Office Online versus Google Apps: Facts and FUD

By Woody Leonhard

Microsoft and Google are locked in battle over free-for-personal-use productivity applications. Each is fighting for your attention.

At this time, there's no one best online suite; both are quite capable and both have some important limitations.

The state of the art in online productivity

Microsoft, Google, and Apple all offer online productivity suites that are free for personal use. And unlike past "free" suites (yes, I mean you, Microsoft Works and MS Office Web Apps!), these latest online suites are all surprisingly capable — and getting better almost weekly. In this discussion, I compare Office Online and Google Apps: two suites experienced Windows and Office users are most likely to use. Apple's iWork for iCloud I'll save for another day. It represents an elegant evolution of the Office genre, but there's a significant learning curve for dyed-in-the-wool Office "Officionados."

In short, Office Online and Google Apps are both so good you might not need to buy a standalone version of Office or subscribe to Office 365. Really! Microsoft and Google have their own reasons for dangling freebies at Windows users — more about that later. But whatever their motivations, using online suites could mean more money in your pocket.

But before I get into the details, let's clarify some confusing terminology.

Four months ago, "Office Web Apps" was a backwater website that seemed to be a weak adjunct to the desktop version of Office. Then Microsoft launched Office Online and kicked the old website into the bit bucket.

For this article, I'll review Word Online, Excel Online, and PowerPoint Online — the most popular parts of the various Office Online components (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Office Online's homepage offers all the productivity apps someone might need for personal use.

Google's terminology is, if anything, even more convoluted than Microsoft's. (And you didn't think that was possible.) Officially, the suite I discuss in this article is known as Google Drive, though few people call it that. Google has, of course, a cloud-storage service known as "Google Drive" — it competes with Microsoft's OneDrive.

For reasons that defy logic, the productivity tools once known as Google Apps — Document, Spreadsheet, and Presentation — now live under the cloud-storage, Google Drive site (see Figure 2). In common parlance, "Google Docs" might refer to just the word processor — or it might refer to all three productivity apps. And "Google Drive" might — or might not — include the cloud-storage component.

Figure 2. The homepage for the various Google productivity apps is Google Drive.

For some semblance of clarity, I'll split the difference and call the three apps "Google Apps," a term that might not precisely match up with Google's documentation.

Both Microsoft's and Google's online productivity apps run only in Web browsers. You don't install anything; simply fire up your browser, go to the appropriate site (office.com for Office Online and drive.google.com for Google Apps), sign in — and you're ready to rock and roll. You will, of course, need a Microsoft account for Office Online and a Google account for Google Drive. Both accounts are free.

Based on my extensive testing, there's almost no difference in running any of the apps in Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer — or on a wide variety of platforms that included Win7, Win8, OS X, iOS, and Android.

Office Online is free for personal use and for some organizations (Office 365 for Nonprofits). For businesses, it starts at U.S. $60 per year/per person (Office 365 Small Business) and goes up from there (more info).

Google Apps/Drive is also free for personal use. The cost for organizations ranges from free (nonprofit and educational) to $50 per year/per person for Google Apps for Business (more info).

Both Office Online and Google Apps have familiar productivity-suite interfaces that aren't amenable to touch-based tablet/small-screen use. In fact, Google Apps looks a lot like Office 2003 (see Figure 3).

Figure 3. The look of Google Apps strongly resembles that of Office 2003.

Office Online takes the Office 2013 Ribbon approach, but its Ribbon looks rather toothless — it doesn't have the depth of features found in Office 2013 (see Figure 4).

Figure 4. As this view of Word Online shows, Office Online resembles Office 2013 — with some missing pieces.

Here's how the two suites compare, broken down by word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation app.

Creating text: Word Online vs. Google Documents

You would expect that Word Online could open any Word file (.doc or .docx) — no matter how complex — let you make changes, and then save it unsullied. And you'd be wrong. Although it typically does a good job of maintaining the fidelity of the original document, I found several, in-the-wild documents that don't appear (or render) correctly in Word Online — or that don't survive the round trip back to standard Office.

Google's Document (commonly shortened to Google Docs), on the other hand, frequently refused to open complex .doc or .docx files. There were also occasions when Google Docs opened a .docx file and then scrambled it on export back to the DOCX format. But that occurred mostly with documents containing extensive formatting.

Microsoft illustrated the problem in a YouTube promo video. A nicely formatted .docx file gets gutted by Google. Although everything in the video is quite accurate, there are — as far as I could tell — some nuances that real people might or might not encounter.

For example, the video's test document wasn't created in Word Online, and several of its features, such as a table of contents and formatted headers, aren't supported in Word Online. So the sample file must have originated with Word for Windows or Mac.

In any case, if you tried to edit the document in the video, you'd be frustrated to learn that Word Online won't let you crop figures or drag-and-drop them. But as you can see in Figure 3, cropping, rotating, or dragging-and-dropping figures in Google Docs works just like Word for the desktop. As Figure 4 shows, Word Online will let you only shrink or expand the graphic — in pre-defined increments.

At the end of the video, Microsoft shows real-time collaboration, a feature new to Word Online but part of Google Docs for years. Microsoft also "borrowed" automatic saving from Google Apps.

It would take a book to compare and contrast the features in Word Online and Google Docs — and the feature list is changing constantly. But here's a quick look at the features you're likely to use most.

Word Online won't let you create or change styles. You can't add text boxes, shapes, or SmartArt to a document — although you can delete an entire shape if it was put into the document with a desktop version of Word. As noted, pictures can't be cropped or dragged-and-dropped, although they can be scaled up or down in fixed increments.

Word Online offers no Track Changes settings, though — again — you can see tracked changes that were inserted into a desktop version of Word. Also, if "Track Changes" was turned on in the original document, changes made to the document while in Word Online appear marked up when the document is opened in desktop Word. Word Online doesn't support macros, and autocorrect is turned on — you can't turn it off.

On the positive side, Word Online can maintain DOC/DOCX file fidelity if the document is not overly complex. It's also easy to apply styles — as long as you can live with the predefined versions — and create headers, footers, tables, page numbers, and footnotes.

Google Docs' offerings are significantly more robust. You can add or edit text boxes, shapes, drawings, and equations; there's an on-screen ruler and format painting plus tools for image manipulation. And it supports Google's own macro language.

Using Google Docs, I've had few fidelity problems with common DOC and DOCX files, but unusual formatting can throw the app for a loop. And because there's no desktop version of Google Docs (at least, not yet), there's no way to create custom styles, as you do in desktop Word. Moreover, formatting tables is difficult, and there's no change-tracking function — although, as with Word Online, you can insert comments.

Neither Word Online nor Google Docs supports file-based password protection (although, oddly enough, Apple's iWork does).

Bottom line: Both Word Online and Google Docs work just fine if you're creating relatively common documents. You won't design an advertising campaign with either, and you'd be hard-pressed to write a book that has anything more than text and a few illustrations. But for everyday tasks, it's hard to justify spending money to get what's now available free.

Balancing the books: Excel Online vs. Spreadsheet

For years, it was said that Google Spreadsheet (or Sheets) was useless because it wouldn't automatically display long text in one cell across adjoining blank cells. That's changed — along with about a million other first-generation limitations.

Both Excel Online and Google Spreadsheet support an astonishing array of spreadsheet features. Unless you have a crying need for pivot charts and tables — available only with Excel Online — the list of features supported by one app and not the other will be important only to those who have some specific spreadsheet requirements.

For example, Google Sheets offers some conditional formatting; however, you won't find any in Excel Online. Sheets also gives you "Paste transpose." On the other hand, Excel Online has Freeze Panes; autocomplete; and drop-down, data-entry controls (lists). Google Sheets doesn't. Text box contents can, in some cases, be edited in Google Sheets but not in Excel Online, as best I can tell.

Google Sheets will open XLS and XLSX files with embedded macros; Excel Online refuses to edit spreadsheets with embedded macros. That, to my way of thinking, is a big plus in Google's favor.

Both apps can make charts till the cows come home, run autofill, include hyperlinks, and provide formatting of every conceivable type. The list goes on and on.

Working with both spreadsheet apps on real-world files, I found another significant difference. If you have a heavily formatted XLS or XLSX generated by a desktop version of Excel, the formatting might get zapped by Google Sheets. But then again, Sheets supports macros and Excel Online doesn't.

Talking points: PowerPoint Online vs. Slides

Microsoft's and Google's online word processors and spreadsheet apps might run neck-and-neck, but when it comes to creating presentations, there's a clear winner. Google Slides does an excellent job of duplicating PowerPoint on the desktop. Microsoft's own PowerPoint Online doesn't come close.

In fact, I think it's fair to say that PowerPoint Online is virtually useless for any task beyond creating extremely simple slideshows with minimal transitions. PowerPoint Online has no Slide Sorter view or Outline view; it has no Presenter view, so any embedded notes are useless. And though you can insert pictures into new slides, you can't do so with slides you've created previously — either in the desktop PowerPoint or PowerPoint Online.

Tales of woe abound when trying to work with any sort of media. For example, inserting a music clip or video into a presentation using PowerPoint Online seems to have a 50-50 chance of crashing the program. And once you add media, you must have Microsoft's Silverlight installed to see them.

Google Presentation, by contrast, has full support for pictures — including cutouts, drawing, and canvases. There's a fully functional slide sorter, speaker notes, and gobs of transitions and animations. You get lots of formatting capabilities, and inserting media onto a slide doesn't immediately crash the program.

At best, PowerPoint Online is useful for making minor edits to presentations created in the desktop version of the app. Otherwise, if you have any reason to create or edit a presentation online, do it with Google Presentation.

Summing up the important considerations

Most users should not find it difficult to work with either productivity suite. As noted, Office Online looks similar to Office 2013, and Google Apps will seem familiar to Office 2003 users. But neither is well suited for use on touch screens, tablets, or other small-screen digital devices.

Many Office Online users will still access it primarily as an adjunct to their desktop versions of the suite. And for that application, it's relatively good at maintaining the fidelity of the original file. But it's far from perfect. It's also fine for individuals who want to create relatively simple documents. That said, Office Online lacks some features that a typical Office user might need frequently. And PowerPoint Online can't do much at all.

Google Apps, on the other hand, also does a good job maintaining the content and formatting of simple desktop-Office generated docs — probably better than you would expect. And Google Apps offers many more tools if you're working exclusively within the Google environment.

Perhaps most important for advanced users, Google Apps supports macros — a capability that might make all the other feature comparisons moot. Microsoft promises it will deliver programmability to Office Online — someday.

In either case, if you need to work with complex documents and want to keep them whole, you have no choice but to stick with the full Windows or OS X versions of Office.

Keep in mind that both Google and Microsoft are trying to steer you to their online-storage systems. Both offer 15 GB free for personal use. Microsoft has an ulterior motive: OneDrive makes moving files between Office Online and desktop Office very easy. The 'Softies undoubtedly hope that, by locking you into OneDrive, you'll eventually pay for Office.

But Google has an ulterior motive, too — though a very different one. If you have a free Google account, Google can and probably will scan everything — absolutely everything — associated with your account to serve up targeted ads. There's nothing you can do about it. (On the other hand, Google does not scan data associated with paid accounts. Nor does it scan email from or to academic Gmail accounts.)

For some people, Google's penchant for scanning accounts is an unconscionable invasion of privacy. For others, it's just creepy. Fortunately, there are no soulless drones poking through your files to see whether you're cheating the IRS (isn't that the NSA's job?) or criticizing Obamacare.

Still, you need to be ever cognizant that Google might be rummaging through everything you post, all to deliver ads you'll click — and click again.

Also consider that these suites are changing continuously. Any conclusion you draw today might change next month or even next week. That's good news, actually, because with each passing week, you have fewer and fewer reasons to spend money on an office suite.

Source: http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/office-online-versus-google-apps-facts-and-fud/

Shortcuts for working with Win8 (Win7, too)

By Michael Lasky

As with all preceding versions of the OS, Windows 8.1 includes many useful keyboard shortcuts and utilities for quick navigation and file management.

You just have to know where to find them.

For the most part, you can't rely on Microsoft documentation to find these tools. And searching the company's online help will likely get you mired in layers of unorganized feature descriptions and instructions.

But we're here to help. Here's a collection of useful utilities and tricks built right into the OS. They'll make the task of working within Windows 8 surprisingly easier and more efficient than you might have expected. Many of these tips will be useful reminders for Windows 7 users, too.

Keyboard shortcuts for quicker window resizing

Once, the only way to maximize or minimize a window was to click on the dash and box icons in a window's top-right corner. Windows 7 gave us more options, and Windows 8 adds still more.

For example, on the Win8 Desktop, you can quickly make a window full-screen by simply dragging its title bar toward the top of the desktop screen. Dragging the title bar down slightly reverses the process.

Pressing the Windows key (WinKey) plus either the up arrow or down arrow achieves the same ends.

A holdover from Windows 7 is the Windows-snap maneuver (assuming it's enabled [more info]) that lets you quickly display two windows, side by side, on the desktop. Drag the title bar of one window to the left side, and it will snap into place; drag a second window's title bar to the right side to snap it into place.

To snap windows using keyboard shortcuts, use the WinKey plus either the left arrow or the right arrow. Got two monitors? Use Shift + WinKey + left/right arrow.

Windows Peek — clearing off the desktop

In Win7, the Peek tool lets you clean up the desktop instantly. It doesn't close open windows; it just minimizes them all in one step. You do so by clicking the small Peek box in the desktop's extreme lower-left corner. (Hovering over the box simply makes open windows temporarily transparent.)

This option is still around in Win8. Glide the cursor over to the lower-right corner of the Desktop and right-click. (The charms bar will pop up, but ignore it.) You'll now get two options: Show desktop and Peek at desktop.

To check whether Peek is enabled, right-click an open space on the taskbar, select Properties, and see whether Use Peek to preview the desktop … is checked. (While you're in Properties, you might also check Show Windows Stores apps on the taskbar. It will let you run native Win8 apps without switching to the Start screen.)

Keyboard shortcuts for Windows/File Explorer

Although Windows 8 supports both mouse and finger gestures, many users still prefer keyboard navigation. As with Windows Explorer, File Explorer includes keyboard shortcuts that can be faster to use than multiple mouse clicks. Here are the highlights:

• F6 (or Tab) cycles through Favorites, the address bar, the main window, search, and so on.
• F4 selects the address bar and shows a drop-down menu of recently visited locations. Pressing Alt + D also selects the address bar but doesn't open the drop-down menu.
• Press Backspace or Alt + left arrow to go back to the previously open folder.
• Alt + up arrow navigates instantly to the parent window of the file you were looking at. Alas, Alt + down arrow does nothing.
• F11 toggles Windows/File Explorer in and out of full-screen view (as it also does with Internet Explorer).
• Shift + Ctrl + N makes a new folder.
• Jump to a file: When viewing a folder populated with files, pressing the first letter of a file name will take you directly to that file. If there are several files whose names begin with the same letter, each press of that first letter key will move you to the succeeding file.

Managing metadata: Hide your file's fingerprints

Every file includes metadata information that identifies the author, creation date and time, modified date and time, and more. Sometimes, you might want a file to be less revealing.

Right-click the file name, select Properties, and then click the Details tab. At the bottom of the Details box, click the Remove Properties or Personal Information link (see Figure 1). The Remove Properties dialog box lets you select which metadata you want removed, as shown in Figure 2. (Note: Some of a file's properties infomation can't be removed. You won't see checkboxes for those properties.)

Figure 1. The Details tab lists a file's properties and includes a link to remove some personal information.

Figure 2. You can choose the metadata you wish to remove by checking the appropriate checkbox.

The Create a copy with all possible properties removed option is selected by default. That's the better option if you want to keep the original file but share a copy that has less-personal information attached.

Reveal system files and extensions faster

For years, Windows has hidden critical system files so that users wouldn't inadvertently delete them. To reveal them in Windows Explorer, you had to click Tools/Folder Options/View and pick the option under Hidden files and folders. With Win8's File Explorer, you simply click the View tab in the ribbon, go to the Show/Hide section, and click the Hidden items checkbox.

Revealing file extensions in File Explorer is equally quick. Simply check the File name extensions checkbox directly above Hidden items. The third option in the Show/Hide section — Item check boxes — enables file selection by clicking checkboxes. It makes it a bit easier to cherry-pick files from a list instead of using the usual Ctrl + [click] method.

Know the number: Keyboard-based app selection

If you have numerous programs open, there's a hidden number associated with their places on the taskbar, from left to right, starting with 1 and ending with 0 (for 10).

The option is limited to the first 10 apps on the taskbar. To open any one of them, press the WinKey plus its number. The assigned number isn't fixed: dragging and dropping any of the taskbar options to another location automatically reassigns its number — handy if it will help you remember the number. (Recall that right-clicking a taskbar icon opens its jump list.)

By default, the Win8 taskbar shows icons only. As with Win7, you can have the taskbar display both icons and labels. Right-click in a free area of the taskbar, select Properties, and select Combine when taskbar is full from the Taskbar buttons drop-down menu. Click OK. Of course, icons take up less of the taskbar's precious real estate. But the choice is yours.

While you're in Win8's Taskbar properties, check out the new Jump Lists tab. It lets you select whether the Taskbar stores recently open programs, recently opened items in the jump lists, or both.

Create toolbar shortcuts for your taskbar

If you typically open folders to access frequently needed files, you can create a quick-access toolbar within your taskbar. For example, I often need to open various files for my Windows Secrets articles. Instead of creating a desktop shortcut for each one, I created a toolbar with shortcuts to the folders in which they reside (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Creating a custom toolbar on the taskbar gives quick access to frequently used files.

Right-click on a blank area of the taskbar. Select the Toolbars menu and then New toolbar (Figure 4). An Explorer-like window opens to let you choose a folder. Press OK, and the new toolbar appears on the taskbar immediately left of the notification area next to the System Tray on the Desktop. Click the double arrows, and a list of the folders' contents opens.

Figure 4. The taskbar's Toolbars feature includes a few predefined toolbars plus the option to create custom toolbars.

By default, Win7 and Win8 offer a handful of pre-made toolbars such as Address, Links, and Desktop. (None is active until you place a check next to it.) But, again, you'll want to add them sparingly — they do soak up the taskbar's limited space. For example, the Address bar, which merely duplicates the address bar found in your browser, isn't really worth the space it commands.

More fine-tuning of the Windows taskbar

By default, Win8 consolidates multiple instances of running apps under one icon. If, say, you have multiple Word windows open, just one icon would appear. To see individual windows, hover your cursor over the icon.

But as with Win7, you can make each instance of an open app appear separately on the taskbar. Open the taskbar properties; in the Taskbar tab, click the drop-down list next to Taskbar buttons. Next, select either Never combine or Combine when taskbar is full (Figure 5). Note that unopened apps pinned to the taskbar won't have labels. As Figure 6 shows, this can be a bit awkward-looking.

Figure 5. The Taskbar's buttons control lets you select how taskbar items are displayed.

Figure 6. Selecting the 'Combine when taskbar is full' option can create an awkward mix of labeled and unlabeled icons.

Open sesame: Select your default programs

Although it might still seem that Microsoft determines which programs open particular file formats, the user actually has the power to decide. But the Default Programs utility that lets you do so is easy to miss; there's no obvious link in the Control Panel. From the Control Panel's Category view, click Programs/Default Programs. (In Win8, you can also type "default" into the charms bar Search box.)

Click the Set your default programs link to see a list of installed applications (including native apps in Windows 8). Highlighting a program brings up two links. Set this program as default is automatically selected for opening associated file formats.

You can also customize which file formats are associated with the default program by clicking the Choose defaults for this program link. A list of supported file formats will appear (Figure 7); check or uncheck those you want to be automatically associated with the app.

Figure 7. In this example, the associations dialog box displays all file types that will automatically open in Microsoft Paint.

One of the joys of Windows has been, and still is, the many ways you can manage computing tasks. The preceding shortcuts can help speed you through some of those tasks. If you have trouble remembering them all, this article might make a good cheat sheet. For more Win8 keyboard shortcuts, see the Nov. 1, 2012, Best Practices story, "Navigate Win8 quickly with keyboard shortcuts" (paid content).

Source: http://windowssecrets.com/top-story/shortcuts-for-working-with-win8-win7-too/

How To Get The Best Features Of Mac, Linux & Co On Windows

Do you suffer from operating system envy? I know I do. While I’m mainly a Windows user, I can appreciate a lot of the features available on Mac and Linux. Windows is pretty boring, so wouldn’t it be nice if those features could be transported over somehow? If that sounds like something you want, then check out these awesome tweaks and tools.
Want a dock instead of a taskbar? How about multiple virtual desktops for improved productivity? Or even something as simple as theming your computer with a Mac skin? You’re in luck. Get ready to pimp out your Windows computer.

 

 

Replace The Taskbar With A Dock

The most immediate change that you can make to Windows is to install a multifunctional dock. The taskbar is good for what it’s meant to do, but it might be a bit too simple for those of you who want some power and flexibility. Even if simplicity is all you need, a dock is often more aesthetically pleasing than the taskbar.
You can choose from several different dock programs. Each has its own pros and cons, of course, and it’s hard to establish any particular one as “the best” since it really depends on your needs and your preferences. However, I would recommend starting with one of the following:

• RocketDock: Simple, easy to use, with a quick setup. A favorite for many.
• Winstep Nexus: Lots of power, customization, and performance. Free version available but full version retails for $25 USD.
• Circle Dock: An untraditional dock that forms a ring around the cursor. Great for productivity and the uniqueness factor.

For a deeper look, check out our article on replacing the Windows taskbar with a dock.

 

 

Manage Multiple Desktops For Better Workflow

One desktop is not enough. There just isn’t enough room to elegantly handle multiple windows and the constant flipping back-and-forth can cause a serious slowdown in productivity. On top of that, there’s the issue of desktop file clutter and the mental burden it brings.
So what’s the solution?
Some people solve it with multiple monitors. A dual monitor setup is the fastest way to maximize screen estate and minimize productivity leak due to constant alt-tabbing. If you can’t afford two monitors, or don’t have the physical space for them, you could try using Actual Multiple Monitors (our review) for a virtual version of it.
But we can also look to Mac and Linux, both of which offer an awesome feature called virtual desktops. With a program like Dexpot (our review), you can set up multiple versions of your Windows desktop and switch between them at will. Specialize each virtual desktop for its own purpose (e.g., browsing, work, games, etc.) and watch your productivity skyrocket.
Note: Actual Multiple Monitors costs $25 USD and Dexpot costs $34 USD. For free alternatives, try VirtuaWin (our review) or Microsoft’s own Desktops (our review).

 

 

Improve Window Management With Mac-Like Exposé

I’ve always been jealous of the Exposé feature on Mac computers. With a single keystroke, you can view the entire landscape of your computer and quickly navigate to the window that you need. It’s a much better alternative to the alt-tab cycle that Windows forces upon its users.
For those who don’t know, Exposé basically “zooms out” and spreads all of the currently open windows out on the screen. All it takes is one glance to spot the relevant window, and once you click on it, it becomes the window of focus. It’s a simple mechanic, but extremely useful.
With BetterDesktopTool (our review), you can do the same on Windows. In fact, BetterDesktopTool combines the Exposé mechanic with multiple virtual desktops, allowing you to see ALL of your desktops and ALL of the windows on each desktop. Plus, it’s entirely FREE for private use.

 

 

Skin Windows to Look Different

If all you care about is making your Windows look like Mac or Linux, then you really don’t need to do anything other than install a new theme. Will you be able to transform Windows into a perfect replica? No, but you can get close enough.
Check out these awesome Windows 7 themes and these amazing Windows 8 themes to find one that best represents the aesthetic of your favorite operating system. The theming system is different between Windows 7 and Windows 8, so if you find a theme that you like, but it’s for the wrong version, you’re out of luck.
For maximum flexibility in customizing the look of Windows, however, you’ll be better off using a dedicated product like WindowBlinds. It works on both Windows 7 and Windows 8 systems. The only downside is that the free trial lasts 30 days. The full version costs $10 USD.

 

 

Use Command Line With An SSH Terminal

One of the defining features of Linux is the command line terminal. For times when you want to interface with a remote SSH server, Windows doesn’t offer any built-in tools to get the job done. Thinking about using Telnet? Don’t. It’s too insecure.
My personal recommendation is to use either Xshell or PuTTy.
Xshell is a wonderful terminal program with a lot of features, such as multiple session tabs, sending commands to multiple sessions at once, interface customization, and more. It’s not as daunting as a straight terminal, making it easier for newbies to pick up. For personal use, it’s free. Otherwise, the de facto standard for Windows SSH is the PuTTy client.
If neither of the two above works for you, check out Chris’s list of SSH clients for Windows.

Conclusion

In a lot of ways, Windows is not an innovative operating system. Not that Windows is bad, but it does lack some of the nifty features of Mac and Linux. The good news is that features were ported over by people recognized the lack. With the programs above, you can take your Windows experience to the next level.
Know of any other cool programs that fit the bill? How else have you transformed Windows into something better? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/get-best-features-mac-linux-co-windows/

Fix: “The Selected File Is Not A Valid ISO File” Error In Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

admin Updated on Nov 26th, 2013

These days, a large number of PC users prefer installing Windows OS from a USB drive instead of traditional DVD disc. Even though there are plenty of better tools out there like Rufus to create bootable USB from an ISO file, most PC users prefer using the official Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.





Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool sports an easy-to-use interface and is compatible with Windows 8 and 8.1 as well, but at times when you open Windows ISO file by clicking the Browse button, the tool shows “The selected file is not a valid ISO file. Please select a valid ISO file and try again” error.
While I am no expert, the error occurs when the selected ISO file has only ISO9660 file system, and missing UDF and Joliet. In order to fix this error, you need to re-build the ISO file with ISO9660 + UDF + Joliet file system.
A quick Google search reveals that there are plenty of guides out there to fix this error but the catch is that all of them ask you download PowerISO or UltraISO software. The real catch is that both UltraISO and PowerISO aren’t free and you need to purchase their licenses. And no, the trail software can’t handle large ISO files.
Users who want to fix “The selected file is not a valid ISO file. Please select a valid ISO file and try again” error with the help of a free software can follow the given below instructions.
Method 1:
Step 1: Download ImgBurn software from here and install the same on your PC. As some of you know, ImgBurn is a free software and is compatible with all recent versions of Windows, both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.
Step 2: Launch ImgBurn, click Create image file from files/folder. Drag and drop the ISO file to ImgBurn window to add it to the source list.






Step 3: Select a location to save the new ISO file by clicking the Browse button next to Destination box.
Step 4: Click on the Options tab on the right-side pane of ImgBurn and select the file system as ISO9660 + Joliet + UDF from the drop-down menu.





Step 5: Finally, click the Build button (see picture) to begin saving the edited ISO file with new file system. Click Yes button when you see the confirmation dialog and click Yes button again if you see confirm Volume Label dialog box, and finally, click OK button to begin saving the ISO file.









Once the job is done, you can run Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool again and browse to the newly created ISO file to prepare the bootable USB/DVD without any issues.
Method 2:
If “The selected file is not a valid ISO file. Please select a valid ISO file and try again” error is appearing even after following the above mentioned workaround, we suggest you go ahead and download the popular Rufus tool and then follow the simple instructions in how to install Windows 8.1 from bootable USB guide to create the bootable media without any errors.

Source: http://www.intowindows.com/fix-the-selected-file-is-not-a-valid-iso-file-error-in-windows-7-usbdvd-download-tool/