Tag: windows 7

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Windows 7 RC Release Date


A “slip-up” on the Microsoft Partner Portal earlier revealed that the Windows 7 RC (Release Candidate) will be with us on 5th May 🙂

I got the Windows 7 beta as soon as it was available which was Build 7000 and I installed that on my desktop at home. There have been numerous leaks of newer builds (we’re up to 7077 now) but I’ve not moved up to any of these for 2 reasons:

1) I’m not sure of the legality of downloading a leaked beta build and I don’t want to get caught up in all that!

2) The hassle of backing up and upgrading for what might be imperceptible changes.

Despite, or perhaps because of that, I can’t wait to upgrade to the RC. To see the many 1000’s of changes and updates that have been made will be excellent.

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Windows 7 Editions Feature Comparison


There are 6 diffferent editions of Windows 7, starting with the Limited distribution Starter edition through to Windows 7 Enterprise. Each edition builds on the feature set of the one before as the following image shows:

windows-7-editions

Note that Windows 7 Ultimate includes all Windows 7 Enterprise, including multiple-language packs.

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Changes to Windows 7 in Release Candidate


This MS blog contains a great look at the numerous improvements that Microsoft have made to Windows 7, all based on beta testers feedback. Some of these changes include:

1. Windows Flip (ALT + TAB) with Aero Peek

8. Jump List length

21. Improved playback support for video content from digital camcorders and cameras

Steven Sinofsky says that they have fixes for nearly 2000 reported bugs/glitches in the pipeline. He also gives his definition of a bug which is “any time the software does something that someone one wasn’t expecting it to do” and “a cosmetic issue, a consistency issue, a crash, a hang, a failure to succeed, a confusing user experience, a compatibility issue, a missing feature, or any one of dozens of different ways that the software can behave in a way that isn’t expected”.

Steven’s whole post can be found here.

These are all improvements that help make it an even more enjoyable experience to use Windows 7-well done team!

Go and check out the list and see how what might well be MS’s best OS has got even better 🙂

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Direct Access in Windows 7


Direct Access is a new feature in Windows 7, a new feature that allows users to securely access corporate servers from outside the network…without a VPN. This was perhaps the most eye-catching feature for me and could well change the way that people work all over the world but it is something of a big claim. Pretty much any system admin that I’ve mentioned this to has said “Oh yeah-I’d like to see that? How does it work?” with a heavy dose of cynicism but now I can tell them…well show them a white paper at least!

VPN’s or Virtual Private Networks are used by almost everyone who need to access corporate servers, info etc from outside the network so at home, on the road, from the hotel, wherever…and they’re not the easiest things in the world-for both users and admins. The backend needed to set them up and maintain them can be costly and tricky to manage and I’m sure that VPN problems must be in the Top 5 HelpDesk calls at most companies. We’re constantly visited by account managers and reps from a huge array of manufacturers and nearly every single has to call HQ to get access to emails etc via their VPN…but with the advent of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2-that could all be over. 

“DirectAccess establishes bi-directional connectivity with the user’s enterprise network every time the user’s DirectAccess-enabled portable computer is connected to the Internet, even before the user logs on”

 

“Clients establish an IPsec tunnel for the IPv6 traffic to the DirectAccess server, which acts as a gateway to the intranet. Clients can connect even if they are behind a firewall.”

System Requirements:

DirectAccess requires the following:

·         One or more DirectAccess servers running Windows Server 2008 R2 with two network adapters: one that is connected directly to the Internet, and a second that is connected to the intranet.

·         On the DirectAccess server, at least two consecutive, public IPv4 addresses assigned to the network adapter that is connected to the Internet.

·         DirectAccess clients running Windows 7.

·         At least one domain controller and Domain Name System (DNS) server running Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2. When smart card-based authentication is required for end-to-end protection, you must use Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) in Windows Server 2008 R2.

·         A public key infrastructure (PKI) to issue computer certificates, smart card certificates, and, for NAP, health certificates. For more information, see http://www.microsoft.com/pki.

·         IPsec policies to specify protection for traffic. For more information, see http://www.microsoft.com/ipsec.

·         IPv6 transition technologies available for use on the DirectAccess server: ISATAP, Teredo, and 6to4.

Optionally, a third-party NAT-PT device to provide access to IPv4-only resources for DirectAccess clients.

It’s proving quite difficult to truly get the message across in this post without it becoming boringly long (!) so instead go and download the Technical WhitePaper from Microsoft here.

 

 

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Windows 7 Enterprise SKU


As we all know, there are going to be a number of different version of Windows 7 and, as with Vista, I’m particularly interested to see what extra features/benefits customers will receive if they get the Enterprise SKU. Luckily, Gavriella Schuster over at Windows Team Blog has a post about just that 🙂

As with Vista, the Enterprise SKU is only available to customers who have current Software Assurance (SA) on their desktop OS licences and/or buy new licence with SA. The list of Enterprise Specific features includes:

DirectAccess:This is one feature that I’m really excited by. Being able to get rid of or at least reduce the dependency on, VPN’s would be a huge boost for the vast majority of corporate customers I speak to; and I think this could well be the big driving force that pushed people towards this top end licence.

BranchCache: Helps reduce branch office connectivity problems and network speeds by caching information on local servers.

Enterprise Search Scopes: allows IT administrators to populate links to the commonly used internal sites — for example, SharePoint sites – to the Windows Explorer UI or to the Start menu or in Windows 7, using Group Policy.

BitLocker & BitLocker to Go: protect data on PCs and removable drives, with manageability to enforce encryption and backup of recovery keys. BitLocker to Go extends this to removal USB drives.

AppLocker: is a flexible, easy-to-use mechanism that enables IT professionals to specify exactly what is allowed to run on user desktops. It restricts unauthorized software while allowing applications, installation programs, and scripts that users need. This is also an excellent new feature, controlling what users do on their desktops can be the hardest part of Corporate IT and this goes a long way to making Admin’s lives much easier 🙂

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Optimizations: Windows 7 provides for better user experience in VDI scenarios, with better graphics, audio and local device support.

Multi Lingual User Support: the Language Packs in Windows 7 Enterprise enable you to support up to 36 different languages using a single Windows master image, rather than creating a separate image for each language used in the organization. This will makes things much easier for customers that have centralised IT across Europe and/or companies that have various nationalities in one office (like our HQ).

Also, the allowance to run 4 virtual instances of the desktop OS is still included along with the Sub-System for Unix Apps and it includes the rights to network boot Windows.

I don’t think the uptake of Vista Enterprise has taken the world by storm and I imagine it is lower that MS hoped but I think that will all change with Windows 7. The main reason our clients consider Vista Enterprise is for the virtual licences and that’s it but Windows 7 Enterprise offers a number of good reasons to pay the extra cost.

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Windows 7 versions


As with Vista, there are going to be various versions of Windows 7, according to CNET:

“Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate. Unlike with Vista, however, the Home Basic version will be sold only in emerging markets.”

I’m a huge fan of Windows 7 and also a big fan of Vista AND my job mainly revolves around Microsoft licensing-but even I think all these version is overkill. It confuses people and makes them apprehensive about buying a new licence-and people often hate what they don’t understand; I really think all these extra versions were a big part of Vista’s problem. It also makes it much more likely that people will buy a version of the OS that doesn’t include all the features they want and while MS have gone some way to combat this feature disparity (I.e. Pro will include Media Center), it isn’t perfect.

It seems a lot of people have been worrying that they wouldn’t be able eligible for an upgrade licence unless they were running Vista, but that of course isn’t the case. All those XP users are perfectly able to purchase the Upgrade SKU to their chosen Windows 7 version.

That said, the beta of Windows 7 is fantastic and you should definitely look at upgrading as soon as it’s available 🙂

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No more betas for Windows 7


Steven Sinofsky has confirmed that the beta we are all using and loving is the only one we’ll get. The next step will be the Release Candidate (RC) which will have a complete feature set and be very close to the final version.

His statement included:

“We will continue to listen to feedback and telemetry with the focus on addressing only the most critical issues that arise. We will be very clear in communicating any changes that have a visible impact on the product. This release allows the whole ecosystem to reach a known state together and make sure that we are all ready together for the Release to Manufacturing. Once we get to RC, the whole ecosystem is in “dress rehearsal” mode for the next steps.”

MS are still stating Jan 2010 as the release date as this fits 3 years after Vista, but I along with many others, think that Q3 this year is more likely.

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Windows 7 Sleep Mode


The guys over @ Gizmodo have found an issue with Windows 7 beta going into sleep…it doesn’t like waking up again (note to self: Ask MS if Windows 7 is a student…)…

From the Giz article:

“I came home last night, I thought my previously healthy Windows 7 machine was dead. It was making a horrendous squeal and refused to reboot multiple times. Turns out it was asleep.”

Only after countless reboots, pulling the plug, booting and re-booting again did it come back to life-a worrying time I’m sure!

Things like this are to be expected in a beta and I’m sure Redmond will get it fixed before Windows 7 is released in it’s full glory, but it’s good to be aware of these things so people don’t freak out 🙂 I’ll echo Gizmodo and say it’s probably a good idea to disable sleep/hibernate/power save just in case…

Original article is here.

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My impressions of Windows 7


I’ve now got the Windows 7 beta installed on my desktop PC at home and so far, everything seems fine!

It took me a while to choose between installing it in a Virtual Machine, dual booting with Vista or just putting it on top-and eventually I decided to go with the latter. I did try and do an upgrade but Windows 7 refused to “upgrade a staged build to a non-staged build” so I went with the full (custom) install. I assume this is to protect people from accidentally installing an unstable OS on their machines?

I have to say it took quite a long time to get through the installation process. After about 1 hour, I went to bed and picked it up in the morning. When I returned, I had to select my country of use (with keyboard layout etc), set a machine name and choose a password etc and bing-install done; the almost zero-touch approach to the install was greatly appreciated 🙂 Once I was in, my first concern was internet connectivity and sure enough-there were “no wireless connections available”.

A few of the people at work who I’d spoken to were pretty sure that drivers would be my downfall with this installation and I was worried that this would be where it all fell over. However, the problem was solved nice and easily- I simply downloaded the newest Vista drivers from the Netgear site, ran the installer, rebooted the machine and I was online 🙂

I haven’t had much of a chance to play around with it yet (hopefully that will change tonight) but so far the only issue I’ve noticed is a somewhat regular “Assertion Error” in Windows Explorer. Doesn’t seem to be much to worry about though-I just “Ignore Once” and it seems to be ok.

As I get a chance to use Windows 7 more, I’ll keep updating this post with any great new finds, problems, quirks and probably some screen shots too!

*Update 1* So far it’s definitely IE 8 that is the shakiest part of the beta, it’s having a lot of “assertion errors” and now it’s just crashed out and is sending what appears to be a BIG chunk of info back to MS.

 However my big issue is with the patch to fix the MP3 deleting issue-I just can’t install it! If I try to run it, Windows tells me it’s “not applicable to my computer” and stops the installation so the big question is “where does this leave me”? Was it built in to the build I downloaded or perhaps Windows has downloaded the patch itself and just isn’t lisiting it? If either of those are the case then it’s happy days and I’m good to go…but if that isn’t the case, I stand to kacker a load of MP3’s 😦 I’ve got them backed up but still it’s a hassle and I worry that some got missed from the backup too.

Well I’ve just started importing all the music into WMP 12 so we’ll see what happens re: the MP3’s. I’m sure they’re all backed up and the vast majority of my music is .wma anyway so (fingers crossed) it’ll be ok.

*Update 2* It seems that everything’s ok with my mp3’s so I can only assume that the MP3 patch is pre-loaded in the build I downloaded…it’d be nice to have some confirmation from Windows though!

The best thing so far is that all my M4a files are in WMP 12 and playing fine-that certainly makes things easier 🙂

IE8 is still being buggy-crashing out when it tries to block access to potentially dodgy sites which is doubly annoying. I’ve also noticed that maximizing a window shows a fetching BRIGHT pink background…who chose that Microsoft?!

*Update 3* I’m getting “assertion errors” from most parts of Windows 7-Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer are the biggest offenders, but Windows Media Player is trying to join in as well; although it seems that the WMP errors were triggered by my selecting a new wallpaper to be scheduled. They didn’t cause WMP to crash out or anything-it simply paused playback until I acted on the prompt (ignore once, always or never) and then the track picked up where it left off, so no biggy.

I don’t want to only pick out the buggy parts as these are to be expected in a beta so over to the good bits 🙂

Scheduling the changing of wallpapers is a brilliant addition although I know a lot of people don’t see the point of it. I’ve got a crazy amount if images on my machine-family photos, downloaded wallpapers of various kinds etc and I like to have one of them as my desktop wallpaper, but I do tend to get bored after a while. That then involves trawling through all the images and choosing a new one, which can be a surprisingly time consuming task-so having Windows do it for me is great.

Another small but excellent addition is the ability to re-arrange running programmes on the taskbar. I like to have my applications open in a certain order but every now and then one will crash out and I have to re-open it at the end of the taskbar. That really throws me and I’m sure I waste a fair bit of time just trying to find the right app on the taskbar, but not anymore! This is the feature that consistenly peaks peoples interest during conversations and I’m definitely a big fan of it.

Libraries:

Libraries looked like an interesting feature from what I’d seen PDC’ers sayng and they sure are great 🙂 Libraries help bring together files of the same type, even if they’re in disparate locations. I’m a terrible On-PC filer (as my co-workers can attest) as I’m always creating new folders to save things to and then filling those full of sub-folders and so on; plus when I “tidy up” I tend to just dump all those files into another newly created file…so this makes things a lot easier for me & anyone who needs to find something on my machine when I’m not around!

My Music library brings together all the “iTunes”, “Newly ripped (Nov 07), “Newly purchased May 08” etc folders into one central location so I can see all the media of that type in one place. I say “one type” but it has collected MP3’s, WMA’s and M4A’s without an issue…and has done the same for the 1000’s of pictures too, all in the Pictures library.

It’s things like this that really show that MS thought about who will be using this OS and how they will be using it. They make using Windows a more enjoyable, intuitive and fun experience, which I believe, is what it’s all about.

*Update 4* A couple of things here. I’ve just discovered that the Desktop Gadgets aren’t being particularly friendly, it refused to let me have the Calendar gadget while the clock worked fine which annoyed me a bit. I then turned off the Clock gadget and went back to a clear, uncluttered desktop and jumped back into Windows Media Player (WMP). I’d been singing the praises of WMP12 earlier for it’s speed and smooth functionality but now it seemed sluggish and worse than WMP 11-which sucked. It was stupidly slow at refreshing album art when changing views and would often hang when scrolling through the library-in my eyes 2 of the 3 basics it needs to be good at (the 3rd being playing the music). At this point I brought up Task Manager (Ctrl+Shift+Esc) to see if I could see any reason for this and lo and behold I could…Sidebar.exe (from the Desktop Gadgets) was taking up 80% (yes eighty percent) of my CPU, even after I’d disabled the gadgets!!! I ended the Process Tree and straight away WMP was back to it’s new, snappy self-whoo hoo 🙂

So this is a cautionary tale about the Gadgets and also a round about way of say “WMP 12 rocks!”…is anyone else having probs with the sidebar?

Anti-Virus:

This is an important topic as no-one wants to get their machine full of viruses and malware-but what works with a beta OS? Well, Microsoft have got a list of approved partners here and includes Symantec, Kaspersky and AVG so I decided to go with AVG V8. Admittedly that too is a beta (as are the other products) but the next time I went to open IE8…BLUE SCREEN…Noooooooooooo! I tried a few times but always got a wonderful BSOD so I had no choice but to un-install it which amusingly also made it blue screen 🙂 Since I took AVG off everything seems to be working again so that certainly seems to be the cause.

This leaves me with something of a dilemma. Do I try the other vendors and risk going through this rigmarole again or do I just leave it at risk catching something from the internet? What would you do?

*Update 5* I’ve just spotted that when you right click the Recycle Bin icon, there is no longer the option to “delete”; this is another example of Microsoft making a small change that makes things easier for everyone. I know quite a few people who’ve deleted the icon instead of emptying the bin; then there’s usually a panic and not everyone knows how to get the icon back; now there’s no more worries about it 🙂

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Free Vista to Windows 7 Upgrades


Tech ARP are reporting that Microsoft plan to offer free upgrades to Windows 7 to customers purchasing new Vista machines as 1st of July 2009, a great indicator of the timescale until release.

They appear to have obtained a copy of the draft proposal that was sent to OEM’s in December, outlining Microsoft’s proposal for this scheme. It includes info such as:

The only Windows Vista® versions eligible for the program are :

  1. Windows Vista® Home Premium
  2. Windows Vista® Business
  3. Windows Vista® Ultimate

* Microsoft Windows Vista® Home Basic, Windows Vista® Starter Edition, and Windows® XP (all editions) are not qualifying products under the program.
 

and

“The Program does not support multiple upgrades for medium, large, or enterprise customers. Customers that want to upgrade multiple PCs should use the appropriate Microsoft Volume Licensing program.”

so this is clearly aimed at consumers and small businesses.

Thanks to Mary Jo Foley for posting this first…

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