Win7 Snacks

Microsoft is doing a great job at supplying resources designed to permit insights into the next iteration of Windows. The latest content offered by the Redmond company involves a couple of eLearning Clinics on Windows 7, offered for free, just as the Win7 Snacks. Both Clinic 10077: What's New in Windows 7 for IT Professionals and Clinic 10088: What's New in Windows 7 for Information Workers are focused on providing an introduction to the successor of Windows Vista for the respective user segments. Information workers and IT professionals have a chance to see how Windows 7 tailors to their respective needs.

The “two-hour [Clinic 10088] provides you with an overview of key enhancements in Windows 7, which help information workers to improve their productivity as well as work in a more secure environment. This clinic covers the following topics: be More Productive with Windows 7; be More Secure with Windows 7; and get Connected Faster and Easier with Windows 7. Information workers completing this clinic should have experience working with previous versions of Windows,” Microsoft advised.

Microsoft started offering the Release Candidate of Windows 7 on May 5th 2009. The bits are available for public download, and access to the development milestone is of course free. Both information workers and IT professionals can download, install and test drive the next version of Windows. The two clinics will, in this respect, manage to catalyze a stronger focus on a variety of Windows 7 aspects designed to address IW and IE pros specific scenarios.

AVG Internet Security 8.5 for Windows 7

AVG Internet Security 8.5 Build 336a1515 is the latest security solution from AVG tailored to Windows 7. The software is among the products recommended by Microsoft on the Windows 7 security solutions webpage, even as the operating system is in Release Candidate stage with Build 7100 available for public download since May 5th, 2009. According to AVG, AVG Internet Security 8.5 is designed to play nice not only with Windows 7, but also with previous releases of Windows, namely Windows XP and
Windows Vista. The latest version of AVG Internet Security is part of an update the security outfit introduced to its lineup of products, including AVG Free Edition and AVG Anti-Virus, which have also been bumped up to version 8.5.

“AVG Internet Security provides multiple layers of protection to ensure nothing slips through,” reads and excerpt from the product's description. “Identity Theft Protection prevents new and unknown threats from stealing your personal information like bank and credit card details. LinkScanner checks every link, making sure you're safe searching the internet and surfing the web, minimizing the risk of you accidentally visiting a poisoned web page. Web Shield detects and blocks malware threats in file downloads and instant-messaging conversations.”

Windows 7 New Decoders and Media Formats

Microsoft is pointing to Windows 7 as a panacea for scenarios in which end users go hunting for codecs on the Internet struggling with file formats that are not natively supported by the Windows operating system. The promise from the Redmond company is that, with the next iteration of the Windows client, the necessary decoders will already be in place and ready to handle the formats that users will throw at them, of course with some exceptions. MPEG-4, 3GPP/3GPP2, AAC, ASP in AVI, AVCHD, HDV are the generic names for the formats supported in Windows 7.

The video decoders associated with them are H.264, MPEG-4, ASP and SP. The specific file extensions that will not present a problem when it comes down to Windows 7 are .mp4 (A, V, A + V), .m4a (A), .mov, .3gp, .3g2 (A, V, A + V), .aac (A), .avi, (V, A + V), .m2t, .m2ts, .mts (A, V, A + V). Still, Microsoft indicated that Windows 7 would not be limited to playing back local files.

“In addition to supporting local playback of new formats, we can also ensure that the content will play on devices that may not support the codec, bit rate, container, or format of that content. We accomplish this by using the new transcoding support in Windows 7,” revealed Scott Manchester, Devices & Media program management.

Windows 7 Will Play Nice with DLNA Devices

Microsoft has taken extensive steps in order to ensure that Windows 7 computers will be able to play the role of media hubs for home users. In addition to the native support for the new file formats, the next iteration of the Windows client is also designed to play nice with a wide range of DLNA certified devices. In this regard, Microsoft informs that it has implemented DLNA device roles and the DLNA protocols designed to permit communications and media exchange. This move has made Windows 7 capable of interoperability with TVs, stereo systems, cell phones, DVRs, game consoles, and additional devices, provided that they sport the Digital Living Network Alliance logo.

“The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) is a consortium of more than 200 companies interested in specifying technologies for exchanging media in home networks. The DLNA architecture is based on the UPnP specification, but in addition, DLNA specifies transport protocols (based on HTTP and RTP) and sets of media formats,” revealed Scott Manchester, from the Devices & Media program management team. “DLNA defines device roles (e.g. servers, players, renderers, etc.) and the protocols that these devices use to discover each other and communicate with each other (e.g. UPnP, HTTP, RTP, etc.).”

"Will programs that didn't work with Vista but did work with XP work in Windows 7?"

Windows 7 is a lot like Windows Vista under the covers. So, in general, programs that run fine in Windows Vista will run fine in Windows 7. That also means that, in most cases, those programs that did not run in Vista also won't run in Windows 7. There are a couple of exceptions. In particular, Microsoft has done some work to "rescue" certain applications that did not run in Vista so that they can indeed run in Windows 7.

Microsoft has also added an "XP Mode" to some versions of Windows 7 that allows programs that won't run natively in Windows 7 to run via an XP virtual machine. XP Mode does require more memory as well as a machine whose processor has hardware support for virtualization, something many older machines and some current machines don't have.

"How does Windows 7 compare with Windows XP?"

For those used to Windows XP, Windows 7 will be a significant change.

It brings with it both a lot of the good and the bad from Vista--albeit with some improvements--as well as new features of its own. It shares the more modern graphics engine, desktop search, and security architecture that are part of Windows Vista. As part of an anti-malware feature known as User Account Control, XP users will also be asked to verify certain changes to their system. Microsoft has worked to lessen the number of such prompts in Windows 7, but since XP has no similar feature, it may still seem like a lot of intrusion to some.

Windows 7 also brings features of its own, most notably the taskbar at the bottom of the screen that allows quick access not only to frequently used programs, but also one-click and two-click access to commonly used actions within those programs. Windows 7 also adds Internet Explorer 8 and built-in support for multitouch gestures, provided you have a machine with a compatible touch-screen display.

For a nice side-by-side chart comparing Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, check out this piece from my colleague Seth Rosenblatt.

Windows 7: still a bit of work to do on the error messages

What else do you want from the error message?

It’s not just telling you it can’t connect or giving some random error number advising it cannot continue, it states that “you are not connected to the internet” which is more than adequate as far as I’m concerned.

And add in the fact you’re using a beta version of Win7 or an unofficial copy of the RC, surely you can;t read too much into it until the RTM version is released.