Articles about Windows

Download Windows XP Mode (N) Release Candidate for Windows 7 from Fileforum now.

In a move which could very rapidly multiply the number of total users of Windows XP N way beyond the paltry number of users, mostly in Europe, who invested in the product in 2005, Microsoft this morning quietly released a separate version of the release candidate for its XP Mode virtualization system for Windows 7. This version creates a virtual envelope for Windows XP N, the version Microsoft created without Media Player 9 pre-installed, to appease the European Commission.

Continue reading →

In a set of comprehensive Windows Web browser performance tests conducted by Betanews on August 7 -- our first test of browsers running on the final Windows 7 RTM Build 7600 distributed by Microsoft yesterday -- the five major families of browsers tended to run 13% faster on Windows XP Service Pack 3 than on Windows 7, and 29% faster than on Windows Vista Service Pack 2.

That reflects a decline in the speed gap between XP and Win7 of about 1%, from tests conducted comparing XP-based browsers to those running on Windows 7 Release Candidate Build 7100. Some browsers are faster in Windows 7 RTM, although Mozilla Firefox 3.5.2 ran just a tick slower.

Continue reading →

Is Microsoft asking too much of consumers and small businesses planning to upgrade existing Windows XP or Vista PCs to Windows 7? That's the question I asked several analysts after reviewing a chart Microsoft provided to veteran technology reviewer Walt Mossberg.

Out of 66 upgrade scenarios, only 14 allow for "in-place" upgrades. The majority of scenarios require "custom install," which means either installing Windows 7 to a new directory or onto a clean hard drive. While data can be backed up and recovered, applications would need to be reinstalled.

Continue reading →

Microsoft has a problem on its hands. Or more precisely one problem with three seemingly contradictory components:

Windows XP is too good for its own good. It needs to die for the company's sake. It won't die because nothing else -- not even Windows 7 -- currently approaches it.

We're closing in on eight years since XP first hit the market and began the long process of making us finally forget we ever used Windows 95, 98, and Windows Me. By anyone's standards, it's been one of Microsoft's most visibly successful products. It still runs on some 60% of all PCs years after it was supposed to have been retired as a front-line offering. It's sold around 800 million copies since its initial release. And if piracy is the sincerest form of flattery, hundreds of millions more illegal copies are in use across the globe. In an age where icons are in desperately short supply, this is as iconic a product as it gets.

Continue reading →

Right on schedule Thursday morning, what can probably be described as the "latest final edition" of Build 7600 of Windows 7 was made available to subscribers to Microsoft's MSDN and TechNet services for developers and admins. This will enable them to begin the process of finalizing upgrades to applications and to the systems using them, prior to the general availability date for the operating system, which remains set for October 22.

Absent from this morning's distribution, though not surprisingly, was any hint of "Windows 7 E," the browserless build of the OS that had been slated for distribution exclusively in Europe in the event that the European Commission had not reached a decision on the company's browser selection proposal. Last month, Microsoft presented a formal proposal to the EC that modeled a Web-based selection system for installing default browsers, one which presented Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Google Chrome, and Opera alongside Internet Explorer 8, in a menu that all European Windows users would see -- not just those with Windows 7.

Continue reading →

A contributor to the online forum TheHotfix.net has provided visual evidence of what appears to be a serious memory leak caused by the CHKDSK hard disk integrity checking utility included with a build of Windows 7 that has been tagged for RTM. The bug appears to occur during phase 4 of the disk check, and can push resource usage to the 96% level.

Tester Jordan M. Jacob provides a picture of the memory leak in progress, as depicted in Windows Task Manager, a portion of which is excerpted here. (It doesn't bode well for the integrity of the test that Apple's iTunes drivers also appear to be running.) Jacob goes on to warn that the leak is capable of sending the OS into the dreaded blue screen of death (BSOD).

Continue reading →

When Microsoft originally presented its proposal to the European Commission last July 24 to offer Windows 7 to European customers without Internet Explorer 8 pre-installed as a requirement, it showed the EC a picture of how it could present customers with a choice of Web browsers, including IE8 but also Firefox 3, Safari 4, Google Chrome, and Opera. (The order of appearance may have been according to estimated usage share.)

As the company's proposal (DOC file available here) read, "Nothing in the design and implementation of the Ballot Screen and the presentation of competing web browsers will express a bias for a Microsoft web browser or any other web browser or discourage the user from downloading and installing additional web browsers via the Ballot Screen and making a web browser competing with a Microsoft web browser the default."

Continue reading →

The Lenovo OEM key that leaked earlier this week and allowed Windows 7 Ultimate to be cracked is being blacklisted, according to a blog post last night from Alex Kochis, Director of Genuine Windows at Microsoft.

Kochis says, "Yesterday we were alerted to reports of a leak of a special product key issued to an OEM partner of ours. The key is for use with Windows 7 Ultimate RTM product that is meant to be pre-installed by the OEM on new PCs to be shipped later this year. As such, the use of this key requires having a PC from the manufacturer it was issued to. We've worked with that manufacturer so that customers who purchase genuine copies of Windows 7 from this manufacturer will experience no issues validating their copy of Windows 7. At the same time we will seek to alert customers who are using the leaked key that they are running a non-genuine copy of Windows. It's important to note that no PCs will be sold that will use this key."

Continue reading →

Microsoft has placed a $149.99 price tag on the Windows 7 Family Pack, which lets as many as three PCs in a single household upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium edition. Users in Canada will pay $199.99.

Microsoft's official blogger Brandon LeBlanc confirmed the three-license pack last week, but did not include the price.

Continue reading →

Microsoft's support for a public "eager to begin using Windows 7" has now extended to Technical beta testers, who will be getting a free full version of the operating system.

Earlier this month, word got out that Windows 7 tech beta testers would actually not be receiving a free copy of Windows 7 as testers of Vista did, which elicited the expected amount of criticism.

Continue reading →

As to be expected, Microsoft responded to news today that Windows 7 activation had already been cracked by telling Betanews that customers should not pirate the operating system. But the company also said it was happy to hear that people wanted to install Windows 7.

Following the publication of an activation crack for Windows 7 mere days after it was released to manufacturing, we contacted Microsoft to hear its take on the issue, which appears to be a repeat of the Windows Vista crack from 2006. Windows XP activation was also cracked not long after its launch.

Continue reading →

UPDATE 6:30PM ET Microsoft has responded to news of the crack, telling Betanews that it's "pleased" customers are eager to upgrade, while warning about pirated copies.

Even though it's been In the hands of OEMs for barely a week and has not even made it to general availability yet, Windows 7 has already been cracked.

Continue reading →

In a public memo this afternoon, the European Commission has stated that Microsoft has offered to include a "ballot screen" with choices of Web browsers, including Internet Explorer 8 and others, as a way for the company to comply with the EC's directives. Last month, the company decided that it would remove IE8 from Windows 7 for European customers only, though that move alone was initially met with skepticism by the continent's legislators, who claimed that the move by itself would not restore choice to consumers.

Microsoft formally acknowledged the proposition minutes ago. Its public statement, given by General Counsel Brad Smith, includes the following: "If this proposal is ultimately accepted, Microsoft will ship Windows in Europe with the full functionality available in the rest of the world. As requested by the Commission, we will be publishing our proposal in full here on our website as soon as possible. While the Commission solicits public comment and considers this proposal, we are committed to ensuring that we are in full compliance with European law and our obligations under the 2007 Court of First Instance ruling."

Continue reading →

The final validation checks for build 7600 of Microsoft Windows 7 were met today, reports Microsoft blogger/evangelist Brandon LeBlanc. Yesterday may have been the day that the marketing team was planning for release to manufacturing (RTM), since the text of Microsoft's code rollout announcement went live anyway about 24 hours ago.

This officially means that the development of the latest installment in the sixth generation of Microsoft's Windows operating system (the first installment having been Vista) has now concluded.

Continue reading →

Your reporter has a theory about suicide, which goes: No one knows why the hell anyone does anything. That said, if your employer searches your home, puts you in solitary confinement, and uses "inappropriate interrogation techniques" on you, maybe 25-year-old Sun Danyong's decision to jump off a 12-story building makes sense to you. And if you're the company (Foxconn) and the alleged infraction involves a missing top-secret iPhone prototype, well... A little Foxconn history in a moment, but first, gather the family 'round the PC.

Windows 7 to be offered in "family pack"

Continue reading →