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Windows 7 – A Mac lifestyle for “Third world” users.

windows-7

Yeah. I am among the group of “Third world” users. ;) I was using Windows XP for 6 years like a zombie. I had Installed tons of freewares and Sharewares to check the limit of XP.
I was living a comfirtable life, with known security issues, slow speed, frequent restarts. Just like living a married life. For years and years.

That’s why installing and using Windows 7 brought back the excitement of new marriage. And for the first time, my loved Windows XP began looking like a old wife.

Long back somebody told me about Vista, for all its faults, provided a strong, secure base. But I got reviews about its slowness, thickness and rigidness. I simply ignored Vista.

Windows 7 strips away that ugliness to create something that’s light yet strong, useful yet still playful.

Simple and easy installation

I had a Windows XP running on my laptop. From Using the Windows 7 installer CD, and selecting the option for running the OS from Optical disc, the installation finished in 40 minutes. The installation let me format my hard-disc, create partitions and install the OS with detecteing all hardware. A plesent experience.

Few interesting things!

Hardware blues

Vista was a nightmare for old PCs. Forget Old PCs, It wasnt performing well on laptops by consuming most of the hardware resources. Windows 7, by contrast, runs fine on most netbooks, as well as on older PCs.

Dynamic Wallpapers

Win7 backgrounds comes with different themes like groovy psychedelic landscapes, dreamy Dada-esque creatures, and candy-colored anime art. Each theme has have 3-4 images which changes after a preset time interval.

Microsoft’s is making the “Third World” people feel creative with their computers, a feeling that comes so naturally to Apple’s Mac.

Even if the backgrounds don’t suit your fancy, you must admire how Windows 7’s design team deliberately chose wallpapers with taste. That’s a big change from XP and Vista.

Shortcuts

Windows 7 brings several good and addictive shortcuts. For example, placing two windows side-by-side on a crowded desktop took a lot of mouse maneuvering in Windows XP. In Windows 7, you click the first window, and press Win+Right Arrow to scoot the window against the right edge. Follow up with a Win+Left Arrow on the second window, and you’ve lined them up side-by-side, ready for quick information swapping.

Windows 7 comes loaded with many other creative keyboard shortcuts. hmm.. The guys at microsoft are working. Good sign!

Taskbar Groups

Windows 7 overhauled the taskbar with Groups – A pop-up menu lists grouped items of same category. You can even see your favorite Web sites by Right-clicking the taskbar’s browser icon, clicking the favored site’s name from the pop-up list’s “Frequent” section.

Security

I tried installing “free” softwares, The OS simply denies installing such programs. The installar closed automatically.

Libraries

Windows 7 lets one library show the contents of several folders. Store your music in the Public Music folder, for example, and those tunes automatically appear in every user account’s Music library. Once people grasp this concept, they’ll be able to spend more time working with their information rather than finding it.

Windows 7’s a huge step forward from Microsoft Vista, and it’s versatile enough to last for years to come. But Windows 7’s certainly not perfect.

As to be expected, Windows 7 is often too much about Microsoft’s needs, rather than your own. For example, Windows 7 no longer comes with an e-mail program, so Windows 7 understandably pushes Microsoft’s new Windows Live Mail program as a replacement.

Upgrading Windows Vista to 7

If you’re upgrading Windows XP to Windows 7, the setup will completely removes the old operating system. In case of Vista to Windows 7, It upgrades only.

But, Microsoft switches your default browser to Internet Explorer 8, no matter how many years you’ve been using Firefox OR Safari. Smart business.

Filed under: Featured, Reviews

Installing WordPress On Windows Using XAMPP

xampp_wordpress_windows

After reading this article, you will be able to install WordPress on your Windows system.

Installing Wordpress on the local system helps out testing different themes, plugins without going live. If you try such changes in live, Wordpress is prone to crash.

Another benefit is, you can test run the posts locally and then make them live to make sure about the correctness. If you are a developer then you can develop plugins for wordpress by playing around with WordPress code.

Step1 :

Installing XAMPP (A package of Apache web server, MySQL, PHP, Perl, a FTP server and phpMyAdmin )

XAMPP is a way to install Apache Distribution for Linux, Solaris, Windows and Mac OS X. The package includes the Apache web server, MySQL, PHP, Perl, a FTP server and phpMyAdmin.

You can download XAMPP Lite hereat apachefriends.org.

After downloading and double-clicking on this file it will display a screen that asks you what folder you want to extract XAMPP to. Extract it to the root of C:\ drive on your PC. You can certainly extract it to the root of your secondary hard drive as well.

One suggestion: Uncheck the option to install apache and MySQL as windows services.

If you double-click on the shortcut icon of XAMPP, It will open a window in the lower-right hand corner of your screen that will allow you to start the Apache web server software and the MySql database software.

xampp_start
xampp_run
XAMPP Control Panel with Apache and MySql running.

Start your web browser, Browse to http://localhost/xampp.

xampp_browser_localhost
Step2:

Installing database for WordPress

You should see a setup page that will guide you through setting up the database for your WordPress install.

xampp_browser_phpmyadmin_li

  1. Select your language – English in this case.
  2. Click on menu selection phpMyAdmin
  3. Under “Create new database”, enter “wordpress” as a name of database in MySQL.
  4. Select utf8_unicode_ci for the collation.
  5. Click on the “Create” button. Your database will be created and a success message will get displayed.

xampp_browser_phpmyadmin_db
Step3:

Installing database for WordPress

Once you’ve got your database setup, you can download WordPress here. Unzip the contents to the C:\xampplite\htdocs folder.

Open the file C:\xampplite\htdocs\wordpress\wp-config-sample.php in a text editor and change the following:

These are the exact details you need for Xampp to work because the default user in phpmyadmin is called ‘root’ and there is no password.

  1. define(’DB_NAME’, ‘wordpress’); // The name of the database
  2. define(’DB_USER’, ‘root’); // Your MySQL username
  3. define(’DB_PASSWORD’, ”); // …and password
  4. define(’DB_HOST’, ‘localhost’); // 99% chance you won’t need to change this value
  5. Copy those details into your wp-config file, and save it as wp-config.php

Close and save this file as wp-config.php

Browse to http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin/install.php,
You should see a WordPress install screen like this.

wordpress_login

Type in a blog title and provide your email address and click “Install WordPress”. The next screen will display login and password. Write this information down and click on “log in”.

After logging in you’ll be at your “Dashboard”. Click on “View site” next to the title of your blog for a quick, default view of your blog. With the default install of WordPress comes two themes – WordPress and WordPress Classic. Both located under the “Presentation” menu.

Note:

You do not need to use the inbuilt editor to change any WordPress files. Just open them directly in any text editor, make changes and then save.

Filed under: Featured, OpenSource, Web Design, Web Dev