Category Archives: Technology

Windows 7 ISO, Bootable Media and the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

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One of the big benefits of buying ESD aside from the environmental one, is that it increases the convenience of buying software online.  Not only can you typically get it faster than waiting for a physical shipment in the mail, but you also get the benefit of being able to re-download it in case you need to reinstall in the future.  Additionally, we also store your product key in the cloud so you don’t have to keep silly post it notes or DVD jewel cases around.

One drawback, however, is when you need to install Windows from bootable media such as a DVD.  With Windows Vista, Microsoft Store only gave you an option to download the Windows setup files, and to install windows, you would run setup.exe to kickoff the Windows setup.

This happens when you have a PC without an existing version of Windows installed, or even a Mac where you are trying to install Windows with boot camp.

In these cases, it’s hardly convenient to have an ESD version of Windows since you have no way of starting setup without a lot of manual steps.

Windows 7 ISO files

After purchasing your downloadable Windows 7 edition on Microsoft Store, you now have the option of several types of downloads.  By default, we offer the 32-bit version of the edition you purchased that can be downloaded and Windows setup can be kicked off right away.  This is the version that most of our customers be downloading.

However, in addition to this, we also now offer a set of “Advanced” download options that gives you choice of 64-bit installer and both 32-bit and 64-bit ISO files!

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Offering ISO files in addition to our regular “installer” versions, helps customers that need both the convenience of a download but also need physical media to boot from.

The Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

Our team is committed to creating the best experience for downloading software from Microsoft.  We previously created the Microsoft Store Download Manager to help with the download process.

To burn an ISO to DVD you can use any of the many free or commercial applications that are available.   However, majority of these programs don’t provide easy ways to create bootable USB Keys in addition to DVDs.

We created the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (WUDT) to help customers that have more advanced needs for their Windows 7 installation and need an easy way to create bootable media.  The WUDT will take the ISO files from Microsoft Store and easily create either a bootable DVD or a USB Key with only a few clicks.

This is a free tool and available for immediate download.

Here is the WUDT step-by-step for creating a bootable USB Key:

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After the process is completed, you can take the USB key and plug it into your target installation PC and choose to boot from the USB Key which will automatically start the Windows 7 installer.  If you chose to create a bootable DVD instead, the process is nearly identical except that you’ll boot from the DVD.

For answers to frequently asked questions, please see our FAQ.

The New Microsoft Store launches with Windows 7

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You’ve read the amazing reviews and now the day is finally here.  Without a doubt, one of the biggest launches of the year is Windows 7!

It’s available for immediate purchase where you can choose to either have it shipped to you or to download it direct from Microsoft.

imageIn addition to the availability of Windows 7, I’m happy ecstatic to announce the launch of the brand new Microsoft Store, which coincides with the opening of new Microsoft retail stores.  Our first retail location opens tomorrow at 10am in Scottsdale followed by our second store in Mission Viejo on October 29th.  In fact, we already had 4 fans standing in line at 4pm earlier this afternoon in anticipation of the opening!

On the new online Microsoft Store, we’ve added a bunch of new products, including Windows 7 PCs as well as select 3rd party software and accessories.  And let’s not forget a ton of gaming products that have been added including a bunch of the top selling Xbox 360 titles.

We initially launched the online store last November, and since then we have had nearly a years worth data coming in from usability studies, web analytics and direct customer feedback.  Based on all of this data, coupled with the newly expanded product catalog, one of the biggest goals we had in this release was to simplify site navigation for our customers.  With the new site, you’ll notice a re-designed categorization, navigation and filtering system aimed to make it easier and faster to navigate as well as help you find products you want more quickly.

Go check our new store out, find information about our new retail locations, and while you’re at it, get your copy of Windows 7!

We’d love to know what you think of the new site, so drop a comment here or send me a line on Twitter.

Microsoft Store Australia and Italy have opened

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Over the past several months, the Microsoft Store team has been working hard at improving our stores.  2 notable areas we’re working on is getting ready for the big launch of image Windows 7 as well as expanding our global footprint. 

As we all anticipate Windows 7’s launch on October 22, we have some great news to share in the meantime.

Today, we opened up 2 new additional international stores – Microsoft Store Italy and Microsoft Store Australia!

Both of these new stores are currently offering Microsoft software by download, or download + backup media.  We are continually looking to expand our catalog in each of our international stores, so be patient with us :)

The past year has seen us open up several international stores, and with these 2 new stores, we now have presence in 12 countries world-wide.

If you’re a customer of one of our new stores, drop us a comment here, or on Twitter and let us know what you think!

Comcast upgrades me to DOCSIS 3.0

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Just got an upgrade to the new 22Mbps plan on Comcast which takes advantage of their new DOCSIS 3.0 rollout.  I was previously on their 16Mbps plan and was getting ~19000kbps download speeds.  After connecting the new modem they gave me, I did a quick speed test:

image Sweet :)

Correcting date and time of photos with Exifer

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I frequently forget to change the date and time on my camera’s when I travel so the timestamps in all the photos I take are incorrect. Even worse is when I bring multiple cameras and only 1 of them, since this causes photos taken on the same date and time have EXIF data that is in conflict with each other depending on which camera I used.

Most photo editing applications don’t make it easy to edit the timestamp in the EXIF data of your photos. I have no idea why, but for some reason they felt fit to prevent us from doing it. (Adobe Lightroom allows you to edit the “capture time” but for most people, buying Lightroom just to edit EXIF info is a little overkill :) )

There are a lot of apps out there for Windows that will edit EXIF data, but many of them are overkill or way overpriced. Fortunately, a long time ago I stumbled upon a free app to do this called Exifer.

Exifer is a nearly free software (you only should send me a postcard if you’re using Exifer frequently) with which you can manage the metadata (EXIF/IPTC) of pictures taken by digital cameras. Because many image processing software destroys this metadata when saving such files, the idea was to create a backup of the metadata before editing it in any software, and then, after that to restore it back into the processed file. With Exifer you can do this very easily.

The last update to Exifer was in 2002, but it still does exactly what it needs to do (edit EXIF data) and it compatible as far back as Windows 98 and even runs perfectly on Windows 7. Although I don’t use Exifer too often, when I do, it’s a life saver

What’s in my travel bag?

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I’ve traveled quite a bit the last few years and a whack of that travel has been for work which has forced me on trips where I’m going to several countries each for few days at a time.  Traveling on such tight schedules, you find yourself paying attention to overall weight of your bags. Nothing sucks more than haulin’ ass through the airport with overweight luggage.

Here are my top 5 things I never travel without that has helped me cut the overall clutter in my bags, while making my travel far easier:

Apple Airport Express

image Everyone knows about this handy little device for the home, but few people remember to bring it with them when they travel.

First, when you’re traveling in hotels only hard-wired internet connections, you can use the Airport Express to bridge the ethernet to wifi. Presto! you’re no longer chained to that insanely small desk and can sit on your bed with your laptop.

Second, the USB port on it can be used to charge every single one of my devices that uses a USB cable to charge. This includes my iPhone 3GS, Samsung NV24HD camera and even my X-Mini II speaker.  This allows me to leave most, if not all, extraneous power plugs at home and only lug along my Airport and necessary cables.

X-Mini II Capsule Speaker

image I heard about this amazing little device originally from a co-worker who was rigging up this crazy portable A/V system with his Zune and a mini projector.  At that time, he only had the original version which was much smaller.

At first glance, this thing looks like a flimsy POS, but when you hear the sound it outputs, you’ll be amazed.  It’s come in extremely handy when I’ve wanted to watch movies in my hotel room on my laptop (my Thinkpad T60’s speakers absolutely suck), or even just listen to music off my iPhone.  You truly have to listen to this in person to believe it – the sound is amazing for it’s size. image

You have 2 options for connecting it – either through the 3.5mm cable protrudes from the bottom (and neatly tucks away when not being used) or through the cable that connects via mini-USB. That USB cable splits into a standard USB plug to connect a USB power source for recharging it’s batteries, and also another 3.5mm jack. So if you’re using it with your laptop, you can charge it and connect it to your headphone jack very easily.  As I mentioned earlier, it can also be charged through the Airport Express’ USB connection.

Belkin Mini Surge Protector with dual USB Charger

image I recently added this to my arsenal as I found that too often I either (a) needed more than 1 USB device charged at once, and (b) simply needed more power plugs. The Belkin Mini Surge Protector totally fits the bill and has a permanent place in my laptop bag (which is also my airplane carry-on).

It can also easily be used when you travel internationally by letting you get 3 outlets but only using a single travel plug adapter.

ATP Multislot Promax USB2.0 UDMA Card Reader (AF-CRMBK-MV1)

image Since I never travel without my laptop, I never had to worry about running out of space on my CF or SD cards.  Since my laptop also has Lightroom installed on it, I can offload pictures every so often and even triage them to discard the obvious duds, and even start tagging and organizing them. When I get back home, I export the catalog from my laptop and import to my main PC. For longer trips, this strategy has saved me so much time in finishing my photos off.

At times where I’ve had lots of spare CF/SD cards, I still offload my photos for safekeeping so there is a duplicate copy.

Other 4 other more minor things I usually always bring: