A while ago Electronic Arts released the older Command and Conquer games for download but since then they have revamped their website and the links seem to have been lost, as of posting below are working links:

If your CD\DVD drive is identifed by your BIOS but not by Windows 7 then try the following:

• Run regedit.exe
• Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\ControlClass
• Delete both UpperFilters and LowerFilters in the right-hand pane
• NB: Leave both the UpperFilters.bak and LowerFilters.bak entries

If this doesn’t work then try resetting the drive letter using the following:

• Run the Disk Management tool
• Choose ‘Create and format hard disk partitions’
• If the DVD drive is present then right click it and select ‘Change Drive Letter and Paths’
• Click ‘Change’ and select a new letter
• If the CDDVD drive is now visible in Explorer you can change the letter back
• If it is still not visible then reboot and it should appear

Paul Thurott and friend have worked out how to do a clean Windows 7 installation whilst only using the Windows 7 upgrade disc.

The instructions are as follows:

• Perform a clean installation using the Upgrade disc.
• Install all pending Windows Updates.
• Open regedit.exe from the Start Menu.
• Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Setup/OOBE/
• Change MediaBootInstall from ’1′ to ’0′.
• Open the Start Menu again and type ‘cmd’ — use ctrl+shift+enter to run it as an elevated-permissions user.
• Finally, type slmgr /rearm — and press enter.

You can now reboot and activate Windows 7 by running the Activate Windows utility, type in your product key and it should now work.

If when attempting to upgrade from Windows Vista to Windows 7 your installation hangs at 62% this could be due to the iphlpsvc service and Microsoft offers the following fix:

1. Reboot the computer; this will cause a rollback to Windows Vista.
2. Click Start, and right-click Computer.
3. Click Properties, and then click Advanced System Settings.
4. Click Environment Variables.
5. Under System Variables, click New, and then press ENTER
6. Type in the following variable information:
   Variable Name: MIG_UPGRADE_IGNORE_PLUGINS 
   Variable value: IphlpsvcMigPlugin.dll
7. Then Restart Setup.

Note This workaround only applies to the iphlpsvc service hangs

Microsoft Support article

Windows 7 has a new updated disk defragmenter when compared to Windows Vista. The disk defragmenter utility in Vista was rightly criticised for not giving enough user feedback, this has been fixed slightly in that now the user can see how fragmented the individual disks on the computer are.

Mapping a network drive in Windows 7 is similar to Windows Vista, firstly you need to navigate to the Computer window in Windows Explorer, this should display a list of your hard disks and removable drives in a similar style than below. You then need to click on the ‘Map network drive’ button to start the wizard.

Here you then select the drive you want it to appear as and the folder to share it as, you can also configure options regarding reconnecting to the drive at logon and/or to connect using different network credentials. Completing the wizard will add the drive in your Computer window in Windows Explorer.

Windows 7 has many built in backwards compatibility features but a new one is the Program Compatibility troubleshooter. To run the troubleshooter follow the following steps:

• Open the Program Compatibility troubleshooter by clicking the Start button and then clicking Control Panel. In the search box, type troubleshooter, and then click Troubleshooting. Under Programs, click Run programs made for previous versions of Windows.

• Follow the instructions in the troubleshooter.

If you cannot install a program, insert the installation disc for the program and, using the troubleshooter, browse to the program’s setup file, usually called Setup.exe, Install.exe, or something similar. The troubleshooter is not designed to work on programs that have an .msi file name extension.

You can also open the Program Compatibility troubleshooter by right-clicking a program’s icon or shortcut and then clicking Troubleshoot compatibility.

Core system requirements:

• 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Additional requirements to use certain features:

• Internet access (fees may apply)
• Depending on resolution, video playback may require additional memory and advanced graphics hardware
• For some Windows Media Center functionality a TV tuner and additional hardware may be required
• Windows Touch and Tablet PCs require specific hardware
• HomeGroup requires a network and PCs running Windows 7
• DVD/CD authoring requires a compatible optical drive
• BitLocker requires Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2
• BitLocker To Go requires a USB flash drive
• Windows XP Mode requires an additional 1 GB of RAM, an additional 15 GB of available hard disk space, and a processor capable of hardware virtualization with Intel VT or AMD-V turned on
• Music and sound require audio output

Product functionality and graphics may vary based on your system configuration. Some features may require advanced or additional hardware.

One of the first things I noticed when I installed Windows 7 was the missing Quick Launch toolbar, this is mainly because the functionality has now been integrated into the main taskbar but if you desperately need it back you can follow the steps below:

• Right-click the taskbar and select Toolbars > New Toolbar
• In the folder selection dialog, enter the following string and click Select Folder:
  %userprofile%AppDataRoamingMicrosoftInternet ExplorerQuick Launch

The quick launch toolbar has now been setup, to make it look like the old version you can remove the title and text associated with the icons by first unlocking the taskbar and then right-clicking the quick launch toolbar and deselecting ‘Show text’ and ‘Show title’. Whilst the taskbar is unlocked you can also rearrange to put it in your preferred place on the taskbar.

Xfire, the popular instant messaging service targeted at gamers, has various shortcut keys, for reference I’ve listed the default values below:

You can modify the default shortcut keys by opening the Options window under Tools on the main Xfire window and then selecting the Chat tab.