Windows Archive

A Decade Later: Windows 95 Keeps Going

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-24 Windows 113 Comments

Microsoft officials have admitted one of their biggest challenges in continuing to grow the company's Windows business is the impression among some of its installed base that older Windows versions are good enough. The users of Windows 95, which turns ten years old on Wednesday, are a case in point. Elsewhere, here is a story about the launch of Windows 95 exactly 10 years ago.

Windows Vista SDK Goes Live

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-24 Windows 9 Comments

"Welcome to the Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit for Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 1. This edition provides documentation, samples, header files, libraries, and tools designed to help you develop applications and libraries that target Windows Vista Beta 1."

Guest post by kellym 2005-08-22 Windows 19 Comments

"One of the more touchy subjects crowding my inbox lately relates to how Windows Vista will fail to render High Definition video in 'pure' High Definition on most existing monitors. There's quite a bit of hemming and hawing over the probability that Windows Vista users will have to buy new monitors to see HD content. Let's get a few facts out on the table before we oil our rags and tie them to our spears, because there's a considerable amount of misinformation out there."

Microsoft Windows Vista: First Impression

Submitted by Sunidhi Chauhan 2005-08-21 Windows 65 Comments

"So far, Windows Vista is an interesting OS. It does quite a lot of things much better than the previous versions but then it also requires way too many resources in order to work appropriately. There are also some slight glitches, but those are probably due to its beta status and nothing more. Besides, this is probably the most successful and productive Beta that ever came out of Microsoft."

Vista Feature Exposes Beta Machines

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-19 Windows 16 Comments

Windows Vista beta testers have stumbled upon a networking feature in the operating system that could pose a security risk to them - but they say they're not worried.

Experts See New Variants of Windows 2000 Worm

David Adams 2005-08-17 Windows 115 Comments

Security vendors have reported several new variants of the worm infecting PCs running Microsoft's Windows 2000 operating system. Groups of virus writers are competing to cause the most damage, according to one security company, although the worm appears less severe than some first feared.

Should Microsoft Release Patching Worms?

Submitted by anonymous 2005-08-17 Windows 28 Comments

The internet is full of hosts running unpatched versions of Windows. Should Microsoft release patching worms to fix every vulnerable system on the Internet in a matter of minutes? That's one of the hot questions that security researcher Jose Nazario, famous for his WormBlog, answered in this interview on SecurityFocus. It's a nice read, especially when they start comparing computer worms to nature phenomena.

An In-Depth Look at Vista, Part 2

Adam Scheinberg 2005-08-17 Windows 20 Comments

O'Reilly's DevCenter continues its foray into all things Vista by investigating Aero Glass, presentation broadcast tools, UAP and RDP security, and more. Here's part 1 for those of you that missed it.

An In-Depth Look at Vista, Part 1

Adam Scheinberg 2005-08-16 Windows 40 Comments

O'Reilly's DevCenter is featuring an in-depth look at Windows Vista Beta 1. Their conclusion? "Surprisingly, this build of Windows Vista is pretty stable, and the performance is quite good."

Windows Vista Developer FAQ

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-12 Windows 2 Comments

Find answers to some of the most frequently asked questions concerning Windows Vista and WinFX Basics. The Windows Vista Developer FAQ is designed to put a wealth of answers at your fingertips. From setup and hardware issues to questions about future plans and about what it all means, this FAQ is an excellent companion to the WinFX newsgroups.

Microsoft Seeks to ‘WAIK’ Corporate Users with Vista

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-12 Windows 1 Comment

Microsoft recently posted to its Web site for download a user's guide for WAIK. Microsoft describes WAIK as "a new set of tools designed to help Original Equipment Manufacturers, system builders, and corporate IT professionals deploy Windows Vista onto new hardware." Read more.

Windows Vista Beta 1: a Guided Tour

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-11 Windows 72 Comments

"It's unusual for a Beta 1 version of Windows to have both the final shipping name of the product and as many new features as this build shows. And that's a strong sign of two things. Firstly: Windows Vista remains an ambitious release of Windows, despite some of the features that Microsoft has pushed off the side of the boat. Secondly: Microsoft is trying to get serious, both internally and externally, about this development program. Windows Vista is now the company's top priority." Read on, ten pages, here.

Submitted by Lazarus 2005-08-11 Windows 18 Comments

Singularity is a research project at Microsoft to write an OS using managed code. Although it will probably never be seen out in the wild, it incorporates some interesting ideas nonetheless. Read about it here and here (ppt).

Windows Vista Beta 1: Administrator’s Preview

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-10 Windows 51 Comments

"Windows Vista is actually quite interesting for an administrator. When I first saw it on MSDN, I thought, "Over 2 Gig's. What could they have done for it to be that large without the drastic new UI?" Well, I have been looking at this thing for about a week now and I uncover more and more each time that I look into it. I am going to cover some of the enhancements that Vista will provide for administrators as well as a few neat little tidbits that I have not seen much of."

Microsoft Fixes Six Flaws

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-09 Windows 30 Comments

Microsoft has released six patches for its Windows operating system today. Three of them are rated critical, one important and two moderate. The three critical ones are related Internet Explorer, Print Spooler and PnP. They all three fix issues where your machine could be taken over completely.

Beta Testing Windows OneCare

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-09 Windows 33 Comments

Microsoft has begun beta testing their solution to the slow and unprotected PC dilemma: Windows OneCare. FlexBeta reviews it: "Would I personally use the Windows OneCare service? Well, it depends on how much MS is going to charge for this service. If the service will range from $10-$20 a year, then I would say it is worth it."

Windows Vista SDK Goes Gold

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-09 Windows 18 Comments

Microsoft on Monday signed off on the Windows Vista SDK, or software development kit, which will enable developers to create applications for the next-generation Windows release. The SDK, complete with code samples, tools and documentation will be available via MSDN and distributed at next month's PDC conference in LA. In addition, Microsoft has finally released an updated version of Messenger:Mac, bringing it up to par with its Windows brother.

MS to Highlight Unix Services in Windows Server R2

Adam Scheinberg 2005-08-09 Windows 22 Comments

At this week's LinuxWorld conference, Microsoft officials are slated to talk up the Services for Unix features that the company is integrating into the Windows Server 2003 R2.

Submitted by Varg Vikernes 2005-08-09 Windows 79 Comments

Many people don't know that Microsoft provides an Installable File System (IFS) SDK kit for writing filesystem drivers. This SDK provides necessary info for writing a filesystem driver to manage Linux/OS X drives from Windows 2000, XP or 2003 Server. Stephan Schreiber wrote an Ext2 IFS driver for Windows which supports Ext2 and Ext3 with read/write operations and almost everything else available under Linux except access rights, defraging and some other minor things.

Vista To Address PCs Getting Slower Over Time

Thom Holwerda 2005-08-08 Windows 130 Comments

With Vista, Microsoft is addressing what's become a sad truth for most people: PCs run more slowly over time. Vista will automatically de-fragment hard disks, make better use of memory to more quickly load programs, and include a new performance control panel that will identify performance bottlenecks, according to the company. Elsewhere, ActiveWin hosts widescreen, high-res screenshots of Vista.