April 4th, 2008
Windows Media Center meets cable TV in HD
Six months ago, after years of waiting, I finally had a chance to switch my Media Center setup over to a fully digital, cable-compatible, high-definition configuration. How has it worked out? Let’s just say you’d have to pry the Media Center remote from my cold dead fingers.
My previous Media Center system was a small form factor Dell C521 that I profiled last summer. It served its purpose well, but it suffered from one crucial weakness: it couldn’t record high-definition programming over premium channels like HBO and ESPN. As a result, I had to keep the DVR I leased from DirecTV and switch between the two systems depending on what I wanted to watch or listen to. Not elegant.
So last fall, I talked to a contact at Dell and arranged to purchase a custom-built system that would work with CableCARD technology and permit me to consolidate everything in one box. In this post and the accompanying image gallery, I’ll show you this system has evolved over the past six months.
April 4th, 2008
The Vista license “loophole” that isn’t
Software licensing is often hard to understand. But that’s no excuse for so-called Windows experts to deliberately publish sensational stories that turn the facts upside-down.
I’m talking about the fuss that Scott Dunn and Brian Livingston kicked up in yesterday’s version of the Windows Secrets newsletter, in which Dunn breathlessly proclaimed the existence of an “upgrade hack” in Windows Vista that “allows end users to purchase the ‘upgrade edition’ and install it on any PC — with no need to purchase the more expensive ‘full edition.’”
The story sucked in Computerworld’s Eric Lai as well, who parroted the newsletter’s argument that Microsoft is “[giving] its tacit blessing for consumers to exploit a technical loophole that allows them to upgrade to Vista with Service Pack 1, even if they don’t own the necessary prior editions of Windows.”
Uh, no, they’re not. I wrote about this way back in February 2007, when the same sources issued the same breathless reports. Nothing has changed since then. If you qualify for an upgrade license, this technique allows you to do a clean install, legally. If you don’t qualify for an upgrade license, then doing a clean install with this technique is technically possible but violates the terms of the license agreement. Tha distinction seems to be lost on the folks who are dredging up this old story. So allow me to explain, again.
Microsoft, like much of the rest of the software industry, sells its products to retail customers in three distinct packages: Read the rest of this entry »
April 1st, 2008
MaxWin to supersize Windows
Yesterday, I wrote about Microsoft’s efforts to reduce the size of the Windows kernel as part of its MinWin project. Early today I learned of a top-secret parallel development effort being run by a separate group at Microsoft. The hush-hush project is called MaxWin, and if my sources are correct you’ll see it soon.
The idea behind MaxWin is simple. As a development lead explained to me: “You have a terabyte hard disk and 16 gigabytes of memory. We plan to use it all.”
In the MaxWin dev center, large posters remind every developer, tester, and product manager of the team’s motto: “Bigger is better.” When MaxWin is released, it will consolidate every version of Windows ever released into a single binary package, delivered in a 13–DVD boxed set. At startup, you’ll go to a home screen with 26 virtual desktops, one for every letter of the English alphabet, containing all the program icons that begin with that letter. If you click the icon for Paint (1993), for instance, MaxWin will launch Windows 3.11 in a full-screen virtual session and let you edit and save files in the popular GIF and eight-color BMP formats. “I’m living on the I desktop,” a beta tester told me. “We’re super excited about the security benefits our users will get from running Internet Explorer 2.0, which doesn’t support any malware written after 1996.”
The installation process, which takes about 24 hours using current builds, should be cut to no more than eight hours for the final release. “So, our goal is to allow a trained IT person to do a full install on one machine in one working day,” my source told me. What’s the hangup? “We have 22 years of debug code in there, and our M3.14159 milestone requires a reboot every 15 minutes during installation. We should be able to get rid of at least 25 percent of that old code before we ship and cut the number of reboots down to one or two per hour.”
If you’re interested in getting in on the beta program, Microsoft has worked out a partnership with the entire FedEx Kinko’s network in the U.S. and all of Canada except Quebec. You can pick up beta packages all day today. In anticipation of the expected high demand, most Kinko’s locations will be staying open until 11:59PM tonight.
Under orders from Windows boss Steven Sinofsky, the MaxWin project will be updated on a predictable annual schedule. Updates will be available only one day per year. In a press release that someone left behind in a color photocopier at the Kinko’s on Redmond Way, Sinofsky said, “We believe the day for MaxWin has arrived, and that day is April 1.”
March 31st, 2008
Is MinWin really the new Windows 7 kernel?
In my post about Windows 7 back in January (“Windows 7 = Vista Release 2″), I ended with a statement that deserves some follow-up:
Those who are predicting that Windows 7 will include some radically stripped-down kernel (the so-called MinWin project) or a new file system are missing the point completely.
Many of the articles and blog posts I’ve read about Windows 7 in recent days mention MinWin, usually following up with the observation that it’s the new lean kernel that’s going to be at the heart of Windows 7. That misinterpretation was widely reported in October, when this story first appeared, and it’s become conventional wisdom since then. Australia’s IDM, for example, included this authoritative-sounding statement in a March 17 report:
Windows 7 … is being based [on] a completely stripped down and re-vamped “MinWin” kernel that will be tightly knit with its Windows Live services.
Or this March 5 report from TechNewsWorld in the U.S.:
Windows 7, the next version of the Windows platform, which will be the successor to Windows Vista, has its own kernel, MinWin.
Even my estimable colleague, Mary Jo Foley, thinks MinWin is in:
Microsoft — last we heard — had managed to create “MinWin” — a stripped-down [version] of the Windows kernel, that it is planning to make the heart of Windows 7 and its successors.
I think this conclusion is wrong. About the last thing Microsoft wants to do in Windows 7 is make radical changes at the kernel level. (You think they want the potential for another round of driver and app-compat issues like the ones that plagued Vista for the first six months after its launch?) I’m willing to bet that the Windows 7 kernel will contain only minor changes from the one found in Windows Server 2008 and Vista SP1.
If you don’t believe me, go back and watch the eight-minute video snippet that got this all started last fall.
March 24th, 2008
What Microsoft can teach Apple about software updates
Last summer, I looked at Apple’s announced plans for its Safari web browser and wondered out loud, Is Steve Jobs planning a hostile takeover of the Windows desktop? Apple’s decision last week to begin aggressively pushing Safari to any Windows user running iTunes (in other words, anyone with an iPod or an iPhone) made this part of my earlier post look downright prescient:
Does any Windows user want Safari on their current system? Unlikely. Does Steve Jobs want as many Apple logos as possible on the Windows desktop when it’s running on Apple hardware? Absolutely. Think of it as a hostile takeover of the Windows environment by someone who is an acknowledged master at the art. Just ask the music industry.
I got to see this most recent move by Apple up close and personal last week. For Christmas, I gave my wife an iPhone. Based on her response, it was one of the best gifts I’ve ever given; she raves about it and uses it more than any gadget she’s ever owned. I helped her set it up, gritting my teeth at the mandatory installation of iTunes on her PC, but accepting it and turning on Apple Software Updates to make sure she keeps up to date on the many, many patches for iTunes. And several weeks ago I reminded her that she has to take update requests seriously. Most of them are issued for security reasons, and I want her PC and our network to be secure.
So I was stunned and angry when I saw Apple Software Update pop up on her PC last week. There were no updates for iTunes or QuickTime, the two Apple programs I installed for her. Instead, using the same mechanism that delivers security updates, Apple Software Update was offering Safari 3.1 for Windows, with the check box obligingly selected and the Install button awaiting her click.
For the record, I think Apple is dead wrong in the way it’s gone about using its iPod monopoly to expand its share in another market. Ironically, an excellent model for how this update program should work already exists. It’s called Windows Update, and it embodies all the principles that Apple should follow.
Compare for yourself: see my
image gallery comparing Apple
Software Update and Windows Update.
Which company does a better job of
disclosure, consent, and respect
for the customer?
Those principles aren’t esoteric or new. For the most part, they represent well-accepted behaviors that define the way software companies should respect their customers. Companies that deliver network-connected software that contains potential security vulnerabilities have a responsibility to offer regular updates to repair those issues. The right way to do it involves these four principles
- Opt-in is the only way. The update process should be completely opt-in. The option to deliver software should never be preselected for the user.
- Offer full disclosure. The software company has a responsibility to fully disclose what its software does, and the customer should make the opt-in decision only after being given complete details about how the update process works.
- Offer updates only. Updates should be just that. They should apply only to software that the customer has already chosen to install.
- Don’t mix updates. Updates that are not critical should be delivered through a separate mechanism.
In this post and the accompanying image gallery, I’ll walk you through how Apple offers its updates and how Microsoft does the same thing. After you see both procedures in action, you tell me who’s got it right and who’s doing it wrong. Note that I’m not asking you to accept my point of view. Look at the evidence and decide for yourself.
March 21st, 2008
Sony drops its $49 “no crapware” fee
The blogosphere is buzzing today with contempt for Sony, which just outlined its Fresh Start program and immediately ran into a buzzsaw of criticism for its plan to charge $49.99 for the privilege of getting a crapware-free PC. The echo chamber at Techmeme is working overtime, led by Engadget: “Sony has the nerve to offer a $50 ‘Fresh Start’ option, which ’scrubs’ the machine clean before shipping it your way.” My colleague Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has a typical reaction:
To get a craplet-free Vaio TZ2000 I’d have to pay Sony an extra $50 just to remove all the junk software that it installed on the system that I don’t want in the first place?
As it turns out, I’ve been working closely with a pair of Sony notebooks for the past two weeks, both of them offering a truly miserable experience, due in no small measure to the amount of crap/trialware installed. This morning, I had a previously scheduled interview with Sony’s Mike Abary, Senior Vice President of the VAIO division. In what must be the fastest turnaround in corporate history, Abary told me that the $49.99 charge is dead. “We didn’t intend that to happen,” he said, blaming the snafu on an internal miscommunication. “We’re removing the $49 charge,” he told me. Beginning this spring and rolling out to all products through the end of the year, there will be no charge to order a custom-configured Sony VAIO computer, and you will be able to opt out of every trialware application, without exceptions.
“We heard the message loud and clear,” Abary told me. “VAIO is the poster child for negative experiences people had [with trialware]. We recognize that, and we acknowledge it. We’ve been really beat up by this issue. We’re listening and we’re taking action.”
I’ll have more on my experiences next week. I’ve also arranged with Sony to be one of the first to order a PC through the Fresh Start program, so I can tell you exactly what it’s like.
Update: Wired received the same report from a Sony spokesperson this morning, around the same time I did.
March 20th, 2008
Your turn: Readers choose their 10 favorite Windows programs
Two weeks ago, I published a list of my 10 favorite Windows programs of all time.
The response was overwhelming and refreshingly enthusiastic. As the title made clear, that list reflected my personal preferences; I certainly don’t expect all my choices to be essential for every Windows user. In fact, I had a lot of fun following the give and take in the Talkback section, as commenters offered their recommendations and suggestions and opinions. I also got feedback via e-mail and through pingbacks from other bloggers. Collectively, you offered an extraordinary number of alternatives – so many good suggestions, in fact, that I’ve gathered the best from that thread and turned them into this follow-up list.
I’m familiar with most of the programs on this list, but I found a few that were pleasant surprises. I’m convinced you will too. One thing I found interesting was that readers were far more likely to recommend commercial programs instead of focusing on freebies. My original list was weighted in favor of free software; you’re clearly willing to pay for programs that get the job done.
| Image Gallery: I’ve created a gallery of screen shots from these 10 readers’ favorite Windows programs. |  |
 |
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All told, the list of products mentioned or recommended probably numbered more than 100. I winnowed it down and then looked at each one to make sure it did what it promised to do. They all run on Windows XP and Vista, at a minimum (and most run on more Windows versions than that). If I didn’t pick your suggestion for this list, it doesn’t mean I didn’t like it, only that I ran out of room!
So, without further ado, I present your list of 10 favorite Windows programs. Read the rest of this entry »
March 18th, 2008
Want Vista SP1? Here’s what to expect
When Microsoft released Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to manufacturing on February 4, they promised to make it available for the general public in mid-March. Today they delivered on that promise, making SP1 available to Windows Vista users through Windows Update and as a standalone installer package from the Microsoft Download Center.
I covered most of the features of this service pack in detail in my earlier Vista SP1 FAQ and More Vista SP1 Answers, so I won’t rehash that information here. In this post and its accompanying image gallery, I’ll show you what you can expect from the public release.
[Want to see what the SP1 experience looks like, step by step? Don’t miss my exclusive Windows Vista SP1 Image Gallery.]
First things first: SP1 won’t be installed on your system automatically. (Automatic Updates won’t begin for at least another month, and even then they’ll be rolled out slowly.) In fact, you might not even know SP1 is available unless you manually check Windows Update. If you meet the qualifications, you’ll see the download listed as an Important update.
If you don’t see this update in the list of available updates, you might be blocked temporarily by one of the following issues: Read the rest of this entry »
March 18th, 2008
Speeding up a sluggish Sony
Last week, Jeremy Toeman’s accursed Sony Vaio arrived here, and over the weekend I had a chance to get my hands on it for the first time. (If you missed the back story, read the first installment that I posted earlier this month.) The short version: Jeremy, a digital media expert and blogger, replaced an older Sony with a $2500 Vaio running Vista Business last spring, and the experience was so awful that he basically wrote it off and purchased a new Macbook. Like Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, Jeremy found the Vaio unacceptably slow and inscrutably buggy.
After reading a few of Jeremy’s posts, I e-mailed him and offered to take a look at the machine. This post represents some preliminary observations after two days of working with this hardware.
I couldn’t find a way to restore the original factory configuration. The machine includes a 6GB+ recovery partition, but the package I received didn’t include the recovery media, and Sony (apparently) doesn’t make it available for download. That’s probably just as well. [Update: Found the secret (press F10 at boot screen), so will be able to do this after all.] Anyway, Sony is sending me a new, boxed Vaio for evaluation this week, so I’ll be able to report on the retail experience when it arrives.
Before shipping the machine off to me, Jeremy noted that he had wiped out Vista and installed Windows XP. Ironically, the machine with XP installed was practically unusable. My first step was to do a complete backup using Windows Home Server, but as soon as the backup began, the system slowed to a crawl. After clicking the Start button, I had to wait 30 seconds for the Start menu to open. Opening Task Manager or Performance Monitor took two minutes. The CPU wasn’t particularly stressed (7% average usage) nor was disk IO or memory. I finally began killing processes, and after killing a couple of background programs the system stopped its sluggish ways and the backup completed normally.
With the backup complete, I decided to wipe the disk clean and install Vista Business from scratch, using a fresh copy with Service Pack 1 integrated into it. I downloaded more than 30 drivers, utilities, and updates for this model from Sony’s website as well. (I’ll document the entire process in a follow-up post.) The results were eye-opening.
Jeremy’s original complaint was that the Vaio took as much as five minutes to boot up. With a clean install of Vista Business and enough custom drivers to enable all installed hardware devices, the system was a rocket. Boot time to the logon screen was 33 seconds. I was able to swipe a finger in the fingerprint reader and get to a fully responsive desktop at exactly 40 seconds. It made a wireless connection almost instantaneously and loaded web pages in Firefox 2.0.0.12 with no delay. Total elapsed time from the appearance of the BIOS screen to active web browsing: 51 seconds. Every one of the programs included with Windows Vista opened quickly and ran well, with no discernible delays.
That’s pretty impressive, and exactly what I would expect from a system with this Vaio’s specs. The VGNSZ460N packs a lot of power into a sub-four-pound package, with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor running at 2 GHz, 2 GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce Go 7400 graphics processor driving a WXGA (1280 x 800) screen. With that hardware and a clean copy of Vista, there’s no slowdown to be noted.
Next, I loaded all of the Vaio notebook utilities (a camera capture utility, some power management drivers, a handful of network tools). With that extra work at startup, the system needed a few extra seconds, but that’s all. It now takes 45 seconds to get to the logon screen, another 5 seconds to log on using the fingerprint reader, and another 8 seconds to make a wireless connection, open Firefox, and load a web page. That’s still under a minute consistently, and I did nothing out of the ordinary to achieve those times.
My tentative conclusion? There’s nothing defective about this particular hardware, and nothing wrong with Sony’s design. After two days of use, I have noted a few interesting issues and annoyances that I’ll cover in the next post, after I get a chance to speak with the folks at Sony. And now that I have a full image backup of this system running the way it should, I’m dying to restore the original configuration so I can see why it made such a terrible impression on its owner.
Stay tuned.
March 3rd, 2008
My 10 favorite Windows programs of all time
I’ve been using Windows for nearly two decades, and during that time I’ve tried hundreds of programs. Most come and go, but a handful have stood the test of time for me by solving a particular problem particularly well.
In this article and accompanying gallery, I list 10 Windows programs I use every day. Every one adds a feature that makes Windows easier to use or can help make you more productive. Each one comes from a company that has proven its ability to support the product and improve it over time. I’ve been using every program on this list for long enough to recommend it without reservation.
Most of the programs in this list are free; for those that aren’t a trial version is available. All of the programs in this list run on Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista (and most run on other editions as well). I’ve devoted one full page to each program, with info and download links and enough details to help you decide whether it’s something you want to try. I’ve also provided screen shots for each program to help you see what I’m talking about.
Process Explorer (Sysinternals/Microsoft) The most amazing diagnostic tool ever, created by Microsoft Distinguished Fellow Mark Russinovich. If you use Task Manager, you should replace it with this free alternative, which does so much more.
RoboForm (Siber Systems) Create strong passwords, save them, and automatically fill them in using Firefox or IE. If you’re frustrated by passwords, this is your answer.
Keyfinder (Magical Jelly Bean Software) If you had to reinstall Windows tomorrow, do you know where your product ID is? If the answer is no, get this tiny free utility, which finds product IDs for dozens of popular programs (including Windows and Office) and lets you print or save the results.
ClipMate Clipboard Extender (ThornSoft Development) When I set up a new PC, this is the first program I install. It’s that good. I save thousands of keystrokes a year thanks to this gem of a utility.
FeedDemon for Windows (NewsGator Technologies) The best damn RSS reader in the Windows world. Period. And it’s now free.
Windows Live Photo Gallery (Microsoft) You’ll have to search for it, but this updated version of the Windows Photo Gallery that debuted in Vista is worth the hunt. If you’ve chosen to steer clear of Vista, no worries: It works in XP too.
Allway Sync (Usov Lab) This powerful tool synchronizes the contents of folders over a network or to external storage and is an ideal complement to most backup programs.
SnagIt (TechSmith) As a technology writer, I use this screen capture program nearly every day. Even after six years, I’m still discovering new tricks it can do.
IE7 Pro If you use IE7, you need this free add-on, which provides ad blocking, tab management, inline search, crash recovery, and all the other features Microsoft left out.
FinePrint (FinePrint Software) Over the years, I can’t even imagine how many trees I’ve spared with the help of this program. If you print more than a few pages a month, you have to try this.
Next –>
Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades' experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Recent Entries
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