Vista News

LOS ANGELES--In a technical session on Thursday afternoon, Microsoft provided the clearest public indication that it is planning on getting Windows 7 completed in time to run on PCs that ship for next year's holiday buying season. In a presentation on its somewhat secretive Velocity program to improve PC quality, Microsoft director Doug Howe showed a slide saying that the Vista Velocity program would continue through next spring as Microsoft worked to improve Vista machines that ship in next year's back-to-school time frame. He went on to say that Microsoft would continue the Velocity effort with Windows 7. The slides and Howe's presentation appeared to confirm what has been widely speculated--but something Microsoft has not...

After our coverage of PDC 2008, we thought that Windows 7 news would slow down for a bit. Not so. Instead, PDC was only the tip of the iceberg; the PDC build leaked onto the web, Microsoft gurus started digging, and, of course, Microsoft revealed more information at WinHEC 2008. This is the best time to wrap up everything Windows 7-related that has been discovered, hinted at, and announced since PDC. Without further ado, here we go. The pre-beta build (6801) of Windows 7 that was given out to PDC attendees quickly found its way onto p2p sites, in both 32bit and 64bit versions. The number of downloads is estimated in the tens of thousands. Opinions were, of course, mixed: some users complained that there wasn't anything new in the...

Core i7 Dissected and Benchmarked! Does Intel’s Next-Generation Chip Live Up to the Hype? Hell Yeah! Written by Gordon Mah Ung 11/03/08 at 11:00:00 AM Tick tock? More like ding-dong, mutha—shut your mouth. What baby? We’re talkin’ about Core i7. Our apologies to Isaac Hayes, but if he were alive, we’re almost certain he would have been tapped to hammer out a theme song for Intel’s most significant CPU launch in, well, ever. Why is this CPU more significant than the 8088, Pentium, or Pentium M? As the second new chip produced after a series of embarrassing losses to archrival AMD, the Core i7 will answer for the world whether Intel is prepared to ride the momentum of its Core 2 launch with another winning chip or if it’s...

Windows 7: New Windows Experience Index (WEI). After nearly a week of using the pre-beta PDC release of Windows 7, I’m starting to notice the little things. Like this: See that number in the lower right corner? In Windows Vista, the maximum value for any subscore is 5.9. Clearly the scale is now higher, as that 6.3 (solid-state drives are fast) indicates. So how high is the upper limit? If you’re running the pre-beta Windows 7 build, share your Windows Experience Index scores in the comments. Read more at the source. Later :shock: Ted

Sony-Manufactured Battery Recall Reaches 100,000, HP Hit the Hardest Written by Paul Lilly 10/31/08 at 11:17:37 AM It seems there's always a notebook battery recall taking place, and the latest round comes from a handful of PC manufacturers using Sony-manufactured batteries. Potentially affected units stands at 100,000 worldwide, with 35,000 of those in the U.S. The affected lithium-ion batteries were manufactured by Sony Energy Devices Corporation of Japan. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says the batteries could overheat and pose a fire hazard, a likely result given the complaints that have trickled in so far. According to the CPSC, there have already been 19 reports of overheating batteries, and all but 2 of...

News Micron’s New DDR3 Memory Chips to Enable 8GB, 16GB Modules. Micron Claims “Highest-Density” DDR3 Memory Chip [10/30/2007 11:22 PM] by Anton Shilov Micron Technology, one of the world’s largest producers of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), on Tuesday unveiled the industry’s first DDR3 memory chip with 2Gb density, which will eventually allow the company to introduce 8GB or 16GB memory modules for servers or 4GB modules for notebooks and desktops. Which is even more important, the new chip can run at 1333MHz, providing blazing performance. “Just as we led the market last year with the introduction of our 1Gb DDR3 component, we are leading the market yet again with...

Download beta Vista SP2 now UPDATE: SP2 Beta Released

According to Microsoft's bulletin, the vulnerability is found in Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008. Microsoft will hold a Webcast at 1 p.m. PDT to address the issue. Issuing patches outside of its monthly cycle is rare for Microsoft. The last time it happened was April 2007, according to a Microsoft representative. Microsoft issues 'critical' patch outside normal cycle | News - Security - CNET News

Interesting note comparing RAM useage on OS X and Vista "As I noted earlier this week, I’ve begun using a MacBook (the basic white model) and keeping a log of my experiences. Now that I have this system up and running on a full-sized screen, I’m ready to make some head-to-head comparisons with Windows. Because this system has a mere 1GB of RAM, I was curious to get a sense of how thrifty OS X Leopard is when it comes to memory usage. I was especially curious to see how Leopard compares to Vista, which as been slammed by critics as a resource hog. To get started I opened Safari and opened a single web page, then began playing an MP3 track in iTunes. With those tasks running, I checked the results from Activity Monitor: As you...

Though many previously bundled applets now will ship separately to Windows 7, Windows Media Player remains part of the core OS. Windows 7 will ship with Windows Media Player 12, which includes some surprising new features. The UI itself is brighter and lighter than WMP11. Some buttons and toolbar items have been moved around, but the experience should be pretty familiar to users of version 11. What does represent a big change is the removal of the Now Playing button, which in WMP11 switches to a view showing the current playlist. This is because WMP12 completely separates library management from what's currently playing, with two distinct player modes; Now Playing view, and Library view. Library view contains all the library...

Scientists build worlds smallest storage device - Yahoo! News UK Scientists are claiming a major breakthrough in quantum computing after managing to store information inside the nucleus of an atom. Skip related content The team from Princeton University, Oxford University and the U.S. Department of Energy used both the electron and nucleus of a phosphorous atom embedded in a silicon crystal. Both the electron and nucleus behaved as tiny quantum magnets capable of storing quantum information. "The electron acts as a middle-man between the nucleus and the outside world, " said John Morton, a research fellow at Oxford's St. John's College. "It gives us a way to have our cake and eat it--fast processing speeds from the electron...

Microsoft, Akamai Join Forces to Provide HD Streaming Video Service for PCs Witten by Pulkit Chandna 10/29/08 at 08:15:17 PM Microsoft has joined forces with Akamai to provide a consummate high-definition video streaming experience for PCs. The two companies announced that Akamai will launch a beta version of its HD video streaming service christened AdaptiveEdge Streaming for Microsoft Silverlight in early 2009. The beta release will only be accessible to a few of Akamai’s own customers (content providers). Read more at the source: Microsoft, Akamai Join Forces to Provide HD Streaming Video Service for PCs | Maximum PC

Chinese Pirates Angry Over Microsoft’s Blackout Anti-Piracy Tool Written by Alex Castle 10/23/08 at 03:21:17 PM Never ones to shy away from an uphill battle, Microsoft has recently been taking new steps to combat software piracy in China. They’ve launched a program, euphemistically called “Windows Genuine Advantage,” which blacks out users' screens if it discovers that they’re running pirated Microsoft software. In China, a country where a large majority of computers are running pirated software, this move has, predictably, caused quite an uproar. Read more at the Source: Chinese Pirates Angry Over Microsoft's™ Blackout Anti-Piracy Tool | Maximum PC

Notebook Vendors Giving 32-Bit Vista the Boot in Favor of 64-Bit Written by Paul Lilly 10/28/08 at 10:31:26 AM The decision to go with a 64-bit version of Vista over its 32-bit counterpart remains a dubious one, but not so as far as netbook vendors are concerned. Most new laptops are now shipping with a 64-bit OS. Take Best Buy's newest shipment of HP laptops, for example, who shows 11 models listed as "new arrivals." All but three come with Vista 64-bit, with the remaining models sporting Windows Vista Business downgraded to XP Pro, also in 64-bit form. Read more at the Source: Notebook Vendors Giving 32-Bit Vista the Boot in Favor of 64-Bit | Maximum PC

At PDC today, Microsoft gave the first public demonstration of Windows 7. Until now, the company has been uncharacteristically secretive about its new OS; over the past few months, Microsoft has let on that the taskbar will undergo a number of changes, and that many bundled applications would be unbundled and shipped with Windows Live instead. There have also been occasional screenshots of some of the new applets like Calculator and Paint. Now that the covers are finally off, the scale of the new OS becomes clear. The user interface has undergone the most radical overhaul and update since the introduction of Windows 95 thirteen years ago. Full Story: First look at Windows 7's User Interface

Online Giants Unveil Code of Conduct for Net Censorship. Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google have finally announced their long-anticipated code of conduct for doing business in China and other countries that have restrictive Internet policies. The set of guidelines, titled the Global Network Inititive (the website goes live tomorrow, October 29), aims to provide Internet companies operating overseas with a set of steps to follow before bowing to requests of foreign law enforcement that might conflict with human rights principles or free speech. Read more at the source. Later :shock: Ted

Microsoft to release Vista SP2 beta to more testers next week | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com Posted by Mary Jo Foley @ 11:36 am Microsoft will release a beta of its forthcoming Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) to a wider group of testers on October 29. Microsoft had been testing SP2 among a very select group of testers for the past couple of weeks. Last week, the company began signing up testers for a broader beta, which testers were told would be released sometime in the next four weeks. As the Hotfix.Net site reported, Microsoft has begun rolling out that broader beta of Vista SP2 this week. The build number for the beta is 16489. (Thanks to Neowin for the pointer to the Hotfix site.) Via the Vista Team blog, Microsoft said on...

COMODO Internet Security 3.5.53896.424 Released! Good news! We have just released COMODO Internet Security 3.5.53896.424! What is COMODO Internet Security? ======================= COMODO Internet Security is the product in which we have integrated COMODO Antivirus, COMODO Firewall and COMODO Defense+ in a seamless manner. Our philosophy, as you well know, is about “Prevention” being your first line of defense. CIS now has an AV component however this AV component is there to make Prevention more usable. We believe in a Layered Security Architecture where Prevention - Detection - Cure (in that order) is the components needed for a good security. Of course Prevention being the first line of defense, CIS does not compromise on this...

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No swearing please. Big Brother is listening. Microsoft gets patent for real-time f-bomb bleeping By Jonathan M. Gitlin | Published: October 20, 2008 - 06:25AM CT Back in 2004 Microsoft applied for a patent for real-time censoring of audio streams, and now the USPTO has granted that patent. Related Stories Microsoft, Samsung agree to share patent portfolio goody baskets Microsoft accused of patent infringement with .NET SCOTUS ducks software patent issue in Microsoft v. AT&T ruling Judge signs off on $1.53 billion ruling against Microsoft As PC gamers have known for a long time, and Xbox gamers have known for a while, playing against other humans online is a much more enjoyable experience than...