Windows 7 was created to make your communication with computer easier. Considering it became more safe and reliable and had some bugs removed from the previous versions Windows 7 is really more user-friendly. Even in respect of device driver’s installation it has become more convenient to use hardware with this OS.

Microsoft developers did their job well and already included the main drivers you are likely to need onto the Windows. So if you used to always install drivers for every single piece of hardware on your computer the good news is now you don’t have to do it, because Windows 7 already knows how to work with most of the main hardware peripherals.

Of course I can’t say that all of the driver’s problems are sorted out completely. No it’s not the case because new hardware appears on the market every day and Windows just can’t follow them all. You still have to install drivers for some devices you want to use. Apart from that, Windows’ installed drivers are generic and have only the basic features. If you want to take full advantage of the hardware it’s recommended you update and install a driver manually.

The installation process is not difficult if your driver has been certified by Windows. In this case just follow the installation wizard.

But sometimes it doesn’t go very smoothly and you might have some tiny niggles. The thing is your Operating System is developed to increase security and stability. A digital verification of the drivers signature is required by Windows before it will allow you to proceed with the installation, it’s the OS’s in-built security. If they won’t be verified the installation process won’t go any further.

Here is some advice about how you can fix this problem. First of all you should create your own digital certificate. When it’s done install the certificate onto your Windows 7 as a trusted publisher. Then use the Microsoft’s Authenticode signing tools to sign the device driver packages. It’s only three steps to sort it out. After doing this there won’t be any warning messages from your system and you can install the driver swimmingly.

At times it happens that the updated driver works not quite as you expected it to, for instance it has some bugs or causes resource or hardware conflicts with the other installed devices. On occasions like this you might want to bring your previous driver back in to play.

Windows 7 has a great feature called “Driver Roll Back” which allows you to replace the updated driver you have just installed with the previous version installed on your computer. There are two “BUTs” though. Firstly, it saves only the very last version you have had, you can’t roll back any other drivers. And secondly, this feature is available for all hardware apart from printers. So if you have installed a driver for a printer and want to replace it with the previous one, the system won’t let you do it, you will have to download and install the driver all over again.

To roll back the previous driver, open the Device Manager in the Control Panel window. Then you will be offered the option of choosing the device which you want to replace the driver for. When found right click on the device and go to “Properties”. In the next window that will be open find the Driver tab. There you will see the button “Roll Back Driver”, just click on it and confirm that you accept the warning message and that you want to proceed.

It’s been a week of trying out tech, with a recent visit from Microsoft promoting their business “goodies” particularly giving me a chance to try some new products out!

Microsoft surface

The highlight, for me, was trying out Microsoft Surface, the tabletop multi-gesture surface (or, probably more accurately, it’s a smoked glass touch sensitive coffee table). The one I tried was their original £10 model but with Samsung now manufacturing these the price has already come down to £5k. Once it hits around £1k they think the home user may be interested.

But this isn’t just a large table-top tablet. The abilities of the Microsoft Surface are really quite amazing, which it’s able to implement using IR sensors below the table top to detect levels of heat.

Two demonstrations of what it could do stood out. First, a transparent pass card was placed on the surface. Embedded in the card, but not visible to the eye, were the user credentials. Upon seeing this the Surface, below where the pass card was placed, showed a keypad and allowed the user to enter their password. This means the card itself became the pin pad.

The other demonstration used a combination of physics and graphics. Balls dropped down the screen to settle on one side. You were then able to pick a number of disks and place on the surface, each performing different tasks – one could adjust the gravity, another would be seen as a solid object, etc, etc. So the gravity one, when turned, would cause the balls to realistically tumble around the table depending on where you’d pointed it. A simple demo but powerfully showed what the table was capable of.

I’d say the only thing about Surface that I wasn’t keen on was the slightly matt finish of it – I’m guessing to reduce finger prints, etc.

Windows Phone 7

I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve not tried out Windows Phone 7 before and, thanks to a nice man from Microsoft, I was able to try out his personal HTC phone (which I believe was an HTC Mozart). As a die-hard Android fan, I have to say that I was quite impressed. The interface looks very nice and is very smooth in use.

I’m still not sold, however, due to various shortcomings of the OS (lack of apps, 3rd party apps can’t fully multi-task, etc).

I’m told that at my place of work, who currently use Blackberries, will shortly also be offering managers the option to use Windows Phone 7 instead. I’d go for the Microsoft option.

Nintendo 3DS

Also, a few days ago, I had my first opportunity to try out the Nintendo 3DS running Pilotwings. It was only a brief try-out, concentrating on the game and the 3D camera.

The 3D is, it has to be said, impressive – it has a real feeling of depth. It takes a second or so to adjust your eyes to it, though, and there is my main issue – after playing for a few minutes my eyes struggled to adjust back to normal. A colleague of mine started to get a headache.

Ignore all the tat in the papers at the moment about massive returns as that’s not the case. However, BBC’s Click programme recently reviewed the 3DS and said that pretty much everyone that tried it in their office switched off the 3D after a few minutes. If the 3D is all you’re buying it for – try first!

If, though, you’re happy to turn off the 3D then you’ll instead have a powerful games console. The graphics are vastly improved and the improved controls are easy to use.

Microsoft, always ready to introduce their own program naming, have introduced the concept of the “Platform Preview” for Internet Explorer 7, which you can download and try.

Basically, it’s IE but without the ability to change the URL or move backwards through pages – they want you to try it out, but without thinking this is anything like the end product. It can installed alongside your current IE version, however.

What it does do, though, is allow you to test “under the hood” changes – particularly around HTML 5, JavaScript enhancements and (snigger) standards improvements.

A Beta version of the full browser was available a while ago, though, but it was soon replaced with further Platform Previews.

They’re very pleased with their Acid3 score of 95% (compared to 100% for Webkit based browsers, although a lot better than IE’s current 20% rating) and their quick (but extremely dodgy) JavaScript benchmark. Time will tell how it pans out…

One thing that IE9 does add is the ability for sites to create their own jump lists in Windows 7. Here’s an excellent article on how to achieve this. Google Chrome already supports jump lists, and it looks like Firefox will have it after 3.7 is released.