Posts Tagged ‘Windows 7’

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

Microsoft news website Muy Windows has just posted screen shots of a Windows 7 SP1 Demo Installer, thus bringing its completion closer to fruition. Here are a few of them, but there are more at the source, linked beneath the pictures below. I can’t help but wonder just what all they plan on fixing in SP1. Windows 7 has been absolutely fantastic for me. Are there any problems in particular any of you out there are having that you hope are fixed? Check out the shots:

Source: Muy Windows

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

I want to take a break from the typical format of my blog and share a story of mine. Saturday night, I went over to an uncle’s house for dinner and — long story short — told him he should have installed Windows 7 instead of reinstalling Windows XP after a massive crash he had a couple of weeks ago. He said he wanted to, so I decided to use one of my unused Windows 7 keys and install Home Premium for him. Things like AERO shake, thumbnail previews, and the combination of search/run generated genuine giggles of excitement out of him… and, as a Microsoft fan and blogger, that was actually really cool for me to experience.

You see, I get so used to this stuff that I actually forget there are people out there who have only maybe heard the casual mention of Windows 7 — much less ever seen it or actually messed with it! Every time I see Microsoft’s commercials where they show people being all excited about Windows 7, there’s a portion of all of that, that I wonder how much of it is all just marketing… and if anyone would really ever get that excited about Windows 7. Well, this situation with my uncle validated for me that people DO get excited about this stuff! I’m so used to the segue between versions of Windows that I have completely forgotten what it’s like to try a completely NEW OS for the first time and be excited about all the features it offers.

Something kind of random he said at one point was, “why is it that Macs don’t have any crashes or problems at all?”

Yikes.

My response to that was actually even-handed, in that I said they both have their ups and downs but the notion that Windows 7 is “just another Vista” like the Apple commercials try to peddle… that’s just all marketing, as I explained. So, out of the evening came the realization that actually seeing someone go from XP to Windows 7 can be more than just an upgrade, but an enjoyable experience! Unfortunately, I also learned that Apple’s embellished dishonesty for marketing gets through to people. At least he was never inclined to actually buy a Mac, he was just curious as to everything he’d heard. And honestly, with how much better of an OS Windows 7 is than its predecessors, for Apple to compare them and say it’s no better than the rest… well, let’s just say I wouldn’t feel bad comparing the latest OSX to the problematic issues of the past, even knowing the difference these days.

It’s just awesome to know that Windows 7 sealed the deal in the face of OSX-curious inquiry. =) Not that I have anything against OSX or those who use it — just Apple’s intellectually dishonest marketing of it vs. Windows 7.

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode): A display technology for use in mobile devices such as mobile phones. OLED describes a specific type of ultra thin, ultra bright display technology which doesn’t require a backlight and Active-Matrix refers to the technology behind the addressing of pixels. AMOLED technology continues to make progress towards low-power and low-cost large size (e.g. 40-inch) for applications such as TV. -Wikipedia

Surfing around the web this morning, I just stumbled across a really cool invisible AMOLED laptop prototype pictured on Gizmodo. Check it out:

I don’t know how the translucency translates to enhanced usability, but it sure does look cool!

Source: Gizmodo

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

Some of you may recall the leaking of several Windows 7 SP1 (Service Pack 1) builds prior to the final release of Windows 7. Naturally, those leaks — some as far back as June 2009 — sparked a lot of speculation as to the quality bar Windows 7 would RTM at. I mean, just prior to Windows 7’s final build, you start seeing SP1 builds and you can’t help but wonder if they’re in preparation to fix things they knew would be off-center in the final build, right? Well, sort of.

In light of an entry I recently stumbled upon on LinkedIn, I believe I’ve found the missing link which makes sense of the whole thing. And now that I’ve seen it, I can’t help but think to myself, “duh!” Okay, for starters, look at the build string in the following image:

Long story short, there were no crazy bug fixes starting to happen that Windows 7 RTM wouldn’t see. Those SP1 builds were compiled simply to test Windows 7’s service pack technologies and experience! I and so many others like me really looked waaaay too far ahead into what those builds could have possibly meant — only to miss the simplest (and most likely, I might add) of possibilities: Microsoft preparing and testing service pack technologies and processes.

In addition to the revelation above, there are farther-reaching implications this person on LinkedIn has made us privy to. To quote:

Efforts lead to an unprecedented state of servicing readiness for Windows. Windows 7 Service Pack technologies, processes & builds were ready over a year before release compared to Vista and previous OSes which did not reach that state of servicing readiness and quality for months after release.

Aside from stating the obvious, with the time it took to complete Windows 7, I suppose Windows 7 SP1 will also exceed expectations. And that’s a good thing.

Finally, there is also mention of Windows 8 planning:

Planning servicing quality goals, metrics, processes, and tools & technologies for Windows 8.

Good comedy would be to see a Windows 8 SP1 build leak prior to even a Windows 8 Milestone 1 build! At that point, I would have to say they were getting a bit *too* far ahead of the game, wouldn’t you? Anyway, I just thought I would share my findings and attempt to explain away some of the confusion created by those SP1 builds previously.

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

Remember the ginormous burger that Burger King was serving in China in celebration of Windows 7 for that brief period of time? What about the Windows 7 cake or the awesome Windows 7 MCE custom system? Well, I just stumbled upon another oddity… a cool oddity, but an oddity none-the-less. This one comes to us via an eBay auction that’s taking place right now (so you can actually nab this thing if you’re interested)! It’s a limited-edition Windows 7 Kubrick made by C.I.Boys (whoever the heck they are) that was given out in celebration of the launch of Windows 7 at Microsoft Hong Kong.

Check it out:

(I love the graphics on the belt)

 

(I thought the Windows 7 graphic was accidentally upside down until I realized the whole belt was. Doh!)

If you’re interested in purchasing it, they’re asking for a cool $90.00… not including shipping. I like the little guy and all, but not in a $90.00 kind of way, if you know what I mean. Hey, at least the seller left the option for you to make an offer, right?

Link: The eBays

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

I love the snipping tool. If you have never used it and you take screen shots often, you may find it extremely useful. Previously, I used MS Paint for all of my screen shot needs. Well, after using both for a recent article, I noticed an inconsistency between the two. Check it out:

MS Paint:

 

Snipping Tool:

Do you see the difference? The inconsistency lies in the suggested text case for the file type. The difference in .png and .PNG makes all the difference in the world if you’re saving an image for the web. Linking Windows8.png and Windows8.PNG are completely different from one another; even though the names are the same, even so much as one character having the incorrect case will break your hyperlink. Now, while it’s true I could just manually save my image by typing the file name and the extension into the save box, the fact that the defaults differ for these two programs seems like a minor oversight with consistency. In fact, if I worked at Microsoft, I would probably push for a certain level of consistency across all Windows applications where things like this are concerned.

I love both of these applications and I won’t use them any less with this in mind, but after having noticed it, I looked back at my images folder for my site and I see just how inconsistent my image names are – undoubtedly based on which one of these applications I saved them with and then going back to link to the image based on how it resides on my server. Sure, that’s an oversight on my behalf, but I had no idea my behaviors had developed into that. Now I’m aware of it and, thus, the reason for this post. Not a big deal or anything, but when I run into these little quirks, I feel compelled to see if anyone else out there even cares. My last observation like this had to do with WinSAT. I wonder if they will ever fix that…

-Stephen
http://www.msftkitchen.com

I took the time to write up a little review of Windows 7 on Amazon.com a couple of days ago. I tried to make it approachable for users of all operating systems since I have nothing against anyone for what they choose to use (I honestly hate the OS wars, but I don’t mind getting down into the trenches if I have to, mwah ha ha). Anyway, here’s an excerpt from the beginning of my review:

Let me preface this review with my qualifications so that you may understand the extent I’ve gone to with operating systems to end up proudly claiming, “I’m a PC.”

 

I use Linux (RedHat) at work, I’ve tried Ubuntu and Lycoris long before it, I’ve tried Debian and Slackware and however many other flavors of *nix in the past just to say I tried them. I’ve messed with BeOS (Zeta development was an exciting time), I’ve played with Mac OS X on numerous occasions (beautiful OS), and I’ve tried countless obscure operating systems that I doubt even 1% of those reading this would know about (and trust me; there’s a reason for you not knowing about them, lol). Why have I messed with them all? Because I enjoy operating systems and I find them to be amazing achievements. There’s no denying that Mac OS X is a beautiful OS that performs quite well within the structured hardware environment Apple has created. Linux is hella useful on an enterprise level (though Windows Server is easily comparable these days) and even home flavors of Linux have become quite nice (Ubuntu)! The fact of the matter is that I’m partial to Windows through my experiences with having tried just about every flavor of every OS out there over the past 10 years or so. I used to collect beta versions of operating systems (not just Windows, but others as well), so I’ve not only tried the final products, but I’ve also gained appreciation for them by seeing them and playing with them through their development cycles. Where Windows is concerned, at one point or another, I’ve instally just about every build of every version currently out there (and trust me, there are TONS of builds – alpha and beta bits from every version of Windows, including obscure bits like Windows Neptune). I’ve ridden the roller coaster through the highs (Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP, and now 7) and lows (Windows ME, Windows Vista’s initial release) and I couldn’t be happier that I’ve stuck it out.

 

Enter Windows 7.

Check it out and rate it however you feel it should be if you’re a member of Amazon! It’s nice to see that Windows 7 actually has so many positive reviews, I think. There was a 1-star, “review” (I say, “review” because too many people think that Amazon is simply a forum for them to get up on their soapbox) there that I guess the, “reviewer” decided to nix once I left a comment questioning the integrity of his opinion. He basically felt like Windows should be cheaper than it is for people like him who want to run Windows on a second partition just to, “use occasionally.” Somehow he felt that in all his marketing genius, that would help Windows’ market share… you know, if Microsoft brought down the price of their OS simply so people who wanted to use it, “occasionally” could do so. Since when did an OPERATING SYSTEM (sit there for a second and think about just what an operating system is and does) become something to be purchased and used occasionally!? There is software out there that provides very specific functionality (albeit, very well) that costs WAAAAY more than the operating systems that run them! Windows 7, too expensive? Hardly. But I digress…

Link: Windows 7 Review on Amazon

UPDATE: 7 of 7 people approve my review of Windows 7! (Dorky, I know… lol)

-Stephen
Microsoft Kitchen

Man, Windows 7 really is the talk of the town today. With it being the official launch of Windows 7, there are all kinds of deals and promotions going on. I’ve seen deals on Windows 7 on Newegg, Buy.com, many of the sites that list deals all in one place, people giving away copies of Windows 7 for helping promote it and all kinds of other stuff. This, though, is one of the, “other stuff” that was too good not to post:

Is there anyone out there who can actually get one of these and take pictures? This is absolutely hysterical!

Source: Windows 7 Whopper

UPDATE: Thanks to Leith Blade in the comments below for posting this video, where you can see this burger in action:

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

First in Italian, then in English and now in Korean! Adding to my shiny collection of Windows Server roadmaps with Windows 8 appearing on them, I stumbled across a Microsoft presentation in Korean that shows exactly the same data as seen on this roadmap and this roadmap. It’s a hideous port of a Powerpoint presentation to PDF on the behalf of the site I found it on, but, hey… it is what it is. Check it out:

There’s not much more to say that I haven’t already said in the previous two roadmap posts I linked to above other than to reiterate that this timeline appears to be pretty solidified, company-wide. And yes, I’m champing at the bit for Windows 8 anything and that will never be more evident than with my next Windows 8 post coming up. =)

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com