Gizmodo: Microsoft Windows Vista

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) Looking Good So Far, Due in Q1 '08

Charlie White — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 12:05:00 EDT

The first service pack for Windows Vista is on its way, and PC Magazine has a preview of an early private beta version. The good news is that reviewer Neil Randall found the service pack to be faster overall than the shipping version of Windows Vista, and also noticed more drivers available and improved encryption. Randall also experienced applications within Adobe Creative Suite CS2 running faster, dialog boxes popping up more rapidly and other file copying speedups. This bodes well for the shipping version of SP1, which should be available along with Service Pack 3 of Windows XP (the last service pack for XP) in Q1 of 2008. [PC Magazine]

Because of Microsoft Vista Lameness, Windows XP to Stay On Sale for Five Extra Months

Charlie White — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 12:14:57 EDT

Poor Microsoft Windows Vista. So many people think it sucks that Microsoft has extended the life of the ancient but stalwart Windows XP, originally scheduled to stop shipping in January 2008. Now the company will extend XP's sales life until the end of June 2008, and will keep those boxes of software flowing to "emerging markets" through June 2010. Of course, Microsoft spokesflacks didn't mention anything about Vista's suckage, instead insisting that "there are some customers who need a little more time to make the switch." Yeah.

We've dipped a toe or two into Vista here and there, and except for its pretty Aero interface it didn't really offer much of an advantage over Windows XP. So we stay nestled in the sturdy, comfortable embrace of XP, the OS on which this post you're reading was written, and which for us has been rock solid since its debut in 2001.

Little did we realize that Vista would be such an unpopular upgrade and lame performer, sales-wise and also in the speed and efficiency department. But we hold out hope that the upcoming SP1 (Service Pack 1), now in private beta, might offer some solace. Come on Microsoft, at least get rid of all those nagging dialog boxes everywhere in Vista. [Information Week]

Vista Battery Life Sucks

Wilson Rothman — Fri, 04 May 2007 14:40:00 EDT

I've complained for months that Vista hogs battery life. Yet whenever I would look a laptop product rep in the eye and ask (most recently, HP and Gateway), I'd get a blank stare that says, "We can't really tell you." Now, the courageous folks at ZDNet have confirmation from inside HP. The Aero Glass interface is, indeed, a leech and a half.

When Aero is turned off, battery life is equal to or better than Windows XP systems. But with it turned on, battery life suffers compared with Windows XP...Laptop users who spent extra money on powerful laptops to handle the graphics requirements of Vista and the Aero interface are forced to run the aesthetic equivalent of Vista Basic, the low-cost version of Vista, if they care about battery life.

Apparently whenever a new OS is launched, battery life suffers at the outset, then settles in once hardware makers figure out how to tweak their systems. The ZDNet report says that HP has introduced its own power management systems that balance performance and battery life, and that Lenovo is doing the same.

I don't know. If battery doesn't improve, we might start seeing more laptops with those static-electricity hand cranks on the side, like the original OLPC. – Wilson Rothman

Vista draining laptop batteries, patience [ZDNet via The Inquirer]

Microsoft Vista Hacked, Brute Force Keygen Opens Pandora's Box

Charlie White — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 09:52:57 EST

Finding the secret keys to the kingdom has become an international sport, and now we're hearing that the mighty product activation for Microsoft Windows Vista has already been compromised. Using a brute force technique of checking 20,000 possibilities an hour, it might take a few days to find a valid product key, but it works. The cumbersome technique is in the realm of the propellerheads so far, but the crack could soon be turned into an easily-used key generator that would open to sluice gates to widespread piracy.

Perhaps all this software cracking wouldn't be so tempting if Vista didn't cost about the same as a cheap PC. If it does turn out that Microsoft Windows Vista is so easily stolen, it might not be profitable to create such behemoth operating systems any more. Ubuntu, anyone? – Charlie White

Vista Brute Force Keygen [Keznews, via SlashGear]

Vista on the Mac: Only Legal With Enterprise or Ultimate Editions

Charlie White — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 13:45:03 EST

Just when we were starting to be impressed with the ability to run Microsoft Vista on the Mac, the plot thickens: If you want to legally run Vista on Parallels Desktop for the Mac, you're going to have to pony up for either the Enterprise or Ultimate Edition. Essentially, it's a money issue, where Microsoft's Home Editions of Vista costs $199 or $239, but the Enterprise and Ultimate Editions cost $299 and $399.

But wait. If you have one of the Home editions of Vista, you can still run it on Parallels on the Mac, but you'll be doing that illegally, violating your End User License Agreement (EULA). Anyway, you can still legally run any Windows Vista edition in Boot Camp on Mac OS X, but that will require a reboot, and you can't use both Vista and OS X at the same time.

This is getting pretty tangled up, making us wish for the good old days when there were only a dozen versions of Windows on the market. – Charlie White

Vista Home license forbids virtualization [MacCentral]

Upgrade to Vista, Lose Your XP Key?

Louis Ramirez — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 16:12:27 EST

Microsoft has set a lot of restrictions on Vista, but if this latest one holds true, it could mean the difference between upgrading or not for some people. Apparently if you buy an upgrade version of Windows Vista for your XP machine, Windows Vista will invalidate your XP key (so you won't be able to set up a dual-boot option nor will you be able to use that version of XP on another machine). Not only that, but if you ever uninstall Vista, you won't be able to fall back on your copy of XP anymore. Nice way to entice the upgraders, MS. – Louis Ramirez

Vista Upgrade Invalidates Your XP Key [Tom Coyote]

Everything You Wanted to Know About Vista's SideShow

Louis Ramirez — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 14:37:18 EST

One of Vista's features that has caught our attention is SideShow. Think of SideShow as Vista's sidekick. With the help of these mini apps that MS calls "gadgets," SideShow can let you perform small tasks like read e-mail, check on weather, look through photos, or flip through your list of contacts regardless of whether your PC is on, off, or in sleep mode. All you need is a SideShow-enabled device—be it an external screen on your notebook or a screen on your Media Center remote. So for instance you could....

use SideShow-enabled remotes like these to view your photos or listen to music when your PC is idle or shut down. The larger the screen the better as you'll be able to see and do more.

Or you could use a Sideshow-enabled laptop like Asus' W5Fe. Sure, you may think that color external display will zap away your battery life, but in reality it'll actually do the opposite cause rather than have to boot up your entire system to grab a small bit of info (like an address or phone number), all you need to do is drill through the controls on the external display and find the info you need in seconds rather than minutes.

Too lazy to take out your notebook? Eleksen's messenger bag takes Asus' concept one step further in that the SideShow display is built right into the bag, so you don't even have to take your notebook out to get info, just look at your bag.

Microsoft wouldn't tell us what other plans they have in store for SideShow (though at CES we did see a cell phone with SideShow built-in), but the cool thing is that there could be as many products for it as there are uses. Not only that, but if you have the know-how, you can even create your own gadget, and the more people that do that, the better uses we'll see for SideShow. – Louis Ramirez

MS Vista Gadgets [Microsoft]
Make Your Own Gadget [Microsoft]

Windows Vista in Numbers

Louis Ramirez — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 03:09:06 EST

One of the things Microsoft reiterated throughout Monday night's Vista launch was the amount of work and testing that went into Vista. Approximately 5 million beta testers checked out the OS to make sure everything ran smoothly. As far as drivers go, Vista comes with 1.5 million drivers out of the box, so the chances of your peripherals not being recognized are pretty slim. Release-wise, Vista is being rolled out in over 70 countries, 39,000 retail outlets, and thousands of OEMs. What does this all mean? Well, according to Microsoft it means there's no need to wait for that service pack. Vista should make everyone's life easier now. We're gonna take that with a grain of salt as we give Vista our own test run to see just how easier (or harder) it'll make life for us. – Louis Ramirez

Vista DRM Already Hacked?

Louis Ramirez — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 03:00:18 EST

Vista hasn't been out for more than 24 hours and yet rumors are spreading that it's already been hacked. Alex lonescu claims he's hacked Vista's Protected Media Path, a DRM that's designed to degrade the playback quality of HD video when running it on non-HDCP outputs and other hardware components that haven't been approved by Microsoft. The catch is, Alex is hesitant to release his tool fearing that when he does, he'll be swarmed by MS' lawyers. We don't blame him, though we are dying to see what he has. – Louis Ramirez

Update on Driver Signing Bypass [via Electronista]

Vista Launch Parties Kickin' off Tonight

www.gizmodo.com — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 22:08:56 EST

Yo party ~~animals~~ geeks, it's time to get that freshly dry-cleaned Zelda t-shirt on and head out for a night of Vista release partying. A bunch of retailers are hosting kickoff events all night with sports stars, local radio stations, free prizes, and fresh copies of Vista and Office 2007. Yea, we wouldn't tell our friends we were going out to wait in line for a new OS either, so tell them you're stepping out for um booze.. or something else not so nerdy. Vista is also available for download starting at midnight from the Windows Marketplace. Here's what's in store:

A few flagship CompUSA stores claim to be hosting a rager at every one of their 230 stores. They'll be closing at 9pm, reopening at 10pm, and rockin' Vista off their shelves until 2am with your local radio station DJs and a variety of unannounced prizes. They are also reporting that there will be local professional football stars at some locations, in case you're weird and want a picture of you, Vista, and Troy Aikman. They'll sleep off the booze and drink the hair of the dog again tomorrow from 7am - 9pm.

Plano, TX - Troy Aikman
Littleton, CO - Ed McCaffrey
Houston, TX - Mario Williams
San Francisco, CA - Alex Smith
San Bruno, CA - Jim Plunkett

Best Buy will be hosting Steve Ballmer, (hopefully sweating, screaming, and skipping) with FoxSports.com and Hewlett Packard at the VIP Ultimate Celebration in the Best Buy at 529 Fifth Avenue in NYC from 10pm - 1am. More sports stars and radio DJs. What's this awkward link between sports and OS loving geeks? Rumor has it there will also be fifteen other Best Buys open.

Lastly, there will be a few Circuit City locations open. For a specific list of locations, check out the list below. – Todd Haselton

Los Angeles CompUSA 745 W Huntington Dr. Monrovia, Calif. 91016 Microsoft Spokesperson: Michael Dix

Chicago Circuit City 1420 E Golf Rd. Schaumburg, Ill.60173 Microsoft Spokesperson: Greg Sullivan

Philadelphia Circuit City 4130 Concord Pike Wilmington, Del. 19803 Microsoft Spokesperson: Barry Goffe

San Francisco CompUSA 750 Market St San Francisco, Calif. 94102 Microsoft Spokesperson: Dave Wascha

Dallas - Fort Worth CompUSA 721 N Central Expy. Plano, Texas 75075 Microsoft Spokesperson: Gary Schare

Boston Circuit City 1450 Worcester Rd Natick, Mass. 01760 Microsoft Spokesperson: Pete McKiernan

Atlanta Best Buy 975 N. Point Dr. Alpharetta, Ga. 30005 Microsoft Spokesperson: Chris Flores

Seattle Best Buy 457 120th Ave NE Bellevue, Wash. 98005 Microsoft Spokesperson: Kevin Kutz/Brian Marr

Additional Retail Events will be held at:

San Francisco CompUSA 1250 El Camino Real #M3 San Bruno, Calif. 94066

Houston CompUSA 11687 Westheimer Rd. Houston, Tex 77077

Detroit Best Buy 45520 Utica Park Blvd. Utica, Mich. 48316

Tampa Circuit City 18061 Highwoods Preserve Tampa, Fla. 33647

Phoenix Best Buy 8290 W Bell Rd. Glendale, Ariz. 85308

Minneapolis - St. Paul Best Buy 1000 W 78th St. Richfield, Minn. 55423

Ft Lauderdale Miami 6001 West Sample Rd Coral Springs, Fla. 33067

Cleveland Best Buy 7400 Brookpark Rd. Cleveland, Ohio 44129

Denver CompUSA 8691 S Park Meadows Center Dr. Littleton, Colo. 80124

St. Louis Best Buy 178 THF Blvd Chesterfield, Mo. 63005

Indianapolis Best Buy 5820 E 82nd St Indianapolis, Ind. 46250

Charlotte Best Buy 8813 Carley Blvd. Charlotte, N.C. 28262

San Diego Best Buy 2110 Vista Way Oceanside, Calif. 92054

Nashville Circtuit City 545 Cool Springs Blvd. Franklin, Tenn. 37067

Kansas CityBest Buy 9301 Quivera Rd. Overland Park, Kan. 66214

Cincinnati Best Buy 865 E. Kemper Rd. Springdale Ohio 45246

Milwaukee Best Buy 2855 Mayfair Wauwatosa, Wisc. 53226

Buffalo Best Buy 1585 Nagara Falls Blvd Amherst, N.Y. 14228

New Orleans Circuit City 61119 Airport Rd. Slidell, La. 70460

Baltimore Circuit City 17766 Garland Groh Blvd. Hagerstown, Md. 21740

Richmond Circuit City 11732 W Broad St Glen Allen, Va. 23233

Washington D.C. Circuit City 8520 C Leesburg Pike Vienna, Va. 23233

Microsoft Sets Vista Launch Parties [audiovideoproducer]
Microsoft Vista Launch Parties [CircuitCity]
Midnight Madness Planned for Vista [Crave]
Microsoft to Celebrate the Worldwide Availability of Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System at Retail [Forbes]

CNet Checks Out Windows Vista: Stable, but No OS X Killer

Louis Ramirez — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 19:18:57 EST

The folks at CNET have given Windows Vista Ultimate a thorough testing. Their verdict? Buy it if it's already installed on a new PC, but skip it if you're merely upgrading. Though they found MS' new OS very stable, they felt there weren't enough new features in it to merit an upgrade. Also, chances are if you do upgrade, you'll need a stronger PC to take advantage of the new features. In other words, that old, dusty Dell ain't gonna cut it.

Among the things they did like...

were the OS' new Instant Off button which caches all your open files and lets you shut down immediately. There were also better support options throughout the OS, with a much-improved Help section that helps with troubleshooting. But in the end, Vista left CNET with that sinking "is that all" feeling.

"Compared with Mac OS X 10.4, Windows Vista feels clunky and not very intuitive, almost as though it's still based on DOS."

Ouch. And with Leopard coming up, it looks like the gap between the two operating systems will only get wider. – Louis Ramirez

Windows Vista Ultimate [CNET]

Pogue Points Out Vista's "Coincidences" with Mac OS X

Louis Ramirez — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 10:30:16 EST

Did Microsoft rip off Apple's Mac OS X when making Vista? New York Times tech superstar David Pogue takes it upon himself to highlight the "coincidences" between both operating systems and show us why they're different. Nothing like a little tech sarcasm for the holidays. Long live Mac OS X. Er, I mean Vista.

– Louis Ramirez
Vista vs OS X (Spanish) [Gizmologia]

Vista to Support HD CableCard PCs, But Not OCUR Upgrades

Charlie White — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 11:15:16 EDT

Info trickles out about the capabilities of Media Center Edition on Windows Vista, and Matt Goyer, Microsoft's blogger for the company's eHome division, offered both good news and bad news in his post from last Friday, July 28.

The bad news is that you won't be able to buy a CableCard reader off-the-shelf and upgrade an existing PC. So ATI's Open Cable Uni-directional Receiver (OCUR, pictured here) will only be available installed inside new CableLabs-certified machines containing it. The good news is Windows Vista will support up to four HDTV tuners, including two OCUR cards. In a question-and-answer format, Goyer says:

Q: Will I be able to buy a cablecard reader off the shelf, a video card off the shelf and be able to playback [OCUR] content?
A: No.
Q: Why don't you offer support for more than 2 HDTV cards?
A: It would sound like it's due to the added development and test complexity. To be clear we do support up to four tuners. For instance, one configuration in the US could be two OCUR devices with two ATSC tuners.

Sounds like Windows Vista upgraders who want to view HD cable TV on their PCs might fuel a lively black market for ATI's CableCard-reading OCUR product. Or, maybe some will just acquiesce, breaking down and buying a new PC equipped with the cards. – Charlie White

Wow, lots of interest in MCE on Windows Vista [Microsoft MediaCenter Blog, via eHomeUpgrade]

Samsung 4GB Flash Disk: Windows Vista Performance Booster

Charlie White — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 10:39:08 EDT

Samsung is beginning production of a special 4GB solid-state disk (SSD) it says will dramatically speed up notebooks and PCs when using Microsoft Windows Vista. Using a Vista feature called Windows ReadyBoost, Samsung says this little flash disk will eliminate hundreds of exasperating multi-second delays when working with the operating system. According to Samsung:

"The Windows ReadyBoost feature of the Windows Vista operating system will intelligently populate the SSD with the data a user needs before they ask for it. It readies a user's favorite applications and data in the background, accelerating everyday actions such as starting applications and switching users. When a user requests that data, rather than being limited to servicing 100-200 requests per second (as with a traditional HDD), Samsung's SSD can service up to 5000 request per second, virtually eliminating data seek delays. The 4GB SSD can work in tandem with a hybrid hard drive, coming into play as a secondary source of cached data."

Samsung says this little performance booster can be hooked up via the ATA port, and located pretty much anywhere on a motherboard. We're hoping this device will also make Windows Vista start up faster. Will we see this on Macs, too? – Charlie White

Press Release [Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.]

Last Chance: Windows Vista Beta 2 Download

Charlie White — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 10:48:18 EDT

If you're thinking of downloading Beta 2 of Windows Vista, you might want to get on it right away, because the last day for either downloading the software or ordering the DVD is today, June 30. According to Microsoft blogger Ian Moulster,

"In case you weren't aware, we are only providing a limited number of copies of Windows Vista Beta 2—either download or physical copies—and we're fast approaching the cutoff point. What this means is—if you want to get a copy, get it now (and I mean now)."

We've been toying with this Beta 2 of Windows Vista, and although we had a few installation woes—it wouldn't install on our first attempt—it's a smooth-running Beta with no crashes so far, and the new Aero interface looks positively swank. We wanted to try out the Beta version of Office 2007 along with Vista, but that didn't work out at all. It simply wouldn't install. We've heard the two don't like each other for some reason. Perhaps that's why the release of Office 2007 has been delayed again. Guess that's why they call it "Beta." – Charlie White

Get Vista beta 2 before we stop downloads/orders [Ian Moulster's Blog, via Lifehacker]

How Much is That OS in the Window?

Charlie White — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 12:40:00 EDT

Apparently there's a lot of confusion about operating systems, what they can do, and what it's like to install them. Look before you leap with a OSVids, a site that gives you an inside look at a variety of operating systems, including Microsoft Windows Vista, Ubuntu, OpenBSD, and dozens more.

Not only do these moving screenshot videos show you what it's like to install these OSes, they give you a good feel for their user interfaces and responsiveness. This is an excellent resource that can save you literally days' worth of fiddling around. – Charlie White

Now for something completely different [OSVids, via Lifehacker]

Deleting a Shortcut in Vista: Same as It Ever Was

Charlie White — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 10:06:05 EDT

Yesterday we got a series of screen shots from a tipster showing it apparently taking seven steps to delete a shortcut in Windows Vista. We decided to fire up our own copy of Windows Vista—this one is Beta 2, Build 5384—and we quickly and easily discovered that this series of pictures must be showing us the behavior of an early Beta of Windows Vista, and not that of the latest Beta 2 of Microsoft's upcoming operating system.

In Vista, we first turned off that infernal "confirm delete" preference once and for all in the Recycle Bin as we always do in XP, created a shortcut of the Windows Media Player, then quickly right-clicked that shortcut, selected Delete (or alternately, simply hit the Delete key on the keyboard), and it was immediately gone to the Recycle Bin with no warnings, questions or anything else. There it was, taking exactly the same number of steps to delete a shortcut that it always has, and using one less key than on a Mac. This video from Microsoft shows that this ease of deleting shortcuts was implemented after suggestions from beta testers. Skip to the the eleventh minute to see the part about deleting a shortcut. – Charlie White

Windows Vista Beta: Startup Shootout

Charlie White — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 14:16:17 EDT

Our esteemed frat brothers at Lifehacker first told us how to download, install and dual boot Windows Vista Beta 2 with Windows XP, and now they've gotten out the stopwatch for their first test, showing us how the startup time of the newest Microsoft operating system compares to that of its predecessor.

We had high hopes for the Vista Beta, entertaining fantasies of it booting up almost instantly, but it was not to be. Windows XP started 31% faster than Vista, taking 35.34 seconds to get to its usable state, while Windows Vista beta took 51.71 seconds. But after all, it's only a Beta; maybe the shipping version will boot faster. We're not betting on it. – Charlie White

Windows Vista Beta: The startup showdown [Lifehacker]

Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 2 Now Available

Charlie White — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 14:56:49 EDT

The Redmondians at Microsoft have finally opened the sluicegates on Beta 2 of their oft-delayed Windows Vista operating system, and your intrepid reporting team at Gizmodo jumped all over it, trying to score a copy this morning. That's right, Microsoft Windows Vista Beta 2 is now available to The Great Unwashed, but that availability is only theoretical, because the site was so crammed with eager Beta volunteers, it couldn't be downloaded.

Then when we tried to order a $10 DVD containing the software, it completely confounded our usually-perfect Firefox browsers, not letting us enter key pieces of data. "No, Gizmodo! No soup for you!" cried Microsoft's download nazi. Even though we hear Beta 2 sucks, it's nice to know Vista's available to the rest of us, even if it's only in an unfinished, patched-together, impossible-to-get version. Isn't it? – Charlie White

Try your luck—download here [Microsoft]