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Agreed. After Vista you'd think MS would get totally away from the look and feel but if they are continuing to build on Vista then why not just call it Vista SP3.

That's like saying that Windows 2000 should've just been Windows NT 4 SP6 or something. Or that Leopard should've been OS X 10.4.7. Or that Windows 3.1 was just Windows 1.0 SP4.

It's a ridiculous thing to say, especially when you haven't even seen Win7 yet.

That's like saying that Windows 2000 should've just been Windows NT 4 SP6 or something. Or that Leopard should've been OS X 10.4.7. Or that Windows 3.1 was just Windows 1.0 SP4.

It's a ridiculous thing to say, especially when you haven't even seen Win7 yet.

When it's M. Balmer that goes on to say that Win7 will be Vista but better.... Oh yes he did, it was posted a while ago. So, when we remember that WinXP SP2 did bring new stuff in the OS, why would Win7 not be Vista SP3 ??

Vista was the Duke Nuken of the OS, it took a long while to turn gold. With the short dev cycle of Win7, it's not going to be a revolution, just evolution.

this whole naming scheme e-fight is retarded.... reminds me of that special olympics picture. it's just the name of an operating system people.

The fight is not only because of a name, you see, you're going to pay to get Win7... If it was SP3 for Vista, it would be free, like the SP2 for WinXP, even if it was a major SP.

It's the money milking process that Microsoft puts on that irritate me. We are going to pay to have what Vista should have been from day 1.

So they failed to bring tons of money with Vista, they are going to try it again with Win7.

When it's M. Balmer that goes on to say that Win7 will be Vista but better.... Oh yes he did, it was posted a while ago. So, when we remember that WinXP SP2 did bring new stuff in the OS, why would Win7 not be Vista SP3 ??

Vista was the Duke Nuken of the OS, it took a long while to turn gold. With the short dev cycle of Win7, it's not going to be a revolution, just evolution.

Windows XP was basically Windows 2000, but better.

When it's M. Balmer that goes on to say that Win7 will be Vista but better.... Oh yes he did, it was posted a while ago. So, when we remember that WinXP SP2 did bring new stuff in the OS, why would Win7 not be Vista SP3 ??

Vista was the Duke Nuken of the OS, it took a long while to turn gold. With the short dev cycle of Win7, it's not going to be a revolution, just evolution.

Actually, Windows Vista was developed within a normal time frame.

Windows XP - October 2000 to August 2001 = 11 months

Windows Vista - August 2005 to November 2006 - 18 months

What confuses people is 2003 to August 2004 period when Longhorn was in alpha. The project was reset and they started over.

The fight is not only because of a name, you see, you're going to pay to get Win7... If it was SP3 for Vista, it would be free, like the SP2 for WinXP, even if it was a major SP.

It's the money milking process that Microsoft puts on that irritate me. We are going to pay to have what Vista should have been from day 1.

So they failed to bring tons of money with Vista, they are going to try it again with Win7.

You think Vista is a commercial failure, or something?

It's not even a bad OS, but I doubt that'll convince you.

No, Windows 7 is way more than XP SP2 was.

Actually, Windows Vista was developed within a normal time frame.

Windows XP - October 2000 to August 2001 = 11 months

Windows Vista - August 2005 to November 2006 - 18 months

What confuses people is 2003 to August 2004 period when Longhorn was in alpha. The project was reset and they started over.

I know about the code reset, but still, It took them a while anyway... Code reset = bad project direction?

I'm running Vista Ultimate x64. I don't have any problem with it, but will all the buzz around WinXP, how Microsoft is keeping it alive longer than they would like, how business did not buy into Vista, .... I guess it could be called a failure.

I'm just afraid that Win7 will not offer anything revolutionary. Only a better Vista.

Its interesting that people would call Windows 7 SP3 without even actually experiencing it. As some have said, I guess Windows XP would Windows 2000 SP5 since its actually NT 5.1. We need to look beyond the kernel version. Its about the experiences that are built on top of it.

Because it's already more than SP2 was? SP2 just had a security overhaul, not new features like multi-touch, revamped interfaces, etc.

Actually SP2 for XP was a significant update that even made some changes to the kernel for security sake. This even introduced some incompatibilities. I remember NERO requiring an update to work again, so did some security products from Symantec and McAfee.

Actually SP2 for XP was a significant update that even made some changes to the kernel for security sake. This even introduced some incompatibilities. I remember NERO requiring an update to work again, so did some security products from Symantec and McAfee.

Yes, but that's not "features".

If Win7 wasn't coming out for another 3-4yrs you'd see everyone upgrading to Vista in another year or 2. With XP SP2 not coming out till like what, 2004 that's when most people jumped on and not after reading much about it and other testing. XP came out in 2001 and that's why it is where it is now. There's no way in hell most of you here and other businesses will be using XP in 2011 unless it's just on some old machine. I can't tell when last i saw Windows 98 or 2000 anywhere.

Yes, but that's not "features".

Hmm:

Windows Security Center

Internet Explorer 6 with Pop-Up Blocker

Internet Explorer Download Monitoring

New Attachment Manager

New Windows Firewall turned on by Default

Automatic Update Enhancements

Improved Wireless Support

Improved Bluetooth support for devices

Sure, there were no features in Windows XP SP2. :rolleyes:

If Win7 wasn't coming out for another 3-4yrs you'd see everyone upgrading to Vista in another year or 2. With XP SP2 not coming out till like what, 2004 that's when most people jumped on and not after reading much about it and other testing. XP came out in 2001 and that's why it is where it is now. There's no way in hell most of you here and other businesses will be using XP in 2011 unless it's just on some old machine. I can't tell when last i saw Windows 98 or 2000 anywhere.

I will agree that you rarely see Windows 98 machines, but there are still quite a few Windows 2000 system still around. Just last month I had to decommission up to 30 of them and I have at least 70 more to go. In addition to that, businesses are well known for slower upgrade cycles. Those 2000 machines we replaced are not preloaded with Vista Business, but with Windows XP Professional. We do have downgrade rights and all the systems come with Vista media. But because we are still using certain applications that have not been upgraded, we are taking a more cautious approach. Vista is on the agenda, but not until after Service Pack 2 is released and more testing. Give us until about 2010 to 2011 and then again, it will be phased.

Hmm:

Windows Security Center

Internet Explorer 6 with Pop-Up Blocker

Internet Explorer Download Monitoring

New Attachment Manager

New Windows Firewall turned on by Default

Automatic Update Enhancements

Improved Wireless Support

Improved Bluetooth support for devices

Sure, there were no features in Windows XP SP2. :rolleyes:

What, and you think that's what Windows 7 is going to be? Upgraded versions of IE, security and device support?

What, and you think that's what Windows 7 is going to be? Upgraded versions of IE, security and device support?

My reply was in no relation to that. It was in relation to XP SP2 being a major update or not. I whole heartedly know that Windows 7 is a major release.

My reply was in no relation to that. It was in relation to XP SP2 being a major update or not. I whole heartedly know that Windows 7 is a major release.

Fair enough, I just don't really count that changes SP2 made as particularly important end-user features (which is what matters for Vista-->Win7). As security features, they were great though.

Fair enough, I just don't really count that changes SP2 made as particularly important end-user features (which is what matters for Vista-->Win7). As security features, they were great though.

Are you reading what you are writing. When it comes to end-user features, end user experience comes first. If you have viruses, Trojans, pop ups interfering with your general computing experience, then its a bad end user experience. Which made the security changes in XP SP2 detrimental.

Are you reading what you are writing. When it comes to end-user features, end user experience comes first. If you have viruses, Trojans, pop ups interfering with your general computing experience, then its a bad end user experience. Which made the security changes in XP SP2 detrimental.

No, I'm not saying that. Security is important - but Vista already has that. XP SP2 improved the security experience, Windows 7 has little need for that, so it's not comparable.

Windows 7 is about doing things far more "useful" to the end users than preventing security problems.

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    • BATorrent 4.1.0 by Razvan Serea BATorrent is a lightweight, open-source BitTorrent client built with modern C++ and Qt 6, offering a clean, fast, and privacy-focused alternative to traditional torrent apps. It supports magnet links, .torrent files, resume data, sequential downloading, per-file priorities, and even imports from qBittorrent. Power users benefit from integrated RSS auto-download with regex filtering, duplicate detection, and automatic tracker lists from Stremio. Streaming is seamless thanks to auto-detected players like VLC and IINA. BATorrent includes robust VPN tools—interface binding, auto-detection for WireGuard-based services like Mullvad and NordLynx, kill switch, proxy support, and IP filtering. A full WebUI enables remote control, while integrations with Plex, Jellyfin, and Emby automate library updates. With themes, speed scheduling, system-tray alerts, and cross-platform support for Windows, Linux, and macOS, BATorrent delivers a polished, high-performance torrenting experience. BATorrent features: Core .torrent file and magnet link support Resume data — picks up where you left off after restart Import torrents from qBittorrent Create .torrent files from any file or folder Sequential download mode Per-file priority control (skip, low, normal, high) Seed ratio limits with auto-pause DHT, PEX, UPnP, NAT-PMP RSS Auto-Download Subscribe to RSS feeds — automatically download new torrents as they appear Regex filters — match only what you want (e.g. 1080p|720p, S01E\d+) Per-feed settings — custom save path, check interval (5–1440 min), enable/disable Auto-download — matched items are downloaded automatically in the background Supports magnet links, .torrent URLs, and tags Tray notifications when items are auto-downloaded Duplicate detection — never downloads the same item twice Stremio Stremio Addon System pre-installed — works out of the box Auto tracker list from ngosang/trackerslist Streaming Play while downloading — stream video files before the download is complete Supports mp4, mkv, avi, mov, wmv, flv, webm, m4v, ts Auto-detects installed players (VLC, IINA, system default) VPN & Privacy Interface binding — lock torrent traffic to a specific network interface (e.g. tun0) Auto VPN detection — identifies VPN interfaces (tun, tap, WireGuard, Mullvad, NordLynx, ProtonVPN) Kill switch — automatically pauses all torrents if the VPN interface drops Auto-resume — resumes only the torrents paused by the kill switch when VPN reconnects Proxy support — SOCKS5 and HTTP proxy with optional authentication IP filtering — load P2P blocklists to block unwanted IP ranges Protocol encryption (enabled / forced / disabled) WebUI Remote management — control torrents from any browser at http://localhost:8080 REST API with JSON responses Add torrents via magnet link or .torrent upload Pause, resume, remove torrents remotely View peers and files per torrent Dark theme matching the desktop app HTTP Basic Auth with SHA-256 password hashing Configurable port and remote access (localhost vs 0.0.0.0) Interface 3 themes: Dark, Light, Midnight (bat/vampire aesthetic) Real-time speed graph Detailed panel with tabs: General, Peers, Files, Trackers Filter bar: search by name, filter by state (Active, Downloading, Seeding, Paused, Finished) Drag & drop .torrent files and magnet links Drag & drop reorder in torrent list System tray with notifications (download complete, kill switch events, RSS auto-downloads) Splash screen with bat animation Bilingual: English and Portuguese (BR), auto-detected from system locale Bandwidth Scheduler Alternative speed limits — set different download/upload limits on a schedule Time range — configure active hours (e.g. 01:00 to 07:00), supports overnight ranges Per-day control — choose which days of the week the schedule applies Automatically switches between normal and alternative speeds Media Server Integration Plex — automatically trigger library scan when a download completes Jellyfin / Emby — same automatic library refresh via API Configure server URL and authentication token/key in Settings System Cross-platform: Windows, Linux, macOS Auto-shutdown — automatically shut down PC when all downloads complete (60s cancellable countdown) Auto-update system (AppImage on Linux, installer on Windows, DMG on macOS) CLI arguments: pass .torrent files or magnet: URIs directly Keyboard shortcuts: Space to toggle pause, Ctrl+A to select all, Ctrl+O to open BATorrent 4.1.0 release notes: A community-driven release: everything here came straight from your reports and requests. It closes the remaining gaps with qBittorrent and fixes the Windows settings/tray/splash issues several of you hit. Fixed Settings now actually save. A whole class of preferences — speed limits (and the alternative limits), max active downloads, seed ratio, listen port, max connections, DHT/uTP/encryption, VPN interface, kill switch and proxy — weren't being persisted and reset to defaults on every launch. They now round-trip correctly. (Thanks to everyone who reported "the upload limit always goes back to 0".) Splash and tray toggles stick on Windows. Turning off the startup animation (or "close to tray") no longer reverts — the Windows registry stored these booleans as integers and the UI was misreading them. Close-to-tray hint. The first time the window hides to the tray you get a one-time notification, so the app doesn't look like it vanished (Windows 11 tucks new tray icons into the overflow). macOS Dock icon size. The icon filled its canvas edge-to-edge and rendered larger than neighbouring apps; it now uses the standard safe-area padding. Native file picker language. The "Torrent file / All files" filter in the open dialog follows the app language instead of being hard-coded. Added — qBittorrent parity Alternative speed limits toggle — a turtle button in the toolbar flips your throttled limits on/off instantly, independent of the scheduler. Follow system theme — switch light/dark automatically with the OS (Settings → Appearance). Pre-allocate disk space — reserve the full file size up front to reduce fragmentation (Settings → Downloads). Recheck data on add — optionally force a hash check when adding a torrent, so existing or partial files on disk are detected. Port status indicator — a 🔴 dot in the status bar shows whether your listen port looks reachable (UPnP/NAT-PMP + listen state; fully local, no external check). Add torrent from URL — File → Add torrent from URL (Ctrl+U) fetches a remote .torrent and routes it through the normal add dialog. Export .torrent — right-click a torrent → Export .torrent to save its metadata file. Already there (in case you missed it) Watch folder — auto-add .torrent files dropped into a monitored directory (Settings → Files). This release just surfaces it. Incomplete files already carry a .!bt suffix until they finish. Under the hood Regression tests for the settings-persistence and Windows boolean bugs. A new Qt Quick Test harness covering the startup splash and the design-system widgets. Download: BATorrent 4.1.0 | 37.5 MB (Open Source) Download: BATorrent Portable | 51.7 MB Links: BATorrent Website | Screenshot | Changelog Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Disabling open on hover, great! That was so stupid! They need to do a fix, where if a network share is disconnected, it doesn't hang when opening "This PC" for 20 seconds.
    • Microsoft releases major feature updates for stock Windows 11 apps by Taras Buria In addition to releasing new Windows 11 preview builds, Microsoft announced that inbox Windows apps now have dedicated release notes in the official documentation. At long last, users have access to all the release notes for each app, with changes listed in chronological order. Microsoft used to announce feature updates for stock apps with each build. Now, with Windows Insider release notes hosted on the Microsoft Learn website, each app has a dedicated space for its changelog, which is very useful for those who want to track new features and improvements. Alongside that, Microsoft dropped massive feature updates for six stock apps: Clock, Media Player, Calculator, Voice Recorder, Photos, and Paint. Each app packs quite a lot of changes and new capabilities, so here are the release notes. Here are quick notes so that you can jump to the app you are interested in the most: Calculator Camera Clock Media Player Paint Photos Sound Recorder Here is what is new for the Calculator in version 11.2605.9.0: More accurate square-root results — Fixed rare cases where a calculation that should equal zero (like sqrt(2.25) - 1.5) returned a tiny leftover value instead. Readable text in High Contrast themes — Settings text now shows the correct colors in the High Contrast Aquatic and Desert themes. Fixed layout for right-to-left languages — For languages like Arabic and Hebrew, the graph, number pad, equation fields, and scroll buttons now appear correctly oriented. Reliable launch after upgrading — Fixed an issue where upgrading from much older versions could leave outdated settings that stopped the app from opening. Here is what is new for the Camera app (version 2026.2605.7.0): Zoom slider works on more cameras — The zoom slider now works on the latest cameras, respects your system zoom settings, and updates instantly when you change those settings. Full range of zoom levels — Fixed an issue where the zoom slider only showed three steps on some devices that zoom in finer increments. Front camera works on more devices — Resolved a problem that blocked the front-facing camera on certain wide-angle devices. More video resolution choices — You can now pick video resolutions that were previously hidden; the app shows a heads-up warning instead of removing them. QR links you can still use — When a scanned QR code points to something with no matching app, the link is now copied to your clipboard (with a notification) while still offering a Store search. Smarter default settings — When you haven't set a preference, the app now follows your system settings by default. The Clock app has a massive changelog with the following improvements in version 11.2605.9.0: Timers keep counting after they hit zero — When a timer runs out, it now keeps counting up (for example, -00:27:31) so you can see how far past the time you've gone. You can turn off the daily goal — Focus Sessions now include an "Off" option so you can skip setting a daily goal entirely. New 15-minute snooze option — Alarms now offer a 15-minute snooze interval. Run up to 3 countdowns at once — The Countdown Widget now supports three simultaneous countdowns, up from two. Timer Widget notifications now appear — Fixed an issue where the "timer finished" notification didn't show when the timer was started from the widget. Less clutter in Focus Sessions — Tasks you've already completed no longer show up in the Focus Session task list. More accurate focus progress — Fixed a rounding issue that could show your daily focus progress as a minute short (for example, 49 minutes instead of 50). Smoother World Clock comparisons — The World Clock compare page now loads dates as you scroll, so it feels more responsive. Up-to-date World Clock locations — Refreshed country and city names to match their current names. Correct sun and moon icons during midnight sun — Fixed an icon that wrongly showed a moon during all-day daylight in polar regions. Fixed back-button behavior in clock comparisons — Pressing back once now takes you back as expected, instead of jumping the date to 1926. Corrected the Newfoundland time zone — Newfoundland now uses the right time zone (St. John's). Disabled alarms stay looking disabled — Editing a turned-off alarm no longer makes it appear turned on. Cleaner timer cards — The expand button is now turned off on timer cards that have no time set, preventing actions that wouldn't do anything. Clearer theme setting — Updated the wording to "Choose your preferred app theme." Smoother Settings links — The "About" links in Settings no longer trigger an unexpected "switch apps" prompt. Fixed spacing in Spotify settings — Corrected uneven spacing in the Spotify settings card. Better focus visibility in High Contrast — The focus highlight in World Clock is now clearly visible in the High Contrast Aquatic and Desert themes. No more double announcements — Screen readers no longer read the timer value twice. Countdown names read correctly — Screen readers now properly announce the name of each countdown. Keyboard focus stays put — Focus no longer disappears after you press the Timer Reset button. Clearer alarm toggle for screen readers — Tidied up how the alarm on/off switch is announced. The Media Player app received plenty of changes as well (version 11.2605.14.0): Custom captions — You can now personalize how closed captions appear, with caption styling tied to your Windows caption settings, plus a quick link to open those settings directly. "Indexing" banner in the play queue — When your media library is still being scanned, a banner now explains why some items may not appear yet. Fixed the look of selected items — Corrected a layout glitch with selected items in lists. Fewer playback failures — Improved how the app recognizes supported file types, so more files play without issues. Playlists need a name — You can no longer accidentally save a playlist with a blank name. Cleaner look for empty playlists — Improved how a playlist appears when it has no items yet. More stable play queue edits — Fixed a crash that could happen when changing the play queue while the app was switching between sessions. Clearer "missing codec" message — Improved the dialog that appears when a file needs a codec you don't have, with clearer guidance on what to do. A big update is also available for Paint in version 11.2605.61.0: Adjustable eraser transparency — You can now control how transparent the eraser is. Cleaner stamp brush strokes — Fixed visible color shifts and artifacts when using stamp-style brushes. JPEG photos save in place — Opening a rotated JPEG and pressing Save now overwrites the original instead of unexpectedly prompting "Save As." No more crash on bad image files — Opening a damaged or invalid image, from within the app, by double click, or commandline, now shows a clear error message instead of closing the app. Classic selection behavior restored — The selection outline now hides while you move, resize, or rotate a selection, just like in classic Paint. Tidier AI image panel — Fixed missing spacing at the bottom of the AI image generation panel for a cleaner layout. Visible button hover in light theme — Toolbar split buttons now show a clear hover highlight in the light theme. Snappier toolbar — Streamlined how the ribbon lays out, giving a small speed boost at startup. Fewer background crashes — Fixed a crash that could happen while background tasks were finishing up. Stable app shutdown — Prevented rare crashes when closing the app. Fixed layer removal glitch — Deleting the active layer no longer leaves the layers list in an inconsistent state. Here is what is new in the Photos app (version 2026.11060.2004.0): AI watermarking — AI-generated or edited images can now carry a visible Copilot watermark. You choose Never, Always, or Ask Every Time in Settings, with a confirmation when saving. The watermarking is off by default in settings. Better viewing of small images and pixel art — Tiny images (like 16×16 pixel art) now zoom in far more to fill the screen and stay crisp instead of looking blurry. Select scanned text with the keyboard — When text is detected in an image, you can now navigate and select it using the arrow keys, Shift+Arrow, Home/End, and Ctrl+A, with a clear focus highlight. Fixed a crash in text recognition — Resolved a crash that could close Photos while detecting text in images; the app now recovers gracefully. Easier keyboard navigation — Tabbing through the navigation bar no longer stops on hidden controls, so it takes a single Tab to move past it instead of three. And finally, here is the Sound Recorder (version 11.2605.1.0): Waveform shows with Bluetooth mics — The live waveform now displays correctly when you record using a Bluetooth audio device. No more stray scrollbar — A non-working horizontal scrollbar no longer appears at the bottom of the waveform unless you've zoomed in. Mark button ready right away — The Mark button no longer looks grayed out until you hover over it after opening the app. Markers hidden for WAV files — Markers are now turned off for WAV recordings, since that format can't store them — so they're no longer lost silently. Smoother deleting — Quickly pressing Delete and Enter to remove several recordings in a row no longer triggers a "file doesn't exist" error. Fixed a memory issue — Resolved a memory leak that occurred each time a recording started. You can find all these changelogs in the official documentation here.
    • again, an article about Microsoft Edge and ridicules hater's comments
    • From this very same article: "For organizations that prefer a “more deliberate pace”, the Extended Stable channel remains an option."
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