Windows 7 RC has Less than a Month Left

The free ride that users who opted in to the beta testing of Windows 7 has been a fairly long one, but it’s important to remember that it won’t last forever, and time is running out.

You've had your free ride, now cough up... please 😉

Of course, as we reported back in August of last year, those running with Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) won’t just wake up on March 1st to a machine that doesn’t boot up. Instead, those of you still running the Windows 7 RC will find that your PC decides to restart it once every two hours… whether you want it to or not. It’s not going to be a killer for everyone, but it should be enough of a headache that people will feel the need to move to a retail copy of Windows 7.

Windows 7 Causes Battery Issues

It seems as though the upgrade to Windows 7 has been wreaking havoc on some users’ notebook batteries, dropping the running time by as much as 70%.

Word comes via TheRegister of the reasonably widespread complaints, with many users holding the upgrade to Windows 7 responsible for their sudden and noticeable drop in overall battery life. Moreover, the piece points to the forums over at Microsoft’s own TechNet that sees hordes of users with roughly the same complaint – that their battery life has been greatly diminished since the upgrade to Windows 7. Indeed, there’s been so widespread an outcry that Microsoft has responded directly to address the issue.

Boot Camp Gets Win7 Support

Apple has update its Boot Camp arrangement for users looking to get Windows on to their Macs so that it now officially supports Microsoft’s latest OS, Windows 7.

When Apple first announced that it would be updating Boot Camp so that it supported Windows 7, it had guaranteed that the update would be available by the end of 2009. While it might not seem as though three weeks is too far over the mark for those anxious to get an officially supported install going, it was enough to provoke some fairly dire speculation about the state of Windows 7 on Mac and how it interacted with Mac OS.

PC Shipments See Growth in 2009

Despite being a fairly abominable year, it seems that PC manufacturers managed to see a little growth in 2009, with the Christmas season proving just enough of a boost to give the market some small growth over the year.

Low cost netbooks have helped keep the industry alive.

While the humble netbook was long credited with keeping PC sales up while times were hard it seems that the industry also saw healthy growth from the release of Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 7. While the overall growth shows last year was up just 2.3% on 2008, Cnet is reporting that the period just after the launch of Windows 7 saw PC shipments up 15.2%.

Windows 7 “Godmode” Only the Beginning

It seems that word that people are using the Windows 7 “GodMode” settings panel trick has reached right back to Microsoft, with the revelation that there are plenty of other similar shortcuts.

Cnet managed to score an interview with Microsoft’s Windows division president, Steven Sinofsky, who was fairly happy to talk about the recently uncovered GodMode tweak in some detail. According to Sinofsky, the aim with tweaks like GodMode is to provide easy access to a plethora of settings for developers who might conceivably need to test everything in as little time as possible.

Is it Worth Moving to 64-bit Windows?

This is a question we hear bandied around an awful lot by people who are considering making the move from Windows Vista to Windows 7, and even more so by people who have bought a machine with Vista installed and decided to revert back to Windows XP and are now facing an upgrade path that is, frankly, fraught with complications.

The big issue is that many people seem to have had it made very clear indeed to them that there will be massive benefits to making the jump from a 32-bit to a 64-bit operating system. While that’s all well and good for those who will actually see a benefit, the vast majority of users out there aren’t going to be seeing the massive bonuses that some niche upragers will.

The Upgrade Path:

A fairly significant part of the problem with upgrading to Windows 7 64-bit on a machine that’s already running Windows Vista is that there’s no support for upgrades from 32-bit to 64-bit. There are all kinds of entirely reasonable reasons for this to be the case, but we needn’t go into them here.

Many will be upgrading from some flavour of Windows Vista...

The long and short of it is that upgrading from Windows Vista 32 to Windows 7 64 is going to require you to have a sit down with your current OS while you say goodnight. It’s always a bit of a headache to run a complete backup, get all of your content onto another drive and install a new OS, then copy it back.

The simple fact is that for most users, there’s just not enough benefits in the upgraded OS to justify the various headaches of preparing your machine for the install, and then copying everything back across afterwards. Are there advantages to be had? Yes. Will they be worth it? Not for everyone.

Of course, I should put in as a disclaimer that you could (and many have) write an entire article on the various issues that people might encounter while they’re running a standard Windows upgrade. Things have come a long way since earlier versions but the fact is that there can be problems with upgrades. Could those problems be so bad that you’ll end up formatting anyway? Well… that depends on your threshold for annoyance 😉

Indeed, if you don’t have more than 4GB of RAM then you’re likely not going to see any real benefit at all, and even then…

Windows 7 Godmode Unlocked

Windows 7 users are enjoying an increased amount of access to settings this week after the revelation that users can create a “Godmode” folder.

The whole “Godmode” part comes from the fact that once you set up the new preference pane, it names itself “GodMode.” Essentially, it seems that, using a fairly simple folder rename, users can get access to some of the more out-of-reach settings in Windows 7 (and, according to some reports, in Windows Vista). The altogether very simple operation just requires users to create a folder with the name, “GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}” and you’re away.

Apple to Delay Boot Camp for Win7

It seems that Apple has missed its projected date for adding Windows 7 support to its Boot Camp arrangement for those of its users looking to run a Windows partition, delaying the update.

Apple had previously stuck to its official word that Boot Camp support would be available at some point in 2009, saying that, “Apple will support Microsoft Windows 7 (Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate) with Boot Camp in Mac OS X Snow Leopard before the end of the year. This support will require a software update to Boot Camp.” That statement was originally released in October of last year, during the same month as Windows 7 launched.

Special Offers – Week of December 29th

Good afternoon all, hopefully Christmas was as kind to you as possible, but if it wasn’t there’s always some consolation to be had from the fact that it’s all over now. Anyway, before we get to the “happy new year” potion of the post (that’ll be at the end) we always do a post at the start of the week to detail some of our special offers.

This week, we have a solid notebook, a Wireless N router and a 1TB media player on sale. We’ll roll with the notebook first.

Acer Aspire 7730G-664G100MN:

Acer’s Aspire 7730G-664G100MN may have a model name that reads like a license plate, but aside from making its name a little hard to keep in your head that shouldn’t discourage you.

Click through to see our page for Acer's Aspire notebook 🙂

We’ll get down to brass tacks as quickly as possible. The Aspire boasts a 17” display with a resolution of 1440 x 900, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor clocked at 2.2GHz and 4GB of memory. Moreover, it boasts 1TB of internal storage, though not on one drive. Instead, it’s spread across two 500GB drives, which means you’re at lower risk of both failing. It might seem like a small thing, but it can be a godsend if you end up in a position to need it. It’s also got a GeForce 9600M-GT.

The machine does come with Windows Vista Home Premium, which means you’d be best off purchasing an upgrade copy of Windows 7 to set up on the machine when you get it, if Windows Vista is a deal-breaker.

The Acer Aspire weighs in at €695, which isn’t a bad old deal at all.

Is Steve Ballmer Safe for 2010?

Rumours have been circulating that Microsoft could well ditch its CEO, Steve Ballmer, at some stage in 2010, but some have been quick to criticise that prediction.

It seems that Ballmer has been in slowly heating water since the launch of Microsoft’s by now egregious last operating system, Windows Vista, which managed put a company Microsoft’s size in a very awkward position indeed. It had been estimated that if Windows 7 had stumbled in the same way as Vista, Microsoft might well not have survived it, but fortunately enough, here we are, with Windows 7 a roaring success.