Microsoft periodically releases security fixes and enhancements for its Windows operating systems Windows Vista and Windows 7 – through Windows update service. The service packs include all these updates plus a few general improvements and additions based on customer feedback. Microsoft recently released the developer download of Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. Both beta versions are now available for direct download at Microsoft Technet website.  Developers can test this release, make their applications compatible with the update and send feedbacks based on their evaluation. The final version  of Windows 7 SP1 will be available for the public by the end of  June 2011.

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Windows 7 OS released last month had already crossed Snow Leopard and Ubuntu Linux in operating system usage. If you are still using Windows XP or Vista its recommended to update your Windows to Windows 7.  Now the question is what type of Windows should I choose ?.  Probably few of us know that there are 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Windows. These Windows classification are done on the basis of its support for processor configurations. The very common variant of Windows and processor that we use is 32 bit .
But the upcoming trend is the use of 64 bit processors and applications supporting this architecture. 64 bit processor can handle more amount of simultaneous data than 32 bit processor. They are capable to include more amount memory. So therefore we can expect improvements in multitasking,  performance, graphics, reliability and speed of the system. We discussed how to speed up Windows 7. So investing on  64 bit processor is another step to speed upWindows 7. You should check if your processor support 64 bit architecture before spending time on downloads.

If you are using AMD processors like Athlon then you can use 32-bit and 64-bit of Windows7. Intel has also released a series of processors with 64 bit architectures .
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Microsoft finally launched the most awaited software release of the year, Windows 7. Microsoft Windows 7 is the successor of Windows Vista, which was launched in 2007. Although Windows Vista had good appealing graphics and some new features, it received a lot of criticism and negative reviews from public. At that time people were using Windows XP and most of them had a low system configuration. So the huge system requirement of the Vista was something that prevented them from a quick upgrade to the new version. Furthermore, there were some un-tuned software issues in Vista that troubled many users. Microsoft had managed to patch all those issues in Windows 7, and the recent studies show that the upgrade worth for the investment.
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We have already shared steps for installing Widows XP and  Windows Vista on Mac OS X leopard using Boot camp . Now here we will deal with Windows 7 installation on  Mac OS X  . Windows 7 is a very promising OS from Microsoft with lot of features and applications .As Apple hardware now uses Intel processors ,  we can run Windows 7 on Apple systems and can make use of those wide variety  applications .Check out how you can install Windows 7 with  Mac OS X using Boot camp .

Requirements for  Windows 7 installation on MAC OS X Leopard .

Mac OS X Leopard DVD
Windows 7 DVD ( Use Windows 7 RC )
Mac with enough space ( at least 15GB)  for Windows 7 installation.

Windows 7 installation on Mac OS X .

1. On your Mac OS X leopard , navigate to applications  utilities and the Boot camp manger .

2. Click on continue.

3. Now we will partition hard disk space for Windows 7 .  In Boot camp manger interface , you will see a slider as shown below .

Maintain enough space for Mac OS X by setting Windows 7 partition in the range of 10-15-25 GB  . Windows OS installation will take 4.5 GB and rest of space can be used for 3rd party software installation .

4 .Click on to partition .
5.  Boot camp icon will appear on your OS X desktop , if partition was successful .
6. Insert your Windows 7 DVD and click on start installation.

The latest version of Boot camp was introduced for installing Windows Vista on Mac OS X Leopard . So you won’t be able to see Windows 7 in the list .

7. Now your Mac will reboot with Windows 7 and will display those available partitions .

8. Select Boot camp partition and click on format .

9 . Now Windows 7 starts installation .

10 .After installation it will reboot . Remove Windows 7 DVD exactly at this point .

11. Now you will be booted into Windows 7 installation and here you can select language ,time zone , display and many other properties .

12. Insert Mac OS X  DVD for installation of device drivers . Boot camp installer will launch and here select to install Apple software update for Windows .

13. Connect to internet ,download video card or other missing drivers and Windows 7 updates .

14.Finally restart after complete installation .

15. Press options key while on restart .You will see these multiple boot choices for OS X and Windows 7 .

Download latest version of Boot camp to Install Windows 7 with  Mac OS X leopard .

The default media player in Windows is not able to play all music and audio file types . You might have noticed this problem while playing DVD video files in freshly installed Windows XP system . Similarly we have DivX ,Xvid ,3GP (mobile video) ,AAC and more other popular formats which are not playable in Windows  . A codec pack is collection of plugins ,encoders and decoders that will assist the default media player to play these unknown media formats . Win7codec is similar specially built codec pack for Microsoft’s new OS Windows 7 .

Windows 7 uses Windows media player 12 . We have professional codec packs like K-Lite codec pack compatible with windows media player 12 . But they have unnecessary codecs that makes its very large to download. Win7codec contains only the most required codec files and it will play almost all possible media files with this package . Win7codec is released by the same team who have released Windows Vista codecs .

Download Win7codec  Windows 7 codec pack  here.

Installation of Win7codec will remove all your existing codec packages and install fresh codecs .

Microsoft Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems have so many internal software services that are designed to serve the connected hardware  peripherals, drivers and  applications. Among the three operating system versions, Windows XP  has the least number of services.  Some of these services are essential for Windows startup and for the working of its core components.  Some others are designed for specific user requirements. For example, the Print Spooler service polls and facilitates the operation of any external print hardware connected to a computer with Windows installed. Those who are not using a printer can turn off of this service to distribute system resources to other services. Third party Windows applications also create services for its own Windows components. Here in this article we will show you how can disable unwanted services in  Windows and speed up the overall performance of the OS.

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