I remember when Windows 95, the themes (desktop wallpaper, icon packs and sounds) were a craze. You had a whole load of beautiful themes distributed by Microsoft and more by third parties. But over the years the interest for themes dropped, mainly due to the inertia associated with change and we all became used to the standard dull defaults. Windows Vista was the worst offender in this with the most boring set of themes ever shipped by a version of Windows – it took the remaining charm out of themes.

Now with Windows 7, Microsoft seems to have turned attention to making Themes interesting once again. The other day I noticed two new theme sets online, one titled “India” and other “Colors of India” – both showing the essence of India very nicely. Later I found more beautiful themes, like the Bing’s Best for Japan and more.

If you are still using default theme, it is time you changed it. All it takes is a right-click on the Desktop in your Windows 7, select Personalize, then clicking on “Get More themes online”. And remember to download Themes only from Microsoft.com website for safety.

As one of the Windows 7 Beta testers, about a week back I received a commemorative edition of Windows 7 Ultimate DVD. It was special with a nice “Thank You” message signed by Microsoft CEO Mr.Steve Ballmer.

In general I liked Windows Vista - its engineering improvements on Security, Stability, Aero Glass & many other features; except for its slow boot-up and performance of routine file management tasks. Microsoft made a wise move of not introducing any major kernel level changes for Windows 7 from Vista, instead concentrating on improving all round performance. I have been using Windows 7 for last few months in both my MacBook Air (MBA) & in my Desktop (Quad Core, 64-bit, 8GB RAM) and I love it. Windows 7 simply rocks in my MBA that I have completely removed Mac OS X and use only Windows.

Windows 7 – the best Windows OS ever made!

It is my birthday today (I am not telling how old I am) and I am in Cologne, Germany attending Tamil Internet Conference 2009 away from my family & friends, missing the gifts they might have given me

Anyways, Mr.Steve Ballmer didn’t disappoint me. He has given me a wonderful gift – he has released Windows 7 today. No doubt Windows 7 is getting raving reviews, it got released on my birthday!. On a serious note, I have been using Windows 7 for almost two months now in my laptop (Apple MacBook Air) and my Quad-Core x64 Desktop and it is simply the best OS I have ever used in last two decades. I like its fast boot, fast response time for common tasks, lovely wallpapers/background, Aero effect, quick search, easy to find devices/printers applet and libraries.

And I love those Windows 7 commercials featuring the cute little girl – Kylie, don’t miss those videos here. 

In the past I have done two posts on how to use Pinnacle PCTV 330e TV Tuner USB stick to view TV (set-top box) signals from Windows x64 operating systems (Windows Vista x64 or Windows 7 x64). Yesterday while trying to update the driver from Pinnacle site I realized that with the two earlier posts I haven’t documented all the pieces, so I am writing this updated post. My instructions are for using Tata Sky DTH service (set-top box) that’s available in India and my machine running Windows Vista x64 & Nero 8.0 – the same steps should work for most other DTH services (set-top boxes).

Step 0:
Windows Vista x64 SP2 should find the driver for Pinnacle PCTV Hybrid Tuner (330e) automatically, if it doesn’t you can download the latest driver from Pinnacle support site here – Direct link to download here. Look for “PCTV Hybrid Pro Stick (330e)”.

Step 1:
Buy from market a composite video cable (RCA) and a Stereo audio cable (RCA). You get this in various brand names “Belkin Composite Video and Audio Cable Kit” or “Mediabridge - RCA Component Video Cable with Audio”. This cable is not included with Pinnacle PCTuner USB product.

Connect the Audio & Video output (RCA component connectors) of your set-top box to the audio/video adapter cable (the small black colour pin with wires coming out that is connected on the side of the USB stick on the photo below) using the RCA cable kit purchased in Step 1. The small black colour Pinnacle adapter cable is specific to Pinnacle PCTV and is included in the box, you will not get this outside.

Step 3:
Connect your Pinnacle USB stick (with the small black pin and cable connected) to a free USB port in your machine. I will recommend using the USB extension cable (found in the box) and connecting to a free port in the rear of your desktop (also for the fact that most rear USB ports are USB 2.0 for better speed) so that the wires are hidden away from the view.

Step 4:
Now it is time to configure your software to receive the signal and view. I am using my favourite Nero 8.0 (Nero 9.0 should work as well and provide scheduling capability) software. The trick here (which I forgot yesterday while configuring and wasted two hours) is to use the Nero MediaHome software (accessed from Start search menu or from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Nero\Nero8\Nero MediaHome\NeroMediaHome.exe") and not the Nero Home (whose Easy Setup option doesn’t allow us to set the TV input as composite).  

After running Nero MediaHome, select the TV->Launch Nero TV Wizard. In the dialog box that comes, select the video device as “PCTV 330e/8x0e Device”, video input as “Composite”, Audio device as “Use audio from video device”. You are good to go, complete rest of the steps and close the dialog box and MediaHome.

Step 5:
Now run Nero Home from desktop or start menu, select “Video” option from “Video and TV” menu – don’t select “Live TV” (that works only with TV Antenna/Cable as input). Then in the next screen (shown below) select “Composite” (ignore the numbers 1, 2 or 3 that may appear in brackets). You will now be able to see the live TV in the “Watch TV” screen that will appear now. You can double click on the playing video to maximize or double-click again to get controls (to play, pause/time-shift, record, stop & volume control). Enjoy!

Don’t waste your time trying to get Windows Media Center in Windows Vista x64 to work with this Pinnacle product (PCTV 330e TV Tuner USB stick), it doesn’t work. Windows Vista insists on input coming via TV Antenna/Cable, where as in our setup above we are using a set-top box and the TV input comes as composite audio/video signal. As I have written in my Windows 7 beta post the above setup (even with a composite audio/video signal) seems to be working for India in Windows 7 Media Center.

Today in one of the groups I am a member, there was a question on the cost benefits of Windows 7 over Windows XP. In these recessionary times, everything is about cost and RoI. No CIO is interested to spend on an upgrade just for technology sake. With that background this was an interesting question, so I set out to answer him, which I have reproduced below.

The first answer for such a question is that any new version of any software product improves “productivity” by XY%, where XY are dependent on how you feel on that day.

Jokes apart, in my opinion I think the upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7 saves cost by the following:

1. Productivity, certainly. Common tasks are easier and faster. For example with the built-in Windows Search, finding documents really saves you time. And for techies tasks like IPConfig /Renew can be done from GUI itself
2. Avoid recreating lost documents. Built in version-control and transaction file-system in Windows 7 (Vista has this too)
3. Avoid bandwidth costs by some Spammers using your Windows XP as a SpamBots or Zombies with better stateful firewall (Inbound and Outbound) in Windows 7 (Vista has this too)
4. Data Theft, Security and reinstall time spend with UAC in Windows 7 (Easier to use than in Vista)
5. Less power consumption through better sleep/hibernate support
6. Save time by building web standards Web Applications with built-in Internet Explorer 8.0
7. Save time and cost with built-in CD Burning, DVD Maker (Vista has this too)
8. My personal favourite is an enhanced System Restore (life saver) and time saved with fixing a rogue software install (Vista has this too)
9. A superb Windows Backup (this alone is worth every dollar of Windows 7). Third party products purchased separately for Windows XP store in proprietary backup file formats, where as Windows 7 (as in Vista) uses open VHD file format. This VHD files can be mounted and read/write natively in Windows 7
10. Built-in hardware enhanced virtualization free – Windows Virtual PC, which helps you to continue to run older applications
11. Save time with the more powerful task scheduler (so you don’t need to keep your machine switched ON or be there to run a program)
12. If you are a games developer, Windows 7 saves time by better 3D hardware accelerated graphics support/DirectX
13. Built-in applications like Snipping tool to take screen shots and so on (Vista has this too)

Microsoft has published a "Windows client features comparison chart" between Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista and Windows 7 here.

Few weeks back I decided to repave my Laptop (Macbook Air) and go with Windows 7 Build 7000 (yes I know in few weeks we will have RC ). After fixing few issues with drivers and boot camp, I am overall happy. Occasionally Windows doesn't shut-down gracefully, when it happens you got to force switch-off (which in MBA means holding the power off button for few seconds till you hear a POP sound).

The basic installation of the OS (Windows 7) is similar to doing it for Vista using Boot Camp. You start with Apple Boot Camp CD 1 and proceed from there. My installation was dual-boot configuration - having both Mac OS and Windows 7. Once Windows is installed , you continue with the devices installation which can be a little tricky. Below are few issues I faced before I could get everything working fine.

1. In Mac OS, you can select one of the OS to boot into after a restart. Unfortunately Mac OS didn't show the Windows 7 installation. Nothing to sweat. When you switch ON your machine you need to keep holding Alt (option) key till you the see the boot options. Here you can select Windows 7.
2. In Windows 7, initially for some reasons Boot Camp icon didn't show up in System tray. I had to run it from C:\Program Files\Boot Camp\kbdmgr.exe. I found it useful to update all Apple software then it seems to have got fixed.
3. Audio (Sound card) didn't get its driver installed correctly. MBA has a Realtek HD Audio, so I went to Realtek site and downloaded the latest Vista driver (R 2.22) from here or here. The site is designed a little counter-intuitive so be patient.
4. If some devices like in-built Camera didn't get installed correctly, go to device manager, update driver and point to the BootCamp CD.
5. For Apple Ethernet USB Dongle there is no official driver either from Microsoft or Apple, I found one at this blog (Your mileage may vary)
6. I have a HP Photosmart C6288 Printer (part of HP Photosmart C6100 series). The default setup from HP will fail to install as it couldn't find either Windows XP or Vista. To fix this, right-click on the setup program (AIO_CDA_Full_Network_enu.exe). Then use the "Troubleshoot Compatibility" option or select properties and the compatibility tab:
   1. Set the compatibility mode to Windows Vista
   2. Set the privilege level to "Run this program as an administrator"
7. I have a Tata Indicom Plug2Surf USB data card. To install this, first time when you run the setup, Run it as Administrator. Even then when you run the application it will not detect the modem. You will need to ignore the application and create yourself (manually) a dial-up network connection. Customize and follow the instructions from this blog post (which talks for Huawei card though), skip the portions specific to Huawei, but it gives the correct username/password phone number to dial, etc.
8. For PDF creation, I was using CutePDF which doesn't work with Windows 7, so I went with PrimoPDF (free).
9. For Antivirus, I went with my good friend Kesavan's - K7 Computing Antivirus which works fine in Windows 7.

You should be all set by now, as for me (as seen below) all the devices are working fine. Eagerly waiting for Windows 7 RC.

In my Windows 7 x64 machine I thought I will give Google Chrome a try. After I clicked on download, I was surprised to see Google use Microsoft Clickonce technology to download the installer which in turn installed the browser. Clickonce is a cool technology that if used correctly can reduce lot of the pain consumers have today in installing/updating applications in Windows Platform. In my opinion unfortunately it is also a technology that has generated little interest inside Microsoft outside the team that wrote it. Till date I haven’t seen a single Microsoft application including the recent Windows Live Wave “3” products (which can benefit greatly from it) use Clickonce for their installation. I wonder why?

Anyways, coming back to the topic. After I installed Google Chrome in Windows 7 x64, I was unable to browse any pages. Whatever URLs I entered there was no action. After some web searching I realized this is a known issue and you need to append a switch to make it work properly. Most of the sites gave the switch as an image but it turns out the correct one is --in-process-plugins (not the two dashes in the beginning and not one). You need to right-click on the Google Chrome Icon, in the Shortcut tab, in the targer text box add this switch to the right of the chrome.exe text. Something like below:

C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe --in-process-plugins

(in the above line, replace the [USERNAME] with the appropriate name of your default user folder (or) easiest is to leave whatever it is till chrome.exe and append --in-process-plugins at the end)

After this switch, Google Chrome seems to run fine. I didn’t find any killer feature that will make me switch to Google Chrome from IE 8 and FF 3, but Chrome does seem to load the pages faster than the competition.

Little more than a year back I got my 64-bit desktop with Vista x64 and TV Tuner card connected to Tata Sky DTH in my office. Since the support for Pinnacle was not complete in Vista x64 I couldn't get it working with Windows Media Center and had to resort to Nero Home for watching TV programs. About a week back I downloaded the latest beta bits of Windows 7.0 and the installation went very well. Almost all the drivers installed correctly and the few that had problems could be corrected easily (details after few paragraphs below).

The Pinnacle USB PCTV 330e had an inbuilt driver in Windows 7 for x64 and Windows Media Center recognized it easily. After few trials of positioning the Infrared transmitter in front of Tata Sky set top box and few rounds of learnings of the Infrared code of Tata Sky remote control by Windows Media Center, everything was working fine. I was able to change channels from Keyboard/Mouse/Media Center remote and Tata Sky set top box responded correspondingly (there was a trick to set the remote code transmission speed to Medium, Tata Sky uses 3 digits numbers for Channels). You can see the successful recordings I made below. The Microsoft PlayReady Runtime and Electronic Program Guide (EPG) didn't work (may be because I was in India) and you need to skip them.

My machine is built on top of Asus Motherboard P5W64 WS Professional.  You get many of the latest drivers for x64 for this motherboard (P5W64 WS professional - Socket 775) from their support website itself. Few items in general I had problem:

1. HP Photosmart 6188 - The default HP driver refused to install in Windows 7. I right-clicked on the setup file and selected compatibility and set it to Windows Vista. Then it installed properly - seemed to be a simple bug in HP program for Windows OS version detection.
2. Marvell 88SE6145 SATA RAID Driver - The latest driver from Asus for Windows Vista x64 / Windows Server 2003 x64 solved this problem
3. PDF Conversion: I have been a long time user of CutePDF to convert documents to PDF effortlessly. How much ever I tried I couldn't get it installed in Windows 7.0, so I moved to Primo PDF - which was recommended by my IT Pro team, which got installed perfectly in Windows 7.
4. Antivirus – Our office uses Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition which didn’t get deployed in Windows 7, so I tried my good friend’s K7 Antivirus 7.0 from K7 Computing. This got installed and is working fine in Windows 7. 

The announcements made in this keynote today was picked by every media around the world, so I will be brief. You can watch the full keynote from here.

Windows 7

1. The improvements were on decreasing Memory, Disk I/O, Power consumption and on Increasing Speed (Faster Boot, Device Ready), Responsiveness (Start Menu) and Scale up to 250 Processors
2. BitLock on USB Drives to protect your data
3. Native VHD support to mount and boot
4. Remote Desktops now support Multi-Monitor, cool
5. Multi-touch, Start Bar UI improvements and more...

On seeing this I was initially disappointed to see no new UI or major changes. However, after using Windows 7 in the labs and attending more sessions, I realized Microsoft was not throwing what was done in Windows Vista, but improving on it, which is good.

The UAC improvements made me think why not introduce "Roles" like in Windows Server for Windows 7 (Client) also. This way "Developers", "Power Users" and "Home Users" can have different settings and security prompts.

.NET 4.0

The idea to have the "Web" guy Scott Guthrie do the talk on Windows 7 developer improvements and on WPF was a "major coup" to promote it.

1. AutoCad was showing how they are using Windows 7 Multi-Touch, Ribbon APIs for their native C++ rendering
2. A new WPF Toolkit and Silverlight Toolkit were announced today
3. In .NET 4.0 you will have side by side hosting in the same process both .NET 4.0 and .NET 2.0 CLR
4. A new managed extension framework which was shown in VS2010 on how the Text Editor can be customized
5. VS 2010 is being rebuild on top of WPF, this I felt will certainly force Microsoft to improve the performance and invest more on WPF and make it better
6. Having JQuery (an Open source project) supported is another major coup within Microsoft
7. ASP.NET 4.0 will support multiple web.config, one each for Debug, Production and so on
8. Today Silverlight 1.0 is in over 25% of all machines in Internet and nearly in 100 million of them have Silverlight 2.0

Live Services

1. David Treadwell showed Live Services which consists of Search, Geospatial, Live ID, Communication & Presence and Directory services
2. Live ID will now support Open ID. This if works well, has the potential to make it come alive the dream of a single identity provider on the Internet
3. The demo of BBC Live Player using Live Mesh services to sync up was cool. The BBC Engineer talked that "Last Year Broadcaster decided what you saw, This Year you decide what you saw, Next Year will determine what you see". What they are watching, which segment is good will all be shared using Social networking tools and powered by Live Mesh

Office "14"

1. This was perhaps the most interesting demo of the day, with a lightweight of office (Word, Excel and OneNote) for the Web
2. The cool thing was how it synced up in real-time changes done in Client version and the Online version. All working behind the scene with "REST" protocols
3. Microsoft claimed this to be "Office without Limits"

Reviews on the Web: Windows 7, Office 14