Windows Archive

Earlier this week, we had a page 2 item about a possible showstopper bug in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, but as I could've probably guessed by taking my time before posting said item, this bug has been way overblown and is anything but a showstopper. Steven Sinofisky himself responded to the bug by commenting on the blog.

Windows 7 RTM Build 7600.16385 includes a potentially fatal bug that, once triggered, could bring down the entire OS in a matter of seconds: "The bug in question - a massive memory leak involving the chkdsk.exe utility - appears when you attempt to run the program against a secondary (i.e. not the boot partition) hard disk using the "/r" (read and verify all file data) parameter. The problem affects both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and is classified as a 'showstopper' in that it can cause the OS to crash (Blue Screen of Death) as it runs out of physical memory," reports InfoWorld's Randall Kennedy. Microsoft is claiming the bug is a chipset driver issue, but Kennedy's testing of the latest Intel INF Update Utility driver set and VMware virtualized chipset drivers suggests otherwise. "This is clearly a Microsoft bug - and the fact that it manifests itself via the chkdsk.exe utility makes me wonder if it isn't something intrinsic to the Windows 7 version of the New Technology File System (NTFS) driver stack." Worse still, user comments suggest that Windows Server 2008 R2 suffers from the same flaw.

At a recent Microsoft event the Inq was given an exclusive walkthrough of the final version of the new Windows Phone operating system, running on a touch screen HTC Touch Diamond2. In addition, Microsoft has published a case study detailing how to port an iPhone application to its Windows Mobile platform as it prepares to launch an online store for mobile applications to compete with Apple.

"The name Windows Phone applies to Windows Mobile 6.1, 6.5 and multitouch Windows Mobile 7. At least something in the Windows universe is forwards and backwards compatible. Features of the new platform (that is WM 6.5, a.k.a. Windows Phone) include back-up of all SMS and email content into Microsoft's cloud, remote disabling of the handset and inclusion of an iTunes-alike Windows Mobile software repository called Market Place."

A lot of our readers are still happily using Windows XP - 36% of our users use XP, 12% Vista, and 6% Windows 7. While Windows XP is showing its age in a lot of areas, there is at least something you can do to prettify the operating system at minimal cost. In Windows XP, and to a lesser extent Windows Vista, there are still a lot of old-style icons and graphics that should be updated to more modern variants. There are free tools that do just this (thanks to IStartedSomething).

"Windows 7 will be more than just a better interface. Under-the-hood changes will allow chips from Intel, Nvidia, and Advanced Micro Devices to ratchet up Windows 7 performance above previous Microsoft operating systems. Microsoft on Wednesday said it has finalized the code for Windows 7, set to ship with new PCs starting October 22. Improvements will include how Windows handles multitasking, graphics acceleration, and solid-state drives."

"Windows Vista has been dragged through the IT industry mud for most of its life, in some cases for good reason. But Microsoft's OEM chief believes that Windows 7's success will help repair the damage to Vista's reputation and polish its legacy. Windows 7 and Windows Vista share much of the same code, and over time, this could cause Windows Vista bashers to soften their views, said Steve Guggenheimer, vice president of the OEM division at Microsoft. 'I think people will look back on Vista after the Windows 7 release and realize that there were actually a bunch of good things there,' Guggenheimer said in a recent interview. 'So it'll actually be interesting to see in two years what the perception is of Vista.'"

It's been a three year long ride. Windows Vista was released January 2007, and its reception by the press was very negative, which made sure public perception was very negative as well. Sales were slow, people wanted Windows XP, and businesses didn't care about Vista either. Microsoft needed something that would make the world forget about Vista, and it needed it fast. The journey is over: Windows 7 has gone RTM.

"The latest version of Microsoft's flagship operating system, Windows 7, is available for pre-order in the UK. Amazon said that sales of Windows 7 in the first eight hours it was available outstripped those of Windows Vista's entire 17 week pre-order period."

You might have missed while being in shock and awe over our excellent review of the sam440ep and AmigaOS 4.1 (I'm joking, people), but there's a bit of a riot going on in Microsoft blogging circles about the "RTM" date for Windows 7. A classic case of 'air, meet heater'.

We already more or less confirmed that Microsoft would offer a Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade family pack, with the only missing piece being a more definitive idea on the price. Thanks to a few overeager retailers, we now know that the suggested retail price for the 3-license upgrade pack will be 149 USD, a savings of 210 USD. The family pack is currently not yet available.

Windows 7 Home and Professional upgrades are 50+% off at Amazon.com until July 11. That's $49.99 for home and $99.99 for Professional. Ultimate is not discounted, at $219.99. If you buy using this link, OSNews earns an 8% commission on the sale.

After a long wait, Microsoft has finally unveiled the pricing information for the next Windows release, Windows 7, which will arrive at the shops on October 22. Interestingly enough, Europe will get full retail copies for upgrade pricing because of the whole Windows 7 E thing not being tested when it comes to upgrades.

Here at OSNews I have hammered and hammered on a few times already about the major flaw in Windows 7's default User Account Control, which allows people or software with malicious intent to completely bypass UAC in such an easy manner that you wonder why UAC is there in the first place. Well, the source code to this flaw has been released - since Microsoft has made it clear they have no interest in fixing it anyway - and Long Zheng, fellow advocate of fixing this bug, made a very clear demonstration video.