Microsoft Windows has came a long way since the dreadful days of common OS crashes and BSOD's, I have been using my current install of Microsoft Windows 7 since past 2.5 years and never faced any major annoyance. Suddenly, few days ago my computer failed to connect to any shared network folder and greeted me with the error "Windows cannot access \\machine\sharedfolder, error code 0x80004005" every-time I tried accessing a network resource as shown below. Strangely, the computer was discovering other computers on the network and I was able to ping and SSH into them like my Raspberry Pi Network Attached Storage (NAS). After, trying everything from messing with firewall settings, completely uninstalling Kaspersky Internet Security 2014, enabling all sorts of networking services and changing security policies nothing worked. After 5 days of reading numerous articles on the internet I finally managed to nail this and solve this problem as shared below.

Leaked images of Microsoft Windows 8 displayed the new user image tile in system-tray area, another cosmetic change to the theming system "Aero Auto-Colorization" automatically changes the color of Aero elements based on the desktop wallpaper and launched application. Thanks to talented developers, users need not to wait for any leaked installer of Windows 8 to try these two new features as they have now ported both functionalities to Windows 7.

Microsoft Windows 7 is getting some good sale figures and if you also planning to get switched on the new operating-system now you can test and learn the new features online right from your web-browsers - thanks to newly introduced Windows 7 Test Drive service from Microsoft which allows users and developers to experience Windows 7 running live on Microsoft servers in an safe virtual test-drive environment accompanied with supporting step-by-step walkthrough videos of it's features.

The free test-drive resource requires no special software installation and runs inside your web-browser (Internet Explorer) and needs a single Active-X installation to get started.

If you jumped onto Microsoft Windows 7 pre-release version (Beta or RC) you can't upgrade to the final RTM version and need to do an clean install loosing all your settings and installed application as Windows 7 setup won't let you upgrade from a pre-release version to final build displaying error as below.

Luckily there is a simple config-file hack which allows you to do an in-place upgrade from Windows 7 pre-release to final version keeping your files, settings and applications intact.

Microsoft Windows 7 RC1 is out now and users are appreciating the interface and features of the new operating system, We have shared Windows 7 Themes and Transformation Packs to make your existing operating-system look and behave like Windows 7, all new Seven Transformation Pack is now available to provide Windows XP users with an experience closest to Windows 7 without upgrading to the new operating system.

Here is yet another probable Windows 7 RC build leaked onto torrent portals, the latest Windows 7 copy to leak has a build tag 7106.0.090408-1623 but it is still to be verified as an genuine leak and not somebody faking the build tags, the screenshot below shows a Chinese version but English versions of the leak are also reported to be available and should soon spread like fire, the following English version build strings are reported to have been leaked and seen in wild :

7106.0.090408-1623_x86fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRC1CULFRER_EN_DVD.iso
7106.0.090408-1623_x64fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRC1CULXFRER_EN_DVD.iso

Microsoft Windows 7 is still in preview stages but has already gained quite a substantial amount of users trying its first beta, if you are willing to try the new beta without taking any risk with your existing computer configuration, installing it on a virtual machine is the best option, the whole process is very safe and takes around 40 minutes to get completed on a decently powered P4 computer.

A virtual machine installation lets you try Windows 7 inside your existing OS as a guest operating-system, Both Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and Sun VirtualBox can be used for this purpose, I will be using Sun VirtualBox for this demonstration.

1. Download and install Sun VirtualBox if not already done.
2. Download and obtain a license key for Microsoft Windows 7 Beta using instructions provided in the earlier post here.
3. Now launch VirtualBox and click the New button to start setting up our Windows 7 virtual machine.

Microsoft has officially confirmed that Windows 7 (Codenamed Vienna) is not going to be released until early 2010, However, fresh rumors claim the release date to be June 3, 2009 - whatever the case maybe, we are not going to see the new OS anytime soon, so here we have another cool Windows Vienna Transformation Pack for Windows XP.

(Click Image To Enlarge)

TGDaily has reported with reference from several key industry partners about Microsoft's next OS offering codenamed "Windows 7" being shipped to its key partners as “Milestone 1” (M1) code drop for validation purposes.

Sources claim from a recently distributed roadmap for Windows 7 release to manufacturing in H2 2009. However, Microsoft declined to comment on this date.