How to clean Install from Windows 7 Upgrade Media 
The retail upgrade media is bootable and can perform a clean install but it won’t activate with the
upgrade key unless you perform one of the methods below.
METHOD 1:
Double Install Trick:
1. Boot from the DVD, choose “Custom (Advanced)”, do not enter the key at this time.
2. After it has installed, boot into it, you will have 30 days to activate it will inform you.
3. Place the DVD back in and launch setup again and choose “Upgrade” this time, it will install over itself.
4. After it’s installed for the second time, the upgrade key will now be accepted and will activate.
Tag: Double Install Trick, Upgrade Media, Windows Activation,
METHOD 2:
Use SLMGR Commands to Insert Product Key and Activate:
- Open an elevated command prompt as administrator.
- Use the following command to install product key:
slmgr -ipk <upgrade product key>
- Activate Windows 7 with the following command:
slmgr -ato
To check acti vation status from command line, use slmgr -dlv or slmgr -dli.
METHOD 3:
Clean Install and Activate Windows 7 with MediaBootInstall Registry Hack:
- After booting up, ensure that no Windows Updates pending task which requires a system reboot to finish installing.
- Run Registry Editor (RegEdit).
- Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\OOBE
- In the right pane, change the value data for MediaBootInstall from 1 to 0.
- Open an elevated command prompt as administrator.
- Run the command below to reset Windows 7 activation status:
slmgr –rearm
- Reboot the computer.
- Run the Activate Windows utility (type Activate Windows into Start Search), type in the upgrade product key and activate Windows.
Acronis True Image 11 for FREE
If you bought a Western Digital hard drive then you can download Acronis True Image 11 from Western Digital:
http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp
Seagate and Maxtor also have special Acronis editions as well on there sites if you have purchased one their drives. Some features are missing from these editions though like the ability to make incremental or differential backups. So you will need to create a new full backup everytime but it is free.
♣ continue reading Acronis True Image 11 for FREE
Fix Zone Alarm in 5 minutes!
1. The First thing you should know about Zone Alarm is the slider control, which can quickly fix most connection problems. It’s found under Firewall then select Main. Sometimes the HIGH setting stops internet access. Change it from HIGH to medium and see if that resolves your loss of internet activity.
♣ continue reading Fix Zone Alarm in 5 minutes!
Norton Ghost 14
Key Technologies
- Creates full system and file backups
- Restores from system failures
- Saves recovery points to offsite locations
- Symantec ThreatCon integration*
- Full system backup (disk image)-Backs up everything on a hard drive or partition.
- File and folder backup-Backs up only the specific files and folders you choose rather than saving an entire drive.
- FTP backup-Copies recovery points to a FTP site for easier offsite backup management. NEW
- Offsite backup-backs up your files to NAS (Network-Attached Storage) devices. NEW
- Symantec ThreatCon integration- triggers incremental backups whenever ThreatCon reaches a specified threat level. Great for computers without virus protection. NEW
- Incremental and differential backup-Backs up only files that have changed.
- EXCLUSIVE! Google Desktop™ integration-Makes data recovery even faster with searchable backup indexes.
- LightsOut Restore-Restores your system with an on-disk software recovery environment-no bootable CD required.
- EXCLUSIVE!: Remote management-Controls other Norton Ghost installations (12.0 or higher) on your local area network.
- Advanced compression and encryption-Minimizes storage space and helps keep sensitive documents safe.
Looks good on paper but it’s not much better then Ghost 12 and I wouldn’t replace Acronis True Image with it.
I hate the PDF format
I hate PDF format, it’s a pain when you need to create one or two pages from a 85 page PDF manual and it doesn’t allow you to edit or move the data that you want and leave the rest. To make matters worst I actually downloaded and installed Adobe Acrobat 8.1.0 Trial and it cause Microsoft Office to crash. I then had to upgrade to 8.1.2 to fix that problem.
It also did not allow any kind of editing or producing a Document that was suitable for printing the way I wanted. I would think that Acrobat would give me full control over any pdf file or least it should. My only options were to take screen shots or try and output it to HTML, neither worked that well.
You can also forget converters they alway botch the format and tables.
