所有包含 tag ‘windows’ 的文章
Windows Milestone 1 Release 2 (Part 1)
Can’t believe it? Yes, again, news about Windows 7.
It’s has been 2 months since my last post about Windows 7 Milestone 1. It was interesting and funny to watch how skeptics around the world reacted to my news. Many people denied and tried hard to prove what I posted was not true. Well, skeptics here is very reasonable but the evidences they used were merely those not-yet-updated ‘Vista’ in version windows or dialogues, and, many F words. That’s not reasonable, nether works. How desperately I hope those guys know more about software development and engineering.
You know there is something like the dark side of the force, especially when you have control on something and feel a little bit more powerful than the people you’re watching.
I’m afraid I’ll kick those guys again since today I bring you new bits of Windows 7.
This time it’s the 2nd release of Windows 7 Milestone 1. Version 6.1 (build 6574.1.{SECRET}). The {SECRET} here means I won’t expose detail.
No, even Milestone 1 isn’t a single release. Microsoft releases multiple versions of M1 with different minor version numbers. Well, for me it is the 2nd one I’ve gotten but I’ve no idea about how many releases Microsoft did before. I’ll use Win7 M1 R2, which stands for Windows 7 Milestone 1 Release 2, to describe it in the following. Please be noted, ‘Release 2’ is my naming convention, not Microsoft’s.
BTW, I do think my plain English here is OK for non-English speakers especially for readers from Europe and Asia. Anyway I’m not writing for WIRED or New York Times. I won’t provide translated local versions (What? Somebody asks what if the plain English is a fatal disaster for those native English speakers? … )
I use the same platform as for M1 R1: Intel G35 chipset motherboard, Core 2 Duo 2.66G dual core processor, 1 x 1G memory, integrated graphic card. Moderate, if not decent.
The installer is not greatly changed since M1 R1, only some words are updated from Vista to 7. Last time I use R1, the License Terms and SKU selection referred ‘Windows Vista’, now it’s changed to ‘Windows 7”.
The SKU selection shows these options:
Windows 7 Business, HomeBasic, HomePremium, Ultimate, HomeBasic N, Business N and Starter.
See some new SKUs are included however I don’t think these will definitively be the SKUs Windows 7 will provide. The installer program may inherit from some development tree so the SKU names are inherited also. Anyway, it’s not important to argue how many SKUs Win7 will bring to us. It’s much of business, not technology.
The SKU selection uses something like a grid control, the 1st column is SKU name, and 2nd, Date Modified. For all those SKUs, the date is March 2008.
An important change, also a nice improvement, is that you aren’t asked to input product key during the whole installation phase. For Vista installer, you can input a blank key and proceed but there is still a step and a text box for that purpose. Win7 M1 R2 installer simply skips this.
As in the M1 R1, Win7 installer automatically creates an additional 500.0 MB partition before system partition. A user doesn’t have control on this. No idea on what for. The partition doesn’t appear in My Computer but you can see it in disk management.
Other parts of the installation are same as in M1 R1.
The post-installation setup wizard, may be used for performance benchmarking to determine experience index, differs from that of Vista in that Win7 removes those fancy animation pictures during the process and the time it spends on this step is much less (less than 2 minutes on my platform).
Finally, after the setup here comes the product key… Yes, you can still input a blank key.
M1 R2 recognizes my G35 integrated graphic card and adapts display mode which makes my eyes comfortable at the first sight on Win7. Remember I had to find drivers for M1 R1.
The user name, machine name setup windows isn’t the default Vista style, I mean, neither Basic nor Aero. See below. The font is even Arial not Vista’s default.
Images below are clickable, click to view the large one.
Here comes the screenshots, more eye-candy elements are added into this release. I would say, Redmond’s engineers did do lots of polishing.
My Computer, watch the toolbar, 2 buttons at right. The first one is the View, the second one is used to toggle displaying preview panel. Besides that, look at the left panel, it’s redesigned, only Favorites, My Document, My Computer and Network there, more organized and simpler.
Window behavior is another area being enhanced. Double clicking on the top or bottom border of a window makes the window automatically adapts to the screen heights, but double clicking on left or right border makes nothing happen.
The arrangement of my computer changes greatly. A picture is worth… I’d better shut up now.
And, sorting options for different content.
Health Center, looks like Microsoft really starts caring your computer’s health. Besides, mind the mouse over effect.
click it, we get
Windows Health Center
let’s expand the Computer System
Windows Health Center Settings
Another great change is the Search in Start Menu. In Vista, after start typing search keywords the left half of Start Menu shows the search result. In Win7 M1 R2, the whole Start Menu area is used to show search result, including the right half which in Vista is used to display those traditional links such as My Documents, My Computer and Control Panel etc.
I personally like this change because it makes a user concentrate on results while not being disturbed by items.
There is no sidebar gadget control in system tray. Remember the vertical line of Vista’s sidebar when you move mouse on it? That’s not for Win7. Sidebar gadgets are much more similar as other objects on desktop like Recycle Bin. In Vista, you can’t click through the Sidebar area, for Win7 you can. The add gadget window looks like that in Vista.
The best enhancement comes from UAC, annoying UAC (User Account Control if you didn’t hear of it. Well… I think even a non-Vista user hear of the infamous UAC). Now we all know it was designed to annoy users but no more annoying in Win7 M1.
When you issue multiple actions which require approval from UAC. At the second request Win7 pops up a dialogue asking would you like to temporarily disable UAC thus you won’t be asked. Choose Yes and you win. This is much more user-friendly. Why didn’t you geniuses do this in Vista?
You know at this dialogue no hotkey works. I couldn’t get screenshot so I took a picture.
Video:
- smart display
- better search
- preview button
- double clicking top border to make the window auto-adept screen
- behavior of clicking separator between address box and search box
- I have other screencasts but I worry about the height can not fit in Yahoo Video’s/Metacafe’s/YouTube’s standard video size. You can’t see much details. Do you know which website can I use to upload big size video?
Tags: microsoft, software, windows, windows 7
Windows 7: Calculator and Control Panel
Windows 7 Serials Index:
1. Windows 7: The Real Thing: background and screenshots. –> This one
2. Windows 7: Follow Up: 2 new screenshots and a short piece of video.
3. Minor update: the Windows 7 Storm
4. 中文读者：你从哪里来，我的 honey？
5. Windows 7: more screenshots and screencast
6. Windows 7: Calculator and Control Panel –> This one
Handy applications in Windows 7 get upgraded, such as calculator, paint and wordpad, let’s see what’s changed in calc this time.
Windows 里那些小程序在 Win7 里也升级了，其中包括计算器，画图和写字板，这次我们先看计算器。
In earlier version of Windows including WinXP and Vista, calc provides only Standard and Scientific modes, you may not have to find out there is a Scientific mode in Calc, it’s used mostly by people like programmers who need something like HEX–>BIN conversion (don’t know what it is? forget it). Now in Win7, there are 4: Standard, Scientific, Programmer and Statistics. Other new features are History and Unit Conversion.
包括 XP 和 Vista 在内的早期 Windows 里的计算器只有 标准和科学 两种模式，当然，有些人一辈子也不需要点一次“查看”菜单去发现里面原来还有个 “科学型”，有些人则大半辈子都离不开这个“科学型”。Win7 现在扩充到了4 种：标准，科学，程序员 和 统计学。还有些新功能在下面截图里有演示：历史和单位转换。
Standard mode, 标准模式
Scientific mode，科学计算
Programmer mode, the demo video below shows in this mode. Why? because I am a developer, this is my favorite mode. Binary also displays, long live bit mask.
程序员模式，也是下面视频演示操作用的模式。
Statistics mode, 统计学模式
My earlier posts about Win7 showed Control Panel, let’s see it in action.
以前控制面板只有截图，这次是操作上的小变化。
[tags]windows, software, screenshot, screencast, video[/tags]
Tags: screencast, screenshot, software, Technology, video, windows
Windows 7: more screenshots and screencast
Windows 7 Serials Index:
1. Windows 7: The Real Thing: background and screenshots. –> This one
2. Windows 7: Follow Up: 2 new screenshots and a short piece of video.
3. Minor update: the Windows 7 Storm
4. 中文读者：你从哪里来，我的 honey？
5. Windows 7: more screenshots and screencast
6. Windows 7: Calculator and Control Panel –> This one
Click every thumbnail to view large images
Control panel
All items in control panel, now you can see which ones are newly added in Win7 Milestone 1
right click on the desktop. Here we get several new ones: Hide/Add Gadgets and a new Display command
This is the sidebar, yes the last one is the new Media Center gadget, I’ll show more about this gadget and MC later.
click ‘Add Gadget’ from Explorer or Sidebar, we get a Gadgets folder, by default, we have gadgets listed below:
click on a gadget
yes, every non-release version Windows is shipped with a feedback tool.
Internet Explorer 7: minor version changes
Remember this system properties dialogue?
And this one? Backup and recovery related settings.
Seldom do I use Windows Mail but I think the version number can be viewed as an indication (for some guys).
Well, here comes the most stirring (or heart breaking) part. Features demo: sizeable search box and pin-able start menu items
[tags]windows, microsoft, software, screenshots[/tags]
Tags: microsoft, screenshots, software, Technology, windows
Minor Update: the Windows 7 Storm
Windows 7 Serials Index:
1. Windows 7: The Real Thing: background and screenshots. –> This one
2. Windows 7: Follow Up: 2 new screenshots and a short piece of video.
3. Minor update: the Windows 7 Storm
4. 中文读者：你从哪里来，我的 honey？
5. Windows 7: more screenshots and screencast
6. Windows 7: Calculator and Control Panel –> This one
There won’t be any download link, BT seed or anything like that. I got it from an internal source, not from anywhere on the Internet. I don’t know where to download Windows 7 from the Internet. If you know, tell me.
Huge traffic since my 2 posts in the last 2 days. I just started to worry about I’ll be hunted by a big name company. But if they do that, they are confirming something… Shall I call my lawyer?
Well, one of the most interesting things in the whole story is that I find so much funny idiots who bring so much fun to me by their comments and the way in which they understand and judge things. For example, many guys said that “UI doesn’t change much, it’s fake!”, well, they think Operating Systems are game consoles, graphic things are the most important. Some others: ”the version number is 6.x, it’s not 7!”, “the Logo is same as Vista, it’s not 7!”, “the Media Center version is 6.x and shows Vista, it’s not 7!” Oh great, buffoons always speak out loudly and proudly what they ‘find out’ without knowing the context of what they see. Not being a computer professional is not, absolutely not, wrong or improper. But being a non-computer professional, you pretend to be a pro and make stupid judgment on some pro things is absolutely sad. Come on, learn something about Windows history, the development or some other common sense. You have been insulting yourself and giving me chances to see buffoonery you show. Wow really funny. :-)
I’m looking for a good DV, not a camera shipped with a cell phone. For clear video, keep tuning. Oh, by the way, let’s see what those stupid will say, I’m waiting.
[tags]windows, microsoft, software[/tags]
Tags: microsoft, software, Technology, windows
Windows 7: follow up
Windows 7 Serials Index:
1. Windows 7: The Real Thing: background and screenshots. –> This one
2. Windows 7: Follow Up: 2 new screenshots and a short piece of video.
3. Minor update: the Windows 7 Storm
4. 中文读者：你从哪里来，我的 honey？
5. Windows 7: more screenshots and screencast
6. Windows 7: Calculator and Control Panel –> This one
本只是想描述一下事实，不想引来些注意，关于上一篇 现实版 Windows 7，说明一点：都是真的。我确实姓周，可惜不叫正龙。从光盘到安装使用过程，到截图，无伪造，无 Photoshop。
我不觉得 Win7 M1 看上去没有大得变化有什么好奇怪的，特别是这个“没有大的变化”只是说 UI 而已。只有黑猩猩才总是觉得香蕉很黄很暴力就很好吃一样，傻X 总是认为界面变化很大才说明整个系统变化很大。
今天又看了一下 license。这个 M1 版本在 2008 年 5 月 7 日到期。
新截图和视频在本页最下面。
I was about to share something interesting about Windows 7 in my last post, Windows 7: The Real Thing. The ISO image, installation, evaluation and the screenshots are all real. I mean there is no Photoshop or anything like that involved.
I’m not a person who makes himself complacent by faking something hot, neither will I be unhappy if someone denies the real information I posted. I don’t mean to draw much attention, especially from those suckers. When I post images, there is Photoshop, when a piece of video, there is something called Premiere, or DreamWorks?
I don’t think there is anything wrong, disappointing or weird that Windows 7 Milestone 1 isn’t greatly different from Vista. It’s only Milestone 1 so lots of code may be reused. Besides, even we can’t see much visual changes (say, user interfaces), that doesn’t mean Win7 internals don’t change greatly.
Here from the release notes, I read
The software will stop running on May 7, 2008. You may not receive any other notice. You may not be able to access data used with the software when it stops running.
性能监视器，layout 变化了些。Performance monitor， layout changes compared with that of Vista。
可靠性监视器。Reliability monitor。
比较完整的 boot 过程，界面和查看信息，本来想录一下 Media Center，不过最后发现手机不够好，不清楚，讲究一下吧。
Boot process, view related information. The Media Center part isn’t clear enought b’coz my Treo 750’s camera…
[tags]windows, microsoft, software[/tags]
Tags: microsoft, software, Technology, windows
现实版 Windows 7
Windows 7 Serials Index:
1. Windows 7: The Real Thing: background and screenshots. –> This one
2. Windows 7: Follow Up: 2 new screenshots and a short piece of video.
3. Minor update: the Windows 7 Storm
4. 中文读者：你从哪里来，我的 honey？
5. Windows 7: more screenshots and screencast
6. Windows 7: Calculator and Control Panel
最近出了几个 Windows 7 的消息，梦话我不擅长，打击梦话还是可以的。
事实是，Windows 7 的第一个 Milestone 确实出来了，真正样子离那些臆想自然很远。
M1 里比较新的东西有：支持多个不同的显示适配器，也就是可以在同一台机器上同时使用不同显卡接多个显示器；更新更强的 Media Center。另外按 Win7 的计划，只有 XDDM 驱动才能被使用，为 XP 认证的都不行了。
Win7 规划的发布步骤是出三个 Milestone，然后是 Beta，RC，RTM。M1 是 2008 年 1 月，M2 是 4/5 月，M3 是 3 季度，Beta 和 RC 待定，RTM 大概是 2009 的 下半年。算下来，也就是 Vista 发布后的 3 年，3 年一升级也不算差，比 Vista “5年才搞定”的名声要好得多。
拿到 M1 ISO 为 6519.1.071220-1525，IA32 和 X64 都有，带或者不带 debug 信息随选，Free 是不带的，Checked 是带的。
安装机器是 Bealake/G33 主板，板载显卡，另外一块 ATI X300SE 128M，Core 2 Duo 2.66G，1G 内存，这个配置不算高，正好看看跑得顺畅不。板载显卡用 Vista 的驱动可以安装，chipset inf 因为要检查版本就没装了，ATI 卡始终没有可用的驱动，放弃。
安装界面与过程和 Vista 很相似，甚至在选择不同版本的时候字样还是 Vista Ultimate，Vista Home Premium 等，不过 Pre-Release 协议文本里已经写成 “Windows 7” 了。分区界面自动划出一个 500M 的分区，貌似是支持 EFI 的缘故，这个不确定。中间会重启一次，这次之后再重启就进入 Win7 了。
启动后的第一次设置和 Vista 相同，包括帐户名，机器名，时区，桌面背景等。在启动界面的下方，写着大大的 “Windows 7 Ultimate”
以下缩略图点击均可查看大图
桌面，右下角的字样和 feedback tool 是标配
因为是 M1 的缘故，和 Vista 外观并无非常大的区别，版本还在 6.x 徘徊。
自带了一些新程序—-不过不意味着最终的 Win7 也会带这些—- XPS Viewer EP，查看 Office 2007 文档的工具，其实在 XPS Essentials Pack 也有了。
PowerShell 已经放进来了。
右下角的托盘里不再显示 Sidebar 控制了，其实我是想关掉 Sidebar 的—-在用到 42 寸显示器之前都会让它关着。管理 systray 上的图标，有了这个新界面。
控制面板里多了一些东西，比如 Recovery Center，调字体大小的 Display，Windows Sensors，
[tags]windows, microsoft, software[/tags]
Tags: microsoft, software, Technology, windows
售 Windows XP
用 Vista 有 9 个月了，现在觉得没什么问题了，所以原来自用的 Windows XP With SP2 简体中文版想卖掉，700 人民币。这是零售版本，享受所有权益，比方心里不爽了有问题了去折腾微软的客服。
所有内容如图
点击查看大图
点击查看大图
点击查看大图
点击查看大图
[tags]windows[/tags]
上线的上线，改名的改名
微软 Windows Live 的中国内地地图服务上线了，经鉴定，不错。超过 Google Ditu。
我说 Live Ditu 强，是因为第一，左边栏可收，即可以全屏宽度显示地图，可视面积大点总是方便些，Google Ditu 定死了就那么大的地方显示；第二，搜了几个地方，发现有些周边细节信息 Google Ditu 上没有，比方某犄角旮旯地方的公寓，加油站等，这些信息往往可在迷途时作参照，还是十分有用的，不过 Google Ditu 是不是总是比 Live Ditu 少就不知道了，这得大量数据比较才有结论；最后，也是最大的差别是，Live Ditu 提供“公交”换乘路线，不像 Google Ditu 提供的是“行车”路线，对有车的哥们当然 Google 的不错，不过要坐公交的话，还得是 Live 。
Live Ditu 目前包含中国 114 个城市，不容易。这个产品来自微软之前收购的 GeoTango ，创建者是 Dr. Vincent Tao ，收购后他就在 Virtual Earth 部门做个 Senior Director 了。在 Radar 的采访里，小 Tao 同学也说，公交换乘信息是中国用户最渴求的地图功能，我们的第一个 release 可不能没有，这些行车数据信息来自 AutoNavi，一家中国公司。凭借目前的产品，Tao 自信地认为 百度 和 Google 中国都不是 Live Ditu 的真正竞争者。
SWsoft 总算给自己挑了个正常点儿的名字。瞧 VMWare，即明了又有想象力，SWSoft 档次低了点儿，真是不如产品名字 Parallels 够劲，所以，他们改名叫 Parallels 了。在 VMware，Xen，Kvm 等各色虚拟软件出头的日子了，SWsoft 和他的 Parallels 好像不恰当地分离了，企业和产品知名/美誉度没有获得适当的交互，划不来，大多数时候，Plesk 和 Paralells 都比 SWsoft 响亮。
VWware 今年上市来表现不错，目前市值 370多亿 的样子，华尔街好像很懂 虚拟化 似的，此类公司的前景看好，市场容量应该也不止一家公司，Parallels 上市倒也不是海市蜃楼。
[tags]live, windows, microsoft, map, ditu, google, swsoft, vmware, parallels, virtualization[/tags]
Tags: ditu, google, Journal, live, map, microsoft, parallels, swsoft, virtualization, vmware, windows
传奇诞生之夜
这年月，半夜开始排队准备血拼的事儿似乎只轮得到 Apple，SONY 或者 任的 WII，不过十多年前，这等荣光也属于，Microsoft。
1995 年的 8 月 24 号，Windows 95 上市了，那年夏天……
我 97 年进大学的时候，系里乃至学校里都还没几个机房有 Windows 机器－－当然，以你的智商，应该知道说的是 Windows 95 而不是 Windows 3.X－－最后我们终于在圣殿山的 Intel 实验室里看到武装到牙齿的 Windows 95 奔腾。你知道，为了庆祝我们的图形学上机课终于在这里的 Windows 奔腾 机上进行，那天晚上我还特地买了瓶可乐在机房边做边喝边庆祝。现在的小年轻是不是到什么 DOS 下的 copy 和 copy -x 的，所以当我看到 Windows 95 复制文件时那个飞舞的小图标还会忽闪小翅膀的时候，从我嘴里喷出来的饮料直接击穿了前三排上机同学的胸膛。
Windows 95 是正式的至少在口头与 DOS 划清界限的产品，和 DOS 以及鞋盒子似的 3.X 相比，GUI 看上去冲击力极强，外带还支持一堆新 feature。在 98 出来之前，95 还出过 OSR1 和 OSR2 两版升级。我记得 OSR2 还是很流行的，大家都俗称 Win97，盗版光盘上都直接打 97 之名，结果来访的中英教育交流访问学者英方代表认定中国存在地下秘密拳会，打算在 97 回归时展开大规模清洗活动。
下午下课到晚饭之间这段时间，穿越宿舍区到食堂打饭的路上，总能听闻无数间寝室传来后来被回过味来的我们称为“当当当”的 Windows 95 启动音乐的轻响，那感觉搀合着校广要么恶心要么极恶心的播音，定格了我 4*365 - 4*2*30 - 4*1*30 - x - y …… 个傍晚。
关于这个启动音乐的来历，搜一把就很清楚了，幕后的故事不复杂。大多数音乐作品和嵌入式系统一样，按 royalty 收费，每次演奏/播放时都算钱，没有人透露过相关细节，所以我们推测，如果 Microsoft 这么干，让 Windows 95 每次启动时播放都上贡的话，那作者 Eno 的钞票肯定会马上会超过 Bill，所以，Microsoft 很可能付了 flat royalty，这笔钱仍然应该是很多很多，堆得很高很高，直达同温层，结果撞飞了在海南上空翱翔的美军电子战侦察机，酿成了一场中美冲突。
95 的发布会上，Bill 请来了 Rolling Stones 爆出 Start Me Up 为 Windows 95 上市做推广，这等打点回头看去毫不过分，因为，95 是 Microsoft 此前到当时最重要的产品，因为，这是个传奇诞生之夜。
[tags]microsoft, story, history, windows, software[/tags]
Tags: Article, history, microsoft, software, story, Technology, windows
把 Vista 的小特性导入 XP
和 Flip3D 和 工具栏窗口预览类似，又有些 Vista 上的特性通过第三方软件在 XP 等前辈版本上实现了。
QTAddressBar 实现了 Vista 上的 Breadcrumbs 浏览效果。Breadcrumbs 是 Vista 对地址栏上显示路径方式做的不错改进，效果如上图。地址栏上每个目录都是 node，可以单击转到，也可以通过点击右箭头查看该文件夹下的文件夹，用了几个月觉得非常方便。
QTAddressBar 的 Breadcrumbs 模拟几乎完美，包括外观和功能。单击，列表都可以，在空白地方单击转为地址输入模式，手工输入地址的自动补全全都不差。
官方网站八成访问不了，如果不想费功夫，可以从这里下载。需要 .Net Runtime。
Explorer Breadcrumbs 也模拟了 Breadcrumbs，不过实现没有 QTAddressBar 完善，比如把 EB 工具栏移动后，有些 node 就不见了，只有鼠标划过才会显示，另外就是和 XP 主题配合不好，字体和颜色不太顺眼。最后，EB 在地址输入模式，没有正牌地址栏的目录自动提示了，是个难以忍受的缺失。
我当然还是推荐 QTAddressBar，如果设置不显示 Windows 自己的地址栏而只有 QTAddressBar，那效果就挺像 Vista 了。 作者还有另一个软件 QTTabBar，是个在 explorer 加 tab 的软件，也不错，CyberNetNews 介绍过。
最后要说一句，有人会问，如果 Vista 上众多有用的小改进都移植到了 XP 上，那仅从这个角度说，还用升级到 Vista 吗？解答这个疑问的方法有：1. 看 Vista 和 XP 的 code，了解这些特性的不同实现方法或许会改变你的看法–不过不是所有人都有这个机会和必要；2. 简单一点，看看 Ars 的系列文章 Windows Vista: more than just a pretty face ，还有 Windows Vista: Under the Hood ；3. 再简单一点，自己用用对比一下才清楚 :-)。
[tags]software, vista, xp, windows, explorer breadcrumbs, qtaddressbar, qttabbar[/tags]
Tags: explorer-breadcrumbs, qtaddressbar, qttabbar, software, Technology, vista, windows, xp
