The release candidate not only provides users with the ideal opportunity not only to get their hands on the software before it hits the shops but also provides what is essentially a completely free Operating System on a ‘try before you buy basis.’ Of course, the product isn’t free for ever and in the second quarter of next year you will have to either purchase the finished version of Windows 7 or revert back to your previous OS.

I did preview Windows 7 back at the tail end of last year and so to avoid any repetition please check out http://www.computerarticles.co.uk/windows-7/ to download a copy including a list of new features.

Today I’m simply going to go through the process of obtaining and installing the release candidate so that you can experience these new features first hand. Before I do so it’s necessary to point out that a Release Candidate isn’t the finished version and as such you should install it in any ‘mission critical’ circumstances; ideally it would be on a PC that could be used solely for the purpose of testing where it wouldn’t matter if you had to reformat and start again. As with any major OS upgrade it would also be strongly advisable to perform a full system backup.

So, to get started head to www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx and select to download either the 32 or 64-bit version, depending on your CPU. If you are unsure then download the following free CPUID utility (www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php) and simply Google the CPU model number to determine whether it can support 64-bit and can therefore benefit from the more powerful 64-bit version of Windows 7. Incidentally, if you find (as I did) that your PC manufacturer installed a 32-bit Operating System on a 64-bit machine but you wish to install the 64-bit version of Windows 7, then you will have to do a clean installation from scratch rather than performing an upgrade.

The installation file is actually a whopping 3GB in size and when the download is finished you will require a blank DVD, a DVD writer and some software designed for burning the .ISO file on to disc. I’m not going to cover the theory surrounding the handling of ISO files here so simply download the free CDBurnerXP (www.cdburnerxp.se), click ‘Burn ISO to Disc’, select the file you just downloaded and the software will then automatically create an installation disc for you to use.

The upgrade disc can be used in two different fashions; either run it from within your current version of Windows to perform an upgrade (therefore retaining all your files and settings) or alternatively insert the disc and reboot the machine to load the installation files before Windows even loads, therefore facilitating a completely clean installation.

If you require any further help during the installation process there is a guide available on the Microsoft website. Again I will reiterate that, because the software is both free and unfinished that you are very much on your own when it comes to any support. Once you have had chance to have a play around however please do let me know what you think.

The Pirate Bay was established in 2003 by the Swedish anti-copyright organization Piratbyrån (The Piracy Bureau) and has been acting as a separate organisation since October 2004. In total the site has 3,500,000 registered users and its purpose is to allow users to easily locate torrent files which are used by peer to peer file sharing programs to locate and download a whole host of information.

A peer to peer network is one with no central server where users share information with each other directly but in order to download from it you require a torrent file to point you in the right direction. The important thing to remember about these torrent files is that they don’t actually contain the data the user is primarily interested in downloading but rather simply a pointer in the right direction. It is the modern day equivalent to you asking me whether I know of anyone who owns the latest Kings of Leon album, me giving you their address and you then going over and making a copy of it yourself; strictly speaking I have done nothing wrong in the transaction.

These files tend to be created primarily by individuals rather than sites such as The Pirate Bay and as they contain nothing that is actually copyrighted there is theoretically nothing wrong with owning or indeed distributing them. This is where the case begins to lose credibility; the four men are accused of breaking Swedish copyright law but in reality they didn’t actually transfer any of the information themselves; they simply hosted files which allowed likeminded individuals to share information with one another directly.

Of course, I’m not trying to justify the existence of The Pirate Bay; clearly the site was allowing users an easy way to exchange data directly with one another but this doesn’t form the basis of a conviction. The court chose not to take any of the technical details into account and only judged based on intent. Unfortunately in overlooking the technical details it appears the fact that by the letter of the law nothing no illegal activities were actually performed by these individuals has also been glazed over.

While it would appear that Hollywood has won a battle, I can’t help but think in the scheme of things this victory may be short lived and indeed may have a detrimental effect. The Pirate Bay have moved most of their servers out of Sweden and in to the Netherlands and their site is still running with a renewed user base attracted after the immense media publicity. The accused state that they physically don’t have the money to pay the huge fine and as the decision is now being appealed it is possible none of them will ever see the inside of a jail cell.

Sites such as iTunes have proven that despite the huge number of pirate sites that people are still happy to pay to legally download music over the Internet. To this end I feel the film industry should be using these huge resources to tap in to a new and potentially incredibly lucrative area of film distribution over the Internet through a similar system to iTunes rather than purposefully bringing media attention to the very sites which they wish would disappear.

USB Flash Drives aren’t really like floppy discs of days gone by; with a floppy disc you were limited to the amount of data you could possibly lose if you misplaced it. A modern day 32GB drive would equate to the equivalent of almost 23,000 floppy discs worth of information precariously stored on a keyring sized device; this represents a huge amount of data which could easily end up in the wrong hands.

The need for encryption doesn’t stop with flash pens; those that hold particularly sensitive information on their computers may like to encrypt a particular file or drive, so that if the machine is stolen the data contained within will be rendered essentially useless.

As a result of these valid concerns I have been testing encryption software with the intention that I could recommend a suitable application for Click readers in order that they can protect any confidential data. I settled on TrueCrypt which is an open source application that can be obtained via a tiny 2.5MB download free of charge from www.truecrypt.org.

Whilst TrueCrypt is incredibly easy to install, I found that things quickly start to get a little trickier once you actually start using the application and as such I would recommend skimming over the rather thick user guide before getting started. The application has been designed by people passionate about security and this is evident in the fact that you are actually given options as to the way you would like things encrypted and the strength of the cipher.

Some other applications that I tried didn’t get you as involved in the process but as a result they also didn’t give you such a high level of control. I personally quite enjoyed the ‘Plausible Deniability’ feature which allows you to set up a dummy password which would unlock the drive but give a false indication that there was in fact nothing stored on it. The idea behind this is that should you be held at gunpoint (!) or possibly more dangerously, forced by the wife, to reveal your secrets then you could easily get yourself off the hook.

You have several choices as to how you encrypt your data. You can of course completely encrypt the drive so that you have to supply a password to access any of your files but additionally you are able to create a smaller encrypted virtual partition. Setting up an encrypted partition means you can use the drive normally for files that you don’t need protecting but then store any confidential information in the smaller, encrypted partition.

When working with Flash Drives you have the option of installing a small decrypting application so that you can then read the files on any other machine; you simply insert the flash drive in to the machine, enter your password and your files are then visible and ready to be worked on.

As a word of warning, there is no workaround should you happen to lose your password; once your files are encrypted they are going to stay that way until the correct password is used to unlock them. You could attempt to circumvent the password by setting an application in motion to brute force crack the encryption but this could take hundreds, thousands or even millions of years depending on the level of protection employed. Don’t say you haven’t been warned!

Do not type the entire e-mail in CAPITALS – Typing in capitals insinuates that you are either shouting or yelling at your recipient. Of course if this is your intention then feel free to use caps but if you’re writing to your dear old grandmother then it isn’t really appropriate to be yelling at her constantly. Most people realise that you won’t be meaning to shout at them and that you have just left the caps lock key on but then rather than causing insult you will instead just appear either extremely lazy or ignorant.

Do not leave the subject field blank – Not only is this the quickest way to get your e-mail blocked by a spam filter but for those of us that receive a lot of e-mail it will make it hard to organise and manage our inboxes.

Don’t use fancy formatting – When I receive an e-mail black text on a white background is perfect – It’s easy to read and is quick to download. I cannot stand it when someone e-mails me in pink text with a huge similarly coloured image in the background – not only does it slow down my machine but it also makes for impossible reading so keep it simple folks!

Use Blank Carbon Copies – When sending an e-mail to a large number of people make use of the blank carbon copy (BCC) field to input all your recipients e-mail addresses rather than the standard CC field. By using the BCC field you will be able to e-mail a large number of people but their e-mail addresses will be hidden from one another so not only are you respecting their privacy but your e-mail also won’t start with a huge list of recipients which serve no purpose but to remind people that you’re a novice.

Be careful what you forward – When you get something in your inbox that you think is slightly humorous think to yourself whether other people would appreciate it as much as you obviously do. Perhaps you’re just the kind of person who has a terrible sense of humour; if you forward a bad joke on to 20 other people then they’re not going to thank you as in addition to not being funny, they’ve probably already seen said e-mail a dozen times already that day thanks to other newbie users.

Don’t ever, EVER forward virus warnings – I have never seen a genuine virus warning e-mail and would be confident in saying that without exception they are certainly all hoaxes. Some of these hoax e-mails can cause damage as users follow the instructions to attempt to remove a fictitious virus that hasn’t even infected their machine. You will not be thanked if you forward an e-mail on to 20 friends and they all mess up their machines thanks to you.

There was a lot more that I wanted to cover in this article but I’ve ran out of space so perhaps I’ll continue to set the online world to rights next week.