Cnet has come up with a report saying that Microsoft is set to release Windows 7 by the end of this year’s holiday shopping season based on PC industry sources in Asia and the U.S. According to the ZDNet Taiwan site, Taiwan hardware vendors are certain about Windows 7’s final official release in 2009.

As pointed out by some computer manufacturers, the official version of Windows 7 will be available ahead of the planned schedule, that is before October this year. The English version of the OS will be available to system operators in August, and the Chinese version in October. Microsoft will officially pre-market Windows 7 now by labeling Windows Vista computers with Windows 7 ready stickers.

Even though Microsoft has denied any such rumors on an early release, it still sticks to its original schedule of Windows 7 official release, which is January 2010. Hardware vendors interpret that Microsoft does not want Windows 7 listed ahead of the schedule due to the economy downturn.

Microsoft’s senior VP Bill Veghte cautioned in CES 2009 that the release still could be pushed into 2010, depending on customer feedback. Microsoft will ship Windows 7 when the quality is right, and earlier is always better, but not at the cost of ecosystem support and not at the cost of quality.

Microsoft has already said that there is no Windows 7 beta anymore and will go ahead with the RC build for Windows 7. Microsoft stopped offering the Windows 7 beta downloads this week. According to an official hint we could be seeing the Windows 7 RC build in early April but nothing has been confirmed yet. And not to forget that the company is also planning on allowing users who purchase new PC/laptop hardware (with Vista) from 1st July 2009 onwards, a free upgrade to Windows 7.

News source: Neowin.net

We recently revealed that Microsoft still hadn’t announced how many flavors Windows 7 would ship in. In a recent briefing with Paul Thurrott, Microsoft Senior Vice President Bill Veghte revealed the SKUs that Windows 7 will ship in. “We feel that this lineup offers a clear onramp for Windows 7, making it easier than ever to find the right version for your needs”, Veghte added. So without further ado, here is the official lineup of Windows 7 versions with an outlined overview:

Windows 7 Starter
Market: Emerging markets, with new PCs only
Key features: Enhanced taskbar, Jump Lists, Windows Media Player, Backup and Restore, Action Center, Device Stage, Play To, Fax and Scan, basic games
What’s missing: Aero Glass, many Aero desktop enhancements, Windows Touch, Media Center, Live thumbnail previews, Home Group creation

Windows 7 Home Premium
Market: Mainstream retail market
Key features: Aero Glass, Aero Background, Windows Touch, Home Group creation, Media Center, DVD playback and authoring, premium games
What’s missing: Domain join, Remote Desktop host, advanced backup, EFS, Mobility Center, Offline Folders

Windows 7 Professional (superset of Home)
Market: Mainstream retail market
Key features: Domain join, Remote Desktop host, location aware printing, EFS, Mobility Center, Presentation Mode, Offline Folders, Media Center
What’s missing: BitLocker, BitLocker To Go, AppLocker, Direct Access, Branche Cache, MUI language packs, boot from VHD

Windows 7 Enterprise
Market: Volume-license business customers only
Key features: BitLocker, BitLocker To Go, AppLocker, Direct Access, Branche Cache, MUI language packs, boot from VHD
What’s missing: Retail licensing

Windows 7 Ultimate
Market: Retail market, limited availability
Key features: BitLocker, BitLocker To Go, AppLocker, Direct Access, Branche Cache, MUI language packs, boot from VHD
What’s missing: Volume licensing

There will be a Home Basic edition, but it will only be released to emerging markets. “We know emerging markets have unique needs and we will offer Windows 7 Home Basic, only in emerging markets, for customers looking for an entry-point Windows experience on a full-size value PC”, said Windows General Manager Mike Ybarra. Paul Thurrot is reporting that Home Basic will lack “Aero Glass, Live Thumbnail Previews, Internet Connection Sharing, and a few other goodies.”

As with Windows Vista, each different SKU offers unique features, with the most advanced in the Ultimate edition. Microsoft has yet to release any retail suggests pricing for these editions. Consumers now have three versions to choose from: Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate. Compared to the Windows Vista line up, which offered editions. What are your thoughts? Has Microsoft made it easier for the average PC user to choose which version is right for their PC and day-to-day use with the three versions they will be able to purchase?

Personally I believe the lineup has been made clearer compared to Windows Vista. Each tier offers a specific version for a specific audience. The biggest plus for consumers with these editions is the fact that the hottest feature of Windows Vista, Aero and its extras, are now offered in Starter and Home Premium editions rather than in Ultimate. But what about Ultimate? With the majority of consumers buying Vista Ultimate for Aero effects and it’s extras, how will Windows 7 Ultimate be marketed to gain consumer attention? Has it became a redundant SKU?

Article last updated at: 1:53 P.M. (-6 GMT) to make the Author’s opinion clearer.

News source: Neowin.net

Last year when Microsoft launched Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, Jane Maliouta announced that consumers using Windows XP SP3 would be locked-in with the IE8 if they had installed the IE8 beta prior to upgrading to SP3. Microsoft again yesterday issued that same warning to it’s consumers. If you are still one of the millions of users on Windows XP with SP3 installed, Microsoft has provided crucial steps to follow if you’re ready to upgrade to IE8 RC1. You can obtain IE8 RC1 from the links on this page.
To see if you’re one of the people who will have IE8 locked in, follow these steps.

• Is your computer running Windows XP SP3?
  Click on the Start Menu and then right click on My Computer and then click Properties
  On the General Tab under System it’ll say Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3
• Is the Remove option for IE8 Beta grayed out?
  From the Start menu, open Control Panel and click Add or Remove Programs
  Select Windows Internet Explorer 8 Beta and you are unable to click on the Remove button.

If you answered yes to both of those questions, installing IE8 RC1 will force Windows XP SP3 and IE8 to be permanent on your machine. The Internet Explorer team has created a prompt during the installation that will alert users who will be locked-in with IE8 and SP3:

With that in mind, Jane Maliouta encourages users to follow some simple steps prior to installing IE8 RC1. First you need to uninstall Windows XP SP3, by going to Add/Remove Programs and selecting Windows XP SP3. That should take about 10-15 minutes to complete, after that reboot your machine. Then follow the same steps and uninstall Internet Explorer 8 Beta.
After that do a Windows Update and install Windows XP SP3 and Internet Explorer 8 RC1.

News Source: Neowin.net

Note: Now this is the reason why I can’t remove IE8 from a HelpDesk computer at work.  Charming!

Update 2: We have now posted a method for acquiring a valid key too.

Update: It appears that Microsoft.com is suffering badly with “server too busy” messages. The Windows Team Blog have confirmed MS are struggling and adding more servers. We have direct ISO download links below.

We revealed that Microsoft would be posting a public beta of Windows 7 earlier this week and Microsoft has just made it available on it’s TechNet channels.

Entitled Windows 7 beta customer preview program, the company has posted the beta bits to the Microsoft TechNet pages. Be warned it’s rather slow at the moment.

Download: Windows 7 x86 (32bit) and x64 (64 bit)

According to Microsoft there are 2.5 million keys to go around worldwide so plenty in other words. Microsoft is also providing a QFE patch for the MP3 corruption issues that have plagued build 7000, this should be online shortly as KB961367. It’s extremely important you apply this patch as you may lose parts of your MP3s if the patch is not applied. 32bit and 64bit patches are now available.

It’s fully confirmed that the beta 1 build is 7000 that leaked shortly after Christmas. Our members have been discussing the Windows 7 availability for the past week in one of our more popular forum threads. According to sources close to Microsoft, the company is significantly further on from build 7000, having posted 7016 internally recently. It’s understood that the development has branched from 7003 onwards ready for the RC/RTM stages.

If you’re interested in Windows 7 features then check out our overviews:

• Windows 7 beta quick review
• Windows 7: Action Center Overview
• Windows 7: User Account Control (UAC) Overview
• Windows 7: Calibate Your Display
• Windows 7: Federated Search

Over the next few weeks we will be adding many more focus items on Windows 7 including Touch, Internet Explorer 8, Windows 7 networking and media enhancements. Stay tuned for the ultimate Windows 7 focus from Neowin.net.

News Source: Neowin.net

With today’s launch of the Customer Preview Program (CPP) for Windows Vista® Service Pack 2 (SP2), we wanted to provide a brief synopsis of the elements in this service pack, and encourage you to download and test this release. Windows Vista SP2 is a traditional service pack release with all cumulative released security updates available since the SP1 release in March 2008. In addition, Windows Vista SP2 includes support for new types of hardware and emerging standards that will grow in importance in coming months, along with fixes discovered via automated error reporting as part of our Customer Experience Improvement program.

What makes the Windows Vista SP2 release unique is that it represents a single service pack which applies to both client (Windows Vista SP1) and server (Windows Server 2008) operating systems—since the code base for Windows Vista is shared with that for Windows Server® 2008, a single update can be deployed across your infrastructure. This service model also provides the ability to detect an incompatible driver and block service pack installation, or warn users of any loss of functionality during installation. Other highlights for IT pros include:

Emerging Hardware Support

• Bluetooth 2.1 feature pack
• Ability to record data on Blu-ray media
• exFAT file system now supports UTC timestamps, which enables correct file synchronization across time zones
• Support for the new VIA 64-bit CPU
• Support for ICCD/CCID smart cards

Hyper-V

• Windows Vista SP2 includes Hyper-V™ technology, enabling full virtualization of server workloads

Continues at source: TechNet Blogs

Citing a source at Microsoft, Techarp has revealed that Microsoft is targeting a release candidate (RC) version of Windows Vista SP2 for February 2009.

Microsoft sent invites to testers in mid October asking them to take part in the SP2 beta. Build 16489 was released to special group of testers in late October but Microsoft has been quiet since then.

TechArp also believes the RTM of Vista SP2 will be in April 2009. Microsoft is readying SP2 so there are additional incentives for customers to upgrade to Window Vista now, instead of waiting for Windows 7.

Microsoft will include Windows Search 4 in Vista SP2 along with Bluetooth wireless support (including latest BT 2.1 fixes), support for the new VIA 64-bit CPU and additional application compatibility updates.

News source: Neowin.net

So I build a new Windows XP ISO with SP3 integrated, this is a Volume License editions (VOL) which only accepts Volume License Keys (VLK). When I want to install it on a clean machine, I noticed that setup prompts for a product key and it does not allow me to continue, which should be a new feature in XP sp3. OK so I fill in the VLK but it does not accept it, I try another one from a customer of mine, does not work either.

I found out that the problem is when you do the XP Sp3 slipstream process on a WIndows Vista machine, the API gives a different response and screws up the PID process. This is a bug and Microsoft knew about this in December, still the bug remained and made it all the way to RTM, nice work Microsoft.

So XP SP slipstream only on XP or 2003 machines!!!

See the dicussion thread here: Key not working after SlipStream

Source: Bink.nu

Word seems to be filtering out about a move to a more modular core for Windows 7, with additional pieces layered on top.  Mary Jo Foley first wrote about it last week, with a hint at what’s to come for Windows Live:

One of my sources close to Microsoft recently told me that “major parts are being removed from Windows 7 (mail, photo, video)” but still will be available as user-selectable services. This plan, if it comes to pass, ought to help lessen the Windows attack surface that has been the target of various Microsoft competitors and antitrust regulators who’ve been critical of Microsoft bundling everything but the kitchen sink into Windows.

..and then Ken Fisher at Ars Technica expounded a bit, with a somewhat different take on what it will mean for users:

So, Windows 7 will be modular, but to an unknown degree. I personally expect the modularization to focus on value-adds, as did Anytime Upgrade on Vista. It allows Microsoft to draw lines between what is and isn’t “in” the OS for DoJ compliance issues. Whether it be Live Services, Windows Media Player, or even Internet Explorer, Microsoft could roll those into modules and then say, “Hey, look, that’s not part of Windows, we’re charging extra for that!” Foley says that she’s heard from sources that Microsoft is working on a Photo + Mail + Video module that would exist apart from the OS, for instance. I’ve heard less specific groupings myself.

…

The software+services side of modularization is what is surely driving this change at Microsoft. As I argued last summer, this is all a critical piece of Microsoft’s software subscription dreams. In “2010, a ‘Windows 7’ software subscription odyssey,” I noted that Microsoft has been reinventing its approach to Windows in order to facilitate the continued sales of multiple levels of the Windows “experience.” Microsoft has confirmed that there will be multiple SKUs for Windows 7 and that there will be different subscription services built around the OS.

Article continues at Liveside.net

Remember all those slipstreaming tutorials you could find on the Internet? I think we had one or two for Windows XP here on Neowin.net before some data on our servers was wiped due to a run-in with Microsoft; we also lost the Windows Server 2003 as a Workstation guide that way.

Anyway, generally speaking, any self proclaimed geek of the households first duty after the release of a Service Pack for Windows, was to update the original image with the slipstreamed version that made it possible to clean install a PC directly to the latest Service Pack.

That whole process just got a whole lot more tricky!

Article continues here: http://www.neowin.net/news/main/08/02/10/windows-vista-sp1-slipstreaming-mess