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Archives: Windows Vista

Freeze Dry for Windows Vista

Looks like Windows Vista will have a cool new feature with a cool name. The word comes from ZDNet Australia: Windows Vista will include a new technology known as Freeze Dry designed to maintain application states and unsaved documents even when patches are automatically applied and PCs are rebooted. Speaking...

IE7, Windows Vista release dates "leaked"

VNUnet.com is reporting that a Microsoft staffer in France has revealed the projected release dates of IE7 and Windows Vista: "Beta 2 of Windows Vista, Microsoft's future operating system, is slated for release in the first week of December 2005 at best," a posting dated 29 August said. "The final...

PC World looks at Windows Vista

Kudos to PC World's Yardena Arar for a straightforward first look at Windows Vista. And extra kudos for putting the October 2005 issue online as soon as it's ready. Arar notes that the new Virtual Folders feature is "a bit puzzling," and I agree. This feature needs to evolve a lot...

Good heavens! A substantive Windows Vista review!

I've never read anything by Nate Wooley at Government Computer News before. But based on this test drive of Windows Vista, he's worth following. "Beta 1 is a significant milestone, particularly in terms of security," he notes. And he backs up that observation with some damn good technical reporting. Go read it....

Another early Windows Vista review

Bill Husted of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is another clever writer, and at least he spends most of his early review of Windows Vista Beta 1 poking fun at his own mistakes. He buried the lede, though. This graf is near the very end: The problems may involve one of two things:...

Why do a review if you're not going to fact-check it?

Hiawatha Bray reviews Windows Vista Beta 1 in today's Boston Globe online. His snarky opener (with matching headline) praises Windows Vista for being pretty but lacking substance: The new software sure is pretty. Maybe that's why Microsoft recently dropped its rough-and-tumble working title of Longhorn. The new product will be...

New hardware or old?

A commenter on Scoble's site asks an interesting question: I've got a 4 year old PC running (barely) XP. My graphics card is a 64MB card, it's an AMD duron 850, 256MB of RAM. It runs XP fine now, why should I upgrade it to Vista and won't my upgrade...

Out, out, damned (Mac) FUD!

The Mac Observer gets all breathless in a short article that speculates (inaccurately) about the future of Windows Vista: When Windows Vista ships at the end of 2006, it may not run on the cut-rate PCs sold by Dell, Gateway and other companies. Gene Steinberg, in his latest column at...

"Windows Vista ... hands down better than Windows XP"

Tim Coyle has an interview with Charlie Owen of Microsoft's Media Center team. I thought this part was interesting: I know you probably can't say much about Longhorn, but what are you hoping will be in Longhorn?You're right -- I can't talk about Windows Vista much. I will say I...

Windows Vista Inside Out

In a comment on an older post, John Sercel asks: "Any chance of a 'Windows Vista Inside Out' any time soon?" Soon? No. Carl Siechert, Craig Stinson, and I definitely plan to do that title and have it available as soon as Windows Vista is ready, which is a little...

In other news, sun rises in east

ZDNet writes one of those stories filled with ... well, nothing: UK CIOs and IT directors say they will have to be convinced of the business benefits and return on investment of Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista operating system before including it in IT spending and upgrade plans. Couldn't the same...

Windows Vista viruses? Uh, no.

The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Just look at these headlines on Google News! Except, as Mary Jo Foley points out, the headlines are, well, completely wrong: A number of Web reports are claiming that the first Windows Vista virus has been discovered. While there is, indeed, a report of an...

A Windows Vista slide show

ExtremeTech has a 40-screen slide show that gives a nice visual overview of what's in Windows Vista....

Code names? We don't need no stinkin' code names!

Bink.nu says the code names are dropping like flies. First it was Longhorn getting its official moniker, Windows Vista. Now the Avalon and Indigo code names are history: Avalon == Windows Presentation Foundation Indigo == Windows Communication Foundation And who knew that AERO, the user experience guidelines for Windows Vista,...

More reading on Windows Vista

The mainstream technical press has been working on its Windows Vista Beta 1 stories for a while, and their coverage went live today. Here are some samples: eWeek: Beta Testers Get First Look at Windows Vista PC Magazine: Hands On with Windows Vista Beta 1 CNET News.com: A Windows into...

Windows Vista details and screenshots

Don't get too excited, but you'll find some details here. This is the new Virtual Folders feature, for instance. Bear in mind this beta release is mostly about plumbing and infrastructure. The interface you see will change many times between now and next year, when the final version ships....

Windows Vista Beta 1 to ship today

Scoble says so: Chris Jones, VP who runs the build team for Windows Vista, among others, was great yesterday (we interviewed him for Channel 9). Anyway, we're trying to get that video up this afternoon sometime. On campus there's a big party thanks to shipping Beta 1. He said they...

No, Virginia, there is no Superfetch in Windows XP

The same yokels who insist on spreading the "clean out your Prefetch folder" BS are now spreading the word that there's a super-double-secret registry setting in Windows XP called SuperFetch that will slice your boot times dramatically. No, there isn't. A commenter asked me about this the other day and I...

It's official: Longhorn is Windows Vista

The press release is here, but it leads to a Windows Media clip which I am not even going to try to watch on this crappy dial-up connection. And before anyone tells me how lame the name is, please see if you can say, with a straight face, that it...

Longhorn news tomorrow?

I just got an e-mail from Microsoft's PR agency alerting me to big news about Longhorn that will be released tomorrow at 6 AM PDT. I have no idea what it is, but here's a clue: The URL contains the acronym LHMA. I suppose that could stand for Longhorn Media Announcement, but maybe...

Harrumph. No Longhorn beta invite?

Bink and Neowin say Longhorn beta testing has started. The PC Doctor even passes along links to lots of Longhorn screenshots. Still no sign of my invite. What's up with that?...

More details about RSS in Longhorn

Microsoft has a new home page for RSS in Longhorn. Here's a reasonably simplified explanation of RSS Support in Longhorn. The specification itself is here. This license information appears at the bottom of the specification page: Microsoft’s copyrights in this specification are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (version 2.5)....

More on Microsoft and RSS

Joe Wilcox at Microsoft Monitor has a series of three posts on Microsoft’s RSS Platform. (Part 2 is here and Part 3 is here.) They're well worth reading, with some interesting insights and a nice historical overview. It's too bad the first post in the series starts with a big mistake: Microsoft...

New Xbox = Media Center hub or extender?

Bill Gates spilled the beans on some upcoming Xbox features in a meeting of business journalists on Monday. The AP has the story: The console, code-named Xenon, is due to be previewed in an MTV half-hour special later this month. Gates, Microsoft's chairman and co-founder, was vague on specific features...

Service Pack 3 for Windows XP?

Well, this is interesting. F-Secure is covering the launch of National Data Security Day in Sweden, with keynote speaker Steve Ballmer: Mr. Ballmer made some interesting remarks: Microsoft might indeed ship SP3 for Windows XP before longhorn comes out. Also, upcoming version 7 of Internet Explorer should have anti-phishing technology built-in....

A Longhorn smackfest!

Chris Pirillo thinks Longhorn is lame: Even as I'm watching the 2005 WinHEC keynote right now (which I downloaded from a fan site, FWIW), I'm screaming at my screen! The demonstration was faaaaaar from impressive, and left me NOT wanting more - but wanting to walk away altogether. Instead of watching...

Is Longhorn a "train wreck"? Uh, no...

Paul Thurrott got Slashdotted for his offhand comment about Longhorn: “This has the makings of a train wreck.” Well, I noticed that the post was time-stamped 6:24 AM, and started out “I hate mornings.” So read the rest of the commentary accordingly. On a more substantive note, let’s put things...

Longhorn screenshots

Can’t wait to see Longhorn for yourself? Winbeta and Neowin have some screenshots of the build being handed out to WinHEC attendees. It’s mostly error messages, wallpaper, and menus. Not exactly a rousing guided tour....

Auxiliary displays

Here's a feature you'll start to see on portable PCs around the end of next year. The auxiliary display is a tiny LCD-style screen (plus navigation buttons) embedded into the outside of a notebook or other portable computer. The idea is simple: You can check an appointment, look up a...

Microsoft's "Metro" format aims to replace PDF

One of the most intriguing demos at WinHEC yesterday was a sneak peek at a new document format code-named “Metro.” According to Microsoft’s white paper [in Microsoft Word format] on the new technology, it’s “a complete specification for a fixed-layout document format based on XML that offers ‘electronic paper’ for...

Dear Microsoft

Not that I’m paranoid or anything, but have you noticed anyone missing from this list of people covering WinHEC? (Thanks to Scoble for the pointer.) Update: Ah, good to see that Microsoft is paying attention and I’m now on the list. If you want the latest news from WinHEC, follow the blogroll....