Tag: 32-bit
November 07, 2009 by
Jason
On October 22, 2009 Microsoft reached the final milestone of the Windows 7 release schedule, namely general availability. Customers worldwide have already started embracing the product, buying 234% more boxed retail copies of Windows 7 since the official launch compared to the first few days after Windows Vista GA. The NPD Group took into consideration only sales of Windows 7 through the retail channel in the US in order to note that Windows 7 retail sales were outpacing those of Vista, but it’s likely that actual sold licenses of the latest Windows client are more than reported by NPD, taking into account the fact that the platform is available pre-installed on OEM computers, as well as offered for download through online outlets such as Microsoft Store.
Windows 7 guarantees a completely revolutionary UX for users upgrading from Windows XP, and evolutionary, as Microsoft itself has put it, for those that migrate from Vista. Either way, the latest edition of Windows brings a consistent range of enhancements that set Windows 7 apart from its predecessors. Assessing the value associated with the innovations introduced in Windows 7 certainly leads to recommendation lists with more than seven items.
Users will find that some of the new Windows 7 features and capabilities will come into focus more than others. Without having this aspect become a representation of the value they will bring to end users, there are things that customers will want to try ahead of anything else. Below is a list with seven of them, although in all fairness, users that will actually keep count will find that the limit of seven items “might” not have been respected entirely. Read More»
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October 19, 2009 by
Jason Microsoft is making use of the time it still has ahead of the October 22nd general availability deadline of Windows 7 to deliver some last-minute finishing touches to the operating system. The latest iterations of the Windows client and server platforms were released to manufacturing on July 22nd, 2009, and, since August, have been available to specific customer segments including MSDN and TechNet subscribers. On October 13th, the Redmond company made available for download updates for both Windows 7 RTM and Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM designed to boost the stability and reliability of the two platforms.
“An update is available to resolve issues that affect some computers that are running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. These issues are reported by customers who use the Error Reporting service or Microsoft Customer Support Services,” Microsoft revealed. “This update improves the stability and reliability of Windows 7 and of Windows Server 2008 R2 in various scenarios.”
This is not an uncommon practice with Microsoft. In fact, ahead of Windows Vista’s GA in January 2007, Jim Allchin, the then Windows boss, told customers that the first thing they would have to do after installing Vista and running the operating system for the first time was to update the brand-new platform. Read More»
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October 19, 2009 by
Jason Following the release to manufacturing of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft is slowly setting in place all the software pieces that traditionally accompany new client and server platform releases. An illustrative example in this regard is the WinHlp32.exe download. The utility is designed to enable users running Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 to access Help files, easily identifiable after the “.hlp” file name extension.
According to KB917607, titled “I cannot open Help files that require the Windows Help (WinHlp32.exe) program,” “At this time, there is no WinHlp32.exe download available for Windows 7 or for Windows Server 2008 R2. However, separate downloads for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be offered after the RTM versions of these products are available to public.”
However, Microsoft has failed to wait for the October 22, 2009 general availability deadline of Windows 7 and already released the 32-bit (x86) flavor of WinHlp32.exe. Before Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, the Redmond-based company allowed third-party developers to include WinHlp32.exe with their Windows programs. This is no longer the case, and the utility is now available exclusively as a standalone download from Microsoft. WinHlp32.exe is set up to integrate with both the 32-bit and the 64-bit editions of Windows 7, as well as with the exclusive x64 version of Windows Server 2008 R2. Read More»
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October 14, 2009 by
Jason Microsoft has made available for download a tool designed to ensure that software installed on top of various Windows operating systems gets updated correctly. The Patch Registration Cleanup Tool is a utility offered by the Redmond company free of charge with a rather self-explanatory name. Designed to clean the patch registration errors, the tool went live on the Microsoft Download Center on October 12th, 2009 and is currently up for grabs for all users of Windows XP, and later releases of Windows, including the latest iteration of the Windows client.
“On a computer that has a Windows Installer based product installed, you may receive an error while installing an update for the product and the installation of the update may fail. Installation errors caused due to incorrect patch registration may be corrected using this tool,” Microsoft informed.
According to the Redmond company, end users will be able to run the Patch Registration Cleanup Tool not just on Windows 7 RTM, but also on older Windows platforms. The software giant pointed out that the following Windows operating systems are supported by the tool: Windows 2000; Windows Server 2003; Windows Server 2008; Windows Server 2008 R2; Windows Vista and Windows XP. Read More»
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October 08, 2009 by
Jason
Windows 7 may be Microsoft’s most anticipated product ever. It builds on Windows Vista’s positives, and eliminates many of that OS’s negatives. It adds new functionality, too all in a package that is less resource-hungry than its predecessor. And whether or not you’re upgrading from Vista or skipping it altogether and moving up from Windows XP, you’ll need to know how to make the most of it in your environment.
1. Pick Your Edition. Most business users do not need the more expensive Ultimate Edition; stick with Professional unless you specifically need BitLocker.
2. Upgrading? Go 64-bit. As the second major Windows release to fully support 64-bit, the x64 architecture has definitely arrived on the desktop. Don’t buy new 32-bit hardware unless it’s a netbook.
3. Use Windows XP Mode. Yes, it’s only an embedded Virtual PC with a full copy of WinXP but it’s an embedded Virtual PC with a full copy of Windows XP! This is the first profoundly intelligent use of desktop virtualization we’ve seen and a great way to move to Windows 7 without giving up full Windows XP compatibility.
4. Use Windows PowerShell v2. More than just a shell, this is the administration tool you’ve always wanted: Parallel, distributed processing for administrative tasks! Manage 100 machines literally as easily as you manage one with the new Remoting feature. Windows PowerShell v2 ships for the first time in Windows 7, and within six months will be available for older versions of Windows. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | 4 Comments »
September 04, 2009 by
Jason Windows 7 is “outrunning” Windows Vista in more ways than one. Microsoft has labored to ensure that the latest Windows client outpaces its precursor in a variety of scenarios, from startup time, to common usage tasks, and to shutdown, to name just a few. Another aspect in which Windows 7 has Vista beat is upgrade performance. According to Chris Hernandez, from the Windows Deployment team, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to Windows 7 upgrades are at least 5% faster than Vista SP1 to Vista SP1 upgrades.
In fact, when it set out to do the operating system upgrade measuring contest, Microsoft was looking for at least a 5% threshold for upgrade scenarios involving Vista SP1 to Windows 7 was in comparison to jumps from Vista SP1 to Vista SP1. The Redmond-based company explained that the Windows Upgrade team monitored the Windows 7 upgrade performance during the development process, and that it compared it against its Vista baseline.
“The reason we choose to use a Vista SP1 -> Vista SP1 upgrade instead of Windows XP -> Vista as our baseline was for the following: Windows XP is a vastly different operating system compared to Vista and an upgrade from Windows XP -> Vista would not be a good comparison with Vista -> Windows 7. Read More»
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September 01, 2009 by
Jason A new development milestone of the next iteration of the Office System has been leaked and made available for download in the wild. Microsoft is currently making its way to the first Beta of office 2011, a release slated to be available to all users as a public testing build.
However, the Redmond-based company managed to keep a tight lid on all details associated with the development process of Office 2010 since the delivery of the Technical Preview build in July 2010. Still, the silence must not be mistaken for inactivity, as the leaked Office 2010 Build 4417 comes to prove.
Both the 32-bit and the 64-bit flavors of Office 2010 Build 4417 have been leaked and are now up for grabs from various third-party sources. And while torrent trackers and warez websites are serving the bits illegally, Microsoft continues to be mute on the development of Office 2010.
Still, the productivity suite is undoubtedly advancing. According to Wzor, Office 2010 Build 14.0.4417.1000 is labeled as a Beta release, and no longer just a Technical Preview.
Technical Preview testers of Office 2010 have been able to grab the bits for the first development milestone of Office 2010 since July 13, 2009. The Office 2010 Technical Preview is a limited testing program, as opposite to the beta. Read More»
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Microsoft released the Multilingual User Interface Packs for Windows 7 RTM on August 25th 2009 via Windows Update. At the end of the past week, the direct download links for the Windows 7 RTM MUI Packs were also made public, allowing all users to grab the releases. Of course that not all Windows 7 users will in fact be able to take advantage of the MUI Packs. When it comes down to Windows 7, Microsoft went with the same strategy as for Windows Vista.
In this regard, only the Ultimate and Enterprise editions of Windows 7 are capable of integrating the Multilingual User Interface packs, just as it was the case with Vista’s Enterprise and Ultimate SKUs. Windows 7 Enterprise is of course available only to volume licensing customers with Software Assurance, while Ultimate is the high-end edition of Windows 7, and the most costly.
The MUI Packs allow end users to install more languages than just one in Windows 7 and to have the operating system’s graphical user interface be tailored for each specific additional language. The general strategy for Microsoft is to serve the MUI Packs as optional updates via WU to just Enterprise and ultimate users of Windows 7. But for those who want to grab the Windows 7 MUI Packs themselves, the direct download links are now available both for the 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) flavors of the operating system. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | 3 Comments »
Just days after Windows 7 was released to manufacturing and Microsoft started handing out the gold bits of the operating system to original equipment manufacturers, the original ISO images of Build 7600.16385 were leaked in the wild and are now available for download. Too-eager-testers had had the chance to grab the gold release of Windows 7 RTM Build 7600.16385 even before the platform was RTM’d on July 22nd, 2009. Fact is that Microsoft compiled the gold build of Windows 7 as early as July 13th 2009, and only made the official announcement on July 22nd.
The full build string of the gold release of Windows 7 is 7600.16385.090713-1255. The following numbers: 090713 indicate that the code was wrapped up on July 13th, 2009. On July 13th Microsoft both confirmed and denied that Windows 7 had been released to manufacturing. At that time the company noted that it hadn’t signed off the successor of Windows Vista.
At the end of the past week, both the 32-bit and the 64-bit of 7600.16385.090713-1255 were leaked and started being served by various third-party sources, from torrent trackers to warez websites, a move that is obviously illegal. You can take a look at what the RTM development milestone of Windows 7 has to offer via this article. One critical aspect that needs to be underlined is that Windows 7 RTM 7600.16385.090713-1255 can no longer be activated with the Beta or Release Candidate product keys from Microsoft. Read More»
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Following the availability of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 RTM/SP1 Microsoft has literally joined its client and server operating systems at the hip. So much so that the client can stretch all the way to the server and manage the hypervisor role. This scenario was valid with the first service pack for Vista, and it continues to be valid after the release of SP2. All that end users need to do is make sure that they deploy the Update for Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Management Tools for Hyper-V. The Refresh will allow Vista SP2 users to remotely manage a server running Windows Server 2008 with the Hyper-V role enabled.
“This update package includes fixes for the Hyper-V Management Tools on systems that are running Windows Vista Service Pack 2,” Microsoft explained. “The Hyper-V Management Tools must be installed in order to install this update.”
The update is offered in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors, tailored to the respective versions of Vista SP2. Microsoft released SP2 for Vista to manufacturing at the end of April 2009. A month later, the first five languages of Vista SP2 were released to web for download, and through Windows Update. The end of June 2009 brought with it the final wave of Vista SP2 releases. Now Vista SP2 RTM and Windows Server 2008 SP2 RTM are available for download in all localized versions, in correlation with the supported languages for the two platforms. Read More»
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