I know this isn’t really related to Microsoft in any way but the public beta for Call of duty World At War has just come out and I am a huge fan. You can download yourself a free copy of the game if you go to http://www.callofduty.com/ and register to get a serial number and a download link.

If you are running a Vista machine you will most likely run into some difficulties when running the game for the first time after installation. These errors are:

-Message box displaying missing d3dx9_37.dll (or something along those lines)
-Message Box displaying: “Error during initialization: Unhandled exception caught”

To remedy these problems do the following:

The Missing DLL file (d3dx9_36.dll) is attributed to an outdated version of Microsoft DirectX. Simply point your browser to here (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2DA43D38-DB71-4C1B-BC6A-9B6652CD92A3&displaylang=en) to download the Microsoft DirectX 9/10 web download application. This will determine the version of DirectX installed on your system and apply the latest SDK updates accordingly.

After this install is complete the error should no longer appear and the game should run fine.

 

The second error: “Error during initialization: Unhandled exception caught” is a stupid error attributed to the Way the game uses the Windows Vista playback Device.

To remedy this problem click:
Start>Control Panel>Sound

Right Click on the default playback device (e.g. Speakers) and click properties. From there select the Advanced tab.
To eliminate this error the default playback format must be set at 24 bit 48000Hz (Studio Quality). Simply select this from the dropdown list and apply the settings.

Try launching the game now-Everything should run fine.

 Any Questions or comments-don’t hesitate to post them below.

-Patrick (>DDC<Ping)

Windows Seven is the new operating system to be launched by Microsoft in early 2009 which was already previewed in PDC October 2008.

I am very much excited to be bringing you this news in the very first post on my Windows 7 Blog here on The Windows Blog website. Here, you will get all important Windows 7 news and announcements.

Windows is the world's most widely used and popular operating system. With more than a billion customers worldwide, Windows has created an ecosystem of hardware and software developers that continue to offer growing choices and capabilities for consumers and businesses around the world.

Windows 7 will build on the substantial investments the company has made in the fundamentals with Windows Vista - improving security, reliability and performance while improving security features that people expect. Windows 7 is designed to be compatible with the same hardware, applications, and device drivers as Windows Vista today.

Windows 7 will offer improved navigation, a new taskbar called Super Bar and a streamlined UI so that common tasks done in Windows are done easier and more quickly. You will be able to share data to all your PCs and devices in your home network or at work. With Windows 7 + Windows Live, you will be able to stay connected to the people that matter to you, and with Internet Explorer 8 you will get a faster, safer, more productive Web experience.

Along with Touch Gestures and Device Stage, Windows 7 enables you to get more out of your devices including the ones you use most often like your digital cameras, mobile phones and printers. Windows 7 makes it easier to use networked media devices to play music, watch videos, and display photos that are on your Windows PC.

And Windows 7 will offer more options than ever to customize and personalize your Windows PC with styles that match your personality.

Windows 7 is being designed to be a solid platform for developers so that they can enable next-generation solutions for Windows. Developers can be more productive and offer new capabilities to their applications utilizing new API's in Windows 7. Here at the PDC, we are delivering the first pre-beta of Windows 7 to developers. This was the first developer release of Windows in recent history to be API-complete when first delivered.

Windows 7 beta is expected to be available to customers in early 2009. Watch this blog for information about how to get the beta when it's available and more.

This is the Build distributed at the Microsoft PDC 2008 !