How many times have you tried to teach your mum or old granny a simple task on the PC, but you never seem to be able to get the message across?

Firefox? What is that? Browser? Browse what? …

In MakeTechEasier, we understand how you feel, because we have been teaching people to do simple stuffs on their computers day in and out and we know how frustrating it can be. Apparently, what appears simple to us is actually an arduous task for many.

In Windows 7, there is this small and simple application that could make your life much easier. Problem Steps Recorder is an useful tool that allows you to record down your steps to troubleshoot the issue. It is almost like a screencast application, except that it saves in the MHTML format.

Windows Vista and 7 come with User Account Control (UAC) that controls the permissions the users have for running each application. Due to this restriction, many program in Win XP that require administrators privilege will not be able to run smoothly in Vista or Win 7. In such cases, you can use the VistaUACMaker to change the permission in the application and make it compatible with Vista and Windows 7.

To achieve the goal that we have in mind, we need to alter the Manifest File of the app which contains the useful information that provides the privileges needed by the app concerned & its UI Interaction of the app.

Previously, I have discussed the way to create a Windows 7 USB installer drive using the command prompt. Even though I have make it easy to follow, there are still some of you having some difficulty in the process. Recently, I have come across this little cool portable application that is able to do all the things covered in the previous tutorial in a breeze and without the command prompt.

The application that I am talking about is WinToFlash. This is a small application (only 2.1MB) that allows you to convert your Windows installer CD/DVD to a bootable USB drive. Not only is it easy to use (nearly idiot-proof and does not require you to have any technical knowledge), it is also fully portable – No installation is required and you can bring it wherever you are.

Windows 7 is the latest incarnation of the Microsoft Windows family of operating systems. It is also the latest darling of the blogosphere and is being widely regarded as the only true successor to Windows XP. While Microsoft did release Vista after Windows XP, it was a disaster and most people, including yours truly, resisted migrating to Vista completely because of various reasons.

It is nice to know that Microsoft has been listening all this while and promises that Windows 7 will be much better than Vista both in terms of resource utilization and general useability. That and the fact that Microsoft has decided to withdraw support for Windows XP, will see a lot of people migrating to Windows XP from Windows 7.

The only problem is that Microsoft has not provided a direct upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7, so there are only two options for people who want to migrate up from Windows XP.

One thing that I love about Linux (and Ubuntu) is that it is fully customizable and I can configure it to the way that I want it. Previously, I have already illustrated its flexibility by showing how you can transform Ubuntu Hardy and Intrepid into Mac OS X. Today, let’s bring a step further and see how we can transform Kubuntu Jaunty to Windows 7 in 3 simple steps.

In this tutorial, we will make use of the Vistar7 – Windows 7 transformation pack to perform the transformation. This transformation pack has a nice collection of Windows 7 themes and comes with an installation script to make the whole transformation a breeze.

USB drive is a great tool for you to bring your data anywhere you go without having to lull the whole computer along. The bad thing is, it is small in size and can easily be misplaced or stolen by others. When such incident occurs, the last thing that you want to happen is to let others view your confidential data, and probably do something bad with them.

In Windows 7, there is this new Bitlocker To-Go function that allows you to encrypt your USB drive. In the event that your drive is stolen, there is no way that others can access your data, unless he/she has your password.

Think you know your Windows well? Wait till you have tried out Ultimate Windows Tweaker, then you will know how much more things that you never know exist can now be tweaked and configured.

Ultimate Windows Tweaker is a freeware Tweak UI Utility for tweaking and optimizing Windows Vista and 7, 32-bit & 64-bit. There is no installation required and it can simply be downloaded and used as a portable application. With a few mouse clicks, you will be able to tweak your system and make it runs more faster, stable and more secure.

Microsoft released the Windows 7 Release Candidate for public testing early this week. If you have not grab your copy, you can download it at the Microsoft download site.

This time round, Microsoft is offering the download at least through July 2009, so there is no need to rush for it.

If you are currently Vista on your computer, you can easily upgrade to Windows 7 RC 1 without reformatting the hard disk. However, if you have already converted fully to Windows 7 since beta release, you are out of luck, because Microsoft does not allow you to to perform a direct upgrade from the Beta.

If you have previously dualboot your Windows 7 and Vista and now you wanted to remove it, either because you don’t like it or you are running out of hard disk space, here is the way to do it:

Updated: An updated version of this tutorial can be found here, featuring an easier and faster way to create a Windows 7 USB installer drive.

The Windows 7 beta has been released for quite a while now. If you want to follow the crowd and test it in your system, but do not want to burn into a DVD, here is how you can create a bootable USB drive to install Windows 7 on your system.