Look for IT over here

The has been a lot of hype about Windows 7 over the last few months, and with the availability of the RC release (that expires next year), more people have had the chance to trial the latest OS from Microsoft.

And might I say justified hype. I personally have found it a good step up from XP, but without the pain of Vista.

A few weeks ago, Microsoft released the RTM version to MSDN and technet subscribers, and I have been using it without any problems at all. They’ve done a good job this time.

Windows 7 is officially released until mid October but what I saw on the net today is a 90 day trial of Windows 7 Enterprise available to try. This trial is mainly aimed at IT pros so they can get familiar with the inner workings and differences to previious Windows operating systems.

Check it out here.

Couple of key notes from MS:

* You have 10 days to activate it.
* After 90 days, the PC will shut down every hour.
* If you wish to use Windows 7 after the 90 days, you need to purchase it and reinstall it from scratch. Bit of a pain, but rememeber it is only a (free) trial

So, if you want to give it a go before deploying it in your business, you have a great opportunity.

Don’t you hate it once you have installed Windows updates and are not at the PC it will automatically reboot to apply the updates? Well, it’s a Microsoft feature built into SP2, and can be a pain if you have your PC running some important applications etc.

There is a solution – Auto XP reboot remover. Best thing is it’s freeware as well.

When I want to shutdown one of my (Windows) PCs, I’m sick of clicking on Start>Turn off computer and then ’shutdown’. Why didn’t Microsoft include a short icon or something similar to do that.

Here’s some nifty instructions for making a shutdown shortcut on your desktop – complete with icon!

Click here to read how to do it.

Do you want to change the default file folder Outlook 2003 uses for attachments? While you can’t set a folder for attachments you send, you can set one for storing received attachments. You need to navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options

and add a string value called DefaultPath then enter the folder path.

The next time you use the File, Save attachment menu, Outlook’s save explorer opens to that folder.

Disclaimer: Changing registry entries is done at the user’s own risk. I take no responsibility for any problems relating to the regaistry change mentioned above – but I have tried it and it works!

This is old school stuff but it is interesting to learn, and even in this day & age of Windows, can help you with some of those crappy/obscure problems that only you have
Check out this link for a tutorial in batch file programming.