Windows 7: Hello from a new member with a few questions

Well HELLO and ill say some things about myself and my new machine.

Anyway I just entered the world of windows 7 and 64 bit. My long used dell laptop that i had for over 10 years finally died about 2 weeks ago now. After a week I decided to purchase a Budget Friendly Laptop. Its a HP Pavilion DV7 I purchased from best buy (as i have a best buy card and not enough cash at the time) for $700.

I have been a long time Linux user (ubuntu) and now i am on windows 7. (i plan on making this machine a dual boot as i still have a love for Linux although i will be installing Ubuntu Karmic 9.10 as i don't like Lucid 10.04, i had a lot of problems with it when i installed it last and i ended up downgrading back to Karmic 9.10) I have found I like it the most out of all the windows OS's out their as the file system is the closest to Linux than any other windows OS. I like the way it uses the USER system (similar to Linux Home Directory's) So I will be wanting to use a 64 bit Version of Linux (i will most likely choose Ubuntu as i am most familiar with it. I know some hardcore Linux guys say Ubuntu is the Windows of the Linux world but I don't care what others think about such things)

Currently I am using mostly 32 bit apps although i have found several apps that are 64 bit that I am happy with. They are Halite for Torrents, and NewsBin Pro for NZB files other than that I have installed the 007 Shark codec pack and use windows media center as my main video player (i have been told media player is 32 bit and WMC is 64 bit so this is my reason for using WMC as my main video player) Other than those programs I use Firefox as my web browser (i also have 64 bit Namaroka installed but it is rarely used due to the limitations of 64 bit web browsers at this time) For burning sadly I don't know of a better program than the one that came with my Laptop (i normally never use pre-installed applications as they are usually either trials or in my case have embedded adds) which is CyberLink DVD Suite. I am currently using 64 bit Nod 32 anti-virus version 4.2.42.0 trial as i like this program but i am not willing to buy it so as of now i think i will be using Avast once the trial expires.

Does anyone Have any Application Suggestions for me? I would appreciate it especially if they are better than the ones i have listed or others i have not. I am specifically interested in anything 64 bit and a good burning application and a free anti-virus application as I need these.

Also I am looking for a TV tuner and i don't know how i want to go about it, as first IDK what tuners work well with windows 7 and if i want to use usb or my Express Card/54 slot? Any information on this would be appreciated. I am not familiar with this at all as i only have PMCIA card experience (as i had an older laptop that i had to use one for wireless internet connectivity). I plan on purchasing a tuner from either Frys or from newegg.com which ever is better. (newegg is the only site i have ever used online for purchasing hardware, i have always been satisfied with my experiences with them and since i live in southern Californian, near their distribution center is so i get quick delivery's) Although I am open to using other sites if someone would recommend one that is better than newegg.

Lastly I am using windows 7 Home Pro that came with my laptop. Normally I would format and do a clean install of the OS and then install the drivers I need. I have a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate although i am weary of doing this with this laptop as it does not come with a drivers disk all i have is 4 DVD's to return the PC to its original state with all the trial apps reinstalled. I think I will try a dual boot with Ultimate to see how hard it will be to get all the drivers i will need and what windows will already have for me. Ideally i would hope windows will have all the drivers i need but i doubt it just because nothing ever goes easily for me on the first try LOL. Any Advice on this?

Anyway I have used this site for a couple days now but have not posted, I have mainly used it to find things i need to know about windows 7 and just to check pout the dynamic of the users and i feel this is a nice place to be. So anyone feel free to tell me something about windows 7 that is important. Also NO i never Capitalize my I's IDK why i just don't and i don't bother to fix them on longer than a paragraph post.(i would though but i have never found a spell check that targets lower case "i" as a mistake so i do at least spell check to make my posts more readable. I also tend to make long posts. Sometimes i talk a lot although actually i tend to say very little.

Well if you got this far Thank you for reading my post and thank you in advance for any answers to my questions or for any tips or tricks you might want to share with me.

Microsoft Office Word, does when you also have grammar checking turned on...but that is not very helpful huh? :P No idea if OpenOffice has the same level of Spell/Grammar checks as Office does.

As for the TV tuner, USB or I assume you were referring to ExpressCard which almost all new laptops have. You probably want one that uses the ExpressCard slot, however, this is not required. There is a lot more bandwidth to ExpressCard then USB when it is used in PCI Express mode (2.5 gb/s, 480 mb/s for USB).

A Very Big Welcome To You

A free antivirus, for me there is only one. Microsoft Security Essentials, its free and made just for Windows.
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

In addition, you may want to use malwarebytes, the best malware software, in my opinion.
http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php

In addition, I will give you a little gift, to welcome you as a new member.

FREE Great Programs for Windows 7

First, welcome to the Seven Forums, Beatnik.

As an avid HP user & fan, I might be able to tell you quite a lot if you could please tell the exact model of your Pavilion dv7 laptop. Myself, I have two identical dv7-1199's, an HP desktop and an HP HTPC, my wife has a HDX18 laptop and an HP desktop, so I'm quite used to install, setup and find drivers for HP computers. All computers currently running Seven, me Ultimate and wife Home Premium.

To start, many Pavilion dv7 laptops have a built-in TV-tuner. Knowing the exact model of yours, we could confirm if you have one or which external would suit you best.

Kari

For a good, free anti-virus, I recommend MSE. Here is my reasoning:

1. It is free
2. It is effective
3. It was designed by MS and plays very nicely with Win 7 and is not resource hungry.

Almost every other third party anti-virus, free and paid for, has caused problems on some Win 7 systems.

That said, I am using Avast free on my system with no problems.

Unless you use Bitlocker or want to initiate Remote Desktop or auto-sync Offline files, I would clean reinstall your licensed version with the Product Key stickered to your laptop to benefit from it's $100+ value.

You can unlock all versions in your Ultimate installer to install licensed Home Premium using this: http://lifehacker.com/5438005/eicfg-...windows-7-disc

The Windows 7 installer is mostly driver-complete, with newer arriving via Windows Updates quickly after install. Any drivers then missing can be found on the Support Downloads webpage for your model HP, or by backing up the Windows/System32/Drivers and /Driverstore files before wiping old install.

Any favorite apps which aren't on their Downloads webpage can be extracted from HP Recov disks using this method: HP 3rd Party Software After Clean Win 7 Install

You may even use Avast and MSE together. They have been tested to work well together. WinPatrol is a program you might want to look at for additional protection. It is also handy for managing the Startup programs. For a player, VLC is always nice to have in addition. Even with Sharks codecs you cannot beat VLC. I just experienced that with .mov files from a camera.
Most important in my mind is a proper imaging strategy. After using different commercial programs before, I now settled for Free Macrium. You find my tutorial here. Nothing can protect you better than a proper imaging strategy.
If you need advice for programs in other areas, just specify the area and we will be gald to help.

+1. A really good player, plays whatever you throw to it.

Is it correct that Avast Boot Scan is the deepest possible scan available as a free app? There are no services running for viruses to hide.

This makes it worthwhile to consider keeping it alongside the new favorite, MSE, however I'm not sure I would run two at once without first ruling out any performance hit.

Is there a way to get the boot scan to run on 64-bit, I wanted to run an Avast boot scan the other day and I got a notice that the boot scan feature was not available for 64-bit OSs.