Contents Turn a USB Webcam into an IP Webcam Use an IP Webcam for Videoconferencing Sound and Music Get Sound Where There Is None Get Windows to Listen Fix Garbled Music Crossfade Your Music Extract Sound from Video Convert Audio Files Fix Music Tags Photos Pictures and Images Quickly Sort Photos Choose Where to Store Your Pictures Generate Thumbnails for RAW Photos Tweak the Thumbcache Get Rid of the Windows Photo Gallery Get More Accurate Color Sort Photos Chronologically Media Center Hacks Watch TV on Your TV Watch Hulu in Media Center Add DVDs to Your Movie Library Optical Storage Annoyances Burning Discs Stop Windows 7 from Burning Discs Performance cece ccc ccc ce cece eeceecees Trim the Fat Tame Mindless Animation and Display Effects Make Menus More Mindful Start Windows in Less Time Start Windows Instantly Almost Shut Dow
62. s Windows Boot Loader identifier default device partition D path Windows system32 winload exe description Microsoft Windows 7 locale en US inherit bootloadersettings osdevice partition D systemroot Windows resumeobject 70c7d34d b6b4 12db cc71 d30cdb1ce261 nx OptIn detecthal Yes What a mess In short the first section describes the menu you see when you first boot the second section here Windows Legacy 0S Loader describes the older version of Windows XP and finally the third section Windows Boot Loader describes your new Windows 7 installation If you type bcdedit at the prompt you ll see a bunch of command line parameters you can use to add or remove entries choose a new default the OS that s loaded if you don t choose one before the timer runs out or run a variety of debugging tools But if all you want to do is choose a default and maybe change the timeout there s a better tool Open your Start menu type msconfig in the Search box and press Enter to open the System Configuration window and choose the Boot tab as shown in Figure 1 5 28 Chapter 1 Get Started with Windows 7 amp System Configuration General Boot Services Startup Tools Advanced options Boot options Timeout E Safe boot E No GUT boot 30 seconds Minin Boot log f Base video Acti repair F 0S boot information Make all boot settings Ne permanent H
63. se drive letters Va You ll need a flash drive of at least 4 GB and one that plugs 43 directly into a USB port In most cases flash cards used for ja cameras are not suitable Also only newer PCs can boot from flash drives to see if yours can check the documentation or snoop around your PC s BIOS for settings to enable this fea ture as explained in Appendix A Next open a Command Prompt window in administrator mode see Chapters 9 and 8 respectively and type diskpart to open command line disk parti tioning tool discussed in Work with Partitions on page 328 At the dis kpart prompt type list disk Look through the list and find the number assigned to your USB flash drive Then type select disk n where nis the number of your flash drive Then type these commands in order clean create partition primary select partition 1 active format fs ntfs assign exit to prepare the flash drive When that s done type d boot bootsect exe nt60 u where d is the letter of your DVD drive and u is the letter of your USB flash drive Finally copy all of the files from the Windows DVD to the flash drive root top level folder When all the files are in place plug it into one of the target PC s free USB ports and use it to start your computer Upgrade from a Previous Version of Windows In a departure from earlier versions Microsoft has made it impossible to per form an in place upg
64. t Snap shot and then Take Snapshot Name the snapshot and click OK to save the current state to your hard disk Thereafter changes you make to your virtual hard disk software you install files you delete etc are saved in a separate file on your real hard disk You can revert to a saved state at any time from the VM menu select Snap shot gt Snapshot Manager select the snapshot you wish to use and click Go To Microsoft Virtual PC doesn t have a snapshot feature but you can get a crude approximation provided you have enough free disk space When the virtual machine is in a state you d like to save like right after you ve installed Win dows and VMA shut down the virtual session Then open Windows Ex plorer on the host and navigate to the folder containing your vhd virtual hard disk usually Documents My Virtual Machines Using the right mouse button drag your vhd file to another part of the same folder and select Copy Here creating a duplicate copy e g Windows 7 copy vhd that s your snapshot To revert to a saved state make sure your Virtual PC session is shut down and then reopen Windows Explorer on the host Delete or rename the vhd file in use and then rename the backup e g Windows 7 copy vhd to Windows 7 vhd Run a virtualized Windows 7 x64 in Windows 7 Here s a handy way to create a clean Windows 7 install for testing purposes For this you ll need the VMWare Workstation software
65. tworking can do everything you need if you know where to look Think of it like carving a jack o lantern a little planning hacking and clean ing and your face will light up Editions of Windows 7 Ironically the internal version number of Windows 7 is version 6 1 which implies that Microsoft considers its newest operating system to be a relatively minor revision of Windows Vista version 6 0 This relationship is more or less accurate as it turns out and is akin to that between Windows XP inter nally Windows 5 1 and its predecessor Windows 2000 Windows 5 0 Windows 7 is available in six different editions all targeted for different mar kets and carefully designed to give customers the illusion of choice They re all the same version of Windows effectively the same software differing only in some of the toys included in the box Only three editions Ultimate Professional and Home Premium are available to the general public Home Premium lacks some of the data security management and networking features found in the Professional and Ultimate editions but comes with the premium games Chess Titans Mahjong Titans Purble Place missing in Professional Of course Ultimate has it all the only thing you lose with Ulti mate is a little hard disk space not to mention a large sum of cash On the fringe you ll find the Starter and Home Basic editions intended for so called emerging markets and the Ent
66. ur Data with RAID Recover Your System After a Crash 7 Networking and Internet cece ec e eee e cece reece cence Build Your Network Terminology Primer To Wire or Not to Wire Set Up a Wireless Router Upgrade Your Router Sniff Out WiFi Hotspots Troubleshoot Wireless Networks Lock Out Unauthorized PCs Connect to a Public Wireless Network 309 312 317 320 321 328 341 344 344 355 362 366 371 376 378 380 382 387 388 394 398 401 402 403 404 404 408 415 420 423 427 427 428 432 436 443 446 451 457 462 viii Table of Contents Get Bluetooth to Work Troubleshoot Network Connections Test an IP Address Internet Me Share an Internet Connection Test Your Throughput Set Up Virtual Private Networking Control a PC Remotely Manage the Name Server DNS Cache Secure Your Networked PC Put Up a Firewall Scan Your System for Open Ports Web and Email Lock Down Internet Explorer Change Internet Shortcut Icons Live with Firefox in an IE World Opt Out of Tabbed Browsing Fix Symbols in Web Pages Fix Broken Pictures in Web Pages Improve Any Website Put an End to Pop Ups Solve the Blank Form Mystery Stop Annoying Animations Surf Anonymously Change the Default Email Program Stop Spam Send Large Files Email Long URLs Users and Security cc eee cess cee e eee Manage User Accounts Permissions and Security Set Permissions for a File or Folder Protect Your Fi
67. ut that still leaves the question how do you boot the PC so you can get to those files Or what if Windows is already installed but you need to accomplish a task you can t do from within Windows such as updating flashing your PC s BIOS your video card BIOS or your hard drive BIOS Vs So If you re unlucky enough to be stuck with one of those BIOS aS update utilities that insists on writing files to a floppy drive 443s you can use the free Virtual Floppy Drive tool from http chit chat at infoseek co jp vmware vfd html to add a fake drive let ter Run your tool and then use Windows Explorer to retrieve the files Fortunately there are several alternate ways to boot a PC if for whatever reason you can t boot the conventional way a network PXE boot a bootable USB flash drive and a bootable CD Set up a network PXE boot Using your PC s built in support for Preboot Execution Environment PXE you can place boot files on a shared folder on another PC on your network and then boot the PC off of those files Setting this up is a bit involved but it s often simpler than using a boot disk Install Windows7 15 3 a 3 N YUM paveys 3399 To get started you ll need a working PC with an Internet connection Install the Windows Automated Installation Kit WAIK available for free at http go microsoft com fwlink LinkId 136976 Open the Windows PE Tools Command Prompt from th
68. ws old folder intact and close Win dows Explorer Once you re sure you ve got everything from the old folder perhaps weeks or months from now you can go back and delete the defunct Windows old folder Another use for the DRY method is to repair a seriously munged Windows 7 installation If Windows 7 won t boot you can perform a parallel installation to place a new copy of Windows 7 on your PC without harming the existing data on your hard disk One downside to the DRY method apart from the need to do some manual shuffling of files is that your hard disk never gets formatted If it s an old drive with a long history of upgrades a clean format may improve reliability Fix Problems with Windows Setup The most common cause of a failed installation of Windows 7 is an out of date system BIOS If setup crashes or if Windows won t boot after you finish installing check with the manufacturer of your system or motherboard for any BIOS updates and update your BIOS if needed Better yet make sure you have the latest BIOS before you begin installation particularly if your PC is more than a year old See Appendix A for details Another common stumbling block to a successful Windows 7 setup is your video card display adapter If setup stops with an unintelligible error mes sage reboots unexpectedly during setup or just hangs at a blank screen your video card may be at fault Unfortunately setup will rarely if ever warn you
69. ystem And 64 4s bit Windows requires a 64 bit processor as described in 64 Bit Windows on page 6 At the time of this writing running a 64 bit guest OS is only supported in VMware and Virtual Box Setting up a new virtual machine is a snap Here are a few sample scenarios Run a virtualized Windows 7 in Vista Want to test Windows 7 in a virtual environment on your Vista PC before you commit Here s how Start by installing Microsoft Virtual PC 6 0 on your Vista PC and then start Virtual PC On the Virtual PC Console window click New and then follow the prompts in the New Virtual Machine Wizard When it asks you to choose an operating system select Windows Vista and click Next Next it ll ask you to allocate memory this is the amount of physical RAM the guest OS sees so give it enough to run at least 1 0 1 5 GB Whatever you allocate for the virtual machine will be sucked out of your host PC s memory so don t give it more than you can spare Click Adjusting the RAM and move the slider or type a value 1536 MB for 1 5 GB and then click Next Next comes the virtual hard disk the vhd file your virtual machine uses for storage Select the A new virtual hard disk option click Next and then specify a filename and folder Thankfully the virtual hard disk works differ ently than the RAM the file starts off small and grows as needed The value you specify for Virtual hard disk size is only a cap so ty

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