Vista News

A new build of Office 2010 — more recent than the Community Technology Preview (CTP) Microsoft delivered in July to a select group of testers — allegedly has leaked. (But as of this posting, not yet leaked to the Web.) The new build, which, according to Wzor, is labeled “Beta 1,” (Build 14.0.4417.1000) includes some updates to Office 2010’s built-in Backstage document-management platform and some of the new volume-licensing-activation tweaks that company officials recently acknowledged were coming. There is also a new “upload center” in the leaked build, which could be related to Office Web Apps, the Web-ified versions of key Office apps that Microsoft is planning to release to testers this fall. Microsoft officials declined to comment...

More...

Working at ASUS, I have witnessed, first-hand, the great strides made in technological innovation and exceptional focus that goes into our high-quality products. Instilled with traditional values of hard work and discipline, ASUS continues to build upon its success that has made it far more than just the world’s leading motherboard company. And now with Windows 7 just around the corner, we have already been running beta versions effortlessly on our systems to ensure maximum compatibility and optimized performance.  Personally, I have used Windows 7 on a number of our notebooks and have truly enjoyed the streamlined features and incredible performance that makes my already fast notebook even faster. Loading programs, finishing my...

Here's the latest info straight from the Windows 7 Team Blog: Windows Anytime Upgrade and Family Pack Pricing - Windows 7 Team Blog - The Windows Blog

From Windows 3.1 to Windows Vista, the Windows operating system has taken many giant leaps. And while Vista received a lukewarm reception from some users, Windows 7 is likely to be remembered for addressing those criticisms. In fact, there aren't many changes to the overall look of Windows 7 when compared to Windows Vista. Instead, Microsoft seems to have paid attention to the feedback it received and created an OS that is not only stable, but also very capable. So what is new in Windows 7? Here are 18 cool things Windows 7 does that Vista doesn't. Read more - 18 cool things Windows 7 does that Vista doesn't | News | TechRadar UK

The Windows Live Messenger Team is committed to delivering a safe and secure instant messaging experience to its users. In order to do this, they are asking anyone who is still on Windows Live Messenger versions 8.1, 8.5 and 14.0 to upgrade to the newest version of Windows Live Messenger. This can be done today via download.live.com. Over the course of the next few months, there will be a phased approach to get everyone updated to the latest Windows Live Messenger release. For more information, see this blog post from the Windows Live Messenger Team. More...

Back in May, the Internet Explorer (IE) team left open the possibility that Microsoft might deliver a tab-responsiveness update for those of us suffering from IE 8 tab-performance issues. Alas, that update isn’t going to happen. Based on feedback from Windows 7 testers, Microsoft has scotched the idea. Not only is there no tab-hang reporting functionality for the IE 8 release that is built into Windows 7, but there won’t be any for us IE 8 users running Windows XP or Vista, either. I asked Microsoft officials whether there might be some relief in sight for those of us who continue to have our well-isolated IE 8 tabs whir endlessly and never actually open a given site. This has been a continuing problem for me on my ThinkPad X60 with 1...

More...

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will kick off the Windows 7 launch at an event in New York City on October 22, according to an invitation Microsoft has sent to various media members and bloggers. To date, Microsoft officials have declined to answer repeated requests as to whether Microsoft planned to hold a big-bang launch event for Windows 7 when the product becomes generally available on October 22 or a number of smaller, decentralized events in various cities. Microsoft held its consumer launch for Windows Vista in New York City on January 30, 2007. Read more - Ballmer to headline Windows 7 launch in New York City | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Microsoft has announced that the Windows 7 Family Pack, a limited-time offer that allows you to upgrade three PCs to Windows 7 Home Premium, will also be available in select European countries. The company has chosen eight countries: the UK (£149.99), Ireland (£149.99), Germany (€149.99), France (€149.99), Switzerland (€149.99), Austria (€149.99), the Netherlands (€149.99), and Sweden (€149.99). The Windows 7 Family Pack will be available on October 22, 2009, the general availability date of Windows 7, until supplies last. The pack was announced in Europe after it was announced in North America because Microsoft was not sure it could offer an upgrade version of Windows 7 at launch. In July 2009, Redmond offered to adopt the European...

Today, we are announcing that we are extending the Browser for the Better Campaign with Internet Explorer 8. We will continue to help fight hunger by donating 8 meals for every download of Internet Explorer 8 throughout the month of September. September is Hunger Action Month. We want to encourage our customers to upgrade to a modern and secure browser – so we are doubling donations for people who switch from Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 8 through this campaign. If you move from Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 8, we will donate 16 meals to help fight hunger! For more information, see this press release from Feeding America. More...

As we discussed in our earlier blog, at the core of Windows 7 for the first time is the inclusion of the graphics processing unit (GPU) for computing. The GPU is no longer just for graphics. In Windows 7, the CPU and the GPU create a co-processing environment. As a result, Windows 7 PCs with the right balance of CPU and GPU offer a faster, more visual Windows 7 experience. NVIDIA’s President and CEO, Jen-Hsun Huang talked about GPU Computing in Windows 7 during a keynote presentation at Computex 2009. What makes this co-processing possible is one of the most significant additions Windows 7 brings: DirectCompute. DirectCompute enables applications in Windows 7 to take advantage of GPU Computing to accelerate applications...

Microsoft has released to manufacturing System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 R2 (or SCVMM 2008 R2, for short), and plans to make it available to volume licensees on October 1. Microsoft made a 180-day evaluation version of the product available for download on August 24. Among the new features in the update are quick storage migration, live migration and support for VMware’s vSphere 4. More than 10,000 testers have downloaded various test builds of SCVMM 2008 R2, Microsoft officials said. System Center is Microsoft’s latest business to hit the $1 billion sales mark, company officials said earlier this year. A number of other System Center products are in the pipeline and due out in the coming year. More by Mary Jo Foley -...

While Google, Amazon, and Salesforce.com have gotten the most attention as cloud service providers, Microsoft -- with its 300 products and services delivered from its datacenters -- has a large cloud bank all its own. In May, the company released a paper on its approach to cloud services and how the company plans to secure those services. The paper -- penned by Microsoft's Global Foundation Services, the group responsible for overseeing the company's software-as-a-service infrastructure -- spells out the current dangers for online services, including a growing interdependence between customers and the companies that serve them and more sophisticated attacks on Internet services. More info link - Five lessons from Microsoft on cloud...

Have you ever seen a Operating System inside a browser? Have you ever seen a Internet Explorer inside a Firefox Browser? Maybe you have recently moved to Linux/Mac operating system from Windows but you are missing familiar interface and want to spend some time on Microsoft Windows but don’t have access to it, if this is scenario for you then here is windows4all.com. Windows4all.com is a Silverlight based online virtual operating system. It is is a website that simulates an operating system inside your web browser. Windows4all.com replicates the desktop environment of a modern operating system. You can launch applications right away without installation. More info below - Windows4all.com - online virtual operating system

Yahoo’s core products will receive some major updates in the coming months, including an enhancement to the company’s search engine that introduces context-sensitive filtering to search results. The search upgrades come as a bit of a surprise, as Yahoo just inked a tentative deal with Microsoft to have its new search engine Bing to take over Yahoo’s search for the next 10 years. Yahoo’s search technology and engineers will largely migrate to Microsoft as part of the ad-sharing deal that is still waiting for approval from the government. Yahoo Mail — which remains the most popular webmail app despite the innovations by Google’s Gmail — and Yahoo Messenger are also getting some updates. Read more - Yahoo Demos Tech Upgrades, Despite...

Windows 7 has the same rearm command for delaying activation as Windows Vista. It can be used up to three times, for a grand total of an extra 90 days to activate. Full Story: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/08/how-to-use-windows-7-for-free-for-120-days-legally.ars

An appeals court in Washington said this week it will hear arguments on September 23 in regard to Microsoft's request to delay an earlier order that imposed a permanent injunction on selling Word in the US as of October 10, 2009. Microsoft winning a quick hearing is good news for the company, but the Canadian-based i4i, the company that owns the patent that Microsoft has been found to be infringing, isn't worried. We firmly believe that the US District Court made the right decision on the merits of the case," said i4i chairman Loudon Owen. "We are confident that we will prevail on the appeal by Defendant Microsoft. This is a vital case for inventors and entrepreneurial companies who, like i4i, are damaged by the willful infringement of...

Posted by Mary Jo Foley When Microsoft showed off its comprehensive Azure cloud “layer cake” diagram back at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in 2008, to me, it had somewhat of a slapped-together feeling. Up until last fall, Microsoft was building two “cloud” developer platforms in parallel that were meant to provide programmers with a consistent set of programming interfaces and services: The Azure services platform and the Live Framework platform. At the PDC Microsoft officials made a case for a unified cloud platform, with Live Framework/Services and Azure’s .Net Services happily coexisting. Further reading below - Microsoft to cut Live Framework and Services from its Azure cloud platform | All about Microsoft |...

The Microsoft Security Essentials beta, available for download for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7, has been updated to build 1.0.1500.0. Full Story: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/08/microsoft-security-essentials-build-1015000-arrives.ars