Aero Shake In Windows 7, when you click on the title bar of any window and shake it every other open window gets minimised [...]]]> I’ve been living with Windows 7 for a good few months now and in that time have discovered a couple of little ‘hidden gems’ which I wanted to share with you:

Aero Shake
In Windows 7, when you click on the title bar of any window and shake it every other open window gets minimised straight back in to your taskbar, reducing clutter on your screen.  This allows you to focus on the one window and then when ready shake it again and the other windows will reappear.

There are additional Aero user interface related features which make a welcome debut.  These include Aero Peek which allows you to immediately see what’s going on in an application just by hovering over the icon in the task bar and Aero Snap which quickly allows you to rearrange your desktop by slamming any open window against the left, right or top side of your screen; try it!

Sticky Notes
Proof, if needed, that some of the simplest applications make the largest differences to the end user experience.  One of the most commonly used applications on my PC used to be the incredibly simple ‘notepad’ as I find that my working life works a lot better if I simplify everything down in to lists.

Rather than jotting notes on random pieces of paper that will almost certainly get lost throughout the day I used to dump everything in notepad and ensure that every line was eventually cleared so I was left with a blank page before I went home.

Sticky notes have a similar application.  To get started click on the start menu and type in ‘sticky’ and begin typing tasks for the day or things to remember in to little post it notes that stick to your screen.  When complete either close or minimise the application to get back to the job in hand, safe in the knowledge that once Sticky Notes are reopened, these tasks will reappear exactly as you left them.  When a task has been completed or the note simply isn’t needed, it can be deleted with one click of the mouse.

Improved Calculator
Windows 7 calculator has improved considerably; now rather than being an arithmetic only affair, it can be operated in four modes – Standard, Scientific, Programmer and Statistical.  It can also perform unit conversion, for example grams to ounces, metres to feet and Celsius to Fahrenheit along with a couple of unexpected features such as the ability to calculate the number of days between two dates or the value of your mortgage repayment.   Surely in the next version of Windows the calculator application will finally gain graphical capabilities.

Windows Disk Image Burner
For some time now the preferred method of copying and storing CD’s and DVD’s has been by using an ISO file; a single image which includes the contents of an entire disk.  Reading these files used to require a specific application (the likes of which I’ve covered previously in Click) but every version of Windows 7 now includes support for these straight out the box; simply double click on the ISO file that you wish to burn, insert a blank CD or DVD and you’re done.

As you can imagine a company such as ours that sells blank media (CD’s, DVD’s etc) does get asked on a daily basis how to go about making a copy of a movie using a home PC. As this is something not yet covered in Click I thought this week I [...]]]>

As you can imagine a company such as ours that sells blank media (CD’s, DVD’s etc) does get asked on a daily basis how to go about making a copy of a movie using a home PC. As this is something not yet covered in Click I thought this week I would write a definitive answer as to hopefully decrease the frequency that this question pops up.

I will of course point out where the law stands on this; you are legally allowed to make a single backup of any copyrighted video that you own for personal purposes only as long as that backup is then kept for your sole use and not rented, lent of given to a third party. To copy a movie for any purpose other than this is very much illegal and something that neither myself nor the Herald Express could condone.

To backup a movie DVD you will need essentially two pieces of software – one to unscramble the movie and then one to actually copy and compress the data on to a blank DVD. The first piece of software removes the encryption that prevents regular utilities from Nero and DVD Creator making the copy and then the second actually does the business of moving the data from disc to disc.

A good application I’ve found for removing the encryption goes by the name of AnyDVD and this can be downloaded by heading to www.slysoft.com. The program is free to try out although if you do like it then you will have to purchase the full version after a period of 21 days. Installation is simple and then the program just sits quietly in the taskbar, removing the copy protection from whatever disk is present in the DVD drive of your machine. AnyDVD also has the additional advantage of being able to remove region protection so that you can watch DVD’s from all around the world on your region locked DVD player.

To actually copy the DVD itself a program such as CloneDVD does the job perfectly. This is available from the same address and like AnyDVD, whilst it is free to download you will have to pay for the full version should you wish to use it outside of the 21 day evaluation period.

Whilst one would assume that once the encryption was removed that copying a DVD is an easy process which any software could accomplish there is one major stumbling block; most pre-recorded DVD’s you buy are Dual Layer and hence twice the capacity of standard Single Layer recordable discs. To get around this CloneDVD is able to strip out any special features of the DVD (such as actor interviews, foreign subtitles and directors’ commentary) and then compress the remaining data so it fits perfectly on to one disc. Like AnyDVD the software is easy to install and since it includes a couple of step by step copying wizards it literally couldn’t be any easier to use.

Whilst I do usually recommend free software in Click I haven’t been able to locate any free utilities that accomplish the above however if anyone out there knows differently then please do let me know. Once again I feel obliged to say that copying a movie for any purpose than making a single backup for your own use is illegal so please don’t even think about it!

My original review last year focussed [...]]]> With a new version of Firefox recently released I thought it was well time that I recap on this fantastic browser as far too many people are still using what I would consider to be the inferior Microsoft designed Internet Explorer.

My original review last year focussed on the main improvements over the Microsoft offering and these include:

Tabbed Browsing – This allows you to only have one browser open but with multiple tabs (pages) that you can then switch between quickly and easily. This leaves your taskbar a lot less cluttered than having multiple instances of the same browser running simultaneously.

Downloads Manager – Rather than downloading software to a selected location on your hard drive you can use Firefox to manage all of your downloads in the same place. Should you choose to then save a download permanently onto your hard disk this is quick and easy to do.

Pop Up Stopper – A fantastic feature that has only recently been added to Internet Explorer. The Firefox pop up stopper does exactly what it says on the tin as it simply stops intrusive pop-ups from getting in the way of your browsing experience.

Simplicity – This browser is extremely compact and simple – We have no flashy graphics or fancy menus to contend with which ultimately makes the software easier and quicker to use.

Since we are now only recapping old ground I feel that we should focus on what has improved in the new version 1.5:

First off it is worthwhile noting that the software hasn’t bloated and all and as such is still a tiny 5mb download whereas IE 6 can be up to 75mb in size. Now only does this make the software extremely quick to load and use but due to some new intelligent caching the performance of moving from page to page has also been improved.

The tabbed browsing interface has been improved so that you can now change the order in which you flick between pages from within the software. Whilst a small improvement on paper this does really improve the usability of the software.

Possibly the most important feature is that Firefox will keep itself secure by automatically updating should a security hole be found. For example should a security vulnerability be found in the software the developers of the package will be able to make the browser automatically update without the user even being aware.

The way in which third party additions to the software are managed has also been changed which will mean that many of the older extensions designed for previous versions of Firefox may not work however you can rest assured that you won’t have to wait long for an updated version to hit the public domain. Since we’re now on the subject of extensions can I suggest that along with the basic browser that you download the Google Toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com/firefox/) as this provides several improvements to Firefox including an auto form fill utility and a spell checker which is especially useful to those that use web based e-mail programs. As one may expect the Google Toolbar also includes the ability to use the Google search engine and news services from within the toolbar without having to actually visit their website.

The Firefox browser has already captured approximately 10% of the browser market which is extremely impressive when you think that not only is Internet Explorer included with every version of Windows but also that Microsoft have a huge amount of resources available to them to develop their browser. I certainly prefer Firefox over Internet Explorer and would recommend that you at least give it a trial run by visiting www.firefox.com.