As many of you know, we’ve spent the last seven days reviewing some of the additions and enhancements you can expect when upgrading to the new Windows 7 OS through our blog series “7 Days to Windows 7.”  We’ve received a tremendous response to this series and we wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your questions and comments.

While we made every effort to address the key additions and modifications we felt were essential to anyone looking to upgrade, there are most certainly some new and enhanced features you’ve found (or will find) as you explore the new Windows 7 environment. And, we want the rest of our audience to know too.

Now that Windows 7 is available, we’re asking you to submit your impressions, opinions and tips/tricks you’ve discovered while using the new OS by submitting comments right here at http://blog.netpass.com.  We will be accepting submissions through November 20th.  You may also submit directly via e-mail to w7comment@netpass.com.  We will review all submissions and some of you will be selected as featured contributors to a special “Windows 7: The First Thirty Days” post that we’ll publish on December 5, 2009.

The original series will continue to be available at our blog.  By popular demand, we will also be posting a printer-friendly downloadable version of the entire series on our website soon so visit the news section at www.netpass.com often for details.

We hope you enjoyed this series as much as we enjoyed bringing to you.  We look forward to your reviews and comments.

Welcome to the 7^th and final day of our exclusive “7 Days to Windows 7” blog series.  Today, the much anticipated new OS was released and is available for consumer purchase.  Over the past 6 days we’ve been talking mostly about what you can expect to discover in the new system.  Today, those of you upgrading will have a first-hand look at Windows 7 in action.  For some, this is an exciting time.  For others, there can be anxiety transitioning from one Windows version to another.  That’s why we wanted to use the last post of the series to feature answers to some of the questions we’ve received throughout the series from you, our readers to help make the transition a little easier.  So here goes…

If you’ve been following our “7 Days to Windows 7” blog series over the past 5 days, you’ve learned a little (or maybe a lot) about some of the enhancements and additions the Windows 7 brings to the table.  So far, we’ve spent time discussing changes in how the environment looks and interacts, improvements in program and driver compatibility, advancements in file conflict handling, security protocol enhancements, and detailing the more intuitive system recovery processes in the new OS.

Today we’ll open it up a bit and talk about seven of the lesser known tips and tricks designed to further enhance user experience that you may not normally notice in Windows 7, but will be happy you discovered once you begin using the new system.

If you have ever experienced a computer crash and attempted to restore your system in Windows XP or earlier using the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE), you already know it can be a real chore. Using earlier versions of WinRE requires software and a solid working knowledge of the command line (DOS prompt) typically designed for more tech savvy individuals. Most have no idea how to use these versions of the WinRE so attaining system recovery often results in expensive repair bills or, even worse, throwing the computer away.

Superuser: n. A special user account for system administration allowing root access to all aspects of the system.  Ever heard the term “superuser?”  Chances are good if you have not used or been exposed to a UNIX operating system environment, you have not.  Thing is, most Windows users up to version XP were/are typically configured out of the box as members of the ‘Administrators’ group meaning users are typically superuser’s which can expose user systems to major security vulnerabilities.

Almost any Windows user has, at least at some point in time, experienced a “file in use” error when trying to edit or remove a document that is currently opened in another application. This common gripe among Windows users over generations of the OS occurs even if the document is not in ‘exclusive mode.’ Can’t recall this? Let me refresh your memory. Ever tried to delete a document from the desktop while that document was opened in an instance of MS Word, the MS Office word processing application? You’ll get a “file in use” or “access denied” notification which really is an error that is telling you that the document cannot be removed because it’s opened somewhere, in some application.

One of the hallmarks of the Windows product line over the years has been its impressive history of backwards compatibility. Now above the din of those of you screaming after literally biting your tongues, let me expand that statement. Backwards compatibility is a great concept because, in theory, everything you ran in a previous environment should technically run as it did in the new environment on install. The problem is that the attempts in previous versions of the Windows operating system (OS), right up to Vista, to ‘graft’ new features and build in ‘work-arounds’ while preserving application functionality were always hit or miss… mostly miss.

It’s been said that first impressions are everything. While we as a firm believe it’s more important to judge the whole rather than the individual parts, on the topic of Windows 7, Microsoft’s much anticipated new operating system (OS) set for general release Thursday, October 22, 2009, we tend to agree. Oh sure, there’s plenty more than just a new face here (much of which we’ll touch on over the coming days as part of this series), but since the first thing you’ll see with Windows 7 is, well… what you’ll see, we begin our 7 day series discussing how the Windows 7 visual environment will vary from the current standards – Windows Vista & XP.

One week from this Thursday will be just another ordinary day, ordinary that is except for anyone planning on upgrading to Windows 7, Microsoft’s much anticipated new generation operating system (OS) scheduled for general release on October 22, 2009. Earlier this year, two members of our team were selected to review and evaluate beta and release candidate versions of this new software and while we believe their input was essential to the overall development process (at least we’d like to believe this), we feel the knowledge they gained is most valuable shared with you, our friends and clients.

Some of my favorite client moments have come at the very minute I see the smile on their face when they use their NetPass produced content management system for the first time.  This jubilation is the result of the client being unaware until that moment exactly how cost-effective it is to build and integrate content management into a web site that gives even the most novice of computer users the ability to easily and securely make changes to dynamic site content such as news & events, inventories, employment listings, and other frequently changing site components.