Projo Subterranean Homepage News

Windows 7 Buyer's Guide: Which Edition is Right for You? Maximum PC sorts out the different versions of the new Windows 7 operating system from Microsoft. But the real news is the price (too high, unless you pre-order now) and the pain of having to re-install all your apps unless you bought into the terrible Windows Vista. (Shaking fist at Microsoft.)

Buy Vista or a Vista PC Now, Get Windows 7 Free Later

Buy a PC running Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate between June 26th, 2009 and January 31st, 2010 from sponsoring manufacturers and vendors, or buy these editions of Vista separately, and you qualify for a free upgrade to the equivalent Windows 7 edition.

Getting Windows 7 Very Cheap - If You're Fast on the Click

However, if you're not in the market for a new PC, and don't want to buy Vista now to qualify for a free Windows 7 upgrade, you can still get a cool upgrade deal if you use Windows XP or Vista - if you hurry. If you pre-order Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional upgrade editions right now, you can cash in on significant savings:

• Home Premium upgrade $49.99 (down from $119.99)
• Professional upgrade $99.99 (down from $199.99)

If you're currently running Windows Vista Ultimate (like I am) and decide you don't need BitLocker or multilanguage support, you can "upgrade" from Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Professional. Note that these savings expire July 11th in the US, and are available from many retailers as well as from Microsoft's online store.

• Amazon
• Best Buy
• CostCo
• Frys
• Office Depot
• Office Max
• Sam's Club
• Staples
• Tiger Direct
• Walmart
• Newegg
• Nebraska Furniture Mart

July 11 is the deadline for pre-order discounts of the operating system to be released Oct. 22. This boggles Amazon: "Want it delivered Thursday, October 22? Order it in the next 2721 hours and 39 minutes, and choose Release-Date Delivery at checkout."

The really bad news, from IDG:

Users running XP-powered machines, downgraded or not, must do a "clean install" of Windows 7, however, which means that they will have to reinstall all applications, recreate Windows settings and restore data from a backup after the XP-to-Windows 7 upgrade.

But wait... The best Way to Upgrade Windows XP to Windows 7?:

(Besides buying Vista Upgrade... ) The only other way that at least keeps your user profiles and settings: The only thing you have to do is to reinstall your apps. The tool to do this is Windows Easy Transfer for Windows 7 from Microsoft.

Windows Easy Transfer was already available for Vista and got improved for Windows 7. The tool takes your user profiles and settings from your Windows XP and transfers it to your fresh Windows 7 install.

To install all applications again is still some work, but at least you do not have to start entirely from scratch.

More details about the Windows Easy Transfer for Windows 7 can be found here. A step-by-step guide on using the tool can be found here.

Must I switch? A year after Windows XP's death, users keep it alive and kicking

This gives me a headache. There'll be lots more to come on this. Chaos is inevitable.

Noted:
How to get to the top of a forest

Interesting photos of gizmos and temporary walkways used by scientists who study the forest's canopy.

Sunday Journal: A fired reporter spirals into the unknown. St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. She tumbled into crack.