Essentials - Windows Live with Windows 7

In Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 7, Window Live Essentials have been presented with a freshness to keep you moving briskly and conveniently. Become eligible for Windows Live Essentials, which is a set of software available at the Windows Live website, with Windows 7.


Windows Live Essentials will enable you to perform e-mail, instant messaging, photo editing, and blogging. Some of them include Messenger, Photo Gallery, Mail, Writer and others.


With the help of Messenger you can chat instantly with friends and family on your PC or mobile phone. Windows 7 messenger enables you to stay in touch with your favorite people in real time.


With Photo Gallery you can share and organize your photographs. You can also restrict your sharing with certain validations. With Photo Gallery you can get your photos and videos from your camera to your PC.


With Mail you can manage you multiple e-mail accounts simultaneous and easily. With this software you can manage all your e-mail accounts, including Windows Live Hotmail and third party accounts, from within Mail. It keeps your mind away from hassles of logging in to multiple accounts to check all your e-mail.

Other important application features tagged with the latest operating system, Windows 7 are as follows.

Desktop: With Windows 7, its awesome to work on desktop. There are new features called Aero Shake, Aero Peek, and Snap. You can try the new desktop slide show, which displays a rotating series of pictures. The task bar play a vital role in any operating system, so Microsoft has completely changed the task bar to help you work smarter, cut clutter, and get more done. Now you can stick your gadgets anywhere on the desktop that is not possible in Windows Vista.

HomeGroup: Now it is very easy to share files and printers on a home network through this feature. Connect two or more PCs running Windows 7, and Home Group will automatically start sharing your music, pictures, video, and document libraries with others in network. HomeGroup is also secure, which allows you to give password to shared files and folders. This feature is available with all the editions of Windows 7.


Jump List: You can access your frequently used programs, songs, pictures and documents. Thanks to this great feature. To open a Jump List, just right-click a program icon on the Windows 7 taskbar. What you access in a Jump List depends entirely on the program. The Jump List for IE shows frequently-viewed websites. You can quickly access to commands for things like composing new e-mail messages or playing music.

Snap: It is a new feature that allows you to resize open windows in a new way, simply by dragging them to the edges of your screen.

Window Search: In Windows 7, the search is faster and easy. You just need to type into the Start menu search box and you will have a list of relevant documents, pictures and etc. Apart from that it can also search any external storage device.


Power Management: Windows 7 runs with fewer background services. Therefore, your PC processor doesn’t work as hard and consume less power.

Windows Easy Transfer

Windows Easy Transfer is a tool for transferring files and settings from one system to another running Windows. Not only this, you can transfer data from one user’s profile, or from multiple user accounts. It helps you to decide what to move to your new computer, which transfer method to use, and finally perform the transfer. When you are done with transferring, it displays a reports of the transferred content. It also offers a list of programs that you might want to install on new computer.

Note: You cannot use this tool to move program files. It can transfer only data and program settings. You must then install your software programs on the new computer. Its also not capable to transfer any system files such as fonts and drivers. You can transfer files and settings using a network, USB drive or the Easy Transfer cable. You can order this cable on the Internet or contact computer manufacturer.



Upgrade Windows XP to Windows 7

You cannot upgrade Windows XP to Windows 7. However, you can use Windows Easy Transfer to transfer files and settings from Windows XP to Windows 7 on the same computer. For

this, you need to copy files to a removable media, such as an external hard drive or USB flash drive, or to a network share. Next, you will install Windows 7 and then migrate

your files back from the removable media onto your computer. When you are done, you must re-install your software programs again.

Copy files using Windows Easy Transfer on XP computer.

•    Insert the Windows 7 DVD while running Windows XP.
•    Open Windows Explorer by right-clicking the Start menu, and then clicking Explore.
•    Browse to the DVD drive on your computer and click migsetup.exein the Support\Migwiz directory.
•    The Windows Easy Transfer window opens.
•    Click Next.
•    Select An external hard disk or USB flash drive.
•    Click This is my old computer. Windows Easy Transfer scans the computer.
•    Click Next. You can also determine which files should be migrated by selecting only the user profiles you want to transfer, or by clicking Customize.
•    Enter a password to protect your Easy Transfer file, or leave the box blank, and then click Save.
•    Browse to the external location on the network or to the removable media where you want to save your Easy Transfer file, and then click Save.
•    Click Next. Windows Easy Transfer displays the file name and location of the Easy Transfer file you just created.

Transfer files and settings on Windows 7 computer.

   1. If you saved your files and settings in an Easy Transfer file on a removable media such as a USB flash drive or external hard drive rather than on a network share, insert

the removable media into the computer.
   2. Click Start, click All Programs, click Accessories, click System Tools, and then click Windows Easy Transfer.
   3. Click Next.
   4. Click An external hard disk or USB flash drive.
   5. Click This is my new computer.
   6. Click Yes, open the file.
   7. Browse to the location where the Easy Transfer file was saved. Click the file name, and then click Open.
   8. Click Transfer to transfer all files and settings. You can also determine which files should be migrated by selecting only the user profiles you want to transfer, or by

clicking Customize.
   9. Click Close after Windows Easy Transfer has completed moving your files.

Windows 7 features – Virtual Hard Disk

Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 7, comes with a number of new features including relatively lesser known Virtual Hard Disk that enables a user to install various operating systems on a single machine.

The tool, which is a file formatted to be structurally identical to a physical Hard Disk Drive, enables you to test software on different operating systems and reduces the cost or hassle of actual hardware.

This feature which is included in latest Windows 7 allows a physical computer to mount and boot from an operating system contained within a VHD.

VHD’s ability to directly modify a virtual machine’s hard disk from a host server supports many applications, including:

    * Life-cycle management and provisioning

    * Backup and recovery

    * Image management and patching

    * Disk conversion (physical to virtual, and so on)

    * Antivirus and security

    * Moving files between a VHD and the host file system

In a nutshell, following are the advantages are provided by Windows 7 new feature VHDs:

Multiple operating system support : Now you can easily install multiple operating system without making changes in Master Boot Record.

Backup-and-Restore: Changes to the contents of a VHD (such as infection by a virus, or accidental deletion of critical files) are easily undone.

Multi-User Isolation: Many current operating systems support having multiple users, but offer varying degrees of protection between them (e.g., one user of the OS could become infected by a virus which infects other users, or make changes to the OS which affect other users). By giving each user their own version of the operating system — say, by creating for each of them a differencing VHD based on a base installation of the OS — changes to any particular child image would have no effect on any of the other child images.