INFOMANIA.CO.UK » windows

Windows 7 Europe – no IE, no upgrades

admin — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 21:23:50 +0000

Windows 7 in Europe is going to ship without Internet Explorer. The move by Microsoft is in response to its recurrent problems with the EU. Manufacturers of new PCs will be able to choose a browser to install on the machine (most likely IE of course). Consumers purchasing Windows 7 will have to have broswer software ready on disk before they install the new OS.

US websites have reported the efficiency of the Windows 7 upgrade process but it looks as if we Europeans aren’t going to find out for ourselves how smooth the process is. It seems that Microsoft have taken EU demands to stop shipping a browser with the OS so literally that they will not allow an upgrade from a version with an integrated browser.

Consumers buying an ‘upgrade’ version of the OS will have to wipe their hard drives and install the new operating system afresh. Then they will have to install all of their applications again. Then reinstall all their data. Assuming they remembered to make a backup in the first place of course.

Windows 7 pricing – £49 on pre-order

admin — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:43:28 +0000

The pricing of Windows 7, which launches on Oct 22, has been announced and shockingly it’s quite reasonable if pre-ordered.

From July 15 to 9 Aug you will be able to pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium E for £49 or Windows 7 Professional E for £99. The offer is being handled by ‘participating retailers’ and Microsoft will be putting a list of retailers on the Windows 7 website at windows.microsoft.com/install-windows-E.

See our story here about the way Windows 7 upgrades will work and about the differences between the US and European versions of Windows 7.

Fixing the Windows ‘low or out of virtual memory’ errors

admin — Mon, 25 May 2009 12:25:47 +0000

Windows uses hard disk storage when the memory needed by the runnning programs is bigger than the amount of RAM memory your PC has. This ‘virtual’ memory is called a page file and is located in C:/pagefile.sys.

Sometimes the error arises because one or more of the applications has a ‘memory leak’ bug. When this happens the program keeps reserving RAM but not releasing it when it is finished with it. Some version of Internet Explorer appear to have this problem and it is worth upgrading to the latest version.

You appear to need to keep at least 1.5 times your RAM size free on the disk to avoid problems. If you have 2Gb of RAM for example you would need at least 3Gb of free disk space. To further complicate matters, Windows seems on occasion to spuriously tell itself not to allocate any hard disk space to a page file.

Here is how to reset you page file setting and fix the problem:

Make sure you have enough free disk space, as above
Right click on My Computer and select ‘Properties’ (My computer may be found on your desktop or in Windows Explorer. To open windows Explorer press the Windows key and ‘E’ at the same time)
Click on the ‘Advanced’ tab
Click on the Performance ‘Settings’ button
Click on the ‘Advanced’ tab
Click on the Virtual memory ‘Change’ button
If you have more than one hard drive make sure the C: drive is highlighted.
The best option is to let Windows manage the amount of virtual memory, so click the System managed size’ option and click on the ‘Set’ button
Finally click on the ‘OK’ button