Streaming Gates

The final version of Firefox 6 (FF6) is already available for free download ahead of the scheduled release date on August 16, 2011. The setup installers of Firefox 6 has already been posted on Mozilla FTP server, which is accessible to all.

Firefox 6 does not have major cosmetic change though, but is nonetheless a major upgrade as it improves on Firefox performance and memory consumption, which now is snappier and uses less memory. In addition, the domain name of the URL is now been highlighted and made bold.

Tested on: NT 3.51, NT 4 (all versions and SPs), Windows 2000 (all
versions & SPs), Windows XP (all versions, also SP2 and SP3),
Windows Server 2003 (all SPs), Windows Vista 32 and 64 bit (SP1 also),
Window 7 (all variants). Some also say that it works on Windows Server
2008 too.

If used on users that have EFS encrypted files, and the system is XP
or Vista, all encrypted files for that user will be UNREADABLE! and
cannot be recovered unless you remember the old password again. If you
don’t know if you have encrypted files or not, you most likely don’t
have them (except maybe on corporate systems).

Boot your computer with Hiren’s BootCD and follow the steps below for resetting your password:

1. Enter “Offline NT/2000/XP/Vista/7 Password Changer”

With Up & Down keys select Offline ‘NT/2000/XP/Vista/7 Password Changer’ and press Enter.

Instead of releasing standard theme packs for Windows 7, Microsoft has recently released its Windows Experience Pack for Windows 7 and Windows Live Messenger users to customize and create an alter-ego of themselves in a specific destination such as a beach, mountain, safari or city, with a customized avatar for that destination to become part of Windows 7 theme and Windows Live Messenger.

The following Windows 7 elements are created from Windows Experience Pack:

• Windows 7 theme including a desktop background featuring avatar and a screen-saver.

The following Windows Live Messenger elements are created for use in Messenger:

Microsoft is planning to release and distribute a new update for Windows 7’s built-in activation and validation system (Windows Activation Technologies) as an intensifying of anti-piracy and anti-counterfeit effort. The new update will be delivered via Windows Update, with title of “Update for Microsoft Windows (KB971033)” by late February. The KB971033 can be individually downloaded from Microsoft Download Center starting from February 17, but will be available online on www.microsoft.com/genuine beginning February 16, 2010.

Windows OS offers users the ability to locate and search for files or documents stored in the hard drive via Windows Explorer. On many occasions users may need to make searches of some files on a very regular basis. Instead of going through the same processes again and again to search for and filter these files, Windows 7 has expedited the process by allowing users to save their searches. Windows 7 users can save their frequent searches and organize them properly so that they can save time and do not have to fine-tune the settings the next time they want to use it. They can open the saved searches to look for the files conveniently.

To save a search in Windows 7, users, of course, need to perform their search by typing in their search queries in the Search Box from Windows Explorer. When the search process is completed, users just need to click the “Save Search” button on the toolbar.

Phone activation is the last resort activation method that provided by Microsoft for Windows 7 users, in case all other avenues to activate Windows 7 properly, especially online activation, has been exhausted, and failed with error. In some cases, user may use up all available or exceed number of times the activation attempts allowed or simply trying to activate a computer without an Internet access.

Normally, after inputting product key, Windows 7 activation wizard will start with online activation against Microsoft’s activation server, and will fallback to phone activation if the user select “Use the automated phone system” option (illustrated at Windows Vista phone activation guide) when it cannot activate online. For user who want to activate Windows 7 directly by phone, here’s the guide on how to activate via phone directly.

On a Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2-based computer that fulfills that following requirements:

• Running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2.
• Has an NVIDIA USB Enhanced Host Controller Interface (EHCI) chipset.
• Has at least 4GB of RAM.

An error may occur when user tries to copy data from the computer to an external USB storage device.

When copying data or files and folders from PC to an USB storage devices such as USB flash drive, portable hard disk drive, or any USB devices, the copy operating may stop without completing or before done copying, or worse, the computer may stop responding. The issue may occur if there is any input/output (I/O) operations on the USB storage device, where the I/O operations fail.

Gadgets which reside or sit on Windows Sidebar as container in Windows Vista had received a major overhaul and redo in Windows 7. Windows Sidebar is now replaced by Windows Gadget Platform, a new framework for creating and hosting mini-applications (gadgets) on the Windows 7 desktop. With the new platform, the sidebar no longer stick to the left or right side of the desktop, and the gadgets can be freely moved and roamed around all corner of the desktop.

Despite the much simplified gadget management, much streamlined user interface and there is no longer any sidebar settings, some Windows 7 users may not be using or utilizing gadgets, which now hosted and displayed on the Windows 7 desktop.

By default, Microsoft has configured Windows 7 to enable and turn on background services when needed. However, some of these background processes are not always in use or required. When they are constantly running, they will consume a large amount of resources and slow down the system’s performance. One of these background processes that many users have highlighted is the wmpnetwk.exe file. The “wmpnetwk.exe” is the key executable for the Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service and it is used to share Windows Media Player libraries (Windows 7 is using Windows Media Player Version 12). Windows Media Player may not be your preferred player and you may not want to have wmpnetwk.exe running to free up some memory, reduce RAM usage and CPU resources. In that case, Windows 7 offers you an alternative to disable and turn it off.