WINDOWS 7 PLANNING

Microsoft and its customers have one thing in common: Both are anxious to move on to Windows 7. Customers are doing their part by thoroughly testing the software and reporting bugs. And Microsoft is doing its share by fixing bugs and building tools to make the migration smoother.

That's where the Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) toolkit comes in. This little beauty is being tweaked for Windows 7. The idea is to ping the entire network of PCs and see which are ready for a Windows 7 upgrade. Those that don't stand up will be given a list of upgrades.

http://www.1105newsletters.com/t.do?id=2133185:957895

Vista: Still Heir to the Throne?

While much of the buzz about Windows Vista in the trade press and among analysts has been negative, a few numbers have popped up that seem to support the beleaguered operating system.

Windows XP has proven to be an unrelentingly popular operating system, but it wasn't always the star of the Windows show. Computerworld in August compiled numbers that showed that XP was running only 6.6 percent of corporate PCs in the United States and Canada in September 2003, almost two years after its October 2001 release. Vista, on the other hand, had an 8.8 percent worldwide enterprise market share at the end of June -- 19 months after its November 2006 release to enterprises -- according to Forrester Research Inc.

Of course, those comparisons aren't strictly apples-to-apples. For starters, the 2003 XP market share is a North American figure, while the Vista number is a worldwide percentage. Beyond that, the XP number originally came from AssetMatrix, a company Microsoft later bought.

Most notably, however, and perhaps most importantly, XP is much older now than its predecessor and primary competitor, Windows 2000, was in 2003. Windows 2000 debuted in February 2000 and was therefore not quite four years old in late 2003 when XP had only 6.6 percent market share. By comparison, XP will turn seven this month -- and, unless drastic changes happen before press time, Vista will still have less than 10 percent of the enterprise market.

In short, XP's market share is unprecedented for an OS of its advanced age.

"XP is the most mature operating system that has ever had 90 percent penetration in business," says Paul DeGroot, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft in Kirkland, Wash. "We're now talking about a system that's seven years old, and is still used by a majority of businesses."

That might not be the case forever, though. Forrester, in an August report, stated that Vista was gaining a foothold in the enterprise, and argued: "IT operations folks are at a critical inflection point and should deploy Windows Vista to:

1. stay current with Microsoft's and independent software vendors' support lifecycles;
2. help minimize today's security, management and productivity challenges; and
3. better position your business to eventually embrace 'Windows 7.'"

Related article: So You've Decided to Skip Vista...

Microsoft Windows Guru Tweaks Vista

How bad are the social fractures at Microsoft?

Microsoft Technical Fellow and Windows guru Mark Russinovich couldn't help poking fun at Vista throughout a troubleshooting session he led today at Tech Ed in Orlando.

The question is whether this is just one guy poking fun at an easy target, or whether it's emblematic of a larger problem. I noted the beginnings of this fracture during a visit to Microsoft in early 2007, when the Forefront group seemed miffed at the Vista group for having failed to implement some of the security features in Forefront. And I've observed this kind of subtle sniping since.

Then I attended a handful of sessions at Tech Ed this week, and I got the distinct impression that things have gotten worse and that serious cultural divides are cracking the veneer of the monolith.

But it didn't really sink in until I saw Russinovich speaking this morning, to his usual packed house of acolytes. And keep in mind that Russinovich is one of only 20 technical fellows at Microsoft--an exalted figure with a huge following among IT pros.

His talk was billed as a primer on debugging mysterious problems such as sluggish systems, application crashes and system hangs on Windows. Now, lots of organizations are still running XP and even older operating systems, so his talk could have been construed as addressing those problems on older systems.

But Russinovich made sure everyone knew that he was also talking about Vista, peppering his remarks with well-pointed jibes that had his audience roaring with laughter at the expense of Microsoft's new OS.

Russinovich also devoted almost a quarter of an hour to teaching his audience ways to get around what he obviously considers important lost functionality in Vista.

Explaining how to debug an application crash, Russinovich noted that IT pros need to start by investigating the dump file for clues about misconfigured files or extensions from a plug-in. "Look for extensions in the crash file with WinDbg [a Windows debugging tool]."

This is easy with pre-Vista systems, Russinovich added.

But with Vista, the crash file is dumped unless the Watson servers request the OS to save the data, Russinovich remarked a little tartly. (The Watson servers gather information generated and sent via those dialog boxes that ask if you want to report the problem or not after an application crash.)

Russinovich then explained that you can still save the crash file when using Vista by launching WinDbg, attaching it to the process, and then saving using a .dump command.

Another workaround (from Russinovich's PowerPoint):

Or you can configure Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 to always generate and save a dump file. Create a key named HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps Dumps go to %LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps Override with a DumpFolder value (REG_EXPAND_SZ) Limit dump history with a DumpCount value (DWORD)

IT pros may now have a way around this particular issue, but that's cold comfort to customers wondering how closely to wed their fortunes to Microsoft in the post-Gates era that is about to begin.

It's hardly a secret that Ballmer and Ozzie don't see eye to eye, and a lot of the old guard, like Jeff Raikes, are also following Gates out the door.

As Joe Wilcox noted in January 2007, "Microsoft's evolving management structure [now] puts sales and marketing people at the top of the Microsoft organizational pyramid. Several reorganizations pushed aside or put to pasture many high-level, hard-core technology managers and replaced them with sales and marketing folks."

Microsoft is certainly big enough to take care of itself in the short term, but events (and rivals) are catching up, and it's hard to imagine Microsoft innovating at a fast enough clip to stay ahead of its rivals in a wide range of businesses.

Again quoting Joe, "Cultural clash is maybe inevitable, but its broad impact is still in the early stages."

That was in early 2007. A worsening cultural atmosphere doesn't bode well for Microsoft customers and the experience they may be buying over the next few years.

Tips to boost Windows Vista performance

Windows Vista is packed with cool eye candy, handy new features, and improved security. But all this comes at a price -- and many new Vista users are paying that price in the form of decreased performance as compared to Windows XP. Performance issues are the most common complaint I hear from readers who've just installed Vista or bought a new Vista machine, and my own experience shows that the concerns are valid.

Vista Ultimate runs great on my primary desktop computer, a fast Dell XPS with 4 GB of RAM. No noticeable performance problems there. So I expected the same when I bought a new laptop. I loved my little Sony TX model with XP, so I looked to replace it with an almost identical model running Vista Business Edition. It came with 1 GB of RAM (the XP machine has 512 MB), which I thought would be enough. However, I noticed from the beginning that the new computer took minutes to boot up instead of seconds, and running more than a couple of applications at a time slowed things down to an unacceptable level. Running Vista became the hurry up and wait experience that I'd heard about from other users.

I bought another 512 MB of RAM for it, maxing out its memory capacity, and got a 4GB USB drive optimized for ReadyBoost. All that helped some, but it was still significantly slower than its XP counterpart.

That's when I went looking for more ways to improve the performance of my laptop. Here's a look at some of the things that worked -- and some that didn't.

Read the full article here: Tips to boost Windows Vista performance

Some usefull tech tips

Restoring 'Run as Administrator' for Vista Shortcuts

Question: Why is the "Run as Administrator" option no longer available to me? I've been running Windows Vista as a non-administrator account and have configured some shortcuts on my desktop. Why is the "Run as Administrator" option no longer available to me? Answer: You may have turned off the User...

How to run Windows Update in Firefox

How can I run Windows Update if I'm using Firefox as my browser? You can install the Firefox add-on called IE Tab which will allow you to run Windows Update or other Web sites that are designed primarily for Internet Explorer and don't run properly under Firefox....

Previewing Vista Documents: Look But Don't Touch

QUESTION: Is there a way in Windows Vista to quickly preview the contents of documents and pictures without opening them first in the application? ANSWER: Within Windows Explorer in Vista, you can adjust the view to large icons -- or even extra-large icons -- from the Views menu. However, you...

Group Policy Setting Reference for Windows Vista RC1

This Excel sheet published by Microsoft lists all Group Policy Settings of Windows Vista RC1 with a short description. This is rendered even more useful since you can search within the file for settings. (There are about 2500 settings within this sheet.)

Group Policy Settings Reference Windows Vista

Microsoft’s Vista and Office 2007: bad news for pirates

Can Microsoft’s latest anti-piracy protections really stop the Vista and Office 2007 pirates, or will pirates finally have to walk the plank?

Efforts to stamp out piracy have been with computers since it became possible to make a copy of a program and run it on another computer successfully. Anti-piracy software, code wheels, license keys, hardware dongles and more all failed in some way, either through the use of a master key code, a crack that turned trial software into the full version, removed the check for dongles, or somehow picked the lock of anti-protections.

But now that almost all computers and an increasing array of electronic devices are almost permanently connected to the Internet, or can be wirelessly Net connected in just a few seconds, anti-piracy features that are delivered and updated over the Internet are starting to change this forever.

Copies of Vista and Office 2007 installed from a friend’s CD or DVD will need a valid license key within 30 days or will enter into a ‘reduced functionality mode’, severely limited the ability to use the software. This is actually nothing new, with XP and Office 2003 already having these features for years.

But with the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) and the nearly 18 month old Office Genuine Advantage (OGA) program in full swing, even if pirates are able to ‘crack’ copies of Vista and Office 2007 to work without activation, if you want to get Vista and Office updates, you’ll be subjected to a Genuine Advantage check. If you don’t pass, you don’t get updates.

With Vista, it might get more serious that than. The Software Protection Program (SPP) may kick in and give you nothing but a browser screen and Internet access (if it’s already automatically on), and logging you out after an hour. You can keep logging in every hour, but with only access to one browser window, you’ll need to make your software legitimate, either by buying a license key online there and then with a credit card, or loading a licensed copy of Vista from DVD.

That’s what already happens after 30 days with Vista if you haven’t activated your copy, but if Microsoft could detect that your copy was pirated with some kind of crack, they could easily get this to activate immediately or with very little warning.

If that happens to pirates, they won’t be very happy, and what will ensue is a tit-for-tat war between pirates and Microsoft, with the pirates breaking the protections and then Microsoft identifying the pirate copy and the cycle starting again, virtually ad infinitum like a guerrilla war.

It’s Microsoft against not only the software pirate ‘rebel’ insurgents, but all those other companies offering free, cheaper or just different alternate versions, like Mac OS X against XP and Vista, Corel’s Wordperfect Suite against Office or Google’s Docs and Spreadsheets against office.

And as Microsoft is planning to license the SPP system to other companies, some of whom are building their own version of the same thing, it’s going to get a lot harder for the pirates to use their pirated software in peace. There’s also always the chance that the WGA or OGA systems are malfunctioning or hacked, and your legitimate copies are flagged as pirate copies, with this already happening earlier on during the WGA program.

But if this happened on any scale again, Microsoft would theoretically scramble to fix it as quickly as possible, especially if it was widespread, as news would leak and people would report problems to journalists if they didn’t get any positive action to fix the problem.

With much of the world’s software empires having some form of pirate user base, with Windows and Office being two big examples of software that has always been highly pirated, people used to using Microsoft software free of charge to save a few bucks will either have to put up with older versions, actually pay for a licensed copy, try a free or a cheaper alternative, or play the piracy game with Microsoft and the software coders that try to get around the protections.

The goal of a PC on every desk, while not globally fulfilled with billions yet to use a PC, has been nevertheless so successful that it has still given Microsoft billions of dollars in revenues and profits, while giving users all kinds of new capabilities even if they were intertwined with the occasional Blue Screen of Death.

One school of thought says that Microsoft would sell hundreds of millions more copies if only the software was cheaper – imagine if Windows Ultimate was only US $99. Why wouldn’t you buy it? At US $399, and $759 in Australia, it’s not hard to imagine why pirates might want to avoid paying. But in a free market, a company is free to charge what it chooses, with competition providing the incentive to keep prices low.

But even with free operating systems and alternate office suites, browsers and plenty of other free or inexpensive software out there, Microsoft is still the people’s choice with a 90%+ installed user base.

Yes, part of the user base was made up of pirate copies, but that helped, over the years, to turn Microsoft software into the most widely used standard. Of course, hundreds of millions of legitimate sales did that too, with Microsoft reaping rich rewards and becoming the world’s No.1 software company.

Now that most users are connected to the Internet, Microsoft can enforce the licensed use of their software much more easily than ever before. If you’ve pirated in the past and want to keep on using Microsoft’s latest software, well... this time around, you might just find yourself paying, whether by buying retail copies, or getting Vista and Office pre-installed (at much cheaper rates than boxed retail copies when subtracted from the cost of the hardware) on a brand new desktop or laptop PC.

Microsoft bullish on new OS Vista

DESPITE mixed views from market watchers, Microsoft Corp remains bullish about its latest operating system, as it believes there is pent-up demand for Windows Vista's (Vista) technology and solutions.

In February, Mike Sievert, corporate vice-president for Windows Client marketing told attendees of a Merrill Lynch conference that the software giant expected 200 million new personal computers (PCs) to ship with the new operating system (OS) in the first two years.

Sievert, who was in Malaysia recently, maintains his expectations for Vista.

“Our market is so much larger now than five years ago when we introduced Windows XP (XP). We expect Windows Vista to be the fastest-adopted OS in our history,” he told StarBiz.

He acknowledged that the adoption rate of XP was slower that what the company would have liked it to be. This, he said, was because XP was introduced just one year after its predecessor Windows 2000.

“Windows 2000 was positioned as a major improvement for users of Windows NT and Windows 98 and XP came right on the heels of it. Many people perceived XP as a consumer oriented release when really, it had great benefits,” he said.

Sievert said the uptake for XP picked up after the release of Windows XP Service Pack 2.

“When we got to the fundamentals of what users was struggling with – things like security and reliability of the system – deployment of XP started to accelerate.

“This time we've had a longer gap and plenty of improvements to XP. It has been more than a decade since the Windows OS platform has undergone a revision of this magnitude,” he said.

Despite analyst comments that businesses were nervous about integrating Vista’s security features with legacy systems, Sievert assured that security was at the core of the new OS.

“Businesses are struggling with many issues, particularly safety and security of the computing environment from malware (malicious software) and protection of sensitive and confidential data,” he said.

He stressed that with Vista, security, stability and reliability had been the priority from the very beginning of the development cycle.

“For the past one and a half years we have had thousands of customers involved with us, some as beta testers and some on the technology adoption program.

“They have been able to put Vista's security features under hard trials in a variety of real world environments, different mix of business applications, network structures and hardware and this gives us a lot of confidence as we are weeks away from introducing Vista to the business community,” he said.

Another area of concern for businesses, according to Sievert, was the cost and complexity of managing networks of PCs.

He said Vista was developed to help organisations reduce the cost of deployment, management and support while offering users simplified ways of working, finding, using and sharing information.

“Deployment has traditionally been one of the biggest cost factors associated with owning and operating a network of PCs.

“We have introduced a new application compatibility toolkit much earlier in the development process to allow businesses to discover whether existing applications running on their networks were fully compatible with Vista,” he said.

In addition, Vista had been “componentised”, allowing administrators to set up components of Vista and deploy those settings to desktops throughout the network, Sievert said, adding that these features would dramatically reduce the complexity of the deployment cycle in a business environment.

Sievert said Vista contained more than 500 new group policy objects, which empowered businesses with greater control over their network set up.

“In the past, it was very hard to set group policies that provide users the flexibility they needed.

“Users have different needs – some need to install software, others attach devices. We have been able to overcome this paradox and offer users the flexibility they need with the new group policy manager in Vista,” he said.

He added that support in Vista had also been made more efficient. “One of the things we did was to enhance diagnostics throughout Vista.

“If something happens to a PC, administrators can collate the diagnostic data of the unit and find out what was happening at the time the PC started to experience problems.

“This real time information can be used to root out problems within the network and for other users before they run into it,” he said.

Last Wednesday, Microsoft declared Vista completed and set for release to manufacturing to PC and device manufacturers to finalise work on their products and applications.

Vista would be released to volume licence customers by end November, followed by worldwide availability on Jan 30, 2007.

Microsoft Malaysia will be hosting a preview of Vista, Microsoft Office 2007 and Microsoft Exchange 2007 for business and technical professionals tomorrow.

Microsoft Confident Running Vista without Anti-Virus

Executive claims built-in security features are good enough

Despite Microsoft's operating systems being the main target for hackers to engineer exploits in security, Microsoft's Platforms and Services Division head Jim Allchin said in a conference call, listened into by bit-tech, that he has no problem allowing his son to run Vista without additional anti-virus security.

Um, the rest of the world might not agree with you there, Mr. Allchin, but he points towards the extensive Parental Controls and "Address Space Layout Randomization," which modifies certain Windows components in an attempt to patch security holes that would otherwise affect all Vista users.

Still, Allcin admits the theory won't hold up until Vista's public release. "But I need to say the following: Windows Vista is something that will have issues in security, because the bar is being raised over time. But in my opinion, it is the most secure system that's available, and it's certainly the most secure system that we've shipped. So I feel very confident that customers are far better off by using Windows Vista than they are with anything that we've released before," he said.

Please don't run Vista without an anti-virus, kids. You aren't public relations people.