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?
Photo by doobybrain under CC license
November 30th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
XP, Vista, Apple, Windows, General |
5 comments
Windows Live Messenger 9’s beta has begun, with beta testers getting access to the software on Microsoft Connect. If you applied for the beta, check your email or check Connect to see if you’ve been accepted. Here are some screenshots of it someone leaked out:
The middle screenshots show off the new feature, which allows you to be signed in to your account on multiple computers at the same time. You can even click to sign yourself out of a remote computer from any computer, which is very convenient.
The last screenshot shows off another new feature, which lets you import custom sounds to associate with each of your friends when they log in. Not only can you choose from a list of sounds, you can select a five second sample from any music file on your computer to use that as the sound. The interface for choosing the sample is so clean and simple, I feel it should be integrated into the operating system for all programs to use to manipulate music and video clips.
Also, apparently Live Messenger is dropping Verizon Web Calling for VoIP calls, replacing it with a service to be announced later.
November 29th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Live, Messenger, Windows |
2 comments
Microsoft Windows turned 22 years old last week. Amazing, the idea of any series of software product lasting over two decades, but Windows 1.0 was released November 20, 1985, and after several lousy initial versions, hit respectability with Windows 3.0/3.1 and mass popularity with Windows 95.
I’d hardly argue that the Mac operating system has lasted as long, but rather that the original Mac OS lasted from 1984-2001, and that the current OS is a younger six years old. That’s not necessarilly a bad thing, but it’s important to seperate Mac OS 9 and X as two products that share a brand name and used to share a lot more compatibility than they do now. Windows started out as a GUI over DOS that could run its own executables, and while evolving over time never cut off the previous generation completely.
November 29th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Apple, Windows |
one comment
Pingdom tracked 12 top social networking sites from October 19 to November 19, and found that Microsoft’s Live Spaces had the most downtime, with the site failing to respond for a total of three hours over the course of the month. By contrast, that’s more than Facebook (10 minutes), MySpace (10), Bebo (30), LiveJournal (40) and Orkut (85) combined, and worst on the list.
Number one was Yahoo 360, but that service was so unpopular it’s being closed, so I suspect the zero minutes of downtime can be attributed to zero server load.
November 29th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Live, Spaces, Windows |
one comment
Windows Home Server users are gifted today with yet another system update, adding some small new stuff to the operating system. Your Home Server now gets an SSL certificate for remote access (you’ll have to re-run setup to get it). Also, they’ve added a Delete All button to delete all home computer backups on the server and shipped improvements to the Shared Folder and Server Storage componenents.
November 28th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Home Server, Server, Windows |
no comments
Microsoft is finally putting together some nice integration of Windows Live services, the latest being the Windows Live Community Builder. This site brings together the various Live tools a website owner can use to create and support a community, promoting the Live Admin Center and helping you bring Hotmail, Live Calendar, Messenger, Spaces and SkyDrive to your users under your own domain name, all for free.
November 20th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Live, Windows |
no comments
The beta of version 2.0 of Windows Live OneCare, Microsoft’s all-in-one PC care service, should be over, with the final version of 2.0 released to all subscribers. The new version adds some really good improvements, like wireless connection security, a startup optimizer to turn off programs that start with your PC that you never use, automatic printer sharing on your network and monthly service reports.
The biggest change, though, is that OneCare is now set up to allow you to designate one of your PCs as a hub PC and connect the others to it (a OneCare subscription is good, at the normal price, for multiple PCs). You can manage the care of the other PCs from the hub, changing settings, scheduling backups and tuneups, and other things.
OneCare 2.0 also adds online photo backup, although for an added price. You get 10 gigabytes of space in Windows Live Folders, automatically synced from your computer, in order to keep your precious digital photos safe in case anything ever happens to your computer. I still don’t see any information on how much this added feature costs, and will look into it.
November 20th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
OneCare, Live, Windows, Security |
one comment
Here’s everything that’s built up over the weekend, so we aren’t still talking old news on Wednesday:
For one week, the Xbox 360 was actually bigger in Japan than Sony’s PS3, with the 360 outselling the PS3 as sales increased from the previous week by about 500%. It’s not Wii-level (and the low-selling PS3 isn’t that hard to catch), but it’s a start towards gaining a real foothold in Japan. On the other hand, PS3 sales in the US are up double so far this month after the console’s price dropped to $400.
Even with the Wii outselling the 360, Microsoft makes more money than either Sony or Nintendo, due to higher priced consoles and much higher game sales. Halo has sold 3.7 million copies so far.
Another Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget: Wedding Tip of the Day, the perfect Gadget if you’re planning for a wedding. Every day, tips and ideas for planning your big day, with eight different styles to customize the look.
The PS3 now has support for DivX files. According to a slip-up in the press conference, negotiations are underway to bring it to the Xbox 360 real soon.
Zumobi, a company spun out of Microsoft Research, has announced that its new UI for mobile devices will be released December 14. Zumobi works by displaying up to 16 “tiles” in a grid of web services and content on a single screen, allowing users to choose quickly from the available sites. It’s a complicated but supposedly genius idea, one we’ll have to play around with to fully understand.
Windows Live Search’s link command, disabled to keep spammers away, is now working again.
Apple finally admitted that porting its UI over to Windows is stupid, and has fixed a lot of the Mac problems in the Windows version of Safari. Windows can now be resized from all edges, not just a little thing in the corner, and ClearType font rendering can be used instead of Apple’s patented EyeStrain technology, among other fixes.
A new version of Office Accounting Express is out, the 2008 edition. And yes, it’s still free.
New deal: If you have an original Xbox with Xbox Live and purchase an Xbox 360 between tomorrow and December 21, you get a free copy of Halo 3.
November 19th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Sidebar, Sony, Vista, Xbox 360, Xbox, Windows |
no comments
There’s a new Windows Vista Sidebar Gadget that should make you happy in a silly way. It’s that gaming classic, Whack-A-Mole! Any time you get a hankerin’ fer some mole-whackin’, just head over the Sidebar and click to start a new game. A bit of advice: It’s hard to work with the smaller docked version, so you might want to drag it off the Sidebar.
Download it now.
November 15th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Sidebar, Vista, Windows |
no comments
Microsoft announced Hyper-V, its virtualization hypervison technology formerly codenamed Viridian, available with various editions of Windows Server 2008. This results in eight versions of Server 2008, three with Hyper-V, three without, and two specialized types that don’t have Hyper-V:
- Windows Server 2008 Standard: $999 (with five Client Access Licenses, or CALs)
- Windows Server 2008 Enterprise: $3,999 (with 25 CALs)
- Windows Server 2008 Datacenter: $2,999 (per processor)
- Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-based Systems: $2,999 (per processor)
- Windows Web Server 2008: $469
- Windows Server 2008 Standard without Hyper-V: $971 (with five CALs)
- Windows Server 2008 Enterprise without Hyper-V: $3,971 (with 25 CALs)
- Windows Server 2008 Datacenter without Hyper-V: $2,971 (per processor)
The difference in price between the Hyper-V and non-Hyper-V versions is $28, and you can buy Hyper-V Server by itself for that same price.
If you were reading here last month, you’d have noticed Microsoft registering tens of domains related to Hyper-V, advance notice that this announcement was coming.
November 15th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Server, Windows |
2 comments
Windows Live’s excellent Translator service has now released a single line of code that you can add to any website to give visitors the option of translating your website into their language of choice. Just head to translator.live.com/AddIn.aspx, select the language your website uses, and it’ll give you the code. If your site is in English, this will be the code:
< script type="text/javascript" src="http://translator.live.com/TranslatePageLink.aspx?pl=en" >< /script >
Just dump that anywhere in your template (hopefully somewhere people will notice) and your visitors will see a drop-down menu, where they can select usually from up to eleven languages to read the page in (non-English languages will have fewer options).
If you’d like to display flags of different countries as a means of showing translated versions, you can hack the code to link the flags to the proper translation. You’ll need to link the flags to URLs like this one:
http://www.windowslivetranslator.com:80/BV.aspx?lp=en_nl&a=WEBSITEADDRESS
The “WEBSITEADDRESS” has to be replaced with the actual web address, or a function that inserts the web address, and “en_nl” has to be replaced with the codes for the original language (”en” for English) and the language being translated into (”nl” for Dutch). To see this page in Dutch, click here.
November 14th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Live, Windows |
one comment
LiveSide has the details on the Windows Live Admin Center, which replaces the old Live Custom Domains and lets you do more than just use a hosted Live Hotmail domain name. You can now customize all sorts of subdomains to Windows Live services, such as setting a blog.yoursite.com URL to a WIndows Live Space, or setting a maps.yoursite.com URL to a custom Live Maps Collection mashup.
November 14th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Maps, Live, Hotmail, Spaces, Windows |
no comments
Microsoft has confirmed that a new version of its Messenger instant messaging software will ship with and when Mac Office 2008 hits stores. While we don’t know anything about features, or even if it’ll be named Windows Live Messenger or MSN Messenger (presumably the new name, though), at least Mac fans are getting a new version. Not only that, but work is already going on for Messenger 7, which will be the first Mac version with audio/video capabilities.
(via Digg)
November 14th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Live, Apple, Messenger, Windows, General |
no comments
Amulet Devices has announced a Windows Media Center remote control that has a microphone stick at the top of it, letting you speak into the remote and issue voice commands to your television. They have a video showing how you can name an artist and have Media Center play music by that artist, or ask your TV to change the channel or find the channel airing a specific show, among other possible applications of the remote.
The remote has some position sensing technology built in, letting the remote know when you’ve tilted it towards your mouth. This way, the remote doesn’t follow commands from the TV, switching shows and music based on what comes out of the speakers, but instead only listens when you lift it to specifically issue a command.
Amulet makes these Media Center PCs that work around the voice remote, with a 7-inch touchscreen on the front of the PC and some custom interfaces that work with the remote, dual tuners and other goodies. It looks like it comes with a special browsing interface for album cover art, one that looks similar to Apple’s Cover Flow and you can flick through with your finger on the touch screen, as well as pages of different features that you page through by swiping your hand.
It all looks pretty cool, and the Dublin-based company just unveiled it over the weekend at RDS Dublin. I’m already talking to the company, and I’ll update with more information as they send me it.
November 14th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Vista, Media Center, Windows |
4 comments
You can now get the code for Windows Live Messenger IM Control for your website. This lets you include Live Messenger on your blog, so your readers can send you IMs without needing a screen name, or your customers can ask support questions on any website. The code is extremely simple, will run in any blog that can take a YouTube embed (using a simple IFRAME, rather than SCRIPT tags), and it doesn’t reveal your IM screen name to potential spammers.
Go here to get it.
Here it is, embedded in this post after the break:
It’s after the break, because it seems to break my site template in both IE and Opera, and doesn’t seem to be working. I’ll try to figure out why and fix it. If it does work for you, send me a message to let me know.
November 13th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Live, Messenger, Windows, General |
no comments
It looks like the Windows Live Search Club, the puzzle game promotion that seemed so successful for Microsoft at first, is quickly turning into a PR disaster for the company. The Club, which had searchers play puzzle games in order to win prizes, originally gave Microsoft a huge boost in search engine market share, a gain which has slowly dissapeared entirely in the last few months. Even worse, though, is the anger the Club’s fans are now turning towards the company.
Commenters have been showing up in increasing numbers at my original six month old Live Search Club post, complaining about cancelled or undelivered prize orders, a dead website, removed prizes and bugs. There’s talk of a class action lawsuit, and you can see some more complaints on the Wikipedia Talk page. Has Microsoft screwed up, or is it fighting back so aggressively against cheaters that it is causing a lot of anger among legitimate players?
Either way, we haven’t heard the last of this story. It looks like, in the end, Microsoft had negligible gains from the promotion, and there are a lot of headaches to come from its management, or mismanagement, of same.
If you’ve had a good or bad experience, feel free to post about it in the comments.
November 13th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Live, Windows, Search |
22 comments
Jie Li shows two search engine mashups you can easily create on the free Windows Search Server 2008 Express, one combining Flickr, YouTube and Yahoo Images thumbnail results on a single page, the other combining regular enterprise search results and LinkedIn results. Since Search Server supports OpenSearch, you can plug in a ton of outside search results with your enterprise search, resulting in some cool and easy mashups.
November 9th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Server, Windows |
one comment
Microsoft has decided to put out a completely free version of Search Server 2008, an Express edition that anyone can download and add to a Windows Server 2003 or 2008 server to get advanced search features for their enterprise search. Microsoft is targeting Google’s search appliance, hoping to get businesses to sign up for the free edition, and hopefully upgrade to the full version of Search Server 2008.
Unlike all of Google’s Search Appliances, Search Server Express has no arbitrary (or rather, price-controlling) document limits, so in some ways even the free version can be more useful than Google’s expensive hardware. There are also connectors being released for EMC Corp.’s Documentum and IBM Corp.’s FileNet, plus support for OpenSearch.
If you have a Server 2003 or better system (32-bit or 64-bit) available, you can download it right here.
November 7th, 2007
Posted by
Nathan Weinberg |
Server, Windows |
no comments
