10 Tweaks to make Windows 7 even better!

Here are a few tweaks and tricks you can use to make this excellent OS even better.

1 Get Quick Launch back
I liked the new Windows 7 taskbar a lot -- but something was missing. Yes, you can pin programs to the Start menu now, and I do. But I also liked the Quick Launch bar, where I could put icons for programs I use a little less frequently but often enough that I don't want to have to open the Start menu to get to them. Quick Launch is missing in Windows 7, but there is a way to bring it back. You'll find step by step instructions with screenshots in this tutorial. Once you have the Quick Launch bar on your taskbar, you can drag programs to it as you did in Vista.

2 Bring back the Vista taskbar look and behavior
Even though I like the new taskbar, I know some people don't. They'd prefer to have the old Vista/XP look and behavior, where the taskbar uses less screen space. If you're in that camp, it's easy to change the taskbar so it will be similar to the old look:

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Conversation View
OWA 2010 provides the same conversation view and experience as Outlook 2010: By default, messages are displayed in threads so that all the messages on a particular topic are grouped. No more searching for a previous message to check what the response is referring to. When a new message in a thread comes in, the whole thread gets moved chronologically to the date/time of the new message. Conversation view has its benefits and drawbacks, but if you don't like it, you can turn it off. Just right-click Arrange By, scroll down to Conversations, and deselect Show Messages In Conversations.

Ignore Option
If you belong to mailing lists, you'll appreciate this new feature in Outlook 2010, which you also get with OWA 2010. Sometimes, the group will engage in discussions that don't interest you at all. Now you don't even have to see them.

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The IT services market will soon change drastically due to factors including global demographics and new delivery models, says Forrester Research's Christine Ferrusi Ross. Here's advice on how IT leaders can get ready.We constantly hear hype about how a given market is changing drastically. And given the economy, many companies we talk to tell us that the only thing drastic happening in IT services today is the rate reductions they're asking from their vendors. But after years of moving forward slowly, IT services is in fact about to change drastically. Here are a few reasons why, and what you can do about it.

Changing global demographics

Baby boomers are getting set to exit the workplace at an astounding clip. In the United States alone, 76 million of these folks are hitting retirement age over the next decade. In the U.S. government, 30 to 40 percent of the IT workforce will retire during that timeframe.

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Companies tapping into virtual infrastructure through cloud computing should take another look at their security plans, say experts at the Black Hat Security Conference. From legal protection to phishing, here are five cloud security issues to consider.

While many companies are considering moving applications to the cloud, the security of the third-party services still leaves much to be desired, security experts warned attendees at last week's Black Hat Security Conference.The current economic downturn has made cloud computing a hot issue, with start-ups and smaller firms rushing to save money using virtual machines on the Internet and larger firms pushing applications such as customer relationship management to the likes of Salesforce.com. Yet, companies need to be more wary of the security pitfalls in moving their infrastructure to the cloud, experts say.

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