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Top StoryWindows 7 Service Pack 1 BetaI've gotten a lot of email about the recently released Window 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Beta, which is interesting because this update doesn't add a single meaningful new end user feature to Microsoft's popular new Windows version. Due in Q1 2011, Windows 7 SP1 is essentially just an update rollup, one that doesn't change the system's user experience at all. Here's what the install process is like. More Articles, Blog Posts, and News StoriesThe Slate PC: Haven't We Been Down This Road Before?SuperSite: With the success of Apple's iPad, the PC industry is going slate crazy. HP has two types of slate PCs on tap, one based on Windows 7 and one on WebOS. And Microsoft is going to carpet-bomb the market with different kinds of Windows, just to see what sticks. There's just one problem: Customers have already voted against Windows on slates. Why are we doing this again? It's On: Amazon Announces $139 Kindle
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WinInfo News: At the Black Hat security conference on Wednesday, Microsoft and Adobe announced they were dramatically expanding their relationship in order to better protect users against electronic threats. Now, Adobe will provide vulnerability information about its products via Microsoft's Active Protections Program (MAPP) to security solution vendors.
WinInfo News: Microsoft this week denounced a web search partnership in Japan that would see its close partner, Yahoo, tie-up with industry goliath Google. According to Microsoft, the partnership has antitrust implications, because it would give Google near-total ownership of the Japanese search market.
WinInfo News: The US Copyright Office, a unit of the Library of Congress, this week ruled that iPhone users are free to "jailbreak" their devices, opening them up to non-Apple-approved applications. Anyway, that's how it's been reported.
SuperSite: With Windows Phone 7, Microsoft is starting over from scratch with a deeply innovative new mobile platform that makes Apple's iPhone and Google's Android look tired by comparison. But in its rush to get Windows Phone to market quickly, is Microsoft releasing an unfinished product? And how fast will the software giant fill in the gaps?
WinInfo News: As part of its quarterly and annual financial results releases late last week, Microsoft announced that it had sold over 175 million copies of Windows 7 through the third week of July. According to Microsoft, Windows 7 is now selling at a rate of about 10 units every second or almost 1 million copies of Windows 7 every single day.
SuperSite: In this week's mailbag, whether you should buy a Zune HD or wait and see what happens, Windows Phone 7 tasks/to-do functionality, the HP slate returns (but was it ever gone?), Windows and product key types, Windows Phone 7 and Media Center interaction, and whether it's really going to take all summer for Microsoft to roll out the new Hotmail.
SuperSite: It's time to shut up the haters: I've been using a prototype Windows Phone 7 device as my sole smart phone this month, and I'm ready to make the switch. Windows Phone isn't perfect, but it's innovative and exciting enough to take on the best that Apple and Google have to offer.
SuperSite: In the latest episode of the Windows Weekly podcast, Leo and I discuss the Windows Phone technical preview in some detail, a zero-day Windows shortcut vulnerability, Xbox 360 Kinect pricing and bundles, and a new low-end Xbox 360 console.
SuperSite: The Reliability Monitor is well-hidden in Windows 7, but can be very useful if you want to find out what's going wrong with your PC. In addition to identifying the exact causes of reliability issues, it can often deliver fixes for those problems and, if not, alert you when such a fix does become available.
SuperSite: Available as an optional download, Windows Live Essentials 2011 is an application suite that includes a number of new versions of classic Windows applications, including Windows Live Mail, Photo Gallery, Messenger, Movie Maker, Family Safety, and more. And the 2011 version, currently in beta, is the best yet.
Blog: PC makers sold 82.2 million machines in Q2 2010, 18.15 million in the US. These are gains of about 22 percent worldwide, and about 14 percent in the US (compared to the same quarter one year ago).
WinInfo News: An often irreverent look at some of this week's other news, including Microsoft's record-setting financial results, Windows 7 hits 175 million units sold, Microsoft's mysterious ARM agreement points to a possible tablet future, Apple delays white iPhone 4s until the end of time, Nokia issues in the high-end market, Dell settles SEC case for $100 million, Amazon profits surge, and Facebook hits 500 million users.
WinInfo News: Microsoft this week released an automated online tool to counter a recently-revealed zero-day vulnerability in the Windows shell. This vulnerability affects all modern Windows versions from Windows XP through 7, including Server versions, and will almost certainly be exploited by hackers before a formal fix is rolled out via Windows Update.
WinInfo News: Microsoft this week announced that its Kinect motion-sensing add-on for the Xbox 360 will launch November 4 in North America and will cost $149.99, as expected. Additionally, Microsoft will sell an all-in-one bundle that combines a new low-end Xbox 360 with the Kinect and a Kinect-specific game for $299.
WinInfo News: Microsoft on Tuesday announced the immediate availability of a beta version of its next Security Essentials product, which provides free anti-virus and anti-malware functionality to Windows and is aimed at individuals and home-based businesses. Additionally, the company released a beta version of its business-oriented Forefront Endpoint Protection 2010 (FEP), which will replace Forefront Client Security...
WinInfo News: Apple continued its torrid sales pace in the second quarter of 2010, with strong sales of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac product lines driving record profits. Only the iPod line has seen any slowdown, and Apple continues to be immune to industry economic conditions despite its premium pricing model.
SuperSite: The real innovations in Windows Phone are seen in its interface, and its ability to connect so seamlessly with third party services and present the results not in siloed, iPhone-style app prisons, but inside of cohesive, panoramic experiences. The effect is breathtaking, and it's groundbreaking, and it's and something you have to see to fully appreciate.
Blog: Microsoft sends word that it is now offering a public beta version of the next Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) product, which provides Windows Firewall integration, enhanced protection from web-based threats, a new protection engine, and a new network inspection system.
WinInfo News: The message here is clear: During the time period in which Apple began selling its iPad tablet device, Kindle sales have only accelerated. Amazon was able to keep this seemingly torrid pace up thanks to a price cut in June, when the Kindle fell from $260 to $190.
WinInfo News: Microsoft this morning announced an important milestone in the development of its next-generation smart phone platform, Windows Phone. The company has delivered a near-final, technical preview version of the system to developers in preparation for a broad, worldwide launch in the fourth quarter.
WinInfo News: Hoping that customers and its most ardent followers won't see the logical discord, Apple on Friday strenuously claimed that there was nothing wrong with its beleaguered iPhone 4 smart phone. It then announced that it would provide a free fix for that non-existent problem...
SuperSite: In this week's mailbag, Microsoft will eventually reveal its plans for Zune Pass and Zune Marketplace on Windows Phone outside the US, Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta and Windows 7 libraries integration, Hotmail Plus and advertisements, Office Web Apps on the iPad (and iPhone), Windows Phone vs. Zune HD, and how you can report bugs to Windows Live.
SuperSite: In the latest episode of the Windows Weekly podcast, Leo and I discuss a ton of new Windows Phone news, Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Beta, Small Business Server "Aurora," Windows InTune Beta 2, Intel's record revenues and PC sales growth, and Apple's iPhone 4 apocalypse.
SuperSite: In Windows 7, the Windows Recovery Environment is installed into the OS partition automatically, providing access to a suite of recovery tools including the excellent Startup Repair, which automatically fixes boot problems and returns the PC to its normal booting state.
SuperSite: Windows 7 includes a little-known command line utility called powercfg.exe that can, among other things, provide you with a power efficiency diagnostics report that details which applications, processes, and drivers are wrecking havoc with your PC's power management capabilities.
SuperSite: It's a huge month for Windows Phone, with updates about the expected launch timeframe, updated developer tools, new connected services news, and next week's release of prototype devices to developers.
Windows Phone Secrets: I had hoped to simply ignore a particularly moronic Chicken Little blog post about Windows Phone over at InfoWorld. But I've gotten too many emails about it, and there are actually a few issues in there I'd like to discuss. He makes very few valid points.
WinInfo News: An often irreverent look at some of this week's other news, including Apple's damnable lies about the iPhone 4, Microsoft's mobile developer bribes, why Bigfoot sightings are more common than iPad users on Microsoft's campus, the Russian spy that was also a Microsoft employee, disappointing Office 2010 retail sales, Windows 2000 and XP SP2 RIP, Paul Allen's philanthropy, and Google's one-trick pony.
WinInfo News: Microprocessor giant Intel reported its best-ever quarter this week, with net income of $2.9 billion on revenues of $10.8 billion. The company credited surging PC and server sales for the lift, including surprisingly strong demand from corporate customers.
WinInfo News: Amidst an increasing and incredible series of complaints about its latest smart phone, the iPhone 4, Apple said this week it would hold a press conference on Friday. The company is expected to address issues with the iPhone 4's defective antenna design.
WinInfo News: Windows XP is the OS that won't die, and like "Jason" from a "Friday the 13th" movie, it seems to keep rising from the dead just when you thought we had finally escaped. And this week, it's happened again.
SuperSite: Microsoft's annual partner conference offers up a host of announcements this week around Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1, SBS 7 and Aurora, InTune Beta 2, Slate PCs, Windows Phone, and more...
Blog: Microsoft today is delivering the previously announced Facebook and Windows Live Messenger support for its Outlook Social Connector. Additionally, it is making the Outlook Social Connector available to Outlook 2003 and 2007 users as well (it was previously made available only on Outlook 2010).
Blog: If you go through Microsoft's Download page for the Service Pack 1 Beta for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, you're going to have to jump through some hoops to get it. In fact, you might even have to lie (!). So here are the direct download links.
Windows Phone Secrets: A Microsoft announcement about some upcoming web services for Windows Phone is interesting, but but what I really want to discuss is why the truly "magical" and "revolutionary" mobile technologies are coming out of Redmond this year, not Cupertino. Stay tuned: Windows Phone is going to blow you away.
WinInfo News: Microsoft this week is hosting its annual Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Washington D.C., and has been the case in recent years, the company is using it as a forum for a surprisingly diverse set of announcements. Key among these was the software giant's continued commitment to transitioning to a cloud computing superpower.
WinInfo News: The respected consumer advocates and technical experts at Consumer Reports have independently tested Apple's controversial new iPhone 4 smart phone and concluded what the rest of us have known for weeks: The device ships with a major hardware defect related to the 3G radio that will not be fixed by Apple's upcoming software update.
Blog: According to analyst estimates, total mobile phone installed base (smart phones and feature phones) will exceed the PC installed base by 2013. And the smart phone installed base could exceed the PC installed base before 2020.
Blog: Google has just released a beta version of a tool called App Inventor for Android that lets you "build just about any [Android] app you can imagine." Similar in function to early versions of Visual Basic, this is a serious competitive threat...
SuperSite: On Monday, Microsoft will finally reveal some news I've been itching to share for months: The company is splitting its Windows Small Business Server (SBS) line into two products, the traditional, on-premise SBS 7 and the "cross-premise" SBS "Aurora."
WinInfo News: Microsoft late last week published data from market researchers showing that nearly half of all Windows 7 PCs worldwide are running a 64-bit version of the OS. That's a dramatic increase from previous Windows versions...
WinInfo News: A monopoly abuse lawsuit against Apple and AT&T has been granted class action status. The lawsuit contends that the exclusive availability of Apple's iPhone on the AT&T wireless service has hurt competitors and drove prices higher than an open market would have allowed...
SuperSite: In this week's mailbag, why I'm no longer using Hotmail as my primary email service, fishy in-app purchases, using TechNet and MSND product keys with Windows Anytime Upgrade, a WinFS update, the return of the Windows 7 Family Pack, and installing Windows 7 with Upgrade media.
SuperSite: In the latest episode of the Windows Weekly podcast, Leo and I discuss the Windows 7 Family Pack comeback, a new round of Microsoft layoffs, the unexpected success of Xbox Live, Windows InTune, an update on "Windows Phone Secrets," ripping audio CDs, and Paul's "new" iPhone 3GS.
SuperSite: Saddled by a PC maker-supplied version of Windows 7 with crapware? Fear not, with the Windows 7 Backup and Restore utility and a little know-how, you can restore your PC cleanly, without the crapware.
SuperSite: Windows 7 ships with the latest version of Microsoft's web browser, Internet Explorer 8, which offers such new features as the Favorites Bar, Web Slices, Accelerators, Visual Search, and InPrivate browsing.
SuperSite: The July 2010 edition of my print magazine column looks at Windows Live Essentials 2011 and the New Hotmail, Office Web Apps, KIN One and KIN Two, Web Standards and IE 9, and HP and Palm.
WinInfo News: An often irreverent look at some of this week's other news, including Ballmer's CES 2011 showing, the truth about KIN sales, whether the iPhone is a disaster or the worst-ever disaster for Apple, Android steals usage share from RIM and iPhone, Windows Phones to debut in October, Microsoft to patch zero-day flaw, Microsoft's page flipping animation, Xbox Live Destination Arcade, Kinect for couch potatoes,. Silverlight for Symbian, and China still loves Google.
Blog: As of June 2010, 46 percent of all PCs worldwide running Windows 7 are running a 64-bit edition of Windows 7. That is, nearly half of all PCs running Windows 7 are running 64-bit.
WinInfo News: Microsoft quietly began a new round of layoffs this week, cutting small numbers of jobs throughout the company. Sources told me that this latest round of layoffs, though unexpected, would be far less severe than last year's cuts but designed to send a message that the company was serious about reversing recent missteps.
SuperSite: I've updated the "What I Use" page with the Xbox 360 S, which replaces three other devices in my living room, a new iPhone 3GS and iPod touch, Windows Live Sync (replacing Live Mesh), Windows InTune Beta, and a hiatus from video games so I can finish Windows Phone Secrets.
Blog: Xbox Live revenues exceeded $1.2 billion for the fiscal year that just ended on June 30. And a whopping 50 percent of Xbox Live subscribers are in fact paying for the Gold membership.
WinInfo News: Mozilla posted the first beta version of Firefox 4 late Tuesday, offering users a first peak at its next web browser. Firefox 4 Beta 1 features a brand new user interface that adopts a more streamlined look and feel, as well as dozens of other new features.
SuperSite: I've been using the beta version of Windows InTune to manage my own systems for the past month, and there's a lot to like about Microsoft's simple and logical cloud-based management service.
Blog: Microsoft today released a beta version of WebMatrix, a free tool for "building, customizing and deploying websites in one common, straightforward experience." WebMatrix targets developers of all skill sets, and can be downloaded today.
WinInfo News: Apple on Friday issued a rare public apology for a years-old programming flaw in its iPhone series of smart phones that the company says over-states the quality of the device's wireless connection. This, Apple claims, is the reason why so many iPhone 4 users have experienced connection problems. But the explanation seems to skirt around...
SuperSite: In this week's mailbag, saving money on a TechNet Professional subscription using a promo code, programs I leave running in the background, the Xbox Live Gold Family Pack, iPhone 4 and iOS 4 issues with Exchange Server, and how to revert an iPhone 3G to a pre-iOS4 firmware version.
SuperSite: In the latest episode of the Windows Weekly podcast, Leo and I discuss Paul's road trip to Durango, Colorado, a first Windows 8 sneak peek, reality vs. perception with regards to the supposed decline of Microsoft, the death of KIN, IE's usage share reversal, Hulu subscriptions, and iPhone 4.
SuperSite: If you would like to upgrade your current version of Windows 7 to a higher-end product edition, you can do so more quickly, and more cheaply, if you use Windows Anytime Upgrade.
SuperSite: Windows Troubleshooting is a new Windows 7 feature that diagnoses and resolves common operating system and hardware issues.
A daily dose of Windows news and information, with no fluff.
A regular look at what's going on in the tech blogosphere.
Follow along as I write my next book!
I get a lot of email. Once a week, I share the best of it.
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Every week, Leo Laporte and I record the Windows Weekly podcast. |
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I'm Paul Thurrott, a technology analyst at Penton Media. |
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