Articles about Windows

Microsoft issued a statement this morning saying it is going ahead with plans to release Windows Vista to volume licensees worldwide on November 30, as previously scheduled. There will be no further delays, even in Europe and Korea where competitors have recently raised complaints, but Microsoft will be making changes to Vista.

Microsoft indicated last month, it might have had to delay Vista's release in the EU in order to address concerns raised by the European Commission. Some of Microsoft's rivals had raised concerns there that some Vista features might be too exclusive, preventing customers from choosing alternatives from other suppliers. South Korea will also benefit from these changes, as the company has been facing antitrust proceedings there as well.

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UPDATE: Thursday evening, Corel spokesperson Greg Wood commented to BetaNews, "Today's announcement is intended to communicate our plans to be very active in providing our products on Windows Vista, and to advise customers that they can choose Corel products with confidence on the new OS."

Wood added that the company will be announcing its Vista certification for software products on an ongoing basis, but is currently continuing to work on possible additions to existing products that could help maintain their compatibility with Vista.

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The consumer edition of Windows Vista won’t be available in stores and outlets until at least January; but in the meantime, the big holiday push is proceeding on schedule, especially for the benefit of hardware manufacturers whose prospects for a cheerful Christmas depend on at least the promise of Vista.

One week from Monday, Microsoft and Intel will jointly kick off a 23 city tour of North America, starting in Miami and ending on December 14 in Seattle. The so-called “Ready 2 Rock Road Show” is ostensibly geared toward channel partners – those in the business of selling their equipment.

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Microsoft has released a beta of Windows Live OneCare version 1.5, which most notably adds support for Windows Vista. The original iteration of the PC protection and maintenance suite was only compatible with Windows XP.

OneCare, available online and at retail outlets, includes antivirus, anti-spyware and PC tuning and backup tools, along with free support for $49.95 USD per year. The package falls under a new class of all-in-one utilities being offered by security vendors such as McAfee and Symantec, as well as AOL.

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Microsoft is officially ending support for Windows XP Service Pack 1 and SP1a Tuesday, with users being recommended to install SP2 as soon as possible. The move means that no more security updates will be released for the now-obsolete version of Windows.

Windows XP SP2 was released on September 17, 2004, and Microsoft notes that it provided two years of support to SP1 customers since that time. The company traditionally offers only 12 months of support for previous service packs, but because SP2 was a major upgrade to Windows XP, Microsoft opted to give customers additional time for deployment.

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As expected, Microsoft on Friday issued the second release candidate of Windows Vista - the last public build before the next-generation operating system is released to manufacturing. As with the interim build before it, RC2 will be available to a limited number of CPP participants, beta testers, as well as TechNet and MSDN subscribers.

"Since the release of Windows Vista RC1, Microsoft has continued to receive excellent feedback that is helping to improve the overall quality and performance of the product," a company spokesperson told BetaNews. "RC2 reflects that feedback and includes important improvements in performance, application compatibility and fit and finish work. Customers should verify any outstanding issues not addressed during their RC1 testing." Download Windows Vista RC2 from FileForum now.

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Microsoft is set to offer either free or discounted Vista upgrades to those who purchase new computers during the holiday season, press reports indicate. To qualify for the coupons, a PC would need to be purchased after October 28 of this year, and the upgrade would be good through March 15, 2007.

The Redmond company would not confirm the program publicly, other than saying "we're working with partners on this." Reports indicate that the free or discounted upgrade would be based on the version of operarting system installed.

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A Portugese-language blog post from a member of the Windows Local Test and Support team in Brazil Wednesday, along with a download page on Microsoft's Web site confirmed that Windows Vista RC2 is arriving shortly, and will be available for public download.

According to the Web page for Customer Preview Program (CPP) participants, which has since been removed, RC2 will be build 5744.

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Microsoft said Wednesday that it plans to clamp down hard on piraters of its next-generation operating systems, crippling both Windows Vista and Windows Server "Longhorn" if users fail to activate their copies within 30 days.

While the restriction of operating system features has been around since the advent of Windows XP in 2001, the new program takes that process a step further. It would also make widely distributed volume-license product keys -- traditionally supplied to corporations -- harder to use.

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The scope of security vendor Symantec's recent set of complaints against Microsoft concern a future feature of Windows Vista entitled PatchGuard, which Microsoft describes as a facility that protects the operating system kernel against being patched or rewritten by an outside, unauthorized source - for instance, a rootkit.

"Patching fundamentally violates the integrity of the Windows kernel," reads an August 11 blog post by Microsoft kernel security architect Scott Field, "and is undocumented, unsupported and has always been discouraged by Microsoft." Without explaining exactly how PatchGuard will do this - for obvious reasons - Field makes the promise that, "If the operating system detects an unauthorized patch of certain data structures or code it will initiate a shut down of the system."

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Microsoft acknowledged Tuesday that developers looking to build applications on Windows Vista will need to upgrade to Visual Studio 2005 SP1, highlighting compatibility issues the company is dealing with as the new operating system nears release.

Both Visual Studio 2002 and 2003 will not work on Vista, and the most recent update to Visual Studio 2005, Service Pack 1, will likely have compatibility problems. Microsoft is working hard to resolve those issues before Vista ships. Developers can continue to use Windows XP to build applications that also run on Vista.

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Microsoft and the New York Times have made available a desktop application for reading the newspaper's content on a PC, which was built using WinFX and takes advantage of new features in Windows Vista. The Times Reader was first unveiled in April as an example for developers.

Specifically, Vista's WPF display technologies enables NYT content to be automatically adjusted for any screen size, with users able to customize font size and content relevance. The application also utilizes the same font styles as the print edition of the New York Times. Download the Times Reader beta from FileForum.

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Microsoft on Friday made available the first post-RC1 build of Windows Vista to technical beta testers, which is numbered 5728. The interim update includes a number of bug fixes and interface polishing, but is most notable because the 5700 range has been allocated for the final Vista build, indicating RTM could arrive as scheduled next month.

"Sven’s team has set aside a specific range of build numbers to incrementally build toward Windows Vista's Release Candidate 1 (RC1) milestone; in this case, build numbers ranging from 5400 through 5699. Likewise, numbers beginning with 57XX have been set aside for the RTM (Release-to-Manufacturing) release," Windows Vista product manager Nick White explained in a blog post last month. Vista beta testers can download Build 5728 from Connect. It will also be available to select CPP participants, as well as MSDN and TechNet subscribers.

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With Release Candidate 1 now out the door, Microsoft is putting what it calls the "fit-and-finish" on Windows Vista's user interface, and the company is looking for feedback from users testing out the beta release.

Dave Vronay, a research manager with the Windows User Experience Compliance team, says Microsoft is taking a lot of time to track down minor UI glitches - something it has never done before. "You can actually participate in this process by providing your feedback on the various pre-release versions of Vista we are putting out," says Vronay. The company is hosting a forum in which users can offer their rants and raves. You can also leave your thoughts below.

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It's no surprise that Symantec and Adobe are wary of Microsoft bundling its own security software and electronic document format in Windows Vista, but the companies had yet to lodge official complaints about the operating system until now.

According to a report in Thursday's Wall Street Journal, Adobe has told the European Commission that Microsoft should be barred from building into Vista competing software for reading and creating electronic documents. Adobe developed PDF and is the leading provider of software for the format.

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