We are the champions.

I am super excited because I got a new laptop last week.

You may have seen me tweeting with the #WindowsChampions hashtag and wondered what it is.

Well, I was fortunate enough to be invited by the fab people at Microsoft to be part of their Windows Champions program this year. They select a bunch of bloggers to receive the use of a laptop for one year – this time, it’s a Sony Vaio Y series – and we blog about our experiences with the machine, and with Windows.

I was all over this opportunity because I’ve used every operating system Windows has come out with since 1995. And I am a huge fan of Windows 7. Of the embarrassing 6 machines in our house, 4 are running Windows 7. I LOVE Win 7 – it has so many great improvements over every other version of Windows. When I first tried it out (on a machine I purchased myself) I said to my husband: “Wow. Microsoft gets it! They’ve been listening!”

And that’s the way it’s been thus far with the Windows Champions program, too. They listen. They support bloggers. They find ways to promote us and our stuff. They offer us tools and resources to make our day more productive. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in the program thus far and I can’t wait to share more with you over the course of this year as I learn more about Windows.

If you ever get the opportunity to be part of this program, DO.

I’ll be writing about lots of aspects of Windows 7, including the fantastic Live Essentials Suite, which has Live Writer (yay). The snipping tool (my personal favorite feature).MovieMaker. And more.

For now, I’m getting acquainted with my new teensy weensy laptop – much more portable than my old laptop. It’s great to take on the go because it has 6 hours of battery life and weighs only 3.2 pounds. Yay!

I got a bit nervous when the new laptop arrived, because I have scads of work documents on my old laptop. I dreaded this weekend because I knew I’d have to move a bunch of files over from old to new and it was going to take hours.

Until my shiny new pink laptop prompted me with Windows Homegroup. Yes! I had set up Homegroup on my old Win 7 laptop. It lets you share files between computers on the same network very easily. I found my password, entered it into my new laptop and now I can easily access all of the files from my old computer from my new laptop – without having moved a document or photo. So.happy.

If you’re into learning more about tech or having basic PC questions answered, I highly recommend checking out the Windows Experience Blog and the #win7tech chats that happen every Tuesday at noon PST. The Twitter chats have a ton of useful information. Last week’s was all about children and online safety and I learned a TON.

So, I hope you enjoy my Windows posts. I will definitely be trying to make them relevant and useful for you as well. And now…I gotta get back to my new laptop!

About the Author Gigi Ross

I'm a blogger, social media geek, mom and wife, foodie, reality TV addict and Jason Mraz fangirl. Not in that order. I write here about parenting, blogging, technology, social media and pop culture.

Tagged as: tech tools, windows champions