Windows Archive

Microsoft has just released a downloadable version of the "evaluation edition" of Windows XP Embedded with Service Pack 1. Previously, the evaluation edition was available in CD/DVD format only, and had to be ordered from Microsoft for a nominal charge. The first downloadable evaluation version of Windows CE was made available earlier this year.

It's semi-official: the next major update to Windows, which has already had its release slip from 2004 to 2005, will likely be even later. Microsoft executives are now reluctant to even discuss a release date. "We do not yet know the time frame for Longhorn, but it will involve a lot of innovative and exciting work," said Bill Gates at a recent financial analyst meeting.

After months of speculation, Microsoft plans to give developers their first hard look at the next version of Windows in October.The Redmond, Wash., company expects to release a "developers preview" of the new operating system, code-named Longhorn, at its professional developers conference in Los Angeles. Although it won't be a full beta, or test, version, Microsoft executives have promised it will be more than just "slideware," software that companies haven't been using and don't know when it will be coming.

Robert Scoble, technology evangelist for Longhorn at Microsoft, has called into question several purported screenshots of the next-generation Longhorn interface code-named "Aero." "These look like early demonstration screens, and not how Longhorn will eventually look," Scoble wrote in his Web log. "The real "Aero" is one of Longhorn's biggest secrets -- I've seen it, but can't load it on my own machine and am locked out of the server where it's kept," says Microsoft's Scoble. "I am not even sure they'll show it off at the PDC." Indeed, the screenshots are using icons from all over the place (including a BeOS icon), which proves that these are just early concepts/mockups and not the real/finished thing.

Microsoft's Product Lifecycle Web site has the second XP service pack scheduled for 2004, a year later than previously expected. Analysts speculate that the long delay may be to integrate more functionality into the OS, such as the "PC Satisfaction package," an enhanced firewall and virus detection package.

LitePC, the creators of a commercial utility that makes standard windows components optional, allowing for the creation of a stripped down (and even embedded) version of Windows98, is working on a version for Windows 2000 and XP. See more information on the Beta test.

Many readers wrote in to warn about the MSBlast worm making its way around the internet. W32.Blaster.Worm utilizes TFTP to spread itself and intends to slam the WindowsUpdate website beginning August 16. Microsoft warned of this vulnerability back in July. This informative article explains more. Update your systems now before it's too late!

A recent ZDNet article is written by the erstwhile author of a "troubleshooting Windows" book who is sometimes so stymied by mysterious Windows stability problems that he isn't sure he can write a useful book. The article covers a recent "hangs for no reason" issue that required trial and error and a plethora of included and third party utilities to diagnose and fix.

The Microsoft .NET Framework version 1.1 includes ASP.NET Mobile Controls that enable developers to easily create mobile Web applications. Developers can write and maintain a single application that targets multiple devices. The Windows 2000 Authorization Manager Runtime is a Windows 2000 Server version of the Windows Server 2003 Authorization Manager role-based access control API. This download contains a setup that will correctly install the DirectX 9.0b documentation for use with the .NET Framework 1.1 and Visual Studio .NET 2003.

PC Magazine has posted a Windows XP guide designed to walk non-experts through some of the alternate settings and add-ons that make XP work better. It has compiled various tips from its past issues into one guide for easy reference. Even Windows power-users may find something of interest.

The European Union says Microsoft is still abusing its monopoly with Windows Media Player. The press release can be found here.

Microsoft has laid plans for a server version of Longhorn, the next release of Windows. But it remains unclear what the software will include and when it will debut.

Microsoft said Thursday it has now let a dozen national governments see its Windows source code in its battle to win lucrative public-sector contracts and to muffle mounting hype over rival OS, Linux.

In this editorial, LinuxDevices.com founder Rick Lehrbaum offers his "reflections" on the recently published (Microsoft-funded) Embedded Market Forecasters (EMF) report which claims embedded development projects based on Microsoft's "Windows Embedded" operating system platforms (specifically, Windows CE .NET and Windows XP Embedded) are completed 43% faster and at 68% lower cost, on average, compared with similar projects using Embedded Linux.