The Windows 7 Troubleshooting Platform

The Windows 7 Troubleshooting Platform - Windows Vista could have used this level of advanced troubleshooting. Microsoft has kicked the troubleshooting capabilities of Windows to the next level with the introduction of Windows 7. And as early as Windows 7 pre-Beta Milestone 3 Build 6801, the Redmond company is offering a taste of the full capabilities of the operating system, capabilities that could have been life savers for Windows Vista users when the RTM build initially hit the shelves. According to the software giant, Windows 7 comes to the table with a comprehensive and extensible Troubleshooting Platform capable of identifying and resolving a wide array of problems on its own.

This mainly because the platform has a PowerShell-based mechanism at its core. Microsoft indicated that the platform was in fact a collection of components. The troubleshooting package, engine, and wizard all combine in order to deal with potential problems that the end users might come across.

"The troubleshooting pack is a collection of PowerShell scripts and relevant metadata. The troubleshooting engine launches a PowerShell runtime to execute a troubleshooting pack, and exposes a set of interfaces to control troubleshooting pack execution," Microsoft revealed. "The troubleshooting wizard provides a consistent experience across troubleshooting packs, communicating with the troubleshooting engine to troubleshoot and resolve problems that are specified in a troubleshooting pack."

As you can very well see from the image on the left, the Troubleshooting Platform is designed to deal with a range of issues spanning from the programs running on top of Windows 7 to those affecting devices, networking, printing, display, sound, performance and the Windows operating system itself.

"The Troubleshooting Platform seamlessly integrates with the Windows 7 PC Solution Center, enabling other applications to execute diagnostics in a similar manner as part of their PC management regimen. The Troubleshooting Platform is configurable by IT professionals through Group Policy for use within the enterprise, and a Windows Troubleshooting Toolkit that allows developers to author troubleshooting packs is also available," Microsoft added.
Source: http://akupunyasitus.blogspot.com/

Windows 7 Pre-Beta Build 6801 Leaked and Available for Download

Windows 7 Pre-Beta Build 6801 Leaked and Available for Download - Via torrent websites. The past week, Microsoft delivered the first consistent taste of Windows 7, offering the pre-beta bits of the operating system at the Professional Developers Conference. On October 28, developers attending the event got their hands on a 160 GB drive pre-loaded with various goodies including Windows 7 Build 6801 in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. Subsequently, as it was the case with previous beta or final releases of Windows, the pre-beta bits for Windows 7 Build 6801 were leaked and made available for download via torrent websites.

Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, managed to keep Windows 7 under a translucent veil throughout the development process ahead of PDC2008. However, the conference focused on Windows 7 made the successor of Windows Vista as transparent as possible, as well as “free for all” users with a BitTorrent client. All major torrent hotspots are currently offering downloads of Windows 7 pre-beta build 6801, advertised as untouched.

The pair of Windows 7 pre-beta releases on the original 160 GB drive are: Windows 7 32-bit - 6801.0.080913-2030_Client_en-us_ULTIMATE-ULTIMATE_GB1CFRE_EN_DVD.iso and Windows 7 64-bit - 6801.0.080913-2030_Client_en-us_ULTIMATE-ULTIMATE_GB1CXFRE_EN_DVD.iso. With the pre-beta bits of the next iteration of Windows available outside of Redmond, the software giant promised that the fully fledged Beta of Windows 7 would be delivered early in 2009.

“Windows 7 will offer improved navigation, a new taskbar and a streamlined UI so that common tasks done in Windows are done easier and more quickly. You will be able to share data to all your PCs and devices in your home network or at work. With Windows 7 + Windows Live, you will be able to stay connected to the people that matter to you, and with Internet Explorer 8 you will get a faster, safer, more productive Web experience,” revealed Mike Nash, Corporate Vice President, Windows Product Management.
Source: http://akupunyasitus.blogspot.com/

Windows 7 Direct3D 11 Features

Windows 7 Direct3D 11 Features - A taste of DirectX 11 is already available for download. As of November 2008, Microsoft is delivering the first taste of DirectX 11 for Windows 7 for download. A release aimed at developers, The November 2008 DirectX Software Development Kit, brings to the table the successor of Direct3D 10.1, namely Direct3D 11. In the SDK package, the Redmond company is offering a technical preview of Direct3D 11, but also the adjacent components and tools. Backwards compatible, content developed for Direct3D 11 hardware will also be compatible with earlier products supporting Direct3D 10 and 10.1 (in Vista SP1). Via the Windows 7 Developer Guide, Microsoft provides an insight into the new features made available by Direct3D 11.

“Geometry and high-order surfaces can now be tessellated to support scalable, dynamic content in patch and subdivision surface representations. To make good use of the parallel processing power available from multiple CPU cores, multithreading increases the number of potential rendering calls per frame by distributing the application, runtime, and driver calls across multiple cores. In addition, resource creation and management has been optimized for multithreaded use, enabling more efficient dynamic texture management for streaming,” Microsoft revealed.

According to the Redmond company, version 11 is designed to deliver an evolution of the functionality of the Direct3D 10 pipeline for Windows 7. In this regard, Microsoft has positioned Windows 7 to take advantage of the next generation of GPUs and multi-core processors when it comes down to the way the operating system will handle games and 3D applications. The software giant has indicated that Direct3D 11 in Windows 7 will support: Tessellation; Compute Shaders; Multithreaded Rendering; Dynamic Shader Linkage; Windows Advanced Rasterizer (WARP); Direct3D 10 and Direct3D 11 on Direct3D 9 Hardware (D3D10 Level 9); Runtime Binaries; D3DX11; Completely Updated HLSL and Direct3D Compiler; D3D11 Reference Rasterizer and D3D11 SDK Layers.

“New general-purpose compute shaders have been created for Direct3D 11. Unlike existing shaders, these are extensions to the programmable pipeline that enable your application to do more work completely on the GPU, independent of the CPU. DrawAuto, which was introduced in Direct3D 10, has been extended to interact with a compute shader. Several improvements have been made to the high-level shading language (HLSL), such as a limited form of dynamic linkage in shaders to improve specialization complexity, and object-oriented programming constructs like classes and interfaces,” the company added.

The November 2008 DirectX Software Development Kit is available for download here.
The November 2008 DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer can be downloaded via this link.
DirectX End-User Runtimes (November 2008) is up for grabs here.
Source: http://akupunyasitus.blogspot.com/

The Windows 7 Operating Systems – Better Together

Ever since Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 RTM/SP1, Microsoft's Windows client and server operating systems have been virtually joined at the hip. As a future product development strategy, the two platforms will evolve together, an aspect valid not only for Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2, but also for the forthcoming Windows 7 operating systems. Microsoft confirmed at the Windows hardware Engineering Conference in Los Angeles this week that Windows 7 and Windows Server 7 (Windows Server 2008 R2) would advance in lockstep. During his keynote address, Bill Laing, Corporate Vice President, Windows Server and Solutions Division, exemplified several instances in which Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 would work better together.

Not only is Microsoft developing Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in tandem, but the company is also attempting to convince customers that the two operating systems must be used as a pair. “Because Windows Server 2008 R2 is being developed in tandem with the Windows 7 code, Windows Server 2008 R2 has several features that are designed to work better with computers running Windows 7,” Laing explained.

Just as Windows 7 hit M3 stage, Windows Server 2008 is also at Milestone 3, with Microsoft providing a taste of both platforms to testers. Windows 7 pre-Beta Build 6801 was delivered to both WinHEC 2008 and PDC 2008 participants, with the pre-Beta bits of Windows Server 2008 R2 M3 having been made available at the WinHEC event. Microsoft has already offered Windows Vista SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP2 to Technology Adoption Program (TAP) customers for evaluation.

Laing indicated a few examples of technologies which make Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 play nice together, including Branch Cache. “Any time a document is retrieved by a client in a company’s branch office, Branch Cache keeps a copy in the branch, so if another client in the same office wants to retrieve that document, it can be served up locally instead of across the WAN. The result is a significant reduction in bandwidth use between corporate offices and branch sites, and a huge potential cost saving because most organizations pay for bandwidth by the byte. It also gives branch offices a degree of autonomy in case the link to headquarters is severed for any reason,” Laing said.

In addition to Branch Cache, Laing also praised the impact that the future iteration Hyper-v is bound to deliver. In this context, Microsoft plans to offer Live Migration support with Hyper-V, as a continuation of its efforts to democratize virtualization. But there are additional features that have made Microsoft present Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 as an item.

“Remote Desktop Services (RDS), the new name for Terminal Services, is another example. We expanded RDS in Windows Server 2008 R2 so that you can run the desktop or applications in the datacenter while your users can be anywhere,” Laing stated. “Another feature, DirectAccess, allows remote Windows users to securely connect to their work environment as if they were on the corporate LAN, and also lets IT administrators fully manage remote PCs securely, as if they were on-premises, but without using a VPN.”
By: By Marius Oiaga

New Windows 7 Tools and Features - Announced for TechEd EMEA 2008 and PDC2008

Microsoft is not only “raising the volume” on the references related to the upcoming Windows 7 Beta development milestone, but it is also no longer drastically limiting the amount of shared information on the next iteration of the Windows client. With Windows 7 specifics planned to be fully detailed in under two months, the Redmond giant has offered another taste of what is in store for the operating system. The successor of Windows Vista will sport an evolved User Account Control, complete with Software Restriction Policies version 2, a new Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit as well as a fresh Windows 7-based Surface software development kit.

According to what the company has already revealed, Windows 7 will come to the table with next-generation graphics infrastructure, touch computing capabilities, energy consumption optimizations and a new networking application programming interface designed to permit developers to build web services in native code. But the evolution of Windows 7 will span across all areas of the operating system including virtualization, security, search, networking, management, deployment etc. A sneak peek at what will be available in Windows 7 is offered through the agendas of the TechEd 2008 EMEA and PDC 2008 conferences.

At the beginning of this week the Redmond company has announced new Windows 7 tools and features, with the promise to deliver additional details at the upcoming TechEd EMEA 2008 and the Professional Developer Conference 2008. For PDC2008, the number of Windows 7 sessions has grown to 5 with the addition of the Developing for Microsoft Surface presentation (Presenter: Brad Carpenter).

“This session introduces the newly available Surface SDK that forms the basis of the Windows 7 multi-touch programming model. In addition, learn about the unique attributes of Surface computing and then dive into the core controls like ScatterView and vision-system tagging. Learn how you can become a part of the expanding partner ecosystem for Surface computing and leverage your existing investments in Windows Presentation Foundation and Microsoft Visual Studio,” reads the abstract of the session.

But while Microsoft has promised that PDC2008 will offer a comprehensive insight into Windows 7, for the time being it is TechEd 2008 EMEA that has all the “juicy details.” For TechEd EMEA 2008 there are no less than 11 sessions announced, recently adding four to the original 7, namely Windows 7 Security, User Account Control (UAC) and Software Restriction Policies v2 (SRP); Windows 7 Fundamentals; Windows 7 Networking: Branch Offices and Get Involved - Building the Next-Generation Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit for Virtualization, Windows 7, and more.

“Windows 7 networking features support distributed enterprises. In this session we will discuss the networking features of Windows 7, explore their usage scenarios and understand how to manage them in an enterprise environment. Interactive Sessions are designed as an opportunity for dialogue between presenter(s) and audience. Please come prepared with questions on the session's topic to discuss with the presenter(s). Interactive Sessions will have less use of PowerPoint push out to the audience and more discussion,” reads the abstract for the Windows 7 Networking: Branch Offices session presented by Devrim Iyigun (Okurgan), Sandeep Singhal.

Microsoft's Steve Hiskey will focus on the new User Account Control in Windows 7, as well as the version 2 of Software Restriction Policies and their respective evolution from what is available today in Windows Vista SP1. Baldwin Ng, senior product manager, Microsoft Solution Accelerators, will present the next-gen Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit which will be tailored to Windows 7.

“Windows 7 Fundamentals - This session will define Windows Fundamentals, discussing Microsoft's focus on Fundamentals for Windows 7 and provide an overview of the Platform, Tools, Telemetry investments and broader ecosystem outreach efforts designed to ensure Windows 7 ships with the highest level of quality,” indicates the abstract of the Windows 7 Fundamentals session presented by Erik Lustig.
By: Marius Oiaga

Microsoft: a "Good Enough" Windows 7 Beta with Room for Refinement

Microsoft is in no rush to deliver the first beta of Windows 7. Even according to the official time table for the delivery of Windows Vista's successor, the Redmond company is just a few months short of the final deadline, and yet there is no Beta on the immediate horizon. This, even if at the end of 2007, Windows 7 Milestone 1 was offered for testing to the software giant's closest partners, as well as antitrust regulators. However, the first contours of the Windows 7 Beta are beginning to emerge, with Microsoft cranking up a notch the references to a development build beyond Alpha and Milestone releases.

"We’re going to deliver a Beta that is good enough to experience and leaves us enough time to address areas where we need more refinement," revealed Mike Angiulo, Windows PC Ecosystem and Planning team lead. The Windows 7 Beta reference comes after the August availability of Windows 7 Client drivers and updates going live on the Microsoft Update Catalog. In fact, at the end of the past month, Microsoft was gearing up to start publishing the first Windows 7 beta drivers and updates.

"We work to find the best possible timing for sharing the product and gathering final feedback. If we release it too early it’s usually not in any shape to evaluate, especially with respect to performance, security, compatibility and other critical fundamentals. If we release too late we can’t actually take any of the feedback you give us, and I can’t think of a worse recipe for customer satisfaction than to ask for feedback which gets systematically ignored. I was just looking at another software "feedback" site where a bunch of the comments just asked the company to "please read this site!"," Angiulo added.

The fact of the matter is that all the signs coming from Microsoft point to an upcoming availability of a Windows 7 Beta release. The Redmond company has been shy of confirming anything official yet, and probably will hold all details under a sealed lid for quite some time. There are a variety of events and conferences at the end of the year, in the October-November timeframe with Windows 7 set to take center stage including the Professional Developer Conference (PDC) 2008, Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) 2008, as well as TechEd EMEA 2008. Delivering Windows 7 Beta in October – November 2008 will still give Microsoft approximately a year of development just for the Beta stage.
By Marius Oiaga

Over 2 Years of Feedback for Windows 7, and Counting

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.
By Marius Oiaga

Windows 7 Boot Performance – Under 15 Seconds

A 15-second boot time is the target Microsoft is aiming for with the evolution of Windows 7's startup performance. The software giant in fact spared no resources for the next major iteration of the Windows client, and has an entire team focusing exclusively on the performance associated with the startup process. However the effort is much larger than just a single team, spanning across the entire Windows project and to the Redmond company's hardware and software partners.

"Startup can be one of three experiences; boot, resume from sleep, or resume from hibernate. Although resume from sleep is the default, and often 2 to 5 seconds based on common hardware and standard software loads, this post is primarily about boot as that experience has been commented on frequently. 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," revealed Michael Fortin, Microsoft distinguished engineer and lead of the Fundamentals feature team in the Core Operating System group.

Statistics gathered through the Customer Experience Improvement Program from Windows Vista Service Pack 1 machines indicate that just 35% experience boot times of 30 seconds or less. The remaining 75% boot in as much as 50 seconds. Fortin indicated that there are millions of computers corresponding to the data received by Microsoft. But in this regard, the Redmond company considers that the startup experience delivered to end users, even with Vista SP1, is simply not good enough.

"From our perspective, too few systems consistently boot fast enough and we have to do much better. Obviously the systems that are greater than 60 seconds have something we need to dramatically improve—whether these are devices, networking, or software issues. As you can see there are some systems experiencing very long boot times. One of the things we see in the PC space is this variability of performance—variability arises from the variety of choices, and also the variety of quality of components of any given PC experience," Fortin added.

But in the end it's not just Windows, it's also the installed software and the underlying hardware that deliver an impact on the perception of performance, or the lack of it. One major contributor to a reduced level of startup performance is "the off-the-shelf configuration" of OEM computers. Microsoft found that while a pre-configured OEM machine would boot in 45 seconds, the same computer, but featuring a clean install of Windows Vista SP1, would have a boot time of just 23 seconds, which, with additional optimization, could be taken down to just 21 seconds.

"As an example Windows 7 effort, we are working very hard on system services. We aim to dramatically reduce them in number, as well as reduce their CPU, disk and memory demands. Our perspective on this is simple; if a service is not absolutely required, it shouldn’t be starting and a trigger should exist to handle rare conditions so that the service operates only then," Fortin explained.

Windows 7 will be tweaked with the inclusion of a revenged service trigger mechanism which will manage auto start items more efficiently. On top of this, Microsoft is also optimizing Vista's successor to offer an enhanced parallelism of driver initialization. In this context, individual driver loading times will not take a toll on the startup time.

"In terms of reading files from the disk, Windows 7 has improvements in the "prefetching" logic and mechanisms. Prefetching was introduced way back in Windows XP. Since today’s disks have differing performance characteristics, the scheduling logic has undergone some changes to keep pace and stay efficient. As an example, we are evaluating the prefetcher on today’s solid state storage devices, going so far as to question if is required at all. Ultimately, analysis and performance metrics captured on an individual system will dynamically determine the extent to which we utilize the prefetcher," Fortin said.
By Marius Oiaga

5 Misunderstood Aspects of Windows 7

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...
By: Marius Oiaga, Technology News Editor (http://news.softpedia.com)

Microsoft to Increasingly Open up on Office 14 and Windows 7

Microsoft to Increasingly Open up on Office 14 and Windows 7 - In the next half year. 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.
By: Marius Oiaga, Technology News Editor (http://news.softpedia.com)

Microsoft: Windows 7, Perfect Target for State-of-the-Art Hacking Tools

Microsoft: Windows 7, Perfect Target for State-of-the-Art Hacking Tools - Vista compromised multiple times, acknowledges the Redmond company. Believe it or not, but Microsoft is setting up Windows 7 as the perfect target for what the company referred to as state-of-the-art hacking tools, some of them not even created yet. Windows 7 is heading straight for a feast of attacks, and Windows 7 Server will be joining it at sharing the menu. Sporting new bulletproofed cores, the successors of Windows Vista and respectively Windows Server 2008 are being designed to raise the bar in terms of security, but the question is: will it be sufficient? Because a new standard of security is also valid for the current releases of the Windows client and server operating systems, and both are far from perfection.

Kevin Turner, Microsoft Chief Operating Officer claimed the title of the most secure operating system in the world for Windows Vista at the company's Worldwide Partner Conference 2008 in Houston, Texas, last week. But even with Turner applauding Vista as more secure than Apple's Mac OS X, Linux and all of the open source for that matter, Microsoft is still acknowledging that the operating system was owned more than once.

But this is not stopping the Redmond giant from baking Windows 7 as the next "most secure operating system in the world," a goal that has to be delivered by the Windows Security Assurance (WinSA) team. Windows 7 and Windows 7 Server are planned as new security standards in comparison with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

"WinSA’s charter is to ensure the core Windows operating system and Server products are resilient to attack. Security researchers worldwide continue to explore new and creative ways to compromise our operating systems: unfortunately, even with its advanced features and the extensive engineering improvements, Vista has been compromised multiple times already. We’re focused on making the next releases even more secure than previous ones," a member of the Windows Security Assurance group revealed.

Michael Howard, Senior Security Program Manager in the Security Engineering group at Microsoft stated in the past that security is an ongoing cat-and-mouse game, and that the Redmond company has to set standards higher and higher with each release, and fight attackers trying to overcome them. This is precisely what the evolution from Vista and Windows Server 2008 will deliver with Windows 7 and Windows 7 Server.

Windows 7 - Zero Security Barriers
At the same time, Howard was one of the first to admit that perfection is impossible to achieve, and as Vista was compromised, so will Windows 7. Microsoft's Security Development Lifecycle is working to ensure an as low risk as possible for eventual successful attacks which will break Windows 7. However, since Windows 7 is but an evolution of Windows Vista, and the current Windows client featured no security barriers, but just added mitigations, it is clear that, in terms of security, this development model will be perpetuated.

The introduction of any security barrier in Windows 7 would fundamentally alter the architecture of the operating system. Mitigations such as User Account Control, PatchGuard, driver signing and ASLR have already produced their fair share of pain, related mostly to compatibility problems. Microsoft simply cannot afford to go beyond just evolving the existing security mitigations and setting new protection layers in place. Just don't expect any of the extra tiers to act as impassible barriers, because this won't happen.

Proof of this is the new position of Software Development Engineer in Test offered by the WinSA. "We are seeking a highly technical, self-starting tester and/or pentester to join our engineering team to find security bugs through a variety of means before we ship. You’ll have the opportunity to create, use, and deploy state-of-the-art hacking tools. You’ll investigate new Windows features for security soundness, and scour legacy code for security flaws. You’ll come to see the OS from the perspective of a target, and figure out ways to defend against attacks. Come help us make Windows the most secure operating system in the world!" Microsoft said (emphasis added).

The Redmond company is willing to break down the code of Windows 7 and place the operating system on the "cutting edge of penetration testing". Windows 7 will have to take on a barrage of hacking tests, all inhouse and all for the sake of a more secure Windows. And of course, before it ships to the general public, by the end of 2009, as Microsoft hinted.
By: Marius Oiaga, Technology News Editor (http://news.softpedia.com)

Installing Windows 7 Milestone 1 Build 6519

Installing Windows 7 Milestone 1 Build 6519 - Just like Windows Vista but with a different finish. 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

Windows 7 M1 Reduced Functionality Mode Just as Vista RTM

Windows 7 M1 Reduced Functionality Mode Just as Vista RTM - The Windows kill switch lives on. Windows 7 Milestone 1 features Reduced Functionality Mode, just like Windows Vista RTM. With the advent of Service Pack 1 for its latest Windows client, Microsoft scraped the anti-piracy mitigation from the operating system, going back to the behavior of Windows XP when dealing with pirated, unactivated or expired copies of the platform. But if you thought that Vista SP1 was the end of Reduced Functionality Mode, think again. The kill switch has survived into Windows 7 Milestone 1 Build 6.1 6519.

Windows 7 M1 brings to the table the same limitations as did Windows Vista RTM. In the original Vista version which hit the shelves on January 30, 2007, Microsoft introduced Reduced Functionality Mode to deal with copies of the operating system failing to pass the activation or the validation processes. At the same time, the company used RFM to cut access to test-drive editions of Windows Vista, time bombed and set to expire after the trial period ended, independent of the activation or validation status.

This is the case for Windows 7 M1. The first development milestone for the next iteration of Windows, which was shipped to Microsoft's closest partners at the end of 2007, was also time-bombed, and has expired. Passing the expiration date throws the machines running Windows 7 M1 into RFM. Users have access only to the browser and can connect to Microsoft servers in order to activate Windows 7. But of course that M1 Build 6.1 6519 cannot be activated. The operating system is approximately a year and a half from its finalization, according to Steve Ballmer which pointed to the end of 2009 as the deadline for the delivery of Windows 7.

Chances are that just as RFM was cut from Windows Vista SP1, the kill-switch will also not survive in the final versions of Windows 7. Release Candidate versions of Vista SP1 are also set to expire starting with June 30, 2008, but the operating systems will not be thrown into reduced functionality mode. Instead, the kernel was tweaked to stop one hour after the RC development milestones of Vista SP1 have booted, and present users an END_OF_NT_EVALUATION_PERIOD error message.

In contrast, copies of Windows 7 M1 move to reduced functionality mode immediately after the user signs into an account. The reason for this is the expiration of the test-period for Build 6.1 6519. The initial limitations can be hacked easily by allowing Internet Explorer 7 to connect to Microsoft, and then typing "C:" in the address bar. This will open Windows Explorer which will permit users to access "My Computer" in the Windows Explorer window. Here, right click on the system partition while holding the Shift key pressed and open a Command Prompt window. Just type Explorer and hit Enter in order to bring the user interface to life. Still, be advised that Windows 7 M1 will boot unexpectedly at short periods of time, even with this hack, making the now expired copy of Vista's successor unusable.

Source: news.softpedia.com

14 Things that Microsoft Needs to Do with Windows 7

Microsoft made no secret out of having, for some time now, been cooking the next iteration of Windows, a translucent development process with very little transparent areas including details such as multi-touch, support for 32-bit and 64-bit architectures, and the evolution of the Windows Vista kernel, graphics and audio subsystems. Pieces of the Windows 7 puzzle are indeed starting to come together, and a more consistent perspective will be delivered at the company's 2008 Professional Developers Conference, that will take place between October 27 and 30 in Los Angeles.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and with Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group, have made it clear that Windows 7 will be the evolution of Windows Vista. With the current operating system acting as the foundation for the next, there have already been mentions of Windows Vista SP2 or even Windows Vista R2, but since actual details are gagged, all speculations about Windows 7 are fair game. In this context, Gates has also mentioned that Windows 7 will be a product of Microsoft's philosophy that states "do things better." The Redmond company's Co-Founder indicated that Vista has given ample opportunity for improvements with Windows 7.

The intimate connection between Windows 7 and Windows Vista manages to raise questions as to just how much of the current Windows client is going to survive into the next version, and just what sins it will pass along. Hopefully, Microsoft has learned relevant lessons from Vista, and will not repeat the Wow mistakes. There are of course a few things that the Redmond company can do to ensure this.

1. Performance! Performance! Performance!
Microsoft commissioned Principled Technologies to compare Windows Vista RTM and SP1 to Windows XP SP2. Here is what they found:
Vista RTM vs. XP SP2 - "Windows Vista was noticeably more responsive after rebooting than Windows XP on several common business operations. Overall, Windows Vista and Windows XP were roughly equally responsive on most test operations. Windows Vista was more responsive on some operations, and on those operations on which it was more responsive, Windows XP typically responded only a half a second or so faster."

Vista SP1 vs. Vista RTM vs. XP SP2 - "Overall, Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP performed comparably on most test operations. Differences were typically less than a half second. Windows Vista SP1 was noticeably more responsive after rebooting than Windows XP on several common home operations. Overall, Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Vista performed comparably on most test operations, with differences typically less than a half second."

No! This won't do with Windows 7! It simply won't! Let me make this clear, Windows 7 has to fly in comparison with Windows Vista and Windows XP. Fly! And the difference cannot be described with such qualifiers as "noticeably," "roughly equally responsive," and "differences typically less than a half second." In case that users have failed to be clear on this one, the performance they want with Windows 7 compared to Vista is that of a Ferrari compared to a bicycle. That's it! It's simple, now get it done! Just look at what Apple is doing with Snow Leopard to get a proper idea of what needs to be done.

2. Hardware Requirements – Less Is… Well... Less
Microsoft has already confirmed through the voice of Christopher Flores, Director Windows Communications that, at the end of 2009, Windows 7 will sport the same system requirements as Windows Vista does now, or did at the end of 2006 – beginning of 2007, when it was launched. This would be nothing short of excellent for Microsoft. They will need to make Windows 7 fly (see #1) and they will have to do it on the same systems that Vista is sluggish (to use an euphemism).

The benefits of such a move would be tremendous for Windows 7, and related specifically to in-place-upgrades. Users are bound to think twice if they also have to upgrade their hardware in order to move to a new operating system. But just taking the software and slapping it on any "old" system configuration and get more will do half the marketing campaign for Microsoft.

3. Windows 7 vs. Vista vs. XP vs. Mac OS X vs. Linux vs. Lawn Mowers
One of the things that killed Windows Vista was the constant comparison with Windows XP, and not with Mac OS X or Linux. What Microsoft needs to do is set up a comprehensive set of tests and guidelines for comparing operating systems, and to provide general access to online benchmarking tools that will give an accurate and realistic perspective on scenarios involving Windows 7 vs. Vista vs. XP vs. Mac OS X vs. Linux.

And I don't care if users are able to access the benchmarking tests via browsers from embedded platforms installed on their lawn mowers, or from a high performance operating system running on a supercomputer, Windows 7 will have to outperform everything that's thrown against it. Everything! So, what if it’s Microsoft's tests? So what?! The company just needs to give end users, OEMs, corporations, developers, IT professionals and even Mac OS X and Linux users a palpable proof that Windows 7 is better. Palpable!

4. The One True Love for the Applications Environment
Windows 7 will be stretched between the need to evolve to 64-bit programs and the necessity to provide support for legacy applications. Virtualization is the best solution for the operating system to support Windows 7-specific software solutions, but also products designed to integrate with Windows Vista, Windows XP and even older Windows Platforms. By building virtualization into Windows 7, and ensuring that legacy applications will run in emulated environments replicating the OS they were tailored to, Microsoft will scrap one of the biggest worries that have plagued Windows Vista.

5. Put the Whip on the Evangelism Division
Really now! The biggest failure of Windows Vista is not hardware and driver incompatibility, it's the work done by the Microsoft Evangelism division for the operating system. I don't care if it's NVIDIA, ATI, Intel, AMD, HP or some obscure manufacturer building lawn mowers (see #3) in Alaska or in Siberia... if it has to run Windows 7, a Microsoft evangelist should provide everything from support to Pina Coladas, walks on the beach and in the rain, and massages. Don't wait for the manufacturers to come to you, go to them, go early, and woo them with the trademark Microsoft geek charm...

6. No More Kill Switches, in Translation "Vista RFM No Más"
All Windows users are created equal! Even those running pirated Windows. Microsoft needs to work this to its advantage and ensure that the jump from pirated Windows to genuine copies of the client is as easy and as cheap as it can be. One example is the 2007 gambit made on the Chinese market with the slashed Windows Vista prices. Sure enough, the company would still be losing money, but it will be losing a lot less than with the free pirated copies of Windows.

But, at the same time, it is important to ensure that users of genuine Windows are not made to suffer from malfunctioning Reduced Functionality Mode kill switches, like they did with Vista. In SP1, Microsoft killed RFM, and it was the right thing to do by its users. The Redmond company, the only one who has access to the statistics with the false positives of the Windows Genuine Advantage antipiracy mechanism for Vista, and all the operating systems thrown into reduced functionality mode despite being genuine, knows this better than any of us.

7. Infinite Windows 7 Flavors for All
Windows Vista came in six flavors... Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise and Ultimate. If Windows 7 will come in 100, 24, 12, or also 6, Microsoft has learned nothing from Vista. Nothing! Yes, six editions do offer consumers the right choices, at the right price... but they also manage to create confusion. Microsoft needs to understand that it will not be able to satisfy all the needs of its customers by delivering infinite Windows 7 flavors, or by releasing a single one-size-fits-all edition as Apple does with Mac OS X.

With Windows 7, Microsoft needs to simplify its SKU offerings. Melt Home Basic into Home Premium, or drop Home Basic altogether. Make a single SKU out of Business and Enterprise and figure out how to provide different activation architectures to small businesses and corporate customers. Ultimate is a good idea however you look at it, and it should survive. Starter does not! In fact, the entire concept of Windows Starter edition should be dropped altogether! I'll explain later on.

8. Aero Next
Microsoft will have to do with Windows 7 what it did with the graphical user interface of Office 2007, in comparison to Office 2003. Windows 7 needs its own Ribbon/Fluent UI, with plenty of eye candy and with multi-touch, gesture, object recognition, advanced tablet PC support, and so on and so forth. But what it doesn't need is that Aero Next to be the resource hog that it is in Windows Vista. This should keep Microsoft from advising customers with inferior hardware configurations to turn Aero off altogether because it makes their systems virtually unusable. Let me make this clear: if just the user interface of a platform makes it unusable, Microsoft might as well go back to the command line...

9. Security but No Security
In case the negative response to the User Account Control in Windows Vista failed to reach Microsoft, let me spell this out... Users want security but they don't want security. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admitted that the company had sacrificed functionality for security. Please stop!

First off, users should be and feel secure without having to compromise on any other aspect, and certainly not on flexibility or functionality. Microsoft needs to get UAC right in Windows 7 from the get-go, because the feature doesn't look like it's going away. But it should be made to run in the background, and to be as non-intrusive and as less chatty as possible.

But, most importantly, security should be a given, not the focus of the marketing campaign. Microsoft doesn't need to sell Windows 7 because it's secure, or even to stress security. It should be a default association and nothing more. But certainly not the top selling pitch!

10. Think Ultra!
This is where scraping Windows Starter comes in. One of the largest opportunities of growth for Windows is on the market of Ultra-Low-Cost mobile and desktop computers. This means that Windows 7 will need to run on the same hardware that Windows XP does in order to become tailored for ULC machines. If Microsoft makes Windows play well with low system configurations, the trademark of all Ultra-Low-Cost computers, than Starter will be redundant. And there goes one extra and useless Windows SKU.

For the time being, the Redmond company cannot offer the resource-hog that is Vista for ULC machines and is still delivering Windows XP. This situation cannot perpetuate itself with Vista's successor. Microsoft has to make Windows 7 available for all machines, and not praise the much needed evolution of the Windows operating system while still shamelessly providing users with the "blast from the past" that is XP, eight years after it was launched.

11. DirectX Next – 10 + 1 – Make It for Vista Too
Microsoft needs to start acting like Windows is their number one gaming platform, and fast. One of the mistakes made with Windows Vista was to not to backport DirectX 10 to Windows XP. This has to change with Windows 7. Namely, the Redmond company needs to offer DirectX 11 not only with Windows 7, but also for Windows Vista. No more excuses this time!

12. Windows 7 Ultimate Extras
I don't have to tell Windows Vista Ultimate users what a disappointment (yes, I managed do dodge the term "monumental failure") the Ultimate Extras were and still are. Still, the Ultimate Extras is just the last aspect where Windows Vista disappointed its users next to application and hardware incompatibilities, poor performance, the UAC, RFM... But, as far as Vista users go, Ultimate Extras really failed because of Microsoft's evident mismanagement and defiant lack of interest. The Ultimate Extras in Windows 7 have to wash away the shame of what has not been delivered in Windows Vista.

13. Start Your Marketing Engines, but Please No More Wows!
Microsoft doesn't have to wait until Windows 7 hits the shelves in order to start marketing the operating system, as it did with Windows Vista. This time around, however, the company does need to ensure that no more Wows will accompany the Windows operating system on the market. If Windows 7 is only evolutionary compared to Vista, then Microsoft at least has to make sure that the Windows 7 marketing campaign is revolutionary.

14. It's an OS X Eat Win, Linux Eat Win, Win Eat Win World
Microsoft has to play dirty! It needs to jump at the jugular of Mac OS X, Linux, Windows XP and Windows Vista. It needs to sacrifice all Windows operating systems on the altar of Windows 7, and it needs to bury its competitors. No more extended support, no more feature-rich Service Packs, no more availability, no more lifecycle extensions... just Windows 7!

And, as for Mac OS X and Linux, Microsoft needs to bury them both. I don't care if half of the Windows 7 team starts building malicious code for OS X and Linux and then release it in the wild, and shuts down very Mac computer and all the machines powered by Linux that are connected to a network (except lawn mowers, of course; see #3). With Windows 7, Microsoft has to be at least as cutthroat as Apple or the open source community.

Source: news.softpedia.com

Vista SP1 and XP SP3 Have Failed to Break the Market's Windows Fatigue

Vista SP1 and XP SP3 Have Failed to Break the Market's Windows Fatigue - Windows is losing ground to OS X and Linux. 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.

Statistics from W3Counter indicate a similar trend with XP dropping from 78.56% to 78.24% in the past two months while Vista jumped from 7.34% to 7.69%. It's not that Microsoft can't spare a few tens of millions of users, and it's not that a large proportion of the Windows audience is shifting toward Mac OS X and Linux, but the Redmond company is finding it harder and harder to boost its share on a market already saturated by its operating system. The software giant is indeed at the top, but the only way is not necessarily down, even if the general trend seems to contradict this perspective.

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.

W3Counter puts Vista at 7.69% in May 2008 compared to 1.91% the same month of the past year. In March 2008, OneStat indicated that in its statistics, Vista is at 13.76% up from July 2007 when it accounted only for 12.72%. Net Applications reveal the most consistent growth for the latest Windows client, from 0.93% in February 2007, to 15.26% in May 2008.

Without establishing the records Microsoft was aiming for it, Vista's adoption rate does not qualify the operating system for a failure by any measure. However, the biggest catch behind the uptake of Vista is the fact that it is almost entirely governed by the sales of new OEM computers. Original equipment manufacturers are responsible for over 80% of the revenues of the Windows Client Division, and concomitantly for the largest volumes of sales of the new Windows operating systems.

A very accurate prediction is that Windows Vista adoption will only accelerate after June 30, 2008, when XP is no longer available through retail and OEM channels. With only Vista preloaded on new machines, there is nowhere to go but up for the latest Windows client. Still, even at over 10 million new licenses a month, Vista will remain far from the dominant OS on the market, Windows XP.

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.

In January 2007, data from Net Applications placed Mac OS X at 6.22% of the operating system market and Linux at 0.35%. In over a year, the market share of Windows' rivals went up to 7.83% and respectively 0.68%. OneStat claims that Mac OS X jumped from 1.79% in July 2007 to 2.18% in April 2008, and Linux to just 0.42% from 0.36%, while W3Counter gives OS X 4.73% in May 2008 up from 3.72% in the same month in 2007.

Both Mac OS X and Linux have been slowly converting the default audience of Windows now looking for additional solutions on top of what Microsoft has to offer. The most consistent growth is that of Apple, because of the winning hardware plus operating system combination. This is something that only the Cupertino-based hardware company can deliver, without Microsoft or a Linux distribution vendor being able to match it.

Microsoft is indeed working with its OEM partners harder than ever in order to produce bundles that will rival the Mac computers and OS X in terms of consumer appeal. This month, it has become clear that the Redmond company's main weapon against Apple will be the natural user interface. Delivering an entirely new interaction model as mainstream technology might seem like a big bet for Microsoft, with traditional Windows users experiencing instincts to resist such a move.

However, touch, gestures, voice commands, object and motion recognition will become a standard model of interaction in the future, and Windows 7 has the largest potential to bring this niche technology to the masses and get it adopted fast. At the same time Apple is not exactly standing still, as touch-based interfaces are already widely available in products such as the iPhone and the latest Mac models. At this point in time, it seems that Linux will be the last comment at the natural user interface feast, unless the major developers of Linux distribution take matters into their own hands and convince OEMs to to for the open source operating system what they are doing for Windows 7.

Good, Old XP
Innovation is a mandatory item in the recipe for Windows 7 if the next iteration of Windows attempts to stop its install base from migrating to Mac OS X and Linux. But Windows 7 is planned to drop at the end of 2009, and for the time being Windows Vista proved incapable of not letting the Windows momentum from slowing down. But don't count XP out just yet. Vista's predecessor will continue to have a consistent impact even after Windows 7 will be made available. This because Windows XP is no less than Microsoft's way of reaching the next five billion users.

The Redmond company has already committed to offering Windows XP Home Edition until 2010 or one year after the release of Windows 7, whichever comes first, on ultra-low-cost mobile and desktop computers. While ultra-low-cost machines will be sold in developed countries, the focus falls on first time users in emerging markets, where Microsoft has identified the next five billion potential customers. But, here, the company has to first fend off Linux, whose biggest advantage is the fact that it is free.

Source: news.softpedia.com

Multi-touch Surface, Ready for Windows 7

Computer shows like Computex, CeBIT or CES can give computer users a chance to feast their eyes on some of the most innovative technologies ever unveiled. Not only are these technologies new, but some of them have the potential of changing the way we perceive the world. At this year's Computex show in Taipei, a number of new product releases have made the headlines. And, by the looks of it, there's yet another product that might keep computer users interested, namely a 22-inch LCD display with integrated multi-touch technology, coming from Albatron.

At a first glance, this device might forecast the so much talked about Microsoft Surface, a gadget which, if released, is most probably going to change the way we interact with the world around us. Albatron, a motherboard and graphics manufacturer, isn't among the biggest players in the industry, but apparently it too is trying to achieve this status, with the possible release of this 22-inch multi-touch device.

Robert Doncevski, sales director at Albatron, showcased the screen and its features to a couple of journalists attending Albatron's booth at Computex. From the looks of it, controlling and interacting with the device was as easy as a child's play. Users only need to use their finger in order to turn on and off applications, or just play around with Google's mapping solution, Google Earth. According to Robert Doncevski, the multi-touch technology isn't affected by typical touch-screen limitations. With multi-touch, manufacturers can even create screens sized 24-inches or above. The only requirement in this case is to add a third sensor on top of the screen.

What Albatron did with multi-touch was to integrate it into a 22-inch LCD screen, providing a resolution of 1680 by 1050 pixels, and making the device all the more spectacular. Albatron's yet not released product may just be the right thing to run the upcoming Windows 7 on. Up until now, the company hasn't made any official statement regarding pricing and availability but, apparently, the multi-touch enabled display shouldn't come with a price tag more than 20% higher than regular LCDs.

Source: news.softpedia.com

Windows 7 - Between Vista SP2 and Windows 8, Close to What SP2 Was to XP

Undoubtedly, the recent events focused on the next iteration of the Windows platform qualify these past days as the week of Windows 7. Make no mistake about it, even though the Redmond company started communicating Windows 7, it failed to diverge in any way from its official policy of keeping the world in the dark when it comes down to the successor of Windows Vista. Arguments that the communication strategy imposed by Steven Sinofsky, Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group is building frustration among both consumers and partners, have fallen on deaf ears. The Redmond giant did the exact opposite with Windows Vista, and the resulting experience did not justify the transparent tactics of Jim Allchin, (Former) Co-President, Platforms & Services Division. "Former" since his no. 1 software pet, Vista, hit the shelves on January 30, 2008.

"Yes, We Are Working on a New Version of Windows - It's Called Windows 7"
"Yes, we are working on a new version of Windows. As you likely know, it's called Windows 7," explained Christopher Flores, Director Windows Communications admitting that it was traditional of Microsoft to start talking Windows Next immediately after a new release of the operating system. However, almost a year and a half since the launch of Windows Vista, and 150 million licenses later, Microsoft has barely said a few words about what's coming next in the platform. And this is valid not only for the Windows 7 client. Things are even worse for Windows 7 Server, as Windows Server 2008 shipped just three months ago, at the end of February.

"We are always looking for new ways to deliver great experiences for our customers," Flores added. "This is especially true of Windows - where we're constantly examining trends in hardware, software and services to ensure that we continue to drive the innovation that has both made Windows the world's most popular operating system and has provided a foundation on which our partners built great products and businesses. When we shipped Windows 2000, we were already working on Windows XP and we started working on Windows Vista even before we released Windows XP. So naturally, we've been thinking about the investments we made in Windows Vista and how we can build on these for the next version of Windows."

Neither Sinofsky, nor Flores, and not even Chairman Bill Gates, or Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer offered anything specific on Windows 7. Microsoft's official position regarding the next version of Windows is that it's not yet ready to talk features, functionality, capabilities, Betas or a final delivery deadline. While Windows Vista was still in development, and referred to as Longhorn, the Redmond company was little shy of chattering of its plans for the platform. Windows Vista ended up a defaced Longhorn, de-featured, and stripped down of the vast majority of items Microsoft had promised in order to make an early 2007 launch.

"With Windows 7, we're trying to more carefully plan how we share information with our customers and partners. This means sharing the right level of information at the right time depending on the needs of the audience. For instance, several months ago we began privately sharing our preliminary plans for Windows 7 with software and hardware partners who build on the Windows platform. This gave them an opportunity to give us feedback and gave us the opportunity to incorporate their input into our plans. As the product becomes more complete, we will have the opportunity to share our plans more broadly," Flores explained.

In the end, Microsoft managed to confirm three things for Windows 7 the past week. The integration of new multi-touch and gesture technology, an availability date ahead of the end of 2009, and the lack of a new kernel. Touch computing is the only sure thing about Windows 7 at this point in time. More details, including specifics, will be shared at the 2008 Professional Developers Conference in October 2008. But until then, Flores noted that "we know that this is a change in our approach, but we are confident that it will help us not only to build even better products, but also to be more predictable in the delivery of our products. We also know that this change has led to some confusion, so we would like to share information today that will hopefully clear up some of this."

Windows Vista R2/Windows Vista SP2
If Windows Vista is the ash, than Windows 7 is it's Phoenix bird. That much is clear. Expect Windows 7 to be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. One thing it's not is a rewrite of Windows. Sinofsky pointed to Vista as the Foundation for 7. The graphics, audio and storage subsystems will be the same, so will the hardware requirements, all of Vista's applications, devices and drivers will be compatible with Windows 7. In this regard, the next version of Windows seems nothing more than a Windows Vista R2, or a Windows Vista SP2.

Microsoft however is insisting that Windows 7 is a major, mammoth, monolithic release of the Windows client operating system just as Vista. But the new development strategy is evident with the release of Windows Server 2008. Sinofsky pointed out that Windows Server 2008 is also an evolution of Vista, and on par with Vista SP1, at least in terms of the code base and the service pack label. Windows 7 will also build on top of what Vista and Windows Server 2008 brought to the table. And the Redmond company had already indicated that Windows 7 would contain features which will act as the foundation for Windows 8.

Still, Windows 7 is bound not to be an equivalent of Windows Vista Service Pack 2. In this regard, if Vista SP1 provides any clues, SP2 for Vista will also be nothing more than a standard service pack. SP1, with insignificant exceptions, did not add any new features to Windows Vista RTM. Such a scenario successfully dismisses any connections between Vista SP2 and Windows 7. Even if Windows Vista will act as the foundation, Windows 7 will deliver a plethora of new features that are not available, and will not be available in Vista, SP2 or no SP2.

But what about Windows 7 being a second version of Windows Vista? This possibility is supported by the close proximity of the 2007 and 2009 release dates, which seems unusual compared to the five year gap which separated Windows XP and Vista; but also by the lack of a new kernel. In all fairness, Microsoft never stated that Windows 7 will sport a new kernel. MinWin is actually related to the company's efforts to carve out the core of the operating system as a standalone Windows version, and not to overhaul the kernel. MinWin is by no means a new kernel, as it is not even a kernel per se. It's the actual core of Windows 7, which contains the kernel. The continuous play with speculation related to the MinWin anorexic kernel had a strong potential to hurt Microsoft, as the entire ecosystem of software and hardware solutions would be impacted by such a move.

Get Ready for XP SP2 Part II
Microsoft's official position, expressed by top executives such as Jim Allchin, is that Windows XP SP2, which was built by diverging resources away from Longhorn, should have been considered a new Windows client and not just a service pack. But in this context SP2 for XP provides a precedent, which in its turn gives an indication to where Microsoft is actually heading with Windows 7. By offering an evolution from what Vista is today, the Redmond company is essentially looking to repeat Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, but this time around marketing the new version as a fresh major release.

SP2 more than anything else put XP on the map, and ensured its continuous dominance over the operating system market. Still, it did this not from the perspective of a service pack, because SP3 for XP failed to even come close, but from that of a major overhaul, or a major evolution, specifically what Windows 7 will be to Windows Vista. Of course with the level of details provided by Microsoft, this is nothing more than speculation at this point in time.

Chances are that as SP2 was a stepping stone between XP and Vista, one treated as a service pack, Windows 7 will be a similar release on the road to Windows 8. From 2010 onward, provided that the plans for Windows 8 are at least in embryonic phase, Microsoft has a very good chance to put the Windows 7 evolution behind it, and actually provide something truly revolutionary. For the time being underpromising Windows 7 is Mcrosoft's new strategy with a focus on overachieving the next iteration of Windows. Rather easy to do as the company continues to really promise nothing at all.

Source: news.softpedia.com

Windows 7 Is Just the Beginning for Microsoft

As far as Microsoft is concerned, Windows 7 is just the beginning. Not a new beginning for Windows, mind you, but the debut of a revolution in human - computer interaction. At Tech Ed 2008, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates indicated that he is betting big on natural user interfaces. "Now one of the big changes coming that I think is most underestimated is the change in interaction," he stated. Not by coincidence, the Redmond company's first public demonstration of Windows 7 involved almost exclusively the new touch computing technology built into the operating system.

"The way we interact with the computer has hardly changed," Gates stated looking at the current model of interaction. "We had the graphics revolution that took us from the keyboard to the keyboard and the mouse, and it took the screen from character mode to graphics mode. But still it's that one person sitting there, primarily using the keyboard, and the pointing device to interact with the application."

With Microsoft Surface, its first surface computing product, the Redmond giant made a single Windows Vista machine a potential nucleus of social interaction. The secret lies in the multi-touch, gesture and object recognition capabilities - exactly the features that Windows 7 will sport, as Microsoft so amply demonstrated.

And just as security and reliability were the focus of Windows Vista, so will the natural user interface in Windows 7 be the focus of the next iteration of Windows. Microsoft is not exactly reinventing the wheel of touch computing, as the technology is hardly an innovative item any more. But what Microsoft is without a doubt is the agent which will make the natural user interface as ubiquitous as the Windows operating system.

"There's a number of technologies that our research group and others have been working on for these decades that are now moving into the mainstream. It's a combination of software advances, and hardware power that allow us to bring new interaction techniques to a mainstream world. We collectively refer to these as natural user interface, but it's several different things. It's the idea of touch panel, and we gave a glimpse just last week of some of Windows 7, and the thing we chose to highlight there was this touch support, and how we built that in and made that easy for developers, and how end users will like that," Gates added.

But in the end natural, user interface is much more than just touch computing. It's also about pen capabilities for tablet devices, and about voice recognition. It's about opening up the computer, and technology in general, and making it available to as much people as possible, independent of the literacy level, of education, of language. Windows 7 is just the first step to taking interaction down to the level of a reflex.

"The final natural interface piece, one that I think is perhaps the most important of all, is vision. A camera is very inexpensive, and putting software behind it that can tell what it's seeing allows you to have gestures, and movements, things that will be used in a variety of settings," Gates explained. "Your desk won't just have a computer on it, it will have a computer in it. And your whiteboard will be intelligent. You can walk up, take information, expand it, point to somebody's name, start a teleconference with them, sit there and exchange information. And so natural interface really has a pretty dramatic impact on making these tools of empowerment, the personal computer, making them pervasive, and looking at them in new ways."

Source: news.softpedia.com

Watch the Full Windows 7 Video Presentation, Not Just the Official Version

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.

Source: news.softpedia.com

Windows 7 - the End of 2009

As much as Microsoft is trying to make the availability date for the next iteration of the Windows client ambiguous, officially pointing to a development process scoped for 2010, Windows 7 is actually dropping at the end of 2009, were we to believe Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer. In the past, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates also indicated that Windows 7 would be released in 2009. The only Microsoft top executive still on translucent barricades at this point in time and holding onto 2010 with both hands is Steven "Don't Call Me Transparent" Sinofsky, the Senior Vice President, Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group.

Here is the official position from Microsoft, a refrain that the company has played to perfection through its PR mouthpieces: "we are well into the development process of Windows 7, and we're happy to report that we're still on track to ship approximately three years after the general availability of Windows Vista. As always, we will be releasing early builds of Windows 7 prior to its general availability as a means to gain feedback, but we're not yet ready to discuss timing and specific plans for any Beta releases. In the meantime, customers can confidently continue with their Windows Vista deployment plans", revealed Christopher Flores, Director Windows Communications.

But an early 2010 date, even January, just doesn't make sense for the launch of a consumer product. Windows Vista missed the 2006 holiday season by hitting the shelves on January 30, 2007. And the move hurt not only Windows revenues but also PC sales. As of yet Microsoft's strategy for Windows 7 is to not repeat the same mistakes it has done with Vista and to deliver an evolution on the foundation provided by the current Windows client. Shipping in early 2010 would be repeating a Vista mistake.

In this context, one mistake that Microsoft is not repeating, because it simply can't afford to, is overpromise and underdeliver, as it did with Vista. This is why Sinofsky gagged all details on the Windows 7 project. And when the company did start talking it did not touch subjects such as Betas, features or delivery deadlines at all. What it did was focus on what the operating system will actually bring to the table, namely the natural user interface demonstrated at the D6 - All Things Digital, the same place where Ballmer revealed that Windows 7 would hit the shelves by the end of 2009.

Source: news.softpedia.com