Archive for the ‘Windows’ Category

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

Over the course of the past week and a half, a couple of individuals from Microsoft have commented about Windows 8 in a rather excited manner. First, there was a blog entry on January 31, 2010 (which has since then been deleted) on an MSDN blog titled, “Whats in store for the next Windows?” It’s a great read from an obviously excited employee bursting at the seams to say SOMETHING about Windows 8 — or, as he referred to it as, “Windows.next.” Below is the article in its entirety prior to its deletion (which you can still find cached in Google here):

One of the great (or maybe not so great) things of being at Microsoft is that every other person wants to ask you why Windows works the way it does. Since I’m part of the Windows update team I get asked even more why does my machnie reboot everytime there is an update and why are there so many updates. So naturally once Windows 7 shipped, my friends, neighbours, relatives, and whoever else you can imagine started asking me So whats next?

 

Folks started asking me whats in Windows 8 – and the first thing I have to say is that I resonate Steven Sinofsky’s interview on who said we’re calling it Windows 8? I agree with Steven that till things are baked there is no point floating ideas since it leaves people frustrated when things don’t turn out the way they expected. The Windows team promised to deliver a smarter, faster and more user friendly OS with Windows 7 and they delivered just that – the latest quaterly results of Microsoft are a clear indication that Windows 7 has been a success and customers got what Microsoft had promised them! The plan is to use a similar approach for the next version of Windows and till things are finalized you’re not going to get a “marketing” name from us:)

 

So how am I referring to the next version of Windows without saying that many words – well simple – Windows.next:) This is definitely not the official version but a version that is becoming common along my circle. So what are our plans for this next version…

 

The minimum that folks can take for granted is that the next version will be something completly different from what folks usually expect of Windows – I am simply impressed with the process that Steven has setup to listen to our customers needs and wants and get a team together than can make it happen. To actually bring together dozens and dozens of teams across Microsoft to come up with a vision for Windows.next is a process that is surreal! The themes that have been floated truly reflect what people have been looking for years and it will change the way people think about PCs and the way they use them. It is the future of PCs…

 

Thats about it for this post for the time being – I know I’m not sharing much at this point but right now I can’t as we work towards finalizing that vision. Feel free to post your comments on what you think Windows.net should be like!

As if that wasn’t exciting enough, John Mangelaars, Regional VP of Consumer and Online at Microsoft EMEA, is quoted today on the website CIO as saying the following:

[Apple is] doing well on the PC side but Windows 7 is a blockbuster. We got it really right. For me, Windows 8 will be mind-blowing.

Hmm. It really makes you wonder just what in the heck Steven Sinofsky and crew are cooking up for Windows 8. With everything I’ve covered in regards to Windows 8 thus far, I would say it’s definitely shaping up to be an ambitious release. Past rumored plans were for Windows 8 to be a 64-bit-only release and I’m inclined to believe that’s exactly where they’re going to go with it — especially with the latest post-Windows 7 build 7700 screen shots being 64-bit.

So, what do you think? Just a bunch of hype from excited employees or something potentially “mind-blowing” and “completely different?” With Sinofsky at the helm again and the success Windows 7 has seen, I’m inclined to think the latter.

*Hat tip to Softpedia for their article yesterday.

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

Edit: After receiving a rather harsh comment about this post, I thought I would make it clear that the point of this post was for the sake of comedy rather than to say this patch is going to screw up everyone’s computer. Having a sense of humor is okay sometimes, you know? /rant

So, just a little bit of comedy for you here. I came home, fired up my laptop which I haven’t been on in about a week, and I see Windows Update pop up and tell me I have some important updates ready to install. Now, typically, I just say, “yeah, yeah… whatever” and let them install after verifying none of them appear at first glance to be anything stupid that I don’t want on my system (i.e. language packs, drivers I don’t need, etc.). Well, just out of pure curiosity, I decided to take a look at the description of one of these updates and boy was it ever a revelation! Check out how full of reliability this update is (along with my minor observations noted):

Seriously, though. What the hell does that even mean? hahaha. Well, I decided to try to decipher that rather vague-yet-reliable description by searching for the update on Microsoft’s website. As it turns out, it provides the exact same description! So, just what in the world is update KB977074 (besides reliable, of course)? As if it wasn’t already hilarious enough, just wait until you see how ironic this gets when you find it that update KB977074 appears to be anything BUT reliable! Check out the threads started here and here.

From those links, it appears update KB977074 affects explorer.exe and causes some hang-ups and freezes for a number of users. Seeing this, I’m extremely happy that I have yet to install this update… and I almost can’t believe that of all the updates I’ve never read about, this is the one I finally decided to! Excellent. =) With all of that in mind, perhaps we can cook up a better description for update KB977074:

This is a crash/freeze update. This update creates some crash/freeze issues in Windows 7. By applying this update, you can achieve better crash/freeze in various scenarios. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Okay, so I know that last crash/freeze didn’t fit, but it doesn’t make any less sense than the original description, so it stays as-is! Should you dare to install KB977074, you can nab it here.

-Stephen
http://www.msftkichen.com

Well, it’s about that time again, boys and girls! The most exciting time for me as a Windows enthusiast and Microsoft journalist is the beginning stages of the next version of Windows. Though I’m certainly interested in other Microsoft products, Windows is the product I’m the most passionate about. As a matter of fact, I just wish Microsoft would do us both a favor and hire me on the Windows team to do what Robert Scoble did, *hint, hint*.

But in all seriousness, our favorite Russian site WZor leaked to the web a number of post-RTM Windows 7 screen shots. The build is 7700 and — from what it looks like to me — could quite possibly mark the official beginning of Windows 8 development. For those of you unfamiliar with the process, Microsoft typically keeps the current version of Windows tagging in the early builds of the next version. The build string usually changes to reflect the next version prior to anything else (wallpapers are infamously changed throughout Milestone progressions during development), but if this is indeed the start of Windows 8 development, even the string has remained unchanged.

Build String: 7700.winmain.100122-1900

I certainly hope WZor decides to leak the build as I would love to begin my longtime tradition of dual-booting the latest leaked build along with my main OS! Should you decide to begin such a tradition yourself — or even more daring, decide to replace your main OS with the latest leaks — be aware that there may be consequences to contend with. Easily, the most detrimental consequence during Windows 7′s development was the bug that corrupted MP3s… and that was in an officially-released beta build, too! But I’m putting the cart just a little bit ahead of the horse as all we have at the moment are these screen shots (which may actually not be the official beginning of Windows 8, but since they’re from the winmain lab and don’t have SP1 in the string, I feel I’m making a fairly safe assumption). Oh, and to add to it, the “beta fish” wallpaper that hasn’t been seen since earlier beta builds of Windows 7 is back in this build (thanks for pointing that out @Gilly2468!). Make of that what you will!

I have divided all of these screen shots into 3 separate sections: Client, Server, and Client w/Office 2010 RTM screen shots (WZor posted all of these in separate posts but for the sake of concision, I’m putting them all in this one post).

Build 7700 Client

 

Build 7700 Server

 

Build 7700 Client with Office 2010 RTM

Just to delve a bit deeper into the specifics of a build string, I want to shine a light on this really simple concept for those of you who aren’t quite sure what it means when you see one. This example is going to use the following build string: 7700.winmain.100122-1900

7700: This is the build number. It goes up incrementally with every build compiled. Sometimes, to mark a new milestone, Microsoft may skip a certain range of build numbers, i.e. moving from 7700 to 7710 without any builds compiled in-between.

 

winmain: This is the lab the build was compiled in. There are various labs where individuals, teams and branches can compile builds, but winmain is the main lab where all teams check their code in to have it all compiled into a more widely-distributed build.

 

100122: This is the date in format yyyy/mm/dd. So, in this string, the compile date is January 22, 2010.

 

1900: This is the time in military format. 1900 = 7:00 PM.

Altogether, the build string reads like a perfect little sentence: This is build 7700 and it was compiled in the winmain lab on January 22, 2010 at 7:00 PM.

Well, that does it for this extensive write-up. If you have any further questions regarding build strings or just some thoughts in general, please feel free to comment!

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

With the latest news of estimated Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 and Office 2012 RTM dates, I was reminded of something I ran across a while back but never posted about. The Microsoft Windows 7 blog, Engineering 7, gained quite the following during its tenure. It was a way for Microsoft to be transparent about some of their thinking for Windows 7 and to gain valuable feedback from customers the world around. Well, thanks to an apparent placeholder page on MSDN, it appears Microsoft is going to do it again with Windows 8!

Engineering 8

Personally, I’m excited that Microsoft is choosing to go this route again with the development of Windows and for those of you who are also excited about it, be sure to add their blog feed so that if/when they start posting, you’ll be the first to know:

RSS 2.0: Click Here
Atom 1.0: Click Here

And I don’t know if the following form is connected to a live email address, but why not go ahead and show your interest for Windows 8 and the Engineering 8 blog by sending them a message? Who knows, maybe one of us will actually hear back from someone (doubtful, but you never know).

Engineering 8 Placeholder: TBD…

*It appears blog.prabir.me made this same observation back in October of 2009, so kudos to him for the initial find!

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

*Thanks to Charon, a friend of mine from the Ma-Config.com blog, for sending me a note of this interesting find of his.

Chris Green, a Microsoft employee who appears to use his MSDN blog here-and-there, posted a rather telling product support lifecycle update on December 2, 2009. In it, he details not only the public information found on Microsoft’s product support lifecycle site, but he boldly goes where no one has gone before by mentioning not only Windows 8, but Windows Server “2012″ (Windows 8 Server) and Office “2012″ (Office 15)… with dates. Now, before I post these dates, it’s important to note two caveats that this information comes with. First, from Chris’ blog, found in his sidebar:

The content of this site are my own personal opinions and are not intended to represent my employer’s view. These postings are provided “AS IS” with no warranties, and confer no rights.

Likewise, at the bottom of every page of the PDF, it says the following:

This information is provided as a guide only and is likely to contain errors.

So, as is typically the case with information like this, treat with a grain of salt. With that said, here are the dates:

Windows 8:

 

RTM: Friday, July 1, 2011
Mainstream Support: Friday, July 1, 2011 – Thursday, July 1, 2016
Extended Support: Friday, July 1, 2016 – Thursday, July 1, 2021

Windows Server 2012 (Windows 8 Server):

 

RTM: Monday, July 2, 2012
Mainstream Support: Monday, July 2, 2012 – Friday, June 30, 2017
Extended Support: Monday, July 3, 2017 – Friday, July 1, 2022

Office 2012 (Office 15):

 

RTM: Monday, July 2, 2012
Mainstream Support: Monday, July 2, 2012 – Friday, June 30, 2017
Extended Support: Monday, July 3, 2017 – Tuesday, July 5, 2022

He also lists dates for some additional products, such as Exchange 2013, SharePoint Server 2013, SQL Server 2011, and more.

Random Screen Shot of the PDF

One thing to note is that he doesn’t specifically note RTM dates for those above, just an “estimated” full product support lifecycle. That said, much of what is publicly contained on that list has a mainstream support date that coincides exactly with the RTM date. An assumption, yes, but rather interesting to see these dates, none-the-less.

Now, rather odd is how he has the Office 2012 and Windows Server 2012 dates corresponding almost exactly — both contain the same RTM/Mainstream Support beginning date — while Windows 8‘s dates are off by a full year. This observation lends to the notion that he didn’t simply jump ahead 2-3 years to the day of each current products’ RTM dates, i.e. Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 hit RTM status on the same date, yet Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 are out-of-sync by a year per Chris’ “estimates.”

Personally, I’m not going to invest too much into this but I will certainly keep my eyes opened to the possibility of these dates being a current goal internally. Realistically, I can see them hitting the Windows 8 RTM date (the earliest of the 3 I detailed above)… especially given the time frame of Windows 7′s development. Of course, the tell-all sign will be if the document and/or MSDN post are mysteriously removed or altered within the next few days or so. If that happens, there there may just be more to these dates than simply estimation after all!

Source: Ma-Config.com Blog
Chris Green’s MSDN Blog: Click Here
Product Support Lifecycle Document: Click Here
Microsoft’s Product Support Lifecycle Site: Click Here

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com