Windows Archive

Today was a big day for Microsoft's mobile devices software strategy. The company: (1) rolled out Pocket PC 2003 (and renamed it); (2) unveiled a new "Windows Mobile" branding strategy; and (3) launched a collaboration with three leading high-speed wireless service providers to provide easier access to more than 3,500 Wi-Fi wireless "hot spots" by Windows-powered PDAs throughout the US. All this (and more) is covered in this "special report" at WindowsForDevices.com (including a detailed list of enhancements in Pocket PC 2003).

Microsoft is breaking new ground with Longhorn, successor to XP. The upcoming WinFS file system will be the first to be context-dependent, and promises to make long search times and wasted memory a thing of the past. THG compares it to FAT and NTFS.

Microsoft's embedded group announced a new "kitting program" today which enables its embedded hardware partners to bundle free Windows CE .NET or Windows XP Embedded toolkits and runtime images with up to 1,000 of their hardware evaluation or development platforms. More details are here.

A high-level overview of design changes that were made to the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 family of operating systems, why the design changes were made, the implications of the changes, and how to revert to the previous default settings.

"Easy to manage, Windows Server 2003 is a strong performer" ComputerWorld says in their review. OSNews featured a guide of "Win2k3 as a workstation" a few days ago.

Less than two months after launching its Windows Server 2003 operating system, Microsoft has released a security patch to fix a vulnerability that could let malicious sites run damaging code on the server. This might fair as a pretty good score for Microsoft and their massive Trustworthy Computing initiative, as in comparison, Red Hat Linux 9 had almost thirty security patches in two months.

Secret software interfaces hidden in Windows and previously only available to Microsoft's own developers have been exposed to the wider developer community. Using NSELib Namespace Extension Library, created by software engineering firm Whirling Dervishes, developers can create applications that reside in Windows Explorer.

According to a source in the handheld industry, Pocket PC 2003, the upcoming version of Microsoft's operating system for handheld devices, will be launched on June 23. According to information leaked on several websites and newsgroups, many of the changes in Pocket PC 2003, codenamed Ozone, will be related to improving its wireless capabilities.

I don't need a server. Our FreeBSD home server runs unstoppably for years, asking nothing in return. However, my curiosity about OSes drove me on ordering the free evaluation version of Windows Server 2003 Enterprise, the latest Microsoft's OS offering. Naturally, there is a lot of marketing hype surrounding the product, but this time, I am really happy to witness that most of the hype is for real.

Microsoft is designing its ever-present Windows operating system to streamline and lower the cost of building and distributing the software. Read the article at C|Net.

"Win 2003 is the foundation for an entire wave of next-generation Microsoft products and feature upgrades that are coupled with the new platform. Without an upgrade, corporations can expect to be in a holding pattern. Win 2003 is the linchpin for forthcoming products and services, including an advanced file system, collaboration environments, identity management infrastructure, digital rights management and a platformwide self-healing management system." Read the article at ComputerWorld.au.

Forrester senior analyst Laura Koetzle pointed out that the IIS Web server program is turned off by default in the new version of Windows, so that machines not offering Web connections need not be secured against Web-based attacks. Read the article at eCommerceTimes.

Bart Lagerweij has created an easy way for users to create his/her own version of Microsoft's Windows Preinstallation Environment with his new PE Builder. Windows will then run off the CD-rom, without a needed hard drive installation.

Microsoft's plans for "Longhorn," the next version of Windows, include a new graphics subsystem, a new file system and a new security system. But, so far, users aren't nearly as excited about the features as Microsoft is, eWeek says. In the meantime, The Register reports that Microsoft sidelines Longhorn database caper: Microsoft has scaled back its 'Big Bang', and its Future Storage initiative will build on, rather than supersede the NTFS file system, when the next version of Windows appears in 2005.