Facebook builds tighter integration with music, TV

Facebook unveiled new ways for users to listen to music and watch TV, offering tie-ups with the likes of Spotify and Hulu, as it attempts to make media an integral part of its social networking service.

The features, which Facebook unveiled at its annual f8 developers' conference in San Francisco on Thursday, will vastly expand the types of activities that users of the social networking service can notify their friends about, from the news articles they read to the title of each song they listen to throughout the day.

 Facebook users will also be able to listen along to whatever song a friend is listening to, provided they both subscribe to the supported third-party streaming music services, such as Spotify.

 The media push comes as Facebook faces fresh competition from Google, which in June launched a rival social networking service, Google+. In recent weeks, Facebook, which counts more than 750 million users, has rolled out a bevy of changes to its service.

 "Facebook is positioning itself as not just your social graph online, but your life online," said Forrester Research analyst Sean Corcoran.

 "These changes not only help trump rival Google but will open up new opportunities," he said. "But concerns around privacy and immaturity in how to do these things effectively will make it a slow go."

 Dressed in a gray T-shirt, jeans and sneakers, Zuckerberg said the music companies partnering with Facebook, including Rhapsody and Turntable.fm, were reinventing the music industry and the business models that underlie the industry.

 "They believe that the key to making the music business work isn't trying to block you from listening to songs you haven't bought," said Zuckerberg.

 "It's trying to help you discover so many songs that you end up buying even more content than you ever would have otherwise," he said.

 Joining Zuckerberg on stage was Netflix Chief Executive and Facebook board member Reed Hastings, who said he was excited to offer tighter integration with Facebook but did not give details.

 The Washington Post Co. unveiled its Social Reader, which lets people read and share stories from the newspaper within Facebook.

 For Facebook, a deeper integration of music, movies and other media into its service makes it more likely that users will spend more time on its site, enabling the company to generate more advertising dollars.

 The company, which generated $1.6 billion in revenue in the first six months of 2011 according to a source familiar with the matter, is being closely watched by investors hoping for an initial public stock offering next year.

 Facebook also introduced an overhaul of users' personal profiles on Thursday which arranges past photos and other information into a rich, magazine-like layout. Dubbed "Timeline," the new profile serves as a sort of diary of a person's life, organized by each year they've been on Facebook.

 With Thursday's new features, Facebook users will have new ways to flag content beyond the now familiar "like" button which people click to endorse various items on the Web, from news articles to running shoes.

 Software developers whose services connect with Facebook will be able to customize the types of notifications that are broadcast to a Facebook user's friends, with terms like "watched" a video, "read" an article or even "ate" a certain dish.

 All that extra information could be a boon for advertisers.

 "With Facebook now able to collect more data in terms of what people are watching, reading, running, doing, that's more metadata which is now going to feed into what brands and marketers target," said Hussein Fazal, the CEO of AdParlor, a firm that runs Facebook advertising campaigns for companies including Groupon.

Facebook Changes Again: Everything You Need To Know

Facebook  introduced some of the most profound changes seen on Facebook since its inception. So many changes, in fact, that it can be hard to keep track. So here’s a handy-dandy guide.

1. You’re going to get a Timeline — a scrapbook of your life. In a complete overhaul of its ever-evolving profile page, Facebook is introducing Timeline. This is a stream of information about you — the photos you’ve posted, all your status updates, the apps you’ve used, even the places you’ve visited on a world map — that scrolls all the way back to your birth. It encourages you to post more stuff about your past, such as baby pictures, using Facebook as a scrapbook.

The further back in Timeline you go, the more Facebook will compress the information so that you’re only seeing the most interesting parts of your history. You can customize this by clicking on a star next to a status, say, or enlarging a picture.

Timeline is in beta now, and will be opt-in to start. In the long run, it will become the new default profile page.

2. You don’t have to just Like something — now you can [verb] any [noun]. Remember when all you could do to something on Facebook — a video, a comment, a product, a person — was Like it? Pretty soon that’s going to seem laughably antiquated. The social network has launched Facebook Gestures, which means that Facebook’s partners and developers can turn any verb into a button.

So you’ll start seeing the option to tell the world you’re Reading a particular book, for example, or Watching a given movie, or Listening to a certain tune. In turn, as many observers have pointed out, this is likely to lead to an explosion of oversharing — and far more information on your friends’ activities showing up in your news feed than you probably cared to know.


3. Facebook apps need only ask permission once to share stories on your behalf. Although not as big a deal as the Timeline, this tweak may be one of the more controversial. Previously, apps had to ask every time they shared information about you in your profile. Now, the first time you authorize the app, it will tell you what it’s going to share about you. If you’re cool with that, the app never has to ask you again.

But you don’t have to worry about this app stuff clogging your news feed, because …

4. All “lightweight” information is going to the Ticker. Status updates, photos from a wedding or a vacation, changes in relationship status: these are the kinds of things you want to see from your friends when you look at your news feed. Who killed whom in Mafia Wars? Who planted what in FarmVille? Not so much. So that kind of trivial detail has been banished to the Ticker, a real-time list of things your friends are posting now that scrolls down the side of your screen.

5. You can watch TV and movies, listen to music, and read news with your friends — all within Facebook. Starting today, thanks to a whole bunch of partnerships, there are a lot more things you can do without ever having to leave Facebook. You can watch a show on Hulu, listen to a song on Spotify, or check out a story on Yahoo News (or Mashable, via the Washington Post‘s Social Read app). The ticker will tell you what your friends are watching, listening to or reading, allowing you to share the experience with them by clicking on a link.

The upshot: a brand-new kind of media-based peer pressure. On stage, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings — a launch partner — revealed that he had only just decided to watch Breaking Bad because Facebook’s Ticker told him a colleague was watching it. Netflix’s own algorithm had been recommending the show to him for years, but that was never reason enough for Hastings.

6. Facebook has more users and more engagement than ever. We got two interesting nuggets of information out of Zuckerberg (and the Zuckerberg-impersonating Andy Samberg): Facebook has hit 800 million users, and most of them are active. The social network just saw a new record for the most visitors in one day: an eye-popping 500 million.

Indeed, the whole impression left by the event was that of a confident, fast-evolving company that is becoming ever more professional, and Zuckerberg’s stage show bore more than a little resemblance to an Apple keynote. It’s going to be interesting to see what Google+ can do to keep up.

Facebook Changes Again: Everything You Need To Know

Facebook  introduced some of the most profound changes seen on Facebook since its inception. So many changes, in fact, that it can be hard to keep track. So here’s a handy-dandy guide.

1. You’re going to get a Timeline — a scrapbook of your life. In a complete overhaul of its ever-evolving profile page, Facebook is introducing Timeline. This is a stream of information about you — the photos you’ve posted, all your status updates, the apps you’ve used, even the places you’ve visited on a world map — that scrolls all the way back to your birth. It encourages you to post more stuff about your past, such as baby pictures, using Facebook as a scrapbook.

The further back in Timeline you go, the more Facebook will compress the information so that you’re only seeing the most interesting parts of your history. You can customize this by clicking on a star next to a status, say, or enlarging a picture.

Timeline is in beta now, and will be opt-in to start. In the long run, it will become the new default profile page.

2. You don’t have to just Like something — now you can [verb] any [noun]. Remember when all you could do to something on Facebook — a video, a comment, a product, a person — was Like it? Pretty soon that’s going to seem laughably antiquated. The social network has launched Facebook Gestures, which means that Facebook’s partners and developers can turn any verb into a button.

So you’ll start seeing the option to tell the world you’re Reading a particular book, for example, or Watching a given movie, or Listening to a certain tune. In turn, as many observers have pointed out, this is likely to lead to an explosion of oversharing — and far more information on your friends’ activities showing up in your news feed than you probably cared to know.


3. Facebook apps need only ask permission once to share stories on your behalf. Although not as big a deal as the Timeline, this tweak may be one of the more controversial. Previously, apps had to ask every time they shared information about you in your profile. Now, the first time you authorize the app, it will tell you what it’s going to share about you. If you’re cool with that, the app never has to ask you again.

But you don’t have to worry about this app stuff clogging your news feed, because …

4. All “lightweight” information is going to the Ticker. Status updates, photos from a wedding or a vacation, changes in relationship status: these are the kinds of things you want to see from your friends when you look at your news feed. Who killed whom in Mafia Wars? Who planted what in FarmVille? Not so much. So that kind of trivial detail has been banished to the Ticker, a real-time list of things your friends are posting now that scrolls down the side of your screen.

5. You can watch TV and movies, listen to music, and read news with your friends — all within Facebook. Starting today, thanks to a whole bunch of partnerships, there are a lot more things you can do without ever having to leave Facebook. You can watch a show on Hulu, listen to a song on Spotify, or check out a story on Yahoo News (or Mashable, via the Washington Post‘s Social Read app). The ticker will tell you what your friends are watching, listening to or reading, allowing you to share the experience with them by clicking on a link.

The upshot: a brand-new kind of media-based peer pressure. On stage, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings — a launch partner — revealed that he had only just decided to watch Breaking Bad because Facebook’s Ticker told him a colleague was watching it. Netflix’s own algorithm had been recommending the show to him for years, but that was never reason enough for Hastings.

6. Facebook has more users and more engagement than ever. We got two interesting nuggets of information out of Zuckerberg (and the Zuckerberg-impersonating Andy Samberg): Facebook has hit 800 million users, and most of them are active. The social network just saw a new record for the most visitors in one day: an eye-popping 500 million.

Indeed, the whole impression left by the event was that of a confident, fast-evolving company that is becoming ever more professional, and Zuckerberg’s stage show bore more than a little resemblance to an Apple keynote. It’s going to be interesting to see what Google+ can do to keep up.

Facebook Changes Again: Everything You Need To Know

Facebook  introduced some of the most profound changes seen on Facebook since its inception. So many changes, in fact, that it can be hard to keep track. So here’s a handy-dandy guide.

1. You’re going to get a Timeline — a scrapbook of your life. In a complete overhaul of its ever-evolving profile page, Facebook is introducing Timeline. This is a stream of information about you — the photos you’ve posted, all your status updates, the apps you’ve used, even the places you’ve visited on a world map — that scrolls all the way back to your birth. It encourages you to post more stuff about your past, such as baby pictures, using Facebook as a scrapbook.

The further back in Timeline you go, the more Facebook will compress the information so that you’re only seeing the most interesting parts of your history. You can customize this by clicking on a star next to a status, say, or enlarging a picture.

Timeline is in beta now, and will be opt-in to start. In the long run, it will become the new default profile page.

2. You don’t have to just Like something — now you can [verb] any [noun]. Remember when all you could do to something on Facebook — a video, a comment, a product, a person — was Like it? Pretty soon that’s going to seem laughably antiquated. The social network has launched Facebook Gestures, which means that Facebook’s partners and developers can turn any verb into a button.

So you’ll start seeing the option to tell the world you’re Reading a particular book, for example, or Watching a given movie, or Listening to a certain tune. In turn, as many observers have pointed out, this is likely to lead to an explosion of oversharing — and far more information on your friends’ activities showing up in your news feed than you probably cared to know.


3. Facebook apps need only ask permission once to share stories on your behalf. Although not as big a deal as the Timeline, this tweak may be one of the more controversial. Previously, apps had to ask every time they shared information about you in your profile. Now, the first time you authorize the app, it will tell you what it’s going to share about you. If you’re cool with that, the app never has to ask you again.

But you don’t have to worry about this app stuff clogging your news feed, because …

4. All “lightweight” information is going to the Ticker. Status updates, photos from a wedding or a vacation, changes in relationship status: these are the kinds of things you want to see from your friends when you look at your news feed. Who killed whom in Mafia Wars? Who planted what in FarmVille? Not so much. So that kind of trivial detail has been banished to the Ticker, a real-time list of things your friends are posting now that scrolls down the side of your screen.

5. You can watch TV and movies, listen to music, and read news with your friends — all within Facebook. Starting today, thanks to a whole bunch of partnerships, there are a lot more things you can do without ever having to leave Facebook. You can watch a show on Hulu, listen to a song on Spotify, or check out a story on Yahoo News (or Mashable, via the Washington Post‘s Social Read app). The ticker will tell you what your friends are watching, listening to or reading, allowing you to share the experience with them by clicking on a link.

The upshot: a brand-new kind of media-based peer pressure. On stage, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings — a launch partner — revealed that he had only just decided to watch Breaking Bad because Facebook’s Ticker told him a colleague was watching it. Netflix’s own algorithm had been recommending the show to him for years, but that was never reason enough for Hastings.

6. Facebook has more users and more engagement than ever. We got two interesting nuggets of information out of Zuckerberg (and the Zuckerberg-impersonating Andy Samberg): Facebook has hit 800 million users, and most of them are active. The social network just saw a new record for the most visitors in one day: an eye-popping 500 million.

Indeed, the whole impression left by the event was that of a confident, fast-evolving company that is becoming ever more professional, and Zuckerberg’s stage show bore more than a little resemblance to an Apple keynote. It’s going to be interesting to see what Google+ can do to keep up.

How to Make Your Internet Connection Faster, Better

OpenDNS to the Internet Connection Performance Rescue


Have you ever pointed your browser to a Web site and had to wait an inordinately long time for the page — or at least the full page — to load? This kind of slow browsing experience can be traced to a variety of causes, but among the most common are problems with the servers that are responsible for actually locating all the sites you visit, your DNS (Domain Name Service) servers.

 A free service called OpenDNS can not only help your browser display Web pages faster it also offers some useful fringe benefits such as address typo correction and phishing protection, plus site blocking, content filtering and more. Before we delve into how to use OpenDNS, let's briefly outline how the DNS system works for those who may not be familiar with it.

What's the Deal with DNS?

 Every time you type a Web site address like www.practicallynetworked.com into your browser, that "friendly" address needs to be translated into the actual IP address for the computer hosting that site. The job of the DNS server is to take the text address you type in, look it up against a database of IP addresses, and then return the correct address to your browser so that the site can be accessed.

 The DNS database is actually distributed across countless servers all over the Internet, but the specific DNS server(s) you use are generally provided by your ISP. When your router obtains its IP address information from your ISP (usually through DHCP), the addresses for the DNS servers are provided as well. These DNS server addresses are in turn passed along to each of your computers via DHCP on your own network so that they all know where to go to look up Internet addresses.

 Long story short: If DNS servers get overloaded or experience other technical problems, they may take a long time to respond to lookup requests or they may not respond at all. Some ISPs are better than others when it comes to maintaining their DNS servers, but problems are not at all uncommon. Sometimes when your Internet connection seems to be down, it may be fine but simply appear down because your ISP's DNS isn't working properly.

 But you don't necessarily need to use your ISP's DNS servers, which brings us back to OpenDNS. OpenDNS, which has been around for about 18 months, is a free DNS service anyone can use, and is more than likely faster and more reliable than the one you're using now. (I've been using it for almost a year now and like many others have found the performance to be excellent.)

How to Use OpenDNS

 So how can you take advantage of OpenDNS? All you need to do is go is update your router's DNS settings via its administrator control panel. After you've logged into your router, look for settings related to DNS — the exact location will vary depending on your router, but you'll often find it under the LAN heading or sometimes even on the first settings page you see.

 When you find the DNS configuration area, you'll probably see that it's set to automatically obtain DNS servers from your ISP. Select the option that allows you to specify your own DNS server addresses, and then enter 208.67.222.222 as the primary DNS and 208.67.220.220 as the secondary DNS (as you might guess, the secondary is used if the primary isn't available).

 Your router may or may not reboot itself once you apply the new DNS settings, but in order to make sure each of your computers is using the OpenDNS servers, you should manually obtain a new DHCP address for each of them. An easy way to do this in XP is to right-click your network connection's tray icon and select Repair. In Vista, you can verify that a particular system is using OpenDNS if you see "You're using OpenDNS" message when you browse to welcome.opendns.com.)

 After some time spent using OpenDNS, you should notice that your browser generally takes less time to find and display Web sites. Even if you don't see a perceptible increase in performance, you'll still be able to benefit from several security and convenience features. For starters, OpenDNS can fix typos in the URLs you type, so if you accidentally type www.practicallynetworked.cmo — or .co, or .cm — you'll still be taken to the site you intended instead of being greeted by error message, or worse, an ersatz site from Cameroon (which owns the .cm domain).

 If you happen to type a nonexistent site name, instead of a not found error you'll see an OpenDNS Guide page with suggested alternate links (as well as some sponsored ones, which help keep OpenDNS free). For example, I sometimes inadvertently try to access the PracticallyNetworked.com site by typing in "pracnet.com" (PracNet is an internal nickname for the site), and when I do, PracticallyNetworked.com is first among the OpenDNS suggested links. Last but not least, using OpenDNS also gets you automatic phishing protection, so if the site you want to go to is known for phishing, OpenDNS won't take you there.

How to Make Your Internet Connection Faster, Better

OpenDNS to the Internet Connection Performance Rescue


Have you ever pointed your browser to a Web site and had to wait an inordinately long time for the page — or at least the full page — to load? This kind of slow browsing experience can be traced to a variety of causes, but among the most common are problems with the servers that are responsible for actually locating all the sites you visit, your DNS (Domain Name Service) servers.

 A free service called OpenDNS can not only help your browser display Web pages faster it also offers some useful fringe benefits such as address typo correction and phishing protection, plus site blocking, content filtering and more. Before we delve into how to use OpenDNS, let's briefly outline how the DNS system works for those who may not be familiar with it.

What's the Deal with DNS?

 Every time you type a Web site address like www.practicallynetworked.com into your browser, that "friendly" address needs to be translated into the actual IP address for the computer hosting that site. The job of the DNS server is to take the text address you type in, look it up against a database of IP addresses, and then return the correct address to your browser so that the site can be accessed.

 The DNS database is actually distributed across countless servers all over the Internet, but the specific DNS server(s) you use are generally provided by your ISP. When your router obtains its IP address information from your ISP (usually through DHCP), the addresses for the DNS servers are provided as well. These DNS server addresses are in turn passed along to each of your computers via DHCP on your own network so that they all know where to go to look up Internet addresses.

 Long story short: If DNS servers get overloaded or experience other technical problems, they may take a long time to respond to lookup requests or they may not respond at all. Some ISPs are better than others when it comes to maintaining their DNS servers, but problems are not at all uncommon. Sometimes when your Internet connection seems to be down, it may be fine but simply appear down because your ISP's DNS isn't working properly.

 But you don't necessarily need to use your ISP's DNS servers, which brings us back to OpenDNS. OpenDNS, which has been around for about 18 months, is a free DNS service anyone can use, and is more than likely faster and more reliable than the one you're using now. (I've been using it for almost a year now and like many others have found the performance to be excellent.)

How to Use OpenDNS

 So how can you take advantage of OpenDNS? All you need to do is go is update your router's DNS settings via its administrator control panel. After you've logged into your router, look for settings related to DNS — the exact location will vary depending on your router, but you'll often find it under the LAN heading or sometimes even on the first settings page you see.

 When you find the DNS configuration area, you'll probably see that it's set to automatically obtain DNS servers from your ISP. Select the option that allows you to specify your own DNS server addresses, and then enter 208.67.222.222 as the primary DNS and 208.67.220.220 as the secondary DNS (as you might guess, the secondary is used if the primary isn't available).

 Your router may or may not reboot itself once you apply the new DNS settings, but in order to make sure each of your computers is using the OpenDNS servers, you should manually obtain a new DHCP address for each of them. An easy way to do this in XP is to right-click your network connection's tray icon and select Repair. In Vista, you can verify that a particular system is using OpenDNS if you see "You're using OpenDNS" message when you browse to welcome.opendns.com.)

 After some time spent using OpenDNS, you should notice that your browser generally takes less time to find and display Web sites. Even if you don't see a perceptible increase in performance, you'll still be able to benefit from several security and convenience features. For starters, OpenDNS can fix typos in the URLs you type, so if you accidentally type www.practicallynetworked.cmo — or .co, or .cm — you'll still be taken to the site you intended instead of being greeted by error message, or worse, an ersatz site from Cameroon (which owns the .cm domain).

 If you happen to type a nonexistent site name, instead of a not found error you'll see an OpenDNS Guide page with suggested alternate links (as well as some sponsored ones, which help keep OpenDNS free). For example, I sometimes inadvertently try to access the PracticallyNetworked.com site by typing in "pracnet.com" (PracNet is an internal nickname for the site), and when I do, PracticallyNetworked.com is first among the OpenDNS suggested links. Last but not least, using OpenDNS also gets you automatic phishing protection, so if the site you want to go to is known for phishing, OpenDNS won't take you there.

How to Make Your Internet Connection Faster, Better

OpenDNS to the Internet Connection Performance Rescue


Have you ever pointed your browser to a Web site and had to wait an inordinately long time for the page — or at least the full page — to load? This kind of slow browsing experience can be traced to a variety of causes, but among the most common are problems with the servers that are responsible for actually locating all the sites you visit, your DNS (Domain Name Service) servers.

 A free service called OpenDNS can not only help your browser display Web pages faster it also offers some useful fringe benefits such as address typo correction and phishing protection, plus site blocking, content filtering and more. Before we delve into how to use OpenDNS, let's briefly outline how the DNS system works for those who may not be familiar with it.

What's the Deal with DNS?

 Every time you type a Web site address like www.practicallynetworked.com into your browser, that "friendly" address needs to be translated into the actual IP address for the computer hosting that site. The job of the DNS server is to take the text address you type in, look it up against a database of IP addresses, and then return the correct address to your browser so that the site can be accessed.

 The DNS database is actually distributed across countless servers all over the Internet, but the specific DNS server(s) you use are generally provided by your ISP. When your router obtains its IP address information from your ISP (usually through DHCP), the addresses for the DNS servers are provided as well. These DNS server addresses are in turn passed along to each of your computers via DHCP on your own network so that they all know where to go to look up Internet addresses.

 Long story short: If DNS servers get overloaded or experience other technical problems, they may take a long time to respond to lookup requests or they may not respond at all. Some ISPs are better than others when it comes to maintaining their DNS servers, but problems are not at all uncommon. Sometimes when your Internet connection seems to be down, it may be fine but simply appear down because your ISP's DNS isn't working properly.

 But you don't necessarily need to use your ISP's DNS servers, which brings us back to OpenDNS. OpenDNS, which has been around for about 18 months, is a free DNS service anyone can use, and is more than likely faster and more reliable than the one you're using now. (I've been using it for almost a year now and like many others have found the performance to be excellent.)

How to Use OpenDNS

 So how can you take advantage of OpenDNS? All you need to do is go is update your router's DNS settings via its administrator control panel. After you've logged into your router, look for settings related to DNS — the exact location will vary depending on your router, but you'll often find it under the LAN heading or sometimes even on the first settings page you see.

 When you find the DNS configuration area, you'll probably see that it's set to automatically obtain DNS servers from your ISP. Select the option that allows you to specify your own DNS server addresses, and then enter 208.67.222.222 as the primary DNS and 208.67.220.220 as the secondary DNS (as you might guess, the secondary is used if the primary isn't available).

 Your router may or may not reboot itself once you apply the new DNS settings, but in order to make sure each of your computers is using the OpenDNS servers, you should manually obtain a new DHCP address for each of them. An easy way to do this in XP is to right-click your network connection's tray icon and select Repair. In Vista, you can verify that a particular system is using OpenDNS if you see "You're using OpenDNS" message when you browse to welcome.opendns.com.)

 After some time spent using OpenDNS, you should notice that your browser generally takes less time to find and display Web sites. Even if you don't see a perceptible increase in performance, you'll still be able to benefit from several security and convenience features. For starters, OpenDNS can fix typos in the URLs you type, so if you accidentally type www.practicallynetworked.cmo — or .co, or .cm — you'll still be taken to the site you intended instead of being greeted by error message, or worse, an ersatz site from Cameroon (which owns the .cm domain).

 If you happen to type a nonexistent site name, instead of a not found error you'll see an OpenDNS Guide page with suggested alternate links (as well as some sponsored ones, which help keep OpenDNS free). For example, I sometimes inadvertently try to access the PracticallyNetworked.com site by typing in "pracnet.com" (PracNet is an internal nickname for the site), and when I do, PracticallyNetworked.com is first among the OpenDNS suggested links. Last but not least, using OpenDNS also gets you automatic phishing protection, so if the site you want to go to is known for phishing, OpenDNS won't take you there.

Windows 7: A Complete Survival Guide

Yet questions still remain about upgrading to the new OS, how Windows 7 works compared to Vista, and whether there will be any serious compatibility issues once Windows 7 is finally installed on computers across the United States.

There are a lot of questions out there about Windows 7, and I have answers. I've gone through the PC World vault to find all the information you need about upgrading, the pros and cons of buying a new system, Windows 7 security, and more. With this handy guide at your side, you'll be able to embrace everything Windows 7 has to offer.

Upgrade to Windows 7


Upgrading to a new Windows OS is always filled with questions, like which version of Windows 7 is for me? How much does it cost? Should I even bother upgrading at all?

Check out our Windows 7 Upgrade FAQ to read up on the numerous editions of the OS, and to find pricing information. But you may want to hold off on upgrading since Windows 7 upgrade fees could go down in the near future.

If you're still trying to decide whether the new OS is for you, here is why you should upgrade to Windows 7, and reasons why you shouldn't bother. We also have information about an online tool that tells you if your PC is upgrade-ready.

But if you're ready to make the switch, be sure you go through PC World's Windows 7 upgrade checklist, and the installation how-to guide. They can help ease you through the process. If you're a business owner, you should also read over these four tips for smooth upgrades to Windows 7.

Windows XP users may find the upgrade process too difficult, but we've got an XP-to-Windows 7 upgrade guide to make it easier. Netbook owners should also check out how you can get from XP to Windows 7 in just 30 minutes. But even if you decide to stick with XP, that doesn't mean you can't have some of the great new functionality in Windows 7. See how you can get Windows 7 features on an XP or Vista system.
Should I Buy a New System?


When Vista was released, it was clear that most users were going to need a new system to handle the OS. Windows 7, however, is supposedly designed to run on anything, and was even found to be a little bit faster than Vista in PC World's performance tests. So you may not need a new computer after all, but if you're running XP or finding the upgrade path a little too scary, maybe you should splurge on that new laptop you've had your eye on.

IT manager and PC World blogger Michael Scalisi has a great FAQ to help you through the big decision, but the Tech Inciter, David Coursey, says forget about upgrading and just buy a new computer already.

If you do decide to invest in a new machine, or even if you've upgraded, PC World's David Murphy has some tips to help you optimize your Windows 7 system.

Features, Features, Features


Windows 7 is loaded with new features and interface changes. Some you may find intuitive, while others are going to take some time getting used to. Check out Harry McCracken's list of the 10 Best Features of Windows 7, which includes Jump Lists, a better Windows Media Player, and the new taskbar. Rick Broida tells you about one-click Wi-Fi, DeviceStage, and HomeGroup. Then join Tony Bradley for his list of the best features in Windows 7. If you need more feature frenzy, how about a slideshow of the best and worst of Windows 7 and Windows 7 Server.
Windows 7 Security

Any Windows user knows you have to watch out for viruses, spyware, and worms, but Vista's security features were widely panned for being annoying. Windows 7 has toned down the warnings, but it's still got some big security features. In fact, Windows 7 may be the safest Windows OS yet. PC World's Business Center has an extensive guide to Windows 7 security like user Account Control, Fingerprint Scanner Support and data encryption. You can also check out a video tour of the improvements with Senior Editor Robert Strohmeyer.
The Best of the Rest


If you've got multiple computers in your house, then you'll want to read up on how you can take advantage of Windows 7's networking features to connect all the computers in your home. PC World also has a networking video tour taken at its Windows 7 launch party.

There's also a guide to the wide range of keyboard shortcuts in Windows 7 for quick access to common actions. If you're tired of both the mouse and the keyboard, Windows 7 also has a serviceable speech recognition tool worth checking out.

PC World also has a rundown of the good, the bad, and the unknown in Windows 7, and check out Nick Mediati's guide to how they test Windows 7 for performance speeds.

Finally, Windows 7 gives a lot in terms of new features, security improvements, and user interface tweaks, but it also demands a lot from your computer. Check out how to mitigate the seven deadly sins of Windows 7.

Not enough Windows 7 information for you? Be sure to check out PC World's Windows 7 section for more Windows-related tips, news and tweaks.

Windows 7: A Complete Survival Guide

Yet questions still remain about upgrading to the new OS, how Windows 7 works compared to Vista, and whether there will be any serious compatibility issues once Windows 7 is finally installed on computers across the United States.

There are a lot of questions out there about Windows 7, and I have answers. I've gone through the PC World vault to find all the information you need about upgrading, the pros and cons of buying a new system, Windows 7 security, and more. With this handy guide at your side, you'll be able to embrace everything Windows 7 has to offer.

Upgrade to Windows 7


Upgrading to a new Windows OS is always filled with questions, like which version of Windows 7 is for me? How much does it cost? Should I even bother upgrading at all?

Check out our Windows 7 Upgrade FAQ to read up on the numerous editions of the OS, and to find pricing information. But you may want to hold off on upgrading since Windows 7 upgrade fees could go down in the near future.

If you're still trying to decide whether the new OS is for you, here is why you should upgrade to Windows 7, and reasons why you shouldn't bother. We also have information about an online tool that tells you if your PC is upgrade-ready.

But if you're ready to make the switch, be sure you go through PC World's Windows 7 upgrade checklist, and the installation how-to guide. They can help ease you through the process. If you're a business owner, you should also read over these four tips for smooth upgrades to Windows 7.

Windows XP users may find the upgrade process too difficult, but we've got an XP-to-Windows 7 upgrade guide to make it easier. Netbook owners should also check out how you can get from XP to Windows 7 in just 30 minutes. But even if you decide to stick with XP, that doesn't mean you can't have some of the great new functionality in Windows 7. See how you can get Windows 7 features on an XP or Vista system.
Should I Buy a New System?


When Vista was released, it was clear that most users were going to need a new system to handle the OS. Windows 7, however, is supposedly designed to run on anything, and was even found to be a little bit faster than Vista in PC World's performance tests. So you may not need a new computer after all, but if you're running XP or finding the upgrade path a little too scary, maybe you should splurge on that new laptop you've had your eye on.

IT manager and PC World blogger Michael Scalisi has a great FAQ to help you through the big decision, but the Tech Inciter, David Coursey, says forget about upgrading and just buy a new computer already.

If you do decide to invest in a new machine, or even if you've upgraded, PC World's David Murphy has some tips to help you optimize your Windows 7 system.

Features, Features, Features


Windows 7 is loaded with new features and interface changes. Some you may find intuitive, while others are going to take some time getting used to. Check out Harry McCracken's list of the 10 Best Features of Windows 7, which includes Jump Lists, a better Windows Media Player, and the new taskbar. Rick Broida tells you about one-click Wi-Fi, DeviceStage, and HomeGroup. Then join Tony Bradley for his list of the best features in Windows 7. If you need more feature frenzy, how about a slideshow of the best and worst of Windows 7 and Windows 7 Server.
Windows 7 Security

Any Windows user knows you have to watch out for viruses, spyware, and worms, but Vista's security features were widely panned for being annoying. Windows 7 has toned down the warnings, but it's still got some big security features. In fact, Windows 7 may be the safest Windows OS yet. PC World's Business Center has an extensive guide to Windows 7 security like user Account Control, Fingerprint Scanner Support and data encryption. You can also check out a video tour of the improvements with Senior Editor Robert Strohmeyer.
The Best of the Rest


If you've got multiple computers in your house, then you'll want to read up on how you can take advantage of Windows 7's networking features to connect all the computers in your home. PC World also has a networking video tour taken at its Windows 7 launch party.

There's also a guide to the wide range of keyboard shortcuts in Windows 7 for quick access to common actions. If you're tired of both the mouse and the keyboard, Windows 7 also has a serviceable speech recognition tool worth checking out.

PC World also has a rundown of the good, the bad, and the unknown in Windows 7, and check out Nick Mediati's guide to how they test Windows 7 for performance speeds.

Finally, Windows 7 gives a lot in terms of new features, security improvements, and user interface tweaks, but it also demands a lot from your computer. Check out how to mitigate the seven deadly sins of Windows 7.

Not enough Windows 7 information for you? Be sure to check out PC World's Windows 7 section for more Windows-related tips, news and tweaks.

Windows 7: A Complete Survival Guide

Yet questions still remain about upgrading to the new OS, how Windows 7 works compared to Vista, and whether there will be any serious compatibility issues once Windows 7 is finally installed on computers across the United States.

There are a lot of questions out there about Windows 7, and I have answers. I've gone through the PC World vault to find all the information you need about upgrading, the pros and cons of buying a new system, Windows 7 security, and more. With this handy guide at your side, you'll be able to embrace everything Windows 7 has to offer.

Upgrade to Windows 7


Upgrading to a new Windows OS is always filled with questions, like which version of Windows 7 is for me? How much does it cost? Should I even bother upgrading at all?

Check out our Windows 7 Upgrade FAQ to read up on the numerous editions of the OS, and to find pricing information. But you may want to hold off on upgrading since Windows 7 upgrade fees could go down in the near future.

If you're still trying to decide whether the new OS is for you, here is why you should upgrade to Windows 7, and reasons why you shouldn't bother. We also have information about an online tool that tells you if your PC is upgrade-ready.

But if you're ready to make the switch, be sure you go through PC World's Windows 7 upgrade checklist, and the installation how-to guide. They can help ease you through the process. If you're a business owner, you should also read over these four tips for smooth upgrades to Windows 7.

Windows XP users may find the upgrade process too difficult, but we've got an XP-to-Windows 7 upgrade guide to make it easier. Netbook owners should also check out how you can get from XP to Windows 7 in just 30 minutes. But even if you decide to stick with XP, that doesn't mean you can't have some of the great new functionality in Windows 7. See how you can get Windows 7 features on an XP or Vista system.
Should I Buy a New System?


When Vista was released, it was clear that most users were going to need a new system to handle the OS. Windows 7, however, is supposedly designed to run on anything, and was even found to be a little bit faster than Vista in PC World's performance tests. So you may not need a new computer after all, but if you're running XP or finding the upgrade path a little too scary, maybe you should splurge on that new laptop you've had your eye on.

IT manager and PC World blogger Michael Scalisi has a great FAQ to help you through the big decision, but the Tech Inciter, David Coursey, says forget about upgrading and just buy a new computer already.

If you do decide to invest in a new machine, or even if you've upgraded, PC World's David Murphy has some tips to help you optimize your Windows 7 system.

Features, Features, Features


Windows 7 is loaded with new features and interface changes. Some you may find intuitive, while others are going to take some time getting used to. Check out Harry McCracken's list of the 10 Best Features of Windows 7, which includes Jump Lists, a better Windows Media Player, and the new taskbar. Rick Broida tells you about one-click Wi-Fi, DeviceStage, and HomeGroup. Then join Tony Bradley for his list of the best features in Windows 7. If you need more feature frenzy, how about a slideshow of the best and worst of Windows 7 and Windows 7 Server.
Windows 7 Security

Any Windows user knows you have to watch out for viruses, spyware, and worms, but Vista's security features were widely panned for being annoying. Windows 7 has toned down the warnings, but it's still got some big security features. In fact, Windows 7 may be the safest Windows OS yet. PC World's Business Center has an extensive guide to Windows 7 security like user Account Control, Fingerprint Scanner Support and data encryption. You can also check out a video tour of the improvements with Senior Editor Robert Strohmeyer.
The Best of the Rest


If you've got multiple computers in your house, then you'll want to read up on how you can take advantage of Windows 7's networking features to connect all the computers in your home. PC World also has a networking video tour taken at its Windows 7 launch party.

There's also a guide to the wide range of keyboard shortcuts in Windows 7 for quick access to common actions. If you're tired of both the mouse and the keyboard, Windows 7 also has a serviceable speech recognition tool worth checking out.

PC World also has a rundown of the good, the bad, and the unknown in Windows 7, and check out Nick Mediati's guide to how they test Windows 7 for performance speeds.

Finally, Windows 7 gives a lot in terms of new features, security improvements, and user interface tweaks, but it also demands a lot from your computer. Check out how to mitigate the seven deadly sins of Windows 7.

Not enough Windows 7 information for you? Be sure to check out PC World's Windows 7 section for more Windows-related tips, news and tweaks.

4 reasons to synchronize your phone with your PC

Think about how much you do—or could do—with your phone: make phone calls and send and receive email, IM, and text messages. You probably download TV shows, movies, and music to your phone. And of course, you take, send, and receive photos. It's truly amazing—anywhere you go, you're connected. So here's the question. If you already have everything on your phone, why sync it with your PC?

Because synchronizing your phone with your PC is the best way to transfer information, settings, and files. You keep all your information up to date. And you have it at home and at work.
Keep appointments

We're all overbooked. If you've entered an appointment or meeting into your PC and haven't synced with your phone, you could miss the appointment. If you’re scheduling appointments away from home on your phone and your phone's not synced with the up-to-date schedule on your computer, you may miss the appointment and have to call the dentist, piano teacher, or doctor to reschedule. Often, you have to pay for those missed appointments. Plus, you go through the hassle of rescheduling.



The latest version of Windows Phone makes it even easier to keep track of appointments. The new Today screen that appears when you turn on your phone shows your appointments and any missed calls, unread messages, and your programs. The new Lock screen displays new messages and appointments without requiring you to enter a PIN when the phone is locked—all while providing access to mute, speakerphone, hold, and other functions during calls, so you don’t miss a thing. Call it appointment insurance.

Take work, projects, or homework with you

Need to finish your homework—a report on fifteenth-century Paraguayan dictators—or practice a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation? Now you can do this work on your phone while riding the bus or sitting in a coffee shop. Have to complete a report or speech or enter data into an Excel spreadsheet for a project you're working on? Catch up with your work on your phone while you’re waiting for your teenager to finish guitar lessons or while you're having the oil changed in your car. It's possible just by installing Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 on your Windows Phone. And because you get the familiar Microsoft Office look and feel and the programs that you’re used to, there's no learning curve.

If you're using a touch screen phone, you get additional features, such as word count and spell check. You can create charts in Microsoft Excel Mobile, plus you can create documents in Microsoft Word Mobile, and you can highlight sections of content that you would like to fix later or that you've downloaded and want to remember. You can use OneNote Mobile to take quick notes or to save web links and then sync your notes with your PC, so you always have up-to-date information.

The latest version of Microsoft Office Mobile is compatible with the Office 2010 and previous Microsoft Office and Office Mobile releases, so you can work with all your existing Microsoft Office documents. Plus, Office Mobile gives you even more options for working with documents from your phone. Now you can create even richer charts in Excel Mobile, use SmartArt and Themes in PowerPoint Mobile, and view the contents of zipped folders. And wouldn’t it be nice to have a choice about how you view those documents? If you use Windows Phone, you do. With Windows Phone, you can choose between Mobile view (enhanced for display on phones) or Full Desktop view when working on documents. Also, the improved clipboard on your Windows Phone makes copying and pasting to and from any applications on your phone simple and intuitive.

Office Mobile 2010 includes a new application that makes working with documents on your phone even easier—SharePoint Workspace Mobile 2010. This application makes sending your Microsoft Office documents from your phone via email or saving them directly to SharePoint Server simple. You can open SharePoint documents directly from your phone, edit them, and save them to the server. You can also sync them to your PC.

You can download a free Office Mobile upgrade for qualified phones. If Office Mobile is not pre-installed on your phone, you don't have to get a new phone. You can just purchase Office Mobile separately from Windows Marketplace for Mobile. Read this article to learn even more about Office Mobile 2010.

Save pictures

You take pictures with your phone, right? You take your phone everywhere, so when you don't have your camera, you just take pictures with your phone. You snap photos of your kids when they do something cute, which, let's face it, as parents, you think is pretty often. You're on a great mountain bike trail, and you take a picture to send to your friends. And what was once only available to private eyes and spies is now right on your phone. Espionage is at your fingertips. Sort of. Honest espionage. Like covertly snapping a shot of the cute guy you've been telling your friends about. Or taking a picture of the waterfront condo your parents want to buy. You can send these pictures right away, but you probably want to save many of them to your PC. One word: synchronize.

Protect your stuff against loss or theft

Here's a question for you. What's easier to misplace or even lose: your phone or your PC? Loss, theft, and malfunctions don't just happen to others. They happen. To everyone.

Although replacing a lost or stolen phone isn't exactly fun, it's a job you can take care of pretty easily. Replacing the email, contact information, pictures, music, and documents that you stored on that phone, however, can prove to be an impossible task if you haven’t synchronized your phone with your PC on a regular basis.

And remember this. You wouldn't dream of not backing up your PC. For your phone, synchronizing is your backup.

Want more peace of mind? Try the Microsoft My Phone service. It’s free. My Phone backs up the contents of your Windows Phone—contacts, calendars, photos, text messages, documents, and more—to the My Phone website for password-protected access and retrieval from any PC with an Internet connection. A bonus: After you’ve synced your phone’s contents to My Phone, you can search your text messages from the My Phone site. With My Phone, you can also easily send photos to social networking sites—from your phone—and even locate your phone if you lose it.

Sync and save—time, money, and your important information!

Upgrading From Windows XP to Windows 7

The official word from Microsoft is you can’t upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7; you need a clean install. But in fact you can upgrade, including moving your data, applications, and settings. Here are some tips to help.

With Microsoft having abandoned Windows XP SP2, late-adopting companies still using XP are being pushed to make the upgrade to Windows 7. Windows XP is a dying breed.  It’s time to upgrade. Microsoft says only Windows Vista systems are eligible to upgrade, while Windows XP users need to make a clean install of the new operating system:

You can’t directly upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7, says Microsoft.

Thankfully, you can avoid the need to wipe the disk of each PC and clean-install Windows 7 manually.  Some tricks are more effective than others. Let’s look at some of these upgrade options, the DO’s and DON’Ts, and pick the slickest (and cheapest) and method.
#1: Don’t migrate from Windows XP to Windows Vista to Windows 7

Some IT departments are so desperate to avoid clean-installing Windows 7 that they “upgrade the upgrade.”

The workaround involves performing an in-place upgrade from Windows XP SP3 to Vista SP2 (which is possible), then an upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 using Setup.exe (which is also possible, of course). This is a bad idea because it requires paying for Windows Vista licenses. There are other reasons why no company should even consider going that route.

The reason Microsoft doesn’t recommend upgrading from XP to Windows 7 is that there are too many changes to PC configurations (such as applets, hardware support, and the driver model) to carry it all forward, according to Microsoft’s Engineering 7 blog. A clean install is better.