Windows 7 is a great operating system! Add to that the free Microsoft software that is called “Windows Live” and you have an amazing range of tools at your finger tips.

BUT there are also many FREE 3rd party applications that can be used on Windows 7.

Here are 3 of my favourite:

#1 – The GIMP - www.gimp.org

GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.

It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.

GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.

#2 – CamStudio – http://camstudio.org

CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs).

CamStudio can also add high-quality, anti-aliased (no jagged edges) screen captions to your recordings in seconds and with the unique Video Annotation feature you can even personalise your videos by including a webcam movie of yourself “picture-in-picture” over your desktop.

Great for creating training videos!

#3 – FeedReader – www.feedreader.com

Feedreader is the most robust, highly-functional personal aggregation solution on the market today. It dynamically reads, collects, and organizes syndicated Web content, and seamlessly delivers it directly to user desktops. With Feedreader, you have instant, convenient access to the up-to-the-minute news you need, without information overload.

Feedreader automatically downloads updates from your favorite Web sites. So, it eliminates the need for you to constantly monitor multiple Web pages, while allowing you to immediately identify and retrieve new articles – no matter how long you’ve been away from your desk.

Happy downloading

Kind Regards

Marc Liron – Microsoft MVP

Windows 7 has become my default operating system for both work and home – I still use XP SP3 and Vista SP2 for my business.

Below are my favourite 5 Windows 7 features:

#1 – ISO Burner in Windows 7

The ability to burn ISO images natively within Windows is new to Windows 7. This has proved to be a great feature for me as I often download ISO files from MSDN/Technet, and having the ability to create a disc directly in Windows 7 is fantastic.

More information at: www.win7articles.com/burn-iso-images-in-windows-7.html

#2 – Windows 7 DVD Maker

Windows 7 DVD Maker enables you to create professional-looking video DVDs of your home movies and photos that can be viewed on your DVD players, regardless of geographical region codes.

(Windows 7 Home Premium and above editions)

More information at: www.win7articles.com/windows-7-dvd-maker.html

#3 – Windows 7 Action Center

The Windows 7 Action Center consolidates message traffic from key Windows maintenance and security features, including Windows Defender and User Account Control. If Windows requires your attention, the Action Center icon appears in the taskbar.

This means NO MORE annoying balloons appearing in the bottom right hand side of the screen!

More information at: www.win7articles.com/windows-7-action-center.html

#4 – Windows 7 Resource Monitor

The resource monitor in Windows 7 is one of a few handy tools for monitoring your systems performance. In the case of this tool it does this in real time.

It can both collect and display real time information about the: CPU, Disk, Network and Memory.

It now provides a greater level of information and monitoring, in addition to the change in layout – for instance the graphs are now on the right hand side of the window.

More information at: www.win7articles.com/windows-7-resource-monitor.html

#5 – Windows 7 Performance

Not so much of a “feature” you can physically see on your PC, BUT the fact that Windows 7 has been optimised to start and run to much faster than Windows Vista/XP, Windows 7 is just so much more responsive!

You might find this article and interesting read: Upgrading a 5 Year Old Laptop to Windows 7

Well there mine, have you got a favourite?

…let me know below!

Regards

Marc Liron – Microsoft MVP

I purchased this Dell Latitude D800 laptop in June 2004. At the time it was running Windows XP professional. In 2007, on the release of Windows Vista, I tried to upgrade this D800 laptop via a clean install of the then new OS.

However Windows Vista was having none of it and I encountered many driver issues and it running slower than I ever thought possible! So I had to abandon the process, and the laptop lay unused on a shelf in my home office.

BUT with the release of Windows 7 I decided to see if this would install, after all Microsoft claim that the “footprint” for Windows 7 is far smaller than that of Windows Vista.

Well I inserted the Windows Enterprise (Windows Ultimate but with different licensing for companies) DVD that I had created from a download via MSDN and was instantly suprised at just how painless it was to install!

The only post install work I had to do was to go to the Dell Support website and download the Audio drivers (Windows Vista) for the laptop and they worked OK.

I then noticed that I was limited to only a few screen resolutions as Windows 7 had only installed a default graphics driver. This would have been ok if it was not for the fact that this laptop comes with a 15″ XGVA WideScreen.

So I visited the Dell Support website again and located drivers for the NVIDIA GeForce4 4200 graphics card installed on the Lapatop. However, they were only for Windows XP. So I thought I would give it a go and they worked!

I know have a functional 5 year old laptop running Windows 7!

The only niggle with the laptop is that the graphics card is not up to running AERO in windows 7. But that is not Windows 7 fault!

Also, I need the laptop for work and not for games etc. It has Microsoft Office 2007 installed, runs IE8 just fine and has full internet connectivity via both ethernet and built-in wireless.

I now have the laptop working for me in my business at home:

So if you have an old laptop lying around it might be worth seeing if you can install Windows 7 on it…

When Microsoft say that Windows 7 does not need high spec hardware to run Windows 7 – they are correct!

Kind Regards

Marc Liron - Microsoft MVP

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