Spy Journal 3.0 Filtering the web for you

Got lots of things to share today.

Starting off with Windows 7:

• Engineering Windows 7 have listed a bunch of changes made to Windows 7 since the Beta was released.
• They have also written a very interesting article about how they built the Windows 7 Boot Animation.
• The Windows Team Blog has a list of the new Windows Media Centres features in Windows 7.

Crossing to Windows Home Server we have these posts:

• Susan the SBS Diva blogs about Backing up the desktops in a small network.
• Windows Home Server Team link to an article about synching two Windows Home Servers using SyncToy. I use Synch Toy a lot to keep numerous folder pairs synchronised. Combined with Livemesh this makes keeping the data between my server and my clients servers synched a cinch!

Now over to Microsoft Office:

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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More interesting things I have found since yesterday.

Australian residents can go in the draw for a Windows 7 T-shirt courtesy of Long Zheng.

And if you are running Windows 7 some important news about the UAC. – especially take note of the the last paragraph which says:

Update: I’d also like to reiterate, until the RC build of Windows 7 is available, everyone using the Windows 7 Beta should change their UAC setting to “max” to ensure they are safe from either UAC vulnerabilities.