How to's

How to Activate Windows Server 2008 Online

Once you install Windows Server 2008, you have a grace period of 60 days to activate it. In this article, I will be showing you how to activate Windows Server 2008 online.

Note : Before your begin, make sure your server has an Internet connection

Click on Start > then right click on Computer and click on Properties
The System basic informationpage will open. At the bottom of it, under WindowsActivation section, the remaining days from thegrace period (activation period) is displayed
Click on the link XXdays to activate. Activate Windows now (whereXX is the remaining days)
The Windows Activation page will be displayed. Click on ActivateWindows online now to start activating yourWindows copy, or click on Ask me later to cancel the operation.
If you have already provided aProduct Key ( ex. while installing Windows Server ),then after few moments you will receive aconfirmation that your Windows copy has been activated

If you have not supplied a Product Key whileinstalling Windows Server, then you will beredirected to the below screen shot. Make sure youtype the correct product key, in this I mean theproduct key for the installed version of WindowsServer 2008. If you do not already have a product key,then you can buy one online by clicking on thebutton Buy a new product key online

Once you type a product key, click on Next
Activating Windows is in theprocess. The activation wizard securely connects to aMicrosoft server to transfer your installation IDwhen you submit it. A confirmation ID is passed backto your computer.
Then you will finally receive aconfirmation page that confirms thatactivation was successful. Enjoy your genuinecopy of Windows.
If you went back to the systemproperties page, you will find that the remainingdays link has been replaced with: Windowsis activated

Summary

Activating Windows Server 2008 online is one of the methods that you can choose to activate it. This process typically takes just a few seconds to complete. No personally identifiable information is required to activate Windows Server 2008. The activation wizard securely connects to a Microsoft server to transfer your installation ID when you submit it. A confirmation ID is passed back to your computer, automatically activating Windows Server 2008.

How to Set Up Your Network for PCs and Macs

Here’s how you can get your Windows 7 PC to to play nicely on a network that also has Macs.

ith Windows 7, you can easily share files and printers across a network via the HomeGroups feature. Here's how to set up your network to share files and printers with Macs.

Set Up Windows 7 to Share a Printer

Windows can share a printer with other PCs on your network, so anyone in your network can connect as long as your printer and PCs are on. Here's how to set up this sharing in Windows 7.

Open Devices and Printers from the Start Menu, and double-click your printer. Pick Customize your printer, and click the Sharing tab in the following window. Select the Share this printer checkbox.

Unless you're connecting a bunch of similar PCs, I recommend skipping the option to download additional printer drivers on the host system. Just take a moment to configure everything once on each client. With different combinations of 32- and 64-bit Vista, Windows 7, and XP PCs, it's more hassle than it's worth to try to plan ahead here. Approve the options and close the Properties window.

Set Up Windows 7 to Share and Connect to Files

Windows 7 lets you share files through a combination of its public folders and manual selection. If you want to share files with everyone on your network, just move them to the public location within any of the Libraries in the left pane of a window.

You can also share files or folders wherever they reside. Select an item to share, and pick the Share with menu at the top of the window. Pick Homegroup (Read) to let people on your home network open, but not modify files. Pick Homegroup (Read/Write) to let people open and edit files.

Pick Specific people if you want to restrict access to certain user accounts. If you hadn't earlier, you'll need to create a new login and password for people who can access these files. Go to the User Accounts and Family Safety Control Panel, then pick Add or remove user accounts. Click Manage another account, and pick Create a new account.

Follow the prompts to create a Standard user, pick the account, and click Create a password. Now if you pick Share with: Specific people, click the drop-down arrow, and add the new account to the list.

Next, try connecting to files. If you're on the same HomeGroup as another Windows 7 PC, just open a new window, and look in the Homegroup area on the left. Pick the PC, and browse the shared libraries inside. (Learn more about setting up a HomeGroup here.)

If the other PC isn't connected through a Windows 7 HomeGroup, you can browse through the Network tab a little lower on the left pane to find it.

Share Files Between Mac OS X and Windows 7

An OS X Mac can share or retrieve files with Windows 7, although it takes a couple of extra steps. Here's how to share from OS X. Open the Network System Preference, click your network connection on the left pane, and press Advanced.

Click the WINS tab, type your Windows 7 PC's workgroup name, and click OK. Click Apply.

On the Windows 7 system, if your Mac doesn't appear in the Network area, type the Mac's computer name into your Windows file browser.

For example, my shared Mac is named "Felix," so I typed \\Felix. Enter your username and password to connect to the files. You can browse shared Windows 7 files in OS X, too.

On the Mac, go to the Finder, choose Go: Connect to Server, and enter the remote PC's SMB file path. For example, my Windows 7 PC is named "SLOTH," so I entered smb://SLOTH.

Enter your login name and password to finish the connection. Your multi-OS network should now be all set.

Share a Windows 7 Printer

With Mac OS X Mac OS X can reach a shared Windows 7 printer just as a PC can. Thanks to some new networking architecture in Windows 7, I had problems connecting a Mac with OS X 10.6.2 using the default SMB protocol, but here's how to use the LPD (Line Printer Daemon) standard to share a printer.

On the Windows 7 PC, go to the Programs control panel, and pick Turn Windows features on or off. Double-click Print and Document Services, and activate LPD Print Service. Click OK.

On the OS X Mac, open the Print & Fax System Preference. Click the plus icon to add a new printer. Right-click the toolbar, and pick Customize Toolbar.

Then drag the Advanced button up into the toolbar and click Done. Click Advanced, and pick LDB/LPR Host or Printer as the Type.

Enter the path with your PC name and printer name. My Windows 7 PC is called "SLOTH," and the printer is "EPSON_R1800", so my path is lpd://SLOTH/EPSON_R1800.

Click Select Printer Software in the Print Choosing pop-up menu, and select your printer in the list. Click OK and Add.

Share a Mac Printer From Windows 7

Windows 7 can also connect to a Mac OS X printer over the network. On the Mac, open the Sharing System Preference, and pick Printer Sharing.

Select your printer. On the Windows 7 PC, pick Start, Devices and Printers, and click Add a printer. Click The printer that I want isn't listed.

Enter the pathname back to your Mac and printer. In my case, my Mac is named "Felix," and the printer is an Epson Stylus Photo R1800. So I entered \\Felix\Epson Stylus Photo R1800 and clicked Next.

Follow the prompts to finish the installation; this should be just like installing a network printer connected to a Windows system.

How to Find Your IP Address and MAC Address

Figure out the unique address that identifies your PC on the Internet, with this handy guide.

Billions of computers are linked through the Internet. And with so many devices communicating and exchanging information, each one needs to have a unique identifier so that the right information reaches the right destination.

Much as the Postal Service uses your home address to deliver the correct mail to your mailbox, computers use Internet Protocol (IP) and Media Access Control (MAC) addresses to distinguish between different devices on your network. Finding this information about your computer is simple--and it can be very useful when your machine is on a network. Here’s how to do it.

Using Windows 7

1. Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, Command Prompt. ipconfig, windows ip address

Find your IP address using the ipconfig command.

2. In the prompt that appears, type ipconfig /all and click Return.

3. The prompt will return network information for each network adapter in your computer. Find the section for the adapter that's connected to your network. For example, you can find the network information for your wireless adapter by looking under the 'Ethernet Adapter Wireless Network Connection' section.

4. To find your computer's IP address, look for the 'IPv4 Address' or 'IP Address' entry. This line will display the IP address for your system; typically it looks like a string of numbers separated by periods, such as 192.168.1.1.

5. To find your computer's MAC address, look for the 'Physical Address' entry. This line will display your adapter's MAC address, which typically looks like a string of letters and numbers separated by dashes.

Using Mac OS X

1. Click the Apple menu on the upper left part of the screen.

2. Click System Preferences. In the resulting System Preferences menu, select Network.

3. In the Network window, select the network adapter you're interested in. Your IP address will appear in the right-hand pane of the window.

mac wi-fi, MAC ip address

Your MAC address is listed at the bottom of the Wi-Fi menu.4. To find your MAC address for the adapter, click the Advanced... button. Your MAC address should appear at the bottom of the window.

Dual-Boot with Windows 7

This is a great idea if you have enough spare hard drive space. It allows you to move to the new OS without burning your bridges.

And it's surprisingly easy to do. In fact, the hardest part is shrinking the existing hard drive partition to make room for a new one, and that's still pretty easy.

Before you begin, make an image backup of your hard drive. This is a must before resizing a partition or upgrading Windows, so it's a double must if you're doing both. I recommend the free version of Macrium Reflect for image backup, although other programs will do. You'll need an external hard drive at least as large as the used space on your drive.

Backed up? Good. Let's get on to the partitioning.

I've yet to find the perfect partitioning program--one that's easy, reliable, versatile, non-destructive (meaning it can resize a partition without erasing it), and free. So I'm going to recommend three, all non-destructive, and tell you about their shortcomings.

EASEUS Partition Master: This one is extremely easy. You install it, launch it, and see exactly what to do. But the free Home Edition doesn't support 64-bit versions of Windows. So if you live in the x64 world, you'll have to shell out $40 (on sale as I write this for $32) for the Professional version or use another program.

Vista 's Computer Management program: Windows Vista has it's own tool for resizing partitions. To access it, click Start, right-click Computer, and select Manage. Click Disk Management in the left pane, under Storage. Right-click your C: drive in the resulting map and select Shrink Volume. You can figure out the rest. But this program may not let you shrink the partition as much as you would like--it has some strange ideas about how much space your current partition needs. And it's not an option if you're using XP.

GParted Live: You can download this free, open-source Linux program as an .iso file, which you then burn to a CD. (Don't just copy the file to a disc. If double-clicking the .iso file doesn't launch a disc-burning program, download and install the free ISO Recorder.) When you boot from that CD, Linux and GParted Live will load, and you'll be able to resize your partition. But this program isn't easy. Depending on your video setup, the font may be so small it's virtually unreadable, and it's hard to know when it's done altering your drive.

Whatever program you use, I recommend you shrink your existing XP or Vista partition by at least 40GB. That will leave more than enough room for Windows 7. You don't need to create a partition--the installation program will do that for you.

When the partitioning is done, boot from the Windows 7 DVD and start the installation process. When it asks what type of installation you want, select Custom (Advanced). When it asks "Where do you want to install Windows?" select the Unallocated Space. See How to Upgrade to Windows 7 for more information.

The install program automatically sets up a dual-boot system. When you boot, it will ask you which version of Windows you want to load. Whichever you pick, the other partition will be visible as another drive, so you'll be able to access all of your files in both versions of Windows.

How to Upgrade to Windows 7

Whether you're moving from Vista or from XP, we'll help you get up and running on Windows 7 without headaches.

Upgrading your operating system is always fraught with problems and anxiety, and quite often with disaster. But by taking the right precautions, gathering the needed materials, and hoping for the best while preparing for the worst, you can upgrade your PC without losing functionality or gaining gray hairs. I'm here to tell you how.

The free Upgrade Advisor utility checks your PC's hardware and software to ensure that they will still work with Windows 7.Since you're reading this, I'll assume you've already made the decision to upgrade, have checked to make sure your hardware is compatible, and have purchased your upgrade. If you haven't yet checked your hardware, download and run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor (as a general rule, if you're running Vista, you probably already have Windows 7-capable hardware).

You have one other early decision make: Do you want to upgrade your current Windows installation, or go for a clean, fresh install? The upgrade is certainly easier--your applications, your settings, and your data travel with you, and there's little you have to do after the install itself is complete. After a clean or fresh or (Microsoft's word) custom install, you'll have to set up your users and network, reinstall your drivers and programs, and move your data back into place.

A custom install is cleaner than an upgrade. Windows accumulates garbage as you use it, and flushing it out every so often makes sense. So does starting a new version of the OS with a clean slate.

If you're currently using XP, the choice has been made for you. The custom install is your only option.

These instructions are for both kinds of installs.

Prepare Your PC

You've got a few chores to do before you insert that Windows 7 DVD.

First, consider the driver issue. If you're upgrading from Vista, chances are you'll have no driver problems. If you're currently on XP, you almost certainly will.

Make sure you can get Windows 7 or Vista drivers for your display, audio, and networking adapters. If you use a wireless keyboard or mouse, you'll need to check drivers for those, as well. If you're not sure what these are, check Device Manager: In XP, select Start, right-click My Computer, select properties, click the Hardware tab, and then the Device Manager button. In Vista, click Start, type device manager, and press Enter. You'll also want to check for your printers and scanners.

Once you know the devices, how do you find the drivers? Check the Windows 7 Compatibility Center At press time, that site was still "coming soon," but the Vista equivalent is a good substitute until it's ready, especially for XP-to-Win7 upgraders. You can also check your devices' manufacturer Web sites.

Speaking of hardware and visiting manufacturers' Web sites, now would be a good time to update your firmware, especially if you're not in the habit of doing this on a regular basis. Go to your system manufacturer's site for system firmware updates.

No matter how good your precautions, operating system upgrades can go horribly wrong. Some important program or device won't work in the new environment. Windows 7 won't boot. Maybe you just don't like the new interface. Whatever the reason, you need a way to go back to where you were before.

An image backup of your hard drive offers an easy, dependable way to do just that, since it restores everything on the hard drive: Windows, applications, data, and even the Master Boot Record. To create one, you'll need an external hard drive, and an image backup program. I recommend the free version of Macrium Reflect for image backup, although others will do. Plug in the external hard drive before you create the image, and select that drive as the Backup destination. Also, be sure to create the bootable Rescue CD (this option is on Macrium Reflect's Other Tasks menu) before you start the upgrade.

An image backup of a really big hard drive can take hours. Run the backup overnight, with plans to do the upgrade the following morning.

Good morning. If you're doing a simple upgrade, you're done with prep work and can skip down to the "Run the Upgrade" section below. But if you're planning a clean (aka custom) install, you've got more preparation to do.

You need to gather up installable versions of all of the programs on your hard drive that you want to keep. If you bought a program as a physical package, you'll need the disc. If you downloaded the program, you'll have to either find the installation file or download the latest version (really your best option). I suggest you make a stack of physical programs, and put the downloaded files into a folder in My Documents.

You'll also need the license or product ID numbers that prove you purchased the program. If you bought the program as a physical package, this number is probably on the disc sleeve or somewhere else on the box. If you purchased and downloaded the program online, it's probably in an e-mail that you hopefully didn't delete.

Can't find all your software product keys? Product Key Explorer can hunt them down for you.What if you can't find the license? Open the program and select Help > About. There's a good chance your license or product ID will be displayed there. Jot it down and triple-check it for accuracy. Or contact the vendor and see if they have it.

A utility called Product Key Explorer 2.2.1 might also help, although in my experience it doesn't always. The free, demo version can't print or save what it finds, so you'll have to either write the numbers down by hand (be sure to double-check them) or pay the $30 registration fee.

Run the Upgrade

Are you ready? Now it's time to take a deep breath, bite your lip, and take that step forward into the next generation of Windows computing.

You can choose between upgrading your existing installation, or wiping it out and performing a clean install of Windows 7.There are two ways to start the installation: You can boot from the Windows 7 Upgrade DVD, or you can insert the DVD while in your current version of Windows and start from there. If you're doing an upgrade installation, you'll have to start from inside Windows. For a clean install, either way is fine.

Exactly what pages the installation wizard displays, and in what order, will depend on how you started the installation, what's already on your PC, and what choices you make. But here are some of the major options you will see along the way:

Early on, you'll get the option to check for compatibility online or install. That first option just brings you to the Web page for the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. You should have run that by now. Click Install Now and get on with it.
After agreeing to the 5545-word End-User Licensing Agreement (no, I haven't read it either, but as someone who's paid by the word, I'm envious), you have to make the big decision: an Upgrade or a Custom (aka: clean) install. I've explained the reasons to pick one or the other above.
You might be asked to pick a partition. Unless you're planning on a multiboot system, pick the one with your current version of Windows.
If you're doing an upgrade install, you'll receive a compatibility report. It will warn you about certain issues (for instance, if you use Windows Mail, it will inform you that the program is no longer included). It may also tell you to cancel the upgrade and uninstall a particular, problematic program or driver. It's best to do what it says.
If you're doing a clean install, a warning box will tell you that you're about to lose your existing version of Windows. You're not; you've got that image backup. The warning will also reassure you that you won't lose your files. They'll be moved to a new folder called C:/Windows.old. Be glad they are.

While Windows 7 goes about the business of installing all of its various files, you can walk away and find clever ways to kill the time.When the Installing Windows box appears with its list of automated tasks (Copying Windows files, Expanding Windows files, and so on), get up, jog, read a book, or take a nap. It could easily be an hour--maybe more--before you're needed.

The wizard will eventually come back, this time running in Windows 7 on your hard drive. The new set of questions will be pretty self-explanatory, but a couple are worth noting:

You don't have to enter the Product Key when asked, although you will have to enter it eventually. If you click Next with the field blank, then click No, the install will continue. You can always enter the Key and activate Windows once it's running and you're sure you like it.
One page, titled "Help protect your computer and improve Windows automatically," offers options for how Windows will update itself. I recommend the middle option, "Install important updates only."

When the wizard is done, your PC will reboot (not for the first time in this install, but for the last), and bring you up in a full, interactive version of Windows 7.

Congratulations. You've installed Windows 7. If you did an upgrade install, you're almost done. But if you did a clean install, you still have a ways to go.

Some More Steps and Tweaks

With Windows 7 up, lean back and admire the new look. It's really quite lovely.

Unless, of course, the resolution is too low and all the objects on screen too big. If that's the case, right-click the desktop and select Screen resolution to fix the problem. You may have to do this again after reinstalling your video drivers, but you might not and it's easy enough to do twice.

Check the lower right corner (where the system tray used to be) for a flag icon. If you see it, click it for a problem report. It will probably just tell you that you need antivirus software (you know that) and that Windows Defender has yet to scan your computer. But it might give you some actual, useful advice.

With that taken care of, it's time to deal with your drivers. If you did an upgrade install from Vista (the only version you can do that from), you'll probably just check Device Manager and discover that everything is fine. If you did a clean upgrade from Vista, any problems you encounter should be easy to fix. But if you started with XP, expect some major challenges.

Use the Windows 7 Device Manager to check that all of your device drivers are properly loaded.However you upgraded, select Start, type device manager, and press Enter. Do the following for any item accompanied by a yellow exclamation point: Double-click the item, then click the Update Driver button. Select Search automatically for updated driver software and wait for the results. Hopefully, that will fix the problem.

If it doesn't, and you did a clean install from Vista, click the Update Driver button again. This time, click Browse my computer for driver software. For the path, enter C:\Windows.old\Windows, make sure that Include subfolders is checked, then click Next. Chances are, this will work.

Why? Because along with your data, the installation program moved all of your Windows files to C:\Windows.old--including all, or at least most, of your old drivers. But the installation program doesn't know enough to look for drivers where it put them.

This won't work if you upgraded from XP, even though the old drivers are still in subfolders of C:\Windows.old. Windows XP drivers aren't compatible with Vista.

So what can you do about drivers if you upgraded from XP? Before you go any further, install and update your security software--antivirus, firewall, and so on. You're about to do some heavy Web surfing, and you need protection.

Then go back to the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and look up the device there. If that doesn't help, search on the device name and Windows 7 driver. Or even the device name and Vista driver.

If you did an upgrade install, you're pretty much done, although you should skip down to "Final Touches" below for additional advice. But if you did a clean install, you still have work to do.

And your first job is to reinstall all of your programs. I told you to gather them up before the upgrade; now it's time to dig into that pile. The downloaded files, which I told you to store in a subfolder of My Documents, is now in a subfolder or C:\Windows.old\Documents and Settings\logon\My Documents.

Start with your security software, if you haven't installed it already. Do the others in any order. Make sure you have the licenses and product IDs handy. And as soon as a program is installed, check for updates.

Add new users to the PC by creating separate accounts for them in the User Accounts control panel.You created a logon for yourself near the end of the installation, but if other people use your PC and have had their own log-ons in the past, you'll need to re-create them. If you can't remember all the user names, use the folders inside c:\windows.old\users (c:\windows.old\documents and settings if you upgraded from XP) as a reference. To create user log-ons, select Start, Control Panel, and click Add or remove user accounts.

You don't have to create a Public or shared account. It's already there.

Now you're ready to restore your data. Luckily, thanks to the above-mentioned C:\Windows.old folder, this is actually pretty easy. Select Start, type C:\users, and press ENTER. If you don't already have the c:\windows.old\users (or c:\windows.old\documents and settings) folder open, open it now.

At this point, you have two Explorer windows open. The windows.old one, which I'll refer to as the source, contains your data. The C:\users window, which I'll call the target, is where your data should end up. Do the following for each folder named for a person who uses your PC:

Open the respective folders in each Explorer window (so that the source window is open to C:\Windows.old\Users\yourname and the target to C:\Users\yourname).
Make sure that hidden folders are truly hidden. If you see an AppData folder in the target, select Organize, Folder and search options. Click the View tab. Select Don't show hidden files, folders, or drives, and click OK. (You can change it back later.)
Drag all the folders--but not the individual files--from the source to the target.
You'll get a lot of questions as the files move. When Windows tells you that you need administrator permission, make sure Do this for all current items is checked and click Continue. If told that "The destination already contains a folder named...", check Do this for all current items and click Yes. And if told that there's already a file with the same name, check Do this for the next nn conflicts and click Move and Replace.

Windows XP keeps pictures, music, and videos inside folders within My Documents, while Vista and 7 store them separately. You'd expect that to cause problems, but Windows 7 is smart enough to put everything in the right place.

When you're done with the user folders, repeat those steps one more time for the Public folders. If you upgraded from XP, your source won't have a Public folder, but it will have a shared folder, and you should move the folders from there to the target's Public folder.

At this point, Windows is ready to use. But keep the Windows.old folder around for a few months. There may still be something important inside--especially in the hidden AppData or Applications Data folder.

Final Reminders

If you didn't enter your product ID and activate Windows 7 during the installation, now would be the time to do it. Select Start, type activate, and press Enter. Click Activate Windows online now and follow the prompts.

One last suggestion: Once Windows 7 is set up the way you like it, create another image backup, and keep this one as long as you have the PC. That way, should you ever need to reinstall Windows, you can simply restore the image and skip several steps.