If you have had to use Windows Vista for any length of time, you should have come across the ‘Snipping Tool’. The snipping tool is basically an extension to the print screen button. Allowing you to highlight the part of the screen you want to take a shot of.
Some of the features of the tool are:
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Free-form Snip. Draw an irregular line, such as a circle or a triangle, around an object. |
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Rectangular Snip. Draw a precise line by dragging the cursor around an object to form a rectangle. |
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Window Snip. Select a window, such as a browser window or dialog box, that you want to capture. |
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Full-screen Snip. Capture the entire screen when you select this type of snip. |
After you capture a snip, it’s automatically copied to the mark-up window, where you can annotate, save, or share the snip.
As a rule the snipping tool is only packaged with Vista, however you can have the Snipping Tool on your XP PC.
How?? I hear you cry…
Simple! Download the Snipping Tool Setup Zip file, once downloaded extract it and copy all of the DLL’s and the EXE to your system32 folder (normally c:windowssystem32). Once complete. double click on the Alky setup file ‘alky_1.1_trunk_032308-000051_xp’. Follow the prompts on screen, ensuring you enter a valid vista serial number.
Once the installation is complete, navigate to the windowssystem32 folder, right click on the snipping tool exe and select ‘Run vista executable’
This will now start the snipping tool and add it to your quick start menu on your start bar.
Handy if you are limited by spec to using XP!
Microsoft have recently opened up their ‘mobile cloud’ service to BETA testers. Microsoft My Phone is basically a sync service for the items on your phone. However, where this one differs is it stores items such as your contacts, calendar, tasks, text messages, photos, videos, music and documents all in one password protected online location.
The service syncs with Windows Mobile devices using a small sync client. The sync client works a little like ActiveSync in such a way that in can either be set up on a schedule or sync’s can be performed manually. Allowing you 200.00 MB’s worth of online storage space, all linked to your Windows Live account.
There are some downsides to the solution. Especially if you already sync with an exchange server. This unfortunatly prevents you from syncing your calendar, contacts, and tasks etc with the service. You can however continue to sync the other items on your phone.
I can see the service being used as a backup in case of lost or stolen phones, or simply as a way to easily access the documents stored on your phone in situations where you are unable to connect your phone to a PC. Like in a cyber cafe perhaps?
One of the benefits of this service over some of the others, is it’s ability to backup files stored on a storage card!
You can find more information about Microsoft My Phone over at it’s official website http://myphone.microsoft.com
Microsoft are offering a free domain name and free webhosting for small businesses. If I recall correctly this is the second time this has been avalable, as I remember applying for it the first time round. Early user comments say that you are limited with what you can do with the free account (which is to be expected) but it’s still a great deal if your thinking of starting your own business.
If you want more information check out the video which can be found by following this link: http://officeliveoffers.com/demos/smallbusiness/intro/default.htm?nav=0&subnav=0
Microsoft have recently released details of whats soon to be a new service for Windows Mobile devices. The new service is planned to provide the following services:
The service is called ‘My Phone’ and should be a limited access BETA soon :- http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/myphone/myphone.aspx
When I found out about the BETA release of Windows 7 I pointed my browser straight to the website to grab a copy as soon as I could..
Once downloaded I found my self with a DVD sized ISO and no blank DVD’s! DOH!!
Luckily, Windows 7 doesn’t seem to mind being install from a virtual CD drive kindly provided by Alchohol 120%.
After an unusually quick install of around 30 minutes, my laptop was booted up and was begging to be played with…
The laptop I used for this experiment is a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Pro V2000.. Which only has a 1.5 Ghz Centrino Mobile Processor in, and 1GB of ram. So I presummed from the start that this would be a very slow and painfull trial.
I am pleased to say, the performance of Windows 7 is outstanding.. Imediatly it appears to be much quicker then Windows Vista was straight off the shelf.
Small downside, none of my drivers appear to be installed.. Apart from the network card… So at least I am able to get online!
My system rating, as provided by Windows 7 is a measly 1.0. However this is lowered by the poor graphics card in the Fujitsu. My best score being 3.5 for the RAM. Even with such a small score, the overall performance is more the
Processor (1.5Ghz Centrino) – Calculations per second - Sub Score: 2.7
Memory (RAM) – Memory operations per second – Sub Score: 3.5
Graphics – Desktop performance for Windows Aero – Sub Score: 1.0
Gaming Graphics – 3D Business and gaming – Sub Score 1.0
Primary hard disk – Disk data transfer rate – Sub Score 2.9
I was intending on installing 7, trailing it and then removing it… However, I am steering more towards testing it right up until actual release..
This does however pose a question for me, as I was looking at getting a new laptop in the near future. But now I am thinking I should wait and get it with 7 on from day one!
One things for sure, this appears to be the best OS to date in my opinion…
As I have only just completed the install, I plan on posting a more detaild review once I have had a play around.. So watch this space, or subscribe to the RSS feed!
