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Windows 7 for XP ProfessionalsUpdating Support Skills from XP to Windows 7by Bink.nu's Raymond Comvalius
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This week Microsoft released an update for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 with a utility for restoring backups made on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 to computers that are running Windows 7 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2.
This utility has been available for Windows Vista and Server 2008, but did not work on Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
Aaron Dietrich's job was far from glamorous: making Windows 7 start faster than its predecessor. He was floored when reviews touted the new operating system’s start-up speed.
Months before Windows 7 launched, Aaron Dietrich's boss forwarded him an early product review from CNET, an online technology news site. Until then, Dietrich hadn't heard an outsider's take on the new operating system. When he read the article, he found a prominent—and glowing—mention of lightning-fast start-up times.
“I always viewed myself as just one piece of the whole Windows puzzle,” Dietrich says. “It's really when we brought it all together that we got such a great product.”
Click for larger version.
"It gave me a really good feeling," Dietrich says. "I thought, 'Wow, it's not just that we're on the right path, but we're really making a change in perception for reviewers and the general public here.'"
As senior development lead on the Windows Client Performance team, Dietrich had toiled to make sure Windows 7-based PCs would fire up like rockets. But he was surprised again and again when praise for the faster start-up performance popped up repeatedly in the press and in the blogosphere.
"It's not a fancy new UI feature," he said. "It's not that thing in your face all the time like a desktop feature or window switcher or something like that." Still, he took pride in the kudos that Windows 7 was receiving.
Dietrich, who came to Microsoft nine years ago after completing graduate studies at Rochester Institute of Technology, worked with Windows 7 features teams to keep the operating system lean enough to clock significantly faster start-up times. He said it really did take a village to build Windows 7.
"I always viewed myself as just one piece of the whole Windows puzzle," he said. "It's really when we brought it all together that we got such a great product."
The Microsoft News Center talked recently with Dietrich about his work on Windows 7.
The News Center: What was your role working on Windows 7?
Dietrich: For Windows 7, I was on the Windows Client Performance team. Rather than owning a specific feature, we kind of work as a liaison with many different teams within Windows to help them analyze and resolve performance issues with the operating system.
The News Center: How did you increase start-up performance in Windows 7?
Dietrich: There were a couple of key features that allowed us to get better boot times. The first was we introduced what we call the fast boot feature, which allows some parts of boot to happen in the background while Windows is discovering and initializing devices. That helped us gain up to 25 percent of our boot time over Windows Vista, depending on the hardware.
The other big one was that we significantly reduced the size of the operating system required to be read from disk in order to boot. Whereas Windows Vista required somewhere on the order of 220 to 240 megabytes of operating system code to boot, Windows 7 requires anywhere from 140 to 180 megabytes, depending on the configuration of the system.
Continue at:
The Man Behind Windows 7’s Fast Start Aaron Dietrich's job was far from glamorous making Windows
Since Windows 7 went gold, the Internet has been abuzz with little tips and tricks to improve the end-user experience. One of these tips, originating from back when Windows 7 was still in beta, outlined how to access Super Secret Hidden Wallpapers in the %windir%\Globalization\MCT folder. Sadly, nobody seemed to really understand what these folders are for – and worse, never challenged the steps to gain access the wallpaper. (It’s super easy, keep reading.)
Before we go forward, we need to define some acronyms, clear up some fancytalk, and tie everything together with a simple picture:
Continue at WintinWindows.com how to activate your local pack:
Demystifying Windows 7 Local Packs and the MCT folders - Within Windows
AD LDS is a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) directory service that provides flexible support for directory-enabled applications, without the dependencies that are required for Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS). AD LDS provides much of the same functionality as AD DS, but it does not require the deployment of domains or domain controllers. In environments where AD DS exists, AD LDS can use AD DS for the authentication of Windows security principals. You can run multiple instances of AD LDS concurrently on a single computer, and have an independently managed schema for each AD LDS instance.
Download details AD LDS for Windows7
Some numbers Steve Ballmer mentions is his CES Keynote.
Windows 7 was an unprecedented effort that included 3,000 world-class Microsoft engineers, 50,000 partners, and 8 million beta-test customers, from soccer moms to small businesses, from grandparents to gamers, from Australia to Zimbabwe, people from every walk of life and every corner of the globe helped us make Windows 7 and make it an incredible success.
According to NPD, U.S. retail data shows that Windows PC sales jumped almost 50 percent the week it launched. On Black Friday it's reported that retailers sold 33 percent more Windows PCs than the year before. And for the 2009 holiday season a 50 percent increase in Windows PC sales from last year. Last year was a tough year, but these are still phenomenal numbers.
Today I think I certainly am very proud to be able to say that Windows 7 is by far the fastest selling operating system in history. But for me, the most important measure of success is what our customers think, and customer reaction with their experience has been very, very good. A recent survey found a 94 percent satisfaction rate among early adopters of Windows 7. All of this is driving great results for our industry.
After predicting a 2 percent drop in PC shipments in 2009, Gartner now expects the final number to be up 3 percent. That will mean nearly 300 million PCs shipped in 2009, which is an incredible number of smart devices. There's no more popular smart device today in the world than the PC. And for 2010, Gartner is looking at a jump of more than 12 percent. That's incredible momentum.
Clearly, consumers are saying that there's never been a better time to be a Windows 7 PC. With more than 1,400 Windows 7 PC models available, it's easy to understand why the numbers are so strong. If you look at all of the amazing hardware our partners are bringing to market from All-in-One PCs to ultrathins, netbooks, notebooks, screaming gaming rigs, the range of PCs with Windows 7 is virtually limitless. There is truly a Windows 7 PC for everyone.
The Windows platform represents the broadest ecosystem of developers in the world from casual games to the most powerful software running the world's biggest organizations. There are over four million Windows applications in all, and Windows 7 allows software to become even better. Developers are creating rich applications that take advantage of the new technologies in 7. Our partners have delivered over 800,000 new unique Windows 7 applications exploiting these new technologies with over 240,000 new devices, peripherals, and machines just since we delivered the beta release.
This all includes an unprecedented array of products that take advantage of new capabilities, platform capabilities like voice, touch, GPS sensing, graphics, social communication, streaming media, and much more, which are available for industry innovation in Windows 7. The quality, the value, and the choice in Windows PCs simply can't be matched on any other platform. And looking back on the past year, it's clear that Windows 7 really is a rising tide that has helped lift many boats in our business. But rather than just sit here and talk, talk, talk about what we're delivering, we'd like to show you what is now available or coming soon.
Rebecca Deutsch, a senior program manager, helped develop ‘Jump List,’ a new Windows 7 feature that lets users skip needless steps and save time.
The senior program manager loves her job connecting spokes and keeping the wheel turning. For Windows 7, the wheel Deutsch helped turn was to develop a brand new feature that allows users to more quickly jump to frequently used destinations.
The Windows 7 Jump List feature quickly transports a user to frequently or recently used files, Web sites and more.
Click for larger image.
Called a Jump List, the feature is activated when a user right-clicks certain icons in the taskbar or hovers over icons in the Start menu. The Jump List window then pops up with links to transport the user to frequently or recently used documents, files, Web sites and more.
"It starts working automatically as you start using Windows 7, opening files," Deutsch says. "Creating new files, visiting Web sites, creating folders, playing music—all of your actions contribute to the knowledge of the system to be able to compile the things that are used the most. With the Jump List, accessing the things you use most is just another click away."
Deutsch, who interned twice on Microsoft's Windows team as a Carnegie Mellon University student, joined the company as an employee after graduating. More than five years later, she still enjoys working on the "pieces that make up the cornerstones of what the Windows operating system means to users." The News Center asked her about working on Windows 7.
The News Center: What feature did you work on for Windows 7, and what does it do?
Deutsch: I worked on a couple of different areas. The Jump List feature was a lot of my focus. I also worked on the Start menu in Windows 7, which was not changed too radically but had some maintenance and targeted feature improvement, like adding the Jump List.
The News Center: What is a Jump List, and how does it work?
Deutsch: The real core of it is getting you to your end destination as quickly and efficiently as possible. You're not launching Word to see the blank document. Often, what you're really trying to do is get to your content, task, Web site, file, album, or whatever it is. The idea of the Jump List is to reduce all those extra steps that you used to have to do to get to your end goal.
The News Center: What was a typical day like working on Windows 7?
Deutsch: That's a really hard question to answer, especially for a project manager. Our job changes a lot as you go through the product cycle.
During planning, it's back-to-back meetings talking with small groups hashing out ideas and proposals. As you move into development, the day becomes a lot more about closing the door and sitting heads-down to hammer out the feature specifications on a page so that developers and testers can have a concrete document to work on of what they need to build.
I sometimes think of my job as being the center of a wheel with a lot of different spokes, and I need to make sure the whole wheel is turning together, going in the right direction, and getting there on time.
The News Center: Was teamwork important to the Jump List feature?
Deutsch: Hugely. We had a really strong feature team that spanned across all the disciplines working together. Really, from day one we were doing brainstorms and planning meetings, and all the pieces were very critical and needed to work all together through planning and development. Beyond that, there was also a great collaboration across the project managers on our team because a lot of the pieces hinged together. A Jump List isn't something that can live on its own, being part of the taskbar and part of the Start menu.
Continue at Source: Giving Windows 7 Users a Jump Ahead Rebecca Deutsch, a senior program manager, helped develop ‘J
Microsoft today released the Open Sourced Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool (WUDT) under the GPLv2.
As we previously explained, the testing and localization took longer than we expected, but the project is now hosted on CodePlex.com, Microsoft's Open Source software project hosting repository, and the code can be found here.
The tool can also now be downloaded from the Microsoft Store here.
Also, as a result of some necessary changes, while the user experience of the tool will be the same as before, the install involves additional steps.
Continue: Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool Released Under GPLv2
Here you see how the logon screen evolved during Windows 7 development.
See video with the story behind the logon screen and wallpaper.
Like that there are over 30 versions of the logon screen for differnt screen sizes, rotations, resolutions etc.
DirectAccess is an integrated part of the Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 7 Ultimate, and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems. A DirectAccess solution provides a secure, flexible architecture for enhanced remote access and transition to IPv6. It is designed to be compatible with most existing Internet, perimeter, and intranet environments by using IPv6-inside-IPv4 tunneling and IPv6-to-IPv4 translation where necessary.
A DirectAccess solution may require IPv6/IPv4DNS and IPv6/IPv4NAT at the network perimeter to provide access to existing IPv4-only internal hosts. New IETF specifications for DNS64 and NAT64 should provide IPv6/IPv4DNS and IPv6/IPv4NAT products that are compatible with DirectAccess. The Forefront Unified Access Gateway DirectAccess server provides a comprehensive DirectAccess solution, with a compatible IPv6/IPv4DNS and IPv6/IPv4NAT, network load balancing, and high availability.
Download details Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 DirectAccess IT Infrastructure Compatibili
In China you can buy a 8 GB USB stick with Windows 7 “Signature Edition”
I guess the 10 in 1 stands for the Windows 7 editions and maybe DaRT from the MDOP package.
This is obviously pirated, but a neat idea to sell it on USB
Windows 7 Falsche 10-in-1 Edition auf USB-Sticks - WinFuture.de
Rolf Ebeling was new to Microsoft when he was tapped to design the Windows 7 startup animation. Ebeling sought inspiration for the animation from the light, color, and energy in everyday things.
When Rolf Ebeling was working on the Windows 7 startup animation, he sought inspiration all around him.
“Having only been with the company for four months and suddenly finding myself working on the first thing millions of people would see when they started up Windows 7 … was a peculiar realization to wake up to each morning,” Ebeling says.
He squinted at the way streetlights glowed in the rain. He watched the way light reflected on water. He looked at the electric zigzag of fireflies in flight. Ebeling knew the Microsoft Windows team wanted something that reflected the feeling of the new operating system—light, color, energy.
Ebeling created a 105-frame startup animation hoping to give users something beautiful and familiar during those few seconds when Windows 7 starts up. Now, every day millions watch Ebeling's design: four swirling points of light that come together to form a pulsing Windows 7 flag.
"We never lost sight that we wanted the boot-up to be faster, but thought, 'Well, if people are going to be there we should make it attractive and something that inspires confidence,'" said Ebeling, a senior user experience lead for the User Experience Design and Research Team for Windows, Windows Live and Internet Explorer.
Before joining Microsoft in April 2008, Ebeling was creative director for Newsweek.com in New York City. In his eight years at Newsweek, he was on call 24 hours a day during one of the most eventful decades in news history, covering everything from terrorist attacks to war to landmark elections.
A self-taught designer with a degree in English literature, Ebeling never held a software job until he came to Microsoft. Along with developing the startup animation for Windows 7, he also helped with the appearance and functionality of the calculator.
"It has been an eye-opening 18 months, as you might imagine," he said. "It's a lot to learn. I keep hearing that fire-hose metaphor—it felt like multiple fire hoses."
PressPass: What was the biggest challenge or hurdle you faced working on the Windows 7 startup animation?
Ebeling: Biggest challenge? Having only been with the company for four months and suddenly finding myself working on the first thing millions of people would see when they started up Windows 7. That was a peculiar realization to wake up to each morning.
Continue: Designer Wanted to Give Windows 7 Users Something Beautiful Rolf Ebeling was new to Microsoft wh
In respect to the 19th anniversary of Freddy Mercury's passing, the Muppet Show created an awesome Video of Bohemian Rhapsody.
I found a reason to legitimate post this on Bink.nu, in the end scene Kermit sits behind a PC that is running Windows 7
Watch this great video:
Twinkle Wish
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Windows 7 passed the 5% market share milestone last weekend, which put it, if only temporarily, above the total market share of all versions of Apple's Mac OS X, a Web measurement firm said today.
Last Saturday and Sunday, Windows 7 powered an estimated 5% and 5.14% of all computers that were online those days, according to Internet metrics vendor Net Applications. The two-day average of 5.07% was higher than the 5% of the market that Net Applications said Apple's operating system averaged for the week of Nov. 15-21.
"It's safe to say that Windows 7's daily share did peak above Mac's weekly share," said Vince Vizzaccaro, executive vice president at Net Applications, in an e-mail today. Vizzaccaro said his company had not yet compiled daily averages for Mac OS X, something that would be necessary to compare Windows 7's weekend numbers with the same dates for the Mac.
When Windows 7's Nov. 15-21 average was matched against Mac OS X, however, for an apples-to-apples comparison, Microsoft's 4.15% lagged behind Apple's 5%.
But Vizzaccaro was confident that Windows 7 would soon pass Mac OS X for good, and not just during a short stretch. "Certainly, the trend line shows Windows 7 will surpass Mac share soon," he predicted.
In fact, Windows' overall market share of 92.64% for the week of Nov. 15-21 was slightly higher than the OS's October share of 92.52%. "We may be seeing an uptick in overall Windows share this month," Vizzaccaro confirmed. "This isn't too rare, but if we see three or four months in a row of Windows regaining market share, that would be a significant trend change."
Continue: Windows 7 passes Mac OS X in market share race
You have an NTFS formatted SD card. You use Advanced Direct Memory Access (ADMA) to transfer data between the SD card and a computer that is running Windows 7 system. When you transfer data from the computer to the SD card, the data on the SD card may be corrupted. Additionally, unexpected problems may occur when you try to use the affected data.
During an ADMA transfer process, the Secure Digital Bus Driver (Sdbus.sys) converts the DMA data structure of the operating system to the ADMA data structure of the SD card. The DMA and the ADMA data structures are also known as the descriptor tables. The descriptor table contains a data length value and a buffer address. The data-length field is 16-bit, and has a maximum size of 64K (kilobytes). However, during the data conversion process, the Sdbus.sys driver does not check the buffer size in the descriptor table of the system. Therefore, the Sdbus.sys driver may set an incorrect data length in the SD descriptor table. For example, the Sdbus.sys driver may set the data length larger than 0xFFFF. Also, corrupted I/O occurs. This causes data corruption.
kb976092: An update is available for Windows 7 to fix a data corruption issue for Secure Digital (SD) card