By Sylvie Barak
Thursday, 2 July 2009, 11:13

WITH THE ADVENT of Windows 7 and just before delivering its first DX11 GPU to the world, AMD is also preparing a brand new integrated GPU, according to certain mainboard partner roadmaps. Designated the RS880, the device will sport AMD's new Radeon HD 4200 graphics core, which is almost 15 per cent faster than anything comparable that's currently available.

Support for AMD's ever evolving Stream technology will purportedly also be included, for all that's worth, considering the paltry number of Stream partners at present. With all of the chest thumping between DAAMIT and the Green Goblin over discrete graphics, it's sometimes easy to forget that the global market for integrated graphics parts is actually much larger. So large, in fact, that the sheer volume of those hardworking integrated graphics chips is enough to put Intel, rather than either Nvidia or AMD/ATI, at the top of the global graphics pyramid.

AMD's new integrated DX10.1 chipset is set to launch sometime in the last week of August. It's noteworthy that, as AMD shoves DX10.1 out to all of its platforms and readies itself for the big push on DX11, Nvidia is still somewhat struggling to hit the DX10.1 spec. And Intel, we're told, is still in the design phase and unlikely to have anything to show in DX11 for at least six months.

by Ed Bott
July 1st, 2009 @ 9:40 pm

In two recent posts (Windows 7 versus Snow Leopard: How much do upgrades really cost? and Do you need more than Windows 7 Home Premium?), I took a closer look at the differences between Windows 7 editions and their counterparts from Apple. In the Talkback section of both posts, several commenters noted that Microsoft is still far behind its archrival in Cupertino.

Until Microsoft comes out with a Family Pack license, they say, Apple will continue to have the upper hand. Well, maybe the wait is over. Thanks to a tip from Kristan Kenney, I took a close look at the agreements embedded in the License folder of the latest leaked builds of Windows 7. This is no longer a beta license agreement and is presumably very close to the final agreement that customers will accept. The agreements for retail copies of Windows 7 Home Premium contain this eye-opening clause: Family Pack Clause

If you can’t read the screen shot, here’s the relevant section: “If you are a ‘Qualified Family Pack User’, you may install one copy of the software marked as ‘Family Pack’ on three computers in your household for use by people who reside there.” (And a proofreading note to Microsoft Legal: Fix the typo in the last sentence of that clause before RTM.) When I first wrote about Windows 7 pricing last month, I speculated that Microsoft was likely to have a program like this up its sleeve:

What else can we expect to see? Back in early 2007, Microsoft offered a so-called Family Discount for Windows Vista, which allowed anyone with a Vista Ultimate license to purchase two Home Premium upgrades for $49.99 each. I expect to see an improved version of the Family Discount this time around. If Microsoft wanted to aim directly at its archrival Apple, it could sell three Home Premium upgrade licenses (to be used only in a single home) for $199 or less.

by Ina Fried
July 1, 2009 4:00 AM PDT

There's a reason the first thing in Windows 7 that Microsoft chose to show publicly was its support for touch input. That built-in ability to use two fingers to rotate, scroll, and zoom offers tangible proof that the operating system is different from its predecessor, not to mention being something not found on a Mac.

However, many say that comparatively few Windows 7 PC owners will actually be reaching out to touch their screen. That's because, to use one's fingers in such a manner requires a screen that can support the technology--something that often adds $100 or more to the cost of a PC. As a result, many expect touch-capable computers to be just a tiny fraction of the market for desktop and notebook computers, even after Windows 7 arrives on store shelves on October 22.

"We're thinking like 5 percent to 10 percent of shipments for 2010," said IDC analyst Richard Shim. And Shim said that, unless circumstances change, the rate isn't likely to climb significantly in the coming years. Part of the problem is that there really isn't a killer application for touch on the PC, despite the fact that putting ones fingers on the screen has become the de facto measure of cool in the cell phone market.

It's not that there isn't interest in selling touchscreen devices. Hewlett-Packard introduced its TouchSmart all-in-one in 2007. The company now has several touch models, including both desktop and notebook machines. Dell has a Latitude notebook aimed at businesses and has also added an all-in-one with a touchscreen option.

By Nick Farrell
Monday, 29 June 2009, 11:44

RUMOURS HAVE IT that Microsoft will offer Windows 7 on USB thumb drives. The report surfaced at Cnet, which heard the news from one of its sources close to the Vole, apparently, who may or may not have heard it from a bloke down the pub. The thought is that doing so will enable netbook owners to upgrade their machines, but it will break the tradition that only allowed Voleware to be distributed on DVDs or through downloads.

Since netbooks don't come with optical drives and downloading Microsoft's bloated Windows 7 upgrade would take punters a very long time, the only other option the Vole has is to bung it onto USB sticks. Apparently the Vole is also worried that netbook users will not want to download its latest Vista service pack because, at 2.8GB, it might take a big chunk out of most people's broadband caps. Microsoft executives have said that they recognise that upgrading netbooks poses a challenge and are exploring ways that the company can make it easier. Cnet's hacks spoke to Microsoft senior vice president Bill Veghte who said that the Vole had nothing to announce on the subject yet.

By Gavin Clarke
30th June 2009 01:11 GMT

Microsoft has clarified the rules on who can upgrade to Windows 7, and how many free copies of the forthcoming operating system you'll be entitled to. The company has also dismissed a suggestion from mega-analyst Gartner that it's limiting the number of PCs that an organization can upgrade to Windows 7 in order to bump prospective customers onto its volume purchasing and Software Assurance (SA) programs.

Microsoft was speaking after Gartner analyst Michael Silver launched his latest broadside against the company's plans on Windows 7 upgrades. The background to this chapter in what has become a long-playing drama is the Windows 7 Upgrade Option (WUO). This was rolled out last week with a range of promotional campaigns to jump start sales by taking pre-orders for Windows 7 ahead of its planned October 22 launch.

Promotions include discounts, and there are reports of pre-orders already being sold out. It turns out that WUO targets consumers and small businesses - a fact Microsoft didn't detail during last week's announcement. Microsoft said WUO was open to "anyone" who buys a PC. And under the WUO, Microsoft has increased the pre-existing limit on the number of free upgrades individuals and businesses can request, boosting it from five to 25 PCs that already have Windows pre-installed.

Gartner's Silver said enterprises should push Microsoft to also offer them WUO. Otherwise, enterprises will have to enroll in Microsoft's SA program. SA is only available to customers on Microsoft's volume-purchasing programs, for organizations with 250 or more PCs running Windows. But SA isn't a requisite of Microsoft's volume programs. According to Silver: "Organizations without client Windows Software Assurance that are purchasing more than 25 new PCs between now and 22 October would have to enroll these PCs in Software Assurance at an additional cost to get the right to upgrade them to Windows 7."

by Ed Bott
June 29th, 2009 @ 1:45 pm

One of the most frequent questions I get these days comes from people who’ve been running the Windows 7 beta and RC and are planning to upgrade to the final version when it’s available on October 22. “Which edition of Windows 7 do I need?” Interestingly, this question also comes up in other contexts as well.

When Apple defenders appear in the TalkBack section here, they regularly insist that the Home Premium edition is “crippled” and “stripped-down.” Sooner or later, they insist, any self-respecting Windows user will have to upgrade. Based on that argument, they say that you must use the more expensive Ultimate edition to compare the costs of a Windows PC to those of a Mac, which comes in only a single edition. As you’ll see from the table below, this isn’t accurate.

On the Windows side, many users just automatically assume that more is better. By that logic, Ultimate is obviously the best and lesser versions are inferior. Because they’re power users, they assume that Home Premium’s missing features mean they’re going to be lacking a feature they really need. But is that true? If you’re buying Windows Home Premium, what features are you missing, exactly?

What would you get if you paid extra for Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate? And is it fair to compare OS X and Windows 7 Home Premium? A few weeks ago, I did an exhaustive comparison of the differences between Windows 7 editions. For the comparison here, I decided to strip the list down to a single, simple table, which represents the entire list of features that are in Professional or Ultimate editions that are not in Home Premium edition (with one esoteric exception, which I documetned at the end of the notes page).

by Christopher Dawson
June 27th, 2009 @ 9:11 pm

I finally installed the Windows 7 release candidate that the folks from Microsoft were kind enough to pass on a couple weeks ago at the Intel Classmate Ecosystem Summit. I could have installed it on my Mac, but I already have Vista running with Boot Camp with a fair amount of Windows software that I didn’t want to reinstall (or couldn’t for lack of install media).

I thought about installing it on my primary desktop at work (running Ubuntu 9.04 at the moment) since that’s a bit older and I could assess its speed on legacy hardware, but it lacked a DVD drive. So I installed it on my oldest son’s laptop. This was the same kid who, almost a year ago, declared that he “hated Linux”. He has since grown to like Ubuntu, particularly 9.04, since it’s rock solid no matter where he manages to skulk about online.

However, it doesn’t work with his Zune and he prefers Office 2007 to OpenOffice. Until now, I’ve told him to suck it up and have an old XP desktop in the study that he and his brothers use for syncing iPods and Zunes. Ubuntu, after all, is free, and requires no maintenance from me, no matter what dark, malware-infested corners of the Internet he happens to explore. However, Windows 7 has been very well-reviewed, the release candidate has a reputation for being more solid than most retail releases from Microsoft, and I had a free copy on DVD that I really wanted to test.

So on it went. And I have to admit that it went on very quickly, with no challenges or drama. The install speed was certainly comparable to Ubuntu’s and everything internal to the machine has worked out of the box. We’ll see about peripherals soon enough, but I’m not actually anticipating any problems. Here, however, is the real question. With speculation on Windows 7 pricing keeping the blogosphere busy, will 7 be good enough to actually pay for?

By Gregg Keizer
June 25, 2009 09:01 AM ET

For two weeks starting Friday, Microsoft will pre-sell Windows 7 upgrades for as little as $50. "As a way of saying thanks to our loyal Windows customers, we are excited to introduce a special limited time offer," Microsoft spokesman Brandon LeBlanc said in an entry to a company blog early Thursday.

Microsoft offered a similar deal prior to the launch of Windows Vista three years ago. "For customers in the U.S., Canada and Japan, starting tomorrow on June 26, they will be able to pre-order a copy of Windows 7 for delivery on October 22 of either Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional," said Brad Brooks, vice president for Windows consumer marketing, in a video interview posted alongside LeBlanc's blog post. "[For] Home Premium in the U.S., pricing will be $49.99, and the Professional version will be $99.99."

Those figures represent a reduction of between 50% and 58% from the standard list prices for the upgrade editions of Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional. Orders can be placed with participating retailers, such as Best Buy and Amazon.com, or at Microsoft's own online store. The pre-order discount prices are valid from June 26 through July 11 in the U.S. and Canada, but end July 5 in Japan. Customers in the U.K., France and Germany will be offered similar pre-order discounts starting July 15, said LeBlanc.

Microsoft's pre-order discount was not a surprise. Several weeks ago, a leaked memo from retailer Best Buy had disclosed the limited-time pricing plan. Microsoft also revealed list prices for Windows 7 today, cutting the price of only one of the three retail editions, even though consumers face tough economic times. "We are reducing the [list] price of our most popular retail product for customers, the Home Premium Upgrade, by approximately 10%, depending on the market," said LeBlanc.

by Ina Fried
June 25, 2009 2:00 PM PDT

Microsoft plans to charge PC makers the same for the business version of Windows 7 as it did for Windows Vista, while cutting the price of Windows 7 Home Premium as compared to its predecessor, a top Windows executive told CNET News on Thursday. That matches a similar move for the boxed copy of the software.

Microsoft's pricing plans for Windows 7, which will be available October 22 on both new PCs, has been the source of considerable tension between the PC makers and the software maker, both of which are trying to grapple with both declining demand and falling prices for traditional PCs. In an interview on Thursday, Senior Vice President Bill Veghte acknowledged that there has been tension between Microsoft and the PC makers over pricing, but said that is always the case when Microsoft readies a new version of its operating system.

"They'd love to have everything at dramatically lower prices," Veghte said, of the computer makers. On the mainstream consumer side, Microsoft is only offering only one version--Windows 7 Home Premium, whereas with Windows Vista, Microsoft offered both a basic and premium version. Veghte says he understands that, from the PC makers perspective, Microsoft took away an option for low-cost PCs.

In part, he said, that's why Microsoft decided to charge a price for Windows 7 Home Premium that was more than Vista Basic, but less than Vista Home Premium. "We took a blended approach," he said. "It wasn't like I am trying to jack up the prices." For Windows 7 Professional, as Microsoft did on the retail side, the software maker will charge PC makers essentially the same as it did for Windows Vista Business.

Real Temp is a temperature monitoring program designed for all Intel single Core, Dual Core, Quad Core and Core i7 processors. Each core on these processors has a digital thermal sensor (DTS) that reports temperature data relative to TJMax which is the safe maximum operating core temperature for the CPU. As your CPU heats up, your Distance to TJMax will decrease. If it reaches zero, your processor will start to thermal throttle or slow down so maximizing your distance away from TJMax will help your computer run at full speed and more reliably too.


Main Features
+ Reads temperature information from all Intel Core based processors. Pentium 4 processors are not supported.
+ Ability to individually calibrate Real Temp for each core of your CPU.
+ Program is based on temperature data gathered using a Fluke 62 IR Thermometer.
+ Test Sensors feature will check your DTS sensors for any sign of problems.
+ Keeps track of Minimum and Maximum temperatures with full logging features.
+ Reporting and logging of the Intel PROCHOT# thermal throttle activity bit.
+ Quick, very accurate and repeatable benchmark.
+ Displays MHz, TJMax, CPUID, APIC ID and Calibration settings.
+ High temperature alarm and shutdown feature based on CPU or Nvidia GPU temperature.
+ No installation or registry modifications required.
Support for Windows 2000 / XP / Vista / Windows 7 (32/64 bit)

Author: XtremeSystems
Date: 2009-06-24
Size: 168 KB
License: Freeware
Requires: Win 2000/03/08/XP/Vista/7

by Mary Jo Foley
June 23rd, 2009 @ 6:31 am

Just a quick reminder: Microsoft plans to allow the public to download a beta version of “Morro,” now known as Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) on June 23, starting around 9 a.m. PT. Update (8 a.m. PT): The beta download is now live. Or maybe not. It was for a minute, there…. MSE is the free antivirus/anti-malware product that is replacing Microsoft’s paid Windows Live OneCare subscription service.

It is aimed primarily at users who can’t or won’t pay for security software. Here are the details about today’s beta kick-off: Who is eligible: Anyone in the U.S., Israel or Brazil who wants to try MSE on XP SP2, Vista or Windows 7 (Beta or Release Candidate) can grab the beta. Last week, Microsoft officials told me there was no cap planned for the beta, but shortly thereafter a spokesperson said the beta will be capped at 75,000.

“This could change though depending on what the download scenario is,” he added. Download site: Testers will be able to download MSE beta from Microsoft Connect by going to this page: http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/ . Versions: The MSE beta will be available in 32- and 64-bit flavors. It will be available in English and Brazilian Portuguese on June 23 and simplified Chinese some time later this year. Update: The beta is restricted by country.

The beta site says: “This beta is available only to customers in the United States, Israel (English only), People’s Republic of China (Simplified Chinese only) and Brazil (Brazilian Portuguese only).” How long will the beta be available: Microsoft plans to keep the beta open until the cap is reached or the final product is available, whichever comes first. When is the final MSE release due: Official word is before the end of calendar 2009. I’ve seen several bloggers saying this fall.

By Emil Protalinski
June 23, 2009 1:10 PM CT

The Windows 7 beta will begin bi-hourly shutdowns on July 1, 2009 and will expire on August 1, 2009. This is a reminder post for all the Windows 7 users still on the beta (build 7000) that was leaked in December 2008 and officially given out to the public in January 2009. Bi-hourly shutdowns of this build will begin on July 1, 2009.

This means that the user will be told to install a released version of Windows and their PC will shut down automatically every two hours. On August 1, 2009 if you are still on the Windows 7 beta, your license will expire and the non-genuine experience will be triggered. Your wallpaper will be removed and "This copy of Windows is not genuine" will be displayed in the lower right corner above the taskbar.

If you want to continue testing Vista's successor, we recommend moving over to the Windows 7 Release Candidate (build 7100) that was released to the public in May 2009. The RC will only be available to download until August 15, 2009. Those using the Windows 7 RC do not have to worry until March 1, 2010 and June 1, 2010, the dates for bi-hourly shutdowns and expiration, respectively. Considering Windows 7 will be generally available in October 2009, this will give users a lot of time to move over to the RTM code.

By Gregg Keizer
June 22, 2009 02:25 PM ET

An exploit of a still-unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Windows XP and Server 2003 has been added to a multi-strike attack toolkit, Symantec said late last week, a move that may mean attacks will increase soon. According to Symantec, an in-the-wild exploit of the DirectShow bug, which Microsoft acknowledged a month ago, has been added to at least one Web-based attack kit.

"This will likely lead to wide-spread use in a short time," said Liam Murchu, a researcher with Symantec's security response group, in an entry posted to the company's blog on Friday. Microsoft has not yet issued a fix for the DirectShow bug, which affects Windows 2000, XP and Server 2003, but not the newer Windows Vista or Server 2008. The flaw also doesn't affect the not-yet-released Windows 7.

However, attacks leveraging the bug have been tracked since May, when Microsoft issued a security advisory and confirmed it had evidence of "limited, active attacks." Unlike other recent exploits of Microsoft zero-days -- vulnerabilities that haven't been patched by the time attack code surfaces -- the DirectShow attacks are not targeting specific individuals or organizations. "This is not a targeted attack, but is one of limited distribution," Ben Greenbaum, a senior research manager with Symantec, said in a telephone interview.

What caught researchers' attention, added Greenbaum, was that the DirectShow exploit piggybacked on a run-of-the-mill phishing attack. It's becoming more common, said Greenbaum, that a phishing site -- in this case a bogus log-in page for Microsoft's Windows Live software -- also hosts malware that tries to hijack PCs. "They're thinking: 'Why not try to get them with everything we can?'" said Greenbaum, referring to the attackers.

Trillian is a multi-network chat client that currently supports IRC, AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo! Messenger. It supports all of the features you've come to expect from a good IM client, including but not limited to docking, multi-line edit boxes, buddy alerts, multiple connections to the same medium, a powerful skinning language, easy importing of your existing contacts, skinnable emoticons, logging, "global" away/invisible features, and a unified contact list. It is completely free with no nag screens or built-in ads.

Windows 7/2000/Vista/XP
Freeware
Other Versions - Trillian

by Mary Jo Foley
June 22nd, 2009 @ 1:09 pm

The clock is ticking. Microsoft is getting its partners prepped for the Windows 7 Upgrade program, expected to be launched officially by June 26.

(Note: Microsoft hasn’t confirmed the June 26 date, but a Best Buy memo leaked that date as when the wraps will be taken off Microsoft’s Vista-to-Windows 7 upgrade program, which is designed to maintain Vista sales until Windows 7 is available. I asked Microsoft officials if they’d confirm the validity of some new partner information it allegedly posted to its Web site this week, but so far have received no word back. Update: The official word, via a spokesperson, is “We can’t confirm this specific infromation or WU0 program timing just yet.”)

The partner “SKU order period” for the free upgrade coupons is listed as running from June 1, 2009 through December 31, 2009, according to the new note. Beyond that, there are not a whole lot of details in the partner note that haven’t been made public already, primarily thanks to the sleuths at the TechARP site, who’ve been posting regular updates on it for the past few months.

Here’s the new note posted to the Microsoft Partner site shared by a source of mine. Just a reminder: This is Microsoft’s information for OEM/retail partners, not consumers: “Help Sales Today with the Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program“Anticipation for the Windows 7 operating system is high – but you need to sell PCs today. To help you sustain PC sales until Windows 7 is available in the market, we have created the Windows 7 Upgrade Option Program......