Microsoft

When Microsoft first displayed there Multi-Touch Surface platform everybody was impressed, but size and expected price-tag of such a big gadget was far from being practical, But Microsoft is not going to disappoint us, only two days ago company's CEO Steve Balmer and Bill Gates showcased upcoming Windows 7 interface at D6 conference, the next version of Windows is not going to release anytime soon but for the time-being you can watch and enjoy the video demo of Windows 7 running on a Dell XT touch-screen tablet PC, just like your very own portable Microsoft Surface computer.

TGDaily has reported with reference from several key industry partners about Microsoft's next OS offering codenamed "Windows 7" being shipped to its key partners as “Milestone 1” (M1) code drop for validation purposes.

Sources claim from a recently distributed roadmap for Windows 7 release to manufacturing in H2 2009. However, Microsoft declined to comment on this date.

The new OS “Milestone 1” (M1) version is said to be supporting heterogeneous graphics system consisting of multiple graphics cards even from different vendors, a new revamped version of media center is also included with basic audio support for now, the most sought after feature of the new OS is MinWin a small OS kernel using only 40 MB of memory.

A NeoWin forum user claimed to have tried the Windows 7 Milestone 1 and posted this:

Over the weekend I finally managed to play with the build…. but disappointed.

One my primary machine, it asked for my SATA driver (never happened when installing Vista, as my drives were set as IDE in BIOS). After adding the driver from my USB thumb drive it would finally install. It didn’t boot after first restart, however.

On my laptop it installed perfectly, but with no driver support for the video card. After numerous tries I gave up in the end, so Aero is now left in the dark.

Oh well, so there’s nothing to show.

The build is 6.1.6519.

The GUI, as much of you have guessed, is very much like Vista. I don’t know if once the right video card driver is in place whether there will be flashy stuffs to surprise me. The system is very responsive, using barely 480MB of memory after boot.

Gadgets are now integrated into explorer. You can right click on desktop and select “Add Gadget” or “Hide Gadget”. There is a new gadget called “Windows Media Center” that displays now playing information from the WMC. On the same menu, “Display” is added above “Personalization” which gives you direct access to display DPI settings. The page is much more polished than the one in Vista.

The start menu features a pin besides each item. Clicking on it toggles pinning/unpinning the item. Search in explorer is now states where you search within (usually being within the folder, as in Vista). You can now, however, adjust the size of the search box.

XAML fonts, called the “Composite Fonts” are now added to the font folder. Perhaps WPF will be much more prominent in this release. It’s disappointing that I don’t have Aero running, or otherwise there might be some interesting stuffs to see.

A new application is added, dubbed the “XPS Viewer”, no surprises, either.

Then finally, something interesting came up: the feedback tool. The feedback tool lists the “pillars” of Win 7. You can see that Microsoft is aiming to fine tune this release as the case in XP rather than technological advancement as in 2K. highlights include”network aware”, with improved connection tools and detections. It will have the ability to detect which network you’re in and switch your settings and devices accordingly; With Live account, you can carry your IE settings and favorites with you; Gadget data caching; New Calculator, Paint, and Wordpad using WPF; install to desktop in 10 mins with only 1 reboot; instant streaming; better battery mileage, etc. All descriptions are scenario-based, so what will actually turn up is still yet to know.

Oh.. how could I miss this. A new boot screen does show up, finally. A full screen Vista-logon screen like boot screen with a beam scrolling across the whole screen near the bottom. Looks nice but reminds me of Win9x (well since XP we’ve been in the “dark”, so surprised to see such a bright boot screen)!

Microsoft has released the Windows Vista SP1 RC for public downloading via windows update, the long awaited service pack can be download from this link.

Microsoft is offering a free Virtual test drive for its Windows Vista Ultimate operating system, with help of the Microsoft Virtual Lab technology (Virtual Machine) a web-hosted test drive is offered to users with most of the functionality of regular versions, except browsing the internet.

The free test drive is currently available to web visitors from the United States and Canada, which can be bypassed easily using a USA/Canada proxy ;),the test drive requires Internet Explorer 6 or later, a browser plug-in, and a broadband Internet connection. A minimum 1024 x 768 screen resolution is recommended for the trial.

You can also view twenty videos highlighting the major features of the OS with links to test driving them.

In addition, Microsoft is providing a Virtual PC file with a 30 day trial of Vista Ultimate to test the OS in Virtual PC environment without risking your OS, which can be downloaded from the link below:

Microsoft is doing it again, users are reporting stealth updates at Microsoft Windows XP and Vista forums, files are getting updated without consent and even while Windows Update is turned off.

The new update has the version number 7.0.6000.381,A user Dean-Dean at the Microsoft forum states:

"Windows Update Software 7.0.6000.381 is an update to Windows Update itself. It is an update for both Windows XP and Windows Vista. Unless the update is installed, Windows Update won't work, at least in terms of searching for further updates. Normal use of Windows Update, in other words, is blocked until this update is installed."

Dean-Dean names several files that are changed on XP and Vista as below:

In XP, the following files are updated:

1. cdm.dll
2. wuapi.dll
3. wuauclt.exe
4. wuaucpl.cpl
5. wuaueng.dll
6. wucltui.dll
7. wups.dll
8. wups2.dll
9. wuweb.dll