Archive for April, 2009
Windows Vista SP2 RTM is now on MSDN
Posted by The Right Guy in Software, Windows, Windows Vista on April 29th, 2009
As well as Windows Server 2008
It looks like Windows Vista Service Pack 2 RTM and Windows Server 2008 RTM just made their ways out of Microsoft’s closed testing environment and into the homes of happy beta testers. According to company officials, channel partners and MSDN subscribers are now able to get their hands on these fresh new releases.
“Today we are announcing the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) of Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. SP2 represents the latest step in Microsoft’s commitment to continuous improvement. It includes all updates that have been delivered since SP1, as well as support for new types of hardware and emerging hardware standards.”
Microsoft has mentioned that the key benefits of Vista SP2 include Windows Search 4.0 for improved searching performance, the ability to natively record data to Blu-ray in Windows Explorer, a Bluetooth feature pack to support the 2.1 specification (perhaps 3.0 as well?), more simplified Wi-Fi configuration with Windows Connect Now (WCN), and UTC time zone support in the exFAT file system.
The company has also stated that the SP1 Service Pack Blocker Tool is being removed today, as was announced back in January. Service Pack 1 will now be available in Windows Update, but we highly recommend skipping it and getting a download of Service Pack 2 when it is publicly made available.
It comes as no surprise to us that Windows Vista SP2 RTM version 6.0.6006.18005 is already circulating around torrent portals in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The majority of industry is expecting Microsoft to make the update publicly available sometime this week. While no plans have been confirmed, it is best to stay patient until an announcement has been made.
Windows 7 Will Include “Windows XP Mode”
Posted by The Right Guy in Uncategorized on April 27th, 2009
Windows 7 wants to be your trusted upgrade from Windows XP—so much so that the Redmond giant will offer a virtualized “Windows XP Mode” in Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate editions when they drop.
It won’t be baked directly into the Windows 7 Release Candidate, the free download officially due out May 5 but already circulating on BitTorrent. Instead, an XP Mode plugin will be made available as a free download for Release Candidate users and, eventually, paid Professional and Ultimate users.
What’s XP mode? According to Windows watcher Paul Thurrott, it’s a licensed, virtualized copy of Windows XP Service Pack 3 running inside Microsoft’s own Virtual PC framework, customized and framed to allow anyone who needs a picky XP application to run to simply install it while XP Mode is enabled, then have it run as a virtualized app in the future without thinking about it.It is, in a way, a 100% compatibility promise, but it remains to be seen how smoothly Virtual PC can be integrated into Windows 7 itself.
Also unknown is just how XP Mode will be licensed and provided. It’s a certain no-go on the Starter and Home editions of Windows 7 meant for notebooks and lower-end PCs, but there’s now word on whether XP Mode will be restricted to corporate licenses or available for retail and new PC customers.
Does a licensed, virtualized XP running inside Windows 7 change your outlook on the OS? Tell us your take in the comments.
GPU’s to do more accelerating in Leopard and Windows 7
Posted by The Right Guy in Hardware, Nvidia on April 27th, 2009
Nvidia says
Nvidia’s product manager for Tesla producs, Sumit Gupta, recently said how new programming environments will utilize GPUs to accelerate software in OS X Snow Leopard and Windows 7 operating systems. Nvidia seems to be keen on proving the world that graphics cards are not solely for gaming, and thus the GPGPU acronym (General Purpose computing on Graphics Processing Units).
OpenCL, a framework for writing programs which execute across platform containing CPUs, GPUs and potentially other processors, would enable users to more effectively utilize the potential that GPUs obviously pack, and even Apple on its website says that OpenCL will make it possible for developers to „efficiently tap the vast gigaflops of computing power currently locked up in the graphics processing unit.“
In a nutshell, this means that graphics do so much more in the future, as having a CPU and a GPU in your system will mean there’re two workhorses to rely on, where both processing units will work together and divide the tasks among themselves. An example was cited as running Google’s Picasa on the CPU, but as soon as you choose an image and apply a filter, the GPU would take over.
Since interfaces in our OSs are obviously visual, it would make more sense for the GPU to handle it than the CPU Mr. Gupta also said. However, this doesn’t in any way mean that CPUs are not needed as he also added how „If you’re running an unpredictable task, the CPU is the jack of all trades“.
More here.
All Windows 7 SKUs will run on netbooks
Posted by The Right Guy in Uncategorized on April 21st, 2009
Optimized, cries Redmond
Microsoft says any Windows 7 SKU will be able to run on netbooks, and that netbook hardware limitations won’t affect the functionality of the new OS, regardless of SKU.
As there’s no end in sight to the netbook craze, this is good news for anyone running an Atom based system, or thinking about getting one. Microsoft claims the new OS has a much smaller footprint, and it will offer faster boot and shutdown times, as well as improved battery life thanks to better power management.
Although all Win 7 SKUs will supposedly be less resource hungry than Vista, and more netbook friendly, it will all probably boil down to Microsoft discounts. Redmond currently sells XP licenses for netbooks for as low as $15 a pop, and vendors will obviously go for the cheapest, or should we say most heavily discounted Windows 7 SKU. The netbook market is heavily contested, and most products are equally matched and priced, so every penny counts.
That would be the Aero-less Starter Edition, so even if we do see Ion netbooks in the next few months, all that extra graphics muscle could end up sitting around, doing nothing.
More here.