Washington - Windows 7 is out, and that means a massive search for "Windows 7 compatible" software is on. While Microsoft's new operating has received widespread praise for its efforts to remain compatible with the majority of existing applications, incompatibilities do exist, especially in the areas of system security and system maintenance. Will the tools you have relied upon for years for your Windows XP or Vista systems have trouble under Windows 7? Read on for some answers. Q: I understand that the antivirus software I currently use on Windows XP may not be compatible with Windows 7. Can you recommend some antivirus software that works with Windows 7?
A: During Windows 7's lengthy pre-release phase, only a handful of antivirus applications were compatible with the operating system. That has changed, though, with the final release of the operating system. Currently, most of the major antivirus makers have either updated their existing products or released new versions of their security software to address Windows 7 compatibility. Depending upon the security software you currently use, you may have to pay an upgrade fee to get the version that's been certified to work properly with Windows 7.
If you don't like the idea of paying for antivirus software, however, or if you are running Windows 7 without antivirus software, you should probably give Microsoft's own Security Essentials (http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials) package a try. It's free to registered users of Windows 7 - and earlier versions of Windows - and it generally gets high marks in the areas that matter most to computer users. Its detection rate is good, its footprint is small, and it doesn't annoy you with false alerts as much as many other packages do. In short, it's probably all that most people will need.
Q: I have used Partition Magic for years with Windows XP. Is this compatible with Windows 7?
A: No. Partition Magic, for those who don't know, is a program that allows you to create and resize partitions on a hard drive. It's a very handy tool if, for example, you want to create a separate partition to hold all of your data files so that they are not mixed up with operating system and application files.
The good news, though, is that there's a free program that's just as easy to use as Partition Magic, and it's free for home use. Partition Wizard (http://www.partitionwizard.com) supports both the 32-bit and the 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and makes resizing partitions as Partition Magic did. To complete most resizing operations, you'll need to allow the program to reboot your computer, but other than that, it's pretty much hassle-free.
Q: I'm going to install Windows 7 but plan to upgrade later to an solid state disk. Is there a clone utility that I can use to move all of my file to the new drive without having to reinstall everything?
A: Yes, there are several free cloning utilities on the market, including Paragon's Drive Backup Express and DriveImage XML, but the open source Clonezilla (http://www.clonezilla.org) is probably the most straight-forward. To use Clonezilla, you hook both the old and the new hard drives up to your computer, reboot your computer with the Clonezilla CD in your CD drive, and follow the prompts. A simple drive-to-drive clone will typically result in all of your files - boot sector, operating system, and data files - being transported to the new hard driver. Thereafter, just remove the old hard drive, and you should be able to boot from it just as you did from the old drive.
To create the Clonezilla boot CD, you'll need first to download the Clonezilla "iso" file and then, using a utility such as ISO Recorder (http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm) or UltraISO (http://www.ezbsystems.com/ultraiso), burn the iso image to a blank CD disk. Once that is finished, you should be able to boot from the Clonezilla CD.
Q: I relied upon Microsoft's TweakUI tool for Windows XP to customise my operating system. Is there a TweakUI for Windows 7?
A: No, there's not - at least not one offered by Microsoft. There are, however, a couple of alternatives. First, in the category of totally free, there's the Ultimate Windows Tweaker, version 2.0 (http://www.thewindowsclub.com/ultimate-windows-tweaker-v2-a-tweak-ui -for-windows-7-vista), which supports Windows 7. This little utility, which requires no installation but instead is run entirely from a self-contained exe file, provides most of the standard tweaks that many people seek, including showing or hiding menu bars, customising system performance, and altering the Start menu.
TweakVI, originally designed for Windows Vista, has morphed into Tweak-7 (http://www.totalidea.com/product.php?Product=Tweak-7). Tweak-7 comes in two versions, a demo version and a commercial counterpart that unlocks some of the more advanced tweaking features. It's worthwhile to compare Tweak-7 to Ultimate Windows Tweaker to see whether it offers anything you feel is worth paying for.
Q: The remodeled Windows Explorer in Windows 7 is a lot different from the one in Windows XP. How can I customise it to look more like the one in XP?
A: You can spend a good deal of time trying to customise the new Windows Explorer to look and act like the one in XP, but such customisation will only get you so far. The fact is that Explorer has been revamped in significant ways, and there's no "classic" Windows Explorer theme or application that will truly approximate the version found in XP.
You may want to look at third-party Windows Explorer replacements, however. For instance, Directory Opus (http://www.gpsoft.com.au), widely considered one of the most powerful and customisable Explorer replacements, can be set up to mimic pretty closely the look and feel of the Windows Explorer found in XP. You can even tell Opus to respond to the same built-in keyboard command - Windows key+E - that traditionally opened Windows Explorer. Opus also has advanced features, such as directory and file synchronisation, that no version of Windows Explorer contains.
--- Have a computer question? Send it to the Computer Helper at jd@mailcavern.com.
