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Windows Platform Enthusiast Blogger and Community Resource, Paul Thurrott has updated his informative Frequently Asked Questions about the next release of Windows, 7. Revealed are some additional information about the deep end user functionality and user interface features being built in. Here are some of the highlights I would like to point out:
Quote:
“Q: Why Windows 7?
A: Since Windows Vista is really Windows 6.0, Windows 7 will presumably be version 7.0. Current beta versions list the version number as 6.1, which is the same version number as Windows Server 2008. “This will change”.
This is one of the things I have spoken about in the past. Is Windows 7 NT 6.1 or NT 7.0, Paul seems to be confirming that it will change to NT 7.0 by PDC. This in some ways would indicate a major release demanding a major version number. Ed Bott has given reason why Windows 7 would not carry a new version number, compatibility reasons:
Quote:
“Windows 7, as dozens of leaked screen shots attest, is version 6.1. This numbering is almost certain to remain in the final product, primarily for the sake of compatibility. If the major version number is incremented to 7.0, many applications written to work with Windows Vista would fail to install, simply because of sloppy version checking.”
Read the rest here
Ed is not disputing that it will not be version 7, just that hypothetically if it does it would inherit compatibility issues for applications that are not programmed to check the OS version properly. Its not a guarantee that every application is programmed to do this, so some of the compatibility issues that plagued Vista would most likely show up again.
Quote:
“Major changes
Kernel. Windows 7 will feature an evolved kernel and underpinnings when compared to its previous-generation predecessors, Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows Server 2008. While it's unclear whether the "MinWin" kernel that Microsoft demonstrated in 2007 will be included with Windows 7, it is quite likely that the OS will include parallel processing capabilities, which will be implemented as .NET Framework 4.0 APIs.
Virtualization. With Windows Server 2008 now shipping with hypervisor-based virtualization capabilities, it's obvious that this technology will be making its way to the Windows client as well. Will it happen in time for Windows 7? Yes, it probably will.
Sensors. Windows 7 will include context-aware application support via a new "sensors" facility. One example: A location sensor can tell "where" your PC is and compatible applications can act accordingly. Applications can use sensor information to offer customized and enhanced services, according to Microsoft's documentation. Because of the privacy implications of sensors, this feature is opt-in and highly configurable.”
Some of these noted changes, makes it sound like there are some major changes being architected within the Windows Kernel under 7, especially where new API’s are concerned. The next version of Visual Studio, 2010 and the .NET Framework 4.0 are being built with the Cloud ‘Internet’ in mind. This would suggest that Windows 7 will have better out of the box experience for developers to build applications that utilize the software plus services experience while delivering to end users a more richer platform that spans PC’s and mobile devices.
Microsoft is working on a number strategies outside of Windows 7, such as the new touted Windows Cloud OS, Windows Live services such as Live Sync and Live Mesh to make the availability of Personal Data easier across multiple PC’s and devices a lot easier.
Quote:
“Scenic application user interface. Microsoft has created a new application UI, codenamed Scenic, that will give Windows 7 applications a new and consistent, but customizable, look and feel.”
Windows Vista introduced AERO, which focused on improving the general user experience in Windows. While there have been criticisms about the theme itself, Microsoft is listening. For this, a new color scheme is being worked on. Leaked Windows 7 builds reveal a more sharper glass appearance, with an Explorer that is more akin to the current Windows Live Wave 3 beta applications, with text labels for toolbar buttons. Persons who have been testing the Live Wave 3 applications so far have expressed a negative view on the new look. Applications in Windows 7 are also implementing Office 2007’s Office Fluent UI which I have personally described as overkill, but adds consistency across Microsoft’s desktop applications.
Quote
“Windows Credentials. Windows 7 will include a system for managing the online IDs, logons, and passwords that you must manage for all of the Web sites you visit. Dubbed Windows Credentials, this feature utilizes a KeyRing for storing online credentials and a Credential Manager user interface. These settings can be backed up to and restored from a secure online vault.”
Microsoft has been focusing on making credentials easier to manage, past controversial initiatives such as Hailstorm (PassPort), have been met with distaste. Microsoft did some work with credentials still, with PassPort eventually evolving into Window Live ID making it easy to manage credentials across various Windows Live Services. Alternative platforms such as Mac OS has its own credential manager called Keychain. Microsoft seems to adopting a similar approach to Keychain, by making the user stay in control. Windows Vista presently includes Windows CardSpace which makes it easy to manage identities across various online services.
Check out Paul Thurrotts Windows 7 FAQ here
Resources:
Is Windows 7 really just version 6.1?
Windows 7 Preview Teching It Easy
Updated 10/12/08 – 7:06 P.M. – Grammatical errors
The Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK) is designed to help corporate IT professionals customize and deploy the Microsoft Windows Vista™ family of operation systems. By using Windows AIK, you can perform unattended Windows installations, capture Windows images with ImageX, and create Windows PE images.
It has name of about 3995 application which is compatiable with vista as of July 31, 2008 . You can download the list from the Microsoft Website here.
Ed Bott continues the debate over Microsoft’s SKU strategy with Windows today. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes yesterday made mention of reducing the complexity in Windows 7 to two or just one. Ed disagrees and believes the current strategy is working but is flawed in its marketing.
Quote:
“Currently, Microsoft has a tiered pricing system for Windows. For OEM copies sold with a new PC (and remember, that’s how 9 out of 10 copies are sold), that price is buried in the cost of the system and isn’t broken out. But for the sake of argument, here are my best estimates of how much each Windows Vista edition adds to the cost of a new PC:
- Home Basic $20
- Home Premium $60
- Business $130
- Ultimate $190
Microsoft brings in a steady stream of revenue from this current mix, revenue that is the biggest part of its bottom line. If you were to replace those four editions with a single edition for a single price, my back-of-the-envelope calculation says the new price would have to be in the neighborhood of $90. That would add $70 to the cost of entry-level PCs, many of which are currently being sold to budget -conscious businesses with Vista Home Basic. For a $400 bare-bones PC, that’s a 17.5% price increase. Yikes!”
Read the entire article here
There was never a problem when there was just two SKUs (XP), now it is? In fact it worked so well, Microsoft is having hard time getting rid of XP, with the two stand out SKU’s still number one on desktops – XP Home and Professional. A lot of what Ed Bott says seems to be defending Microsoft's huge bottom line, not consumers sanity or small businesses focus on delivering value. I have had my frustrations with this new matrix, I realize Microsoft wants to make it easy for end users to obtain the OS they want with the features they really need. But when you have a features like 'Complete PC Backup' that is not standard across all SKU's, it shows Microsoft is only doing this SKU thing for up sell 'Anytime Upgrade' anyone?
Still waiting for that Exclusive Experience
Lets not forget Vista Ultimate and its Ultimate Extras. You might say anyone investing in Ultimate just for Extras deserve what they got. But I remember this feature being touted as exclusive only to 'licensed' Ultimate customers. The premise was to deliver value beyond box. Cutting-edge programs, innovative services, unique publications. I don't consider a bunch of animated wallpapers, a few games and encryption utility to be real value beyond the box. You can read my suggested solution to this issue here
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes over at ZDNET gives us a tour of a new utility in beta from Symantec that aims to improve upon Microsoft’s much derided Account Privilege security implementation – User Account Control.
Norton User Account Control (ZDNET)
Quote:
“Norton UAC Tool (which, I will warn you right from the start is currently in beta) is a replacement to the UAC prompts that you normally see. It has two usability-related features to offer:
It offers a “Don’t ask me again” feature so that the next time you carry out a certain action there’s no UAC prompt displayed”
Read the rest here
Yesterday, I noted that I personally want an option to check off areas of the system I deem to be safe so I don't see the prompt anymore. The need to wait for or upgrade to Windows 7 is looking more dim for Windows Vista users. Microsoft just yesterday announced their intention to improve the user experience for UAC in Windows 7. But with third party company's such as Symantec aiming to fix UAC now, a lot of what Microsoft is promising as an upgrade is looking less interesting. I am sure 7 will present new improvements, but do I really need to invest in a brand new version of Windows to get all of them? I don't think so too.
Resources:
UAC under Windows 7 – Expect Improvements
ActiveWin.com Windows Vista Review
In fact, you don't have to know much about backup to protect your Outlook mail from loss and theft. The reason you become more confused, the more you search is that at professional backup forums, they use a lot of special backup terminology and professional jargon, which makes it all the harder for you to understand and, most importantly, decide which backup program to buy.
To make your search of Outlook backup solution more effective, answer just one question: exactly what do I want to copy and how often? If you just need to copy your Outlook data every once in a while, you can easily find inexpensive backup software with the option of Outlook backup, which allows you to back up and recover Outlook messages, contacts, settings, the address book, and so on, and copy them to a CD or DVD on a schedule, for example once a week.
The Outlook backup feature is a really basic functionality for any backup program. So if you just know that a particular solution can do Outlook backup, it is not enough information to say whether it is a professional solution or not. Both simple and advanced backup programs may feature Outlook backup, so basically what you need to do is a little price comparison survey.
What's next? Next thing to do is to check what other options this particular backup program has to offer with regard to Outlook backup. For example, does it allow you to back up messages and contacts separately, or does it backup everything in bulk? Can it compress and/or encrypt Outlook data?
Another important issue to consider is where you are going to store your backups. If the Outlook backup software allows recording Outlook data to DVD, it may raise its cost a little bit; however the option of recording data to CD is usually available in most of the low-price solutions.
Taking a further peek at the leaked screenshots of Windows 7 M3 Build 6801 over at WinFuture, I noticed something that was confirmed at Windows 7 Engineering Blog. Window frames when fully maximized will retain their Aero Color, so if you select Red or Green as your window color, when a window is maximized, you will continue to see the color in the Title bar. I have my views on this change, first of all, I think its good that colors will retain appearance (fidelity), but for persons like me who prefer to keep the Aero Glass transparent, its going to be a bit distracting. Lets take a look at two examples:
Maximized window with Aero Glass Transparent – Windows Vista
Maximized Aero Glass (default blue tint) with Transparency – Windows 7
Now the immediate difference you will see in Windows 7, you can see contents on the desktop or the inactive window in the background. This I believe strays away from the original premise of Aero to make contents of the window be the main focus. Its nice to see the Windows Team continue to enhance the Aero user experience, but at the same time I hope new issues do not creep in that will cost users productivity. The theme itself has gotten a bad wrap as just being unnecessary glam that uses up too much system resources.
Its still early and I am just speculating on what is still not even Alpha yet. So, take what I say here with just a grain of salt.
Caught this over at Mary Jo Foleys All About Microsoft Blog. It seems that Microsoft has gotten a mouthful on the security feature UAC in Vista (which actually had a lot of good intentions). So the folks on the Windows Team are working to make it a more palatable experience in the next release, Windows 7. The focus is to make it more informative and less repetitive. I think these are good points, because a lot of prompts don’t give a clear understanding why a location requires permission before proceeding. The concept of UAC is that when an Application triggers it, that means it wants access to critical part of the system that needs to be written to. Here is a quote from my ActiveWin.com Windows Vista Review:
Quote:
“The new account setup only allows users with Administrative privileges or a limited account to all operate as a Standard user with a set of specific requirements and a deeper awareness of the actions a user takes while performing task throughout the operating system, Microsoft recommends this account for daily use “finally”! You might wonder what the deeper awareness is; well it’s a new improvement to the security model in Windows known as User Access Control, borrowing from other operating systems such as UNIX, Mac OS X and Linux, the aim is to essentially provide a secured environment from top to bottom. A bit intrusive, the essential purpose of UAC from the get-go is to enable a lock on certain administrative privileges throughout the OS, making it more difficult for users to expose areas of the operating system that are most vulnerable to attack or user accidents. So far, the status from the public on UAC is, it seems like a highly annoying feature, trust me, it is at times, no matter how much the Windows Team say they have improved the experience. A shield attached to an icon or beside a link can easily identify components within the OS that require UAC permission. When such a link or icon is clicked a dialog will pop up freezing the current user session asking for permission before continuing or executing the action.”
So, from early on, UAC was set out to cause some upset among users. Even a Microsoft Exec pointed out that UAC was designed to annoy users, so was actually doing its job. Based on the leaked previews of Windows 7, build 6780, we can see small improvements like:
Quote:
“User Account Control has been aerozied and seems to not black out the screen to get the users attention, as can be seen on the THINKNEXT website, since you cannot take a ALT-PRT Screen of it today in Vista. Nice, but something like that should be provided as improved functionality through a service pack.” Windows 7 Preview Teching It Easy
I believe UAC in Windows 7 will continue to be over protective. It still does not protect the areas of the OS that should be protected the most. For instance, a friend of mine running Vista Home Premium '64-Bit' had UAC disabled through an attack and also disabled all Administrative Privileges: Command Prompt, MSCONFIG, Task Manager and Shutdown options were all killed. Why wasn't UAC instrumental in protecting all these critical areas of the system? Not even traditional areas like System Properties could be accessed or certain Control Panel items. So there is indeed some work that needs to be done, it needs to be effective that users are seeing results. I personally want an option to check off areas of the system I deem to be safe so I don't see the prompt anymore. Of course, I do consider myself to be a power user. I personally have not encountered any malicious attacks on my system running Vista since RTM, but I have seen friends who have and never disabled UAC. What I had to do to save that system from a format was to boot into Safe Mode and run System Restore to an earlier point before the attack had occurred.
Mary Jo points out that persons reception to UAC in Vista is one thats distasteful, and the Google results are there to prove it:
Quote:
“UAC seems to be one of the most hated features of Vista. (Just do a Web search for “how can I disable UAC” for unofficial proof of that contention.)”
Resources:
No surprise: Microsoft to fine-tune UAC in Windows 7
Windows 7 Preview Teching It Easy
http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2008/10/08/user-account-control.aspx
In essence, this means the kernel is a resource broker. It takes care of scheduling use of (and mediating access to) the available hardware resources within a particular Linux system. Resources managed by the kernel include system processor time given to programs, use of available RAM, and indirect access to a multitude of hardware devices— including those customs to your chosen target. The kernel provides a variety of software abstractions through which application programs can request access to system resources, without communicating with the hardware directly.
The precise capabilities provided by any particular build of the Linux kernel are configurable when that kernel is built. Kernel configuration allows you to remove support for unnecessary or obscure capabilities that will never be used. For example, it is possible to remove support for the many different networked filesystems from an embedded device that has no networking support. Conversely, it is possible to add support for a particular peripheral device unique to a chosen target system. Depending on their function, many capabilities can also be built into optional, runtime-loadable, modular components. These can be loaded later when the particular capability is required.
Most desktop or enterprise Linux vendors ship prebuilt Linux kernels as part of their distributions. Such kernels include support for the wide range of generic hardware devices typically available within modern consumer-grade or enterprise-level computing systems. Many of these capabilities are built into runtime-loadable modules, which are demand loaded by a variety of automated tools as hardware devices are detected. This one-size-fits-all approach allows Linux vendors to support a wide range of target systems with a single prebuilt binary kernel package, at the cost of a certain amount of generalization and the occasional performance impact that goes alongside it.
Unlike their desktop, server, or enterprise counterparts, embedded Linux systems usually do not make use of such all-encompassing prebuilt, vendor-supplied kernels. The reasons for this are varied, but include an inability for generic kernels to handle certain embedded, target-specific customizations, as well as a general underlying desire to keep the kernel configuration as simple as possible. A simpler configuration is both easier to debug and typically requires a reduced resource footprint when compared with its more generic counterpart. Building an embedded system from scratch is tough enough already without worrying about the many kernel capabilities you will never use.
Source of Information : OReilly Building Embedded Linux Systems