Installing Packages
Installing software packages using Synaptic is a breeze. Just follow these steps to install a new package:
1. Open Synaptic by selecting System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager from the Panel menu.

2. Enter your password in the Password dialog box prompt. The Synaptic Package Manager requires administrative permissions to install and remove software packages. If your user account doesn’t have administrative permissions, you won’t be able to use the program.

3. Enter the package name in the Quick Search box. The Search tool searches all of the configured repositories, looking for packages that contain the search word in the name and description, then displays packages that match in the package list, displays the results of a search for the SuperTux game. If you require a more detailed search, use the Search button on the toolbar and select different search criteria.

4. Click the SuperTux package and select the Mark for Installation option from the menu. Synaptic automatically locates any dependent packages required by the selected packages and asks whether you want to mark those for installation as well. Packages marked for installation appear with an error in the status box and are highlighted in green if all of the dependency packages are available.

5. Click the Apply button in the toolbar. The Synaptic installation process begins, downloading and installing the selected packages.

6. Synaptic asks whether you want to install more packages. If you’re done, select No.


Once the packages are installed you may or may not see them in the Ubuntu menu system, depending on what type of packages they are. Some packages require opening a Terminal session and starting them from the command line. You can manually create a menu entry for these packages.


Removing Packages
When you view the package list in Synaptic, installed packages have a green status box, indicating that all of the components for that package are installed. Right-clicking on the package produces a menu that gives you three options for managing the installed package:
• Mark for Reinstallation: Reinstall the package from the current version in the repository.
• Mark for Removal: Remove only the files installed by the package.
• Mark for Complete Removal: Remove the package files plus any additional configuration or data files associated with the application.

If you want to reinstall the package but have customized configuration files you’d like to use with the reinstallation, select Mark for Removal rather than Mark for Complete Removal. A complete removal will delete any custom configuration you’ve done to the package.


Once the packages are installed you may or may not see them in the Ubuntu menu system, depending on what type of packages they are. Some packages require opening a Terminal session and starting them from the command line. You can manually create a menu entry for these packages.

Source of Information : Wiley Ubuntu Linux Secrets

Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave this past year you probably know that today is the official market launch of Windows 7.  While Windows 7 has been available to commercial customers since July, this milestone marks the point where the final release is now available to the general public through retail purchase or preloaded on new PCs.

It has been quite a journey—from the first beta release in January, the Release Candidate (RC) in May through the final RTM in July, IT professionals have played in instrumental role in helping make Windows 7 the best performing, most reliable and most secure Windows operating system ever.  Thank you for all of your feedback, suggestions for improvement, and support during the development process!  If you haven’t downloaded the 90 day evaluation release, you can find it here.

We hope most of you are taking the steps to prepare for adopting Windows 7 into your environment—assessing your hardware, testing your applications, and learning about the new deployment tools.  You can find helpful guidance and resources on the Springboard Series on Technet, including our recent article on the “Five Steps to Application Compatibility Readiness.”  Take a look at the Windows 7 tab, and browse through the “Discover & Explore,” “Pilot & Deploy” and “Management” sections.  In addition, you’ll find great technical drill-downs in the “Top Task” zones down the left-hand side of the site.  Finally, be sure to visit www.talkingaboutwindows.com to hear back stories from the engineers responsible for Windows 7 development, join in the conversation with other IT professionals working to adopt Windows 7, and find local events where you can join your peers and learn more about how Windows 7 can help you streamline client management.

We also understand that as an IT professional, you are often expected to offer voluntary IT services to your friends and family – which can be painful and a little thankless to say the least!  So to help you get ahead of those time consuming requests, we thought we would point out how Windows 7 will help people avoid problems and quickly remedy issues without expert intervention—um, yours to be specific.  Check out this month’s feature article, “Why You Want Friends and Family on Windows 7” for a walk through of the new features and other capabilities will help keep users PCs healthy and productive and make it easier to resolve any issues that arise.  You can find more helpful information about home use of Windows 7 in the “IT Pro at Home” zone.

We want to take a moment and thank all of you who tested the Beta and the Release Candidates. We could not have made this great product without you. We also hope that you’ll join in the community

Thank you

Stephen Rose – Sr Community Manager

By default, Windows 7 will not display empty drives. Here is how to show it.

Just go to My Computer -> Tools -> Folder Options -> View --> Then uncheck “Hide empty drives in the computer folder”--> click ok button to apply.

SIW(System Information for Windows) can gather extensive information about your system properties. It can displays information about Operating System,Processes, Services, System uptime, Installed Programs, Product Key and so on. And also the software is free.
Now it's a great news that SIW v2009-10-22 compatibled with Windows 7.

What is the Changelog for SIW v2009-10-22:

Windows 7 Compatible
PortableApps
DirectX detection on Windows 7
Correct Splash Screen size if DPI != 96
Scheduled Tasks for Vista and Windows 7
Tools --> Hibernate Enable/Disable for Windows 7
Fixed: CPU and Memory Usage
......

Download SIW for free

We have been working hard on Network Administrator 3.

It was just released – You can download it from here:

http://www.intelliadmin.com/NetworkAdministrator.exe

Network Administrator allows you to make tweaks and changes to computers across your network, and in version 3 we have an extensive plugin system that allows us to add functionality quite quickly.

One of the requests we keep getting is a plugin to change power management settings. It turns out that this is actually much harder than it seems. There are different ways in each version of windows – and some of them don’t even work all the time.

We worked around the clock to work around all of the quirks and issues, and finally built a plugin that allows you to change these settings on Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008, and Windows 7.

These settings are not even available with group policy, or any specific registry settings – so this is a huge time saver.

The settings for the plugin are packed with power management options:

In a few clicks you can change the power management options for multiple computers across your network.

Best of all, Network Administrator is a free tool to use on up to 3 computers at a time.

Give it a spin and let us know what you think.

Need to use Network Administrator 3.0 on more than 3 computers? Get an unlimited copy for only $199 Click here to purchase

Strong power management features in Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 7 or windows xp 7,promise to enhance the longevity of

the battery of your laptop.

Windows 7 manages with less background activities and therefore doesn’t consume much energy and draw less power. This reduces the energy cost and enhances the battery life.

Windows 7 also provides diagnostic tools that help manufacturers to troubleshoot the power management issues. The tools are functional in reducing power consumption, enhancing

user experience and providing better way of managing power consumption.

This, in turn, significantly helps businesses minimize energy footprint and reduce carbon emissions. Microsoft is strongly focused on reducing the overall power consumption by

managing the performance optimization and device power management.

The energy efficiency and longer battery life in Windows 7 are highly beneficial for portable computers. Moreover, better tools option is specially designed for the IT

professionals as it will help them to resolve power management related issues.

Power management issues in Windows latest avatar are more accessible and prominent than its earlier versions, which also allow the user to customize the settings.

There is an automatic sleep mode option, by default, which automatically dim after certain time allowing the end users to adjust the power management settings without going into the Control Panel.Microsoft is also looking forward to resolve the driver conflict. 30 new features were included in Windows Vista which have been further elevated in Windows 7.

There are other innovations too that include less power consuming DVD playback, automatic screen dimming, powering off unused ports, and battery-life indicator. Although better
Power Management panel has been included in Windows 7, Microsoft has released a power management guide that describes Power Management enhancement in the operating system , and also includes instructions on reducing power consumption.