Retrieve, View or Display Wireless (WEP or WPA WiFi) Network Security Key or Password in Windows 7

Windows 7, like its predecessors, remembers and saves (on user consent) the network security key or password on first connection to a secured wireless (WiFi) network which is protected by WEP, WPA or WPA2, so that Windows 7 can automatically authenticate, sign in and connect to the Internet through the wireless access point or WiFi hotspot on every system startup.


For many reason, end users may want to retrieve or view the WEP, WPA or WPA2 protected wireless network security key. For example, lost or forgotten administrator password making it impossible to view the serial key on the Wi-Fi wireless gateway or router, or need to setup new computer to access the Internet through same wireless network adapter or Wi-Fi hotspot.

The quickest way to get the network security key for an existing wireless connection, of course, is from the PC or computer which is currently connected to the wireless network. Although the network security key is saved and stored in local Windows computer, Windows OS does not provide an easy way to retrieve, view or display the network security key or password on screen, in plain text and not hidden as asterisk, until Windows 7.

How to Recover, Retrieve, Show or Display Network Security Key for WEP, WPA or WPA2 Protected Secure Wireless Network in Windows 7

1. Go to Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> Network and Sharing Center.
2. Click on Manage wireless networks on the left pane.

   

3. A list of wireless networks that the PC used to connect to with saved password or security key. Click to highlight on a wireless network connection that user wants to view its network security key, and the right click on it and select Properties.

   

4. Click on Security tab.
5. The network security key for the wireless network is hidden by asterisk by default. Instead of using utilities to reveal, display or show original characters of password or key hidden behind asterisks, click on Show characters button to reveal and display the actual original network security key on screen.

Check out more Windows 7 usage guides, tips and tricks.

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Deploying Windows 7 Essential Guidance Free eBook Download

In conjunction with the official release of Windows 7, Microsoft press is now giving away “Deploying Windows 7 Essential Guidance from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and TechNet Magazine” digital eBook in PDF format for those who is looking for guidance specific to Windows 7 deployment. The contents of the eBook are extracted from selected chapters written by industry experts Mitch Tulloch, Tony Northrup, Jerry Honeycutt, Ed Wilson, and the Windows 7 Team with selected Windows 7 articles from TechNet Magazine.


Chapters and topics in the “Deploying Windows 7 Essential Guidance from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and TechNet Magazine” book:

• Deployment Platform.
• Planning Deployment.
• Testing Application Compatibility.
• Developing Disk Images.
• Migrating User State Data.
• Deploying Applications.
• Preparing Windows PE.
• Configuring Windows Deployment Services.
• Using Volume Activation.
• Deploying with Microsoft Deployment Toolkit.
• Migrate Already: Why You Should Migrate To Windows 7 If You Are Still Waffling.
• 8 Common Issues in Windows 7 Migration.
• 9 Things You Should Know About Windows 7.
• Can’t We All Just Get Along? Running Windows 7 in Mixed Environments.
• Integrating Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2.
• The Good Computing Seal of Approval: Windows 7 Certification.

Download the free “Deploying Windows 7 Essential Guidance from the Windows 7 Resource Kit and TechNet Magazine” e-book in PDF format from download.microsoft.com

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Get Free Windows 7 Ultimate Signature Edition with Party Pack By Hosting Win7 Launch Party

In a new campaign to promote Windows 7, Microsoft is giving chances to Windows 7 enthusiasts around the world to be part of Windows history by hosting a house party to mark the official launch of Windows 7. The host will not only get the rare opportunity to invite friends, buddies, relatives and other guests to his or her home for a reason (Windows 7 launch), but will also get a special “Signature Edition” of Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 7 Party Pack for free.

The Windows 7 Launch House Parties to the tune of thousands will be available globally, as Microsoft intends to select participants to host personal Windows 7 Launch Party in the following countries:

* Australia
* Canada
* France
* Germany
* Hong Kong
* India
* Italy
* Japan
* Mexico
* Spain
* UK
* USA



Other requirements is that the applicants should have a computer system that is currently running Windows XP, Windows Vista or Linux, which can be upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate. Besides, the host should invite at least five or more guests (the minimum threshold vary depending on target country) to the party venue, which can be hosted at home or other community areas such as cafe and mall.

Apparently Microsoft is sending out invites to Microsoft employees, House Party’s user base and Windows 7 testers or enthusiasts to join the house party program, and general public ca apply to be hosts for Windows 7 Launch event http://www.houseparty.com/windows7, but do note that host spaces are very limited, and only one application per household (party) is permitted. And applicants will be required to sign up for House Party account, manually or by connecting Facebook or Windows Live account. A short screener survey has to be filled out afterward. A confirmation email will then be sent to registered email address, where applicants have to click on the confirmation link found in the email to finalize the application, otherwise the application may not be considered.

As a plus for US-based successful hosts who are not Microsoft employees, they will also be eligible for a sweepstakes to win a mini-notebook laptop personal computer worth $750, of which a total of sixty four (64) prizes will be awarded.

Microsoft employees in the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Hong Kong, Japan, Spain, Italy and India are expected to host parties between Oct. 8 and 12, prior to Windows 7’s official debut. Microsoft employees in other markets and countries may also host the parties, although they won’t have the benefit of the House Party support or the special party packs. The lucky winners selected to host Windows 7 launch party on behalf of Microsoft in the House Party program would hold the sanctioned Windows 7 launch parties anytime between the Oct. 22 launch and Oct. 29.

Those who are selected to host the Windows 7 Launch Party will be made known on or around September 17, 2009. If you’re not kind of people who are warm to receive guests at home, it’s possible to get free Windows 7 Professional by attending Microsoft organized Windows 7 Launch Events.

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Disable and Turn Off HomeGroup Services to Hide or Remove Home Group from Windows 7 Explorer

HomeGroup is a new service in Windows 7 that allows end-users to share files and printers with other computers running Windows 7 operating system in home networks. With home groups, users can share pictures, music, videos, documents, and printers with other people in the same homegroup with permissions support, or stream media to devices.


Not everybody will use HomeGroup feature though. For user who doesn’t use the HomeGroup feature in Windows 7, such as not creating a homegroup or doesn’t join any homegroup, the “HomeGroup” branch and icon will still be displayed in the navigation pane of Windows Explorer. To remove the HomeGroup folder from the Windows 7 Explorer navigation pane, whether it’s simplified Windows 7 style navigation pane or class full folders tree, follow below steps.

How to Hide and Remove HomeGroup Folders by Disable and Turn Off Home Group Sercives

1. Go to Control Panel -> Network and Internet -> HomeGroup, and click on Leave the homegroup link to unjoin from any existing home group.



Note: If the home group are shared and hosted from the PC, all HomeGroup connections will be disconnected.
2. Click on Leave the homegroup to confirm leaving from the home group.
3. Click on Finish when done.
4. Go to Control Panel -> System and Security -> Administrative Tools, and double click on Services. Alternatively, type services.msc in Start Search.
5. For each of the following two services:

HomeGroup Listener
HomeGroup Provider

Do the following:

Stop the service, and then double click on the service to open Properties dialog, and set its Startup type to Disabled. Click OK when done.




6. The HomeGroup icon and group will no longer be shown in the navigation pane of Windows Explorer in Windows 7, as shown in illustration below.





Check out more Windows 7 usage hacks or tips and tricks.

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Download Official Windows 7 Drivers for Dell Desktop and Laptop

Windows 7 has started been rolling out in MSDN, MSDNAA (Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance), TechNet, and to Volume Licensing customers with Software Assurance. Many users have began deploying the new Windows 7 operating system to existing PC, including Dell desktop and notebook computers. And Dell Support has started to publish certified and official Dell drivers for Windows 7.


According to Inside Enterprise IT blog, Dell is starting to post Dell Certified Windows 7 drivers at www.support.dell.com/Windows7 for many Dell commercial desktop and laptop systems.



In fact, not only commercial products for small and medium businesses, governments and enterprises is having official Windows 7 compatible drivers. Many consumer desktop and laptop PC for home and home office consumers already have Windows 7 compliant and signed drivers posted. Anyway, if there is still no Windows 7 drivers listed for your Dell product, just check back again in future.

Both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) Windows 7 drivers are available, depending on Dell product support availability. Dell is one of the first OEM (original equipment manufacturers) to release Windows 7 drivers for its products, and serve as a wake up call to other OEMs, especially popular brands such as HP, Acer, Lenovo, Toshiba, Sony, Gateway, ASUS and etc.

Download Windows 7 drivers for Dell from Dell Drivers Downloads after selecting the product.

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Download 64-bit Windows 7 Build 7232 VHD and Installation ISO

Only 32-bit (x86) version of Windows 7 Build 7231 was leaked, but 64-bit lover can take heart that a 64-bit (x64) version of Windows 7 Build 7232, a newer build has also been leaked to Internet, and available for download via BitTorrent network. However, similar to Windows 7 Build 7227 and 7231, the leak is also in VHD virtual hard disk format, which may be useless for some non-technical people.




















Windows 7 Build 7232 has the full build tag string of 6.1.7232.0.winmain.090613-0700. Thus, the build was compiled and signed off on June 13, 2009. In Windows 7 Build 7232, the wallpaper of installed system desktop background is no longer the betta fish wallpaper, but has been changed to probably the Windows 7 RTM official wallpaper. It probably indicates that Windows 7 Build 7232 is much closer than RTM than any previous builds, and probably is RTM-Escrow build.

Download Windows 7 Build 7232 x64 (64-bit) VHD

File Name: 7232.0.amd64fre.winmain.090610-1900.client_en-us.ultimate.vhd
Size: 7,409,031,680 byte
CRC: 5723B24B
MD5: F47C13D2FD1D94F5A2E9A0A85BA0B5D0
SHA1: 8BB2AB688698AE503794F02C29C629131FF0160C

Torrent: 7232.0.amd64fre.winmain.090610-1900.client_en-us.ultimate.vhd.wzt.rar.torrent
Note that the original VHD is packed in RAR archive with RAR file size as 2,513,064,106 byte and SHA1 hash is 90286CA644BBBD7C6B4BF1D6E6696064DA825839.

Again, an installation DVD ISO of Windows 7 Build 7232 x64 has been created from the VHD image, by using loader from Windows 7 7229. However, an original Windows 7 Build 7232 x64 OEM version is said to be leaked, and attached below.

Download Windows 7 Build 7232 (64-bit x64) ISO Image

File Name: 7232.0.090610-1900_x64fre_client_en-us_OEM_GRMCULXFREO_EN.ISO
SIZE: 3142103040 Bytes (2.93GB)
MD5: 334F759125E582311D0CD830E91D809B
SHA1: 76C896AE76122F223CC9A4D4E1ADBC5BBBFE798C
CRC32: 80D83C9A

Torrent: 7232.0.090610-1900_x64fre_client_en-us_OEM_GRMCULXFREO_EN_DVD.ISO.torrent
List of pre-RTM assemblies for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 as of build 7232:

6.1.7137.0.winmain.090521-1745 – build leaked to web
6.1.7138.0.winmain.090522-1615
6.1.7139.0.winmain.090526-1423
6.1.7140.0.winmain.090527-1815
6.1.7141.0.winmain.090528-1850
6.1.7225.0.winmain.090529-1930
6.1.7226.0.winmain.090601-1904
6.1.7227.0.winmain.090602-1836
6.1.7228.0.winmain.090603-1900
6.1.7229.0.winmain.090604-1901 – build leaked to web
6.1.7230.0.winmain.090605-1900
6.1.7231.0.winmain.090608-1900 – build leaked to web
6.1.7232.0.winmain.090610-1900 – build leaked to web
6.1.7232.0.winmain.090613-0700

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Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 RTM Build 7600 (6.1.7600.16384.win7_rtm.090710-1945)

Apparently Microsoft has compiled and signed off the RTM (Released to Manufacturing) build of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 much earlier than everybody expected, and with the build version tag number that’s come as a surprise too. Just as most people awaits Windows 7 RTM with build version of 7300 (as Windows 7 Beta is 7000 and Windows 7 RC is 7100), or 7272, as the natural increment to July 13th, the much rumored official RTM date, the word is leaked that Windows 7 RTM will be build 7600, with version number of 6.1.7600.16384 and full build string of 6.1.7600.16384.win7_rtm.090710-1945, if it’s indeed the final gold RTM code for Windows 7

From the build string, Windows 7 RTM is compiled on July 10, 2009, at 19:45 PM. This time the leaked information and apparently ISO images for Windows 7 RTM Build 7600 appear to come from Chinese sites. In fact, some has got a hand on Windows 7 RTM Build 7600, installed it and posted the screenshots, where desktop also has official Windows 7 RTM wallpaper.













































According to WZor, the choice for final RTM build for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is between the following candidates before the build jumps to 7600:

6.1.7269.0.win7_rtm.090706-1900;
6.1.7270.0.win7_rtm.090708-1900;
6.1.7271.0.win7_rtm.090709-1520;

WZor further specifies that another assembly of Windows 7 which will increase the minor build number to 16386 or so. Thus, the final RTM build may stay and finalize as 7600. The Windows 7 RTM will possibly be announced at the upcoming World Partner Conference (WPC09) at New Orleans from 13 to 16 July, 2009. Windows 7 RTM is expected to release to Microsoft partners for free download via Connect from July 24, 2009, and possibly through MSDN and TechNet Subscriber Downloads. It’s on course to general availability (GA) on October 22nd, 2009.

Windows 7 Build 7264 is the last development milestone leaked build from the win7_rtm branch. Apparently, 64-bit (x64) Windows 7 Build 7600 is been uploaded, with the following ISO details:

US English
32-bit: 7600.16384.090710-1945_x86fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULFRER_EN_DVD.iso
Size: 2,501,750,784
SHA1: 66588F282A88D71A4A1E11BE7C093F02FBFFDDF9

64-bit: 7600.16384.090710-1945_x64fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULXFRER_EN_DVD.iso
Size: 3,224,717,312
SHA1: 0×31849B315290EFABFD81F967ED3C553D82925E4C

Simplified Chinese
x86: 7600.16384.090710-1945_x86fre_client_zh-cn_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULFRER_CN_DVD.iso
Size: 2,604,361,728
SHA1: E43BC56AE77A4AB4006A93BB392B150D8A73CCF8

x64: 7600.16384.090710-1945_x64fre_client_zh-cn_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULXFRER_CN_DVD.iso
Size: 3,341,467,648
SHA1: A5D467B9B5244C53FEA7B7BED7550AB35F34AB4E

Download 64-bit (x64) Windows 7 RTM Build 7600 and 64-bit (x64) Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM Build 7600 VHD image has leaked.

The ISO is been uploaded in parts to RayFile, which is been posted on My Digital Life Forums, which is been re-uploaded to RapidShare, Hotfile, MegaUpload and etc by users in the Windows 7 Forums. The x64 setup.exe of Windows 7 RTM Build 7600 is also been posted, so user who wants to verify the genuine of the build.

Read more...

Download Windows 7 Build 7264 Leaked x86 and x64 ISO (RTM Branch Escrow)

With the official general availability of Windows 7 is set to October 22nd, 2009, Windows 7 RTM (Released to Manufacturing), the final code piece that going to be released, has also likely to be finalized soon. It’s almost 2 weeks ago since Windows 7 Build 7260, also on RTM branch, was leaked to Internet as VHD image, and now finally a newer Windows 7 Build 7264, in original untouched and unmodified ISO image format, is leaked.

However, Windows 7 Build 7264 is likely not to be the final RTM build, as a show-stopper bug been found when it’s a candidate for RTM. Besides, an even newer build such as 6.1.7265.0.win7_rtm.090624-1905 has been known to be compiled by Microsoft. However, it’s the latest build to available to general public for free download. Both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) of Windows 7 Build 7264 is available with complete build string of 6.1.7264.0.win7_rtm.090622-1900. So the build was compiled and signed off on June 22nd, 2009.

32-bit Windows 7 Build 7264 (x86) ISO File Details

File Name: 7264.0.090622-1900_x86fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULXFRER_EN_DVD
Size: 2,444,688 KB
CRC: 0B916606
MD5: 44F04E9E5762714C3D75A3C9C88DE251
SHA1: 59BA011913B00A820A1E002B9BEDEF139AE15B07

64-bit Windows 7 Build 7264 (x64) ISO File Details

File Name: 7264.0.090622-1900_x64fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULXFRER_EN_DVD
Size: 3,150,518 KB
CRC: 05F87B79
MD5: 670818DB149170C652414E1F75E9390C
SHA1: C6FE386E97944511820291F515A8CBB3DDA329A6

Download Windows
7 Build 7264

32-bit x86 Windows 7 Build 7264:
7264.0.090622-1900_x86fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULFRER_EN_DVD.iso.torrent

64-bit x64 Windows 7 Build 7264:
7264.0.090622-1900_x64fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULXFRER_EN_DVD.iso.torrent

User will need a BT (BitTorrent) client such as uTorrent to download the DVD ISO images via torrent files. Last important note is that Windows 7 RC product keys or Windows 7 Beta product keys no longer able to activate Windows 7 Build 7264. However, Windows 7 RTM is likely to be finalized soon in July, or user
can relies on rearm Windows 7 trick to extend activation-free usage.

The x86 and x64 MUI language packs for Windows 7 Build 7264 is also available.

Windows 7 Beta 64-bit Product Key

7XRCQ-RPY28-YY9P8-R6HD8-84GH3
RFFTV-J6K7W-MHBQJ-XYMMJ-Q8DCH
482XP-6J9WR-4JXT3-VBPP6-FQF4M
JYDV8-H8VXG-74RPT-6BJPB-X42V4
D9RHV-JG8XC-C77H2-3YF6D-RYRJ9

Windows 7 Beta 32-bit Product Key

6JKV2-QPB8H-RQ893-FW7TM-PBJ73
TQ32R-WFBDM-GFHD2-QGVMH-3P9GC
GG4MQ-MGK72-HVXFW-KHCRF-KW6KY
4HJRK-X6Q28-HWRFY-WDYHJ-K8HDH
QXV7B-K78W2-QGPR6-9FWH9-KGMM7

Free Windows 7 RC Activation Product Keys

MM7DF-G8XWM-J2VRG-4M3C4-GR27X
KGMPT-GQ6XF-DM3VM-HW6PR-DX9G8
MVBCQ-B3VPW-CT369-VM9TB-YFGBP
KBHBX-GP9P3-KH4H4-HKJP4-9VYKQ
BCGX7-P3XWP-PPPCV-Q2H7C-FCGFR
RGQ3V-MCMTC-6HP8R-98CDK-VP3FM
Q3VMJ-TMJ3M-99RF9-CVPJ3-Q7VF3
6JQ32-Y9CGY-3Y986-HDQKT-BPFPG
P72QK-2Y3B8-YDHDV-29DQB-QKWWM
6F4BB-YCB3T-WK763-3P6YJ-BVH24
9JBBV-7Q7P7-CTDB7-KYBKG-X8HHC
C43GM-DWWV8-V6MGY-G834Y-Y8QH3
GPRG6-H3WBB-WJK6G-XX2C7-QGWQ9
MT39G-9HYXX-J3V3Q-RPXJB-RQ6D7
MVYTY-QP8R7-6G6WG-87MGT-CRH2P

The product keys can be used to activate both 32bit and 64bit Windows 7 RC.

Download 32-bit Windows 7 Build 7264 Language Packs

English (EN-US): en-us.zip
Arabic (AR-SA): ar-sa.zip
Bulgarian (BG-BG): bg-bg.zip
Czech (CS-CZ): cs-cz.zip
Danish (DA-DK): da-dk.zip
German (DE-DE): de-de.zip
Greek (EL-GR): el-gr.zip
Spanish (ES-ES): es-es.zip
Estonian (ET-EE): et-ee.zip
Finnish (FI-FI): fi-fi.zip
French (FR-FR): fr-fr.zip
Hebrew (HE-IL): he-il.zip
Croatian (HR-HR): hr-hr.zip
Hungarian (HU-HU): hu-hu.zip
Italian (IT-IT): it-it.zip
Japanese (JA-JP): ja-jp.zip
Korean (KO-KR): ko-kr.zip
Lithuanian (LT-LT): lt-lt.zip
Latvian (LV-LV): lv-lv.zip
Norwegian (NB-NO): nb-no.zip
Dutch (NL-NL): nl-nl.zip
Polish (PL-PL): pl-pl.zip
Brazilian Portuguese (PT-BR): pt-br.zip
Portuguese (PT-PT): pt-pt.zip
Romanian (RO-RO): ro-ro.zip
Russian (RU-RU): ru-ru.zip
Slovak (SK-SK): sk-sk.zip
Slovenian (SL-SI): sl-si.zip
Serbian or Latin (SR-LATN-CS): sr-latn-cs.zip
Swedish (SV-SE): sv-se.zip
Thai (TH-TH): th-th.zip
Turkish (TR-TR): tr-tr.zip
Ukrainian (UK-UA): uk-ua.zip
Simplified Chinese (ZH-CN): zh-cn.zip
Hong Kong Chinese (ZH-HK): zh-hk.zip
Traditional Chinese (ZH-TW): zh-tw.zip

Download 64-bit Windows 7 Build 7264 Language Packs

English (EN-US): en-us.zip
Arabic (AR-SA): ar-sa.zip
Bulgarian (BG-BG): bg-bg.zip
Czech (CS-CZ): cs-cz.zip
Danish (DA-DK): da-dk.zip
German (DE-DE): de-de.zip
Greek (EL-GR): el-gr.zip
Spanish (ES-ES): es-es.zip
Estonian (ET-EE): et-ee.zip
Finnish (FI-FI): fi-fi.zip
French (FR-FR): fr-fr.zip
Hebrew (HE-IL): he-il.zip
Croatian (HR-HR): hr-hr.zip
Hungarian (HU-HU): hu-hu.zip
Italian (IT-IT): it-it.zip
Japanese (JA-JP): ja-jp.zip
Korean (KO-KR): ko-kr.zip
Lithuanian (LT-LT): lt-lt.zip
Latvian (LV-LV): lv-lv.zip
Norwegian (NB-NO): nb-no.zip
Dutch (NL-NL): nl-nl.zip
Polish (PL-PL): pl-pl.zip
Brazilian Portuguese (PT-BR): pt-br.zip
Portuguese (PT-PT): pt-pt.zip
Romanian (RO-RO): ro-ro.zip
Russian (RU-RU): ru-ru.zip
Slovak (SK-SK): sk-sk.zip
Slovenian (SL-SI): sl-si.zip
Serbian or Latin (SR-LATN-CS): sr-latn-cs.zip
Swedish (SV-SE): sv-se.zip
Thai (TH-TH): th-th.zip
Turkish (TR-TR): tr-tr.zip
Ukrainian (UK-UA): uk-ua.zip
Simplified Chinese (ZH-CN): zh-cn.zip
Hong Kong Chinese (ZH-HK): zh-hk.zip
Traditional Chinese (ZH-TW): zh-tw.zip

Read more...

Windows 7 RTM Wallpaper Free Download

With the leak of Windows 7 Build 7232, and Windows 7 Build 7264, which no longer accept Windows 7 Beta product keys or Windows 7 RC product key for activation, worldwide Windows 7 enthusiasts can finally have a glance into what’s the official Windows 7 RTM default desktop would look like right after clean fresh installation of Windows 7, with main focus of Windows 7 official wallpaper.

So far, all builds of Windows 7 pre-beta, beta, post-beta, pre-RC, RC, post-RC and pre-RTM officially released or unofficially leaked has used a wallpaper with betta fish at its central, kind of signifying the build version is still in ‘beta’.

The final Windows 7 RTM wallpaper is much nicer and more beautiful though (if the one includes in Windows 7 Build 7264 makes it to the final RTM build), which illustrated in the picture below.















Anybody who likes the Windows 7 RTM wallpaper can download the wallpaper for free: wallpaper.jpg (628 KB). The wallpaper has the resolution of 1920×1200, enough to fit a HD LCD screen.
Read more...

ViGlance – Windows 7 Super Bar for Windows XP

If you have decided not to upgrade your Windows XP to Windows 7 in the near future and would like to stay back with Windows XP, but on the other hand would like to experience and get a feel on how Windows 7 looks like, here is a good news for you. By having ViGlance installed, you can now enjoy Windows 7 super bar feature on your existing Windows XP based computer without the need of upgrading.





















ViGlance is freeware and once you have gotten it installed, all windows related processes will be grouped together and this has made the taskbar cleaner and more organized. Based on the fact that people tends to respond better to pictures compare with text, so you will notice that the taskbar icons size have been changed to 48X48, which is bigger as compared to the normal icon size (16×16) as displayed in Windows XP/Vista. Besides, the ugly start button will be replaced with a small and efficient start orb which is having the same appearance as in Windows vista, but the difference here is it has been enhanced with a smooth fade transitional rollover effect. Another major difference that you will notice is when you mouse over on each group of applications in taskbar, the respective applications’ information will be displayed via the glide animation and it can be dynamically resized according to the size of the available information. By having this 7 style transition effects, all information of each applications can be viewed at first glance by moving between each group of applications on the Super Bar.

ViGlance definitely a great tool for you to experience on how Windows 7 behaves at the Super Bar. One minor defect you might need to take note is, in order for 48×48 icons to function properly, you need to get the taskbar unlock, double its size by extending it upwards and then lock it again. If you want to rollback to Windows XP feature, just go to Add or Remove Programs to uninstall it.

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Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade (WAU) and Family Pack Price Details Leak

Windows Anytime Upgrade (WAU), which first introduced for Windows Vista is a sales program from Microsoft to allow customers with cheaper, lower-end and lesser-features editions of Windows 7 to upgrade to more premium edition of Windows 7. Microsoft also offers Family Pack pricing for Windows Vista Ultimate customers to purchase additional licenses of Windows Vista Home Premium at cheaper price. The family pack is likely to be offered to Windows 7 customers too.

Ed Bott of ZDnet has uncovered the prices for both the Windows 7 Family Pack and Windows Anytime Upgrade options, thanks to various retailers who have leaked the prices, accidentally or by mistake.

The world first learned of possibility of family pack been offered to Windows 7 customers when the EULA (End-User License Agreement) for retail copies of Windows 7 Home Premium (including Windows 7 E, N, K, KN Home Premium) contains a “Family Pack” clause:

If you are a “Qualified Family Pack User”, you may install one copy of the software marked as “Family Pack” on three computers in your household for use by people who reside there. Those computers are the “licensed computers” and are subject to these license terms. If you do not know whether you are a Qualified Family Pack User, visit go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?Linkid=141399 or contact the Microsoft affiliate serving your country.

Thanks to a product code (part number) GFC-00236 for Windows 7 Family Pack, Windows 7 Family Pack / Home Premium Upgrade (GFC-00236) is listed with a price of $136.95 on ExperCom. Another e-commerce site, University ITcomputer sales lists the same Windows 7 Family Pack – Home Premium Upgrade product at $144.95, while CompSource has W7 Family Pack – Home Premium Upgrade product priced at $147. All product has since made unavailable or made out-of-stock though.

If it’s indeed the true Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Version Family Pack prices, which just a little extra over upgrade license pricing, it will be slightly cheaper than pre-order price for Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade. Anyway, it’s unclear if Microsoft will have the same condition applied in Windows vista for the Family Pack of Windows 7, that customer must purchase a license for Windows 7 Ultimate edition to qualify for Family Pack. If so, that will greatly reduce the attractiveness of the family pack.

The search for Windows 7 Family Pack price also brings unexpected revelation about pricing of Windows Anytime Upgrade (WAU) for Windows 7. So far Microsoft has revealed little about Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade, except that it will be offered directly from Microsoft, and through retail stores, but not OEM partners.

The Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade Pricing are different between various retailers. Below if the rough prices of WAU prices between different Windows 7 editions upgrade.

(UPG W7 Anytime) Windows 7 Starter to Winodws 7 Home Premium Upgrade (4WC-00040):

$81.95 (Expercom) or $83.72(PCNATION) or $89.99 (PCMall) or $84.95 (GreyMaple)

(UPG W7 Anytime) Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional Upgrade (7KC-00040):

$90.95 (Expercom) or $92.55 (PCNATION) or $99.99(PCMAll) or $94.95 (Greymaple) or $96.00 (Compsource)

(UPG W7 Anytime) Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade (39C-00040):

$137.95 (Expercom) or $142.30 (PCNATION) or $153.99 (PCMAll) or $145.95 (Greymaple)

From the pricing details of Windows Anytime Upgrade, buying a WAU W7 or Win7 upgrade license is definitely not a good deal.

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