Counting down to Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 Global Launch in 185 days!

You can download the Vista Sidebar countdown’s gadget from:

http://www.wedsg.com/winclient/vistasidebargadget/download.htm

 

More information can be found from:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/default.mspx

msblog fingerprint tag

At SIGGRAPH 2007 conference Microsoft announced the details of the new DirectX updates version 10.1. They pointed out that to ensure full support of DirectX 10.1 you need not only to install Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista, but you may also need to replace a graphics card. Contemporary graphics accelerators from Nvidia GeForce 8800 and AMD/ATI Radeon 2900 may not support all the new features added to Direct3D 10.1.

Next-Gen web-site made certain things clear thanks to their phone interview with Microsoft’s Sam Glassenberg, who said: “DirectX 10.1 fully supports DirectX 10 hardware. No hardware support is being removed. It’s strictly a superset. It’s basically an update to DirectX 10 that extends the hardware functionality slightly.”

According to Sam Glassenberg, DirectX 10.1 will be fully compatible with all graphics cards supporting DirectX 10. He told that the current updates are very similar to those performed for DirectX 9 back in the days. All the company wants to do now is to increase the API life cycle. This statement was addressed to majority of worried gamers who got the impression that Microsoft announced GeForce 8800 and Radeon 2900 based graphics cards may become useless

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What do you get when you take a product used by hundreds of millions of people every day, add a few new features / polish up the interface, and then try to get everyone to shell out a grip of money for this delay- and bug- plagued upgrade? No, we’re not talking about New Coke, although Microsoft probably could have learned a lesson from that failed experiment when it went about developing what would end up being Windows Vista, namely that consumers demand more than some glitz and fancy new packaging if they’re to abandon an old, reliable friend. And besides that impressive Aero GUI — which many PCs can’t take advantage of anyway — what is Vista really offering us that XP didn’t? A crash-prone new media player? Exclusive “ultimate extras” that have so far amounted to a lame shareware game? A thousand chances a day to feel important when bequeathing “Administrator privileges” on all those demanding processes?

You can probably tell by now that we’re no Vista proponents, and having run the new OS exclusively for almost six months at this point, we’re actually…

What do you get when you take a product used by hundreds of millions of people every day, add a few new features / polish up the interface, and then try to get everyone to shell out a grip of money for this delay and bug- plagued upgrade?

No, we’re not talking about New Coke, although Microsoft probably could have learned a lesson from that failed experiment when it went about developing what would end up being Windows Vista, namely that consumers demand more than some glitz and fancy new packaging if they’re to abandon an old, reliable friend. And besides that impressive Aero GUI which many PCs can’t take advantage of anyway what is Vista really offering us that XP didn’t? (more…)

how would you change, HowWouldYouChange, microsoft, operating system, OperatingSystem, vista, Windows, windows vista, windowsvista

One of the most critical tasks in preparing a deployment of Windows Vista is to test the compatibility of your applications. Many applications that run perfectly under Windows XP simply do not run on Windows Vista. Since you don’t want to spend time and money to deploy Vista if none of your users are able to run their applications afterward, it is absolutely imperative to test each application ahead of time.

What’s the best way to test?
Of course, you still have to make sure to test all of the applications in your organization. Although it’s tempting, you don’t necessarily have to set up a workstation and install a copy of every application your company uses (not at first, anyway). Unless you are very thorough in your testing, installing all those applications onto a workstation isn’t a good testing method for of couple of reasons. (more…)

absolutely, application compatibility, critical tasks, deployment, imperative, source application, spend time, vista, Windows, windows xp, workstation, xp

Windows Media Center Program Manager Charlie Owen highlights that this year Windows Media Center celebrates its 5th anniversary on September 3rd. With Windows Media Center’s upcoming birthday, Ed Bott decided to take the opportunity to celebrate the event by writing about how Windows Media Center has taken over his living room.  Ed takes three pages to describe setting up Windows Media Center in his living room and his experiences using it. Ed’s goal was to turn Windows Media Center into a centralized hub for all his digital photos, music and video - consolidating his data into a single digital entertainment point within his house. Those interested in Ed’s specs and pricing for his Windows Media Center set up - he’s posted them here. I’m going to follow in celebrating Windows Media Center’s 5 year anniversary just like Ed by posting about my very own Windows Media Center set-up I have in my living room.

My Windows Media Center PC is a custom PC by Velocity Micro called CineMagix Grand Theater Entertainment System specifically for Windows Media Center. It is currently running Windows Vista Home Premium

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