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Microsoft Unveils Windows 7 File-Sharing Beta
nandemoari writes "Microsoft yesterday released a trial version of new file-sharing software intended for use with its upcoming and highly-anticipated operating system.
The new software allows PC users to swap files with the computers of friends, family, and trusted colleagues along safe, secure channels. Dubbed 'Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant 6.5,' the beta connects the Windows Live IDs of individual users with a Windows 7 account, essentially building a secure link between data stored on a hard drive and information accessible via Windows Live online."
They forgot to mention that all file transfers including mp3, wma, wmv, mpeg, etc. files will be logged and sent to the RIAA/MPAA.
Good for family photos, not good for everything.
Posts not to be taken literally. Almost everything is sarcasm.
Go Microsoft!!
Now I can conveniently share my Windows_Release_BT.iso! Thank you Microsoft.
Bored at work? Play Game!
What DRM is built into this that prevents people from sharing copyrighted works with their friends, family, and trusted associates? Something tells me that this will reek of DRM excrement from the first double click.
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
All the benefits of ftp without the bandwidth cost of a fileserver. My question is whether there's a way to cap the amount of files that can be requested from you, in order to keep your monthly up limit from being clobbered.
This just reeks of a way to "securely" send viruses through a new security hole! No way in hell I would enable this.
moox. for a new generation.
This provider enables linking a Windows Live ID to a Windows 7 user account.
Does this mean we'll have an AFS like login system where we'll be able to mount our home files from anywhere? Give us some more details windows.
They will make hijacking someone's contact list for spam look like a walk in the park.
Other than that, it seems like it's just for setting up circle jerks to porn.
That's actually pretty cool. Making a homegroup painless and takes a few mouse clicks, and if you have a copy of the beta you (most likely) already have a .NET passport.
So, Homegroup + .NET passport = free file sharing to anyone on your homegroup? Intriguing, but the article implies that there must be a way to invite a computer NOT on your LAN into a homegroup. I'm guessing that's what that new file sharing program is about.
DATABASE WOW WOW
Hey, if it can associate information with Windows Live accounts, can it also associate information with Xbox Live accounts? As far as I know, they all use the same MS Passport username and password.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
Anyone know how the new KDE 4.2 handles file sharing with other KDE 4.2 desktop environments? The file sharing in Windows 95 was pretty straight forward. Windows 98, not so much. Windows XP was not so easy. It's my hope that Windows 7 will be straight forward.
I think file sharing had a bug within Windows XP SP2 because until on edited the registry, things just did not work.
Now before I get labled as a troll, the registry setting I am talking about is this:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa {change restrictanonymous to 0 }
Then it worked.
Lemee see. Ill go and create a FUSE driver that utilizes this service. Now, Ill point this service at GPG files.
Gee golly Whillikers! You cant read anything I have. Nice though. Encrypted storage dump you can share. Just trade keys out of band, say thorough Gmail.
Dubbed "Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant 6.5,"
Apple would've called it "iShare" or something else friendly and inviting. Who does MS hire to come up with those horrid, unwieldy names?
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Is that like a hotmail login?
They probably have some super secret Microsoft IP in this one. Proabably loaded with patents, it's so creative.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
The Microsoft announcement says "Use of the software is governed by the Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistance 6.5 Beta License Agreement accessible as a file in this download." So you can't read the terms of service without downloading (and installling?) the software.
For something that opens up remote access to local machines, with that access under the control of Microsoft, this matters. What responsibility does Microsoft take for the security of your stored data? Is the system HIPPA compliant? Would it meet the standards for confidentiality of legal work product? Those of the Industrial Security Manual for unclassified but sensitive information? Does Microsoft claim any ownership rights in your data (like Facebook just tried?) Can your stored data be used to target advertising (like Google does?) What cryptosystem is being used? Who has access to the keys?
Until all those questions have been answered and the answers reviewed by qualified third parties, using this system in a business environment might be construed as gross negligence.
I wonder if this will be anything like Windows Live Sync, which is quite useful.
Live Sync doesn't have any sort of DRM as far as I'm aware, but I believe there are limits on file size and total number of files. In any case, I use it to keep several hundred documents synced transparently between my XP desktop and OS X laptop.
"Anyone who [rips a CD] is probably engaging in copyright infringement." - David O. Carson
Actually, I think Microsoft's Skydrive is already a good platform for sharing, 25GB space free, share with people who have live passport, and not just photos, but all file types. More importantly, Mac users can use it too. You just need a web browser.
Thanks MSFT for allowing the average user to host his/her own porn server for all their friends!!!!
Presumably, if someone shares copyrighted files with this system, then a similar argument would apply that the prosecution is using against the current Pirate Bay case.
MS would be the pirate bay in concept.
In post Patriot Act America, the library books scan you.
I'm not sure I agree with the person that moderated the parent as Flame Bait. Microsoft is a big enough target that it doesn't want to get sued over copyright violations. That was why Vista and Windows 7 have all that DRM crap. Now Microsoft wants to build a secure utility to transparently share files between people over the internet.
Has anyone ever built a secure file sharing utility over the internet that hasn't been abused in some way? Ever?
Sometimes it is just too easy to guess peoples passwords. People will share the potentially embarrassing items, whether it is an embarrassing picture, or a copyrighted song. Microsoft will log all this information. One enterprising teen could make all of your dirty laundry public knowledge.
For a moment I thought they meant they'd put a BitTorrent client in the OS like Linux distros do.
Thinking about it, that would actually be scary.
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
C:> tracert myshare.live.com
traceroute to myshare.live.com (12.34.56.78), 30 hops max, 40 byte packets
your.provider.com (234.213.535.213) 43.436 ms 45.114 ms 46.053 ms
check.riaa.com (234.24.24.546) 43.436 ms 45.114 ms 46.053 ms
check.mpaa.com (34.57.25.123) 43.436 ms 45.114 ms 46.053 ms
check.us.gov (34.63.32.467) 43.436 ms 45.114 ms 46.053 ms
spam.group.net (43.64.32.57) 43.436 ms 45.114 ms 46.053 ms
myshare.live.com (234.213.535.213) 43.436 ms 45.114 ms 46.053 ms
*connection successfully established*
Shortly thereafter Bob's wife files for divorce because he mistakenly included all his special pron files in the access permissions.
Here I come to save the da... *thud*
I gotta get me a shorter cape.
Isn't Windows itself basically a giant filesharing application?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Really?? Is that really all you have to say? To me this seems like a "pull" service, not a push service. This means that you would not have the ability to "push" a virus to a remote system, but would be able to pull a compromised file from a remote location.
Even if you could push files out, you would still need the remote computer to run the file, so it's really no different then a p2p application. Bashing the app (or more likely MS in general) when this "security hole" is neither unique to windows nor this specific application is childish.
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So....how is this different from DirectConnect?
This technology isn't windows 7 specific, notice that you can use it on: https://sync.live.com/
Because this is so much less secure than AIM...
i've been a beta tester for while and it's not bad. from what i've seen they don't filter anything. very nice if you are on vacation.
i had it set up on my laptop and home PC. On vacation i would take pictures of my son and copy the files to the shared folder and automatically sync to my home PC. And it has integrated terminal services where you don't need to add a firewall rule on your home firewall. you can get into your home PC from anywhere on the internet.
Considering they have spent tens of billions of dollars just to keep their market price from falling more, then I think one can say Microsoft is in deep trouble, considering the stock market alone.
I'm sure this thing will be completely bullet proof security wise.
Yes! Another vector for distributing viruses and worms!!! Whoo hoo!
Okay, I realize there are Microsoft fanboys who, like Apple fanboys and Ubuntu fanboys, get all giggly whenever a new version of their favorite OS is about to be released. But it seems like any "anticipation" regarding Windows 7 has more to do with people wanting to get past the PR disaster that has been Vista.
Calling Windows 7 "highly-anticipated" is analogous to saying rabies vaccine is "highly-anticipated" by a person who's just been bitten by a rabid dog.
#DeleteChrome
FTA:
Microsoft boasts that its system for inviting (and omitting) users is more complicated than its competitors'.
I hope they mean 'sophisticated', but then again, this is M$.
Why would i want to share information with my friends just to have it tracked/manipulated/restricted/reported by Microsoft and their media buddies?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Who says Microsoft can't do marketing? Take that, haters!
Read my blog.
"Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant 6.5,"
Give it to MS marketing to come up with a really grandmother-friendly name. I'm sure my mom and your average Joe will gladly text each other "hey can you windows-live-id-sign-in-assistant-send me that file?"
Whatever you think of Apple, at least they would've called this "iShare" or something.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Again, another attempt by M$ to control what you can and cant do,
instead of leaving it to you to know what you should and should not do!
No problem!
Quack, quack.
What if we use it to share windows 7? Is it gonna work?
I said more than likely contains DRM (As Vista and Win7 do), I know we don't know for sure. The only other point I made was that it will be a big target for hackers...duh it will be a big userbase. Seriously man no need to be a dick.
I mean , that's the only way this paragraph could make sense.
Copyright infringement is "piracy" in the same way DRM is "consumer rape"
What else?
(no, I'm not George Clooney)
Aim isn't tied into the kernel, nor is it installed on all new computers.
moox. for a new generation.
Why would this be tied in to the kernel?
Because it doesn't actually do sharing at all. As usual, TFS is half crap and Taco didn't RTFA. A better article is here.
All it does is associate your Live ID with your login - that's why they call it Sign-in Assistant instead of iShare. It enables other [potential] apps to e.g. share files, amongst other things, but there's no functionality like that in this MS release.
What you can do is e.g. set up a Win7 Homegroup (read: private network), share drives/folders in the usual way, and allow only specified Live IDs access (as opposed to allowing local or domain accounts access). The only new part here is auto-sign-in to your Live ID to make this all more seamless.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Why would this be tied in to the kernel?
In the immortal words of the Internet Explorer development team: "Why not?"
Tomato wedge sperm darts that are Republican.
And runs on Linux, OSX, and Windows. I forget the name, but there was a file sharing service like that which MS bought and the Linux version just...vanished.
"Don't teach a man to fish, feed yourself. He's a grown man. Fishing's not that hard." - Ron Swanson
Do you trust a large company with your personal data? Really?
Do you trust your state not to listen in to the data transfer, either cracking any encoded info or simply forcing the company to give them the keys?
Or simply forcing the company to give them all your data?
Look, even the super-duper-top-secret swiss banking secrecy has been broken, and the swiss banks are sending full data to the USA.
Do not trust any outsider with your data. Ever. Keep it on yourself, encode it, transport it either via USB-stick (32 GB is quite a lot of data), portable hard drive, laptop, whatever.
Don't send it over a public cable, don't trust any strangers with it.
Free PC version of ChipWits at http://www.breueronline.de/klaus/chipwits/
Sooo... it's like Apple's iDisk, but almost 10 years later, and DRM'ed up the ass.
I am blown away. Technical tour de force, guys.
Can't wait to see your version of Spotlight- oh wait, I installed Windows Desktop Search, and uh, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
Wrists killing you? Not in 2 weeks. Learn Dvorak.
They are redistributing it to stockholders, which is exactly what a company should be doing.
If you read mangu's link, it states:
Specifically, by Microsoft's count, the company has paid out nearly $100 billion through dividends and repurchasing its own stock in the past five years.
They are only "hemorrhaging" cash in the sense that they are giving it back to the owners of the company, and reducing dilution of the stock.
MS is facing unprecedented challenges from Linux, Apple, and is not achieving its goals of dominating the other businesses it has pursued such as mobile devices, gaming, media, etc, but it is competing there and holding its own. But they are still quite profitable. Lets not spread FUD here.
Notice that mangu's self-serving (Slashdot prejudice serving?) summarization of the link currently sits at +5, while you have naught but your karma bonus modifier. Masturbation at it's finest. The Slashdot community hears what it wants to hear, much like a 4 year old.
They should have called it Squirt Live.
But that's exactly why it's a Red Queen's Race. In spite of spending all that cash on dividends, they still are at more or less the same place where they started, compared to the other companies in the stock market.
What happens when their cash hoard ends, which is approximately right now (the link I posted before is two years old, they don't have those 29 billion anymore)? Investors won't keep stock on a company that isn't likely to distribute dividends in the future. When the cash pile ends, the dividends will stop, unless they develop some lucrative new product. Vista? Naah. Windows 7? Not likely.
Apple is the grand daddy of "do what we say, and how we say to do it" mentality.
In Germany we say "Wenn zwei das gleiche tuen ist es noch lange nicht das gleiche" - translated: "If two do the same it is still not the same". I use Vista at Work and Mac OS X at home and I have never felt so patronized by an operating system as with Vista.
And the user access control thing is probably the best example: Bot OSs use elevation but on Vista it drives me insane. Probably because I see the elevation Dialog on OS X once of twice a week and on Vista 5 to 10 times a day. And only that few times because I permanently have a file-manager / command-line combo started with admin rights (TakeCommand - http://www.jpsoft.com/ - would not know what to do without).
Reminds me of the good old linux days when I had a root command line open all time.
But back to the point: For me as a customer the question is not how much I am patronized - the question is how much do I feel patronized.