Technologizer

Windows 7 on a Thumb Drive?

Friday, June 26, 2009

Netbooks, pretty much by definition, don’t have optical drives. Microsoft is talking up Windows 7 as a great OS for netbooks. Retail versions of Windows, like almost all software, come on optical discs. Problem! Over at Cnet, Ina Fried is reporting that Microsoft is contemplating the possibility of shipping a version of Windows 7 on a [...]

Microsoft Chops Some Windows 7 Prices

Thursday, June 25, 2009

9 Comments

Microsoft has dropped one of the lat remaining veils relating to Windows 7 by announcing the OS upgrade’s pricing. It’s not exactly stunning that the company chose not to follow Gizmodo’s advice that Win 7 should be free for all Vista owners. But there are a number of price breaks associated with the rollout. The largest [...]

Windows 7 $tarter Edition?

Monday, June 15, 2009

6 Comments

I’m not an expert on how to price operating systems for maximum sales and profit. Microsoft is. So I hesitate to jump in here, but a DigiTimes story (as covered by Ars Technica) is suggesting that Microsoft may want about twice as much money from PC manufacturers to put Windows 7 Starter Edition on a [...]

5Words for Monday, June 15th, 2009

Monday, June 15, 2009

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Good morning. Good Monday. News! Windows 7 Starter Edition: overpriced? Dell, please don’t buy Palm. Sprint: Don’t tether your Pre. No free iPhone for Microsofties. Next Firefox will profile you. Slower SATA for new MacBooks? Is Google readying Twitter search? New iPhones start to ship. Hillcrest’s cool remote finally ships. Kindle DX apparently selling well. An excessively thin NEC notebook. Documents to Go for iPhone.

One Windows 7, Indivisible?

Friday, June 12, 2009

5 Comments

Over at ZDNet, my friend Jason Hiner has published an open letter to Microsoft, arguing that it’s not too late for Microsoft to scrap the six planned editions of Windows 7 and release the new OS in only one version. I admire Jason’s bold Hail Mary, but it’s presumably way too late for his scenario. [...]

Europe Gives Internet Explorer the Boot from Windows 7. Big Deal!

Thursday, June 11, 2009

8 Comments

Looks like any lingering question about the European Union’s antitrust case against Microsoft delaying the release of Windows 7 just ended. Earlier today, Cnet’s Ina Fried reported that Microsoft will release versions of the new OS that are sans Internet Explorer for sale in Europe. Microsoft has confirmed its intentions. The Europe-only versions of Windows 7 [...]

Memo Reveals Windows 7 Upgrade Details

Friday, June 5, 2009

5 Comments

Best Buy customers who purchase PCs preloaded with Windows Vista between June 26 and Oct. 22 will receive free upgrades to Windows 7, according to a company memo obtained by Engadget. Further, Best Buy will begin taking pre-orders on Jun. 26 for paid upgrades, according to the memo. Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade copies will cost [...]

Windows 7: Coming to a PC Near You on October 22nd

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

12 Comments

Back on May 11th, Microsoft confirmed what was already pretty obvious: Windows 7 would ship for the 2009 holiday season. Today, it got specific and said that the OS would show up on new PCs and in retail upgrade boxes on October 22nd. That’s a little later than some predictions–just yesterday I was telling someone [...]

Maybe They Should Call It “Windows 7 Grudging Acknowledgment of Reality Edition”

Saturday, May 30, 2009

7 Comments

Paul Thurrott had it right: Microsoft has decided to lift the three-apps-at-a-time limitation from Windows 7 Starter Edition, the low-cost, low-end version of the OS which will likely show up on a lot of netbooks beginning this fall. The company announced the change in plans at the Windows 7 Team Blog, in a post that also [...]

More on Windows 7 and Netbooks

Friday, May 22, 2009

6 Comments

Microsoft is still wrestling with the question of how to get Windows 7 onto dirt-cheap netbooks without crushing the profit margin it makes when it sells copies of Windows to PC manufacturers. Two pieces of scuttlebutt emerged today; one sounds promising for netbook buyers, and the other is kind of discouraging. Promising scuttlebutt: Paul Thurrott is [...]

It’s Official: Windows 7 For the Holidays

Monday, May 11, 2009

4 Comments

At this point, anything else would have been a heckuva surprise, but now it’s formal: At its Tech Ed conference today, Microsoft announced that it plans to ship Windows 7 (and Windows Server 2008 R2) in time for the holidays. Until now, the company had just been saying that it planned to get Win 7 [...]

Windows 7 Release Candidate: It’s Buggy!

Friday, May 8, 2009

1 Comment

Actually, it’s been running quite well on my test machines for a pre-release operating system, but I have encountered a couple of instances in which it seemed to be fussy about what folder I installed an application into. Now it’s looking like I may have run into a major bug. Ed Bott has the news: Yesterday, [...]

Microsoft Releases a Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

Friday, May 8, 2009

1 Comment

If you’re contemplating trying out the Windows 7 Release Candidate but are worried about system requirements and compatibility issues, check out the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor that Microsoft released in beta form today. It scans Windows XP and Windows Vista machines and responds with a report about whether their system specs are up to running [...]

Windows Genuine Advantage: A Lousy Microsoft Name No More!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

6 Comments

Back, in March, I wrote an article for PC World on the worst Microsoft product names of all time. One of my nominees was Windows Genuine Advantage, the anti-piracy technology that’s suffered at least a couple of major breakdowns that caused woes for paying customers. I wondered what exactly was advantageous about it for anyone [...]

Windows 7 Release Candidate: The Technologizer FAQ

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

19 Comments

Windows 7 is here–sort of. Yes, Microsoft still isn’t talking about when it’ll ship the final version–all evidence suggests it’ll be sometime this Fall–but the company is unleashing the Windows 7 Release Candidate today. It’s a free, all-but-final version of the operating system, and it’ll work until March 1st, 2010 before Microsoft forces you to [...]

Windows 7 Release Candidate: Available to All

Monday, May 4, 2009

3 Comments

It’s not all that often that the words “Windows” and “ahead of schedule” can be used in the same sentence, but here we go: As Cnet’s Ina Fried is reporting, Microsoft. which said it was going to make the Windows 7 Release Candidate available for download tomorrow, opened up the floodgates tonight, ahead of schedule. [...]