Windows – CyberSurge

Windows 7 Allows You to Completely Turn Off Most Major Features

A few days ago word got around that almost every major feature of Windows 7 can be completely turned off. That means the actual data for those features won’t be loaded by the operating system.

This is obviously made for security conscious customers but will be useful to a lot of Windows power users.

But one has to wonder how Microsoft is feeling about the reception of this news. Every news article I’ve found about this story essentially praises Microsoft for letting us remove features from our OS install. No one has even talked about the idea that this further cements the fact that Windows users aren’t happy with their operating system, if they were they would either not care about this news or be completely befuddled by Microsoft’s choice to add it.

I no longer own a computer that runs Windows and if it wasn’t for my girlfriend being stuck on an old PC I would never have to use one. You may think I’m a fanboy but the only feature I would remove from OS X (if I could) would be Spotlight, Quicksilver is easier to use, faster, and more powerful. But I probably couldn’t count on both hands the features I would like to remove from Windows.

Engineering Windows 7.

Vista Buyers Get Windows 7 Upgrade Free After July 1st

From participating OEMs consumers will be able to get a free upgrade to Windows 7 if they purchase a computer with Windows Vista installed after July 1, 2009. It is still unclear when Windows 7 will be released but if you are one of those who purchases a computer after July 1 you will be able to get your upgrade around the same time 7 is released.

Free update to Windows 7 for Vista buyers after July 1st, 2009 – Boing Boing Gadgets.

6 Different Windows 7 Versions Offer “Clear Choice” for Consumers

Does Microsoft really think that 6 different versions of Windows actually give consumers a “clear choice”? Thats outrageous, guess how many versions of Snow Leopard Apple is going to release…

A consumer version and a server version, that’s it. I have a feeling that Snow Leopard will give consumers a much clearer choice.

Windows 7 Lineup Offers Clear Choice for Consumers and Businesses

XO Laptops Ship to Peru With Windows XP Preloaded

The government of Peru, Microsoft, and the OLPC project announced an agreement that would provide Windows XP, Office, and other educational resources on XO laptops. This will make Peru the first country in the world to receive XO laptops with Windows preloaded.

This is the beginning of a nine month pilot project to bring educational software and low-cost computing to classrooms throughout Peru.

“We are extremely excited to take part in this historic educational pilot that will benefit school children throughout Peru,” said José Antonio Chang Escobedo, Minister of Education in Peru. “Integrating technology into our school curriculum will help to advance our knowledge economy, improve access to information and will generate opportunities for our students, which, through governmental policies, aims to improve the learning process we are offering our children, as well as closing the digital divide which currently exists between schools in rural and urban areas.”

I’m not sure what I think about this, the XO laptop was built with Linux in mind and I think that Linux would be good for the world in general if it was more widely used. But, it doesn’t surprise me that many people wanted Windows XP on those laptops, since Windows is the most used OS and all. Diversity would be nice in the market but since the whole point of the OLPC program is to teach children in developing nations how to use computers it would probably be beneficial for them to learn how to use an OS that they would most likely be using when the eventually got a job using one.

Windows 7 Features Shown Off On Video

Windows 7 will have many improvements, some of which are shown off in this video, none of which are all that amazing but good to know none the less.

Features Shown:
Windows Explorer
FTP Locations
Keyboard Shortcuts
Screen & Animation Capture
Disk Usage Analyzer
Task Manager
Virtual Drive
Website, Blog and Portal Designer

Coming Soon (presumably in a later video):
Image Conversion
Document Conversion
PDF Conversion
Password Manager

Exactly, like I said, nothing revolutionary but I do like the idea of a website, blog and portal designer and a unified password manager (like OS X’s Keychain) would be awesome.

Windows XP To Stick Around Until 2010

Microsoft has announced that they are going to be extending support for Windows XP because many of the computers in the market today are incapable of running Windows Vista.

Microsoft had previously set the date for the end of XP on June 30, 2008 but since there are so many computer that still can’t run Vista they have decided to push that back to June 30, 2010. Oddly enough this is also around the same time that Microsoft is expected to ship Vista’s successor, Windows Seven.

I’m glad that Microsoft decided to extend support for XP, but it seems odd to me that Microsoft has spent such a long time on Vista and yet it still hasn’t made the impact that Microsoft has really wanted it to, not to mention the backlash from consumers, some of which are boycotting Vista and sticking with XP.

Windows XP to get prolonged shelf life [TG Daily]

I’m Moving Back to Windows XP

No, it isn’t what you are thinking, my primary computer is still going to be my MacBook, but what is going to change is my secondary computer. My PC that usually just sits in the corner and is either off or is encoding away at the latest Netflix DVD so that I can watch it wherever I want, is now going to be running Windows XP.

The reason I’m switching back to XP isn’t because there is a certain program that doesn’t work under Vista, I’m not having driver issues, and I actually like the look of Windows Vista, I’m moving back to XP because I need something a bit faster. Windows Vista runs pretty fast for the amount of extra stuff it is capable of doing, but since the primary purpose of this computer is to just sit and encode DVDs into H.264 for my AppleTV, I don’t need it to do all that extra stuff.

So what I’ve decided to do is move back to Windows XP and use a combination of DVD Decrypter, DVD43, and Handbrake to backup all of the DVDs so that I can watch them where I want (this is fine under fair use, since the DVDs that I backup I either have payed for or are from Netflix and are deleted once watched).

I want to make it very clear however that I’m not doing this because I don’t like Windows Vista, I’m simply moving back because XP better suits my needs, if my PC was my primary computer I’m sure I would really enjoy many of the features that Windows Vista has and XP doesn’t, but since I am using a MacBook as my primary computer, XP works just fine.

Apple Pushing Safari To Windows Users Through Apple Software Update

Apple did something a day or so ago that made a lot of people angry and I don’t really know why. An update was pushed to Windows users, primarily for iTunes but when the user clicked “Yes” to the update Apple’s Software updater opened and by default had the iTunes + Quicktime update and Safari checked. This means that when the user clicked the button to update Safari was installed on their computer.

Many people found this to be malicious or just plain wrong, I say, “what’s the big deal?” Now I understand that probably some users had Safari installed without ever realizing it until their computer rebooted and they found the icon on their desktop but in the world of software often times you have to opt-out of additional pieces of software.

I installed the update to iTunes on my computer yesterday and when I did, I simply unchecked the box for Safari and sure enough after my computer rebooted I didn’t have Safari installed.

No one complains about this when a piece of software forces you to opt-out of installing the Google toolbar, but of course when Apple does something similar everyone freaks out. Trust me, I love Apple, and would admit it to anyone, but if Apple does something wrong I’m going to be the first one to say so.

What people need to realize is that no matter how much they think that this was intentional, it wasn’t. If you uninstall iTunes, Quicktime, and Safari from a Windows computer and open up Apple Software Update, it is going to tell you that you need to install all 3 applications, so whatever application you don’t have installed is going to be listed in the update window. When iTunes updates all it does is open up Apple Software Update, the same app that is used when their is a Quicktime update and a Safari update.

I just don’t see how this could be such a horrible terrible thing. Unless your computer is somehow incapable of unchecking boxes in applications I don’t see how this is “hijacking windows users.”

Windows Vista Crack Released

A pirate group named Pantheon has just released a crack that would allow any non-activated instillation of Windows Vista (Home Basic, Premium, or Ultimate) to be properly activated and made fully-operational.

Unlike cracks that have been released in the past this crack doesn’t just replace activation files with beta files or do a timestop crack, this one actually makes use of the activation process.

It seems that Microsoft has allowed large OEMs like Dell to ship their products with a pre-installed version of Vista that doesn’t require product activation, it seems that end users would find it too inconvenient.

But does anyone really want it, many people have been hoarding copies of XP like its canned food and a tornado is coming, people don’t really seem to want Windows Vista and I don’t think that a crack is going to move people along, not even the pirates.

Windows 7 Wallpaper Pack

I had mentioned here that Microsoft was planning on releasing a new version of Windows in 3 years. Well on Deviantart.com some Windows Se7en wallpapers showed up. Now obviously these aren’t legit they are just wallpapers created by a fan, but they are still pretty cool. You can get the wallpaper pack here.

[via Freakitude]

Vista’s successor to be released within 3 years?

Well during my day off there were a bunch of stories about Microsoft’s Windows Vista successor, 7, is planned on being released in 3 years.

What very few (if any at all) of those who talked about it is that Windows Vista was originally dated for sometime in late 2003, which was only 2 years after the release of Windows XP. We all know how that turned out, Microsoft didn’t release Vista until nearly 4 years later in early 2007.

So why would they have planned on releasing 7 in less then 3 years, maybe they are optimistic, maybe they are crazy, or maybe they are trying to push their developers into thinking that they actually want it done by then. My honest guess is the last one, Microsoft wouldn’t expect to release an entire operating system 3 years after the previous one, 5 years sounds more likely to me.

Microsoft doesn’t want it to take 5 years though so if they road map 7 to be released much earlier then it actually will be released it may actually end up coming out sooner then if they road mapped it for the reasonable amount of time, catch my drift? It may be a little complicated but it makes sense.

Vista’s successor now known as “7,” due out within three years [Engadget]

Get Some of the Great Vista Features in XP with Vista Transformation Pack

I use Windows Vista on my home computer but when I go over to my friends and families houses they only have Windows XP. I really miss some of those great features from Vista. Now I can let them all know that for free they can add a lot of that functionality with the Vista Transformation Pack. Version 7 just came out and here are the some of the added features:

default system font option for recovery
Docking support for preview and taskbar replacement
DPI auto-detection in Machine Configuration
Hiding menubar option for Vista (Styler) toolbar
Information about KB925902 hotfix issues and solution on startup
Memory requirements checking for 3rd-party applications
Resetting DPI options and some extra information in Machine Configuration
Screen resolution auto-detection
Setting cleartype font automatically after the transformation
Vista transformation “Express mode” (Make an appropriate setup configuration in single page!)
ViStart (Vista Start Menu port for Windows XP/2003 with glass UI and search function) (Available as a standalone app here)

Click to enlarge

Check it out and let me know what you think of it.

[via KylesCove]