Tag Archives | Windows 7

Windows 7 Beta Gets its First Patch

It wouldn’t be a Microsoft product without it! Users of Windows 7 Beta who may have not downloaded a patch for an MP3 corruption issue that was available shortly after the products public release are now getting it via Automatic Update. The issue would permanently alter an MP3 file played through Windows 7: the first few seconds of the audio would disappear. However, this would only occur if a user edited the MP3 files metadata, so it didn’t affect a lot of users. Nonetheless, the patch is out (see this Knowledge base article), so the problem should be fixed. Other problems are addressed in this patch, mainly dealing with multimedia issues.

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Windows 7 Beta General Availability Delayed

windows7-logoStretch your legs, go outside, and get fresh air–the Windows 7 beta is delayed until tomorrow. Windows team blogger Brandon LeBlanc has announced that Windows 7 is such a hot commodity that the company has to shore up its server infrastructure to meet the demand.

Developers who have MSDN or TechNet subscriptions can download Windows 7 Beta today; it will (in theory) become generally available tomorrow at 12 PM PT. Direct download links are live if you want to get the jump on all the people that will spend their Saturdays downloading a beta operating system, but installations without product keys are limited to 30-day trial periods.

As an aside, has anybody told Microsoft about BitTorrent yet? It seems to be a reliable way to distribute big files to lots of people.

If you want to upgrade to the Windows 7 beta from Windows XP, you are out of luck–it doesn’ offer an upgrade path. Upgrade installations are only supported for PCs that are running Windows Vista with Service Pack 1. The company has not yet announcing finalized upgrade paths for Windows 7, a spokesperson wrote in an e-mail. The beta is available in one edition that is roughly equivalent to Windows Vista Ultimate Edition.

It behooves Microsoft to provide an upgrade path from Windows XP Professional. Only about 10 percent of enterprises have deployed Windows Vista as their major OS, Information Technology Intelligence Corp’s principal analyst (and owner) Laura DiDio said yesterday. Windows 7 can’t arrive soon enough.

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Ballmer: Windows 7 Beta is Out

Steve Ballmer has made it official: the public beta of Windows 7 has begun. On Friday, the beta will be available worldwide at the Windows 7 web site, and at his keynote at CES Wednesday night he urged everybody to download it. TechNet, MSDN, and TechBeta customers will get access starting tonight. So if you’re lucky enough to have access to those, run — don’t walk — to Microsoft’s website before their servers crash under whats probably going to be a tidal wave of curious techies…

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Report: Microsoft Details Windows 7 Upgrade Program

According to TechARP.com, Microsoft has gone ahead and begun to offer details of its upgrade program for those who buy Vista machines before Windows 7 releases late this year to its partners. In some cases customers may be eligible for a free upgrade.

Those who purchase a Vista machine between July 1 and a yet to be determined date would be eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 7. Users of Vista Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate would be eligible for the program.

This particular program is aimed at individual consumers — multi-license purchasers would not qualify under this program. Microsoft said those customers should use the “appropriate” volume licensing program for their upgrade path (there’s no mention of a free/discounted upgrade offer for those folks as of yet).

Upgrade paths would go as follows:

  • Vista Home Premium -> Windows 7 Home Premium
  • Vista Business -> Windows 7 Professional
  • Vista Ultimate -> Windows 7 Ultimate

Microsoft’s OEM partners would be shipped copies of the OS, and it would be their responsibility to ship them to the customer. However, customers would have to wait until Win 7 officially releases, obviously.

So how much can we trust Tech ARP? These folks do have a good track record: they have been able to nail down RTM dates in the past, including the release of Vista SP1. We shall see if they are right again.

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Seven Things Windows 7 Needs To Accomplish

With Windows 7 set to make its public debut Wednesday at CES (it already has, if you count the BitTorrent leak), in honor of the seventh major version of Microsoft’s operating system, I’ve come up with seven things I think Windows 7 must do.

Redmond is at a crossroads. Apple is resurgent–the iPod and now the iPhone Effect are driving users away from Windows. Vista isn’t helping much either: the negative feedback loop caused by Microsoft’s bungled launch and marketing is also contributing to the exodus.

Windows 7 could be considered a critical release for Ballmer and Co. Either the new operating system plugs the hole in the dam, or the cracks grow bigger and wider. Microsoft needs Windows 7 to be a success more than I think it currently realizes. The threat from Apple is real.

So what does Windows 7 need to do?

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Windows 7 Beta 1 Leaks Via BitTorrent

If you cannot wait for Windows 7 to make its public debut sometime next month, you can get on BitTorrent now and download it. The next generation operating system has appeared on the P2P service as an ISO file.

The build number is 7000, which is believed to be the one which will get the “Beta 1” label. It is a copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, according to sources. About 1,500 seeders are available for the file and it is approxmately 2.5GB in size.

Windows 7 Beta 1’s leak onto BitTorrent follows a similar incident where an Alpha of the OS that was debuted at PDC also ended up being available on the service.

Reviews seem to indicate that overall the beta seems quite stable, probably indicating that we will only see one public beta of this OS before it rolls into the Release Candidate stage.

All in all, it appears as if Microsot is ready to push 7 out the door as fast as they can…

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Windows 7 Beta 1 Looks Good for January Release

Although Microsoft earlier this year had been maintaining that we’d not see Windows 7 until 2010, most Redmond watchers kind of figured out a long time ago that the company had for all intents and purposes given up on Windows Vista.

We reported earlier this week that even two years after release, Vista is running on about 20 percent of computers according to Net Applications. By contrast, Windows XP is running on over three times as many. So, by that measure Vista has not been a success at all.

However, in a (possibly inadvertent) comment posted to his personal web log on MSDN, Southeast District Architect Evangelist Chad Brooks says that the company is guessing that Windows 7 Beta 1 will probably be out by the January 13th.

That will be an exciting week — on the 13th, a new version of Windows, and the following Tuesday, a new president of the United States. Talk about change! But I do digress…

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Windows Stands to Benefit From Mac-Like Functionality

Two prominent Microsoft bloggers in the past week or so have stepped out and voiced concerns over what they see as the increasing Mac-like feel of Windows 7. Paul Thurrott has blogged on his concerns that Microsoft doesn’t understand “simple” and “easy,” and says it’s copying the worst of Mac OS, while meanwhile my good friend Mary Jo Foley has made an impassioned plea to the Microsoft team to keep the Windows in Windows 7.

While I agree with Thurrott’s general premise that Microsoft really doesn’t understand how to do things in a simple manner, and with Mary Jo that maybe Windows 7 is a little too much like the Mac, I firmly believe that Windows users stand to gain far more than they would lose.

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Will (and Can) Windows 7 Come In Many Flavors?

As both WinHEC and PDC 2008 move ever closer, talk among Microsofties has increasingly turned to Windows 7. Specifically, talk among bloggers has begun to focus on whether Microsoft will continue what it began with Vista by segmenting Windows into (arguably too many) various editions.

Let’s look at Vista as is stands now. Five seperate editions round out the line — Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise. A sixth, Windows Vista Starter, is aimed at developing markets.

The launch of Vista changed Microsoft’s previous policy of having a single operating system for consumers, expanding it to three seperate editions. Microsoft’s decision became instant fodder for Apple, which used the somewhat confusing offering in its highly popular Mac vs. PC ads.

Was this a wise move? Probably not. If you picked the Basic version, you basically got a reskinned version of XP with security enhancements. In order to get the “full” Vista experience, the Premium edition was necessary. Microsoft’s own chart clearly shows how hobbled Basic is when compared to the other editions.

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