On 21st october,2009, the Windows 7 hit the shelves. With the vast improvements in Windows 7 over its predecessors, there are a lot of people to buy it. So learn more about upgrading to windows 7 and here I will tell something that may help you.

You can’t upgrade Windows XP to Windows 7 directly. Because the operating system has changed a lot between Windows XP and Windows 7 , and it is said that doing a fresh install when moving to a new operating system instead of in-place upgrading  can ensure the best performance and overall experience .

But If you’re a Vista user, you’ll be able to upgrade without doing a clean install, you can upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista, then upgrade the Windows Vista system to Windows 7.

If you are worried about losing access to some of your third-party accessories and software after upgrading. There is no problems, Microsoft created the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor tool . The tool automatically scans your hardware and software and provides a report of any potential issues, as well as steps to resolve them, ensuring a satisfying Windows 7 upgrade experience.

As we know, to protect the operating system kernel, there are a lot changed with operating system, so the Windows XP-era security programs will not possible work in Windows 7. Fortunately, Microsoft provides enough security protection for free with Windows Defender, and moreover they released Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus program.

PC Scout,shipping with Windows 7, is a tool to help search for new computers based on your preferences. And it is said that all the computers listed in the database are all available for a Windows 7 upgrade. So if you have one computer in the database, you can upgrade the Windows 7 free.

At last, if you want to buy Windows 7 now, you can buy it on “7 Days of Windows 7″.They are offering Windows 7 discounts , which includes such as Best Buy, Dell and Acer. You can get it with a lower price.

The release candidate is said to include the same set of features as the final product so it will provide a good glimpse into Windows 7. Microsoft however doesn’t recommend this version for the beginners for it is still in development and therefore unstable and insecure.

You also cannot upgrade previous Windows installations to Windows 7 RC. You need to make a clean install which will also be the case when the final Windows 7 comes out. Beta or RC versions can neither be upgraded to final version.

Windows 7 RC is available in 32-bit and 64-bit versions for five languages – English, German, Japanese, French, and Spanish. The file is in ISO format so you will need a DVD burner and an appropriate burning software such as ImgBurn or Nero.

Windows 7 Release Candidate will be available for download at least through July 2009 and with unlimited product keys so there is no hurry to get yours straight away.

The installation of Windows 7 RC will expire July 1, 2010 and after March 1, 2010 the operating system will make the computer shut down every two hours. So unless you want to be suffering forced shutdowns another OS should be installed before March 2010.

Source from Afterdawn.com.

Microsoft has announced the mass availability of their popular browser Internet Explorer 8 today, hoping the new safer, faster browser will help the company win back some market share it has been slowly losing.
“Customers have made clear what they want in a Web browser — safety, speed and greater ease of use,” added Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. “With Internet Explorer 8, we are delivering a browser that gets people to the information they need, fast, and provides protection that no other browser can match.”

The updated browser has been in beta since January and Microsoft says they have taken feedback from “millions of customer sessions.”

Microsoft says IE8 “blocks two to four times more malware attacks than other browsers,” including Firefox and Safari.

Additionally, the software giant says IE8 is “one of the fastest browsers on the market today,” beating out other browsers fifty percent of the time on page loading tests.

According to the press release IE8 also adds the following:

Accelerators. Accelerators make it faster and easier to perform common tasks online by making Web-based services such as ESPN.com, Live Search and Sina available for use directly from the page people are viewing. Users can simply right-click a word or phrase and instantly map, e-mail, or share it.

Web Slices. Web Slices in Internet Explorer 8 makes favorite information from sites such as Digg, Yahoo! Mail, OneRiot, and eBay instantly available wherever someone goes on the Web.

Visual search suggestions. The Instant Search Box in Internet Explorer 8 enables rich, real-time search from sites such as The New York Times, Amazon.com and Wikipedia, as well as sites from people’s own Favorites and History, complete with visuals and detailed information that saves time.

The updated browser is available in 25 different languages; Arabic, Chinese (Traditional, Simplified and Hong Kong), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal), Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.

Source from Afterdawn.com.

Windows 7 manager Brandon LeBlanc noted that on February 24th, five test updates would be released which “will allow us to test and verify our ability to deliver and mange the updating of Windows 7”.

LeBlanc did add however that the new updates would not fix any bugs but instead would simply “replace system files with the same version of the file currently on the system”.

The updates will need to be added manually through Windows Updates.

Vista SP2 RC, build 6002.16670.090130, was recently released to Microsoft Connect testers and should soon find its way to a larger range of beta testers.

When the SP2 eventually hits, it will encompass all previous updates and patches for the OS and will include 691 hotfixes, adds the source.

Source from Afterdawn.com.