Essentials of Microsoft’s Windows 7 upgrade
Microsoft is previewing its “first major upgrade for Windows 7″ – a downloadable suite of programs called Windows Live Essentials.
Elements of the suite, such as Photo Gallery and Movie Maker, will be familiar to users and, while a number of features have been added, the upgrade seems neither major nor essential.
Windows 7 (nearly) ate my computer
Like a lot of Windows Vista users, I couldn’t wait to upgrade to Windows 7 on my home PC. Finally, something from Microsoft that promised to make computing faster and easier. Since I was just moving from Vista Home Premium to 7 Home Premium I didn’t even bother backing up my files.
That was nearly a very big mistake.
The upgrade ended up taking more than a week, with multiple phone calls to India and five hours on the phone with Microsoft engineers. And I now have several more hours of work ahead to reinstall all my applications and sort out my personal files. I don’t think I’ve lost any data, but fast and easy it wasn’t.
FT techtalk – Your lucky number is Seven
Seven days in tech, seven days (counting today) till Windows 7 launches. In this edition of FT techtalk, the San Francisco bureau looked back on a week of recession-busting earnings from the likes of Google and Intel and forward to the next booster for the tech industry.
Find out what Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer thinks is the best thing about Windows 7 and why his chum over at Yahoo, Carol Bartz, is in the hot seat next week, in our transcript of the conversation after the jump.
And don’t forget to join us live for FT techtalk, a multimedia chat with the FT’s tech correspondents, at the same time – 0800 Pacific (1500GMT, 1600BST) next Friday.
Windows 7 on the launch-pad
It’s official. The final Windows 7 bits have been set in stone. With today’s Release to Manufacturing, Microsoft can finally close its sorry Windows Vista chapter. Along with the global consumer launch on 22nd October, Microsoft is planning a business launch for the new versions of both the Windows client and server operating systems on 9th November.
This will be the first time the new server software is launched at the same time as a new client, says Bill Laing, head of the Windows server division. Expect some heavy “better together” marketing later this year as Microsoft tries to convince IT departments of the cost savings and greater manageability from upgrading both client and server at the same time.
The price we pay for using Vista
Microsoft has announced what consumers will be paying for Windows 7 when the new operating system is launched in October, which may seem a bit rich to those who feel they have been paying for a long time for choosing to use the current Windows Vista.
Vista has been a clunker of an OS from Microsoft, so bad its 8-year-old predecessor Windows XP is a joy to use in comparison and remains the safe OS of choice for the corporate world.
Low-end Windows 7: Now, with more Windows 7!
The forthcoming Windows 7 will be a big test of Microsoft’s ability to segment the market for the operating system and persuade more users to pay up for higher-end versions.
So it isn’t a good sign for the company (though it is a good sign for consumers) if Microsoft is forced to add more capabilities to cheaper versions of the software.
Valley View: The Windows 7 numbers game
From Digital Business:
“Something weird and rather wonderful is happening to operating systems, and it is not just the new psychedelic wallpaper designs for Windows 7.”
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