Using Network Connections

Click Start, type: network connections.

Hit Enter on your keyboard.

This will open the Network connections window. Select your local area connection (the one that represents your Ethernet adapter and click Change settings for this connection on the command bar.

This will bring up the Local Area Connection Properties dialog. Make sure the Networking tab is selected and under This connection uses the following items: scroll down and select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) then click the Properties button.

This will bring up another dialog where you will see your IP Address information:

Using View your active networks

Another way to find your computers IP address is by using the Network Map feature located in Network and Sharing Center.

In the Task bar Notification Area, click the Network icon then click Open Network and Sharing Center.

Under View your active networks click the link beside Connections.

Click the Details button, this will bring up the Network Connections Details dialog where you see a host of information about your network connection.

Network Map in Windows 7 to find your IP Address

In Network and Sharing Center same way, click See full map link.

Hover the mouse pointer over your machine name, this will display a balloon with your machine name, IPv4, IPv6 and MAC address.

Using the Command Line

You can also use the Command Prompt in Windows 7 as a very quick way to view your computers IP address, here is how you do it.

Click Start, type: cmd which is short for command.

Hit Enter on your keyboard.

At the command prompt, type ipconfig then press Enter on your keyboard.

Under Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection: you will see all the information you need regarding your IP Address. When you finish, just click close.

How To Find Your PC’s IP Address is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

One particular story I came across on a forum is a user running Windows 98 with GB’s of files he said he would like to bring over to his Windows 7 machine. I found the challenge an exciting one and decided to find out if it was possible to network a modern version of Windows with a 12 year old version way past it’s expiration date.

The answer is, it’s very much possible, but involves more hands on configuration than what you would require between two Windows 7 PC’s. It’s a testament to how far we have come. Networking PC’s today in Windows 7 is so much easier, HomeGroups make it a cinch to share files and resources such as a printer.

Lets get started:

I tried this with Windows 98 SE and Windows 7 64 bit and it worked just as a I describe.

Hurdles you might encounter:

- Setting File sharing

- Ethernet Adapter if you don’t have one installed in the Windows 98 machine, this will make it a challenge.

- You might need to have your Windows 98 disk on hand especially for installing and configuring TCP/IP

In Windows 98

On the desktop, right click ‘Network Neighborhood’

Click Properties

Go to the ‘Identification’ tab

Enter a WORKGROUP name

Enter a ‘Computer name’:

Click Apply and OK

Changing Workgroup settings in Windows 7

You should use this workgroup name also on Windows 7 machine.

In Windows 7, click Start, right click Computer

• Click Properties
• Under ‘Computer name, domain, and workgroup settings’
• Click ‘Change settings’
• Select the ‘Computer Name’ tab
• Next to ‘To rename this computer or change it’s domain or workgroup, click Change.

Enter the WORKGROUP name we created in Windows 98.

Make sure the workgroup name is the same as the one on the Windows 98 machine, you might be required to restart the machine for settings to be applied. Do so.

Once Windows 7 has restarted, you are going to apply an IP address.

• Click Start, click Network
• Click Network and Sharing Center
• Under Control Panel Home
• Click ‘Change Adapter Settings’
• Right click your Network adapter
• Click Properties
• Select TCI/IP 4
• Click Properties
• select ‘Use the following IP address’:

Enter 192.168.0.1

Click OK

Click Apply and OK

—————————————-

Back to the Windows 98 machine

On the desktop, right click ‘Network Neighborhood’

Click Properties

Select the ‘Configuration’ tab

Select TCP/IP

(again, if it’s not listed, click Add and follow to wizard to install one, you should make sure you already have an Ethernet adapter installed or this will be a futile experience).

Click Properties

Select IP Address tab

Select ‘Obtain an IP address automatically’

Click OK

In the Primary Network Logon: box, select: Clients for Microsoft Networks

Click File and Print Sharing

Check ‘I want to be able to give others access to my files”

You might be prompted to insert your Windows 98 CD and restart your computer (good luck with that).

———————————————

Still in Windows 98,

Open My Computer

Right click the C: drive or wherever Windows 98 is installed

Click ‘Sharing’

Select ‘Shared As’

Share Name, for example: ‘WIN98BKUP’

If you don’t want to share the drive, you can individually share the folder if you want instead.

Access Type: Full

Give it a password just to be safe: call it: win98

Confirm the password

Click OK

Click Apply and OK

Restart the machine.

—————————————————

You should now see both machines appear on each others Network:

My Windows 7 machine even shows up in Windows 98

In Windows 7, click Start,

Click Network

you should see the Windows 98 machine show up

The C: drive that was shared appear as a folder

Double click it, enter the password we created: win98

Browse it and copy and paste over whatever files you need

How to Network Windows 7 and Windows 98 is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

What is HomeGroup again?

HomeGroup is a simple way to network Windows 7 PC’s, share files and resources such as a printer. In this quick tip, I will show you how to share files using HomeGroup.

Join a HomeGroup

The first thing we need to do is Join our HomeGroup. To do this:

Click Start

The click Network

On the Command Bar, click Network and Sharing Center

Under See Also click HomeGroup

Windows 7 should automatically detect another Windows 7 computer with HomeGroup configured. Your next step is simply to click Join now.

Select the type of content you would like to share with your HomeGroup, you can choose from Pictures, Music, Videos, Documents and resources such as a Printer.

Enter the HomeGroup password that was created on the other computer. If you don’t know it, you will need to return to the other computer and click the ‘View the homegroup password’ link

Once you have entered the password, you will now be able to share and access files on other Windows 7 PC’s:

Our next step is to add shared locations in our Windows 7 Libraries, to do this, click Start > Documents. In your Documents Library, click the link to share a Location on your Network.

This will display the ‘Documents Library Locations’ window. Click the Add button, under the Navigation pane, expand your Network locations > expand the name of the computer on which shared files exist. Navigate to the location of the shared files or folder then click Include folder. Then click OK

What will happen now, files that you have shared in that specific folder will automatically show up in your library.

Individually Share Files

You will notice that I did not check the option to share Documents during the HomeGroups sharing wizard. HomeGroups gives you the option to individually share files too, you can even share a batch of files if you wish.

To do this, click Start > Documents

Right click the file you would like to share, click Share with and select ‘HomeGroup (Read/Write’). What this will do now is automatically share those files and they will show up in the Documents Library on the other computer where we added Documents folder as a location.

As you can see our two files we just shared, now show up in our Library. You can also do this for other folders too.

Related:

Networking Made Easy with HomeGroups

How to Share Files with HomeGroup is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

Hard Drives

Seagate 2TB FreeAgent GoFlex External USB 2.0/3.0 Hard Drive for – $89.99

Western Digital 1TB Internal 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive – $59.99

Western Digital 1TB My Passport Portable Hard Drive – $89.99

Monitors

Acer 20″ G205HV Widescreen LCD Monitor – $89.99 (at Acer)

Samsung 23″ 2333T Widescreen LCD Monitor – $139.99

Networking

Belkin Surf Wireless N Router (Model # F7D2301 / F7D6301) – $29.99

Netgear Wireless N+ Dual-Band Router (Model # WNDR3400-100NAS) – $59.99

Printers

Canon Pixma MP560 Wireless All-in-One Printer – $49.99

Epson Stylus NX127 All-in-One Printer – $29.99

Portable Storage and Flash Drives

PNY 8GB SDHC Memory Card (at PNY) – $14.99

SanDisk 4GB Micro SDHC Memory Card (at Sandisk) – $7.99

SanDisk 4GB SDHC Memory Card – $7.99

SanDisk 8GB Ultra SDHC Memory Card (at Sandisk)- $19.99

PNY 8GB USB Flash Drive – $14.99

SanDisk 4GB USB Flash Drive – $7.99

Portable Media Players

Apple 8GB iPod Nano – $149.99

• Blue
• Graphite
• Green
• Orange
• Pink
• Silver

Apple 8GB iPod Nano w/Gumy Earbud Headphones, Aerosport Case, PowerBlock Wall Charger – $159.96

Apple 8GB iPod Touch w/$30 Best Buy Gift Card – $229.99

Microsoft 16GB Zune HD – $169.99

Microsoft 32GB Zune HD – $209.99

SanDisk 4GB Sansa Clip+ MP3 Player – $29.99

• Black
• Blue
• Purple

Black Friday Best Buy Computer Accessory Deals is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

To make a long story short, I eventually discovered the problem — the WEP key had changed. My brother said his neighbor was inviting her friends to leech of the wi-fi. He had granted her access to complete her school work, but it seems it became too much of a strain on his network, especially when watching video online. Fixing my problem was as simple as updating the Wifi Security Key.

How to update your WEP key:

1. Click Start, then click Network.

2. Then click Network and Sharing Center on the command bar.

3. Click Manage Wireless Networks.

4. Right click the wireless network, then click Properties.

5. Go to the Security tab.

6. In the Network security key field, enter the 26 character key, to make it easy, click the ‘Show characters’ box. In fact, I recommend you at least write out the the key in Notepad and revise it since you can easily make mistakes when typing it. Once you have done that, you can uncheck the ‘Show characters’ box. Click OK.

Windows 7 should automatically attempt connection to the network, if not, click the View Available Network item in the Notification Area and click the Refresh button.

Quick Tip: How To Update Your WEP Key in Windows 7 (WiFI) is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

One of the new functions is printer sharing for those  who have a recent HP or Epson printer. The other is the addition of Wi-Fi. While the Pogoplug Pro has this feature built-in, the older Pogoplug requires a USB Wi-Fi dongle that plugs into one of the ports on the device, meaning the user has one less port for hard drives, flash drives or printers.

Network/Personal Cloud Storage

We tested the Pogoplug over the period of a couple of months. As a network attached storage device that also shares the files through the Internet, it is a great solution. I was sent a box a few months ago and in testing it just works. I was able to quickly set it up, attach a USB drive and back up some files quickly. There is an application that gives access to the box and makes the operating system (Windows, Mac and Linux) see  the Pogoplug as if it were a hard drive attached directly to the computer instead of through a network connection. With a fast network (I tested it on a gigabit Ethernet router) it is not too much slower than a USB 2.0 drive. The web interface is pretty simple to use. It lets you upload files from the web page or through sending files via attachment. Moving files around was easy and downloading over a home network was quick.

I did have one problem while downloading files over the Internet. By logging into the my.pogoplug.com web site, a user can see the files attached to the Pogoplug and download them, stream them or view them. This works, but one set of files I downloaded were corrupted. But this was a one time problem, which may have been a network problem more than a Pogoplug problem.

Wireless Access

The real purpose of my review was to test the two new features wireless access via Wi-fi and printing to Epson or HP printers either through the web access or from mobile devices like the iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone, Android, Blackberry or Palm. The new Wi-fi functionality is either built into the new Pogoplug Pro box or is added to the older home version via USB dongle that Pogoplug will send to users for a small fee. New users will get it built into the Pro version.

The company pushed out a firmware update (the software that runs the device) that was supposed to enable this functionality. It had a lot of problems and is still technically in beta. I had to contact support and they were very responsive getting back to me usually within 12-24 hours except over weekends. After going back and forth for a couple of weeks, we finally got the problems fixed with an even newer firmware update. And it works well now. The speed is adequate and streaming files was not great but in a pinch it worked. However, I would not recommend it for backing up or accessing a lot of files. It pales in comparison to having the device connected via Ethernet.

Shared Printing and Printing from iOS/Mobile Devices

The disappointing new feature is the printing access. Like the Wi-fi update I had to contact tech support and try to get things working. But now after weeks of trying, it still does not work with my HP printer and only occasionally with my Epson printer. If you don’t have one of those two brands you are out of luck. Pogoplug says they are thinking about adding others, but it requires the printer company helping with driver support. It seems that my HP m1212nf is  just not really compatible yet and the engineers at Pogoplug are working on fixing this problem. My Epson Artisan 800 has worked but intermittently. Because of these failures I was never able to test the iOS apps that promise the ability to print. Instead I am using an app called Printer Pro, from Readdle, which will be my iPad App of the Week soon. It works, which is something I cannot say for the printing function of the Pogoplug and iOS app.

If you are interested in a network attached storage device that can also be used to share files over the Internet or give you limited access to them over the Internet, then the Pogoplug is a 10. It just works and works well. I really like it for that purpose and will use it a lot. I am going to back up my files using the Pogoplug instead of my second hard drive on my desktop so that the files will be accessible to all my computers without sharing drives on any of them. Also, it will be nice to have access to my video or picture files when away from home and if I want to share home video or pictures with family, I will use Pogoplug. Sending pictures or documents to the device for backup is great. So, again as a network/personal cloud storage device it is a huge win. Also, if you want to use it as a Wi-fi device you can. It is not as fast, but finally, after recent updates it works.

If you want to share printers over your network just get a router than has a USB port or buy a printer with a networking built into it. If you want to print from an iOS device, then try another app like the PrinterPro app. When Pogoplug gets my printers working I will write about it. Until then don’t expect printing support with the Pogoplug yet.

Pros:

• Great for network backup
• Takes many hard drives/flash drives and combines into one interface
• Fast over wired network
• Wi-fi is nice if you can’t go wired
• Sending files via email works well
• Accessing files over the Internet
• Sharing with friends/family is easy
• Tech support is responsive

Cons:

• Printing features don’t work for some HP and Epson printers yet
• Wi-fi speed is a little slow
• Occasionally files downloaded via Internet were corrupted

Pogoplug Wireless and Print Functionality A Mixture of Convenience and Frustration is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Some persons have reported of issues connecting other versions of Windows from Windows 7 and vice versa. Please note that exclusive features such as HomeGroup is not available to Windows Vista and XP, so you will have to use the standard Network Explorer to share and access resources.

The first steps you can take to try and resolve networking issues in this regard is to ensure the basics are in place:

• Make sure both computers are within the same WORKGROUP (for Windows XP, click HERE for Windows 7/Vista, click HERE), additional resources HERE
• For Windows Vista in Network and Sharing Center, ensure that you have your network configured as Private and that the Sharing and Discovery Settings are set to ON except for Password Protected Sharing.
• For computers running Windows XP to appear on the Network Map diagram, you must download and install the LLTD Responder component. With the LLTD Responder, a computer running Windows XP can respond to other Windows Vista computers on the network that are attempting to create a network map.

To install the LLTD Responder to a computer running Windows XP

1. Download the update for Windows XP from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=70582
2. Run the update on the computer running Windows XP that you want to appear on the Network Map.
3. On the Software Update Installation Wizard, click Next.
4. On the License Agreement page, read the license agreement, and if you agree to the terms, click I Agree, and then click Next.
5. On the final page of the wizard, click Finish.
6. If you are prompted to do so, restart your computer.
7. After your computer running Windows XP restarts, generate a new Network Map with the computer running Windows XP included.

• Check the registry on the Windows XP machine for the error message when you try to access a Windows XP-based network computer: “You might not have permission to use this network resource”. Microsoft covers how to this fix this error. This fix  finally did the trick for my network.

An additional task that you can do when attempting to troubleshoot is to disable all Firewall software (including the Windows Firewall temporarily).

Zone Alarm - Ensure that all machines on the network were in the trusted zone. Go to the Zone tab of Firewall settings in ZoneAlarm free version. Ensure all of your machines’ IP addresses are listed, as well as that of your router or wireless access point.

Norton Internet Security - Go to Norton Internet Security tab, open settings, scroll to bottom, open internet security and firewall options, open advanced settings, open configure, change default inbound NetBIOS, inbound NetBIOS name, and Block Windows File Sharing to ALLOW. Configuring this beast of an app required a lot of trial, error and googling the Symantec site and others.

Windows Firewall – How to turn Windows Firewall on or off

Check with the developers documentation if you are using another firewall.

If you have any comments or additional tips that you have discovered, please feel free to share them.

How to resolve Common Networking Issues in Windows Vista and Windows XP is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

HomeGroup, an exclusive feature to Windows 7, is one of the many new networking capabilities that makes it easy to network and share documents, pictures, videos and resources such as a printer with other Windows 7 PC’s with only a password.

In this article, we take a look at some of the ways we can fix common issues associated with networking, whether it’s connecting two computers or connecting to the Internet.

Tip 1: Fixing common networking connectivity issues.

This article references Windows Vista but also applies to Windows 7 also. To reset the TCP/IP stack go to this article and either click on “Fix it for me” or follow the instructions to fix it yourself.

How to Disable the IP Helper service:

1. Hold the Windows key and type R, enter “services.msc” (without the quotes) and press Enter

2. Scroll down to the IP Helper service, right click on it and select Properties

3. In the drop down box that says “Automatic” or “Manual”, set it to Disabled and then click on “Apply”

4. Then click on “Stop” to stop the service from running in the current session

5. Click OK to exit the dialog

How to Disable IPv6:

Try uninstalling IPv6 on all interfaces, removing any IPv6 virtual adapters, and resetting the TCP/IP stack. To remove IPv6, go into the properties for each network adapter and either uncheck the box next to the protocol “Internet Protocol version 6 (TCP/IPv6), that will disable it, or select it and click uninstall, which will remove it off the computer. Then go into device manager and remove any 4to6 adapters, WUN miniport adapters, or tunnel adapters.

NOTE: You should do this for each network connection.

How to Disable the DHCP Broadcast Flag:

Important: This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base - How to back up and restore the registry in Windows.

The Problem – Windows cannot obtain an IP address from certain routers or from certain non-Microsoft DHCP servers (background)

To resolve this issue, disable the DHCP BROADCAST flag. To do this, follow these steps:

Before making any changes, remember to backup your registry first. You do this by clicking File in the Registry Editor and click Export.

1. Click Start, type regedit” in the Start Search box and then click regedit” in the Programs list.

   If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type your password, or click Continue.

2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesTcpipParametersInterfaces{GUID}”

3. In this registry path, click the (GUID) subkey that corresponds to the network adapter that is connected to the network.
4. 4. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value.
5. In the New Value #1 box, type DhcpConnEnableBcastFlagToggle” and then press ENTER.
6. Right-click DhcpConnEnableBcastFlagToggle” and then click Modify.
7. In the Value data box, type 1 and then click OK.
8. Close Registry Editor.

By setting this registry key to 1, Windows will first try to obtain an IP address by using the BROADCAST flag in DHCP Discover packets. If that fails, it will try to obtain an IP address without using the BROADCAST flag in DHCP Discover packets.

Tip 2: Check your wireless settings.

Follow the steps mentioned below to check if your computer has a wireless network adapter.

• Open Device Manager by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Security and then, under System, clicking Device Manager.‌

If you’re prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

• Double-click Network adapters.
• Look for a network adapter that includes “wireless” in the name.

If it is not set then follow the instructions for setting up a wireless network connection.

Tip 3: Another way to handle network connection issues is to release and renew your IP address.

You could also try ipconfig/release and renew command from the command prompt.

Follow the steps mentioned below.

1. Click on start button.
2. Type cmd in the start search box and press enter.
3. Right click on the cmd” and run as administrator.
4. Type the commands ipconfig /release” and ipconfig /renew” without the quotes.

Tip 4: Troubleshoot HomeGroup issues.

If you are unable to access a HomeGroup, try the following:

• Check your Windows Firewall to make sure that HomeGroup and Network discovery are not blocked.
• Make sure you enter the case sensitive password correctly.
• Are both PC’s properly networked? Ethernet cable connected properly, are you connected to your wireless access point? You can check by clicking the Network icon in the Notification Area.
• Ensure that your Network Location is set to ‘Home Network’. In Network and Sharing Center, under View your active Networks > click the link to your Network type (usually defaulted to as unidentified). When the ‘Set Network Location’ window appears, select ‘Home Network’ from the available options. After selecting this option, the Homegroup wizard should appear prompting you to join an available HomeGroup and requesting the type of information and resources you will be able to share and access.
• If you encounter a problem with your HomeGroup Password, try changing it on the computer you setup HomeGroup on and try joining again.
• If none of the above works, try running the HomeGroup Troubleshooter, In Network and Sharing Center under ‘Change your network settings’, click ‘Fix a network problem’ under ‘Network’, click HomeGroup troubleshooter and follow the wizard that appears. To learn more about Troubleshooters, click here

How to resolve Common Networking Issues in Windows 7 is a post by Andre from Notebooks.com.

The issue has to do with a problem with the iPad’s use of DHCP, the protocol the device uses to handle a connection to a Wi-Fi network. DHCP or Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol is the way a networkable device gets an IP address, and other configuration information, from the server. It is called dynamic” because the server does not always give it the same address. The benefit is you do not have to change your address information every time you want to connect to a new network. It also allows people who know little about networking to connect their computers and other devices to a network. An IP address is like a phone number for your networkable device. It identifies your device on the network in order to route the packets of information that you either send or receive over the network. It is similar to the way the phone company uses your phone number to direct calls to a from your line. DHCP servers temporarily assign you a number that looks like this: 192.168.1.1, where each segment of numbers can be anything from 0 to 255.

What is happening with the iPad, according to the people at Princeton, is that the server is assigning the address to the iPad and then when it’s screen is locked and it goes to sleep, the iPad is not releasing the number as it is should. However, the server thinks that it has and assigns that number to another device. When the iPad tries to reconnect, it thinks the number still belongs to it. Since the network server has assigned the number to another device, there is a conflict. This causes the iPad to stop being able to use the network until it releases the number, which requires user interaction due to a problem with the iPad.

Comparing it again to your phone, what if you had a phone number and the the phone company thought you had moved so they disconnected your line and gave the number to another customer. From then on, whenever you tried to call out on your phone, it would not work. You would have to call the company back and get a new number. With the iPad it is like it told the company you moved but then didn’t let you know the number is disconnected.

Here are four possible solutions in order of what I think is the best to worst work around for the problem until Apple issues a fix:

1. Go into Settings, General and then tap Network and then turn Wi-Fi off and then back on. If that doesn’t work then …
2. Tap on the blue arrow next to the network name and then tap either Renew Lease towards the bottom of the screen or, if that doesn’t work, tap Forget this Network at the top of the screen. If you choose the latter you will have to set up the network again.
3. Restart your iPad by holding the on/off switch on the top edge and the Home button at the bottom of the front of the device until the iPad offers to shut down. Slide the slider to allow it to turn off. Wait a few seconds and turn it back on using the switch at the top again.
4. Turn off the Auto-Lock feature by going into Settings, General and then tap Auto-Lock about a third of the way down. Change it to Never.

The fourth solution is a more permanent fix, but you will have to remember to manually turn off your iPad every time or you will see reduced battery life with the screen turned on all the time. You will also have unwanted tapping of screen items as you carry around the iPad.

The reason Princeton discovered the DHCP issue while others might not have is that they say they monitor their networks more closely looking for these kinds of obscure issues. Others just ignore them on their servers.

How widespread is this problem? According to the post at Princeton’s Network Systems site 41 people have connected to their network via an iPad. Roughly half the iPads attached to our network had malfunctioned in the same way…” As of April 18 that count was 25 of the 41 iPads on their very large campus.

We are continuing to work with Apple to provide them with technical data to resolve the issue,” said the author of the the post. The post also shares the Steps to Reproduce” the issue at the bottom of that page.

iPad Wi-Fi Problem Explained, Workaround Offered is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Andre’s Windows 7 posts on Notebooks.com:

A Look at the Windows 7 Editions: If you’re trying to figure out which version of Windows 7 is right for you this is a great place to start. This guide covers everything from editions and versions to pricing and upgrade paths.

How to Install Windows 7: This guide walks you through the installation process highlighting important steps and providing pictures to guide you through installing Windows 7.

How to Upgrade to Windows 7: If you aren’t installing from scratch then this guide is for you. It contains a walkthrough of an “in-place” upgrade and information about how to fix compatibility issues.

How to Upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7: Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 brings many improvements but it’s not as easy as an upgrade from Vista. This guide will provide you with tips to make it easier.

Using Windows Easy Transfer in Windows 7: Windows Easy Transfer makes moving your files and settings from an old computer to a new one easy. This guide walks you through how to use Windows Easy Transfer to get your files to your windows 7 computer.

A Guided Tour of Windows 7 for New Users: If this is your first time looking at Windows 7 than this walk through is a must. Andre highlights the changes and helps you find out where things have moved to in the new operating system.

Using the Improved Taskbar and Start Menu in Windows 7: Some of the biggest changes users will notice in Windows 7 are on the Taskbar and in the Start Menu. Check out all of the changes and how to use them to your advantage.

Using the Windows 7 Desktop – Fun Time Savers: This guide explores the additional time savers and “pizzazz” that the Windows 7 Desktop brings to your new computer.

Windows Explorer – What’s new in Windows 7: Another area in Windows 7 that has changed significantly is Windows Explorer. Explorer is what you see when you click on My Computer and is generally how you interact with files on your computer. Come learn about the refreshing cleaner look it has in Windows 7.

A Tour: Windows 7 Desktop, Windows Explorer and Control Panel: This tour will quickly get you up to speed on some of the improvements found in Windows 7 and give you a better understanding of how to navigate the new operating system.

Improved Windows 7 Applets: Come learn how the included productivity apps in Word can be used. This guide includes a look at; the Scenic Ribbon, WordPad, Paint, Calculator, XPS Viewer and Sticky Notes in Windows 7.

Networking Made Easy with HomeGroups in Windows 7: In past versions of Windows setting up a home network to share files, printers and more was an involved process. Now, with HomeGroups in Windows 7, networking your computers is easier than ever and this guide shows you how it’s done.

Improved Recovery Options in Windows 7: Past versions of Windows have included the ability to use a Recovery Console to fix some computer problems but most of the time it didn’t work well. Windows 7 has an improved Recovery Console that can help you repair startup, do a System Restore, recover from backup backup and more. Come look at these repair options in more detail.

How To Do Practically Anything in Windows 7 is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.