Networking With Windows 7

If you are required use networking options on a regular basis, Windows 7 is a competent operating system in that regard. It has a set of powerful P2P networking features integrated. These features in Windows 7 help you to share files, folders, or other resources, and diagnose and resolve issues in a network easily. Following are a few of the features.

Why Windows 7

There is a built-in file and printer sharing option in Windows 7, which facilitates sharing of files and printers on your system with users on a P2P network. When you set up a network, the Network Setup Wizard sets the most common configuration settings by default. This precludes the need of working with individual settings and arranging them each time.

There is an Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) feature in Windows 7 that helps in sharing the internet connection to others over a network. This comes with Firewall options to keep your network safe from unauthorized access through the internet connection. There is a separate integrated Firewall to protect your computer from being accessed over the network, when connected to the internet as well.

User account management is simple enough to let you easily create new accounts and assign passwords to these. There is added compatibility for wireless networking in Windows 7, so that you can connect to available wireless networks in the area easily. Apart from that, there are sophisticated tools for network diagnostics and troubleshooting, so that you will be able to diagnose and troubleshoot many common networking problems.

VPN Reconnect provision

If you are a roaming user, it is good to add VPNs (virtual private networks), which allow a secure connection between your computer and the network. If you are somewhere other than you usually are, say a hotel room or at a customer site, this will make sure that the connection you establish remains intact, barring other network problems.

If you use wireless broadband however, a VPN connection could be the cause for connection dropping frequently, and every time you reconnect to a VPN you will need to establish authentication yet again. This is where VPN Reconnect comes in to play. It promptly resets the internet connection when dropped, and resets VPN connection as well. This makes sure that you retain access of network resources as much of the time as possible. Using this feature, even streaming videos can be resumed after a connection reset, even if it changed your IP address.

For more information on networking with Windows 7, check out our other posts, and for Windows 7 help, troubleshooting and related assistance, call out support hotline.

Setting Up The Outlook 2013 Program

You may be using the Microsoft Outlook program to handle your email messages. Outlook is a very good email client program that is very much user friendly and offers a number of features. This guide provides the step-by-step instructions to setup email in Outlook 2013 program for Windows operating system. These steps can be used for other versions of the Outlook program also, but some of the steps may vary slightly.

Steps To Add A New Account

• Turn on your computer, open the Outlook program, choose the File menu, and then select Info. 
• Click on the Add Account button. 
• Select Manual setup or additional server types. 
• Click on the Next button. 
• Select IMAP or POP. 
• Click on the Next button. 

Account Settings

• Type in your Name as you wish it to appear in the email messages that you send. 
• Type in your email address. 
• Type mail.example.com as the Incoming Mail Server. 
• The Outgoing Mail Server is same as the Incoming Mail Server. 
• For the User Name field, type in your email address. 
• Type in your email password. 

More Settings

• Select the More Settings button. 
• Click on the Outgoing Server tab and then select My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication checkbox. 
• Ensure that it is using the same settings as the incoming mail server. 
• Select the Advanced tab. 
• If you are using POP3 with SSL, type in 995 for the port. Otherwise, you may leave the port at 110. 
• If you are making use of POP3, you can choose when the messages are removed from the server. 
• If you are making use of IMAP with SSL, type in 993 for the port. Otherwise, you may leave the port at 143. 
• If you are making use of SMTP with SSL, type in 465 for the port. Otherwise, change the port to 26. 
• After doing the above steps, click on the OK button. 

Finishing The Setup

• In the Email Accounts window, click on the Next button. 
• Select the Finish button. 

These are the steps to setup email in Outlook 2013 program. If you have any doubts or confusions in any of the steps that are discussed above, you can contact the Outlook help and support team for further assistance on finishing the steps.

Microsoft Plans To Buy Out Apple Users

Microsoft is now taking a page out of the playbook by offering the users of Apple’s MacBook Air an in-store credit of up to 650 dollars when they trade in for a Surface Pro 3 tablet. This promotional program is running through the network of Microsoft retail stores in Canada and US through July 31. The offer that is found on the Microsoft support site and official website says that the credit is available for the users of selected MacBook Air products and credits up to 650 dollars. This implies that some trade-ins may not get the full value or may be rejected.

The Surface Pro 3 tablet is the latest in the homegrown Windows based tablet series and became generally available in June 20. So far, Microsoft has positioned the Surface Pro 3 and the typepad cover of the device as a replacement for notebook, specifically going after the lightweight laptop from Apple. During the unveiling ceremony that was held on May 20, Microsoft demonstrated how the Surface Pro tablet is lighter than the iPad Air and MacBook Air combined. Microsoft is clearly trying to take away some of the market dominance of Apple, believing that it can replace two screens of most of the iPad and Mac users into a single consolidated device, the Surface Pro 3.

Firstly, this promotional offer is common with channel conflicts. This program is only valid for the retail stores of Microsoft. In attracting the customers to the corporate owned outlets, Microsoft is cutting out its retail partners like Staples and Best Buy, as well as their authorized device resellers- the select direct market resellers like En Pointe and CDW.

Second, as Channelnomics noted, market share of Apple is not so great that taking appreciable share will help them establish Surface Pro 3 as a market contender. To do this, Microsoft will have to eat away the market share of their longtime computer vendor partners like Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Lenovo, Dell and so on.

Third, Microsoft is not expanding the Surface tablet availability to their channel partners. Microsoft has said repeatedly that they are not ready to support the broader reseller community beyond a handful of the volume based direct market resellers. In offering promotions that apply only to their direct retail outlets, Microsoft shows their will to acquire market share.

More details on this news are posted in the Microsoft support site. You can visit the page to know more on the news.

How To Get Rid Of The Babylon Toolbar From Google Chrome Browser

With so many malware toolbars and applications infecting the browsers, many antivirus companies are now providing specifically designed utilities for toolbars and add-on removal. Many such free antivirus applications are available online. However, you can also get rid of most of the annoying toolbars manually without installing any external tool for the purpose.

About Babylon toolbar removal

Babylon translation application is one annoying browser toolbar, which installs automatically on the system with a file or software download. This toolbar can be used for translating text from a foreign language online. But, as it changes the customized browser settings secretly and directs every search query to Babylon search engine, it annoys users a lot, and they want to get rid of this application as soon as spotted.

Removing Babylon toolbar not just involves uninstalling the application from web browsers, but also deleting all the links associated with Babylon site from the browser’s home page and search engine settings. Otherwise, the browser will redirect you to the Babylon website, and the add-on will be downloaded and installed on the browser all over again.

If you are using Google Chrome, go to the Tools menu in the browser and click on the option Extensions to launch the add-on manager utility. There, you will find the Babylon search or translator toolbar. Just remove all add-ons or extensions you see there with the name Babylon on it.

Now, change the home page and search engine settings of your browser. The default search engine for your browser will be set as Babylon search. Go to the Settings menu in your browser, click on the Manage Search Engines option, and change your default browser search engine to any of the popular search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo.

Similarly, change the homepage setting from Babylon search to any of the websites that you commonly use. Restart the browser and check whether the annoying toolbar is still there on your browser menu.

In some cases, you will find Babylon toolbar clinging to your browser menu. This means that some files of the malware application are still there in your system. In such an event, you can use a Babylon toolbar removal tool or a malware detection application to get rid of these files. You can easily find such a freeware tool online.

Xbox Live- The Online Gaming Platform For Passionate Gamers

There is a big difference between playing a computer game against the microprocessors of the gaming console or the computer and against any of your friends. You would love the game when you play it with your friends. But, you can’t expect your friends to play with you every time. They may be located somewhere else. But still, it is possible to play with them. There are multiple online gaming platforms that allow you to play computer games with your friends online.

Microsoft introduced Xbox Live, an online gaming platform to its Xbox gaming systems in 2002. When Xbox 360 was released, an advanced version of the Xbox system, a compatible version of Xbox Live too was rolled out. This repeated with Xbox One in 2013. Over the years, Xbox Live has turned out to be a lively platform for Xbox fans. It has even emerged as a perfect competitor to Sony’s PlayStation Network.

Extension of Xbox Live services

According to Windows Live chat support, Xbox Live services are no more the pride of Xbox systems alone. These services are available now on Windows platform. So, in order to play a game online via Xbox Live, you don’t have to own an Xbox system. Instead, you can play the game on your Windows computers.

Microsoft launches Xbox Live Anywhere project
The Redmond based giant is working out different plans to popularize Xbox Live. Recently, it launched a project titled Xbox Live Anywhere. The purpose of this project is to make the availability of Xbox Live everywhere and make it affordable to all types of people. The project highlights the importance of making Xbox Live available on mobile phones. As of now, Xbox Live is integrated into Microsoft’s own mobile operating system Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 8.1. Discussions are on to launch Xbox Live on third party platforms.

Free and Paid Xbox Live services

Microsoft offers free as well as paid Xbox Live services to the users. The free service is called Xbox Live Free while the paid one is called Xbox Live Gold. According to Windows Live chat support, the purpose of giving out some Xbox Live services free is to make it available for everyone. Certainly, the free Xbox Live service will let you access only a limited number of games and services. However, it is worth the same and is the best for beginners.

Microsoft has plans to introduce more games and services to Xbox Live. Hopefully, the tech giant will roll them out soon.

Some Useful Tips For Developing Windows 8.1 Apps

Windows Store has to go a long way to compete with Google Play. While Android’s Google Play has thousands of useful apps, Windows Store lacks them. Fortunately, Microsoft has simplified the requirements for the development of Windows 8.1 apps. It seems that anyone with basic knowledge of programming and app development can write Windows 8.1 apps and get them approved from Microsoft to release them in Windows Store. So, in short time, we can expect many Windows 8.1 apps getting released in Windows Store.

Easiest way to write apps for Windows Store

According to the Microsoft support page, if a new Windows 8.1 app needs to be released in Windows Store, it should maintain the criteria laid down by Microsoft. Microsoft promotes apps that take up web content or display them. So, if you have any idea about writing apps and releasing them in Windows Store, make sure that they are designed to display web content. The recently released Microsoft Top Solution is an app you could take up for referencing as to know how an ideal app for Windows Store should be like.

Microsoft Top Solutions

Microsoft Top Solutions keeps all the criteria for an ideal Windows 8.1 app. It consumes web content and displays them. It is more or less like a directory of support solution blog sites of Microsoft’s popular services. Below are some of the features of Microsoft Top Solutions.

Features

When you launch the application, the home screen will be displayed. From the home screen, you can have instant access to all the services that the app provides like the support solution blog site of Microsoft Azure, Exchange, System Centre, SQL Server, Windows Server and the likes. In order to open any of these services, simply tap on the desired button. It will directly take you to the support solution blog site of the associated program. You will then need to choose the appropriate topic of your concern. When you click on the link of the support solution blog site, the website will be opened in Internet Explorer 11 by default.

The support solution blog sites will contain KB articles, TechNet, hotfix articles and links to Microsoft forum. Choose the appropriate option to proceed.

I hope you got some idea about writing apps for Windows Store and the features of the recently released Windows 8.1 app Microsoft Top Solutions. For more technical information regarding Windows 8.1 Apps or Windows Store, visit the Microsoft Support Page.

Making Use Of Office Diagnostics To Recover From An Outlook Crash

The Outlook program is in use by a plethora of computer users. The Outlook program can crash due to a number issues related to the program and the computer. In most of the cases, the user will not be able to find out the exact cause of the Outlook crash. In order to repair Outlook and to find out the underlying cause of the issue, Microsoft has provided an inbuilt Office diagnostics tool. This tool scans the program and gives a detailed report on the Outlook problems. After giving the report, the tool then goes to repair the issue in the best possible way. 

This diagnostic tool is designed to provide the reasons for the crash and the possible solutions to the problem. After the Office Diagnostic tool completes the report, it prompts the user to share the report with Microsoft and then redirect to a webpage that will give a detailed method on the steps to fix the problem that has made the program to crash. Microsoft has assured that the diagnostics report provided by the users is perfectly anonymous and cannot be traced back to them. Most of the users refrain from sending the error reports and other reports to Microsoft, due to privacy reasons. The users are under the impression that the process is long and tedious, but this is not true.

The information that the user sends to Microsoft will not only accurately define the problem, it will also help the user to repair the Outlook program. The Office Diagnostics tool from Microsoft offers a wide range of diagnostics tests that help the user to find out the problem with the Outlook program. One such test is the Setup Diagnostic test that will scan all the installation files and registry keys of Outlook to find out the issue. The process might take about 15 minutes to finish. You will have to remain patient until the test finishes successfully. The function named Disk Diagnostic scans the computer’s hard disk for any faults in the file system. 

Make sure that no other program is running, before starting the disk diagnostic test. Next comes the Memory Diagnostic test. This test scans the Random Access Memory of the computer for any errors or faults. The user can also perform Update Diagnostic and Compatibility Diagnostic tests that scan for available updates for the program. If you wish to know more on the Outlook problems, you can contact our tech support team.