If you’ve used Microsoft Windows in the past, you may have found that upgrading your computer isn’t as straightforward as buying the latest operating system. With major upgrades, you’ll often find that certain pieces of hardware in your computer don’t work, needed drivers aren’t available or you need more memory to make the system run.

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

Microsoft has created a Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor tool to help you determine what you’ll need to do to your PC to get it ready for the next release of the Windows Operating System. Like the Windows 7 Release Candidate, the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor is a beta, but it will work well enough to guide you through the process of getting your PC ready for Windows 7.

Right now, Windows 7 Release Candidate is available as a free download. Unlike previous release candidates, this one comes with a full license that expires August 1, 2010, so you’ll have more than a year to work with the OS before you decide what you want to do.

If you download the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor, the software will scan your existing computer setup, including hardware and software, looking for issues that may prevent your current equipment or your favorite applications from working properly.

You can find the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor here. Once you have it installed, it will take just a few minutes to determine whether your computer needs upgrade work or is already good-to-go. For the most part, if you’re already running Windows Vista, you shouldn’t have any migration issues – at least not that are related to the hardware you’re running!

When the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor is running, you’ll be asked to connect all of your peripheral devices so that they can be included in the scan. Don’t forget to connect the devices that are connected to your computer only periodically, like digital cameras and MP3 players.

After the scan is complete, the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor will let you know what will still work and what (if anything) should be upgraded. You’ll see a variety of upgrade options and information on how to correct any potential issues the Upgrade Advisor turns up before you install Windows 7.

One side note: Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor does send information about your computer back to Microsoft, but nothing that will be used to identify you or contact you. Microsoft will use the information it receives to plan and improve the production version of Windows 7.

Photo Credit: Microsoft

In the last couple of posts, I’ve covered some Windows Vista tips that can help make your life easier when you’re using the computer.

If your eyesight is like mine, you’ll appreciate this tip. You can change the size of the icons on the desktop by pressing Ctrl and using the scroll wheel on your mouse. You can “dial in” the exact icon size you want, and change it at any time.

Cycling shortcuts

If you’re switching between programs, you may find some of the “cycling” shortcuts useful. The Windows Logo Key, found at the bottom of the keyboard near the spacebar, has a few tricks you should know about. Press this key along with the Tab key and you can cycle through the programs on the taskbar. You can also use the Ctrl + Logo+Tab keys in conjunction with the arrow keys to navigate the taskbar.

If you’re transferring information between programs, you may find this key combo useful: Alt + Esc will cycle through your open items in the order in which they were opened. F6 will cycle through the items in the active window or on the desktop.

Ctrl + Esc will open the Start menu and Ctrl + Shift + Esc will open the Task Manager. This is a great shortcut to use if you’re trying to figure out what’s running on your computer. The Task Manager will show you a list of all running applications. This is a good debugging tool and a helpful way to spot applications that shouldn’t be running (think viruses and spyware).
Esc cancels the current task and will bail you out of an open menu.

If you’re navigating menus, you’ll notice that most menu items have a keyboard shortcut listed on the right side of the menu. Not all menu commands have keyboard shortcuts; some commands are too complicated for that. In those cases, the best you can do is navigate through the menu to select the item(s) you want.

F10 will activate the menu bar. Shift + F10 shows the shortcut menu for the active item. Each major submenu has a shortcut, which can be accessed using the Alt + the assigned shortcut key. The underlined letter will identify the shortcut itself. Alt + F, for example, opens the File menu.
Once the menu is open, you can use the arrow keys to navigate to the menu command you want. Press return once you’ve highlighted the desired command.

I’ll have more Windows Vista tips in future posts.

Photo Credit: Jonateo

Last time I posted, I offered several keyboard shortcuts that would be useful within certain applications, like word processors. Windows Vista also offers several keyboard shortcuts to help you navigate the file system and perform (or suppress) certain operating system functions. I’ve devoted today’s post to these Windows Vista tips.

If you’re working on the desktop or within a file system, you may be tempted to use the mouse. You can navigate your file system without ever touching your mouse, though. After some practice, you may find that you like keyboard-based navigation better than mouse-based navigation, at least for some functions.

To select multiple individual items in a window or on the desktop, press Ctrl + an arrow key (to navigate to the item(s) you want. Press the spacebar when you’ve highlighted the desired object(s) and they will remain selected.

If you want to select all items in a window or on the desktop, press Ctrl+ A. All items in the active pane will be selected. You can then apply other actions to the selected items, like putting them in the Recycle Bin, or moving them to a different location.

If you want to rename a selected item, press F2. Type in a new name for the selected item, and press return. Your item will now display its new name.

If you want to search for a file or folder, and you need to access the directory, press F3. Type in the search criteria and Windows will retrieve files and folders that match your search criteria.
You can close the active item or exit the active program by pressing Alt + F4. Windows will bring up all of the appropriate “Save” options, so you won’t lose what you’ve worked on when you use this shortcut. If you have multiple windows open within an application, and you only want to close the active window, without closing the application itself, press Ctrl + F4 instead. This will close the active document only. If you want to switch between open applications or documents, press Alt + Tab. You can be more precise about which open items you want to move between by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Tab and use the arrow keys to navigate to your desired item.

Alt + the spacebar will open the shortcut menu for the active window. The shortcut menu will provide access to the Restore, Move, Size, Minimize, and Maximize window commands. You can also alter the shortcut menu for the active window by creating your own shortcuts, which I’ll discuss in a later post.

Photo Credit: Renato Targa

If you’ve had the Windows Vista operating system for awhile and you’ve gotten good at navigating the programs you use, you may find that stopping periodically to use the mouse can be disruptive. If that’s the case, Windows Vista has some “standard” keyboard shortcuts that can be used in any application to reduce the number of times you need to move your hands from the keyboard. I’ve written up a few Windows Vista tips to help you navigate around your favorite applications.

Getting Help With Windows Vista

Generally speaking, any time you need to access the Help resources, you can press the F1 key. Some keyboards also have a “help” key, but if you’re not in the habit of using it, or your keyboard layout doesn’t have a Help key, F1 will do the trick.

Basic navigation commands have keyboard shortcuts that are common across all applications. You can used these commands no matter what program you’re using, and they can help you move around the screen and select specific text or graphic items.

You can navigate within a text block, too. If you’re editing an existing document and you want to position your cursor at the beginning of the next word in the sentence, use Ctrl + Right Arrow. Likewise, Ctrl + Left Arrow will move your cursor to the beginning of the previous word relative to the cursor’s current position. If you want to move your cursor to the beginning of the next paragraph, Ctrl + Down Arrow will do that trick. Ctrl + Up Arrow moves the cursor to the beginning of the paragraph.

To select a block of text, press Ctrl + Shift + an arrow key. The selection that results will depend upon where your cursor is. If you’re in the middle of a block of text, you can move the cursor around using the arrow keys. The cursor will move up or down a line with the up and down arrows, and will move across a line of text with the left and right arrows.

Basic editing commands also have their own keyboard shortcuts. These editing commands are common across all applications and can come in very handy. If you ever want to copy an item, simply select it with the mouse (or a selection shortcut) and press Ctrl + C. To paste a copied item, press Ctrl + V, and to delete a selected item, press the Delete key or the Return key. Sometimes you want to “undo” an action. Press Ctrl +Z to undo your most recent action. Some applications support multiple iterations of Undo. This means you can backstep through completed actions to undo a sequence of actions you’ve taken. Normally, there is a limit to the number of steps you can undo, but the limit depends upon the application. Some applications only allow one level of undo, so be careful!

I’ll write up more Windows keyboard shortcuts in a future post.

Photo Credit: Capitola Girl