Four new Windows 7 theme packs

Paul your out of bandwidth on box.net. Any chance you will upload the theme packs to other source? The seem nice. Thanx.

Box said: "NO SOUP FOR YOU" Out of Bandwidth.. ;-) D/C

Is it the bizarro world and the band continuing to play on the Titanic? Microsoft has massive layoffs and Paul had coverage of 4 new "theme packs" for an unreleased version of WIndows. Wow. Talk about denial. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&...

Chuckb84... This site is dedicated to the future of Windows. Oh, and don't be surprised to discover there are already a million people using the Windows 7 Beta, btw. The only one in denial here is you, apparently. Please give it a rest. Everyone else... Am uploading the themes to SkyDrive. Didn't realize bandwidth would be an issue on box.net. Sorry about that, Paul

Nice themes. I particularly like the London one. The only thing further that I have to add to the discussion on themes at this time is that the themepacks are re-extensioned .cab files, rather than .zip. This distinction doesn't really mean much (most unarchivers can extract cabs [and windows 7 can even view their contents all by itself, albeit without folder organization]) except that it is much harder to make them without the use of the "save as themepack" tool (but why would you want to do that anyway?).

@chuckb84 - You could always, oh..I don't know...not read it if you don't like it. It's your time to waste, but don't pretend that you aren't doing something that you are - Trolling. Man.... --tayme

"Is it the bizarro world and the band continuing to play on the Titanic?" chuckb84, would you please stop behaving like robertsjoe! Talking about Titanic, Paul doesn't have a post about Slumdog Millionaire's Oscar nominations either. What's the deal with that?

Very nice job!!

"This site is dedicated to the future of Windows." "me and thousands of other people visit Paul's blog each day to find out information on the latest version of Windows." Yet thousands of others get the picture. This site is dedicated to what Paul would like the future of Windows to be and thousands of people visit the blog to read preferably happy news about Windows platform, spiced with some Google/Apple/Linux/etc. bashing and fud. Thus no mention of the layoffs, return of DRM on MSN mobile or Conficker taking us all the way back to year 2000.

One thing I wish Paul would do would be to clearly define which part talks about what. Sometimes I see things here that make more sense on WIndowsITPro, and sometimes I see things there that I think make more sense here. At the end of the day, it is Paul's blog, and it is quite easy to not read him anymore if you are unsatisfied with the coverage he provides or his opinions.

"I have no problem with Paul not being fair. I do have a problem with the claim that it is fair when clearly its not. " But fair is not some dictionary definable term. What he thinks is fair is what some others think is fair, but not all will agree with his interpretation of fair.

Paul, Thanks for the themes. Keep up the great coverage of Microsoft products and technologies.

Woo boy. :) So... Just intended this to be some nice photos for you guys to enjoy. For some reason it has devolved into a discussion of perceived bias in what I do and do not cover. So. Let me explain. SuperSite for Windows. The main site is for software and hardware products reviews and articles, mostly. That's "the future of Windows": The stuff that is coming down the road. Sometimes I'll editorialize (problems with the Windows 7 taskbar, "Is Windows Broken," etc.) but, hey, it's a one man show. The opinion is in there. You can call it fair or unfair. I've been doing the SuperSite for over 10 years. WinInfo: Daily news and information. That's where I cover the Microsoft layoffs, Apple news, etc. Since 1994. SuperSite Blog: Information related to Windows/Microsoft that I find of interest but doesn't necessarily require a full-length formal article. A place to link to what others are writing about the relevant topics as well. You know, a blog. The blog is quick and dirty and not edited in any way. You know, like a blog. I've been blogging since 2001, first at the Nexus and more recently here. Windows IT Pro. In the print magazine, I write a column called "Need to Know." This is usually 1-3 products, and is rarely reprinted on the SuperSite. I've been writing for the print magazine since early 2000. Windows IT Pro UPDATE. A free weekly email newsletter that is IT-related. I often republish those commentaries on the SuperSite, because they are often relevant to this audience. (i.e. are related to Microsoft products.) I've been writing UPDATE since August 1999. Those are my primary modes of work-based communication. I also post to Twitter, but that could be anything and is often more personal. One thing I have always done in my writing--dating back to 1994 or so--is include non-Microsoft news and information because I feel that while it's easy to put the blinders on and only focus on one company or technology (Microsoft/Windows), there's a big world out there. And what happens with Linux, Apple, Sun, Palm, Sony, whatever is relevant. Especially but not necessarily if they compete with Microsoft. Why this isn't obvious is unclear to me, but I guess sometimes you have to spell it out. Especially given that this conversation is occurring in a post about free photos and themes. Geesh.

Paul very thanks for the beatifull new Windows 7 theme packs

That said...has anybody else had problems with corruption of the 32 bit W7 iso? I have downloaded and burned it to DVD multiple times on multiple computers - both Vista and OS X. Every time, it either stops partway through the download or I get it burned to disk and installation fails with various errors - all pointing to missing or corrupt files. The 64 bit downloaded fine on the first attempt and I am going to attempt to get it installed via bootcamp on my MBP this weekend. --tayme

"has anybody else had problems with corruption of the 32 bit W7 iso?" No. I downloaded mine from Connect, which uses the Microsoft FTM software ("file transfer manager"?). It worked the first time, and every time after that (I did about 5 downloads in total).

""I used SlySoft Virtual CloneDrive"" I remember that...and even downloaded it, but I haven't tried it that way yet. I'll give that a go. That should tell me if my download is corrupt or if I'm just getting bad burns... --tayme

My Win7 iso's failed during download as well, until I got them from Microsoft File Transfer Manager. It worked correctly the first time using FTM.

"Probably the cheap, crappy disks that I have..." Verbatim discs have always proven to be the best quality and the most compatible for different drives. You have to look for the Advanced AZO DVD+R models - they have the extra scratch coatings on both sides of the disc (even under the label which most others don't have) and have the better recording material than most others. You'll often pay a premium for them though. Memorex, Maxell, and even Fujifilm all seem to burn well in various burners too in my experience. And +R's have advanced error-checking as part of the spec. -R's don't.

I agree with Wae on Verbatim media. We've been using them for what seems like aeons because of their reliability. Whenever we're forced to do a CD or DVD master to disk, rather than as an image, we always use them, and have never had a fault.

For the ultimate in DVD reliability, I use Taiyo Yuden media http://club.cdfreaks.com/f33/taiyo-yuden-faq-178622/.

@dip: Yup, Taiyo Yuden have been branded as Verbatim before.

What do you mean they have DVD-Rs for authoring, Wae? If we burn our own premasters to a disc, rather than sending an image file as a DDP, then we always use Verbatim.

"What do you mean they have DVD-Rs for authoring, Wae?" They have a higher-quality recording surface than day-to-day usages require. They use Metal Azo as do many of the other premium discs that they carry for archival music and movie jobs. Standard discs use "Advanced Azo" instead. They are also DVD-R only, because image data for DVD-ROM master duplication can only be burned on DVD-R discs (DVD-ROM's aren't burned, they're pressed, and DVD+R's aren't compatible with the majority of dupe machines). http://www.verbatim.com/products/detail.cfm?product_id=C6547F6B-0082-4AB...

"This is why the DVD+R(W) format, for more recent technological specifications, offers better performance as well as additional features. On the other hand, DVD-R(W) has been ratified by the DVD Forum and was the first format used, so the majority of DVD drives (and especially DVD players) are compatible with it. "Most DVD burners support both formats. In conclusion, given that it is more compatible with standalone DVD players, DVD-R(W) is preferred for creating Video DVDs, while DVD+R(W) is superior for creating data discs." DVD players now all support + discs. It's not an issue. I would rather have video on a + disc because of the extra error checking that drives do with + discs. Drives don't handle - discs the same way. What that means is that minor surface scratches on a - disc can more easily throw off a player than it would on a + disc, which means the - disc can give you more frequent pausing or skipping in the video. DVD+: "the specifications provide for a check to run in the background, in order to check errors found on the disc while the reader is inactive. The user can still read the disc or eject it at any time; if this happens, the error check will continue where it left off as soon as the player is idle again." That's why I recommend DVD+ over DVD- every time. Compatibility would've been an issue 5-6 years ago, but it certainly isn't now. The only time I would recommend a - is for authoring for dupe'ing to DVD-ROM.