Just when we though Service Pack 1 was on the way, they pull it back. Microsoft has suspended distributing the prerequisite system update, the one that installs before Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and prepares your system, due to some problems users were experiencing. Hopefully it gets resolved soon enough.
On the other hand, Windows XP Service Pack 3 is practically done. Windows Update has the RC2 version of the SP for you, if you first install an update script that makes it available for you. You can help see if this version is ready for prime time, or wait a few weeks for the final release.
Microsoft’s Miel announced that Microsoft Research is planning on releasing to the public next week an internal prototype, called InkSeine, that allows for some amazing inking on Tablet PCs. InkSeine can be installed on Tablets running Windows XP or Windows Vista (Premium, Business or better) and allows access to many features just by inking. For example, you can run a search just by circling some words.
Microsofties, many of whom use Tablet PCs, have been enjoying InkSeing internally for a long time, but now regular users can enjoy the program. On February 15, InkSeine will be released to the wild. Until then, enjoy these videos and screenshots:
The first video is from the InkSeine website (there’s a higher quality version there):
The second video is also from there, but I had to upload it to YouTube:
And some various screenshots (clickk to view full-size on Flickr):
If I wrote about every single program that brings Windows Vista features to other versions of Windows, I’d never have to write about anything else. Still, I’d better mention this one, which brings Flip 3D, the Vista feature that flips through open windows in a 3D environment, to Windows 2000, Windows 2003 and Windows XP. Download it here.
(via Lifehacker)
PCWorld reported that Dell overtook HP as the largest US PC vendor in the forth quarter of 2007. Dell shipped 5.5 million units while HP was able to ship, a still impressive, 4.5 million units – give or take a few. While both PC makers offer XP as an option on their BTO systems, Dell has made a much bigger deal about its prefrence for XP. Now, no one has let the cat out of the bag on how many XP machines Dell has shipped since Vista, but one has to wonder if Dell’s fourth quarter numbers weren’t padded by their XP option. Additionally, with SP3 for XP coming out, it makes an XP machine look pretty good.
Now, I’ve been using Vista since launch and I absolutely love it, but over the holidays I was tasked with finding my brother-in-law a new laptop. He is a pretty casual user, so I ended up settling on a Dell with, you guessed it, Windows XP.
The holidays have not been kind to me, or to this blog, and I apologize. Here are all the stories left lying around that aren’t going to get a full post:
Xbox 360: Over 17 Million Sold Microsoft announced that that through the end of November, it had sold 17.7 million Xbox 360s. With December being the biggest month of the year, that number is definitely over 18 million now, and possibly approaching 19 million. Pretty successful console.
Also announced: 8.1 million copies of Halo 3 sold. Almost 50% of all 360 owners have Halo 3, and the rest probably have Red Ring Of Death consoles.
Virtual Earth Adds KML Support
Virtual Earth, Microsoft’s technology that powers Windows Live Maps and Live Maps-based mashups, now supports KML files in the Virtual Earth Map Control. KML files are the files used by Google Earth/Google Maps for various map data and placemarks, so mashup creators can now use those KML files in their Live Maps mashups, freeing the data for use on both the Google and Microsoft platforms.
Office 2003 SP3 Disables Old File Formats
Service Pack 3 for Office 2003, released a few months ago, disables the opening of some files made by older versions of Office because they can create security risks. Specifically, it disables all files from Corel Draw, Lotus and Quattro, Excel 4.0, dBASE II files, Powerpoint files before PowerPoint 97, and Word files before Word 6.0 for Windows. You can still run them by putting them in a trusted folder, or re-enable them by running a registry file.
Nine New Games For Windows Titles Announced Microsoft announced at CES nine new games in its Games For Windows program, including the upcoming Lego Indiana Jones game (those Lego games are always fun), Train Simulator 2 (which we’ve discussed before) and a new Tomb Raider game. The full list:
Alone in the Dark (Atari)
Bionic Commando (Capcom)
Conflict: Denied Ops (Eidos Interactive)
Empire: Total War (SEGA)
LEGO Indiana Jones (LucasArts)
Microsoft Train Simulator 2 (Microsoft Game Studios)
Sins of a Solar Empire (Stardock)
Space Siege (SEGA)
Tomb Raider: Underworld (Eidos Interactive)
Windows Vista Only 39% Of OS Sales New data from Microsoft shows that Windows Vista shipped on on 39% of all PCs in 2007. Remove the one month Vista wasn’t available, January, plus the almost 10% of the market that goes to Macs, and you still have half of all PCs shipping with Windows XP, not Vista. Microsoft should have found a way to convince PC manufacturers to stop shipping Vista, but it didn’t, and couldn’t force them given the bad PR it’s had all year. Hopefully in 2008, with Service Pack 1 shipping, MS can stop providing XP to computer makers and only allow them to ship Vista.
Microsoft announced version 2 of its Origami Experience software, the software designed to make it easier to use Windows on Ultra Mobile PCs. The old software was cool-looking, centralized, and had a lot of big buttons, while this one is bold, filled with extra information widgets, and lots of coolness, enough to make me jealous of UMPC owners. While the old stuff was about usability, the new goodness is about the centralized dashboard and great-looking touch computing.
I just spent the entire day distracted by Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate, namely not getting any real work done while my computer was busy installing it. You should install SP1, too, just be aware of the time it might take.
To install it right now, go to this Microsoft.com download page and download the file offered. Save that file to your computer (don’t just try to open it) and right-click on the file and click “Run as Administrator”. After running through the file, SP1 will install automatically through Automatic Updates over the next few days.
If you don’t want to wait, or if your computer doesn’t install updates automatically, go to Windows Update and check for new updates, and then install them. After two or three updates, which prepare your computer for SP1 and help make sure the update does not fail, you will be offered Service Pack 1. Install it.
Make sure you have a good amount of free space to install it. I saw at least a gigabyte of previously free space dissapear after installing SP1, and I’d recommend having at least 3 or 4 gigs free before even attempting it. If you run into problems, check if the BITS service is running.
After installing SP1, everything seems fine. One difference I noted: A bug that caused my PC to crash and die after random uses of the scroll area on my trackpad appears to be gone. As previous articles have indicated, the No GUI Boot screen has changed, and the new version looks nice. Windows Sidebar appears to be using far less resources when not on screen. In Task Manager, there are two Task Scheduler Engines, one for the user and one for the system, though that may not be new.
UPDATE: Pharod smartly points out in the comments that you should remember this is a release candidate, not the final release. As a result, there are bound to be bugs, and you’ll have to uninstall it before you can install the final service pack (and it’ll de-activate by the summer if you don’t).
Long Zheng has a detailed list of the major changes in Windows Vista Service Pack 1, coming in beta any day now. Read the whole list, or check out some of the ones I found interesting:
Adds support to enable new types of Windows Media Center Extenders, such as digital televisions and networked DVD players, to connect to Windows Media Center PCs.
Enhances the MPEG-2 decoder to support content protection across a user accessible bus on Media Center systems configured with Digital Cable Tuner hardware. This also effectively enables higher levels of hardware decoder acceleration for commercial DVD playback on some hardware.
SP1 addresses issues many of the most common causes of crashes and hangs in Windows Vista, as reported by Windows Error Reporting. These include issues relating to Windows Calendar, Windows Media Player, and a number of drivers included with Windows Vista.
Improves reliability by preventing data-loss while ejecting NTFS-formatted removable-media.
Improves Windows Vista’s built-in file backup solution to include EFS encrypted files in the backup.
Improves the performance of browsing network file shares by consuming less bandwidth.
Improves power consumption when the display is not changing by allowing the processor to remain in its sleep state which consumes less energy.
Improves power consumption and battery life by addressing an issue that causes a hard disk to continue spinning when it should spin down, in certain circumstances.
Improves the speed of adding and extracting files to and from a compressed (zipped) folder.
Significantly improves the speed of moving a directory with many files underneath.
Improves performance over Windows Vista’s current performance across the following scenarios:
25% faster when copying files locally on the same disk on the same machine
45% faster when copying files from a remote non-Windows Vista system to a SP1 system
50% faster when copying files from a remote SP1 system to a local SP1 system
Improves the copy progress estimation when copying files within Windows Explorer to about two seconds.
Improves the time to read large images by approximately 50%.
Improves IE performance on certain Jscript intensive websites, bringing performance in line with previous IE releases.
Addresses a problem that caused a delay of up to 5 minutes after boot with specific ReadyDrive capable hard drives.
In specific scenarios, SP1 reduces the shutdown time by a few seconds by improving the Windows Vista utility designed to sync a mobile device.
Reduces the time it takes to return to the user’s session when using the Photo screensaver, making it comparable to other screensavers.
Removes the delay that sometimes occurs when a user unlocks their PC.
Improves overall media performance by reducing many glitches.
The Windows Vista SP1 install process clears the user-specific data that is used by Windows to optimize performance, which may make the system feel less responsive immediately after install. As the customer uses their SP1 PC, the system will be retrained over the course of a few hours or days and will return to the previous level of responsiveness.
Adds full support for the latest IEEE draft of 802.11n wireless networking.
Updated drivers are delivered primarily via Windows Update and directly from hardware vendors, not as part of a service pack. However, a small number of critical drivers are included as part of Windows Vista (e.g., display drivers, audio drivers) and some of these have been updated.
The MSN Connection Center Dial-up Internet Access connector was removed from the Windows Vista Connection Wizard.
With SP1, Windows Vista will report the amount of system memory installed rather than report the amount of system memory available to the OS. Therefore 32-bit systems equipped with 4GB of RAM will report all 4BG in many places throughout the OS, such as the System Control Panel. However, this behavior is dependent on having a compatible BIOS, so not all users may notice this change.
SP1 reduces the number of UAC (User Account Control) prompts from 4 to 1 when creating or renaming a folder at a protected location.
Users are now required to enter a password hint during the initial setup of Windows Vista SP1. This change was made based on feedback from top PC manufactures that many customers frequently do not remember their password and because the administrator account is turned off by default on Windows Vista, these users do not have a way to access to their PCs. A password hint helps avoid this frustrating scenario.
If you don’t want the Service Pack automatically installed by Vista when it becomes available and pushed through Windows Update, then install Blocker Tool Kit. It’ll stop Vista SP1, XP SP3, even Server 2003 SP2 for up to 12 months. Download it here.
Microsoft is sending out the latest versions of its service packs this week, in preparation for public release next week.
Office 2007 Service Pack 1 is expected to ship the week of December 10, next week. Looks like, based on what Mary Jo Foley reported and had confirmed, that this will be a final release, not a beta or release candidate. If so, that’s amazing work.
Nick White has already posted about Windows Vista Service Pack 1 on the official Vista blog. The release candidate 1 (RC1) is being passed around now, and the public release has been confirmed for sometime next week.
Chris Lanier has a thought-provoking post about how the Xbox 360’s Dashboard update means that the 360 can now play more file formats than the 360’s own Media Center Extender, because Microsoft hasn’t updated the Extender software to work with them. Version 2 Extenders support DivX, the Dashboard supports DivX, but the Dashboard’s Extender doesn’t, and we’ve been pretty much told it never will.
As big as the Xbox 360 is, Microsoft overall plan to take over the living room is so much more important. In fact, when it launched the 360 was looked at almost as a trojan horse to get Media Center into wider usage. Microsoft has this weird thing where it allows media to come into the 360 through multiple protocols with different codec support and different capabilities, making things more confusing and limiting the company’s ability to leverage the Xbox into selling other Microsoft products.
Frankly, the Xbox 360 should be more locked down. The console shouldn’t support streaming from anything except Windows Media Center, and should add new features, like new codecs, through Media Center. This is one area where Microsoft could easily have been a lot more evil and created a single pathway that goes only through its own product, just like Apple does with the Apple TV and iTunes.
At the very least, by forcing users to utilize Media Center, Microsoft would simplify things. Last night, I tried to play an episode of Dexter in the Media Center Extender, and was told the codec wasn’t supported. I had to exit the Extender, go back to the Dashboard, locate the same file for the second time, and play it again.
By having more than one way of doing things, efforts are being spread thin. Microsoft has developers working both on playback for the Extender and the Dashboard. Independent developers are building third-party streaming services (like TVersity) when they could be focusing on Media Center plugins. Media Center needs more attention, but as a tacked-on bastard sister of the Xbox 360 it is getting ignored.
I’m all for wide-open choice, which is why I choose Microsoft over Apple, but Microsoft is selling itself short by doing the same things twice. When you’ve already got a first-rate streaming protocol on the Extender, don’t build new stuff into the Dashboard. Make the Extender better, make everyone happy.
Microsoft is in the process of testing Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, in preparation for a wide release, and all indications are that it is a significant performance improvement for XP. In fact, the performance of XP under SP3 is so good, that some are saying it makes Windows Vista look like a chump.
It’s already a fact that Windows XP, with a six-year old architecture and tons of patches to stabilize and protect it, is Windows Vista’s number one competitor. XP is relatively stable, carries lower requirements, is compatible with almost everything and is usually already installed on most computers (except brand new ones). The challenge for Microsoft isn’t so much to prove Vista is better than Apple’s Mac OS, but that it is better than XP.
Microsoft until now has been challenging the image of XP in the marketplace, but when SP3 releases, it’ll actually be competing with itself. XP SP3 is an improvement to an already popular operating system, one that puts a direct shot across Vista’s bow, and actually sets up the team that developed SP3 as competition for Windows Vista.
Microsoft’s not stupid. It knows that it is in some ways shooting its own Vista in the foot with SP3, making Vista’s adoption harder against an improved XP point release. It would have been dishonest to its customers to cripple XP SP3 just to help Vista, and you can see how much Microsoft has improved in that it isn’t doing so. An “evil” company certainly would have.
Microsoft is likely counting on two things. Most probably, it will not significantly market SP3 like it did for Service Pack 2 three years ago. Current users will get the improvement, but Microsoft won’t encourage people to buy XP now that it has been improved. Microsoft wants you to get a better XP, but if you don’t have it, they still want you picking up Vista, which is also getting an improved Service Pack 1 release.
Besides that, Microsoft is probably hoping the good will from SP3 will encourage you to keep using Windows. Microsoft is seriously improving an older product at a significant cost to itself, showing commitment to improving its users experience at any cost. Microsoft will remind you that Vista will receive the same commitment, and that Apple charges money for point releases every two years.
Will it work? SP3 is going to cost Microsoft and Vista in the short run, but in the long run it could be a huge help for the company. At the least, if you’re buying XP, you’re still not buying Apple, right?
Microsoft is offering better downgrades from Windows Vista to older Windows XP for buyers of new PCs. Purchasers of new PCs with Vista Business or Ultimate, but not the consumer home versions, can get an XP disk in the box with their new computer. Owners of those version can, at any time, choose to install a free version of XP instead under their license rights, but the disk in the box makes it even easier for those who really don’t like Vista.
Microsoft is also extending the deadline for computer makers to sell new PCs with XP installed, from late January all the way to June 30, 2008. This is just another way people can choose to say no to Vista. I don’t get it. I’m a big fan of Vista, although there are some driver issues on older systems, not the new PCs these affect, so why would people want XP for the same price?
Microsoft is failing at selling Vista if people still want XP. Vista is their best operating system yet, regardless of any limitations, and if people want XP then that’s a serious problem that needs to be addressed. What does it prove? That early adopters, the people who bought upgrade disks and then had terrible experiences, are the most important customers Microsoft had, and that bad drivers are costing the company billions of dollars and its entire future as an operating system company.
Download Squad has an article on .HLP files, the help files used in older software for Windows. Microsoft phased out Windows Help (or winhlp32.exe) with the release of Windows Vista, and in order to force developers over to the new format, Vista doesn’t even ship with a means to read those files. Since help for older programs is still important, when you try to open a .HLP file it fails, but Microsoft does have a viewer you can download in order to still use them.
You can download the viewer by going here. Validation is required, so pirated copies of Vista are plum out of luck, though you can grab a copy of winhlp32.exe from the Windows directory on any Windows XP machine, and it should work just fine.
As DSquad sarcastically points out about the download:
It weighs in at a hefty 601KB, so I can see why the company left it out.
Engadget has revealed that around September 27, Microsoft will unveil a new feature for Windows Media Center, Internet TV. The feature will bring a bunch of on-demand channels into the Media Center interface, letting users watch Sports, Entertainment, News, Top Picks, Music and Movies. Best of all, everything will be ad-supported and free of charge, and picture quality will be somewhere better than standard TV, though a bit less than HDTV.
With the new Internet TV, which will be delivered as a simple software update, owners of Media Center PCs and Extenders, including the Xbox 360, will have access to a lot of free content to enjoy, completely sidestepping traditional television. If Microsoft lined up the right partners for it, got enough content and made it run well on a typical home network, they could wind up with an entirely new tier of television. Can’t wait to see it.
Microsoft, after what has to be more than a year of speculation, finally released some news about the new Media Center Extenders, which allow you to stream music, pictures, video, live and recorded TV from a Media Center PC to set-top boxes all over the house. New devices have been announced from Linksys, D-Link and Niveus Media, incorporating new features like:
Support for new media formats, including DivX, Xvid, Windows Media Video HD and H.264
First Extenders (not including Xbox 360) to stream HDTV and in high definition and protected HD content
HDMI and 1080p to support that HD video
New wireless networking options, including 802.11n
The new technology can be built into more than set-top boxes, but also into DVD players and new TVs
New Extenders will be demonstrated at CEDIA in Denver over this weekend, as well as at Digital Life in New York at the end of the month.
The Xbox 360 is not getting the new codec support, even though it presumably has the necessary power to do so. Considering all the free features the Sony PlayStation 3 offers that 360 owners have to pay for, you’d think that Microsoft would workt to give owners at least some new codecs.
Engadget says that, because of less processing power, the Extenders don’t perform as well (mostly in terms of interface animations) as the Xbox 360 does. Of course, if the 360 does a better job, why can’t it get more codecs?
Tim Cowley (designer of Windows Vista screen savers) and Stephen Coy (engineer for Office) teamed up to release a package of “unofficial” visualizations for Windows Media Player, based on the Vista screen savers. Psychedelia, this viz pack for WMP, is available for download after a year delay in certification testing* at WMPlugins.com.
Long Zheng lists the different visualization families within the pack:
Album Art 3D - 3D cubes with the album art of the song you’re currently playing
Bubbles - inspired by the Bubbles Vista screensavers also featuring the album art
Distortion - distorts the album art in a 3D waveform
Hypnobloom - hypnotic checkered purple rings
Ribbons - inspired by the Mystify and Ribbons Vista screensavers (as seen above)
Gigertron 3D - 3D layered visualizer bars
up cuber - a pigment arrangement of 3D hexagon cubes
The album art-based visualizations seem to have trouble picking up the album art of the currently playing song, but either way this visualization pack is a must-have for and Windows Media Player user. It looks great, and is well worth the two seconds to download and install. They work in Windows XP and Vista, so long as you have WMP.
* - If you ever wonder why Microsoft products are never “cool”, this is why. A year for certification? Of an unofficial viz pack? By two Microsofties? What hope do the rest of us have of making cool stuff? Microsoft needs to fire the certification team and hire a new team under the “more is more” motto.
There’s a new version of Windows XP. This version of XP is fully compatible with Mac and Linux software, streams to PlayStations, comes with cracked versions of Office 2007, has a $100 bill in the box, and actually seeks out and deletes DRM.
Oh, wait, that was that weird dream I had last night after some bad shrooms.
Sorry.
No, this new version of XP is Windows XP Service Pack 2c. See, XP’s been around so much longer than anyone expected that Microsoft ran out of product keys, and it’s had to issue a new version of XP to accomodate all the people still buying and install XP. Ker-razy!
Critical Action Item:
System builders who use imaging must create new Windows XP Professional images with Service Pack 2c when shipping Service Pack 2c product keys; otherwise end users will not be able to complete installation.
SP2c to Resolve Shortage of Windows XP Product Keys
Due to the longevity of Windows XP Professional, it has become necessary to produce more product keys for system builders in order to support the continued availability of Windows XP Professional through the scheduled system builder channel end-of-life (EOL) date of January 31, 2009.
SP2c will be released into the System Builder channel in September to provide system builders with a new, extended range of product keys that will ship with:
Windows XP Professional (except for Simplified Chinese, Russian and Korean languages)
Windows XP Professional N
This release does not impact the following versions:
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Professional 64-bit Edition
SP2c Features and Requirements
There are no other features or fixes included in this service pack; it will only allow for the inclusion of additional product keys. When using SP2c product keys, system builders must:
Use the product keys with SP2c media.
Create new images from SP2c to accommodate the new product keys. A hotfix will not be provided.
