Windows Archive

Windows 8 Plans Leaked

Submitted by waid0004 2010-06-29 Windows 48 Comments

An Italian Windows site called "Windowsette" has published some purported secret Microsoft documents outlining some design and strategy plans for Windows 8. The Microsoft Kitchen blog has provided some analysis of the documents. The documents appear genuine, and there's lots of interesting information there.

Microsoft Reiterates: OEM Windows XP Dies October 22

Thom Holwerda 2010-06-11 Windows 108 Comments

Yes, the day is finally drawing closer: the day Windows XP died. October 22, 2010 will be the final and definitive day for the venerable operating system, since OEMs will no longer be able to pre-load it on netbooks after that day. I might not make myself popular around here with this, but thank god, it's about time that pile of junk is taken behind the shed.

Microsoft Shows Slightly Updated Windows Phone 7 Build

Thom Holwerda 2010-06-08 Windows 2 Comments

"During both the keynote and a Windows Phone 7 session here at TechEd North America 2010, Microsoft showed off a subtly newer build of Windows Phone 7 that features a few visual changes over the builds we've seen not too long ago from Microsoft MIX and certainly its debut at Mobile World Congress 2010."

Russinovich: The Case of the Random IE Crash

Thom Holwerda 2010-06-07 Windows 14 Comments

"While I long for the day when I no longer experience the effects of buggy software, there's something rewarding about solving my own troubleshooting cases. In the process, I often come up with new techniques to add to my bag of tricks and to share with you in my 'Case of the Unexplained...' presentations and blog posts. The other day I successfully closed an especially interesting case that opened when Internet Explorer crashed as I was reading a web page."

Microsoft Shows Off Windows Embedded Compact 7 Tablet

Thom Holwerda 2010-06-03 Windows 18 Comments

I think that no matter which group you belong to - Apple, Linux, Windows, BeOS - we can all agree on one thing: original equipment manufacturers are terrible at writing or pre-loading software. Whether it be adding pre-exisiting software to Windows OEM installs, or software they write on their own, it is universally bad. As such, I just can't understand why Microsoft would leave creating tablet user experiences to OEMs.

Microsoft Launches Windows Embedded Compact 7 CTP

Thom Holwerda 2010-06-01 Windows 28 Comments

And the award for Most Boring And Non-descriptive Press Release Title 2010 goes to Microsoft for "Microsoft Outlines Business Opportunities for Hardware Makers Across Windows Platform". The press release itself appears to be about as interesting as watching paint dry, until you reach that small part where it says Microsoft has released the first community technology preview of Windows Embedded Compact 7 (1).

Review: Windows 7’s Built-in Speech Recognition

Thom Holwerda 2010-06-01 Windows 6 Comments

"Microsoft has pumped out voice recognition software for years, but the company has a curious aversion to publicizing the fact. With Windows 7, Microsoft's speech recognition has become a decent productivity tool and one that the company should be proud to proclaim as an OS feature. For the casual speech recognition user, nothing beats free - especially when one considers the $100+ price points for third-party software. But is it powerful enough for serious users?"

Windows 3.0 Turns 20 Today

Thom Holwerda 2010-05-22 Windows 43 Comments

"The first truly successful Microsoft Windows operating system is twenty years old today; Windows 3.0 was launched on the 22nd of May 1990 and was the successor to Windows 2.1x. The Graphics User interface (technically it was not an operating system) sat on top of MS-DOS and could run applications for the operating system from within a Window and many might fondly remember that it was available on 5.25-inch high density floppy disks. More significantly, it proved to be the perfect partner for Intel's then-new range of 386 processor, which bought protected mode and extended memory capabilities to the market."

Windows Phone 7 Based on Windows Embedded Compact 7

Thom Holwerda 2010-05-04 Windows 14 Comments

Wait, news on an actual operating system? What, no H264 news? It's not even Apple-related? Yes, you're not the only one who's cynical. Anyway, we always assumed that Windows Phone 7 would be built on top of Windows Embedded CE 6.0, but as it turns out, that's not entirely accurate - it actually uses the next version of Windows CE: Windows Embedded Compact 7. No information has been made available about this new version as of yet. Update: And here's an article on how the rumour mill suggests the future of Microsoft's mobile strategy includes replacing Windows Embedded Compact with... Windows NT. Yeppers.

Latest Windows Phone 7 CTP Includes Office, Dialler

Thom Holwerda 2010-05-02 Windows 16 Comments

So, what's up with Windows Phone 7? Luckily for us, we're not left in the dark, since Microsoft regularly posts updated developer tools and emulator images for us to download. The latest release includes the new Microsoft Office functionality and integration, and after a little magic to unlock this functionality within the emulator image, you'll find Microsoft has taken an interesting approach to Office on the phone.

Submitted by poundsmack 2010-04-26 Windows 7 Comments

"Many of you may already know that Microsoft has been hard at work on the next version of Windows Home Server. We are excited to announce today that the beta of this next version (code name 'Vail') is now available. We invite everyone to check it out by downloading the software from the Microsoft Connect site (English language builds are available now)."

Submitted by poundsmack 2010-04-21 Windows 3 Comments

"Microsoft will formally launch Windows Embedded Standard 7 at this month's ESC (Embedded Systems Conference) in Silicon Valley. A keynote by Kevin Dallas, the company's general manager for Windows Embedded, will introduce the new OS and "outline a refreshed product roadmap for the embedded market", according to an email sent to beta testers this week."

The Secrets of Windows Phone 7

Thom Holwerda 2010-04-20 Windows 38 Comments

We already know quite a lot about Windows Phone 7, but there's also a boatload of stuff we do not yet know. Dutch (oh yeah) technology news website Tweakers.net managed to get hold of a number of confidential internal Microsoft documents regarding Windows Phone 7, and they contain some intriguing stuff.

Submitted by poundsmack 2010-04-08 Windows 46 Comments

Now this is interesting. Microsoft developer Garrett Serack has acknowledged that it is generally easier to roll out a, for instance, complex stack of open source server software on Linux than it is on Windows. He also offers a solution - he's working on a project to bring package management to Windows. This project will be community-driven, and Serack has the full blessing from Microsoft.

Submitted by poundsmack 2010-04-05 Windows 70 Comments

Ah, Intel's IA-64 architecture. More commonly known as Itanium, it can probably be seen as a market failure by now. Intel consistently failed to deliver promised updates, and clock speeds have lagged behind. Regular x86-64 processors have already overtaken Itanium, and now Microsoft has announced that Windows Server 2008 R2 is the last version of Windows to support the architecture.

64% of MS Vulnerabilities Mitigated by Removing Admin Rights

Thom Holwerda 2010-03-31 Windows 65 Comments

As geeks, we're well aware of the importance of running as a normal user instead of as root (UNIX/Linux/BSD) or administrator (Windows). However, while this should be common knowledge to anyone reading OSNews, it's often hard to illustrate just how important it is - until now, that is. A report by BeyondTrust looked at how many security bulletins issused by Microsoft are mitigated by simply... Not running as administrator.

Free Copy of Microsoft Bob with Each XP CD

David Adams 2010-03-30 Windows 25 Comments

"Windows XP became the most effective Microsoft Bob deployment tool ever developed. And if you go way back into your closet, dig out your copy of Windows XP, and can somehow channel the right spirits to mash your hands on the keyboard in exactly the right way, then out of your encryption program will come a copy of Microsoft Bob."

Mastering Windows Search Using Advanced Query Syntax

Thom Holwerda 2010-03-28 Windows 8 Comments

"Search has become an integral part of Windows, particularly in later versions. While the major search improvements began with Windows Vista and were backported to Windows XP, it's really only with Windows 7 that the larger majority of users are discovering the search bar all over in the operating system. Search is built into every aspect of Windows 7 to help users cope with the increasingly rapidly growing number of files, be they work documents and e-mails, personal photos and videos, or music collections. Many users perform searches without thinking nowadays: it's an ingrained habit of using the operating system. Like many habits, this one is worth breaking in order to to develop an even better one. Here we take a quick look at a few basic search techniques and a few more advanced ones. Force yourself to use them and you'll soon become a master of Windows Search. A bit of extra time now will save you loads of effort in the long run."

Microsoft Pledges to Ship, Support Windows Mobile 6.5

Thom Holwerda 2010-03-24 Windows 33 Comments

So now that the hype machine has been filled with petrol and all fired up, running on all cylinders, what on earth is going to happen to Windows Mobile 6.5? The Next Best Thing has been announced and demoed extensively, the developer tools and emulator are out there, but devices aren't expected to ship until after the summer, probably around the holiday season. This means that Microsoft must still get phone makers to buy Windows Mobile 6.5.

Windows Phone 7 Emulator Unlocked, Shows All Apps

Thom Holwerda 2010-03-19 Windows No Comments

"Many of us who tried out the Windows Phone 7 simulator were disappointed to discover the simulator didn't contain a lot of the functionality that was being shown off at Mix10. It turns out Dan Ardelean has published a modified or 'unlocked' version of the simulator that contains virtually everything that was displayed. The front page is now full of apps that work, the settings menu is a long list of options for those apps. Unfortunately the download of the .bin file has now been pulled, but I was lucky enough to get a copy. Check out the 10 minute video of Windows Phone 7 ." It even has a nice task manager and file explorer - undoubtedly for testing purposes. It's Windows CE 6.0, after all.