Microsoft Windows Vista Vs Windows Xp [Archive]

RACERPRO

05-25-2008, 08:20 PM

Application incompatibility is one of the aspects that have managed to deliver extensive damage to the adoption rate of Windows Vista.

However, as Vista matured throughout 2007 and with Service Pack 1 in 2008, so did the ecosystem of software solutions orbiting around the operating system. Despite this, the actual perception of application incompatibility managed to survive, especially in corporate environments. If one end user can deal with a program that is incompatible with Vista rather easy, the same cannot be said about an enterprise dependent on a specific business application with tens of thousands of machines.

"Part of this is perception based on fact - Windows Vista is built on a new architecture that promises tightened security and reliability. Consequently, the applications that ride on top of Windows Vista need to communicate with the kernel in different ways. So what has helped fuel current perception around application compatibility? Why did many applications 'break' in the migration from Windows XP to Windows Vista?" Microsoft asked rhetorically.

And it seems that application compatibility issues consistently point to a single culprit: User Account Control. The watch dog Microsoft introduced in order to train both end users and developers to utilize and respectively build applications running with standard privileges for security reasons has come back to bite Vista uptake.

"Standard user mode limits file and registry access by applications on the computer. User Account Control exposes non-compliant actions, with permission prompts to standard and administrator users. Changes in permissions will cause most of the issues with earlier versions of applications, where administrative access was assumed during development and testing," Microsoft explained revealing the first reason for Vista application incompatibilities.

But two additional sources of compatibility problems are also connected with the UAC. Microsoft pointed to Internet Explorer 7 Protect Mode killing web-based applications as well as the Windows Resource Protection preventing programs to writing to protected areas of the operating system. In the end, the Redmond company traded flexibility for security, and legacy applications tailored to Windows XP running with administrative privileges bit the dust.

Additionally, Microsoft informed that "operating system and browser version numbers change with each release, which might cause issues with applications that check for a specific version number upon installation. Application shims are available to fool the application into thinking the operating system or browser is the application-required version."

And on top of it, the new driver model introduced in Vista, that enables the eye candy Aero graphical user interface, along with undocumented APIs, also caused compatibility issues. Over a year since Vista hit the shelves, the Redmond company claims that the operating system benefits from in excess of 15,000 signed devices and components and the advances brought on by Service Pack 1. In this context, Microsoft is not shy to put forward an invitation to give Vista, now with SP1, another try.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

05-28-2008, 09:45 PM

"Its interesting that people seem to think that Vista under performs in every area of the system which is quite an incorrect perception.

In this demo I show how Vista outperforms Windows XP and I show the under the covers process traces of just how it achieves it."

"Demo environment consists of two images. One Vista SP1 and the other Windows XP SP2 both on the same HDD IO and communicating across my home wireless network to a Windows Server 2008 box on my main LAN. Once the two images get going latency gets introduced and things start to slow down....except Vista doesnt slow down." Watch and see at Edge TechNet.

source: edge.technet.com

mms://mschnlnine.wmod.llnwd.net/a1809/d1/edge/9/0/0/1/Windows Vista against Windows XP-1.wmv

RACERPRO

05-31-2008, 09:02 AM

Microsoft has sort of timidly started to share a couple of rather anodyne details about Windows 7, the next version of the Windows client due by the end of 2009, according to the company's Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer.

Christopher Flores, Director Windows Communications even made available a video demonstration of Windows 7, but it showed only what Microsoft wanted its users to see. As such, the focus was placed exclusively on Windows 7's new multi-touch and gesture technology. But the entire video for the presentation of Windows 7 at D6 – All Things Digital features additional indications about the direction the Redmond giant is heading towards with the graphical user interface of the successor of Windows Vista.

In the video segment embedded at the bottom of this article you will be able to see Julie Larson-Green, Corporate Vice President, Windows Experience Program Management, and her full presentation of Windows 7 at the D6 – All Things Digital conference. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and CEO Steve Ballmer are also featured in the video. Ballmer even manages to intervene at a certain point. Larson-Green's demo of Windows 7 is not intended to show anything else than the multi-touch and gesture natural user input model of the operating system.

However, a piece of the traditional desktop is still present, although evolved beyond what Vista delivered with the Windows Aero GUI. The Taskbar has been redesigned. It's by no means a complete overhaul, since the basic concept is still the same; however, the changes are notable. First off, the Start sphere button is completely separated from the rest of the area as is the tray icon in the right hand side corner. The new Windows 7 Taskbar is wider than the standard Taskbar for Windows Vista, and the new icons have also undergone an evolution.

Of course, Julie Larson-Green failed to utter a single word related to the new Windows 7 Taskbar. She only managed to say that "it’s something we’re working on Windows 7 and I’m not supposed to talk about it, not today." But, at the same time, Julie Larson-Green is responsible for the introduction of the Fluent/Ribbon graphical user interface in the Office 2007 System, so big things should be expected out of Windows 7's GUI.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAHzErPdiD8&eurl=http://keznews.com/4478_Watch_the_Full_Windows_7_Video_Presentation__ Not_Just_the_Official_Version

westmassguy

05-31-2008, 01:40 PM

I have three machines in my house. All were running XP. In January of 2007, I "upgraded" all of them to Vista. At first, I was very impressed, like getting a new car, all shinny and new. Most of my programs ran fine on Vista, and those that didn't required running as administrator with elevated privileges, which isn't a problem. About 8 months ago, I was bored one Sunday, and decided to restore a backup image of my old XP install. Wow, the difference was like night and day. I had become so accustomed to Vistas' quirks; I had forgotten how fast XP was. My biggest area of complaint is Vistas' GUI, not the core OS itself. I work with many small video files, all types from avi, wmv, mpg, rm etc. Explorer in Vista is the culprit I believe. Mousing over many different file in Vista is painful. Explorer is trying to do so much in the background, figuring out what type of file it is, that it stutters constantly. XP was never like this. I can mouse over and select hundreds of different files in Xp without so much as a hiccup.
I've tried switching to the simpler "Classic" theme in Vista, even switching off all the eye candy, but the problem remains. I've tried disabling Explorer tips, and File Attributes, again the problem remains.
I have the GUI thoroughly tweaked in both operating systems, from "mouse hover time”, to "show menu delay", so their reaction time should be the same.
Two of my machines still run Vista, and the people that use them love Vista, but they’re not power users.
XP is simply faster for me, and the things I do most.

RACERPRO

06-02-2008, 02:22 AM

Users looking to Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, and the perfect reason to avoid Windows Vista SP1, might need to reconsider their plans.

The reason is rather simple, despite the fact that it has spent over two months more time in development compared to Vista SP1, while containing only a minor, standard evolution in comparison to SP2, XP SP3 has come to the table with a flood of issues, a wide variety of them impacting the deployment process. There are no less than nine officially documented scenarios in which end users will find it unable to install Windows XP SP3, and even more error messages associated with the problems.

1. The XP SP3 RTM Infinite Reboot Loop

Jesper Johansson was among the first to signal this problem after installing XP SP3 on an AMD-based computer, an operation which lead to: "incessant reboots. The computer booted, apologized for not being able to boot properly, asked if I wanted to boot into safe mode, defaulted to normal boot, rebooted, and so on and so on. At this point, I want to clarify that the endless rebooting is not at all related to SP3 per se. The problem is that with some configurations, SP3 causes the computer to crash during boot, and Windows XP, by default, is set up to automatically reboot when it crashes."

This is by no means an isolated case. In fact, end users have been crowding to the support forum for Windows XP SP3 signaling the very same problem, as well as variations from this issue. In response, Microsoft published Knowledge Base article 888372 detailing the issue. Essentially users are presented by a "Stop 0x0000007E" error message, having performed and upgrade to XP SP3 from SP2 on what Microsoft referred to as a non-Intel-processor-based computer.

"After you upgrade a computer that uses a processor other than an Intel processor to Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) or Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), you may receive the following error message after you restart the computer: 'A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer...Technical information: *** STOP: 0x0000007E (0xC0000005, 0xFC5CCAF3, 0xFC90F8C0, 0xFC90F5C0) SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED'," reads Microsoft's description of the problem.

2. 8007F0F4 – STATUS_PREREQUISITE_FAILED

There are no less than six errors for failed Windows XP SP3 installations which produce the with the "8007F0F4 – STATUS_PREREQUISITE_FAILED" log. The six errors have just as many causes, starting with the installation process failing to continue on computers running on battery power. In this case, Microsoft explained that in order to prevent and "update failure because of battery power exhaustion during the installation process," it generated the following error: "this Service Pack requires the machine to be on AC Power before setup starts."

3. XP SP3: "Access is denied" or "Service Pack installation did not complete"

The third and final service pack for Windows XP will also fail to deploy if the installation process comes across registry keys that it cannot modify. In such cases, the error messaged presented to the end user reveal that there has been a Service Pack 3 setup error and that "Access is denied" or that "Service Pack installation did not complete." There are various ways to resolve this issue, and they are all described in detail in KB949377.

"You may receive these error messages if permissions for one or more registry keys are restricted in a way that prevents the update of those registry keys," Microsoft informed. "Some programs change the system access control lists (SACL) in the Registry so that administrator accounts cannot alter them. The service pack installer runs under the user (admin) account and not under the SYSTEM account. Failure to update a registry key causes the Setup program to fail."

4. You do not have enough free disk space on %SystemDrive% to archive the uninstall files

This is without a doubt the most easily solvable problem relates to the installation of XP SP3 RTM. The error message "Service Pack 3 Setup Error - You do not have enough free disk space on %SystemDrive% to archive the uninstall files," is of course related to a scenario where there is insufficient disk space available for the archiving of the uninstall files. XP SP3 will not go ahead with the deployment because without the uninstall files end users will not be able to remove the service pack. KB949375 deals with this specific issue.

5. "You do not have enough free disk space on %SystemDrive% to install Service Pack 3"

KB949385 is closely connected with KB949375, in the sense that they both can be fixed in the same manner, namely by freeing up the needed disk space. "Service Pack 3 Setup Error - You do not have enough free disk space on %SystemDrive% to install Service Pack 3," is designed to alert the end user that XP will not deploy due to the lack of space on the installation drive.

6. Intel processor-based Apple computers can also run "Out of Disk Space" it's not only PCs that are affected by insufficient disk space problems, but also Apple Mac machines. According to Microsoft, Mac Pro, Mac Mini, MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and iMac computers with Intel processors running XP SP2 may spit of the "Out of Disk Space" error message when the user will attempt to install Service Pack 3. "This problem occurs because a critical registry key (BootDir) is missing. This registry key is not created when Windows XP SP2 is installed by using Boot Camp on the Apple computers," the Redmond company informed via KB950716. "Apple has released an update to Boot Camp [version 2.1]. This update addresses issues and improves compatibility with Windows XP and with Windows Vista when these products are running on an Apple computer that uses Boot Camp.

7. Setup has detected that another update is in progress

The "Setup has detected that another update is in progress. Please complete that installation or removal and try again" error message will be generated if Service Pack 3 for XP is installed concomitantly with Automatic Updates running the Update.exe file. "The Update.exe file runs the Windows XP SP3 installation. The Update.exe file does not let multiple instances of itself to run at the same time on the same computer. Most of the security updates and service packs that are released by Microsoft run the Update.exe file," the company explained in KB949381.

8. "Service Pack 3 installation did not complete" and "An internal error occurred"

"Service Pack 3 installation did not complete" is just a part of the error message produced by unsuccessful installations of Windows XP. Clicking OK will inform the end user that "an internal error occurred." This issue is also connected with a faulty registry. "The errors can occur because of files that are not trusted or because of corrupted registry keys. You can verify the cause by searching for related entries in the Svcpack.log file," Microsoft explained in KB949384.

9. Windows Update Failed Installations

Microsoft continuously advices end users to turn to Windows Update as the preferred way to upgrade to Windows XP Service Pack 3. The WU infrastructure is designed to serve specific Windows operating systems with the exact updates tailored to them, rather than with generic downloads. But this is not a guarantee that the introduction of XP SP3 will go smooth always. Case in point: failed installations that generate the following error code in the logs: 0x80246007.

"This issue may occur if one of the following conditions is true: the Windows – SoftwareDistribution - Download folder was deleted after the Windows XP SP3 download operation was completed. System files were changed after Windows XP SP3 was downloaded but before the service pack was installed," Microsoft explained in KB949386.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

06-03-2008, 10:47 PM

On June 30, Microsoft is scheduled to pull the OEM distribution plug on Windows XP. In 30 days. That's all before the older operating system largely disappears from new PCs.

The "largely" qualifier is because downgrade rights will still be available to some customers, and system builders can ship PCs with XP through January 2009.

The next 30 days are crucial for anyone still wanting to easily obtain Windows XP on new PCs. But why wait? Why not try Vista, and only Vista, for the next 30 days?

There are some people fixated on the idea that Windows XP will get a reprieve, that Microsoft will extend widespread availability beyond June 30. Microsoft executives would be absolute, unequivocal ninkenpoops to keep Windows XP in the mainstream PC marketplace.

Last week, I crunched some numbers to give some perspective on the sorry state of Windows Vista distribution. Last week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave a new number of Vista licenses shipped: 150 million. That sounds like a whole lot before looking at worldwide PC shipments, at least 331 million, from Jan. 1, 2007 to March 31, 2008 based on some extrapolation of published Gartner data. Gartner includes x86 server shipments, but I removed all 11 million servers shipped during the time period. I came up with this estimate: Vista shipped on 37 percent of PCs worldwide since its Jan. 30, 2007.

But the estimate is unquestionably high, cutting slack to a company besieged by Vista perception problems. A more accurate accounting: Vista probably shipped on no more than one-third of PCs since general availability. Linux and Mac OS account for some of shipments; other PCs had no operating system or pirated Windows. Given Microsoft's PC marketshare is at least 93 percent, there is only one conclusion: The majority of PCs are shipping with Windows XP, and that doesn't account for Vista licenses downgraded to the older operating system. Microsoft has to get Windows XP out of the OEM market as quick as it can.

So, I would be shocked if Microsoft granted an extension, and my recommendation is for Microsoft to get XP out of the OEM channel as soon as humanly possible. Windows XP is an option Microsoft needs to do away with.

There's no reason to wait 30 days for XP to go away. My challenge: Try Vista for 30 days, right now. I've done several 30-day stints (longer, really) with only Vista. No XP, no Mac OS X. Thirty days with Vista is no longer super painful, particularly if Service Pack 1 is installed.

source: microsoft-watch.com

FuzzyMaster

06-05-2008, 03:00 AM

XP is not dead yet ! :D

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/03/windows_xp_license_extension_take_two/

I think it is very interesting that it will now be supported for the devices mentioned until around 2010.

In other words, i think Microsoft is admitting that Windows Millenium 2 isn't what they hoped it would be, and they need to give people an alternative to Unix/Linux until Windows 7 arrives.

bla

06-05-2008, 04:45 AM

I voted vista by mistake. Used vista for a while then when back to xp. Vista is tooo slooow compared with xp even with 4gigs of ram. can somebody correct the mistake??.:o

RACERPRO

06-06-2008, 01:07 AM

With Windows 7 poised to begin private testing any time now and to ship by late 2009, a number of business users are wondering whether they should simply skip Windows Vista all together and wait for 7 instead.

Microsoft, not surprisingly, is advising customers against taking a pass on Vista. As part of a new white paper aimed at influencing business users who are evaluating when and whether to move to Windows Vista, Microsoft is advocating enterprise users should migrate to Vista sooner rather than later.

The white paper — “The Business Value of Windows Vista: Five Reasons to Deploy Now” — doesn’t include a lot of new data; instead, it revisits the business features Microsoft built into Vista and highlights some of the new deployment tools and case-study examples of companies who have migrated to Vista. But it does offer Microsoft’s official guidance on Windows 7 deployments. From the paper:

“There is no need to wait for Windows 7. It is a goal of the Windows 7 release to minimize application compatibility for customers who have deployed Windows Vista since there was considerable kernel and device level innovation in Windows Vista. The Windows 7 release is expected to have only minor changes in these areas. Customers who are still using Windows XP when Windows 7 releases will have a similar application compatibility experience moving to Windows 7 as exists moving to Windows Vista from Windows XP.”

Lee Nicholls, Director of Global Solutions with Getronics — a Microsoft integration partner that sells heavily into the financial services and manufacturing industries — agreed with Microsoft’s compatibility warning.

“There could be even less compatibility between XP and Windows 7,” based on what Microsoft ends up providing in terms of new migration and deployment tools, Nicholls said.

The jump between Windows XP and Windows 7 could be a big one, while the one from Vista to Windows 7 should be fairly minor, Nicholls said. And given that “Windows 7 is going to be a superset of Windows Vista, it’s not really something worth waiting for,” Nicholls added.

source: blogs.zdnet.com

RACERPRO

06-06-2008, 01:09 AM

The march toward Windows XP's retail and OEM June 30 retirement party continues. Four weeks from today is Microsoft Corp.'s deadline for mainstream computer makers to stop selling new PCs with the old OS, and the date the Redmond Wash.-based developer will stop shipping boxed copies to retailers.

Mark it as T minus four weeks and counting.

We follow up on last week's inaugural FAQ with more questions and answers, including clarifications on inventory and news of one online retailer dropping XP's price by more than 10%. Must retailers stop selling XP after midnight of June 30?

No, says Microsoft. Although it's calling June 30 the retail and OEM availability end-date, the demarcation between selling and not-selling won't be razor sharp, the company said last week.

"The exact cut-off day for selling Windows XP is determined by OEMs and retailers, who can keep selling standalone versions as well as PCs with Windows XP preloaded by OEMs distributed prior to June 30, 2008, as long as their supplies last [emphasis in original]," a Microsoft spokeswoman said last week in an e-mail.

In other words, unless a retailer has pared its XP inventory to the bone, expect to see copies still selling into July, perhaps longer. Likewise for already-built machines that have XP installed, since dealers won't be required to yank them off shelves on July 1, but can clear their inventories at their own pace. If system builders can continue to sell PCs pre-loaded with XP until Jan. 31, 2009, does that mean I'll be able to buy the OEM edition of Windows XP at retail or online until then?

No. And we can see the confused look on your face from here.

The retail version of XP Home or XP Professional dubbed "OEM" is also often called the "system builder" edition, in that it uses the same EULA (end user licensing agreement) as the OEM licenses that large computer makers and smaller shops install on the PCs they build and sell.

Retail OEM versions of Windows XP are considerably cheaper than either upgrade or full license versions of the same version; Windows XP Home in OEM costs just US$79.99 on Newegg.com, for example, while the upgrade version runs $99.99 and the full license is priced at $191.49.

OEM versions are cheaper because they don't include free tech support from Microsoft, and legally you're not allowed to transfer the OS from one PC to another, say from an old, creaky piece of junk to something more up-to-date.

But even though "system builders" -- companies or individuals who have registered as a Microsoft Partner and then acquire Windows licenses through one of Microsoft's authorized distributors -- can get their hands on XP through Jan. 31, 2009, you won't be able to get the exact same license via retail once sellers exhaust their supplies after June 30.

"The June 30, 2008 deadline applies to OEMs and retailers for all versions of Windows XP," a Microsoft spokeswoman confirmed last week when asked for clarification.

Clear? Yeah, we thought so, too.

source: pcworld.com

RACERPRO

06-07-2008, 02:12 AM

Some customers are considering whether to deploy Windows Vista or whether to skip in anticipation of Windows 7.

The discussion is often phrased as one of balancing costs and timing of releases. By not deploying Windows Vista, it means missing out on the proven benefts such as better security, productivity, search, mobility, manageability, and infrastructure optimization. Windows Vista works with more applications and devices than ever before and can be signifcantly less expensive to support than Windows XP SP3.

There is no need to wait for Windows 7. It is a goal of the Windows 7 release to minimize application compatibility for customers who have deployed Windows Vista since there was considerable kernel and device level innovation in Windows Vista. The Windows 7 release is expected to have only minor changes in these areas. Customers who are still using Windows XP when Windows 7 releases will have a similar application compatibility experience moving to Windows 7 as exists moving to Windows Vista from Windows XP.

Historically, mainstream deployment occurs not when Microsoft releases a product but 18 months later. While the mainstream deployment cycle is beginning for Windows Vista now, it isn’t expected to begin for Windows 7 until at least mid-2011

source: neowin.net

bla

06-07-2008, 02:53 AM

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/06/04/amd-puts-puma

OOXML means incompatibility and blurry logos
There are three new CPUs so far, the ZM-86 (2.4GHz/2M), ZM-82 (2.2GHz/1M), and ZM-80 (2.1GHz/1M), all are dual core and will be put under the Turion X2 Ultra brand. These will be followed by non-Ultra variants, and those sit atop the Athlons X2, which in turn look down on Semprons.

If we recall the Turion naming scheme, the second letter is the power efficiency.These obviously rank an 'M' on that scale, which is more efficient than the lower letters.

The CPUs themselves are the Griffin core we told you about months ago coupled with a mobile version of the 780G chipset. The two together were called Puma, but now are Turion X2 Ultra platform. The CPU is in the SLG2 638 pin package, and the package itself is lidless. The 780M runs at 500MHz, the same as the as the desktop variant. It is also HT3.0 capable, but since it is coupled with the Griffin CPU, that is pretty much a given.

Notebooks based on the new chips are aimed at the consumer and SMB markets, but not enterprise. The markets they are going after are the DTR and Thin & Light, defined as four pounds and over. The sub four-pound market is not targeted this time around.

The chipset does DX10.1, supports Hybrid Crossfire and Power on the broken OS, and has full HD video support. It gives nothing up to the 780G except a few watts. " There are Me II and Linux drivers now, with XP following this summer ".

Some other bits that the Puma platform brings is called Varibright, a marketing term for a light sensor that dims the screen with ambient light levels. Macs have had this for ages, and it will probably be everywhere in the near future.

The other thing that is new to the AMD mobile family is DASH1.1 manageability. This won't sway many people from Vpro, but it is a start for AMD notebooks. Last up is 802.11n, something that has been on AMD notebooks for a long time, but it is now the 'standard' even if the official standard is not fully baked.

In the end, the Ultra is a step up from the older Turions, a big step. The up-side is that it will win in just about every benchmark out there against it's older cousin. It will also stomp Intel's upcoming G45 in gaming and GPU-intensive tasks, likely in video applications as well. The down-side is where CPU or battery life is concerned, they will lose just as badly. Pick your poison.

The Turion Ultra parts should be more than good enough for consumers and SMB buyers. Large enterprise won't be swayed, but AMD isn't going there yet. It is a large step forward, but it won't challenge Montevina for business purchasing agents. µ

RACERPRO

06-08-2008, 01:15 PM

The introduction of Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista and of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, along with the June 30 retail and OEM availability cut-off date for XP, have generated a consistent a mount of confusion over the future of the two Windows clients.

Especially over Vista's predecessor in terms of its retirement from the retail and OEM channels, but also in regard to support and downgrade rights. As far as support is concerned, XP SP3 will live to see 2014 (read more about it here). And when it comes down to Vista SP1 to XP SP3 downgrades, nothing has changed from Vista RTM and XP SP2.

"You will still be able to get Windows XP Professional installed on computers after June 30th. This is more important for sysadmins who have a large current installation of Windows XP-based systems and have not yet migrated to Windows Vista. If you're a consumer, consider getting a new computer with Windows Vista installed: with Business and Ultimate, you have downgrade rights to XP Pro," revealed the Chief of Staff of the Windows Core Operating System Division at Microsoft.

Downgrade rights permit end users to access two versions of the Windows operating system, in this context either Vista or XP, with the same license. Namely, a single OEM license permits customers to install XP, and subsequently remove it and deploy Vista on the same machine. Microsoft is essentially interested in offering clients the ability to buy Windows Vista, but continue to run Windows XP until they are capable of moving to the latest Windows operating system.

Essentially, OEM versions of Vista Business and Ultimate versions with a downgrade license allow users to install and run XP Professional, XP Professional x64 Edition, and XP Tablet PC Edition. This is also valid for the Service Pack 1 variants of Vista, respectively for XP SP3.

"End users who downgrade may reinstall the original software when they are ready to migrate. For example, an end user who downgrades to Windows XP Professional may later return to Windows Vista Business software provided that the end user deletes the Windows XP Professional software from the PC," the COSD lead added.

source: news.softpedia.com

sebipo

06-09-2008, 09:58 AM

When it comes to performs issues xp is better than vista

RACERPRO

06-09-2008, 09:19 PM

Statistics for the operating system market come in different flavors and from a variety of sources but they all have one thing in common: indicating that Windows is losing ground to Mac OS X and Linux.

As far as Microsoft is concerned, it reached the apex of the operating system market with the launch of Service Pack 2 for Windows XP back in 2004. Since then, it has been all down hill for the Redmond giant. Sure, the slope is by no means steep enough for a hard Windows fall, just sufficiently inclined through the erosion produced by Mac OS X and Linux that the ground is slipping from under Microsoft's proprietary platform, slowly but surely...

While Windows is not at risk from a landslide, it has been on a descendant trajectory for the past years, with consumers suffering from Windows fatigue, and increasingly looking for alternatives. Recent releases such as Windows Vista in 2007, and Vista Service Pack 1 as well as Windows XP Service Pack 3 have done little to impact the general trend. As of May 2008 Windows is credited with 91.13% of the operating system market according to Net Applications, with 91.11% by W3Counter and with 95.94% by OneState (but only as of April 2008).

In January 2007, when Windows Vista hit the shelves, Net Applications revealed a share of 93.33% for Windows, approximately two percent higher than in January 2008. Back in July 2007, OneStat gave Windows a share of 96.97%, also larger than the 95.94% from a couple of months ago. W3Counter seem to be on par with Net Applications indicating that Windows was at 93.6% of the market in May 2007, and as low as 91.11% in the past month.

Windows Saturation
The release of Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista and of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP has done little to help break what appears to be a generalized and accentuating case of Windows fatigue. Net Applications stated that SP3 for XP failed to impact the operating system's continuous market share lost for over a year. Even with SP3 available as of May 6, 2008, XP continued to lose audience and is down from 73.07% in April to 72.12% the past month. Vista continues to climb in statistics, but SP1 didn't deliver the kick needed to accelerate growth to the levels where focus will no longer shift to XP SP3, Windows 7 or rival products. Vista only climbed from 14.02% in March to 15.26% in May.

Windows Vista, the Default Growth
Windows Vista climbed up in the space occupied by Windows XP to claim the second most used operating system on the market since mid-2007. Since the January 2007 launch, Vista's growth has somewhat stabilized at around 10 million units per month. At the end of March 2008, Microsoft revealed that it had sold over 140 million Vista licenses worldwide. As of May, Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer claimed that Vista had passed the 150 million mark.

Don't Expect Miracles from Windows 7
Even though Windows Vista has taken all the heavy hits, acting as a buffer release for Windows 7, the next iteration of Microsoft's proprietary operating system will drop in a market which has started to experience Windows fatigue for a number of years. But unlike Vista, Windows 7 will benefit from the get go from a mature ecosystem of software and hardware products. Microsoft is essentially promising a Windows 7 apple which will fall far tom the Vista tree, while at the same time featuring the same architecture as its predecessor, in terms of the kernel, and the graphics and audio subsystems, security and search functionality, etc.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

06-10-2008, 11:25 PM

Microsoft never contested the fact that Windows Vista's hardware requirements qualified the latest Windows client as resource hungry, but at the same time, the company did point out that, given the right system, the platform would deliver quite a performance.

And performance is the correct word to describe a little experiment put together by Keith Combs, Microsoft IT Pro Evangelist. Combs managed to get no less than 28 Windows operating systems running simultaneously on the same machine, namely 27 copies of Windows Vista Enterprise Service Pack 1 and one Windows Server 2008.

"Twenty Seven Windows Vista Enterprise SP1 Virtual Machines executing courtesy of Windows Server 2008 and Hyper-V. All of this is running on a single laptop, Lenovo ThinkPad T61p with 8GB of Kingston memory," Combs explained. "This time I added another hard drive and split the load. I also used a couple of parent disks, and each VM is executing off a differencing virtual disk. The first pic [toward the bottom of this article] is of all the VMs executing. Keep in mind this is a total of 28 operating systems running on a single laptop when you take into account the parent OS, Windows Server 2008. The second pic shows me killing off the VM’s and the freeing up of the memory."

Initially, Combs had tried the experiment with just 14 operating system copies, 13 Vista Enterprise SP1 (six instances of 64-bit and seven of 32-bit) plus the underlying host platform Windows Server 2008 Enterprise x64 with Hyper-V RC1. All the Vista copies are running in virtual machines in the Windows Server 2008 hypervisor.

"Pretty cool, eh? I know you think this is crazy and unusable. I did notice while firing them up under this configuration, that I could easily use 10 client virtual machines with the settings and hardware I used for this test. So some interesting scenarios come to mind with the use of Group Policy, Patch Deployment, OS Deployment, etc.," Combs added.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

06-12-2008, 12:03 AM

Microsoft has started pressing the acceleration pedal of the marketing of Windows Vista, now complete with Service Pack 1.

At the debut of June, Mike Nash, Corporate Vice President, Windows Product Management, revealed that Vista SP1 was ready for wide business adoption, and the software giant even launched a Vista experience initiative built around the operating system plus its first service pack. Now, Microsoft is taking it one step further and is actually letting end users test drive Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 online.

"The Windows Vista Ultimate with Service Pack 1 (SP1) test-drive allows you to try (or "test drive") this latest operating system from Microsoft without having to install it on your PC. By simply logging onto our test drive environment using your web browser, you will be able to experience Windows Vista first hand. You can explore the product on your own, or follow along with guided exercises and videos," reads the welcome message on the Vista Ultimate SP1 Test Drive website.

A project of Microsoft Virtual Labs, the Vista Ultimate SP1 test drive is designed to emphasize four pillars of the platform: security, usability, reliability and versatility. The Redmond company has essentially put at the disposal of users a copy of 32-bit Windows Vista Ultimate SP1, running on an AMD Opteron processor with 2 GB of RAM. The test operating system is available online and can be accessed through the browser. There are no downloads or installation involved in test driving Vista Ultimate SP1.

But even though it's meant to give users just a taste of what Vista Ultimate SP1 is truly capable of, the online client made available by Microsoft comes with a plethora of components from antivirus, to Application Compatibility Toolkit, the Deployment Toolkit, the Office 2007 System, SQL Server 2005, and even Windows AIK.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

06-13-2008, 12:37 AM

Windows Vista Experience... Safe, easier, reliable and versatile. Microsoft is welcoming users to the Windows Vista experience, a website focused on Service Pack 1 for the latest version of the Windows client.

Designed to share "real stories and real successes" with Vista at the core, the website features full case studies focused on what the operating system manages to bring to the table, now that Service Pack 1 was made available.

"Have you seen the new Windows Vista Experience site? This newly launched site hosts many stories from real small businesses who are benefiting from running Windows Vista on their PC’s. This interactive site also includes the option of submitting your own story - with the possibility that your story (partner or business) may be filmed for future use on the site," revealed Eric Ligman, Microsoft US Senior Manager, Small Business Community Engagement.

According to the already submitted Windows Vista success stories, businesses of any size will save time and be more productive if they upgrade to the operating system, updated with its latest service pack. There are a total of four cases presented via video testimonies and many others in plain text, but Microsoft seems convinced that users will want to share their own Vista experiences.

Bear in mind that the Redmond company is not necessarily looking for Vista SP1 success stories, but for experiences in general. So, if you want to give Microsoft a piece of your mind, then by all means do so. However, the site addresses businesses so it's preferable you have the right kind of experience to share with the company and the rest of the world. It is likely that Microsoft will filter any negative feedback and only post success stories in order to market Windows Vista SP1, but this is not to say that your input won't actually reach the company.

source: news.softpedia.com

westmassguy

06-13-2008, 01:04 AM

A website dedicated to everything that's wrong or broken with Vista's user experience: http://www.istartedsomething.com/taskforce/index.php

RACERPRO

06-14-2008, 02:00 AM

Three of the top four PC sellers worldwide plan to sell systems with Windows XP right up to the Microsoft-mandated deadline of June 30.

Of the four, only Dell plans to call it quits before the last day of this month.

Microsoft has set June 30 as the final day of Windows XP availability to retailers and major computer makers, although the company recently also said that the date won't mark a sudden disappearance of the old operating system.

"The exact cut-off day for selling Windows XP is determined by OEMs and retailers, who can keep selling standalone versions as well as PCs with Windows XP preloaded by OEMs distributed prior to June 30, 2008, as long as their supplies last [emphasis in original]," a Microsoft spokeswoman said two weeks ago in an e-mail.

Hewlett-Packard, Acer, and Lenovo -- ranked nos. one, three and four, respectively, in global PC sales in the first quarter by both Gartner and IDC -- will continue to sell XP-powered machines until June 30, the companies said this week in response to questions from Computerworld . Dell, which is the world's number two OEM, is sticking to June 18 as the last day that customers can order computers with XP pre-installed.

Here's what the OEMs said about their plans:

Hewlett-Packard: "We do still offer XP on a select number of our existing consumer notebook, gaming and business products," said a spokesman for HP. "This will continue through the XP end of life date on June 30, 2008."

Dell: Weeks ago, Dell said that it would stop taking customers' orders for PCs with XP after June 18. Wednesday, an e-mail from Dell's small business group titled "Last Chance" repeated that date. "It's time to decide if you want a Dell system with pre-installed Windows XP or Windows Vista," Dell's marketing e-mail read.

Acer: "For Acer, it's June 30," said a spokeswoman for the Asian OEM's American operations.

Lenovo: Although Lenovo spokesman Doug Bell first said his company's last-sale date was June 15, after checking, he confirmed that it is, in fact, the end-of-life June 30.

Some of these computer makers, however, will continue to sell PCs with factory-installed XP licenses after June 30 by taking advantage of Windows Vista's downgrade rights.

A clause in Microsoft's guidelines for OEMs lets computer makers install Windows XP Professional -- but not the more common and less expensive Windows XP Home -- on new PCs at a customer's request when those machines are ordered with Windows Vista Business or Windows Vista Ultimate.

Dell was the first to say it would use the downgrade clause to offer buyers XP Professional pre-installed long after the June 30 deadline. Those PCs will also include Vista installation media so that customers can, if and when they want, upgrade from XP. Dell, however, has not said how long it would offer the downgrade option.

Not so with HP. "HP has been offering business desktops, notebooks and workstations with the option to downgrade to Windows XP Pro from Vista since August 2007, and will continue to offer this option on its business systems through at least July 30, 2009," said the HP spokesman.

Lenovo, meanwhile, said it would continue to offer its downgrade option -- Lenovo doesn't swap out the Vista for XP at the factory floor, but instead sends media that requires the user to re-install Windows XP -- until Jan. 31, 2009.

source: infoworld.com

RACERPRO

06-14-2008, 02:09 AM

Make no mistake about it, June 30, 2008 is the beginning of the end for Windows XP, even with Service Pack 3 available for two months now, since May 6.

Microsoft confirmed that the end of this month will be synonymous with the availability cut-off date through the retail and OEM channels, although there have been customers hoping until the last minute that the company would breathe new life into the predecessor of Windows Vista.

Microsoft has already postponed once the availability end date initially planned for January 30, 2008, but the company was firm on the fact that that was an exception which would not be repeating itself.

"In industry speak, this is called "end-of-sales." On June 30, Microsoft will stop distributing Windows XP as a stand-alone product that you can buy shrink-wrapped in the store. We'll also stop sending it to Dell, HP, Lenovo and all the other major PC manufacturers to sell on their PCs. That said, Windows XP isn't going to disappear overnight", revealed Mthree Sweatt, Chief of Staff of the Windows Core Operating System Division (COSD) at Microsoft citing the new The Facts About the Future – Windows XP website.

Microsoft argued the need to sacrifice Windows XP on the altar of innovation and to continue focusing entirely on Window Vista. The company stressed the fact that it would not be pulling the plug on the operating system, which would continue to benefit from extended support until 2014. Mainstream support will be retired in April 2009, while Extended support will be killed in April 2014.

"You may still see copies of the software—or computers pre-loaded with it—for months, as stores and PC makers work through their inventory. Also, smaller local PC makers—known in the industry as "system builders"—can continue to sell PCs with Windows XP until January 2009. Finally, Microsoft recently announced that computers with limited hardware capabilities—devices sometimes called Netbooks or ultra-low cost PCs (ULCPC)—can carry Windows XP Home until June 2010", Sweatt added.

source: news.softpedia.com

RomanS

06-16-2008, 10:56 PM

When it comes to performs issues xp is better than vista

Well, I use both. Vista gives the feeling of XP + Windowblinds, that's it.

RACERPRO

06-17-2008, 10:40 AM

The Windows XP era ends June 30 and soon hardware vendors will be shipping you all Vista all the time (in most cases).

The save XP effort failed. The whining should cease. And now it’s time for Vista to sink or swim.

Ina Fried has a good overview of where Windows XP will stand with PC manufacturers. And Matt Asay highlights a report from Evans Data noting that 92 percent of developers are ignoring Vista. Coupling these two items together and you come to one conclusion: Folks are skeptical about Vista, but a lot of that skepticism is because XP is still lingering.

If you’re a Vista complainer you have two options from here:

* Move away from Windows completely (users try a new OS and developers jump ship).
* Or shut up and go with Vista.

My hunch is most folks will do that latter. I’d love to believe that Microsoft’s Vista miscues would result in a mass exodus, but I doubt that will happen. I also wonder why people live in New Jersey and pay those ridiculous property taxes, but shockingly enough people stay. Based on my Libertarian leanings I’d reckon there would be four people left in Jersey by now.

But I digress. Once consumers no longer have the XP option they’ll fall in line with Vista. Sure some percentage will go Mac, but if you didn’t jump yet–after a gazillion brilliant Apple ads knocking Vista–you probably won’t. And the developer worries: Developers will fall in line too. Evans Data notes:

Only eight percent of North American software developers are currently writing applications to run on Microsoft’s Vista operating system, while half are still writing programs for XP, according to Evans Data’s Spring 2008, North American Development Survey. These same developers forecast a fragmented Windows market in 2009 with only 24 percent expecting to target Vista and 29% expecting to continue with XP.

“Developers have taken a wait and see approach to Vista”, said John Andrews, Evans Data’s President and CEO. “The new operating system has had more than its share of problems and the desire to move from XP on the Windows platform is still lagging - that coupled with interest in alternative operating systems is suppressing development activity and that in turn will further erode Vista’s acceptance.”

source: blogs.zdnet.com

RACERPRO

06-18-2008, 09:36 AM

Licenses for Windows come in various flavors from Retail to Volume, but perhaps the most common of all is provided by original equipment manufacturers together with operating systems preloaded on new computers.

Since over 80% of the revenues of the Windows Client Division come from sales of Windows on new machines, the OEM licenses are bound to represent the vast majority of EULAs. At the same time, the OEM End User License Agreement is the one offering the least amount of flexibility to customers because it irremediably ties Windows to the PC.

"The original OEM Windows licenses that ships with the PC is bound to that PC. So, if you buy a PC with an OEM Windows license, that OEM Windows license stays with that PC. If you sell the PC, you have sold the OEM Windows license with it. If you donate the PC, you donate the OEM Windows license with it. If you burn and destroy the PC, you burn and destroy the OEM Windows license with it," explained Eric Ligman, Microsoft US Senior Manager Small Business Community Engagement.

Ligman revealed that this situation is also valid for OEM Windows licenses on refurbished computers. As long as the motherboard of a refurbished PC is not changed, customers will not need a new OEM Windows Desktop Operating System license. Since the Windows copy is intimately connected with the PC's motherboard, the OEM license for the operating system will be valid for the refurbished computer as long as that critical hardware component stays in place.

"Just because you wipe the information clean off the hard drive before transferring the PC, it doesn't change the fact that the OEM Windows license stays with it. Because of this, yes, you certainly can reload the original OEM Windows CD back onto the PC since the OEM Windows license is tied to it anyway. Just be sure that when you transfer the PC to the new owner that you also transfer all of the OEM Proof of license components with it as well," Ligman added.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

06-19-2008, 09:21 AM

As I noted in the first installment of this series, some of my favorite productivity-enhancing techniques don’t involve custom code or registry edits.

Instead, they involve learning how the basic building blocks of Windows work, and then rearranging those components to cut steps out of the tasks you perform most often.

In today’s installment of this two-part series, I share some of my favorite tweaks for getting maximum mileage out of Windows Search. I also explain the inner workings of volume shadow copies and how you can make better use of these automatic backups with System Restore and the Previous Versions feature. I show how to get quick access to your local and network data files by combining shortcuts in a single, easy-to-reach location, and I explain why hybrid sleep should be the default on every desktop PC.

Just as in last week’s edition, each tweak gets its own page in this post. I’ve also put together a gallery of instructions, each one annotated with step-by-step instructions so you can follow along. The two pieces are a matched set for each entry in the list; if you look only at the text or only at the gallery, you’re missing the complete picture.

Here’s a quick list of what’s in part 2:

6. Save your favorite searches
The Start menu search box works just fine for quick, ad hoc searches. To really tap into the power of Windows Search, though, spend a little time to create searches that bring together the types of files you use most often (Word documents modified this month or last month, e-mail messages from Fred or Rick, and so on). Then save those searches so you can reuse them later or copy them to another computer.

7. Fine-tune your search settings
Speaking of Windows Search, did you know that there are three separate areas where you can tweak settings that control search behavior? Use these tweaks to make Start menu searches more useful, simplify the complicated advanced search syntax, and add IFilters to search inside types of files that aren’t supported by a default Vista installation.

8. Make the most of System Restore and shadow copies
Did you know that System Restore in XP and Vista use completely different techniques to save snapshots of data? In this tweak, I explain why you might want to increase the amount of space set aside for volume shadow copies. I also introduce a free utility that lets users of Windows Vista home editions find and restore files from automatically created backups.

9. Bring network files closer
The fastest way to get to files in any network location is via a shortcut. And the best place to save those shortcuts to network locations is in the Computer window. You can add shortcuts to shared folders, FTP sites, or websites where you publish files. Here’s how.

10. Master power management
In XP, you have standby and hibernate. Vista adds a third power state, called hybrid sleep. Here’s what you need to know and how you can tune a desktop system to take advantage of this useful mode.

source: blogs.zdnet.com

RACERPRO

06-20-2008, 01:28 AM

Over the past six months, many individuals have downloaded early, unauthorized Windows 7 test builds that have leaked from Microsoft since late last year (the 6519 series).

They’ve been looking for clues — any clues — about some of the new bits that will be part of the next version of Windows client, expected out in late 2009 or so.

But one potential new Windows 7 feature about which I haven’t seen a whole lot of speculation is something called “Windows Sensors.” (See the screen shot above from an early Windows 7 build sent to me by a tester who asked not to be identified.)

What are these mysterious Windows Sensors mentioned under the “Hardware and Sound” category in the Windows 7 Control Panel — alongside Windows SideShow, Tablet PC settings and game controllers? Are they the kinds of sensors that will enable the new and improved multi-touch/gesture recognition that Microsoft has confirmed will be one of the new features in Windows 7? (Monitor vendor Albatron recently demonstrated a forthcoming LCD monitor that incorporates sensors required for multi-touch.)

Makes sense (no pun intended), but perhaps there’s something more in the works. Look at screen shot above. This is a “Learn About Using Windows Sensors” screen from the same early Windows 7 build. “Programs on your computer can communicate with your Windows-compatible sensors,” it says. It calls out “Windows Media Player” and “Inbox — Windows Mail” as sub-categories here. And it offers users the option of being notified “when compatible programs and sensors are installed.” Does this simply mean that Windows Media Player and Windows Mail are examples of applets that will be able to take advantage of multi-touch?

Perhaps there’s more going on here and Windows Sensors will be the next version of Plug and Play — a way for Windows to automatically “sense” what kinds of peripherals or devices can/should be automatically connected and synced. Sensors are also key to home-automation systems. Could Windows 7 be the control hub for users’ fridges, stoves and home-security systems, via Windows Sensors?

source: blogs.zdnet.com

diwan

06-21-2008, 06:37 AM

My problem is why people don´t like vista!

What are your reasons for not liking vista?

In the past lots of people have problems with others softwares (windows, linux that i use at my work and it´s the most problematic software that i ever find to use, mac software problems in security the double of xp and vista together), so why people don´t like vista?

One of the biggest reasons why I didn't like Vista is because of the compability issues with programs that I use daily, like 3dsMax, Maya and Adobe Photoshop. It just doesn't work as smoothly as it does with XP. Especially as I run overclocked CPU, vista really doesn't like that. Lots of hangups, even blue screen, and the fact that you can't install vista while having 4gb ram is just stupid in my oppinion.

RACERPRO

06-21-2008, 12:49 PM

Installing Windows 7 Milestone 1 Build 6519 provides an experience almost identical to that of Windows Vista with the exception of a quite different finish.

In this context, Windows 7 M1 gives the impression of something that Microsoft just threw together rather than a fully-fledged development milestone for the next version of the Windows client. Leaked details related to Windows 7 Build 6519 spawned observations that the version was too similar to Windows Vista for comfort. Now, make no mistake about it, Windows 7 M1 is no Vista, but at the same time the similarities cannot be denied.

The installation experience starts with a standard Windows Vista screen which permits the user to select the language of the operating system, the keyboard input, and the time format. Even the installing instructions mention Windows Vista exclusively. So does the Install/Repair screen that comes next and the Product Key dialog box. And just as in Vista, this part of the installation process can be circumvented.

Users can deploy Windows 7 without entering a product key, but they will be promoted to select an edition of the platform. Here it is all Vista, including Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate. The Windows Vista N editions are also present. But no Windows 7 option whatsoever. In fact, the first mention of Windows 7 comes via the Microsoft Pre-Release Software License. This document is the first clue throughout the deployment process that users are actually installing Windows 7 and not Vista.

The installation will continue just as in Vista with the options of an Upgrade or a Clean install. The Windows 7 files will be copied, expanded, features and updates installed, the devices will be configured, and users will be promoted to set up accounts and passwords, choose a computer name, update mode, time zone and network connection. Next, the logon screen will say Windows 7 Ultimate, provided that the user has chosen the Ultimate SKU of the operating system to install.

source: news.softpedia.com

colinzim

06-22-2008, 06:37 AM

I run Vista Business 32 Bit. I used to run XP.
Vista runs great, I have no crashes, the interface is better and XP got boring (2002?).
I never did like XP MCE so the Utlimate and Home Premium are useless to me.
I built a new computer to run it !
XP might be faster machine wise but Vista's interface is faster to use. I recently installed Windows 7 M1 and can't
wait for Tabbed Browsing for Explorer ! < that should have been in Vista.
If you want speed from Microsoft run Windows 2000 Pro - runs like a jet in a Quad
PC
ASUS P5K SE Mainboard
Intel Q6600 CPU running at 1333 MHZ
4 GB Corsair Terminator RAM
WD Raptor 10000 RPM HD
nVidia 8600 GT (256 mb)

RACERPRO

06-23-2008, 02:57 AM

Microsoft may not be willing to let Apple have the last word about Windows Vista, after all.

According to a June 20 Fortune Magazine article, Microsoft has earmarked “an additional $200 million for Windows advertising this year, even though in nonlaunch years thre is typically no budget increase at all.” It sounds as though this is in addition to the $300 million Microsoft already has agreed to spend with Crispin Porter + Bogusky to improve the company’s overall image and brand.

Fortune explains Microsoft’s image makeover plan, codenamed “FTP168? (with FTP being “Free the People”):

“A year ago Ballmer okayed the effort, led by Bill Veghte, who is responsible for both Windows and search. He partnered with marketing boss Mich Mathews, then the two recruited an all-star team from across the company - the best experts at branding, packaging, online advertising, and other specialties….

“The aim of the campaign will be to talk about things you can do with your PC that you could never do before.”

At the same time, over the next 18 months, Microsoft is planning to focus on the synergies of three different Microsoft lines — Windows client, Windows Mobile and Windows Live. Microsoft is going to make sure users know that all three of these are Windows in its various guises. From the article:

“Aside from the flagship Windows 7, which will succeed Vista for PCs, the company will launch a new version of Windows Mobile as well as a new version of the services known as Windows Live. For the first time, they’re going to be promoted as aspects of the same thing.”

Microsoft already is stepping up its campaign to more tightly integrate Windows 7 with Windows Live services — its Web-based mail, instant-messaging, security, photo-management and more. And Microsoft Chairman Gates recently played up the fact that Microsoft plans to make Windows client more tightly aligned with Windows Mobile.

source: blogs.zdnet.com

shah17

06-23-2008, 09:46 AM

Many peaple choose vista jst bcoz of the look it has... Transperent UI has blind the peaple who don't have an good IT exposure. Vista don't support most of software we use...

petar

06-23-2008, 12:07 PM

From my point of view people who says that XP is better than Vista usualy never have tryed Vista or have been using it just for a week or a month.
And they always say I dont like Vista, with no facts to suport their claims.
All they say is that XP runs faster.
But they dont take in mind that XP was first designed to run on a machines that require less resources than Vista.
So when they install Vista on a computer designed to run XP, it i normal that Vista will be slower.
To that calim, I'm usualy replyingg with the question:
Why dont you install windows 3.0, it runs much faster than XP, dont it ?
And their response to this is, that XP has much more features than 3.0, so the only logical response from my side is that Vista has more features than XP.
and so on and so on...

Till now I only had one BSOD and I'm using Vitsa for 1 year.
And about the BSOD, it was my fault.
I've accidentaly shortent two wires on the LAN card...LOL...:o
Like others that said it before me, I will say the same..
Any OS is like a child, if you dont care about it, dont expect much from it..:cool:

I'm also hardly waiting to see Windows 7....:D

RACERPRO

06-24-2008, 02:54 AM

Windows Vista is by no means a failure, nor is it a lost battle, as Microsoft is fighting the Service Pack 1 crusade opening new fronts against both itself and rival companies.

Having RTM'd Vista SP1 on February 4, 2008, and then released it to the general public in March and April, the Redmond company has essentially breathed new life into its latest Windows client and it's willing to do everything it takes to convince end users to give the operating system at least a second look of not a new try. Furthermore, Microsoft indicated that it was ready to go beyond the traditional lines of marketing campaigns that spawned the Wow.

In fact, the software giant has made a number of moves designed to benefit Windows Vista. In early June, Christopher Flores, Director Windows Communications pointed out the release of a new whitepaper set up to reveal the business value of Vista SP1. While indeed parading Vista SP1 to customers, Microsoft also slaughters Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 as viable alternatives. With over 150 million licenses sold worldwide to date Vista is faring rather well, but this is not stopping Microsoft from virtually eating its young in order to increase sales.

In this context, the company is also pushing hard new marketing campaigns, coughing up no less than a reported $500 million, which is the unconfirmed sum that it paid for the Vista Wow. Fast Company revealed that the Redmond giant would pay ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky $300 million for a campaign and another $200 million just for Windows advertising until the end of 2008, according to Fortune Magazine. Speculations indicate that Microsoft is hard at work on an antidote to Apple's Get a Mac ads which have hurt both the Microsoft brand and Windows Vista.

But one thing that Microsoft has clearly done in favor of Windows Vista was to kill Windows XP sales through the retail and OEM channels for good starting on June 30. XP was so far the biggest impediment in terms of Windows Vista adoption and Microsoft has surgically removed it from the store shelves as well as from new OEM computers. The only Windows client selling on new machines, with the exception of ultra-low-cost mobiles and desktop computers, is Windows Vista SP1.

And if all this is not enough to convince users, the Microsoft Virtual Labs is also hosting a Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 test drive, offering a free taste of the operating system online. It is safe to conclude that Microsoft is on the offensive. Armed with SP1 the company is pushing Vista left and right and all the apparently disparate actions related to the Windows client slowly come together in a puzzle that reveals a common vision.

source: news.softpedia.com

westmassguy

06-24-2008, 03:08 AM

But one thing that Microsoft has clearly done in favor of Windows Vista was to kill Windows XP sales through the retail and OEM channels for good starting on June 30. XP was so far the biggest impediment in terms of Windows Vista adoption and Microsoft has surgically removed it from the store shelves as well as from new OEM computers. The only Windows client selling on new machines, with the exception of ultra-low-cost mobiles and desktop computers, is Windows Vista SP1.
source: news.softpedia.com

LOL, the only way Microsoft could stop people from buying and or deploying XP is to "surgically remove it" and force Vista aka ME II down our throats.

RACERPRO

06-24-2008, 10:41 AM

Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 have quite a healthy playground at their disposal, no less than 1 billion PCs worldwide.

According to market analyst firm Gartner, the number of computers in use worldwide has passed the 1 billion milestone. The company emphasized having taken into consideration only the installed base of PCs and not the units that are shipping. But while Windows XP and Windows Vista, with their respective service packs account for the lion's share of the 1 billion PCs, the two operating systems will survive to see computers hit the 2 billion mark well together with Windows 7 in 2014.

George Shiffler, research director at Gartner, revealed that there is a lack of balance between the developed and developing worlds. In this regard, 15% of the world's population in developed markets account for 58% of the computers installed globally, while emerging markets make up for the rest. "There’s a startling difference in per capita PC penetration between mature and emerging markets. Of course, much of this difference reflects the disparity in average living standards between mature and emerging markets. But, rapid economic development across emerging markets is not only narrowing the disparity in average living standards, it's closing the difference in per capita PC penetration between mature and emerging markets," Shiffler said.

Still, Gartner predicts that the largest growth for installed PCs worldwide will take place into emerging markets over the next six years. The company forecasts that by 2014, the per capita PC penetration in the developing world will double. In fact, even at this point in time, emerging markets are the factor responsible for the fueling of double-digit PC growth worldwide. This tendency will only accentuate with the continuous drop in PC average selling prices.

Both Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista SP1, along with future Windows operating system from Windows 7 onward, will still be around in 2014 when the installed base for PCs will go over 2 billion units. In fact, extended support for XP SP3 is not scheduled to expire until April 2014, and Microsoft is bound to prolong support for Vista past this milestone, although the latest Windows client will no longer be at SP1 stage at that point in time, having hit at least SP2, if not even SP3. For XP however, SP3 is the latest service pack that Microsoft will ever release. According to the Redmond company's Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, Windows 7 is planned for availability in late 2009.

"Emerging market governments are also increasingly committed to reducing the digital divide by promoting PC use among their citizens through a variety of means, including providing PCs directly to the less affluent, "added Luis Anavitarte, research vice president at Gartner. "Whereas mature markets accounted for just under 60 percent of the first billion installed PCs, we expect emerging markets to account for approximately 70 percent of the next billion installed PCs."

source: news.softpedia.com

bla

06-25-2008, 02:52 AM

:D Intel won't touch Vista:rolleyes:

Too broken to deploy

look here (http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/06/23/intel-dumps-vista)

ACCORDING TO A memo circulating a few weeks ago, it looks like Intel is taking a wise decision and avoiding the Broken OS entirely. Yes, Intel is not going to use Vista on its corporate machines... ever.

When a company as tech savvy as Intel, with full source code access and having written several large chunks of the OS, says get stuffed, you know you have a problem. Well, everyone knows MS has a problem, but it is nice to see it codified in such a black and white way though. Reassuring, like a warm cup of tea, or a public kick to the corporate crown jewels.

The real question is what are they going to use? The official answer is 'nothing yet', the one where they try not to offend is 'likely Windows 7', delivered with a pained smile. Since that is shaping up to be Me II SP1a, I am not sure Intel will bite there either unless they suddenly develop a GPU that can run it in that time frame.

So that leaves two other choices, Linux and Mac. Linux is a distinct possibility, they already have an in-house distro that causes employees look nervously around the room when you talk about it. Although it is not a desktop variant, there is no reason that they could not roll one given two years.

The other one is the big white horse in the corner, Mac OS. If there was ever a company that is loyal to Intel, it is Apple. If there was ever a company that could make MacOS work internally, it is Intel. While any marriage with the turtlenecked sociopath is a match made in hell, don't count this one out either.

In the end, you have Intel flipping MS the bird, and telling them what they already know, Vista in undeployable by anyone with a grain of common sense. The impressive thing is that it just might lead to a waving off of MS entirely, they are the underdog for the next round of upgrades.

I told you so. µ

RACERPRO

06-26-2008, 01:53 AM

A reliability and performance update is available for download for Windows Vista Service Pack 1. This specific release targets all Windows Vista editions, provided that they have the first service pack integrated.

The update comes with the promise of improving the performance and reliability of the gold version of Vista SP1, and is not addressed at the RTM SKUs of the latest Windows client. Two updates are up for grabs for both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista SP1. "This update resolves issues that may affect some Windows Vista SP1-based computers. These issues have been reported by customers who use the Error Reporting service or Microsoft Customer Support Services," Microsoft informed.

The Redmond company softened all the rough corners of the RTM build of Vista, including problems related to stability and speed. However, while some issues survived, others were introduced specifically by SP1. The current update is designed to tackle performance, responsiveness, and reliability issues affecting Vista SP1 in a variety of scenarios. At the bottom of this article, you will find the complete list of improvements that the update will deliver to Windows Vista.

The Vista SP1 reliability and performance update signals that a practice started with Vista RTM is turning into a tradition for Microsoft. When SP1 was in the early stages of development, the Redmond giant started serving bits and pieces of the service pack for Vista RTM as performance, reliability, and compatibility releases through Windows Update and the Download Center. The end purpose is, of course, to decrease the level of reliance on service packs, and put the Windows Update infrastructure into the limelight.

The advantage of WU over service pack releases is that end users get much more rapidly resolves and enhancements for their operating system. As far as Microsoft is concerned, the evolution of Windows platforms in sips rather than in big gulps is preferred due to the flexibility it introduces, along with the obvious benefits for users. Still, the dependency on service packs in corporate environments is a factor which will continue to force Microsoft to focus on service pack releases, even though the company is slowly moving Windows Update to the centerstage.

According to Microsoft, "this update includes the following improvements on a Windows Vista SP1-based computer:

• This update improves the stability of Windows Vista SP1-based computers by addressing some crashes that may occur when you try to check e-mail by using a POP3 e-mail client such as Windows Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird. The crashes may occur on a Windows Vista SP1-based computer in the following scenario incoming POP3 and outgoing SMTP traffic monitoring is enabled.

• Both a third-party antivirus application and an antispyware application are installed, such as the following applications: ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite by Check Point Software Technologies and SpySweeper by Webroot Software.

• This update improves the reliability of the Windows Vista SP1 based-computers by addressing some problems that occur when you delete user accounts by using the User Accounts item in Control Panel. When this problem occurs, the system may stop responding (hang).

• This update improves the reliability of Windows Vista SP1-based computers that experience issues in which large applications cannot run after the computer is turned on for extended periods of time. For example, when you try to start Excel 2007 after the computer is turned on for extended periods of time, a user may receive an error message that resembles the following: EXCEL.EXE is not a valid Win32 application

• This update improves the reliability of Windows Vista SP1-based computers by reducing the number of crashes that may be caused by the Apple QuickTime thumbnail preview in Windows Live Photo Gallery.

• This update improves the performance of Windows Vista SP1-based computers by reducing audio and video (AV) stuttering. Such AV stuttering may occur when the audio or video component is streaming high definition content from a Windows Vista SP1-based computer that has a NVIDIA network adapter nForce driver version 67.5.4.0 that is installed to a Windows Media Center Extender device."

RACERPRO

06-28-2008, 02:19 AM

I love analysts. Whether it's predicting tomorrow's next big thing or sounding the death knell for yesterday's industry pacesetter, analysts never run out of new ways to get it wrong.

Case in point: Windows Vista and the "app gap." According to Evans Data Corporation (EDC), less than 10 percent of developers are writing for Microsoft's current state of the art. The majority (49 percent) are still writing for XP, while a small, but growing, contingent (13 percent) are focusing on Linux. Meanwhile, the myriad major media outlets continue to decry the lack of new Vista applications. "It's the OS that nobody wants," they say, and developers are "reacting accordingly."

Of course, they're wrong. Again.

You see, there's no such thing as a Vista application. Just like there's no such thing as an XP application. Or a Windows 2000 application. Developers who write for Windows rarely target a specific version. Rather, they select a particular API framework -- for example, MFC/ATL or .Net -- and proceed from there. Whether or not the resulting application runs on a given Windows version depends on what, if any, version-specific API extensions the developer employs in their project.

For the majority of application types, this is a nonissue: They use the generic API functions, which allows them to run across any version of Windows that supports that framework. And since Microsoft does a good job of back-porting new frameworks to its legacy OS platforms, developers are rarely faced with a choice between rich API functionality or a broad installed base (the notable exception being video game developers, for whom leveraging DirectX 10 means committing to Vista).

So the entire Vista "app gap" argument is a bit of a straw man. The real question should be: Why aren't developers leveraging the various iterations of the .Net framework? As anyone who follows Microsoft's development road map will attest, most of the company's cutting-edge API evolution is taking place within .Net. In fact, when the "experts" talk about new programmatic resources in Vista -- Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), and so on -- they're really talking about the .Net framework 3.0. And since .Net 3.0 is available on down-level platforms (such as Windows XP), the argument circles back around to a question of .Net acceptance among developers -- and why they have (so far) shunned it.

The answer is twofold: First, developers don't like to target APIs that aren't broadly available across the installed base. Despite Microsoft's aggressive support of down-level versions, there's still a big difference between "available" and "available after downloading 20MB-plus of complex libraries and having them installed across various parts of your system." The fact of the matter is that .Net doesn't ship as part of Windows XP, and that means that developers need to convince users to first install the required version of the .Net framework before they can install a piece of software -- not always an easy sell, especially in the locked-down world of enterprise IT.

As the first OS to ship with the .Net framework installed by default, Vista was supposed to encourage development of .Net 3.0 applications. However, since it also supports legacy Win32, COM, ATL, MFC, and down-level .Net framework applications, there's no real shortage of Vista programs. In fact, unless you've just got to have that latest and greatest WPF/WCF framework functionality, there's little to motivate you, the developer, to make the jump to .Net 3.0, or even 2.0. Assuming you don't bump into the User Account Control (UAC) mechanism, your "legacy" Windows application probably looks and works great under Vista as is. I know, because that was the case with my own code: A few tweaks to accommodate UAC (mostly shifting some temporary files away from newly protect directory structures) and my applications and services were running like champs under Vista -- just like they do under Windows XP, Server 2003, and Windows 2000. Why fix it when it ain't broke?

source: weblog.infoworld.com

RACERPRO

06-29-2008, 11:52 PM

Get ready for a unique source of information focused exclusively on the next iteration of the Windows client.

Microsoft might be mute on Windows 7 now, under the new transparency policy imposed by Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, but the situation will not last. The successor of Windows Vista is right on the verge of getting its own online outlet, namely the Windows 7 blog. It appears that Microsoft is continuing the model of its current Windows client which has enjoyed the benefits delivered via the Windows Vista blog since April 2006.

Details are scarce at this point in time. Microsoft has failed to indicate a deadline for when the Windows 7 blog will go live. But also, most importantly, the company has yet to disclose the actual name of the Windows 7 blog. This because Windows 7 is just the product number, or codename if you will, of the next version of Windows, but not the actual name of Vista's successor. As Windows 7 will evolve through development stages, Microsoft will undoubtedly drop the label based on the product number. In this context, the Windows 7 blog will feature the full name of the operating system.

The Windows Vista blog went live almost a year ahead of the general availability date of the platform. With Sinofsky gagging all Windows 7 details almost to perfection, the blog for the next release of Windows could take a while before it will be made available, most likely very close to the finalization/launch of the platform. Chances are that the Redmond company will grab an entirely new domain as compared to the one hosting the Vista blog which is "windowsvistablog.com," and not stick the Windows 7 blog content under what is available now.

Microsoft is also looking for the right Public Relations Manager to "be an instrumental part of a team that will introduce the world to Windows 7," according to the company, which adds that he/she will "be responsible for developing and managing the execution of the Windows community and blogosphere outreach plans including Web content, community events, and the Windows 7 blog."

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

07-09-2008, 11:42 AM

Windows 7, the successor of Windows Vista, but also of Windows Server 2008, in the form of Windows 7 Server, had been under development over at Microsoft under the lead of Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group since 2007.

At the end of 2007, the Redmond company made available Windows 7 Milestone 1 to a select group of partners. However, under Sinofsky, translucency is the new communications policy of the Windows team, and little details are indeed made public, or even leaked. This is why there are aspects of the next iteration of Windows which fail to be in conformity with the little transparency Microsoft did manage to offer on Windows 7.

1. The Windows 7 Kernel – After it played hide and seek with the MinWin kernel, Microsoft has managed to create a consistent level of confusion related to the core of Vista's successor. It seems to be unclear whether Windows 7 will feature MinWin, or a new kernel, or the same old kernel as Windows Vista. Well, it's rather simple. First off, there was never talk of a completely new, built from scratch kernel. And MinWin wasn't really the kernel, but the core of Windows 7. Which essentially means that Microsoft has taken the existing kernel plus a series of core components and worked to slim them down.

What the Redmond giant is doing is mainly to continue the evolution of Windows Server 2008, as far as the core of the operating system is concerned. The core of Vista's successor is an evolution of what is available today, and is a new major version of the kernel, hence the Windows 7 label. And yes, Windows Vista was the sixth version of Windows, but Microsoft is only counting from kernel version to kernel version and not from one Windows release to the other.

2. The Myth of the Complete Overhaul - Some want Windows 7 to be written from scratch, arguing that Microsoft needs to flush down Vista, Windows XP, and all past Windows versions, and start over. Such a scenario is argued to be the sole solution to save Microsoft. And at the same time this is impossible. Windows 7 will not be built from scratch because it simply can't be. Windows Vista had serious problems when it came down to application and hardware incompatibility and lack of driver support.

Now imagine a brand new and shiny Windows 7, with no connection to any previous versions of Windows. Nothing would work. Nothing! Not your programs, not your hardware, nothing. The truth is that neither Microsoft, nor the environment of hardware and software developers depending on the Windows as a platform, and not even end users can afford, or are ready to deal with a complete overhaul.

3. Windows Vista R2 - Because of the fact that Microsoft has indicated that Windows 7 would be using Vista as its foundation, critics have already started to emerge labeling it Windows Vista Release 2. No one, with the exception of Sinofsky of course and the Windows project, knows what Windows 7 will end up as. To jump the gun and start throwing dirt at it even before the first beta is on the horizon is simply an indication of people waiting for Microsoft to fail. And although the company did not disappoint them in the past, criticism should be postponed until a palpable build of Windows 7 hits.

4. One SKU to Rule Them All - There is increasing feedback pointing to the need for Microsoft to simplify the edition bonanza of Windows 7, and to avoid offering the same SKU richness as it did with Windows Vista. Windows Vista Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, Ultimate are just the start of it. There are also N variants for Europe and upgrade packages. However, the Redmond company knows that a single SKU is not the way to go. While simplification is indeed necessary, copying the Mac OS X model is not the right solution to offer a balance to both home and business users. And even with Windows Vista, all SKUs ship on a single install media, but the actual installation is governed by the license key.

5. The Silence is Deafening - The latest misunderstood aspect is on the other side of the barricade, so to speak. The silence around Windows 7 is deafening. Sure enough, Microsoft did manage to offer a few details about the touch computing capabilities coming, and is bound to share more at PDC2008 - Professional Developers Conference between October 27-30, 2008. But Microsoft needs to understand that while saying too much about Windows Vista has hurt that release, saying nothing about Windows 7 will hurt this one. And after Vista, I'm not sure if the company can afford another slip...

RACERPRO

07-10-2008, 09:01 PM

Introduction

With 90% of the consumer desktops running it, Microsoft Windows is the de facto standard operating system. Love it or hate it, it's what most of us have to work with every day. So when MS decides to introduce a new version of Windows to the market, there's an understandable uproar. Converting your system to run with the new version can introduce headaches, from things as minor as rearranging desktop icons to showstoppers like major application incompatibility. Historically, the improvements to Windows with each successive version have been worth the hassle—Windows ME notwithstanding. With this latest transition, however, many people have been asking whether it really is worth the trouble to upgrade. To answer that question, here's a head- to-head comparison between the current incumbent, Windows XP, and the newly arrived successor, Windows Vista.

You may be wondering, why make this comparison now? With the recent release of Service Pack 1 for Vista, the new Windows has more or less settled into its permanent form, giving us a chance to realistically compare the two systems on their own merits. Comparing Vista to XP in the first months of its release was not a valid measure of their relative merits, as many issues not under MS's control were causing Vista to misbehave. Now though, issues relating to driver support, third-party vendor foul-ups, and other such teething issues have been mostly resolved.

For clarity's sake, this comparison will be broken up by topic, covering each of the major functions that a modern operating system is expected to fulfill. Following that, there will be a list of any miscellaneous issues for each OS that weren't covered in the general overview. So, let's crack open the crypt, and see what shambling horrors emerge!

Look and Feel

One of the first things people notice about an operating system is how it presents itself. As much as people might like to say they don't care, appearance does effect our perception of how a system works. More than just graphical style though, look and feel is also about the responsiveness of the system. How fast do menus open when I click on them? Am I getting enough feedback on what the system is doing when it's busy? Does the system present me with the information I need in a useful manner? All of these are questions that are important to look and feel.

Windows XP's Luna interface was criticized by many as having a childish, toy-like look. The conspicuous use of bright blues and greens throughout the interface was a radical departure from MS's historically staid black on gray interface. Colors aside, though, the use of large blocky buttons and oversized icons lent XP a somewhat childish look. This was not helped any by the addition of search avatars that looked more appropriate to a saturday morning cartoon show.

Even so, XP's interface offered real improvements in usability. The addition of thumbnail and gallery view modes to the Explorer file manager meant that finding a single image in a folder of hundreds was no longer a mind-numbing chore. The Start menu also saw improvements, with links to the most commonly used folders added, as well as an automatically updated list of the most frequently used programs.

Windows Vista sought to avoid the "tinkertoys" image that XP had garnered, and consequently, Vista's Aero interface is dominated by glossy buttons and smoked glass. The conspicuous use of transparency in many interface elements is æsthetically appealing, though it can lead to some confusion on a busy desktop with a dozen or more windows open at once. The inbuilt search bar on the Start menu is a nice touch, although the use of cascading slide-over menus in the Programs submenu can be confusing at times. Improvements to the Explorer file manager include the use of breadcrumb-style navigation in the address bar, which speeds up navigation without need to resort to the folder tree side pane.

Performance and Functionality

Historically, every version of Windows has had more overhead than the last, requiring a more powerful machine to run than the one before. Traditionally, this has been offset by improved functionality; each version adds its own bells and whistles that—hopefully—make life more convenient. What improvements, then, did XP and Vista each bring to the user experience?

XP's main improvement to the user experience was stability. The version it replaced in the consumer market—Windows ME—was widely reviled as the most unstable version of Windows yet. By switching over from the aging Win9x kernel to the newer and more stable Win NT 5 kernel, Windows XP eliminated a lot of the crashes and DLL Hell issues that had plagued users before. Driver rollback gave users the much-needed ability to revert back to an older version of a given driver, if the update did not produce the desired results. The addition of sub-pixel font rendering, known as ClearType in MS jargon, greatly improved the readability of text on LCD-based displays. DirectX 7 (and later DX9) greatly improved 3D graphics quality and performance. With Service Pack 2, XP also got improved integration with anti-virus and anti-spam software, as well as a fully functional software firewall. These changes were more evolutionary than revolutionary, but as a whole they served to make XP a more stable platform than its predecessors.

Vista brought a number of changes, both in end-user functionality and in "under the hood" functionality changes, among which are: newer versions of Internet Explorer and Windows Media player, and improved search functionality. Expanded speech recognition and text-to-speech functionality, improvements to memory management and process handling, and a whole new screen rendering framework were also included. The new Vista Desktop Window Manager replaces the older GDI screen-drawing interface altogether, effectively treating the screen as a 3d image. This allows for smoother screen-drawing, as well as amusing visual tricks like live thumbnails of minimized windows, Flip 3D, and using video files as desktop wallpaper. Windows Gadgets—mini programs that live on the desktop—give the user at-a-glance info, and make the desktop useful as more than a place to plop down a bunch of shortcut icons. Overall, Vista brings a number of badly-needed improvements to how Windows functions in day-to-day life.

Problems

Warts. Lumps. Flaws. Call them what you will, every OS has its defects, the places where it stumbles, comes up short, or just plain fails to deliver. XP and Vista both have a lot to recommend them, but they also have their fair share of problems.

XP's main faults centered around security. Being the first consumer-grade Windows version to be based on the NT kernel, XP had a combination of questionable security practices and powerful networking features that made it an irresistible target for malware authors. Prior to Service Pack 2, a Windows XP machine would find itself irretrievably compromised within minutes of being connected to an unprotected internet connection. The default behavior of giving new user accounts Administrator privileges only compounded this, and the severe crippling of non-admin user accounts meant that even conscientious users couldn't do much to proactively limit the damage. Service Pack 2 did much to fix this, by fixing the previously unusable Windows Firewall, and adding prominent notifications when anti-virus programs were missing or out-of-date. Even so, users can still find themselves horribly compromised with little-to-no warning, and frequent reinstalls are a depressingly common remedy to the numerous infections.

Much of Vista's early criticism has centered around stability, rather than security. The introduction of a new driver model, as well as heavy DRM provisions, served to bring back the sort of instability and frequent crashes that many users had hoped were left behind with WinME. Much of this has since been fixed, as hardware manufacturers have become more familiar with the new driver model, but issues with stability remain, especially when legacy WinXP drivers must be used to maintain compatibility with older hardware.

A problem that has not gone away, though, is Vista's new privilege management system, known as User Account Control. To be fair, it does allow for more flexibility in privilege escalation, letting people run as limited users most of the time without too much difficulty. The problem lies in its implementation. Constant, persistent, annoying nag boxes pop up whenever you do anything that requires privilege escalation. This escalation, by the way, is required for not only actions taken by third party programs, but for many things within Windows itself, including a fair portion of the Control Panel. An operation as simple as copying files from one user to another can generate UAC prompts for every copy and move operation, as well as for opening folders and subfolders.

One criticism common to both is the use of product activation, known in MS jargon as Windows Genuine Advantage. Intended to combat piracy, WGA serves mainly to frustrate and punish users who purchased their copies of Windows legitimately. An inventory of a system's hardware is done at install, and thereafter, every time a significant change is made—i.e. one you have to open the case for—the user is required to re-activate Windows. This activation process should, in theory, be easily done over the internet, but it often fails due to internet connectivity issues, corrupted hardware indices, or any number of other unknown issues. Additionally, if the number of significant changes passes a certain threshold, the user is required to call Microsoft and spend time groveling to a customer disservice lackey in order to get a new product key. Ironically, though, this does little to impede those who would obtain their copies of Windows illegitimately. WGA cracks, keygens, and other bypass mechanisms are plentiful and easily obtained, and frequently used. In all, the main accomplishment of WGA seems to be the continued alienation of MS's primary customer base.

Conclusion

So, the question remains, which is better, XP or Vista? The answer is: it depends. Aside from a few easily-forgettable games from Microsoft Game Studios, there are no games that require Vista to run. Older programs, on the other hand, can sometimes misbehave or outright fail to function in Vista, due either to bad coding practices on the part of the application writers, or irregularities in the backwards-compatibility modules of Vista itself. Unless you run into one of these edge cases, however, the choice boils down to cost vs. benefit. Vista offers improved æsthetics and a more featureful user interface, at the cost of increased overhead, occasional glitches, and in the case of laptops, somewhat reduced battery life. XP offers the broadest compatibility with older hardware and programs, but still suffers from all the old complaints. In the end, it's up to you to decide.

TechwareLabs published review

RACERPRO

07-13-2008, 02:53 AM

Can users handle the truth about Windows Vista? Now with Service Pack 1 in its arsenal, Microsoft is ready to prove that they can. Or, at least, its own version of the Vista SP1 truth.

Microsoft is on a mission. A mission to salvage what little is left of the latest Windows client, although admission of such a scenario will never come from the company. There are, of course, inherent questions as to why the software giant is reacting so late to spreading the Vista gospel. What is clear in this context is that Microsoft's truth about Vista failed to correspond to the reality of the operating system before SP1. While its was poorly marketed as a Wow in performance, security, reliability, compatibility and stability, Vista revealed its true face to consumers, moving slower than XP in common scenarios and being plagued by software and hardware incompatibility problems.

Loyal to the saying "better late than never," Microsoft did react, first with the evolution delivered by SP1 and more recent with the Vista-centric performance at the Worldwide Partner Conference 2008. "[A] major theme is around Windows Vista deployment. You'll hear from Brad Brooks about where we are. It's time for us to bust through the mist. We've got to bust through the mist with you first, because you're out there with our customers. You must be running our software first, so that you can be credible and honest in front of our customers. You also have to be supported on the back end. So I think our goal today with you is to bust through the mist on Windows Vista," stated Allison Watson, Corporate Vice President, Worldwide Partner Group, Microsoft.

It fell on Brad Brooks, Corporate Vice President, Windows Consumer Product Marketing, to bring the truth about Windows Vista to the public. In this regard, the mission was to dispel the myths about Windows Vista. Myths circulating at the level of common consumer perception in the marketplace. Still, Microsoft is ready to bet big that the real story of the operating system is different from the image of a handicapped product built by Apple's constant mockery with the Get a Mac ads.

Microsoft, Do Blame Microsoft!
Microsoft simply cannot throw the blame on anyone else but itself. The reason is rather simple and Brooks said it out loud and clear: "We've been quiet about it." It appears that the new translucency policies set in place by Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group for Windows 7, are contagious and they spread to Vista too. Microsoft simply sat back and took everything that was thrown at the latest Windows client. The company failed to react in any manner to Apple's Get a Mac ads that trashed Vista and made it an item synonymous with a perfect victim for ridicule, irony, sarcasm and so on and so forth. However, at the same time, a much needed wake up call seems to have taken Microsoft out of its lethargy. I just hope that it will not be a repeat of the Wow...

Vista Some Things Broken – a Lot of Things Broken
"And let's start that story, the real story, at the beginning, with the creation of Windows Vista. We had an ambitious plan. We made some significant investments around security in this product. And you know what, those investments, they broke some things. They broke a lot of things. We know that. And we know it caused you a lot of pain in front of your customers, in front of our customers. And it got a lot of customers thinking, and even yourselves and our partners thinking, ‘Hey, is Windows Vista a generation that I want to make an investment in?’" Brooks asked.

In Brooks’ own words, Vista is now dramatically changed compared with what the company was offering just a few months ago. What's different? A little something called Service Pack 1. SP1 has taken Windows Vista to the next level of reliability, compatibility, support and, most importantly, performance. There is a simple experiment that all Vista users can try out – uninstalling SP1 after at least a month of use, and trying to run plain vanilla Vista RTM. The conclusion is that, had the gold edition of Vista debuted at SP1, Microsoft would not have any myths to debunk.

source: news.softpedia.com

aquajojo_28

07-13-2008, 07:29 PM

many people says vista is good, actually for appearance only then also security it might be ok, but the stability,usage,speed, XP is the best at all. Windows 7 from Microsoft operating system, the same as XP is the Latest they said. but not yet release..awaiting ok.

thanks guyzzzzzzzz....

Jojo Dineros

RACERPRO

07-14-2008, 01:10 AM

There is a time for translucency, and there is also a time for transparency.

The under promise and overachieve policy set in place at Microsoft for the Windows and Office projects by Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group has impacted both Windows 7 and Office 14. Microsoft is essentially ensuring that by promising nothing at all, Windows 7 will not be a repeat of Longhorn-Vista, but while, for the next iteration of Windows the silence is an item of novelty, for the Office platform, gagged details are nothing more than a tradition. Still, slowly, the company prepares to increasingly open up on both Office 14 and Windows 7.

"You'll see a range of announcements over the next six months about the directions we're taking with Microsoft Office," promised Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer at the Worldwide Partner Conference 2008, on July 10. Office 14 is the next version of the Office productivity suite and the successor of the Office 2007 System.

Microsoft has pointed out that the Office 2007 was nothing short of a success but failed to reveal any figures related to sales or adoption. Still, the company is getting ready to catalyze the transformation of the Ribbon/Fluent UI of Office 2007 into a standard for the graphical user interface for applications tailored to the Windows 7 client.

"We need to make it click to run. We don't need to make it less full-featured, and less functional, and less capable, but we have to drive it down this path. And it will remain the center of people's productive side of people's lives. So the investment in training, and work that you're putting into products like Windows Vista, and Office 2007 move forward," Microsoft's CEO added.

Earlier this year, Microsoft gave a small taste of the touch computing capabilities of Windows 7. But the company is preparing much more at its Professional Developer Conference 2008 at the end of October in Los Angeles. Microsoft will discuss graphics advances, energy consumption optimizations, web services in native code, touch computing and much more.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

07-15-2008, 03:36 AM

The joint releases of Windows Vista and the Office 2007 System in November 2006 and January 2007, designed to be a repeat of Windows 95 and Office 95, have had an inherent result on consumer perception.

The simultaneous release of the latest versions of Microsoft's flagship products indicated that the Redmond company had joined Windows Vista and Office 2007 at the hip. And, in fact, Microsoft has been little shy about marketing the intimate connection between its main cash cows, as the company's perspective over the Windows digital lifestyle reveals.

However, while moving onward to new releases of Windows and Office, some customers are indeed choosing the productivity suite and leaving Vista be. It is the case of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation. SABIC upgraded over 18,000 computers to Microsoft Office Professional 2007, but ignored Windows Vista completely, even following the introduction of Service Pack 1.

"Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) [deployed] Office 2007 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to their 18,000 employees. What is interesting to me about this case study is the implied de-coupling of Vista and Office 2007. Some customers inextricably link the two, while others more aggressively deploy Office 2007, and handle the OS deployment when they refresh the desktop/laptop," revealed a member of the Microsoft Chemical Team.

SABIC obviously missed Microsoft's new marketing campaign debuted with the occasion of the company's Worldwide Partner Conference 2008 last week, and designed to build consumer perception that Windows Vista is ready for mass deployments. While gearing up to prove that indeed Vista SP1 is worth an investment, and promising that as an investment customers will reek benefits until Windows 7, Microsoft deals with yet another company which said pass to Vista, although not to Office 2007.

"We already had strategic investments in Microsoft technologies as well as a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement for low-cost volume licensing of software. So the new desktop software was the most cost-effective choice because it could protect our existing investments, and also easily integrate with other existing technologies," explained Fahad Al-Ghamdi, IT End User Services Manager for SABIC.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

07-17-2008, 09:13 PM

Our reporter tried to buy a computer with Windows XP preinstalled on it from the United States' nine biggest PC makers. His findings: You can get one, but be prepared to fib.

I won't waste time rehashing the argument over whether Windows Vista is any good. The fact remains that lots of people prefer Windows XP, and they'll go to great lengths to get it.

The problem: Windows XP "officially" went off the market on June 30, 2008, and computer vendors aren't supposed to sell new machines configured with any version of Windows except Vista.

Fortunately for XP enthusiasts and Vista vetoers, the PC marketplace still has a loophole or two in it. In response to pressure from customers, Microsoft has made some concessions for people who really want XP, offering a lifeline for users willing and able to wade through the company's convoluted downgrading program. The upshot is that virtually every copy of Vista Business or Vista Ultimate Edition is sold with a license for XP, which a computer manufacturer can exercise to install XP Professional on any Vista Business or Vista Ultimate PC.

But just because a manufacturer can install XP doesn't mean that it will. And just because its official policy permits it to sell XP machines doesn't mean that its employees understand that policy.

To find out how difficult it is to get a new XP machine these days, I asked the nine largest PC vendors in the United States--Dell, HP, Gateway, Toshiba, Acer, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Sony, and Asus--about the specifics of their downgrade policies. Then, to see how closely the official story synced up with the reality in the marketplace, I called sales representatives for each company and asked them whether I could purchase a new laptop equipped with XP from them.

The verdict? Downgrade policies are all over the map, and more than a few rank-and-file sales reps have a sketchy understanding of those policies. Some notebook PC sellers make getting XP preinstalled on a new laptop a snap; others don't offer it under any circumstance. As a rule of thumb, your odds of finding a machine with XP and a sales rep who knows how to configure a machine with that OS are far greater if you call the business sales line instead of the consumer sales line. (Be prepared to fib and say you're planning to buy 25 computers during the next 12 months.) Getting XP via online purchase can be tricky, too.

Here's how each manufacturer's formal policy--and informal reality--shakes out.

source: pcworld.com

RACERPRO

07-19-2008, 03:02 AM

With Windows 7 Milestone 1 released in December 2007, Microsoft managed to give a taste of the user experience that is coming with the successor of Windows Vista.

At the same time, since Windows M1 was virtually identical with its predecessor in terms of the graphical user interface, the UX was also similar. But make no mistake about it; as part of the development process of Windows 7, Microsoft is also building the next-generation user experience for Windows. Starting with the graphical user interface, an aspect confirmed officially by Julie Larson-Green, Corporate Vice President, Windows Experience Program Management at the end of May, when she admitted that work was being done on the Win7 GUI but refused to give out any details.

However, crumbs from the Windows 7 UX feast do fall through Microsoft's fingers. The company is in fact looking for the right people to take the Windows user experience to the next level. For example, the Windows Experience Core User Experience team is hiring.

"We own the high-level features that users interact with daily, such as the desktop, taskbar, start menu, app switching, control panels, gadgets, media experiences, etc. etc. We *are* the face of Windows, and our charter is improving the everyday experiences for millions of customers. We’re looking for highly skilled engineers who are passionate about building and shipping the next-generation user experience for Windows," reads an excerpt from a Software Development Engineer in Test job for Windows.

But at the same time, the Redmond giant is looking for User Experience researchers and designers. In this regard, Microsoft places a great deal of emphasis on the intimate connection between future releases of Windows client and the Windows Live cloud platform. "Microsoft is looking for a design innovator," the company indicated in a job posting for User Experience Designer, the goal being to synchronize the Windows and Windows Live user experiences not only at product level but also as brands, from interaction to visual design.

"Someone who thinks strategically about brands and can invent, drive, and inspire great visual and interaction design to influence the course of the world’s most used software product - Windows, and its new suite of integrated online services, Windows Live. You’ll be working with the world’s best developers, visual and interaction designers, UX researchers, and brand managers, all dedicated to revolutionizing software design. You need to be somebody that loves software, thinks deeply about brands, is hands-on with technology, focuses on the customer, and absolutely exudes a passion for great design," Microsoft added.

There is no telling now where Microsoft is going with the user experience and the design of the graphical user interface in Windows 7. Sill, one good piece of news for Windows users is that Julie Larson-Green is on the job. She is after all responsible for the design innovations included into the Office 2007 System, namely the Ribbon/Fluent graphical user interface.

According to the company, the "Windows and Windows Live UX Research team, a partner with other product development disciplines, we ensure that Windows, Windows Live, and Internet Explorer ship successful and outstanding user experiences to hundreds of millions of customers. Big challenges and success at a world-wide scale are achievable."

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

07-23-2008, 10:58 PM

If this is going to be the overall message of Microsoft’s much-vaunted new $300 million ad campaign, it might be money well spent.

According to the folks at LiveSide, the first ads in the new campaign were previewed at Microsoft’s employees-only Global Exchange conference last week to rave reviews. As Tim Anderson astutely noted the other day, “Vista is now actually better than its reputation. That’s a marketing issue.” Microsoft’s biggest challenge is to get would-be customers to set aside whatever preconceptions they have and listen to its pitch for Vista. Aligning its most vocal Vista critics with the Flat Earth Society is a clever way to get people’s attention.

But the bigger job, that of actually changing people’s minds, will be easier said than done. Apple has largely defined Vista’s public image so far with its devastating “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” ads. Responding directly to those ads is a losing tactic. Largely thanks to John Hodgman, the humor bar is set extraordinarily high. Any kind of response ad would legitimize the claims in those Apple ads and run the significant risk of being seen as lame and uncool.

And there’s no sign that anyone in Redmond is going to go down that road. Instead, clicking the link on the “World is flat” add leads to a page headlined, “Windows Vista: Look how far we’ve come.” The copy beneath leads off with a sheepish admission:

When Windows Vista debuted in January 2007, we declared it the best operating system we had ever made. “Windows Vista is beautiful,” The New York Times raved. It’s humbling that millions of you agree.

But we know a few of you were disappointed by your early encounter. Printers didn’t work. Games felt sluggish. You told us—loudly at times—that the latest Windows wasn’t always living up to your high expectations for a Microsoft product.

source: blogs.zdnet.com

RACERPRO

07-24-2008, 12:04 PM

You may be stuck with Vista, but with a few tweaks and tricks you can make it look and feel just like its predecessor.

Your new PC came with Vista. Maybe your office deployed Vista. Or, perhaps, you got caught up in the early hype and bought Vista. Whatever the case, now you're stuck with it. Wish you could turn back the clock and restore your beloved Windows XP? Unless your name is Marty McFly, you're outta luck.

But all is not lost: You can give Vista an extreme interface makeover, tweaking it to resemble XP. Just because you're stuck with Vista doesn't mean you have to look at it all day.

Strictly speaking, you still have a few ways to get your hands on XP if these makeover tips don't satisfy your thirst for the older version of Windows. While supplies last, you can find boxes of XP on some retail shelves. And some system manufacturers offer XP downgrades with the purchase of a Vista Business or Ultimate license.

However, if you're not interested in scouring the earth for one of the last remaining boxes of Windows XP, or if you don't feel like jumping through hoops to buy a version of Vista that comes with an XP license, the following tricks will go a long way toward making you feel more at home in Vista.

Turn Off Aero Glass
Sure, Vista's much-ballyhooed Aero Glass environment makes the OS look pretty, but at what cost? To XP die-hards, the translucent windows amount to little more than system-slowing eye candy. To make your machine look and feel more like XP, and to improve its performance in the process, you'll have to break through the Glass.

Start by right-clicking any empty area of the Desktop, and then clicking Personalize in the context menu. Next, click the Window Color and Appearance option. Clear the Enable Transparency check box and click OK. Presto: solid, XP-like windows and a zippier PC.

Roll Back the Theme
Don't like Vista's fancy-schmancy colors, buttons, and fonts? You can easily switch back to a more XP-esque theme. Head to the same Window Color and Appearance option as in the last step, and click the link marked Open classic appearance properties for more color options. In the 'Color scheme' box, choose Windows Standard, and then click OK. Wait a minute while Vista undergoes its XP transformation. When it's done, you'll see a familiar-looking Start menu, taskbar, and so on.

source: pcworld.com

RACERPRO

07-25-2008, 02:12 PM

Microsoft's online spending plans will be a central topic today at the company's annual meeting with financial analysts, as detailed in this post yesterday.

But how has the company's Online Services Business been spending its money so far? With the meeting about to begin, here are a few charts I've put together, breaking down expenses and results in the division, derived from Microsoft's earnings reports.

Microsoft has been spending more and more on its online initiatives, but that spending isn't yet evident in the key search market.

source: blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com

RACERPRO

07-26-2008, 10:37 AM

After months of searching for ways to defend its oft-maligned Windows operating system, Microsoft may just have found its best weapon: Vista's skeptics.

Spurred by an e-mail from someone deep in the marketing ranks, Microsoft last week traveled to San Francisco, rounding up Windows XP users who had negative impressions of Vista. The subjects were put on video, asked about their Vista impressions, and then shown a "new" operating system, code-named Mojave. More than 90 percent gave positive feedback on what they saw. Then they were told that "Mojave" was actually Windows Vista.

"Oh wow," said one user, eliciting exactly the exclamation that Microsoft had hoped to garner when it first released the operating system more than 18 months ago. Instead, the operating system got mixed reviews and criticisms for its lack of compatibility and other headaches.

To be sure, the focus groups didn't have to install Vista or hook it up to their existing home network. Still, the emotional appeal of the "everyman" trying Vista and liking it clearly packs an emotional punch, something the company has desperately needed. Microsoft is still trying to figure out just how it will use the Mojave footage in its marketing, though it will clearly have a place.

The Mojave project is likely to be just one of many efforts designed to resuscitate Vista's image as well as lend strength to the Windows platform among stepped-up competition from Apple and Google. In an interview Wednesday, Windows unit business chief Bill Veghte told CNET News that he wants to see his unit try new things to get the message across.

"We have a huge perception opportunity," he said, offering a glass half-full assessment of things. "We are going to try a bunch of stuff."

The image improvement effort, known internally as FTP, has many components. Well-publicized are the hundreds of millions that Microsoft plans to spend on a broad campaign buttressed by edgy ads from Crispin Porter and Bogusky. But Veghte wants the company pushing on multiple marketing fronts.

With small businesses, for example, Microsoft earlier this month launched the "Assurance" campaign. In that effort, Microsoft is offering free Vista-related technical support, a move that will add millions of dollars to Microsoft's telephone support costs. The point, Veghte said, is that businesses want to see Microsoft standing behind its product.

Veghte is convinced, like others at Microsoft, that despite early technical challenges, Vista's problems are primarily ones of perception.

Much of that perception, Microsoft belatedly acknowledges, stems from Apple's successful and unchallenged anti-Vista campaign. But, after stewing over the ads on many of his morning runs, Veghte decided that it was time to strike back, even without a new version of Windows to tout. Apple, he said, has "crossed a line" from fact into fiction.

source: news.cnet.com

RACERPRO

07-26-2008, 11:15 PM

Windows unit head Bill Veghte said on Thursday that Windows 7 development remains on track.

The company has officially said it would ship by January 2010, but top executives have also said from time to time that it would be done by the end of 2009.

"The product is tracking very, very well," Veghte said. "We are committed and looking good, relative to our commitment--(shipping Windows 7) three years from general availability of Windows Vista."

Microsoft has released few details on the product, largely assuring customers that it would be making big architectural changes and that it will have a new multitouch user interface.

Most of Veghte's talk, as expected, was on Windows Vista and how Microsoft sees a large perception gap. Veghte showed the Mojave Project, first detailed here, in which users predisposed against Vista reacted favorably when shown Vista when it was presented under the guise of being a new version of Windows, code-named Mojave.

Even outside focus groups, Veghte said that not only are customers buying the operating system, but more are liking it, pointing to recent internal figures showing that 89 percent of users said they were "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the product. Some 83 percent said they would recommend Vista to a friend or family member, Veghte said.

He also demoed Internet Explorer 8, which he said would be released in final form later this year. An early beta was shown off at the Mix '08 trade show in the spring.

Update: In the closing Q and A session, CEO Steve Ballmer was asked what Windows 7 would look like, but declined to offer any new details saying to do so would be a "no-win" situation.

"It's going to look great; It's going to be quite compatible," he said, to some laughter. "If I wanted to start selling Windows 7 today, we'd start selling windows 7 today. Then you'd complain."

He did reiterate what has already been said, saying that Windows 7 is designed to avoid making big changes. "The design point is compatible form the get-go in large measure," he said.

source: news.cnet.com

RACERPRO

07-28-2008, 12:58 PM

Rarely does a week go by that there isn't at least one story in the media about the supposed shortcomings of Windows Vista or how companies are scorning it because of incompatibilities or a perceived lack of business value.

Reading this coverage, you might get the impression that Windows Vista's predicament is unique among the various versions of Windows. A decade spent helping customers assess the savings and business value of a Windows upgrade tells me otherwise.

When Windows 2000 was released, people complained about compatibility and performance issues and said they preferred Windows 98. When Windows XP came out, people complained about complex hardware requirements. They said they didn't need to upgrade because Windows 2000 was sufficient for their needs. When I spoke at a launch-day session about the benefits of Windows XP SP2, customers complained about high-compatibility restrictions and complicated features. Sound familiar?

And yet, looking back on the reputation of Windows Vista's predecessors, you find that, while there was some challenge accompanying the transition to each one, in time every one of these operating systems proved to be a solid investment. Now, people are griping about the same things in Vista. My experiences as a user of Windows and as an adviser to my customers have taught me not to be surprised about this response, but it has also convinced me that, regardless of what you read or hear, companies need to take a closer look at Windows Vista before writing it off.

It's part of my job to work with vendors and customers to approach a decision as pragmatically and strategically as possible. If there's still doubt about the value of Windows Vista, consider the following: It has required fewer security updates than Windows XP in its first year of availability -- nine updates vs. XP's 26. And the success of Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool suggests that Windows Vista is 60% less likely to be infected by malicious software than XP SP2. From a purely anecdotal perspective, there's no question that features such as BitLocker Drive Encryption provide a pronounced improvement in the security of corporate data on a notebook. And although some people may resent it, the User Account Control can seriously curtail the frequency of malware on a company desktop.

One of my government customers recently began deploying Windows Vista, and one of the challenges he faced was that many of the users on the network simply didn't understand how to use their computers safely, which sometimes resulted in a malware infection. Deploying different vendor security products only led to costly and inconsistent measures that were difficult to upgrade. With the upgrade to Windows Vista, he is getting a much safer experience out-of-the-box without requiring additional security products. As a result, the customer expects a 30% decrease in security-related calls to the help desk.

Other benefits, such as the energy-savings feature in Windows Vista, are providing substantial savings, but for many companies the No. 1 obstacle may remain deployment of the operating system. Admittedly, there are challenges with deploying Windows Vista, just as there are with any software product. But one thing is for sure: Windows Vista deployment is not as difficult as you might surmise from all the lurid headlines.

source: pcworld.com

RACERPRO

07-29-2008, 01:53 AM

Microsoft is hard at work building the next iterations of both the Windows client and server operating systems. But while the company has already opened up a tad about Windows 7, the successor of Windows Vista, it has managed to all but completely avoid the Windows 7 Server subject.

There has been little to no official indications from Microsoft about what will after Windows Server 2008 released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008 and launched commercially at the end of the same month. Still, while the software giant has just wrapped up migrating all its boxes to Windows Server 2008, it is already dogfooding Windows 7 Server.

Confirmation of this fact was offered by Brian Puhl, an Active Directory engineer for Microsoft’s IT department, who managed to leak a Windows 7 Server screenshot along with additional details. The fact that Microsoft is already using Windows 7 Server internally is a clear indication that the operating system has evolved well past the "planning stage." In fact, due to the synchronization between the Windows client and server releases, the Windows 7 Server build being dogfooded might very well be on par with Windows 7, which has moved past Milestone 1.

"Man, it seems like yesterday that we were dogfooding Longhorn Server. But that’s long gone, and Windows Server 2008 has RTM’d, so it’s time for a break right? Yeah, well, breaks over and there are new toys to play with already. So congratulations to the operations team, the product group, pm’s, and everyone else that has put the effort in to get us to the point where we put the first Win7 domain controller in production," Puhl stated in a blog post which was subsequently taken down, but is still accessible thanks to the Live Search cache.

Puhl also offered an insight into the details associated with the operating system being dogfooded: "Server Name: TK5-WING-DC-01; Security: Users; Registered Owner: Windows User; Registered Organization: MSIT; ProductID: 00484-082-2500885-76802; Original Install Date: Fri Jul 11 13:37:56 2008; Base Source Path:Version: 6.1; Build: 6608.winmain_win7m2.080511-1400; Current Type: Multiprocessor Free; Product Name: Windows Server (R) 2008 Enterprise; Product Options: ProductType; HAL.DLL is 6.1.6608.1 - Microsoft Corporation – 6.1:6608.1; System Up Time: 0 Days, 13 Hr, 41 Min, 29 Sec."

Judging from this information, the Windows 7 Server core is based on that of Windows Server 2008. However, as the platform evolved, the Windows 7 Server kernel is bound to get a new version, as the label is designed to refer to the next major version of the Windows server operating system. Build 6.1.6608 is also an evolution compared to 6.1.6519 which was Windows 7 M1. The biggest question however is whether Windows 7 Server will ship along with the Windows 7 client three years after the general availability of Window Vista, or if a repeat of the bundled release Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 is in the works.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

07-30-2008, 01:01 PM

Microsoft is mid-way on the road from Windows Vista to Windows 7, the next iteration of its Windows client, planned for availability no later than the end of January 2010.

And following the release of Windows Vista Service pack 1, Microsoft is finding fertile soil to unveil Windows Codename Mojave – or the Mojave Experiment. Windows Codename Mojave was masqueraded as the next Microsoft OS and was demoed to over 100 Windows XP, Mac OS X, Windows pre-XP and Linux users. In fact, it was nothing more than Windows Vista.

"For those new to the Mojave Experiment, it's a focus group effort we initiated a few weeks ago. We interviewed and polled 120 participants in San Francisco, in hopes of better understanding everyday users' perceptions of Windows Vista and seeing whether there really is a gap between perception and reality. We wanted to see how people reacted to Windows Vista when they were not aware they were seeing Windows Vista. We recorded our discussions, and today you can see them for yourself," revealed Christopher Flores, Director Windows Communications.

Mojave is nothing more than a small part of a much larger Microsoft strategy to not only get its own version of the story out on the market but "fight back" the bad aura that is sticking to Vista even after SP1, and negative, anti-Vista publicity made by rival Apple. The official Mojave website went live on July 29, 2008, and it features the reactions of the participants in the Microsoft experiment when they find out that the demo they just witnessed is of Vista and not the next version of the Windows operating system. None of the participants had contact with Windows Vista prior to the experiment.

"We did not use some geeked out or custom built PC. We used an HP Pavilion DV2500. It had 2GB of RAM and was running an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T7500 @ 2.20GHz. The OS was a 32 bit version of Windows Vista Ultimate. Of the 120 respondents polled, on a scale of 1:10 where 10 was the highest rating, the average pre-rating for Windows Vista was 4.4. After they saw the demo, respondents rated Mojave an average of 8.5," Flores added.

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes wrote:
Microsoft has today unveiled the “Mojave Experiment.” In case you haven’t heard, this is an experiment where the company took 140 Vista skeptics (who hadn’t used Vista themselves) and showed them what they believed to be a new Microsoft operating system, code-named Mojave. After the participants delivered their opinion of the “new” OS (which was almost exclusively positive) they were then told that Mojave was in fact Vista.

Prior to being guided through the OS by trained retail salesperson the average rating for Windows Vista was 4.4 (on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is rubbish and 10 is orgasmic, or something like that). When asked about their impression of Vista one participant said “based on all the negative comments, and frustrations I’ve seen my husband having to deal with, I wouldn’t touch the thing,” while another said that “it always crashes.”

After the demo the participants rated Mojave an average of 8.5, with one actually saying “Wow” and another saying that the “The speed is incredible.” When it is revealed to the participants that Mojave is in fact Windows, the most common reply seems to be “really?” Also, at least one participant does figure out that he’s being shown Vista and not some top secret new OS.

Note: The test rig that was used was a HP Pavilion DV2500 loaded with running an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU T7500 @ 2.20GHz, 2GB of RAM and 32 bit version of Windows Vista Ultimate.

Now, on the face of it it’s easy to dismiss the Mojave Experiment as little more than marketing hyperbole. After all, I’ve been to plenty of demos given by trained staff that made a product look fantastic, only to later have hands on time with that product and find out that it sucked whole lemons. That’s what trained salespeople do. Also, this seemed like a guided clicking session where people are told clearly what they should be doing or paying attention to. It’s not like these folks were given a copy of “Mojave” and told to install it, or left to their own devices while they set up a printer or configured a network. These people were watching Vista, not using it. Also, Microsoft hasn’t released unedited versions of the videos, so it’s safe to say that the best bits have been picked.

But, it is interesting how no one reduced their score on being guided through Mojave/Vista, and maybe this tells us a little about what’s wrong with Vista (or at least the impression that people have of the OS). See, these 140 participants were guided through what I assume were Vista’s highlights, and this helped boost the average rating by 4.1 points in 10 minutes. When you get your hands on Vista for the first time there’s usually no one there to guide you through the OS, showing you the new games, the photo preview feature, what the Sidebar can do, how to make DVD, how to use the Flip 3D feature, how Instant Search works, how to set up Media Center, what’s new in Administrative Tools or anything and everything else. You’re on your own. As operating systems become more complicated and have more features, it’s easy for the best features to be hidden from view, and sometimes all that’s needed is a helping had to bring those features out into the open. I can think of one ad campaign that does this, and in my opinion does it well - the ads for the Apple iPhone.

source: mojaveexperiment.com

RACERPRO

07-31-2008, 01:23 PM

Microsoft has thrown the old Windows Vista in the same arena of public perception as a "new Windows operating system codenamed Mojave."

And surprisingly, Windows Vista won. Well, the new Windows Vista at least, now complete with Service Pack 1, not the RTM version that hit the shelves on January 30, 2008. Microsoft's latest Windows operating system is finally getting a much needed breath of fresh air, with the Redmond company focusing to generate positive publicity around the platform, in a move that is long overdue.

"94% of respondents rated Mojave higher than they initially rated Windows Vista before the demo. 0% of respondents rated Mojave lower than they initially rated Windows Vista before the demo," Microsoft revealed. In fact, that Mojave experiment was nothing more than masquerading Windows Vista as the next version of the Windows operating system.

But what the Mojave Experiment really shows is Microsoft's failure to build a brand out of Vista. At this point in time, the characteristics that have become inherently associated with the Vista brand are too well rooted into public perception to be dislodged by any marketing campaign. Microsoft is at a juncture where it might as well throw buckets of money at marketing campaigns and run experiments labeled after all the deserts in the world, Vista will remain Vista.

The Mojave experiment is about 140 people. But not counting the 180 million users that have already made the jump to Windows Vista, the largest past of the 1 billion Windows users will not be that easy to convince, or reach for that matter.

"Of the 140 respondents polled the average pre-demo Vista score was 4.4. The average post-demo Mojave score was 8.5. Many said that they would have rated it higher, but wanted more time to play with it themselves," Microsoft added.

But the Redmond company is right to assume that public perception has impacted and hurt Windows Vista like nothing else. But at the same time, it might just be too late for Vista. But not for Windows 7, the real next version of the Windows client. Experiments like Windows Mojave could at least give Windows 7 a clean slate, because, having Windows Vista at its basis, the next Windows platform is bound to inherit its sins.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

08-02-2008, 01:44 AM

The evolution of Windows in parallel with computing architectures can be mapped out in accordance to the following marks: 32-bit, 64-bit, 128-bit and even further along.

But while milestones have the potential to offer a consistent growth in terms of performance, they also come with inherent setbacks when it comes down to compatibility. According to Christopher Flores, Director Windows Communications, over the past three months Microsoft has noticed an increasing trend in the adoption of 64-bit editions of Windows Vista to outpace the 32-bit variant of the Windows operating system.

The translation is simple. The Windows client is at a juncture, a point marked by the transition from x86 to x64. And 64-bit Windows is starting to become mainstream with 32-bit versions of the platform beginning to fade into the background. This scenario is possible mainly through the new direction adopted by Original Equipment Manufacturers. While end users have failed to crowd to the new 64-bit technologies and software by themselves, OEMs are offering the necessary catalyst, by adjusting their offerings to reflect the fact that x64 is the future.

"This change begs a few questions: is the 64 bit market ready to go mainstream? Will consumers realize the benefits from larger chips and 4GB or more of memory? The answer to both of these questions is yes - but a qualified yes. Preconfigured 64-bit PCs obtained from retailers or PC manufacturers should work quite well. This is in stark contrast to the experience of many technology enthusiasts who built their 64-bit PC from scratch and may have had to scour the Web looking for drivers. So, unless you really love to tinker with your PC, we suggest you buy a pre-built 64-bit PC at retail or directly from a PC manufacturer," Flores stated.

64-bit CPUs and Windows platforms do offer enhanced performance and the possibility to go well beyond the 4 GB RAM limitation of 32-bit Windows (the high end editions of x64 Vista support up to 128 GB of system memory). But they also bring to the table incompatibility issues related mainly to drivers, but also to software.

"In the future, we expect both compatibility and performance of 64-bit PCs to continue to improve. Most hardware devices have 64-bit drivers today and most software products work unmodified because of the 32-bit emulation technology in 64-bit Windows Vista (called WOW64). But there are some gaps, especially in the long tail of the market, but we expect rapid improvement now that 64-bit PCs are getting so popular. Over time we'll see more 64-bit-optimized programs hit the market, which promise dramatic performance and experience improvements," Flores added.

Both Flores and technology Evangelist Keith Combs, pointed to the Windows Vista Compatibility Center as a resource for end users to check whether a certain application is compatible with 64-bit Windows. Alternatively, the presence of the Works with Windows Vista or Certified for Windows Vista logos is a guarantee that the hardware and software products are compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows Vista editions. Since this is still the transition from x86 to x64, 128-bit Windows is not even on the horizon, as the 64-bit version of the Windows client is yet to actually become mainstream. Still, the soil seems fertile for 32-bit to be left behind, and Microsoft Evangelist Neil Hutson welcomed the idea.

"I think that this is great news for the industry. This gives the OS more space to breathe (in 32-bit it is always competing with Apps for Memory and processor) and will give consumers and application developer writers more opportunities to build and use a new generation applications running on the client which can use this new capability. Finally the feedback that I am getting from the external community about 64-bit Vista is really encouraging; they love it and would not go back. Let’s hope the trend continues. And no I will not be evangelizing 128bit!!!" Hutson stated.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

08-02-2008, 11:19 PM

Windows Vista has embarked on a new course from Windows Codename 'Perception' to the final product labeled 'Reality.

In the past, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer dismissed claims that the latest Windows client failed as a product. And commercially, Vista has fared rather well, selling what the software giant claims to be in excess of 180 million licenses (although the company traditionally counts all the copies of the operating system shipped, including those that went to its retail and OEM partners, and not all the platforms actually acquired by consumers). But at the same time Vista has failed to rise to the expectations of the original Longhorn project, or to the standard that was Windows XP SP2.

As far as Microsoft is concerned, Vista was never THE problem. This despite the fact that Chairman Bill Gates did indicate at CES 2008, that Vista could have done with a tad more baking time before it was released. End users, hardware manufacturers and software developers are responsible, in Microsoft's view, for the problems associated with Vista, and in this regard the company's limping marketing and evangelism efforts. But never Vista.

Even when the Redmond company admitted to the existence of some issues, it downplayed the matters to just isolated scenarios, and refuted reports that they were generalized. Still, the company was a little hesitant to applaud Service Pack 1 as the universal panacea for Vista RTM, especially in terms of performance, or to praise the plethora of new compatible software and added drivers in terms of support. The Redmond company simply claimed that the evolution that had to be introduced with Windows Vista catalyzed natural, inherent glitches.

But after a year and a half since the launch of Windows Vista, Microsoft is hard at work yet again to market the operating system, even though the company seemed to have given up after the death of the Wow. This time around a simple experiment dubbed Mojave has caused quite a stir, generating both praises and criticism, with the latter ending up prevailing. But whether applauded or booed, the Windows Codename Mojave fills a marketing gap for Vista, perpetuated by Microsoft being mute on its operating system.

Windows Codename 'Perception'

Mojave is not the next version of Windows. And Mojave is not a part of the Crispin Porter and Bogusky marketing campaign for Vista designed as a response to Apple's Get a Mac ads. Mojave is nothing more than what it claims to be. A simple experiment involving some 140 barely literate and Vista prejudiced XP, OS X, and Linux users being won over by a 10 minute demonstration of the operating system.

With the Windows Codenamed Mojave experiment Microsoft makes the first step at challenging the public perception of Windows Vista. The Redmond company has continuously claimed that its latest operating system has been hurt not as much by its own faults as by the generalized perception that it brought no additional value to what XP had to offer, being in fact inferior to its predecessor. Sure, Vista is selling by the millions, but those sales come as a consequence of the operating system being preloaded on new OEM machines, which in their turn sell by the millions. The vast majority of Windows XP users indicate a great deal of reluctance in upgrading to Windows Vista, with customers in the corporate environment moving extremely slow in terms of performing migrations to the new operating system, many of them taking advantage of the downgrade rights of the platform.

"We know that software that is made for this world is made to be compatible with your whole life, whether at work or at play, on home or on the go. Free the people: That is what we do, that is what we do every day--that is the value that we create for the world today. This is what Windows will stand for. And I invite all of you (...) to participate in that journey with me, to go forward, celebrate the experience of Windows with Windows Vista today, and the vision of where Windows is going tomorrow. We need to make our collective voices heard again, starting now. Together we are going to help (...) do things that they never thought possible, because that, more than anything else, is what you, we, and Windows stand for," read selected remarks from Brad Brooks, corporate vice president, Windows Consumer Product Marketing, from his speech at the company's Worldwide Partner Conference 2008.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

08-07-2008, 03:27 PM

While Windows 7 is still a taboo subject as far as Microsoft is concerned, with the company offering just crumbs from the feast that is Windows Vista's successor, details do manage to slip through, and the Redmond company has nobody to blame for it but itself.

In this context, the software giant has revealed via MSDN that Windows 7 will bring the evolution of the .theme file format introduced with Windows 95, and nothing short of a true survivor. The further growth of the .theme file format will be interpretable only by Windows 7, with the previous versions of Windows ignoring new aspects.

The updated Creating and Installing Theme Files documentation containing the references to Windows 7, and uncovered by Long Zheng, has been altered to remove all references to the next iteration of the Windows client. However, thanks to the Google and Live Search cache, users can still access the original resource and get an idea of what Windows 7 will bring to the table. A relevant aspect also worth noting is the fact that Microsoft constantly refers not only to Windows 7, but also to Windows 8.

As far as the Themes are concerned, the software giant indicated that for "Windows 7 and later - the icon to show in the theme gallery, either an embedded resource or a path to an .ico file. Paths are relative to the directory of the .theme file."

This, while for Desktop Appearance "you can create custom wallpaper for the desktop and specify a path to the graphics file. Additionally, this section of the .theme file can specify whether the screen saver is active. The following example shows how to do modify the desktop appearance. Windows 7 and later: If the slideshow is active, the path can be a path to a folder containing multiple images, or a colon-delimited list of image files."

In this regard, users will be able to set a slideshow as the wallpaper, this probably in addition to the DreamScene video backgrounds which are likely to be kept alive from Windows Vista Ultimate. Additionally, Microsoft has more items tucked up its sleeve, such as Theme Packs.

"Windows 7 and later - a theme pack is a .cab file that contains not only the .theme file but also the files needed to implement the theme on another computer, such as sound files and images. Users can create theme packs through the Personalization application in Control Panel," the company noted.

source: news.softpedia.com

bygremlin

08-09-2008, 03:49 PM

i still remember the blue screen crashes and hang ups with xp and driver issues that took forever to fix. it seems that most people have xp home versions and confuse them for xp pro...the same confusion going on with vista home and ultimate (only the top of the line pc come with ultimate and thats about 30% of them). clearly xp pro was the best xp and ultimate is the best vista but most don't know any better. i've had just about every version that came out one way or another and i have to say for the things that i do on the pc vista ultimate(which i use the most now) does everything better than xp pro. i still have to get use to some things but for the most part vista is much better. it's a shame that people have such a poor view of vista and have done little more than turn the pc on or listen to others somewhat justified or unjustified opinions and use them as their own. if you want to compare them (xp & vista) do so then give you word. vista do have its share of problems but i don't recall any new operating system that didn't(linux, mac os or windows)

just my thoughts!:cool:

Smudge

08-11-2008, 09:41 PM

I have two computers, one at the home with Vista, one at the office with XP. I used to synchronize data using my iPAQ rx5915 Travel Companion between office and home computers using Activesync. Now I am unable to synchronize the data among the three units and am a bit desperate to figure out how to do that. Has anyone had success with this and how did you do it? HELP! Thanks.

I heard all the ugly rumors about vista... how slow it was etc.

I think Vista is much faster and less buggy than XP

Of course I say that because I vLite and tweak my ISO allot, I have never used Vista out of the box/vanilla

RACERPRO

08-14-2008, 12:32 PM

WinVistaClub, in association with Windows Vista Magazine, is organising a contest to recognise some of the Best Windows Vista Blogs and Websites.

If you run a blog or a website, which primarily focuses on Windows Vista you can submit your blog and participate. It could focus on Tips, Tutorials, Support, Customization, Themes, News, Views, or anything which may interest a Windows Vista user.

The Panel of Judges comprises of Steve Sinchak MVP of TweakVista.com, Steven Bink of Bink.nu, John Barnett MVP of VistaSupport.mvps.org, Kerry Brown MVP of VistaHelp.ca, Barney Tormey Global Moderator at Neowin.net James Stables of Windows Vista Magazine, Emil Protalinski of Arstechnica, Aryeh Goretsky MVP of Lockergnome.com, and myself.

The Winner of the Best Windows Vista Blog Contest 2008 will also get a Windows Vista Ultimate 32/64 bit DVD Box Pack, a Free 1 year license of ESET Smart Security Suite, a License of Magic Utilities, a License of MagicTweak, a one year subscription to the Windows Vista Magazine and a link for 3 months on the WinVistaClub HomePage.

It is a first-of-its-kind exercise being organized, and we all hope that you will enjoy participating as much as we would enjoy organizing it. Winning apart, it would also be a great opportunity of showcasing your website & blogs.

source: neowin.net

RACERPRO

08-17-2008, 02:12 AM

Microsoft has been tiptoeing around Windows 7 since Windows Vista hit the market back in January 2007.

Kevin Kutz, Director, Windows Client, came out back on February 13, 2007, just two weeks after Vista's general availability and stated that Microsoft was "not giving official guidance to the public yet about the next version of Windows, other than that we’re working on it. When we are ready, we will provide updates". At that time, Windows development was moving away from under the leadership of Jim Allchin, (Former) Co-President, Platforms & Services

Division, and under Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group.

Over 18 months later, Microsoft continues not to be ready to talk Windows 7. But transparent cracks are starting to be engineered in the official Sinofsky-branded translucency communication policy imposed for the successor of Windows Vista. The recently-launched Engineering Windows 7 initiative with the combined efforts of two senior engineering managers for the Windows 7 platform, Steven Sinofsky and Jon DeVaan, Senior Vice President, Windows Core Operating System Division is an illustrative example in this case, but not the only one. In this regard, the Windows 7 official End User License Agreement webpage has been live even before Engineering Windows 7, and continues to be accessible even though the EULA is yet to be published.

"Starting [on August 14, 2008], Steven Sinofsky (leading the Windows group), Jon DeVaan (leading Windows engineering) and the Windows Engineers are co-authors of a new blog that is specifically focusing on the coming wave of client technology in Windows 7. It is a treasure to get direct, 'from the horse’s mouth' information about what is reality and what is vapor when discussing Windows 7," revealed Joel Schoenberg, Microsoft's Windows Client Technical Specialist.

Windows Vista, or What Not to Do with Windows
As far as Sinofsky is concerned, Windows Vista is living proof of how not to manage the Windows project, including both the development and the communication aspects. First and foremost, Vista is a product associated with Microsoft's failure to live up to its initial promises on the project. Sinofsky's solution? Promise nothing at all. Revealing no details on Windows 7 ensures that the end result won't be a sure candidate for a Vista-repeat, even though the transition from one Windows client to another is stated to be evolutionary.

Dissociating Windows 7 from Windows Vista
The Engineering Windows 7 project is a move reinstating Microsoft's commitment to dissociating the next iteration of the Windows client from the version currently available. The debut of the austere E7 hotspot was not announced via the official Windows Vista mouthpiece, but via the Internet Explorer blog. And even if the core of Vista will survive, in an evolved form into Windows 7, Microsoft is taking the next major iteration of Windows as far as possible from what is available today, even after 180 million sold licenses. The most important aspect of this strategy is to control every Windows 7 detail released to the public.

In this regard, Sinofsky did touch the subject of why "Microsoft might be trying to accomplish by maintaining a little bit more control over the communication around Windows 7 (some might say that this is a significant understatement). We, as a team, definitely learned some lessons about 'disclosure' and how we can all too easily get ahead of ourselves in talking about features before our understanding of them is solid. Our intent with Windows 7 and the pre-release communication is to make sure that we have a reasonable degree of confidence in what we talk about when we do talk. Again, top of mind for us is the responsibility we feel to make sure we are not stressing priorities, churning resource allocations, or causing strategic confusion among the tens of thousands of partners and customers who care deeply and have much invested in the evolution of Windows".

"How We Are Making Windows 7," Sinofsky
Engineering Windows 7 is ultimately, from Microsoft's perspective, a medium designed to centralize discussion about how the company is building Windows 7. Still, while the Redmond giant is opening up on the next version of Windows, the fact is that each move is calculated and planned. Microsoft has already been connected with computer manufacturers, members of the software and hardware developing environment and enterprise customers. It seems that the end users are last and least on the company's priorities for feedback... But with E7, their turn has come, under the proverbial "better late than never" moment.

"Windows has all the challenges of every large scale software project - picking features, designing them, developing them, and delivering them with high quality. Windows has an added challenge of doing so for an extraordinarily diverse set of customers. As a team and as individuals on the team we continue to be humbled by this responsibility. We strongly believe that success for Windows 7 includes an open and honest, and two-way, discussion about how we balance all of these interests and deliver software on the scale of Windows," DeVaan and Sinofsky revealed via Engineering Windows 7.

Still, what is important to underline at this point in time is that Microsoft has not opened the doors on Windows 7. The project will continue to remain largely translucent, with only the set-in-stone Windows 7 details being released to the public. At the start of this month, leaked Windows 7 information got through the translucent filters and was posted on MSDN. However, the info on Windows 7 Theme Files, Gallery, Packs and Wallpaper Slideshow was removed promptly, just as it made its way to the public. It is bound that this strategy will continue... even with E7.

"Related to disclosure is the idea of how we make sure not to set expectations around the release that end up disappointing you - features that don’t make it, claims that don’t stick, or support we don’t provide. Starting from the first days of developing Windows 7, we have committed as a team to 'promise and deliver'. That’s our goal - share with you what we’re going to get done, why we’re doing it, and deliver it with high quality and on time," DeVaan and Sinofsky added.

source: news.softpedia.com

dogtrack

08-18-2008, 01:01 PM

...I have just bought a new Laptop which has Vista Ultimate onboard.

Took me a couple of days to find my way around under the Hood.

Made a selection of changes from the default, as I use the machine for photography and videography. So I am not interested in how pretty the OS looks. I want to use the power of the machine for the task in hand. I liked XP, it worked well stripped to the bone...VISTA, I love it to bits. Cold boots in under a minute and Render times are quicker by far.

The OLD hardware consisted of P4 3.6GHz, 2 Gig Ram with 256 MB of V-ram. Which ran faultlessly for 5 years.

The NEW hardware consists of C2D T7500, 3 Gig Ram with 512 MB of V-ram.
And hey, I can even watch TV while I am waiting.

Just a personal perspective:- I dont ride the upgrade train. I run a machine with the OS that it arrived with +SPs and UDs. When it runs out of steam, and becomes uneconomical to repair, I replace it. That is the path I have followed since my introduction to PCs, back in those days of Amstrads and the wonderful Locoscript...ok, forget the wonderful bit then. :D

RACERPRO

08-20-2008, 01:43 AM

After months of silence, more Windows 7 information pours out of Microsoft: It's the second blog post in four days. Quick, where's the Twitter feed?

The post, called "The Windows 7 Team," was blogged sometime today. My RSS reader dates the post as 4 p.m. yesterday, even though it wasn't there a few hours ago. The timestamp on the blog site is 12 a.m. today, but the first comment isn't until 4:46 p.m. Whatever the time, it's one long inside-baseball kind of post, presumably written by Steven Sinofsky, senior veep of the Windows and Windows Live Engineering group. I'll take—and you should, too—insidery stuff over nothing.

My writing here is a bit snarky—simply can't resist—and will be so for the rest of this post. So, this is as good a place as any to praise the Engineering Windows 7, or E7, blog. It's good to see such an influential Microsoft executive as Steven Sinofsky blogging about Windows Vista's successor and using the blog as means of soliciting community, customer and even competitor feedback. The Windows Vista Team Blog, by comparison, is a marketing vehicle. So far, E7 is looking like a place for two-way conversation.

Now, returning to the regularly scheduled snarkiness--Steven sets the record straight, and I am just so pierced because of it:

To the surprise of both Jon and I a number of folks questioned the 'authenticity' of the post. A few even suggested that the posts are being 'ghost written' or that this blog is some sort of ploy. I am typing this directly in Windows Live Writer and hitting publish. This blog is the real deal—typos, mistakes, and all. There's no intermediary or vetting of the posts.

Since I was one of those people suggesting the PR "vetting of the posts," I'll take that as a well-deserved slap in the face. Oh, but it hurts. I really didn't need the slapping. Reading this paragraph convinced me there could be no ghost writer:

In general a feature team encompasses ownership of combination of architectural components and scenarios across Windows. 'Feature' is always a tricky word since some folks think of feature as one element in the user-interface and others think of the feature as a traditional architectural component (say TCP/IP). Our approach is to balance across scenarios and architecture such that we have the right level of end-to-end coverage and the right parts of the architecture.

PR folks gag over sentence structure like this. Damn, the paragraph reads like how I sometimes write. Mercy me.

By the way, the above paragraph is kind of important. Steven looks inside organizational areas where the Windows development team is working. He additionally observes:

Some have said that the Windows team is just too big and that it has reached a size that causes engineering problems. At the same time, I might point out that just looking at the comments there is a pretty significant demand for a broad set of features and changes to Windows. It takes a set of people to build Windows and it is a big project.

I've never heard that said. Have you? There have been loud complaints that Windows, meaning the code base, is too big. But the size of the team developing it—I dunno.

I'm pulling a long quote/alphabetical list from the post, because of what it reveals about Windows 7.

"Some of the main feature teams for Windows 7 include (alphabetically):

* Applets and Gadgets
* Assistance and Support Technologies
* Core User Experience
* Customer Engineering and Telemetry
* Deployment and Component Platform
* Desktop Graphics
* Devices and Media
* Devices and Storage
* Documents and Printing
* Engineering System and Tools
* File System
* Find and Organize
* Fundamentals
* Internet Explorer (including IE 8 down-level)
* International
* Kernel & VM
* Media Center
* Networking - Core
* Networking - Enterprise
* Networking - Wireless
* Security
* User Interface Platform
* Windows App Platform

source: microsoft-watch.com

RACERPRO

08-23-2008, 01:54 AM

Microsoft is about to unleash its $300 million Vista marketing campaign. Can negative perceptions be changed?

That's an answer that can only come from seeing the campaign. Marketing isn't just enough. Microsoft has to do the right marketing.

According to today's Wall Street Journal, the advertising campaign will be something like "Windows, Without Walls." Reverse is the situation now. A bunch of walls stand between potential customers and Vista adoption. Reasons are many, with negative perceptions being high among them.

"Too many enterprise decision-makers are accepting out of hand all of the fear, uncertainty and doubt being proliferated on the Internet by those who do not know about which they speak," said C. Marc Wagner, a services development specialist at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Crash Course Marketing
Marc rightly identifies real perception problems. Many IT managers I have talked to are satisfied with Windows XP, and they have heard too much about Vista's compatibility and usability problems. It could take a whole lot of marketing to change widespread negative perceptions, assuming Microsoft can do so effectively.

I've got my doubts about what Microsoft can do. According to the Journal, Microsoft is paying Jerry Seinfeld $10 million to appear in some of the advertising. This wouldn't be Jerry's first stand-up gig for Vista. Last year, HP featured the comedian in "The Computer Is Personal Again" commercials. In November, Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Windows product management, told me that Microsoft would do more co-marketing campaigns like HP's.

Newer HP marketing "Crash Course" features Shaun White giving "tips for school and beyond." I have to laugh. Why would any PC company use "crash" in marketing a Windows PC?

I'm wondering about what's really coming, when the ad campaign launches, which, according to the Journal, will be in early September. The supposed "Windows, Without Walls" campaign uses comedians, just like HP's "The Computer Is Personal Again" campaign. Are the Journal's rumors mixed up? Will Microsoft and HP be working together? Or is Microsoft just lifting ideas from HP's campaign?

Several of my colleagues called HP's Jerry Seinfeld ads "silly." I think they're OK, but Microsoft would have to do a whole lot better to turn around negative Vista perceptions. The Journal claims the new ads would also feature Microsoft's semi-retired chairman. Does nobody at Microsoft remember the debacle of putting together Bill Gates with Jon Stewart for the Consumer Electronics Show keynote a few years back? If Jon Stewart can't make Bill Gates funny, nobody can—not even Jerry Seinfeld.

source: microsoft-watch.com

RACERPRO

08-25-2008, 12:16 PM

The role reversal has started. Some enterprises are upgrading Windows XP to Vista, rather than downgrading to XP from Vista.

Yes, you read that right. The enterprise gloom hanging over Vista may yet lift. But Forrester Research's weather forecast is based on a few months of trended data. The winds may be shifting, but those dark clouds of negative Vista perceptions hang low overhead.

Still, Microsoft can use any good news about Windows Vista, and a new Forrester report has got some. The long-winded title: "Corporate Desktop Operating System Trends, Q4 2007 Through Q2 2008: Windows Vista Deployments Are Finally Ramping Up, While Mac Continues Its Slow March on the Enterprise." The analyst firm monthly surveyed more than 50,000 enterprise end users from 2,500 organizations to compile the operating system trends.

"A new trend has emerged," writes report author Benjamin Gray. "Windows Vista migrations are now coming from Windows XP machines, which is a shift from when Forrester previously reported on these desktop OS trends." He emphasized that "the earliest adopters were mostly limited to Windows 2000 shops that were finally replacing their aging hardware with the newer Windows Vista OS preinstalled."

But earlier Forrester data also showed percentage growth gains of three-to-one to Windows XP compared with moves to Vista from Windows 2000. So there's a dark lining to this silver cloud. Windows 2000 migrations to Vista may be subsiding, but XP got more of them.

source: microsoft-watch.com

RACERPRO

08-26-2008, 11:15 PM

Microsoft is stepping up its war on software pirates by rolling out new Windows Genuine notification software for what it is calling its most pirated version of Windows: Windows XP Professional.

In an August 26 posting to the Windows Genuine Advantage blog, Director of Genuine Windows Alex Koch said XP users should expect Microsoft to begin rolling out a new version of Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) notifications starting this week. Microsoft is expecting the rollout to take several months.

The new WGA notifications, which Microsoft will deliver via Windows Update, will behave like the WGA notifications introduced with Windows Vista Service Pack (SP) 1 back in December 2007. Specifically, users whose XP copies are deemed “non-Genuine” will see their screen backgrounds default to black and notice a translucent notice, warning them that their Windows might be counterfeit.

The WGA notification update is going to make it easier for Microsoft to detect stolen or pirated software, as well as fake product keys, Microsoft officials said. It will add new hindrances for users trying to circumvent product activation, as well, according to the new blog post.

The new release is aimed specifically at XP Professional users. From Koch’s post:

“Another thing we’re doing with this release is focusing on the product edition that is most often stolen. This will reduce the number of customers that will be offered the package. This release will be offered to the most pirated edition of Windows XP and therefore to users with the highest likelihood of having a non-genuine copy, those using Windows XP Pro. We’re also offering it to those using editions based on Pro code such as Tablet and Windows Media Center, but plan to narrow the offering to Pro in future releases.”

XP users who previously have not opted in to WGA notifications will be asked to accept an End User License Agreement (EULA), rather than an installation wizard. Users who agree to the EULA are agreeing to allow the anti-piracy validation control to auto-update itself with fewer releases.

“Microsoft is making these changes to simplify the installation process (making it easy for customers to stay up-to-date), to increase the effectiveness of these notifications, and to align experiences across Windows XP and Windows Vista,” according to a statement provided by a company spokeswoman.

Microsoft received kudos from many users when it replaced the Vista non-Genuine “kill switch” with mere nagware. I wonder if XP Pro users will feel the same….

source: blogs.zdnet.com

RACERPRO

08-28-2008, 08:56 AM

For weeks, Microsoft has been dribbling out information about IE 8, which has to be released as a public beta this week to make the self-pronounced August release. The most recent IE 8 blog post discusses new privacy features.

In rereading the post, from yesterday, Aug. 25, I'm thinking that I should have cared more about IE 8. Ridiculous blogs have interpreted new IE 8 privacy features as "porn mode." That's a dramatic mischaracterization of privacy enhancements that are arguably trendsetting. IE 8 will give users more control over privacy than any other browser. It's not "porn mode" but something much bigger. After deciding to write this post, I IMed my editor: "Someone should send dunce caps to ... every other blogger using that term. Idiots." I wanted to say something else, but, hey, there's nothing private about instant messaging.

Simply put: IE 8 will let its users decide to whom they release information about their browsing habits. There are also security benefits to the new privacy features, which could be useful for limiting increasing malware risks posed by file-sharing or social networking sites. I'll be interested to see how the new privacy features work with parental controls, seeing as how IE 8 also could allow troublesome teens to better hide online activities from parents.

Internet Explorer has long had better privacy controls than competing browsers because it supports P3P, or Platform for Privacy Preferences. Because of P3P, IE has more granular control over first-party and third-party cookies and what users do about them. For years, I've used custom settings under IE's Privacy control to "block" third-party cookies and to "prompt" for first-party cookies. P3P support offers some opt-in, where the user can once and for all accept or reject all cookies from the originating site.

Firefox 3 improves the open-source browser's cookie controls with an option to "accept third-party cookies," which is on by default. The user can also specifically designate Web sites for which cookies are always accepted or rejected. It's a nice implementation, but IE 8 is set to greatly extend cookie control and how session data is handled. Microsoft is catching up on its early privacy lead and, in some respects, retaking it from Firefox.

Great Performance: How to build a faster browser
As we started planning what we wanted to accomplish with IE8, we made a conscious decision to improve how people use Internet Explorer to browse the web. Broadly stated, some of the areas we pinpointed for improvement include browser startup, navigation, and user interactions (including AJAX-style interactions within a webpage).

Part of that focus has translated into our investment into new features like Web Slices, because in some cases the fastest browser is the one that does not need to load a webpage at all. Beyond these efforts, we have also concentrated on improving IE as a web platform.

When we took a hard look at our goals and considered what we could do to build the best browser we were presented with a quandary. On the one hand, we could focus very narrowly on scripting performance, trusting that our investment would noticeably improve our users’ browsing experience. Alternatively, we could invest more broadly in realistic scenarios, measuring heavily-used subsystems and investing our optimization effort accordingly. We opted for the latter approach.

After some analysis, what we found was that investing the entirety of our effort on improving JScript would not substantially improve our users’ browsing experience in most cases. For a sample of the type of data we used in our analysis, I’ve included below a breakdown of the CPU cycles consumed by some of our key subsystems when navigating to the top 100 sites in IE8 Beta 1:

Notice that when navigating to the top 100 sites the systems exercised in typical JScript/DOM benchmarks (e.g. SunSpider) account for less than 10% of the total time. Furthermore, we analyzed several common AJAX applications and performed similar analyses, with similarly surprising results:

source: microsoft-watch.com

RACERPRO

08-28-2008, 11:58 AM

As I announced last week, I’m holding a short but sweet Microsoft codename contest this week, with the prize being a free signed copy of my Microsoft 2.0 book (which I will ship anywhere in the world to the winner).

Since I announced the rules and regulations, I’ve gotten more than a few interesting submissions. I was seeking from readers new (but real and existing) Microsoft codenames which I’ve had yet to detail as part of my growing Microsoft Codename list. I will be running some of the best ones (as judged by yours truly) on my blog this week.

Without further ado, let’s get to it.

Codename of the day: Geneva
Best guess on what it is: An identity metasystem including a new security token service and Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) version 2.0

Meaning/context of the codename: The federated identity folks at Microsoft seem to be favoring Swiss codenames as they fill out their product family. Geneva is just one of these. There’s also Zermatt (another Swiss desination). Zermatt is the programming model for Geneva. And then there’s Zurich, the .Net-based Software-Plus-Services infrastructure that Microsoft is slated to unveil at the Professional Developers Conference in late October.

Back story: Geneva is expected to be one of a number of building-block cloud services that Microsoft will deliver as part of its “Zurich” infrastructure. Zurich will be comprised of an identity service, connectivity service, workflow service, storage service, virtualization service and others, tipsters say. Sounds like the tentative delivery target for many/most of these building-block services is the second quarter of 2009.

Additional info: Microsoft is presenting at least one session on Geneva at its TechEd conference in Barcelona in November.

Got a Microsoft code name you’ve been wondering about? Send it my way before the end of this week and you just might win my end-of-summer codename contest. (Winners names will be kept confidential unless they want them publicized. So don’t be shy: Microsoft employees, customers, partners, competitors and others are all eligible!)

source: blogs.zdnet.com

RACERPRO

08-28-2008, 12:00 PM

Even if it is virtually Windows Vista at the core, or at least an evolved form of Vista, Windows 7 is being artificially dissociated from its precursor.

At the start of August 2008, Microsoft finally put an end to the deafening silence surrounding the Windows 7 project, and started actually communicating bits and pieces about the next iteration of the Windows client. The most relevant initiative from Microsoft is the Windows 7 Engineering mouthpiece with contributions from Senior Vice Presidents Steven Sinofsky and Jon DeVaan, and the Windows 7 Engineering team members. However, Microsoft claims that the pitter-patter of barely significant Windows 7 details is not making Vista irrelevant.

"Windows Vista is still very much relevant today. There is still very much to say in regards to Windows Vista and lots more experiences to blog about surrounding Windows Vista and Windows Live. Our blogs here won't be going away. We continue to add value to Windows Vista with releases such as Windows Search 4.0 and coming soon the Beta 2 release of Internet Explorer 8. You can also expect us to take part in the ongoing discussion taking place from the Engineering Windows 7 blog on building the next version of Windows as well," revealed Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc.

The most representative aspect indicating that Microsoft is breaking away from Vista with the next version of Windows, is the fact that the E7 website is hosted under the Internet Explorer brand umbrella, and not under that of the official Windows Vista Team Blog (with the Windows Experience appendix). E7 is not even a Windows 7 blog per se, but a source of information, and the agora designed to catalyze an open dialog on the way Microsoft is building the next version of Windows.

"The one thing you won't find on the Engineering Windows 7 Blog is major product announcements. The focus is to simply the engineering of Windows 7. Not only can we expect posts from both Steven and Jon on the Engineering Windows 7 Blog, we can also expect to hear from other members of the engineering team who are essentially building the next version of Windows as we speak," LeBlanc stated.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

08-28-2008, 12:01 PM

A lot of users still don’t getting used to Windows Vista. A lot of reviews have been labeling Windows Vista as bloated, hard to use, tons of compatibility issues, inconvenient, not user friendly, not stable and etc.

Unfortunately, Windows XP has been phased out, and now most OEM desktop and notebook computer from brands such as HP, Dell, Lenovo, Sony, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Acer and other shipped and pre-factory installed with Windows Vista rather than Windows XP.

According to Microsoft:
OEM downgrade rights for desktop PC operating systems apply to Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate as stated in the License Terms. Please note, OEM downgrade versions of Windows Vista Business and Windows Vista Ultimate are limited to Windows XP Professional (including Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and Windows XP x64 Edition). End users can use the following media for their downgrade: Volume Licensing media (provided the end user has a Volume Licensing agreement), retail (FPP), or system builder hologram CD (provided the software is acquired in accordance with the Microsoft OEM System Builder License). Use of the downgraded operating system is governed by the Windows Vista Business License Terms, and the end user cannot use both the downgrade operating system and Windows Vista. There are no downgrade rights granted for Windows Vista Home Basic or Windows Vista Home Premium.

For user who doesn’t want to pay any more payment to OEM brand vendor after paying a hefty price to buy the desktop PC, laptop or notebook computer that comes with Windows Vista Ultimate or Business edition, but want to downgrade to Windows XP, try the following trick to activate Windows XP for free yet legitimate genuine workaround.

1. Retrieve and record down the product key for the Windows Vista Business or Ultimate edition that is currently installed. There are various tools available for reveal the product key installed in Windows, or you can look at the OEM Certificate of Authenticity sticker pasted on the machine’s casing.
2. Find a valid legitimate Windows XP Professional setup CD media and install Windows XP on the system. User can use any valid, but not pirated copy of VL media, retail (FPP), or OEM CD such as those coming with old PC.
3. After installation, log onto Windows.
4. When asked to activate Windows (or go to “Start” -> “All Programs” -> “System Tools” -> “Activate Windows” or right click on “Computer” and click “Click here to activate Windows”), click Yes, I want to telephone a customer service representative to active Windows now to use automated phone system to activate Windows.
5. An Installation ID will be displayed on screen in Step 3, together with an option to select the location where user is nearest to in Step 1.
6. After selecting your country, toll and toll-free phone numbers to call to connect to Microsoft customer care is displayed. Dial to call the corresponding number.
7. Follow the automated voice recognition and response system to get to talk with a human customer care representative. The phone system will initially require Installation ID to be entered. Just input anything so that after a few failed attempt, user can talk to a human.
8. Tell the customer care representative that you would like to downgrade from Windows Vista to Windows XP. When asked, give the Windows Vista product key you have and the source of the Windows XP media used to install the machine.
9. After validation by Microsoft customer care, a Confirmation ID will be given, which should be entered into the Step 4 of “Activate Windows by Phone” wizard to activate Windows proper. If you wish, you can request for a new Windows XP product key too.

source: mydigitallife.info

RACERPRO

08-28-2008, 12:02 PM

Windows is one product that is not lacking in Nemesis candidates. From Apple's Mac OS X to the open source Linux, to RIA cloud-based operating systems, potential Microsoft Windows killers are advertised in a variety of scenarios incongruent with reality.

Microsoft's own non-Windows platforms Singularity and Midori are the latest additions to the list of items designed to supersede Windows as the Redmond company's current flagship product becomes antiquated, obsolete and inferior. However, Microsoft Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich indicated that a Windows killer, especially Midori, is nothing but a pipe dream.

An evolution of the Singularity project from Microsoft Research, Midori is a componentized platform written from scratch in managed code, and an incubation project under the leadership of Eric Rudder, senior vice president, Technical Strategy. The leaked information on Midori, combined with the shock of Microsoft reinventing the OS, catalyzed a wave of speculation about the complete exclusion of Windows from the future of the Redmond giant's platforms. Russinovich indeed confirmed that Midori was cooking under Rudder.

"The Midori incubation, [developed] under Eric Rudder, and that's basically taking the concepts of Singularity, which is a totally managed .NET collected OS, and investigating ways to make the [operating system] really scalable across different nodes and asynchronous responsive and they've got this asynchronous programming model they're building on top of that," Russinovich revealed.

However, the Microsoft technical fellow is not as fast when it comes to jumping the gun on the future of Windows. In fact, Russinovich indicated that even with projects like Singularity and Midori, the evolution of Microsoft's operating systems will lead to... Windows.

"As far as the future of Windows, and Windows being something not based on what Windows is today... I'm working in Windows, I'm not working in Midori, I'm not working in some other incubation. So I think that kind of answers the question right there about what I think will happen to Windows, and that is that the future will be Windows of some kind," he forecasted.

The reason is, of course, related to the work that has been already poured into Windows, an effort that is by no means limited to Microsoft. In fact, the largest ecosystem of software and hardware solutions in the world today is built around Windows. Microsoft is simply not going to throw such a legacy away. "It just doesn't make sense to me. What amazes me is that people just say let's throw everything away and start over, because there's so much that's been invested in things that are in Windows," Russinovich added.

In the video fragment embedded at the bottom of this article, starting with 27:10, Russinovich discusses Midori and the future of Windows. Microsoft is hammering away at the first Beta of Windows 7, the successor of Windows Vista, and the next major iteration of the Windows client, and plans are already in place for the delivery of Windows 8, which will succeed Windows 7.

"If you look at how much work has been put into the kernel, the Windows kernel is, in my opinion and the numbers back this up, the most scalable kernel, the one that supports the most drivers of any kernel, hardware devices than any kernel on the planet, if you just focus on the PC hardware and server-class hardware," Russinovich pointed out. "And that's just a huge investment, a huge asset that we've got and I don't think that it makes sense to just toss that. It does a great job, and it's not perfect, and there's no kernel that's perfect, or OS that's perfect, but that's probably million of man-years of work that's gone into tuning it, and designing it, and implementing it."

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

08-28-2008, 11:21 PM

Many folks have commented and written email about the topic of performance of Windows. The dialog has been wide ranging—folks consistently want performance to improve (of course).

As with many topics we will discuss, performance, as absolute and measurable as it might seem, also has a lot of subtlety. There are many elements and many tradeoffs involved in achieving performance that meets everyone’s expectations. We know that even meeting expectations, folks will want even more out of their Windows PCs (and that’s expected). We’ve re-dedicated ourselves to work in this area in Windows 7 (and IE 8). This is a major initiative across each of our feature teams as well as the primary mission of one of our feature teams (Fundamentals). For this post, I just wanted to frame the discussion as we dig into the topic of performance in subsequent posts. Folks might find this post on IE8 performance relevant along with the beta 2 release of IE 8.

Performance is made up of many different elements. We could be talking about response time to a specific request. It might mean how much RAM is “typical” or what CPU customers need. We could be talking about the clock time to launch a program. It could mean boot or standby/resume. It could mean watching CPU activity or disk I/O activity (or lack disk activity). It could mean battery life. It might even mean something as mundane as typical disk footprint after installation. All of these are measures of performance. All of these are systematically tracked during the course of development. We track performance by running a known set of scenarios (there are thousands of these) and developers can run specific scenarios based on exercising more depth or breadth. The following represent some (this is just a partial list) of the metrics we are tracking and while developing Windows 7:

* Memory usage – How much memory a given scenario allocates during a run. As you know, there is a classic tradeoff in time v. space in computer science and we’re not exempt. We see this tradeoff quite a bit in caches where you can use more memory (or disk space) in order to improve performance or to avoid re-computing something.
* CPU utilization – Clearly, modern microprocessors offer enormous processing power and with the advent of multiple cores we see the opportunity for more parallelism than ever before. Of course these resources are not free so we measure the CPU utilization across benchmark runs as well. In general, the goal should be to keep the CPU utilization low as that improves multi-user scenarios as well as reduces power consumption.
* Disk I/O – While hard drives have improved substantially in performance we still must do everything we can do minimize the amount that Windows itself does in terms of reading and writing to disk (including paging of course). This is an area receiving special attention for Windows 7 with the advent of solid state storage devices that have dramatically different “characteristics”.
* Boot, Shutdown, Standby/Resume – All of these are the source of a great deal of focus for Windows 7. We recognize these can never be fast enough. For these topics the collaboration with the PC manufacturers and hardware makers plays a vital role in making sure that the times we see in a lab (or the performance you might see in a “clean install”) are reflected when you buy a new PC.
* Base system – We do a great deal to measure and tune the base system. By this we mean the resource utilization of the base system before additional software is loaded. This system forms the “platform” that defines what all developers can count on and defines the system requirements for a reasonable experience. A common request here is to kick something out of the base system and then use it “on demand”. This tradeoff is one we work on quite a bit, but we want to be careful to avoid the situation where the vast majority of customers face the “on demand” loading of something which might reduce perceived performance of common scenarios.
* Disk footprint – While not directly related to runtime performance, many folks see the footprint of the OS as indicative of the perceived performance. We have some specific goals around this metric and will dive into the details soon as well. We’ll also take some time to explain \Windows\WinSxS as it is often the subject of much discussion on technet and msdn! Here rather than runtime tradeoffs we see convenience tradeoffs for things like on disk device drivers, assistance content, optional Windows components, as well as diagnostics and logging information.

We have criteria that we apply at the end of our milestones and before we go to beta and we won’t ship without broadly meeting these criteria. Sometimes these criteria are micro-benchmarks (page faults, processor utilization, working set, gamer frame rates) and other times they are more scenario based and measure time to complete a task (clock time, mouse clicks). We do these measurements on a variety of hardware platforms (32-bit or 64-bit; 1, 2, 4GB of RAM; 5400 to 7200 RPM or solid-state disks; a variety of processors, etc.) Because of the inherent tradeoffs in some architectural approaches, we often introduce conditional code that depends on the type of hardware on which Windows is running.

source: blogs.msdn.com

RACERPRO

08-30-2008, 09:23 AM

Attempting to avoid the rather sluggish experience that has become inherently associated with Windows Vista RTM, Microsoft promised, through the voice of Steven Sinofsky, that Windows 7 would not set a single “bit” out of Redmond until it would meet a set of performance criteria.

The Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, is determined to have the next iteration of the Windows client rise up to the new performance standards as early as the first Beta, but especially with the gold version.

“Performance, as absolute and measurable as it might seem, also has a lot of subtlety. There are many elements and many tradeoffs involved in achieving performance that meets everyone’s expectations. We know that even meeting expectations, folks will want even more out of their Windows PCs (and that’s expected). We’ve re-dedicated ourselves to work in this area in Windows 7 (and IE 8). This is a major initiative across each of our feature teams as well as the primary mission of one of our feature teams (Fundamentals),” Sinofsky stated.

The very subtlety of performance depends on a variety of factors, as Sinofsky indicated. And in this context, making Windows 7 fly will require optimizations across the operating system, with emphasis placed on memory, CPU, disk I/O, boot, shutdown, standby/resume, base system and disk footprint.

“How much memory a given scenario allocates during a run. As you know, there is a classic tradeoff in time v. space in computer science and we’re not exempt. We see this tradeoff quite a bit in caches where you can use more memory (or disk space) in order to improve performance or to avoid re-computing something,” Sinofsky said.

Vista was by all counts a RAM hog. The current version of Windows can swallow every last piece of RAM, and still appear hungry for more. At the same time, Microsoft failed to make Vista faster than Windows XP on similar system configurations. In this respect, processor utilization is also an item worth considering. As hardware evolves and CPUs with multiple cores become the standard, there will simply be an increasing amount of horsepower for Windows 7 to use. However, Microsoft is tweaking the operating system in order to reduce utilization and power consumption as much as possible.

“Disk I/O - while hard drives have improved substantially in performance we still must do everything we can do minimize the amount that Windows itself does in terms of reading and writing to disk (including paging of course). This is an area receiving special attention for Windows 7 with the advent of solid state storage devices that have dramatically different “characteristics”,” Sinofsky added.

At the same time, Windows 7 will sport faster boot, shutdown, and standby/resume times. The Redmond company is focusing greatly on making Vista's successor as fast as possible in these areas, where Windows has traditionally suffered greatly.

The Windows 7 base system is also analyzed and in the process of being optimized. In this context, the Redmond company is working to tune up the amount of resources used by the base system, before any of the third-party software is loaded. However, Sinofsky stated that componentizing the base system into on-demand pieces might be a move that would eventually end up hurting performance rather than helping it.

“Disk footprint – while not directly related to runtime performance, many folks see the footprint of the OS as indicative of the perceived performance. We have some specific goals around this metric and will dive into the details soon as well. We’ll also take some time to explain WindowsWinSxS as it is often the subject of much discussion on technet and msdn! Here rather than runtime tradeoffs we see convenience tradeoffs for things like on disk device drivers, assistance content, optional Windows components, as well as diagnostics and logging information,” Sinofsky explained.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

08-31-2008, 12:30 AM

I’m really hoping that Steven Sinofsky will kick off a discussion about Windows 7 pricing over on the Engineering Windows 7 blog sometime soon. I’m not holding my breath because the chances of seeing an open debate on pricing is highly unlikely, but I can dream, can’t I?

My take on the issue of Windows pricing is that as things stand, Vista (OEM, upgrade and new license) is too expensive compared to the price of hardware. When a decent PC cost $1,000+ it wasn’t unreasonable that an OEM copy of the OS system builder would set you back some $100+, but now that you can put together a good quality PC for $260, it really doesn’t make sense that buying Windows Vista should add a third again to the price.

I think that deep down, Microsoft knows that Vista is too expensive. Back in February we saw Microsoft do something that it’s not well known for and cut the price of certain upgrade editions of Vista (Vista Ultimate dropped from $299 to $219, while Home Premium went from $159 to $129).

Another thing that Microsoft could do to help home users who have more than one PC is introduce a family pack such as the one that Apple has (5 licenses for $199). I think that something like this from Redmond would encourage upgrades and help to make piracy a less attractive option.

Given the reception that Vista has had, along with the price drop we saw in February, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Windows 7 coming entering the market at a cheaper price point.

Aside …

Just for laughs I decided to pay Dell (a company gaining market share at the expense of the bottom line at present) a visit and see what the price difference was between an Ubuntu-powered system and one running Windows. I configured two XPS M1330 notebooks (Ubuntu|Windows) to have a similar spec (I couldn’t get them exactly the same because the wireless network card differed between the two … not that it matters that much).

source: blogs.zdnet.com

RACERPRO

09-02-2008, 01:15 PM

Microsoft is providing end users with the instructions necessary to disable or remove altogether the WGA Notifications anti-piracy mechanism from Windows XP.

However, according to the Redmond company, only the pilot version of the Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications can be either rendered useless or uninstalled completely. The software giant says that the general release build of WGA Notifications will automatically remove the version deployed in the pilot program. At the end of August 2008, Microsoft made available an update to WGA Validation and WGA Notifications for Windows XP (including SP3).

"These instructions have not been tested on the general release version of the WGA Notifications. Therefore, these instructions are not supported. Microsoft will offer the general release version of WGA Notifications to users who uninstall the pilot version at a later date. These users will obtain the general release version through the Microsoft Automatic Update service," the company informed.

According to the Redmond giant, the pilot versions of WGA Notifications range from 1.5.0527.0 to 1.5.0532.2. Via Add or Remove Programs, Windows XP - Software, Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications, and "Click here for support information," users will be able to find the version data for their respective installation of WGA Notifications. In order to simply disable the anti-piracy mechanism, users will have to change the extensions of the following files: "WgaLogon" and "WgaTray" to .OLD. After the renaming process the two items should be %Windir%\system32\WgaLogon.dll to %Windir%\system32\WgaLogon.old and %Windir%\system32\WgaTray.exe to %Windir%\system32\WgaTray.old. A restart will be required in order for the process to be complete.

For the manual uninstalling of WGA Notifications, the same steps as above have to be followed, but in addition, users will have to "unregister LegitCheckControl.dll by using Regsvr32. To do this click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK. at the command prompt, type the following, and then press ENTER: egsvr32 %Windir%\system32\LegitCheckControl.dll /u. Restart the computer," Microsoft informed.

In addition, users are required to enter the following at a command prompt and hit Enter after each item: Del %Windir%\system32\wgalogon.old; Del %Windir%\system32WgaTray.old; and Del %Windir%\system32\LegitCheckControl.dll. And in order to complete the uninstallation there are two registry subkeys that will need to be deleted: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Cu rrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify\WgaLogon and KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Uninstall\WgaNotify.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

09-03-2008, 12:49 AM

Windows 7 must avoid the marketing trap that Vista stumbled into.

I’ve been following the Engineering Windows 7 blog closely and I’ve come to the conclusion that while Steven Sinofsky is a man of many words, those words don’t say an awful lot. However, the other day Sinofsky did say something quite interesting:

We heard lots on this forum about providing specific versions of Windows customized for different audiences, while we also heard quite a bit about the need to reduce the number of versions of Windows. However, there are limits to what we can provide and at the same time provide a reliable “platform” that customers and developers can count on and is robust and manageable for a broad set of customers. [emphasis added]

This is the trap that Windows Vista fell into, thanks to marketing. Here you have an OS that comes in four retail flavors (Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate), but the differences between these editions comes down to little more than arbitrary decisions made for the sake of marketing and being able to sell existing users an upgrade. For example, someone made the decision that home users were idiots and wouldn’t want a complete backup and restore feature, and that business users wouldn’t want to make DVDs. Given this, and what Sinofsky says about needing to provide a reliable platform, I really can’t understand how the Vista experience ended up being smeared over four editions. Home Basic is little more than a “get out of jail free card” for OEMs to allow them to sell PCs with underpowered GPUs and Ultimate was sold to users on the promise of “Extras” which largely turned out to be vaporware. Given how even on-board GPUs have improved over the last year or so, I doubt that a similar edition will be necessary come Windows 7.

Also, if you exclude Home Basic from the mix, the gap in suggested retail price between Home Premium and Ultimate is $60 (the difference in price for the OEM system builder versions is, oddly enough, $80), and so I really don’t think that increased revenues from the version with more features justifies all the consumer confusion that the various versions create. If marketing doesn’t have a say in things I’m predicting that Windows 7 will come in two flavors (Home and Pro). There’s no reason to have any more versions. Personally, I’d prefer it that Microsoft copied Apple and released only a single version for the desktop, but that’s unlikely.

What I’d like to see Windows 7 have is a selection of performance modes that would allow you to shut down unnecessary processes and services when you wanted to play a game or use your system for a demanding task. That would be far more use than a bunch of different editions that boiled down to pretty much the same thing.

source: blogs.zdnet.com

RACERPRO

09-03-2008, 11:15 AM

I have been around the Linux community for more than 10 years now. From the very beginning, I have known that there are basic differences between Linux and Windows that will always set them apart.

This is not, in the least, to say one is better than the other. It’s just to say that they are fundamentally different. Many people, looking from the view of one operating system or the other, don’t quite get the differences between these two powerhouses. So I decided it might serve the public well to list 10 of the primary differences between Linux and Windows.

1: Full access vs. no access
2: Licensing freedom vs. licensing restrictions
3: Online peer support vs. paid help-desk support
4: Full vs. partial hardware support
5: Command line vs. no command line
6: Centralized vs. noncentralized application installation
7: Flexibility vs. rigidity
8: Fanboys vs. corporate types
9: Automated vs. nonautomated removable media
10: Multilayered run levels vs. a single-layered run level

Those are 10 fundamental differences between Linux and Windows. You can decide for yourself whether you think those differences give the advantage to one operating system or the other. Me? Well I think my reputation (and opinion) precedes me, so I probably don’t need to say I feel strongly that the advantage leans toward Linux.

source: blogs.techrepublic.com.com

RACERPRO

09-04-2008, 03:04 PM

Even though Microsoft has only recently started talking Windows 7, in preparation for events such as the professional Developer Conference 2008, WinHEC 2008 and TechEd EMEA 2008, the fact of the matter is that Windows Vista's successor has been in development since 2007.

In fact, for the past couple of years, namely as early as the end of 2006, the Redmond giant has been collecting feedback on Windows 7. And this process is by no means at an end, as it is bound to continue even following the market availability of the next iteration of the Windows client.

"Over the last two years we’ve had a team of dozens of professional researchers fielding surveys, listening to focus groups, and analyzing telemetry and product usage data leading up to the vision and during the development of Windows 7 – and we’re not done yet. From our independently run marketing research to reading your feedback on this blog we will continue to refine our product and the way we talk about it to customers and partners alike. That doesn’t mean that every wish goes answered! One of the hardest jobs of planning is in turning all of this data into actionable plans for development," revealed Mike Angiulo, Windows PC Ecosystem and Planning lead.

In addition to events and conferences such as TechEd, WinHEC, PDC and input gathered through surveys, the largest harvester of feedback is integrated within the Windows architecture, telemetry systems that send millions and millions of records to Microsoft, of course only with end users’ consent, and without any identifiable data.

According to Microsoft, the marrying of the feedback with the development process of Windows 7 is focused on three key areas. The company needs to ensure an equilibrium between the novelty aspect of the new Windows platform and the operating system's capacity to deliver satisfaction throughout its lifecycle. Another balance has to be achieved when it comes to handling aggregate and individual user input, in order to tailor the resulting product for the general case scenario designed to satisfy all consumers. At the same time, Microsoft needs to deliver the right operating system at the right time, and an example of what not to do in this matter is of course Windows Vista.

"We have input on key tradeoffs. We have a position on future trends. That’s usually enough to get started on the next version of the product and we stay connected with customers and partners during throughout development to keep our planning consistent with our initial direction but isn’t enough to know we’re ready to ship. Really being done has always required some post engineering feedback phase whether it’s a Community Technical Preview, Technology Adoption Program or a traditional public Beta," Angiulo stated.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

09-05-2008, 01:00 AM

When Microsoft was developing Vista, or Longhorn, as it was known way back when, company officials were fond of making promises about ways that Microsoft would improve on Windows XP with its next-generation Windows release.

With Windows 7, Microsoft’s goal seems to be to provide as few promises as possible against which the final product can and will be compared and measured. That said, over the Labor Day weekend in a post by Distinguished Engineer Michael Fortin — who leads the Fundamnetals feature team in the Core Operating Systems Group — Microsoft did dangle one tangible tidbit about Windows 7. From the post:

“For Windows 7, a top goal is to significantly increase the number of systems that experience very good boot times. In the lab, a very good system is one that boots in under 15 seconds.”

(The reason I put a question mark in the headline of my post is because Fortin doesn’t actually go so far as to say that Microsoft is promising to hit the rarefied “in the lab” boot-time measure. But the implication is definitely there.)

The August 29 post goes on to discuss how Microsoft is aiming to reduce the number of system services in Windows 7, “as well as reduce their CPU, disk and memory demand” as part of the quest to improve overall system performance with Windows 7. Windows 7 will include more enhancements to pre-fetching, which was introduced initially as part of Windows XP, according to Fortin’s post, and more parallelism in driver initialization — two more ways Microsoft is counting on speeding up initial system boot times.

Microsoft also is working with PC makers to show them ways to improve Windows 7 system performance, as well, Fortin blogged. He wrote:

“(W)e’d like to point out there is considerable engagement with our partners underway. In scanning dozens of systems, we’ve found plenty of opportunity for improvement and have made changes. Illustrating that, please consider the following data taken from a real system. As the system arrived to us, the off-the-shelf configuration had a ~45 second boot time. Performing a clean install of Vista SP1 on the same system produced a consistent ~23 second boot time. Of course, being a clean install, there were many fewer processes, services and a slightly different set of drivers (mostly the versions were different). However, we were able to take the off-the-shelf configuration and optimize it to produce a consistent boot time of ~21 seconds, ~2 seconds faster than the clean install because some driver/BIOS changes could be made in the optimized configuration.”

The much-touted official “Engineering Windows 7? blog has provided a lot of words about how Microsoft developers think about building an operating system and how/why certain trade-offs are made. But specifics on Windows 7 features? Sounds like Microsoft won’t be sharing anything substantial on that until it releases a broader test build of 7, which is expected around the time of the Professional Developers Conference in late October.

source: blogs.zdnet.com

RACERPRO

09-06-2008, 01:52 AM

Until I had a chance to look at some new screen shots on LiveSide.Net of Windows Live MovieMaker — yet another of the Windows Live Wave 3 services going to beta real soon now — I hadn’t really put two and two together.

The lightbulb that just went off: As part of Microsoft’s mission to insure that Windows 7 and Windows Live Wave 3 are joined at the hip, Microsoft is exorcising features that used to be part of Windows from the operating system.

I had a similar, half-formed idea about this earlier this year, when I wrote “Windows 7 might go to pieces.” But now it’s crystalizing further….

Think this through: Microsoft has been hit with lawsuits (and threatened with additional new lawsuits) over its propensity to add formerly unbundled features to Windows. When I heard about its plans to tightly integrate Windows Live and Windows 7, I immediately thought that the company was opening itself up, yet again, to more potential antitrust actions.

But what Microsoft seems to be doing, instead, is continuing to gradually remove certain features — like MovieMaker (which one codename tipster reminded me last week has been going internally by the name “Sundance”), Mail, Photo Gallery, Messenger, etc. — from Windows and making them optional add-on services. (MovieMaker, for example, was cut from Windows Vista around the time of the Longhorn reset.)

Yes, these Wave 3 Windows Live services still have a software component (as required as part of Microsoft’s Software + Service strategy). But to get that component, you are going to have to download the software onto your Windows machine — or at least agree to install it if it’s already preloaded somewhere on a new system.

Could Microsoft have found a way to secure one of the flanks that its opponents have used to keep the company in check in recent years, specifically, the threat of antitrust suits if and when the Redmondians decide to bundle any new bits with the Windows OS? Can you envision other formerly bundled pieces of Windows that Microsoft could and should turn into Live Services?

source: blogs.zdnet.com

RACERPRO

09-08-2008, 12:06 AM

Microsoft has formally announced its new Windows marketing campaign. I'm baffled. Are you?

The first TV commercial, featuring comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, aired last night. Jerry helps Bill buy shoes. Microsoft's press release explains what I had already figured out: "Some may wonder what Jerry Seinfeld helping Bill Gates pick out a new pair of shoes has to do with software. The answer, in the classic Seinfeld sense of the word, is nothing."

Huh? Isn't advertising supposed to be about something? When I was a kid, singer Billy Preston had a big hit with song "Nothing from Nothing." The song wasn't my taste, but it was a No. 1 hit. From the lyric:

"Nothin' from nothin' leaves nothin' You gotta have somethin' If you wanna be with me"

A commercial about nothing is nothing. Right? Commercials are supposed to be memorable. Advertising's goal is make an impression and associate that impression with a brand. Maybe I expect too much from Microsoft and ad agency Crispin, Porter + Bogusky. Maybe I don't have enough sense of humor. Or maybe nothing from nothing really is nothing.

Here's the problem: Windows Vista is a troubled product that has had little marketing support for about 18 months. Microsoft is spending at least $300 million on a new marketing campaign. I expected Microsoft to capture the imagination and endear people to Windows. The first commercial leaves the viewer remembering Bill Gates, Jerry Seinfeld and the "Conquistador" shoe.

Two different people I spoke to about the commercial bristled about racism, because of the churros, Hispanic onlookers in the store window and the "Conquistador" name of the shoes. I wouldn't go that far, but I will observe that more air time was given to the shoe store window than to Windows. My wife exclaimed, "Oh, lighten up!" She didn't see any racism in the 90-second spot.

She said: "To me it's funny—the Hispanic family in the window—because they don't say, 'Oh, it's Bill Gates.' It's the Conquistador." Oh, you mean Bill Gates isn't the Conquistador, honey?

She laughed at the commercial, by the way. Frequently. Is this like a woman thing, or am I just too much the sourpuss to laugh? The commercial did make an impression on my wife, who described it as "funny" but "strange;" she didn't see the connection to Windows.

source: microsoft-watch.com

RACERPRO

09-11-2008, 05:48 PM

DEMOfall 08 is an autumn harvest of companies Microsoft should be partnering with.

At least a few of the companies, many of them startups, are possible Microsoft acquisitions, too. If the company doesn't have people here shopping for acquisitions, something is grossly wrong.

By the way, Microsoft made an impression in the best way possible—freebees. During the main morning session, Microsoft software was thrown out to the audience, mostly to people sitting up front and waving or shouting. Smart marketing, Microsoft.

I really wanted to attend DEMOfall yesterday—after all, it's taking place in the city where I live, San Diego—but Microsoft's "Get Virtual Now" event was more topical for this blog's targeted readership.

I want to call out three presentations from the morning session:

Familybuilder uses social networks to connect people while they're still alive. Now there's an interesting approach to genealogy—connect with the living instead of the dead. Today, the company introduced a DNA kit to help identify those living relatives.

Microsoft launched Windows Live Spaces based on the precept that people want most to connect with friends, family members and even coworkers. The approach is sensible. But there are many more ways that people can connect online that are, from a product marketing perspective, very sticky. Nothing is stickier than family. My question: Why isn't Microsoft a partner?

Familybuilder's big success, before the launch of today's revamped cross-platform site, was through its Facebook application released in 2007. Familybuilder is also available through Bebo, Hi5, MySpace and Orkut.

A partner like Microsoft could bring something important to Familybuilder: more confidence that personal privacy will be protected. DNA testing opens up a Pandora's box of health privacy disclosure problems. Microsoft's strong privacy policies could and should be example to a company like Familybuilder.

source: microsoft-watch.com

RACERPRO

09-12-2008, 10:17 PM

Just as is the case today with Windows Vista and Windows XP, Microsoft is preparing to harvest end user feedback from the first Beta build of Windows 7.

According to Christina Storm, a program manager on the Windows Customer Engineering feature team, the next iteration of the Windows client will simply continue the Windows Feedback Program (WFP) set in place for XP and Vista. Storm indicated that Microsoft is in fact tailoring WFP in order to fit Windows 7, starting as early as the Beta 1 development milestone. Microsoft is currently not accepting any new participant in the WPF, and hasn't been since early 2007.

“Customers choose to be part of a survey program, an automated feedback program or both. They then complete a 20-minute profiling survey, which later allows us to look at their feedback based on their profile. We have customers spanning a wide spectrum of computer knowledge in our program, and we are constantly working on balancing the panel to staff up underrepresented groups. The majority of customers who are spontaneously willing to participate in a feedback program like ours are generally enthusiastic about technology. They are early adopters of consumer electronics, digital devices and new versions of software. In contrast, customers who see the PC as a tool to get a job done tend to be a bit more reluctant to join,” Storm stated.

According to Microsoft, all the participants in the WFP, be it for Windows Vista, or for Windows 7, have to install a data collection tool built by the Windows Telemetry Team. The utility has the purpose to automate the feedback collecting process. At this point in time, Microsoft is preparing its feedback infrastructure for the advent of Windows 7 Beta 1.

“When we release the Windows 7 beta we will also be collecting feedback from this panel [the Windows Feedback Program] and asking for participation from a set of Windows 7 beta users. Our current plans call for signing up for the beta to happen in the standard Microsoft manner on Microsoft Connect,” Storm concluded.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

09-13-2008, 10:11 PM

The constant wave of Windows 7 Beta chatter from Redmond, even without an official confirmation from Microsoft, is a clear indication that the company is gearing up to move the next iteration of the Windows client beyond the development milestone (M) stages.

With the Windows 7 roadshow approaching at a fast pace, as Microsoft is getting closer and closer to events such as the Professional Developer Conference 2008 (October), Windows Hardware Engineering Conference 2008 (November) and TechEd 2008 EMEA (November), the first Beta build of the operating system is starting to take contour. Still, Windows 7 Beta 1 will not make it to the October and November conferences, as it is planned for availability in mid-December 2008.

Microsoft has failed to either confirm or deny this piece of information at this point in time, but according to Mary Jo Foley, citing unnamed sources, Windows 7 beta 1 will drop just ahead of Christmas 2008. On Vista WinHEC 2008 homepage, Microsoft is claiming that Windows 7 “is coming soon” but doesn't give any indication of the actual deadline, although it is rushing hardware manufacturers to get ready for the operating system.

The Redmond giant released the first taste of Windows 7 back in December 2007. At that time, Milestone 1 was virtually indistinguishable from Windows Vista. Moving forward into the development process, the Redmond company has also produced a Milestone 2 Build of Windows 7, which was kept tight under wraps and wasn't leaked like M1. The next move as far as the evolution of Windows 7 is concerned is a Milestone 3 release, which in its turn will be followed by the first Beta build of the platform. One thing is for sure, under the leadership of Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, Windows 7 will have a short Beta life, approximately a year. Microsoft is reportedly not preparing a wide release of Windows 7 Beta until the client is either feature-complete or very close to the final version.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

09-16-2008, 11:27 AM

Windows Explorer is one of the areas of Windows generating disappointment for users in the evolution from Windows XP to Windows Vista.

Although in Vista, Windows Explorer was indeed kicked up a notch in terms of design, functionality and capabilities, the fact is that hardcore users were left missing the amputated Windows File System, even though Microsoft claimed that the best parts of WinFS were included into Vista. Well, with Windows 7, the Redmond company has yet another chance at reinventing the wheel with Windows Explorer and, apparently, the software giant will go for it.

The Windows group is looking for no less than to “shape the vision of browsing, searching, indexing and visualizing data,” according to a member who pointed out that efforts are being made to reinvent “the way people think about their data. Our team is responsible for developing the Windows Explorer. In the next versions of Windows we will be breaking new ground enabling users to act on their items, irrespective of where they are stored and delivering an indexing technology to provide wicked fast views over their local data.”

With Windows 7, Microsoft is in fact looking to “redefine the face of Windows,” something which of course was not the case with Windows Vista. In this regard, the most interesting development direction for Windows Explorer in Windows 7 is the users' ability to “act on their items, irrespective of where they are stored”.

Microsoft might be preparing Windows 7 to actually stretch into the Cloud. The Redmond company has already confirmed that Windows 7 and Windows Live Wave 3 would be virtually joined at the hip, but there is an additional scenario for the successor of Windows Vista “to ignore” the actual location of files. The Redmond company is working on a Cloud platform dubbed Live Mesh. The new platform permits users, among other things, to store and synchronize files and folders across a variety of devices including laptops, PCs, mobile phones, servers, etc. In this regard, it could be possible that Microsoft is considering a very intimate connection between Windows Explorer and Live Mesh straight on Windows 7 desktops.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

09-17-2008, 09:16 AM

I got a gander at the latest test build of Windows 7 briefly (courtesy of a source of mine) and was not allowed to take any screenshots. But it is real, it does exist and it is, indeed, in certain testers’ hands inside and outside the company.

From the quick glimpse I got of Milestone 3, it sounds like Bryant of AeroXperience was right on the money with his hypotheses about what’s changed in the latest internal test builds. The latest build seems quite stable. The Ribbon user interface from Office 2007 is now part of WordPad and Paint. Home Groups — the functionality formerly known in “Longhorn”/Vista as “Castle” — is part of the new Windows 7 build.

I also noticed that the “Graphical Console,” a k a PowerShell Version 2, seems to be part of the latest pre-release Windows 7 build.

(Looks like Stephen Chapman over at the UX Evangelist site got to see Build 6780, too, and has a lot more to say on Windows 7’s Paint and WordPad.)

From what admittedly little I had a chance to see, Windows 7 does not look or feel like a major departure from Windows Vista.

Sources say there isn’t an “M4? currently on Microsoft’s Windows 7 schedule. Next up is likely some kind of preview build (which may or may not be distributed to those attending the Professional Developers Conference and/or Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in October and November, respectively.) After that, a broadscale Beta 1, which should be feature-complete and pretty much set in stone, is expected for mid-December.

Like my ZDNet blogging colleague Ed Bott said, it’s not impossible for Microsoft to hit a 2009 release for Windows 7 if the first true beta doesn’t go out until December. Such a move would not be unprecedented.

Do you think the Softies are going to get Windows 7 out the door in 2009, as they are hoping — and maybe even early enough to make it onto new machines in time for Holiday 2009 sales?

source: blogs.zdnet.com

RACERPRO

09-19-2008, 09:03 PM

I can only describe my full-time return to Windows Vista as an experience in increasing friction.

It's like Vista has personality, that she's somehow a wounded lover; she's angry that I left for a while. Vista hasn't thrown open her arms to embrace me.

Over most of the summer, I spent more time using Mac OS X than Windows Vista. That was in part because I took on Apple Watch and because of the iPhone 3G. But it's time to turn back to Vista, particularly with so many Microsoft products coming out or going into beta over the next couple of months. Today was my first full day using Vista; yesterday was switch day.

My morning started off with a big surprise: Windows Live Mail wouldn't send any messages, and I got a cryptic error notice for my troubles. E-mail had been working last night, but not this morning. Now maybe it's coincidence, but I installed Zune 3.0 software before observing the problem. Could the software applications—both from Microsoft—be a little incompatible?

It's this kind of productivity drain that has people switching to the Mac. I don't have hours to spend figuring out the problem. I did some basic troubleshooting, which included rebooting the laptop while I ate breakfast. Live Mail's death meant switching to Outlook, which I had resisted. Outlook saps resources when checking mail (it's not a friendly multitasker), and the point of my return is finding out what is the Microsoft lifestyle. For consumers, Live is the center of that lifestyle. Overall, my experience with Windows Live Mail has been most disappointing. I hope the Wave 3 version is better than this.

When I should have been testing Zune 3.0, I was manually setting up various e-mail accounts, all IMAP, in Outlook. There is an account settings import wizard—for Outlook Express and, get this, Eudora Light. I knew these were the only import options for Outlook; I had never checked for Version 2007 but expected broader import options.. Eudora Light? How about Thunderbird or, better yet, Windows Mail or Windows Live Mail? This Microsoft stuff is supposed to work together, right?

After setting up Outlook, I remembered to open Windows Messenger, which gave a connection error because Internet Explorer was set to offline mode. Right, I hadn't yet launched IE 8, which kept mysteriously switching to offline mode. Oh? Could that be Live Mail's problem, too? D`oh, I should have known better. Live Mail received mail just fine. The problem remained.

I really like Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, by the way. That's why I've written so little about the browser. IE 8 deserves several weeks of hard usage before review. I still find the UI to be too cluttered, but the new features are impressive and the security features are a whole lot less intrusive.

This post would have been my analysis and first impressions about Zune 3.0, if not for the day's early mail troubles. I'm hoping to give Zune its due tomorrow.

My initial test system is the HP Artist Edition Notebook—Pavilion dv2800t—with a 2.2GHz Intel Dual Core processor, 14-inch display (with 1,280-by-800 resolution), 128MB discrete nVidia GeForce 8400M GS graphics (shared to 767MB), 2GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive (5,400 rpm), multi-DVD burner (with LightScribe) and Windows Vista Ultimate Service Pack 1 64-bit. The Windows Experience Index rating is 4.0.

Previously, I used the 1.6GHz MacBook Air, with its small hard drive (80GB) and punier graphics (64MB discrete; 144MB shared). The Mac wakes from sleep much faster than the HP laptop. It's the software, definitely. Performance is otherwise pretty good, but, as I experienced using Vista before Service Pack 1's release, the user interface occasionally freezes or there's a sputter when switching applications.

That said, there is a noticeable improvement in an unexpected way. Vista 64-bit feels differently than the 32-bit version. The operating systems look the same, but, to me, the 64-bit version handles more smoothly. If I didn't know the kernels were different, I would guess they were separate Vistas. The 64-bit kernel is more locked down than the 32-bit one, which affects how all kinds of software interact with the operating system. Even security software is largely restricted from kernel access.

I don't have the right words to describe how Vista 64-bit feels different. When I got the computer, the better handling was immediately different. I'll call it a smoothness. I only checked to see if the HP laptop had Vista 64-bit after detecting the difference.

source: microsoft-watch.com

RACERPRO

09-22-2008, 02:21 PM

Microsoft is without a doubt diversifying the collection of resources behind the new $300 million Widows marketing campaign created by advertising agency Crispin, Porter + Bogusky.

From Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld's the Future Is Delicious to I'm a PC; Windows vs. Walls; Life Without Walls; the fake “I'm a PC Guy” John Hodgman (aka Sean Siller, senior program manager for networking in the Windows Core Operating System Division), the Redmond giant is evolving along its initial Free the People strategy designed to tell the truth about Windows. The first signs of Microsoft clearing its voice in the market were delivered by Brad Brooks, corporate vice president, Windows Consumer Product Marketing as early as the start of June 2008.

The Windows Brand vs. the Windows Products

“Windows has always been about putting the power of computing in the hands of people. All of these efforts are designed to reconnect and re-ignite our customers’ imaginations around the value of Windows in their lives today, and the promise of Windows in their lives tomorrow,” explained Bill Veghte, Senior Vice President, Online Services & Windows Business Group with the initial launch of the Windows campaign on September 4.

Microsoft is laboring to span Windows across various segments of the consumer market, delivering a segmentation in relation to the PC, to mobile phones and to the Cloud. In this manner, the Redmond company is elevating the Windows brand above the products that it is inherently associated with. Designed as a subtle divorce between Windows and the underlying software solutions or cloud services, the strategy is to make the brand independent of any product.

While the Windows brand has indeed suffered because of competitors such as Apple, the fact is that it has also been hurt by Microsoft itself. The Redmond giant can go head over heels with multi-million marketing campaigns but it won't change the fact that Windows Vista as a product has eroded the Windows brand. At the same time, the company's modest positioning on the operating system market for mobile phones, coupled with the confusing soup of applications and services between MSN and Windows Live for the past years, has also impacted the value of Windows, at a conceptual level.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

09-24-2008, 02:36 PM

Microsoft has decided that Windows 7 won't include built-in programs for e-mail, photo editing, and movie making, as was done with Windows Vista, CNET News.com has learned.

The software maker included Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Mail, and Windows Movie Maker as part of Vista, but later chose to offer separate downloadable Windows Live programs that essentially replaced those components with versions that could connect to online services from Microsoft and others.

Microsoft told CNET News late Monday that it has decided to remove those features entirely from Windows 7 and instead offer only the service-connected Windows Live versions as optional free downloads. Earlier on Monday, Microsoft had declined to say how it was handling things.

In a follow-up interview on Monday, Windows Live general manager Brian Hall said Microsoft made the decision to remove the tools from Windows for several reasons, including a desire to issue new operating system releases more quickly than it has in the past. The move also removes the confusion of offering and supporting two different programs that perform essentially similar functions.

"It makes it much cleaner," Hall said.

Lastly, he said, making the Windows Live tools completely separate from the operating system paves the way for Microsoft to work selectively with specific partners.

"We can do things with specific partners to enable really great experiences that might be hard in Windows," Hall said.

Antitrust rules make it hard for Microsoft to tie operating system features to specific services.

Microsoft last week rolled out the latest "Wave 3" releases of its Windows Live programs, adding Windows Live Movie Maker to the mix of programs, which includes Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Live Mail as well as blogging tool Windows Live Writer and instant messaging program Windows Live Messenger. While Windows XP and earlier releases had an instant messaging program built in, Microsoft took out that feature in Windows Vista.

Hall said it was too soon to say if the "Wave 4" release would precede Windows 7 or be coincident to it. Microsoft has said it will have Windows 7 on the market by January 2010, while CEO Steve Ballmer has said he is pushing for a release next year.

"We'll do Wave 3 and then we'll figure it out," Hall said.

It remains to be seen just how Microsoft will distribute the Windows Live programs in conjunction with Windows 7-based PCs. Presumably the company could strike deals with computer makers or retailers to include the software, or links to download it.

source: news.cnet.com

RACERPRO

09-25-2008, 01:40 AM

Microsoft is making headway with the building process of Windows 7, the next iteration of the Windows client, and is gearing up to release a development milestone of the operating system at the end of next month.

Microsoft's professional Developers Conference in Las Vegas, between October 27-30, 2008 will be synonymous with the broadening of the Windows 7 testing program past the limited testing pool of the company's close partners that was given access to early builds including Milestone 1, Milestone 2 and Milestone 3. The Redmond giant will in fact offer a pre-Beta build of Windows 7 to all PDC2008 participants.

"We're (...) giving every attendee a pre-beta copy of Windows 7. Yes, you heard that right. You'll be able to install your own copy of Windows 7 and play with it on your hardware. This is a very limited release, and PDC2008 attendees will be the first to get it. Gotta love the PDC," revealed Mike Swanson, Microsoft technical evangelist.

In just one month Microsoft plans to deliver the first consistent taste of Windows 7. The company demonstrated the operating system's touch computing capabilities earlier this year, but otherwise detailed in no way M1, M2 or even M3. Screenshots, videos and a tad of information on the recently dropped Windows 7 Milestone 3 Build 6780 were made available from third party sources, but Microsoft continued to be mute on the matter. At PDC2008 Steven Sinofsky, senior vice president, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, will be the one to introduce Windows 7 to the world.

"In our first keynote at PDC2008 Ray Ozzie will talk about the new world of Software Plus Services, with Bob Muglia joining him, to unveil our new Cloud Computing platform," Microsoft revealed. "In a second keynote, Ray will return to talk about building immersive user experiences and introduce Steven Sinofsky, who will give developers a first look at the next version of Windows, Windows 7. Scott Guthrie and David Treadwell will join Ray and Steven to dive deep on the latest Win32 and .NET platform advances that enable a next generation of user experiences spanning multiple devices, including a look at the latest developments in .NET, Silverlight, "Live Mesh", and the rest of the client platform."

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

09-26-2008, 12:08 AM

With the availability of Windows 7 pre-Beta confirmed for late October 2008, Microsoft has also delivered additional details related to the agenda of the Professional Developer Conference 2008 in Las Vegas.

Between October 27-30, the Los Angeles Convention Center will host no less than 22 sessions focused on the next iteration of the Windows Client. This week, Microsoft has added 17 new information sessions to the existing five. But at the same time, the Redmond giant is still failing to reveal all that much about what it will discuss quasi-publicly in just one month.

In this context, there are a variety of items on the PDC2008 agenda on which no details have been made public. Windows 7: Building Great Communications Applications by Larry Osterman is one of them. Larry Osterman, who is a Principal Software Development Engineer, revealed that “the primary target for my talk is developers who are building an application that in any way communicates between users (voice mail, instant messaging, voice over ip, etc). In addition, if you’re a games developer or a media player developer, you should also attend, there’s stuff in the talk for you too. There are also some other cool talks included in the list that I’m absolutely planning on attending”.

At the same time, Microsoft was shy about revealing anything related to the “New Shell User Experience APIs”, “New APIs to Find, Visualize, and Organize”, “New Text and Graphics APIs" and “New APIs for Building Context-Aware Applications”. Details on all these application programing interfaces for Windows 7 will be published at a later date.

Here are the additional 14 sessions which do feature abstracts, courtesy of Microsoft:

“1. Windows 7: Developing Multi-touch Applications (Reed Townsend)

In Windows 7, innovative touch and gesture support will enable more direct and natural interaction in your applications. This session highlights the new multi-touch gesture APIs and explains how you can leverage them in your applications.

2. Writing Your Application to Shine on Modern Graphics Hardware (Anantha Kancherla)

This session centers on the new enhancements to DirectX that enable Win32 applications harness the latest innovations in modern graphics hardware. You will learn how to use the Windows 7 graphics infrastructure to enable your applications to display graphics content on different generations of graphics hardware, across multiple displays and on a remote desktop. Also learn how you can test your application for DPI awareness, what to look for, and how to make it provide the best experience on high-DPI displays.

3. Unlocking the GPU with Direct3D (Allison Klein)

This session will teach you how to use the latest version of Direct3D to unlock the rendering and computing power of the GPU and to target the wide variety of hardware used by your customers. Learn techniques for integrating this high-performance 3D graphics pipeline within your Win32 applications.

4. Benefiting from Documents and Printing Convergence (Jesse McGatha)

Discover how updating your printing infrastructure to XPS allows your application to seamlessly bridge across both electronic and physical paper and benefit from new document workflow and interoperability scenarios.

5. Designing Efficient Background Processes (Vikram Singh)

Inefficient background activity has a dramatic impact on system performance, power consumption, responsiveness, and memory footprint. This session demonstrates best practices for background process design and will dive deep on the capabilities of the Service Control Manager (SCM) and Task Scheduler. Attendees will also learn how to use new Windows 7 infrastructure to develop efficient background tasks.

6. Design Principles for Windows 7 (Samuel Moreau)

Together, we can increase customer enthusiasm, satisfaction and loyalty by designing user experiences that are both desirable and harmonious. In this session, we will introduce the Windows User Experience Principles approach to shipping software. Along the way we will share stories and lessons learned along the journey of designing the user model and experience for Windows 7, and leave you with a set of principles that you can apply as you build your applications for Windows.

7. Integrate with the Windows 7 Desktop Taskbar (Rob Jarrett)

This session dives into new APIs that enable integration with the latest Windows desktop features. Learn about new extensibility methods to surface your application's key tasks. Discover how enhancements to the taskbar, Start Menu, thumbnails and their desktop elements provide new ways for you to delight your users. This talk is a must for application developers who wan to provide the best user experience for their applications on Windows 7.

8. Welcome to the Windows 7 Desktop (Chaitanya Sareen)

The Windows desktop is evolving-is your application ready to evolve also? This session sets the stage for exciting enhancements to the taskbar, Start Menu, and other desktop elements.

9. Deploying Your Application with Windows Installer (MSI) and ClickOnce (Tyler Robinson)

If you are a developer involved in the creation of application deployment packages using Windows Installer (MSI) or ClickOnce, this session is for you. Learn how you can take advantage of new features in Windows 7 to shorten application installation times, reduce UAC prompts, write less custom code, take less time to write installations for complex packages, and much more!

10. Deep Dive - What's New with Win32's user32 and comctl32 (Raymond Chen)

Hear about the lowest level user interface components (user32, comctl32) that appear in almost every Windows application. You'll learn about "recent" changes and enhancements in these subsystems, plus be subjected to some philosophical musings on how foreground activation is like love. (No really, it will actually help you write better software.)

11. Programming Sync Providers that Work Great with Windows (Moe Khosravy, Jason Roberts)

In this session, learn how you can enable your application to synchronize with other applications that use the Microsoft Sync Framework. This session will cover how to implement sync for contacts and other PIM data, how to package sync providers for distribution and installation, and how to register sync provider for use on Windows.

12. Using Instrumentation and Diagnostics to Develop High Quality Software

Learn how to enhance the quality and supportability of your software during developing and deployment using the Windows 7 instrumentation and diagnostic platforms. This session will focus on key aspects of the event and performance counter infrastructures, and discuss best practices around adding instrumentation to your code. We will introduce the new Windows PowerShell-based diagnostic platform, and how it enables you to easily monitor multiple data sources to empower the end user and IT pro to detect and resolve software problems.

13. Best Practices for Developing for Windows Standard User (Cezar Ungureanasu)

The application development requirements in Windows 7 for UAC-compatibility are exactly the same as in Vista: Vista-compatible applications will interact with UAC in Windows 7 without any modification. No new APIs are required or provided. The UAC improvements for Win7 will impact the user's experience but not the application interface. Logo requirements regarding UAC compatibility are the same as in Vista.

14. Writing World-Ready Applications

This session centers on globalization features for Windows 7, including sorting and string comparison, locale support, and coverage for new languages, with an eye to helping developers extend their applications to a global user base. This session introduces the Extended Linguistic Services API, the next step in the evolution of globalization support for Windows developers. This session will also cover the Multilingual User Interface (MUI) technology inside Windows 7 and .NET, and walk you through an end-to-end look at how to make your application MUI-enabled so that you can easily take your application worldwide and extend your customer base into new language markets”.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

09-29-2008, 10:35 PM

With Microsoft making headway towards the gold build of Internet Explorer 8, the Redmond company has to face an ugly truth. Performance-wise, with emphasis on JavaScrip performance, the software giant is getting ready to release a browser inferior to what is already available from rivals Google and Mozilla.

Microsoft's aim is to make the next iteration of IE superior to what Internet Explorer 7 brought to the table back in 2006 on Windows XP and the start of 2007 on Windows Vista, and in this regard the company is on the right track. However, there is little focus on shifting Internet Explorer 8 into high gear and making it outrun Firefox 3.1 and Chrome.

When he launched Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 back in March 2008, Dean Hachamovitch, general manager Internet Explorer, revealed that "some of the tests we have done show pure JScript performance improvements up to 2.5 times. We also measured the performance gains on common Gmail operations, like loading the inbox (34%), opening a conversation (45%) and opening a thread (27%) compared to IE7."

The fact is that, with Google and Mozilla praising the JavaScript horsepower under the hood of Chrome and respectively Firefox 3.1, Microsoft cannot afford not to make "speed of the essence," although this is exactly what the company is doing. Stephane Kimmerlin, product marketing director, Windows client business group, Asia-Pacific, Microsoft, told ZDNet at the beginning of September that "when we designed IE8, we did not start with performance in mind."

Christian Stockwell, IE program manager, said at the end of August 2008 that Microsoft would not be joining the chorus of browser developers trumpeting their product as the fastest in the universe. And believe it or not, there's a good enough reason why Microsoft is not applauding the performance superiority of IE8 over that of its rivals... because it's simply not there.

The need for (JavaScript) speed
The fact is that Microsoft has so far managed to avoid making their JavaScript benchmarks for Internet Explorer public. While Google has the V8 Benchmark Suite, the WebKit Team has SunSpider and Mozilla is offering Dromaeo, the Redmond company continues to remain loyal to its proprietary strategy with IE. In this regard, the conclusion presented by Asa Dotzler, Mozilla's community coordinator in the past, is that Microsoft is simply falling far behind the developers of open source browsers when it comes down to speed. Dotzler noted that Microsoft simply "can't keep up" with open source projects and that it's "a shame that they're falling so far behind" with IE.

Is IE8 evolving in terms of JavaScript performance? Undoubtedly. Just as undoubtedly as the fact that Google Browser (Chrome) and Firefox 3.1 have already evolved past the stage where the next version of Internet Explorer is now. Whether Microsoft likes it or not, Chrome and Firefox 3.1 are “state of the art” in terms of JavaScript performance, while IE8 is lagging behind, with no consistent push from the company to make the browser measure up to the standards of its rivals.

What did Microsoft do with IE8?
"When we took a hard look at our goals and considered what we could do to build the best browser we were presented with a quandary. On the one hand, we could focus very narrowly on scripting performance, trusting that our investment would noticeably improve our users’ browsing experience. Alternatively, we could invest more broadly in realistic scenarios, measuring heavily-used subsystems and investing our optimization effort accordingly. We opted for the latter approach," Stockwell explained.

In translation, Microsoft abandoned the idea of focusing on boosting JScript and JScript alone and went a different way, namely optimizing the browser for top usage scenarios. But in this context, Microsoft has left itself wide opened to a perception problem. And make no mistake about it; just as it was the case with Windows Vista, while poor performance is survivable, the generalized consumer perception of poor performance however acts as a deal breaker.

Firefox 3.1 TraceMonkey
For Firefox 3.1, the successor of Firefox 3.0 and the next iteration of its open source browser, Mozilla introduced native code compilation JavaScript engine ("SpiderMonkey"). Just make sure to remember the key phrase “native code compilation." This created TraceMonkey. It's rather simple; Mozilla is cutting down significantly on the interpreting aspect and is increasing the focus on native code. The next generation JavaScript implementation in Firefox 3.1 uses a trace as the compilation unit.

By turning to traces in order to compile JScript "just-in-time" and renouncing to utilize functions or code files, Mozilla ensures that the JavaScript engine performs less interpreting and executes JS applications directly in native code. The raw beauty of the new "trace trees" technique and tricks that evolved SpiderMonkey into TraceMonkey is the loop optimizations made possible by the trace (sequence of instructions) for patch executed repeatedly which are no longer interpreted. Mike Shaver, Mozilla's chief evangelist pointed out that Firefox 3.1 is competing directly against native code.

Google Browser Chrome V8
Remember the "native code compilation" key phrase for Firefox 3.1 and TraceMonkey? Guess what?! The same is valid for Google Chrome. In fact, Lars Bak, software engineer, revealed on the launch of Chrome that one of the cornerstones of the browser was the fact that its JavaScript engine was capable to compile source code directly into "native machine code." In this context, while Firefox 3.1 still performs some interpreting in addition to using traces, Chrome has no interpreter; compilation is done directly in native code. In addition, deploying virtualization and turning to "hidden classes and inline caches," Chrome delivers additional optimization, as the dynamic hidden classes streamline access to JavaScript objects.

Swimming in Native Code
This is what Microsoft needs to make Internet Explorer do, although it looks like it's already too late for IE8 with a reported Release to Web deadline set for November 2008. Microsoft's Christian Stockwell touted Jscript performance gains of 400% with IE8 compared with IE7 as far as the SunSpider benchmarking suite is concerned. The Redmond giant did introduce optimizations when it comes down to JavaScript-DOM and JavaScript Object Notation. But at the same time, while the company too should have focused on native code, it didn't.

Microsoft has indeed worked on IE8 performance, from runtime to memory optimization, but also on taking the AJAX subsystems a step forward, and the actual evolution of the existing JavaScrip engine of the browser. However, this does not change the fact that Internet Explorer needs a native code compiler so as to at least keep the same pace as its rivals.

Diatomacious

10-01-2008, 02:43 PM

Vista is hands-down way better than XP. I feel Microsoft has done an excellent job at exploiting the capabilities of newer computers. The only reason to even think about running XP at this point is if you have a Pentium 4 or less with around 512MB RAM (It just won't do Vista if ya know what I mean) :)

RACERPRO

10-04-2008, 09:45 AM

The window management system is one piece of the Windows 7 graphical user interface which will evolve starting with the pre-Beta version of the operating system.

According to Microsoft, the evolutionary design changes in terms of window management are expected to generate feedback and reactions as soon as the Windows 7 builds become available. With Windows 7 pre-Beta now less than a month away, the Redmond giant revealed that it took a number of different scenarios in consideration when it comes to the successor of Windows Vista.

“For Window 7 our goal is to reduce the number of clicks and precise movements needed to perform common activities. Based on data and feedback we've gotten from customers, a number of scenarios have been called out as important considerations for the design. As with all the designs we’re talking about - it is important to bring forward the common usage scenarios, make clear decisions on the most widely used usage patterns, address new and 'unarticulated needs', and to also be sure to maintain our philosophy of 'in control',” stated Dave Matthews, program manager on the core user experience team.

The software company has analyzed user behavior in multi-tasking situations but also when it comes down to focusing on a single item on the desktop. Microsoft has even looked to solutions involving virtualized desktops and docking pallets but also additional approaches which remained undisclosed. At the same time, Matthews revealed that the company labored to continue to provide support for application developers leveraging single document interfaces and multiple document interfaces.

In Windows 7, the Windows Aero border on windows will continue to be transparent even when the items are maximized, unlike in Vista. The windows management system has been tailored to support a variety of input models including touch screens. But, in the end, Microsoft has worked to improve the efficiency of managing windows, streamlining the most common actions, and adapting the system to a range of devices from laptops to PCs.

“Overall - customers feel in control, and that the system makes it faster and easier to get things done. This point is important because the feeling of responsiveness and control is a key test for whether the design matches the way people really work. We put designs and mockups in the usability lab to watch how people respond, and once we see people smiling and succeeding easily at their task we know we are on the right track. The ultimate success in a design such as this is when it feels so natural that it becomes a muscle memory. This is when people can get the feeling that they’ve mastered a familiar tool, and that the computer is behaving as it should,” Matthews added.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

10-06-2008, 12:55 PM

Given its history of moving deadlines at a moment's notice, it hardly seems surprising that Microsoft is keeping Windows XP alive even longer than expected, but its latest move looks particularly bad for Vista.

The apparent decision to allow OEM computer sellers to offer disks that downgrade installations of Windows Vista to XP until the end of July next year clearly bumps up against the period when Windows 7 might be released.

Unpromising outlook
Microsoft had previously said it would end the scheme next January, but the continued lack of demand for Vista appears to be behind the change of heart.

If the move is confirmed, it's yet more bad news for Vista, as XP users may have the option to skip the unloved OS entirely and move straight to Windows 7.

By J Mark Lytle

source: techradar.com

RACERPRO

10-10-2008, 01:59 AM

Poor performance was one of the sins associated with Windows Vista RTM, especially in comparison to Windows XP throughout 2007.

In this context, the Service Pack 1 for the operating system was long overdue as Microsoft faced what it seemed to be an ever increasing wave of criticism because of the sluggish pace at which Vista performed common tasks through which XP seemed to breeze with no issues. This situation was remedied with the introduction of SP1, and now Windows Vista's performance is placed under the microscope by a panel of IT professionals and Microsoft employees in a Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable with Technical Fellow Mark Russinovich (transcript available for download here).

The conclusion of the Springboard Series Virtual Roundtable focused on Vista performance is that the advent of Service Pack 1 helped clear the operating system of the problems it had as a RTM version. At the same time, it wasn't just the service pack, as much as it was the ecosystem of hardware and software solutions built around the platform growing more mature. In this regard, the optimization of computers' BIOS and drivers has contributed to speeding up Windows Vista, according to Gabe Aul, a principal group program manager for Microsoft specializing in Windows performance.

“So the scenario is that if a critical driver to the boot process, boots their driver, is not self-signed, embedded signed, then the system has to check the catalog file to see if there is a signature there in order for it to allow to progress,” Aul stated. “What happens though is that on a lot of systems, especially if you have gone through multiple driver updates, catalog files can accumulate and, suddenly, during the boot process you are scanning through a number of catalog files while you are waiting for, in order for the system to continue to load. So, embedding signing the driver will skip that step and that can save a considerable amount of time. Five to ten seconds on boot depending on the number of drivers and catalog files that are on the system.”

Aul also indicated that Vista is in fact superior to CP when it comes down to launching applications. This is where Vista-exclusive technologies come in, with the focus on superfetch. Aul explained that on XP, the cold launch of applications involved accessing the disk for all the bits and hitting a bottleneck for performance. This is no longer valid in Windows Vista because of the caching performed by superfetch.

“Having that stuff cached by superfetch means that your cold launch time if you’ve never launched this app in this session but superfetch has cached the data that predicts what I need, then than warm launch, or that cold launch time will be very, very close to warm. And, so, you should see with Vista that the app launch times are much more consistent than they were with XP when it could be very fast or very slow,” Aul explained.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

10-11-2008, 01:57 AM

One of the aspects of Windows Vista that is going to evolve in Windows 7 is the User Account Control.

More criticized than praised, UAC in Vista represents just a milestone for Microsoft, according to Ben Fathi, vice president for core OS development, who revealed that the Redmond giant was ready to go all the way with the feature. Fathi stated that Microsoft had centralized both the negative and positive feedback on UAC and that Windows 7 would resolve some of the issues associated with the RTM edition of Windows Vista. The company has already toned down UAC with the release of Service Pack 1 for Vista.

"Based on what we’ve learned from our data and feedback we need to address several key issues in Windows 7: reduce unnecessary or duplicated prompts in Windows and the ecosystem, such that critical prompts can be more easily identified; enable our customers to be more confident that they are in control of their systems; make prompts informative such that people can make more confident choices; and provide better and more obvious control over the mechanism," Fathi revealed.

UAC is nothing more than a security mitigation introduced in Vista to force users to run with standard privileges and developers to build solutions for standard users. In this manner, although the User Account Control is by no means a security barrier, the Redmond company did manage to enhance the protection of end users.

Fathi indicated that Windows Vista and UAC had changed the way that developers built applications. In this regard, software built for the successor of Windows XP no longer requires unnecessary administrator rights in order to install or run. This move has contributed to decreasing the attack area of the operating system and the exposure of end users.

"As we evolve UAC for Windows 7 we will address the customer feedback and satisfaction issues with the prompts themselves. We’ve heard loud and clear that you are frustrated. You find the prompts too frequent, annoying, and confusing. We still want to provide you control over what changes can happen to your system, but we want to provide you a better overall experience," Fathi added.

The UAC in Windows 7 will be less chatty than its precursor in Vista, while at the same time being a lot less confusing. The tests Microsoft conducted with the Windows 7 User Account Control indicated that 83% of respondents understood the information presented to them in the dialog box. Fathi indicated that there were two critical aspects on which Microsoft was focusing for the Windows 7 UAC.

"1. Broaden the control you have over the UAC notifications. We will continue to give you control over the changes made to your system, but in Windows 7, we will also provide options such that when you use the system as an administrator you can determine the range of notifications that you receive. 2. Provide additional and more relevant information in the user interface. We will improve the dialog UI so that you can better understand and make more informed choices. We’ve already run new design concepts based on this principle through our in-house usability testing and we’ve seen very positive results," Fathi said.

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

10-14-2008, 10:26 PM

Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 7 will be the final name for the next generation operating system.

In a blog, Mike Nash, Corporate Vice President, Windows Product Management confirmed the news.

"Since we began development of the next version of the Windows client operating system we have been referring to it by a codename, "Windows 7." But now is a good time to announce that we've decided to officially call the next version of Windows, "Windows 7" Nash said.

This is the first time a Windows OS has been named by its codename. The decision was made for simplicity. Nash added "this is the seventh release of Windows, so therefore "Windows 7" just makes sense."

Microsoft is set to reveal a lot more about Windows 7 at its professional developers conference which starts on the 27th October. Neowin will be live all week so look out for some great information about the future of Windows right here.

source: windowsvistablog.com

RACERPRO

10-18-2008, 10:23 PM

The evolution of the Windows client, involving both Windows Vista (now with Service Pack 1) and Windows 7, appears to be closer than Microsoft is ready to acknowledge officially.

Of course, Windows XP, even with Service Pack 3, is the past, with the exception of customers abandoning Windows Vista by exercising their downgrade rights. Windows Vista, even with SP1, is a present that makes the future seem to not get here fast enough. And Vista SP2 along with Windows 7 and Windows Cloud (Strata) are the future. But at the same time, both Vista SP2 and Windows 7 are nothing more than the evolution of Vista, to a lesser, and respectively a larger degree.

Come the end of October 2008, and the start of November, Microsoft will deliver a rather consistent taste of where it is heading with Windows, not only Windows 7, but also Windows 7 Server and Windows Strata (the label continues to be unconfirmed by the company). Events such as the Professional Developer Conference 2008, Windows Hardware Conference 2008 and TechEd EMEA will be focused on Windows 7 and Windows Cloud, although less on Windows Vista.

While at TechEd Brasil, at the start of this week, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer indicated that the company planned to unveil a range of new products by July 2009. Microsoft's CEO mentioned that, by the end of June 2009, the software giant would offer "client operating system releases." Microsoft is, of course, already cooking Windows Vista SP2 and Windows 7.

Ballmer stated that "Microsoft technologies: Windows, Windows Server, .NET, Visual Studio, Silverlight, SharePoint, Office (...) over the course of the 12 month period that ends June of next year, [are] just a subset of all of the exciting new innovations Microsoft will bring to market: client operating system releases, information management tools, security, gaming products and systems. The range of new technologies in some senses is growing and growing quickly." (emphasis added)

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2)
Microsoft released Windows Vista RTM at the end of January 2007, not counting the business launch of the operating system in November 2006. Vista SP1 was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008 concomitantly with Windows Server 2008, but was only made available for download starting March 18. Now the Redmond company has already moved onward to Service Pack 2.

In fact Vista SP2 invites to the Beta program have already started to be sent out, according to Neowin. It is not Windows Vista SP2 that Microsoft is cooking, but also Windows Server 2008 SP2, Beta invites for which have also been sent out. Microsoft has yet to confirm anything officially, but the first Beta bits for Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 are reportedly going to testers in just four weeks.

Still, while Service Pack 1 was the catalyst that took Vista RTM out of coma, making the operating system worthy of a long forgotten and discarded Wow label, SP2 is bound to be nothing more than a standard service pack release. At best, SP2 will take Vista forward just as much as SP1.

The equation is rather simple for Microsoft. The company will end up with a repeat of the Windows XP SP2 – Windows Vista scenario in which both operating systems are available at the same time on the market, although this situation would involve Vista SP2 and Windows 7 RTM. The last thing that Microsoft needs is to evolve Vista with SP2 sufficiently enough that it will be capable to rival Windows 7. In this context, the answer is rather simple. The Redmond giant needs to keep Vista at a relative stand-still even with SP2, and focus all innovation on Windows 7.

Windows 7, or Windows 6.1, or Windows Vista R2, or Windows Vista but "a lot better"

The seventh major version of Windows, but only according to Microsoft's math, comes with no differentiation between the codename and the brand. However, Windows 7 will, for the sake of perpetuating the existing level of Vista software compatibility, be in fact Windows 6.1. At the same time, according to Ballmer, Windows 7 will be Vista, but “a lot better.” This makes Windows 7 an excellent candidate for the Windows Vista R2 label, just as Windows 7 Server is in fact Windows Server 2008 R2. Still, the early feedback on the Windows 7 moniker indicates that the management of the Windows 7 project made the right choice.

"There you have it, Windows 7 now has a name. It’s called – Windows 7,” revealed Steve Clayton, Microsoft's UK Partner Group CTO. “To be honest I was quite surprised but also pretty pleased. The naming decision as Mike Nash says is about simplicity. It’ll certainly save us from all having to unlearn the name we’ve all had for it to date. I expect this naming decision will be debated to death on all the usual sites, but me, I’m just happy we settled on a name. Now let’s get to the PDC and get the bits!"

source: news.softpedia.com

RACERPRO

10-22-2008, 09:47 AM

Vista is much better than Mac OS X, right? For the enterprise. And how much will it take to get you to write up that thesis?

Such was the pitch that arrived in my inbox today from marketing company Studio B., a Great Neck, N.Y., marketing company associated with Microsoft and the Microsoft Press. The firm wondered if I’d like to write some “corporate custom content” for a client.

According to the Studio B. site, the company “supported” the Microsoft Commerce Server 2007 rollout with marketing sales and marketing tools as well as providing trainers for early adopters.

Here is the text of the letter:

One of our customers has asked us write up a technical marketing case for Windows Vista over Mac OSX in the enterprise. I’m contacting you to see if you know anyone who would be interested and capable of writing this based on background materials we have.

The candidate should have a good understanding of client systems in the enterprise and the technologies behind issues that are important in the enterprise (deployment, manageability, work group and policy management, security, suitability of developer platforms for line of business applications, tech support, licensing, TCO).

We have some background materials that include a 75 page technical document called “Apple in the Enterprise” and other summaries of technical points, but it all needs to be put together to make the case.

It’s not too hard to figure out who the customer is here. The price to sell out the Mac in the enterprise is $15,000. But my guess is that this fee may be negotiable upwards depending on the brand of the author in question.

Can it be that the Mac and the iPhone are gaining enough traction in the enterprise to start ringing alarm bells in Redmond? It appears so.

Certainly, the Windows consumer group was working overtime on the night before Apple released its notebooks refresh. Microsoft’s marketing team pounded the Windows press with the message of an “Apple tax.” Mary Jo Foley’s column in All About Microsoft makes interesting reading.

However, on the enterprise front, we may be seeing the result of increasing demand by Mac switchers in the executive ranks, who have been hounding IT departments for support. These switchers have been helped by the continuing progress with Windows virtualization for the Mac as well as increasing support by enterprise software vendors for native Mac versions (an important story at the upcoming Macworld Expo in January).

source: blogs.zdnet.com

RACERPRO

10-23-2008, 09:23 AM

Microsoft has let the cat out of the bag a week early and stated "there is not another WinHEC planned before Windows 7 is released."

Blogger Long Zheng noticed the admission on Microsoft's WinHEC 2008 site.

As the WinHEC conference is an annual affair, providing the conference isn't cancelled next year then this would put Windows 7 on target for a RTM before November next year.

The revelation follows comments from ASUS CEO Jerry Shen discussing the future of the ASUS Eee PC in an interview with Laptop Mag. "I think in the future in the second half of next year we will put Windows 7 on Eee PCs" said Shen.

If all of this is true and Microsoft is on target with Windows 7 then recent rumours of a Beta 1 in December would not be far off.

Microsoft will be unveiling the full Windows 7 desktop during a keynote by Steven Sinofsky at its professional developers conference in Los Angeles next Tuesday. Attendees will also be given access to a pre-beta build during the PDC.

source: neowin.net

James33

10-23-2008, 02:47 PM

I use XP and Vista, I have no problems with them at all.

RACERPRO

10-24-2008, 02:22 PM

Software counterfeiters pass on Windows Vista and instead prefer to pirate Windows XP, a Microsoft Corp. attorney said today, outlining a practice that tracks with the leanings of many of the company's customers.

While explaining the "Global Anti-Piracy Day" educational and enforcement effort Microsoft launched today, Bonnie MacNaughton, a senior attorney with the company, acknowledged that pirates prefer Windows XP over Vista.

"Historically, counterfeiters tend to focus on the 'n-1' version of software," MacNaughton said. "Because of the more robust antipiracy and security features in Vista, most sophisticated piracy rings still continue to focus on XP. But that's changing over time."

That pirates have stuck with XP -- which retains the bulk of the Windows operating system's market share -- is "very consistent with what we've seen in counterfeiting in the past," said MacNaughton. "There's usually a lag of between one and two years [before they can] figure out how to replicate those antipiracy and security features."

Counterfeiters currently copy Office 2003 rather than the newer Office 2007 for the same reasons, she said.

MacNaughton also touted the day's announcements of new initiatives and lawsuit filings scheduled to take place in 49 countries, ranging from Argentina to the U.S. "As counterfeiters have gotten more sophisticated, we have realized that this is not a situation that we can address alone," she said. "And we want to stress [today] the collaboration with Microsoft's partners and customers, and governments."

In the U.S., Microsoft filed 20 new lawsuits in federal court against software resellers that, according to the company's allegations, either sold pirated copies of Microsoft Windows XP Professional and Office or installed the counterfeit software on new PCs. Nine of the lawsuits were filed in California; two each were filed in Ohio, Oregon and Texas; and others were filed in Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana, Minnesota and New York.

MacNaughton also said that Microsoft is planning on another antipiracy educational effort early next year to make sure that customers know Windows XP's lifespan is coming to an end. "We're expecting that counterfeiters will attempt to fill the void at XP's end of sales," she said.

Microsoft will halt Windows XP Professional sales to small mom-and-pop computer sellers after Jan. 31, 2009. Larger computer manufacturers, such as Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co., however, will be able to obtain XP media for "downgrades" from Vista Business and Vista Ultimate licenses through the end of July 2009. Microsoft only recently said that it would extend shipments of XP to OEMs; previously, it had said it would stop the practice in January.

source: computerworld.com

RACERPRO

10-27-2008, 01:51 PM

With more and more information about Windows 7 coming out almost daily, I’m getting increasing numbers of emails from people wanting my advice on whether they should skip Vista and hold out for Windows 7 or make the plunge now and make plans relating to “7? once the OS is out.

Having discussed this issue with several people I’ve come to a conclusion that it’s far too early to make any plans relating to Windows 7 and your OS migration plans should be based solely on Vista in the here and now and not on what Windows 7 might or might not bring.

The first thing that you need to bear in mind is that there no firm date for the release of Windows 7. The ballpark guess range is between late 2009 or early 2010. Pundits are carpet-bombing that range with guesses as to when we’ll see Windows 7, but remember that they are all guesses right now. And there’s even no guarantee that the 7’s release date won’t fall outside of this range. After all, quality of the release will count more than ever. Peter Bright of Ars Technica put it well:

Though Microsoft’s customers clearly won’t tolerate a kind of Duke Nukem Forever “when it’s finished” approach—the software does need to ship, after all—a first-rate Windows 7 in the first half of 2010 will make customers much happier than another release with Vista-like teething trouble in late 2009.

BINGO! Microsoft can’t afford to botch the release of Windows 7 in the way it did with Vista. If Microsoft doesn’t get plenty of “WOW!” right from the start with Windows 7, the Redmond giant has a big problem on its hands.

But here’s my worry in advising people to skip over Vista and wait for Windows 7. Vista, as it stands now with SP1, is a pretty decent version of Windows. Compatibility issues have largely been fixed (if you hardware of software isn’t supported by now, it’s unlikely to be supported), performance is on-par or marginally better than XP (depending on the benchmark that you choose), and reliability is light-years ahead of what it was when Vista was first released. But these fixes took months. What if Windows 7 is plagued by the same issues and that OS takes a year to fix? Taking the most optimistic release date that we have (mid-2009) that would mean that Windows 7 wouldn’t be “ready” until mid-2010. This has several implications:

* That makes XP awfully old (9 years old).
* It’s likely that hardware/software support will be getting patchy.
* The abandonment of support for XP by your vendor would likely push you into having to come up with a migration plan, rather than come up with one at your own speed.

Jump or be pushed? Which is best? You decide!

source: blogs.zdnet.com

RACERPRO

11-02-2008, 12:57 AM

It’s impossible to offer a comprehensive evaluation of a product as big and sprawling as Windows 7 with just screenshots and specs.

That’s doubly true when looking at a preliminary release that’s still missing some key features. My first look at the pre-beta PDC release of Windows 7 inspired plenty of great feedback and questions, along with an understandable amount of confusion and apprehension. I’ll address some of the most prevalent questions and comments in this post.

Isn’t the new Windows 7 user interface just a coat of paint slapped over the Vista UI?

Short answer: no. The build I have to work with is very Vista-like, missing the new Start menu, desktop, and taskbar enhancements. The demos I’ve seen here at PDC use more recent builds where those features are available. Those features will reach users in the form of a beta “early next year.”

In the past 48 hours, I’ve had a chance to get a closer look at those new UI features. One thing becomes obvious after only a few minutes of playing with the new interface: The Windows 7 design team has paid an enormous amount of attention to small details and have focused on workflows and end-to-end experiences, not just on dialog boxes and feature sets. The result feels comfortingly familiar to any Windows user, although the overall experience is often significantly different when you break down its small details.

One example that illustrates the point is the difference between Backup programs in Windows Vista and Windows 7. The Windows 7 version, shown below, includes a key feature missing from its Vista predecessor – the ability to include or exclude a folder from a backup set. But that’s not all: the entire workflow of the backup process has been streamlined dramatically. It takes 10-15 clicks to perform an image backup in Windows Vista; on a Windows 7 notebook I tested, the operating system offered to perform a backup when I plugged in an external hard drive. The entire process took three clicks and less than 10 minutes. The customization screen shown here added only two clicks to the entire process.

Is it faster? Really?
Measuring performance is tough enough with released code. For something billed as a “pre-beta” release and offered primarily for developers, it’s inappropriate and frankly foolish to even attempt granular measurements of speeds and startup times. My subjective impression is that this OS feels quick and impressively responsive, but I’m not prepared to break out the stopwatch until I have a more polished build.

Isn’t this just a blatant ripoff of OS X/KDE/etc.?
Tracing the ancestry of UI innovations is tricky. There are, after all, only so many ways to interact with pixels on a screen to make things happen. And it’s foolish not to pay attention to what competitors past and present have done. As I pointed out in my first look, the new taskbar clearly borrows some concepts from the OS X dock, but it retains the Windows DNA and adds some smart behaviors that one-up Apple, most notably Jump Lists and live, clickable previews.

source: blogs.zdnet.com

RACERPRO

11-05-2008, 12:24 AM

One of the elements of the Windows graphical user interface that is evolving past what end users have come to traditionally associate with it is the Taskbar.

The GUI evolution delivered by Windows 7 is designed to bring what Microsoft is internally referring to as the Superbar, or the enhanced Taskbar. The new Taskbar was showcased at the professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles at the end of the past month but was disabled in pre-Beta Build 6801 (or Milestone 3) which was served to participants and which subsequently leaked, now being available for download via torrent websites. However, at this point in time, there is a hack which serves to uncover the hidden Superbar even in Windows 7 pre-Beta Build 6801.

“By using the Windows 7 Taskbar, applications can provide more information to the user in more intuitive ways. Each application has a single button on the Taskbar, represented by a 32x32 icon. By default, each application’s running windows are all grouped under this single icon. In addition, the user can pin the application’s shortcut to the Taskbar to serve as an easily accessible application launcher. When the application is running, the button for this running application replaces the pinned launcher, so that the application always has a single, consistent location on the Taskbar,” Microsoft revealed.

The enhanced Windows 7 Taskbar comes complete with a range of application-related information sources for end users to access via such items as: “Destination List, Icon Overlays, Thumbnails for running windows, Thumbnail Toolbars, and Progress bars,” according to Microsoft. At the same time, some classic Taskbar items have been scrapped altogether. One illustrative example in this context is the Quick Launch area. Although the Quick Launch folder is still a part of Windows 7, the actual area on the Superbar is gone.

One new presence on the Windows 7 Superbar is what Microsoft referred to through the development process as Destinations Lists. The Redmond giant indicated that the name might change post Beta, and as it is the case, Microsoft top executives dubbed the feature Jumplists at PDC2008. Jumplists are designed as “shortcuts” enabling users to connect with frequently accessed Internet locations, files or documents faster.

“The Destination List is automatically populated based on frequency and recency of use for file-based applications. Additionally, an application can define custom destinations, enabling it to monitor its own destination usage and their semantics. Applications can also define Tasks (actions within the application that users will find convenient to access directly, for example, composing an e-mail) to appear in their menus,” Microsoft informed.

With the new Progress Bars, users will be able to monitor ongoing tasks and processes performed by their applications without having to keep the programs' window visible. In this regard, progress of functions including file copies, but also CD and DVD burning, downloads and installs will be displayed via the Taskbar buttons, through the Progress Bar.

Other additions to the Windows 7 Taskbar are “Icon Overlays used to convey long-standing status or notifications can be displayed on the bottom right-hand area of the application’s taskbar button. Icons are displayed one at a time, in the order in which they are received,” Microsoft stated.

All applications in Windows 7 will feature Thumbnails. Set up to activate when the user hovers over a certain Taskbar item, the Thumbnails will be large and interactive mini-windows delivering visual guidance and data related to the program. On top of this, “the Thumbnail Toolbar provides a single location for commonly performed key actions related to the window where the user does not need to restore the window, for example, Play/Stop controls for a media application,” Microsoft added.

source: news.softpedia.com