Tag: rtm
October 28, 2009 by
Jason
Following the worldwide launch of Windows 7, Microsoft has made available a resource designed to give customers an insight into the operating system. The successor of Windows Vista hit store shelves on October 22nd, 2009, and in concert with the actual bits, the Redmond company released the Windows 7 Product Guide. For users who want to understand all the changes that the latest iteration of the Windows client brings to the table, all the new features, functionality and capabilities, the official Windows 7 Product Guide is the best resource available. Furthermore, the software giant is offering the product guide completely free via the Microsoft Download Center.
Brandon LeBlanc, Windows communications manager on the Windows Client Communications Team, revealed that the Windows 7 Product Guide was designed to deliver customers as much information on Windows 7 as possible in an easy to digest style. “This easy to read guide gives you a clear overview of the features in Windows 7 without a lot of technical jargon that you might find in other content. The guide was designed to educate and inform readers about benefits you get from adopting Windows 7,” LeBlanc added. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
October 05, 2009 by
Jason Redmond-based software company Microsoft released several months ago its own solution aimed at offering Windows 7 RC users the possibility to enjoy compatibility with the older Windows XP operating system, the Windows XP Mode. Available for download initially in a beta flavor, the RC iteration of Windows XP Mode is currently up for grabs for those who installed the RC version of Windows 7, and is bound to become final in the near future.
A recent post on the Windows 7 Team Blog states that Windows XP Mode was released to manufacturing on October 1 and that the final version of the solution is expected to become available for download as soon as Windows 7 hits the market, on October 22, to be more precise. The RTM version of this solution is meant to offer OEMs the possibility to include the XP Mode within the PCs they will bring to the market, the post also notes.
“Windows XP Mode is designed to provide small business and mid-sized businesses running Windows 7 Professional (or higher) the ability to run Windows XP productivity applications that may not be natively compatible with Windows 7. We expect many Windows XP applications to be compatible [with] Windows 7 however Windows XP Mode is meant to serve as an added safety net so small and mid-sized businesses can migrate and run Windows 7 without any road blocks. Windows 7 Professional is designed to meet the needs of small and mid-sized businesses,” Brandon LeBlanc describes the software solution. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7, Windows XP | 1 Comment »
September 19, 2009 by
Jason Microsoft has reached the end of the road when it comes down to the evolution of Windows XP through major updates. Moving onward, the Redmond company will focus exclusively on Windows Vista and Windows 7 with service pack releases. Specifically, if you are running Windows XP and still hoping for an SP, then by all means, don’t hold your breath. Or, if you were indeed holding your breath, then this is about the right time to exhale and move beyond the aging operating system. Windows 7 is now just a few days short of one month away, seeing how general availability is planned for October 22nd, 2009.
No more service packs for Windows XP, what does it mean? It means that SP3 was the last service pack for 32-bit (x86) XP and the SP2 was the last major update for 64-bit (x64). Immediately after the availability of SP3 for x86 XP, Microsoft confirmed officially that it was the last service pack for Windows Vista’s precursor. However, a potential SP3 seemed to be in the cards as far as x64 XP was concerned.
In fact, this is not the case at all. Microsoft offered official confirmation of the fact that it was not, nor would it be in the future, developing a third service pack for 64-bit XP. “We have received inquiries from our customers and partners on whether or not there will be a need for a Service Pack 3 for Windows Server 2003. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7, Windows XP | No Comments »
September 16, 2009 by
Jason There’s much to commend Windows 7 and our experiences with clean installs of the pre Beta, Beta and RTM releases have been mostly very positive, however, the one thing we haven’t tried yet is a Vista to Win7 upgrade.
If the reports now circulating the web are anything to go by, it’s not something we’ll be trying anytime soon. According to ars technica, reporting test results carried out by Microsoft, in a worst case scenario it could take more than 20 hours. The circumstances are not that unusual, either, it concerns a mid-range PC, with 40 applications and a drive containing 650Gb of data.
The tests covered a wide range of configurations and upgrade times varies from 100 minutes, on a high end PC with 20 applications and 70Gb of data to a 345 minutes on a heavily used (125Gb of data and 40 applications) low-end PC. Clean installations on most PCs typically took between 30 and 40 minutes, which chimes with our experiences, so the moral of this story is don’t upgrade unless you absolutely have to, and have plenty of time to spare.
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
September 02, 2009 by
Jason
Microsoft is offering Windows 7 RTM as a free download. That’s right! Completely free, no catch, no strings attached. The Redmond-based company is delivering customers the possibility of continuing the testing of its latest iteration of the Windows client even after the Release Candidate Build 7100 development milestone downloads have been discontinued. In this regard, the Windows 7 RTM Enterprise edition bits are currently up for grabs straight from the software giant. Customers will be able to test drive the release for no less than 90 days.
Stephen L. Rose, Senior community manager, Windows IT Pro Client, explained that the free Windows 7 RTM Enterprise 90-day evaluation comes as a consequence of direct input from IT professionals. “Many IT pros we talk to have been looking for a way to continue their work with the Release Candidate to test their applications, hardware and deployment strategies with final Windows 7 bits. In response, we have created the Windows 7 Enterprise 90 Day trial edition, available beginning [September 1, 2009],” Rose noted.
Microsoft is already offering the RTM of Windows 7 via a variety of channels to specialized audiences. However, the free Windows 7 RTM Enterprise 90-day evaluation comes with no limitations, and is available for download for all IT pros independent of the subscription-based or volume licensing sources. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | 6 Comments »
Microsoft’s Solution Accelerator designed to streamline the deployment of Windows operating system has evolved to the Release Candidate stage. Testers are now free to download and test drive the RC development milestone of Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010, a product which has already been tailored to the gold releases of the company’s latest iteration of Windows client and server operating systems. As was the case for the Beta Build, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 RC is available for download via Microsoft Connect.
“We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of the release candidate of MDT 2010. This release contains numerous bug fixes since MDT 2010 Beta 2. MDT 2010 RC has been tested and will work with Windows 7 RTM and Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM as well as all previously supported operating systems,” revealed Microsoft Evangelist Keith Combs.
In addition to the RTM Builds of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 RC also delivers support for technologies including: Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, 2007 Microsoft Office, Microsoft Application Virtualization, Microsoft Online Services (e.g. Exchange Online) and Forefront Client Security, etc. Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
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»
Posted in Windows Vista | No Comments »
Microsoft is offering Windows Vista SP1 users the chance to block automatic upgrades to Service Pack 2. In addition to making available Vista SP2 RTM as a standalone download, DVD ISO image, the bits are also released to Windows Update, and subsequently served to Vista SP1 users who have Automatic Updates enabled. With the Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit, Microsoft gives customers, especially businesses, the possibility to temporarily block the delivery of Vista SP2 RTM via Windows Update. Of course that, since Vista SP2 RTM and Windows Server 2008 SP2 RTM are joined at the hip, the Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit is capable of blocking the delivery of the latest released service packs for both Windows client and server.
The temporary period of time for which the tool is capable of blocking Vista SP2 via WU is a year after the general availability deadline. Microsoft released the first wave of Vista SP2 RTM downloads on May 26th, 2009 and, in this context, the end of May 2010 will bring with it the expiration of the restrictions set in place by the blocking solution. Once the Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit expires there will be nothing standing between Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 RTM/SP1 and SP2; with the exception of manually configuring updates not to download and install SP2 automatically, of course. Read More»
Posted in Windows Vista | No Comments »
Windows Vista Service Pack 3 gets its first hotfix from Microsoft. Yes, Service Pack 3, and yes, the error lies with Microsoft. The Redmond company is offering a hotfix designed to fix Event Viewer crashes associated with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 opening large event log files and attempting to sort log entries by a single column. But when it comes down to actually downloading the fix, the software giant offers it for the 32-bit, 64-bit and Itanium flavors of Windows Vista SP3. It is highly improbable that at this point in time Microsoft has debuted testing of Vista SP3 bits, and in this regard, the SP3 references are nothing more than an error. (via Neowin)
The Redmond company has recently wrapped up the code for Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista. The SP2 RTM bits are so “fresh” that they haven’t yet been served to Vista users, and Microsoft only pointed to the second quarter of 2009 for the availability of the second service pack for Vista, while not offering any specific deadline. The Redmond company announced that it had released Vista SP2 to manufacturing on April 28, 2009. MSDN and TechNet subscribers already got access to SP2 RTM, and the bits have even been leaked in the wild. Still, the public will only get Vista SP2 in Q2 2009. Read More»
Posted in Windows Vista | No Comments »
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