Archive for: windows 7

New Mac Ads That Hate on Windows 7

Apple has released 3 new ads that take aim at Windows 7. What do you think of the ads?

Presenting the First Windows 7 Tablet

Archos is presenting the first Tablet PC with Windows 7 incorporated, natively: Archos 9 PCTablet. Taking advantage of the touch-screen technology included within the new operating system. Now, with Windows 7 out in the market, you should expect to see a lot of these products in the next few months.

Want to know some of the features included in Archos 9 PCTablet?

• VGA-out port.
• USB and audio jack ports.
• 60 GB hard disk space available with an extra 25 GB for online use.
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g and BlueTooth 2.1
• 9-inch screen.
• FullHD support!
• Intel Atom processor included.
• 1.7cms thick and 800g of weight.

And how much does it costs? £449.99 in the UK. That’s where it will only be available for now, or you can buy it from their website.

Here’s also a quick review made by TechRadar.

The netbooks seems that they are going to take the market (Windows 7 was already built thinking in netbooks), but having this devices available already, including a great OS like Windows 7, sounds like an excellent idea to me.

Windows 7 Official Launch Day Today

There has been a huge amount of hype around Microsoft and their new Windows 7 operating system, and today is the big launch day! The reactions so far from users and reviewers have been mostly positive and to me it looks like Windows 7 is a great improvement from XP and the huge issue of Vista.

If you’re interested in making the switch, the price is $319 for Windows 7 Ultimate, and $299 for the Professional version ($219 and $199 for the upgrade, respectively). Windows 7 Home Premium will set you back $199, and an upgrade from either Vista or XP will cost you $119.

Free Windows 7 Transformation Pack for Ubuntu

A lot of people are really looking forward to getting their hands on Windows 7 when it comes out. In the mean time there are a lot of people wanting to replicate Windows 7 in other operating system (not really sure why!). Here is a new Windows 7 transformation pack for Ubuntu.

Download  Win7 Transformation Pack for Ubuntu from here

Windows 7 Free E-Book

Windows 7 will be out in the street in a few days more (October 22, this Thursday) and Microsoft Press is giving us a very useful book for free: Windows 7 Deployment Essential Guidance.

This e-book contains ten chapters from another official Microsoft Press book: Windows 7 Resource Kit (not for free, of course). Contains all the necessary information about Windows 7 deployment planning, execution, automation and tools involved in the process.

Here’s a summary of the topics involved:

• Planning Deployment
• Testing Application Compatibility
• Developing Disk Images
• Migrating User State Data
• Deploying Applications
• Volume Activation
• Using Windows Deployment Services (WDS)
• Using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT)

But that’s not all: Microsoft also published as a free download the Chapter 23 of the Windows 7 Resource Kit, “Supporting Users Using Remote Assistance”.

Enjoy!

Sony Launch Their First Touchscreen PC: VAIO L which has Windows 7 Multi-Touch Elements

Sony launched a trio of new systems, which includes its first touchscreen PC. The new VAIO L supports Window 7’s own multi-touch elements for scrolling and zooming through content without needing special software.

VAIO L features include:

• $1,300 price tag
• 24 inches 1080p display
• 2.7 GHz Pentium dual core processor
• 4GB of RAM
• 320 GB hard drive
• DVD writer and more.

Higher-end models scale up to a 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad, 6GB of RAM, 1TB of disk space, a Blu-ray drive and a GeForce GT 240M to better decode HD video.

Pre-orders start today and will ship sometime in November.

Windows 7 Steve Ballmer’s Edition

Marketing in Microsoft has always been a strong area (I think it is the main reason that Microsoft is Microsoft today) and they do not hesitate to go a little further every time. This time: Presenting Windows 7 Steve Ballmer’s Edition.

Well it is not exactly what you may think; it does not have special “Ballmer features”, or using only desktop backgrounds with Microsoft’s CEO. But what it does have is a special box edition with Ballmer’s signature.

The lucky ones that will receive this package are those that are throwing a Windows 7 party (we’ve discussed this earlier). But here’s an interesting story published by ArsTechnica: A very enthusiast Windows user sent an e-mail to Microsoft complaining that even though he completed the registration to Windows 7 party, no Caribbean countries were eligible to use it. So the company in response, sent the Windows 7 with Ballmer’s signature and the Windows 7 Party Kit.

Original story in sutffiwrote

I’m pretty sure that once this story hit public, a million complains were received from Microsoft. But still, sounds good to me that the company is trying to reward those enthusiast that are trying to help Windows 7 marketing, even though they participate in a contest or not.

Windows 7 OEM Pricing

A very important information has just been revealed: Windows 7 OEM pricing. And why is it important? Simply because this money will make the difference when you try to buy a laptop with Windows 7 included.

We’ve talked before about the Windows 7 pricing, so here’s a quick reference to compare it with OEM:

OEM pricing it is extremely important to computer builders, and of course users. But there are some considerations:

• OEM versions are only licensed to one machine. Period. You don’t get the chance to use the same license on a separate machine, even if you don’t have it installed in the original machine.
• Also is required for OEM, clean installations of the operating system. You cannot upgrade any existing installation, you must clean your hard drive first.

Even though the pricing has only been revealed for three versions, we assume that these versions (Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate) will be the selected ones for any computer manufacturer to use. Specially the Home Premium version (yes, I know, I do not like it either).

Microsoft to Open Windows 7 Café

I have just discovered via a tweet of someone I’m following the Microsoft will open a café in Paris to celebrate the launch of Windows 7 in Europe which is due in just a few short weeks. The café will remain open for a few weeks after launch and customers will be able to play around with tonnes of Microsoft goodies such as XBOXs, Mobile Devices, Zunes and PCs.

However, they won’t be able to buy any of them as the café will serve only snacks and drinks.

Cheekily, the poster on the window to the café which is currently undergoing construction says (and I finally use that ‘D’ in French after all!) “The Windows Cafe will open its doors on October 22. Don’t hesitate to browse the web on the sidewalk in the meantime.”

Windows 7: Exploit Causes BSoD

Well I guess the timing couldn’t be more perfect, Microsoft released for partners a month ago Windows 7 and will be released to public n October 22; and we have already a big exploit going around.

A report said that vulnerability was found using the Server Message Block 2.0 protocol (SMB2) that causes the one and only BSoD (Blue Screen of Death). That includes not only all Windows 7 versions (32 and 64 bits included), but Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008; since all of these operating systems are using the same protocol.

Picture taken from a Nine Inch Nails Concert

On the good side, since the protocol it is commonly used only in LAN networks, the attacker should be in the same network segment as you. The funny thing is that this same exploit appeared in Windows 2000 and Windows XP, and Microsoft released of course an update to solve this security hole.

Even though Microsoft it is informed about this issue, there is no patch available to solve this inconvenient. Here’s a quick description about the exploit:

“SRV2.SYS fails to handle malformed SMB headers for the NEGOTIATE PROTOCOL REQUEST functionality. The NEGOTIATE PROTOCOL REQUEST is the first SMB query a client send to a SMB server, and it’s used to identify the SMB dialect that will be used for further communication.

An attacker can remotely crash without no user interaction, any Vista/Windows 7 machine with SMB enable. Windows Xp, 2k, are NOT affected as they don’t have this driver.”

And how can I disable SMB? Access the TCP/IP properties from your network adapter and uncheck the “File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks”.

Organize a Launch Party and Get a Windows 7 for Free

With the arrival of Windows 7, Microsoft is trying to come down hard with all the marketing. So far, the new operating system has not failed to them in their expectations, end users are very pleased with the look-n-feel and the performance (even from the first public beta). That’s why they want to get all the people that they can to try the OS; and in the UK they had a great idea: Put together a launch party of Windows 7 and you’ll get a Windows 7 Ultimate for free (original cost u$s319,99 and the upgrade version u$s219,99).

So what’s the idea with this launch party? Basically you’ll need everything that you ordinary need organizing a party, invite friends, handling RSVPs, and in this case you’ll get the chance to interact with other organizers, blog your experience, share photos and videos, etc; all of that focused in one product: Windows 7. And your friends at the party can look like this (yes, the amazed faces included):

To participate, you only need to sign up (free registration), choose a party theme from PhotoPalooza, Media Mania, Setting up with Ease, and Family Friendly Fun and HouseParty host will guide you through the entire process.

Download Windows 7 Screensaver for Windows Vista & XP

Microsoft’s Windows 7 RTM is still available to be downloaded  with the official release coming out on October 22nd. By now many developers have had the chance to experience Windows 7 and what it has to offer. If you dont want to mess with your current Windows OS but want to add the official Windows 7 screensaver to your OS, the here is where to download it from.

Download Windows 7 Screensaver for Windows Vista & XP.