Early adopter of Windows 7 shares his secrets
By
Dennis O'Reilly
For most Windows users, the transition to Windows 7 will be bump-free.
But even if the initial installation goes smoothly, you know there'll be glitches — some big and some small.
There's no teacher like experience. Fortunately, however, there's also no reason we have to learn everything the hard way. You can avoid a few potholes by listening to one early Win7 adopter, Ed Kirkpatrick:
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"We have been using the released-to-manufacturing version of Windows 7 Professional since it became available through our Microsoft TechNet account. You may have already learned these facts about Windows 7, but I haven't seen them written up in any reviews yet.
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1. There's no 'Classic View' of anything (no workaround available without third-party software).
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2. There's no Quick Launch toolbar available (see below for a workaround we like even better).
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3. The WPA2-Personal wireless security key can be seen in clear text by anyone after it has been typed in (see below for Microsoft's suggested workaround).
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4. There's no way to copy User Profiles (except the Default User profile — see below for more info).
"We opened up a security issue case (ID 109083169417505) for #3 above, and a technician was very helpful with the other issues as well.
"A workaround for #2 is to create a folder in the root of C:\ (we called it QuickLaunch) and put links there to all the programs you would normally put in the Quick Launch. Then right-click the taskbar, choose Toolbars, New Toolbar and direct it to the folder in the root of C:\. We then move this toolbar over against the Start Menu so it's in the same position as the Quick Launch.
UPDATE 2009-11-12: In the Nov. 12 Known Issues column, reader David Shirly describes how to restore the Quick Launch toolbar in Windows 7.
"For #3 above, the Microsoft tech-support engineer stated that Microsoft's stance is that WPA2-Personal (or lower) is only for 'home use' security, and the owner/user should be able to see the security key at any time. If enterprise security is required, he said, WPA2-Enterprise with a Radius server should be implemented. I asked him about an in-between scenario — i.e., a public implementation where a Radius server is not feasible — and his answer was to use WPA2-Personal along with MAC address listing.
"For #4 above, the Microsoft tech-support engineer told us Microsoft's stance is that user profiles shouldn't be copied all the way down through Windows 2000. So with Windows 7 you just can't. One workaround could be to use Microsoft's USMT (User State Migration Tool). [See Microsoft's User's Guide to USMT.] But this is primarily to move user data from one computer to another, not to copy user profiles from one profile to another on the same computer.
"A more-reasonable method seemed to be to 'build up' the default user profile, which can be copied. [See 'How to customize default user profiles in Windows 7,' MS Knowledge Base article 973289.] We haven't had time to try this yet, but hopefully it will do what we need." -
1. There's no 'Classic View' of anything (no workaround available without third-party software).
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Reader Ed Kirkpatrick will receive a gift certificate for a book, CD, or DVD of his choice for sending a comment we published. Send us your tips via the Windows Secrets
contact page. |
The Known Issues column brings you readers' comments on our recent articles. Dennis O'Reilly is technical editor of WindowsSecrets.com.
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