on resume, display logon screen

If you're unnerved by the fact that anyone could access your profile after you wander away from your PC or laptop for a few minutes, then do the following:
1. go to Control Panel > Appearance & Personalisation > Personalisation > Change screen saver;
2. check the box with label "On resume, display logon screen".

By the way, while you're in there, why not select the "bubbles" screen saver, rather than the default "none"? Do yourself a favour. :)

Bear in mind that giving a password during the installation phase of Windows 7 doesn't mean that by default you will be asked to enter that password when you start Windows or when you resume from standby or sleep. To force the appearance of a password entry field on the login screen, you have to request that via user accounts in the control panel.

tweaks and software installs on Inspiron 15

A free upgrade to Windows 7 came bundled with my new Inspiron 15 laptop. So I won't be replacing Windows 7 RC with Ubuntu, as was the plan with my previous laptop. I do have the option of replacing Vista with Ubuntu, after the retail version of Windows 7 is installed. At this stage however, I'd like to keep my previous configuration, which was as follows:
* on drive C - the Vista OS, most programs, my documents, my music, my pictures and my video; and
* on drive D - only the Windows 7 OS and a couple of programs.

I still had to be aware that some programs don't work optimally when shared from a single location in a dual-boot configuration.

Two initial steps were:
* create 25GB partition (see entry below) and install Windows 7 RC;
* restore backup to Vista partition.

Then came this list of installations (with destination folder) and tweaks, in two phases:

Windows 7 (Pre-release candidate):
* change number of seconds for display of OS options in MBR;
* add ado-win7 to home network;
* add Documents, Music, Video and Pictures folders on Vista partition to counterparts in Windows 7 library;
* create new 'Downloads' library (Libraries > New Library);
* add 'englesaxe_new' and 'comics' to Favorites (by drag and drop), in Libraries;
* install Microsoft Security Essentials or AVG anti-virus (to drive D);
* display selected desktop widgets (clock, calendar, weather, RSS feed, CPU and memory monitors);
* set up Le Monde RSS feed;
* install Google Chrome (to drive D) and set as default browser;
* import (previously saved) bookmarks;
* install Notepad++ (to drive C);
* install FileZilla (to drive C);
* install CDisplay (to drive C);
* install WinMerge (to drive C);
* install Adobe Reader (to drive C);

With that setup I'm able to work on the Engle Saxe site, read comics and surf my favourite sites.

Windows 7 (after release on Oct 22)

* all of the above plus:
* add wireless printer and check it works in win 7 with current driver;
* install utorrent (to drive C [or D?];
* forward port in Netgear router console for utorrent in Windows 7;
* install mkv2vob (to drive C);
* install Apache (to drive C) and set up web server;
* install virtual PC (to drive C) and set up virtual machines;
* install Firefox, Opera and Safari (to drive C);
* activate guest account;
* install Movie Maker (to drive D);
* set up periodic backups to a new folder (win7_backup) on portable hard drive; do initial backup; delete old backups;
* prevent 'sleep' on closing lid and after 20 mins of inactivity;
* install Dreamweaver and Fireworks (to drive C);

free upgrade to Windows 7

When laptop arrives, connect to Internet then go to https://win7.dell.com/.

Register for upgrade by providing service tag. Registration deadline is January 31, 2010.

Customers who register will receive an email notifying them when the upgrade is available. At that time, customers will be required to enter their credit card information to pay tax, shipping and handling charges. The upgrade kit will ship after payment is received (ship times will be quoted at the time of order). Note - the release date is October 22 2009.

Windows 7 will be delivered by DVD.

More information is provided on the Australian DELL site and on the US DELL site.

how to change the default operating system or display time

In the Windows 7 (or Vista) start menu, right click on My computer then select, in the following order - Properties > Advance system settings > Startup and Recovery Settings > System startup.

Use the first drop-down to change the default operating system.

Use the arrows in the line below to adjust the number of seconds during which the list of operating systems will be displayed.

Click OK, then reboot to test the changes.

Renaming an entry in the Vista boot menu

After installing Windows 7 and repairing your Windows Vista partition, you'll notice that the latter is now called Windows Vista ... (recovered)

If you wish to rename the "Windows Vista ... (recovered)" entry in the boot menu, here is how:

From Windows 7, press the Windows key, type cmd, right-click on the cmd entry and select "Run as administrator".
Type "BCDEDIT" and note the identifier value for the "Windows Vista... (recovered)" entry under "Windows Boot Loader". The value for the "Windows 7" partition is normally {current}".

Assuming the value of the identifier for "Windows Vista... (recovered)" is different to the Windows 7 value, to rename the Vista partition, type this:
BCDEDIT /set {#my-Vista-identifier} description "Windows Vista" (where you will have to substitute the real identifier for #my-Vista-identifier).

If the value of the identifier for "Windows Vista... (recovered)" is also {current}, you may have to use the resumeobject, which is a long alphanumeric string.
A guide to using the BCDedit.exe in Windows advises that:
"The Bcdedit.exe command-line tool can be used to add, delete and edit entries in the BCD store which contains objects. Each object is identified by a GUID (Globally Unique Identifier). Every drive or partition on the system will have its own GUID and could be {legacy} (to describe a drive or partition on which a pre-Vista operating system [is installed]), {default} (to describe the drive or partition containing the current default operating system), or {current} (to describe the current drive or partition one is booted to), or for example {c34b751a-ff09-11d9-9e6e-0030482375e7} (to describe another drive or partition on which an operating system has been installed)...

bcdedit /set {5189b25c-5558-4bf2-bca4-289b11bd29e2} description "Windows Vista Build 5270 x64"

changes the text of the boot menu line for any other Vista installation."

why I prefer Windows 7 to Vista

The beta really impressed me with it's speedy boot-up time. The release candidate isn't quite as quick, but still an improvement over vista.

I love the following features:
* the preview that appears when hovering over task bar icons;
* the multi-pane view which shows a preview of each open tab when hovering over Internet Explorer;
* the snap to 2 column display;
* new media codecs, so that Media Player can handle the divx, xvid and vob formats "out of the box";
* ability to set up a wireless printer without a bulky CD installation of driver software;
* the new Libraries - which enable me to associate files from anywhere on the PC, with my Documents, Videos, Music and Pictures; this makes it a snap to switch back to Vista;

a basic set-up to work with Vista dual-boot

Before I tweaked or installed any programs to Windows 7, there were a few things I needed to consider. I'm a web developer and a family man, with a daughter who occasionally uses my notebook. Previous experience with the Windows 7 beta has taught me that some programs do not play nicely if installed to a single partition and shared by two dual-boot Windows systems. I also want to return to Vista when the RC license expires. With all that in mind, to set up my fresh windows 7 RC installation, to enable me to work best with a Vista dual-boot, I took the following steps:

* add wireless printer and check it works in win 7 with current driver;
* install AVG 8.5 (to win7 partition);
* install utorrent (to win7 partition);
* forward port in Netgear router console for utorrent in Windows 7;
* add Documents, Music, Video and Pictures folders on Vista partition to counterparts in Windows 7 library;
* import (previously saved) bookmarks to IE8;
* install Google Chrome, mkv2vob and Apache (to win7 partition);
* set up Apache web server;
* install virtual PC (to Vista partition) and set up virtual machines;
* install Firefox, Opera, Safari and CDisplay (to Vista partition);
* set up new account for Myne-leeve-dohter and activate guest account;
* install Messenger and Movie Maker (to win7 partition);
* display selected desktop widgets;
* set up periodic backups to a new folder (win7_backup) on portable hard drive; do initial backup;
* install Dreamweaver and Fireworks (to Vista partition);

running Apache web server

The following is adapted from a sitepoint article by Craig Buckler on how to install apache on windows.

Step 1: download the file apache_2.2.11-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi from http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/binaries/win32/.

Step 2: install but choose the custom option; shorten the installation location to just C:/Program Files/apache2.2; don't install any of the options (e.g. documentation) - you'll need to click and choose don't install for each; don't install taskbar or system tray icon.

Step 3: find services through control panel and change the configuration for the Apache service to manual startup; stop the Apache service; close services; then hold down control and drag the services icon to the start button to pin it to the start bar;

Step 4: navigate to the conf folder in C:/Program Files/apache2.2; right click, choose properties and change the permissions of your own user to full control; now you can make changes to the httpd.conf file;

Step 5: double click httpd.conf and make the following changes -

* Line 116, enable mod-rewrite by removing the # (optional, but useful):
1 LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

* Line 224, allow .htaccess overrides:
1 AllowOverride All

* create a new folder C:/htdocs, where you will house your web project;
then at Line 179, set the root:
1 DocumentRoot "C:/htdocs"

and at line 204:
1 <Directory "C:/htdocs">

Step 6: copy your web project into C:/htdocs

Step 7: open Services, select Apache and press the green play button to start the service;

Mission accomplished!

accessing your Vista files from Windows 7

One of the first things you'll want to do after installation is access your documents, music tracks, videos and pictures, which are by default inside the /users/[your username here] folder over on the Vista partition.

Now if you've never fiddled with the sharing or security settings of your personal folders in Vista, this is a simple matter. In windows 7 you click on 'My Computer' and navigate to /users/[your username here] on the Vista drive and double click. A dialogue box appears, you click the 'yes' (or 'OK' or 'proceed' or words to that effect) button. And hey presto, you're in. You can also save files to any of the folders inside /users/[your username here] on the Vista drive.

But if you have fiddled, and believe me - that's not an uncommon scenario, you may encounter some obstacles in Windows 7. And if you try to override the Vista security settings on those folders from within windows 7, you may and end up digging a deeper and deeper hole and eventually find yourself unable to access your files in either operating system.

My firm advice - if you encounter obstacles in windows 7, go back to Vista and set up a test user account. Log in, which will automatically create document, video, music and pictures folders for the test user. Right click on any of these folders and examine the security settings. Write down who is listed as a user and the permissions set for each of these users. Then log into your own account and apply these same security settings to each of your personal folders. (Note - I don't think the sharing status of the folders matters at all since sharing applies to network users, not users on a different drive of the same PC.) In my case, I had to add both 'SYSTEM' and 'Administrators' to the user list, alongside [my username], and assign 'full control' to each.

installing windows 7

The following assumes a dual-boot scenario - that you currently run either Vista or XP and that you wish to install windows 7 on a separate partition (of at least 15GB in size.)

The first thing to note about the installation process is that you should do the bulk of your disc partitioning and resizing before you start. That's partly because you may miss (or perhaps not be offered?) the opportunity to do so during the installation process. How to Perform a Clean Installation of Windows 7 advises that during installation, the screen which asks "Where do you want to install windows?" has a link at bottom right 'Drive Options (advanced)'. Clicking that link will present further screens which enable you to shrink, extend, delete and format partitions but NOT (as far as I can tell) to move partitions.

I have a DELL Inspiron 1525 which has a typical DELL configuration containing a 10MB recovery partition sitting in front of the main partition which houses Vista as well as My Documents. To my mind, that recovery partition is a waste of space, since I'll never need it. I want to put it to better use. However to house Windows 7, in a dual-boot scenario, I need to expand that partition by 5MB. To do that, I first have to shift my main Vista partition (the C: drive) to the right to open up that 5MB. That is the main reason why you should do your disc resizing and moving before you install Windows 7. And this is where GParted comes in.

Using GParted to Resize Your Windows Vista Partition describes the procedure clearly. Here is a summary:
* Make sure that you have a bootable Windows Vista installation DVD, as you will be unable to use your computer otherwise.
* Download the GParted Live CD and burn it to cd.
* Boot off the GParted cd, and you will see your hard drives in the drop-down list.
* Select the Vista partition, shrink it by 5MB then shift it to the right.
* Delete the Recovery partition then click apply.
* Once the processes are done, quit, remove the live cd and then reboot your computer.
* You'll be greeted by an error message saying "Windows Failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause."
* Insert your Windows Vista installation dvd and make sure you boot off it.
* At the welcome screen click the Next button.
* On the next screen, click the Repair your computer link in the lower left hand corner.
* The system recover options dialog will show up, and will ask you if you want to Repair and restart, which we do.
* Your computer will reboot, and you'll see "Windows Vista... (recovered)" in the list.
* When Vista first starts up, it will start running a check of the disk. Don't hit any keys here because we want the system to check the disk.
* Once it's done it will reboot, and you'll have Vista back up and running again!

You should start the installation from within your current operating system. That way, the drive mapping (i.e. the assigning of drive letters such as C and D) in Windows 7, will match your current set-up. And sharing files, particularly those containing file references, such as media playlists, will be far easier as a consequence.

In order to start the installation from within Vista, you'll need to create a partition in the empty 15GB space which you just created. You can do that through Vista's Administrative Tools > Computer Management . Note - there's no need to format the new partition. The Windows 7 installation will take care of that. Now install windows 7 from within Vista. Select the new 15MB partition as the location of the installation. (If you neglected to create the partition in Vista, you'll need to choose the Drive Options (advanced) link at this point, in order to create a partition in that space and to format it.)

Notes:
* All of the above applies equally to the newer DELL Inspiron 15 laptop, and possibly to all DELL home computers.
* An alternative to GParted is the Disk Partition Tool in Ubuntu. You can access that by running Ubuntu temporarily from the installation CD, without installing the OS.
* Be aware also that the resizing and shifting of a partition can take a long time. It's not something you should start late in the evening. It took over four hours in my case on a 200 GB partition. And it doesn't seem to matter how much data is stored on the partition being resized.