New Series: My Free Essentials

When you purchase that brand new PC, it is hard to figure out what software to purchase. The aisle at Best Buy with all the programs can be nauseating at best with all the options available for anti-virus, utilities, productivity, creativity, and other software options that do not fall easily into categories. So, I have decided to come up with a list of free essentials for the PC. These are programs that have served me well for many years in addition to wonderful discoveries that I make all the time.

So why purchase a PDF creator package when one is free? Why purchase a Mac for iPhoto when a PC clone is available for free? Anti Virus? Norton and McAfee, we don't need to spend $50.00 a year with the free options available today. Need to burn a CD or DVD but don't have the cash for Nero or Roxio? There is even an option for that which covers those who don't have Windows 7.

So stay tuned for this new series. And don't think I forgot that Windows 7 is less than 3 weeks from launch. I am ready for this event and Microsoft is also ready by revving up IT professionals around the nation at kickoff events that began this past Monday. Official previews of Server 2008 R2 , Exchange 2010, and Windows 7 were shown to registered audiences across the nation. It was a good time, but the apple in the boxed snack (it was lunch so include a sandwich) was a bad idea.

XP Mode: I Love You, I Love You, Not

One of the biggest advantages of Windows 7 is that the Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise versions come with the ability to run Microsoft's XP Mode virtualization software. So, we get the best of all worlds. The Windows 7 desktop, Vista Kernal, and the ability to run legacy enterprise software like TCF programs that require IE 6.0.

My first attempt at installing the software was a blazing success. I was able to create a 512 MB Windows XP machine that could use all of the internet connections within my primary test PC and run legacy enterprise software without any of the bugs that were present with Vista and hiccups using IE7 or IE8. Brilliant!

So, lets continue on this success and see where things go with a little less powerful PC and less robust version of Windows 7 (32 bit). Then the pain of of the upgrade began to hit home.

Arrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!!!!

My first test was built around Monster PC which has an Intel Core2Quad Q6600 processor. Because this CPU was a "high end" processor in 2007 when I made the purchase, it supports virtualization. When I moved on to install on my backup box it would not work because I was running an E7200 Core2Quad CPU I purchased last summer for less than a hundred bucks which is considered an Intel entry level CPU which does not have the VT coding built into the CPU. So this means that my upgrade of SpareParts from a leftover E6400 processor (purchased in 2006 and supports VT) to the budget beater E7200 CPU (which is a Core2Quad CPU built with only 2 of the four cores present) I downgraded my CPU by upgrading in performance because of its placement in Intels CPU lineup at the time. I cannot say that I am mad, ticked, or any other means of angered, but I can imagine that IT pros are going to have a hard time trying to implement this technology in the enterprise where more times than we like to admit that budget constraints control the type of hardware that is purchased.

So where is this list of CPUs? Ed Bott did lots of research to put together a list of Intel CPUs and compatibility that can be found here. Page 2 has the desktop CPUs and Page 3 has Mobile processors.

Good luck with XP mode if you choose to make the adventure and may your CPU be compatible.

Preparing for Windows 7

The preparations for Windows 7 continued tonight. I have a big project on the deck currently so I cannot tear into "Monster" until August 25th, but that does not mean that I cannot start prepping. I buzzed into MicroCenter in St. Davids, PA and picked up some essentials for the build. I grabbed an extra 4GB of ram bringing the total memory in the computer to 8GB and the primary hard is going to be increased from the 500GB unit purchased in December 2007 for a 1.5 TB, 7200 RPM drive with 32 MB of onboard cache. This should make Monster fast enough to handle everything in Windows 7 as compared to the struggles that I have had with 32bit Windows Vista Ultimate. The overall speed of the current configuration is not slow, but it definitely has moments of being sluggish when first booting the system and when launching media center. The widgets ate up much of the resources at startup and I have needed to disable them to make the computer usable in less than 4 minutes of starting the PC.

More inforamtion to come later on the overall build.