Windows 7 Themes

As I reported yesterday, Mozilla released the latest Firefox 3.5. Which is even faster now. Read more about it here.

But what is Google and Microsoft doing?

There was quite a hype about Google’s Browser Chrome when it had been released, but right now it’s pretty quiet. Of course there are still plenty of people who are still using it, but it surely wasn’t Google biggest success. How could it? On Windows 7, Chrome doesn’t even run properly, there aren’t many plugins (any good at all?) and many people are becoming more careful about trusting Google with everything they do online.

Google Chrome Fix to make it run on Windows 7

Before I could run Google Chrome on Windows 7 I had to fix it. First I tried to update it, but it wouldn’t even connect to the update server:

Updating Google Chrome on Windows 7

After that, I was looking for a fix. Some sites suggested to add “–in-process-plugins” to the .exe

Fix Google Chrome on Windows 7

It worked, but my connection was still pretty slow ..so I went straight for the developer edition, which you can grab here.

After closing Chrome, I tried to install it but it seems Google’s browser won’t stop their updating services properly:

Google Update Processes

In the end the dev edition was working a little bit better, but not much.

Personally, I just don’t see a reason to use Google Chrome!

I don’t want to bash Google, but it’s funny on a “Google Chrome Plugin Forum” one of the hot topics is “Top Firefox plugins that we need in Google Chrome“. Isn’t that a bit pathetic? Imitating firefox just to dominate another market niche? Well, firefox wasn’t built in one day, so if they would come up with something new and fix the major bugs I will use Google Chrome again.

According to Engadget Windows 7 pre-order copies have been sold out in Japan. 30,000 copies were claimed from 17 vendors after just one and a half day.

30,000 Windows 7 Pre-Order copies sold out in Japan

In Japan you would pay 7,777 Yen ($81.1499) for Home Premium and 14,777 ($154.1921) Yen for the Professional edition.

In Canada people pay $64,99 for Home Premium and $124,99 for the Professional edition.

You can still claim your Windows 7 pre-order copy until July 11th, but some sources say that it will be sold out soon (in the US).

It would be interesting to know the amount of discounted copies Microsoft is giving out to US vendors, do you reckon it is more than 300,000?

Windows 7  is kicking the Amazon sales charts:

As of right now, Windows 7 Home Premium is dominating the “Software” sales charts, followed by Windows 7 Professional. Unsurprisingly, there is no sign of Windows 7 Ultimate, although you can also pre-order it on Amazon as well. Amazon set up a resource site with more information here.

People Interested in Windows 7 Ultimate buy (6/30/09)

	47% buy Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Upgrade $99.99
	37% buy Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade $49.99

Ok, that’s pretty interesting. Apparently, people who are interested in the Ultimate upgrade edition are buying the Pro edition more frequently, but Windows 7 Home Premium is only 10% behind.

Buy Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade on Amazon

Windows  7 Ultimate (Pre-Order)

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Mostly overclockers are worried about their CPU temperature. However, on hot summer days it can happen that your CPU temperature is reaching it’s limit even if you don’t overclock at all. Overclockers usually use big 125×125 fans, a small wind tunnel or a water cooling system to lower the temperature of their CPU. I suppose, you don’t have all that stuff, that’s why it would be wise to install a CPU temperature monitoring tool.

Here are two of the best CPU temperature monitoring solutions for Windows 7.

1. RealTemp (Intel only)

Realtemp

Download Realtemp

2. Coretemp (supports AMD + Intel)

Coretemp

Download Coretemp

Alternatively, you can always look up your CPU temperature in your BIOS.

Just a couple days left before Windows 7 beta builds will expire.

Many people still use a beta build and need more time to update to RC.

Windows 7 PlusPatch (1.0.2 currently) is a little tool that you can use to disable the expiration completely. It works on all Windows 7 builds.

This is only a temporary solution and you should upgrade to RC as soon as possible!

Windows 7 Pluspatch 1.0.2

Download PlusPatch

Windows 7 is available for preorder in Microsoft’s own store, but you can also pre-order Windows 7 through Amazon. Here are the links:

Amazon: Windows 7 Home Premium
Amazon: Windows 7 Professional

Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade):

Windows 7 Home Premium on Amazon

Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade):

Windows 7 Professional on Amazon

Amazon is known for fast and reliable shipping, but I assume that Microsoft has also done everything in order to make their own shop run smoothly. Therefore you could also give Microsoft’s own store a try and see if they offer some of their products for cheaper!

I will add a list of products and a price comparison table to this post as soon as I have some time for it.

Microsoft recently announced how much Windows 7 is going to cost.

Windows 7 Final Prices:

Windows 7 Home Premium: $120 for upgrade; $200 for full version
Windows 7 Professional: $200 for upgrade; $300 for full version
Windows 7 Ultimate: $220 for upgrade; $320 for full version

Preorder Windows 7

If you decide quickly, then you can save between $70 and $100, because Microsoft is going to offer a discounted price for preorders. According to Microsoft, preorders are limited.

Preorder Prices (Upgrade from Vista to Win7):

Windows 7 Home Premium (Upgrade only): $50

Windows 7 Professional (Upgrade only): $100

Windows 7 Ultimate (Upgrade only): $200

Reasons To Preorder Windows 7:

Well, if you own Vista and you are sure that you want to buy Windows 7, then this a great chance. If you plan to get Windows 7 Ultimate, then you could buy Windows 7 Home (Upgrade), pay for an upgrade to Ultimate (once it’s available) and save some money.

Actually, it’s a bit disappointing to see that they don’t offer a discounted price for Windows 7 Ultimate, because that’s the edition most advanced users are interested in.

Microsoft Store

You can preorder Windows 7 through Microsoft’s own online store: *Note it’s not available yet, they will add it tonight*

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So, one of the most asked questions I hear is: How do I speed up Windows 7?

Most guides will tell you to turn off all the aero features and use no background wallpaper. That’s not useful, that’s more like a trade-off, because who wouldn’t want a nice desktop? And AeroSnap is really useful! I agree that you can get some more performance by doing this, but it’s not worth it. If you think you don’t need a “fancy” desktop, then feel free to do it anyway:

1. Hit Start

2. Enter “SystemPropertiesPerformance” into the search field, hit enter

3. Select “Adjust for best Performance” or at least uncheck the first two entries

How would *you* speed up Windows 7 then?

First, let’s think about it .. what is really consuming a lot of CPU and memory? Right! All the services that are running in the background all the time.

Turn of services and boost your Windows 7 gaming performance!

To turn off all those unnecessary services we use a tool called “GameBooster”, it’s obviously only one of the ways to do it, but it’s a lot faster than doing it manually. You can temporarily stop all services (that are not required) while you play. Best of all, you can even edit the services list with just a couple clicks and add more services to get even more performance.

Boost Windows 7 Gaming Performance with GameBooster

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Windows 7 RTM Build 7260 Leaked By WZOR

Windows 7 RTM Build 7260 has been leaked by WZOR. The .iso and a VHD is available on the various torrent sites. As usual, you can find a link on our forums.

Compiled on June 12th by WZOR, who has also leaked Office14 (the new office) and Microsoft’s new security tool (codename Morro).

Hash Codes Build 7260 RTM

MICROSOFT.WINDOWS.7.BUILD.7260.WIN7_RTM.X86.VHD.ENGLISH-WZT – NEW

FILE: 7260.0.x86fre.win7_rtm.090612-2110.client_en-us.ultimate.vhd

MD5: 0703C259676D7E4C58E0EF2184369663

Microsoft Security Essentials - Codename Morro

This is Microsoft’s new security tool that will replace Microsoft Defender.

Microsoft Security Essentials

According to Wzor, the final RTM build will be compiled after June 19th.

Speaking of Stardock, I checked if there are any Windows 7 Themes for WindowBlinds available. I know many of you are still running Windows XP, but own a copy of Stardock’s WindowBlinds, so this might be a great theme for you:

Windows 7 Theme for WindowBlinds

sagorpirbd from deviantart created this RC2 theme for WindowBlinds, download it here.

You want some Windows 7 Icons to complete your theme?

Windows 7 Icons for XP,Vista

Freak180 of DA extracted the Windows 7 icons, you can get them here.

As previously reported, Windows 7 will have a feature called WARP 10 (Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform) that will allow you to boot your PC without a graphic card.

Developer Stardock (Galactic Civilizations II, WindowBlinds 6) is obviously very pleased with Windows 7.
Stardock only managed to sell so many “games” because they’re all running on almost every PC. WARP10 means that Stardock can make games that look a lot better without having to worry that it won’t run on every PC.  That’s why CEO Brad Wardell urged everyone to install Windows 7. Obviously, they will also sell a lot more games if their games look better. As of right now, they can’t require DirectX9/10 support, because many people still run XP.

Stardock has recently (4/14/2009) released their game “Demigod”. It’s a tactical strategy game that includes rpg elements:

Demigod, one of the games developed by Stardock

You can download DemiGod and all other products of Stardock through their own digital publishing platform, which you can download for free here:

Stardock's digital publishing platform ImpulseDriven

Stardock’s CEO hasn’t made any statement regarding WindowsBlinds yet. Windows 7 has a completely new GUI, so Windows Blinds does not support Windows 7.