Windows7 Evangelist

Microsoft is a step closer to delivering the final version of the Windows 7-based version of its Embedded Standard 2011 product that is codenamed “Quebec.”

On February 15, Microsoft made available to testers the Release Candidate (RC) version of Windows Embedded Standard 2011 — a product the company has decided to renamed Windows Embedded Standard 7. The RC is available to select testers via the Microsoft Connect site, according to an email sent to those testers on February 15.

Windows Embedded Standard is targeted at OEMs and specialized device makers who want to build platforms and applications that use various Windows components. In other words, it is the componentized version of Windows 7.

Microsoft delivered a first test build of the product in September 2009. At that time, company officials said to expect the final release in the second half of 2010 (in spite of the name, at that point, being Embedded Standard 2011).

READ MORE >> Microsoft ‘Quebec’ Windows 7 embedded product nears the finish line | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

Windows 7 has been heralded as a genuine success for Microsoft. It’s apparently been selling like cupcakes and has received a much more positive response than its predecessor, Windows Vista.

It’s also been able to generate public interest in a way Vista was never able to do. Compare the two and Windows 7 comes out on top with a bruised and battered Windows Vista laying at its feet, whimpering.

Just look at the below search volume graph from Google, which shows the search volume for Windows 7 compared with that of Windows Vista. Windows 7 raced past Windows Vista in no time, and quickly passed the all-time high of Vista.

It looks like Microsoft finally really does have a big hit on its hands. They have claimed it’s the fastest-selling OS in history, and that may very well be right.

Here is how fast it’s growing. After being available for just three months, Windows 7 has reached a 10% market share. That’s almost double that of Mac OS X, and more than half of that of Windows Vista. Those numbers include computers that come with pre-installed versions of Windows 7, which does of course help tremendously, but it’s still very impressive.

Now the only question is how long it will take Windows 7 to overtake Windows Vista in actual market share. How soon do you think it will happen?

Windows 7 racing past Vista in record time | Royal Pingdom

Microsoft will soon make it more difficult for pirates to pillage Windows 7 when it closes a whole bunch of activation workarounds via an upcoming update. According to Microsoft, the Windows Activation Technologies Update for Windows 7 will close more than 70 "activation hacks.

Perhaps less appealing to the mainstream consumer, the update will also dial into a Microsoft server every once in awhile to help detect and root out any further hacks. Of course, this comes with the standard claim that no personally identifiable information about the user will ever be sent, but nevertheless, we can’t see privacy advocates being too thrilled with this one.

READ MORE >> Windows 7 Update Closes 70 “Activation Hacks” | Maximum PC

Windows 7 does not ruin notebook batteries or issue premature warnings that the power is exhausted, Microsoft Corp.’s head of Windows said Monday in response to customer complaints.

Within minutes, Windows 7 users who have experienced those problems disagreed in comments on the Web. One called the explanation "hand-washing," and another said that if the company’s conclusion was correct, then many affected users must be "under some sort of bizarre bad battery curse."

According to Stephen Sinofsky, the president of Microsoft’s Windows division, Windows 7 is doing what it’s supposed to when it reports that a laptop battery needs to be replaced, one of the symptoms that users began reporting as long ago as June 2009.

Users dispute Microsoft’s explanation of Windows 7 battery problems

It appears that with the market share of Windows 7, Windows 7 tweaking tools list is also growing at a rapid rate. In the past, we reviewed tens of free tweaking tools for the latest version of Windows, and here is another impressive tool to the growing list.

READ MORE >> Tweak Me : Another Impressive Windows 7 Tweaking Tool

Last May, a few months before Windows 7 was released to manufacturing, I looked at the then-current crop of CPUs available for business PC buyers and identified a potential sticking point: Some of the most popular Intel CPUs available at the time didn’t support hardware-assisted virtualization (HAV). That made them incompatible with the newly announced Windows Virtual PC and Windows XP Mode, a crucial compatibility feature in Windows 7. (For details about Intel CPU support, see “How many Intel CPUs will fail the XP Mode test in Windows 7?” For a closer look at Windows XP Mode, see this video demo.)

The problem is that Windows Virtual PC requires hardware-assisted virtualization (Intel VT for Intel CPUs, AMD-V for AMD processors). And the late-2008/early-2009 CPU lineup from Intel was notoriously inconsistent in its support for VT.

READ MORE >> Will your new Windows 7 PC support XP Mode? | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com

Microsoft has begun an investigation into a possible problem with Windows 7 that might cause poor battery life, and even degradation of the battery itself, on certain notebooks.

The idea that a bad OS/BIOS combo could be damaging a battery is very worrying because it opens up the possibility that this issue might not just be annoying, but could also be dangerous.

The issue, which was first reported by users on Microsoft’s TechNet forum, seems to have been around since June of 2009, and not only affected the release version of Windows 7 but also the beta and Release Candidate builds of Windows 7. Users are presented with an error message that tells them that they should “Consider replacing your battery” because “There is a problem with your battery, so your computer might shut down suddenly.” Along with the error message, users are also claiming that battery life is being cut short. Some are going as far as to say that their machines are virtually unusable when powered by the battery.

Is Windows 7 wrecking notebook batteries? | Hardware 2.0 | ZDNet.com

The fastest selling operating system in history has given sufficient fuel to Microsoft to outpace Apple in terms of consumer satisfaction. Essentially, Windows 7 has bested Mac OS X Snow Leopard for the boost in satisfaction delivered to end users, revealed London-based market-research firm YouGov Plc. Both on the day of the release of the latest iterations of Windows and Mac OS X, and also throughout 2009, the proprietary OS from the Redmond-based company beat Cupertino’s favorite cat, as data extracted from the respondents in YouGov’s Chart of the Day reveals, according to Bloomberg.

Windows 7, which hit the shelves on October 22, 2009, boosted the level of consumer satisfaction for the software giant to on less than 67% for the entire week after launch. The increase was substantial, no less than 3% in a single day. Certainly, it was more substantial than the jump that Mac OS X Snow Leopard delivered to Apple, just 1%, bumping the consumer satisfaction level to 65%.
At the same time, Windows 7 managed to keep its momentum throughout the end of 2009. No less than 73% of respondents declared that they were satisfied with Microsoft on December 31, namely a 14% growth. By comparison, Apple customer satisfaction only grew by 6.9% by the end of the past year.

READ MORE>> Windows 7 Bests Mac OS X Snow Leopard in Satisfaction Measuring Contest – Microsoft tops Apple – Softpedia

So you picked up your shiny new copy of Microsoft’s latest OS offering – Windows 7 and want to install it on your (cue dramatic music)…….. Intel based Mac. Mac fans will view this as blasphemy and Windows lovers will probably ask; "why didn’t you get a PC if you wanted to run Windows". Well there are numerous valid reasons for having Windows 7 installed on one’s Mac and today we will guide you through the set up. My personal retort is because I can.

Naturally you don’t want to get rid of OS X when installing Windows, so thankfully Apple created Boot Camp which allows safe installation of a Microsoft Operating System ranging from Windows XP to the newest Windows 7. This is made possible by the fact that underneath all the Mac and Apple branding the components are basically a standard Intel PC.

READ MORE >> How to Install Windows 7 on Apple Mac Computers | How to Install Windows 7 on Apple Mac Computers | Benchmark Reviews Performance Tests

Microsoft’s Windows 7 took just three months to reach a penetration benchmark that Vista needed almost a year to make, Web measurement firm NetApplications.com said today.

Windows 7 finished January with a 7.5% usage share, a mark the little-loved Windows Vista didn’t attain until 11 months after its January 2007 debut.

"There’s no slowing of the Windows 7 growth curve," said Vince Vizzaccaro, executive vice president with Net Applications, who also noted that on Sunday Microsoft’s newest OS accounted for more than 10% of all machines that were online. Windows 7’s share typically climbs on weekends and holidays, as more of the people online are running home computers, which are more likely to run the new operating system.

READ MORE >> Windows 7 adoption swells, as XP suffers record drop