Microsoft Answers to cover Win7 & XP Sept 28

Microsoft will start its Windows 7 forum on September 28, 2009. The forum will be monitored by Microsoft support personnel, MVPs, and others. If you are considering upgrading to Windows 7, have Windows 7 RTM, or will be purchasing a PC with Windows 7 installed, you may wish to save this link:

http://co1piltwb.partners.extranet.microsoft.com/mcoeredir/mcoeredirect.aspx?linkId=12477369&s1=04a746d6-332e-85cc-8ecb-a46270d2c403.

Microsoft Answers originally only supported Windows Vista. However, on September 28 (PST), the site will begin offering support for questions around Windows 7, Windows XP and Windows Live.

Win7 $29.99 offer for students

For US students only?

Microsoft has just launched a new site, allowing currently enrolled college students to purchase a Windows 7 Upgrade license for only $29.99, matching the price to Apples Snow Leopard Upgrade disk. Win741.com gives current College Students a chance to upgrade to either Windows 7 Home Premium, or Professional if you need the ability to join a network domain at your school. Both versions are set at the $29.99 price point, and are offered in 32 or 64 bit options.

In order to qualify, all you need to is provide them with your college e-mail address (.edu). An e-mail will instantly be sent to that mailbox with a link to purchase Windows 7 at this fantastic price. If you don’t have a College e-mail address, you can also scan and upload a copy of either your school ID, Course Schedule, or proof of course payment to them. It is currently unknown how long it will take them to review these before confirming or denying your claim

Regarding to the 32bit/64bit option, it appears you have to decide which version you want BEFORE you confirm your purchase. The first thing you are asked in fact is which version you want, and link you to a somewhat helpful FAQ explaining the issues. Once this is decided, is does not appear to be possible to switch back to the other version.

Also, this offer is not for a physical copy of Windows 7, but for a downloadable ISO. According to this site, the ISO will be able to do clean installs once you burn it to a disk.

• It is not known if this offer is available to students outside US, or is restricted to US students only. If you are a student, please let us know your experience with this offer.

Beta 2 of SeaMonkey 2.0 Internet apps suite

The latest beta of the Mozilla-based SeaMonkey Internet-based apps suite has been released, and is downloadable from http://www.seamonkey-project.org/releases/seamonkey2.0b2/.

Building on the Netscape Communicator and Mozilla Application suites, SeaMonkey 2.0 Beta 2 combines a web browser based on the same core as Firefox 3.5.3 with an email and newsgroups client, a simple HTML editor, web development tools and IRC chat.

Features of the SeaMonkey^® Suite

Browser ("Navigator")

Tabbed browsing. Homepage can be multiple pages, in tabs.

Popup blocker.

Image Manager to remove offensive images or speed up the rendering of web sites.

Find as you type: Just start typing to jump from link to link or to find a word or phrase within a page.

Plus: Advanced security settings; Password, Download, and Cookie managers; Themes; multi-language and multi-platform support.

Mail & Newsgroups

Junk mail controls: SeaMonkey's adaptive junk mail control gets smarter with use and is personalized to the e-mail that you receive.

Customizable Labels and Mail Views. Color code email, sort mail with views to help go through email much faster.

Multiple Accounts: Manage all mail through one interface.

SeaMonkey Messenger includes Enterprise-ready features such as S/MIME, return receipts, Address Books, LDAP support, and digital signing.

Composer

Powerful HTML editor with dynamic image and table resizing, quick insertion and deletion of table cells, improved CSS support, and support for positioned layers.

IRC Chat ("ChatZilla")

Simple yet powerful IRC client. Keep track of multiple networks and channels with a familiar tabbed interface.

Change the look and feel of the chat with motifs; choose from several built-in motifs, many more downloadable, or create with CSS.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR MAC USERS:

The Java Embedding Plugin that ships with SeaMonkey 1.1.18 is not compatible with Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" - visiting a website that runs a Java applet will result in a crash. Snow Leopard users are advised to manually upgrade the plugin to the latest version (currently 0.9.7.2). The Java Embedded Plugin can be downloaded fromSourceForge. For installation instructions see the readme file that is shipped with the plugin package.

Download Now

SeaMonkey 1.1.18

• Windows, English (13 MB)

Other systems and languages: http://www.seamonkey-project.org/releases/#1.1.18

90-day eval of Windows 7 RTM can be downloaded from here.

Download the new 90-day Trial of Windows 7 Enterprise to test and evaluate the 90-day eval of Windows 7 RTM.

The Springboard Series for Windows 7 enables you to test your hardware, software, and deployment strategies and get deployment guidance, step-by-step tutorials, and more.

Key resources: the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Solution Accelerator, the Windows Automated Installation Kit (AIK) for Windows 7 RC, and the I PD guide for Windows Deployment Services. Check out features of Windows 7 with the TechNet Video: Windows 7 Feature Overview. And here are some new deployment webcasts and videos:
•
Thrive Live! Migrating Windows XP to Windows 7 Using Windows Easy Transfer and USMT
•
Windows 7 Deployment Enhancements
•
Windows 7 Planning and Deployment Tools

Registration code is included in the download.

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• Windows 7 90-day trial offered to businesses (seattlepi.com)

Record VoIP calls with Skype Recorder

As far as we know, this app only works with Skype. It is free to try, downloadable from http://www.extralabs.net/downloads.htm#Skype_Recorder, costs $18.95 for a personal licence.

According to Matt Hartley, " Windows has a few applications to make recording authorized interviews possible over Skype should you wish to do so for podcasting. The best I have seen in recent months has to be Skype Recorder from Extralabs Software."

The ExtraLabs website states: "The software will start the recording by itself as soon as you start talking on Skype. The conversation over, Skype Recorder will encode the recording to the specified format and will save the ready file on your hard drive. Due to the built-in audio player, you will be able to listen to the recording in no time and do whatever you like – delete it, move or upload to the site."

Features:

• Manually start/stop/pause, or automatically record Skype calls

• Convert your calls to MP3/OGG/WMA/WAV format

• Built-in audio player, built-in FTP client

• 'Spy' mode

Note: This product is awaiting evaluation. Reader comments from users are welcomed.