Posts Tagged ‘Windows’

Now known as Windows Server 2008 R2, WZor has posted hash information and screen shots from the build soon to be leaked. Below is the info and, as always, keep your eyes on your favorite torrent hub if you’re interested in obtaining this build. It’s sure to leak within the next 12-24 hours from now:

MICROSOFT.WINDOWS.SERVER.2008.R2.BUILD.7260.WIN7_RTM.X64.VHD.ENGLISH
7260.0.amd64fre.win7_rtm.090612-2110.serverenterprise_en-us_vl.serverenterprise.vhd
SIZE: 6,834,271,744 byte
CRC: 874173BD
MD5: A3E6DAC35799D2AF816CA39158B6EBAB
SHA1: F194757D85F0ABAD6255CD471CC69179FCB3F483

Source: WZor

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

Pardon the rant that is to come, but I must indulge a bit here. Apple’s WWDC keynote managed to get under my skin a tremendous amount when they compared Windows 7 to Vista by saying, “Windows 7 is just another Windows Vista.” Sure, that may not seem like that big of a deal to some people, but to anyone who knows how much of an uphill battle Microsoft has had with Vista due to the FUD being spread, Apple’s really pulling a cheap shot by trying to revisit something that’s long outdated: Vista-bashing.

I couldn’t help but sit there and think to myself, “wow, Apple… are your products really so cheap now that they can’t stand on their own; you have to use FUD marketing?” Oh, and for those of you who do not know what FUD marketing is, it stands for, “Fear, Undertainty, Doubt” and it’s basically when someone makes their product look good by making other products look bad. Now that you know what it is, you know it’s all that Apple uses to try to sell its products. I mean, it has managed to get to the point where I can’t even THINK of Apple or Mac without taking into consideration that they’re the most cynical in the lot. Hell, even Linux users in much of their intolerance holds at least SOME merit when advanced users make good cases, but Apple? No. If they’ve mastered anything, it’s talk so much trash about PC that you actually have no idea what the Mac can do.

For instance, right now, walk into a store and look at a Macbook sitting beside a PC. Thinking back to all of the stupid, tired commercials of, “hi, I’m a PC and I’m a Mac,” just what does the Mac do? I mean, without messing with it and just looking at it, the only thing you know about a Mac isn’t what it DOES but what it DOESN’T do, e.g. “crash” or “come to a creeping hault constantly.” This, my friends, is bulls#!7 and I’ve finally become sick and tired of being ridiculed by these snide, cynical commercials. You know, I don’t care about any bad blood that may exist between Apple and Microsoft (which, there can’t be TOO much, because Microsoft allows Apple a bit of their action by developing Exchange and Office for Mac, amongst other things you’ll never hear about), nor do I care about how much you’re fueled to hate Microsoft due to how many times you’ve watched, “Pirates of Silicon Valley.”

I mean, people give Microsoft guff for how they’ve chosen to market products and go about statistics in the past, HAH! Have you seen the latest, “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” commercial? It’s the most outlandish thing I’ve ever seen as a computer enthusiast in general. It’s all about, “let’s play on the stupidity and ignorance of people and capitalize on it by selling over-priced hardware that makes people feel like they’re different, even though they’re all the same, even if just by numerous people owning the same product.” Don’t believe me that their products are over-priced and that they’re taking advantage of the customer? Try checking out this latest comparison and observation noted by Bryant of AeroXP:

Why the WWDC sullied Apple’s image (MacBook Pro)

Now, I have absolutely nothing against people who use a Mac because that’s what they love to use and that’s what works for them. My gripe is not with intelligible Mac users; I know people who have switched and they love the Mac. They say it does everything they need and then some, without headaches they personally had with Windows. There’s nothing wrong with that and that’s why other products exist. My problem is solely with Apple and their tired FUD campaign. With that being said, HEY, APPLE: YOU MIGHT WANT TO CONSIDER THAT THE PEOPLE YOU’RE ALIENATING ARE THE DEMOGRAPHIC YOU SHOULD BE APPEALING TO!

Anyway… I’m done for now. I just wanted to get that off my chest. Thanks for reading. lol.

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

Article: Windows Users Are Whiners

Man, I’m really having a field day with this Beez guy! He has really opened my eyes to why people like him help Linux stay under 1% of the market share. I want to translate what his article says:

“Linux is hard to install”
You probably bought a computer with Windows preinstalled and bought a new one when it came to a grinding halt. Next time try reinstalling it from scratch, drivers and applications included.

Translation: Yes, I would say the same thing to my mother because I’m unhappy with my life.

“Linux doesn’t support as much hardware”
Don’t worry. The occasional digital camera, memory stick and USB harddisk will probably work. Check the Internet, select the proper components and buy a custom computer. It is probably cheaper than a computer off the shelf with Windows preinstalled. If you want a laptop, try a Dell or consult the Internet.

Translation: Because my blog is epic enough for you to actually see this without the help of being linked to by a Windows evangelist site.

“I can’t run my programs on Linux”
True, if you want to run Linux programs on Windows you have probably more luck to find a native Windows version. But there are more ways to get the job done. If you want to burn a CD, you don’t need Nero. If you want to write a document, you don’t need MS-Word. If you want to manipulate an image, you don’t need Photoshop. If you want to develop a program, you don’t need MS-Visual Studio. K3B, OpenOffice, GIMP and Kdevelop work just as well. And yes, we do have Firefox.

Translation: Repeat after me: “WINDOWS DOESN’T HAVE FREEWARE! WINDOWS DOESN’T HAVE FREEWARE! WINDOWS DOESN’T HAVE FREEWARE! WINDOWS DOESN’T HAVE BUILT-IN SUPPORT TO BURN A CD! WORDPAD AND NOTEPAD AREN’T SUBSTANTIAL ENOUGH TO WRITE A DOCUMENT! MS PAINT OR FREEWARE APPLICATION PAINT.NET WON’T ALLOW YOU TO MANIPULATE AN IMAGE! FREE PROGRAMS LIKE DEVC++ AND MICROSOFT’S .NET 2008 EXPRESS EDITIONS DON’T EXIST TO HELP YOU DEVELOP PROGRAMS FOR FREE! FIREFOX IS ONLY FOR LINUX!”

“I can’t play my games on Linux”
Computers aren’t there to play games. Try a console, buy an xBox and scratch your disks, I don’t care. If you want to do something serious, try Linux.

Translation: What’s that? Crysis is PC-only? Don’t tell ME what a computer is to be used for, damn it! I’ll tell YOU, YOU GOT THAT MR.!?!?!?!?!?! NOW GO INSTALL LINUX AND GIVE ME 100 PUSH UPS WHILE IT INSTALLS! DO IT!

“I don’t want to work on the command line”
My girlfriend uses Linux all the time. She doesn’t even know what a command line is. Get real. A good Linux distribution allows you to do all the essential stuff from the GUI. Don’t tell me editing the registry is easy.

Translation: Because your girlfriend will have to know how to edit the registry to use Windows! My girlfriend, though? She doesn’t even know what a command line is. Ha. Get real.

“Windows is just as secure as Linux”
Yeah, and my grandmother is world champion polka dancing. On Linux, there a no real threats where viruses, spyware or trojans are concerned. All the programs you have to install on Windows to get the thing remotely secure eat up CPU seconds and make your computer less stable and responsive.

Translation: People don’t particularly care to focus on developing malware for an OS that consumes a massive >1% of market share, so go Linux because no one else does!

“Windows is just as expensive”
Don’t think because it came preinstalled that you didn’t pay for Windows. Believe me, you did. And all these nice programs like Nero, Photoshop, MS-Office don’t come for free as well. You’re probably using pirated versions. Wait ’till your next WGA check.

Translation: I am God.

“I’m lame”
You’re probably right. You want it the easy way. You want to come home, plug in your computer and play some lame game right away. You don’t want to spend an hour installing an OS and think before you click a ‘continue’ button. And because you’ve been doing that for the last ten years, you don’t want to study some manual and learn a new program. You’re so lame, that you are even prepared to fork out your hard earned cash from your wallet in order to stay lame. You’re the kind of person that admits that carbondioxide emissions are a problem, but you’re too lame to take the bike to go to work. Instead, you bought yourself a Hummer because you thought it was cool. You’re the kind of person that prefers to write endless blogs full of excuses instead of making a change. Face it, it’s not Linux that is the problem, it is you.

Translation: My milkshake is better than yours.

Wow, what revealing translations we have! I’m starting to like this Beez character! He’s really showing me why Linux is so much better than Windows. Amazing!

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

The Windows 7 build that PDC attendees will be given is M3 Pre-Beta build 6801. The exact build string is yet to be determined, but after doing some digging around, I think I’ve found it: Build 6801.winmain_win7m3.081020-1655

Now, just where in the world did I pull that build string from? The back of a milk carton? My butt? The Windows dev building in Redmond (I wish, lol)? Nawwwww. Microsoft threw some security updates on their site for Windows 7 a few days ago, so I downloaded them and checked out the build version of the DLL the updates replace (netutils.dll). This is the version as it exists in the DLL: 6.1.6801.4107 (winmain_win7m3.081020-1655)

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Microsoft’s build string terminology, the string reads as follows: Windows 7 M3 (Milestone 3) Build 6801 compiled in the WinMain lab on October 20, 2008 at 4:55 PM (081020-1655)

Even more interesting is that they provided a security update for three versions of the Windows 7 Pre-Beta (click each one to be taken to the download pages):

Windows 7 Pre-Beta (x86)
Windows 7 Pre-Beta x64 Edition
Windows 7 Pre-Beta for Itanium-based Systems

So, does that mean that PDC attendees will be receiving all of those versions? Perhaps! Something else left to be determined is if build 6801 will contain all SKUs or just Enterprise.

Now, something else worth noting is the following: Build 6919.fbl_fun_diag_dev(gaurava).080118-1456

That build was compiled 9 months prior to this 6801 build and is over 100 builds higher!!! This is no surprise to those of us who are familiar with the fact that not all the build labs follow the same build time line but it’s interesting to know that builds were compiled in January with that high of a build string. Oh yeah, I pulled that one out of my butt. lol. Only kidding. Seriously, though, I pulled that build string from another DLL provided by Microsoft for Windows 7 in relation to printing issues (DiagPackage.dll). You can find it here: “This troubleshooting pack detects and fixes the printer problems on Windows 7″

Well, that’s all for now! Off to pack for PDC and make last-minute preperations prior to flying out tomorrow. Don’t forget to keep up with my PDC 2008 Blog! Much, much more to come very, very soon. =)

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

I apologize it’s been a little while since I’ve posted something of quality. I’ve been super busy with work, preparing for PDC, working on my new website templates myself… lots. Anyway, unless it’s something I feel is worthy to write about, I probably won’t be doing much blogging here on uxevangelist.net until after PDC, so, if you haven’t yet, MAKE SURE YOU ADD MY PDC BLOG TO YOUR FEEDS OR FAVORITES!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program…

While discussing the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) in a recent Software Assurance presentation, a few mentions of Windows 7 were made. There were 5 Windows 7 related slides out of 50+, but I felt only 3 of them were relatively general enough to post here (even if just for the cool slide backgrounds alone). Check ‘em out (click for full-sized image):

As you can see, these slides have some spiffy backgrounds which, if I’m not mistaking, are going to be included in the PDC build of Windows 7. Other than that, the information in the slides is all fairly self-explanatory but there were some additional points noted that I want to mention:

“With Windows 7 we are taking a new approach to how we build and talk about future Windows products. So we wanted to explain some of our philosophy to you.

Now that we are early in the development phase we are ready to provide enterprise customers with some more information about Windows 7 for enterprises.”

Also mentioned is that Microsoft is still, “…on track to release Windows 7 three years after the general availability of Windows Vista…” and the presenter reassures us that Windows 7 is built on top of the progress made in Vista, so migrating to Windows 7 will be much smoother than migrating from XP to Vista.

More later! I’m off to go work more on getting my agenda together for PDC. Man, that’s going to be one busy week… lol.

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

Keeping it “short ‘n sweet,” WinFuture has posted some screenshots of build 6801. Check out the image below with the spiffy new wallpaper, then go visit WinFuture via the reference link below the screenshot to see the rest of them!

Reference: WinFuture.de

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield? Psh.

Michael Jordan vs. Larry Bird? Puh-leeeease.

Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock? SMALL POTATOES!

Dated 9-18-08, a court document I found residing on Microsoft’s servers has a page 1 title that I would pay to see (cue Darth Vader music):

SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAYYYYY! IT’S U.S. VS. MS! BEEEE THEEERRRREE!!!

If you want to know about the case (it looks fairly boring unless you’re developing a product for Windows that will go head-to-head against Microsoft’s bundled applications), download the document via the reference link at the end of this post. The title of this post was meant to reflect the following excerpt cut ‘n pasted from page 5 of said document into MS Paint and saved as a PNG:

See? The USA loves Windows 7 builds! (Anyone know if the TC is looking to hire? Muahaha…) This completely meaningless and random post has been brought to you by a half-asleep Stephen.

Reference: 09-18-08JointStatusReport.pdf

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

While the information floodgates certainly haven’t been opened on Windows 7 by Microsoft yet, it seems they’re allowing for at least a trickle. In addition to my posts regarding the updated WSPP documentation to include Windows 7 and Microsoft’s Update Catalog listing drivers available for Windows 7, Microsoft appears to be adding Windows 7 content to the MSDN Library. The fact that Microsoft seems to be slowly but surely allowing information to seep through is exciting but I’ve already noticed something that may be of particular interest to developers.

As written in the “requirements” section on the “GetUrlCacheConfigInfo Function” page (which I link to as a reference at the end of this post):

It appears that anyone who is familiar with the Winineti.h header in the GetUrlCacheConfigInfo Function will need to make a slight change to their code in Windows 7 Client and Server. While that certainly isn’t a big deal in and of itself, it looks like Microsoft is hard at work with changing things up for developers (by natural process of development, of course; not intentionally to just change things for developers). To what extent things are going to change is anyone’s guess at this point, but if you’re interested in developing for Windows 7, I would start paying close attention to the MSDN Library from here on out and try to get a hold of any Windows 7 bits I could to start fiddling around with. Such actions may help aid in lessening any learning curves present by the time Windows 7 goes gold.

Reference: INTERNET_CACHE_CONFIG_INFO Structure | GetUrlCacheConfigInfo Function

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

Cutting straight to the point here (my oven’s preheating in preparation for corn dogs… mmm… corn dogs…), a recently updated version (dated August 19, 2008) of Microsoft’s WSPP (Workgroup Server Protocol Program) documentation contains information regarding new and modified protocols both in Windows 7 Client and Windows 7 Server. As noted in the following screenshot from said documentation, these protocols will be present in the Beta 1 release of Windows 7:

(…Time to put the corn dogs in the oven… mmm… corn dogs… brb…)

Okay, back. Now, unless you’re in the business of security or a reverse engineer or developer, most of this stuff will go over your head. If you ARE, you may find all of this information quite interesting. There are few new protocols on this list but a ton are modified up to this point… so many, in fact, that I was going to list them here, but I’m waiting for corn dogs and don’t have the patience to go through the whole list. Speaking of that, I’ll be back to finish writing this in a little bit… mmm… corn dogs…

Alright, I’m back again (I heart corn dogs). Basically, there’s a document that tells you what’s updated, what isn’t, which versions of Windows they work for, etc. For everything, there is a corresponding label which allows you to go straight to the PDF document of your choice. For instance, if you want to read into the new BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service) Peer-Caching protocol for Windows 7, you can refer to PDF’s [MS-BPCR], [MS-BPAU], and [MS-BPDP]. You can find all of the PDF documents mentioned in the updated WSPP document on MSDN, searchable as individual documents or all downloadable in one large ZIP file. Links to everything are listed below. *POW!*

References: WSPP/MCPP MSDN Site | Updated WSPP Document | All WSPP PDF’s (ZIP) | All MCPP PDF’s (ZIP)

-Stephen

(Follow me on Twitter: msftkitchen)

On my routine Sunday drive along the internet, I ran across the Microsoft Update Catalog site. Curious as to if anyone with a client or server build of Windows 7 could check for driver updates, I decided to check for myself. While there isn’t a whole heck of a lot that’s interesting at this point (printer drivers, hardware drivers, etc.), it may be worth it to keep an eye on this site. Have a look-see for yourself by clicking on one of the two reference links below the screenshot (screenshot provided just in case MS decides to remove the Windows 7 references). Whichever link you click on, whenever the page loads, click the “Last Updated” tab to order the results by date.

Reference: Windows 7 Client Drivers | Windows 7 Server Drivers

-Stephen