Mike Garcen at Missing Remote just noticed that the long-awaited ATI CableCARD tuner update is finally available. I have two CableCARD-tuner-equipped systems here, one of which checked Windows Update this morning at 10:27 and found nothing. But when I checked manually just now, here’s what I found:
On my system, the firmware update completed without incident. I’ll be recording some shows tonight and checking to see whether the DRM rules really have been relaxed.
There’s also a tool available from Microsoft that reportedly allows you to attach a CableCARD tuner to any PC with sufficient horsepower without having to hassle with a special BIOS or activation. According to Mike’s report, the tool should show up in the Media Center Extras Gallery. I’m not seeing it here yet, unfortunately.
Missing Remote has a nice set of screenshots showing the Microsoft Digital Cable Advisor Tool in action. I’ll be calling my friendly local Comcast rep and scheduling a truck roll at the earliest opportunity so I can move those tuners to the small-form-factor PC in the living room and get the full Media Center experience on a big-screen TV instead of using an extender.
Ironically, just yesterday I sent a note to Edelman, Microsoft’s PR agency, asking when we could expect these components to arrive, I still haven’t heard back from them. Harrumph.
HP is doing something pretty smart this week, hosting a round-the-clock “Windows 7 Experts Day” on Thursday, November 5th, It starts at 12:01 am Eastern time and runs for 24 hours sraight. The responders reportedly include more than 70 Windows 7 experts from HP, Microsoft and Symantec.
More information in this announcement on the HP forums. The event will be repeated (presumably live, with all new questions and answers) on November 19 and December 1.
I get lots of questions from readers about support for HP all-in-one printers and scanners, so this event should be especially good for you.
I dream of the day when all devices that have a clock also have a tiny radio connection that will automatically allow them to reset themselves for Daylight Saving Time. Meanwhile, I’m happy that my PCs do the job for me. Here’s what I saw when I clicked the clock in the Windows 7 taskbar a few minutes ago:
I just noticed this purchase option at the Microsoft Store:
Do you see the error? The packaging correctly notes that this is an upgrade from Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Home Premium. There is no such thing as a “Home Starter” edition, which is noted on the order page at the Microsoft Store.
I find this particularly amusing when some Microsoft bloggers are lecturing the Windows community about being “hacks” who don’t understand this stuff.
Glass houses. Stones. Etc.
In the grand scheme of things, this isn’t that big a deal, of course, and this post is mostly tongue-in-cheek. But given the constant complaints that Windows has too many versions, it really would be wise of the webmaster who hit the Publish button on this store to make sure that they don’t actually create a brand-new (nonexistent) edition and confuse customers even more.
This morning’s e-mail brings a reader question I get a lot lately:
Do you know of a list anywhere that spells out what hardware drivers ship with Win 7? One of the frustrations with PC makers is that they don’t upgrade the drivers for printers and other hardware when a new OS ships. I think my HP Deskjet 6620 is not supported in Win 7 so now I can’t take advantage of the new OS. Any help would be great.
The short answer is yes, there is such a resource. It’s called the Windows 7 Compatibility Center, and it allows you to search for both software and hardware to determine whether it is certified to work with Windows 7. Crucially, you can search to confirm support for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions.
But it’s a good news/bad news situation. The good news is that if you find a device that is reported as compatible, you can have a very high degree of confidence that it will work properly. The bad news, at least temporarily, is that the index is still incomplete. Here’s what I saw when I asked whether my trusty old Fujitsu ScanSnap fi-5110EO scanner from 2005 would run on Windows 7 x64 (it’s at the bottom of this list):
The 64-bit page should confirm Fujitsu’s definitive announcement that they have no intention of supporting this device under Vista or Windows 7. The 32-bit page appears to be more helpful, ostensibly confirming that the device is supported and even including links to pages where I could get more information and drivers. Except those links led me to a generic Fujitsu Windows 7 page intended for purchasers of new Fujitsu PCs. I had to stumble around blindly to finally discover the Windows Vista (not Windows 7) update from 2007 that enables this device. (I’m actually using the scanner in Windows XP Mode on my desktop PC running Windows 7 Professional.)
For what it’s worth, printers and scanners are, in my experience, the worst offenders in this regard. The older they are, the more likely you will be unable to use them and the more cautious you should be when considering an upgrade.
I was almost as excited as Navin Johnson ("The new drivers are here! The new drivers are here!") when I checked the Optional Updates section of Windows Update today on two different machines. Note the date stamp: October 22, 2009, which was the day when Windows 7 was released to the public. The top three downloads are for control software used with Microsoft wireless keyboards and mice, along with a detection driver for these devices. There was also a new driver for the Nvidia GeForce 8600GT display adapter:
I had not previously installed IntelliType Pro or IntelliPoint on either system, so this was a case of the right software being offered to me as an option. All four updates shown here were unselected, which is the way it should be.
It took two tries to get the software properly installed (I had to click the Try Again button in Windows Update). After finishing, the Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard Detection Driver was still shown as available, with a mysterious error (Code 80070103) next to its installation status. That error means the driver being offered (or a newer one) is already installed. When I waited about 15 minutes and checked again, the redundant update was no longer listed as available.
The control software enables features for your input devices that aren’t available with a generic driver. Pretty cool, actually. With a clean install, this is one of those things it’s easy to forget.