Brandon LeBlanc has written a post on the Windows 7 Team Blog where he goes into the different SKUs of Windows 7.

Bloggers and pundits have been all over Microsoft for not making things easier for the consumers by having too many SKUs. I totally disagree and think that things are actually much easier this time around. Yes, there are 6 different SKUs mentioned;

• Windows 7 Home Premium
• Windows 7 Professional
• Windows 7 Starter (OEM only)
• Windows 7 Home Basic (OEM only)
• Windows 7 Enterprise (Volume License Agreements Only)
• Windows 7 Ultimate

But as Brandon clearly shows Home Premium and Professional are the two different SKUs most consumers will have to choose from. The others ones are aimed at niche markets, and will not even be available for most people.

He also states that;

We also make it easy for customers to change down the road. So let’s say I purchase Windows 7 Home Premium and want to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional. With Windows Anytime Upgrade I can, as it makes upgrading to another version of Windows 7 much easier now that we have a single image for every SKU. Users will be able to unlock upgraded editions of Windows 7 without original media or additional software as everything they need in order to upgrade will be on their PC already.

Because each SKU is a superset of the previous SKU for Windows 7 that means each higher edition SKU will also include every feature the lower edition SKUs has. Windows 7 Professional will have every feature that Windows 7 Home Premium has plus other business-oriented features such as the ability to join a domain.

I recommend going to the Windows 7 Team Blog and read the post in its entirety. Do I believe that the MS bashers out there will calm down – no, but anyway…

A closer look at the Windows 7 SKUs – Windows 7 Team Blog – The Windows Blog

I am now in the process of changing the name of my blog. I have registered the domain name abokevin.com and have transferred my blog to this address. I am in the process of finding a new theme for the blog, as well as changing the top image to incorporate the new name.

So why the new name? When I started this blog a few years ago (I know, I know – I have not been too active here) Windows Vista was just about to be a Release Candidate and I wanted to blog about it and other MS Tech related news. Well the world has moved on, the new MS OS is now Windows 7, and I felt that the name Norwegian Vista no longer seemed appropriate. I was thinking of keeping it on interpreting the name to be more like the Norwegian Outlook on things tech (no pun intended 😉 ), but decided against it.

AboKevin happens to be my nickname in Lebanon, since my oldest sons name is Kevin. AboKevin literally means “Father of Kevin”. A nickname like this is given with respect and is something I truly honor and appreciate, and I can think of nothing better as the name for my blog.

You will continue to be redirected here if you use http://norwegianvista.wordpress.com

The change of name also underscores something that has already happened to the blog; it is no longer only tech-related. Although tech is most likely also going to be the biggest topic on the blog in the future, I will post more about geopolitics and other topics that I find interesting and worthwhile getting out there.

Our small family is also growing. I will soon be the father of a third child. We don’t yet know whether it is a boy or a girl (didn’t want to know is more precise) but are really looking forward to the arrival of the fifth member of the family. The arrival is scheduled for later this month, more posts on that to follow.

Anyway, there you have it: The name of this blog is now AboKevins blog.

Thank you for your continued interest;

You can also follow me on twitter!

Many bloggers and tech reviewers have written about the new Windows 7 taskbar. A lot of them, including Paul Thurrott, thinks that the default view of the new taskbar is too difficult for previous users of Windows to get used to; a case of simple not easy. (He has more and valid points in this article)

I decided that I wanted to find out for myself what I really thought about this and have tried it both in the new default setting as well as in an adjusted mode more similar to the Windows Vista way.

The  Old Way;

To adjust the taskbars way of working to a manner more resembling what Windows Vista and earlier versions did you will have to do the following;

1. Right click on the ‘Start’ button and select ‘Properties’

2. Select the ‘Taskbar’ tab.

3. In the dropdown menu Taskbar buttons, select ‘Never Combine’

4. Select to ‘Use small icons’

5. Click ‘Apply’ then ‘OK’

The result is a taskbar that looks like this in use;

As we can see from the screenshot above, active windows have labels and are looking different to non-active applications like the Outlook and Windows Media Player buttons above. Several open windows of one application is also separated, like we see with the Internet Explorer windows.

This is not exactly like the Old Way but pretty close. There are ways to reactivate the old ‘Quick Launch Toolbar’ if you want that back as well, but…

What is the point? I think that this kind of old way is more cluttered and busy and not at all appealing to the eye and do not think that it is a better way to use the taskbar.

The new default mode

Here we see that the ‘Internet Explorer’ active windows are combined and that there is a frame around the icon to designate that there are active windows. The non-active ‘Windows Media Player’ stands out since it is not emphasized with a frame and glossy look.

It took some getting used to, but not too long, and I think that it definitely looks better than the so-called ‘Old Way’ I described earlier. It is basically prettier and I find it just as easy as before to glance at the taskbar to find what windows I have opened up.

So basically I do not understand what people are complaining about. It is not hard to identify active applications and/or applications with multiple windows open in the new taskbar, rather the other way around – easy and I said earlier prettier on the eye (my opinion)

So there you have it… I actually think that Microsoft got this one right!

Slightly off topic: Paul linked to an article by Mike Halsey showing how to add a custom toolbar to the taskbar in order to get additional icons in there, like for instance the ‘Recycle Bin’.

In this screenshot I have activated this feature and have added two often used applications and the Recycle Bin to this part of the taskbar. I like it, and advice you to try it out.