We're kicking off the weekend with another great deal on the V3 Software Store. From now until Monday 8 February you can get a copy of Acronis True Image 2010 for only £17.98, 55 per cent off the RRP.

Better still, it's an instant download, so you'll receive your software and serial code within minutes of placing your order.

With Acronis True Image 2010 backup software, you can schedule a regular backup of your drive, partition, or files and folders. Using differential support, each time you run a backup, only the files you have updated since the last backup will be stored. If you suffer from a system crash or buy a new PC, you can simply restore your data back to your computer.

If you're seeking drive backup software, you could also take a look at O&O DiskImage 5 Professional, which was released last week. This drive and partition backup software competes directly with Acronis True Image 2010 and is available for only £14.99 at the V3 Software Store, 50 per cent off the standard RRP of £29.99.

Posted by Madeline Bennett on February 5, 2010 | Permalink | Comments (0)

I finally got around to upgrading my partner's Windows Vista laptop at the weekend, and it turned out to be quite a drawn-out process and much more involved than I had anticipated. If Vista throws up this many problems with an in-place upgrade, it's no wonder that Microsoft decided that an upgrade path from XP wasn't worth contemplating.

The upgrade accounted for pretty much all of Sunday afternoon and evening, taking in the region of eight hours from start to finish. With hindsight, a clean install would have been a better option, but the laptop had a number of applications such as Microsoft Office that have been personalised with various settings and options, and it seemed that an in-place upgrade was the way to proceed.

The first thing I did was to backup all documents and files to a network share, as The Boss would not have been impressed if anything had gone wrong and resulted in the loss of any of her work.

Secondly, I downloaded and ran the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from Microsoft's website to get some idea of any problems that might be lurking.

This turned out to be a useful tool, so I fully recommend it to anyone planning a similar upgrade. As well as confirming that the laptop (a HP Compaq Presario F500 series) met the minimum requirements for Windows 7, it identified one or two drivers that were not compatible with Windows 7 (see screenshot).

It also recommended removing several applications before the upgrade, including an old version of iTunes, Windows Live Messenger and the Windows Mobile Device Center.

Unfortunately, uninstalling one of the applications caused the laptop's DVD drive to stop working, which put a brake on the upgrade until I could fix it.

The problem was that the application had hooked into the DVD driver, and its uninstall routine had not removed the link. A quick web search provided me with a fix, which involved editing the Registry to remove any reference to the application from the DVD's entry.

With the DVD drive re-instated, I popped in the Windows 7 install disk and kicked off the setup. However, this performed its own compatibility check, which after an extended scan of the computer, threw up a new list of applications and drivers to remove.

One of the applications it identified was Skype, which wasn't actually installed on the laptop, and so caused some head scratching. It turned out the compatibility check had found a bundled Skype installer that HP must have pre-loaded onto the hard drive when the laptop was built.

After removing the new problems and a quick reboot, I re-started the install and waited...and waited...and waited. After copying and expanding the files needed for Windows 7, the installer than scanned for existing applications and files, and this is what really took up a lot of the time, as it eventually reached a grand total of 342,814 items!

Of course, the upgrade was only half complete, as after rebooting into Windows 7, the installer then had to import all the applications and files it had previously identified.

Just as I was about to retire to bed and leave the upgrade running overnight, the installation finished and Windows Vista was finally replaced with shiny new Windows 7, with no loss of data and all vital applications intact.

So far, The Boss is pleased with the upgrade, although she complains that it is still a little slow for her liking, but an improvement on Vista's interminable startup and shutdown times.

The upgrade was thus a success, but not without its share of hitches, and it makes me wonder how less tech-savvy users would cope with a similar scenario. And this was with a Vista laptop bought as new just a couple of years ago, not an ancient XP machine.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on October 28, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (8)

The new V3.co.uk download store is live and accessible now here or via the Shop navigation links across the main V3 site. The store lets you browse through popular software titles, make an online payment and receive an immediate download and serial code. You can have your software on your computer within minutes.

In addition to an improved look and feel, the new site offers a much wider range of software from leading vendors including Uniblue, Kaspersky, AVG, Paragon Software and Avira plus many more. Other key brands will follow shortly, so keep referring back to the store. The store also supports multiple currencies so international users can order products in their local currency, unlike many other software stores.

To support the launch of the new store we have several promotional offers including discounts on Laplink PCmover Windows 7 Upgrade Assistant, AVG AntiVirus 9, Kaspersky Internet Security 2010, as well as free full software applications from Ashampoo and Acebit.

To take advantage of additional weekly promotion codes to get even better discounts on software, sign up to the Software Downloads Weekly newsletter on V3.co.uk or via the newsletter link on the download store.

Posted by Madeline Bennett on October 27, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Asus today held an event to showcase the various laptops, netbooks, desktops and all-in-one systems that are set to ship with Microsoft's new Windows 7 platform, once this is available later this week.

The UL series laptops feature a brushed aluminium cover and are claimed to have a battery life of up to 12 hours thanks to the latest Intel CULV processors.

Shown here is the Asus UnLimited (UL) series UL50AG with a 15.6in high-definition (1366x768) screen, which is set to ship with 64bit Windows 7 Home Premium and 4GB memory for £699.

The next photo shows the Eee Box EB1501, a compact mini desktop designed for home entertainment with Nvidia Ion graphics driving a high definition HDMI video output, 5.1 Surround sound speaker support, slot-loading DVD drive and dual-core Intel processor. It costs from £339.

Next is the Eee PC T91, a tiny netbook-style system with an 8.9in display, but which features a touch screen that can swivel around Tablet PC style to convert the system into a slate-mode system. This costs £409 for a system with 1GB memory and hybrid storage consisting of 16GB Flash SSD plus 16GB SD Card and a 30GB hard disk drive. The demo system was also running XP Home edition.

The Eee Top ET2002 and ET2203 are all-in-one multimedia touchscreen PCs with a 20in or 21.6in display respectively.

The ET2002 is based on a dual-core Atom 330 processor with DVD drive and 2GB memory for £559, while the ET2203 has a Core 2 Duo processor, Blu-ray and 4GB memory for £819. Both have surround sound.

Next, the Asus K70 is a no-frills laptop designed to provide multimedia performance and computing versatility without any extra fuss or additional cost, according to Asus. It has a 17.3in display and up to 4GB memory.

Finally, the Disney netbook is aimed at children and is very much the successor to earlier Asus Eee PC models with its 8.9in screen, Atom processor and XP Home. It comes in a choice of pink or blue designs for £299.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on October 20, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

What do home workers do for internet access when their fixed line broadband connection has been terminated prior or subsequent to a house move? Having been plunged into this situation several times over the past year or so, I decided to find out what the options are.

If a BT line is not already installed in the property, as was the case with me, it could take in excess of a month to get broadband fully up and running, and with many broadband providers - not just BT - requiring the line before they can supply a service, it's a not insignificant problem.

It also emerged recently that Virgin have had their own problems coping with the mountain of requests from disaffected BT users. Late shipment of wireless routers and a general inability to cope with demand on their part mean you could be in for a wait to be connected whatever option you decide to go with.

So, here's the long and short of it: unless you want to risk jumping on an unsecured network nearby you'll need to invest in a 3G dongle. Anecdotally I've heard the quality of these has improved significantly since they first burst onto the market, with all the major mobile network operators selling an extensive array of dongles, depending on how much data you're planning to transfer.

Now this is by no means an exhaustive test, merely my own experience, so yours may be a lot different. I tried one from Vodafone and one from O2. First up was Vodafone.

Extremely simple to set up, the stylish white and red dongle glows when in use, and provides a simple read out to check coverage. It's also got a control panel allowing detailed management of the device. Sadly, this was all a moot point because there was no coverage in my flat in central-ish London. I didn't imagine second floor flat of three in a residential street in SE1 would have coverage problems but there you go.

O2 fared better; easy to set up, manage and get running, with coverage adequate. Trying to remove and uninstall the O2 connection manager client once I'd done this little test, however, was another matter. It took a lot of head scratching and tinkering to achieve, but nice that O2 was so keen to stay on my laptop - marks for enthusiasm. The speed however was inconsistent, ranging from good to not much better than dial-up , and this was just sitting in my flat with 'excellent' or 'very good' signal strength

I'd say that mobile broadband is still something to use in tandem with fixed broadband, not as a replacement. Interestingly, as I was writing this up a new report from Broadband-expert.co.uk revealed download speeds are only 24 per cent of those advertised - 1.1Mbit/s compared with a pledged maximum of 4.5Mbit/s.

It's not great, but I'm sure it will get better. In the meantime, take a deep breath, and prepare to wait.

Posted by Phil Muncaster on October 10, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (3)

For those wondering whether Windows 7 will run on a typical netbook, the answer is yes. While testing out Toshiba's NB200 mini laptop, I took the liberty of installing the release version of Microsoft's new operating system and found it runs with no trouble at all.

Interest in Windows 7 on mini laptops - otherwise known as netbooks - was piqued by Microsoft's claim back at the Professional Developer Conference in 2008 that the new platform would run on such small systems.

Currently, these devices are most often shipped out with Windows XP Home edition pre-installed, since Windows Vista is simply too resource hungry to give a satisfactory experience on netbooks.

As Windows 7 is based on the same core code as Vista, many people were understandably sceptical about Microsoft's claim.

Toshiba's NB200 netbook has the typical hardware specifications seen on many other netbooks: single-core Intel Atom processor, 1GB of memory and 160GB hard drive, plus a 10in display.

Like most compact laptops, the Toshiba doesn't have a DVD drive, so I used a USB Flash drive instead, first turning it into a bootable drive and then copying the setup files to it.

[A step-by-step guide on how to create a Windows 7 USB install disk is given here on one of Microsoft's blogs. Note that you need a drive at least 4GB in size.]

The install took about half an hour and re-booted the system a couple of times, after which I had a working Windows 7 netbook - see the screenshot above.

I was surprised to find that the Toshiba seemed just as responsive with Windows 7 as it did before the upgrade when running Windows XP.

However, Windows 7 rates the upgraded system with a Windows Experience Index (WEI) of just 1.0 - the lowest score possible. A look at the individual subsystem scores revealed that the integrated graphics in Intel's 945 Express chipset is holding the score down.

This means that playing the latest 3D shoot-'em-up game is probably out of the question, but in reality, most people buy a netbook like this because they are affordable, portable, and are good enough for surfing the web, email, and the odd spot of word processing, rather than for anything fancy.

Nevertheless, I was able to turn on the Aero user interface with its translucency effects (it was disabled by default after installation), and a few checks showed that the netbook was perfectly capable of playing music and video content.

So it seems that Microsoft's promise was no idle boast, and Windows 7 will indeed run perfectly well on a netbook.

Potential buyers should note that if netbooks do ship with Windows 7, the version included may well be the Starter edition, which has a number of limitations such as the Aero user interface disabled.

However, Microsoft has now lifted the earlier restriction that limited the Starter edition to running no more than three concurrent applications.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on September 14, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Viewsonic is extending its product line-up beyond monitors to include PCs, netbooks, and more consumer-oriented devices such as portable media players (PMPs), pocket TVs, and more, and I managed to snap a few of the devices when the company came in to the V3.co.uk offices to show them off. Apologies for the slightly dodgy quality of some images.

First up is the VOT120, a tiny net-top PC that can stand on its own or be bolted to the back of an LCD monitor. It has similar specifications to a netbook - Atom N270 processor, 1GB Ram and 160GB hard drive - but in a neat compact package that costs £200 with Windows XP Home included. Viewsonic said you can also buy it without an OS for just £155 - handy for Linux fans.

It's bigger brother is the VOT132, which boasts an interesting slim-line design that can be stacked with an optional multi-DVD drive, shown alongside it in the picture.

The VOT132 is better specfied, with a dual-core Atom 330 processor and Nvidia ION graphics supporting HDMI and DVI outputs, 2GB of memory and 320GB hard drive, and set to ship with Windows 7 Home Premium in October for £283. The snap-on DVD drive is £56 extra.

Another step up are the VOT530 and VOT550, still compact PCs, but based on Intel's Core 2 Duo T6600 processors. The VOT550 has 4GB memory, 320GB hard drive and a Blu-ray player for £585, while the VOT530 has 2GB memory, 250GB hard drive and a multi-DVD drive for £449.

Another new product is Viewsonic's VT35 pocket TV, which has a 3.5in screen and supports DVB-T video, allowing buyers to see all the Freeview channels. It costs £63 and has a battery life of up to five hours from its built-in rechargeable battery pack.

Viewsonic is also about to start shipping two portable media players, the £97 VDP500 and £91 VDP400, with a 5in and 4.3in screen, respectively. Both have 8GB built-in storage with a Micro SD card slot for extra storage and a resolution of 800x480, supporting 720p high-definition video.

Other media players coming soon are the VMP30 and VMP52, both of which support 1080p HD video and support HDMI inputs and outputs.

Perhaps the most outlandish products Viewsonic said are on the way are a collection of 3D projectors. These work in conjunction with a 3D vision kit including shutter spectacles, but will allow a group of people to view images in 3D up to 100in across projected on a wall, according to the firm.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on September 8, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Laplink has disclosed details of an update to its PCmover tool that will enable Windows XP users to upgrade seamlessly to Windows 7, keeping all files, applications and settings intact.

PCmover already enables users to migrate their entire environment when they upgrade to a new PC, even if the replacement system is running a different version of Windows than their current PC.

The soon-to-be released version of PCmover updated for Windows 7 will enable users currently still using XP to perform an in-place upgrade to the new platform on their existing PC, according to Laplink.

The company believes that there will be demand for such a tool, as Microsoft is only providing an upgrade path from Windows Vista. XP users will have to perform a full install of the new operating system, although Windows Easy Transfer will enable users to keep files and settings.

"By taking the same logic employed for a new computer migration and applying it to the single computer upgrade process, we are able to provide users with an easy-to-use tool that performs an in-place upgrade," said Laplink chief technology officer, Jack Wilson.

Laplink also said the updated PCmover can migrate user email data from Outlook Express or Windows Mail to Microsoft's new Windows Live Mail.

As well as Laplink's direct USB-to-USB connection, the new version will also allows users migrating to a new PC to use Ethernet the same way. Using Laplink Ethernet, two computers can be connected instantly with a simple physical connection without relying on other hardware such as a router, according to the firm.

Another key feature is provision to upgrade seamlessly from a 32bit version of Windows to a 64bit one.

"If you have 32bit Vista and wish to upgrade to 64bit Windows 7 in order to address more than four gigabytes of memory, that upgrade is not supported by Microsoft. PCmover properly handles all issues related to 32-bit and 64-bit upgrades and migrations," said Wilson.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on September 1, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (2)

Our recent Top 10 Windows 7 features article on V3.co.uk prompted quite a few responses from readers, with several asking why we didn't compare Microsoft's new version of Windows with XP, as this is the operating system most people will currently be using.

That article was actually a light-hearted look at what we like about Windows 7, now that the code will soon be available, but if you want a brief opinion on moving up from XP, read on.

Firstly, Windows 7 is much less resource-heavy than Windows Vista, but it still requires a minimum 1GHz processor, 1GB memory and at least 16GB free space on your hard drive.

This level of hardware is easily surpassed by just about any PC bought within the last couple of years, but if you have been clinging onto XP since before Vista was launched, you're probably better off investing in a new box with Windows 7 rather than installing it on your existing system.

Secondly, how does Windows 7 compare with XP? Well, as several comments to our article pointed out, Windows 7 is much closer to Vista, both under the hood and in its user interface.

But don't let that put you off. With Windows 7, Microsoft has addressed most of the things that were really annoying about Vista - such as its sluggish performance and the pop-up nag prompts - then added in some neat extras as well. This is why many experts regard Windows 7 as "Vista done right".

On the other hand, if you have held off from upgrading to Vista because of compatibility problems with software you are running on XP, then Windows 7 isn't going to solve those problems. As just pointed out, it is based on the same core code as Vista.

Microsoft currently has a beta release out of a tool called Windows XP Mode that offers Windows 7 users an XP virtual machine in which to run any problem applications. However, this requires even more memory (2GB recommended) and only works with AMD or Intel processors that have hardware support for virtualisation. It is unlikely to deliver a satisfactory experience for playing games.

That said, I've been running Windows 7 on a laptop ever since the first beta was released, with one or two applications that were written for XP, and encountered no problems at all.

If you want my personal opinion, Windows 7 is a worthy successor to XP, although it may take a short while for upgraders to get used to where some things are in the new user interface.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on July 31, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (11)

Toshiba's new line-up of Satellite laptops are due to go on sale by the end of July, comprising several wide-screen designs, one of which boasts a 17in display, plus an ultraportable model.

The Satellite L500 is a mainstream model priced from £429, which is available with choice of either Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Turion X2 processors and a 15.6in 16:9 format display.

Designed as a desktop replacement, the Satellite L550 has a 17.3in wide-screen display with an LED backlight and up to 4GB Ram with prices starting at £699.

The Satellite A500 is intended as a "premium multimedia" laptop, with a 16in TruBrite display, Harman/Kardon speakers and optional chrome edging. It features Intel Core 2 Duo processors up to the 2.53GHz T8700. Prices for this line start at £599.

All of the three previous models can have an optional GPU for better performance than using the graphics functions built into the chipset.

The ultraportable Satellite U500 has a 13.4in screen and is aimed more at mobile professionals. It features a textured casing and a battery life of 3 to 4 hours, plus optional 3G modem. It also has a back-lit keyboard for typing where ambient light is restricted, and optional chrome edging. The Satellite U500 is priced from £599 to £899.

All of the Satellite models come with Toshiba's Eco utility, which optimises the system's power consumption for longer battery life. It includes a graphical trace display showing exactly how much energy your system is consuming whether in or out of Eco mode.

Also included is a health monitor that warns you if your battery is wearing out and need replacing, as well as showing you details such as the temperature inside the case.

Toshiba also announced new colour schemes for its NB200 netbook. Pictured are the blue and pink models.

Posted by Daniel Robinson on July 16, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)