Posts Tagged ‘Windows 7’

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

Windows 7: Done. On to the next.

I’m interested in seeing what all of you want to see happen in Windows 8. Myself? There are only 2 things I would personally like to see changed (and before Windows 8, preferably):

Folder Views: I can’t vent my frustration enough about Windows automatically selecting views for me, even when I tell it that I want to view ALL of my folders a certain way. ARGH, SO FRUSTRATING!

Desktop Click + Shift + Click Select: Why on this green earth would Microsoft let you click and drag to select items on your desktop, control + click to select any number of items randomly, but automatically select whole rows of items for you if you click on an item, hold shift, then click on another item even 1 item up in the same column? Truly baffling.

About a month ago, I posted my opinion of Windows 7 up to this point and those were my only two gripes. Feel free to check out the comments of others to see if you experience their issues as well. Anyway, nothing major here. I know Windows 7 still hasn’t officially been released, but I just thought I’d throw something out there to see if any of you guys and gals who are already well-seasoned Windows 7 users had some thoughts for what you would like to see happen in Windows 8!

[rant] Oh, and to the anti-Windows Mac/Linux users. Let me go ahead and get your irrelavant prattle out of the way so that you don’t waste your time or ours: Windows needs to do what Linux can already do graphically, it needs to be impenetrable and it needs to be free. Also, Windows needs to make its users feel like they matter in life and are cooler than everyone else and Microsoft needs to stop being the big, bad bulley in the marketplace. Yadda, yadda, yadda. I think that about sums it up for the folks who – even if Microsoft catered to their laundry list of issues – wouldn’t use Windows even if hell froze over. So why do they even complain in the first place? It makes you wonder… [/rant]

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

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I tweeted… twittered… twitted… whatever the heck you call it; anyway, I basically posted on Twitter the other day my loathing of the stupid, “I’m a Mac and I’m a PC” commercials. That day (about 3 or 4 days ago, actually) I saw TWO of those commercials that I had never seen before and I couldn’t help but shake my head and think to myself one thing:

Just how the hell would Apple market their OS if it weren’t for Windows!?

Yeah, now THERE’S a novel concept! I mean, just how big of a niche is Apple appealing to with the whole, “ohhh, every PC has bad viruses and they’re going to eat all your datas?” It can’t possibly be THAT many! Oops… maybe I’ve just stumbled onto something there.

It seems that for all of their, “Mac users are, “up here” and everyone else is just, “down there”,” they don’t really give a good reason to use their product. Not once does one (or do I, at least) get the impression from those commercials to get a Mac other than for the purpose of, “not getting millions of viruses.” You know, if I’m going to buy something, I don’t want FUD marketing techniques to sell it to me. Granted, if someone wanted to, they could go pull up Apple’s website to see what a Mac is really supposed to be about but doesn’t that defeat the purpose? How is someone going to look it up if they don’t have a computer to begin with? Oh, that’s right… chances are, everyone already has a computer with Windows on it. Once again, just where would Steve Jobs’ OS be without good ol’ Bill G’s already dominating the market?

Okay, so let’s say I don’t have a computer at home, so all I have to go by are Apple’s commercials. Okay, I want to go check out a Mac. Is there an Apple store close by? Let’s have a look in the phone book to call and see. Oh, well looky there! There’s only ONE in my state and it’s 3 frickin’ hours away! That’s alright, let me see if any other retailers near by sell Macs. (Once again, back to the phone book) Okay, there are. Let’s go to the store and check them out!

*Microsoft’s commercials kick in here* and I do indeed find something more powerful and just as good-looking and usable in a PC… and for considerably less, to boot! It’s really simple in my head: You walk into a store where you can compare the two and a PC sells itself! If it works great in the store, it’s going to work great at home unless you’re like Rafael Rivera and visit naughty sites all the time (he’s exemplary of what, “InPrivate” mode was built into IE8 for, har har!).

Anyway, maybe Apple’s OS is great and beats the pants off of Windows… but I’m not going to go and actively seek it out when I have absolutely no reason to due to the problems I DO NOT have with, “millions of viruses” and the gazillion random crashes I DO NOT have! No, Apple’s going to have to sell their product to me directly… or at least give me SOME reason to look into it! Until then, I’m pretty sure that most users like me will remain quite content with their status of being a PC. Yes, all of us low-life PC users will sit down here and look up the nostrils of the snooty Mac users (not all of them, because I know some good people who use a Mac because they like it and not just to be cool) and laugh at them because we can’t figure out just why the heck they think they’re all so cool.

Oh, and I’m not ditching Apple’s OS by any means. I’m a huge fan of people using what they like and what works for them, but as a content Windows user, it baffles me that I’ve been watching these stupid Apple commercials attempt to beat the same message over and over and over and over into peoples’ heads for, what… 2 years now? Something like that? *Pssst!* Hey, Apple! Try appealing to those willing to give your product a try, should they find it to be discernible enough from what they currently use to do as such! Oh, what’s that? There’s really nothing that’s that much greater about your OS? Shame. I guess one of these days, I’ll get even so much as ONE of those, “millions of viruses” that plague Windows and I’ll go running to adopt your invincible OS!

And just to drive the point home, Apple did a FINE job selling their iPod Touch to me via their commercials. I couldn’t keep watching that Crash Bandikoot racing game much longer without having it for myself… along with all the MP3′s I frequently listen to and all the other awesome apps! So, Apple knows how to do it… they just can’t if the product doesn’t sell itself via its own means. To me, this is even more proof that Apple’s OS just couldn’t stand on its own two feet if it weren’t relying on bashing Windows at every turn.

But who am I kidding? I’m just preaching to the choir here. Oh well. Thanks for reading my rant anyway (if you made it this far). =)

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

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It’s no secret that I love Windows 7. As I’ve been thinking about exactly why I love it so much more than Windows Vista, I’ve come to the conclusion that Windows Vista needed to happen for Windows 7 to be what it is and what it will be: The perfect step up from Windows XP.

I’ve been able to sell Windows 7 to many of my friends and followers by painting it in a light which seems befitting enough to grab their attention and pique their interests: Windows 7 is the encompassment of the performance of Windows XP combined with the aesthetics of Windows Vista. After all, at this point, Windows Vista has – for the most part – ended up being a solid OS. Not that it wasn’t before, but it’s in this where I find that Windows Vista just had to happen.

Between the version checking issues, the driver issues, the new user experience (not just the user interface, but how one goes about using the OS) learning curve, the continuation of ironing out the kinks of migrating to 64-bit client, UAC, and the overall headaches and hatred for Vista that ensued – yes, the OS to follow XP was destined for damnation. It makes me think that even IF Microsoft had completed Windows Longhorn as it was pre-reset, many of the issues that plagued Vista would have plagued Longhorn just the same. After all, most of what Microsoft was aiming to achieve in Longhorn did find its way into Vista in some form or fashion (those of us on the forefront of hacking those builds to death know just about more than anyone else all the things that didn’t, though), so even IF the Longhorn vision had been carried through to completion, it would have more than likely met the same fate as that which it gave birth to in Windows Vista.

Even being a Microsoft enthusiast, it still took me until early this year to switch to Vista because I just didn’t like the new user experience. I didn’t feel like it flowed, many of the little ways I used XP that I, personally, found the most productive had been removed, and I honestly read more into the anti-Vista hype than I should have. Once I finally received a copy to review for another website, I took the leap and was pleasantly surprised! Sure, there were some small issues I needed to figure out and get past, but those didn’t last long. Regardless, I entered the Vista game at a point well-past the majority of the issues Windows haters and Windows enthusiasts alike were experiencing with drivers, etc., so my shift to Windows 7 wasn’t too bad where usability was concerned.

I don’t know about you, but there’s been a driver for damn-near everything I’ve thrown at Windows 7 so far and whatever I *have* had to install driver-wise, it has either just worked or using compatibility mode just works. It just works. That’s one thing I did have an issue with in Vista – compatibility mode. Oh, and UAC? Brilliant now. It never gets in the way (most importantly, when I’ve told it not to… and it didn’t take an act of congress to make it happen). Although there are some minor gripes that I do have with Windows 7, I think it’s exactly what *should* have followed XP, but would have never been due to the lessons that still would have needed to be learned.

Now, this isn’t to say that Windows Vista was just an all-out horrible OS, because it wasn’t! There was plenty of innovation that went under the hood into Windows Vista and it all went into Windows 7. Of course, Windows 7 got the best of it and improved upon it, but there is PLENTY of Windows Vista in Windows 7… and that’s a good thing. Leave it to Apple, though, and they’ll tell you that Windows 7, “is just another Windows Vista” simply because it utilizes much of the same code… annnnd because Apple apparently doesn’t have enough going for its OS to market it properly, so instead, they take cheap shots at Windows to sell their product (hehe).

Taking all of the aforementioned into consideration, I posit that Windows Vista HAD to happen to ensure what will be the success of Windows 7 and everything that actually makes Vista a good OS. Yes, I’m going to step out on that limb and be so brave as to call Windows 7 a success a little over a month prior to its official launch date. For all of the businesses who decided they would wait until Windows 7 to upgrade from XP, well… Windows 7 is here and it’s exactly what you wanted Vista to be (and so much more). While XP users will still have a bit of a learning curve with Windows 7′s usability, it’s filled with the performance from XP and the looks of Vista to make it an enjoyable experience; not an arduous one.

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

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I was super-excited today when I got home to see my fresh new GPU awaiting me in front of my door (check out the size of this freakin’ thing). Before you could say, “why the heck hasn’t Microsoft hired Rafael Rivera yet,” I slapped that puppy in my mobo, fired it up, installed the drivers and went to run WinSAT to acquire my new WEI rating (5.9 because of my hard drives… booo, everything else is at least 7.2).

If you’re never run WinSAT via command line, there are a number of ways you can run the tool. The way I chose to run it was: winsat formal -restart clean

Unfortunately, I couldn’t remember the command, so I pulled up WinSAT’s help information by running: winsat /?

When I did that, I was presented with what I consider to be a massive failure:

(Click for a full-sized image)

(Close-up view)

It looks like someone copied the text out of Wordpad or something and compiling the application incorrectly formatted the open/close quotes that should be around, “forgethistory”. Also, doing a Google search (and a Bing one, for posture), there were no results for, “winsat winast” (I didn’t have those in quotes when I searched), so I’m not sure Microsoft is aware of this yet. Because of that, it’s obvious that *nobody* leverages WinSAT via command line but me… soooo, I guess that makes me the ultimate nerd, huh? lol. That, and I suppose this post makes me a, “grammar nazi” to boot, huh? Oh well.

Hey, I don’t have Vista installed on any of my machines any longer, so do any of you want to check and see if this issue is present in it as well? In a command line window, just run: winsat /?

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

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First, for those of you who have no idea what the heck, “OM NOM NOM” means, here you go:

Om nom nom: The sound made when someone eats ravenously; made famous by Cookie Monster from Sesame Street. See exhibit A.

Exhibit A.

Now that you know, here’s how to make Windows 7 taste OM NOM NOM (click the pic for a full-res version):

Talk about a… FROSTED look for AERO’s glass border, huh!? *cough, cough* Oh, and I believe the text is in Russian (which I can’t read), so if you’re a Russian viewer of my blog, feel free to translate for us!

Now, if you’re baffled as to how the heck a cake was made with such a pristine-looking image, there’s a way to take a picture and transpose it to edible art, essentially. Cake makers use such methods to produce results like what you see here. Anyway, this sure has been a pointless post… but at least you know how an image like that can be put on a cake now (if you didn’t already)! For a more meaningful post, make sure to catch my Bing cashback article. If you shop online and enjoy saving money at every corner, it’s not an article to be missed!

Oh, and see? You thought exhibit A had nothing to do with this post beyond, “om nom nom.” Everyone loves cake! Especially a Windows 7 cake.

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

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In celebration of the completion of Windows 7 (and with the anticipation of Microsoft making Windows 8 a 64-bit-only release), I decided it was time for me to upgrade my desktop from the (now) low-end 32-bit system I currently have to a 64-bit powerhouse… and all for under $1000. I set out to build something that would last for quite a while to come. Likewise, I needed it to be a powerhouse not just for the sake of it being a powerhouse, but for good reason: I have some pretty processor- and memory-intensive hobbies. While I’ve always been satisfied to run my favorite games on their low settings, I decided to shoot for the stars and build something that would run Crysis on high (maybe even the unlockable, “very high”). Likewise, I do a lot of audio recording and mixing. With lots of plug-ins loaded in my DAW, just my drum kit plug-in alone is a RAM hog (loading samples into RAM is how it accesses them so quickly).

So, before setting out to do this, I needed to justify it. I don’t like spending exorbitant amounts of money without first justifying it. And contrary to how this post might make it seem, I’m not Mr. Moneybags, I assure you. Stephen’s fun money has been spent for the next month. lol. Anyway, with that out of the way, I decided to hit up newegg. After spending a number of days doing price-comparisons and figuring up just how much I wanted this puppy to be capable of, I’ve ended up with a system consisting of the following (click the items to see them on newegg):

Case: Cooler Master RC-690-KKN1-GP Black SECC/ABS ATX Mid Tower
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-UD4P AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 790X ATX AMD
CPU: x64 AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor
RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D (I bought two to = 8GB)
GPU: EVGA 512-P3-N973-TR GeForce 9800 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported (I bought 2 to configure SLI)
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Green WD6400AACS 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s (I bought two to = 1.2TB space, no RAID configuration)
Power Supply: APEVIA ATX-AQ700W-BK 700W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready
HDD SATA Cables: OKGEAR 18″ SATA II Cable Model GC18ATASM12 (Needed since the HDD’s are OEM; typically means they don’t come with cables)

The grand total for all of the above is: $883.87

Excellent! I came in well-under budget and I’m fairly confident I’ve set out to accomplish what I wanted to accomplish in terms of power and longevity. That price includes a coupon (EMCLWMW32) that took an additional $20 off the 2 hard drives and the power supply was half-price due to it being one of neweggs, “Shell Shocker” deals today. Bear in mind, I already have a 24″ monitor and I will be reusing my Lightscribe DVD-RW drive, as well as my 5.1 surround sound speaker setup and my X-Fi audio card. Without having those already, the price would have been substantially more, but if you’re looking to accomplish the same thing I set out to, go fill your cart with the aforementioned 8 items, change your quantities, apply the coupon (if it’s not outdated by the time you read this post), and you should be good to go!

And for the sake of mentioning it, though I think I’ll rarely utilize the quad-core capabilities of this processor, I figure it will bode well for down the road and definitely for the rare times it’s needed. Likewise, 64-bit is the future no matter which way you slice it, so if Microsoft does decide to make Windows 8 an x64-only release, I should be golden. Hopefully, all I’ll have to upgrade for a while are my graphics cards… and hopefully, not for a while to come (I’ll be satisfied if I can run Crysis 2 on at least medium settings, lol).

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

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Just a short ‘n sweet update here for those of you interested developers. From the Microsoft Download Center: “The Windows 7 Training Kit for Developers includes presentations, hands-on labs, and demos designed to help you learn how to build applications that are compatible with and shine on Windows 7.” The training kit is noted to utilize key Windows 7 features, such as:

* Taskbar
* Libraries
* Multi-Touch
* Sensors and Location
* Ribbon
* Trigger Start Services
* Instrumentation and ETW
* Application Compatibility

And Application Compatibility topics such as:

* Version Checking
* UAC Data Redirection
* Session 0 Isolation
* Installer Detection
* User Interface Privilege Isolation
* High DPI

Source: Windows 7 Training Kit For Developers Website

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

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Before getting into the finer points of my opinion, let me just say that I absolutely love Windows 7… and not just because I’m a Microsoft enthusiast/evangelist, either. Windows 7 is what I wish Windows Vista had been; the perfect step up from Windows XP. Vista had the potential and the technology, but we all know that when the driver issues were ironed out, it had (and still has) the bad name to contend with. I was sent a review copy of Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 which I did indeed install and make my main OS. For the most part, I had nothing but good things to say about it when I reviewed it but I just never got past a couple of issues. Windows 7 has corrected those issues in spades… well, all but one:

The inability to get the OS to retain folder views the way you want them.

Seriously, Microsoft… wtf is going on with that? Vista, Vista SP1, Vista SP2, and now, Windows 7. If you’re not going to fix it, then remove the, “Apply to All Folders” button from within Folder Options. I’m no expert coder or anything… far from it, actually, and while I understand that there are certain issues that may be unfixable within any given state of, “final” code, is this really something that can’t be fixed? Do none of you internally get annoyed with this issue? Do you need to see this as being an annoyance only through results of billions spent on R&D? I don’t know, maybe I’m just being petty here, but if an OS is going to be changed in drastic ways to make its usage as productive as humanly possible, having to change folder views seemingly more times than not is rather regressive of such efforts, no? Am I the only one out there who experiences this with the frequency that I do? I seem to get a little more annoyed each time it happens… and if you think reading this paragraph was repetitive and slightly annoying, man, let me tell you about this little bug in Windows 7 I hate where Folder Views aren’t remembered… lol.

Now, with that said, I love everything else about Windows 7. It’s fast, sleek, doesn’t feel clunky and weighed down like Vista does, gives you options for more control with UAC without having to run command line scripts to totally disable it, and my absolute favoritist, favorite, faaavorite functionality… the new taskbar. Naturally, there are mixed opinions about it but I absolutely love it. It was *very* easy for me to not just get used to, but fall in love with (unlike the ribbon bar, which I *STILL* have to spend time searching for functionality I want to utilize in *every* application that uses it). Check out the following screenshot of my desktop (click it for a full-sized version):

Now, if that happened to be my taskbar on XP or Vista, my OCD would be kickin’ in to close a bunch of stuff out… but it’s not the XP or Vista taskbar. It’s Windows 7′s and all that stuff is pinned there, just waiting for my use and here’s the great thing (for those of you who aren’t familiar with exactly how 7′s taskbar is different): When you click on an item that’s pinned to the taskbar, whatever loads, utilizes the very same space in the taskbar, so it’s not like quick launch where you have some things like IE and Show Desktop right next to the Start button, then you click on something like IE and it loads the application in a completely separate place on the taskbar as has been traditionally done pre-Windows 7. For instance, in the screenshot above, see how I have IE and Firefox beside one another? If I click one of those, you’ll see it go active. That’s it! If you want to actually see which web pages you have open, you simply hover over the pinned task and a thumbnail preview pops up. Nice and clean, keeping your desktop clean of shortcuts (anything I would normally have on my desktop as a shortcut, I pin to the taskbar) AND your taskbar by managing your space as efficiently as possible.

Now, in that screenshot above, I’ve set my icons in the taskbar to be small. For one, it feels like it takes just a little bit less real estate on my desktop and I’m able to pin more items to it. If I happen to fill that row up, I just drag the taskbar upwards and I’m ready to fill another row. Excellent stuff! Oh, and moving the, “Show Desktop” functionality to the far right-hand side of the taskbar handles two things:

1 – Gives you the ability to just pull the mouse to that corner thoughtlessly. No need to *look* to make sure you’re pushing the Show Desktop button instead of something else in the former Quick Launch toolbar.

2 – Completely nixes the need for the Quick Launch toolbar. By default, the only item in the Quick Launch toolbar that didn’t actually launch anything was the Show Desktop button. Move that, and every bit of the functionality of the Quick Launch (I just accidentally typed, “Quick Lunch” there, lol) is prime to be integrated with the taskbar in just the way Microsoft did it.

Oh, and I like the taskbar, by the way. Just in case I didn’t mention that.

Something else I dug was the speed with which Windows 7 installed. Even from DVD, it installed quite fast! Seemingly much faster than any of the pre-RTM builds I installed, but that could very well be subjective to my observations on any given day I installed a build of Windows 7. All of my drivers installed fine without complaint or fault (I can’t say the same about Vista), and everything I’ve installed thus far just works. That’s it, it just. works. Exactly like I want.

Actually, there *is* one thing that doesn’t work for me that also didn’t work on Vista that I have to figure out: FarCry *will not* run without immense amounts of trial and error. I can get it to run up to a certain game patch level, but even then, there’s a point in the game that loads incorrectly such that you have to start over… only to get back to that point and be met with the same issue. It seems like a map issue and everything else could be drivers. I’ve tried placing the older DX dlls the game looks for in all the necessary places, but no dice. If/when I figure it out, I’m going to place a guide on how I got it to work so that others with the same issue may find success.

So… aside from FarCry not working and the:

IMMENSELY-ANNOYING FOLDER VIEWS GARBAGE YOU WON’T FIX, MICROSOFT

Windows 7 is in all ways perfect for me. I think it could very well be exactly what Microsoft needs to pull itself out of the throes of Vista… AND get XP users to finally upgrade to something else without feeling like they’re pulling teeth. Honestly, to all you XP users, let me say what Windows 7 is just as stable and just as fast as XP right out of the box… for me, at least. It’s definitely worth your time and investment to upgrade to Windows 7 if you’re still lovin’ on XP (or even if you’re using Vista; happily or not).

I hope to obtain a review copy of Windows 7 in which I will *thoroughly* review the heck out of the OS and – unlike having to do for another site with Vista – will post right here on UX Evangelist for those of you who are interested and for those who may accidentally stumble upon my site who are looking for a solid review of it. Feel free to chime in, in the comments section and let me know about your Windows 7 experiences.

-Stephen
http://msftkitchen.com

PS – I *have* experienced one BSOD in Windows 7, but I haven’t been able to reproduce it yet. So far, it seems like just a fluke but it’s worth noting that the blue, the myth, the legend continues on…

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