Windows 7 finally surpasses XP in usage
Posted Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 2:14 am by Jason Cartwright
It’s now been 3 years since the announcement of Windows 7 and to kick off Microsoft’s Build conference, Steven Sinofsky started by talking about it’s successes. There’s some impressive numbers thrown out, one of the best news for Microsoft is that Windows 7 has finally surpassed Windows XP in usage.
- Approaching 450 million copies of Windows 7 sold
- Windows 7 consumer usage greater than Windows XP
- 1,502 seamless non-security product code changes delivered
- IE9 is the fastest growing Windows 7 browser
- 542 Million people signing into Windows Live services
- 1500 non-security related changes since launch
Stay tuned for more information from Build.
Windows 7 SP1 available for download
Posted Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 10:04 am by Nick Merry
A little after its 1 year birthday and 300 million licenses sold Windows 7 gets its first Service Pack, SP1, and it is available in its various forms for download to the public.
According to sources, as of today, 20% of the worlds internet connected PC’s run some form of Windows 7 and work on SP2 is already underway.
There are reports of it taking over an 1 hour to install on recent laptops so make sure you set aside some time for it to fully install and let’s hope it goes better than some of the WP7 updates, especially the Samsung Omnia ones.
The download links are here for you:
Download Windows 7 SP1 RTM (32-bit) (537.809 MB)
Download Windows 7 SP1 RTM (64-bit) (903.196 MB)
Download Windows 7 SP1 RTM ISO (32-bit & 64-bit) (1953.3 MB)
Microsoft Signature [no bloatware] hits Australia
Posted Friday, February 18, 2011 at 12:54 pm by Jason Cartwright
In a new offering to Australian students, Microsoft are offering a Dell XPS 14 with Windows 7 and Office Home and Student 2010 for A$1099. Along with saving around $500 off the normal cost, one key difference with this offer is the introduction of Microsoft Signature. This is the first system available in Australia to include this. If your not familiar with Microsoft Signature, essentially it means you get a machine with NO bloatware !
We’re all used to the anti-virus trial, countless toolbars and completely unesessary software that ends up negatively impacting performance. Microsoft Signature guarentees you get a clean system that is just the way it should be. Included as part of Microsoft Signature is their Security Essentials software which is available for free, but having it pre-installed, means users are pretected from day 1 by something that will always be up-to-date and free.
I would have liked to see Windows Live Essentials also be pre-installed as it ads significant functionality to Windows. Particularly when marketing to Students, Messenger, Photo gallery, Movie Maker are all great apps.
The deal is available from Microsoft Store Australia.
Windows 7 Service Pack 1 released to MSDN and TechNet
Posted Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 7:13 pm by Jason Cartwright
Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 users with a MSDN or TechNet subscription can now get Service Pack 1. Built on the same codebase, the two operating systems will both receive the SP1 update, so what’s included ?
If your doing you’re job properly, you’d be paying attention enough to understand Service Packs today are significantly different to what they used to be. One of the most famous new features introduced in XP SP2 was the introduction of a software firewall that was on by default.
Big new features like this are all but gone from service packs, today they are much more of a hotfix rollup than anything else. If you’ve been a good Windows citizen, you’ve been applying Windows updates as they are released. If your in this category, Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 will be a relatively quick and painless process. After applying the update, you won’t notice any difference.
On the business side of things, SP1 does actually add a couple of goodies. Client-side support for RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory are two new virtualization features. Microsoft are claiming up to 40% increase in number of virtual desktops supported on the same hardware.
Overall end users should update to SP1 when it reaches general availability (Feb 22nd, 2011) to ensure all your updates are installed, but make sure your expectations are setup for much of the same. Enterprises using Server 2008 R2’s Hyper-V technology should definitely build the SP1 update into their project plans.
More information on the Windows Blog.
The current state of Windows 7
Posted Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 6:44 pm by Jason Cartwright
It’s been around a year since the launch of Windows 7, so in the final interview from Tech.Ed last week, I discuss the current state of Windows 7. In an interview with Moragh Blyth and Michael Niehaus from Microsoft we discuss Win7 Service Pack 1, business adoption and a whole lot more.
Check out the 11 minute video below.
Internet Explorer 9 will NOT run in XP. Time to move on.
Posted Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 8:46 am by Jason Cartwright
The latest news today from the Microsoft Mix 2010 conference is that Internet Explorer 9 will NOT be supported in Windows XP. A decision that’s already seen the pitchforks out for Microsoft with people claiming it’s just a way to force customers to upgrade to Windows 7.
IE9 will support HTML5, CSS3 and SVG2 standards, as well as a brand new Javascript rendering engine as well as maintaining compatibility support for sites currently working in IE8. After opening a few of the more popular sites in the preview build, it does seem that things just work. Microsoft say Internet Explorer 9 makes massive improvements in terms of speed, some of which are undoubtedly attributed to new hardware acceleration support.
Update
The new javascript engine is internally known as “Chakra”, which compiles JavaScript in the background on a separate core of the CPU, parallel to IE.
When you take a second to think about the reason why Microsoft had to break support for XP, it makes sense if they are taking advantages of core technologies built into Vista and Windows 7. So whilst on the surface it may look appear as profit-driven move, there’s likely a much more intelligent explanation.
If your running an older system you had to know at some stage application developers (both Microsoft and 3rd party) would eventually move on from supporting a 10 year old operating system, in favour of moving forward and innovating. Don’t forget XP users can still run IE8, which is fine for today, but the technologies of the future, particularly HTML5 will be critical to the web in the coming years.
The expected timeline for release is later this year or perhaps even into 2011, so my advice to those who want to use IE9, then start planning a system upgrade now.
For those who are running Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can check out an early build of IE9, or Windows Internet Explorer Platform Preview 1.9.17745.6019 by visiting http://ietestdrive.com.
Press release @ Microsoft
