Tuesday 28 October 2008

Features of Windows 7 Leak Ahead of PDC Conference


 Christo [PCD]    28 Oct : 09:13
 None    Software

Little is known about most features on pre-beta Windows 7 version to be shown at PDC

Little is known about most features on pre-beta Windows 7 version to be shown at PDC

Window's Vista hasn’t proven to be the wildly popular operating system that Microsoft had originally hoped. The early angst against the OS was so strong that Windows XP still hangs around and can be had on many new computer systems.

Microsoft is already getting Windows 7 ready to pick up where Vista floundered. DailyTech reported on October 14 that Microsoft had chosen to stick with Windows 7 as the official name for the coming operating system. Microsoft also said that it would show the OS to developers in pre-beta form at the Professional Developers Conference this week.

Ahead of the conference, some details are coming out that give an idea of some of the early features of Windows 7. According to ZDNet, the features being offered in the pre-beta version at the show include Action Center, StreamOn, a new animation framework, new task bar and shell, multi-touch and gesture recognition, ribbons, and improved Bluetooth support.

Many of the details of the features won’t be known until they are announced officially at the conference. Action Center is known to be a self-diagnosis tool to help repair problems with Windows 7. Hopefully, rather than Vista's tendency to simply tell users who have problems to get drivers from the hardware makers website or the error can’t be fixed, Action Center will actually offer a fix for errors.

The DeviceStage feature is one of the unknowns, though ZDNet speculates that it may be a sort of souped up Plug and Play since the feature will only work with Device Stage enabled peripherals. StreamOn is a way to control multimedia content on the PC, but how it works is unknown. The new animation framework is a question mark as well. Perhaps it's a built-in animation creator sort of like the built-in movie editing features.

Multi-touch and gesture recognition are features that have been associated and known for Windows 7 for a while. Improved Bluetooth support is self-explanatory, though the level of "improved support" is unknown.

The ribbon interface was seen in leaks from September of the M3 build of Windows 7. I haven’t personally seen the ribbons, but if they draw half the ire in Windows 7 as the ribbons did in Office 2007, I hope there is a way to go back to a more traditional Windows layout.

ZDNet reports that Microsoft is on track to deliver a public beta of Windows 7 by mid-December 2008 and the final version in 2009. That time frame would jibe with Asus CEO Jerry Chen's statement that Eee PC netbooks would ship with Windows 7 by mid-2009.
[Submitted by Christo [PCD]]

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Thursday 18 September 2008

3 Years To Windows 7


 Christo [PCD]    18 Sep : 19:54
 None    Software

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed for WindowsVienna.com and Geekpedia.com that the development of Windows 7 will take approximately 3 years from the general availability of Windows Vista, which would put the release date somewhere in 2011: We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and development is scoped to three years from Windows Vista Consumer GA.

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed for WindowsVienna.com and Geekpedia.com that the development of Windows 7 will take approximately 3 years from the general availability of Windows Vista, which would put the release date somewhere in 2011: We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and development is scoped to three years from Windows Vista Consumer GA. The specific release date will be determined once the company meets its quality bar for release.

For further information on Windows 7 go to:


[Submitted by MayheM]

Thursday 24 July 2008

Windows Home Server Finally Fixed


 Christo [PCD]    24 Jul : 20:38
 None    Software

The fix for Windows Home Server's broken file system finally is released to market

The fix for Windows Home Server's broken file system finally is released to market

Microsoft's Windows Home Server (WHS) is almost fully back in operation after about nine months of difficulty. The operating system marked the most troubled release of the last couple generations of Windows-branded systems. Now at last it can move over and perhaps fulfill the bright potential that seemed to await it when it was released

Marketed as a home storage solution, and backed with hardware partners, Windows Home Server looked to be a very promising product, putting server style data backup in simplified form in the hands of the consumer. However, soon after its release it was found that it corrupted files stored on it. For a server, which is utilized primarily to safeguard data, data corruption is considered a "cardinal sin".

As the months dragged on the list of file types corrupted grew. The situations in which corruption could occur grew as well (initially the WHS believed that files could only be corrupted when edited on the server). In the end, the WHS team discovered that the underlying file system to the OS was seriously broken. In response to the problems, they issued a dire warning that files should not be stored on WHS boxes without having a separate backup.

However, they also got hard to work at making a fix. Initially, they thought they might be able to pull one off by the end of the Christmas season, as they worked over the holidays. Alas, the new year came with no fix. Finally in May, the team released a beta build of the fix, followed by a release candidate in June.

On Monday the WHS team released the final fix, Windows Home Server Power Pack 1, in RTM form. The English version is available through the Downloads Center, and Microsoft promises that German, Spanish, and French versions will soon be available.

The update will be pushed into Windows Update in August. Also in August, Japanese and Chinese versions will be rolled out.

Microsoft briefly describes the pack, stating, "As many know, Power Pack 1 provides a range of new enhancements, including support for home computers running Windows Vista x64 editions, backup of home server Shared Folders, improvements to remote access, more efficient power consumption and better performance. And, of course, it delivers a fix for the data corruption bug."

HP, one of the hardware partners will be releasing updates of its own via its HP MediaSmart Server. These will provide better security and streaming content.
[Submitted by Christo [PCD]]

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