The Live Indian Entertainment Blog

When speaking about where printer manufacturers make their money, it's all about the consumables. In other words, it has to do with ink and toner, and not so much the printer hardware. This, of course, is why OEMs dislike generic ink and toner.

Given that, most would love to reduce their ink and toner costs, and a (now) free Windows utility aims to do just that.

It's called PretonSaver Home. It purports to reduce on consumable costs by removing overlapping pixels from a printed page. And the company says it's compatible with virtually all printers and software.

Preton's utility originally sold for $39.95, and then later for $19.95. Now, it's free for home use, at least for a limited time. It supports Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7.

If you visit their website, you can get a free activation code. The code has to be used within the first 24 hours (by installing the software, available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions and entering the code) or it will become invalid. It's unclear how long the free offer will last.

Does it work? It seems to. Testing on our laser and inkjet printers seem to show little effect on the output, unless you look very, very carefully. That said our driver software indicated we were definitely saving ink and toner.

The software can automatically omit pictures and graphics, and users can also set the "aggressiveness" of the software in terms of savings (and also, naturally, the effect it has on quality).  Give it a try.  As noted, it's free!

Microsoft's Windows XP mode for Windows 7 was seen as a way to "convince" businesses to adopt Windows 7. It virtually guaranteed that if you couldn't run it in 7, you could run it in XP mode. Problem was, it came ill-designed for such a task.

After all, it was intended to allow businesses to upgrade their systems to Windows 7 while not worrying about compatibility with older apps. At the same time, however, it required that the systems it was run on have hardware virtualization capability. That requirement confused many.

In addition, why would you require a technology that older systems at many businesses running Windows XP simply did not have? Microsoft "got it," and on Thursday announced that it has removed that requirement.

Of course, Windows XP Mode will leverage virtualization technology such as Intel VT or AMD-V if available. At the same time, Microsoft continues to require that users of Windows XP Mode have the most expensive versions of Windows 7: Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions. Of course, millions of consumers have switched from XP to Windows 7 Home Premium. For those, there is no option.

Microsoft probably views Windows XP Mode as most valuable to businesses, and those customers would probably opt for Professional, Ultimate, or Enterprise. John Q. Public, and perhaps small businesses as well, however, are left out in the cold.

Seven Transformation Pack will convert your windowsXP/Windows Server 2003 based system to look like Windows 7 and some of its features emulated. You don’t have to purchase Windows 7 or any 3rd-party applications to get Windows 7 UI experiences. This transformation pack will simply make it done for you for free!

This will update your Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 with Windows Seven GUI by adding some themes and replacing system files. Seven Transformation Pack gives to your system the fresh and cool look of Microsoft’s new operating Windows 7. The pack changes most of the system icons, skins and toolbars and also adds new enhancements to your desktop.

Download here