Microsoft officials are finally admitting what many company watchers, customers and partners have known for a while: Windows 7 is going to ship in 2009.
Specifically, Windows 7 is going to be generally available in time for holiday 2009. Windows Server 2008 R2 will ship “in the same timeframe,” officials are conceding.
I've been living with Windows 7 for some time now. Indeed, I've been using it since the first public release last fall.
At work, it has been my main machine for several months and I frequently bring it home and take it on the road. However, I have relied on my CNET-issued Windows XP machine for a number of key tasks, such as using the desktop version of Outlook and when I needed to access the Internet using a Sprint modem. (Our newsroom USB modem didn't work with the beta of Windows 7.)
Microsoft plans to test Windows 7's update mechanism by feeding users of the just-issued Release Candidate as many as 10 fake updates in the coming week, the company said Friday.
It will be the second time that Microsoft has released phony updates for Windows 7; in February, it tested the beta by delivering five bogus patches.
Microsoft is warning customers downloading the Release Candidate of its long-awaited Windows 7 operating system that its first bug has been detected, potentially causing application failures.
After all the talk about Microsoft handing a hardened version of XP to the Air Force during renegotiation talks for desktop-software contracts, as first reported by Wired, it turns out that there were some issues in the story that caused a good deal of confusion. Speaking on the record, one Microsoft employee explained exactly what it was the Air force got. As some pointed out when the story broke, if you wanted it, you can have a hardened XP image too.
Microsoft plans to issue one critical patch during its monthly patch cycle next week, plugging a critical flaw in its PowerPoint presentation program that is being actively targeted by attackers. The PowerPoint vulnerability was the only bulletin identified in the Security Bulletin Advance Notification issued today by Microsoft.
When Microsoft released a near-final version of Windows 7 on Wednesday, it did so with the awareness that it doesn't want to repeat the same mistakes it made with Windows Vista. In part, that means more testing and earlier engagement with the IT crowd.
The Release Candidate offered on Wednesday is closer to what Microsoft will release as final code than Release Candidates have been during previous Windows release cycles, and Microsoft hopes to double the number of IT pros testing Windows 7 for free during the Release Candidate phase.
Microsoft is beginning the second phase of the layoff play it announced earlier this year.
The company on Tuesday confirmed that it would be making the second series of job cuts in its ongoing campaign to reduce costs. The cuts at Redmond are said to number in the thousands and are believed to fulfil nearly all of the 5,000 layoffs the company estimated it would be making in January after posting disappointing financial results.
Microsoft is dealing with its own E3 rumors, including a new product that will bring motion-sensing controls to the 360 without a handheld peripheral. We saw the exact same technology at CES 2008. Better yet, Microsoft has been in talks to buy the company in question. Ars explores what could be the next big thing in gaming.
Windows 7 is available now for MSDN and TechNet subscribers as well as members of various other Microsoft programs. It will be made available on May 5th for the general public to try out also.
The method of installation is to burn the .iso image file onto a blank DVD disc. You can boot from the DVD you have made, or you can run it from within an existing Windows installation. Yet, if you do not have an optical drive on your computer of choice then booting from DVD is not really an option.
