On Windows XP, I was able to install software myself. How do I do that on Windows 7?

This is not necessary anymore. With the migration from Windows XP to Windows 7, a lot of things changed. For you, the user, this is one of the biggest changes.

Before migrating your workstation from Windows XP to Windows 7 or when you receive a new workstation, you are added to one of several groups based on your functionality with ETH. At the moment, these groups are "science staff" and "administrative staff" and have software assigned to it. These programs are installed when we set up your pc. If you strongly feel you lack a piece of software to work productively, please contact us so that we can update these profile groups.

I am often working with pci-based measurement devices and system drivers...

There is agreement between the institutes and ISG for that. Please contact your institute's IT coordinator as a first step.

Where has my data gone?

Your data should still be in your homedirectory, based on a server and connected to your pc as the H: drive.

The new start menu is confusing and overloaded with useless Microsoft applications...

Yes, we thought so too when we first used Windows 7.

However, the entries in the left area of the start menu are not permanent or fixed. It's like a list of the most used applications.

Right-click an entry and you will see "Remove from this list" in the context menu. This will not delete the actual program shortcut (which will still be available from expanded "All Programs" in the Start menu), this will just delete the entry in this list. If you start the same program one or several items, the shortcut of that program will appear in that list.

For details, if you right-click the "Start" menu, select "Properties". In the opening window, there is a link called "How do I change the way the Start menu looks". This help page gives some more detailed explanations on what you can do.

What happened to my desktop background?

Unfortunately, a migration of these personal settings from Windows XP to Windows 7 is not possible. Rather than trying to migrate some settings, we prefer to start with a blank slate which will guarantee a working state.

I still liked my old desktop background, how do I get it back?

Right-click the desktop, select "Personalize" and in the next window, click on "Desktop Background". In the following window, you can select a picture as your desktop background.

Any suggestions on how to make Windows 7 look more familiar?

Try the theme "Classic Windows" by right-clicking the desktop and selection "Personalize" as a starting point.

Why are the icons on the Desktop and in the taskbar so big?

You can easily change the size of these icons.

• * Desktop: Right-click the the desktop, select "View" and select from "Large", "Medium" or "Small" icons.
• * Taskbar: Right-click the taskbar, select the tab "Taskbar" and check "Use small icons". Confirm by clicking on "Apply" and "OK".

Where are the folder options?

They are still there but were moved. Open a Windows Explorer e.g. by pressing Win+E on your keyboard. Open the menu "Organize" and select "Folder and search options". The new window contains the well-known tabs "General" and "View".

Double-clicking the folder "My Pictures" or similar in "My Documents" raises the error message "... not accessible" and "Access is denied"

If you can see those folders, you have probably changed the "Folder and search options" to the following settings:

• * Show hidden files, folders, and drives
• * Uncheck "Hide protected operating system files"

These folders are only there for backwards compatibility and cannot be opened.

There are Office 2007 resp. Acrobat and Adobe Reader 9 installed, can I have an older version installed?

Unfortunately, these older versions are soon reaching their end of life and will not be supported anymore.

If you are exchanging documents with users who still use older versions though, please remember that in both applications files can be saved in a backwards-compatible format.

I don't like Windows 7, can I have Windows XP back?

We're sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, once your institute switches to Windows 7, we no longer provide Windows XP or support thereof. You can still use Windows XP on your private laptop though.