Feed: Windows 7 Center - AggScore: 72.2

Microsoft had recently released a utility that allowed you to make a USB memory stick to install Windows 7 on computer’s that did not have a DVD drive. However Rafael Rivera of the “Within Windows” blog pointed out that the tool contained some GPL v2 licenced code and Microsoft have now quickly removed it from their web site. UPDATE: Microsoft has admitted that they violated the GPL v2 licence and have now released the tool under open source. In any case the instructions below show you how to build a much better bootable USB install memory stick that allows you to install ANY version of Windows 7.

If you have bought multiple version of Windows 7 and compared the DVD’s you might have noticed that they are the same with the exception of one file (ei.cfg). This one file tells Windows what version to automatically install during the install process. Because all the DVD’s are essentially the same you can use any Windows 7 DVD to perform a version upgrade of Windows 7 using the “Upgrade Anytime” option.

Now to make this bootable universal Windows 7 install USB memory stick you will need at least one Windows 7 DVD 32bit or 64bit depending on what version you want to install and a blank 4gb USB memory stick. Note you will need to create a separate 32 or 64bit USB memory stick of Windows 7 but it will let you install the different SKU’s.

Step 1. Insert the Windows 7 DVD into your computer and the USB memory stick into your computer

Step 2. Open an “Command Prompt” and run “DISKPART”.

This will launch the diskpart utility in a separate windows and perform a UAC prompt.

Step 3. Type “LIST DISK” and take note what the disk number is of the USB memory stick. This will be the same size as the USB memory stick (eg. 3824 MB = 4 GB).

Step 4. Then type “SELECT DISK X” where X is the disk number of the USB memory stick.

Step 5. Type “CLEAN”. Warning – This will wipe all data from the USB memory stick.

Step 6. Type “CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY”

Step 7. Type “SELECT PARTITION 1”

Step 8. Type “ACTIVE”

Step 9. Type “FORMAT FS=FAT32” (and wait about 5 minutes depending on the size and speed of the USB memory stick)

Step 10. Type “ASSIGN”.

You will notice the auto play window now appears. Take note of the drive letter (e.g. F:\ ) and close this window.

Step 11. Type “EXIT”

Step 12. Back at the command prompt type “xcopy d:*.* /s/e/f F:” where D: is the drive letter of you DVD and F: is the drive letter of your USB Memory stick.

Don’t worry if it takes a long time to copy boot.wim and install.wim as these are the two largest files on the DVD.

Step 13. Once the xcopy is finished  run “del F:\sources\ei.cfg” from the command prompt and you Windows 7 Bootable USB memory stick is ready to go. Doing this step is what makes the USB memory stick allow you to install any version of Windows 7 as it no longer has a default version configured.

You can now either boot from the USB memory stick or just run setup.exe from the drive to start the install process. Either way you will now prompted for the version of Windows 7 you want to install.

Warning: This procedure will allow you to install a copy of Windows 7 that you are not licenced to have. Therefore you need to be very careful to only select a version that you have a licence key for as you will not be able activate Windows without a key that exactly matches the version you have installed.

By Alan Burchill

Twitter at @alanburchill

Blog http://abskb.spaces.live.com

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One feature that was sadly lacking in Windows before Windows 7 was the ability to burn DVD and CD’s directly from ISO images. This became a huge frustration whenever Microsoft released a beta or release candidate operating system to the public, since it would force you  to insall a third party utility to burn the ISO image to disk. Thankfully, Microsoft has now made burning ISOs a built-in feature of Windows 7.

To launch the tool all you need to do is right-click on the ISO image file you want to burn and then click on the “Burn disc image” option.

You then get the following dialogue box that allows you to select which burner (if you have multiple burners) you want to write the image to and if you want to also verify the image once it is burnt.

Then it is just a simple case of clicking on “Burn” and waiting.

Once you are done click “Close” and your disc will be ready.

Now this process will also work on CD and Rewritable media however if you want to erase the disk just right click on the drive with the disc in it and click “Erase this disk”.

Note: This option will only be available on drives that have rewritable media in them.

This will launch the erase disc wizard where you just click “Next”

Wait for the erase to complete

and then click “Finish”

So now you will be all ready to start burning Windows 8 beta ISO images when it comes out.

By Alan Burchill

Twitter at @alanburchill

Blog http://abskb.spaces.live.com

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The Windows 7 Burger was a collaborative effort between Microsoft and Burger King to promote both companies in Japan for the Windows 7 release. The burger contains a whopping 7 layers of beef, which measures to a 5-inch (12cm) tower. The first 30 burgers were sold for 777 yen ($8.55 USD). Any Windows 7 burger after the first 30 were sold for 1450 yen ($16 USD). The burger contains a total of 2120 calories, which is almost a day’s worth of calories for most people!

According to TIME, the burger joint sold over 10,000 of these burgers since October 30th. Considering that there are only 15 Burger Kings in all of Japan and the obvious fact that this burger is probably not too healthy, this is an impressive number.

Here’s a video [via Gizmodo] recalling the experience of the Windows 7 Burger.

Windows 7 Burger from Gizmodo on Vimeo.

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BitLocker to Go is a new feature of Windows 7 that allows you to encrypts your USB devices with a passwords. This feature is very useful if you want to ensure that your sensitive/private information will not get into the  wrong hand should you were ever lose one of these devices.

Now before we begin if you want to use this feature you will need have Windows 7 Ultimate (or Enterprise) edition installed.

How do I encrypt a USB device?

Step 1. Insert your USB device you want to encrypt into your computer.

Step 2. Right click on the USB device in Windows Explorer and click on the “Turn on BitLocker…”

Step 3. Tick the “Use a password to unlock the drive” and then type the same password in the two password field’s and then click “Next”.

Note: As it says, you should try an make this password as complicated as possible with a combination of lower and upper case letter, numbers, spaces, and/or symbols.

Step 4. You are now FORCED to either save a file or print the recovery key for the device. This ensures that you have a copy of the 48 digit recovery in case you ever forget the password.

Note: You cannot save the recovery key to the device that you want to encrypt as this would be obviously be useless if you were to ever forget the unlock key.

Step 5. Once you have saved or printed the recovery key you will be able to continue by pressing “Next”.

Step 6. You are ready to encrypt the drive and all you have to do is click “Start Encrypting”.

Warning: This can take a LONG time especialy if you are encrypting a very large drive via a USB connection (My Western Digital 1tb USB external hard drive this process took about 12 hours).

First thing the encryption process does is install the BitLocker to Go reader application that will let you read the the device on down-level OS’s such as Windows XP and Vista.

Now the drive will start to encrypt.

Note: You can pause this encryption of this device and remove if it is taking longer than you thought but from this point you will need to enter the encryption key to access the data on the drive even though it is not fully encrypted. The other thing to note is that the drive will be read only until the encryption process has been completed.

Once completed click “Close” and the drive is now encrypted and ready to use.

The way to tell if a drive is encrypted in Windows Explorer is by the padlock symbol you can see on the drive icon (see belwo against “Nano (E:)”). An open grey padlock represents an unlocked drive and and closed gold padlock represents a locked drive.

How do I unlock and encrypt a USB device?

Step 1. Insert the USB device into a Windows 7 computer and you should be automatically prompted for a password to decrypt the device. Then just type the password in the password field and tick “Unlock”.

Note: If you tick the “Automatically unlock on this computer from now on” then the unlock password for this device will be stored on the registry of the computer so be very sure you trust this computer before using this option.

Step 2. Your DONE! the drive will now behave exactly as per normal.

Alternatively if the device is already connected and you need to unlock it, just right click on the drive in Windows Explorer and click the “Unlock Drive…” option. You will then be prompted with the same unlock drive dialogue box as seen above.

By Alan Burchill

Twitter at @alanburchill

Blog http://abskb.spaces.live.com

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A few days ago, I posted about an amazing deal Microsoft was offering for students – Windows 7 Home Premium for $29.99. Turns out that they are offering Windows 7 Professional for the same price on theUltimateSteal website! This deal can save students $170 US off the newsstand price. Upon purchase, you will be required to provide your .edu email address as proof that you are a student at a qualified institution. If you are not from the US, select your localization from the menu in the top right corner. If you do not see Windows 7 listed, click on Additional Products in the sidebar.

Unlike the Win741 program, there weren’t any specific details provided as to when this deal would expire. The offer is only available in some countries and prices do vary within the different countries, but are still substantially cheaper than the newsstand price.

Some colleges and universities offer complimentary MSDNAA (Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance) accounts to their students, which will allow you to download Windows 7 for free. You can check here to see if your school is enrolled in the MSDNAA program.

Click here to purchase Windows 7 Professional for $29.99 from theUltimateSteal website

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After Microsoft previously announced they would be sponsoring a Family Guy episode in efforts to promote Windows 7, they have decided to yank the sponsorship. The decision came after Microsoft execs attended the special’s taping on October 16. Upon discovering that the show would “include riffs on deaf people, the Holocaust, feminine hygiene and incest,” the execs decided that “such material was apparently a bit much for Microsoft.”

Although the Redmond Company has dropped out of the sponsorship deal, TheRawFeed [via Engadget] reports that the show will still air November 8th, and will include references to Windows 7. Here’s a preview of what is to be expected:

I wonder if this is the same team behind the Windows 7 Launch Party video…

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Microsoft has put up an extremely useful site that will allow you to check your software and hardware for Windows 7 compatibility. The Windows 7 Compatibility Center tells you whether your software or hardware is compatible, and provides instructions for driver or utility download if necessary. Useful links such to different parts of the manufacturer’s website are also provided at your convenience.

I’ve experimented with a couple of searches for old hardware and software with the site, and the site managed to have information on most of my searches. The only exception was my Nexstar 3 External Hard Drive, which is Plug and Play anyway.

If you want to check for Windows 7 compatibility in regards to software and hardware that are already installed and connected to your current setup, the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor will be more useful since it checks your entire system for compatibility.

Download and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to see if your PC is ready for Windows 7. It scans your hardware, devices, and installed programs for known compatibility issues, gives you guidance on how to resolve potential issues found, and recommends what to do before you upgrade.

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Update: I located an even better deal – Windows 7 Professional for $29.99. Click here for more details

Students can get a hold of Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade for just $29.99 – that’s $90 off the regular retail price! To be eligible, you must have your own .edu email address. The offer is only available up until January 3rd 2010 for US, Canada, France, Germany, Korea, Mexico and UK citizens. Residents of Australia will have until March 31st, 2010 to get the student discount. The offer is available at Win741.

But before you go purchase your copy, check to see if your institution already offers Windows 7 for free. Many universities offer complimentary MSDNAA (Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance) accounts to their students, which will allow you to download Windows 7 for free. You can check here to see if your school is enrolled in the MSDNAA program.

Note that Microsoft has confirmed with PCWorld that hundreds of users are currently having problems downloading the software. A Microsoft support engineer commented on Microsoft Answers regarding the problem:

For those that have purchased Windows 7 from Digital River and receive the error ‘We are unable to create or save new files in the folder in which this application was downloaded’ when going through the ‘Unloading the Box’ [step]…Microsoft and Digital River are aware of the issue and it’s being investigated,

Instead of providing students with the disk image, Digital River accidentally delivered the download as Win7-P-Retail-en-us-x64.exe along with two other .box files. Fortunately, DownloadSquad has offered a workaround to this problem. Alternatively, you may download Windows 7 from other sources or peer-to-peer networks.

An update will be provided if Microsoft issues any statements regarding fixes to the problem.

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Today is the day, Windows 7 is finally here! You can grab the product in stores, and online retailers will begin shipping the product out to customers beginning today.

In addition, you can catch the Windows 7 Launch Event in New York live @ 8AM PDT/ 11AM EDT over at Microsoft’s website.

Although Windows 7 Center has taken a short hiatus on updates, the resources we have are still at your disposal. You may visit our forums and ask our members any questions regarding your issues or concerns with Windows 7. We also have an IRC Chat channel for you to connect to. Both would require registration, but we promise you that it’s quick. W7C will be updated with a slew of articles in the upcoming weeks so be sure to check back for ways on how to make the most out of Windows 7.

Hope everyone enjoys their copy of Windows 7! And if you haven’t grabbed it, here are some e-retailers you can grab it from:

• Amazon US
• Microsoft Store

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Windows 7 Center is currently looking to add a few more writers to its arsenal. Our goal is to be the #1 Windows 7 Site on the planet but we can’t do it without your help! Here is your chance to be part of one of the best Windows 7 sites out there.

Here are some of the expectations of being a writer for the team:

• Must use Windows 7 as your primary operating system
• Be interested and passionate about Windows 7 and Microsoft operating systems in general
• Be proficient in English
• Be able to take criticism from the editors

We are specifically looking for writers to push out some tutorials, but we are also welcoming anyone that wish to write about Windows 7 news, or other Windows 7 related topics. News writers will be required to stay on top of the Windows 7 scene and report on news as they come out.

We know you’re pumped so we’ll cut to the chase. We want you to email us with the information requested below to admin[at]windows7center[dot]com
Please make sure you include everything we ask from you

1) Your Name

2) A writing sample on a Windows 7 related topic. You can provide a link to an article you’ve written in the past as well as long as it is related.

3) When you are available to write

We will read all applications on the day of, but due to the large volume of emails we receive, we may not be able to reply to every applicant.

Thanks to everyone for your interest in contributing to Windows 7 Center.

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