Tag: Performance
February 08, 2010 by
Jason
Microsoft has made available for download new resources associated with the underlining graphics technology in its Windows operating system, including the latest version of the operating system. Windows 7 brought to the table DirectX 11, a technology which was also backported to Windows Vista SP2 via the Platform Update for Windows Vista. No less than three downloads were made available at the end of the past week by the Redmond company: the DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer, the DirectX End-User Runtimes (February 2010), and DirectX Software Development Kit.
All three DirectX resources have been updated for the first time in 2010. “The Microsoft DirectX End-User Runtime provides updates to 9.0c and previous versions of DirectX — the core Windows technology that drives high-speed multimedia and games on the PC,” Microsoft stated. DirectX End-User Runtimes (February 2010) is “the DirectX end-user multi-languaged redistributable that developers can include with their product. This package is localized into Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Swedish, and English,” the company added.
The core of the DirectX February 2010 update is without a doubt the software development kit Microsoft is offering developers to streamline the building of DirectX compliant applications. The SDK package contains tools, utilities, samples, documentation, as well as the runtime debug files for 64-bit (x64) and (32-bit) x86 Windows. Read More»
Posted in Software, Windows 7 | No Comments »
January 28, 2010 by
Jason By all accounts, thanks to the boot performance of Windows 7, customers should be using the operating system in a matter of seconds since they fire up their computers. However, Microsoft itself has documented scenarios in which the startup of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is unexpectedly slow. According to the Redmond-based company, at fault is the dpi display setting of the monitor.
“Consider the following scenario: you have a computer that is running Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2. This computer is connected to a high resolution monitor. On this computer, the default dpi display setting is set to a value other than 96 dpi. In this scenario, the computer has an unexpectedly slow startup time,” Microsoft explained.
The software giant does not specify what “unexpectedly slow startup times” actually mean. Microsoft only noted that the dpi display setting is the cause of slow boot times, and that the problem is persistent. “This issue may occur when the default dpi display setting in Windows 7 or in Windows Server 2008 R2 is set to a value other than 96 dpi for a high resolution monitor. In this scenario, the computer has an unexpectedly slow startup time after a change is made to the default dpi display setting. Then, the computer has an unexpectedly slow startup time every other time that the computer is started,” the company said. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
January 25, 2010 by
Jason Even when Windows 7 was still in development, early adopters already running the operating system agreed that it bested its predecessor in all aspects. However, Microsoft itself felt pretty confident early on during the building of Windows 7. Back in the first half of November 2009, the Redmond company demonstrated a boot time drag race between Windows Vista and Windows 7 pre-Beta Build 6801 Milestone 3. Windows 7 won, at a distance so to speak, and the rest is history. According to Microsoft, Aaron Dietrich, senior development lead on the Windows Client Performance team along with his group were responsible for making Windows 7 start-up faster than its predecessor.
Dietrich read the first positive review of the Windows 7 improved boot performance ahead of Windows 7 release. “It gave me a really good feeling,” Dietrich recalled. “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.’ It’s not a fancy new UI feature,” he added. “It’s not that thing in your face all the time like a desktop feature or window switcher or something like that.”
However, Dietrich doesn’t take credit alone for the boost in speed that Windows 7 brought to the table in comparison to Windows Vista. “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.” Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | 3 Comments »
December 28, 2009 by
Jason
In addition to the performance enhancements built into its latest iteration of the Windows client, Microsoft is offering additional tools for download for customers and partners that want to squeeze all the extra juice from the OS. Case in point, the Windows Performance Analysis Tools, also referred to as the Windows Performance Toolkit, was released ahead of Windows 7, and included as an integral part of the operating system’s software development kit. Microsoft underlines that while “the WPT Kit is useful to a broad audience,” the tools will serve better specific audiences including “system builders, hardware manufacturers, driver developers, and general application developers.”
End users are missing from the enumeration above, and for good reason. The Windows 7 RTM Performance Analysis Tools are, in fact, designed to ensure a high level of hardware and software performance before the finalized products and solutions make it into the hands of home users. In this sense, the Windows Performance Toolkit is set up to permit the analysis and measuring of both system and application performance not just on Windows 7, but also Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008. Read More»
Posted in Software, Windows 7 | No Comments »
December 01, 2009 by
Jason With its latest version of Windows, Microsoft supports multiple activation scenarios, each tailored to a specific Windows 7 license. In this regard, volume customers of Windows 7 have the option to perform volume activation for the operating system. Companies with a large number of clients can centralize the management tasks associated with the process of activating multiple Windows seats. Windows 7 volume activation works either via KMS (Key Management Service) or MAK (Multiple Activation Key). Technical decision makers can now access a document from Microsoft detailing the “Top 7 Things You Need to Know about Activation TDM.”
The resource is offered for free through the Microsoft Download Center, and it is essentially a PowerPoint document. As the official title implies, the software giant outlines no less than seven things that IT decision makers need to be aware of when it comes down to Windows 7 volume activation.
The company is even enumerating the Volume Activation Enhancements for Windows 7, including “Refined end-user experience: clear & simplified user interface; updated notification dialog; customizable user experience for the enterprise; and performance improvements to the core service. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
November 30, 2009 by
Jason Although word of DirectX 11 has been around for over a year, with Microsoft sharing actual details with developers and partners, Windows 7’s graphics technology will only from now come into play. With the latest iteration of the Windows client available for purchase for a little over a month, customers worldwide can start taking advantage of the successor of DirectX 10, by leveraging Windows 7 computers in concert with DirectX 11 graphics cards. At this years’ Professional Developers Conference, the Redmond company share additional details related to DX11 in no less than two sessions.
Less fortunate devs that were unable to attend PDC 2009 can still access conference content from Microsoft, with video available on both DX11 sessions. Developers interested in Direct3D, Direct2D, and DirectWrite can watch “Modern 3D Graphics Using Windows 7 and Direct3D 11 Hardware” and “Advanced Graphics Functionality Using DirectX.”
“With the onset of new Direct3D 11 hardware, gain practical knowledge to help you push graphics to the limit. Learn about the new tessellation stage in Direct3D 11, which enables an unprecedented level of rendering quality by dynamically generating geometry on the GPU. In addition, see how the multi-core improvements in the Direct3D 11 runtime can help you scale your application to take full advantage of all of the cores on a machine. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
November 24, 2009 by
Jason The race between Mozilla and Microsoft is on yet again to establish positions such as innovation leader and follower, when it comes down to Firefox and Internet Explorer. And it will most probably fall on the two company’s next generation browser releases to help label the two software makers as either leading the wave in innovation or bringing to the market features that are already sported by the rival product. In this regard, Firefox 3.7 and Internet Explorer 9 are currently neck-in-neck at the start line toward the adoption and implementation of hardware acceleration.
Last week, at the Professional Developer Conference 2009 in Los Angeles, Steven Sinofsky, president, Windows and Windows Live Division, demonstrated a very early, just three weeks old copy of Internet Explorer 9, touting hardware acceleration as one of the major enhancements coming to IE users. In the video embedded at the bottom of this article, you will be able to get an insight into IE9 hardware acceleration possible because of Windows 7’s DirectX 11 graphics technology.
“We’re changing IE to use the DirectX family of Windows APIs to enable many advances for web developers. The starting point is moving all graphics and text rendering from the CPU to the graphics card using Direct2D and DirectWrite. Graphics hardware acceleration means that rich, graphically intensive sites can render faster while using less CPU. Read More»
Posted in Firefox, Internet, Windows 7 | 2 Comments »
November 01, 2009 by
Jason The first fully-fledged Beta development milestone of the next generation of Mozilla’s open source browser is currently available for download. Testers and early adopters that have been waiting for Firefox 3.6, codenamed Namoroka, to evolve from Alpha stage are now free to access, download, install and start test driving the Beta 1 build. In addition to being the first Beta for Firefox 3.6, the development milestone offered by Mozilla is also the first example of a third-party browser to embrace Microsoft’s latest iteration of the Windows client. Just like the native Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 is designed to play nice with Aero Peek and Thumbnail Previews via the new Windows Aero Taskbar (Superbar) in Windows 7.
As you can see from the screenshot included below, Firefox 3.6 Beta users can now take advantage of the some of the same graphical user interface enhancements in Windows 7 as those running IE8. While Google and Opera are lagging behind when it comes down to tailoring their browsers to Windows 7, the same is not valid for Mozilla. And as Windows 7 became available for purchase on October 22, 2009, customers running the OS in combination with Firefox 3.6 will certainly enjoy the bells and whistles of the new Windows Aero GUI. Read More»
Posted in Firefox, Windows 7 | 3 Comments »
October 28, 2009 by
Jason
The first part of this article are here.
6. Prepare for distributed security.
During your initial strategy meeting, set aside time to discuss how you want to handle the many distributed security features in Windows 7. You’ll want to determine a course of action early in the project because those decisions will have a substantial impact on your test matrix.
First, consider whether you want turn on the desktop firewall. When OS-based desktop firewalls were first introduced in XP SP1, many organizations turned them off with a Group Policy and that was that. The firewall in Windows 7 is much more flexible and warrants reconsideration. You can turn off the firewall while the machine is connected to the domain and turn it on when the machine is connected to a home/work network or to the Internet. You can define granular exclusions, too. Try a mix of options with the first wave of pilot users; take their feedback, along with input from your security team, to make a final decision on firewall settings. They’re completely configurable by Group Policy.
Second, do you want to use AppLocker to restrict applications permitted to run on your desktops? AppLocker allows you to put together a whitelist of approved executables that you can select individually by file hash, in groups by location or in groups by publisher (that is, signed by the publisher’s certificate). Once configured, these rules are downloaded by Windows 7 clients running the Application Identity service. From that point forward, only the whitelisted apps can execute. All other executables are forced to sit on the sidelines, kind of like me during my high-school athletic career.
Because AppLocker permissions are applied via Group Policy, you can tightly target the rules to computers based on OU, group membership or WMI filters.
Sifting through a mountain of applications trying to determine which should be on an AppLocker whitelist doesn’t sound like much fun, but the situation shouldn’t come to that. Most line-of-business machines have a fixed and limited suite of apps. Start there. After all, if you can keep the night crews from plugging flash drives into your factory kiosk machines to run games rather than build widgets, you’ve solved quite a few operational problems. Deal with the back-office machines later. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | 1 Comment »
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