Windows Archive

My Desktop OS: Windows XP SP2

Submitted by Nalle 2006-02-17 Windows 54 Comments

"I've been looking at the 'My desktop OS'-articles, and found that I'll have to be the one writing one for Windows XP. To be honest, Windowx XP is very close to being usable on the desktop. I say very close, because it's not so out of the box. There is a few issues, however and many of them arises when you need to reinstall. You do need to reinstall Windows from time to time - it's just a fact of life!"

Submitted by jayson.knight 2006-02-17 Windows 85 Comments

"Microsoft recently made a change to the licence agreement saying that a new motherboard is equal to a new computer, hence you need to purchase a new Windows licence. Here is what Microsoft has to say: "An upgrade of the motherboard is considered to result in a 'new personal computer' to which Microsoft OEM operating system software cannot be transferred from another computer. If the motherboard is upgraded or replaced for reasons other than a defect, then a new computer has been created and the license of new operating system software is required." Please note that this does not go for retail copies of Windows, but only for OEM versions.

Submitted by sean batten 2006-02-14 Windows 30 Comments

Vista's External Memory Device technology will boost demand for Flash first. It allows the system to grab USB-connected storage as system memory, using the addition capacity as a half-way house between a true RAM disk and the hard drive. Vista copies over apps and data it anticipates the user will want, allowing them to be subsequently read into RAM far more quickly than they would from the hard drive.

Vista’s Aero Glass: a Tiered Graphical Experience

Thom Holwerda 2006-02-13 Windows 32 Comments

"Nearly two years ago Microsoft announced that Windows Vista would sport a so-called 'tiered' graphical experience. The user interface would remain the essentially the same no matter what graphical prowess a machine was blessed with, but the best of the eye-candy and the whiz-bang effects would be reserved for the most modern of computers. While Microsoft has not put the official seal of **CONFIRMED** on any recommended hardware configurations, we have a good idea of what the company will consider as the base for the full-flavored, full-bodied Aero Glass experience."

Pane Relief: Registry Management Tools

Eugenia Loli 2006-02-12 Windows 18 Comments

The Windows registry works like an attic; stuff just keeps getting tossed in there, eventually creating a big, jumbled mess. Rick Cook explains why you need to pay attention to the registry and reviews types of registry tools for doing some spot cleaning.

Submitted by Alex Forster 2006-02-12 Windows 18 Comments

In a recent Channel 9 video, Scoble interviews Jenny Lam, creative lead on the Windows User Experience team. Lamb is responsible for everything from the new 'gem' start button to the latest bliss wallpapers. Some interesting bits: the GUI is finalized (are they sure this time?), Iconfactory is again designing the icons, and Photoshop and Illustrator are the tools of choice.

One in Two PCs Won’t Run Vista’s 3D Interface

Submitted by Jeremy 2006-02-10 Windows 66 Comments

Roughly half of today's PCs won't be able to take advantage of the 'Aero Glass' compositor found within Microsoft's upcoming Vista software, due at the end of this year. The estimate was one of the conclusions cited in a report released late Thursday by Jon Peddie Research. The fault, Peddie reported, was that the low-cost integrated graphics controllers customers have chosen process the 2D windows of Windows XP and Windows 2000 just fine, but lack the bells and whistles necessary to process the Windows Desktop Compositing Engine used in Vista. About 63 percent of the 203 million PCs sold used an integrated graphics controller, JPR reported.

Windows XP Installation Guide

Submitted by Nicholson 2006-02-09 Windows 4 Comments

"Love it or hate it - Windows is the dominant operating system in the world today. For all its flaws, Windows still rules the OS space for home users, probably because that is what they have been accustomed to use for a long time. This guide will show how to achieve a lean and mean Windows XP installation (using nLite) that runs smooth as a baby's butt."

Submitted by gubol123 2006-02-08 Windows 28 Comments

Someone claims to have found Vista's release date by using a clever trick. "How do I know? Well, Microsoft EMEA has put up a website where you can guess the launch date for Windows Vista. After you submit a date, it plays a hint video. There’s actually a bunch of videos, some of which are quite funny. Anyway, here comes the interesting part: If you take a look at the page source, the videos are hosted on a Microsoft server in Switzerland. And depending on your guess, they are being loaded either from a subdirectory /early/ or another one named /late/. By simple iteration I quickly found that 'early' ends Nov 30th while 'late' starts Dec 1st. So either one of these will be the launch date. If this all is not a dirty little trick from the webmaster, of course..."

Do We Need Sidebars? Jim Allchin Thinks so

Thom Holwerda 2006-02-06 Windows 33 Comments

"Windows Vista will eventually sport what has been called a 'sidebar' - a kind of taskbar-like user interface element designed to sit on the right or left side of a display and offer 'heads-up' information on a customizable basis. When we last checked in on the Vista Sidebar at CES, we saw a number of widgets (or gadgets) running on the sidebar, including a small picture frame, an RSS list/interface, weather information, and more. The idea, generally speaking, is to give prominent spacing to tasks and information services that are, in theory, so frequently referenced that it makes sense to prominently display them on your desktop, alongside or on top of your other application windows."

Will Vista Pump up Microsoft’s Future Profits?

Thom Holwerda 2006-02-04 Windows 39 Comments

Microsoft executives already are counting their Vista chickens before the next-generation Windows release has hatched. A Microsoft vice president on Feb. 1 detailed for attendees of the Merrill Lynch IT Services & Software Conference Microsoft's reasons for its high expectations for Vista, the release of Windows client due to ship in the latter half of this year. Microsoft expects 200 million new PCs to ship with Vista preloaded in the first 24 months that the operating system is available, said Michael Sievert, corporate vice president, Windows Product Management & Marketing.

Sidebar on Display in Next Vista Preview

Submitted by Peter Bay 2006-02-03 Windows 20 Comments

"As more computer users move to larger, wide-screen monitors, Microsoft is staking a claim to that added real estate. Windows Vista, the update to the operating system due this year, will add a feature called Sidebar. Sidebar is a small panel at the side of the monitor that can be used to view photo slide shows, RSS feeds and other small programs, dubbed gadgets."

Microsoft Talks About Security Developments

Submitted by Mirko 2006-02-03 Windows 7 Comments

Microsoft realized that phishing, pharming, botnets and rootkits show that attacks are becoming more sophisticated. This situation makes traditional defenses to be inadequate and evolution is at hand. The Redmond giant has been mentioned in a positive context many times during the past year for the advances made in the security arena. At the Infosecurity Europe 2006 Press Conference, Detlef Eckert - Microsoft Chieft Security Advisor EMEA - demonstrated what Microsoft did and what more we can expect in the near future.

Microsoft Releases Windows Server 2003 R2

Thom Holwerda 2006-02-02 Windows 15 Comments

Microsoft's long-awaited Windows Server 2003 R2, the update to Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1, is finally generally available, the company said on Feb. 1. This widespread availability follows the December 2005 release to manufacturing of the final code for this server software. Microsoft customers will now be able to buy Windows Server 2003 R2 pre-installed on hardware through companies such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard and IBM, and Microsoft's enterprise Software Assurance customers will get their Windows Server 2003 R2 updates in the near future.

MS To Omit Anti-Virus From Vista

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-30 Windows 93 Comments

Microsoft will omit anti-virus protection in Vista, the next version of Windows, which it plans to ship late this year. As with previous versions of Windows dating back to Windows 2000 at least, Redmond is promoting Vista as a landmark improvement in Windows security. Jim Allchin, co-president of Microsoft's platform products and services division, told reseller magazine CRN that safety and security, improved user experience, and mobility features will be key additions in Vista. But there will be no anti-virus software, the Windows development supremo said during a questions and answers session with CRN. For unspecified business (not technical) reasons, Microsoft will sell anti-virus protection to consumers through its OneCare online backup and security service.

Submitted by mono 2006-01-29 Windows 25 Comments

"On Wednesday morning, I met with Microsoft co-president Jim Allchin, the man most directly responsible for Windows Vista and Longhorn Server, the company's upcoming client and server operating system releases. Allchin is a soft-spoken, intelligent man with decades of industry experience, the last 15 years of which were spent at Microsoft. I've run into Mr. Allchin at various events throughout the years, but the last time I sat down with him for a one-on-one meeting was in August 2001, when we discussed the then-upcoming release of Windows XP. With Windows Vista on track for a late 2006 release, Allchin hit the road to meet with members of the technical press."

Microsoft To Skip Vista Beta 2

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-28 Windows 66 Comments

Customers and partners who've been holding their breath waiting for Beta 2 of Windows Vista before getting serious about testing Microsoft's next-generation operating system can exhale. There will be no single, catch-all Beta 2 of Vista, according to Jim Allchin, co-president of Microsoft's Platform Products & Services Division. Instead, Microsoft is planning to rely increasingly on CTP builds to get its feedback from Windows testers. Elsehwere, Allchin said you should buy Vista for its security enhancements.

Windows XP on an 8 Mhz Computer

Submitted by Dr. No 2006-01-28 Windows 76 Comments

This is already a fairly old article, but I'm pretty confident it never made OSNews' front page. In this article, the author proves that Windows XP can be installed, and 'run', on processors with as little as 8MHz. "The target of this project was to find the weakest system where you can run Windows XP. Keep in mind, that Microsoft official requirements are a CPU with 233 MHz an 64 MB of RAM. But that had to be beaten!"

Is Windows Vista Vapourware?

Adam Scheinberg 2006-01-28 Windows 43 Comments

Digg users just "dugg" an item from Silicon Valley Sleuth to the top of their queue. The article asks boldly, "is Windows Vista really vapourware?" Although the article discounts some legitimate strides Microsoft is making with things like IE7, Least-Privileged User Account, and Windows Defender, there's little doubt that Windows Vista is a far cry from what we were promised a few short years ago.

Vista’s UI Final – No It Ain’t

Thom Holwerda 2006-01-26 Windows 79 Comments

In an interesting turn of events, Microsoft has said that the current Aero interface in the latest Vista build (the December CTP) is not the final UI, saying: "There are going to be GUI changes in Vista by the time the final release comes." However, not too long ago they claimed the current Aero UI was final. Will the real Microsoft developer please stand up?