This post has been brought to you by Michael Domingo, executive editor of new media. Michael's filling in for Doug, who'll be back for Friday's edition.
I've been using Microsoft Security Essentials for a few months now, ever since it was downloadable. Good thing too -- the license to my other AV solution expired just as MSE went online and I had no budget to buy anything else.
MSE has been solid so far, quietly alerting me to intrusions once in a while. But, like anything that's free, I've got two worries with MSE: One, how much longer will it remain free? Two, how long will it continue to keep out the riff-raff (that is, will I have to pay in more ways than one later on)?
So tell me: Am I foolish to be so trusting of MSE? What else should I be doing as a fall-back plan? If you're using it, what are your experiences with MSE so far? Send in your answers to [email protected].
Posted by Michael Domingo on 11/04/2009 at 1:17 PM5 comments
As promised, here are more of your Windows 7 migration stories. Some of them went swimmingly, while others...not so much:
As an MCSD, MCSE and MCDA, I figured I would have no problem installing Windows 7 from the DVD Microsoft sent me. It should have been a clean upgrade for my quad-core system running Vista 64-bit with the latest service pack. Wrong! First the installation adviser demanded I uninstall Live OneCare, which I did, leaving my computer unprotected for several hours until installing the free Microsoft Security Essentials. Worse, I rely on my database servers and when I tried to install Windows 7, it demanded I uninstall the latest version of SQL Server, which I would expect to be compatible with Windows 7. The uninstall wizards run per instance, so I had to run the uninstall multiple times for each of my server instances. Worst of all, the Windows 7 installation then hung on a bogus warning saying that I was trying to upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit or vice versa, when I was upgrading from 64-bit Vista and had selected 64-bit Windows 7.
At this point I gave up; the risk to my programs and data from upgrading to Windows 7 was unacceptable. The MSDN site download speed was crawling, perhaps because of developers downloading Windows 7. It took all night to download the gigabyte-plus needed to revive my database servers and an hour the next morning to install and configure it. As someone professionally committed to drinking the Microsoft Kool-Aid, this was a disappointing experience!
-Martin
I luckily fall into the category of user who had a flawless upgrade experience from Vista. I purchased a tricked-out HP Pavilion Elite back in December '08 that came preloaded with Vista 64 Home Premium (quad-core, 4GB, 1TB). In August '09, thanks to MSDN Access, I was able to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and followed the Microsoft instructions to a T. My programs and data were backed up, the OS was upgraded, the applications and data restored without a flaw. I was told in advance which drivers and applications would be incompatible (minimal) post-upgrade, so I uninstalled them and updated them after the upgrade.
In the three months since then, I've had zero problems with the fabulous new OS. I should mention that Vista caused no problems for me either, but having a high-end machine certainly helped in that regard.
-Greg
I upgraded my home computer on Saturday. I bought a new hard drive and did a clean install. I already upgraded from XP to Vista and didn't want to run into problems, nor did I want to lose my old installation of Vista should major problems arise. The clean install went well until it asked me to enter the product key. I kept getting a message that the product key was invalid. I called the Microsoft support number only to reach a message saying that they were closed! I called at 3:30 p.m. PDT on a Saturday. I was stunned to find that Microsoft support was closed after such a huge launch. Most people upgrading would be home users and installing outside normal work hours.
It took about a half-hour to find a fix on the Internet (fortunately, I have more than one PC). The fix was to continue the install leaving the product key blank. Then, I needed to go back and upgrade Windows 7 over the existing copy just installed. It worked and accepted my product key.
-Lloyd
Did two in-place upgrades from Vista with no problems: 32-bit Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium, and 32-bit Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate. But I did an upgrade of Vista Business to Windows 7 Enterprise (32-bit) and Symantec Endpoint Protection gave lots of problems and still can't get Cisco VPN client to install without a blue screen. At least Windows 7 recovers and reboots back into Windows 7.
My assistant and I each did an upgrade of Vista Business to Windows 7 Enterprise (64-bit) with no problems. I have done fresh installs of Windows 7 Enterprise (64 bit) on three new hard drives and had no problems. So our experience has been mostly favorable.
-Greg
I have not run into this issue after upgrading four different machines, but what I did experience were long upgrade times and performance that I was not fully satisfied with when compared with the RC I was running (although performance was definitely improved over Vista).
-Asif
I migrated the family PC this weekend from XP to 7. I have been migrating computers since moving from DOS and I must say that Microsoft has finally made migration a boring exercise -- boring because it did everything it was supposed to do and I did not spend time troubleshooting errors. It just worked. I spent most of my time in two of three phases: pre-install (making a fresh image in case I wanted to revert back to XP, making extra backups of specific data that I never want to lose since the XP migration is a fresh OS install, and using Microsoft's Easy Transfer feature which did exactly what it said it would do) and post-install (again, Easy Transfer and then deciding which programs to reload on 7 and installing them). The installation phase of 7 on the PC was smooth and quick.
One of my concerns was that the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor told me that three of my hardware components would have issues with 7. I assumed that was due to the driver being an XP driver and had Windows 7 drivers waiting. Turns out that the install disk had the correct drivers for the hardware already and set them up with no problems.
-Clyde
I was able to complete an XP to Windows 7 Pro upgrade with no major problems. I made an image copy of my XP system using Clonezilla, made backups of my data using conventional copy tools and also ran the Microsoft transfer tools so I was covered for possible issues. I then used Laplink PCmover to capture my settings as I didn't have time to do a clean install. Ran the Custom Install and re-ran Laplink PCmover. So far, the only software needing to be reinstalled was my AV and firewall. System has been working fine since Oct. 23. Boot and shutdown times are much improved.
System is an AMD X2 2.8 GHz with 4GB of RAM and 250GB disk. As my hardware is 64-bit-capable, I tried to use the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Pro but it balked at upgrading an XP 32-bit system. Understand MS is looking at this. May retry the upgrade if MS provides a fix.
-Keith
On my test box, I installed Windows 7 as a standalone and fresh install. Surprisingly, the install when fairly smooth with only 512MB of RAM and 40GB HD. The installation took two reboots due to my machine being low on resources. It is my guess that the Windows 7 upgrade woes are probably due to not enough RAM installed, or marginal RAM.
I personally don't like or trust upgrades with any OS including Linux. The best success I have had with upgrades is to use a fresh HD set to master, and set the other existing HD to slave. You will also have to unattach the existing HD until the new OS is installed, and all application software is installed. Now you can reattach the other HD, then invoke the 'F key' combination to choose (in this case) Windows 7 to boot. You can now drag all your data to the new drive, or remove the OS and use the drive as a data drive. I hope this helps those who are having trouble with their upgrades.
-Dan
I spent two days trying to upgrade Vista Ultimate to Windows 7. If I wasn't paying close attention, I would've discovered the computer in a BSOD state. Otherwise, I would notice that it was hanging at 62 percent for too long and I would eventually do a force reboot. Of course, I tried the recommendations from Microsoft, which you have posted, but to no avail. The results were always the same. In the end, I got so fed up that I installed from scratch. I am now trying to do the same on another Vista OS. In this case, I discovered that the computer didn't have SP1 installed. The strange thing is that it doesn't want to take SP1. I have only just begun trying to conquer that issue, however. But I am expecting to run into the same issues as with the other upgrade and wonder whether I should even bother.
I have worked professionally in IT for over 10 years. It was after about three years of fighting with 98, 2000, XP, NT4, ES4, ad nauseum that I began the trek into open source. Despite whatever headaches I have had with Linux/Unix installs, drivers, etc., I was always able to find a community of users wiling and ABLE to help you out. In this case, whereas Microsoft holds all the cards in its hand (proprietary), there is little support the community can offer and Microsoft itself seems surprised by the problems that have arisen. Hence, the solutions Microsoft can offer are limited. Whereas I originally thought Windows 7 would be a game winner for Microsoft, I now think we may see another Vista catastrophe.
-Curtis
Meanwhile, Chris has a few tips for Curtis' problems:
Curtis, you must have what is called an "isolated issue" (see here and here). I haven't tried doing upgrades with Windows 7, but the clean installs I've done have gone without issue. SP1 on Vista is a requirement for an upgrade to 7. In my experience with Windows, the safest bet is to always do a clean install. It has the added benefit of not inheriting any cruft, problems, registry bloat and other unexplained idiosyncrasies of the previous OS.
Or, instead of upgrading to Windows 7, you could try upgrading to Ubuntu 9.10.
-Chris
Tell us what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/04/2009 at 1:17 PM1 comments
Doug is out for today, but will be back for Friday's edition. Meanwhile, helping fill in for him today is Online News Editor Kurt Mackie.
Microsoft rolled out its latest OS last month during a profound world economic downturn. The word "consumer" may finally disappear from the U.S. lexicon as credit-busted, increasingly jobless Americans hunker down, saving perhaps a few lumps of coal for the approaching winter.
Though consumers actually bolstered Vista sales when it was first introduced in late 2006, Vista's poor driver support early on, as well as its additional hardware requirements, steered many IT pros away from upgrading. In fact, IT pros showed such a resolute rejection of Vista that about 80 percent of commercial PCs still use XP, according to a Forrester Research third-quarter report.
Even the ebullient Steve Ballmer wasn't particularly optimistic about current IT spending prospects. He told reporters in South Korea on Monday that while the economy may see some growth, there will be no "recovery." He also acknowledged tight budgets for IT departments.
Given all of that, Microsoft has priced a full version of Windows 7 Professional at $299, according to the Microsoft Store (it's $18 cheaper at Amazon.com). However, if you have a copy of XP or Vista licensed to run on a particular PC and you want to upgrade that same machine to Windows 7, the upgrade version of Windows 7 Professional costs $100 less.
"Necessity is the mother of invention," it's said. Some people are eyeing that $100 "discount" by trying to use Windows 7 upgrade media to perform clean installs. This Windows 7 upgrade "hack," which could cut into Microsoft's Windows revenues, elicited a reaction from the company: The hack apparently can work, according to Microsoft, but the resulting installation is illegal per Microsoft's end user license agreement.
The illegalness of this Windows 7 upgrade hack was emphasized by Eric Ligman, a global partner experience lead at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group, in a Microsoft blog. A reader of that blog shot back, saying, "Why wouldn't Microsoft make a gesture of good faith by rewarding savvy computer users who can pull off the hack with this $80-$100 discount? It sounds like good PR to me, but I am just a savvy computer user, not a PR guy."
Of course, those IT pros who deal with Microsoft's volume licensing policies will likely submit meekly to them rather than try any sort of hack. It's the consumers, that vanishing breed, that will still fight back against a Microsoft policy that compels them to associate the OS license with their aging PC hardware. For them, upgrade pricing and full-edition pricing just seem designed to give Microsoft's profits an arbitrary boost.
Should Microsoft give consumer users a break? And have any of you actually tried the upgrade hack? Answers welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Kurt Mackie on 11/04/2009 at 1:17 PM14 comments
There are several kinds of Office users: those that refuse to budge from the older versions with the older interface, those that moved to 2007 and like the ribbon...and those that moved to 2007 and don't like the ribbon. Then there's me. I found the ribbon easier to learn than I anticipated, but am still sometimes befuddled as to how to perform basic functions -- just like Office 2003!
When it comes to migration, there are also several kinds of users. Some may still refuse to budge from the older versions with the older interface. Others on these older versions may decide that Office 2003 is too old and jump to 2010. Ribbon lovers likewise fall into a couple of categories. Many believe the big advance was 2007 itself. Power users may upgrade to get the latest and greatest features.
My 2007 upgrade was pretty simple. I set Word up to save in the 2003 format so I don't spit out .DOCX files that most can't read. Corporations with custom apps, lots of VBA scripts and more files don't have it so easy. Microsoft hopes to help with a set of compatibility tools: the Office Migration Planning Manager. The company is confident that overall compatibility is good, that files are more or less interchangeable, and that VBA scripts will work.
Have you taken a look at 2010? What's your Office upgrade strategy? Fire up Word Version Whatever and write me a note at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/02/2009 at 1:17 PM2 comments
Microsoft wants to make Windows 7 as smooth as possible. It's trying to fix some upgrade glitches, has XP Mode for older apps, and now has a bevy of new support options.
You can get questions answered via e-mail, Twitter, the Web and -- for the truly well-heeled -- the good, old-fashioned telephone. There's also a set of online repair and diagnostic tools called Fix It, which can pop up when a problem is detected.
Speaking of online support, here's a pet peeve: When I used DSL, the connection would die literally every few days. I'd call support and they'd try to talk me into using online tools. What part of "my connection is dead" did you not understand?
Posted by Doug Barney on 11/02/2009 at 1:17 PM2 comments
Michael is skeptical about whether any of Gartner's analyses -- including it's most recent one about Microsoft's relevance (or lack thereof) -- should be taken with more than a grain of salt:
You're wrong in taking Gartner somewhat seriously, but then we've got to talk about something don't we?
I remember reading many years ago the Gartner report predicting OS2's success over Windows. What would be very interesting is an evaluation of the reliability of predictions from the likes of Gartner, Forrester, etc. I suspect that the result would be similar to the reliability of the prediction for the 10th day in a 10-day weather forecast -- most but not all the time will it be wrong and only as good as a random guess across reasonable possible outcomes.
-Michael
Here are more thoughts on XP Mode, including a tip for a reader who wrote in last week to wonder why his computer wasn't enabled for it:
I work for a small water utility. We use a handful of legacy apps to manage our water infrastructure, automated meter reads and billing. Some of those legacy apps don't have viable alternatives, and up until a couple of years ago required Windows 2000 to work! Needless to say, those same apps won't have a Vista/Windows 7 version available for years. XP Mode is a game saver for us.
-George
I am using Windows 7 on a 3-year-old Dell laptop with XP Mode running fine. For Chris, your PC probably run XP Mode since it's a quad-core but you may have to turn virtualization on in the BIOS, as I did.
I like the ability to use USB drives in a virtual environment and I have loaded a few apps that run in XP without having to buy an upgraded version.
-Anonymous
Finally, readers share their Windows 7 migration stories. While none reported having the same issues a few Vista users had last week (endless reboots, anyone?), some installations went better than others:
Updated from Vista yesterday. Went great! One hour and 45 minutes. Put in the CD, answered some questions, waited, put in the license code, waited. All was done. No data loss. No problem.
-Keith
I also had Windows 7 installation woes, but unlike most complaints I've heard about, I knew I had to install clean since I was using XP on my desktop.
I installed another hard drive in my computer, made it the primary boot drive in the BIOS and proceeded to install from DVD. I experienced the same type of install stoppages with the install hanging at about 62 percent. I tried various versions of Windows 7 and different DVDs from my TechNet RTMs but got the same results. Finally, I changed the hard drive from the Seagate I installed (and which was working fine with XP before it was wiped) to a Western Digital. Install breezed through the routine in about an hour. Don't know why it worked but all is fine now. I also reinstalled XP on the Seagate and that works fine when I select it for boot via the motherboard BIOS.
-Frank
After the second try, all went smoothly. Key for me was that I had forgotten to disable my firewall and anti-virus. Maybe that's a hint for others. Good luck.
-L.M.C.
I purchased the Windows 7 Pro upgrade (download) and burned it to disk from the ISO file. I attempted to install it to a blank, new hard drive. I kept waiting for a prompt to point to the Vista install or to insert the Vista disk to upgrade from, but it never came. The install kept going and going until the very end when it prompted for the product key. All it returned was an invalid key error with no explanation. A call to Microsoft support told me that wouldn't work and I'd have to install it over my existing Vista installation. Sorry, no way was I going to do that, so on to Plan B.
I had Windows 7 RC installed on another drive. I put that one back in and ran the upgrade again. It came back and said I couldn't upgrade but would need to do a clean install over the existing Windows 7 RC, so I tried that. Like magic! Everything worked just as expected! It was installed on an 80GB drive so I just ghost drive-to-drive to my new 500GB drive, and all is well.
-Rich
My Ultimate clean install was flawless -- and included a RAID 0 setup. Since getting rid of Vista, I now have old programs working that didn't.
-Anonymous
I was upgrading a Vista Ultimate 32-bit to Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. I knew from the outset that I would have to do a custom install, but from what I had read, all I needed to do was insert the 64-bit disk and select Custom from the installation menu. After inserting the disk, I got the message that I would have to boot from the DVD to install the 64-bit versions of Windows 7. I shut down the computer and restarted to enter the BIOS Setup to change the boot order and boot from DVD, inserted the DVD and restarted, booting from the disk. Installation began then seemed to freeze at the blue screen with the white dove. Removed the disk and booted to Vista. I thought I could install the 32-bit and then install the 64-bit. Started the 32-bit DVD and received an error message that Windows 7 could not identify the drives on my machine. Rebooted and tried again, same error. Went to the Internet and searched for the error message.
Recommended fix was to run System File Checker as Administrator and if corrupted, do a reinstall of Vista. Ran SFC, found corruption, reinstalled Vista. While searching the Web for the solution, I ran across an entry which says that the install process spends a lot of time at the "blue screen with white dove"
before continuing the installation process. Back to the boot from DVD, blue screen with white dove, and went to dinner. Came back and install was completing normally. Now I'm the proud owner of Windows 7 64-bit.
-Geoff
I have done several clean installs of Windows 7 Enterprise and they all have gone very well. In general, it takes 20 to 30 minutes. Last night, I upgraded my home machine from Vista Home Premium 32-bit to Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, and it took awhile but went great. The process was: Boot from the Windows 7 x64 DVD, choose Custom Install, follow prompts. It took 45 to 60 minutes.
When done, I could log in to Windows 7 x64 and my User, Program Files and Windows were in Windows.old. Windows 7 found all my devices and downloaded drivers for them. The only one it had any trouble with was on old generic modem (which I had even forgotten was in the machine), which it simply could not identify. My machine is running faster and I'm quite happy.
-Craig
My install went fine. How did I do it? Well, I fell for the Apple commercials that said since I was moving to a new OS from XP, it was just as easy to go to Mac. See, my Lenovo X60 tablet is getting long in the tooth: The screen is VERY dim compared to new systems, it's been really slow lately and it runs really hot on my lap (talk about chestnuts on an open fire). Plus, I've read how people have MacBooks that are 5 years old and still run like champs.
So last week I got fed up and picked up a MacBook Pro 2.53GHz (twice my tablet's 1.2GHz processor) with 4GB RAM (which I also have on the tablet but can't use because the system only supports 32-bit processing) and a 250GB drive (versus my tablet's 320GB). I loaded Bootcamp and VMware's new virtualizer, then loaded Windows 7. What a difference! The screen is bright and crisp, the bottom doesn't get hot at all on my lap, the system is really thin, and apps just fly. Oh, and I got a free wireless scanner/printer combo, to boot! I did buy the One-to-One training because it will take awhile to get this veteran Windows user over to the Apple environment, but in the meantime, I have Windows 7 as a backup. But who knows, maybe I'll just stick with Windows 7 and not worry about the Apple environment at all.
-Anonymous
Watch this space for more Windows 7 migration stories on Wednesday! Meanwhile, share your thoughts by leaving a comment below or sending an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted on 11/02/2009 at 1:17 PM1 comments
Doug had a few choice words for the analysts at Gartner this week after they questioned whether Microsoft was still relevant. But the firm didn't score too many points with readers, either:
You're pretty spot-on when it comes to Gartner, only you're not hard enough on them. Other than keeping the unemployment levels from rising, I see little need for the spittle these "analyst" companies produce. How can anyone take seriously these companies and authors (I use that term loosely), when whatever they write is never held accountable? They don't have a long enough track record of correct observations to give any of their poorly conceived reports any credence.
We can be grateful for two things: They keep people employed (however illegitimately) and they put their write-ups online so they kill fewer trees. Unfortunately, actually reading the reports leads to a loss in productivity and dead brain cells (sometimes followed quickly by an Excedrin experience).
-Scott
Gartner is just too wrapped up in all its own hype. One of the problems with a lot of groups like Gartner is that they haven't been around long enough to remember their IT history. Vendors have been predicting the demise of the fat client for almost as long as the PC has existed. As early as 1984, IBM was pushing diskless PCs which booted off of a central server where its applications were to reside. Every few years, a new incarnation of thin client products appears using the latest variation of the client/server model.
To be sure, there is plenty of room for thin clients and the client/server model, but the model is not a panacea! In the right niche, these products have always done well, but as a replacement for a generic computing platform, they have never gone anywhere -- and there is no reason we should think they are going anywhere now.
-Marc
Of course, Microsoft is still relevant. They have the ultimate fat client, but you can argue that they have a pretty good thin client since XP is running on so many netbooks.
I do have a gripe with their Windows Mobile (I have not tried WiMo 6.5 yet). Through version 6.0, I have had to reset my phone once per day. They can't blame that on secondary hardware vendors. Thankfully, it just hangs instead of popping up a BSOD. They have almost forced me to go to an iPhone.
-Joseph
You wrote, "Those who can't do, analyze." Ouch, that hurts.
-Anonymous
Doug asked recently whether XP Mode is worth all the hassle of managing, updating and securing. Here are a few of your thoughts:
Yes, XP Mode is worth the trouble. I don't say this because I run old applications, but because I run a new application: VMware vSphere Client, which is used to manage my vSphere 4 virtual machines. It ran with no issues under XP and Vista, but will not run under Windows 7. This client was released in May, and as of this e-mail, an updated client has still not been released, and VMware does not seem to be in a hurry to update it. Without XP Mode, I would either have to wait to move to Windows 7, keep a separate machine for managing my vSphere virtual machines, or run Virtual PC.
-Asif
I would opt for XP Mode for my firm. As an insurance agency, we have a lot of value already associated with older software that would cost us significantly if we had to upgrade them, as well as our operating system. We will also face the problem of buying new machines. We had a hard enough time getting XP in the Vista era on new equipment. I would see it as marginally impossible in the Win 7 era without XP Mode.
Our office runs a fax server using Winfax Pro 10.03 (upgraded to 10.04 for XP SP2 and SP3 communications issues) with a client on every machine. I know there are other software products out there that do the same or similar, but why do I want to invest in something new to replace something that still works well? This is one of ten to 12 pieces of critical operational software that we need that I know Windows 7, out of the box, will not support. I know that at some point, you have to bite the bullet and move on. But Vista wasn't it and I will not risk my company on Windows 7 not being it also.
-Paul
I installed Windows 7 Ultimate on my Lenovo M58 Tower about a week ago. This machine is about nine months old, so I assumed it would have the virtualization technology BIOS setting needed to run XP Mode. Unfortunately, it didn't. I updated the BIOS and still am not able to enable virtualization technology. I don't know what the hardware requirements are for this BIOS option, but I'd think with a Core2Quad processor and 4GB RAM, I wouldn't have a problem. In an XP environment, not having access to Active Directory, Group Policy or any other Win Server 2003/Windows XP-friendly applications is a problem.
-Chris
I say, forget about XP Mode in Windows 7. Why not just keep XP and run Windows 7 virtually if you need some new tricks?
I think Microsoft has lost the plot completely. If they want to know why sales have plummeted since Vista's release, they should look at what benefits the new OSes have over the old (besides some new colours and wallpapers). In fact, I struggle to see any major difference between Vista and Windows 7 at all -- and I'll bet so will most of the small-business owners who make up a large part of Microsoft's new sales. Does either Windows 7 or Vista address the fact that Microsoft want us to pay for their software when it's full of bugs and holes you can drive a truck through?
-Paul
On that note, here are a few more of your Windows 7 impressions so far:
I've been running Windows 7 for around six months, between the betas and then the release candidate. I love it. I'm a gamer, so I've got a high-end box, anyway, so Vista performance for me was fine (ignoring the usability). But Windows 7 really is a huge step up. It's peppier. It's far more intuitive. I have really enjoyed using it.
But the real proof is in the pudding: I've had my wife running it as long as I have (she's not in IT) and she loves it, too. Next up, Mom's conversion.
-Steven
My first look at Win 7 (Home Premium) came at Staples earlier this afternoon, on an Acer notebook with 3GB RAM and 250GB HD. I right-clicked on the desktop, hoping to learn what the pixel count of the screen was. No luck -- just a little, spinning, Vista-like ferris wheel icon. System busy.
I gave it up. Even Vista never did that to me. Not a very auspicious first encounter with Windows 7, if you ask me.
-Fred
Tell us what you think! Leave a comment below or send an e-mail to [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/30/2009 at 1:17 PM0 comments
Some Vista users thought they died and went to heaven when Windows 7 shipped. But for some, the gates weren't so pearly, as the Win 7 upgrade was either difficult or impossible. In a handful of cases, the install goes great 62 percent of the way...and then stops. Ouch. Others get caught in an endless reboot cycle (which I used to call Windows 3.0).
Those that encounter the partial install can use a workaround, as described in this Microsoft document.
How has your Windows 7 install/migration gone, and how exactly did you do it? Answers welcome at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/30/2009 at 1:17 PM7 comments
Exchange 2010 is in the hands of manufacturers and should be broadly available for purchase soon. So why is Microsoft still letting its details out in dribs and drabs? So it can get publicity, like this here newsletter item. Once again, I get suckered by the big Microsoft PR machine.
This information is actually of interest to potential customers, so I might as well share. The big news, which customers should and may already know, is that mobile access to Exchange servers is free, or at least that's what a Microsoft blog indicates. But if you want integrated voicemail, you best get an enterprise license, the company says. Overall, the CALs will be roughly the same as previous versions, with Enterprise CALs running at $35.
Oh, and expect yet another announcement in a week or so when the software is formally available. Dang, I might have to write about that, too!
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/30/2009 at 1:17 PM0 comments
I've heard so much about the Microsoft-Yahoo search deal that I'm always surprised to learn that it's not yet consummated, and that Yahoo search still drives Yahoo. Looks like I'm going to have to get used to this as the deal is apparently more delayed than a Microsoft software release.
The deal between the two was supposed to be finalized this week, but Microsoft and Yahoo didn't finish their paperwork. Now it's on hold for an unspecified period of time. Since I use Yahoo only for IM, I suppose I can wait a little longer.
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/30/2009 at 1:17 PM0 comments
Have you greened your datacenter, server rooms, desktops or even storage arrays? If so, how'd you do it? Your advice and experiences could help drive an upcoming feature story on green computing and datacenter efficiency. Let me know how you can help at [email protected].
Posted on 10/30/2009 at 1:17 PM0 comments
If you want attention, you must do something outrageous, even if it's falsely outrageous. We have Madonna kissing Britney, celebs purposely leaking risqué tapes, and now Gartner publicly questioning whether Microsoft is still relevant. And, like a dope, I'm falling for the Gartner bait.
At a recent Gartner event, analysts grilled Stephen Elop, head of the MS business division. These know-it-alls argued that Microsoft hasn't adapted to the new world and still pushes fat clients and monolithic applications.
Now, I also believe in leaner software, but let's look at a few facts. The Mac -- a good, old-fashioned fat client if I've ever seen one -- is the gold standard for many as to what's cool. And while I believe Office is bloated and unwieldy, it remains the standard. (Its open source rival, OpenOffice, is not much slimmer and it's doing just fine.) Microsoft is moving to Web-based apps at about the same speed as IT -- slow and steady.
If these Gartner analysts are so smart, why aren't they running Microsoft? As they say, those who can't do, analyze.
Am I too rough on the self-inflated eggheads from Gartner? Tell me where I'm wrong at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on 10/28/2009 at 1:17 PM8 comments