Windows 7 On Sale Before It’s On Sale

Friendly Computers found out this information on how you get get guarantee your copy of Windows 7. Below is what we found out:

We don’t mean to crash the Apple party, but there’s some news from The Other Side.

The other side being Microsoft and its Windows 7 operating system. According to a report in Engadget, a memo from the Best Buy chain indicates that the store will offer, from June 26 to July 11, a “pre-sale” on Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade and Windows 7 Professional Upgrade for $49.99 and $99.99, respectively. The software will ship in October, Microsoft previously said.

Best Buy said Tuesday that the memo was in fact “an item that appeared on our Intranet site, part of a newsletter directed at company employees. We’re very excited about it.”

The company is also guaranteeing a free Windows 7 upgrade to all PC buyers from June 26 to the retail software launch day in the fall.

The memo seems to take a rather subtle slap at the current Windows Vista OS. According to the memo, Windows 7 “isn’t just a “Vista that works” program –- it’s a new operating system with improved productivity, functionality and creativity that uses less computer resources.”

The so-called sale, obviously an attempt to propel market share with low price points initially and create a buzz, comes at the same time Apple announces it will sell the upgrade to its new OS, Snow Leopard, for $29, starting in September, and beating Windows 7 to market by a month or more. The OS wars are fully engaged.

 

Source: http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/09/windows-7-on-sale-before-its-on-sale/

Windows 7: Shaping up quite nicely

 

Friendly Computers found out some more information about the highly anticipated new Windows 7. See what we found out below:

 

It's official: Windows 7 is practically done. The code paths are being frozen as we speak, and the final bits should be arriving on Oct. 22, just in time for the holiday shopping season. Of course, savvy users will have Windows 7 well before that date (think mid-July). The myriad torrent sites will see to it that anyone who wants to will be able to run the RTM (release to manufacturing) bits this summer; whether or not they'll be able to activate them in the absence of an RTM product key is another matter.

In almost every sense, Windows 7 is finished. Whatever happens between now and the RTM a few short weeks from now will be entirely cosmetic -- some tweaked branding here, a bug fix or compatibilty shim there. So, given my extensive history with the product, starting with the much-maligned PDC build and running through the latest leaked builds, I thought it time to revisit the OS in light of my nearly seven months of continuous use.

Here, in a nutshell, is what I think of Windows 7:

Usability: Much has changed since build 6801. Back at PDC, Microsoft had still not enabled the the full range of Windows 7 UI revisions. For example, the new Task Bar was MIA, as were many of the Windows 7-specific Aero goodies. And although some clever users were able to work around these limitations -- by hacking the build to allow these still unfinished features to be accessed -- the net result was uneven at best.

Fast-forward to today and the new Task Bar now feels like an old friend. Most of the more glaring kinks have been worked out, and -- as of build 7137, anyway -- it is as reliable and predictable as the old Task Bar. Likewise, the myriad Aero features. In fact, when using these latter builds taken from the Windows 7 RTM branch, it's very easy to forget you're running a pre-release OS. Add to this the fact that the new UI represents a leap forward in usability (even the Mac fanatics are giving it some begruding respect), and it's hard to imagine anyone sticking with Vista once Windows 7 ships.

Compatibility: After some well-documented stumbles with the early pre-beta builds, Microsoft has done a good job of cleaning up Windows 7's compatibility story. Nearly all of my critical tools run reliably on build 7137, and the popularity of the public beta release has prompted many developers to rush any required fixes to market. The result is an end-user landscape that looks a lot more hospitable than the one that Windows Vista walked into nearly three years ago.

Then there is the matter of Virtual Windows XP Mode. I made my opinion clear a few weeks back when I declared it to be a kludge solution. And recent experience has shown just how confusing and frustrating this feature can be. This past weekend I picked up a new PC at Costco with plans to use it as a temporary development system while in the United States (I work overseas normally). The HP system has a quad-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 640GB hard disk. Yet it cannot run Virtual XP Mode due to the software's requirement that the CPU support Intel's VT extensions (which this chip inexplicably does not).

Place the blame where you like -- with Intel for creating too many SKUs with brain-dead feature sets, or with Microsoft for tying its solution to a technology that is far from ubiquitous -- but the fact remains that this otherwise uber-powerful system can't run a simple Virtual PC session. Go figure.

Performance: Windows 7 is faster than Windows Vista ... but not by much. My own testing shows that these latter builds are, at best, 3 to 5 percent faster than Vista SP2 on linear tasks, like the OfficeBench test script. And Windows 7 is still a good 20 to 15 percent slower than Windows XP, although multicore systems help to mitigate this advantage somewhat.

However, Windows 7 defintely feels more responsive than Windows Vista, especially on low-end hardware. I've been running Build 7137 for weeks now on a lowly HP Mini 2140 netbook, and I can say with confidence that it works well. I rarely find myself complaining about the performance of the OS -- this, thanks to improvements in background service behavior and a more intelligent kernel scheduler.

Overall, Windows 7 is shaping up quite nicely. Will it succeed in wooing the masses away from Windows XP? Probably ... eventually. But in the meantime, it allows Microsoft to close the door on the ugly, half-baked Vista era. And as a long-suffering Vista user, I say it can't happen soon enough.

 

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/windows/windows-7-shaping-quite-nicely-617?page=0,1

Apple bashes Windows 7, talks Snow Leopard

While Microsoft is getting ready for Windows 7, Apple is comparing the new OS to their new version of Leopard. Apple claims that Windows 7 is essentially “the same old windows”. Friendly Computers found this information which may be useful to you: 

AN FRANCISCO--While Microsoft is trying to position Windows 7 as an exciting new version of the operating system, Apple on Monday tried to characterize it as the same old Windows.

In a keynote speech at the Worldwide Developer Conference here, Apple's Bertrand Serlet said the underpinnings of Windows 7 include the same complexities that have been in the past versions of the operating system.

"That's Windows 7," he said. "Fundamentally, it's just another version of Windows Vista."

Serlet tried to draw a contrast between Windows and what Apple is doing with Snow Leopard, the next version of its own operating system. "We've come at it from such a different place."

But while his rhetoric suggested a fundamental difference, Serlet actually characterized Snow Leopard in some of the same ways--as a better version of the existing Leopard operating system.

"We love Leopard," he said. "We are proud of Leopard."

The goal of Snow Leopard, he said, was really "to build a better Leopard."

There are other similarities between what Apple's and Microsoft's efforts. Among the new features in Snow Leopard is a feature that adds the Expose window--previewing feature to the Dock--not unlike the Aero Peek feature that Windows 7 has as part of its new task bar.

In fairness, there are some key differences between what Apple is doing with Snow Leopard compared to what Microsoft is doing with Windows 7.

Windows 7 is largely focused on improving the look and performance of the core Vista engine, while Snow Leopard goes more under the hood, aiming to better handle 64-bit processing and multicore capabilities.

Apple is also trying to boost its Windows compatibility story by adding Exchange server capability to Snow Leopard. According to Apple, all the user has to do is fill in an e-mail address and password, and the software will "auto-detect" the Exchange Server and make the user's calendar and mail available in Mac OS X's iCal and Mail programs.

The biggest pressure from Apple, though came on the pricing front. Serlet said that Apple will ship Snow Leopard in September and charge just $29 for Leopard owners to upgrade.

Microsoft has hinted that it will offer a cheaper upgrade for Vista users to move to Windows 7, but has not announced details.

 

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10259248-56.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

10 reasons Vista haters will love Windows 7

Many of the annoyances from Visa have supposedly been corrected in the new Windows 7 operating system. Friendly Computers found this list which explains some of the features that are making this the “Vista Perfected” operating system:

Many of my friends and readers adamantly refused to make the switch to Windows Vista when it came out. Some who bought new machines with Vista installed immediately “downgraded” the OS. A few proclaimed that they would give up XP only when you pried it from their cold, dead hands. But even in the last category, many of them are impressed with what they’ve seen in the Windows 7 beta.

While some tech pundits are saying 7 isn’t really all that different from Vista — and indeed, one of the attractions for Vista users is that 7 can generally use the same drivers and run the same apps as Vista — the consensus among anti-Vista folks I know who’ve tried the 7 beta seems to be that the new operating system is “Vista done right.”

Here’s why I think you’ll see many of the XP diehards happily embracing Windows 7 when it’s released.

 

1: UAC has mellowed out

User Account Control in Vista is like living with an overprotective mother — when you’re 30. It’s constantly popping up to warn you of impending danger, even when you’re just trying to take a look at Device Manager or perform some other innocent task. It hovers over you and nags you constantly: “Are you sure you want to do that?” Like Mom, UAC has our best interests in mind, but it can drive you nuts in the name of “security” — especially when you consider that it doesn’t really define a security boundary. (For more on that, see Mark Russinovich’s TechNet Magazine article “Inside Windows Vista User Account Control.”

Windows 7 doesn’t do away with UAC, but it does give users options regarding its behavior. By reducing the number of unnecessary and redundant UAC dialogs, making the prompts more informative, and providing users with more control over UAC, Windows 7 maintains many of the benefits of the feature without intruding on users’ computing lives so much that they turn the whole thing off in frustration.

2: Explorer is no longer a pane in the behind

In a misguided attempt to alleviate the need for horizontal scrolling, Vista made the left navigation pane in Windows Explorer a constantly moving target. As you move your mouse, it will automatically scroll back and forth. My husband calls this auto-scrolling feature the “whack a mole” phenomenon because of the way the contents of the pane seem to dodge back and forth.

You can avoid the auto-scrolling by dragging the pane to make it wide enough to accommodate the entire tree, but that isn’t a good option on a small screen, such as the one on my compact VAIO notebook.

In Windows 7, the navigation pane stays still, so you no longer risk getting seasick from all the swaying back and forth.

3: Graphics cards coexist peacefully once more

In XP, we could use pretty much whatever graphics cards we wanted for multiple monitors. I had a machine with three cards installed: an NVidia, an ATI, and a Matrox. XP would stretch my desktop across all three monitors attached to those cards. When I upgraded that machine to Vista, I found that I no longer had multiple monitors. Some research revealed that to use multiple graphics cards, they would have to all use the same driver. That meant I couldn’t use cards from different vendors together. I had to shell out a few bucks to get more ATI cards before I could use all my monitors again.

According to reports, Windows 7 has added support for multiple heterogeneous graphics cards from different vendors. Now this probably doesn’t mean you can combine ATI and NVIDIA cards in an SLI-configuration, but it sounds as if we can have our multi-vendor multi-monitor setups back.

4: Clutter and bloat are reduced

Vista was perhaps the culmination of Microsoft’s efforts to be all things to all users. Along with the built-in applications we got with XP, Vista added a contacts program, a calendaring program, a photo editing program, and so forth. While some users appreciate all these free applications, many others have been annoyed by the “extras” they don’t need or use. If you’re planning to install Office with Outlook, there’s no need for Contacts and Calendar. And if you have your own favorite and more powerful graphics applications, such as PhotoShop, there’s no need for Photo Gallery. The extras just clutter up your Programs menu and take up space on the hard disk.

With Windows 7, Microsoft has removed a number of the extra programs and now offers them as free downloads from the Windows Live Web site. This way, those who want them can have them, and those who don’t won’t have to deal with removing them.

5: Boot performance is better

Another common complaint about Vista has been the inordinate amount of time it can take to boot up. This might not be an issue for those who leave their systems on all the time, but if you turn off your computer every night, waiting around forever for it to get started in the morning can turn into a major annoyance.

A Microsoft spokesperson indicated that the company’s goal for Windows 7 is a 15-second boot time, whereas three quarters of Vista users report boot times of more than 30 seconds. Although the beta of Win7 may not have achieved that 15-second mark yet for most users, the majority of beta testers I’m hearing from say it’s substantially quicker than Vista on the same hardware. That’s been my personal experience, as well. Since it is still a beta, it’s not unrealistic to hope that continued tweaking will get that time down further before the final release.

6: Notifications can be fine-tuned

In XP and Vista, you can disable the balloon notifications in the system tray, but what if you’d like to continue to get notifications from some applications but not from others? Windows 7 allows you to customize the behavior by simply clicking the little arrow next to the tray and selecting Customize. In the dialog box, choose which icons you want to appear in the tray. For each application, you can select whether you want to display notifications or hide them, as shown in Figure A.

Figure A

Windows 7 gives you much more control over those notifications in the system tray.

7: Security messages are consolidated

In Vista, you have several security-related icons in the system tray, and you might have notifications popping up from each one. To make changes to security settings, you may have to open several applications. In Windows 7, all the security messages have been consolidated into one icon. When you click it, you’ll see all messages related to firewall, Windows Defender, Windows Update settings, and so forth, as shown in Figure B.

Figure B

Windows 7 consolidates all security-related messages in one system tray icon.

By clicking the Open Action Center link in the message box, you can make the changes that are recommended or (for example, in the case where you have an antivirus program installed but Windows doesn’t recognize it), you can select the option to turn off messages regarding that application, as shown in Figure C.

Figure C

You can make changes or turn off particular security notifications in the Action Center.

8: Side-by-side windows auto-size

Most of the monitors sold today come in a wide aspect ratio that’s better for watching movies, which is also handy for displaying two documents side by side on the screen. With Vista, though, you have to manually size those docs. Windows 7 has a cool new feature by which you can drag windows to each side of the screen and they will automatically size themselves to each take up half the screen when you let go of the cursor.

Even better, if you drag the window back away from the edge, it goes back to the size it was before. How cool is that?

9: Home networking gets simple

For home users without a lot technical know-how, networking has been made simpler in Windows 7. A new feature called HomeGroup allows all Windows 7 computers on a network to share files, printers, and other resources more easily. Thanks to Libraries (collections of certain types of files, such as music, photos, or documents), you can access files anywhere on the HomeGroup network as if they were stored locally, and you can search across the whole HomeGroup.

Windows Media Player in Windows 7 can stream the music and videos on one PC in the network to another, and even play back songs from iTunes libraries on other computers.

Connecting to a wireless network is also easier; now you can click the wi-fi icon in the system tray and select a network from the list, instead of opening up a separate dialog box to make the connection.

10: Taskbar preview really works

In Vista, you can hover over a taskbar button — for Internet Explorer, for example — and see that three instances of IE are open. You see the open pages stacked as shown in Figure D, but they’re so small that it’s difficult to really tell which page is which.

Figure D

The Vista taskbar preview gives you an idea of what your running application windows contain.

In Windows 7, the preview feature has been enhanced so that it becomes an extremely useful function. Now when you hover over a taskbar icon, you get actual previews that are placed side by side and are large enough for you to identify (Figure E).

Figure E

In Windows 7, you can actually tell what’s in each of those preview windows.

And that’s not all. If you’re playing a video in one of the windows, that video plays in the preview window, too. And if you right-click the IE icon in the taskbar, you get a list of your IE history files, as shown in Figure F. You can just click any of those and go immediately to that page.

Figure F

 

Source: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=536

Windows 7 catching developers' eyes

The new Windows 7 operating system will have touch screen capability. Friendly Computers is beginning to find out what software and hardware is being developed to work with the new operating system. You may find this interesting….

While we've heard a lot about Windows 7, we haven't heard too much about the software and hardware that will take advantage of the new operating system.

That's starting to change.

This week, touch-screen maker N-trig is showing off a variety of third-party software programs that take advantage of the multitouch features of Windows 7. Meanwhile, Microsoft's hardware unit said it is also building support for Windows 7's new taskbar and thumbnail previews into its line of keyboards and mice.

Microsoft said beta versions of the drivers for its products are available now, with final versions set for release at the end of next month.

On the software front, N-trig is showing off a number of multitouch Windows 7 applications at a display conference in San Antonio, Texas, this week. Microsoft has also announced its own package of free touch programs for Windows 7, including three casual games and three programs ported over from Microsoft's Surface tabletop computer.

"There's lots of stuff going on," N-trig Vice President Lenny Engelhardt said in a telephone interview. Among the applications N-trig is showing is a photo browser from FingerTapps and a multitouch 3D design program from SpaceClaim. Corel also said it will have multitouch-enabled programs later this year, but didn't give specifics.

"Windows 7 and Windows Touch are giving Corel's software designers an incredible opportunity to enhance how consumers experience creative software," executive vice president Joe Roberts said in a statement.

Getting compelling software is key to transforming multitouch from a curiosity into something that consumers are willing to pay for. A touch screen adds on the order of $100 or more to the cost of a system, depending on screen size.

"In this current economic climate, to get people to buy new hardware is going to take some real nice, compelling applications," Engelhardt said.

HP and Dell have started shipping multitouch machines ahead of Windows 7, but Engelhardt said he expects all the major hardware and software makers to support touch at some level once the new operating system hits the market in October.

"None of these guys wants to be left out," Engelhardt said.

Although touch will remain a small part of the total PC market, Engelhardt said he sees it expanding from where it is today, with a few desktop models as well as a handful of convertible tablet laptops.

"A lot of those notebooks are going to be larger than what you have seen," he said. "There will be computers with 14- and 17-inch screens."

Multitouch will also reach the Netbook sector, though that market is harder to predict, he said.

Engelhardt said that multitouch has the opportunity to do the same thing for Windows PCs that the iPhone did for mobile phones--take a task that everyone was already doing and make it fun.

A video from N-trig shows some other possibilities for where touch can go in Windows 7. In the video (embedded below), N-trig shows a number of gaming scenarios, including the ability to play Guitar Hero using several fingers touching the screen. Although the makers of Guitar Hero haven't announced such plans, Engelhardt said the option is entirely technically feasible, with his engineering team having created a working demo.

Thus far, Engelhardt said, the consumer area appears to be ahead of the enterprise software market, but over time he expects more touch-enabled business applications as well.

For its part, Microsoft said it is happy with the level of touch support it is seeing from developers.

"We are pleased to see how quickly our partners are developing multitouch applications on Windows 7," principal group program manager Ian LeGrow said in a statement.

 

Source: http://news.cnet.com/microsoft-news/?tag=hdr;snav

Windows 7 to launch October 22

Windows 7 is set to release on October 22, 2009. Friendly Computers got the scoop:

 

Microsoft confirmed on Tuesday that it is planning for Windows 7 to hit retail shelves and start showing up on new PCs on October 22.

To reach that milestone, Microsoft plans to wrap up development of the operating system by the middle or end of next month, Senior Vice President Bill Veghte said in an interview.

"The feedback from the release candidate has been good," Veghte said.

Microsoft made the near-final release candidate version available last month. Shortly after its release, Microsoft finally confirmed that it was aiming Windows 7 for a holiday 2009 release, something that was widely anticipated, but not confirmed by those in Redmond.

In an interview, Phil McKinney, chief technology officer of Hewlett-Packard's computer unit, said that he feels good about Microsoft's launch date.

"We're locked and loaded for the launch," McKinney said. "The quality of code is just absolutely stellar."

The software maker also confirmed, without giving details, that it plans to offer some sort of "technology guarantee" giving those who buy Vista machines close to the Windows 7 launch a free or discounted copy of the new operating system. As with past similar programs, details on pricing will be up to individual computer makers, although Microsoft did say the upgrade program will apply to Vista Home Premium and higher-priced editions (meaning not Windows Vista Basic).

The tech guarantee program is not beginning immediately, but Microsoft did raise the possibility it will offer some sort of lower-cost upgrade to those who are already using Windows Vista.

I've gotten a lot of e-mails suggesting Microsoft do something along those lines, but its comments this week were the first time I had heard it acknowledge that it was considering such a move.

As for the technology guarantee program, it likely means that Microsoft will do some deferring of Vista-related revenue, though Microsoft again did not spell out details.

"Depending on when we do it there will be the associated accounting for it," Veghte said.

Microsoft has said that Windows 7 will come in five different editions in most markets--Starter, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate. A "Windows 7 Basic" will also be sold in emerging markets, Microsoft said.

The software maker has yet to announce pricing for the product.

 

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10253924-56.html?tag=mncol

Microsoft removes key limit for Windows 7 Starter

Friendly Computers found out that Microsoft will remove the limit on the entry-level of Windows 7 that only permits 3 programs from running at once. Friendly Computers thinks this may be useful to you:

Microsoft confirmed on Friday that, with Windows 7, it will lift the limitation that the entry-level "Starter Edition" run no more than three applications at a time.

With Windows 7, Microsoft is for the first time allowing the product to be used globally, as opposed to just in emerging markets. In particular, Microsoft is positioning it as its lowest-cost Windows 7 option for Netbooks.

Initially, Microsoft said it would maintain that restriction that users run no more than three programs at a time, however speculation has been growing that it would lift that limitation.

"We believe these changes will make Windows 7 Starter an even more attractive option for customers who want a small notebook PC for very basic tasks, like browsing the Web, checking e-mail, and personal productivity," Microsoft said in a blog posting on Friday.

Although Microsoft is lifting the three-application limit, it notes that there are still a number of other differences between Starter and Home Premium, including the former's lack of support for Windows 7's cool graphics, multiple monitors, Windows Media Center or XP Mode, among other features.

 

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10252407-56.html?tag=mncol