Archive for the ‘Windows’ Category

I’m just passing along information contained in an email sent to me this morning. If you’re interested in obtaining Windows 7 certification, this may be an avenue for you to consider. ExamForce (click their name to head to their Twitter page) is offering a free Windows 7 practice test that is apparently comparable to the test that will land you a “MCTS: Windows 7, Configuration” certificate. If you’re interested, head on over to the following link and sign up:

 

ExamForce’s 70-680: TS: Windows 7, Configuring Exam Preparation

 

And, no, I am not affiliated with ExamForce at all — I just thought someone out there might be interested. If so, then best of luck!

 

-Stephen

 

Well, after quite an exciting day of Windows 8 information leaking its way out to the Internet, it appears Microsoft is officially on the war path to finding who leaked the information in the first place. As noted on Twitter by Tom Warren of Neowin, the blog of Francisco Martin — one of the first to bring some of this Windows 8 information to light — has apparently been nixed by Microsoft (his blog resided on spaces.live.com). The earliest that these slides can be traced back is to the Website win7vista.com (thanks to @tom_warren for the link).

 

The documents were originally XPS files converted to PDFs with the goal of removing any incriminating watermarks. Well, win7vista.com made a mistake. As “DanielRemains” — the individual who posted the leaked content — notes, “I spent many hours working on these on removing watermarks etc.” Unfortunately, he seemed to miss a slide and it has undoubtedly brought some unwanted attention to one Derek Goode from HP. Here’s the slide which shows his email address (Update: email address removed from slide by request):

 

Whether or not Derek Goode is the individual who leaked the slides directly, if it was a colleague who did it behind his back, or some other scenario, Microsoft is clearly on the prowl. win7vista.com wanted all the credit, so I hope they’re ready for what’s about to ensue. Don’t be surprised if many of these posts around the Internet involving this Windows 8 documentation suddenly disappear.

 

-Stephen Chapman
http://msftkitchen.com

 

A big thanks to @floo1989 for the heads-up! Over the weekend, the Italian Windows site “Windowsette” got a hold of some super secret squirrel Microsoft presentations apparently laying around on the internet somewhere. I took a look through every single one of these, slide-by-slide, so I’m quite confident these are the real deal. I just feel bad for the poor sap who either leaked these or inadvertently shared these with the world. Long story short, these slide decks are chock full of internal thinking on Windows 8 — everything from customer target audiences to the Windows 8 developer market to the Windows 8 product cycle and much, much more. As a preface, I’ve taken many screen shots of relevant slides for inclusion with this article, so click on them to see their full-sized versions. I’ll elaborate on some and allow the others to explain themselves. Lastly, I’ll be updating this post as I find more contained within the slide decks. Now, without further adieu, let’s get started!

 

Microsoft Looks to Apple

Included in these presentations is a rather telling (but obvious) slide which shows that Microsoft is clearly paying attention to Apple while planning Windows 8. Titled, “How Apple does it: A virtuous cycle,” Microsoft has broken down Apple’s UX/Brand Loyalty cycle and cited its value. Though it’s fairly obvious, the takeaway here is that Microsoft is aiming to give Windows the very same “it just works” status that Apple’s products are known for:

 

Windows 8 Prototype Machine

Speaking of Apple, I think the following prototype looks like some rejected Mac prototype (i.e. I don’t like it very much — at least from this angle). The wallpaper is the old Windows 7 beta wallpaper (as you can see by the beta fish in the center of it) and there is clearly some build information on the bottom right-hand corner of the desktop. This may well be something left over from Windows 7 planning, but being included in Windows 8 planning documentation, I figured it was worth tossing in. Here’s the machine and below it, its specifications:

Windows 8 Product Cycle

The following slide isn’t too telling in and of itself, but it serves to show how Microsoft has chosen to divide its Windows 8 product cycle into 3 main phases:

• Planning (from Framing to Vision): Big picture thinking, themes then scenarios, and feature identification list.
• Development (from Vision to Beta): Design and build features, refine SKUs (shelf-keeping units) and value propositions, and begin sharing code.
• Readiness (from Beta to GA+90): Feature complete and bug-fixing, establish and track readiness metrics, and focus on creating great Dell + Windows experiences.

Of note, these slides were apparently leaked or inadvertently released after being given to one Derek Goode at HP. Likewise, many of the discussions throughout the slides address HP, so the 3rd phase above making reference to Dell interests me. Anyway, here is the slide of note:

 

Windows 8: Identity Evolved

There appears to be considerable planning taking place as to how a user will access Windows. Right off the bat, one of my favorites is the following prototype which shows a user logging in via facial recognition! Basically, you enroll your face, then all you should have to do from that point forward is sit down, have your webcam get a look at you and then log you in based on facial recognition:

The following slide details other considerations for Windows 8 where identity is concerned. Namely, user accounts will still be the primary method of accessing Windows for individuals, fast user switching is a continued focus, and most notably, Windows accounts could be connected to the cloud which would allow for roaming settings/preferences between PCs and devices and PCs to log on to websites on the user’s behalf — all marking an evolution of Windows identity from being machine-centric to user-centric.

 

Trends Shaping the Planning of Windows 8

Shaping the planning of Windows 8 are explosion of form factors (laptops, netbooks, slates, etc.), assumed connectivity (focus on software + services for end-user scenarios), collision of enterprise and personal worlds (aiming to help customers have a seamless experience across their personal and professional lies), personal content experience, and more. The following slide elaborates:

 

 

Windows 8 Consumer Target Audiences

As we see detailed in the slide below, enthusiasts and mainstream consumers are the two main consumer target audiences for Windows 8:

 

 

Windows 8 Default Business Assumptions

 

 

Windows 8 Developer Market

No surprise here that Microsoft’s addressable developer market for Windows 8 spans from hobbyist/non-professional developers to professional developers to science, technology, engineering, and math developers:

 

 

Windows 8 Differentiation Goals

As for form factors, Microsoft’s 3 main focuses for Windows 8 appear to be Slate, Laptop, and All-in-One (all detailed in slides below). Additionally, customization areas include Applications, Devices, Multimedia, Help and Support, and UI and Theming (all also detailed in slides below). One of the key takeaways here is Microsoft detailing “Slate” as a major form factor focus. This means the Windows-based Slate devices are still likely to make an appearance at some point:

 

 

Windows 8: Energy Efficiency Areas of Focus

All of the following slides are highly-detailed and quite self-explanatory, but my favorite takeaway is a newly-planned feature that combines Logoff + Hibernate to result in a new off state. It will apparently give the look and feel of boot/shutdown but will be much faster. This feature is detailed in the next set of slides, titled “Windows 8: Fast Startup:”

 

 

Windows 8: Fast Startup

These slides give great detail on the Logoff + Hibernate feature mentioned above. There isn’t a name for the feature yet as it will be exposed to the user:

 

 

Windows 8 Help and Support

Help and Support was going to be a major focus in Windows 7, but it was dropped. Now, it looks like that focus is back for Windows 8 and the aim is to help users “know with confidence how to respond and what actions to take” when an issue arises.

 

 

Windows 8 Push Button Reset

This is an interesting one. Microsoft appears to be planning functionality for a reset button that will essentially reinstall Windows while maintaining all of your personal files, applications, settings, etc. without the need for the user to back all of that stuff up. A scenario is presented in one of these slides to demonstrate how it would work.

 

1 – Jon notices that his Windows 8 PC is starting to perform poorly and he can’t figure out what to do. He presses the reset button and chooses to reset his Windows 8 PC.

 

2 – Wanting a fresh start, he chooses to reset his PC knowing that all his stuff is safe.

 

3 – Windows 8 automatically retains files and personalization settings, and migrates the user accounts.

 

4 – Windows is restored to the factor image and restarts.

 

5 – After restarting, Jon can launch the App Store to reinstall applications he purchased there and see a list of other applications that he had installed outside of the App Store.

 

 

Internet Explorer 9

There’s an entire slide deck dedicated to Internet Explorer 9 discussion. There isn’t much contained within that we don’t already know, but there is an announcement for the beta to take place in August 2010:

 

 

Windows 8 Introduces “Windows Store,” Microsoft’s App Store for Windows

Though Microsoft has already attempted some semblance of this with Windows Marketplace, Windows 8 will introduce “Windows Store.” Yes, it will be an application store which will allow you to purchase applications for Windows (and perhaps Microsoft mobile devices as well, such as Windows Phone, Zune HD, etc.). Microsoft has a solid foundation on this and as the slides below note, they’re anxious to bring this to fruition A.S.A.P. Detailed below are the customer experience, developer experience, and channel experience (for partners). For customers, it looks like Microsoft is interested in integrating Windows Store results into Bing’s Web and Local SERPs as well as Windows Search. For developers, there appears to be a great panel for tracking just about every metric you could want to track as a developer.

 

In conclusion, Microsoft defines Windows Store’s success for consumers as, “getting applications they want, that they can feel confident in, that they can use on any Windows 8 device.” Have a look as there is much more information in these slides that I did not elaborate on. Oh, and be sure to keep your eyes on http://www.windowsstore.com/ as it is mentioned in one of the slides below and is indeed currently registered (as are the .net and .org URLs).

 

 

I will continue updating this post with elaborations, clarifications, and screen shots as I continue digging through all the information, so stay tuned!

 

-Stephen Chapman
http://msftkitchen.com

Thanks to Android Central for the heads-up about this.

 

Yes, it’s true! Windows 3.1 on Android is the latest addition to the “let’s-see-what-all-we-can-get-Windows-3.1-running-on” benchmark. An Android enthusiast by the name of “drraccoon” thought it would be a fun idea to try to install Windows 3.1 on Android and the result is an ultimately useless but really cool (in a geeky sort of way) implementation of an ancient OS on a mobile device! Check out the screen shot below:

 

*Image courtesy of drraccoon

 

I don’t want to steal his glory by posting his method here (it’s really simple), but I *will* make a contribution by providing you a download link to the Windows 3.1 ISO which contains the installation files you will need should you choose to give this a shot yourself (they’re in a self-extracting .exe file I created with WinRAR, so I know this is virus-free).

 

Download: Windows 3.1 ISO

 

Now, go visit the source to obtain everything else you need to install Windows 3.1 on Android and feel free to post your results and/or ideas to try as I would certainly be interested to hear of everyone’s progress — especially if any of you give Windows 95 (something drraccoon also seems interested in attempting) a shot or some other legacy Microsoft program/game!

 

Source: drraccoon’s Android Blog

 

-Stephen Chapman

http://www.msftkitchen.com

This post is my gratuitous offer to Microsoft to help them track down websites of piracy advocates who store and/or share activation cracks and similar nuisances. This all started as an experiment to see how many ways I could find a particular file and I’ve come to the conclusion that Microsoft probably either isn’t implementing half the methods I’ve devised or they don’t have the time/interest or a person/team in-house or outsourced dedicated to formulating solutions like this. I’ve cherry-picked two methods to delve into, then listed some action items to follow through with in taking said methods into consideration.

 

I would use Bing for these examples, but I’m still waiting for an all-encompassing guide for using advanced syntax usage in Bing. Usually, when I try to replicate my Google methods in Bing (yes, I make sure I’m using Bing’s syntax where applicable), the results are dismal. Anyway, I’d like to think someone at Microsoft will see this for what it is and bring me in to really get creative with this stuff, because there’s a whooooooole lot more where this came from! But I won’t hold my breath, because in the words of one Tony Lucca, “if I held my breath, you’d be the death of me.” lol.

 

Method 1: Use the following query in Google (I’ve even hyper-linked it for your pleasure):

 

intitle:index.of removewat21 | removewat22 | removewat*

 

Results: A large number of personal websites where they have the RemoveWAT file stored and directly accessible for anyone to immediately download.

 

 

Method 2: Go to Google. Click “more” and then click “Blogs.” Now, perform a search using the following query and then, on the left-hand side, click, “Sorted by date” (yes, I’ve hyper-linked this one as well already using the aforementioned steps):

 

removewat21 | removewat22 | removewat*

 

Results: An ever-expanding list of blogs linking to the file(s) you’re interested in getting off the internet. Most of them link to file sharing services, but that’s a major score as well.

 

Action Items: Bearing in mind the methods above, the next thing is to gather a list of as many variables of the RemoveWAT file name as you can, such as scene release names, shortened versions, etc. and interchange them throughout the queries. Rinse and repeat the process with other activation crack technologies and voila. From there, of course, gather contact information from somewhere on the site, perform a whois search, etc. to contact the individual(s) to remove the file or simply send a DMCA take-down request to the host or whatever legal actions Microsoft has to adhere to.

 

Also, you can get more extensive with the research portion and use Yahoo Site Explorer or SEOmoz’s Open Site Explorer to search for inbound links to the links harvested via method 1. The results are a mixed bag where that’s concerned, but I’ve found that Google typically yields those results after spidering the site from a completely separate entry point, so whether or not the person posted the file in a public forum or simply posted something completely irrelevant and Google happened to spider its way to the particular file is up in the air until additional research is performed.

 

Oh, and while you’re at it, you might as well try to make this process as automated, productive and facile as possible by setting up some Google Alerts (or something similar) for all the terms/queries you come up with and keep an eye on when new sites are indexed with those file names. What a great way of finding and getting rid of those files from (probably) a completely untapped avenue.

 

There! I’ve officially put my personal information-finding and off-page SEO research methods to good use for Microsoft’s anti-piracy endeavors. =) But bear in mind, the aforementioned methods and action items are just the tip of the iceberg. If I so chose, I could use just about any Microsoft product for free without ever touching a P2P application or utilizing a crack — all thanks to Google and absolutely careless individuals out there. There’s a lot out there; you just have to know how to find it.

 

Happy hunting, Microsoft.

 

-Stephen Chapman

http://www.msftkitchen.com

This morning, I checked my email and actually took a look at a Technet newsletter I regularly receive. This particular one had the following subject: “Windows 7 Trial extended.” Windows 7 trial? I honestly had no idea this particular trial offer was available in the first place, but apparently, it has been and now it’s being extended. Here’s what the email had to say:

 

The availability of Windows 7 Enterprise (Eval) 90-day Trial is being extended to Dec 31, 2010. Intended primarily for IT pros, the 90-day trial is the full-featured Enterprise SKU that will enable any organization to explore, test hardware and applications, perform pilot activities, and develop deployment scenarios.

 

What the aforementioned quote *doesn’t* tell you is that the full-featured Enterprise SKU is exactly the same as the full-featured Ultimate SKU — just with different branding. So, long story short, Microsoft is essentially offering Windows 7 Ultimate free for 90 days to one and all. And when those 90 days are up, you’ve still got another 90 to go via the slmgr trick, so that’s 180 days free. After that, there are more creative ventures coming to light, but nothing I would personally endorse. And just for the record, Microsoft canned the “shutdown /s /t 315359999″ trick back in Vista, so if you thought you would trick the 1-hour shutdown deal, think again.

 

My only question at this point is what’s stopping anyone from simply creating a new email alias, signing up for the trial again, reinstalling it and then tacking on another 180 days for free? Maybe that’s too much to expect anyone to go through or maybe you wouldn’t even need to take it that far, but if someone is looking to keep something for free, people can get pretty creative sometimes (short of just downloading a crack and calling it done).

 

Download the Windows 7 Enterprise 90-day Trial: Click Here

 

And just in case you happen to be in the market for a particular Windows 7 ISO, I wrote guide not too long ago showing you how to use Google to find just about any Windows 7 ISO of your choice: How-to: Quickly Find a Windows 7 ISO on an HTTP Server via Google

 

-Stephen Chapman

http://www.msftkitchen.com

With all the excitement and news regarding Windows 8 abound, how about some Windows 9 action? Sure to be removed soon, an employee by the name of Johan has externally detailed some of Microsoft’s plans for it’s ~2015 OS. So, what’s the verdict? The OS will *completely* do away with physical interaction. No more pesky keyboards, mice or dumb monitors you have to get all greasy with your finger tips. It’s all about speech with Windows 9 and Johan even wrote a bit about his experience with an alpha build currently circulating internally — of which, there are also plans for an Xbox 360 emulator (basically, a tweaked version of Virtual PC) which will also be speech-driven! Check out the following quotes from his review which shows that Microsoft has *clearly* been making heaps of progress:

 

After less than 90 minutes of training I was able to open notepad and highlight a section of text which was very exciting.

 

I wasn’t the only one who’d leapt at the opportunity to run the Alpha, so there were quite a lot of us shouting commands at our computers which caused quite a ruckus at times. It was quite impossible to keep a normal conversation over the phone with people shouting “New Paragraph!” and “Dear Mom!” left and right. Still, that’s the price you pay for being an early adopter I guess.

 

It doesn’t stop there. For more information on a projected release date and to read about additional features such as the Boss Key, go read his article referenced below (before it gets taken down). I’ll take a snap-shot of the original article just in case.

 

Source: http://blogs.msdn.com/johan/

 

-Stephen Chapman

http://www.msftkitchen.com

Back in 2005, Microsoft mentioned in a Thinkweek article the idea of an ad-driven Windows. Ina Fried summarized quite well what was discussed in that article in a section titled “Plan Extends to Windows.” Seemingly only an idea back then, new evidence shows that Microsoft has done more than simply *think* about placing ads in Windows.

 

While recently doing a bit of research, I ran across a Microsoft employee’s mention (screen shot below) of an incubation project they were involved with sometime between 2005-2008. Code named “Madison” (not to be confused with the SQL 2010 code name), it appears an actual prototype has been created for advertising in Windows. Prior to writing this article, I mentioned my findings to Mary Jo Foley from ZDNet and she quickly made an observation I hadn’t thought of — the code name “Madison” obviously stemming from “Madison Ave.” in Manhattan. To quote Wikipedia, “[s]ince the 1920s, the street’s name has been synonymous with the American advertising industry.”

 

(Yes, that says “madision” but that’s almost certainly a grammatical error)

 

The implications of this prototype are staggering, but not necessarily all bad.

 

On one hand, this could be a way for Microsoft to offer Windows on-the-cheap for many individuals — namely, those who either can’t afford Windows or don’t want to pay for Windows in the first place (i.e. pirates, yarrr!). In theory, you could use a “Windows Ads Edition” or something where you’ve basically opted for ads to stream to you in exchange for your usage of Windows. Another possible scenario is for this prototype technology to perhaps replace (or maybe become a component of) Starter Edition. After all, with Microsoft’s recent job post looking to fill a position on the “Windows SKU team,” it’s pretty clear that Microsoft is planning Windows 8 SKUs — thus implying a SKU-secured future for Windows — so why not the possibility of a “Windows Ads Edition?” I don’t think too many people would use such a thing by choice, and for those who did choose to, Microsoft’s marketing would have to be crystal clear to spell out why you wouldn’t simply be using an ad-ridden version of Windows.

 

Also, when bringing ads into the equation, I can’t imagine they would riddle every SKU with ads, but how could Microsoft really expect to make a significant ROI based on a model where ads are being shown to people who are looking to circumvent – or simply cannot afford the cost of – Windows in the first place? With that in mind, perhaps it would have nothing to do with SKUs at all. Perhaps it would consist of a technology designed to run under certain variables in *any* SKU of Windows where the obvious candidates would lie amongst all unactivated, non-genuine, and pirated copies. The thought of that gets shaky when considering all the headaches Microsoft would face from those screaming “invasion of privacy” or “anti-trust measures!” They would have to be clever about monitoring ad traffic, of which there’s absolutely no way Microsoft could successfully convince businesses to fork over cash for ad views without being able to show some semblance of accurate numbers… unless it’s a PPC thing, and then Microsoft has to face dealing with potential click fraud amongst the other obvious deterrents, such as ad blocking software, host file modification to block ad servers, or even full-blow file modification/replacement to remove the ad-driven functionality in its totality.

 

Naturally, this all just boils down to Microsoft looking to cash in on a BIG money-making industry with the most visible product they have. The most popular application in the entire world. Potentially, every Windows user would be a lead just waiting to turn a profit for whoever pays to advertise in Windows. And if Microsoft went the route of making this a technology that wasn’t limited to any particular version of Windows, they could even scale it back to XP via a simple update (but I see XP being obsolete by the time ads ever make it into Windows).

 

Thinking even grander, imagine if Microsoft created an ad platform in Windows that was so successfully facile to the end user that the price of ALL versions of Windows was little to nothing at all. Now, that may sound ridiculous, but that’s the kind of forward-thinking that — if they could pull it off — would bring them many more users and drastically drop certain costs of developing Windows, such as the cost of anti-piracy measures. If they could figure out a way to make ads extremely relevant, non-evasive, yet have them yield high click-through rates — in a perfect world — that would be a version of Windows accessible to nearly everyone.

 

But I’m a realist. I don’t think such a scenario would ever come to fruition. Honestly, between unhappy users who want nothing to do with ads and potential legal woes that would inevitably face Microsoft, I see the headaches mounting for actually implementing ads in Windows. What do you think? Do you think Microsoft will ever bring such an effort to Windows? How would you feel about actually using an ad-implemented Windows? I don’t think I would mind too much, but the implementation of them would have to be nothing short of genius.

 

-Stephen Chapman

http://msftkitchen.com

 

In Microsoft’s never-ending battle to stop piracy, it appears Microsoft is considering upping the ante in Windows 8 and other products by searching for a new candidate to help “shake hackers and crackers off Microsoft products” by designing and building “new anti-hacking mechanisms” and “hack detection.” The job ad says the job is “not for the faint of heart,” so I imagine things get pretty intense and technical on this team.

 

To quote the job ad directly:

 

Our group is on a mission to build a rich, powerful platform to help protect Microsoft products against piracy. Here is your chance to join a team of exceptional developers as we build an extensible cross-company platform to support this vision. This is a fast-paced group that rewards smart and motivated individuals. We are looking for an experienced software developer to help us design and build new anti-hacking mechanisms, hack detection, and work on the security processor driver. The work touches many layers of the operating system and includes opportunities for partnership with MS Research and other security teams at Microsoft to productize exciting innovations and ideas that help shake hackers and crackers off Microsoft products. It’s not for the faint of heart, but the diversity of the problem space in this area is rich in growth opportunities just waiting for the right candidate. You will have ample opportunity to diversify your skill set and grow. In this position, you’ll get a chance to work on many aspects of the platform, starting with an assignment to drive the design of our application and Operating System (OS) virtualization support.

 

Regardless of how intense or involved, hackers and crackers always seem to be one step ahead of Microsoft where piracy is concerned. Naturally, they cannot account for every single scenario possible, but it’s a given that they must keep up and continue to innovate new security technologies. Some may consider anti-piracy measures a lost cause, but that’s certainly not the case. For every one product Microsoft sells purely based on theft prevention alone, it’s a win for them. What has me curious is the all-encompassing mention of “Microsoft products” in the job ad. Could Microsoft really be looking to put all of their eggs in one basket by employing a single anti-piracy platform across all applications? Probably not, but the thought of that doesn’t sit well with me insofar as if the platform were ever to be fully exploited.

 

-Stephen Chapman

http://msftkitchen.com

 

What Microsoft started with Windows Vista and continues to implement to this very day doesn’t appear to be going away any time soon. Not in Windows 8, at least. A rather telling job description popped up on Microsoft’s careers site recently looking to fill a position on the “Windows SKU team.” That’s right, an entire team dedicated to all things SKU. Okay, so, maybe it will be an extremely small team, but I had no idea the planning of SKUs would take such a focused effort. I suppose it makes sense when taking into consideration all the planning that needs to happen for each SKU, how they will differ from one another, sorting out the branding issues, et al.

 

In a direct quote from the job ad:

 

Are you looking for a challenging role with high visibility? Join the Windows SKU team. The Windows SKU team ensures that customers have a broad choice of options available when it comes time to make a purchasing decision, so that people can find the Windows they need at a price point that’s competitive and fair. At the end of the day, what we sell to end users are Windows SKUs and we take this responsibility very seriously. Our success depends on our ability to respond to a shifting business landscape by providing people with the Windows features they want in packages that they can consume. Everything we do is driven by these customer-focused fundamentals. If you’re looking for a challenge with direct, broad impact across the company, come join us!

 

So, with that in mind, if the current line-up of SKUs stays status quo, it looks like we can count on seeing the following editions of Windows 8:

 

• Windows 8 Enterprise
• Windows 8 Ultimate
• Windows 8 Professional
• Windows 8 Home Premium
• Windows 8 Home Basic
• Windows 8 Starter

 

What are your thoughts on having Windows 8 SKUs? Do you think they’re a good idea or are you of the type who wants one Windows SKU that can do everything the most advanced SKU is capable of doing?

 

-Stephen Chapman

http://msftkitchen.com