I am Microsoftie 4 ever (18+ years) working in Windows Services and Content team in the UK, my blog is mainly focused on the Windows family of products and trying to provide help pointers and resources for customers on our products.
Having problems with your battery in Windows 7 or just after ways to improve your batteries efficiency? If yes then take a look at the following Windows 7 articles:
“Ever run out of battery power in the middle of an important meeting or a long flight? Even with advances in technology, your laptop battery can last only so long on a single charge. The trick is to squeeze the most out of the power that's available”
“Does it seem like no matter what you do, your computer is always out of battery power? It might be time to replace the battery. Every battery has a designed capacity—basically the amount of charge that it's designed to hold. Over time batteries lose their ability to hold a charge. This means that even though you're charging your battery fully, the actual amount of power that the battery can hold is going down”
“…solutions to some common problems with laptop batteries. “
“A power plan is a collection of hardware and system settings that manage how your computer uses power. You can use power plans to reduce the amount of power your computer uses, maximize performance, or balance the two. For information about making your laptop battery last longer”
“Your laptop can help you be productive when you attend meetings. With a laptop, you can give presentations, compile notes, and even collaborate with colleagues during a discussion. However, it's important to configure your computer properly before you arrive at a meeting so that you don't spend valuable time trying to change the settings.”
Rob
Windows HPC (High Performance Cluster) Server is not an area I really know much about and is somewhat outside my more usual tips and tricks about Windows but I spotted these 2 updated documents and i thought you might be interested.
“This guide provides basic conceptual information and general procedures for installing a high performance computing cluster using Windows® HPC Server 2008. You can use this guide as a reference when you deploy and configure the head node in your HPC cluster, add compute nodes to the cluster, and verify that your cluster deployment has been successful”
“This guide provides detailed information and step-by-step procedures for designing and installing a high performance computing cluster using Windows® HPC Server 2008. You can use this guide to first plan the deployment of your HPC cluster, and when you are ready to deploy you can follow the procedures to configure the head node, add compute nodes to the cluster, and verify that your cluster deployment has been successful.”
More info on Windows HPC Server at http://www.microsoft.com/hpc/en/us/default.aspx
Love this video from Microsoft Small Business team
There are loads more Windows and other videos from the small business team at http://www.youtube.com/user/MicrosoftSB
thanks to @MicrosoftSB for the tip.
Looks a useful tool in case you are having problems with Windows Update
“This tool is being offered because an inconsistency was found in the Windows servicing store which may prevent the successful installation of future updates, service packs, and software.”
System Update Readiness Tool for Windows 7
and 64bit version at- System Update Readiness Tool for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems
If you are having more issue with Windows Update try the Windows Update Support Centre
Ok some information and key dates you should know if you are running Windows 7 RC (Release Candidate)
“Important We strongly recommend that users who are running any of these prerelease versions of Windows 7 migrate their computers to a release version of Windows 7, or to another operating system before the listed expiration dates.”
Release Candidate
More details and information on our support site at Description of Windows 7 Beta and Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) expiration dates and functionality (KB971767)
Updated for the obvious mistake in the year in point 2
This looks a great Windows Media Player visualization of a nice warm fireplace that changes with the music you are currently playing.
Download Yule Log Visualization For Windows 7
Just what you need for these cold winter nights…
Read a little more about Visualisations and plugins in Windows Media Player
Thanks to Into Windows for the spot
The next best think is to get a Steve Ballmer sticker
http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/192234.asp?source=rss
If you are not sure what I mean by Steve Ballmer signing macbooks try Steve Claytons blog
If You Could Print Twitter on Paper..
Thanks to @labnol for the info
Not only am I big fan of Windows Media Center, and also a lover of tips and tricks for software but also a regular reader of TechRadar so it is great to see an article that hits all 3of those things 15 Media Center tweaks and tips for Windows 7 | News | TechRadar UK
The article covers how to change the start up of WMC in a number of different ways as well as diving into the registry (not for the faint hearted) in customising WMC behaviour, as well as a number of other great tips.
I really like the Tweet from WMC plugin which I must try at some point http://www.mcezone.com/plugins.php
Also if you would like to read more about WMC try the following articles
So if you have a netbook and are running Windows XP and are thinking about upgrading to Windows 7 then read this latest article : 7 Reasons Why you should run Windows 7 on your netbook versus Windows XP
Its all in this new article we have just published with help from our friends over at the Windows: The Official Magazine in the UK