Windows Archive

Two More Days to Preorder Windows 7 from Amazon

David Adams 2009-07-09 Windows 11 Comments

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.

Microsoft To Offer Family Pack for Windows 7 Home Premium

Thom Holwerda 2009-07-02 Windows 13 Comments

The Windows 7 pricing scheme thing isn't over just yet. Microsoft announced the prices for Windows 7 last week, including a limited offer with lower prices and all that. There was no mention of a family pack, but a little digging in the latest leaked build suggests that yes, there's going to be a family pack of Windows Home Premium.

Microsoft Reveals Windows 7 Pricing Information

Thom Holwerda 2009-06-25 Windows 86 Comments

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.

Source Code to UAC Injection Flaw Released

Thom Holwerda 2009-06-22 Windows 48 Comments

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.

Microsoft Details Windows 7 Downgrade Rights

Thom Holwerda 2009-06-19 Windows 26 Comments

Despite the generally positive reception of Windows 7 so far, there will still be many people who will want to stick to Windows XP. For these people, downgrade rights are particularly important, and Microsoft has confirmed the rules of the game to El Reg.

Improving Audio Glitch Resilience in Windows 7

Thom Holwerda 2009-06-17 Windows 12 Comments

"Have you ever used your PC to play an MP3 or a DVD? If you answered yes, you're among the overwhelming majority of PC customers who use their computer for audio and video applications, encompassing everything from watching a movie to playing a game to viewing a YouTube clip. But you may have also had an experience where your audio or video wasn't quite perfect - perhaps the video was a bit choppy or the audio stuttered. We call this a 'glitch' - a perceived discontinuity in your audio or video that interrupts the playback experience. In this blog post, we'll be focusing on audio glitching: we'll examine the ecosystem challenges that can cause glitches, and we'll discuss the work we've been doing to improve the Windows 7 experience."

Windows 7 Will Ship Sans Internet Explorer in Europe

Thom Holwerda 2009-06-11 Windows 70 Comments

In a move to basically outflank the EU antitrust investigation, Microsoft has announced that all version of Windows 7 shipped in Europe will not include Internet Explorer 8 by default. This is reminiscent of the Windows XP N editions, which did not include Windows Media Player, but the difference here is that Microsoft will not ship versions of Windows 7 with Internet Explorer 8 in Europe.

Microsoft Won’t Fix Windows 7’s UAC

Thom Holwerda 2009-06-11 Windows 46 Comments

Not too long ago, we ran a story informing you of how the auto-elevation feature in Windows 7 is broken in a way that allows malicious programs to silently gain administrative privileges. We wondered if Microsoft was ever going to fix this one before Windows 7 goes final, and even though we're not there yet, a recent article by Mark Russinovich seems to imply pretty strongly that no, Microsoft is not going to fix this.

Submitted by shaneco 2009-06-08 Windows 25 Comments

Apple isn't the only one coming up with some seriously aggressive pricing schemes; a leaked memo from Best Buy indicates that Microsoft is willing to price Windows 7 upgrades pretty low too, but not as low as Snow Leopard, though. Still, the memo includes some interesting facts and also reveals the dates for when the upgrade program runs. As usual with Microsoft, caveats and version complications. Also, a table comparing the various upgrade prices of both Windows 7 and Snow Leopard can be found inside.

Submitted by poundsmack 2009-06-02 Windows 31 Comments

Microsoft's original plan was to release Windows 7 three years after Windows Vista, which would put the release date somewhere in January of 2010. Microsoft already made it clear that it would ship sooner, before the holiday season, but we've now got what is most likely the official release dates. Windows 7 will be released to manufacturing at the end of July, with the actual release date being set for October 22 - 2009, that is.

Safe Unlinking in the Windows Kernel Pool

Thom Holwerda 2009-05-28 Windows No Comments

"The heap in user mode has a number of different measures built in to make exploiting heap overrun vulnerabilities more challenging. Similar checks have been in debug versions of the kernel pool for some time to aid driver debugging. Windows 7 RC is the first version of Windows with some of these integrity checks turned on in release builds."

Windows Vista SP2, Server 2008 SP2 Released

Thom Holwerda 2009-05-26 Windows 23 Comments

The geek world might be all over Windows 7, and the rest of the world might be sticking to Windows XP for now, but there is also this Windows Vista operating system lingering around. Microsoft has just released the final version of the second service pack for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

Microsoft To Remove Windows 7 Starter Three App Limit

Thom Holwerda 2009-05-22 Windows 52 Comments

Windows 7 Starter Edition, a sort of My First Operating System, always carried with it a ~~massive braindead bug~~ feature that limited the amount of applications you could simultaniously have open at just three. Yes, past tense, because someone over in Redmond apparently looked up and smelled the roses, and suggested removing this silly limitation. And so they did, according to Paul Thurrot.

Why Windows 7’s Default UAC Is Insecure

Submitted by Georgi Petrov 2009-05-15 Windows 56 Comments

Whenever we talk about Windows 7 on OSNews, you'll always hear me advise you to change the UAC settings by setting it to its highest level, since Windows 7's default simply isn't secure. You might wonder why you should deal with additional prompts - what is the security risk actually like? Well, it's pretty big.

Windows 7 To RTM August 2009

Thom Holwerda 2009-05-12 Windows 14 Comments

Steven Sinofsky has said that Windows 7 will enter the "release to manufacturing" stage in about three months from now, meaning August '09. This means that the actual Windows 7 release would be well in time for the holiday season. " If the feedback and telemetry on Windows 7 match our expectations then we will enter the final phases of the RTM process in about 3 months. If we are successful in that, then we tracking to our shared goal of having PCs with Windows 7 available this Holiday season."

SuperFetch: How it Works & Myths

Thom Holwerda 2009-05-11 Windows 79 Comments

SuperFetch is a technology in Windows Vista and onwards that is often misunderstood. I decided to delve into this technology to see what it is all about, and to dispel some of the myths surrounding this feature.

Microsoft: Windows 7, Server 2008 R2 To Arrive Before Holidays

Thom Holwerda 2009-05-11 Windows 12 Comments

The official stance from Microsoft has always been that Windows 7 would be released three years after Vista, which would put its release date somewhere in January 2010. However, various rumours already indicated a release ahead of that schedule, and if the beta and RC are anything to go by, they could release it today and get away with it. Microsoft seems to have realised this, as it has now said it will release Windows 7 in time for the 2009 holiday season.

Teacup, Meet Storm, pt. II: XPM and Intel Support

Thom Holwerda 2009-05-07 Windows 16 Comments

Windows XP Mode, the virtualisation tool currently in beta for Windows 7, only works on processors with virtualisation extensions, known as AMD-V and Intel VT-x. Microsoft made this clear from the get-go, but still various news websites regurgitated it as "news" yesterday that some Intel processors do not support XPM. Twenty-four hours down the road, and Intel had a few things to say about this.

Submitted by Moulinneuf 2009-05-05 Windows 112 Comments

A little earlier than expected, Microsoft has already released the Windows 7 release candidate to the general public. The Redmond company had already put the RC up for download on TechNet and MSDN, but from now on, everyone can download it. I've already updated all my Windows machines to the RC, so let's take a quick look at what I found. Note: The Windows XP Mode beta is also set to arrive today, but has not yet been made available. We'll update this item accordingly once it's released. Update: The Windows XP Mode beta is also available. Get it now!

Submitted by hyper 2009-05-01 Windows 62 Comments

With a flood of ARM-based netbooks coming to the market starting somewhere end of this year, many hope it will be another opportunity for Linux to get some mainstream exposure. Since "normal" Windows doesn't run on ARM, Linux is the only obvious choice. Right? Well, Warren East, president and CEO of ARM Holdings plc, has been dropping hints that Windows might make its way to ARM after all. At least, that's what EETimes is concluding.