Is a new marketing campaign what Vista really needs? The first stages of it -- already under way with the Mojave Experiment -- are certainly drawing attention to Vista. But in ignoring Vista's problems, could the campaign also be backfiring?

In Mojave, Microsoft fooled some end users into thinking they were looking at a new OS, when, in fact, they were viewing Vista. Participants in the test -- consisting of Windows, Mac and Linux users who hadn't tried Vista -- supposedly liked what they saw, and were shocked to learn the video demo was actually of Vista.

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A big "shift" is now on to 64-bit Windows Vista PCs, even among consumers, according to Microsoft product manager Chris Flores. But he acknowledges that, even now, few if any 64-drivers are available for some categories of consumer products, including DVD/RW devices.

"The installed base of 64-bit Windows Vista PCs, as a percentage of all Windows Vista systems, has more than tripled in the US in the last three months, while worldwide adoption has more than doubled during the same period," Flores contended, late on Wednesday.

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9:00am ET July 29, 2008 - The videos are now live on the Mojave Experiment Web site.

Microsoft has posted actual videos from its "Mojave Experiment," an effort to dispel negative stereotypes about Vista by making Windows users think they were running a newer operating system that was actually Vista.

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Amid complaints that Windows Vista is hurting the development of solid state drives, SanDisk now says it is working with Microsoft to optimize SSDs for "the Windows experience." But the company refused to provide details of Vista's problem, and Microsoft seemed unaware of the collaboration.

In a statement to BetaNews today, Richard Heyes, who heads up SanDisk's SSD Business Unit, didn't elaborate on the areas of optimization, although he did talk about SSD performance on "full-featured" operating systems such as Windows Vista vs. "simple" systems such as XP Starter Edition -- and he predicted that operating systems in general will become more "SSD aware" in the future.

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Microsoft's Windows Vista is to blame for slowing down the progress -- and, in turn, adoption-- of solid state drives (SSDs), according to Sandisk Chairman and CEO Eli Harari.

"As soon as you get into Vista applications in notebook and desktop, you start running into very demanding applications because Vista is not optimized for flash memory solid-state disk," Harari said, during SanDisk's second-quarter earnings call on Monday.

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If you notice your hard drive crunching later this month while performing a menial task, fear not: it's just the new Windows Search software creating an index of your files. Microsoft plans to automatically deliver version 4.0 of the software, formerly Windows Desktop Search, to Vista users.

Windows Search 4.0 was released in June and Microsoft says it has "seen a good number of downloads, and a number of positive responses from customers." The advantage over Vista's built-in search function is one of performance, the company claims. The structure of the search index was completely redesigned to speed up locating items on the hard drive and networked PCs.

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While they may have no intention of ever signing up for the service, Windows users are finding an unexpected addition to their Control Panels.

A link for "MobileMe Preferences" has begun appearing at the bottom of the Control Panel screens of those who have installed the latest Apple iTunes software -- according to one user, without any notification at all.

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In its monthly advance notice the weekend before the second Tuesday of the month, Microsoft said it will only be addressing four security issues this time around, two dealing with Windows. But a surprisingly big Vista bug fix is under way.

If you think about it, the relative security of Windows Vista hasn't been the subject of much debate recently. If there's any problem consumers have with it, whether it's born out of market perception or real-world experience, it's a feeling that it's not all that reliable.

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There may not ever be a planned, collective migration of Intel's company clients to Windows Vista. But as Intel told BetaNews today, there doesn't have to be, since IT can make upgrade decisions on a case-by-case basis.

In response this afternoon to an enthusiast news site report last Monday that re-ignited an old rumor that Intel had decided it would be corporate policy not to deploy Windows Vista on its internal company network-linked systems, and that it might even consider a wholesale move to Linux, an Intel spokesperson gave BetaNews a more practical explanation. Rather than move everybody in its various departments from Windows XP or Windows 2000 to Vista in a massive exodus, the company reiterated what it has told us before: It deploys different versions of Windows based on specific user needs.

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New software for Vista-using UMPC owners could make their portables into something more like what they expected to begin with. However, there may be some hardware out there that won't be so welcoming.

For reasons that may have less to do with Windows than with the limitations of the hardware, the first incarnation of the Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) specification went down with a "thud heard 'round the world." In a serious attempt to revive interest in a computing niche that still begs to be interesting, and so far just isn't, Microsoft is steadily reassembling its software portfolio for UMPC, with a new campaign that this time answers more questions, rather than asking, "What is it?" and leaving the answer hanging over a cliff.

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Microsoft seems to be fighting a losing public relations battle for Vista, as companies continue to criticize the latest Windows operating system.

In an interview with InformationWeek, Symantec's chief operating officer Enrique Salem said his customers in the enterprise sector are sticking with the older operating system.

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Download Adobe DNG Codec for Windows Vista RC1 from BetaNews FileForum now.

Adobe's Digital Negative specification, also known as the DNG format, was updated Tuesday, as the company pushes it to become a unified standard for working with raw photographic images taken by digital cameras.

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Microsoft is blaming its disappointing third quarter client software sales on factors that exclude Vista. Meanwhile, though, a variety of evidence indicates that many Windows XP users aren't upgrading, but switching to Mac or Linux.

"With respect to [the] third-quarter in particular, there's really no Vista-related issues at all," said Microsoft CFO and Senior VP Chris Liddell, during a conference call on Thursday. There, Microsoft reported a year-over-year drop in sales of 24% for Windows desktop operating systems in the third quarter of Microsoft's fiscal year.

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If you're a business customer of Dell, you might have to purchase Vista with your PC, but that doesn't mean you have to use it. Today, Dell is trying a new way to satisfy both business users' wants and Microsoft's licensing requirements.

A recent revision to Dell's policy for business PC customers lets them take full and open advantage of an apparent loophole in Microsoft's operating system licensing, though they'll pay full price for it: Assuming Microsoft goes forth with its plan to discontinue sale of all versions of Windows XP after June 30, Dell will still enable its business customers who purchase Windows Vista Business or Vista Professional to exercise certain "downgrade rights" and have Windows XP Professional installed instead.

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It's apparently safe to try this now: Microsoft stated this afternoon it's going forward with plans to deploy Windows Vista Service Pack 1 via Automatic Updates.

But today's go-ahead won't mean that users will wake up one morning and suddenly find themselves upgraded (or not), or even that SP1 will find itself deployed all in the same morning.

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