About a month ago they came out with Windows 7 RC.  “RC” stands for Release Candidate and it is the (almost) absolutely finished version that will be for sale sometime in the future.  I have been running it on my netbook computer I got last Christmas.  The netbook is a very good, small, low cost computer that I wrote about at the end of last year.  Basically it isn’t quite powerful enough to run Windows Vista so it comes with XP.

So with some apprehension I rebuilt my netbook from the ground up with Windows 7.  After I finished the rebuild I held my breath, uttered a prayer and started the computer up.  Guess what?  It has worked perfectly ever since.  It runs Windows 7 very fast and all of my software and hardware continue to work, yea!  This is great news since Vista failed both of those tests when it first came out.  The wireless connection to home and office started working immediately and I can’t really find much to complain about.

If you have been putting off buying a computer due to fear of Vista, fear no longer.  I energetically approve of this latest and greatest operating system from MS once it starts selling.  Most of the smarter and more famous Windows geeks are happy about this upcoming operating system too.

It looks and acts similar to Vista.  If you have used Vista in the past you will be right at home when you switch; although, the speed increase will both surprise and delight you.  If you are coming from the XP operating system it will take a little getting used to, but the learning curve shouldn’t be too bad and will be worth it.

Off and on over the next few months I will be talking about some of the new things in W7 but I may wait for it to actually get into the market.  If you are brave and want to play with it before it comes to the stores, you can.  Just Google, “download Microsoft Windows 7” and you may download it from MS through July, 2009.  A neat thing is that you will get updates to this RC and be able to use it to run your computer until June 1, 2010.  Basically they are giving it away for about a year.  At this point no one knows the pricing plan.

As far as being for sale in the stores Microsoft has been stating for the last week or so that it will be available before Christmas.  I have heard others say anytime between August and November, but only MS knows for sure…maybe.

I recently received an email which was a repeat of several others I’ve received.  The writer had a question about backing up his important documents online.  That way if his computer was stolen, lost in a fire or flood, etc. he wouldn’t lose all of his critical files.  He now uses an external drive for backups but he would feel better using an “off site” backup.

There are several ways to do this, some easy and some requiring a little more from the user.  Also, some cost and some are free.

Those of you that know me or have read the columns for a while know I am all about free.  Even though I use freebies there is an excellent paid program I like called, Carbonite.  Carbonite, like most of the others, installs a small program on your computer and then will backup all of the documents in your “My Documents” folder (“Documents” on some systems) any time you are online and your computer is idle.  There is no size limit to the total number of files you can backup.  That would easily take care of all of your mp3 files for you music lovers.  At $54.95 per year that really isn’t a bad deal.  You may also get to those files from any other computer that has internet access.  So you could download a song to your sister’s computer in California when visiting. It is a neat application all around and well worth the peace of mind and easy access it provides.

Now to my freebies of which there are several; however, both of the ones that I will recommend are owned by Microsoft.

The one that I like best is called, Live Mesh.  Mesh not only backs them up but you can add those backed up folder/files to any other computer you own.  This makes it so that if I start writing a column in my local snack shop that has free Wi-Fi, when I save that portion of the column it is auto-saved online.  When I get home to my desktop the file will be there.  I can then finish it up there and it will be in the same folder it was in on my netbook. A very good deal!  The major limiting factor here is that Mesh will only hold 5GB of files for you.  For a comparison of file sizes my columns run an average of 32kb.  That means that I can store over 30,000 of my columns on Live Mesh.

If you need storage for more than 5GB of files, you should look to the free Skydrive program (skydrive.live.com).  Skydrive allows you to store up to 25GB of files.  It is similar to Carbonite although not as convenient since you physically have to back up any new or edited document.  It does not do this automatically which, I feel, is a significant factor.

My suggestion is that if you have a large number of files use Carbonite.  If not, Mesh is the way to go.  You can also try Carbonite for free for a short period of time if you would like to test it out.  Try them and let me know how you like them.

I got a good question this week which said, “I have Windows Vista with ‘MS Works‘.”  It went on to say, “I recently typed a letter and sent it to a number of persons.  I heard back from several saying that they could not open the document.  In talking to them, I was informed that their computers have ‘MS Word‘.”  They basically wanted to know how to get this resolved so that the Word users could open the documents created in Works.

First thing is that Microsoft isn’t stupid.  MS Works is the little sibling of MS Office which comes free on most all computers that use a Microsoft operating system.  It will do some of the basics of its big brother.  Works comes up short in many areas so that you will find a “need” to buy the full package.

Word can’t open all Works files. Works should just be able to open the word processing ones (files ending in the .wps extension). If you have Excel, it should be able to open the spreadsheet (wks) files. Different versions of Word can also only open certain versions of Works files.  For instance, my copy of Word 2007 can open only versions Works 6.0 to Works 9.0, even though there are several predating those.

Different versions of Word provide converters for various versions of Works documents, but the converters may not be installed in a default setup. Your friends may not have them installed.

If they really want to go through the hassle they could try this: Go to Control Panel | Add/Remove Programs. Select Microsoft Office. Click Change. Choose Add or Remove Components. Drill down to Word and find where the converters are. If there are some that are not checked, check them and finish the install.  Make sure that they have their original installation disk just in case they need it to complete the install.

You can always save your files in a format that Word can open if it is available in your version of Works.  Try saving them in the .doc format or as .rtf format.

To save the money that you would spend buying MS Office you could get another office-like product.  Take a look at Open Office (openoffice.org) which is totally compatible with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.  You can download the entire program and it is free.  However, just as in Works you have to make sure you save them in the correct format, i.e., .doc format for Word files, etc.