Recommended Posts

just a quote from pt

A Bit of Windows 7 News

I'm hoping to have more information very soon, but I'm getting reports of some interesting changes in recent builds of Windows 7, including such things as the removal of Windows Sidebar and new Aero-based UI themes. I'll write something up as soon as I can verify it, but it looks like we're on the cusp of another explosion of Windows 7 information.

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
This fake.

Windows 7 Milestone 2 (Vista SP1 Customized Install DVD)

While there is at least one fake M2 build out there, there is also at least one genuine copy of M1 floating around (in fact, I'm entering this from it, installed in a VM, of course).

It doesn't look *that* different, on first glance, from Vista (expected); however, there are some noticeable differences compared to Vista (for example, the Classic Start Menu is gone). Another neat trick that M1 has (that Vista lacks) is *font scalability* (however, it isn't on-the-fly, *yet*). In fact, the entire display (from fonts to icons) can be scaled (either up or down). I'll likely throw Microsoft Office 2007 at it to see what M1 can do.

But is it really worth the download before Windows 7 even reaches a respectable milestone like Beta 1?

Personally, I'm content hunting and looking at screenshots until Microsoft actually starts the beta cycle.

At least one genuine leak of M1 exists (in fact, I'm running it in a VM amd typing these words from it). Some features that Vista has (the Classic Start Menu, for example) are missing. However, display scaling (fonts, the taskbar, even the icons) is back. Is it ever. You even have up to 125% scale-up. While Windows XP and even Windows 2000 could do it, neither did it all that well, so it wasn't a feature that I missed much in Windows Vista. However, M1 does it well, and it's easy to implement; even better, you only have to logout and log back in (ala Linux) to have it take effect. (Sounds like *someone* remembered Jim Alchin and his *kill the excess reboots* mantra from the days of NT4.) 7 is basically planned to be more an *evolution* (ala Windows 2000); however, does anyone remember the impact Windows 2000 Professional had? (Windows 2000 Professional was the first NT-based operating system I recommended for regular use; not just over NT 4, but even over Windows 98 Second Edition, let alone Windows ME-ouch.) Windows 2000 Professional's improvements were not all that obvious unless added all together (compared to Windows NT 4 Workstation, especially with Service Pack 5 or 6 applied); however, it was the *little things* that Windows 2000 improved that were the real wake-up call to NT users that migrated (and even 9x users like me that crossgraded).

A great operating system isn't always made up of lots of big things; Windows 2000 Professional certainly wasn't.

  • 1 month later...
At least one genuine leak of M1 exists (in fact, I'm running it in a VM amd typing these words from it). Some features that Vista has (the Classic Start Menu, for example) are missing. However, display scaling (fonts, the taskbar, even the icons) is back. Is it ever. You even have up to 125% scale-up. While Windows XP and even Windows 2000 could do it, neither did it all that well, so it wasn't a feature that I missed much in Windows Vista. However, M1 does it well, and it's easy to implement; even better, you only have to logout and log back in (ala Linux) to have it take effect. (Sounds like *someone* remembered Jim Alchin and his *kill the excess reboots* mantra from the days of NT4.) 7 is basically planned to be more an *evolution* (ala Windows 2000); however, does anyone remember the impact Windows 2000 Professional had? (Windows 2000 Professional was the first NT-based operating system I recommended for regular use; not just over NT 4, but even over Windows 98 Second Edition, let alone Windows ME-ouch.) Windows 2000 Professional's improvements were not all that obvious unless added all together (compared to Windows NT 4 Workstation, especially with Service Pack 5 or 6 applied); however, it was the *little things* that Windows 2000 improved that were the real wake-up call to NT users that migrated (and even 9x users like me that crossgraded).

A great operating system isn't always made up of lots of big things; Windows 2000 Professional certainly wasn't.

Windows 2000's most dramatic improvements were under the hood, I could keep my Computer running for weeks, months without rebooting for the very first time. Although, it was possible with NT 4 Workstation, it wasn't a real guarantee. Another great feature of 2000, it has Direct X, Power Management and USB support. Initially device driver support was a problem, I remember my 56K modem and Lexmark Z11 Printer not being supported, but drivers did become available over time. We can't necessarily compare Vista/7 to 2000/XP, since both were different in their marketing strategies. Windows 2000 Professional was primarily a business operating system, Windows XP was about bringing the reliability of NT with the ease of use of Windows 98 to the consumer for the first time.

Windows Vista, was about continuing a legacy of ease of use while bringing advancements in security and defining scenarios on the PC while introducing new opportunities for developers to create connected applications that would build on APIs such as Avalon and Indigo. The security kind of took away from the original premise and along the way things like device driver support suffered because of the changes to the device driver model itself. Windows 2000 coming from NT 4, actually improved this, and XP strengthened it. Windows Vista brought improvements in the name of security and reliability, things like device driver signing, Patch Guard and moving graphics drivers away from the kernel. Windows 7 will of course, make the investments IHVs and ISVs made in Vista continue with 7, while building on existing functionality in the OS, what that is, I don't know.

  • 2 weeks later...
Windows 2000's most dramatic improvements were under the hood, I could keep my Computer running for weeks, months without rebooting for the very first time. Although, it was possible with NT 4 Workstation, it wasn't a real guarantee. Another great feature of 2000, it has Direct X, Power Management and USB support. Initially device driver support was a problem, I remember my 56K modem and Lexmark Z11 Printer not being supported, but drivers did become available over time. We can't necessarily compare Vista/7 to 2000/XP, since both were different in their marketing strategies. Windows 2000 Professional was primarily a business operating system, Windows XP was about bringing the reliability of NT with the ease of use of Windows 98 to the consumer for the first time.

That is precisely what I meant.

In most cases, you couyld actually run the same application on Windows 2000 vs. NT 4 (even where NT 4 had Service Pack 6 applied, while 2000 Pro was un-patched), and 2000 would run NT 4 into the turf (on identical hardware). One of the biggest (and least noticeable until you actually had to do so) improvements in 2000 Pro vs. NT 4 had to do with the printer setup (especially in terms of network printing). *Finally*, you could browse printers by location, by length of print queue, or even by capabilities (NT 4 wouldn't let you do most of that sort of printer browsing). Not exactly obvious until you actually needed to use it.

I had already crossgraded from 98 SE to Windows 2000 Pro when the company I was working at upgraded from NT 4; folks that knew me had been wondering why my grin kept growing when Windows 2000 Pro was added to desktop after desktop. As each user was upgraded, the grins started spreading, and they realized why I was grinning; real usability had come to town.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Here is the new Surface Laptop Ultra wallpaper in high resolution by Taras Buria Earlier this week, Microsoft announced the Surface Laptop Ultra, its brand-new high-end laptop powered by NVIDIA's brand-new RTX Spark processor. As usual, Microsoft gives each new device a unique wallpaper, and the Surface Laptop Ultra is no exception. While the device is not publicly available yet, somebody has already extracted its wallpaper, giving everyone a chance to get a piece of the upcoming laptop in its full-resolution glory. The Surface Laptop Ultra has a very dark, abstract wallpaper that resembles the stock wallpapers in Windows Server, albeit with much less color. Having this dark, grim wallpaper highlights the laptop's mini-LED display and its ability to cut off parts of the screen's backlight to achieve OLED-like black levels. However, if you also like light wallpapers, we made a white version by simply inverting its colors. You can download both wallpapers below (click the image, right-click it, and select "Save as"): The Surface Laptop Ultra is expected to launch later this year. Microsoft is not revealing full details yet, including the price. However, Microsoft confirmed up to 1 petaflop of AI performance and RTX 5070-level of GPU performance. The heart of the laptop has up to 20 CPU cores and 6,144 GPU cores. Additionally, Microsoft and NVIDIA boast high CPU efficiency for all-day battery life. As for the display, it is a 15-inch mini-LED display with a pixel density of 262 ppi and a maximum brightness of 2,000 nits. Of course, not everyone needs this amount of power, and certainly not everyone can afford it. For those who need a more affordable device, Microsoft is also preparing the next-generation Surface Pro powered by the Snapdragon X2 Elite processor. Weeks ahead of the announcement, details about this computer were leaked by a retailer. Do you like the Surface Laptop Ultra's stock wallpaper? Share your thoughts in the comments. Image provided by @nextgenos2026 on X
    • From all that I've read on the subject--not that much, really--it looks to me like companies and parents are trying to protect themselves from children using their parents accounts to run up giant bills, sometimes in the thousands of dollars, and the first the parents know about it is when they get sued... Internet companies have been sued for tailoring their ads to children, which is kind of old news. My belief is that policing starts at home with the parents, and the reason that so many laws that can't be enforced are being passed is because parents are eschewing their responsibilities, claiming not enough time, not enough knowledge, etc. Giving kids cell phones sans Internet connectivity is a good place to start--confine Internet activity to PCs in the home that the parents regulate. My kids are all grown and gone, I'm happy to say... They have their own kids to worry about.
    • ChartNet’s 1.7 million synthetic samples let compact open-source models outperform GPT-4o on every chart task   A team from MIT and the MIT-IBM Computing Research Lab has built a training dataset that solves one of the most persistent gaps in enterprise AI: the inability of even the best commercial models to reliably read a chart...... https://www.techtimes.com/articles/317752/20260604/ai-chart-understanding-breakthrough-mit-ibm-dataset-lets-small-models-beat-gpt-4o.htm  
    • BTW DXVK is also available on Windows and offers similar benefits like on Linux when it comes to performance, at least in some titles. The Raceroom racing sim for example even offers DXVK as one of its officially supported options and it can achieve ridiculous improvements in certain situations, like quite literally doubling (or more) the framerates
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Month Later
      nothanks earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      B2Proxy earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Year In
      MadMung0 earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Week One Done
      jefred earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Apprentice
      JoeyNeo went up a rank
      Apprentice
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      476
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      233
    3. 3
      Skyfrog
      79
    4. 4
      FloatingFatMan
      68
    5. 5
      Michael Scrip
      58
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!