The internet is everywhere. Literally. It’s in coffee shops, city parks, and likely every room in your home. If you have a smartphone, you’ve even got it in your pocket. It’s probably safe to say that you, like all the rest of us, take this constant connectivity for granted. But this ubiquitous access aside, you might not be getting the best browsing experience. Here are a few recommendations to help you remedy that!

Google Chrome (Windows, Mac, & Linux)

This browser is our top pick for a reason—it really does have it all. It’s super fast, easy to use, and has tons of features like tabbed browsing and thumbnailed site images to help you get what you need from the ‘Net. It’s got a neat mode called Incognito that allows you to open a browsing window free of your regular cookies and autofill information whose history won’t be saved, which is both secure and handy if someone else wants to check their email on your computer. It also opens each Incognito window in isolation, without affecting or requiring you close your other open windows. But the real feather in its cap is its stability: Chrome runs each open window as its own process thread, which means if the massive Flash game you’re playing in one window crashes, it won’t take any other windows down with it (like that important email you’re drafting). Other perks include synchronizable bookmarks, built-in reader view, and bundled Flash (so you don’t have to deal with those annoying Adobe update panes). The downsides? While Google has opened up the season for extensions, the options are still a bit less expansive than the competition. And you are, of course, giving a larger share of your internet presence (and info) to Google.

Mozilla Firefox (Windows, Mac, & Linux)

Firefox is the original alternative: a fast, open-source solution with more downloadable tools and add-ons than you can shake a stick at.  It has the full complement of convenience features like tabbed browsing, space for bookmarks on the toolbar, built-in reader view and customizable search bar, and synchronizable bookmarks. While it also has a private browsing feature, enabling it will force all other windows to close. And though it is easier to update than, say, Internet Explorer, it prompts you to update when you open the program and forces a restart (whereas Chrome downloads updates as you browse and applies them after you close). The biggest pain? It’s kind of a memory hog and can really slow things down if you browse for long periods without restarting the program or your computer.

Apple Safari (Windows & Mac)

Apple has quite a reputation for the sleek look of their interfaces, and their internet browser is no different. You can browse your site history and bookmarks with big, colorful Cover Flow thumbnails, use the reader view to strip ads and extraneous formatting from articles on the web, and even enjoy super-sharp text thanks to the font-smoothing on every page.  And while the aesthetic components of Safari are (of course) on lockdown, the rendering aspect is, like Firefox, open source. That means geeks of all colors can submit bug fixes and improvements as they find them, which helps build a more stable platform. The problems? Most of the really good, innovative stuff is reserved for Mac owners (check out Apple’s site to see how Safari interacts with Mail, Address Book, iPhoto, and the Dashboard). And remember how Steve Jobs hates Flash? Yeah. Though lots of non-Apple technologies can be accessed through “extensions,” some of them (cough, FLASH!) really slow the browser down. Also, the automatic update window is irritating in the PC environment. In OS X, you get all your system updates at once, so it’s no big deal. In Windows, it’s yet another popup demanding your attention.  And who wants that?

Opera (Windows, Mac, & Linux)

In a word? FAST.  Opera is blazing fast. Opera will load even the heaviest of pages, like CNN.com or Yahoo!, in the blink of an eye.  This super-speed is thanks to the fact that Opera multithreads every download, which is the technological equivalent of creating a widemouth bottle. Unfortunately, thanks to an ill-conceived attempt at creating a for-pay browser in its early days, Opera doesn’t have nearly the user base of Firefox or Chrome; so a lot of sites don’t bother to check for compatibility with it. There are also no add-ons or extensions available, so what you see is what you get.  Though we confess, those side-anchored tabs are pretty cool.

Internet Explorer (Windows only)

There is really nothing to recommend this browser.  If you’re still using it, please stop reading this article immediately and go download either Firefox or Chrome. Internet Explorer is full of security holes, slow as molasses, and its version of the new browsing standards (tabs, bookmarks on the toolbar) are clunky and unintuitive.  Internet Explorer is like a gaudy tie or a tacky sweater—you got it as a gift and you have to keep it, because there are those rare instances where you absolutely have to bring it out into the light. Like when Aunt Mildred’s visiting from out of town. Or you’re trying to fill in an “interactive” form on a shoddy government website. There are some times when, we confess, you will need Internet Explorer. But for all those other times, have something better at the ready.

For a more humorous (albeit more cynical) take on the five browsers we higlighted, check out CollegeHumor.com

Thanks to InternetBrowserSoftware.net for the image

There’s been a lot of talk about Windows 7 since it’s launch, most everything has been positive (which certainly wasn’t the case after Windows Vista launched).  In this tough economic client people are asking themselves, “Why should I upgrade and what benefits will I see if you do?”  I’ve been running Windows 7 since August with their Release Candidate and installed the full version as soon as Technet offered it and I’ve found many improvements over previous versions.

(Be warned, this is a long post.  I wanted to get as much information in as possible.  The short story is if you’re getting a new computer definitely get it with Windows 7, if your computer is less than 2 or 3 years old I would recommend the upgrade).

Mainstream support for Windows XP is ending soon

Let’s face it, Windows XP was released in 2001 and although Microsoft has been pretty good about fixing bugs and releasing updates we all knew that at some point they would stop supporting XP just like they did with 2000, ME , 98, 95, etc.; however, Windows XP has had the distinction of being the most widely used operating system for such a long time I think many of us assumed it would last forever.  Unfortunately all things must come to an end and Microsoft’s mainstream support for Windows XP ends in April 2010, unless they release another Service Pack before then (we haven’t heard anything a 4th service pack, though).

Critical security patches will be released through 2014, but no new functionality will be added nor will any bugs get squashed.  It’s time to move to their newer operating system to get full support.

Faster boot

There’s been a bit of controversy over Microsoft’s claim that Windows 7 boots faster than previous versions.  A fresh install of Windows 7 does boot much faster than Vista or even XP, although some people have noticed it slowing down over time.  Of course if you have dozens of programs that start when you turn on your computer that is going to slow you down.  I’ve found that Windows 7, unlike Vista or XP, is actually usable once you get to the desktop.  I’m not sure how they did it but the boot time from pushing the power button until you can actually do work has significantly reduced and that just makes the system feel faster.

Beyond that, sleep and hibernate modes both work faster and more reliably, with my computer coming out of sleep in seconds.  I only reboot when there is an update that needs it, but I’ve found that even after several months of use it still boots quickly.

Aero Peek

Aero Peek is a really handy feature.  Just hover your mouse over your taskbar and a live snapshot of all the active programs pop up, from there you can click on the snapshot and that will bring that window to the front.

If you hover your mouse pointer over one of the snapshots all other windows will temporally become transparent (you can see below the outline of the other two Firefox windows around the center one), highlighting the windows you are looking for and allowing you to easily find it.

Aero Snap

Another great addition is Aero Snap.  Aero Snap allows you to grab an open window and instantly re-size it so it takes up the left side, right side, or all of your screen.  Just click and hold in the title bar (about the menus) and drag the window to the far left, right or top of the screen and it will “snap” into place.  If you click and hold and drag the window out of that position it will remember it’s last size as well. You can also “snap” the window into location by using keyboard shortcuts.  Holding down the windows key and pressing the left arrow on the keyboard snaps the window to the left side of the screen, right arrow to the right, etc.  It’s really a time saver when working on a computer with one monitor, but the shortcuts are even useful when working with multiple monitors (you can move a window from one screen to the other using the windows and left and right keys).

Keyboard shortcuts

We’ve covered them before, but Windows 7 added a bunch of new shortcuts that can save you time, effort and mouse clicks when trying to get things done.

To see Microsoft’s list click here: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Keyboard-shortcuts

Check out of other blog posts on them here: http://blog.nyctechguys.com/tech-blog/2009/10/windows-7-is-now-available/ and here: http://blog.nyctechguys.com/tech-blog/2009/07/useful-keyboard-shortcuts-in-windows/

Great backup service

Windows 7 comes with a really useful backup utility built in.  As long as you have an extra hard drive (external or internal) you can configure Windows 7 to make snapshot and incremental backups of your computer.  What this means is that your computer will make a copy of everything on your system and then at regular intervals make backups of anything that has changed.  What is really great is that it saves the backup as a drive image meaning that you can actually boot off your backup!!  Also, if your system dies you can restore from your backup and retain all your files, programs, settings and preferences.  Your computer will be exactly as it was before you had to recover!

Windows Search

The newest Windows Search is built into Windows 7 and has become really useful.  By default it indexes everything on your computer (email, files, etc), but also indexes all programs, control panel settings and other hidden options making it much easier to find whatever it is you are looking for.  Simply click on the start button (or press the windows key) and then start typing.  For instance, if I want to run Word, I can click the start button and start typing “word”.  Before I even get to the third letter in the name Windows Search has already found it and I can hit enter and start working.

Better memory usage and support for more than 4 GB of RAM

Windows XP (unless you were one of the very few people that ran the 64 bit edition) only supports a maximum of around 4GB of RAM.  Windows Vista 64 addressed more, but had many other issues related to RAM.  Windows 7 64 bit can support up to 196GB of RAM, although there aren’t any motherboards in the consumer market that can do that currently.  I have 12GB in my system and have never run out of RAM, no matter how many programs I have open.  Of course if you run Windows 7 32 bit you will run into the same 4GB limit as on Windows XP or Vista 32, however there really is no reason to run the 32 bit version unless you install Windows 7 on an old system that doesn’t support a 64 bit Operating System.

You can check the compatibility of your system for free using a tool on Microsoft’s site here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/en-us/default.aspx

Themes and personalization

Themes aren’t my cup of tea, but they can make your otherwise bland computer much more interesting looking and sounding if you are into that kind of thing.

The default themes that come with Windows 7 range between beautiful scenery and somewhat bizarre cartoon characters.  One thing that is really nice with Windows 7 is the built in ability to set a group of photos as your background and have them run as a slideshow.  Many vendors have also started coming out with themes (as well as small developers) and you can find many, many different styles of themes to give your computer the look and feel that’s right for you.

You can check out a nice sized gallery of themes at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/downloads/personalize

UAC vastly improved

If you used a computer with Vista, you know one of the most annoying things about (and most often disabled) was Microsoft’s User Access Controls or UAC.  It’s that popup that asks if you want to allow your computer to do something you’ve likely done many times in the past (or legitimately when installing a new program, changing system settings, etc).  UAC was implemented to help keep your computer safe, however it was so annoying that most people disable it within the first week of owning their computer or just mindlessly hit yes whenever it pops up, totally negating its benefits.

Windows 7 still has UAC, but by default it is much more under wraps and only really asks for permission when you’re running a program as administrator, installing new software or making changes to the system settings; all good things.

XP Virtual Machine

A really cool feature that Microsoft added to Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate is the Windows XP Mode.  It allows you (after a download or two) to run a copy of Windows XP within a virtual machine and install any software that won’t work with Windows 7 (to date I’ve found very few programs from the last 5+ years that won’t run under Windows 7).  Sure, a program ran within a virtual machine will run a little slower than one ran natively, but if your company uses a custom application that is business critical and they don’t plan to upgrade it anytime soon, Windows XP Mode is a perfect concession.

When it comes down to it Windows 7 actually *is* good.