It was last Monday when I first encountered this problem:
After entering my Windows 7 user account password, I am stuck with a blue swirl and the Welcome screen on my laptop. I waited for a while, and when it seems that nothing is happening to my computer, I forcibly removed the battery from my laptop and rebooted. Then, it was back to normal.
Launched in Oct 2009, Microsoft Windows 7 revived the interest of many to the Windows-based PC. I consider Windows 7 as the successor of Windows XP (not Windows Vista), and after more than year since launch, Microsoft is releasing its Service Pack 1 (SP1).
What’s included in the Service Pack 1 of Windows 7?
Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) is an important update that includes previously released security, performance, and stability updates for Windows 7. SP1 also includes new improvements to features and services in Windows 7, such as improved reliability when connecting to HDMI audio devices, printing using the XPS Viewer, and restoring previous folders in Windows Explorer after restarting.
Download the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) now via the Microsoft.com Downloads section or simply launch Windows Update from your PC. Alongside the SP1 launch, Microsoft is also releasing the Release Candidate (RC) for Internet Explorer 9. Based on my initial impression of IE9 — well, it’s just faster than the previous version (IE9 Beta).
When I started teaching in 2004, most of the machines (read as PC units) we used in school run on Windows XP already. It was during this time that the Network Administrator of the school decided to keep the FTP port closed in all of the multimedia labs (good thing he was replaced already; such a pain in the a#*). Imagine how tormenting it was to upload an entire website using cPanel’s File Manager.
So, I decided to teach my students then a work-around that will somewhat enable them to FTP using a Windows XP-based machine: Network Places.
When Windows Vista, and later Windows 7, were introduced, Network Places was scrapped out. Then, I came across this nifty utility called Gladinet Cloud Desktop.
Gladinet Cloud Desktop allows you to map a cloud storage (that includes Google Docs & Windows Live SkyDrive) or any FTP location as a virtual network drive. Using Gladinet Cloud Desktop doesn’t require for a separate FTP client software to be installed in your machine, since you can tap the features of Windows Explorer to cut, copy, and paste files and folders from your PC to a remote location/server storage.
So, I found a spare 512MB SD card in one of my bag’s side pockets this morning and thought of using it to try ReadyBoost in my Windows 7 lappy. So what is ReadyBoost? Wikipedia defines it as:
ReadyBoost is a component of Microsoft Windows, first introduced with Windows Vista in 2006 and also included with Windows 7. It works by using flash memory, USB 2.0 drive, SD card, CompactFlash or any kind of portable flash mass storage system as a drive for disk cache.
ReadyBoost is also used to facilitate SuperFetch, an updated version of Windows XP’s prefetcher which performs analysis of boot-time disk usage patterns and creates a cache which is used in subsequent system boots.
So, I reformatted the PQI SD card and activated ReadyBoost:
Then, I did a simply test to check if ReadyBoost really works or not. With ReadyBoost activated, I fired up Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended and it just took me 40.1 seconds to see it’s GUI.
Now, I ejected the PQI SD card (ReadyBoost), made a reboot, then fired Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended again, and it took me some 77.0 seconds just to see the GUI. That’s around 30 seconds difference, and indeed it’s a big thing. Indeed, ReadyBoost works!
If you’re wondering the specs of my Windows 7 laptop, it’s an eMachines by Acer D725 running Intel Pentium Dual-core T4200 with 2GB of RAM. Now, I am thinking of getting a 2GB SD Card to be dedicated for ReadyBoost on my lappy.
The 22nd of October 2009 marked yet another milestone in Microsoft’s history: launching Windows 7 to the world. While we here in Manila, Philippines still wait for the official launch of Windows 7 on the 7th of November 2009, I was one of the early adopters of the new OS (though I still have to install the retail version to my laptop soon). To summarize things, I am happy with Windows 7!
I hate Windows Vista, actually when I got my HP Mini 2133, a month later I changed my OS to Windows XP dual-booted with Windows 7 Beta (which was later on upgraded to RC). It made my HP Mini 2133 more useful (and faster).
With Windows 7, I got all the guts to be brave and bold enough that I installed the Release Candidate on my newly acquired eMachines laptop.