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Music tracks only listed here. Screenshots taken from Media Player with Microsoft OneNote and pasted into Windows Live Writer and then published to a Drupal 6 website.

I have not had time to write a review of my use of Windows 7 yet. I have however got a whole bunch of links and news and other bits and pieces relating to Windows 7 to share with you.

Here's some news from the TechNet Newsletter last week

Driving a lot of that activity last week were new announcements and resources around Windows 7. Even before last week’s announcement of the Windows 7 lineup, I know that a lot of you were already testing the new OS. As you delve deeper into this process, check out the Ten Things IT Professionals Should Know About Windows 7, a quick guide to what is in store if you’re responsible for desktop administration. If you haven’t started the evaluation yet, or even if you have, the new Windows 7 Walkthroughs explore the new and updated features in Windows 7, from AppLocker to the Problem Steps Recorder, with short video screencasts.

A Month of Windows 7 Beta Tips in TechNet Magazine
Here's a great opportunity to explore some of the new features and enhancements in Windows 7 and learn some tricks and shortcuts along the way. A new tip is posted every business day through February. Here are a few of the tips you’ll find on the TechNet Magazine site:

New Hotkey Keyboard Shortcuts in Windows 7 beta 1
Burn a Disc Image from an ISO or IMG file in Windows 7
Pin Files, Folders, and Favorites to the Taskbar

For Microsoft Partners get Windows 7 downloads and more resources from the partner website

There has been a lot of negative press about Windows Vista, mostly undeserved, though some of the initial problems with Vista like file copy speed were a problem. However in general the Vista Operating System is a vast improvement of Windows XP in a number of key areas; Security and patching , system stability, application and driver support, plug and play and networking, user interface, and features.

One of the most common things I hear about Vista is that it doesn’t work as well or is not as good as Windows XP. In every case so far I have been able to educate the people saying this and show them just why it is better than XP in these key areas. In every case with a little hands on user training and demonstration of the killer features (like search and virtual folders), the security and system stability, wins these people over. Slowly I am converting all my clients and friends to Vista.

I can absolutely state that most of my support calls from clients originate with Windows XP machines. Almost without exception my Vista clients do not call for operating system or application issues. As a business supporting hardware installations, I much prefer selling Vista to XP, as I know there will be less issues. I now refuse to install XP on a clients machine and recommend a hardware upgrade to support Vista.

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When I wrote the how to use VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP article a few weeks ago I hinted at writing how to use the COLUMN, ROW, MATCH, INDEX and OFFSET functions to enhance the use of the VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP functions. Today we will look at the use of MATCH.

First of all here is a common scenario.

You create a table of say 4 columns, and then in another sheet you create a VLOOKUP function that returns results from the 4th column. EG =VLOOKUP(lookup_value,table_range,4,FALSE) where the 4 relates to the 4th column. This works great until one day you (or your colleagues) delete the 3rd column in the table, or insert another column in the middle of the table. Now your VLOOKUP fails as the 4th column either doesn’t exist, or is now actually the 5th column. In this case the VLOOKUP formula you created is just not flexible enough to handle the changes.

The following explanation builds on the dynamic range name process defined in my article written back in 2004. You will need to create a dynamic range name (in this example called table_header) that works on the header row of the table you are performing the VLOOKUP on.

In Excel 2007 Use the Name Manager from the Formula tab. In Excel 2003 and earlier use Edit Insert Name Define. In both versions CTRL F3 is the keyboard short cut.