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Microsoft Unveils Windows 7 File-Sharing Beta

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the we-totally-won't-sell-this-information dept.

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."

25 of 230 comments (clear)

  1. They omitted something... by Spazztastic · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
    1. Re:They omitted something... by Tokerat · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Oh really? Can you please point out where it says that in the TOS?

      Don't get me wrong, I've been with the Apple camp since before I can remember (20+ years) and I hate Microsoft, especially for their business practices; however that's quite a statement to make with nothing to back it up.

      --
      CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
    2. Re:They omitted something... by spikenerd · · Score: 5, Funny

      ...that's quite a statement to make with nothing to back it up.

      Good point. Considering Microsoft's long history of consistently putting the user's best interest at the forefront of all their new product releases, we need some pretty strong reasons to *not* trust them implicitly.

    3. Re:They omitted something... by ObsessiveMathsFreak · · Score: 5, Interesting

      They probably will. And that's probably the whole point. But not for the reason you think.

      Microsoft is a company in trouble. It's main product, its flagship OS, is not selling a well as it might hope. For the first time in years it is faced with real and credible competition from both Apple and Canonical. It needs to stay competitive and its current liaisons with media companies are not helping it do that.

      Culture has changed. File sharing is a fact of life for the majority of PC users. People share their files, not only documents and music, but also video files. Apple and Canonical have responded by giving users better tools and greater freedom with their files. Microsoft has responded by locking its systems down, putting barriers in the way of people trying to us their PCs.

      But culture has changed. People want to transfer files between the now multiple machines and accounts in their homes. They want to show other people the files on their drives. Microsoft is waking up to this fact, not because they want to, but because in this day and age and culture, they have to.

      Microsoft, desperate to get itself into the living room, has been caving into the media industry for years now. But it's still not in the living room, aside from the Xbox console, which does not need the media industry to get there. How has Microsoft, as a company, made profit by pandering to these outside interests? In ten years of compromises, what benefit has Microsoft seen to the restrictions it has placed in its operating system? As open alternatives replace Microsoft products in this domain (Bitorrent/VLC/Boxee), it's clear that people are voting with their feet, and are choosing players and distribution methods that just do what they want them to do, without telling them that they can't.

      The media companies will kick and buck and scream and roar over this. It's an anathema to their world view, where users have only limited, and in some cases temporary, control and access over their files. But Microsoft has probably stopped listening, despite their now large ties to the entertainment industry. Times are getting tough, and with alternatives out there, they cannot afford Windows to be laden down with artificial barriers introduced at the behest of third parties.

      --
      May the Maths Be with you!
    4. Re:They omitted something... by furby076 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Microsoft is a company in trouble

      I don't think so: Go to the links below and look at the max trends NASDAQ Composite: http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ
      MSFT: http://www.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NASDAQ:MSFT
      If you notice MS has been following the same pattern as NASDAQ - yes down right now, but that is not because MS is failing it is because there is a tighter crunch in the market. This tighter crunch means companies are spending less, and they will hold onto their old infrastructure as long as possible (banks are notorious for having legacy products). It also means they are not converting to other infrastructure (contrary to popular belief it is not as easy/cheap to switch)

      MS has a 159 billion market cap. Total revenue 2008 = 60,420 (million). Total revenue 2007 = 51,122 (million). Their total revenue went up. So did their net income.

      No they don't have a failing product (dollar-wise) though what you say seems to fail.

      --

      I do not support "The Man". I also do not support your irrational stupidity
    5. Re:They omitted something... by zmollusc · · Score: 5, Funny

      Aw jeez, now i need to get another fuse for my sarcasm-o-meter!

      --
      They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
    6. Re:They omitted something... by cgenman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I believe that grandparent's point is not about stock value, but position in market. They've officially lost the battle for search engines, their phone OS is third best, their last desktop OS couldn't convince people to upgrade, office 2007 is controversial and their lock on text formats is crumbling, and aside from the video game division they've been wholly unable to get any momentum going in new markets.

      Personally, I'm looking forward to desktop file sharing and synchronization, as it will mean I can stop running all these FTP servers everywhere. This move seems to imply that they're letting go of the idea of being a media company, and instead focusing on the actual revenue parts of their organization. Good for them.

      --
      The ______ Agenda
    7. Re:They omitted something... by maztuhblastah · · Score: 4, Interesting

      You may be a bit ahead of the times in your prediction, but I believe you're close. But that's not what I wanted to comment on. I wanted to comment on this:

      For the first time in years it is faced with real and credible competition from both Apple and Canonical.

      I very much disagree with this. Microsoft isn't faced with competition from Canonical. They're faced with competition from Linux; Canonical may be a "symptom" of this, but they're not the real competition. Right now, Canonical's got (arguably) the best, most usable UI for new users, thus they have some of the largest user base. If Canonical gets destroyed by Microsoft and Ubuntu ceases to exist, there will be a huge development influx into other distros, probably concentrating on either Fedora or one of the many Ubuntu spin-offs. The problem that MS is facing is that desktop Linux is somewhat of a hydra. They've managed against it thus far is really just because (continuing the metaphor) it took a while to grow. The nature of open sources licenses mean that it will be incredibly easy for "modern desktop Linux" to survive the death of their current front-runner.

      Now I don't think Microsoft's death is imminent. They've got enough cash reserves and enough fingers in enough pies that they won't die anytime soon. But they are facing a serious threat, one that thus far they've been powerless to stop the growth of. Apple can be destroyed. Apple is kept at bay by Microsoft quite easily: until iWork is a drop-in replacement, Microsoft holds the upper hand in their relationship. (This is, I suspect, why Apple has been putting a substantial amount of development resources into the creation of a functional equivalent to Microsoft Office. As long as a majority of their consumer user-base depends on a Microsoft product, Apple can't afford to compete too directly with Microsoft.) Linux has no such Achilles' heel. The best Microsoft has against Linux is "trusted computing", but (thus far) manufacturers have essentially said "why bother" to Microsoft's pushes for it. Without widespread hardware lock-in, and without a clear financial target, Linux won't be easy for Microsoft to kill.

      --
      The real litigious bastards...
  2. Waiting for the penny to drop.... by zappepcs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
  3. Clever, actually by FireballX301 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  4. Faster, easier way to infect friends and familysPC by Hadlock · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
  5. Wait until the malware guys exploit this... by nycguy · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  6. How does the new KDE 4.2 do this? by bogaboga · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  7. Product naming, again by Just+Some+Guy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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?
    1. Re:Product naming, again by I+cant+believe+its+n · · Score: 4, Funny

      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?

      That would be Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg.

      --
      She made the willows dance
  8. Warning - concealed terms of service by Animats · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  9. Anything like Windows Live Sync? by langelgjm · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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
  10. TPB situation by stimpleton · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
  11. it's a trap! by Cassini2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:it's a trap! by CodeBuster · · Score: 4, Informative

      Microsoft is a big enough target that it doesn't want to get sued over copyright violations.

      I don't think that is really the main the reason. If Microsoft wants to defend a charge of vicarious (i.e. they assisted others) infringement then they need only point to Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417 (1984) aka "the Betamax case" and make the Res Ipsa Loquitur (the matter speaks for itself) case that the Windows OS has "substantial non-infringing uses".

      That was why Vista and Windows 7 have all that DRM crap.

      I think that the other posters on this thread are right when they say that Microsoft was trying to capture market share in the home entertainment market by offering what they believed were enticing DRM features to the entertainment industry. There was just one small problem, they forgot about their real customers, the home users, along the way and the strategy has been largely unsuccessful as a result. It probably also doesn't help that Ballmer, the present CEO of Microsoft, has views on copyright and culture that fit closely with those of the big media companies whereas Steve Jobs of Apple is more in tune with what the consumer market wants and the "spirit of the times", even going so far as to publicly call the record company execs "greedy".

      Has anyone ever built a secure file sharing utility over the internet that hasn't been abused in some way? Ever?

      If I had to guess, I would say that the top level Warez groups probably have the closest thing to a secure file sharing network as anyone. They are constantly under fire from the media companies and various government agencies and that kind of heat tends to burn off the impurities and leave behind a very well configured and secured server (the lesser ones having long since been busted and broken up).

      One enterprising teen could make all of your dirty laundry public knowledge.

      Actually, it will probably be the Russian mafia and their hacker associates; they specialize in blackmail, but it takes a certain minimum net worth to draw their attention.

  12. Traceroute myshare.live.com by Seth+Kriticos · · Score: 5, Funny

    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*

  13. They are in a Red Queen's Race by mangu · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you notice MS has been following the same pattern as NASDAQ - yes down right now, but that is not because MS is failing it is because there is a tighter crunch in the market.

    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.

  14. Security by K_E_Morr · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm sure this thing will be completely bullet proof security wise.

  15. Highly-anticipated? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
  16. New tricks? by jalefkowit · · Score: 4, Funny

    Dubbed "Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant 6.5"...

    Who says Microsoft can't do marketing? Take that, haters!

    --

    Read my blog.