Microsoft mucks up Windows 7 licensing

Microsoft mucks up Windows 7 licensing

By Woody Leonhard

Windows 7 is a great product with relatively few foibles, but there’s one major Win7 mess that has me seeing red.

The licensing terms for the new version of Windows are inconsistent, inaccurate, and downright inane — assuming you can wade through Microsoft’s legalese in the first place.

If you’re one of the millions of people considering a Win7 upgrade, you need to distinguish the upgrades you can do from the upgrades Microsoft’s license wants you to do. The overlap between what’s possible and what’s “permissible” leaves a lot of gray area.

Unfortunately, there are no clear and simple answers to many important questions. These include the validity of dual-boot Win7 configurations, the use of upgrade discs to perform a clean install, and the ability to upgrade to Win7 a PC that’s currently running a pirated copy of XP or Vista.

Here’s the nutshell version of where things stand on these issues at present. (You’ll find the official end-user license agreement for your version of Windows on Microsoft’s Legal and Corporate Affairs page as a PDF download.)

Dual-booting Windows 7 may violate the license

You know about dual-booting, right? Since the dawn of time, Windows has allowed you to install more than one operating system on a PC and choose which OS to use at boot-up. Dual-booting is a good way to migrate from an older operating system to a newer one. I’ve used the technique for years whenever a new OS has come around.

For example, once you set a machine to dual-boot, you can use the new OS until you run into trouble — for example, you forget a password or can’t remember an e-mail setting. You just boot into the old OS and use it long enough to jot down the missing information. Once you’re sure you no longer need the old version, you delete it: safe, simple, and easy.

I first jumped down the Win7 licensing rabbit hole when I realized you aren’t supposed to use an upgrade version of Windows 7 to create a dual-boot system. Er, well, more precisely, it’s physically possible to use an upgrade version of Win7 to create a PC that will dual-boot Win7 with XP or Vista. But the licensing terms say you can’t do so.

This is one of those areas where verbiage indicates you shouldn’t, but the software and all of its supporting documentation show that you can. It’s also one of the areas where the rules have changed. Dual-booting with an upgrade copy of XP was perfectly kosher. The licensing language changed with Windows 7. (Actually, it changed with Vista, but nobody seems to have noticed.)

The crux of the matter lies in the following sentence in Windows 7’s EULA:

• “15. Upgrades. To use upgrade software, you must first be licensed for the software that is eligible for the upgrade. Upon upgrade, this agreement takes the place of the agreement for the software you upgraded from. After you upgrade, you may no longer use the software you upgraded from.”

Yes, you read that correctly. As soon as you install the upgrade version of Windows 7, Microsoft claims that your license for the existing version of Windows goes kaput and you may no longer use the software you upgraded from. While you can create a dual-boot system — heck, it’s easy to do so, using the upgrade DVD — under a strict reading of the EULA, you aren’t supposed to boot it up.

The Windows 7 installer will automatically set up the entire dual-boot infrastructure, making it easy for you to dual-boot. But the license says you can’t still use the previously purchased and installed operating system.

This leads to all sorts of craziness. For example, a friend of mine wanted to dual-boot the 32-bit version and the 64-bit version of Windows 7. This would allow him to test 64-bit drivers but fall back to 32-bit if he encountered a problem.

He bought the Windows 7 Upgrade Family Pack, whose license permits three installs. To dual-boot, he simply needed to install Win7 twice. But he was a bit, uh, disconcerted to discover that dual-booting with the 32-bit and 64-bit versions theoretically negates the license of whichever Win7 version was installed first.

I still can’t believe that Microsoft made such a ridiculous rule. I’m amazed there hasn’t been a mass uprising of Win7 users brandishing pitchforks and blazing torches as they threaten to ride the legal beagles out of Redmond on a rail. But no. In fact, I’ve hardly heard a peep about this matter in the trade press.

The simple fact is that a dual-boot system created using the upgrade version of Win7 works fine. Microsoft may say your license for the original software gets tossed into the bit bucket, but I’ve never heard of anybody failing a Windows Genuine Advantage check on an old XP or Vista system that’s part of a Win7 dual-boot hookup.

I don’t know how Microsoft could tell which old system you had. I don’t know of any mechanism Microsoft could use to disable a running copy of Windows 7 or prevent it from receiving critical updates. In short, the rule’s there, but it may in fact be legally unconscionable as well as unenforceable.

The install-over-itself trick skirts the rules

In his Feb. 1, 2007, Top Story, editorial director Brian Livingston described how to clean-install Windows Vista using only the upgrade CD. Thunder and lightning descended from a few outraged spokespersons who felt that such a trick shouldn’t be widely publicized. After all, Microsoft has a right to charge the price it wants, and if it restricts the cheaper upgrade version to systems that already have a valid copy of Windows, it’s Microsoft’s decision, right?

Well, not exactly. Microsoft can say whatever it likes. But by the same token, Microsoft purposefully built the backdoor into Windows so it could be used. The Redmond company explained in its own published documents how to use the trick to install the upgrade edition on a new, bare hard drive. With Vista installed in this way, as Brian noted, the Vista EULA specifically lists Vista itself as a “qualifying operating system” that would pass validation tests by upgrading Vista over itself. This was all deliberately programmed in by Microsoft and retained as part of Service Pack 1.

Fast forward two and a half years and we find the same backdoor in Windows 7. Microsoft even enhanced the trick by adding a command line that eliminates the need to run setup twice.

As I explained in my Nov. 12 Top Story, you can use the Win7 upgrade DVD to clean-install Windows 7 in precisely the same way Brian demonstrated in 2007 for Vista.

Legions of ‘Softies have known about the trick for years, and it still works. Microsoft didn’t close the hole in Vista SP1, and it didn’t close it in Windows 7. It doesn’t look like a “trick” any more. The only possible conclusion is that the clean-install method is included by Microsoft so its tech-support people can resolve customers’ setup problems quickly and cheaply.

Aside from the EULA, what does Microsoft tell Windows 7 buyers about installing the upgrade DVD on a clean hard drive? The company’s official upgrade booklet — called “Welcome to Your PC, Simplified” — provides an answer at the bottom of page 6:

• “If your PC doesn’t have an operating system currently installed, insert the Windows 7 installation disc before turning on your computer. Setup should start automatically.”

That’s very specific advice, and it carries no admonition whatsoever restricting the upgrade to any particular machine.

If this is a violation of the EULA, shouldn’t Microsoft have removed by now the technique that the company created and documented so many years ago?

Microsoft doesn’t do so because it doesn’t want to.

No trick needed to upgrade a pirated OS to Win7

As part of my pursuit of truth, justice, and the American way, I tested a Windows 7 upgrade DVD on a PC that I knew had a pirated copy of Windows XP. This particularly sorry piece of hardware had never seen a licensed copy of Windows in its life. The PC might as well have been flying a skull-and-crossbones flag and displaying its “You may be the victim of software counterfeiting” notice like a badge of honor.

Since the machine didn’t really have much of an OS to begin with, I decided to take Microsoft’s advice for installing Win7 on a PC with no operating system at all. I booted the PC from a genuine, paid-for upgrade DVD. The Win7 installer kicked in with no problem. During installation, I typed in the activation key. Win7 activated immediately once I was connected to the Internet. Go figger.

It would be trivially easy for Microsoft to have the installer scan for “nongenuine” copies of Windows and scold the upgrader. But no — the upgrade proceeded as slick as could be.

Now that the formerly swashbuckling PC has a genuine copy of Windows 7, is there any indication that I broke any EULA provisions? More to the point, does anybody at Microsoft really care? There are millions of pirated copies of Windows out there. Isn’t getting them qualified as genuine a good thing for everybody?

Seems like it is to me.

Woody Leonhard‘s latest books — Windows 7 All-In-One For Dummies and Green Home Computing For Dummies — deliver the straight story — hold the sugar coating — in a way that won’t put you to sleep.

Users of defective HP notebooks get no love

By Dennis O’Reilly

Some laptop vendors, discovering they’d sold machines with chips that overheat, respond by immediately replacing the defective units.

Unfortunately, if you bought one such notebook from certain companies and the motherboard burned itself out just after the warranty expired, you may have found yourself out of luck.

In an April 9 Top Story, WS contributing editor Michael Lasky described the reticence of Dell and HP to replace an overheating Nvidia graphics chip in many of the companies’ laptop models. My April 16 Known Issues column provided more information for people who had bought one of the defective notebooks.

While both vendors claim to have addressed their customers’ complaints on this matter, reader Eric Koglin begs to differ:

• “I began wrestling with the problem, because I was trying to troubleshoot my brother-in-law’s nonfunctioning HP DV9000 laptop.&#8230 I also discovered a site called HPLies.com. It has become a gathering place for people from all around the world to describe their laptop problems &#8230 and to inventory in a database the serial numbers, product numbers, dates of purchase, etc., of defective HP laptops.

  “While the database may contain only around a thousand entries, the actual number [of affected machines] is in the thousands and has hit people in all corners of the world. It appears that the HP ‘help’ described in Mr. O’Reilly’s article and on the HP Web site applies only to an extremely small subset of problem laptops.…

  “HP has continued to put its corporate head in the sand. The people who leave messages in the forums on HPLies.com describe efforts to work with HP support people, send letters to Mark Hurd (CEO of HP), and take the computer back to the place it was purchased, with limited or no success.

  “It appears that the HP support people have been directed not to acknowledge that there’s a widespread problem with laptops and [also] to perform a $400 ‘repair’ which, as it turns out, means that HP replaces the bad part with the same bad-but-functioning replacements.&#8230 They also reformat the hard drive (huh?) and modify the BIOS in such a manner as to make the cooling fan run continuously to try to keep the unit from overheating! So of course, the battery life of the laptop is crippled even more.

  “The forum members on HPLies.com have written to the Better Business Bureau, state attorneys general, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and directly to Mark Hurd, to no avail.&#8230

  “I think it’s a substantial issue. HP is turning its corporate back on its customers. I see why HP doesn’t care — they’re the largest computer maker in the world now, so I guess a few thousand unhappy customers is par for the course. This issue is important, because HP knowingly and willfully sold defective merchandise and in most cases charged the customer for the repair.

  “HP should be held accountable for knowingly putting a defective computer on the market and for turning a deaf ear to its customers.”

As the owner of a doorstop that was once an HP notebook with the defective chip, I couldn’t agree more. When I complained about the problem to HP support, they offered to sell me a new motherboard for half the normal $400 price. But, as Eric points out, the “repair” HP proposed was hardly a bargain.

Windows Secrets contacted HP for a response to Eric’s letter, but no reply has been received. Frankly, HP’s silence on the matter is no big surprise.

The Known Issues column brings you readers’ comments on our recent articles. Dennis O’Reilly is technical editor of WindowsSecrets.com.

May the whoopee cushion be with you

By Stephanie Small In most movies, sound effects are used to distract the bad guys so the heroes can get out of their pickles and ultimately prevail. Whether it’s a mysterious clatter, unearthly explosion, spine-tingling scream, or sudden gunshot, those background sounds are very important to the plot of the film. “Star Wars” is no exception. With Tauntauns and Ewoks running around, there are plenty of noises to distract the villains. Watch this humorous parody of Obi-Wan Kenobi playing sound games to trick two storm troopers and effect his escape. Who knew the Death Star had crickets? Play the video

Using Windows' built-in disk-imaging utility

By Fred Langa When the bits hit the fan, nothing gets your PC back in shape like having a complete known-good image of your hard drive to use for recovery. Disk imaging — the gold standard of backups — is built into all versions of Windows 7 and some versions of Vista, but it’s also available for XP.

What’s the best way to back up your PC?

Nick Phillips wants to know more about PC disaster recovery:

• “Very interesting piece by Fred [the Nov. 5 LangaList Plus column] about the order [in which] to install applications in a newly installed system. Could you go into more detail? If the old system becomes so badly damaged that it becomes unbootable, then the backup needs to be bootable, right?”

Yes, a good disaster-recovery plan has to include some means of restoring your data, even if your PC won’t boot normally. But let’s start at the beginning.

My preferred system-backup method is to create a disk (or partition) image. Unlike a file-by-file backup that preserves a drive’s data, an image backup is a byte-for-byte replica of not only the hard drive’s data but also the drive’s structure. That’s the key difference.

Imaging creates an exact clone of your hard drive, all the way down to the physical placement of individual bytes on the disk. If you image a new, error-free, defragged installation of Windows and all your applications, restoring that image puts your entire system back to exactly that condition.

When you restore the image, everything’s installed error-free and the disk’s defragged precisely — precisely — the way it was when the image was made. No file-oriented backup technology can make that guarantee. That’s why imaging is the paragon of backups.

Manufacturers have long recognized the power of image backups. The “system restore” setups on most OEM discs use a factory-made image to totally reproduce the PC’s software configuration in its original, as-shipped condition.

Using an imaging tool on your own gives you the same power, but with an important added benefit: you get to control how the system is set up before the image is created.

And here’s some great news: Windows 7’s built-in backup system — the best ever built into Windows — includes imaging. (See Figure 1.) The Win7 backup applet actually offers three different backup types: a system image (best for preserving your entire system setup), a standard file-oriented backup (best for routine daily or weekly data backups), and a bootable “system repair disk” that lets you make selective repairs or restore a whole-system image you created previously.

Figure 1. The Backup and Restore applet in all versions of Windows 7 includes a “Create a system image” option.

Vista also has disk imaging — called Complete PC Backup and Restore — but the feature is present only in Vista’s high-end Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions. Win7’s image backup is available in all versions of Win7, not just the most-expensive ones.

I don’t mean to gush, but as a backup fanatic who’s had to cobble together elaborate, Rube Goldberg–inspired backup/image/repair boot-disc systems over the years, having all this stuff built into the basic operating system is wonderful. It’s one of my favorite parts of Win7.

So — no joke — one possible answer to your question, Nick, is to upgrade to Win7. It has built-in tools that can handle all the backing up you need to do, and it walks you through the entire process.

Of course, you can accomplish the same tasks in any version of Windows using third-party tools such as Acronis True Image (more info), Norton Ghost (more info), and my personal favorite for non-Win7 systems, Terabyte Unlimited’s geeky-but-powerful BootItNG (more info). All three programs make disk images and bootable recovery discs that can be used to restore an image even to a raw, unformatted drive.

You might wonder about the practicality of storing images of today’s huge hard drives. Fortunately, all the best imaging tools — including Win7’s — are smart enough not to copy empty space. The programs merely note blank areas, so they can be recreated without actually storing the emptiness.

And because the backup utilities employ lossless data compression, analogous to a .zip file, an image can be stored in far less space than the original disk or partition.

A second factor in determining the size of an image backup is whether your drive is partitioned into manageable chunks. Backups become quick and painless when you store various components of your configuration in separate partitions of your hard drive.

For example, my main system has a 500GB boot drive. To make my backups manageable, I divide the drive into two somewhat arbitrary partitions: a 75GB C: partition and a 325GB D: partition. (On its own, my Win7 Ultimate configuration reserves a 100GB BitLocker partition that’s normally hidden.)

I put my system files and my most-important and most-frequently-updated data files on the 75GB C: partition that’s the focus of my backup activities.

Currently, about 25GB of the C: “drive” is in use. When I let Win7 create an image of the C: partition, the final compressed file is only about 16GB, and that’s all I need to store. I keep a “live” copy on my secondary internal drive. For certainty’s sake, I also copy the file to a network drive and to DVDs for safe, off-machine storage.

Instead of having to store 500GB, I have to store only 16 gigs — 4 DVDs’ worth — which is not much of a burden at all!

So, Nick — in summary:

• Step 1: Partition your drives so you don’t have to back up everything all at once and your backups are a manageable size.
• Step 2: On a regular basis, use an imaging tool — whether the one built into Windows 7 and high-end versions of Vista or a third-party tool — to make a “gold standard” whole-system backup.
• Step 3: In between image backups, make simpler, traditional data (file-oriented) backups.
• Step 4: Store at least some of your image and data backups offline, away from the PC you’re preserving.
• Step 5: Relax in the knowledge that your data and your entire system setup are safe and secure!

(P.S. If you’re already using Win7 and want to go beyond the imaging “wizard” built into the OS’s backup applet, check out Microsoft’s tutorial, “Building a Standard Image of Windows 7 Step-by-Step Guide.”)

Where’d the Eudora e-mail client disappear to?

Bruce Cable needs to track down some favorite software that’s partially gone missing:

• “I’ve used Eudora since version 5.0 in paid mode for years. After upgrading, I tried to pay for it and Qualcomm is not selling registration codes any longer. What’s a Eudora lover to do?”

Although Eudora was once an excellent e-mail client, Qualcomm’s primary business isn’t software; it’s making chipsets for cell phones. Several years ago, Qualcomm gave up on Eudora and turned its development over to the open-source community.

The open-source version of Eudora was conceived as a total software rewrite. But that plan has morphed into the simpler Penelope project, an attempt to layer “the Eudora user experience” over the guts of Thunderbird, Mozilla’s open-source e-mail client.

If you want more info, Mozilla’s Penelope wiki is the place to go. Or do what I and many other ex-Eudorians have done: switch to Thunderbird itself, which is available on the Mozilla site. It’s not Eudora, but it’s pretty good.

Long-distance attempt to repair a ‘PXE’ problem

Bob Boysen is faced with a machine that’s stuck in a boot loop:

• “My daughter has a Lenovo PC that’s been great for three years. Suddenly, when she boots, she gets the message:

  PXE-E61, media test failed, check cable and PXE MOF, exiting PXE Rom.

  “I suggested going into BIOS or boot setup, but she can’t access anything. It just stays in a PXE loop. She doesn’t live here, so it’s long-distance help. There’s about a two-week period left in the extended warranty, but that won’t help if it’s not a hardware problem. Any suggestions would be appreciated.”

The Preboot Execution Environment (abbreviated PXE to avoid an unfortunate acronym) allows the system to boot from a network when it can’t find a bootable hard drive, CD/DVD, USB device, or floppy. If your daughter’s machine can’t boot from any of those types of devices, the problem probably isn’t trivial and sure doesn’t sound like it’s software-related.

I’m all for do-it-yourself repairs, but with a PC in the hands of an unskilled user and only two weeks left on the warranty, there’s no time to waste. I suggest your daughter invoke the warranty coverage and let Lenovo sort it out.

Why can’t I erase files on my USB drive?

Timm Smith can’t clean off his external hard drive:

• “I can’t seem to delete files from my USB hard drive. I’m using Vista Home Premium and a WD 500GB Elements [external] HDD for backups. I can’t find a Delete command, and if I drag a file to the Recycle Bin, it won’t go there. Can you help?”

Sounds like a problem with permissions or file attributes. Many external drives come preformatted, and devices intended to store backups are designed to make files difficult to delete for safety reasons. Some backup drives even have a physical “read only” switch. Finally, files copied from CDs or DVDs may retain a read-only software attribute.

But if there’s no physical hardware switch preventing file deletion and you’re using an administrator account, you can reset the permissions to give yourself full access. Microsoft Knowledge Base article 326549 provides step-by-step instructions for all current versions of Windows. A few clicks, and I bet you’ll have full delete access again!

Fred Langa is editor-at-large of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He was formerly editor of Byte Magazine (1987–91), editorial director of CMP Media (1991–97), and editor of the LangaList e-mail newsletter from its origin in 1997 until its merger with Windows Secrets in November 2006.

My productivity-enhancing keyboard shortcuts

By Ian “Gizmo” Richards If you’re thinking this column is going to be yet another one of those long, dreary lists of keyboard shortcuts, think again. Rather than bore you with a comprehensive listing of key combinations, I’m going to show you just the seven most-important and least-known shortcuts that I use to get more work done in less time.

Keyboard-shortcut traps for beginners

Watch any advanced computer user for a while. You’ll soon notice that he or she frequently uses keyboard shortcuts. The reason is simple: Shortcuts can save a great deal of time and add noticeably to your productivity.

Conversely, keyboard shortcuts are rarely used by beginners. That’s a pity in itself, but the situation is actually worse than it appears. Not only are beginners losing out on possible productivity gains, they’re actually making life harder for themselves. They engage in a whole range of bad practices when performing even the most basic computer operations.

A few basic tricks no one should be without

One of these bad habits is overuse of the Delete key. Many users overwrite text by selecting the text, hitting the Delete key, and then typing in the new text. What these people don’t realize is this: once text is selected, it will be deleted and overwritten automatically just by typing.

Another example is the common copy-and-paste operation. Almost all beginners use either the standard menu’s Edit options or the right mouse button’s context menu to select Copy in the original file or folder and then Paste in the target destination. Virtually all expert users, by contrast, enter the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+C for copying and Ctrl+V for pasting.

Another painful beginner practice is moving to the top or bottom of a long document by repeatedly pressing the Page Up or Page Down keys. (On some keyboards, the words are abbreviated PgUp and PgDown.) The same result can be achieved simply by pressing Ctrl+Home to jump to the top and Ctrl+End to the bottom.

Possibly the worst example of beginners making life difficult for themselves is when selecting all the text on a page or in a file. Newbies will go to the start of the text and hold down the left mouse button while dragging to the end of the text. An experienced user would simply press Ctrl+A to select the entire page or file.

To underscore just how inefficient these practices are, try copying the entire contents of this column into Notepad or Word. Doing so using a mouse and context menus is a real pain. With keyboard shortcuts, the process is as simple as pressing Ctrl+A and then Ctrl+C in your browser or e-mail program, and then Ctrl+V in your word processor.

Of course, most Windows Secrets readers are familiar with the basic keyboard-productivity practices mentioned above. Now I’d now like to show you my favorite, obscure keyboard tricks. These can be just as important for getting the most out of your computer.

The following is by no means a complete list of shortcuts. Rather, it describes the lesser-known shortcuts I find most useful. Note that some of these shortcuts won’t work in every program, but most apps do support them.

Shortcuts for selecting a large block of text

Shift+Click: To select just a few paragraphs of text, the easiest way is to click and drag your mouse over the selection. However, this technique breaks down when you want to select large quantities of text that extend over multiple pages. That’s because many programs won’t automatically scroll to the next page. Additionally, it can be very difficult to keep in your head just what text has been selected.

A far better method is to click at the start of the text you want to copy, slide the vertical scroll bar to the end of the text with your mouse, and then Shift+Click the end of the selection. All the text between the start and end points will be selected.

Ctrl+Shift+Click: You can also use keys to select noncontiguous blocks of text. Say you want to select specific paragraphs or other sections of text but skip some of the material in between. To do so, use your mouse or the Shift+Right Arrow or Shift+Left Arrow keys to highlight the first paragraph or item. Then press the Ctrl key while you select each subsequent item in the same manner.

Select words or paragraphs from the keyboard

Ctrl+Shift+Arrow: It’s easy enough to select short sections of text with your mouse. But if you have both hands on the keyboard, it’s far quicker to highlight the text using the keyboard. Press Ctrl+Shift+Right Arrow to select the word to the right of the cursor. Press Ctrl+Shift+Left Arrow to select to the left.

Likewise, you can use Down Arrow to select following items or lines of text and Up Arrow to choose items above the cursor’s position. Successive keystrokes select additional words or paragraphs.

Ctrl+Backspace and Ctrl+Delete: Using Ctrl in combination with the arrow keys moves the cursor one word or paragraph at a time. Pressing Ctrl+Backspace or Ctrl+Delete removes one word and paragraph at a time, respectively.

The easiest way to undo and redo changes

Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y: By far, the quickest way to undo an action is by pressing Ctrl+Z, which beats hunting for the Undo command on the Edit or context menu. Press Ctrl+Y to redo the action you just undid — provided the program you’re using supports this operation.

One of the niftiest uses of this key combination is when you accidentally delete a file. A quick Ctrl+Z restores the file in a jiffy. Similarly, who hasn’t inadvertently copied files when you merely meant to select or move them? Pressing Ctrl+Z deletes files and folders you copy by accident. You can also use this keyboard shortcut to erase some text you’ve just entered into an input box.

Minimize all open windows in an instant

Windows key+M, Windows key+E, and Windows key+L: The Windows key is the one with the Windows logo. It’s located left of the spacebar on most keyboards. Not all keyboards have a Windows key, but most do. Very few people ever use the Windows key, which is a shame because it’s a real productivity powerhouse.

My favorite use of the Windows key is pressing it plus M to minimize all open windows. You can maximize them again by pressing the Windows key plus Shift+M. Another shortcut I use nearly every day is hitting the Windows key plus E to open Windows Explorer. The fastest way to lock your PC is by pressing the Windows key plus L.

Keys for entering Web addresses in your browser

Ctrl+Enter: There’s no need to enter the www and .com parts of a Web address. Instead, just type in your browser’s address bar the domain name only, such as windowssecrets. Press Ctrl+Enter to add the prefix and suffix automatically. (Pressing Shift+Enter adds the .net top-level domain, and Ctrl+Shift+Enter appends .org.)

The next time you want to open Google, for example, just type google in the browser’s address bar, followed by Ctrl+Enter, and you’re there.

Save more time with keyboard-shortcut resources

Those are my top seven productivity-boosting key combinations. I could easily add a dozen more that I use regularly, but doing so would be taxing your memory. For a list of keyboard options for Windows 7, check out an article on My Digital Life. Most of the shortcuts listed also work with other Windows versions.

In addition to Windows shortcuts, there are many more key combinations specific to particular programs. An excellent shortcut compendium is at the KeyXL site.

If you don’t currently use keyboard shortcuts, I strongly recommend that you make the effort to learn the ones listed here. Once you’ve committed them to memory, you’ll notice a real improvement in your productivity. And besides, you’ll definitely impress your friends!

Ian “Gizmo” Richards is senior editor of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He was formerly editor of the Support Alert Newsletter, which merged with Windows Secrets in July 2008.

Beware of tech vendors' dirty tricks

By Scott Dunn It’s no longer enough for PC users to protect themselves from the villainy of spyware, viruses, and other malware. You also need to guard against an arsenal of schemes manufacturers and marketers have devised to charge you for products and services you didn’t ask for, don’t want, and may not even know you bought.

Watch out for wasteful product warranties

The 2009 holiday shopping season is well under way. Unfortunately, just reading reviews, comparing products, and shopping for a bargain may no longer be sufficient to get good value. The people making and selling hardware and software use an array of techniques designed to get you to pay more for their products than you really need to.

For example, let’s say you’re about to pay for that amazing new computer, digital camera, or cell phone. The cashier tells you in a sales pitch that you should chip in a few (or many) extra bucks to purchase an extended warranty — protection that lasts beyond the default warranty covering the product. Should you spring for it?

The answer, of course, is that it all depends on the warranty — its terms, its price — and whether you’re likely to need it. According to the Data Doctors site, warranties on desktop computers aren’t a good value since you can often find replacement parts for a better price than the warranty price. However, extended warranties may be a more-viable option for laptop PCs, which rely more on proprietary parts.

Even if you decide an extended notebook warranty is worth the cost, it’s useless unless you remember to use it. For example, some extended warranties make it inexpensive to replace your laptop’s battery. Unfortunately, many extended-warranty holders forget to request a new battery until after the warranty has expired. Will you remember to invoke that option one or two or even three years after the initial purchase?

Although some extended warranties may be worthwhile, Switched.com tech columnist Sean Captain generally advises against them in a May 28 analysis. “Tech products don’t break as often as we fear they will,” Captain explains. “And when things fall apart, they do so promptly.”

To avoid rebate ripoffs, just say ‘no’

Another common marketing practice is the rebate. Consumers who buy a particular hardware gadget or software package are told that if they fill out a form, the company will send them a check for the rebate amount — in effect, a delayed discount. Vendors know that many consumers will balk at filling out paper forms, copying UPC codes, and jumping through the other hoops required to get their money.

Even worse, following all the required procedures is no guarantee that you’ll get the rebate you’re owed. When I purchased a Fujitsu laptop recently, I scrupulously submitted all the paperwork for my alleged $100 rebate. Weeks later, I received a vaguely worded postcard informing me that my application had been rejected due to an improper UPC code.

I didn’t have time to contact the company for more information and dispute the claim within the required time limit. Using such tactics, vendors can delay a consumer’s attempts to collect a rebate until the clock runs out.

Next time a salesperson tells you what a great price you’ll get after the rebate, do what I do: just say “no.”

Outrageous end-user license agreements

The scams don’t end once you complete your purchase. Crooked vendors have ways to get you, even after you’ve bought the product. In particular, software often requires that you agree to an end-user license agreement (EULA) before you install it. Sadly, many EULAs make ridiculous demands.

Some EULAs actually require that you accept adware or spyware along with the program. Lengthy and difficult-to-understand EULAs have lulled us into clicking the Accept or I Agree button without even reading, much less understanding, the obligations the license imposes.

For a longer discussion of the evils of EULAs, see my June 7, 2007, interview with the late tech journalist extraordinaire Ed Foster. And for a look at Microsoft’s confusing Windows 7 licensing, see WS senior editor Woody Leonhard’s Top Story today.

Don’t be victimized by sneaky charges

If you’re buying a product (such as a cell phone) that has recurring charges, you’ll run into another opportunity for your vendor to rip you off. New York Times tech columnist David Pogue recently exposed a scheme in which Verizon configures certain keys on its phones that are easy to press inadvertently. This triggers a data download charge, even if you cancel the accidental request.

“The phone is designed in such a way that you can almost never avoid getting a $1.99 charge on the bill,” according to one Verizon employee that Pogue quotes in a Nov. 12 article. Make that mistake a few times a month, and all of a sudden your bill has skyrocketed.

What can you do? For now, your best line of defense is to read all contracts carefully before you make your purchase and examine thoroughly each bill you receive after the purchase. Don’t hesitate to call the vendor’s customer support line to challenge any suspicious charges.

Read the fine print before you sign or click

Some people defend these nefarious vendor practices by responding that consumers shouldn’t blame a company for their own failure to read the contracts they sign — or, in some cases, click.

But the complexity of technical products in the marketplace has exploded in the last several decades. So has the complexity of tech warranties, contracts, and license agreements. For every high-tech product you buy, you’re expected to read thousands of words of legal language that’s unclear at best and deliberately crafted to mislead at worst.

Finally, many such contracts explicitly state that the manufacturer can change its policies, practices, and procedures at any time without notice.

This is not your grandmother’s toaster purchase.

Fortunately, there are organizations such as FairTerms crusading for reforms on the marketing of digital products. But until the clout of such organizations grows, the modern-day consumer must be on guard. Let the buyer beware, indeed.

Windows Secrets contributing editor Scott Dunn has been a contributing editor of PC World since 1992 and currently writes for the Here’s How section of that magazine.