After running Vista SP2 beta on one of our test systems since March, we decided to remove it and install the final release version that appeared last week. To our surprise, after the tediously long process, we found that about 30GB of extra free space was available on the 250GB C: drive - it had increased from 58GB to 88GB, a handy amount of useful space.

Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on June 4, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (9)

According to the official Windows Vista Team blog, the first developer beta of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista will be released on Wednesday 29th October.

The blog states that SP2 adds the following features to Vista:

• Windows Vista SP2 adds Windows Search 4.0 for faster and improved relevancy in searches.
• Windows Vista SP2 contains the Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack supporting the most recent specification for Bluetooth Technology.
• Ability to record data on to Blu-Ray media natively in Windows Vista.
• Adds Windows Connect Now (WCN) to simplify Wi-Fi Configuration.
• Windows Vista SP2 enables the exFAT file system to support UTC timestamps, which allows correct file synchronization across time zones. 

There's no indication when the final release of SP2 will be. 

Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on October 27, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

The New York Times today prints extracts from some of those embarrassing emails cited in the Vista-capable class action Microsoft is trying to stop – and shows that some things have not changed at Microsoft since I first joined PCW.

One of the first events I covered was a Microsoft preview of Windows 95, then codenamed Chicago. One of the issues, then as with the Vista release, was whether existing machines would be capable of running it.

Microsoftee after Microsoftee stood up and assured us that Windows 95 would run in 4Mbytes of Ram, which was then standard on home and office desktops. They were not lying: they were repeating what they had been told by their employer. But it was, to put it mildly, being economical with the truth.
Windows 95 ran in 4MB of Ram like a 96-year-old runs up Snowdon. Existing machines needed a costly upgrade to 16MB.

The NYT says Microsoft marketers used the term Vista Capable to avoid the implication (or persuade themselves that they were avoiding the implication) that the machine would necessarily run all versions of Vista. And that Microsoft set a low threshold on Vista Capable specs to avoid blighting sales of entry-level XP PCs.

The decision, says the NYT, met considerable internal protest. "Even a piece of junk will qualify," said Microsoft program manager Anantha Kancherla said in an email.

And after the Vista release Mike Nash, vice-president  of Windows preoduct management, wrote that his laptop had been reduced to a '$2100 e-mail machine' that would run only a hobbled version of Vista, and could not cope with his favourite video-editing program.

The cache of emails unsealed by the judge hearing the case also contain complaints by Microsoft high-ups about a lack of Vista drivers shortly after the release of the OS. Microsoft says the number of Vista drivers has doubled since then.

Posted by Clive Akass on March 10, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Microsoft must be feeling punch drunk this month after a poor reception to its $40b bid for Yahoo, a tricky end-game in its battle to get its Open XML formats adopted as an ISO standard, scepticism over its claim to be launching an new era of openness over its programming interfaces, and a £608million fine by EU regulators overshadowing what had been billed as the company's biggest enterprise launch in history – the release of Windows Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008, and SQL Server 2008.

Posted by Clive Akass on February 29, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

An 'Important Update' arrived last night via Windows Update on my Vista PC. I'm running the RC1 of Vista Service Pack 1, and since installing that I've not received any other 'Important' updates so I investigated further. The update is described in the MS Knowledge Base article 940510 and is an update that's intended to weed out illegal or cracked installations of Vista.

If the updates detects exploits that indicate you have a counterfeit or hacked copy of Vista, it will warn you and point you to a Microsoft website that will enable you to remove the exploits. If you don't want to do this

Windows may disable the exploits and then ask you to use a valid product key to activate Windows.

According to a discussion on the MS forums, the update is actually a one-time check for two of the most common Vista hacks, the 'OEM drive activation' and 'grace timer activation' exploits, which are described in another KB article.

Presumably this is all part of the preparations for the public release of Vista SP1 during March. But given that most serious miscreants are hardly likely to have automatic updates turned on, it seems to be a bit of a shotgun approach.

Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on February 28, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Buffalo Technology claims it is the first company to launch a 320GB portable external hard drive. The 5400rpm HD-PS320U2 MiniStation TurboUSB, available from December, packs TurboUSB technology which is said to speed up file transfers. It has the highest capacity of a range starting at 80GB capacity, and priced from £80 to £155.

Posted by Clive Akass on November 22, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

We've had over 500 outraged comments on our blog about being scammed out of cash for their free Vista Express upgrade, or even being charged four times over by Moduslink for a single product.

Long delays and almost none-existent communication from Moduslink has made Vista a mirage for many, but the icing on this mud-cake has just been set:

We've now received numerous reports that Moduslink is sending out 64-bit copies of Vista to customers who ordered 32-bit variants and vice versa.

One reader received this email, two months after he initially received his upgrade CD:

"Dear customer,

It has been brought to our attention that one of our customers received an incorrect DVD (64 bit DVD instead of a 32 bit).

Since your package was shipped in the same serie, it may have happened that we have sent the incorrect DVD to you as well. To ensure that you can have a flawless installation of the software, we have decided to ship you a replacement 32bit version as a precaution. This DVD will be shipped shortly to you.

Sorry for any inconvenience caused.

With kind regards,

The Upgrade Redemption Support Centre

Toll-Free phone : 00800 666 44 666
Email address: MSTUPVISTAEMEA@moduslink.com
Toll paid Phone : +31 880016102
Technical Upgrade Program Vista
P.O. Box 252
7300 AG Apeldoorn
The Netherlands"

We asked Microsoft for a comment and are still waiting for a response.

See also:
Vista express upgrade on hold
Moduslink responds to Vista criticism

Posted by Emil Larsen on June 19, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1)

I had my first full Vista crash this weekend. It happened when I was playing with the Windows Classic interface that sends any Vista desktop back in time to when I were a lad [sic].

My whole system froze, without any other programs open, while I was adding toolbars to the taskbar. There was no way back other than to kill the power. The 2000 look is one of the best in my opinion, but I suspect Microsoft spent less time working on it than Aero and as a result it's less stable.

Microsoft's decision to replace the 'Start' writing with a Windows flag in Vista confuses a lot of novice users when they try to get on with their work, so the classic look is definitely in demand.

It was a stupid decision for MS to have to select Start to shutdown in the first place, but it has become ingrained in many minds who couldn't care less.

Posted by Emil Larsen on June 4, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Microsoft has posted an invitation for beta testers via the The Green Button blog, indicating the start of the beta program for the next version of Vista's Media Center application. This project is generally thought to be codenamed 'Fiji', although it's not clear whether the planned Media Center update is just a part of a major reworking that also affects other built-in Vista apps.

What new funtionality is going to be introduced is unknown, although for us Europeans satellite TV support (including Freesat) would be a good start, followed by support for more than two tuners.

Posted by on April 18, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

In response to Microsoft's recent announcement that Vista is greener than XP, I believe it's actually a lot worse.

This is mainly because a lot of XP PCs will get chucked out; I was once told by a green campaigner that it takes as much energy (and therefore carbon emissions) to create a PC as a car, due to the intensive process that happens in high tech fabs.

There is another issue though, Microsoft's decision to make the main start menu power button a 'low-power state' button in Vista is wasteful.

I believe vast swathes of users will believe this the off button. It's actually a sleep mode, like XP's, except that there's no risk of losing your documents in the event of a black out.

Using the PCW power meter, I found my Vista sleep mode consumes 4Watts. The hybrid sleep mode consumes 3Watts. When Vista is shut down, the intricacies of the ATX standard mean my PC consumes 2Watts - so Microsoft is adding 1Watt per PC.

For 40million Vista PCs, Microsoft adds 142,496 tones of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere per year – that's more than Kingdom of Tonga is responsible for!

There are 1bn PCs worldwide and Microsoft holds a 90 per cent share of those PCs, so things can only get much worse.

Posted by Emil Larsen on April 4, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (4)