Download squad have found a great tool for those times when you want to get into your PC fast but you want all the freshhhness of a newly booted PC. Boot Snooze combines the goodness of hibernation and rebooting.

Essentially the tool allows you to reboot and then set the PC to go into hibernate immediately or go to sleep immediately after the reboot.  The result, a fast start up when you next come to your PC.  The best of both worlds.

Today is the 1st of Feb and that means you have 15 more days to use the Windows 7 RC (release candidate) before you need to upgrade to the final RTM version.  A timely reminder from Technet: Windows 7 RC expiration coming soon | Media | TechNet Edge.

What does this mean for you, if you are running the RC.  Basically you need to backup and rebuild your PC running the RTM version.  There is no direct upgrade route, essentially this is the same process as if you are on XP moving to Windows 7.

[EDIT: a few people have contact me now about what's specifically going to happen, this article explains all...

But the skinny is:

Effective February 15, 2010, the expiration notification process begins:

• Windows 7 RC users receive an expiration notification in the task bar one time per day.
• Windows 7 RC users are presented with the Notification Wizard one time every four hours and then one time every hour.

Effective March 1, 2010, Windows 7 RC enters the next phase of expiration:

• Expiration notifications in the task bar continue.
• Computers that are running Windows 7 RC restart every two hours.

  Important When the computer restarts, your work will not be saved.

Effective June 1, 2010, Windows 7 RC expires:

• Windows starts to a black desktop.
• Windows 7 RC users are presented with a Windows Activation screen. The screen states that the Windows that you are running is not genuine.

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So basically, it’s really annoying!

Use the Windows Easy Transfer to transfer all your stuff and make the process as pain free as you possibly can.  Just hit start and type “transfer” into the search box.  Back everything up to a USB key or hard disk and then on your shiny Windows 7 RTM install do the same, but select restore.

15 days and counting, almost 14 and a half now…

Computers that are running Windows 7 RC restart every two hours.

Long’s spotted a great series of advertising by Microsoft in the US that’s got a digital home bent to it so I thought I’d throw it out there.  In Australia Microsoft are sponsoring part of the Open tennis coverage and (very cleverly) using the snap feature to do picture in picture switches between matches.  What a cool idea, never really thought about using it like that to say, watch the news and the Rugby at the same time, but it’s clever…

Anyone else doing that?

Head over to istartedsomething to watch the vid

Microsoft have released the security patch for the big news issue with Internet Explorer that just about everyone has been talking about.

If you have Windows Update turned on the you’ll get it automatically.  If you don’t download it below and read all about it.

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS10-002 – Critical: Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 978207.

Take my advice, turn on Windows Update.  Get Anti-Virus, Anti-Malware and Anti-Phising protections and LEARN enough about security and identity theft to be able to explain why it’s needed.  Just like you can explain why you need a lock on your house.  Also if you have an alternative browser installed then make sure that too is set to get automatic updates.

IE is really good at it’s job.  There I said it.  It’s a really easy browser to use, it’s laid out well, it’s familiar and you know how to use it.  It’s fine to do so.  You should try other browsers out though and see if you like them, personally I’m currently loving Chrome and I’m playing with it and Chrome OS quite a bit.  Don’t however think that because you use a different browser you’ll be more secure.  You won’t.

Just like IE there are security flaws in other browsers, spending less than 2 minutes Googleing (actually I Binged it) I found the graph from a 2006 article by Ars Technica, proving this is no new thing, to the left that shows a comparison of vulnerabilities, interesting hey?

What matters here is that you have a security infrastructure on your PC that works for you to protect you.  You want it to:

• Speak only when spoken to, unless it’s life threatening
• Adapt or at least keep itself up to date
• Protect your identity, i.e. stop you falling foul of phishing scams and the like
• Be light weight on your PC, you don’t want it getting in your way
• Tell you if you’re about to do something unsafe, just before you do it, but not stop you.  It’s your decision

Great software exists, some of it free from the likes of AVG, Microsoft, Norton and tons of others.  So go find some right now.

Here’s the big one though, the thing you need to do, especially if you’re a parent (actually even if your the child you can do this) get educated.  Let me say it again if you missed it.

GET EDUCATED ABOUT ONLINE THREATS

It’s the most adaptive technology out their, your brain.  By learning about online threats you’ll develop a “spider sense” for scams and won’t fall foul of them.  The software will help you too, so much so that it’s the one thing you need to have on every PC.

But get Educated.

Parents, you need to be talking with your kids about what they should and shouldn’t share online, where they should go and who with.

Kid’s, you can do the same with your parents.  You’ll love doing it.  Sit them down and tell them why they shouldn’t store their online banking password in their favourites.

So you’ve got your fantastic new Windows 7 PC and it is – fantastic – but you’ve not got all the PCs in your house running on Windows 7 yet, in fact chances are you’ve still got some XP PCs.  Just how do you share with those PCs?  Well the How to geek has a handy guide, it’s in my book too (along with everything else you need to know to get the most out of Windows 7) in chapter 22.

This theme’s available in some parts of the world but if you’re addicted to Fido Dido’s (80’s much?) favorite drink then you might be up for this one. It’s actually a really nice theme presented in lime green.  I have to say the desktop to the left is my fave with the icy 7.

Get it here: Nothing but 7up Theme for Windows 7 | Windows 7 hacker

At the CES keynote yesterday Ballmer unveiled the “beautiful” HP slate and gave it a brief demo using the Amazon kindle application.  Cool stuff.  One thing worth noting is that it’s running Windows 7 and that naturally (depending on the version) means that Media Center is there, and it’s touch enabled and obviously so is Media Center…

So could this be the best PMP (personal media player) ever.  I think it could.

I can imagine being able to sync a whole bunch of media content to it (Mesh anyone?) and then be able to access everything on the go, or even using Internet Streaming from within Windows Media Player.  What’s more the screen size looks good enough to watch a movie on if you were in the back of the car (ala cheapo DVD player attached to the back of the drivers headrest) or on a plane.

I’m going to be keeping an eye on slate PCs for exactly that reason, rather than being great eBook readers, which the undoubtedly will be, they’ll be great portable media devices.  The key thing is going to be battery life here so we’ll have to see what other vendors put out in this space.

What do you think, do you see a slate becoming a great PMP?  Did anyone love the original Media Center PMPs? 

Here’s the teaser video: