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By creating a new folder in Windows 7 and renaming it with a certain text string at the end, users are able to have a single place to do everything from changing the look of the mouse pointer to making a new hard-drive partition.

The trick is also said to work in Windows Vista, although some are warning that although it works fine in 32-bit versions of Vista, it can cause 64-bit versions of that operating system to crash.

To enter “GodMode,” one need only create a new folder and then rename the folder to the following:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Source: CNET.com

Retail version of Windows 7 has two main primary type of licenses – full or full package product (FPP) and upgrade, where the most obvious differences between full and upgrade versions are different prices for full and upgrade license, and customers have to possess an existing Windows license to be eligible for upgrade license.

Officially, Windows 7 Upgrade version only allow an user to “upgrade” from a previous version of Windows operating system, via “in-place upgrade” or custom install, which replaces old Windows. Even if upgrade path from some versions of older Windows cannot perform “in-place upgrade”, and require user to perform a custom clean install, but it only means that user has to start the Windows 7 installation from within an existing Windows, and choose “Custom Install” during the course of Windows 7 setup.

Windows 7 Upgrade license wants to see an installed and activated copy of Windows XP or Windows Vista before installation is allowed. As Windows 7 setup does not ask for an existing CD or DVD disc of Windows, thus if user full formats and wipe XP or Vista installation so that the drive is empty and blank before using the upgrade disc, setup no longer able to see any existing installation, and will return “Invalid Product Key” error message.

Tip: User is allowed to create or delete hard disk drive or partition during the setup through Custom (advanced) -> Drive options (advanced) option (note: a 100 MB system reserved partition may be created by Windows 7 Setup), or let Windows 7 install wizard backup the existing Windows files to Windows.old directory, and then delete and wipe clean the whole partition volume prior to install Windows 7.

Many people believe that Windows 7 FPP (full version) disc media or ISO is different from ISO image or disc media of Windows 7 Upgrade version. In fact, the Windows 7 Upgrade disk and Windows 7 FPP disc may be similar, if not completely the same. Only product key represents the actual version of license bought, and Windows 7 will validate against the product key, as shown by Microsoft Product Key Checker.

Not everybody has a PC readily installed with a Windows for upgrade. And more people does not have time to install an operating system especially the time-consuming Windows Vista just to install Windows 7 Upgrade version. Good news is that Windows 7 upgrade media or ISO image and product keys can be used to perform clean install or custom install on a blank and emtpy PC without any prior OS installed. With the following clean install hacks or custom install tricks, which not only save the headache of users who need to install on a new or clean computer system, but also mean everybody just need to purchase an Windows 7 upgrade license, which costs up to $100 cheaper over a Windows 7 full edition price.

How to Clean Install Windows 7 with a Upgrade DVD Disc or ISO Image

Note: Users who has downloaded Windows 7 boxed ESD installation files should follow these steps to create a bootable Windows 7 ISO image from unpacked Windows 7 installation files and burn to DVD prior to follow guide below.

1. Boot up the PC with the Windows 7 Upgrade DVD disc media into DVD-ROM drive.
   • Note: May need to change boot sequence or boot order of device in BIOS, and/or press any key to boot from CD/DVD drive.
2. Follow the Windows 7 Install Wizard to install the operating system on the blank, empty and clean system.
3. During installation, when prompted for a product key, DO NOT enter the upgrade version product key.
   • Tip: This step is to prevent “Invalid Product Key” error. User can try to input the serial number to check if setup accepts the key. If it’s accepted, all the rest of steps can be skipped.
4. Unselect and unclick the Automatically activate Windows when I’m online check box during the installation process.
5. After Windows 7 is installed, boot up to desktop, and manually enter the Windows 7 upgrade product key to activate online or activate via phone.

Steps above, which is practically how to perform clean install with a Windows 7 full version media and product key, should work for some, if not most, users. On system that the system still does not accept an upgrade version product key, or face activation failure error code of 0xC004F061, try one or more of the following workarounds to get Windows 7 activated:

Workaround 1: Use SLMgr Commands to Insert Product Key and Activate

1. Open an elevated command prompt as administrator.
2. Use the following command to install product key:
   slmgr -ipk <upgrade product key>
3. Activate Windows 7 with the following command:
   slmgr -ato

Steps above have also been used to clean install Windows Vista Upgrade version. To check activation status from command line, use slmgr -dlv or slmgr -dli.

Workaround 2: Clean Install Windows 7 Upgrade with Double Installs

1. After starting up the just installed Windows 7 system, allow system to boot to desktop.
2. Insert the same Windows 7 DVD media into CD/DVD optical drive tray to start Install Windows wizard again. Alternatively, mount the Windows 7 ISO image to a virtual CD/DVD-ROM drive, or directly run setup.exe from the unpacked Windows 7 installation files.
3. Reinstall Windows 7 once again (both Upgrade or Custom Install should be OK), enter product key during installation so that Windows 7 can be automatically activated when user first online after installation is done.

Steps above is originally used as a workaround to clean install Windows Vista with upgrade media, and is less commonly used as it’s time-consuming.

Workaround 3: Clean Install and Activate Windows 7 with MediaBootInstall Registry Hack

1. After booting up, ensure that no Windows Updates pending task which requires a system reboot to finish installing.
   • Tip: Normally, an orange-colored shield icon will be displayed next to Shutdown button in the Start Menu Power Button or at notification tray area if a restart is required.
2. If reboot is required, restart the computer to allow any pending updates is installed.
3. Run Registry Editor (RegEdit).
4. Navigate to the following registry key:
   • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\OOBE
5. In the right pane, change the value data for MediaBootInstall from 1 to 0.
   • Alternatively, just download and execute MediaBootInstall.reg to merge the value into registry.
6. Open an elevated command prompt as administrator.
7. Run the command below to reset Windows 7 activation status:
   slmgr -rearm
8. Reboot the computer.
9. Run the Activate Windows utility (accessible from bottom section of Control Panel -> System and Security -> System, or type Activate Windows into Start Search), type in the upgrade product key and activate Windows.

SOURCE: MyDigitalLife.com

Check out this article I found on Gizmodo by Rosa Golijan …. What ya think?

Every single day we oooh and aahhh over the latest design concepts, but right now, let’s focus on one of the minds behind such designs and smile in awe of her motivations and inspirations. Meet MIT designer, Neri Oxman.

Oxman
went through medical school, but abandoned that career path for a
“mishmash of design, architecture, art, and computer programming.”

She
works out of MIT’s media lab and strives to bring about her vision of
the future which consists of all objects living, breathing, and
adapting as we interact with them. She imagines organic architecture
designs, nanotube walls which change size, chairs that change shape as
you sit, DNA-encoded clothing that grows with you. She explains that
studying how human bones adjust, getting thicker when a woman is
pregnant or thinner when individuals are in outer space, inspired that
vision of hers.

As with many other designs that we see,
Oxman’s are stunning in their intricate plays with textures and
materials, but to me the dreamy vision that pushes her to create them
adds so much more to the way I view her works. I expect them to draw
breath. Maybe we should start taking closer looks at the minds behind
the eye-candy we so enjoy. Are there any objects, maybe even gadgets,
that truly made you want to know how they were inspired? [Materialecology Blog via Materialecology via Esquire]

This week we picked up some of the Twitter chatter around Microsoft, the agony and the ecstasy, (oh yeah, and Windows 7).

Retrevo’s Top 5 Tech Tweets of The Week – 10.20.09

Note: All Twitters remain the property of their original author and are presented here, as they were found on Twitter.

5. beckymarlow That Windows Phone advert’s scary – who wants to be followed out of their house by Outlook and Word?!

4. wildafrikan Anybody have Microsoft office for for mac? (Ahem), clearing my throat for a reason.

3. antecoyote Finally got my Windows 7 student discount e-mail. Too bad I’m broke.

2. paulingalls so, I let a windows 7 update run. now all my settings and applications are gone. stupid me expecting anything good from microsoft. #fail

Retrevo 140 Award Winner:

1. Kichigai @radiocolin Ppl are scared of new things. It seems Microsoft doesn’t have the guts to say “Change Happens. Deal with it” like FaceBook does.

This Week’s Honorable Mentions

BradatNOS Just finished a install of Windows 7 Ultimate within VMWare Fusion on my MacBook. Total time with updates = 45 minutes, not bad Microsoft. 

Cait_Elizabeth just realized how inconvenient it is not to have Microsoft Word on the computer: really really inconvenient

JonathanWorent Awe friggin sweet, they have some Microsoft Surfaces in the lobby downstairs. How wants to play me in a mad game of Checkers? #aea

dannydehlin Absolutely amazing how crippling it can be when you work from home and your Microsoft Exchange server bites the dust.

forestbaker I’d just like to say that Windows 7 is totally awesome!

This week’s tweets focus on life, love, loathing, and longing from the eReader side of the Twittersphere. You know you’re a book geek when…

Retrevo’s Top 5 Tech Tweets of The Week – 10.05.09

Note: All Twitters remain the property of their original author and are presented here, as they were found on Twitter.

5. lovelee8 Kindle died. Reduced to doc office lit

4. rickpond Holy cow! About a week’s worth of reading and I JUST now dropped one of 4 bars of battery on my Sony eReader! Crazy!

3. Muzzwald why would anyone want a kindle? surely the point of reading a book on the tube is to show the book off to everyone else (eh @sjoeyrob)

2. sherigurock A Kindle tragedy – fell from my nightstand and broke (98% thru The Lost Symbol!). A 2ft drop was all it took. Will @amazon stand behind it?

Retrevo 140 Award Winner:

1. alexandriabrown You know you’re a book geek when you know what book is being used in an ad for the Sony ereader by reading the name of the chapter

This Week’s Honorable Mentions

KickMeHarder Time to read. I love my Kindle. I don’t love the tax I get to pay on my downloads. Bastards. (word of the day is *******.) 

KateJackman Why can’t every company makes things as well as Sony do? I think I’m in love with my lovely red laptop and ereader! *mwah* Sony!

geektonic After using Shelly’s Kindle to read Dan Brown’s new book I have gadget envy – won’t be able to resist a ebook reader longer than 2Q 2010

Dorto Everyone on the subway had a Kindle this morning;naturally i now want 1.This might be exactly what i need to begin my love affair with lit.