Cheryl Poirier picks her top ten PC downloads of 2010 from among the numerous products she looked at in a full calendar year's worth of shows. She finishes off her countdown with numbers one through five of her faves for 2010. Check out last episode for numbers six through 10.

Lucas demos a poor man's pimp to in his quest to get that Windows 7 look and feel without having to mail his next paycheck to those fat cats in Redmond and without docking his pimp ship in the pirate bay. With a few perfectly timed pimps, Lucas gets his weak

Windows XP install looking more like Windows 7

. Line up, ladies.

Picking up from the start of the Windows 7 installation

upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7

, we finish up the actual

install of Windows 7

and boot to our new Windows 7 desktop for the first time.

Previously we showed you how to back up files and settings for the Upgrading from XP to Windows 7 using Easy Transfer for Windows XP. Now, the last step in the

upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7

is to transfer the settings we saved in Windows XP over to our brand new Windows 7 operating system.

Now that we've gotten our proverbial ducks in a row with solid back ups of our files and an Easy Transfer image of our Windows XP settings, it's time to make the move. In part six of our eight-part series on

upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7

, we begin the actual installation process.

Just because we have to

do a clean install of Windows 7

to migrate our Windows XP machine doesn't mean we have to lose all of our files, settings and so on. With

Windows Easy Transfer

available for download on Windows XP and built in to Windows 7, it's easy to migrate this data.

When considering

upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7

, you'll need to do some fact-finding first. What type of processor do you have?

Is your Windows XP machine Windows 7 capable

? Michael "Doctor File Finder" Callahan runs through the checklist to get you started in this tutorial.

The first step in actually

upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7

is to ensure you have a reliable back up of any important files and folders. If you don't already have a

back up routine

in place, there's no time like the present to start one.

If you have Windows XP then upgrading to Windows 7 will be more of a chore than upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7. Windows XP users can only upgrade to Windows 7. In this installation overview, Michael "Doctor File Finder" Callahan lets us know what we're in store for. Watch this series to learn all you need to know about

upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7

.

Continuing the XPimp series, Lucas turns his attention to two of Microsoft's biggest and mods his

XP desktop

with a free Halo theme. With new sounds, new cursors, new icons and an add-on color scheme, XP goes from XPOS to XPimped in no time flat.

While Sony isn't calling the

VAIO W Series Mini Notebook

a netbook, it most certainly fits into that class. Running Windows XP with 1GB of RAM and a 1.66GHz Intel Atom Processor, the

VAIO W Series Mini Notebook

comes in just under the US$500 mark that is the defacto price cap for a netbook. This small 2.6lb portable has a nice keyboard, good trackpad and a bright 10.1" LCD screen with a webcam in the bezel. In short, it's worth a look if you're in the market.

Express yourself by

creating icons

for your files and folders using your favorite images like photos or graphics. You can

create custom icons

for files and folders on your machine to completely customize the look.

A PC can connect to an unlimited number of devices. Printers, scanners, DVD players, TV cards, external hard drivers, and so much more. The link between a device and the computer is the

device driver

. Sometimes a device starts behaving strangely and one thing you can try to fix it is to

rollback its device driver

.

Starting with Windows XP there's a feature called

System Restore

. This helps you to

create a restore point

that preserves the state of your computer at a specific date and time. Some

restore points are created automatically

. However, it's a good idea to

create a new restore point

before changing system settings or installing software.

Michael "Doc" Callahan leads us through the process for reinstalling Windows on your computer. Over time, Windows XP gets corrupted and your system slows to a crawl. Doc explains why you may want to reinstall Windows XP and goes through the process in detail in this step-by-step guide to installing Windows XP video series.

You may have installed Windows 7 RC1 on one of your computers. You may have put it on one of your laptops. It's also possible that you've created a few Windows 7 RC1 virtual machines. At the same time you probably have a machine on your network that's running XP. Here's how you can easily

share printers

between all of them.

You may have installed

Windows 7 RC1

on one of your computers. You may have put it on one of your laptops. It's also possible that you've created a few

Windows 7 RC1 virtual machines

. At the same time you probably have a machine on your network that's running XP. Here's how you can easily

share files

between all of them.

I work on a dual monitor system. Every now and then I can't find my mouse cursor. I wiggle it, I jiggle it, and still it eludes me. Ahh, but
if you turn on the option to show you where your mouse cursor is you'll
always be able to find it!

Whether you want to change the way shortcut icons appear on your desktop or you want to change the appearance of a particular folder on your PC, changing the icon associated with that file or folder is a great way to customize your PC.

By default, Windows XP uses a blue color scheme, sets a desktop wallpaper you may or may not like. Customizing your PC by changing the color scheme, window appearance and other elements to give it a look and feel you like is easy in Windows XP.

Sometimes you just get tired of looking at the same old screen. With TuneUp Utilities you can completely change the look and feel of Windows XP. Everything from the system icons, the login and logout screens, the behavior of windows and more can be customized in just a few simple steps.

Maybe you want to send 10 or more pictures to friends and family via email or perhaps you're looking to store some files that you don't access regularly but that you don't want to lose. We've looked at creating a compressed or zipped archive using WinZip previously. In this tutorial we'll look at creating an archive with software that's included in Windows.

Creating a User Account for other people who use the home computer has two main benefits. It allows you, the computer administrator, to dictate what other users can and can't do; you can limit their access to certain drives or folders and you can allow or disallow people from installing or uninstalling software. User accounts also allow each individual user to customize Windows to his or her liking, from screen saver to desktop wall paper, default web browser and more.

It's nice that Windows has the courtesy to welcome you when you boot up your computer. However, if you don't keep sensitive information on your PC (international super spies, need not apply), you can turn off the welcome screen in Windows XP. Now, when you boot up your computer you'll be taken straight to the desktop.

Shared storage drives and servers are useful for sharing files on a network. However, network resources are more useful when you can use them as you would any physical hard drive on your computer. Here's an easy way to get Windows to make a network drive act as a physical drive on your computer. Using this technique, your network resource shows up under My Computer and is connected automatically when Windows starts.

Andy and Sean show what the big deal is about user accounts on your Mac and PC.

Andy and Sean show you how to tighten security on Windows XP and Vista PCs.

Andy and Sean demonstrate how you can solve tech problems at a distance and for free!

Andy and Sean take a tour of Windows Vista, the newly released operating system from Microsoft.

Andy and Sean take a look at the beta 2 version of Microsoft's new operating system.

Andy and Sean show you how to wipe the hard drive clean and install a fresh copy of Windows.

Andy and Sean show you how to easily add a second hard drive to your Mac or PC.

Andy and Sean discuss how memory upgrades help improve your computer's performance and the pitfalls you should avoid.

We explain MAC address filtering and show you how it can be used to make your home network more secure.

We show you how to use the hidden msconfig program in Windows XP to cut your Windows boot time in half. Plus also use it to remove unwanted programs including spyware from the registry. Biff makes an appearance and messes with the audio. And winter is here in Toronto, so we pull out the tuques.

Michael "Doc" Callahan leads us through the process for reinstalling Windows on your computer. Over time, Windows XP gets corrupted and your system slows to a crawl. Doc explains why you may want to reinstall Windows XP and goes through the process in detail in this step-by-step guide to installing Windows XP video series.

Michael "Doctor File Finder" Callahan leads butterscotch.com viewers through the process for upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 in this eight-part video tutorial guide. Learn about the pros and cons of dual-booting Windows XP and Windows 7 on the same physical machine, get your files, folders and settings from Windows XP to Windows 7 and follow along with the install process to learn the ins and outs.