One of the more widely publicised features of Windows 7 is the new “Windows XP Mode”, which is a Virtual Machine running Windows XP.

The virtual machine allows you to run older applications that might not work on Windows 7 and is an attempt by Microsoft to address some of the application compatibility issues that plagued Windows Vista.

My wife owns a Sony VAIO laptop which I successfully upgraded from Windows Vista Business to Windows 7 Professional. Previously, she had been running Microsoft Virtual PC SP1, which had to be uninstalled prior to the upgrade.

After downloading and installing Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC, I fired up the virtual machine only to get an error message saying that the virtual machine requires hardware-assisted virtualization to be enabled in the computer’s BIOS. This allows the virtual machine to access the physical hardware of the host machine instead of emulated hardware.

The Sony VAIO contains an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, which I know for a fact supports hardware virtualization, but could I find an option to enable it in the BIOS menu? No. A quick web search revealed that the reason for this is that Sony has disabled the hardware virtualization option from appearing in the BIOS menu!

This has caused much frustration and anger amongst VAIO owners. Sony has steadfastly refused to release BIOS patches to enable the option in affected models, though they have committed to enabling it in future models.

I think this is a very poor response from Sony. Such a respected brand ought to be careful of alienating its customers in this way.

Note: Windows XP Mode is available as a separate download from Microsoft’s website and runs on the Professional and Ultimate editions of Windows 7 only.

Earlier this year, in an effort to get fitter, I took up karate again after a ten-year absence.

I’ve really got back into it and enjoy it very much. So much so, that last weekend, I took part in my first karate competition - the TISKA (Traditional International Shotokan Karate Association) National Championships, held in Kettering, Northamptonshire.

There were about 200 participants representing TISKA clubs from all over the country. We were divided into groups of roughly equal grade - I was in a group of about 14 yellow, green (my grade) and purple belts.

First, we had to perform kata; a kata is set sequence of moves which gets progressively more complex with each grade. Kata is performed in pairs in front of three judges. In my first round match, I did Heian Shodan, but in subsequent rounds it was Heian Nidan, one of my favourite katas. I was delighted when the three judges’ flags went up in my favour.

Next, it was kumite, or sparring. Again, we were divided into groups of the same grade, but this time there were only 13 of us in our category. I had to fight four times. Each fight lasted for two minutes, but it felt longer.

In kumite, points are awarded for hitting your opponent. If you score a total of 2 points before the time’s up, the match is over immediately. If, at the end of the match, the scores are equal, the fight continues until whoever scores next.

I had to fight four times. I can barely remember what happened in each fight, but I remember my second round match ended in a draw and then continued for what seemed like ages until I eventually scored the winning point. The referee then informed me that I was in the semi-final, but they were going to do the second semi-final first, to give me time to recover.

In my semi-final match, I was briefly knocked to the ground when my opponent’s mitt caught me on the cheekbone. In the same fight, I hurt my left hand when I went in for a gyaku-tzuki (reverse punch) and my fingers bent backward  too far – ouch!

In the final, I was up against a purple belt, the next grade up from mine. He scored first, and though I got a point back, he scored again with just seconds to spare!

It was good experience, and highlighted several areas where I need to improve.

I spent an evening earlier this week upgrading my laptop from Windows Vista to Windows 7. I can honestly say that Windows 7 is an excellent operating system and my first few days’ worth of “real-world” usage has been a very pleasing experience. It is fast, slick and better than Vista in almost every way.

The upgrade experience on my Dell XPS laptop was also pretty straightforward, but took a lot longer than I thought it would (~7 hours from start to finish).

I considered very carefully before I started whether I wanted a clean installation or an upgrade, but I couldn’t face the prospect of reinstalling all my programs, so went for the upgrade option. The setup program sensibly advises you to backup all your documents and personal data first, but I thought I’d risk it anyway.

The setup program then checks for any programs you already have installed that may be incompatible with Windows 7. Annoyingly, one of the programs it flagged up was my anti-virus/firewall program, Kaspersky Internet Security. I checked the Kaspersky website and sure enough, they don’t as yet have a Windows 7-compatible version ready. In order to proceed with the upgrade, I had to completely uninstall the product (even though I still had 111 days of my subscription remaining).

From then on, the upgrade was trouble-free and I have replaced Kaspersky with Microsoft Security Essentials for the time being.

New features I like in Windows 7 include the new taskbar, with the real-time preview and “jump lists” to common tasks over each running program. I also like the Action Center, a “one-stop shop” for system settings and alerts, which were dotted about all over the place in Vista.

The Windows Vista sidebar, which took a ridiculously long time to start up has also gone, but they’ve kept the gadgets, which you can now place anywhere on the desktop.

There’s a lot more to like in Windows 7, such as Windows XP Mode and the revamped Device Center. I’ll write more about these features over the next few weeks as and when I get an opportunity to investigate them in more detail.