Tag Archives | Microsoft. Windows

Device Stage Gets Short Shrift

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 30, 2009 at 9:26 am

Windows 7 LogoMicrosoft blogged today about the compatibility logo program for hardware and software devices that will work with Windows 7. It’s in sync with Windows 7’s overall spirit of simplicity: There’s just one logo (“Compatible with Windows 7”) vs. the two that Microsoft came up with for Windows Vista. (“Works with Windows Vista” indicated basic compatibility; “Certified for Windows Vista” was more rigorous.)

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.

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Should Windows Come With Anti-Virus?

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 29, 2009 at 3:40 pm

Today, Microsoft released Microsoft Security Essentials, a basic security suite that competes with such established anti-virus freebies as Avast Home Edition and AVG Free. BetaNews’s Joe Wilcox raises an interesting question about it:

The question: Should Microsoft offer free security software to consumers? Absolutely. There is no choice, and Microsoft would do customers better by fully integrating security software into Windows 7. But Microsoft has enough antitrust problems in Europe to make including antivirus risky business.

Security issues have bedeviled Windows users for around a decade and a half now. And while Microsoft bundles an anti-spyware utility with Windows and tried selling anti-virus software before deciding to give it away.

At first blush, Microsoft giving away Windows anti-virus feels a little like a car company offering airbags as a complementary but optional upgrade rather than simply making them standard. Ultimately, though, I think it’s the right way to go about things: If Windows had built-in anti-virus, it would likely slaughter the market for third-party anti-virus. And years of history tell us that Microsoft products tend to fester when they don’t have active, successful competition (and sometimes even when they do).

Then there’s the matter of anti-trust issues: Even if Microsoft wanted to build anti-virus into Windows, it might be very, very nervous about legal action by Symantec and McAfee and all the other companies who don’t wanted to get Netscaped.

I am, of course, leading up to a T-Poll here:

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Windows 7’s Early Arrival

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 24, 2009 at 2:40 pm

Puget SystemsOctober 22nd may be Windows 7’s official arrival date, but at least one manufacturer plans to not only be ready for it but ahead of schedule. Custom PC manufacturer Puget Systems says it’ll begin shipping Windows 7 machines on October 13th, nine days before so many of us will be holding festive Windows 7 launch parties. Sounds like anyone who springs for fast shipping could have a PC on his or her desktop around a week before the OS’s formal debut.

I can’t remember how firm the release dates for Windows upgrades past have been, but if Puget has permission to do this, you gotta think it most likely isn’t the only company who plans to ship early. I guess operating systems aren’t like hot books whose publishers do their very best to prevent any sellers from jumping the gun.

I continue to believe that it’s not only rational but arguably the most sensible plan of action to wait a few weeks before buying Windows 7 or a Windows 7 PC, just so any showstopping technical problems get fixed before they bedevil you. But I wonder how many folks will decide to buy a Puget PC to get a nine-day head start on even other early adopters?

Let’s end this with a T-Poll:

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How to Save the PC, or at Least Your Bacon

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 21, 2009 at 2:27 pm

Save the PCTechRepublic’s Jason Hiner has a post up with the provocative title “How to Save the PC,” including a reader petition aimed at Microsoft and Apple. From the name, I thought it involved a strategy for keeping traditional PCs relevant in an era of powerful phones and an almost-omnipresent Internet. But Jason’s crusade is both less lofty and very sensible: He thinks that Windows and OS X should invisibly partition hard disks into separate sections for the operating system, user settings, and user documents and other data, thereby helping to shield irreplaceable  stuff from damage and making it easier to get back up and running if you have an OS catastrophe.

Makes sense to me. I’ve always been surprised that operating-system companies in general haven’t put way more emphasis on features designed to protect data–Time Machine, the flagship feature of Apple’s OS X 10.5 Leopard being a notable exception. Microsoft has an amazingly long history of providing Windows backup apps that are unsatisfactory in one way or another: The one in Windows 7 is much better than Windows Vista’s, but only the version in higher-end editions of Win 7 can back up to a network drive. Which seems a little like a car company cheaping out on the airbags in its least pricey cars.

It’s not just OS companies, though. I use Photoshop more than any traditional app that isn’t a browser. The whole point of the program is to create deeply sophisticated documents, ones that can be mighty hard to recreate from scratch. And Photoshop is bursting at the seams with features–but there’s no way to auto-save your work, a simple option that would make it really, really hard to lose your work when Photoshop crashes. (Which it does, at least on my Mac.)

In the world of Web-based apps such as Google Docs and Zoho and Microsoft’s upcoming Office Web Apps, seamless, automatic backup of everything is the default way of doing things. Can anyone explain to me why it’s not that way everywhere there’s software–with versioning and unlimited undo so you can restore your documents to exactly the state you desire?

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Windows 7: The Ads Begin

Posted by Harry McCracken on September 10, 2009 at 3:43 pm

Um, some of them will star grownups, right? Even so, it’s nice to see a Windows ad that’s actually about Windows…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssOq02DTTMU&feature=player_embedded]

(Via Joe Wilcox.)

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Microsoft Upgrades Windows (Live) Movie Maker

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 19, 2009 at 6:23 pm

Windows Movie Maker Movie Maker–the Microsoft movie-editing application that the company has yanked out of Windows 7 and bundled into the suite known as Windows Live Essentials–is out in a new version today. LiveSide.net details the changes, which are plentiful. Microsoft also has a Movie Maker site up with even more info (which, incidentally, requires Silverlight).

When Microsoft announced it was removing Movie Maker, Windows Photo Gallery, and Windows Mail from the OS last September, I thought it was a great idea, even though the name “Windows Live Essentials” continues to confuse me. (Windows Live is Microsoft’s name for Web-based services with at least a tangential relationship to the OS–except when it decides to apply it to downloadable traditional software such as Movie Maker.) Bundling applications with Windows was ninety percent downside: They tended to fester, rarely showed much ambition,  and were basically uncompetitive with the best apps from other companies. (Worst-case scenario: Windows Paint, which has changed remarkably little in almost a quarter of a century…although the Windows 7 version does get a new interface.)  I haven’t tried the new Movie Maker yet, but I’m glad to see that it’s on its own upgrade regimen–and hey, it even beat Windows 7 to the market. (The new version works with Windows Vista and 7, but not XP.)

Here’s a screenshot:

Windows Movie Maker

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Windows XP Users Speak Out

Posted by Harry McCracken on August 17, 2009 at 12:43 am

XP SurveyMaybe Windows XP users, on the whole, aren’t hidebound old luddites who stick with an eight-year-old operating system because they fear change. Maybe most of them are smart people who continue to use Windows XP because it does what they need it to do–but who will upgrade to a new version of Windows when they’re impressed by one and are confident it’s ready for prime time.

At least that’s what I’m thinking as I peruse what what nearly 5,000 Windows XP users have to say about their current operating system of choice, why they haven’t moved to Windows Vista, and what they think about Windows 7. They may remain immune to Vista’s, um, charms, but most of them have an open mind about Windows 7–and most of those who have tried 7 really like it.

As part of our research for upcoming coverage of Windows 7. my friends at PC World and I partnered to conduct a survey of Windows XP users. We promoted the survey at PC World, at Technologizer, and via our respective Twitterfeeds, 4994 people took it. We didn’t screen them other than to ask them to confirm that they use Windows XP as their primary operating system. So what they said may or may not reflect the sentiments of the Windows-using world at large–but it’s interesting nonetheless. Here’s a full report.

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