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WEEKLY SIG MEETING UPDATE 1 - 7 NOVEMBER 2009 | |||||||
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1st
Floor
Sydney PCUG's Blog
 John Mathews
Main Meeting Prizes  2 x Windows 7
Ultimate,
3 x Windows 7 Bags & 2 x Windows 7 T-shirts. SOFTWARE UPDATE    |
Hello and Welcome,
The Windows
7
presentation was a huge success, with some 50 members taking part. Clare Wagemans
appraisal of the presentation is below, many thanks Clare for your input.
Please note that the Penrith SIG meeting has returned to daylight saving time and will resume meeting at 3 pm - 6 pm. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At the Main Meeting a laid-back Nick Hodge from
Microsoft (their “Professional Geek”) settled in for a lengthy information
session on the newly released Windows 7. His presentation included
the features available in the premium version, Windows 7 Ultimate.
The first demonstration was of the ease with which Windows 7 will bring up
the Presentation screen (Windows + P), allowing the user to interface with
the overhead projector. Then Nick showed us the invaluable tool for
Seniors – the screen magnifier!! He showed us how open windows
reveal their contents when the mouse hovers over them. He showed how
wiggling the mouse minimises all but the current open screen, and then how
simple it was to arrange two open windows by selecting the screen, moving
it to one side of the screen whereup it resizes to fill half the
screen. The second screen is moved to the other side and there are
two perfectly tiled screens in perfect view. Grabbing one screen and
moving it to the top of the screen maximises it again. Feature after
feature was demonstrated, the calculator, pinning programmes to the task
bar, Windows XP virtual mode (to allow you to keep using older
applications) & using Windows Media Center to record from a TV card.
Nick spoke about installation of Windows 7, how one
can upgrade from Vista but it needs a clean install from XP. However
with a clean install if the Laplink software is used existing applications
can be preserved, even if you no longer have the installation disks.
He stated that there were a lot of the ‘usual’ applications that did not
ship with Windows 7 – no equivalent to Outlook Express, no antivirus, no
Windows Messenger. However all is not lost as Windows
Essentials is a free download which has all this plus
movie making, photo gallery, family safety (highly recommended by Nick as
it is packed with great features).
After
whetting our appetites for this sumptuous offering for Microsoft, Nick did
urge us, before buying, to check that our current hardware will run
Windows 7. The minimum specifications are 1 GHz, 1 G Ram, and 16 GB
hard drive. In order to take advantage of its graphics you will also
need a graphics card with a minimum 128 mB. He directed us to
the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor which
will allow potential users to check compatibility with both their software
and hardware.
Even if you do not wish to upgrade to Windows 7 at
this stage, you might like to follow up on Nick’s tip to check out Windows Security
Essentials
.
Many internet security programmes use a lot of CPU resources, but, like
AVG, not this programme. It is a free download, and is compatible
with Windows XP.
Nick’s most physically onerous task for the evening was drawing the
raffle tickets. There were two copies of Windows 7 Ultimate, 3 bags
containing Windows 7 T-shirts, Cap and sticker bling and two Windows 7
T-shirts. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"October Winners"
Saturday 7 November - Penrith
- Frank Bowman - 3 pm - 6 pm
St Clair High School, Endeavour Avenue, St Clair
The afternoon will start with our usual Q and A
session around the table, where we share problems, advice and tips, we
will see if we can install Linux (Ubuntu) on to a blank hard disk in a laptop,
and then add a printer. While Linux is loading, we'll spend some time
in creating a Powerpoint presentation. If time is available, we'll look at
some lesser used search engines.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Tip of the Week
So until next week, health and happiness, Elaine | ||||||
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