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Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system boots slower than its unloved predecessor, Windows Vista, a PC tune-up developer said today.The claims by iolo Technologies, a Los Angeles maker of PC software, contradict Microsoft’s boasts that Windows 7 starts up faster than Vista. According to iolo’s tests, Windows 7 starts up 42% slower than Vista — one minute, 34 seconds versus one minute, six seconds — on a brand new machine when the time trials are run to the point where the machine is usable, at least by iolo’s standards.

Windows 7 does seem to start faster than Vista, said iolo, with its time-to-the-desktop measured as around 40 seconds. But iolo measured startup as the point where the computer is “fully usable,” with a low load on the processor.

Microsoft has said it’s dedicated significant resources to making Windows 7 boot, and resume from sleep and hibernation, faster than Vista, which has been panned since 2007 for starting slowly.

Other tests, however, have echoed iolo, and showed that in some cases Windows 7 does boot slower than Vista. PC World, a sister publication to Computerworld , for example, benchmarked the new operating system as starting about 10% slower than Vista when 32-bit versions of the two were compared, although it was 14% faster on 64-bit.

iolo also said its tests indicated that Windows 7’s startup times, like Vista’s, degrade over time. After several “commonly-used” applications have been installed on a new Windows 7 box, for instance, its boot time — again, as measured by the company — slows to two minutes, 34 seconds, an increase of 64%.

Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts for Productivity

Windows Key + Spacebar Aero desktop peek, just like that small rectangle at the right bottom corner next to the time display.

Windows Key + Home = minimize/maximize all inactive windows

Windows Key + P = projector options

Windows Key + E = Windows Explorer is launched.

Windows Key + R = Run Command is launched.

Windows Key + F = Search (which is there in previous Windows versions too)

Windows Key + X = Mobility Center

Windows Key + T = Cycle Super Taskbar Items

Windows Key + S = OneNote Screen Clipping Tool [requires OneNote]

Windows Key + M = Minimize All Windows

Windows Key + D = Show/Hide Desktop

Windows Key + L = Lock Computer (It is there from the earlier versions as well)

Windows Key + U = Ease of Access

Windows Key + G = show desktop gadgets

Windows Key + Any number [0,1, 2, .., 9] = open the corresponding taskbar pinned program

Windows Key+ Left Arrow = toggle docking to half the screen starting by the left half

Windows Key + Right Arrow = toggle docking to half the screen starting by the right half

Windows Key + Shift + Left Arrow = move the window one monitor left in a multi-monitor display

Windows Key + Shift + Right Arrow = move the window one monitor right in a multi-monitor display

Windows Key + Up Arrow = maximize the active window

Windows Key + Down Arrow = minimize the active window

Shift + Click = a pinned taskbar icon to run a new instance of the program

Windows Key + Tab = Aero [press Tab to cycle between Windows]

Windows Key + # = Quicklaunch

Windows Key + = = Magnifier

Microsoft has included a small enhancement within Windows Vista pertaining to the Quick Launch icons located on the Task Bar.  This is especially useful for keyboard users who use there computer with many different keystrokes, avoiding the mouse as much as possible.  The keystoke combination is effective and easy to manipulate, by pressing and holding the Windows Key (WIN KEY) and tapping a number from one through zero, to launch the appropriate application with simplicity.

In a short amount of time you will master this keystroke saving you the need to take your hands off the keyboard and scrolling with the mouse, making your computing experience all the more easier.

As usual on the upcoming Patch Tuesday next week, Microsoft will be issuing a series of critical patches to fix security vulnerabilities for its popular Windows computer operating system. But this time, the company is getting a bit more attention than it’s used to for its patch release schedule.

Three new “critical” security patches affecting Windows will be part of the patch package that will be available on Tuesday, as well as three “important” fixes for other Microsoft products – Publisher, Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server and Virtual PC and Virtual Server. The fixes affect machines running Windows Vista, Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, according to details in the patch advisories.

If your computer is set to automatically receive Microsoft patch updates as recommended, then you should receive the fixes without any intervention on your part.

One of those fixes, for a security vulnerability in Microsoft Video ActiveX Control affecting computers running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, though, has been awaited for quite a while. It appears that the first reports of the problem date back to early 2008.

Questions raised about first reports

“We’ve gotten some questions from customers about when we got the first report of this vulnerability and how long the investigation has taken relative to the outbreak of attacks against this vulnerability,” wrote Microsoft spokesman Mike Reavey in a Microsoft Security Response Center blog item yesterday.

“Before I go into the details, the key thing I want customers to understand is that this is an issue that was responsibly reported to us and we have been driving in our standard process towards a security update,” Reavey wrote. “While in the middle of that process, attackers found this same vulnerability and began attacks against it. We were far enough in the process that we could provide information that customers can use to protect themselves in the interim while we complete that investigation and deliver a security update that you can deploy broadly with confidence. ”

Oh yeah, I’m real confident now.

First report received in Spring 2008

What’s interesting here for consumers is that the first report of this ActiveX Control security vulnerability came in during the spring of 2008, according to Microsoft, and it’s just getting around to fix it now. That’s more than a whole year.

And Reavey even admits that in his blog post.

The reason the vulnerability is being fixed is because it can enable an attacker to take over a victim’s computer over the Internet as the logged-on user if the computer’s owner browses a malicious Web site.

Yet despite that danger, more than a year has passed for a fix.

Hmmmmm, another Tuesday, another group of Microsoft patches.

So is that Google Chrome OS ready to try out yet?

Source: pcworld

I split my work time about evenly between Windows XP and Vista. Let me tell you, I’ll take Vista 99 days out of 100. Vista’s safer than XP, it looks better than its predecessor, and it runs at least as fast as XP. Performance has been a knock on Vista since the operating system was released, but there are some relatively simple ways to give Vista a little goose so it performs some common operations a tad faster. These five tips should shorten your workday:

Put an encrypt/decrypt option on your context menu

If you frequently encrypt files or folders to protect your privacy, you can access this function via the right-click menu by changing a Registry key. Editing the Registry is always risky, so back it up first by creating a restore point. To do so, press the Windows key, type systempropertiesprotection.exe, and press Enter. Click Create, give the restore point a name, and choose Create again.

With your Registry backup in place, press the Windows key, type regedit, and press enter. Navigate to and select this key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

Right-click in the right pane, choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it EncryptionContextMenu. Double-click the new entry, give it a value of 1, and click OK. After you restart your system, you’ll see an Encrypt/Decrypt option when you right-click a file or folder.

Disable DOS-era 8.3 file-name compatibility

Most hard drives on Vista systems are partitioned using NTFS rather than the older FAT32 format. But Vista still supports the old 8.3 file-name convention of DOS and early versions of Windows. This is handy if you still run DOS-era 16-bit programs, but most of us have no need to retain this backward-compatibility. You can speed up your file accesses a bit by disabling this feature.

To do so, open the Registry Editor as described in the previous tip and navigate to and select this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

Double-click the key named NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation, change its value from 0 to 1, and click OK.

Do without last-access file updating

Whenever you open a file on an NTFS partition, it gets a date stamp that’s separate from its “last modified on” date and time. If you can do without this information, you can disable it and open your files a skosh faster.

Start by opening the Registry Editor as described above. Navigate to and select this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

Double-click NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate, change the DWORD value from 0 to 1, and click OK.

Windows Vista Registry Editor

Change this Registry key to disable the last-file-access feature to open files faster.

Access Vista’s report on your start-up and shutdown speeds

Among the interesting performance-measuring tools in Vista is the Event Viewer’s log of your system’s start-up and shutdown performance. To view these reports, press the Windows key, type event, and press Enter. Navigate in the left pane to this entry:

Applications and Service Log\Microsoft\Windows\Diagnostics-Performance

Double-click Operational in the middle pane to view the most recent events. Look for entries numbered from 100 to 199 to indicate start-up items, and ones numbered from 200 to 299 for shutdown items. Click the Details tab below the event log and make sure Friendly View is selected.

Windows Vista Event Viewer

Vista’s Event Viewer records your boot times and other performance information about your start-ups and shutdowns.

You’ll see the boot and shutdown times in milliseconds and other information about your start-ups and shutdowns. Compare the numbers for each system start and shutdown to determine whether your machine’s slowing down. If it is, try paring your list of start-up applications using the tips in this post from last October. And use the tips in this post from March 2008 to put Windows to bed in a jiffy.

Let Vista tell you how it’s doing

A little-known addition to Vista is the System Health Report Generator, which gives you an inside look at how well your PC is running. To access the tool, press the Windows key, type perform info, and press Enter. Click Advanced tools in the left pane and choose Generate a system health report.

About a minute later, you’ll see the test results in various categories. For help deciphering the information and on using other components of the Performance and Reliability Monitor, check out this guide on Microsoft’s TechNet site.

Source: cnet