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Windows 7 introduced many changes to Windows Media Foundation.

One of those changes is that now Windows Media Player uses it exclusively for playing back video. If you want to use a DirectShow codec instead of one of the component of the Windows Media Foundation, you need to make changes to some system files and that is not recommended for inexperienced users.

Preferred Filter Tweaker allows you to change which codec to use without manually changing system files yourself. You can now choose to use ffdshow or Xvid in Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center, for example.

DirectShow-based players, like Media Player Classic Home Cinema, are not affected by Windows Media Foundation, as they don’t support it.

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A couple of days ago my Windows 7 Start Menu search stop displaying results and instead I only saw empty categories when I wrote something in the search box.

As it turned out, this is a somewhat common bug in Windows 7. For no reason, the search box will stop displaying results. Fortunately for us, Microsoft is aware of this and they are working on a fix.

In the meantime, you can fix this by deleting a registry key.

• Open Windows Registry Editor by typing regedit in the Run box of the Start Menu
• Navigate to the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FolderTypes\{EF87B4CB-F2CE-4785-8658-4CA6C63E38C6}
• Right click on it and select Delete
• Reboot your computer
• Enjoy your Start Menu search results again

Microsoft released this tool to make things easier for users that want to install Windows 7 from a USB flash drive. This is very useful for netbook owners as those computer don’t have DVD drives and the only way to install Windows on it is via USB.

All you need is an ISO file of Windows 7 and a USB flash drive of 4GB or larger. If you purchased Windows 7 from the Microsoft Store you can download the ISO file from there. If you have the physical DVD, just make the ISO file with Imgburn or a similar program.

Then, just launch the tool and follow the steps. It is as easy as it gets.

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Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) contains all the tools needed to make unattended installations of Windows, including the recently released Windows 7 RTM.

If you want to start making unattended installation, this is the first thing to install. Also, be sure to read the documentation that comes with it because it has all the instructions on how to do it.

It support other Windows versions, not just the latest Windows 7. Microsoft already released it in all available languages.

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Microsoft has published a Windows 7 tour that showcases the most noticeable features of it’s next Operative System.

Today Microsoft released Windows 7 RC to the general public.

You can download 32-bit or 64-bit in five different languages: English, German, Japanese, Spanish and French.

Before you download it, read the installation instructions for more information.

This same RC release was leaked last week and it is working very well so far in my laptop. I will install it again, but using the spanish version.

Have you try it already? What do you think about it?

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Microsoft introduced a new calculator as part of the many changes being made to Windows 7.

It has many features compared with the old Vista and XP calculator. These include gas mileage, date calculation, binary operations and more…

If you want, you can replace the calculator in Vista by copying the downloaded files to your Sytem32 folder.

However, make sure you take ownership of the calc.exe and grant your account full permissions to be able to replace it. After that, you can revert the permission to keep the file secure.

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The guys at TechSpot posted an easy guide on how to dual boot Windows 7 along with Windows XP or Windows Vista.

Now that Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 7 (beta) is publicly available, almost everyone is itching to get their grubby paws on a copy and take it for a test drive.

However, because this is only a beta release most people simply aren’t willing to part with their established installations of Windows Vista or XP. With that mind, we’re going to look at one easy way of dual booting Windows 7 Beta with either Vista or XP in three painless steps…

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