Perhaps Microsoft will make their seemingly aggressive January 2010 date for Windows 7 after all. They've already added a "Windows 7 Client" category to Windows Update and to the Microsoft Update Catalog (see above, click to enlarge).
Despite my technophile-ness, I haven't considered moving to the 64-bit version of Windows Vista, mostly because I figure I will have application or device driver woes. However, in a blog post on the Windows Vista blog, Microsoft product manager Chris Flores said that Microsoft has noted a shift in adoption of 64-bit operating systems.
Earlier we wrote about how Microsoft used a kind of blind taste test to get die-hard Windows XP users to try Vista --- and that they even liked it. They were told that they were trying a new OS, called Mojave. We also said that Microsoft hadn't figured out a marketing campaign, but it appears that's changed.
Solid-State drives (SSDs) have had a lot of coverage lately, mostly negative. Battery life, performance, reliability, those sorts of things have been under close scrutiny of late. Monday, in Sandisk's earnings call, Sandisk placed the blame for at least one of those issues squarely on the shoulders of everyone's favorite whipping boy: Windows Vista.
As Microsoft continues to have to "prove" to people that Vista is compatible with their hardware and software, the Windows Vista Compatibility Center launched on Tuesday, as announced at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Houston.
Of course, it proved incompatible with the Web, as visiting the site got you a "The Windows Vista Compatibility Center will be launching soon, please check back!" message.
Microsoft on Tuesday released a new tool designed to allow customers to see whether their hardware and software will work properly with Windows Vista. Actually, you remember that before Vista even launched they had such a tool, so is this time-travel?
Nope, on Tuesday Microsoft launched the Windows Vista Compatibility Center.
Perhaps Bill Gates should have pushed his semi-retirement back a few days, so it could coincide with Windows XP's. As of today, XP says good-bye, for the most part.
Earlier I speculated that some companies may choose to skip Windows Vista in favor of Windows 7, given Microsoft's statement regarding a January 2010 launch of Windows 7 and continued support for Windows XP until 2014.
And it seems like Intel, Microsoft's BFF, is making that choice.
It's not over yet - not completely - but it might as well be. On Monday Microsoft sent out a letter to its customers dashing any hopes of a stay of execution for Windows XP.
You'll recall that Symantec admitted that the SymProtect feature of its security products was at least partially to blame for registry corruption which occurred during both Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista SP1 upgrades. It promised a standalone utility to remove the corrupted entries, and it's finally delivered on that promise.
Depending on how you spin this information, it's either good news or bad. A study by a decidedly partial observer, security vendor PC Tools Software, showed that Windows Vista, while much improved over Windows XP, is still far too vulnerable.
Hot on the heels of the issues delaying the rollout of Windows XP SP3, Microsoft has withdrawn Windows Vista SP1 from automatic delivery, just a week after initiating it.
Hopefully you read that title the way Steve Ballmer probably meant to say it on Thursday. You know, emphasis on the "HAVE" in a sarcastic way. Although I'm sure he didn't say it that way, he probably wanted to.
Speaking at a news conference in Belgium, where he was to announce the establishment of an "innovation centre" in the Belgian city of Mons, Ballmer gave XP fans a little hope.
It's true. There is at least one feature in Windows Vista that was implemented on time, to spec, and fully functional when Vista was initially released: User Account Control (UAC).
Microsoft said on Monday that it would resume automatic distribution of KB937287, which is one of the prerequisite updates users must install in order to receive Windows Vista SP1. While Microsoft had already said that manual installations of the patch were OK when it released SP1, it didn't resume automatic distribution at that time.
Why not, after all? The land of Pokemon and Hello, Kitty! will surely go for a pink boxed copy of WIndows Vista in droves, won't it?
Sure it will.
User Daniel_k (Daniel Kawakami) has been modding Windows Vista drivers for Creative Labs products. While Creative Labs insisted that features such as Decoding of Dolby Digital and DTS signals and DVD-Audio which worked fine in WinXP, would not work on Windows Vista. Daniel_K, was recently able to 'fix' many of the drivers, enabling the "incompatible" features as well as fixing many bugs.
It's one of the most requested items that people wish they would be able to customize their PCs with ... "no bloatware" that is. Sony has gotten the message, but aims to make a profit off it it.
