A small startup from Poole has created an app that aims to make it easier to share your digital media collection between your various gadgets. It's called Skifta, and allows you to shift content between a number of devices with just one catch - they have to be DLNA enabled.

If you watch the more-than-a-little-cheesy intro video above, you'll see that it works with anything from televisions to radios to laptops to games consoles to digital photo frames. It turns your computer into a DLNA server, which can then pump pictures, music or video to any device in your home.

But that's not the clever bit. The clever bit is that you can connect that server with another computer anywhere in the world, and then stream from the new device to anything on that network - so if you go to a friend's house and connect then you can instantly stream your vintage Village People live album to his television or speakers. He'll love you for it.

What's more is that there are various "boosters" available for system. A Twitter one was demonstrated, which provides a live Twitter feed to your TV, or a digital photo frame, or other home gadget. You could also build boosters for Last.fm, Flickr, a Gmail checker, an RSS reader, or any other service. In time, third parties will also be able to build boosters.

The platform is live right now at skifta.com, and the team has a Twitter account - @skifta - too. It's free to sign up and use, so give it a go and let us know what you think in the comments.

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Tags: Home Cinema Software Skifta Qualcomm PC software Mac software Linux P2P Music Movies Photos DLNA Video

VIDEO: Skifta offers media sharing app originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:18:16 +0000

Microsoft Office 2010 has now entered its public beta phase, and it's already looking like a pretty substantial upgrade to the 2007 version, and a huge improvement on earlier editions of the omnipresent Office app suite. Here's ten reasons why you should give it a try.

The "Starter Edition" is free

Remember the hilariously-titled Microsoft Works? It never did, and the company got a whole lot of stick for that one, so it's dumping it entirely. Installed on new PCs in its place will be Microsoft Office 2010 Starter Edition - a free, ad supported, feature-limited version of Word and Excel.

But feature-limited doesn't mean you won't be able to do anything useful. Microsoft has tuned the functionality so that an average user who wants nothing more than to write a letter, or an invoice, or perhaps an essay, will still be able to do that with no problems. It's more hardcore stuff like macros and change-tracking in Word, or pivot tables and data analysis in Excel, that you'll have to pay for.

You can stream the software

If you decide you want to give the fuller version a try, but aren't ready to pay for it yet, then you can stream a trial version of the full software from the Web. Seriously. A 2-meg download will get you a "wrapper" that'll let you start up any of the apps within less than 2 minutes. From there, you can use the software as normal while the rest of the functionality downloads in the background.

Microsoft says the experience will be a bit slower than a downloaded version, but it can work out what you're doing and pre-emptively pull down any functions that might be shortly called-upon. The only time you'll see egg-timers is if you dart wildly between unrelated functionality like a Tasmanian Devil. Oh, and once it's downloaded, it stays cached, so you won't need to download again next time.

There's online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote

A third option for cheapskates is to use the brand new, completely free, web app versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. They work in conjunction with SkyDrive (which we'll come to in a minute) to allow you to access and edit documents, spreadsheets, presentations and notebooks from anywhere in the world without a hefty software install.

They're multiplatform and don't have quite the same full functionality as the desktop versions - limited in the same way as the starter edition - but should give the basic user the vast majority of what they need to get stuff done from anywhere in the world, as well as fighting back against Google Docs.

You can sync your documents to SkyDrive?

Another handy feature, which is related to the last point, is the tie-in with Microsoft's SkyDrive feature. This, if you're not aware, is a 25GB online storage space provided free by Microsoft to anyone with a Windows Live account. It's accessible anywhere on the Web and handily you can save your documents in Office 2010 to it.

From then on, anytime you save that document, it'll save straight to SkyDrive - not your local PC. You can also access the Office 2010 web apps through Skydrive, so you can edit to your heart's content even when you're not on a computer with a version of Office installed.

When you finally buy it, you get a scratchcard?

So you've read the above, and decided that you do actually need to shell out money for the Office suite. Perhaps you need a pivot table, or a fancy transition in PowerPoint. Perhaps you need access to Access, or to Outlook or Publisher. In that case, you can go into a shop and buy a scratchcard.

That card has a product key on it, which you put in on a website and you'll get a download of the software that arrives in the same way as the trial version above - streaming to your computer. You'll be able to start using it within minutes while the rest of the suite downloads in the background.

Docs look identical across the desktop, the web, and the mobile phone

One of the irritations of using Office alternatives like Google Docs and OpenOffice is that you can never be sure that the document that you've lovingly laid out in those apps will open the same in Microsoft's version. A crucial essay submission could be rejected if it doesn't match the style rules.

So Microsoft has put a lot of work into making sure its documents look identical across the "three screens" - the desktop app, the web app, and the mobile phone version of the software, available on Windows Mobile. No more double-checking page breaks, margins and cell formatting.

Better performance

We've been testing a pre-release version of Office 2010 for a week now, and gosh it's fast. Older versions of Office crawled along, but if the final release is as zippity as this, then we'll be impressed. The most used Office apps seem to load within a second, with the less used, heftier ones, taking not much longer.

Within the apps, too, things seem to move about a little more responsively. There appears to have been a decent bit of background optimization, as well as the removal of the little bits of Office that sit in your taskbar and degrade your general computer performance.

Better printing experience

Among the various UI improvements, we wanted to highlight one in particular. While the whole "file" menu has been revamped, one of the best bits is the new print experience. Now, rather than having to remember to hit "print preview" before hitting ctrl-P, the two functions are integrated.

That means no more panicking when you're half-way through a vast printout that you forgot to switch it to 6-slides-a-page, or off full quality colour. A full preview of exactly what'll be flying out of your printer is displayed on screen, and easy to customise.

Photo & video editing?

This is a subtle one, but it could have wide-ranging implications. Microsoft has integrated basic photo and video editing tools into Office - allowing you to crop, trim, apply filters, correct for brightness and contrast, and add pretty borders. The functionality is pretty powerful, especially when it comes to video.

Could this eat into sales of dedicated photo and video editors? It's entirely possible - most people won't need much more than these tools to include video and pretty images into their next slideshow.

Embed web videos

Lastly, one of the niftiest new features is the ability to stick YouTube videos, or other embeddable web videos, into your documents. Grab the embed code from the site and paste it into a handy text box, and you'll see it appear in your presentation or notebook, complete with controls.

Then, when you're doing your big presentation, you can just hit play on the screen - rather than having to alt-tab to a browser, displaying your bright pink taskbar and Buffy the Vampire Slayer wallpaper.

Conclusions

Office 2010 has some pretty nifty features, and includes a whole host of improvements that should make your documents, spreadsheets, presentations, notebooks and everything else look considerably sparklier.

But we'd love to hear what your favourite features are. See that comment box down there? Go download Office 2010 and fill it up with your thoughts.

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Tags: Software PC software Office software Microsoft Microsoft Office 2010 Features

Ten reasons to try out Microsoft Office 2010 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:00:00 +0000

Microsoft has revealed that the 2010 edition of its phenomenally successful Office suite has now entered beta. The software can be downloaded directly from Microsoft.com/office/2010.

The new version has a whole host of improvements, many of which will be familiar to those who have been following the progress of the Technical Preview. There's now web versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote, an ad-supported "starter edition" that replaces Microsoft Works, a "backstage" view for your apps and a bazillion bug fixes and performance improvements.

We'll bring you a full review in time, but for now go grab the beta, install it, and let us know what you think of Microsoft's new Office suite in the comments box below. We rather like it so far, but will bring you a full First Look shortly, and review when it's released.

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Tags: Software PC software Office software Microsoft Microsoft Office 2010

MS Office 2010 beta now available originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:00:00 +0000

Amazon.com has announced that its free software "Kindle for PC" is now available to download for Windows computers with a Mac version said to be "coming soon".

The application means Kindle-less readers around the world can pay to download the more than 360,000 Kindle ebooks to read on their PCs or laptops.

For those that do have a Kindle, the PC software offers the ability to read some of a book on a PC, read some on the Kindle, and always pick up right where the reader left off thanks to the Whispersync functionality.

The software is compatible with Windows XP SP2 and above, Windows Vista or Windows 7 - the latter of which gets touch functionality with compatible hardware including pinching fingers to zoom and coming soon - the ability to turn pages with the swipe of a finger.

Tags: Software Kindle Amazon PC software ebooks

Free "Kindle for PC" software available now originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:17:04 +0000

Firefox is now?five, however if, like many, you've found yourself having to leave your favourite?browser?because of constant crashing there are plenty of ways to get your Firefox groove back and save yourself from Mozilla hell.

Here are three steps to insuring you can surf the Web with the friendly fox once again:

Disable all your apps

With so many Plug-ins available for the browser, one of the reasons you could be experiencing crashes is that one of them has gone rogue. If this is the case, the best way to find out is disable all your apps and then slowly turn them back on to see which one is causing the issue.

Safe Mode

Firefox comes with a Safe Mode for exactly this reason - trying to fix bugs. buried within the inner workings of Firefox is a handy box that when accessed will allow you to reset your browser to its "factory" settings.

On the Mac you can access this via the Terminal application in Utilities (/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -safe-mode) while on the PC you'll find it by accessing the Run command within the Start Bar ("C:Program FilesMozilla Firefoxfirefox.exe" -safe-mode)

Once you've run the application you get to disable all the add-ons in one swoop, reset toolbars and controls, reset bookmarks back to the Firefox defaults, reset all user preferences to Firefox defaults and even restore the default search engine, giving you a fresh start.

Starting from scratch

If none of the above has worked, you've got to take drastic action and make your computer believe that you've never seen or heard of this Firefox browser program. First off you've got to delete it completely.

Unfortunately just deleting or uninstalling the browser from your Mac or PC won't solve your problems, as the browser buries itself into your computers profile and user settings. It's like pulling out a weed, you've got to get right down to the roots to clear out the infection.

Mac

For Mac users drag the Firefox app into the Trash and then remove the Library/Application Support/Firefox folder. This will remove Firefox completely, your bookmarks, browser settings, plug-in details the lot.?

PC

For the PC it's just as simple. First remove the program via the "Add or Remove Programs" tool then delete the Firefox Installation directory located at C:Program filesMozilla Firefox

Reinstall

Now you've removed all the traces of the browser on your computer you simply visit the getfirefox browser website, download the right version for you and reinstall.

If you've done the above, your browser will reinstall and you'll be able to use Firefox like you did before you became a constant crash victim - hopefully for another 5 years.

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Tags: Software PC software Mac software Firefox Browsers Mozilla Quick Guide

Firefox keeps crashing? Here's how to fix it originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:28:53 +0000

So, you want Windows 7. You've read our guide to Microsoft's latest OS, you've worked out the benefits of making the switch are the right one's for you, in fact you may already have chosen which version you want to install and have your Windows 7 disk in your hands, the question now is how do you actually upgrade your computer to Windows 7? Well, that's why we're here.

Upgrading from anything other than XP, Vista or other versions of Windows 7

Let's get the easy one out of the way quickly. You can't. Whether you've got a blank computer, Linux or you're still running Windows ME for some strange reason, then you'll have to buy the complete version and do a clean install. Back up all your personal files, put them on a DVD/USB stick/external HDD, do a clean install of Windows 7, make several cups of tea and then put your files back on again. Job done.

Upgrading from Windows XP

First of all, bear in mind, you XP users, that if you're planning on using the feature of Windows 7 that allows you to run a virtual version of XP then make sure you've got Windows 7 Professional Edition or Windows 7 Ultimate. The Home version does not have that function. It doesn't mean that you won't be able to run all your Windows XP supported programs but you may have an issue with the odd obscure one. Ok? Right.

Step 1: Buy
Go down the shops - virtual or otherwise - a pick up an upgrade version of Windows 7.

Step 2: Check you system
It's a touch on the anal side but for measures of completeness, download and run the Windows Upgrade Advisor software. It'll take a quick look at your machine and tell you if you're going to have any problems with the current software you're running if you intend to transfer it over to Windows 7. Chances are that if it does come up with any issues, they'll probably still run fine but it might be worth doing this process for piece of mind. You can then have a look online for the software developer's site and see if they have any advice on the matter.

Step 3: Back up
From XP you'll need to do a Custom install rather than a straight Upgrade. It'll wipe all the files on your system, so grab yourself an external HDD of some sort or a very large USB stick and prepare to move files. You can do it manually, but an easy way to do it is by downloading and running the free Windows Easy Transfer software. It'll create one massive file with all your docs, sheets, photos, music, vids etc which is great if you have the space for it. What it won't copy is your programs and installers, so you can either pick those up from the Internet once you've finished the upgrade or copy them over manually which is probably a bit unnecessary.

Do bear in mind here that Windows Easy Transfer will not work if you're planning on going from a 32-bit version of Windows to a 64-bit version. If you're doing that you'll need to back up your files by hand. Secondly, it won't copy your media licenses, so if you have DRM-ed music and videos, you'll have to pick them up elsewhere afterwards. Another reason why DRM can be a total pain in the recharge socket.

Step 4: Run your anti-virus
Again, marginally on the picky side but the last thing you want to do is carry your malware over if you're doing a fresh install, so have a last run of your anti-virus program for good luck and then switch if off.

Step 5: The big install
Ok, let's do this. Connect to the Internet so that the program can pick up any new updates as it goes. Disk in, run the program and select Custom install. Choose the partition that currently has XP on it - usually C: - and hit install.

Step 6: Make tea

Step 7: Replace your files
Run Easy Transfer again which will plop all your personal files back in the equivalent places on your spanking new OS. If you haven't used this program, then you'll have to do it by hand. Make sure you do this before adding the applications back in, so that your programs will know where to look for the files or at least have a go at finding them if you copied them to the wrong place.

Step 8: Update your drivers
Run Windows Update to make sure you're all patched and that you've got all the relevant drivers to keep your system happy.

Step 9: Clean up
A couple of weeks after the install, run Disk Clean, hunt down your previous windows install if it's indeed still there and delete it to remove any last traces of what is now totally redundant. That'll reclaim all those sectors for good. You can even defrag if you fancy it too.

Step 10: Enjoy your new OS.

Upgrading from Windows Vista

Sadly this isn't quite as straight forward as it looks. If you're planning on going from a 32-bit version of Windows to a 64-bit version then you'll have to a do a Custom install even though you have an Upgrade version of the Windows 7 software. Go to the "Upgrading from Windows XP" section above and follow the steps. Also, if you're planning on moving from a Home or Ultimate version of Vista to a Professional version of Windows 7; if you're trying to go from a Business Vista to an Ultimate or Home version of 7, or in fact if you'd like to go from Vista Ultimate to any non-Ultimate version of Windows 7, then again, you'll need to do a Custom install, so you'll have to follow the XP steps above.

Step 1: Buy Windows 7 Upgrade
Go down to the shops or online and buy yourself the relevant edition of the Windows 7 Upgrade that you wish to install. You can go from any edition of Windows Vista to any edition of Windows 7 but do bear in mind that if you're crossing from one type to another, you'll probably have to do a Custom install as mentioned and laid out above rather than a straight Upgrade.

Step 2: Install Windows 7
The advantage of doing the Upgrade option is that you don't need to muck around with saving any files or anything like that at all. Just put in the disk, hit the Upgrade option and it'll keep all your settings just the way they are. The only thing you will want to note is if you use a finger print reader, then make sure you've got a copy of the system password before you install as it won't remember your finger print patterns.

Step 3: Make tea

Step 4: Update your drivers
Run Windows Update to make sure you're all patched and that you've got all the relevant drivers to keep your system happy.

Step 5:? Enjoy your new OS

Upgrading from Windows 7 RC

For one reason or another, Microsoft didn't want people using beta and RC versions of Windows 7 to be able to use the simpler Upgrade option. You can still buy the Windows 7 upgrade software, but you'll have to do a Custom install option as in the Windows XP example at the top. However, if you'd like to, there's a little hack-aroo to get around that nonsense. It goes a little something like this...

Step 1: But Windows 7 Ultimate upgrade
All RC versions of Windows 7 are Windows 7 Ultimate, so this is the version you'll have to buy if you intend on using the hack.

Step 2: Find the file
Insert you Windows disk into your machine and copy all the files to your computer rather than actually running the install. If you have no disk drive and you're using an ISO image, then use the Windows 7 extractor to get hold of the files. Once extracted go to the sources folder and find the cversion.ini file. Open it up and change the MinClient line value of 7233.0 to 7100. Save it. Close it and run the setup.exe file from the same folder and run the installer as normal.

Step 3: Install Windows 7
Select the Upgrade option as the wizard starts, make tea and enjoy your new OS.

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Related links:

• Review - Microsoft Windows 7 - First Look review
• Feature - Windows 7: Which version should you get?
• Feature - Quick guide to Microsoft Windows 7
• Feature - Seven reasons to buy Windows 7

Tags: Software PC software Microsoft Windows 7 Operating Systems How to Features

How to upgrade to Windows 7 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:41:05 +0100

How do you celebrate the launch of Microsoft's Windows 7 in Japan? Team up with Burger King of course to offer the Windows 7 Whopper.

The burger of burgers, features not one burger, but of course seven burgers in a bun in what is no doubt a gut busting experience.

On sale for the magic price of 777 yen (to the first 30 customers) the price soon hikes to 1500 yen suggesting the hamburger chain has taken a leaf out of Microsoft's book with regards to pricing.

Bloatware any one?

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Related links:

• Via - Electronista

Tags: Software PC software Microsoft Burger King Windows 7 Operating Systems

Windows 7 Whopper celebrates bloatware originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 23 Oct 2009 02:40:30 +0100

With multiple versions of?Windows 7?available to buy depending on your needs, which version should you be opting for when it comes to upgrading or starting afresh? Do you really need to opt for the Ultimate edition or will the Starter version do you? Let's try and navigate you through the minefield matrix of the editions likely to be most relevant to you.

Starter Edition

As the name suggests this is the starter option for the OS. It's also the edition that is likely to come pre-installed on a netbook if you buy one with Windows 7. You can't actually buy this on its own.?

While many have already proved that you can in fact run the full Ultimate package on netbooks, this is the recommended choice as it's not as feature rich and therefore power heavy.

While you will get most of the core functions (it's not just a browser in a box) you will also miss out as well. Annoyingly you don't get multiple monitor support, something that given the small size of netbook screens we would have thought would be a must, and you won't be able to jazz up your wallpaper either. There is no Aero support, or multi-touch, while Media Center isn't included either. There is no XP mode, no Desktop Windows Manager or Remote Desktop support.

That doesn't mean you are buying a crippled system. You still get most of the new interface features like the improved taskbar and Snap features. You've just got to remember, Starter really does mean starter.

Only available pre-installed

Home Premium

Home Premium is the version you will most likely end up with if you are planning on using Windows 7 in the home rather than in the office. Forgetting Windows 7 Starter edition for a moment and Home Basic (which isn't available in the UK), it is the entry-level option to the OS. Here you do get multiple monitor support, you do get user switching, you do get customisation options, you do get Desktop Windows Manager and Windows Media Center Support.

You also get Aero, Remote Media streaming via Media Player and 32-bit and 64-bit versions if that's what you're interested in.

You won't get an encrypting file system, you won't get Remote Desktop support, you won't get Windows XP mode and a bunch of boring enterprise features that the average home user won't use anyway.

UK: ?89.99 US: $119.99

Windows 7 Professional

Aimed at the "Professional" whoever that might be, Windows 7 Professional features all the above but includes Windows XP mode and Remote Desktop functionality. It's still not got everything, but for most will be enough to enjoy a full Windows 7 experience. Key bonuses here are Domain Join, a system that lets you connect to a business domain so you can share files, access data and Backup and Restore. While you can run Backup and Restore on the Home Premium options, here you can opt to backup to a network rather than just a hard drive plugged into the computer.

UK: ?148.00 US: $199.99

Windows 7 Ultimate

Yep, as the name suggests this comes with everything that you can think of, ticking all the boxes in Microsoft's comparison chart. XP Mode, Virtual hard disk booting, Multilingual support for when you fancy operating your computer in French and Windows Server support - yippee.

Key reasons to get this edition over everything else are three-fold. The first is because you feel the need to own the "I've got it all" package, the other two, which are probably more valid reasons are BitLocker and Virtual hard disk booting. BitLocker allows you to put a virtual lock on your data in case it gets lost or stolen. You've probably already seen software like this on external hard drives from people like HP, Seagate and Buffalo, and now you can do it here on your main drive. Virtual hard disk booting is a bit like Boot Camp on the Mac allowing you to boot different operating systems if you fancy loading up Windows Vista, Linux or something random.

UK: ?159.99 US: $219.99

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Related links:

• LInk - Microsoft.com UK Store
• Link - Microsoft US store

Tags: Software PC software Operating Systems Windows 7 Features

Windows 7: Which version should you get? originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:32:30 +0100

Adobe?has announced the availability of Photoshop Lightroom 3 as a free download for photographers to try.?

The new application, which allows photographers to catalogue their photo collections as well as perform basic editing processes to their pictures will add a host of new features according to Adobe.

“While we’re still hard at work on Lightroom 3, we recognise the value our customers bring to the development process and want their input so we can deliver the best final product possible", said Kevin Connor, vice president of product management for Professional Digital Imaging at Adobe justifying the move.

Supposedly completely redesigned under the hood to be faster, a bug bear of the Lightroom 2, the new software promises better handling of "image libraries and improved responsiveness with a higher-quality processing engine".

In the Library module, Adobe is promising a rebuilt import system bringing photos into the software more intuitive as well as allowing users to "easily specify the source and destination of their images, and save common processing, metadata or destination settings as easy-to-reuse presets".

In the Develop module, an overhauled processing engine allows users to create the highest quality images. Improved "Capture Sharpening" and "Colour Noise Reduction" tools apparently provide decent results while still preserving an image’s edge detail and contrast. A new Grain tool adds a film-style grain to images, and two new Vignette modes help photographers get a more natural look.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 beta is available as a free download to anyone on both Macintosh and Windows platforms. Adobe has yet to announce when a full version of the software will be available and how much it will cost.

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Tags: Software PC software Mac software Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Photoshop Lightroom 2 Photo editing software Cameras

Adobe Lightroom 3 beta released originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:36:10 +0100

After all the hullabaloo, Windows 7, Microsoft's new operating system, is now here. Finally you can now officially ditch Windows Vista or Windows XP once and for all. But why should you spend ?79.99 on getting it? Here are seven reasons why you should and one reason you shouldn't.

Faster

Windows Vista is, was, and always will be, a dog to run. It needs plenty of RAM, needs plenty of processor power and isn't netbook friendly. One of the biggest reasons the software was hated so much was people tried to run it on machines that just weren't powerful enough. The good news is Windows 7 doesn't suffer from the same afflictions. It's a lean mean operating system and that means it's netbook and old computer friendly. Huzzzah.

Cleaner

While the Mac boys will tell you that you should still feel dirty for using Microsoft, the Windows 7 interface has had a massive overhaul making it a lot cleaner on the eye. The task bar has been improved, the graphics are now tidier, and the overall look and feel much more "Mac". Microsoft has come a long way since the days of?Windows 3.11?and this iteration of the company's OS shows it.

Easier to use

Never thought you would hear us say that did you? But it's right, Windows 7 is easier to use. The company now tries to explain what it's doing rather than expecting you to have a degree in computing from Cambridge. The search has been vastly improved, the taskbar now makes sense, the device manager lets you know what's going on and where, and even the networking isn't the dog it once was.

Touch enabled

Those who like to get more touchy feely with their computers will love the fact that Windows 7 comes with touch support out of the box. Why should you care? Well if you've got a touch-enabled PC or laptop you can get involved with your fingers rather than just use your keyboard and mouse.

Media, media, media

The multimedia elements to Window 7 have also been enhanced. There is the Remote Media Streaming feature than lets you stream your music and video around the home or over the Internet as well as new services like Sky Player?that means Sky subscribers can stream Sky via the Media Center without the need for a TV or even a Sky box.

64-bit support

64-bit computing means you should, all being well, get things done faster as a 64-bit PC can handle larger amounts of information than a 32-bit system. Bring on the speed.

Windows XP mode

It's like you never installed Windows 7. While Microsoft says that you can run virtually all applications on the new OS, you just know that there is going to be one app you've got, most likely your favourite one, that won't. In steps Windows XP mode that allows you to run XP as a virtual machine so that one old programme can still work.

And finally why you shouldn't...

It's made by Microsoft - just kidding.

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Related links:

• link - Microsoft.com

Tags: Software PC software Microsoft Windows 7 Operating Systems Features

Seven reasons to buy Windows 7 originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:47:55 +0100

Microsoft's free antivirus package, "Microsoft Security Essentials", is now available to anyone, just over three months after it went into a beta test period in June that was limited to US users.

But now everyone can grab the bare-bones security package from Microsoft's website. It's a replacement from the company's paid-for OneCare package that never met with great success, being trumped by McAfee, Symantec and other companies whose products are preloaded on new computers.

Other companies, like AVG and Avast!, provide free antivirus software, and it's these that will likely be most hurt by Microsoft's move. Although some have accused McAfee, Symantec and Trend Micro of producing bloated software that consumes system resources, it's difficult to fault them on the strength of their protection.

Security Essentials is free, available now, and works on XP, Vista and Windows 7. There's a link to download it below.

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Related links:

• News - Microsoft's free antivirus software nears public release
• Link - Microsoft Security Essentials

Tags: Software Microsoft Viruses And Malware Security software PC software

Microsoft's free antivirus now available originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:23:46 +0100