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How to Run Windows Movie Maker in Windows 7?

Om — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:28:40 +0000

Microsoft’s Windows Movie Maker in Windows 7 isn’t too easy to run in Windows 7, due to lack of its availability on the Windows 7 Operating System, unlike Windows XP, and Windows Vista; here’s a guide to run Microsoft’s Windows Movie Maker on Windows 7

Windows Movie Maker for Windows 7

Microsoft recommends downloading the latest Windows Live Suite, which includes Windows Live Movie Maker (WLMM) for Windows 7.

Microsoft Windows Movie Maker

Experienced users will want to continue with what they’ve become accustomed to, but Microsoft has turned deaf regarding requests for integrating Windows Movie Maker in Windows 7.

Windows Movie Maker in Windows 7

However, it is noteworthy that special Vista edition MM2.6 is found to download, install, and work perfectly fine for Windows 7 Operating System as well.

Importing Videos With Windows Movie Maker in Windows 7

Apart from latest version of Windows Movie Maker, the Windows Live Suite also presents you with a video import wizard for connecting Digital Camcorder or mini-DV via firewire.

More so, MM1 and MM2.1 can also capture video in Windows 7 from my mini-DV camcorder via firewire.

Imported video clips can be found in Windows Live Photo Gallery or inserted into collections of the classic versions of the Windows Movie Maker.

Running Multiple Versions of Windows Movie Maker in Windows 7 or Windows Vista

Basically installing Windows Movie Maker in Windows Vista is pretty much straightforward, and we’ve seen what it takes to actually run Windows Movie Maker on Windows 7 Operating System.

However, it is even possible to run multiple versions of Windows Movie Maker in Windows 7 too.

Making Video Clips from Still Pictures in Windows Movie Maker

For creating neat Ken Burns style video clips from still pictures, Photo Story 3 is probably one of the best bets. Initially, it was developed for XP, and then the trend continued for Windows Vista and finally Windows 7.

Video clips created from these pictures can be even used in Windows Live Movie Maker or classic Movie Maker projects.

Note: You may have problems in installing Photo Story 3 on the final Windows 7 release copy. However, Microsoft has tweaked around to fix this issue.

In a Nutshell

Windows Movie Maker has been one of the hot favorites amongst the digital video editing apps. Running Microsoft Windows Movie Maker in Windows 7 may not be pretty easy, and there are a number of other software available for the advanced level users.

But, if you still wish to get a copy of Windows Movie Maker for Windows 7, you can download WLMM here

Tweaks to Speed up Windows 7

Om — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:04:13 +0000

By default, the performance of Windows 7 Operating System isn’t really optimized. A lot can be done to speed up Windows 7 with the help of just few simple tweaks. So, let us take a look at some of them.

Windows 7 Tweaks

Tweak 1 – Disabling the User Account Control in Windows 7:

Steps to be followed are stated below -

- Open Control Panel. Then go to ‘User accounts and family safety’ option. Thereby user account
- Then click on the link of user account control settings
- Select the option ‘never notify’
- Click on OK and restart the PC

Tweak 2: Ready Boost Service

- For configuring the ready boost service a flash drive is required.
- After the USB is loaded open Computer, then right click on the USB Drive, then select the tab ready boost and check the box beside the option ‘use this device’
- USB of any size can be used for this service and that total size will used as RAM to the PC.
- This feature of ready boost in windows helps in using the USB drive as a RAM.

Tweak 3: Disabling the ‘Gadgets Bar’ in Windows 7

- Right click on the gadgets bar, and then select properties.
- After the properties window opens then uncheck the box ‘start sidebar when windows starts’
- Thereby the gadgets bar won’t be seen when Windows 7 start-up next time.

Tweak 4: Defragment the Registry Entries of Windows 7

Defragmentation of the registry of Windows 7 can increase the speed and performance of Windows 7 to a great extent. Similar to the need of defragmentation for hard disk, even the registry-defrag is extremely resourceful.

‘Registry defrag’ is a standard option in Windows 7 Operating System to remove the fragmentations thereby speeding up the access to registry and the response of the program. There are also many free software available for the defragmentation of the registry, which safely perform the registry defragmentation operation.

Most Unusual Error during Windows XP Installation

Weston Campbell — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 01:53:49 +0000

After sifting through a few error messages, we nominated this gem for the most unusual error message:

“Error Message: An unexpected error has occurred. (536821760) occurred at line 1768 in D:\xpclient \base\boot\setup\arcdisp.c”

This error message gives us absolutely no clue as to what is causing the problem. Fortunately, the Microsoft Knowledge Base does have an answer:

What’s triggering this error message is a problem with our computer’s memory, specifically a damaged memory module or a damaged memory slot (the physical area in the motherboard where memory modules are inserted.

We can’t understand why Microsoft’s Windows developers can’t simply say that a problem exists with one of your memory modules. That approach would at least point you in the right troubleshooting direction.

Step-by-Step Guide to Network XP to Vista Printer

Om — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 18:35:50 +0000

If you’re facing problems to network XP PC to a Windows Vista powered machine, connected with a network printer, here’s a quick guide explaining all the steps to be followed. Learn how to network XP to Vista printer on-the-fly in 10 easy steps!

Before You Start

The following steps are listed assuming that you’ve a new laptop with Windows Vista installed, connected to an 802.11g wireless network with other PC’s running on XP SP2.

Note: Before you try to proceed, you should ping to/from all PC’s to others so as to ensure that the network connectivity is fine.

10 Easy Steps to Network XP to Vista Printer

Here are the 10 simple steps to be followed -

1. Unplug your USB cable from the Windows XP powered PC

2. Plug-in USB cable of printer into your Windows Vista PC

3. Plug-in the printer to power supply and wait for the printer driver installation to get triggered on the Vista machine.

Note: Vista machine can automatically download the latest driver, but same is not the case with Windows XP systems. As such, you may have to explicitly download the latest driver on XP system(s) if you try to use these instructions when dealing with XP systems.

- Ideally your printer will be installed on your Windows Vista PC.

In case, there are any problems encountered during this step, you can download the Windows Vista printer driver for your printer from manufacturer’s website. Next, you will have to install the driver on your Windows Vista PC. During installation, when you’re prompted to connect the printer to your PC, you must choose the option to “Proceed with installation without connecting the printer”.

4. This should do the trick and now you’re ready to click on the Printers icon, which can be found on the Control Panel of your system.

5. Right-click on the printer you’ve recently installed

6. Click on Properties and navigate to Ports tab.

7. Click Add Port >Local Port>click New Port.

8. Now, you should see slots to enter Port Name, share name and network path of your printer – fill these carefully and Click OK.

For instance – \\HOMEPC\MyPrinter

Note: You must ensure that this new port has a check ticket against its name in the corresponding checkbox.

9. Now simply Click Apply > OK > Close

You’re now all set to print from your Windows Vista PC and shared printer.

Note: When sharing printers or even simple files, you need different user names, and both PC’s CAN NOT work with same user ID and password set.

You may need to follow this last step, in few cases, so it has been listed out separately.

Ensuring that Both Systems are Using the Same TCP/IPv Version

If you have problems to make Vista to network with XP, you may have to follow this additional step to ensure that both systems are using same TCP/IPv version to establish connectivity.

Click Start > Network > Network and Sharing Center > Manage Network Connections

Right-click on the connection you are using (which is LAN in most cases) > TCP/IPv4 > Advanced button > WINS tab > Enable NetBIOS Over TCP/IP button > OK

Note: By default Vista uses TCP/IPv6, while XP uses TCP/IPv4

Microsoft Word Not Responding: Here’s Some Help!

Om — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:26:00 +0000

Are you sick of looking at the “Microsoft word not responding” error? Well, there may be several reasons behind the same – so here’s an insight to the problem and its possible remedies.

The frequent MS Word users must have come across the disgusting error message “Microsoft Word not responding”, and seen the hour glass several times, as MS Word gets hanged and when you try to click close button, it crashes off.

Sure thing, MS Word (All versions after 2000) is extremely stable, but many a times, the third party applications may be the culprit behind unexpected crashing of MS word.

Therefore, the very first thing that you should do is to identify any add-on third party app that you might be using in sync with MS Word. To do so, you can start Word in safe mode and then turn off these third party add-ons, and reboot your system to check the outcome.

Here’s how you can start MS Office suite in user-initiated safe mode –

Click Start >> point to All Programs >> Microsoft Office >> Press and hold the CTRL key >> click on MS Word (or any Microsoft Office program that you want to run).

Once you’re done with disabling the third party add-ons, you can exit the program to stop User-Initiated Safe mode, and you’re good to proceed normally.

Windows 7 Installation Problems – During Expanding Files

Abhinav Kaiser — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:05:02 +0000

I have received numerous mails over the past few days regarding Windows 7 installation problems people face, mainly on laptops. I decided to try it out for myself and guess what, my installation got stuck at 69% during the expanding files process. I have an Acer Aspire 5738, 4 GB RAM and Core 2 Duo T6600.

I tried a few permutations and combinations to make it work by burning the image on a different DVD at a different speed and unplugging my external hard drive, internet amongst others. None worked!

There was no DVD drive activity nor there was any from my hard drive when the installation froze. It occurred to me that if I eliminate one of the two media, things might just work. And, yes it did, logically eliminating the optical media :). Here’s how I did it and it works:

1. Before you decide to start the installation process, copy the contents of your Windows 7 disk onto your C drive, say C:\Windows7

2. You will need a console to run the setup file manually. So, if you have Vista installation disc, it would come in handy, else, you could download one from the Microsoft website. Windows PE 2.0, acts as a booting interface through which you can run programs through the Command Prompt. Using the repair option in Vista recovery console, you can run the setup file alternatively as well.

3. Boot to you PE 2.0 disc -> Command Prompt or the Vista disc -> Repair -> Command Prompt. Browse to C:\Windows7\Sources\setup.exe. This should fire your installation and in all probability should complete smoothly.

Let me know if you face issues while carrying out any of the activities that I recommend here.

A Look at Windows 7 Versions

Weston Campbell — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:11:53 +0000

When you begin to delve into details about how Windows 7 works, the discussion can quickly become complicated The primary reason for confusion is because the operating system is actually distributed and sold in multiple editions. Compared to Windows Vista, the lineup of available editions is less complicated, but you can still get tripped up if you read about an advanced feature and don’t realize that it’s missing from your edition How can you tell which Windows 7 edition is installed on your PC? The easiest way is to look at the top of the System applet in Control Panel—click System in Control Panel; right-click the Computer icon on the Start menu and then click Properties; or use the keyboard shortcut Windows logo key+Break Under the Windows Edition heading, you will see the current installed edition.

Let’s take a look at the three Windows 7 editions you are most likely to encounter on a mainstream home or business PC:

● Windows 7 Home Premium : This is the edition you are most likely to find installed on a new PC in the computer section at your local warehouse store or consumer electronics specialist It includes roughly the same mix of features as its predecessor, Windows Vista Home Premium
● Windows 7 Professional – This edition is the successor to Windows Vista Business and incorporates the same features as that operating system, notably advanced networking features that work with networks based on the Windows Server family In a noteworthy change, however, Windows 7 Professional is a superset of Home Premium and thus includes all features (including Windows Media Center) found in the lesser edition
● Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 7 Enterprise – These editions are essentially identical, with the names refecting the sales channel of each: Ultimate is available on retail and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) editions; Enterprise is distributed only to large customers who buy volume licenses of Windows This edition contains all features found in the Home Premium and Professional editions plus some advanced networking features, BitLocker encryption, and support for multiple languages

All of these editions are available in x86 (32-bit) and x64 (64-bit) options. The 64-bit Windows is still a fairly exotic choice for most Windows users. Within just a few years, thanks in no small measure to the plummeting price of memory chips, that balance will shift gradually. People are now trying out and getting comfortable with the idea of running a 64 bit operating system, especially on systems with 4 GB or more of RAM.

20 Facts about Windows 7

Weston Campbell — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:33:04 +0000

Windows 7 has just launched, although not in the same blaze of publicity Microsoft reserved for its predecessor Vista.

The US giant seems to have learned its lesson after that last operating system was torn apart by users unhappy with the bugs and problems it contained.

This time, they’re letting the product speak for itself, which is the best way, because it’s actually a very useful piece of software and well worth the upgrade .

And it is certainly a must-have on your PC desktop or laptop if you are still running Windows XP.

It should even work fine on a machine that is a few years old, because it has been optimised to work on devices large and small from tiny netbooks to massive powerhouses under your desk.

But to steer you through the maze of options and reasons for buying it, here are 20 things you need to know about Windows 7.

1) Prices for Windows 7 range wildly with many stores doing special offers as cheap as £55. Until December 31, the Home Premium upgrade version will cost £79.99 with the Professional at £189.99 and Ultimate at £199.99. Full versions are £149.99 for a Home Premium pack that can be used for three machines, £219.99 for the Pro and £229.99 for Ultimate. Students can upgrade for just £30 but need an education-based email address to qualify.

2) More than a billion people around the world use Windows every day and millions of them provided feedback to shape the latest version. A whopping eight million beta testers tried it out while it was being developed with another seven million doing so unofficially.

3) You can see all the windows you have open from your taskbar. Hovering over the taskbar icons produces a preview so you can instantly decide which one you need.

4) There’s no longer a need to minimise every open application to view your desktop. Pressing the Windows key plus the space bar will give you a sneak peek by making all of the windows transparent.

5) The Snap feature allows you to place two windows side-by-side for easy viewing and copy and paste. Perfect for comparing websites or finding out information you can then type into Word.

6) Setting up a wireless network in your home or office has been simplified. The “Add a Device” wizard hooks up to each gadget and you simply enter the PIN for each one to complete the connection.

7) A Jump List is available for many programmes which brings up a host of options by right-clicking the icon in the taskbar. So the Windows Media Player list includes choices showing the most frequently-played tracks you’ve listened to or gives you the chance to shuffle music direct.

8) Visual search through Internet Explorer 8 and Bing will bring up thumbnails next to the results, so you can see exactly what you are looking for.

9) Parental Controls allow you to set time limits for how long the kids can use the PC.

10) There are 50 new fonts in Windows 7 and 34 languages in total.

11) Create a Home Group that allows you to easily share files between machines in your house. You’ll be able to look through folders containing Pictures, Music, Documents and Videos from whatever computer you are on. You can also share printers.

12) Windows Media Center now contains the Sky Player which allows you to watch live TV from a range of channels for a monthly fee. Sky satellite subscribers get extra content and features too, dependent on their package.

13) If you run Windows 7 on a laptop, then it will automatically know when you’re at home or in the office and choose the printer accordingly – if you have several set up in the options.

14) A Windows 7 Starter pack is available on many netbooks now, replacing Vista. Major work was done to reduce Windows 7’s memory footprint so it would work on the smaller machines. Home Premium is also installed on some more expensive netbooks.

15) While Home Premium will suit the majority of users, the Professional version adds more security for companies and also better compatibility with software designed for Windows XP.

16) Windows 7 Ultimate lets you work in dozens of different languages at the same time and adds BitLocker to protect data on your PC or a portable memory device from prying eyes.

17) Aero Shake lets you minimise all the windows you have open in one quick shake of the mouse. Just shake one window from side to side and all the ones you have open will move out your way. Shake the same one again and they’ll return to their rightful position.

18) Battery life on notebooks and netbooks has been significantly increased. By using less memory for each task, your whole system will see an improvement in the amount of time you can go between charging. Everything works much faster too because of the tune-up under the hood.

19) There’s no more waiting around for your computer to start up. Turn on and shutdown times are far quicker enabling you to get online within seconds of switching on.

20) Windows 7 is available at more than 45,000 retailers around the world.

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How much RAM do you need to Run Windows 7?

Abhinav Kaiser — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 13:13:58 +0000

Since the launch of Windows 7, I have been pestered with this question and I will dedicate this post to those people who made me write this by their constant lurking.

Microsoft recommends 1GB RAM to run Windows 32 bit and 2GB for the 64 bit version.

Suppose, you have 4GB RAM like I do, your Windows 7 32-bit will be able to utilize the available memory but, your 64 bit system can utilize it a lot more, maybe to the fullest. You will be getting full out of your RAM if you are using 64 bit system.

I have seen that Windows 7 64 bit works great with 4GB RAM and I am pretty sure, that if I add 4GB RAM additionally, it will perform better. More the merrier!

But, it was observed that while running high end games and memory sucking applications, performance was inhibited at 4GB RAM, and a friend who runs 8GB with similar configuration faces problems too, but not the magnitude as I do.

But, at the end of the day, it matters what processor you are running and the graphic card/graphic memory that you employ. Everything does not rest on your system RAM’s shoulders.

Make sure your hardware is compatible with 64 bits as most applications that we use on a regular basis are 32 bits, and they work just fine on a 64 bit operating system.

Remember, there’s no Flash Player for 64 bits yet, but most browsers are still 32 bits, and run find on Windows 64 bit.

Windows Command Line Utility : Assoc

Abhinav Kaiser — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:39:57 +0000

Assoc displays or modifies file name extension associations. Used without parameters, it displays a list of all the current file name extension associations. Syntax: assoc [.ext[=[filetype]]] .ext: Specifies the file name extension. filetype: Specifies the file type with which you want to associate the specified file name extension. Related posts:How To Use Windows Special Keys In LinuxFriendly URLsWindows Explorer Shortcuts Related posts: