It is rumored that Veghte wasn’t too happy with being passed over by Sinofsky, who had previously served as vice president of the engineering group within Windows. He served as senior vice president of the global Windows business, and had been instrumental in orchestrating Microsoft’s Windows 7 launch. It would almost seem as if he would have been the logical choice to ascend to the top spot in Microsoft’s Windows division, but that was not meant to be.

Mary Jo Foley reports that Veghte told her in a phone interview that he did attempt to find a new role within the company, but in the end decided leaving was the best option.

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Simplicity is good–especially since nobody who doesn’t work at Microsoft and who isn’t involved in manufacturing hardware or developing software really knows the specifics of what the logo indicates. As the “Compatible” in “Compatible with Windows Vista” indicates, the emphasis this time around seems to be on ensuring that products will function reliably with all versions of the OS, including the 64-bit ones. It’s not claiming that a product is a shining example-the equivalent Windows XP logo had the loftier-sounding name of”Designed for Windows XP”–but just that it works.

But I’m sorry that Microsoft didn’t institute one additional requirement for hardware products: mandating that they support Device Stage, the OS’s new system for putting a bunch of features related to a peripheral in one place, such as a camera’s charge level, storage capacity, and tools for importing and transferring photos.

Device Stage is a good idea, but it’s a good idea that requires a fair amount of heavy lifting by hardware manufacturers, who need to put together the items for a particular product’s Device Stage. And it won’t be terribly useful unless you have a fair amount of confidence that the majority of your gadgets–the newish ones, at least–have Device Stages.

Weirdly, even though Windows 7 has been released to manufacturing, it’s too early to form an opinion about how well Device Stage is going to work out of the gate. When I worked on this long review of the new OS for PC World, I spent a fair amount of time plugging random gadgets into a Windows 7 PC. Most of them provided, at best, a sort of incomplete Device Stage that was only marginally useful. (Including a Nikon D90, a camera which Microsoft  has touted as providing “great” Windows 7 support–I didn’t get most of the items shown in the above screen image, which was prepared by Microsoft.)

Eventually, a Microsoft representative told me what was going on: As hardware companies prepped themselves for Windows 7’s October 22nd release date, all Device Stages had been temporarily disabled, including the ones that had worked in earlier pre-release builds of Windows 7. In theory, the feature should work a heck of a lot better starting on the 22nd; I plan to plug a bunch of gizmos in on or around that date and see what happens.

But even if my experience improves a lot, I’m concerned that it won’t live up to its potential because too few companies will get their act together and build really good Device Stages. The Compatible with Windows 7 logo program could have provided Microsoft with an opportunity to prod companies into providing Device Stages. But the logo won’t tell you anything about whether a specific product has a Device Stage; providing one is an optional “Additional Qualification.”

I cheerfully accept the possibility that I’m being overly pessimistic that Device Stages will in fact became pretty pervasive pretty quickly. But for now, I’m sorry that Microsoft didn’t make the Windows 7 logo requirements at least a tad more demanding.

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Louder. No, Quieter

The Annoyance: I have lots of MP3s I’ve ripped onto my hard drive from CDs. Nothing seems to play at the same volume level. When I play Copeland’s “Fanfare,” it’s loud enough to make the dog jump, yet all of Dave Brubeck’s music is way too soft.

The Fix: When you use Windows Media Player to burn music into a CD, the trick is to adjust–or normalize–the sound level as you’re burning the MP3s to the CD. Do that from the Burn menu by enabling Apply volume level across tracks on the CD. Normalization doesn’t work in WMP when you’re ripping MP3s from a CD to disk. Unfathomable, I know, but it’s Microsoft’s party. So use FairStars CD Ripper to do the job. The freebie does its job, normalizes the cuts, and handles plenty of file formats, including WAV, MP3, WMA, and more obscure ones, such as APE and VQF.

The hassle is what to do with all the music you’ve already ripped. Microsoft’s WMP fixes the problem by normalizing the volume as you play the music. Look under View, Enhancements, Crossfading, and turn on Auto Volume Leveling.

Unfortunately, this trick works only when you’re playing the music in WMP. But there’s a way to permanently normalize all your cuts. Download MP3Gain, a free–and very cool–utility that analyzes and normalizes the sound levels of MP3 files that you feed to it. Check out the FAQ; you have to send MP3 files to MP3Gain for it to do its work.

Need a Quick Print? Just Right-Click

The Annoyance: I’m in Windows Explorer and found the file I need to print. Isn’t it silly to have to double-click the file to open the application and then find the Print command–just to print the file?

The Fix: You’re right, there is a better way to do it, but the designers at the Redmond Empire don’t make it obvious. The fastest way to print a document, no matter what the application, is to let Windows Explorer do the deed. Right-click the file and select Print. Explorer will open the program that’s associated with the file extension and send the document to the printer. Explorer’s neat and tidy, too, closing the app when it’s done.

Leave My Freakin’ Icons Alone

The Annoyance: I like a messy desktop, okay? I don’t care if I haven’t used some of the icons for years. And no, I don’t want you to clean it up for me, thank you very much. Now how do I turn the freakin’ thing off? [Actual note from Judy Bass. --Steve]

The Fix: Yes, dear. Right-click on the desktop, select Properties, choose the Desktop tab, and click Customize Desktop. Uncheck “Run Desktop Wizard every 60 days” to disable the wizard, then click OK twice. (I’ll get to the lawn tomorrow. –Steve)

Product of the Week: Super Security for Your PC

Say you have sensitive corporate files on your notebook and want to lock it down so the files are absolutely, unequivocally unavailable to even the smartest hacker.

Ordinarily I’d recommend encrypting the files, but I have something more flexible–and tons more powerful. GT SecuriKey Pro for Windows keeps your info–heck, your entire computer–safe from prying eyes. It’s a special USB gizmo that acts like a car key. Often called a dongle (though never in mixed company), once you configure it, only someone with a keyed-to-your-PC’s security key can even boot your computer.

My doctor is using it on his file server — he’s afraid someone might break into the office and grab all the PCs. He’s thrilled because if a thief does take it, the server’s just a hunk of metal. Now I need to convince my financial guy to do it (hello, John?), buy one for my CPA (yoo-hoo, George?), and advise my banker to plug one in (you reading this, Bill?).

The software that comes with the device lets you dictate what happens when you remove the key: It can lock your PC; put it in standby mode; or simply block Internet access. SecuriKey also prevents hackers from booting your system into Safe Mode and then taking it over. If others need to have access to your system, you can make specific files and folders off limits to some users; for home users, limiting your offspring’s access to the Internet, instant messaging, or practically any application is child’s play. SecuriKey works with XP and Vista; there’s also a Mac version. The downside is it’s not cheap: A two-key set is $130.

[This post is excerpted from Steve's TechBite newsletter. If you liked it, head here to sign up--it's delivered on Wednesdays to your inbox, and it's free.]

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As part of a lengthy interview with CNet, the Microsoft chairman said Project Natal is not just for games, “but for media consumption as a whole, and even if they connect it up to Windows PCs for interacting in terms of meetings, and collaboration, and communication.”

Gates stayed pretty vague when describing how Natal might be used away from the Xbox 360. He noted that motion control could come in handy when managing movies, music and “home system type stuff.” He also said “there’s incredible value as we use [Natal] in the office connected to a Windows PC,” but the rest is left to imagination.

It’s easy to see some common ground with the Xbox 360 and Windows PCs. The obvious use is gaming, but one of the things shown during Natal’s E3 demonstration was motion-controlled menus. Instead of using a joystick or remote control, the demonstrator moved through the Xbox 360 dashboard by flicking his hand in the air. That functionality might be useful for PC entertainment hubs, so maybe Natal will be integrated with Windows Media Center.

Beyond that, I’m at a loss for ideas. The key to Natal is that it senses three axes instead of two, but what office uses or collaborations would take advantage of that? Are we looking at a reinvention of the wheel, or just tacky gimmicks? Natal is an exciting prospect for gaming and entertainment, but I fail to see how it’ll work as an office tool. It could fail miserably in that regard if it doesn’t change everything.

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The current defacto standard used by PC makers to measure notebook battery life is MobileMark 2007 (MMO7). This piece takes a look at the basic facts behind the notebook brightness settings recommended by MM07, comparing that to some typical home electronics devices and the average settings some consumers are using for their notebook displays.

The facts about MM07 and notebook display brightness

MM07 requires the following: “The display brightness should be measured for a white screen while on battery and be set at the lowest possible setting, no lower than 60 nits.”

So what is a nit?  Wikipedia defines a nit as a “candela per square meter.” Think of a “nit” as a unit of measure of brightness.

How does 60 nits compare to brightness of other home electronics?

To see what 60 nits relates to in real-world usage, we tested some typical home electronics devices  without changing any settings, other than shutting off “auto adjustment” on the phones.

Here are the test results:

The lowest nit measurement observed was at least two and a half times brighter than the MM07 brightness level of 60 nits on which notebook battery life is measured.

To see how nits relate to notebook screen brightness, we tested a few notebook PCs to see what the “max nits” measured when the screen was set to the highest setting.

As you can see from the figures below, the MM07 requirement was between 20-30 percent of the sample notebooks’ maximum screen brightness.

What notebook display brightness setting do consumers use?

These results were interesting enough to prompt an informal poll of Twitter and Facebook users asking about the display brightness setting on which they place their notebooks. The responses are both qualitative and quantitative,.

Quantitative: Neowin actually placed a poll on their community website asking the question, “What brightness level do you run your notebook?”  More than 1,100 community members voted in a few days, and according to Shane Pitman, Editor-in-Chief, “Polls require a member account, and to be logged in to said account. Provides accountability, keeps people from voting multiple times.”

The results were overwhelming in that 75 percent of the Neowin community member respondents kept their notebook display brightness between 61 and 100 percent.

Qualitative: These responses were as valuable as the quantitative as they gave insight into why they did this.  Some comments gave insight into the folks who use their notebooks at very low display settings.

The following question was posed on Twitter  “Research question: what display brightness do you run your notebook at? (Please RT)”.  Here is just a sampling of public tweet responses.

• “On the machines I see, normally I prefer to have them fully backlit with the slider up to around 75% or so.”
• “I run my laptop at maximum brightness unless the battery is really low, or I have an external screen. “
• “Now running MBP 15.4″ 3.1 at 75% brightness with auto adjust turned ; but was at 100% without auto adjust til you asked! “
• “90 – 100% brightness, 90% of the time. “
• “depends entirely on my battery level and surroundings. “
• “Research question: what display brightness do you run your notebook at? (Please RT). I run full bright 95+% of the time. “
• “oh sorry :), 100% unless I’m running low on battery, where I bring it down to a minimum, I’m guessing 50%, but thats rare“
• “usually around 60-70%“
• “i don’t use them much, mainly desktop, but i either have brightness at full or minimum: latter at night and if battery low“
• “When running laptop on battery, i set brightness to 25-40%, when plugged in -100%.“
• “100% brightness. Left default setting (and I appreciate it that way… old eyes). “
• “slammed up to full when possible, monitor screens vary though“
• “mine is usually as bright as I can make it. I hate dim screens. “
• “max brightness notwithstanding battery impact. “
• “I lower my screen brightness to the lowest, usable level that’s comfortable. It’s all about the battery life. ;) “
• “Agreed…I think mine is usually around 30% or so. “
• “it varies by location due to lighting levels. Usually around 30% or 40%. Never > 50% when on battery. “
• “ME: 90 to 100% on AC, about 50 % on battery when I’m watching movies and about 20 to work. “

We also received some really interesting responses related to interpretation, explanations, tools and resources on brightness after asking about “60 nits”.

• “not all that hard. Need 800+ nits to read screens in direct sun, 30-150 for night highway signs: http://bit.ly/cjxJB“
• “60 nits = table in an office with 300 lux illumination: http://bit.ly/FvoKe BTW sRGB calibration target = 80 nits. “
• “oh and here’s a Kodak guide on how to use a digital camera and gray card as an ad-hoc nit estimator: http://bit.ly/1IMLK3“

The Bottom Line:

• The MM07 test requires a 60 nit or higher display brightness. To maximize battery life benchmarks, systems are set at the minimum allowable 60 nit level. This setting is thereby integrated into this battery life benchmark that is then used in notebook PC advertising to consumers.
• Worst case, the display brightness of many home electronics is 2.58 times more than the MM07 nit setting requirement.  Based on the small set of notebooks tested, MM07’s 60 nits equated to around 20-30 percent of the maximum notebook brightness.
• Unscientific querying on Twitter and Facebook says many classes of users crank their screen beyond 61 percent, and many at maximum brightness.  Some self-selected a lower brightness setting to conserve battery life.

Does MM07 use realistic notebook brightness setting in its battery life tests that consumers make buying decisions from?  You be the judge.   Whether you agree or disagree, what are your thoughts? And here’s a quick poll:

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Microsoft told Reuters that it would cooperate with the Russian government. Meanwhile, the company is appealing the European Commission’s (EC) preliminary findings concerning its middleware bundling practices for Windows. The charges were levied by browser maker Opera Software.

The EC initially fined Microsoft €497 million ($613 million) in 2004 for abusing its dominant market position, followed by an additional €280.5 million ($357 million) in July 2006 for charging “unreasonable prices” to software developers for access to information about Windows client and server protocols. The cumulative fines amount to nearly $2.3 billion.

Microsoft has made strides towards interoperability and openness since the EC penalized it. The company is now sharing information about the inner-workings of its products that it it once fought tooth and nail to hold as trade secrets. A specific problem was remedied.

I’m not an expert in the Russian customs code; it could have a legitimate bone to pick with Microsoft. It just seems silly to base an antitrust investigation on normal business behavior. Windows XP is not the first operating system that Microsoft has phased out, and it will continued to support compatibility for Windows XP applications in Windows 7.

Windows XP’s product life cycle and support policies are also public. Microsoft’s Moscow office would certainly have informed its customers about its transition to Windows Vista and beyond. I’m not certain what the Russian government is harping about–it has had ample time to plan for XP’s obsolescence.

I recently spoke with someone that was commissioned by the Canadian government to assess the viability of mainframes over the next decade. The Canadian government estimated that it would take nearly a decade for it to replace critical mainframe applications, and was performing due diligence to determine whether it needed to get started. It’s keeping its mainframe systems.

In the same vein, Russia should have known that there was risk when it purchased Windows XP in the first place, or negotiated terms to receive extended product support from Microsoft. When taken at face value, these antitrust charges are bogus.

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It’s also a positive development for consumers, since there’s plenty of evidence that a Windows 7 machine will be more pleasing than the same hardware loaded with Windows Vista (or for that matter, Windows XP).

Of course, it would be silly to assume that the fact that Microsoft has announced a ship date means that the chance of it blowing its deadline is zero. But the fact it’s already announcing a date when Windows 7 will show up in stores is a strong sign that it’s really, really confident about its timetable–in the past, it’s usually played games by first announcing the date when it would release a new version of Windows to manufacturing, not when people could actually buy it.

As usual, PC manufacturers will offer some form of discounted or free upgrades for folks who buy Windows PCs in the period just before the upgrade ships. In the Cnet story I link to above, Ina Fried says that Microsoft left open the possibility of some sort of blanket discount for Windows Vista users; me, I think that would be both a smart PR move and a good way to goose sales, even if the discount was far from gigantic.

I like Windows 7  myself–the release candidate is already the version of Windows I use when I have  a choice–but am going to remain a tad uneasy about the launch until we know more about whether the typical Windows 7 machine that’s sold to a consumer is so larded up with demoware, adware, and pointlessware that you can’t appreciate Win 7’s subdued, less annoying personality.

I suspect that the days of anyone lining up at midnight at CompUSA  Best Buy to purchase an OS upgrade are behind us. But do you intend to get your hands on the shipping version of Windows 7 within, say, the first two weeks of its release?

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System Restore is a recovery tool built into Windows that backs up and restores the Registry. System Restore takes a snapshot of your computer — called a restore point — once a day, as well as before you perform certain tasks, such as installing a new program. If all goes well, you can use a restore point later on to bring your PC back to the state it was in when the snapshot was taken. But remember, we’re talking about computers.

Sometimes System Restore doesn’t work. You click a restore point and Windows has a hearty, gleeful laugh. The problem is that each restore point is linked to previous points; if one is corrupt or missing, you’re out of luck: System Restore won’t work. (Learn more about the ins and outs of System Restore in Bert Kinney’s smart and thorough FAQ.)

My Love Affair with ERUNT

For the last year, I’ve been using the Emergency Recovery Utility NT. Affectionately known as ERUNT, it’s a free tool that automatically backs up your Registry and allows you to restore it. And despite its name, it works with Windows XP and Vista, including 64-bit editions.

The tremendous advantage of ERUNT is that each restore point is independent of the other points. If one goes kaflooey, the others will still work. It’s also nice to be able to back up a restore point to an external drive or stick it onto an online storage site.

I let ERUNT do its backup thing each morning; when you install it, that’s the default. The program saves a week of restore points (plenty, in my opinion) and automatically deletes older ones. You can set a restore point manually at any time, too.

The downside is ERUNT doesn’t automatically set a restore point if you do something that has the potential to hose your Registry, by, say, installing a driver. You can rectify that by remembering to run ERUNT just before you do the deed.

ERUNT backs up your Registry automatically.

If you have a fiddling gene, there are a bunch of command-line switches to play with. For instance, /dir=”x:\folder name” will override the default directory name. With that gene in mind, I’m guessing you’ll enjoy Peter Bromberg’s right-on-the-money Practice “Safe Computer” with regular automated Registry Backups article.

My advice? Keep Windows System Restore enabled for a couple of months until you become confident that ERUNT is as dependable as I say it is. When you’re ready, disable System Restore. From the Control Panel, click System, choose the System Restore tab, and select the “Turn off System Restore on all drives” check box. Click OK, and then click Yes to turn off System Restore.

[This post is excerpted from Steve's TechBite newsletter. If you liked it, head here to sign up--it's delivered on Wednesdays to your inbox, and it's free.]

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iPod Nano to get camera?

Intel, Microsoft dislike big netbooks.

Kids text 80 times daily.

Windows Vista SP2 is ready.

Microsoft’s future visions video, remixed.

Photorealistic games: 10-15 years?

Gotta love this 1878 sign.

Twitter on the Twitter show.

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Last summer, the company embarked on pilot programs with AT&T and Sheraton Hotels that set specific goals. AT&T wanted to make its retail experience more enjoyable and engaging (selling more products in the process). Sheraton, meanwhile, was attempting to re-brand itself, and wanted to be associated with an innovative product, said Matthew Champagne, director of product management for the Surface team at Microsoft.

The AT&T pilot program ended one month ago, and its Surface units now sit in AT&T’s labs, he said, adding that Sheraton still has Surface deployed at its hotels. Beyond those tests, Microsoft has been targeting automotive dealerships, financial services, health care and hospitality services, and retailers, as well as the public sector.

Today, Surface is available in both the United States and Canada, in addition to 12 new markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Champagne said. However, the question remains: where can you find one in the wild?

Customers remain few in number, but Champagne noted that Surface has had a positive affect on its customers’ bottom line. The i-Bar in Harrah’s Rio Las Vegas casino experienced an 19% increase in sales after it deployed Surface, and Barclay’s Bank at Piccadilly Circus in the UK experienced a 50% increase in sales for one product through Surface, he said.

Other deployments can be found at Bank of America in Charlotte, NC (another pilot), and Cook Children’s Health System in Fort Worth, TX. Cook’s is using Surface to rehabilitate patients through interactions with objects and the PC’s ability to recognize them, he said.

First responders used Surface to coordinate their efforts at the 2009 Super Bowl in Tampa, FL. In that instance, Surface was integrated with mapping technology to provide authorities with a bird’s eye view of incidents that required their attention.

While Champagne did not say what new form factors Microsoft would introduce in the future, he did not rule it out smaller versions of Surface, saying that it would be a “natural progression” of the technology to become miniaturized.

Additionally, the company now has nearly 200 partners in the Surface ecosystem helping Microsoft to design new interaction roles for applications that leverage multi-touch, he added.

According to a recent BBC report, the next generation of the technology will not surface for another two to three years. It’s also possible that Microsoft is preparing a consumer version that would cost between $5,000-$10,000. (Current Surface setups typically cost $10,000.)

Surface could introduce a new paradigm for computing to the living room, but its cost remains prohibitive. It will be years before the typical household has computerized furniture a la Star Trek, but I believe that Microsoft has been pragmatic enough with its expectations for the technology that Surface will be around when that does happen.

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