Inside Delphian

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 for 64-Bit Systems Released

Most of this post only applies to you if (a) you have a Windows 7-based computer, and (b) you have the 64-bit operating system.

A "Service Pack" isn't a new product; it's a major release of a given software product that offers updates, bug fixes, and/or enhancements. While many such items may be delivered from time to time by way of the regular Windows Update function, a Service Pack, well, packs everything into a single installable file. You install the one file, and all the goodies that come with it are installed. You may/may not notice any differences in your software–be it Windows, or perhaps Microsoft Office–following the installation.

The first Service Pack for the Windows 7 64-bit operating system (a mammoth file, by the way) contains quite a few items, but the following two may be most recognizable to most people:

• The connection between Windows and HDMI audio devices has been made more robust, and a fix has been instituted that constantly maintains the connectivity.
• XPS documents (a proprietary Microsoft format for documents that is similar to PDF) were sometimes not printing properly when the documents were mixed-mode; meaning, that there were both portrait and landscape pages in the documents. This glitch has been addressed.

Other changes made were a little on the exotic side, at least for most users (things like the behavior of “Restore previous folders at logon” functionality and support for Advanced Vector Extensions AVX).

After the requisite reboot, I can't say my 64-bit version of Windows 7 Ultimate looked, 'felt', or ran differently. Still, it is highly recommended that you install most recommended updates seen in Windows Update, and especially Service Packs.

Windows 7 - Service Pack 1 Released

Those of you who use a Windows-based computer, and who upgraded to or use Windows 7, will want to know this news: the first major service pack for Windows 7 has just been released. If you have your Windows set to Automatic Updates, you will get notification of this, but you will also have to specifically choose the update from any recent available updates.

So what's a Service Pack?

A Service Pack is basically a collection of known bug fixes, and sometimes improvements or new functionality. For instance, I'm creating this post on our desktop computer, which is running Windows XP. Because XP has been around so long–can it really be nine years now?–there have been several Service Packs. I have installed all service packs on this machine, up to and including Service Pack 3.

Should you install a Service Pack?

My short answer is this: yes. My longer answer is a little more involved...

As most service packs contain bug fixes (which can themselves include security fixes), I think they're an important consideration. Even if a service pack includes very little new functionality (as in the first one for Windows 7), the bug fixes and/or security enhancements alone should be considered. The other reasons you should install a service pack have to do with compatibility. Eventually, as with Windows XP, other programs (or possibly other hardware) will require the new service pack, though they might not right away.

What does Windows 7 Service Pack 1 mean to me?

About a half-hour to an hour, and anywhere from approximately 30 megabytes of disk space to several hundred megabytes of disk space (depending on what's already been updated). If you've kept your Windows 7 updated, the process shouldn't take too long, or consume too much disk space.

OK, how do I install Windows 7 Service Pack 1?

If Automatic Updates is "on", go to the Start button and search for "Windows Update" (just type it in). Are there new updates? If yes, look for a link that tells you a number of "important updates are available". Click that link, and check the check box for Windows 7 Service Pack 1. Click the OK button, install the Service Pack (it will download, and that's the most lengthy process). Reboot your computer when asked to. When you log-in again, you should get a message telling you it's done!

For more information on Windows 7 Service Pack 1, have a look at Microsoft's information pages. There are several different Web pages available, but the following one sums things up nicely, and provides you with a link on how to install and where to get the Service Pack (if it's not available to you yet): http://bit.ly/Windows7_SP1.

I just installed SP1 this morning on one of the laptops. Things seem OK so far (a good sign).

Happy computing!

Windows 7 – Calculator

Every version of Windows has included a simple utility (a small, usually single-purpose program) called Calculator. With the release of Windows 7, this useful little tool has changed in a big way.

Calculator in its default (Standard) mode or view works exactly as its name implies: it performs basic math calculations. It can be switched to Scientific mode for more robust and specialized work. Those features, however, aren’t new. The features that are can be accessed from the View menu. They include:

• Programmer mode – you guessed it, it’s used to help create programing formulas or code
• Statistics mode – used much in the same way as Excel Functions, to calculate sums, averages, deviation, and several other results.

In addition to Standard, Scientific, Programmer, and Statistics, the enhanced Calculator offers Unit conversion, Date calculation, and even a few tools for some of the more involved figuring we sometimes have to do in life—calculating a mortgage, for instance—in the way of built in “Worksheets”.

So now, from Calculator’s View menu, you can easily and quickly work on your programming, work out statistics, or if those activities aren’t your bailiwick, find uses to, say, convert ounces to pounds, months to weeks or days, or even work out how many days away from today your next birthday is. Yep, the new Calculator does that too!

Windows 7 - Themes

Are you a Windows Vista user? Do you like Themes? Windows 7 has expanded what you get with Themes, and even thrown in a few new ones.

A Windows Theme is a collection of colours, images, mouse shapes, sounds, icons, and desktop backgrounds. For example, if you pick the Nature Theme, you get very cool nature pictures, some interesting sounds (they call these sound schemes), a neat collection of changing mouse pointers, and so forth. Change the Theme and you get a different collection! Windows 7 has added a new feature (Slide Shows) to the mix, and added a few new Themes.

Getting to Themes in Windows 7 is easy: right-click on an empty desktop, and choose Personalize.

If you like interesting backgrounds like I do, you’ll want experiment with some of the new Themes; there are several new Aero Themes to play with, including Nature (my favourite), Architecture, and Landscapes.

One last thing you might want to be aware of: many Themes, and most Windows Vista or Windows 7 Aero features are processor-heavy. Though Windows 7 isn’t as much a processor or memory hog as its immediate predecessor, you should know that the most fancy features—Aero is one of those—require a lot of processing power. If your computer is underpowered, or acting sluggishly when all the bells and whistles of Aero are enabled, turn some of those off. In Windows 7, do the following:

• Right-click a blank area of the desktop and choose Personalize
• Scroll down through the Themes and look for Basic and High Contrast Themes, then click the one that appeals to you.

Windows 7 - Libraries

So a guy walks into the library, and voilà; finds everything he needs! Did you know that Windows 7 has added a feature called Libraries?

Have you ever had to search your computer for an errant document, photo, song, or other file? Organizing files on a computer can begin simply enough—after all, many of us just saved everything in the default folders (My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, etc.). But after a time, we may either inadvertently save a file someplace else, or want to, and there goes our organization. For those of you who are very organized (I’m not bad in that department), you’ve created your own folders and sub-folders for everything. Nice work, but time consuming to navigate through.

In Windows 7, a Library is a place that has references to everything you’ve stored. It’s not that all the files are on one drive or in one folder, but the references (the path) to them is. You can use the default Library (which, not so strangely, has folders for documents, music, etc.), or more likely, you’ll create one or more new Libraries of your own. One may contain references to everything to do with that new book you’re writing; images, documents, presentations, whatever. Another may contain references for all things financial. You decide!

Create a Library, tell Windows where to find your stuff (folders or files), and from that point on you’ll be more organized, and have a lot less searching to do.

Windows 7 - Jump Lists

I didn’t even have this on my Microsoft wish list, but they went ahead and added it: Windows 7 has added a unique and useful feature called Jump Lists.

Picture this … you click a running program on the Task Bar, or click the Start button and click the program, and voilà; enter the Jump List. What is a Jump List? How is it useful? Well, the List depends upon the program. For example, a Jump List for Internet Explorer 8 will show your most frequented websites. A Jump List for Microsoft Office Word 2010 (or any of the new Office products) will show the last few documents you did, and a list of commonly used commands. When you click an item in a Jump List, you go directly to that item. In Internet Explorer, you’ll go right to the website. In Word, you’d either go right to a recently accessed document or to a new document if you want.

For several months I have been a beta tester for both Windows 7 Ultimate, and Microsoft Office 2010. I have had the good fortune to see these two offerings from Microsoft paired together. Jump Lists work very well, are convenient, and are featured in every edition of the new Windows 7 operating system.