Archive Windows » East Bay / Tri-Valley PC Repair

7 Steps to Make a Bootable USB Thumb Drive to Install Windows 7 on a Netbook

Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

I recently bought a Netbook, a lovely Acer Aspire One, however it came with Windows XP and since falling in love with Windows 7, I couldn’t bear to use XP anymore.

So I went searching for the steps to make a bootable USB thumb drive with the Windows 7 install files on it, and got lucky when I found an excellent 7 step guide on CrunchGear. I’d recommend going to view that if you need the steps explained all along the way. But I’ll put them here, short and sweet.

Since you can’t download the Release Candidate anymore that eliminates the first step.
The second step is to download WinRAR, I use and recommend 7-Zip for all your unzipping needs, and it does the same job we need it to do in step 3.
The third step is to extract the files from the ISO you downloaded (hopefully before Microsoft stopped offering it for download in August).
Next step is to format your thumb drive to NTFS, and you need at least a 4GB thumb drive for the Windows 7 install files.
That was pretty easy right? Now the hard part. Basically copy the bootsect.exe file from the /boot subfolder in the Windows 7 directory you created in step 3 to your C: drive
Open the command prompt and go to the C: drive (or wherever you copied the bootsect.exe file), and type in this command:
“bootsect /nt60 f:”

(without the quotes and replace ‘f’ with the letter of your thumb drive)

That should copy the Windows 7 boot files to the thumb drive, then…
Copy the Windows 7 files to the thumb drive

That’s it. It worked beautifully for me and I’m now enjoying Windows 7 on my new Acer netbook. Everything works great and I can’t wait for the final version of Windows 7 to come out on October 22nd.

Mark your calendars. Mine is already marked.

Read the original 7 step guide at CrunchGear

Tags: flash drive, guide, information, microsoft, tips, usb, Windows, Windows 7

Posted in Windows 7 | 2482 Comments »2009-09-16+06%3A46%3A23Dave+Bonds

Giant Windows Fail Courtesy of the Dallas Cowboys

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Woops! The Dallas Cowboys have been having some problems with their giant displays lately, first a blocked punt, and now a failed Windows shutdown… for the whole world to see. Lovely isn’t it?

via Gizmodo

Tags: funny, humor, Windows

Posted in Windows | 190No Comments »2009-09-09+05%3A42%3A36Dave+Bonds

Make a bootable USB installer for Windows XP, Vista, 7 with WinToFlash

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

From downloadsquad.com

Making a bootable USB flash drive for Windows Vista and Windows 7 isn’t all that tricky, but it’s always nice to find an app that simplifies things. Not only does WinToFlash make the process about as easy as it can get, but it can also create Windows XP, Server 2003, and Server 2008 installers.

The default options make it easy to roll a silent Windows install, or you can flip the custom switch and specify the exact setup parameters you want to use.

The handy app also has one more trick up its sleeve: moving Windows Preinstall environments. PE discs can be extremely handy for troubleshooting and repairs, and being able to painlessly zap them over to a USB flash drive means not having to burn a new copy every time someone’s haggard old optical drive decides to chew up your CD.

WinToFlash is a free download and is totally portable. It’s an excellent tool to add to your USB-related utilities.

Download WinToFlash.

Tags: Downloads, flash drive, free, Portable Apps, Tips and Tricks, usb, Utilities, Windows, Windows 7

Posted in Downloads, Windows | 148No Comments »2009-08-28+04%3A49%3A54Dave+Bonds

Like Tabbed Browsing? Bring Tabs to Microsoft Office

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

For Windows Microsoft Office Only:
If you’re like me, you can’t live without tabbed browsing in Firefox. What if you could bring tabs into Microsoft Office?

Well now you can. Using this Microsoft Office plug-in OfficeTab, instead of having separate windows for each open document, you can have tabs for all your open documents in either Word, Excel or Powerpoint.

As Lifehacker points out, you’ve got to wonder why Microsoft doesn’t include this feature by default.. maybe something to look forward to in the next version of Office?

The Lifehacker article also warns of a Visual Studio prompt, however, after installing it on my machine I had no such errors and it works problem free.

To download it you can visit the Google translated download page at OfficeTab or alternatively I have provided a download link here. (OfficeTabv1.20.zip)

via Lifehacker via DownloadSquad

Tags: Downloads, Freebies, lifehacks, microsoft, office, productivity, Tips and Tricks, Utilities, Windows

Posted in Downloads, Tips and Tricks, Windows | 1401 Comment »2009-08-25+20%3A59%3A16Dave+Bonds