Many know for a fact that the transition from Windows XP to Vista was a major step for most. The heightened system requirements to run all that eye candy were immense-even if Vista only just slightly out performs XP.
People therefore turned to Microsoft’s next planned operating system, Windows Seven as the answer to speedy computing with system requirements equal to Vista’s and (hopefully) not a whole lot higher.

Today the Now retired Bill Gates had this to say about Microsoft Windows Seven:

We’re hard at work, I would say, on the next version, which we call Windows 7. I’m very excited about the work being done there. The ability to be lower power, take less memory, be more efficient, and have lots more connections up to the mobile phone, so those scenarios connect up well to make it a great platform for the best gaming that can be done, to connect up to the thing being done out on the Internet, so that, for example, if you have two personal computers, that your files automatically are synchronized between them, and so you don’t have a lot of work to move that data back and forth.

Huzzah…The people rejoice?
…Not just yet-Its early days, and Gates touched on a lot more than just the system requirements of the next gen OS.
Seven is of course built on top of the existing Vista structure and so far not much has really changed dramatically-yet. Hardware will most likely change a lot by the time we see 7 on shelves. Watch this space

—–

Seven has been planned to ship 3 Years after Vista RTM’ed but let’s face it, Microsoft are useless at sticking to deadlines. I believe Seven will bring with it a lot more hype and I for one am looking forward to seeing/testing 7 a lot more than I did Vista.

Well it seems as though its finally happened-Service Pack 3 for every-ones favourite OS, Windows XP has been released to manufacturing (however not available to the public just yet-expect to see it on April 29th).

Service Pack 3 updates all 32-bit versions of Windows XP from Starter to XP Professional (the x64 edition of XP is based on Server 2003 and requires the Service Packs for that product). The complete package from the Download Center will reportedly be some 320 MB. Downloads via the Update function will be around 70 MB according to Microsoft’s current plans; this update can be so much smaller because only the data required for a specific XP version are downloaded, not the entire package.

Support for Windows XP without any service packs expired long ago and officially SP2 has to already be installed before SP3 can be installed, despite the fact there is no technical reason for this requirement. However Microsoft is inconsistent and SP3 can in practice be installed on XP with only SP1. Strangely, the complete SP3 contains all of the patches you need to update even a fresh base version of XP. Microsoft says that a slipstream installation CD can be created so that the operating system with SP3 can be installed at once without any other service pack.

SP3 not only contains patches and updates, but also a number of add-onsthat have been sold separately, such as Background Intelligent Transfer Service (Bits) 2.5, Windows Installer 3.1, Management Console (MMC) 3.0 and Core XML Services 6.0. SP3 does not, however, contain any fundamentally new functions, and no new versions of Internet Explorer or Media Player are included.

This is set to be the very last Service pack for XP however patches and updates for the OS are set to continue until Service Pack 3 expires in 2014.
A time line of SP3:

An overview for SP3 is available here (MSFT), however expect new documentation to arise pretty soon.

One of my favorite documents for Windows Server 2003 is now available in beta form for Windows Server 2008.  If you have never reviewed these guides I strongly recommend them.  The guide makes it easy to tailor the security configuration to accommodate the needs of your organization.  There is also a really cool GPOAccelerator (Group Policy Object Accelerator) tool to help you rapidly setup, test and deploy configurations of Group Policy security settings.  Here are some of the resources for Windows Server 2008 Security Guide:

Check out the Executive Overview.

Join the Windows Server 2008 Security Guide beta.

2008 Is here, its now time to face the truth… The clock is ticking on Microsoft’s Windows XP. And whilst Microsoft may view this as a natural stage in the evolution of a product that was RTM’ed (released to manufacturing) all the way back in 2001, a healthy proportion of people will fail to see eye to eye with the company on this one. In this context… Windows Vista.

Vista In 2007

Even with Vista hot off the presses, XP did not give one inkling that it was going to give up the fight, with Microsoft focusing on winding XP up for good-Ending support for SP1 and soon to be SP2.

-Microsoft’s Windows Product Management vice president Mike Nash on September 27th: “with more than 60 million licenses sold as of this summer, Windows Vista is on track to be the fastest-selling operating system in Microsoft’s history.”
They had done it-sold over 20 million licences in the first month since RTM, passing 40million within the first 100days and 60 million by mid 2007. The last statistics made available to the public, dating back to the end of October, pointed to over 88 million Vista copies sold worldwide.

At the end of 2007, according to statistics provided by Net Applications, Vista enjoyed a market share of 10.48% - a percentage roughly synonymous with 100+ million sold copies. And while in just a single year Vista’s install base has passed the combined audience of Mac OS X and all the Linux distributions, its performance is still perceived with nuances of failure. And at fault is Windows XP with its roots firmly dug in for the past six years.

Vista’s Problem

Currently Vista (in general) leaves a lot to be desired-to be honest it’s just how I feel. Sure SP1 comes out this year, and there is still hope that Microsoft will boost Vista up to the OS that it has the potential to be, but lets face it-there are A LOT of users who wont go with the flow. Admittedly Vista HAS grown on me since I first tested it a couple of years ago-I have the upmost confidence SP1 will change my mind for the better.

Let’s explore what’s gone down with Vista last year:

• Dell, HP and Acer have all asked Microsoft to extend XP’s availability for an additional 6 months due to the concerns of customers.
• Many Businesses have been slow to adopt Vista due to poor performance and compatibility issues.
• Complaints have arisen regarding performance issues and the fact that Vista is so damn hungry.

XP’s Future

2008 Marks another milestone for Microsoft Windows-No it’s not Service Pack 1. It’s the real upgrade to Vista (SP0)… XP’s Service Pack 3. This final major update to XP has been dubbed by some as the Vista without the crap.

Although XP was faster than Vista before, SP3 ups the ante. Microsoft has said that SP3 features about 1073 fixes and adds some cool features from Vista to make your experience far better. Using Vista after XP seems weird-no device incompatibility warnings, pop-ups asking for permission and poor performance.

Sure this may not seem like big improvements and most of the fixes included in SP3 can already be found on Vista, but isn’t that the issue here? Now that XP is more secure and already sports any and all drivers you are currently using without costing hundreds of dollars to implement, couldn’t it be said that XP is simply the better choice? … It just works!!!

Sadly the end of June (30^th )2008 marks the day where Windows XP will no longer be available pre-loaded on computers from original equipment manufactures or from retail outlets. Starting with the summer of this year (4^th Quarter) and ending sometime in 2010, when windows 7 is planned, end users will only have access to Windows Vista. XP will survive a little longer with System Builders until early 2009, and until mid 2010 with the Starter edition, but sales of the Windows operating system connected with white-box PC’s are only a fraction of the Windows client businesses.

What about the Big Picture?

In the end, it’s not all about the support life-cycles and marketing, not by a long shot. With SP1, Vista will enter its first stage of evolution and with that a massively increased user-base. This will lead better support and compatibility, to increased reliability and boosted performance-XP will fade to the background and Vista will take centre stage.

So…While Office 07 and Vista get their first Service Packs-Windows XP will get its last.

I Say “Viva La XP” but Bring on Vista SP1

Stats and info sourced from cnet and softpedia

Zumobi, the mobile startup spun off from Microsoft Research, has launched its first beta. The Zumobi lets you access, enjoy, and share web-based content on your mobile phone in an innovative, new way. The Zumobi software presents a unique way to access content, with a grid of sixteen tiles that you can zoom in and out of, and the tiles acting as widgets that display web-based content.
Currently, mobile browsing goes something like this…

1. 1. Either you navigate through a list of web sites pre-loaded on your phone, navigate through static bookmarks, or maybe even attempt to type in a long URL with your thumbs. Ugh.

   2. Now that you’ve chosen your content, wait while it loads. And wait. And wait.

   3. Ok, site loaded. Read a few lines and scroll down. Scroll down. Scroll down, deeper into the abyss searching for what you wanted buried somewhere in all that content. Tedious. Often frustrating.

   4. Rinse, repeat.

Ultimately, it’s an underwhelming experience.

Enter Zumobi. Beta Launch Video On YouTube

They are also recruiting Beta Users, To participate in the Zumobi Beta you’ll need the following:
Zumobi Tiles create a solution through which advertising and marketing communications are highly contextual and personalized.

• A U.S.A. mobile phone number
• A data plan with your mobile phone service provider (we strongly recommend this be an unlimited data plan)
• A mobile phone running Windows Mobile 5 or 6

While Zumobi is compatible with most phones running Windows Mobile 5 or 6, we have certified and recommend the following devices for optimal performance:

• Motorola Q
• Samsung Blackjack 1.0
• HTC Dash
• HTC Touch

Of course, you are also welcome to download and test Zumobi on other Windows Mobile 5 or 6 phones, but we have not fully certified these phones yet and cannot guarantee an optimal experience. Additional certified phones will be added frequently, so please check our website for the most current list of devices.

Today, Microsoft Live Labs is announcing the Volta technology preview, a developer toolset for building multi-tier web applications using existing and familiar tools, techniques and patterns. Volta’s declarative tier-splitting enables developers to postpone architectural decisions about distribution until the last possible responsible moment. Also, thanks to a shared programming model across multiple-tiers, Volta enables new end-to-end profiling and testing for higher levels of application performance, robustness, and reliability. Using the declarative tier-splitting, developers can refine architectural decisions based on this profiling data. This saves time and costs associated with manual refactoring. In effect, Volta extends the .NET platform to further enable the development of software+services applications, using existing and familiar tools and techniques.

You architect and build your application as a .NET client application, assigning the portions of the application that run on the server tier and client tier late in the development process. You can target either web browsers or the CLR as clients and Volta handles the complexities of tier-splitting. The compiler creates cross-browser JavaScript for the client tier, web services for the server tier, and all communication, serialization, synchronization, security, and other boilerplate code to tie the tiers together. In effect, Volta offers a best-effort experience in multiple environments without requiring tailoring of the application.

“Centro” is built on Windows Server 2008 and provides an integrated server and management system for midsize businesses. The CTP includes many new Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 based components, as well as updates to the server applications that shipped in “Centro” Beta 1 (updated versions of System Center Essentials 2007, Exchange Server 2007 and ISA, as well as new updates to setup, Active Directory domain join functionality and a host of other improvements).

Please take a moment to read through the hardware requirements below. If you meet these requirements, go to http://connect.microsoft.com, click on Invitations, sign in with your Windows Live ID (Passport ID) and enter the following invite ID; Extr-GHBC-JCJM.

Visit source for more information.

I’ve been in Redmond (Washington) for a year now - I actually arrived here May 12th, 2006.  It’s been a long ride but given the opportunity, I wouldn’t change anything. Today marks the MED (Maximum End Date) of my contract at Microsoft. 

For those of you not familiar with contracting at Microsoft, essentially it means I have to take a 100 day break in service.  If it were up to me, or anyone on our team - believe me I wouldn’t be going anywhere It’s been a bittersweet day - I had lunch with many of my friends I’ve made from this and other teams - I’ve been holding off tears all day long - not of sadness, but rather happy of all I’ve accomplished, and upset from having to leave what I’ve grown to love.

To our beta customers, testers, MVPs and partners - you guys have been an awesome group to work with — your contribution to Windows and to the team I have worked with is tremendous - and you should be very proud.

I’m looking around for Full-Time opportunities with Microsoft, but one way or another I’ll be back here just like old times - full of new ideas and a smile because I know I’ll have all of you guys to work with again.Until then, please continue to help out the beta effort — the team members I leave behind are top-notch, and I hope you’ll grow to work with them just as many of you have worked closely with me.

Thank you again for all you have done for me, for your fellow beta sites, and for Windows -

-Patrick

Windows Server Code Name Longhorn has been released to beta testers today (five separate editions!!), with some of the most important changes coming to Longhorn Server Core. Core will support a grand total of 8 roles, double the 4 roles it had back in mid 2005. The grand total of roles available to Server Core includes:

• Active Directory
• Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
• DNS
• DHCP
• File/Print
• Windows Media Services
• Terminal Services (gets TS Easy Print and the new TS RemoteApp management interface)
• Virtualization (configuring a server as a dedicated host for virtual servers.) (won’t be available immediately.)
•  Network Access Protection (has greatly improved setup and integration)
• IIS7 (does XCOPY deployment; and lots, lots more…)

PowerShell is also included in the 3rd beta release of Longhorn Server, as well as the Windows Firewall being enabled by default.

And what if you want to try this great os and dont know how to run it? The folks at Microsoft have launched a new Windows Server “Longhorn” Technical Library on the Windows Server Tech Center, they have a detailed Reviewers’ Guide available to download and read, and perhaps coolest of all, they have teamed up with the folks in our Microsoft Learning group to develop free self-paced e-learning clinics. These interactive, multimedia-based clinics provide eight hours of training on topics like server management, centralized application access, branch office management, and security and policy enforcement. They keep track of which sections you’ve completed, so you can start and stop them whenever you like, and you can even download them for offline use to keep you company on transatlantic flights.

So-All-in-all its been a Massive day for Windows Server! I cant wait to download it give it a test run…
… I love you windows server

Source: AeroXP and The folks at the Windows Server Blog 

Check it out - http://www.microsoft.com/getbeta3 (now live-so go grab yourself a copy)

An unnamed Microsoft official just confirmed to ActiveWin.com that the new Windows server succeeding Windows Server 2003 will be named Windows Server 2007, now known in its beta form as Windows Server “Longhorn”. Windows Server 2007 is currently slated to be released in the second half of 2007, culminating a long beta process which began in early 2005. In addition, development has begun on the next series of MSCE certification tests geared for Windows Server 2007.

Zack: Here at MSBLOG, we can’t validate other articles on neighbouring websites. At the moment the final name of the next Windows Server product is purely speculation and cannot be confirmed as yet. We’ll just have to wait and see. The final name is expected to be revealed in March 2007.

Source: ActiveWin

There’s a new build up on the ongoing Longhorn Server beta program. It’s the next build up from 5600 which was available back in August. This current build, 6001.16406 will be on Microsoft Connect very soon - just waiting for permissions to propagate across domains.

There’s also an updated copy of the Microsoft Beta Client. Ensure that your new build of Longhorn Server is running this, and another versions running on any other machine are updated accordingly.

Download (Tech beta participants only)

Last month it was announced by Microsoft that testers would get a Free copy of Windows Vista RTM for those who had submitted One or more bug in the Technical Beta (it seems not many people can’t understand those two words =/ )

It was revealed today that if you were on the Technical beta that your keys are ready for you to request.
To do so you must select “Product Keys” from the left of the Vista Page on connect. From there you generate yourself a key from the package entitled “Windows Vista RTM Ultimate Keys”.

Each Beta Participant can only generate themselves ONE key only for the selected version that they chose upon apply for this offer (for example they can issue one key for Ultimate OR business-its too late to switch between versions).

So if you are reading this and you are on the beta Get cracking! As this deal is a limited offer!! You must request this key prior to December 10, 2006 because No more keys will be issued after this date.

Enjoy,
You Deserve it

I want to apologise in advance - it’s not all that special. I’ll link to the screenshot and then I’ll explain some things from my point of view.

Click to expand

Here’s the nitty gritty about it:

1. This image is not a fake. It came directly from a source in Microsoft (who I’ll say is a good friend of MSBLOG, but isn’t a blogger here) from the Windows Server Business or something-or-other team earlier on this evening.
2. The build number and memory available to Windows are identifyable parts of which can be traced back to the source of the leak. So for his/her protection, it’s been concealed, but trust me - the build number really is very irrellevant.
3. The wallpaper is one of those from Windows Vista RTM - I noticed it, you probably have to.
4. I don’t think it has Windows Aero with transparency… whether it’s compatible or not, or whether it’s turned off is anyone’s guess.
5. It’s based on Windows Server “Longhorn” but “Centro” is all for mid-sized organisations, so they’ll be some changes.
6. The desktop version says “Windows Server 2008″ in it - I’ve been told that this is pre-empting the release of Windows Server “Longhorn” in the second half of 2007 meaning that it’ll be 2008 rather than 2007 in the title. Also this desktop version best reflects the actual product - it’s Windows Server 2008/Longhorn with “Centro” on top of it.
7. Is it just me who thinks the image in the About Windows box is naff? I think it’s dreadful - I’ll be submitting it as a bug once the first build is released to testers.

Windows Server “Centro” will be available for testers within the next month to two-months on Microsoft Connect. Let me know what you think of the first look of “Centro”… even though there really isn’t much to look at!

Not everyone saw it coming… nothing came in Office 2007 for testers but Vista was always a hell of a lot bigger than Office 2007. Windows Vista released to manufacturing last week, and MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers could get it… and those with Volume Licensing access… and now fellow testers can!

If you’re a Vista tester, Windows Vista Business (by default, Ultimate if you ask for it) is yours - check your email account associated with your Connect profile. If you qualify (if, that is) then you’ll get a free copy in form of a unique Connect invitation to a new sub-page with the build on. You must have submitted one bug at least to get a free copy and be on the technical beta.

You can activate the copy of Vista unlimited times on one machine (not entirely sure how the licensing thing works, just going off internal sources). Anyway, those who have contributes certainly deserve it - enjoy your reward

Update: Due to the load from Connect, MSDN, TechNet, etc. the X64 images have been removed.  If you have already begun a download, you will be able to finish, but no new X64 downloads will be permitted until the load has lessened. Additionally, the Vista team will be intermittently stopping new downloads for periods of time when the servers reach capacity. 

On a side note: Remember the last time that the Connect servers were having this much trouble at the Beta 2 Launch? Well, the connect sercers are currently seeing ~2.5x the traffic that we did for Beta 2.  No wonder Connect is suffering.