Windows Tools, Help & Guides

Installing an operating system from a USB drive bring several advantages: USB drivers are small, USB drives transfer data quicker than CDs, and they are generally more convenient. In this guide, you’ll learn how to install Windows 7–or any operating system–from a USB thumb drive.

UPDATE: You can download the RTM versions of Windows 7 Ultimate, Professional, and Home Premium here (64/32-bit available.)

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If you’ve ever lost a USB drive before, this will be something you wish you had. If you haven’t lost one yet, then you should install this on your USB drive as soon as possible. I’ve lost two drives in the past; luckily both drives didn’t have any sensitive information on them, but I wonder if I would have got either back if I’d had this program.

USB Lost and Found simply puts a message up each time you put your drive in, which contains your contact information. The person who finds your drive can then get in contact and return your drive to you. If you are willing to pay $3.49 $8.99 for the Pro version, you get lockdown mode, which password protects your data too.

Download USB Lost and Found

Windows Guides reader littlelooloo asked the following:

I had a question about this worm that is supposed to wreak havoc on computers tomorrow… the news said most security programs have it taken care of.  I just wanted to get your opinion/confirmation if that’s really the case or should I download a patch from Microsoft?

If you are concerned about the Conficker (a.k.a. downandup) worm, possibly scheduled to wreak havoc tomorrow, April 1, 2009, you can download a cleanup tool from ESET. You can also apply a patch from Microsoft

From the Sophos blog:

It’s quite possible that Conficker will not do anything significant on April 1st. Certainly it won’t be “deadly” and your computers won’t melt. :-)

The fact of the matter is that Conficker is not set to activate a specific payload on that date. Rather, on April 1st Conficker will begin to attempt to contact the 50,000-a-day potential call-home web servers from which it may receive updates.

But it’s just as likely that Conficker will receive instructions to do something on March 28th, or April 2nd, or April 14th as it will on April 1st. The emphasis by some media outlets on April 1st is really unfortunate.

What we can say with certainty is that people should keep their protection up-to-date, ensure that they have firewalls and security patches in place, have a proper policy in place regarding USB usage and passwords. In addition it wouldn’t do any harm – if you suspect you may be infected by Conficker – to run a Conficker removal tool such as the free one from Sophos.

Download the ESET Cleanup Tool

Download the Patch from Microsoft

File transfers can be tediously slow in Windows and in this guide, we’ll take a look at two file transfer alternatives for Windows. The first program is Teracopy and the second is FastCopy. Each program is designed to significantly cut down the time it takes to copy files between devices and even on the same drive.

TeraCopy

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dishant has written a quick how-to guide on installing Windows 7 via USB or SD Media over at the forums. Please note the follow-up post further down, if you are having trouble with the first set of instructions.

Install Windows 7 via USB or SD Media

Fragmentation makes your hard disk do extra work that can slow down your computer. Removable storage devices such as USB flash drives can also become fragmented. Disk Defragmenter rearranges fragmented data so your disks and drives can work more efficiently. Disk Defragmenter runs on a schedule, but you can also analyze and defragment your disks and drives manually.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to schedule the defragmentation task in Windows 7.

More Windows Seven Guides

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