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Microsoft Brings 36 New Features To Windows 7
Barence writes "Microsoft has unveiled a slew of new features that will appear in the Release Candidate of Windows 7 that didn't make an appearance in the beta. 'We've been quite busy for the past two months or so working through all the feedback we've received on Windows 7,' explains Steven Sinofsky, lead engineer for Windows 7 in his blog. A majority of these features are user interface tweaks, but they should add up to a much smoother Windows 7 experience." In separate news, Technologizer reports on Microsoft's contingency plan, should things not go well in EU antitrust, to slip Win7 to January.
But hell, 36 specific features more in an overloaded interface does not improve ease of use for most customers.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
My PC runs Vista, so I can attest that it is slightly better than XP. At least Vista gives you a visual cue that it is busy and a basic progress bar while it is busy loading the folder contents.
But it still takes a long time and you can't access any of the contents that are displayed until the operation completes.
Apparently quicktime will be supported natively.... So that's about 4 fewer processes running on the standard install (quicktime agent/quicktime update/"quicktime install safari and set as default browser for my friends and family who are conditioned to press "yes" to remove dialog boxes - agent")
yay MS, this is years overdue :D
Perhaps you missed the first paragraph where it's explicitly stated that it was ONLY a list of UI/usability changes, and specifically ones that were based on user feedback.
I quote:
I am glad that you went ahead and characterized all of the improvements, that's very helpful and I thank you for it.
Thankfully, none of them look like they will require Processes, because when I first saw this article, I immediately thought "Bloat." But these are more "tweaks" than "new functionality."
As for your commentary, I think you're dead wrong. You seem to think that these are the only fixes and improvements that Microsoft is making based on user critique. I'm sure there are thousands, if not millions, of tweaks and bug fixes that they didn't mention. These, on the other hand, are pieces of untested functionality that didn't appear in the Beta _at all_.
Dunno, but if I didn't know any better, I'd say they're just borrowing things that have already been done on Mac OSX or various flavors of Linux. So they're more along the lines of playing catch-up than anything really new. (New to Windows perhaps, but not anywhere else.)
Whether or not they're useful probably depends on whether the user finds them useful. Some of the desktop navigation shortcuts may be handy if you do a lot of the multitasking. (At least from former Mac experience.)
When you beta-test a product, shouldn't you test the complete product?
No. By definition a beta release is not a complete product.
What's more, in large open betas you often want people to test specific elements, so to force people to focus on those parts you make those features more prominent by not releasing other features.
Then once you have that testing out of the way on that first subset, you can release a second beta with new features. The new features list is effectively a marketing campaign to get your beta testers to focus on another specific subset of the application.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Not ONCE in the actual article does it claim any of these to be "new features", merely changes since build 7000 (aka "the beta"). Blame /.'s stupid editors for claiming they're 38 new features.
+1 IDisagreeSoHeMustBeATrollOrAnAstroturferOrAShill
At least Vista gives you a visual cue that it is busy and a basic progress bar while it is busy loading the folder contents.
Yeah, the infamous Green-Bar-of-Death.
It's a nice idea, but I occasionally run into folders where the green bar reaches the end of the bar (signifying completion) but it never really quits. I usually see this when I try to access a folder that I don't have rights to, Vista asks me and elevates to give me permission and then starts loading the file contents. But I've also seen it fail on large folders, so there are still bugs in the system.
Windows needs to reboot after most Windows updates, because it needs to restart whatever has just been updated, and the easiest way is to restart.
As for rebooting after an install/uninstall of an application, that is the fault of a shitty app installer, not Windows. 99% of the time they run fine without rebooting, and 99% of the rest of the time you can dig out the commands they've requested to be run on next boot and run them NOW, and they'll run fine after that. The remaining apps tend to plug into the kernel in interesting ways, like antivirus or firewall apps. Even drivers for most devices (including graphics cards in recent versions of Windows) can be installed without a restart.
My fault, i only had it vaguely in my head.
OneCare for Server, which shipped with SBS 2008 will be discontinued by mid-year. No direct replacement on schedule.
The OneCare for Client offering will convert to a free version, as you said.
It prevents you from sending your audio playing from your pc to your airport express. BIG warnings about the protected audio path and it stops it from working. The workaround that airfoil had for Vista does not work under windows 7.
Oh, dont own a HDCP compliant monitor AND video card? cant watch HD content. it downscaled it.
I have not explored what other DRM gotchas are in there but so far those two will keep it as not recommend for all my companies clients the same as Vista currently is.
honestly there is no legitimate reason for any DRM to be present in the OS.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
>I'm still on XP... you are saying that not only is this not fixed in Vista, but it's
> not fixed in 7 either? Yuck. I'm with you... I do a lot of VPN stuff and the
> responsiveness of the shell during network operations is my biggest beef with XP.
My perception is different.
My Vista machine is very slow browsing the local network (to say nothing about a VPN).
The Win 7 machine running in a Vmware Virtual machine hosted on this very same Vista platform accesses the network WAY FASTER. (At least twice as fast).
So: Same EXACT hardware, Win7 easily outperforms Vista. Even when running on top of vista. Go Figure.
If a VPN is involved it usually (but not always) implies a slow remote link. Explorer's file browsing traffic is indeed way to heavy for that environment.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
The call is the result of hitting an abitrary limit on the number of online activations, and waiting on hold during peak hours. The duration of the actual conversation is usually 5 minutes, including ranting about craptivation.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
OneCare has been discontinued because they no longer sell it separately. It will be bundled with windows in upcoming releases.
OneCare was actually one of the better products on the market.
Hey, thought you might be interested in how to turn that off. The hint is here. It's a two line command:
defaults write com.apple.dock no-bouncing -bool TRUE
killall Dock
It's one of the many hidden preferences of OS X.
Gentlemen! You can't fight in here, this is the war room!
honestly there is no legitimate reason for any DRM to be present in the OS.
Actually, there is. Without DRM support in the OS, you wont be able to play DRM-protected media. Want to buy Blu-ray discs? Sorry, not possible because the OS is missing DRM-support.
DRM support in the OS is not stopping you from playing back non-DRM files, ie. your pirated Blu-ray rips will play just fine, so will everything else. You can rip your CDs and DVDs like before, no problem.
So in fact, DRM support is giving you a CHOICE.
It prevents you from sending your audio playing from your pc to your airport express. BIG warnings about the protected audio path and it stops it from working. The workaround that airfoil had for Vista does not work under windows 7.
Does it prevent you from sending non DRM'ed audio or DRM audio? If so, that's a (unintentional?) bug. If it does allow DRM'ed music to be transmitted, the music labels will successfully sue MS for a few billions before you can say shazam.
Oh, dont own a HDCP compliant monitor AND video card? cant watch HD content. it downscaled it.
What a crock of BS. 'it downscaled it'? OMGWTF BBQ??? You can play full HD content shot on your home HD camcorder for all you choose. If you don't have a HDCP monitor, only the protected ones that have a flag set(don't think this flag is set on ANY media yet?) will not play. Simply stay away and watch the non protected full HD to your heart's content.
I have not explored what other DRM gotchas are in there but so far those two will keep it as not recommend for all my companies clients the same as Vista currently is.
honestly there is no legitimate reason for any DRM to be present in the OS.
If DRM was lacking in Windows 7, it doesn't mean that you can watch full HD in non HDCP monitors. All it means is that you'll be unable to watch bought/rented HD content like BluRays AT ALL. Wonder why this simple point is so hard to grasp. Looks like Slashdot gets its panties in a twist once DRM is mentioned. Or maybe you were karma whoring 'OMG it downscaled it'. Works well on here though.
This space for rent.
Not true.
READ. LEARN.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc767094.aspx
I get that you like OSX / Linux better, and that's fine. I like them too, for some things. But to trash ANY OS with false information is living on a belief system, rather than an informed and educated system, my friend :)
And the same uninformed, ignorant user will rail at MS for not having such a basic feature as playing music or movies.
Some people will cry and bitch whatever happens. So, yup I agree with you there.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
It prevents you from sending your audio playing from your pc to your airport express. BIG warnings about the protected audio path and it stops it from working.
Google is unhelpful in providing corroboration for this claim. Evidence ?
Oh, dont own a HDCP compliant monitor AND video card? cant watch HD content. it downscaled it.
This is simply false. HD content plays fine, at full resolution, even over VGA outputs.
*DRM encumbered* HD content, OTOH, is probably a different story (although I don't think any exists) - but you will get the same downscaling no matter what device you play it back on, if you don't have a HDCP capable output device.
"...because of market share"
False.
If you can gain root in OSX, you will be written about. If you can get root remotly? Then you will get a lot of serious cred and praise.
Market share does not equate to security.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The feet-dragging on this may have to do with the fact that ISO is the primary way to acquire a Linux distro. Making it easy for people to burn/mount an ISO is opening a gateway away from Microsoft products. They'd rather not do that, so you get no support for ISO.
Mounting Linux ISOs in Windows is useless if you want to install Linux. What you want to do is to burn them, and - surprise! - Win7 includes a built-in "Burn CD Image" utility that is accessible from Explorer via right-click on an ISO file.
Most users want better performance, useability, and security. I don't see anything like that on the list.
Which list are you looking at? I think you clicked the wrong link. Making the Start menu render faster is a performance improvement. Most of the items on the list, for example the "needy icons" tweak, are usability improvements. Requiring a UAC check to change settings in the UAC control panel is a security improvement.
Comment of the year
On Windows XP and previous versions, the cause of SMB browsing in Explorer being slow on a LAN is because the Windows SMB service buffer defaults to a hilariously small value. The SMB packets get broken up into tiny fragments which compounds the slowness of the already-chatty protocol.
To fix, simply increase the buffer size. Keep it equal to your MTU or set it a bit larger and let the TCP stack deal with it. After increasing the server's buffer size, I found that a directory full of image files that took two minutes to load up on an art workstation now takes less than a second to display.
The following .reg file increases the buffer size to 2048 bytes in Windows XP and 2000:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters]
"SizReqBuf"=dword:00000800
To do it from the command prompt and/or a batch file:
REG add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\lanmanserver\parameters /v SizReqBuf /t REG_DWORD /d 0x800 /f
Windows Vista uses SMB2 which claims to be more efficient protocol-wise; no clue if they increased the buffer size. Check before editing!