Install Windows Vista/Windows 7 from a USB Thumb drive (USB Stick)

As technology grows, PC especially new computers are becoming more high end and portable. Operating Systems now a days are growing and making it more better and easier. Some computer can’t handle the process because of the lack needs of the requirements.  New computers like Netbooks are the simplest  way to carry light and portable especially when you are travelling. That’s good but when you want to change your OS on it, you can’t because you need to have a USB DVD drive to do that and USB DVD drives are expensive.

But there is another way of installing an OS to your Netbooks, your Notebook, even on your PC in just a thumb away. That’s right, thanks to Noxtek from his YouTube who gave this magical way. It’s portable and no need a DVD and DVD driver to do that. You can use your USB Thumb drive (Flash Drive) as your OS installer! How? Here’s what you need to do.

Things that you need:

• PC (of course)
• At least 4GB of USB thumb drive.
• Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7 DVD Installer. Windows XP will not work.
• A PC running Windows Vista or above for the installation copy.

Caution: Make sure that you follow the instructions carefully. You must be a bit professional on this. If something happen to your system, well it’s not my fault. Take your at on own risk.

Instructions:

• Insert your USB thumb drive to a PC running Windows Vista or above. It won't work on Windows XP.
  
• After it's finished. Go to Start. Then on the search box, type “cmd” to bring up the command prompt (to be secure, run it as administration).
  
• Then on the command prompt, type “diskpart” to bring up the Microsoft DiskPart Partition Tool.
  
• When it’s prompt, type “list disk” to bring up the list of the disk drive.
• Select the disk number that your USB thumb drive is located by typing “select disk (the number where your UBS thumb drive is located)”. Example, your USB drive is located on Drive 2. Type “select disk 2”.
  
• After the drive has select, type “clean” to clean up your thumb drive. (Make sure you don’t have important files on your thumb drive).
  
• Now, create a primary partition by typing “create partition primary”.
  
• After it’s done, select the partition by typing “select partition 1”. This will select the primary partition that you’ve created.
  
• Then, type “active” to make the partition active.
  
• After doing that, format the partition drive in FAT32 by typing “format fs=fat32 quick”.
  
• After it’s complete, exit the diskpart by tying “exit” but don’t exit the command prompt.
  
• Next is insert your Windows Vista or Windows 7 DVD installer on to your DVD Drive.
  
• Go back to your command prompt. type “xcopy (the source drive which is your DVD):\*.* /s /e /f (the target drive which is your thumb drive) :\”. Example: Your DVD drive is located at Drive D. Then your USB thumb drive is on Drive E. So what you going to type is “xcopy d:\*.* /s /e /f e:\”.
  
  Further explanation: The xcopy is a method to copy files. The “d:\*.*” is to copy all types of files and extensions on the DVD drive. The “/s /e /f” is to copy all system files, hidden files and folders on the DVD drive. The “e:\” is the target location of the Thumb drive.
  
• It will take a few minutes to copy all the Windows Vista/7 installation files on to your thumb drive. Be patient.
  
• After it’s complete. You can now exit the command prompt and you have yourself a Windows Vista/7 USB thumb drive installer.
  

The next step is on how to boot Windows Vista or Windows 7 install from a thumb. There are 2 ways actually. The first way is we need to go to the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) setup. Here’s what you need to do.

• Reboot your PC
• Once your system starts up, press Delete to go to the BIOS setup (in some PC and Laptop, F2 is the key. It depends  the brand of the motherboard and the manufacturer)
• On your BIOS setup, find the boot section then go to the Hard Drive. Select your thumb drive and make it as primary. Then Save and Exit the program. (In other BIOS, they have different setup. If you can’t find the boot section, please refer to your User’s Manual of the machine).
• Once you exit, the system will boot from your thumb drive.

The other way is:

• Reboot your PC
• Once your system starts up, press F8 as long as you can until it pops-up the boot menu (In some machines, F12 or Escape depending on the brand of the machine)
• Select the thumb drive on the Hard Disk section (sometimes, it’s on the main menu depending on the brand of the machine).
• Once you select, hit enter and it will boot your thumb drive.

And that’s it. You can now install Windows Vista or Windows 7 from your thumb drive.

For the demonstration of the video. Here it is. If you have question, please comment on my blog. Thanks!

fring™. The IM mobile phone

When my WiFi Router is working back again. I figure that I would have an IM (Instant Messenger) on my Nokia N95 mobile phone since it has WiFi capability. Then I search Google on my mobile phone about mobile IM. Then, I found this application that I can IM any messaging service!

What is fring?

fring™ is a mobile internet service & community that enables you to access & interact with your social networks on-the-go, make free calls and live chat with all your fring, Skype®, MSN® Messenger, Google Talk™, ICQ, SIP, Twitter, Yahoo!™ and AIM®* friends using your handset’s internet connection.

fring features:

• take all IM buddies mobile and view them from one, integrated contact list
• free calls
• live chat instead of SMS.
• call landlines and regular cellular contacts using SkypeOut or SIP
• enjoy mobile internet via fringAdd-on applications
• view call history
• invite friends to fring
• send & receive files between Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and fring.
• choose incoming call and message tones
• auto-roam in and out of WiFi hotspots
• Create a fringAdd-on

It’s FREE! and it works on the following mobile OS (Operating System) phones:

• Symbian OS 8 and 9 (S60, S40 2nd, 3rd & 4th edition)
• UIQ
• Windows Mobile
• iPhone

http://www.fring.com/

Try it for yourself. Feel free to ask question about this, your much welcome :)

Facebook is number 1!

According to The Web Information Company, Alexa. Facebook raised to number 1 in the social networking category. This social networking has been around since 2004. It was originated as a project of their school then it became rapidly popular around the world.

Here are the top 5 rank list*:

1. Facebook
2. MySpace
3. Hi5
4. Flickr
5. Friendster

*according to The Web Information Company, Alexa. 2009

for more info, please visit this site.
http://www.alexa.com/browse?CategoryID=6309075&Start=1

Facebook is number 1!

According to The Web Information Company, Alexa. Facebook raised to number 1 in the social networking category. This social networking has been around since 2004. It was originated as a project of their school then it became rapidly popular around the world.

Here are the top 5 rank list*:

1. Facebook
2. MySpace
3. Hi5
4. Flickr
5. Friendster

*according to The Web Information Company, Alexa. 2009

for more info, please visit this site.
http://www.alexa.com/browse?CategoryID=6309075&Start=1

Features in Windwos 7: The Taskbar (2nd Part)

Another thing I like the new taskbar in Windows 7 is the new enhanced notification area.
 
The Notification Area of Windows 7.

It still the same notification area like we see on the past versions of Windows but the main difference is Notification can now be control and hide them easily by just dragging up the icon that you want to hide and if you want to visible in the taskbar, just drag it down.

 
 
This figure shows that if you drag the icon up, the icon that you’ve drag is now on the hidden icons tray.

The Action Center

The Action Center is a new security feature in Windows 7. The Action Center is the successor of Windows Security Center (it was first introduced in Windows XP SP2). The Action Center has the same features in Windows Security Center but a lot of enhancement. Action Center can report any errors of your computer, reminders you of update of the software especially Anti-virus program, Maintenance reviews and Troubleshooting advices.

 
The Action Center notification. It reviews you current computer status. As you can see I don’t have problems. So which means that my computer is safe and up-to-date.

In previous version of Windows, the Show Desktop icon was integrated on the Quick Launch. Now on Windows 7, the Show Desktop is now at the end next to the clock and date and it’s now a button. It has the same functionality but the more interesting part is when you hover your mouse over the Show Desktop button, you can see the Windows are turned into glass and you can see the preview of the Desktop just like the switcher I shown you on the 1st part.

The Show Desktop demonstration. As you can see when I hover (not click) the mouse over the button, it turns the window into class except Yahoo! Messenger. It doesn’t have the Aero Glass integration so it doesn’t turn into glass, it just disappears itself.

So that is the taskbar feature on Windows 7. On my next blog, I will show to you the new enhancement Windows Explorer and the new Desktop Themes.

My reaction on the new taskbar

It’s great and well organized. It really enhance my workflow and it keeps things organized. The preview pane of the application is great. I don’t have to switch it, I’m just going to preview it. It’s awsome, fast, and simple enhance the user. When I saw the new taskbar for the first time, I was impress of the changes and yes at first it was hard. But when you get to use of it, it won’t be hard. It’s more easier than ever. I love it. I’m giving it a 5 star! Good Job Microsoft.

Features in Windows 7: The Taskbar

Since Windows 95 introduced, a friend of my brother told me that it was amazing because of the Taskbar. It’s easily to access programs and easily to notify anything (I think he refers to the Notification area with the clock).

I love the taskbar since when I was used it for the first time in 1999 (which is Windows 98 back then) but when the other version of Windows came out like Windows XP, Windows Vista, I didn’t see some improvement except maybe the features in the Notification area has change a bit but I still don’t see it. Until Windows 7 beta came out and featured a new taskbar. It’s still the same taskbar but a whole enhancement.

The new Taskbar in Windows 7.

The Taskbar features

Now, the you can pin your favorite application into the taskbar just like Quick Launch but it can also be a taskbar button when you run it.

 
Application can be pin on the taskbar and can be also a taskbar button when the application is running.

If you have multiple the same application, it will not create a new button on the taskbar but it will give a button within the application button itself. Example if you’re running Windows Explorer. Then you open another Windows Explorer, you will see a bar on the right side of the button. That means that the button has 2 or more applications running.

 
The Windows Explorer button has 2 or more applications running.

The fun part here on this button is if you want to switch window, your thumbnail preview (the preview pane when you hover the button) becomes a button or the switcher

 
The Windows Explorer button showing 2 open windows and the preview pane becomes the switch of the window.

and the amazing part of this is if you just want to see the preview of the window with actually open it. Just hover your mouse over the thumbnail and all the other windows of the desktop will turn into glass and the only window that you peeking at is the only window appear. This feature is called  “Aero Peek”.

This image shows the Aero Peek feature. It shows the preview of the actual window by just hover the thumbnail of the application without actually open or pressing it.

Another feature on Windows 7  is  Jump List. Jump List are the menu options that contains Recent Files of the applications and ability to close multiple application on the same button by right-clicking it. Example if you have Microsoft Office Word pinned on your taskbar, you can access your recent files that you’ve open. You can also pinned your recent files. In Windows Live Messenger has a different menu option. You can change your status, you can sign-in without actually open the application. It’s easier than ever.

 
Jump List can access your recent open files and can be also pinned.

I love the new taskbar, it’s so simple, tightly, and user friendly. I can believe that this would happen on Windows 7. I was expecting this since Windows Vista but only the Aero Experience has been enhance turning the taskbar into glass type. I’m looking forward for the next version of Windows.

…continue Part 2.