ISSUE 233 THE DUDE ABIDES

Issue 233 Dec 2009 £5.99 Outside UK & ROI £6.49

EVEN MORE...

¤ Hot Win 7 tips and tricks

¤ Gaming chassis roundup

¤ Make an arcade table

¤ AMD’s stunning new CPU

¤ Repair Windows Update

Radeon 5870 AMD grabs the performance crown

Radeon 5870 AMD grabs the performance crown

FREE DVD!57 MUST-PLAY GAMES

ROUTER SHOWDOWN GETTING THE MOST FROM YOUR ISP? PAGE 8

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ISSUE 233

DEC 2009

THE D

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ISSUE 233 THE DUDE ABIDES

GAMING’S EXPLOSIVE FUTURE REVEALED

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Getting excited at the prospect of a new version of an operating system has for a long time been reserved for Linux and Mac users, but with the release of Windows 7, Windows users also have something to be excited about. The most recent version of Microsoft’s operating system has been several years in the making and was unveiled to the public via

freely available preview editions. Many thousands of words have already been written extolling its virtues over previous versions of Windows, but what is 7 actually like to use, and what benefi ts does it offer us gamers?

Every new version of Windows is touted as being an all-singing all-dancing answer to our prayers, but all too often they are found to be wanting. With ever increasing competition from the world of console, PC gaming often faces something of an uphill struggle, but with Windows 7 Microsoft has a few tricks up its sleeve, which are likely to impress lovers and haters of Windows alike.

Upon its release, Windows XP was heralded as a great leap forward for Microsoft. Vista was less well received, but with Windows 7, PC users have an operating system they can be proud of. Windows XP has

endured like no other OS - it is now eight years old and still widely used. The stability is virtually unrivalled and was certainly a far cry from Windows Me... a time few computer users have fond memories of. Vista felt like something of a stop-gap and was initially plagued by hardware problem due to a lack of drivers.

The long awaited release of Windows 7 brings a lot to look forward to for computer users in general, but gamers seem to get a particularly good deal. Whether you’re upgrading from XP or Vista, there’s a lot to look forward to, and we reveal all over the coming pages. We’ll take a look at some of Windows 7’s most exciting features and developments as well as unearthing the tips and tricks, which can help to improve things even further.

It’s been a long time coming, but Microsoft has fi nally given birth. Mark Wilson takes a look

at the new baby

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The fi rst thing that anyone will notice about Windows 7 is its look. This is a strange mix of being very similar to its predecessors while at the same time boasting a fresh feel. At fi rst glance the most notable change in appearance is to be found in the taskbar, but there is much more to discover when you delve beneath the surface - in terms of cosmetics, features and improvements. As the taskbar is where the vast majority of tasks are started it makes sense to use it as our fi rst port of call.

The default grouping option means that the old Quick Launch joins forces with the standard taskbar, helping to reduce the number of button and icons that are on display at any one time. It also provides access to handy ‘jump lists’, which can be used to access multiple instance of the same program, fl ip between documents and access program specifi c options. But this is not necessarily to everyone’s taste and can be easily customised if required – just right click the taskbar, select Properties and use the ‘Taskbar buttons’ menu to opt out of the combining buttons action, or to do so only when space is short.

The raft of icons that have become a familiar sight in the system tray has been consigned to history as now only the network and volume control icons are visible - any others are accessible through a popup menu. The default behaviour will please most people, but anyone who prefers easier access to certain icons can customise what is displayed through the Notifi cation Area Icons Control Panel - Just right-click the clock and select Customize notifi cation icons for the settings.

But the most important element of any software is how it performs - particularly if you're talking about a

gaming rig. One of the key benefi ts of Windows 7 is the fact that it makes far better use of memory than previous versions of Windows and you should fi nd that it performs better than Vista on the same hardware. The hardware ratings used by Windows to determine a baseline performance score for your computer have been extended so that components such as processor, graphics and memory performance are now between 1.0 and 7.9, allowing for a wider range of more accurate scores. It's easy to get hung up on the precise meaning of each of the fi gures, but it does provide a simple, at-a-glance means of checking whether your system is up to running a particular game, and provides a handy means of checking what difference a hardware

upgrade has made.Vista introduced the idea of a

specifi c folder in the Start menu designed to house shortcuts to games; this is still available in Windows 7 but it has been enhanced. At its most basic, the folder acts as a handy shortcut repository, which the more disorganised of us will soon feel the benefi t of. Rather than wildly searching through a desktop full of icons in an attempt to fi nd the shortcut to launch a particular game, all of them are available in one handy location. This in itself is nothing groundbreaking - you could very easily create a gaming folder of your own - but the Games Explorer has more to offer.

As well as providing information about individual games when the mouse is hovered over the relevant shortcut, you can also jump straight to manufacturer's web site to access the forums or other online information you may be looking for. We have all become used to the idea of Windows itself being kept up to date through the use of Automatic Updates; while this feature has not quite been translated in a game specifi c tool, Windows 7 comes close. The operating system can automatically check for the availability of game updates and alert you to their existence - they won't necessarily be installed on your behalf, but it saves making manual checks from time to time. Obviously, not all games are currently compatible with, or taking advantage of, this service, but we would hope that it is something games developers cotton on to in the not too distant future.

The way Explorer handles fi les has also been adjusted, harking back to Microsoft's initial plans for Vista to include a completely new fi le system. This has manifested itself in the form of Libraries, which can be used to group together different types of fi le, no matter where they are located.

Below Windows 7’s Games Explorer may not be ground-breaking, but easy access to game updates is a boon.

Above DirectX 11 offers signifi cant graphical bonuses for supported hardware

Windows 7 Top Tips

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“The raft of icons that have become a familiar sight in the system tray has been consigned to history”Traditionally, the My Music folder was intended as a store for, well, music fi les, but few people are that organised. Using a Library it is possible to create a link to music stored in several folders and display them all in one location - the same is true of videos and other types of fi le. Libraries work much like virtual folders and can be easily confi gured by clicking the 'locations' link that appears at the top of a library folder and then indicating which standard folders it should include.

Windows 7 has better support for multiple monitors and this can take the likes of fl ight sims to a whole new level.

Gamers can also benefi ts from Win7's native support for GPGPU, or general purpose computing on a graphics processing unit. This technology enables a graphics card to take over more of the tasks that would normally be catered for by the CPU. This currently means supporting image editing software, video editing tools as well as 3D modelling and video encoding can now be greatly sped up by sharing the workload between the CPU and GPU for specifi c tasks.

64-bit versions of Windows have been around for many years, but it is only very recently that the concept of

64-bit computing is being embraced. What this means for the average user is that specifi cally written software and games will run far better, and more RAM will be supported to help boost performance further.

If you want to ensure that your games look at good as they possibly can, the Display Color Calibration tool is available. Just click the Start button, type 'dccw' and press Enter before working your way through the wizard which will guide you through the process of adjusting colour settings, brightness and gamma for the best possible appearance - it's a small touch, but a welcome one. Gamers also have the prospect of DirectX11 to look forward to. In addition to support for enhanced multithreading, the hull shader, tessellator and domain shader has also been added which should ultimately lead to games with a more immersive feel (check out our main feature on DX11 on page 52 for more information).

Touch screen devices look like being here to stay and it shouldn't be too long before they move out of the world of music devices and mobiles into mainstream computing. Touchscreen monitors are not unheard of at the

WINDOWS 7LUIS VILLAZON’S OPINIONUnlike most other software developers, Microsoft seems incapable of consistently releasing upgrades that are unequivocally better than their predecessors. Historically, they have produced three different kinds of OS:

1. Throws out baby with the bathwater (Windows 3.0, Win95, NT 3.1).2. Just throws out the bathwater (Win 3.1, Win98, XP).3. Leaves the bathwater in and just tips in some more bubblebath (Win2k, Millennium, Vista).

The ‘baby out’ versions are radical but problematic. Lots of things change for the sake of changing; some of them get better, some of them get worse. Early adopters rush to install and then spend every subsequent day cursing their impetuousness. In a ‘just the bathwater’ release, all the changes are for the better. Nothing breaks, backward compatibility is a non-issue.

These releases are used as ‘safe zones’ to either leapfrog past the problems of the previous baby-out OS or to put off having to face the

disaster of the next one. Bubblebath releases are sound and fury, signifying nothing - the stinkers that see us actually paying extra to downgrade from. They do nothing new that is useful but somehow demand a more powerful machine jsut to be able to do it. The question then, is ‘Which one is Windows 7?’ Personally I think it’s of the just-the-bathwater variety. The sidebar has gone but the gadgets are still there if you want them. We still have the Aero graphics, but now they run on realistic hardware specifi cations. User Account Control will still prevent malware from installing itself without permission, but you don’t need to manually confi rm every mouse click.

Of course, part of the reason Win7 feels so nice is because we are comparing it to Vista. Without John the Baptist to pave the way, the argument for Win7 is much less compelling. Vista will be taken round the back and shot but XP will be allowed to grow old, surrounded by adoring relatives. It’s too early to tell if Windows 7 is awesome or merely good. But it does at least look as if it is an improvement.

The Windows Experience Rating is still present, but has been updated and provides good baseline information about game support.

Windows 7 still features User Account Control, but it has been tamed and is now far less intrusive.

Windows 7 Top Tips

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“The shaking feature may be a little gimicky, but it’s entertaining. At least the fi rst few times it’s used.”

moment, but they are still something of a rarity. Windows 7 already supports touch control and this is likely to lead to not only a new way of interacting with the desktop, but also a new breed of games. New ways of interacting with the operating system are the order of the day, and even users stuck with a standard, non-touchscreen monitor can benefi t from far easier window management with Win7.

Drag an open window to the top of the screen and it will expand to its maximise state, drag it to the left or right and it will be automatically docked to that side of the screen and occupy half of the available screen space. This provides a handy way of copying fi les between two folders, and it's pleasing to fi nd that folders and windows used in this way have a memory. Undock or de-maximise a window by simply

dragging it away from its current position and it will return to its original size and location without the need for manual adjustment. However, some users have already found that the way in which Windows 7 takes over the way folders act when they are moved to be a step too far. Thankfully the feature can be disabled if required by a quick registry tweak. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop and change the value of WindowArrangementActive to 0.

Having mentioned fi le copying, it is worth also mentioning a nifty tip for

speeding up fi le copying dramatically. Robocopy (Robust File Copy) has become well known for its superior fi le copying abilities, but new switches have been enabled in Windows 7 that add support for multi-threaded - and therefore signifi cantly faster - copying. File copying operation can be split between up to 128 threads using the /MT parameter. If you’ve never used it before, this command-line utility was introduced in Windows Vista, and is specifi cally designed to reliably duplicate directories.

Pressing the Windows key and the up arrow can be used as a shortcut to maximise the current window, while using the down key will minimise it. This is a handy alternative to the Windows + D shortcut or the new Show Desktop icon that appears to the right of the system tray as it makes it possible to work with programs and windows on an individual basis rather than performing the same action on all of them. Meanwhile, pressing the Windows key and Home will minimise all open windows apart from the active one. In a nod to the idea of gestures, which is far better supported by touch screen devices, this can also be done by grabbing the one you want to keep open by the title bar and quickly shaking it left and right. The rest of the desktop clutter will then fall away; it may be a little gimmicky, but it's entertaining. At least the fi rst few times it's used.

Left Aero Peek provides easy access to a view of the desktop, but can be disabled if you fi ndit irritating

Left Aero’s sexeh graphical tabbing is still there

Above A world of gadgetry awaits, no longer tied to their sidebar origins

Right File copying is again thankfully faster than Vista

Windows 7 Top Tips

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Vista's sidebar was initially touted as a killer feature, but in reality was poorly received (or to put it another way, totally useless – Ed). In Windows 7, gadgets don’t begin life in the sidebar, now they’re placed anywhere on screen. This isn’t a new feature, you could pull them out in Vista, but it’s now a more streamlined operation - whatever you're doing a quick press of Alt + G will bring gadgets to the front so they are displayed on top of other windows. With gadgets available to monitor system performance, CPU load and memory usage, gadgets look set to become more mainstream for anyone who likes to keep an eye on precisely what their system is up to.

Like the Sidebar, Media Player has been much maligned for a number of years, but with recent versions, Microsoft has taken steps to take the program in the right direction. A major new improvement is the ability to stream music from a computer running Windows 7 to supported devices and

other computers. This is all thanks to Win7's improved network setup and provides an easy way to stream media from one room to another with a minimum of fuss. Windows Media Center has received similar improvements to performance and greater support for extender is only to be welcomed. If you've opted to go down the home cinema route, whether to get more from fi lms or to enjoy big screen gaming, switching the display to a projector is a simple matter of pressing Windows and P to choose between display modes.

It has already become somewhat clichéd to refer to Windows 7 as another service pack for Vista, or as the operating system that Vista should have been. There may be some truth in both of these claims, but the best attitude is to look at Microsoft’s latest release with new eyes and judge it for what it is in its own right. There will always be some areas in which there is room for improvement but, looked at

objectively, Windows 7 has a great deal to offer casual computer users, hardcore gamers and power users alike. There may be no groundbreaking features acting as key selling points, but everything works together as it should, and working with Windows 7 is a far more enjoyable, and speedy experience than with previous versions.

The impressive performance on relatively low-spec hardware opens up great gaming opportunities for laptop owners; and the fact that Win7 will run just as well as Vista on the same hardware, if not better, is impressive. And there's no denying the operating system feels responsive and snappy. You might begrudge praising Microsoft, but sometimes it has to be done. ¤

A word from the self-appointed wise. Do not pass go. Do not collect £200. And defi nitely do not believe the hype surrounding Windows 7. It’s not what it’s cracked up to be. What it is, frankly, is nothing more than a version of Windows Vista that works.

That’s not to say Windows 7 is bad. The strict truth is that it’s a little early to tell exactly how history will view it. My money is that it will eventually be ranked level-pegging or just below the likes of Windows XP, which itself was little more than a minor rehash of the indisputably well-received Windows 2000. Of course, Windows 2000 was in turn not all that much more than just a point release of Windows NT.

But I digress. The thing about Windows 7 is that it only seems good because of the Antichrist of operating systems that it replaces. Vista is so awful Microsoft could place a small sign reading “Improved multi-threading support” upon a stale loaf of bread containing a dead mouse and it would represent a signifi cant improvement over Vista by almost every conceivable metric.

In that context, a revised build of Vista with most of the awfulness

taken out was always going to look good. The reality, however, is that it’s still a pretty feeble effort given the immense resources available to Microsoft. Still missing, for instance, is the long awaited WinFS fi le system. Likewise, what happened to the scalable user interface supposedly enabled by Vista’s fancy 3D GUI? Win7 is same old bitmapped crap.

While we’re on the GUI subject, Windows 7 is still a damp squib compared to those exciting early builds of Vista with its promise of a radical interface overhaul including ubiquitous virtual folders. With all that in mind, I suggest the more relevant comparison is betwixt and between XP and Win7.

Eight years have passed since the launch of XP. In that time Microsoft and all its billions have basically brought us better versions of the DirectX API and some moderately attractive windows transparencies. The rest has frankly been deck-chair rearranging on the proverbial sinking failboat. Oh, and the fi rst of those two “features” doesn’t even count. You can upgrade Vista to support DirectX 11. ‘Nuff said.

Above More than just a tool for your music and movies, Media Player can now stream fi les too

Windows Media Center is now a pleasure to use as it is no longer slow, clunky and frustrating

Networking has been greatly simplifi ed in Windows 7 so it’s a breeze to share fi les to other computers and device using a Home Group.

Windows 7 Top Tips

WINDOWS 7JEREMY LAIRD’S OPINION

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