SuperSite Blog

Windows Home Server Power Pack 3: November 24

2009-11-20T18:05:24Z

Microsoft contacted me yesterday about Windows Home Server (WHS) Power Pack 3 (PP3) but I was traveling so I had to just tweet a short version of the news: WHS PP3 will ship publicly November 24. Here's the full release:

We are announcing that the Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 will be available in all shipping languages (Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish) on November 24 2009. Power Pack 3 will be a free update to existing Windows Home Server users via Windows Update.

Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 improves the Windows Home Server experience with Windows 7 and Windows Media Center by providing features like backup and restore of computers running Windows 7, Windows 7 Libraries integration, enhancements for Windows Media Center, and better support for netbook computers. Microsoft released the Beta of the Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 in July 2009 and received positive community support and feedback from Beta testers throughout the testing cycle. We let you know back in September that we were going to continue testing the Beta and would not ship the final release of Power Pack 3 until the community has validated our work. We are pleased to now announce the November 24, 2009 availability.

Windows 7 users should be sure to download Power Pack 3 via Windows Update for the most optimal experience on a Windows Home Server network. For more information on this topic and details on the Windows 7 enhancements, please visit the Windows Home Server blog.

Top 7 Ways to Enhance Your Windows 7 Experience

2009-11-18T17:21:58Z

Microsoft sends along some interesting information today about Windows 7:

Top 7 Things to Do After Installing Windows 7

Personalize your PC: Make your Windows 7 PC your own by pinning your favorite programs to the enhanced Windows Taskbar, to easily preview and switch between Windows. Then, customize your desktop with one of the many new themes available in Windows 7 (or easily download a new one that suits your personality), and drag your favorite gadgets where you want them on your desktop.

Download Windows Live Essentials – the killer apps for Windows 7: Once you have Windows 7 installed, go to download.live.com to download free programs for email, IM, movie-making, photos and more!

Organize your multiple email accounts in one place: Organize your multiple email accounts using Window Live Mail (including Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail Plus and Gmail) so you can receive email in one place, organized into separate folders. You can even add RSS feeds to stay up on your favorite sites and blogs.

Import and organize your photos: Your new operating system is a great excuse to finally organize the thousands of digital photos you’ve accumulated over the years. Windows Live Photo Gallery allows you to sort your photos easily by tags, folders or dates, then clean them up with easy editing features, including auto-fix, sharpen image, panoramic stitch, and more.

Make a movie in less than five minutes: Now that you have your favorite photo and video memories on your Windows 7 PC, make them into movies and slideshows that you can share on the web (including easy publishing to YouTube and Facebook) or burn onto a DVD in high definition (if your camera supports it). Windows Live Movie Maker features the simple-to-navigate Windows 7 ribbon, and time-saving features like AutoMovie that automatically turn your photos, videos and music into an impressive movie – complete with titles and transitions.

Snap to it! Need to compare two documents side-by-side? Snap, a new feature in Windows 7, is a quick (and fun) way to increase your productivity. Snap allows you to resize open windows simply by dragging them to the edges of your screen – left or right. Then, the window will expand vertically and fill the screen, so you can easily position windows side-by-side.

Shake away the clutter: Need to cut through a crowded desktop and quickly focus on a single window? With Windows 7, you can click a pane and give your mouse a shake. Voila! Every window except that one disappears. Jiggle again, and your Windows are back.

PDC 2009: Day 2

2009-11-18T15:43:46Z

4:37 pm. Recording Windows Weekly with Leo.

Dinner at 7 and then the Underground@PDC party.

12:28 pm. Rafael and Stephen finally showed up to the press room. Bright and early ;)

Not as busy today going forward: Meetings regarding Windows 7 for developers and IE coming up. I'm recording the podcast today off-schedule at 4:00 pm PST as well.

8:15 am. Office 2010 Beta Preview'>Office 2010 Beta Preview'>Live blogging from the keynote should be starting up in earnest soon...

7:42 am. In the press room with Andrew and Tom (Neowin) and Long. Today promises to be more interesting than yesterday. (not that Azure isn't interesting, but...)

PDC 2009: Day 1

2009-11-17T17:49:57Z

6:00 pm: An afternoon of meetings are over. I think I'm finally starting to grasp how Windows Azure works (it only took a year) and how it really differs from classic, on-premise Windows Server. The big change since PDC 2009 is that Microsoft heard from developers that they weren't only interested in hosting new applications on Azure; they also wanted to move existing apps to the new platform and transform them, sometimes over time, to utilize new Azure capabilities. So this has been a big focus of the past year. This will also result in a number of articles, I guess, but it might even be early next week before that happens.

11:10 am: From the session, some interesting advice about moving from traditional menu/toolbar-based apps to a ribbon UI. Resist the urge to map menus to ribbon tabs. Think in scenarios ("what users want to do").

Pic from Tom:

10:50 am: Going to attend Windows Ribbon: Technical Deep Dive session with Rafael, Tom, and Andrew. Then it's back to back meetings for the rest of the day.

10:30 am: So it's hard not to be underwhelmed here. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure this is big stuff. But it's not interesting stuff. And the problem there is that you sort of see a future where Microsoft is a big and successful company but is no longer interesting. Comparisons to IBM are, of course, both obvious and apt.

Keynote appears to be winding down.

I'm in the press room covering the PDC 2009 Day 1 keynote event. Follow along live on my PDC 2009 page.

Blurry image from my wake-up call this morning at 6:00 am:

Fun With Windows Server: A Haiku Contest And A Free eBook

2009-11-17T02:06:51Z

Yes, you really can have fun with Windows Server. Especially Windows Server 2008 R2: Microsoft is launching a haiku contest, and the winner is getting a 52-inch TV. To win, you have to write a haiku about--you guessed it--Windows Server 2008 R2. Some examples include:

Hyper V! PowerShell!
IT just got easier.
More time for gaming

R2 runs better
Reduced power consumption
Supports multitask

Structure and support
The power to simplify
Love Windows Server

More details are available at the Windows Server 2008 R2 "Compose a Haiku" web site.

And even if you're not particularly creative, you should absolutely take advantage of the free eBook offer: It's the complete text of Introducing Windows Server 2008 R2, by Charlie Russel and Craig Zacker, in PDF format. Click here for the free download.

The New Office 2010 Logo

2009-11-16T19:00:02Z

Microsoft today made Office 2010 Beta 2 available for download to MSDN and TechNet subscribers. (Thanks to Mary Jo Foley for the heads-up.)

Here's a peek at the new Office 2010 logo.

My overview of the beta--which will be made available publicly at some point--will be up later in the week according to the schedule I agreed to with Microsoft. I assume that NDA is still in effect.

PDC 2009: Day 0

2009-11-16T18:26:59Z

I'm at the Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC) today for the Professional Developers Conference (PDC) pre-show events, which involve some workshops--including the one I'm attending right now, Windows 7 Developer Boot Camp, which features Microsoft Fellow (and tech genius) Mark Russinovitch. On a related note, I interviewed Mark two weeks ago at the Microsoft campus for the print magazine; I'll republish the interview on the SuperSite as well, as soon as I can.

Today is likely going to be pretty quiet, but I'll have more info from the show when it makes sense.

Is it OK to Use OEM Windows on Your Own PC? Don't Ask Microsoft

2009-11-16T00:16:46Z

While researching my most recent article, No OEM For You: Windows 7 OEM Packaging is Not For Individuals, I ran into an issue that I should have foreseen: Microsoft's licensing reads like the Dead Sea Scrolls and you need to be an expert in Aramaic to understand it. I don't speak this EULA language, but I know someone who does, Ed Bott. And coincidentally, but not surprisingly, he was actually working on his own post about the OEM versions of Windows 7 when I pinged him. And as he promised, his own more thorough post is now available. It's a must-read.

If Microsoft expects its customers to take license agreements seriously, it has a responsibility to communicate the terms of those agreements to its customers clearly and unambiguously. As I noted earlier this month, Microsoft does a generally poor job of explaining its complicated rules for how Windows licensing works. But I deliberately left one type of Windows license off that list, because it deserves its own special place in the Corporate Communications Hall of Shame.

I’m talking about OEM System Builder licenses for Windows desktop editions. If you look at any online shopping site that caters to PC enthusiasts, you’ll find these copies displayed alongside the upgrade and full license packages that Microsoft says retail customers are supposed to buy.

According to Microsoft, [those who] bought that software and installed it on their own new (or old) PC ... are violating the terms of the OEM System Builder license agreement, which says, in convoluted language, that you must install the software using the OEM Preinstallation Kit and then resell the PC to a third party. If you install that software on your own PC, you don’t have a “genuine” copy of Windows.

Be sure to check out the full post which, thanks to Microsoft's secretive practices, reads like a Dan Brown mystery, except of course that Ed's post is well-written and has to do with EULAs, and not the Masons. You get the idea.

Rafael is Vindicated: Microsoft Did Steal Open Source Code for USB/DVD Tool

2009-11-13T21:30:05Z

Microsoft just confirmed to me that it has completed an investigation of allegations made by my Windows 7 Secrets co-author, Rafael Rivera, concerning the unauthorized and illegal use of open source code in its Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. The software giant has found that it did, indeed, use the code in question. Here's their official statement about this issue:

As you've likely read, we've been investigating a report that the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool might contain GPLv2 code. The WUDT is a free tool which was offered by the Microsoft Store that enabled customers to create bootable USB drives or DVD backup media from the electronic software (ESD) edition of Windows 7 that comes in an ISO format.

After looking at the code in question, we are now able to confirm this was indeed the case, although it was not intentional on our part. While we had contracted with a third party to create the tool, we share responsibility as we did not catch it as part of our code review process. We have furthermore conducted a review of other code provided through the Microsoft Store and this was the only incident of this sort we could find.

When it comes to our attention that a Microsoft component contains third party code, our aim is to be respectful of the terms under which that code is being shared. As a result, we will be making the source code as well as binaries for this tool available next week under the terms of the General Public License v2 as described here, and are also taking measures to apply what we have learned from this experience for future code reviews we perform.

Bravo, both to Microsoft for owning up to this and to Rafael for doing what he does. It astonished both Rafael and I over the past week that so many weirdos came out of the woodwork to misrepresent his claim and complain that, somehow, one example of source code theft wasn't enough. One instance of theft is still theft, people. Now that Microsoft has admitted to what it did, I hope the rest of the doubters see the light as well.

Windows Marketplace for Mobile Now Available on the Web

2009-11-12T22:28:15Z

When Microsoft launched its new Windows Marketplace for Mobile alongside Windows Mobile 6.5 in early October, the online store was only available via a custom app on compatible Windows Mobile 6.5-based devices. But now, as promised, you can access the store on the web as well, from any PC-based web browser. It looks pretty good. (Queue tired comparison of Apple's 100,000 apps with Microsoft's ~350. Please. I beg you.)

Windows 7 Battery Life Worse on Netbooks

2009-11-12T20:59:49Z

Laptop Magazine has some surprising news for Windows 7 battery life, at least on three netbooks: It's not as good as it was on XP. Here's what they found:

Back in August when we started testing the final version of Windows 7, we noticed that several netbooks didn’t last as long on a charge with the new OS installed as with Windows XP. Microsoft claimed that Win 7 notebooks would see longer battery life than Vista, and for the two full-size systems we upgraded that rang true. The Dell XPS Studio 16 only got an extra few minutes, but the Gateway NV lasted an extra hour. Netbooks have been a different story.

Recently we tested Windows 7 versions of the Toshiba mini NB205 and ASUS Eee PC 1008HA, and now HP’s Mini 311 with Windows 7 has been released. The results don’t look good. In each case we tested the three systems using the LAPTOP Battery Test (continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi) and in each case the Windows 7 machines got less battery life.

What's interesting about this is that netbooks are one of the few ways in which to accurately test Windows 7 battery life vs. that of XP, since this is the only market where you can find the same machines in which both OSes have been included. With mainstream laptops, the battery life differences (between Vista and 7, in that case) seem to be less dramatic.

How We Really Designed the Look and Feel of Windows 7

2009-11-12T16:04:20Z

While the Mac community has been chortling over a supposed Microsoft admission that Windows 7 copies the Mac OS X look and feel, the company decided to set the record straight, or at least provide a more official comment about this claim:

An inaccurate quote has been floating around the Internet today about the design origins of Windows 7 and whether its look and feel was “borrowed” from Mac OS X. Unfortunately this came from a Microsoft employee who was not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7. I hate to say this about one of our own, but his comments were inaccurate and uninformed. If you’re interested in learning more about the design of Windows 7, I suggest reading this AP story with Julie Larson-Green as well as these WSJ (membership required) and Fast Company articles. And here is one of many blog posts on the E7 blog discussing the design process of Windows 7.

That said, there is little doubt that Windows has followed Mac OS X into the world of hardware-backed transparent graphical effects in their respective UIs. And anyone who believes that the Windows 7 taskbar is anything other than a copy of the Mac OS X Dock just isn't paying attention.

Windows Live Gets YouTube, 18 More Content Partners

2009-11-11T17:48:16Z

From Microsoft:

This week, 19 new third-party feed partners will be rolling out globally on Windows Live, bringing the total of feed partners up to 75 global web companies, so over 450 million Windows Live customers have even more ways to share what they're doing across the web and communicate with the people they care about. To get a better sense of how these new partners appear in the Windows Live experience, check out the brief demo video here.

Feed partners available to consumers this week at http://home.live.com include YouTube, Break.com and a host of regional web companies (full list available here.)

As of today, Windows Live now has feed partnerships with seven of the leading U.S. video sites, according to comScore – YouTube, MySpace, Hulu, Facebook, Break.com, Daily Motion and CNET – so consumers can easily see when their contacts upload a new video or leave a comment on one of these sites.

In addition to video partners, Windows Live has partnerships with leading web companies in seven different categories, including blogging, music, news, photo sites, portals, reviews and social networking.

Microsoft Reveals Bing Video Experience

2009-11-11T16:26:51Z

Microsoft today expanded the capabilities of its Bing decision engine to include a new Bing Video destination that combines Bing video search and quality content from MSN Video.

The integrated experience provides a new online video destination that delivers a comprehensive and faster video experience with video search tools from Bing. This new experience offers the widest selection of high quality video services on the web including TV shows, videos, and content from top sites such as Hulu, MSN, ABC, and YouTube. The new Bing Videos experience begins rolling out today and will be fully available on both Bing and MSN by mid-November.

Here's the word from the Bing blog:

Turn off the lights (literally), share with your friends and kick back…you are about to see the latest Bing videos experience.

Starting today and rolling out over the next few days Bing videos will provide a new unified online video destination that delivers a comprehensive, organized, and high-quality video experience. This change will combine the powerful search experience of Bing, with the expertise of MSN video all into one destination.

With the New Bing Video you can now access videos from across the web, MSN’s array of high-quality videos, and videos from sites such as Hulu, ABC, and Youtube. Bing videos viewing options are nearly endless.

Check out the cool new home page which makes it easy to search and browse for the videos you want to see.

New Zune HD Games Available Today

2009-11-11T14:07:58Z

From Microsoft:

Over the weekend we pushed out a Zune HD firmware update, version 4.3, which enabled 3-D gaming on Zune HD. Today six new games are available in the Zune Marketplace. The new games take advantage of Zune HD’s beautiful multi-touch OLED screen and accelerometer and some (Project Gotham Racing: Ferrari Edition, Audiosurf Tilt and Vans Sk8: Pool Service) utilize the powerful NVIDIA Tegra processor to deliver immersive, 3D gaming to Zune HD. As with the other games offered for Zune, these games are available for free to Zune HD users and feature a short ad at start-up.

In addition to existing games on Zune HD the new games include:

Audiosurf Tilt: Audiosurf creates a rollercoaster ride from any song. Choose any song from your music collection and watch Audiosurf turn it into a unique roller coaster track for you to ride. The song you choose determines the shape, the speed, and the mood of each track. Tilt your Zune like a steering wheel to collect colored blocks and avoid speedbumps. Unlock more than 30 designs, each with its own special theme and color palette.

Checkers: Enjoy the classic game of Checkers in a beautiful outdoor park setting. Play against the computer or against a friend.

Lucky Lanes Bowling: Bowl in different game modes: exhibition, blackjack, golf. Play in five different bowling alleys with unique themes, all with the swipe of a finger. Choose from twenty different bowlers and twenty two different ball styles. You can play against the computer or play with up to four friends.

Piano: Play your own tune, or play along with your favorite music on this electronic piano.

Project Gotham Racing: Ferrari Edition: Tear through the streets of London, Tokyo, and New York in the Ferrari of your choice using multi touch controls and the built in accelerometer.

Vans Sk8: Pool Service: From the Admiral to the old abandoned rec center pool, Bucky Lasek and Omar Hassan know a good bowl to skate. Hit the pools and put these Vans skaters to the test with all the tricks in their bag and achieve hero status once you unlock their pro model skateboards.

We're excited to be bringing these games to Zune users today. And, as we’ve said in the past, we will be delivering additional applications for Zune HD including Facebook and Twitter in the future.