PaulSpoerry.com

Like so many of the recent Windows 7 promotions, it’s a limited time offer with more than a few caveats. But, details aside, Microsoft is offering college students Windows 7 for $29.99, according to a new deal announced on September 17.

The www.win741.com site has the details:

“For a limited time, eligible college students can get the sweetest deal on Windows 7 – for only $29.99 USD. That’s less than most of your textbooks! Hurry — offer ends January 3, 2010 at 12:00 am CST”

A frequently asked questions document, linked from the promotional site, has more details. Students may purchase one copy of either Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional. The FAQ advises:

“If your school requires Domain Join, then you might want to consider Windows 7 Professional, which will let you connect to your school network so you can take advantage of features like HomeGroup and Remote Media Streaming.”

The FAQ also is up-front about the challenges in upgrading to Windows 7 from Vista:

“To upgrade easily from Windows Vista, you should upgrade to the same version you currently have in Windows 7. For example, if you’re moving from Windows Vista Home Premium with 32-bit software, it would be easiest to upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium with 32-bit software. Most of the other upgrades require a custom (clean) installation, which is a fairly complex installation process that needs several steps and can take quite a few hours.”

The guidelines for moving from XP to Windows 7, which are even more complicated, are there, too, in all their glory. Bottom line, according to the FAQ:

“Upgrading a PC with Windows XP to Windows 7 is an involved process. If you’re at all uncomfortable with it, please consider having the upgrade done by a local PC or electronics retailer.”

The promotional site points to Microsoft’s student site for a list of other discounts offered to the academic community.

When Microsoft released the official beta for Windows 7 a while back, it also published a set of system requirements. These were a general overview, and it seems that they have been updated to match the Windows 7 RC recently made available.

Here’s the list of initial system requirements Microsoft made available:

• 1GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
• 1GB of RAM
• 16 GB of available disk space
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128MB of memory (for the Aero interface)

And here, you will find the updated and final list of requirements:

• 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
• 1 GB of RAM (32-bit); 2 GB of RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB of available disk space (32-bit); 20 GB of avaiable disk space (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

However, according to ZDNet, “If you are planning to run Windows XP Mode along with Windows 7, Microsoft is recommending a PC with a minimum of 2GB of memory and 15 GB of additional disk space.” Microsoft stated, “In addition, Windows Virtual PC requires a PC with Intel-VT or AMD-V enabled in the CPU, as it takes advantage of the latest advancements in hardware virtualization.”

If you’re interested here is the list of final specifications for Windows Vista:

• 1 GHz processor (32- or 64-bit)
• 512 MB of RAM (for Home Basic); 1 GB of RAM for all other versions
• 15 GB of available disk space
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics and 32 MB of graphics memory (for Home Basic); 128 MB of graphics memory plus WDDM support for all other versions

The Inquirer is running an article titled “XP Mode in Windows 7 is a scam“. The article describes how running in XP Mode won’t do what you think it will do. The major gripe is that perhipherals will need to be virtualized. Those virtualized perhipherals will be a subset of virtual hardware devices that look like those in an older, generic PC – basically a lowest common denominator version of a NIC, SATA controller, sound card and GPU. It then goes on to say how you won’t be able to “play games”, etc.

Let me first say, “no shit Sherlock”. The intentional behind XP Mode is NOT to run a full blown computer in a computer. The author entirely misses the point of virtualization. The virtualization provided by XP Mode isn’t the same as a high end enterprise version VMWare product on data center grade hardware. The entire intention of XP Mode is to allow business that have legacy applications that may or may not run on Windows 7 (or Vista for that matter) to have an environment that their applications can safely run in… a Windows XP virtual machine.

The author goes on to rail on how applications won’t run at a “tolerable speed” and generally dismisses it as useless. XP Mode is not intended to run 3D gaming applications; it isn’t meant for software that needs hardware acceleration. This is meant for ease the upgrade path of businesses, most importantly for those that will enjoy the migration to a 64-bit OS, which incidentally has absolutely no support for 16-bit applications. Even if you still HAVE a 16 bit application laying around (and seriously, if you do… upgrade or find a replacement)  none of those programs will have any need for blistering fast 3d performance!

A new taskbar status application BatteryBar adds a slick looking battery life meter to the Windows taskbar. It comes with detailed battery life information and some gorgeous eye candy in a mouse over dialog.

(NOTE: Also check out the BatteryBar PRO review here!)

Once installed, activating BatteryBar is as as easy as could be. Simply right-clicking on the taskbar and choosing Toolbars -> BatteryBar from the menu. The meter button changes from blue to green when you are on battery power, and clicking on the meter button switches the display between actual time remaining or a percentage view. The percentage meter is calculated using a statistical prediction that keeps a history of how quickly your battery usually drains to more accurately predict battery life—so the time remaining may seem a little odd at first.

When you’re running on battery, BatteryBar shows the percentage bar in green, yellow, or red, depending on how much battery power is remaining. The bar displays the time left on your battery in Hours:Minutes.

Battery is discharging with 2 hours, 46 minutes of battery life remaining.

When charging, the percentage bar is shown in blue to indicate charging, and the estimated time to full charge is shown. The bar turns black and shows “On A/C” when fully charged.

Battery is charging with 46 minutes until the battery is fully charged.

Features

• Vista style – The toolbar is using the same look and feel as the Vista taskbar buttons
• Statistical time prediction – BatteryBar monitors your battery and keeps a history of how long it takes for your battery to charge and discharges. That information is used to more accurately predict the life of your battery
• Translations – BatteryBar fully or partially supports 13 languages. Anyone may volunteer to translate BatteryBar to additional languages
• Detailed Battery Info – BatteryBar is now capable of collecting detailed information about your battery, including max capacity (mW), current capacity (mW), charge rate (mW), discharge rate (mW), and more.
• Automatic Update – BatteryBar will check for new versions at startup and automatically download the new version

Everything listed above comes in the free version. The pro version adds the following:

• Low battery and critical battery notifications and audio alerts
• Customize 20 settings, including changing the font, low battery warning levels, and more.
• New features in future versions that will only be available in the Pro version

Check out my review of BatteryBar Pro here!

Download the free BatteryBar from http://www.osirisdevelopment.com/BatteryBar/index.html.

QTTabBar is an add-in that gives a Tab Browsing Feature to Windows Explorer. The page is pretty sparse so there’s not a lot of information directly available. However, the forums on the site show there is a bit of activity going on this project. Essentially, QTTabBar gives you tab features like in your browser. Cool idea, wonder why this isn’t baked right into the OS as it is? I know I hate having a bunch of Windows Explorer windows open!

QTTabBar requires Windows Vista or Windows XP + .Net Framework 2.0 or later ( Tested on 32bit ). You can download QTTabBar, plugins, and themes all from the main site: http://qttabbar.wikidot.com