The plugin isn’t quite perfect, as it won’t notice slight variations on a domain. For instance, if you want to close docs.google.com and www.google.com at the same time TabCloser can’t help you.

But Windows 7 Build 7000 is already installed on my Windows Media Center in the lounge. I run an Apple Mac mini as a Media Center PC, booting into Windows via Bootcamp. It’s a machine small and silent enough to be in the lounge.

Until now I had been using dvbviewer to watch Freeview (DVB-T) with good results. The receiver is a Hauppagge HVR-900, and while the whole setup struggles a bit with very high definitions channels (such as TV3) it does well on the other HD channels.

My main objective on upgrading this setup to Windows 7 Build 7000 was to test the built-in H.264 support, that would allow us in New Zealand to have Freeview HD terrestrial programs directly on the Media Center experience, without having to use a third party program.

And did Windows 7 deliver! The upgrade over the existing Windows Vista installation was smooth and quick. The Apple Bootcamp drivers all worked ok, and even the drivers for the USB DVB-T receiver worked fine.

Tunning worked well – but there are still problems with the EPG (Electronic Programming Guide).

Another thing I feel it misses is the – long lasting – lack of support for ISO files. The Media Center won’t play a DVD backup in ISO format without third party software.

Other than these two points, it’s a very interesting release so far. The PC itself boots much faster than before, channel switching is smooth and the picture is almost perfect.

Here are some screenshots for your pleasure:

Source

Put simply, Styles are a formal combination of desktop background, Aero glass window color, sound scheme, and screen saver. Windows 7 comes with a number of built-in Styles, and users can create their own by building off of them. Styles can be saved, of course, and they’re also somewhat portable, meaning that they can be packaged up and copied from machine-to-machine. Microsoft expects users and third party partners to trade and perhaps even sell Styles online when Windows 7 is finalized.

Also, Microsoft is building on a feature that was previously unique to Windows XP/Vista Starter Edition by providing built-in Windows 7 Styles that are unique to different regions around the world. The Beta version of Windows 7, for example, includes Styles oriented towards Australia, Canada, Great Britain, the United States, and South Africa.

Secret: If you have the Windows 7 Beta, most of these Styles are not available by default. But you can find them all hidden in C:\Windows\Globalization\MCT.

Styles can optionally take advantage of another new Windows 7 feature, desktop slide shows. This feature allows you to specify multiple pictures for the background image and then have the system rotate between them on a set schedule.

Secret: In the Windows 7 Beta, Styles are called Themes. Microsoft says it will change the name to Styles in future builds.

Working with Styles

Styles are accessed via the new Personalization option on the context menu that appears when you right-click the Windows desktop. (You can also launch this control panel by typing Personalization in Start Menu Search.)

As you can see, a stock Windows 7 install includes whatever Styles you’ve created (or are currently using), several built-in Windows Styles, and several Ease of Access Styles, the latter of which includes Styles based around the Windows 7 Basic and Windows Classic themes and four high contrast Styles.

While the number of Styles and their actual contents will likely change before Windows 7 is finalized, the following Windows Styles are current available.

Windows 7. The default Windows 7 Style utilizes the default (clear) glass color, the Windows Default sound scheme, and the Windows Logo screensaver. This is a great Style from which to create your own Styles. The background image used during the Beta is, of course, a beta fish. But this will change by the final release to a new image that is unique to Windows 7.

Light Auras. This Style features a desktop slideshow of four alternating light aura images, a custom yellow glass color, the Windows Default sound scheme, and no screensaver. All of the images used by this theme were first introduced in Windows Vista.

Nature. This Style features a desktop slideshow of six alternating natural textures images, a custom bright pink glass color, the Windows Default sound scheme, and no screensaver. Most of the images used by this theme are new to Windows 7.

Creating a desktop slide show

As noted above, some of the built-in Styles utilize a desktop background slide show feature, which is also new to Windows 7. This works similarly to the static background image feature which has been available in Windows for years. But now, you can configure the desktop to switch between two or more pictures on a set schedule. Here’s how it works.

When you enter the Desktop Background control panel (either via the Styles control panel or separately), you will see an interface similar to that in Windows Vista. You can choose between different background types, such as Windows Desktop Backgrounds (the high-quality wallpaper provided by Microsoft), Pictures Library (pictures and other images you’ve stored in your My Pictures folder and other locations aggregated by the Pictures Library), Top Rated Photos (based on a meta data ranking system most users probably haven’t used), Solid Colors, and, perhaps, other locations if you’ve ever manually browsed to a different location using this UI. For all of these locations (except, oddly, Solid Colors), a new feature has been added in Windows 7: You can multi-select images.

Multi-select works here as it does elsewhere in Windows: You can CTRL-click each item you wish to include. Or, you can single click on the new checkbox that appears in the upper-right corner of each picture thumbnail, as shown here:

When you do select two or more items, some new options become available at the bottom of the Desktop Background window. You can determine how often the images change (30 minutes is the default), whether to shuffle them so that they display in a random order, and whether to disable the slide show when on battery power in order to save power.

Secret: If you remember the old Plus! packs for Windows 95 and 98, you may recall they included a Desktop Themes feature that was an early predecessor of the Styles and desktop slide show features now found in Windows 7. The Plus! Desktop Themes feature used Task Scheduler to rotate the theme, custom desktop icons, window color schemes, cursors, and screensavers, and more.

Final thoughts

When used in tandem, Styles and desktop slide shows can create a truly customized desktop. One unfortunate omission: While the glass window color customization feature is nice, the dull blue Windows 7 toolbar never changes to match. Maybe Microsoft will enable that in Windows 8. Until then, however, Windows 7 is the most customizable Windows version yet. Styles and desktop slide shows play a big part in making that happen.

Apart from the obvious update to the UI, several under-the-hood performance tweaks have been implemented. The scanner now uses less than 20% CPU and can process almost 40MB/s. Memory consumption has been reduced more than 70% over the 2008 edition. Rootkit removal has also been added, and integration with Windows Security Center has been improved.

All three licenses are available for the Anniversary edition (free, plus, and pro). As always, AdAware is for Windows systems only.

If you need help finding the actual free download link as opposed to the TrialPay one, clicking here will send you to the correct download.com page. It’s also mirrored on FreewareFiles.

Many users are reporting crashes during install operations, including Windows Update. Rafael Rivera of Within Windows has found the issue arises from a problem with the Software Quality Management Client. How ironic.

The problem only seems to occur when machine throttling is enabled in the registry and when the Customer Experience Improvement Program is running.

If you’ve experienced this problem, Microsoft has a workaround. Open regedit, navigate to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SQMClient\Windows\DisabledSessions and delete anything other than the default value.

If you don’t see the MachineThrottling value, run gpedit.msc and click Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Internet Communication Management > Internet Communication Settings and double click Turn off Windows Customer Experience Improvement Program. Tick enable and click on OK.

Don’t forget to submit your bugs via the Send Feedback tool. If you’re excited about the Windows 7 beta you’ve been using, you may as well take a few seconds now and then to help improve it!

Come to think of it, it has been a while since the last PlayStation 3 firmware update. Remember back in 2007, when the updates came on a monthly basis for a while? Well, anyway, another one is coming soon.

As announced over at the official PlayStation blog (check out the unveiling video), firmware update v2.60 isn’t far off, and it’s designed to “enhance the system’s media capabilities.” First up is a new Photo Gallery application, which is a definite upgrade: we’ll get a new suite of tools for sorting through our photo collections; the pictures we have can be separated out into special groups according to criteria. So if you want to organize your collection by date or even something more specific like “number, ages or facial expressions,” you can do so. Once you’re done doing that, you can set up a cool slideshow – set to music! – and create photo playlists. This application will have to be installed separately from the XMB after the firmware update has been downloaded, though, so don’t forget that little detail. In addition, v2.60 features:

• Guest access to PlayStation Store This enables non-PlayStation Network members to browse through the storefront to check out the latest games, demos, videos, etc.
• DivX 3.11 support Videos in this format can now be played on PS3.

When Sony said they intended to make the PS3 a fully functional and capable multimedia machine, they weren’t exaggerating. And just think, there are many more years of updates to come…

You might’ve skipped the Vista train, thinking it was like Under Siege 2, minus Steve Seagal. Or not. Either way, you’re probably gonna jump onboard Windows 7. When you do, it’s time to go 64-bit.

Why Should I?
We explained what’s so awesome about 64-bit in detail a couple months ago, but to recap in a single word: Memory. With 32-bit Windows, you’re stuck at 4GB of RAM, and even then, you’re only using about 3.3GB of it, give or take. With 64-bit, 4GB of RAM is the new minimum standard, and with 4GB, you can run tons of applications with zero slowdown. Windows 7 (and Vista for that matter) runs so beautifully with 4GB of RAM you’ll wonder how you ever did with less. It makes your system more futureproof too, so you can take your system to 8GB, 32GB or even a terabyte, before too long.

Who Shouldn’t Go 64-Bit?
If you’re not planning on going to 4GB of RAM anytime soon, you might wanna hold back, since you need 4GB of RAM to take full advantage of 64-bit’s memory management. That said, RAM is so disgustingly cheap right now, and has such an intense bang-to-buck ratio, you should definitely upgrade to 4GB if you haven’t already. Anyone who runs specialized or older gear (see below) should probably not jump into 64-bit.

64-bit Sniggles
It’s true that 64-bit Windows used to be dicey on the driver and compatibility front, but from Vista onward, it’s typically nothing you have to worry about. Most new hardware has 64-bit drivers, and even though most applications aren’t 64-bit native yet, 32-bit ones usually run just fine.

Still, the biggest issue is hardware. If a gadget doesn’t have 64-bit drivers, it won’t work with your 64-bit OS, since 32-bit drivers aren’t supported. Most non-crusty gadgets should be okay. (Seriously, I’ve run 64-bit Vista for a year, and now Windows 7, and everything I’ve tested for Giz plugs in just fine.) But if you run legacy goods, it might be kinda sticky, and you should still double check your gear just to be safe.

There are a few software issues to look out for, too. Google’s Chrome, for instance, doesn’t play nice with Windows 7 64-bit for some people (like me). Adobe Flash doesn’t run in 64-bit browsers, but that’s not really a problem—you can just run the regular 32-bit browser instead. iTunes had problems with 64-bit versions of Windows in the past, too (granted, Apple’s not the most fastidious Windows app developer out there). Most of these issues have been or will be resolved, but if you use specialized mission-critical software, definitely read up on its 64-bit compatibility.

Really, Go 64-Bit
The caveat section looks longer than the “DO IT” section, but really, you’ll probably be just fine running 64-bit. A ton of other people will be 64-bit with this generation of OSes/hardware too, so you won’t be alone. The benefits of oodles of RAM, given all the crap you’re running simultaneously, are just too good to pass up, especially once more apps are 64-bit native. Besides, the more people that jump on the 64-bit Express, the faster developers will transition their apps to 64-bit, and any bumps in the road will be smoothed out. So don’t just do it for yourself, do it for everyone.