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Microsoft is considering offering Windows 7 on a thumb drive to allow Netbook owners to more easily upgrade their machines, a source tells CNET News.

The move, which is still under consideration, is one of several things Microsoft has looked at to try to make it convenient to upgrade machines that don’t come with a CD or DVD drives.

Microsoft executives have said that they recognize that upgrading Netbooks poses a challenge and are exploring ways that the company can make it easier. In an interview on Thursday, Senior Vice President Bill Veghte said that Microsoft had nothing to announce on that front.

Full Article – http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10273188-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

One new networking feature of Windows 7 that aggregates data from multiple sources into a single folder view. This could also be called a virtual folder. Actually, it is an indexed view of multiple data sources.

Because of the new library functionality, many of the common user folders in Windows 7 have been renamed. In Windows Vista you had Documents, Downloads, Photos, Videos, and Music. In Windows 7, these folders have been renamed and now you have Personal Documents, Personal Downloads, Personal Photos, Personal Videos, and Personal Music.

Yes, in other words, all the folders in a user’s home directory have been renamed with the word Personal in front of them. As I said, there is a reason for this and that reason is to allow us to use libraries and to distinguish between public and personal (private) documents.

Besides these personal document folders, each Windows 7 computer is going to have public folder such as Public Documents.

Full Article – http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/10-New-Features-Windows-7-Networking.html

Introduction

Aero Glass remoting provides a user experience in a remote session that is comparable to a local session. This feature is now available for Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) as well as Windows 7 as a virtual machine (VM) hosted on a Hyper-V machine, in addition to the Windows 7 client.

Below are some screenshots of a remote session from Server 2008 R2 RC build:

Full Article – http://blogs.msdn.com/rds/archive/2009/06/23/aero-glass-remoting-in-windows-server-2008-r2.aspx

Microsoft wants to show you how to cut your utility bills.

The software giant will enter the burgeoning business of home-energy management on Wednesday with Hohm, a free Web application designed to show consumers how to conserve electricity and natural gas. Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer, Craig Mundie, is scheduled to introduce Hohm and discuss Microsoft’s energy strategy at the Edison Electric Institute utility industry conference on Wednesday.

Full Article – http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10269832-54.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

As you all know, Microsoft released a beta of its free antivirus and antispyware utility today once code named ‘Morro’. Microsoft Security Essentials is a free product for Windows 7, Vista and XP customers. Back in 2006 Microsoft introduced its security service suite Windows Live OneCare. Microsoft recently decided that they would discontinue Live OneCare in June 2009 and replace it with Security Essentials. Based on Microsoft’s own Forefront 2.2 enterprise security technologies, the aim of Security Essentials is to provide an economically friendly way to encourage protecting your Windows PC. A lot of computer users who buy a new PC often get a free trial period version of popular security utilities. When they expire, the user tends to not purchase a full license but continue using the expired software. There are persons who out right consciously decide they are not going to purchase additional security software. For users like that, Microsoft has an answer, its called Security Essentials.

Full Article – http://adacosta.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E8E5CC039D51E3DB!25670.entry

Still on the Windows 7 Beta,? You need to move to the RC and fast. Starting July 1^st, the Beta will start to reboot every 2 hrs and expire Aug 1^st.

Want to download the RC? . The RC download program closes August 15. After that, you won’t be able to get the download, but you can still install the RC and get a key if you need one. (To get a key, just go to the Downloads page and follow the instructions.)

If you’re using the Windows 7 Release Candidate, we hope you like what you see. Let us know — go to http://input.microsoft.com and tell us what you think. You’ll be able to give feedback on various aspects of the operating syste

A month ago, Microsoft officials acknowledged the name and one feature of the company’s forthcoming Office 2010 Pro Plus SKU. Thanks to a new slide from an alleged Microsoft presentation, now we know a bit more about what’s likely to debut in that version.

Microsoft admitted in May — after word leaked via Twitter that the company was renaming its Groove online/offline synchronization capability to “SharePoint Workspace Manager” — that the newly minted SharePoint Workspace and OneNote would be part of the Office 2010 Pro Plus SKU. Company officials refused to say anything more about which other applications and features will be part of that SKU.

On June 18, on his UX Evangelist blog, Stephen Chapman has posted a slide, allegedly from Microsoft, that shows what other features are slated to be part of this new Office 2010 SKU. The feature set for the Pro Plus SKU looks like this:

Full Article – http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=3128

A month ago, Microsoft officials acknowledged the name and one feature of the company’s forthcoming Office 2010 Pro Plus SKU. Thanks to a new slide from an alleged Microsoft presentation, now we know a bit more about what’s likely to debut in that version.

Microsoft admitted in May — after word leaked via Twitter that the company was renaming its Groove online/offline synchronization capability to “SharePoint Workspace Manager” — that the newly minted SharePoint Workspace and OneNote would be part of the Office 2010 Pro Plus SKU. Company officials refused to say anything more about which other applications and features will be part of that SKU.

On June 18, on his UX Evangelist blog, Stephen Chapman has posted a slide, allegedly from Microsoft, that shows what other features are slated to be part of this new Office 2010 SKU. The feature set for the Pro Plus SKU looks like this:

Full Article – http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=3128

Microsoft has gone public with a piece of its Windows 7 to XP downgrade guarantee that it refused to  make official until yesterday: The end date.

Volume licensees who buy Windows are provided automatically with guaranteed downgrade rights to previous versions of Windows. A Windows 7 volume licensee has the right to downgrade to Vista, Windows XP or other previous versions of Windows, according to Microsoft’s policies.

Earlier this year, Microsoft officials refused to confirm a report which claimed that the company planned to limit the length of time it would allow users to downgrade from Windows 7 to XP to six months after Windows 7 shipped. The leaked memo pegged that date at April 2010, which both Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard (the OEM mentioned in the memo) declined to confirm.

Full Article – http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=3104

As always, please uninstall all existing versions of Deep Zoom Composer before installing the new version.

A few months ago, we asked you what you all wanted to see in Deep Zoom Composer, and a lot of you gave some really great ideas. The following sections highlight just a small list of the new features we’ve added and improved based on your ideas, and our subsequent blog posts will delve into these features in greater detail.

Navigation Support
A common request has been around doing more with your Deep Zoom images than just being able to zoom in and out on them. In this release, we have introduced some cool navigation features which allow you to navigate between images or areas of images in a web/hyperlink-like fashion. You can also link images to external URLs as well.

Full Article – http://blogs.msdn.com/expression/archive/2009/06/19/deep-zoom-composer-june-2009-preview.aspx

It’s been exactly a month since my last published Windows 7 screenshot gallery, but not for a lack of builds. In fact, I’ve installed and examined several builds since mid-May. So why the gap? Well, there hasn’t been much to write about, frankly. Windows 7 was essentially finalized long ago, and aside from some fit and finish work, it hasn’t been changing much. In fact, even this build doesn’t offer much in the way of differences, aside from the addition of the final defaul Windows 7 wallpaper. My expectation is that the final build will be created within days, tested extensively for 2-3 weeks, and then declared as “gold.” We’re nearing the finish line.

Full Article – http://www.winsupersite.com/win7/win7_7232.asp

The release of the Windows 7/Windows 2008 R2 will support more than 64 CPUs.   It is also documented that the SQL Server 10.5 (Kilimanjaro – http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10236936-56.html) will extend the SQL Server Engine to support more than 64 CPUs.

Question: What if I am running a version of SQL Server that is not greater than 64 CPU aware?

Windows 7 introduces processor groups of up to 64 CPUs per group.   It is not common, but it is possible, to have configurations with unbalanced group CPU counts.   For example, on a machine with 96 CPUs you could have two groups 1 == 64 CPUS and 2 == 32 CPUs.  If you have SQL Server 2008 Enterprise installed it can use up to 64 CPUs.   You don’t want it associated with group 2 and only 32 CPUs.

Windows provides capability to assign a service to a preferred node using SC.exe.  You may need to use SC.exe to establish a preferred node for the SQL Server based service.

Full Article – http://blogs.msdn.com/psssql/archive/2009/06/16/sql-server-on-windows-7-windows-2008-r2-with-more-than-64-cpus.aspx

Windows 7 introduces a new feature for Offline Files & Folders called “Transparent Caching”.

Prior to Windows 7, to open a file across a slow network, client computers always retrieved the file from the server, even if the client computer had recently read the file. With Windows 7 transparent caching, client computers cache remote files more aggressively, reducing the number of times a client computer might have to retrieve the same data from a server.

With transparent caching, the first time a user opens a file in a shared folder, Windows 7 reads the file from the server and then stores it in a cache on the computer’s hard disk drive. The second and subsequent times a user reads the same file, Windows 7 retrieves the cached file from disk instead of reading it from the server. To provide data integrity, Windows 7 always contacts the server to ensure the cached copy is up-to-date. The cache is never accessed if the server is unavailable and updates to the file are always written directly to the server.

Full Article – http://trycatch.be/blogs/roggenk/archive/2009/06/16/windows-7-offline-files-amp-folders-transparent-caching.aspx

Windows 7 introduces a new feature for Offline Files & Folders called “Transparent Caching”.

Prior to Windows 7, to open a file across a slow network, client computers always retrieved the file from the server, even if the client computer had recently read the file. With Windows 7 transparent caching, client computers cache remote files more aggressively, reducing the number of times a client computer might have to retrieve the same data from a server.

With transparent caching, the first time a user opens a file in a shared folder, Windows 7 reads the file from the server and then stores it in a cache on the computer’s hard disk drive. The second and subsequent times a user reads the same file, Windows 7 retrieves the cached file from disk instead of reading it from the server. To provide data integrity, Windows 7 always contacts the server to ensure the cached copy is up-to-date. The cache is never accessed if the server is unavailable and updates to the file are always written directly to the server.

Full Article – http://trycatch.be/blogs/roggenk/archive/2009/06/16/windows-7-offline-files-amp-folders-transparent-caching.aspx

Microsoft’s overzealous .Net branding campaign is a pretty much a thing of the past. But that doesn’t mean the .Net confusion is completely over.

Microsoft’s attempt to juggle too many .Nets is coming home to roost with testers writing workflow-centric apps and services that can be hosted in the Azure cloud. In a posting to the Azure Services Platform blog last week, Microsoft officials admitted that .Net Services was based on a different, older version of .Net — and that the newer version wouldn’t be ready in time for Azure’s official launch (which is expected this fall).

Full Article – http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=3069