Microsoft Windows and all that goes with it
For a long time the easiest thing you could do in order to speed up your system was to disable recording of last access time on NTFS. Since time was updated on every directory listing, performance gains (especially on laptops) were great.
It seems that someone at Microsoft also saw how useless last access time information is and decided to disable it by default. Let just hope that it stays that way.
I like Microsoft’s localization efforts. Although I do use English version of Windows, setting my local to Croatia makes things much easier. There is something just natural about being able to use your number format, currency or even month names.
However, sometime efforts just go too far. If you are going to include day names in sentence style, do not include it in user’s local (“e.g. every nedjelja”). Do it in OS’ local (e.g. every Sunday). It doesn’t look natural if different languages are mixed together.
During Windows 7 beta I fell in love with booting from virtual disk (VHD). Now, with Windows 7 release candidate out, I decided it is time for new set of virtual machines.
In order to speed up process, I was using WIM2WHD script to make disk image. After images were done, small play with bcdedit solved booting issues.
For my first virtual disk I selected Professional edition of Windows 7. Booting went without hitch, setup sorted out it’s drivers and asked some questions. After final reboot I was greeted with “Licence error”.
That’s right. Nothing bellow Ultimate will give you option to boot from VHD file. While there is no good technology reason for disabling it, it seems that someone at Microsoft looked at whole picture and noticed that no matter how many Windows 7 installations you have, you are still on same hardware and thus one key will allow for multiple installations. Since preventing that would probably take too much effort, they decided to make it more expensive in the first place.
Today Microsoft announced pricing for Windows 7. Since prices in Croatia (where I live) usually are not same prices like those in USA (our prices are somehow higher), that information is relevant only when compared with Windows Vista price. And price went down. Yes, Windows 7 will be slightly cheaper then same Windows Vista edition. I find this a good news.
Also for those who are willing to pre-order, there is limited offer which will get you Windows 7 in half the price. First wave of this offer is limited to USA and Canada. European pre-orders will start after July, 15th. Since Croatia is part of European market when it comes to cripled Windows 7 E, I do hope that we will be part of this offer also.
[2009-07-26: Because of compliance, it seems that upgrade will not be available in “E” version. However, upgrade pricing will still be available.]
Beta of Microsoft’s own anti-virus is out and account at Connect along with short survey is required before download may begin. While it was said that beta will be limited to USA, Israel, China and Brazil, I was able to download it anyhow (from Croatia).
Until now I was using freeware version of AVG anti-virus. Although I am it’s user for few years now, I was looking for replacement because of later version’s desire to attach it self in virtually every part of system. Most annoying ones were it’s attaching to e-mails and web pages. User interface was also quite annoying and you could never be clear at what exactly you have just done.
My two installations of Microsoft Security Essentials were on Windows 7 and Windows XP (Media Center Edition) and everything went without a hitch. Since download is fairly small (in range of 5 MB) and installation is really fast one, you are done with protecting yourself within minute.
User interface is clean and clear. While some would mind lack of advanced options, I find it quite refreshing. Bear in mind that in no way I can test how well it works in regards to actual task of catching viruses, so this alley will go unexplored.
What I can say is that I didn’t found anything wrong with it. If it is as good at catching actual viruses as other freeware solutions out there, I cannot find any reason why not to install it.
It is free after all.
[2009-06-30: Beta is closed. It seems that limit was set at 70,000 beta users. If you didn’t manage to download it now, you will need to wait until release.]
[2009-09-30: Final version is out there.]
It seems that Microsoft decided that those who wish to have Windows 7 Starter edition will need to forget everything about customization.
Not only that you will not be able to change sounds and cursors, but not being able to change wallpaper? C’mon Microsoft, is this really necessary?
Only hope is in independent wallpaper changing programs (I always recommend Wallpaper Cycler). I surely hope that they will have some workaround available.
Integration features were always thing you installed first on your new virtual machine. Greatest benefit was seamless mouse movement between host and virtual machine, but there were other thing like clock synchronization and clipboard sharing.
New version of Virtual PC (Windows 7 beta) also offers thing you may noticed on remote desktop - ability to share local resources (direct replacement for old shared folders).
Because Remote Desktop is underlying protocol, in order to share resources, you need to have user with password on your virtual machine. This was problem for me since I often skip this step. Once you try to enable integration features, you are presented with logon screen. It will not accept empty password and there is no obvious way to escape from it.
It took me a while to figure that, once you disable integration features, you can logon. Once I had Windows under control, I have assigned password to user and integration components did like it. Since that password can be remembered automatically, there is no need to enter it manually every time.
Although it is slightly more cumbersome to setup, I do like this Remote Desktop style.
Microsoft decided to ship Windows 7 without Internet Explorer 8 for customers inside European Union, Switzerland and Croatia. While this seems similar to “N” versions of Vista, there is small but significant difference - there will be no full version of Windows 7 available in those countries.
For those who wish to read little bit more, there is Microsoft’s statement and European’s Commission reply to it. I will not go too much into politics of this, although initial European Commission proposal of bundling competition’s browsers inside Windows 7 seems highly idiotic to me. Why on earth would anybody accept this?
When error occurs in Firefox (although we all know that Firefox doesn’t crash), who will get support calls? If customer got Firefox with Windows, he will call Microsoft since probably 90% of them will have no idea that Mozzila even exists. When they fail to get an answer, they will be angry at Microsoft since, in their mind, this is Microsoft’s problem. The only winning move is not to play, and that is exactly what Microsoft did by removing IE.
Although I am Croatian MSDN subscriber (thanks Marc), I hope that this decision will not affect me and that I will still be able to download normal version of Windows 7 with IE. I do want Internet Explorer on my computer (although I have Firefox and Chrome also installed).
I also hope that full version and “E” will share same key. Since they are essentially the same, probably nothing in license will forbid installing Windows from full DVD instead from crippled one. I would use this to install Windows on other people’s computers. It saves me time installing all necessary programs and they can download whatever browser they prefer later.
If everything else fails, I hope that I will at least get option to install it via Windows Update (which is conveniently separated from browser since Windows Vista). This will at least allow me to install it with patches.
Final result will be known on August, 22nd.
[2009-06-26: Because of compliance, it seems that upgrade will not be available in “E” version.]
[2009-07-24: Microsoft proposed “ballot screen” selection to European Commission. Internet Explorer would come with Windows 7 and other browsers will be offered for download after installation.]
I tried to configure my MAXtv to work with Windows Media Center. Since that set-top box has S-Video, I though this would be really easy. Oh, how wrong I was.
Someone at Microsoft decided that you MUST have small piece of hardware attached if you wish to receive signal from any external port. Message said it all: “IR Hardware Not Detected”. That small piece is usually called IR blaster and its sole purpose is emulating remote toward your set-top box. While that is useful in normal circumstances, you may not need it all time (e.g. you want to control set-top box with universal remote - like Logitech’s Harmony 555).
However, there is a solution. Installing virtual Vista MCE IR blaster driver takes care of missing hardware and lying to Media Center takes care of configuring it.
Once configured, everything works fine, but I wonder why I needed to jump through hoops to get my S-Video input working.
New Virtual PC (currently in beta, integrated with Windows 7) is looking more and more like “light” Hyper-V. It requires hardware support for virtualization, uses same key combinations…
One thing that remains same is support for wireless network. Hyper-V deliberately doesn’t have direct support for it because of some issues, but Virtual PC ignores all and makes life a lot easier.