Vista News

First, let me start off with a warning. This information came to me via an anonymous tip and is not from a trusted source of mine. That aside, the reason I'm putting this in the rumor box for now is that there is pricing for Windows 7 Starter, which we know will be sold worldwide, but only via OEMs. Ultimate pricing is also present, and while Microsoft says it will not be selling that edition via retail, the company did say that it will sell and give away the edition during certain promotional periods. Now, without further ado, here is the rumored pricing for Windows 7 editions (not the upgrade versions): Windows 7 Starter: $199 Windows 7 Home Premium: $259 Windows 7 Professional: $299 Windows 7 Ultimate: $319 Full Story...

I don't know if this has been posted before, but here it is anyway. This month Google has announced the release of Google ocean , a new ad on to Google earth 5.0 allowing you to according to Google. Check it out Google Ocean

Microsoft will be releasing four security updates on Tuesday, including two that are critical affecting Windows, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Exchange Server, the company said on Thursday. The critical updates affect Windows Internet Explorer 7, Windows XP Professional Edition, Windows Vista, Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server, Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2007, according to the alert. Two other updates rated important affect SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005 and Office. The vulnerabilities could allow for an attacker to remotely execute code on an unpatched system. Microsoft will release the security updates on Patch Tuesday, the second Tuesday of the month. The company provides advance notification for customers to...

After a ton of guesswork and rumors flying around, Microsoft has finally confirmed what much of the evidence was pointing to: there will indeed be six editions of Windows 7, just like there were for Windows XP and Windows Vista. Customers will be able to choose from Windows 7 Starter Edition, Windows 7 Home Basic Edition, Windows 7 Home Premium Edition, Windows 7 Professional Edition, Windows 7 Ultimate Edition, and Windows 7 Enterprise Edition. The news comes hot on the heels of the Windows 7 Ecosystem Readiness Program announced yesterday. All editions will be available in worldwide markets except for Home Basic, which will be offered in emerging markets. Starter will be also available worldwide but only via OEMs. We know emerging...

Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of Microsoft's .NET Developer Division, began talking about Silverlight 3 in November 2008. Last month he started again, probably because MIX09, which Guthrie will be keynoting, is coming up next month. Silverlight 3 Beta 1 is most likely going to released at the conference. Among the new features for the next version are media enhancements (including H.264 video support), graphics improvements (including 3D support and GPU hardware acceleration), and application development improvements (including richer data-binding support and additional controls). That's what Guthrie has been saying for the last few months, but one thing he wasn't talking about was 64-bit support. When I asked him if there...

Many tend to forget that the same day the Windows 7 beta was released, the Windows Server 2008 R2 beta went public as well, and the same goes for the Windows 7 Ecosystem Readiness Program. The media is letting Windows 7 overshadow Server 2008 R2, but Microsoft isn't taking much notice. As with any Windows Server release, the software giant is eating its own dogfood: the company recently finished rolling out the operating system on its homepage, though it's not clear which build the company is running. Netcraft spotted the change: Microsoft is now running Microsoft-IIS/7.5 on its main website Microsoft Corporation. IIS 7.5 is part of Windows Server 2008 R2, which is currently in beta testing. The changeover appears to have started...

As expected, Microsoft Monday released Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) Release Candidate 1 (RC1) to the public. You can grab the download from the Microsoft Download Center: for Vista and Server 2008 32-bit, for Vista and Server 2008 64-bit, for XP 32-bit, for Server 2003 SP2 32-bit, and for Server 2003 SP2 64-bit and XP 64-bit. At time of publishing, the release notes have not yet been updated (but should be soon), though the Technology Overview for Developers is available. Please note that this build is newer than the one in Windows 7 build 7000 and cannot be installed over top of that version of IE8. Testers using Windows 7 will have to wait for a new build of the operating system. Microsoft already gave testers an RC1 build...

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Nine of out 10 critical bugs reported by Microsoft last year could have been made moot, or at least made less dangerous, if people ran Windows without administrative rights, a developer of enterprise rights management software claimed today. BeyondTrust Corp., which touts its Privilege Manager as a way for companies to lock down PCs, tallied the individual vulnerabilities that Microsoft disclosed in 2008, then examined each accompanying security bulletin. If the bulletin's "Mitigating Factors" section, the part that spells out how to lessen the risk of attack or eliminate it entirely, said that users with fewer rights "could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative rights," BeyondTrust counted the bug. more at...

On the Engineering Windows 7 blog this week, Microsoft again noted that it was planning to give the public a Release Candidate of Windows 7 before the final version is ready. In other words, there is not going to be a "Beta 2," and the public would only see one public beta build: Windows 7 build 7000. However, a timeline for these versions is not disclosed: "This post is in no way an announcement of a ship date, change in plans, or change in our previously described process, but rather it provides additional detail and a forward looking view of the path to RTM and General Availability." The fact that Microsoft is not planning a second beta, that the first beta is the most stable Microsoft has ever given out, and that getting Windows...

Back in November, I explored the number of editions of Windows 7 that Microsoft was working on. While the company has not officially given a list yet, it was clear that Windows 7 Enterprise Edition and Windows 7 Ultimate Edition were definitely coming. Furthermore, there was an obvious avoidance of naming a Windows 7 Business Edition, though there was a mention of a Windows 7 Small Business Edition. While doing a little more digging, I stumbled on the following upgrade paths for Windows Vista to Windows 7. These are not confirmed, but I am told they are what Microsoft is currently considering: Windows Vista Home Premium Edition => Windows 7 Home Premium Edition Windows Vista Business Edition => Windows 7 Professional Edition Windows...

Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of Microsoft's .NET Developer Division, began talking about Silverlight 3 in November 2008. With MIX09 happening next month though, the man who will be making the keynote is beginning to talk more about Microsoft's plans for its Flash alternative. He has already mentioned that Silverlight 3 is going to a pretty major update; graphics improvements like hardware acceleration, H.264 support for video, and the ability have some 3D effects are in the works. The real challenge Microsoft is facing is keeping Silverlight as small as possible while adding major features. Still, in an interview with Channel 9, Guthrie reveals that the software giant is hoping to allow developers and designers to do things...

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Officially, Microsoft has said that it is still taking tester feedback and is refining the SKU set for Windows 7. Unofficially, we've already deduced that there will probably be Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions, at the very least. There's also talk of a Small Business edition, but the information on that one is a little more murky. If you disregard the "N" editions mandated by the EU, both XP and Vista had six editions each. Windows 7's number is still to be decided. The general consensus on the Internet is that, at the very least, Starter and Home Basic should not make a comeback in Windows 7. Unfortunately, Microsoft sees the situation a little differently, as the company does not want to cut itself out of...

The massive rollout of the new version of Windows Live Hotmail began in September and, as with any change to a highly popular service, there was much public outcry. iGoogle, Facebook, MySpace, and countless other services have received much backlash as they updated their user interfaces. All of them, however, stood by their changes, and so has Microsoft, while listening selectively to feedback, of course: The rollout has been slow because we've been reading and listening to your comments. We've read all the comments, followed up with some of you, and changed the service as we went. Since our original announcement, we have read and analyzed several thousand comments, fixed several bugs, and released five updates to the code. So, we want...

Microsoft has sent out an e-mail to testers announcing that the RC-Escrow build of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 is available for download. The company is letting testers grab it via Windows Update (available this Thursday in available languages of Vista and Server 2008), as a standalone installer package, or as a slipstreamed version in English, Spanish, German, French, Japanese. For those interested, the build string is "6002.16659.090114-1728" and Microsoft claims the service pack includes 656 individual hotfixes. The release comes hot on the heels of a recent rumor that the service pack had been internally delayed and would only be ready for release in May or June. Still, this RC build seems to be on...

There has been little talk of Windows 7 builds after the leak and public release of the first beta build (7000) earlier this month, but Microsoft has definitely been busy. What many seem to overlook is that build 7000 was compiled on December 12, 2008, at 2:00PM. Since then, there have been many other builds compiled, including 7003, 7004, 7012, 7015, 7016, and 7025. The last one, which leaked over the weekend (though it is much harder to find than 7000), has the following build string number: "7025.0.x86fre.winmain.090120-1850," meaning it was compiled on January 20, 2009, at 6:50PM. That makes it only a week old, which means it is quite new, though of course it is not the newest. Build 7025 incorporates quite a few bug fixes, as...

The Internet Explorer 8 RC1 fact sheet if anybody wants to look at it. The features with an asterisk (*) are added or improved upon since the last build. Windows Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1 Fact Sheet: An overview of the features and benefits of Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer 8.

Service Pack 2 for Windows Server 2008 and Vista is slated for the first half of 2009, long before Windows 7 is ready for prime time. Officially, Microsoft says that a more concrete date will be chosen based on the feedback the company receives during the service pack beta testing process. Soon after the first beta build was sent out, Redmond told testers that it was planning a Release Candidate build and a final build afterward, but did not give any details beyond that. A bit later, a rumor sprung up saying that the SP2 Release Candidate was coming in February and that SP2 should RTM in April. That rumor has now received an update from its source, Tech ARP: It looks like Microsoft has delayed the release of their release candidate and...

This week, Microsoft posted two job requests relating to Windows on their careers website. The first is for a technical writer who is interested in helping out millions of Microsoft customers via the Windows Consumer Content Team by writing "friendly, accurate responses for customers to see when a problem occurs on their computer. We write helpful responses for issues that offer information about how to fix, troubleshoot, or avoid an error in Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7." The second one is slightly more interesting. Microsoft is looking for a marketing manager for Vista's successor. It's worth noting that Microsoft started looking for a Windows 7 PR Manager about six months ago to start hyping up the product before it's...